Habakkuk 2:2 - Exposition

Jehovah answers the prophet's expostulation ( Habakkuk 1:12 , etc.). Write . That it may remain permanently on record, and that, when it comes to pass, people may believe in the prophet's inspiration ( John 13:19 ; comp. Isaiah 8:1 ; Isaiah 30:8 ; Jeremiah 30:2 ; Revelation 1:11 ). The vision (see Habakkuk 1:1 : Obadiah 1:1 ). The word includes the inward revelation as well as the open vision. Upon tables; upon the tables ( Deuteronomy 27:8 ); i.e. certain tablets placed in public places, that all might see and read them (see Isaiah, loc. cit .); Septuagint, εἰς πυξίον , "a boxwood tablet" The summary of what was to be written is given in Habakkuk 2:4 . This was to be "made plain," written large and legibly. Septuagint, σαφῶς . That he may run that readeth it . The common explanation of these words, viz. that even the runner, one who hastens by hurriedly, may be able to read it, is not borne out by the Hebrew, which rather means that every one who reads it may run, i.e. read fluently and easily. So Jerome, "Scribere jubetur planius, ut possit lector currere, et nullo impedimento velocitas ejus et legendi cupido teneatur." Henderson, comparing Daniel 12:4 , "Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased," interprets the clause to signify that whosoever reads the announcement might run and publish it to all within his reach. "' To run,'" he adds, "is equivalent to 'to prophesy' in Jeremiah 23:21 ," on the principle that those who were charged with a Divine message were to use all despatch in making it known. In the passage of Daniel, "to run to and fro," is explained to mean "to peruse."