Albert Barnes Commentary Habakkuk 2:17

"For the violence done to Lebanon shall cover thee, and the destruction of the beasts, which made them afraid; because of men`s blood, and for the violence done to the land, to the city and to all that dwell therein." — Habakkuk 2:17 (ASV)

For the violence of Lebanon – that is, violence done to Lebanon. This can refer to the land of Israel, of which Lebanon was the entrance and its beauty (and, as a symbol, Jeremiah 22:6, Jeremiah 22:23; Ezekiel 17:3). Lebanon is also used as a symbol of Sennacherib’s army (Isaiah 10:34). Furthermore, the king of Asshur, though not explicitly called a symbol by that name , is compared to it.

Alternatively, "the violence of Lebanon" could refer to the temple (see the note at Zechariah 12:1), both of which Nebuchadnezzar laid waste. More broadly, it may symbolize all the majesty of the world and its empires, which he subdues. Isaiah uses it in this way when speaking of the judgment on the world (Isaiah 2:13): “It shall cover thee, and the spoil (that is, spoiling, destruction) of beasts (the inhabitants of Lebanon) which made them afraid.”

Or, more simply, the commentator suggests, “the wasting of wild beasts shall crush them (selves)” (Proverbs 13:3; Proverbs 14:14; Proverbs 18:7). This means that, just as in irrational nature the frequent incursions of very mischievous animals cause people to assemble against them and kill them, so their (the Chaldeans’) frequent injustice is the cause that they hasten to be avenged on you.

Having become beasts, they shared their history. They spoiled, scared, laid waste, and were destroyed. “Whoever seeks to hurt another, hurts himself.”

The Chaldeans laid waste Judea, and scared and wasted its inhabitants. The end of their plunder was not to adorn them, but to cover and overwhelm them as in ruins, so that they could not lift up their heads again. Violence returns upon the head of the one who did it; they seem to raise a lofty fabric, but are buried under it. He sums up their past experience: what God had warned them beforehand, and what they had found.