Albert Barnes Commentary Habakkuk 2:5

"Yea, moreover, wine is treacherous, a haughty man, that keepeth not at home; who enlargeth his desire as Sheol, and he is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all peoples." — Habakkuk 2:5 (ASV)

This general rule the prophet goes on to apply in words which belong in part to all oppressors and in the first instance to the Chaldean, and in part yet more fully to the end and to antichrist.

Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine (or better, “Indeed, how much more, since wine is a deceiver,” as Solomon says, Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever erreth thereby shall not be wise (Proverbs 20:1); and, In the end it biteth like a serpent and pierceth like an adder (Proverbs 23:32); and Hosea, Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart (Hosea 4:11)).

Just as wine at first gladdens, then deprives of all reason, and lays a man open to any deceit, so also does pride. And since all pride deceives, how much more so when people are either heated and excited by the abuse of God’s natural gifts, or drunk with prosperity and hurried away—as conquerors are—to all excess of cruelty or lust to fulfill their own will, and neglect the laws of God and man.

Literal drunkenness was a sin of the Babylonians under Persian rule, so that even a pagan says of Babylon, “Nothing can be more corrupt than the manners of that city, and more provided with all to rouse and entice immoderate pleasures”; and “the Babylonians give themselves wholly to wine, and the things which follow drunkenness.”

When flushed with wine, Belshazzar, with his princes, his wives, and his concubines, desecrated the sacred vessels, insulted God in honor of his idols, and in the night of his excess “was slain.” Pride blinded, deceived, and destroyed him.

It was the general drunkenness of the inhabitants at that same feast which enabled Cyrus, with a handful of men, to penetrate the city by means of its river—a city which, with its provisions for many years and its impregnable walls, had mocked his siege. He calculated beforehand on its feast and the consequent dissolution of its inhabitants; without this, in the language of the pagan historian, he would have been caught “as in a trap,” his soldiery drowned.

He is a proud man, neither keepeth at home. It is difficult to limit the force of the rare Hebrew word rendered “keep at home,” for one may cease to dwell or abide at home either by his own will or against it; and, as in the case of invaders, the one may be the result of the other.

He who would take away the home of others becomes, by God’s Providence, himself homeless. The context implies that the primary meaning is the restlessness of ambition, which does not abide at home, for his whole pleasure is to go forth to destroy. Yet there sounds, as it were, an undertone: “he would not abide in his home and he shall not.”

We could scarcely avoid the further thought, if we could use a translation that does not fix the meaning, that it implies “he will not home,” or “he will not continue at home.” The words have seemed to different minds to mean either, as indeed they may. Such fullness of meaning is the opposite of the ambiguity of pagan oracles; they are not alternative meanings, which might be justified in either case, but cumulative, one upon the other.

The ambitious give up present rest for future loss. Nebuchadnezzar lost his kingdom and his reason through pride, and received them back when he humbled himself; Belshazzar, being proud and impenitent, lost both his kingdom and life.

Who enlargeth his desire—literally, his soul. The soul becomes like what it loves. The ambitious man is, as we say, “all ambition”; the greedy man, “all appetite”; the cruel man, “all savagery”; the vainglorious, “all vainglory.” The ruling passion absorbs the whole being; it is his end, the one object of his thoughts, hopes, and fears.

So, just as we speak of “largeness of heart,” which can embrace in its affections all varieties of human interests, whatever affects man, and “largeness of mind,” uncramped by narrowing prejudices, the prophet speaks of this “ambitious man widening his soul”—or, as we might say, “appetite”—so that the whole world is not too large for him to long to grasp or to devour.

Thus the Psalmist prays not to be delivered into the murderous desire (literally, their soul) of his enemies (Psalms 27:12; compare to Psalm 41:3 (Psalms 41:2 in English);Ezekiel 26:27), and Isaiah, with a metaphor almost too bold for our language, says, Hell hath enlarged her soul, and opened her mouth beyond measure (Isaiah 5:14). It devours, as it were, first in its cravings, then in act.

As hell—which is insatiable (Proverbs 30:15). He says, “enlargeth”; for as hell and the grave are year by year fuller, yet there is no end, the desire “enlargeth” and becomes wider, the more is given to it to satisfy it.

And (he) is (himself) as death, sparing none.

Our poetry would speak of a destroyer as being “like the angel of death”; his presence, as the presence of death itself. Where he is, there is death. He is as terrible and as destroying as the death which follows him.

And cannot be satisfied—even human proverbs say (Juvenal, Satires, 14.139): “The love of money groweth as much as the money itself groweth.” “The avaricious is ever needy.”

Ecclesiastes 5:10 states: he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver. For these fleeting things cannot satisfy the undying soul. It must hunger still, for it has not found what will allay its cravings.

But gathereth—literally, “And hath gathered.” He describes it as though it were already done, because of the rapidity with which he completes what he longs for.

Unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people—One is still the subject of the prophecy, rising up at successive times, fulfilling it and passing away: Nebuchadnezzar, Alexander, Attila, Timur, Genghis Khan, Hunneric—scourges of God.

All were deceived by pride, all swept the earth, all in their ambition and wickedness were the unknowing agents and images of the evil One, who seeks to bring the whole world under his rule.

But shall it prosper?