Charles Ellicott Commentary Habakkuk 2:9

"Woe to him that getteth an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!" — Habakkuk 2:9 (ASV)

Woe to him who covets... — Better, Woe to him who accumulates wicked gain for his house, who sets his nest on high to save himself from the hand of evil — that is, who gathers spoil from the nations and stows it away in an impregnable treasure house.

The expression sets his nest on high finds more than sufficient illustration in the exaggerated accounts of Babylon given by Herodotus and Ctesias. The former gives 337½ feet, the latter 300 feet, as the height of its walls. The height of the towers was, according to Ctesias, 420 feet. There were 250 of these towers, irregularly disposed, to guard the weaker parts of the wall. The space included by these colossal outworks was, according to Herodotus, about 200 square miles.

The language of this verse recalls Jeremiah’s rebuke of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:13 and following). There, however, the judgment is on individual sin; here, it is on that of a nation personified.