Habakkuk 2:1-4 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 1-4

Habakkuk 2:1-Numbers : . The Oracle from Yahweh.— Unable to explain the mystery, the prophet stations himself on his watch-tower, and looks for the revelation of God’ s purpose. Soon the oracle comes, and he is asked to write it on tablets plainly, that one may read it running: “ Behold, the soul of the wicked shall faint in him, but the righteous shall live by his faithfulness (his loyalty to God and His promises).”

Habakkuk 2:1 . I will stand, etc.: an imaginative representation of the prophet’ s mission as tsopheh, watchman ( cf. Isaiah 21:6 ff.).— For ’ ashib, “ I shall return (answer),” read yashib, “ He will return” (Syr.).

Habakkuk 2:2 . “ That one may run while reading it” : i.e. that one may read it at a glance.

Habakkuk 2:3 . Translate, “ Though the vision may still wait (may have to wait a little longer) for the appointed time, yet it panteth (straineth) toward the end, and will fail not.”

Habakkuk 2:4 . The first half of the verse is clearly corrupt. The most satisfying solution is to read ‘ ullephah, faint, for ‘ uphph e lah, is puffed up, and to take “ not upright” personally as equivalent to “ the wicked man” ( cf. translation above).

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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