Habakkuk 1:6

Habakkuk 1:6. For lo, I raise up the Chaldeans This is spoken of as a matter of great wonder and astonishment, because the Chaldeans, in the times of Hezekiah, Manasseh, and Josiah, were allies of the Jewish nation, and seemed linked to them in the greatest friendship; so that they had no fear on that side, but all their fear was from the Egyptians. Therefore the coming of the Chaldeans into the country is spoken of here as a thing entirely new, and as if that people had been called into existence for the very purpose of punishing the Jewish nation. There is a prophecy similar to this in Isaiah, with regard to the Assyrians, in whom the Jewish nation then placed their chief confidence, and thought of nothing less than of the evils which Isaiah threatened should be brought upon them by that nation: so weak and short-sighted often is human policy! see Isaiah 7:0. That bitter and hasty nation That people cruel, in their disposition, quick in executing their purposes, and hasty in their marches, Isaiah 5:26-27; Jeremiah 5:16-17. Which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess, &c. This is spoken of the Chaldeans extending their conquests to a vast distance from the original seat of their empire.