Woe to the Proud - God Judges the Wickerd
Habakkuk 2:5-20
Nimrod, Jezebel, Nebuchadnezzar, and Herod. Genghis Khan, Cleopatra, Louis XIV, and Nero. Adolf Hitler, Bernie Madoff, Harvey Weinstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell. What do all these people have in common? Some of them were government leaders while others were not, but they all exhibited a flagrant, obvious arrogance seen by how they abused and took advantage of other people for selfish reasons.
While we don’t normally encounter or live directly under the power of well-known public villains like these, you’ve probably had experiences with similar people in a more personal, less public way. The school bully, abusive spouse, manipulative relative, controlling boss or supervisor, sarcastic, name-calling coworker, intimidating landlord or businessperson, unjust judge, and so on.
Like Habakkuk, we easily wonder how God can permit self-centered people like this to enter our lives and prosper in the world. In Hab 1:1–2:4, we learn that God’s plan is bigger and better than we can comprehend. So, rather than try to figure out what God is doing and why he is doing it that way, we should live by faith. Since he is eternal, faithful, all-powerful, holy, and unchangeable, we should wait patiently for him, trusting completely in him from beginning to end, no matter what arrogant, ungodly people may do in our lives.
But even when are trusting fulling in our faithful God, it helps to know what God thinks about arrogant people. In 2:5-20, he gives us his divine perspective on arrogant, ungodly people. He warns them of serious judgment and destruction, describing five behavioral traits and patterns of these kinds of people. Then he calls all people, whether abusers or abused, oppressors or oppressed, to turn from their idols to him in reverent worship.
Knowing what God thinks about arrogant people and will do to arrogant people is helpful for us in two ways. This knowledge helps us deepen our trust in him when arrogant people are causing us difficulty and pain. But it also helps us identify any arrogance in our own hearts so we can turn from it to trust in God with greater honesty and humility.
In summary, from this part of Habakkuk’s message, we see that proud people think too highly of themselves and too little of others. They reveal their arrogance by treating other people poorly in order to benefit themselves. And they do this because they do not trust in God. From this we see that arrogance grows where trust in God is missing, and it always shows in how we treat other people. Pride mistreats others because it refuses to trust God. When we stop trusting God, we start using people.
God warns of judgment for arrogant people.
At this point in the book, Habakkuk has asked God two questions. First, why did it seem God was overlooking the corruption and injustice of his neighbors and fellow citizens in Judah. Second, why would he use an arguably more wicked nation like Babylon to judge Judah for their sins?
But now Habakkuk is done asking questions and makes a confident, dogmatic statement, instead – that God will judge every arrogant person severely. By severely, I don’t mean God will punish them in an excessively harsh, rash, and reactive way but that he will judge them in a decisive and just way that matches the severity of their sin. Pride will not go unpunished, even if it seems to roam free without consequence now today.
In Hab 2:5-20, a key word appears 5 times, the word “woe.” This word appears 53 times in the OT. Seventy-seven percent (more than three quarters) of the time it means a “cry of doom” (Kenneth Barker) and announces deeply frightening, horrifying circumstances that will happen due to a person’s persistent, unrepentant sin.
These painful consequences are normally announced in a graphic, intense, and public way. This is intentional to encourage stubborn, unpersuadable people to repent, letting them know in clear terms that if they refuse to repent, their only possible and certain future is death, judgment, and destruction. These “woes” do not describe a mere wish for proud people to be punished but rather a statement of certain judgment that will definitely occur.
Habakkuk introduces here a series of not just one or two woes but five. And he previews what he is about to say in a brief phrase in 2:4, then a long verse in 2:5. In this preview, we see that God is calling out the sin of arrogance and pride. He describes it as a restless, greedy desire that cannot be satisfied; it abuses and exploits all kinds of people for selfish reasons. He compares the appetite of pride to death and the grave, which continues to seize more people every day yet is never filled.
When pride is a dominant desire in a person’s heart, they behave like a drunken person – inconsiderate of others and overconfident in themselves. Such people are difficult and frightening people to be around today because their behavior is so harmful to others. But in the end, the very people whom they bullied will be witnesses against them at the future judgment of God. They will then be able to taunt the arrogant people who tortured them.
The five woes of Habakkuk against proud people are offered this way – as mocking taunts, songs which essentially make fun of the bullies. In the traditional folk tale, The Three Little Pigs, as animated by Disney, the pigs mock the big bad wolf with a song: “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf? Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Tra-la-la-la-lah-la-la-lah?” They do this as he hunts them, blows their houses down, to terrorize and eat them.
Here in Habakkuk 2:5-20, God gives this kind of song with five verses. While it’s primarily directed not at the big bad wolf, but at the Babylonian kings and armies which would soon invade and terrorize Judah, it’s vague enough that it could also be sung about any arrogant people today or in history. In summary, though, Hab 2 teaches us those who trust in God will live, but those who are proud and refuse to trust in him will be destroyed.
Let’s look at the five verses of this mocking song against arrogant people and see five ways a proud and arrogant heart reveals itself through a person’s behavior. From these five behaviors, we see that proud people think too highly of themselves and too little of others. They reveal their arrogance by treating other people poorly to benefit themselves. And they do this because they don’t trust in God. Arrogance grows where trust in God is missing. Pride mistreats others because it refuses to trust God.
Woe to anyone who takes advantage of other people.
2:6-8 says arrogance and pride often reveals itself through the kind of behavior that takes advantage of other people. We call this exploiting, extorting, manipulating, or victimizing. God mentions a specific way of doing this here that involved increasing personal resources and wealth through a practice called “taking pledges,” or as Habakkuk says, “loading up many pledges.”
In the ancient world, “taking pledges” referred to seizing collateral from a person who owed a debt. In the case of the Babylonians (or any other arrogant people who take advantage of others), this often involved taking basic items which are essential to life, like clothing, food, house, or livestock. These pledges were supposed to function as temporary guarantee, not a permanent confiscation, and God’s law placed strict limits on how and when pledges could be taken.
The problem in this case was that the Babylonians would use debt as a weapon. They stripped already vulnerable, weakened people of what little they had left, forcing them into ongoing debt and keeping what was necessary for daily survival and dignity as mandatory collateral. This wasn’t a neutral business practice; it was predatory exploitation designed to keep people beholden or dependent on them. It revealed an arrogant heart that treated human beings like milk cows, squeezing all the milk they could from them with no regard for their personal dignity, health, or survival or the survival of their young calves.
In this verse, we see that Babylon would set off a domino train of events which would not end until they had at last been taken advantage of by others, just as they were taking advantage of other nations and people. As Paul says in Gal 6:7, “You reap what you sow.”
The emphasis here on “suddenly” reflects the poetic justice in God’s justice and plans. Babylon would rise to power quickly and but they would fall from power quickly, too. Babylon was the world superpower from approx. 612 BC to 538 BC, so only abt. 75 years, or one person’s lifetime. Compared to Assyria before them (abt. 300 yrs., or 4 lifetimes) and Persia after them (abt. 200 yrs., or 2.5 lifetimes), they would be a short-lived empire. (The United States is currently at somewhere between Assyria and Persia in age, btw.)
Anyway, this is what arrogant people do. They see people not as neighbors to love and serve but as assets to be used and abused. They use whatever advantage, position, or power they have to enrich themselves by draining others, showing little concern for the dignity, wellbeing, or survival of the people that they hurt.
Woe to anyone who indulges himself at others’ expense.
2:9-11 expands on the first verse of this taunting song by calling out how arrogant people not only take advantage of other people as a matter of business, but they do it to enrich and indulge themselves. They take the material gains they accumulate by extortion to make their own lives bigger and better than before.
The phrase “covets evil gain” here is interesting. In Hebrew, it is “cuts off an evil cut.” It describes how a tailor may cut some fabric for a customer but cuts it shorter than requested while charging a higher price so he could cheat the customer and end up with more money and more fabric for himself.
This phrase is used broadly to describe raising your profit margin and inventory by cheating and swindling people. Here it refers to how Babylon – esp. it’s rulers and leaders – would embellish and enlarge not only their empire and kingdom but also their individual, private houses and dwellings to be more impressive and safe for themselves.
They would be like a bald eagle building its nest far above other birds by stealing twigs and sticks from the nests of those birds less powerful than themselves. This taunt speaks of giving “shameful counsel to their house,” “cutting off many peoples,” and “sinning against your own soul.” While the Babylonians (or arrogant people) thought they were building strong, fortified houses and buildings by cutting up lumber and stones they had claimed from the people they conquered and their tortured labors, it was actually their own homes and families’ futures which were being cut off.
The taunt claims that even the stone and wood they used to build their houses would cry out as witnesses against them. In other words, even if they destroyed every single enemy, their own grand houses and buildings would be permanent witnesses and reminders of the people they abused and took advantage of to build them.
So, arrogant people take advantage of other people and indulge themselves at others’ expense. They also …
Woe to anyone who advances himself through violence and crime.
2:12-14 speaks of building towns and cities through violence (“bloodshed”) and crime (“iniquity”). “Through violence” refers to cities built through the efforts and labors of people who are poorly treated and die to achieve the goal. The word “iniquity” (“crime”) refers to social, property, and commercial sins – seizing private property, shaming people unjustly, using underhanded business policies and financial practices to get what they want, even threatening people through mafia-style tactics. They built their towns and cities on the blood, sweat, and tears of bullied and enslaved people.
Those who build houses and projects on the backs of bloodshed and through crime and violence only labor in the end, only do so as an elaborate preparation for the massive bonfire of God’s judgment. What seems to be an impressive building project and scheme is nothing more, in God’s eternal sight, as a simply gathering kindling wood for the fires of divine destruction. All the grandiose building projects of the world which occur through unjust, violent, and corrupt means – whether large-scale government building projects or else the building projects of wealthy and corrupt financiers – are ultimately “in vain” (or useless and wasted).
“The Lord of Hosts” emphasizes God as the supreme commander of all forces in existence, seen and unseen. “Hosts” refers not only to earthly armies but to the vast angelic forces and even the stars themselves, all of which serve at God’s command.
A clear and dramatic illustration of this appears in 2 Kings 6, when Elisha’s servant feared the large enemy army surrounding them, and God opened his eyes to see the hills filled with horses and chariots of fire, with the countless unseen angelic armies of the Lord standing ready to act on behalf of his people.
Throughout the OT, this title reminds God’s people that no empire, nation, or ruler acts outside of God’s authority. When Habakkuk speaks of the Lord of Hosts, he is declaring that the God who sees arrogant oppression also commands unlimited power to judge it decisively. The bullies, enemies, and oppressive people which seem overwhelming to us are surrounded by forces far greater than any human power on our behalf.
Here, Habakkuk points out that the purpose of God’s judgment and punishment would be not only to punish arrogant people but to ensure that the whole world would know the Lord in a real, personal, unmistakable way, either as Savior or Judge.
The entire story of the Exodus, for instance, centered on the fact that Pharaoh did not know God (Exod 5:2), but God wanted to introduce himself to Israel (Exod 6:6) and to Pharaoh and the Egyptians (Exod 7:5) (Kenneth Barker).
A clear knowledge of the greatness and justice of God will be so universal it will be as common and obvious as the lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans that cover the world. The arrogance of corrupt and unjust people, along with all their grand but unjust accomplishments and projects, will be burned and washed away and will be nothing more than a means for all people to be introduced to the power and judgment of God.
Proud people take advantage of other people, they do so to indulge themselves, and they do so through violence and crime. But there is a fourth way that arrogance reveals itself.
Woe to anyone who abuses and shames other people for pleasure.
The fourth verse of this taunt song, 2:15-17, emphasizes drunkenness and abuse as behaviors of arrogant people. This is especially appropriate because the OT shows that Babylon was a nation known for its wild drinking parties (Dan 5). Somehow or another, they also forced the people they conquered to join them in drunkenness. When they were drunk, they mocked and abused them in shameful ways as they did the sort of things that drunk people do (see v. 15).
Ironically, God announced that they would have the same thing happen to them in the end. Since they had intoxicated others and shamed them, then would be intoxicated and shamed themselves in the end.
In Scripture, a cup of wine, held out and poured out by a king, represented judgment, and the right hand represented power. 2:16 says this would happen to Babylon and arrogant people like them.
Babylon had destroyed the forests of Lebanon and deprived animals in those dense, lush woodlands of their natural habitat. What had once been a lush forest of majestic cedars and thriving wildlife had been exploited and mismanaged to build corrupt opulent building projects. Worse yet, they had done the same thing to the cities and people in them, too – not just the forests and the animals. So, here we see that arrogant people not only abuse other people, but they abuse and mismanage God’s creation – both plant and animal life – for their own selfish purposes, too. God judges this behavior, too.
For this reason, God said they would be drunk and exposed to the world. And this is exactly what happened. At the end of their brief, 75-year existence as an empire, the Syria army sprung a surprise attack on their capital city. Ironically, they attacked and overthrew the city while King Belshazzar and all his government officials were participating in a drunken party. That night, the Syrian empire killed him and brought the Babylonian empire to a sudden end.
So, proud people take advantage of other people, they do so to indulge themselves, they abuse and shame other people for their pleasure, and they do so through violence and crime. But there is a fifth and final way that arrogance reveals itself – they trust in idols.
Woe to anyone who trusts in idols.
In this fifth and final woe, God places the ‘woe’ in the middle of the taunt rather than the beginning. Doing this “jumps right into” the topic and shows a special sense of urgency and seriousness about this particular sin. He has already introduced this problem earlier, too, in Hab 1:11, when God pointed out how the Babylonians would worship their nets for the fish that they caught and the people they conquered.
But here, God points out the emptiness, futility, and uselessness of trusting in idols – or manmade things. If a human being makes something, they are automatically superior to that thing, whether an idol or anything else (like a fishing net, etc.). So, to worship an idol or manmade thing is ridiculous. It is no more than a block of wood overlayed with a mineral like gold or silver. It cannot talk, it cannot breath – it has no life or existence at all. So, the woe here – the doom and destruction to speak of – is in the idol itself. It is nothing, does nothing, and will be good for nothing in the end when God’s judgment comes.
As human beings, we are trusting beings. We are created by God to trust in him. But we choose, for sinful reasons, to trust in all sorts of other wrong things. We trust in riches (Job 31:24; Prov 11:28), important people (Ps 146:3; cf. Jer 17:5-8), military fortifications (Dt 28:52; Jer 5:17), beauty (Ezk 16:15), and personal abilities (Prov 3:5; 28:26). We even trust in evil (Isa 30:12).
But as Paul says in Rom 1:25, when we trust in created things rather than the God who created everything, we trade the truth for a lie.
Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
And it is for this reason, that arrogant people who refuse to turn to and trust in God must resort to all the abusive, dishonest, and even violent means God mentions here in Hab 2:5-20, because people who trust in idols get no help, from the idols or from God.
So, we see that proud people think too highly of themselves and too little of others. They reveal their arrogance by treating other people poorly in order to benefit themselves. And they do this because they do not trust in God. From this we see that arrogance grows where trust in God is missing, and it always shows in how we treat other people. Pride mistreats others because it refuses to trust God. When we stop trusting God, we start using people.
God calls for reverent worship from all people.
Habakkuk closes this five-part series of warnings of coming doom and destruction on arrogant people with a surprising shift in tone and focus. After exposing the arrogance, cruelty, and idolatry of proud people, God gives a universal command not only to Babylon, but also to Judah and to all people everywhere to respond to God with reverent worship.
When he says, “keep silence,” he is calling not only for verbal quietness but for an inner heart attitude of humble submission before God. After all the loud and grandiose activity and bluster of arrogant people, God now calls every voice to fall silent in his presence.
The Hebrew word hasah translated “be silent,” literally means to “hush.” It is the same word used in other serious calls to show reverent respect before God (Zeph 1:7; Zech 2:13). It describes proper response of finite, sinful beings like us before the infinite, holy creator God. It should be an awe-filled stillness.
Ironically, in the previous verses, idols themselves are silent, not because of reverence, but because they are lifeless. They cannot speak, act, rescue, or save. In Hab 2:19, idol worshippers cry out to blocks of wood and stone, commanding them to wake up and do things, but nothing happens.
Here in v.20, the contrast is obvious. God calls arrogant, proud people to be silent, not because he is powerless, but because he is fully alive and reigning. We are to become silent like idols, not because God is mute, but because we no longer need to speak, shout, scheme, or manipulate when we have God. We can quietly trust him instead of engage in clamorous, loud, raucous chanting, yelling, and so on as when worshiping idols.
The reason all the earth must fall silent is that “the LORD is in his holy temple.” This does not only refer to the Temple building in Jerusalem, but to God’s heavenly throne room, of which the earthly temple was only a small copy. As Psa 11:4 declares, “The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven.”
Habakkuk draws our attention away from dumb, man-made idols to the self-existent, eternal, holy, sovereign God who rules the universe. This God was eternal before creation (1:12), remains unchanging through history (3:6), and is altogether holy in his character and actions (1:12; 3:3). From this heavenly temple, he reigns over every nation, empire, and person.
Because the Lord alone is living, eternal, and sovereign, the appropriate response is universal and unavoidable: “let all the earth keep silence before him.”
No nation is exempt. No person can tell him what to do or manipulate him. He is sovereign over all things, and no idol can rival him. God will be exalted among the nations and in all the earth—just as Psalm 46:10 proclaims:
Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
So, we see that proud people think too highly of themselves and too little of others. They reveal their arrogance by treating other people poorly in order to benefit themselves. And they do this because they do not trust in God. From this we see that arrogance grows where trust in God is missing, and it always shows in how we treat other people. Pride mistreats others because it refuses to trust God. When we stop trusting God, we start using people.
As we close, this passage can turn the spotlight onto our own hearts. The five woes are not just a description of “other people out there.” They are a mirror that can reveal subtle (or not so subtle) forms of arrogance that can creep into our own behavior each day.
When someone engages in pornography, they are participating in the abuse of people made in God’s image. When we make cutting, sarcastic remarks, especially under the guise of humor, we publicly shame others to feel superior. When we exaggerate numbers, hide mistakes, or cut corners at work, we cheat people for personal gain. When we mistreat employees, customers, classmates, or family members, we are exploiting people rather than loving them.
Arrogance and pride doesn’t only reveal itself in the lives of the famous, powerful, and rich. It often appears in our own personal lives. Habakkuk calls us to ask hard questions: Where am I using people instead of trusting God? Where am I protecting myself, advancing myself, or indulging myself at someone else’s expense?
At the same time, this message comforts those who are suffering under people who live this way. Some of us are affected daily by manipulative coworkers, domineering supervisors, abusive spouses, dishonest business partners, or cruel family members.
Habakkuk reminds us that God sees every act of exploitation and abuse, every shaming word, every ounce of violence and injustice, and none of it escapes his judgment. He says “woe” to these people in no uncertain terms. He is not like a useless idol which is no help at all. He is the creator God who will act with the full powers of his divine nature.
The proud may flourish for a time, but they do not escape accountability. God’s justice is not rushed, but it is sure. That frees us from the exhausting and destructive burden of revenge, fear, or despair. We can remain silent, not because injustice doesn’t matter, but because God reigns. We can entrust our pain, our defense, and our future to him, confident that the Judge of all the earth will do right (Gen 18:25). Woe to the proud but comfort and salvation to his people who trust in him.
Today, we began by naming some notorious figures in history who are known for their arrogance and pride. But Habakkuk has shown us that the danger of pride is not only out there in world governments or public villains, but in any heart that trusts in idols, refuses to trust in God, and who then abuses and uses people for selfish advantage and gain.
The same pride that fueled Jezebel or Babylon, Cleopatra or Bernie Madoff can appear in our own lives, workplaces, homes, and churches whenever we exalt ourselves at the expense of others. When we do this, we reveal that we are worshiping idols of our own making rather than God.
That’s why God’s final word to Habakkuk is not merely “woe” but an invitation to repent and to worship: “The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Hab 2:20). The answer to pride is not louder arguments, tighter control, or greater self‑justification, but humble, quiet, obedient, and reverent trust in the living God. When we acknowledge his sovereignty, rest in his justice, and trust in his grace, we are freed from arrogance and fear. Woe to the proud, but comfort, safety, and hope to all who bow in humble worship before the Lord.
Nimrod, Jezebel, Nebuchadnezzar, and Herod. Genghis Khan, Cleopatra, Louis XIV, and Nero. Adolf Hitler, Bernie Madoff, Harvey Weinstein, and Ghislaine Maxwell. What do all these people have in common? Some of them were government leaders while others were not, but they all exhibited a flagrant, obvious arrogance seen by how they abused and took advantage of other people for selfish reasons.
While we don’t normally encounter or live directly under the power of well-known public villains like these, you’ve probably had experiences with similar people in a more personal, less public way. The school bully, abusive spouse, manipulative relative, controlling boss or supervisor, sarcastic, name-calling coworker, intimidating landlord or businessperson, unjust judge, and so on.
Like Habakkuk, we easily wonder how God can permit self-centered people like this to enter our lives and prosper in the world. In Hab 1:1–2:4, we learn that God’s plan is bigger and better than we can comprehend. So, rather than try to figure out what God is doing and why he is doing it that way, we should live by faith. Since he is eternal, faithful, all-powerful, holy, and unchangeable, we should wait patiently for him, trusting completely in him from beginning to end, no matter what arrogant, ungodly people may do in our lives.
But even when are trusting fulling in our faithful God, it helps to know what God thinks about arrogant people. In 2:5-20, he gives us his divine perspective on arrogant, ungodly people. He warns them of serious judgment and destruction, describing five behavioral traits and patterns of these kinds of people. Then he calls all people, whether abusers or abused, oppressors or oppressed, to turn from their idols to him in reverent worship.
Knowing what God thinks about arrogant people and will do to arrogant people is helpful for us in two ways. This knowledge helps us deepen our trust in him when arrogant people are causing us difficulty and pain. But it also helps us identify any arrogance in our own hearts so we can turn from it to trust in God with greater honesty and humility.
In summary, from this part of Habakkuk’s message, we see that proud people think too highly of themselves and too little of others. They reveal their arrogance by treating other people poorly in order to benefit themselves. And they do this because they do not trust in God. From this we see that arrogance grows where trust in God is missing, and it always shows in how we treat other people. Pride mistreats others because it refuses to trust God. When we stop trusting God, we start using people.
God warns of judgment for arrogant people.
At this point in the book, Habakkuk has asked God two questions. First, why did it seem God was overlooking the corruption and injustice of his neighbors and fellow citizens in Judah. Second, why would he use an arguably more wicked nation like Babylon to judge Judah for their sins?
But now Habakkuk is done asking questions and makes a confident, dogmatic statement, instead – that God will judge every arrogant person severely. By severely, I don’t mean God will punish them in an excessively harsh, rash, and reactive way but that he will judge them in a decisive and just way that matches the severity of their sin. Pride will not go unpunished, even if it seems to roam free without consequence now today.
In Hab 2:5-20, a key word appears 5 times, the word “woe.” This word appears 53 times in the OT. Seventy-seven percent (more than three quarters) of the time it means a “cry of doom” (Kenneth Barker) and announces deeply frightening, horrifying circumstances that will happen due to a person’s persistent, unrepentant sin.
These painful consequences are normally announced in a graphic, intense, and public way. This is intentional to encourage stubborn, unpersuadable people to repent, letting them know in clear terms that if they refuse to repent, their only possible and certain future is death, judgment, and destruction. These “woes” do not describe a mere wish for proud people to be punished but rather a statement of certain judgment that will definitely occur.
Habakkuk introduces here a series of not just one or two woes but five. And he previews what he is about to say in a brief phrase in 2:4, then a long verse in 2:5. In this preview, we see that God is calling out the sin of arrogance and pride. He describes it as a restless, greedy desire that cannot be satisfied; it abuses and exploits all kinds of people for selfish reasons. He compares the appetite of pride to death and the grave, which continues to seize more people every day yet is never filled.
When pride is a dominant desire in a person’s heart, they behave like a drunken person – inconsiderate of others and overconfident in themselves. Such people are difficult and frightening people to be around today because their behavior is so harmful to others. But in the end, the very people whom they bullied will be witnesses against them at the future judgment of God. They will then be able to taunt the arrogant people who tortured them.
The five woes of Habakkuk against proud people are offered this way – as mocking taunts, songs which essentially make fun of the bullies. In the traditional folk tale, The Three Little Pigs, as animated by Disney, the pigs mock the big bad wolf with a song: “Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf, the big bad wolf? Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? Tra-la-la-la-lah-la-la-lah?” They do this as he hunts them, blows their houses down, to terrorize and eat them.
Here in Habakkuk 2:5-20, God gives this kind of song with five verses. While it’s primarily directed not at the big bad wolf, but at the Babylonian kings and armies which would soon invade and terrorize Judah, it’s vague enough that it could also be sung about any arrogant people today or in history. In summary, though, Hab 2 teaches us those who trust in God will live, but those who are proud and refuse to trust in him will be destroyed.
Let’s look at the five verses of this mocking song against arrogant people and see five ways a proud and arrogant heart reveals itself through a person’s behavior. From these five behaviors, we see that proud people think too highly of themselves and too little of others. They reveal their arrogance by treating other people poorly to benefit themselves. And they do this because they don’t trust in God. Arrogance grows where trust in God is missing. Pride mistreats others because it refuses to trust God.
Woe to anyone who takes advantage of other people.
2:6-8 says arrogance and pride often reveals itself through the kind of behavior that takes advantage of other people. We call this exploiting, extorting, manipulating, or victimizing. God mentions a specific way of doing this here that involved increasing personal resources and wealth through a practice called “taking pledges,” or as Habakkuk says, “loading up many pledges.”
In the ancient world, “taking pledges” referred to seizing collateral from a person who owed a debt. In the case of the Babylonians (or any other arrogant people who take advantage of others), this often involved taking basic items which are essential to life, like clothing, food, house, or livestock. These pledges were supposed to function as temporary guarantee, not a permanent confiscation, and God’s law placed strict limits on how and when pledges could be taken.
The problem in this case was that the Babylonians would use debt as a weapon. They stripped already vulnerable, weakened people of what little they had left, forcing them into ongoing debt and keeping what was necessary for daily survival and dignity as mandatory collateral. This wasn’t a neutral business practice; it was predatory exploitation designed to keep people beholden or dependent on them. It revealed an arrogant heart that treated human beings like milk cows, squeezing all the milk they could from them with no regard for their personal dignity, health, or survival or the survival of their young calves.
In this verse, we see that Babylon would set off a domino train of events which would not end until they had at last been taken advantage of by others, just as they were taking advantage of other nations and people. As Paul says in Gal 6:7, “You reap what you sow.”
The emphasis here on “suddenly” reflects the poetic justice in God’s justice and plans. Babylon would rise to power quickly and but they would fall from power quickly, too. Babylon was the world superpower from approx. 612 BC to 538 BC, so only abt. 75 years, or one person’s lifetime. Compared to Assyria before them (abt. 300 yrs., or 4 lifetimes) and Persia after them (abt. 200 yrs., or 2.5 lifetimes), they would be a short-lived empire. (The United States is currently at somewhere between Assyria and Persia in age, btw.)
Anyway, this is what arrogant people do. They see people not as neighbors to love and serve but as assets to be used and abused. They use whatever advantage, position, or power they have to enrich themselves by draining others, showing little concern for the dignity, wellbeing, or survival of the people that they hurt.
Woe to anyone who indulges himself at others’ expense.
2:9-11 expands on the first verse of this taunting song by calling out how arrogant people not only take advantage of other people as a matter of business, but they do it to enrich and indulge themselves. They take the material gains they accumulate by extortion to make their own lives bigger and better than before.
The phrase “covets evil gain” here is interesting. In Hebrew, it is “cuts off an evil cut.” It describes how a tailor may cut some fabric for a customer but cuts it shorter than requested while charging a higher price so he could cheat the customer and end up with more money and more fabric for himself.
This phrase is used broadly to describe raising your profit margin and inventory by cheating and swindling people. Here it refers to how Babylon – esp. it’s rulers and leaders – would embellish and enlarge not only their empire and kingdom but also their individual, private houses and dwellings to be more impressive and safe for themselves.
They would be like a bald eagle building its nest far above other birds by stealing twigs and sticks from the nests of those birds less powerful than themselves. This taunt speaks of giving “shameful counsel to their house,” “cutting off many peoples,” and “sinning against your own soul.” While the Babylonians (or arrogant people) thought they were building strong, fortified houses and buildings by cutting up lumber and stones they had claimed from the people they conquered and their tortured labors, it was actually their own homes and families’ futures which were being cut off.
The taunt claims that even the stone and wood they used to build their houses would cry out as witnesses against them. In other words, even if they destroyed every single enemy, their own grand houses and buildings would be permanent witnesses and reminders of the people they abused and took advantage of to build them.
So, arrogant people take advantage of other people and indulge themselves at others’ expense. They also …
Woe to anyone who advances himself through violence and crime.
2:12-14 speaks of building towns and cities through violence (“bloodshed”) and crime (“iniquity”). “Through violence” refers to cities built through the efforts and labors of people who are poorly treated and die to achieve the goal. The word “iniquity” (“crime”) refers to social, property, and commercial sins – seizing private property, shaming people unjustly, using underhanded business policies and financial practices to get what they want, even threatening people through mafia-style tactics. They built their towns and cities on the blood, sweat, and tears of bullied and enslaved people.
Those who build houses and projects on the backs of bloodshed and through crime and violence only labor in the end, only do so as an elaborate preparation for the massive bonfire of God’s judgment. What seems to be an impressive building project and scheme is nothing more, in God’s eternal sight, as a simply gathering kindling wood for the fires of divine destruction. All the grandiose building projects of the world which occur through unjust, violent, and corrupt means – whether large-scale government building projects or else the building projects of wealthy and corrupt financiers – are ultimately “in vain” (or useless and wasted).
“The Lord of Hosts” emphasizes God as the supreme commander of all forces in existence, seen and unseen. “Hosts” refers not only to earthly armies but to the vast angelic forces and even the stars themselves, all of which serve at God’s command.
A clear and dramatic illustration of this appears in 2 Kings 6, when Elisha’s servant feared the large enemy army surrounding them, and God opened his eyes to see the hills filled with horses and chariots of fire, with the countless unseen angelic armies of the Lord standing ready to act on behalf of his people.
Throughout the OT, this title reminds God’s people that no empire, nation, or ruler acts outside of God’s authority. When Habakkuk speaks of the Lord of Hosts, he is declaring that the God who sees arrogant oppression also commands unlimited power to judge it decisively. The bullies, enemies, and oppressive people which seem overwhelming to us are surrounded by forces far greater than any human power on our behalf.
Here, Habakkuk points out that the purpose of God’s judgment and punishment would be not only to punish arrogant people but to ensure that the whole world would know the Lord in a real, personal, unmistakable way, either as Savior or Judge.
The entire story of the Exodus, for instance, centered on the fact that Pharaoh did not know God (Exod 5:2), but God wanted to introduce himself to Israel (Exod 6:6) and to Pharaoh and the Egyptians (Exod 7:5) (Kenneth Barker).
A clear knowledge of the greatness and justice of God will be so universal it will be as common and obvious as the lakes, rivers, seas, and oceans that cover the world. The arrogance of corrupt and unjust people, along with all their grand but unjust accomplishments and projects, will be burned and washed away and will be nothing more than a means for all people to be introduced to the power and judgment of God.
Proud people take advantage of other people, they do so to indulge themselves, and they do so through violence and crime. But there is a fourth way that arrogance reveals itself.
Woe to anyone who abuses and shames other people for pleasure.
The fourth verse of this taunt song, 2:15-17, emphasizes drunkenness and abuse as behaviors of arrogant people. This is especially appropriate because the OT shows that Babylon was a nation known for its wild drinking parties (Dan 5). Somehow or another, they also forced the people they conquered to join them in drunkenness. When they were drunk, they mocked and abused them in shameful ways as they did the sort of things that drunk people do (see v. 15).
Ironically, God announced that they would have the same thing happen to them in the end. Since they had intoxicated others and shamed them, then would be intoxicated and shamed themselves in the end.
In Scripture, a cup of wine, held out and poured out by a king, represented judgment, and the right hand represented power. 2:16 says this would happen to Babylon and arrogant people like them.
Babylon had destroyed the forests of Lebanon and deprived animals in those dense, lush woodlands of their natural habitat. What had once been a lush forest of majestic cedars and thriving wildlife had been exploited and mismanaged to build corrupt opulent building projects. Worse yet, they had done the same thing to the cities and people in them, too – not just the forests and the animals. So, here we see that arrogant people not only abuse other people, but they abuse and mismanage God’s creation – both plant and animal life – for their own selfish purposes, too. God judges this behavior, too.
For this reason, God said they would be drunk and exposed to the world. And this is exactly what happened. At the end of their brief, 75-year existence as an empire, the Syria army sprung a surprise attack on their capital city. Ironically, they attacked and overthrew the city while King Belshazzar and all his government officials were participating in a drunken party. That night, the Syrian empire killed him and brought the Babylonian empire to a sudden end.
So, proud people take advantage of other people, they do so to indulge themselves, they abuse and shame other people for their pleasure, and they do so through violence and crime. But there is a fifth and final way that arrogance reveals itself – they trust in idols.
Woe to anyone who trusts in idols.
In this fifth and final woe, God places the ‘woe’ in the middle of the taunt rather than the beginning. Doing this “jumps right into” the topic and shows a special sense of urgency and seriousness about this particular sin. He has already introduced this problem earlier, too, in Hab 1:11, when God pointed out how the Babylonians would worship their nets for the fish that they caught and the people they conquered.
But here, God points out the emptiness, futility, and uselessness of trusting in idols – or manmade things. If a human being makes something, they are automatically superior to that thing, whether an idol or anything else (like a fishing net, etc.). So, to worship an idol or manmade thing is ridiculous. It is no more than a block of wood overlayed with a mineral like gold or silver. It cannot talk, it cannot breath – it has no life or existence at all. So, the woe here – the doom and destruction to speak of – is in the idol itself. It is nothing, does nothing, and will be good for nothing in the end when God’s judgment comes.
As human beings, we are trusting beings. We are created by God to trust in him. But we choose, for sinful reasons, to trust in all sorts of other wrong things. We trust in riches (Job 31:24; Prov 11:28), important people (Ps 146:3; cf. Jer 17:5-8), military fortifications (Dt 28:52; Jer 5:17), beauty (Ezk 16:15), and personal abilities (Prov 3:5; 28:26). We even trust in evil (Isa 30:12).
But as Paul says in Rom 1:25, when we trust in created things rather than the God who created everything, we trade the truth for a lie.
Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.
And it is for this reason, that arrogant people who refuse to turn to and trust in God must resort to all the abusive, dishonest, and even violent means God mentions here in Hab 2:5-20, because people who trust in idols get no help, from the idols or from God.
So, we see that proud people think too highly of themselves and too little of others. They reveal their arrogance by treating other people poorly in order to benefit themselves. And they do this because they do not trust in God. From this we see that arrogance grows where trust in God is missing, and it always shows in how we treat other people. Pride mistreats others because it refuses to trust God. When we stop trusting God, we start using people.
God calls for reverent worship from all people.
Habakkuk closes this five-part series of warnings of coming doom and destruction on arrogant people with a surprising shift in tone and focus. After exposing the arrogance, cruelty, and idolatry of proud people, God gives a universal command not only to Babylon, but also to Judah and to all people everywhere to respond to God with reverent worship.
When he says, “keep silence,” he is calling not only for verbal quietness but for an inner heart attitude of humble submission before God. After all the loud and grandiose activity and bluster of arrogant people, God now calls every voice to fall silent in his presence.
The Hebrew word hasah translated “be silent,” literally means to “hush.” It is the same word used in other serious calls to show reverent respect before God (Zeph 1:7; Zech 2:13). It describes proper response of finite, sinful beings like us before the infinite, holy creator God. It should be an awe-filled stillness.
Ironically, in the previous verses, idols themselves are silent, not because of reverence, but because they are lifeless. They cannot speak, act, rescue, or save. In Hab 2:19, idol worshippers cry out to blocks of wood and stone, commanding them to wake up and do things, but nothing happens.
Here in v.20, the contrast is obvious. God calls arrogant, proud people to be silent, not because he is powerless, but because he is fully alive and reigning. We are to become silent like idols, not because God is mute, but because we no longer need to speak, shout, scheme, or manipulate when we have God. We can quietly trust him instead of engage in clamorous, loud, raucous chanting, yelling, and so on as when worshiping idols.
The reason all the earth must fall silent is that “the LORD is in his holy temple.” This does not only refer to the Temple building in Jerusalem, but to God’s heavenly throne room, of which the earthly temple was only a small copy. As Psa 11:4 declares, “The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven.”
Habakkuk draws our attention away from dumb, man-made idols to the self-existent, eternal, holy, sovereign God who rules the universe. This God was eternal before creation (1:12), remains unchanging through history (3:6), and is altogether holy in his character and actions (1:12; 3:3). From this heavenly temple, he reigns over every nation, empire, and person.
Because the Lord alone is living, eternal, and sovereign, the appropriate response is universal and unavoidable: “let all the earth keep silence before him.”
No nation is exempt. No person can tell him what to do or manipulate him. He is sovereign over all things, and no idol can rival him. God will be exalted among the nations and in all the earth—just as Psalm 46:10 proclaims:
Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!
So, we see that proud people think too highly of themselves and too little of others. They reveal their arrogance by treating other people poorly in order to benefit themselves. And they do this because they do not trust in God. From this we see that arrogance grows where trust in God is missing, and it always shows in how we treat other people. Pride mistreats others because it refuses to trust God. When we stop trusting God, we start using people.
As we close, this passage can turn the spotlight onto our own hearts. The five woes are not just a description of “other people out there.” They are a mirror that can reveal subtle (or not so subtle) forms of arrogance that can creep into our own behavior each day.
When someone engages in pornography, they are participating in the abuse of people made in God’s image. When we make cutting, sarcastic remarks, especially under the guise of humor, we publicly shame others to feel superior. When we exaggerate numbers, hide mistakes, or cut corners at work, we cheat people for personal gain. When we mistreat employees, customers, classmates, or family members, we are exploiting people rather than loving them.
Arrogance and pride doesn’t only reveal itself in the lives of the famous, powerful, and rich. It often appears in our own personal lives. Habakkuk calls us to ask hard questions: Where am I using people instead of trusting God? Where am I protecting myself, advancing myself, or indulging myself at someone else’s expense?
At the same time, this message comforts those who are suffering under people who live this way. Some of us are affected daily by manipulative coworkers, domineering supervisors, abusive spouses, dishonest business partners, or cruel family members.
Habakkuk reminds us that God sees every act of exploitation and abuse, every shaming word, every ounce of violence and injustice, and none of it escapes his judgment. He says “woe” to these people in no uncertain terms. He is not like a useless idol which is no help at all. He is the creator God who will act with the full powers of his divine nature.
The proud may flourish for a time, but they do not escape accountability. God’s justice is not rushed, but it is sure. That frees us from the exhausting and destructive burden of revenge, fear, or despair. We can remain silent, not because injustice doesn’t matter, but because God reigns. We can entrust our pain, our defense, and our future to him, confident that the Judge of all the earth will do right (Gen 18:25). Woe to the proud but comfort and salvation to his people who trust in him.
Today, we began by naming some notorious figures in history who are known for their arrogance and pride. But Habakkuk has shown us that the danger of pride is not only out there in world governments or public villains, but in any heart that trusts in idols, refuses to trust in God, and who then abuses and uses people for selfish advantage and gain.
The same pride that fueled Jezebel or Babylon, Cleopatra or Bernie Madoff can appear in our own lives, workplaces, homes, and churches whenever we exalt ourselves at the expense of others. When we do this, we reveal that we are worshiping idols of our own making rather than God.
That’s why God’s final word to Habakkuk is not merely “woe” but an invitation to repent and to worship: “The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” (Hab 2:20). The answer to pride is not louder arguments, tighter control, or greater self‑justification, but humble, quiet, obedient, and reverent trust in the living God. When we acknowledge his sovereignty, rest in his justice, and trust in his grace, we are freed from arrogance and fear. Woe to the proud, but comfort, safety, and hope to all who bow in humble worship before the Lord.
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