Charles Ellicott 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)

Furthermore ... .—A better translation is: Add, too, that wine is treacherous (and that) he is a braggart and cannot be quiet, whose appetite is large as (that of) Hades. The rest of the verse illustrates this last-named characteristic—restless, rapacious ambition.

Two more charges are thus added to the core accusation of Habakkuk 2:4. Not only are the Chaldeans arrogant, but drunkards, and insatiably covetous.

The former charge, drunkenness, is expressed in a kind of proverb: “(It is a known fact that) wine is treacherous.” Perhaps the aphorisms of Proverbs 20:1 are in Habakkuk’s mind: Wine is a mocker, strong drink is noisy. The charge of drunkenness is further illustrated in Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, vol. 2, 504-507.

The other charge, that of rapacity, also recalls the Book of Proverbs, where the insatiable appetite of death and Hades is twice described (Proverbs 30:16).