Habakkuk 2:16

Hab 2:16 Thou art filled with shame for glory: drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the LORD’S right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing [shall be] on thy glory.

Ver. 16. Thou art filled with shame for glory] Or, more with shame than with glory. That is, thou shalt be filled shortly with ignominy for that glory wherein thou presently pridest thyself; thy drunkenness shall redound to thine utter disgrace, as it was to Darius, Alexander, Antoninus, Bonosus, Trajan (a good emperor otherwise, but a drunkard, and a sodomite, as Dio Cassius reporteth him). Yea, Cato, that most severe censurer of other men’s manners, to whom it was sometime objected (how deservedly I know not), quod nocturnis potationibus induigeret, that by night he would drink soundly. This is a blur to him, if true, and confutes that eulogium given him by Paterculus, that he was omnibus humanis vitiis immunis, free from all vices, and as like virtue herself as might be, Homo virtuti simillimus, et rigidae innocentiae. In Scripture the drunkard’s style begins in lawlessness, proceeds in unprofitableness, ends in misery; and all shut up in that denomination of his pedigree, A son of Belial.

Drink thou also] Since thou art so able at it, since thou hast so well deserved that infamous epitaph of a certain drunkard,

“ Heus, hic situs est Offellius Buratius Bibulus,

Qui dum vixit, aut bibit aut minxit, abi praeceps. ”

Drink another while of the cup of shame and sorrow; take thy part of all manner of miseries, Jer 25:26 Oba 1:16. "Snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest, shall one day be the portion of thy cup: For the righteous Lord loveth righteousness," Psa 11:6-7. Yea, he loveth to retaliate, and will therefore make these drunkards drink also; and those that made others drunk that they might look on their nakedness, to lie with their foreskins uncovered to their perpetual reproach. Uncircumcision was a shameful spectacle indeed among that people.

The cup of the Lord’s right hand shall be turned to thee] Heb. Turned about, or shall turn itself, quia rerum omnium vicissitudo; thy turn is now come to take off the dregs of God’s cup of calamity, Jer 25:15, that hath eternity to the bottom.

And shameful spewing shall be on thy glory] Kikalon, a compound word, the vomit of ignominy; a fit punishment for filthy drunkards, who break their heads, as swine do their bellies, over charge their stomachs, as dogs do their gorges, and then disgorge themselves in a Shameful sort; as Antonius did at Narbon amidst his guests at a feast; and as Eccius, Luther’s great adversary, whom he merrily called Ieccius, from his casting; as Tiberius was nicknamed Biberius.

Shall be on thy glory] The Hebrew word for glory properly signifieth weightiness; as the word twice here used for shame signifieth lightness; an elegant opposition, showing that whatsoever the Babylonians gloried in, and held themselves honourable for, should be lightly accounted of, and lie buried in the sheet of shame, as in a dunghill of filthy vomit.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Whereas thou thoughtest to have glory of these thy doings, they shall turn to thy shame: for thou shalt drink of the same cup with others in thy turn.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

art filled--now that thou art fallen. "Thou art filled" indeed (though so insatiable), but it is "with shame."

shame for glory--instead of thy former glory (Hos 4:7).

drink thou also--The cup of sorrow is now in thy turn to pass to thee (Jer 25:15-17; Lam 4:21).

thy foreskin--expressing in Hebrew feeling the most utter contempt. So of Goliath (Sa1 17:36). It is not merely thy "nakedness," as in Hab 2:15, that shall be "uncovered," but the foreskin, the badge of thy being an uncircumcised alien from God. The same shall be done to thee, as thou didst to others, and worse.

cup . . . shall be turned unto thee--literally, "shall turn itself," namely, from the nations whom thou hast made to drink it. "Thou shalt drink it all, so that it may be turned as being drained" [GROTIUS].

shameful spewing--that is, vomiting; namely, that of the king of Babylon, compelled to disgorge the spoil he had swallowed. It expresses also the ignominious state of Babylon in its calamity (Jer 25:27). "Be drunken, spew, and fall." Less appropriately it is explained of the foe spewing in the face of the Babylonian king.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 16. The cup of the Lord's right hand] Among the ancients, all drank out of the same cup; was passed from hand to hand, and each drank as much as he chose. The Chaldeans gave to the neighbouring nations the cup of idolatry and of deceitful alliance: and in return they received from the Lord the cup of his fury. So Grotius.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He says that he is satiated with shame instead of glory. Some give this rendering—“Thou art satiated with shame more than glory;” but this does not suit the passage; for the Prophet does not mean that the Babylonian king was satiated with his own reproach, but rather with that of others. Secondly, the particle מ, mem, is not put here in a comparative sense, but the clause is on the contrary to be understood thus—“By thy glory, or, on account of thy glory, thou art satiated with shame”. It must also in the third place be observed, that punishment is not what the Prophet describes in these words; for it immediately follows—שתה גם אחה, shite gam ate, “drink thou also.” He comes now to punishment. By saying, then, that the king of Babylon was satiated with shame on account of glory, it is the same as though he had said, that while he was intent on increasing his own glory he brought all others to shame. It is indeed the common game of great kings, as it has been said, to enlarge their own power at the expense and loss of others. They would, indeed, if they could, render their friends safe; but when any one loses ground in their favor they neglect him. We see how at this day great kings, raising great armies, shed innocent blood. When a slaughter is made in war they express their grief, but it is only on account of their own glory or advantage. They will in words profess that they sympathise with the miserable men who faithfully spent their life for them, but they have for them no real concern. As, then, great kings draw human blood, and care nothing when many perish for their sake, the Prophet justly says, That the king of Babylon was satiated with shame on account of glory; that is, that while he was seeking his own glory he was satiated with the reproaches of many; for many perished on his account, many had been robbed of their power, or were afterwards to be robbed—for the Prophet refers not here to what had taken place, but he speaks of things future; and the past tense of verbs was intended to express certainty; and we know that this was a common mode of speaking with the Prophets.

He now adds—drink thou also. We hence see that the king of Babylon was secure as long as he remained untouched, though his alliance and friendship had proved ruinous to many. As long then as his kingdom flourished, the king of Babylon cared but little for the losses of others. Hence the Prophet says—“Thou shalt also drink; thou thinkest that others only shall be punished, as though thou were not exposed to God’s judgement; but thou shalt come in thy turn and drink;”—in what way? He speaks here allegorically of the vengeance which was nigh the king of Babylon—“Thou, also,” he says, “shalt drink and become a reproach,” or, shalt be uncovered.

The word ערל, orel, means in Hebrew the foreskin; and the foreskinned, or uncircumcised, was the name given to the profane and the base, or the contaminated; and hence many give this rendering—“Thou also shalt become ignominious;” but others express more clearly the Prophet’s meaning by this version—“Thou shalt be uncovered.” Yet their opinion is not amiss who think that there is here a change of letters, that הערל, eorel, is put for הרעל, erol; and רעל, rol, means to be cast asleep; and it well suits a drunken man to say that he is stupefied. But as the Prophet had spoken of nakedness, I retain the word as it is; and thus the two clauses will correspond—Then thou shalt drink and be uncovered

Then follows the explanation—Poured forth into thee shall be the cup of Jehovah’s right hand; that is, “the Lord shall in his time be thy cup-bearer; as thou hast inebriated many nations, and under the pretense of friendship hast defrauded those who, being bound to thee by treaties, have been ruined; so the Lord will now recompense thee with the reward which thou hast deserved: As thou hast been a cup-bearer to others, so the Lord will now become thy cup-bearer, and will inebriate thee, but after another manner.” We indeed know what the Scripture everywhere means by the cup of God’s hand—even vengeance of every kind. God strikes some with giddiness and precipitates them, when deprived of all humanity, into a state of madness; others he infatuates by insensibility; some he deprives of all understanding, so that they perceive nothing aright; against others he rouses up enemies, who treat them with cruelty. Hence the Lord is said to extend his cup to the wicked whenever he takes vengeance on them.

Therefore he adds—the reproach of spewing shall be on thy glory. The word קיקלון, kikolun, is a compound. We have already seen that קלוכ, kolun, is shame; and now he speaks of shameful spewing. And this may be referred to the king of Babylon—that he himself would shamefully spew out what he had before intemperately swallowed down; or it might be fitly applied to his enemies—that they would spew in the face of the king of Babylon.

The end of which Habakkuk speaks, awaits all tyrants, who disturb the world by their cupidity. Ambition does indeed so infatuate them, that they neither spare human blood, nor hesitate to endanger their nearest and most friendly associates. Since then an insatiable thirst for glory thus inflames them, the Prophet justly allots to them this reward—that they shall receive filthy and shameful spewing instead of that glory, in seeking which they observed no limits. Let us now proceed -

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

16. filled with shame for glory] with shame and not with glory, the construction as Hos_6:6, “mercy and not sacrifices,” cf. Psa_52:3. The term “art filled” or sated must have the meaning: “thou hast feasted thyself on shame,” i.e. on the shame of his victims, or more generally, on that which is shameful, rather than on what is decorous and honourable. Such a sense seems nowhere else expressed by the verb to be sated. The text may be uncertain.

cup … turned unto thee] Lam_4:21; Jer_25:15; Jer_51:7; Isa_51:17.

shameful spuing] Or, as R.V., foul shame. The word, like “thick clay” (Hab_2:6), has been taken as two words: spuing of shame, with the sense of A.V. It is no doubt an intensive form of the word shame.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee,.... Lebanon was a mountain on the borders of the land of Israel, from whence cedar wood was brought, of which the temple was built, and for that reason is sometimes so called, as in Zac 11:1 and so the Targum and Jarchi interpret it,

"the violence of the house of the sanctuary shall cover thee;''

and this was a type of the church of Christ, the violence of which is that which is offered to it, and which it suffers; and designs all the injuries, oppressions, and persecutions of it by the Papists; who shall be surrounded with the judgments of God, and covered with his wrath and vengeance for the violence done to his people, as a man is covered with a garment: or else the sense is, that the same, or a like judgment, should come upon them, as did on Lebanon, or the material temple of Jerusalem, which with great force and violence destroyed it; as that was consumed by fire for the sins of the Jews in rejecting Christ and persecuting his people, so shall Rome be burnt with fire for the opposition of the inhabitants of it to Christ, and the injuries they have done to his church and people:

and the spoil of beasts, which made them afraid; or, "the spoil of the beasts" shall cover thee, which "made them afraid"; we read of two beasts, one rising out of the sea, and the other out of the earth; and both design the pope of Rome in different capacities, as considered in his secular and ecclesiastical power; and the spoil he has made of those that oppose him, the calamities of fire and sword he has brought upon them, are what have greatly terrified the sheep of Christ; but for all the spoil and havoc he has made, the judgments of God shall come upon him on all sides, and utterly destroy him; the beast and false prophet shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone; see Rev 13:1,

because of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein; the same that is said in Hab 2:8 and here repeated, as respecting another body of men, guilty of the same or like crimes: there Rome Pagan, concerned in the crucifixion of Christ, the desolation of the land of Judea, and city of Jerusalem, and their inhabitants, as well as in persecuting the saints, the citizens of the church of God; here Rome Papal, where our Lord has been crucified again, and his blood, and the efficacy of it, set at nought; the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus shed in great abundance, and violent persecutions of the churches of Christ, and the members of them; for all which the above judgments shall come upon them; see Rev 11:8.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Thou art filled with shame for glory - Oppressors think to make themselves great by bringing others down, to fill themselves with riches, by spoiling others. They loved shame Hos 4:8, because they loved that, which brought shame; they were filled with shame, in that they sated themselves with shamefulness, which was their shame within, before, in the just judgment of God, shame came on them from without Phi 3:19. “Their glory was in their shame.” They shall be filled, yea, he says, they are already filled; they would satisfy, gorge themselves, with all their hearts’ desires; they are “filled to the full,” but with shame instead of glory which they sought, or which they already had. “From” and “for” a state of “glory,” they were filled with contempt.

Drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered - thy shame like those whom thou puttest to shame, only the greater in being uncircumcised. “The cup of the Lord’s Right Hand shall be turned (round) unto thee (or against thee).” It had gone round the circuit of the nations whom God had employed him to chasten, and now, the circle completed, it should be brought round to himself, “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you again” Mat 7:2. So Jeremiah says, Jer 25:26, “And the king of Shesbach shall drink after them;” and of Edom, Lam 4:21, “To thee also shall the cup be brought round.” Thou, a man, madest man to drink of the cup of thine anger: the cup shall be brought round to thee, but not by man; to thee it shall be given by “the Right Hand of the Lord,” which thou canst not escape; it shall be “the cup of the wine of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God” Rev 16:19; as Asaph had said, Psa 76:8, “There is a cup in the Lord’s hand; it is full of mixture, and He poureth out therefrom; but the dregs thereof all the ungodly of the earth shall suck them out, shall drink them.”

And shameful spewing shall be on thy glory - Jerome: “With the shame of thy spewing shalt thou bring up all thou hast swallowed down, and from the height of glory shalt thou be brought to the utmost ills.” The shame of the ungodly cometh forth from himself; the shame he put others to is doubled upon himself; and the very means which he had used to fill himself with glory and greatness, cover the glory which by nature he had, with the deeper disgrace, so that he should be a loathsome and revolting sight to all. Man veils foul deeds under fair words; God, in His word, unveils the foulness.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Glory. Egypt shall suffer at last, Isaias xix. 14., Jeremias xliii., &c. It was customary to hand the cup about, Jeremias xxv. 17., and Matthew xxvi. 27. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Thou, O king of Babylon,

art filled, shortly shalt be, and it is as sure as if already done, with shame for glory; as much filled with shame by the contempt they shall cast upon thee whom thou didst once vilify and contemn; thy shame shall be greater than ever was thy glory, as the Hebrew seems to import.

Drink thou also: thy sin was that thou didst drink, and madest others drink to shameless excess too; now thy punishment shall be to drink of the cup of God’s wrath, which will fill thee with astonishment and calamities.

Let thy foreskin be uncovered; let thy shame be laid open before all; this retaliation is just and necessary.

The cup; a Scripture phrase, expressing the just judgments and corrections of sinners.

Of the Lord’s right hand; it is said to be in his right hand here, and in his hand, Psa 75:8.

Shall be turned unto thee: they turned the cup of pleasure about, God will carry the cup of indignation about also, and make them drink deep of it, they shall not escape.

Shameful spewing shall be upon thy glory; then shalt thou be as much loathed as a shameful drunkard is in his vomit.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Just retribution falls on Babylon. Thou art filled with shame for glory. Thou art satiated, indeed, but With shame, not with glory. Thou hast revelled in thy shameless conduct to the defencelses, but this redounds to thy dishonour, and will only add to the disgrace of thy fall The Septuagint joins this clause with part of the following: "Drink thou also fulness of shame for glory." Drink thou also the cup of wrath and retribution. Let thy foreskin be uncovered. Be thou in turn treated with the same ignominy with which thou hast treated others, the figure in ver. 15 being here repeated. (comp. Lam_4:21) It is otherwise translated, "Be thou," or "show thyself, uncircumcised." This, in a Jew"s eyes, would be the very climax of degradation. The Vulgate has consopire, from a slightly different reading. The LXX, Kardia saleuqhti kaisqhti "Be tossed, O my heart, and shaken." The present text is much more appropriate, though the Syriac and Arabic follow the Greek here. The cup of the Lord"s right hand. Retributive vengeance is often thus figured. (comp. Psa_60:3 Psa_75:8; Isa_51:17, Isa_51:22; Jer_25:15, etc.) Shall be turned unto thee. God himself shall bring round the cup of suffering and vengeance to thee in thy turn, and thou shalt be made to drink it to the dregs, so that shameful spewing (foul shame) shall be on thy glory. The apax legomenon kikalon is regarded as an intensive signifying "the utmost ignominy" (ajtimia, Septuagint), or as two words, or a compound word, meaning vomitus ignominiae (Vulgate). It was probably used by the prophet to suggest both ideas.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou - O king of Babylon. Shall be turned - They turned the cup of pleasure about, God will carry the cup of indignation about also, and make them drink deep of it. Shameful spewing - Thou shalt be as much loathed as a shameful drunkard is in his vomit.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

and become clogged up The “he” serves in this word as an expression of the reflexive, as in (Deut. 32:50) “And you shall be gathered to your people.” Here, too, הֵעָרֵל - you shall become clogged up with bewilderment and with astonishment of heart. Every expression of עָרְלָה is an expression of clogging, like (Jer. 6:10) “Their ear is clogged” and (Ezek 44:7) “Of clogged heart and of uncircumcised flesh.” Jonathan rendered: And become naked, an expression of (ibid. 16:7) “Naked and bare.”

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.