Habakkuk 1:10

"Yea, he scoffeth at kings, and princes are a derision unto him; for he derideth every stronghold; for he heapeth up dust and taketh it."

This is a continuation of the thought of the previous two or three verses. The inherent arrogance and conceit of great world-powers was a single quality in all of them. Such dignities as kings, princes, judges and nobles were all marked for the utmost humiliation, punishment, and death. The great fortresses, or strongholds, would all be besieged; mounds of earth would be erected against them; and the invaders would capture them. The sub-thought in all of this is that there would be no refuge or place of escape for the people of God. They had rejected God, and in that rejection was their choice of the Sea-Beast; just as, centuries later, their rejection of Christ was again their choice of the Sea-Beast (Rome, the Sixth head). "We have no king but Caesar," they cried.

"Heapeth up dust and taketh it ..." On Assyrian monuments, one sees "representations of these mounds, or inclined planes, to facilitate the approach of the battering-ram."[22]

"He scoffeth at kings ..." Jehoikim and Jehoikin, both kings of Israel, suffered the greatest indignities at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (2 Chronicles 36:6; 2King 24:14,15; and Jeremiah 22:19).