Habakkuk 1:13 - Exposition

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil (comp. Habakkuk 1:3 ). God cannot look with complacency on evil ( Psalms 5:5 , Psalms 5:6 ). Iniquity; Septuagint, πόνους ὀδύνης , "labours of pain." Injustice and the distress occasioned by it. God's holiness cannot endure the sight of wickedness, nor his mercy the sight of man's misery. And yet he permits these evil men to afflict the holy seed. This is the prophet's perplexity, which he lays before the Lord. Them that deal treacherously. The Chaldeans, so called from their faithless and rapacious conduct ( Isaiah 21:2 ; Isaiah 24:16 ). More righteous. The Israelites, wicked as they were, were more righteous than the Chaldeans (comp. Ezekiel 16:51 , etc.). Delitzsch and Keil think that the persons intended are the godly portion of Israel, who will suffer with the guilty.