Habakkuk 2:2

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(2) On tables.—Better, on the tables. The definite article probably indicates certain well-known tables on which the prophets were wont to inscribe their utterances for public edification. These tables may have been hung up in the Temple (Calvin) or market-place (Luther and Ewald).

That he may run that readeth it—i.e., the prophecy is to be inscribed plainly and legibly, so that the reader may “run his eye” quickly through it.

Benson Commentary

Habakkuk 2:2-3. The Lord said, Write the vision — Write down what I am going to say. Every divine communication, by whatever means made, is often spoken of in the prophetic writings under the title of a vision. When the prophets were commanded to write any thing, it denoted the great importance of it, and that the fulfilling of it was at some distance. Make it plain upon tables — Write it in legible characters; that he may run that readeth — That it may be read with ease. For the vision is yet for an appointed time — What I am now about to reveal to thee will not be fulfilled till a certain time which God hath appointed, but which is yet at a distance. As this vision undoubtedly related to the destruction of the Babylonish monarchy, which is plainly foretold from Habakkuk 2:5 to the end of the chapter, so that event was not to take place till about one hundred years from this time. But at the end it shall speak — When the period appointed by God shall come, it shall be accomplished, and not disappoint your expectation. The Hebrew is, At the end it shall break forth, namely, as the morning light, which the word יפח, here used, properly and emphatically expresses: that is, the event spoken of shall break forth, or appear, with great clearness and evidence, and then this prophecy shall be proved a true one. Though it tarry, wait for it — Although it may be long deferred, and much time may intervene before it be accomplished; yet, nevertheless, continue confidently to expect it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry — Hebrew, לא יאחר, It will not be prolonged, or go beyond, namely, the appointed time; that is, it will certainly be fulfilled at the time that is appointed. The word here used is not the same with that rendered tarry in the former clause. All this is addressed to the Jewish nation in answer to their complaints, represented in the foregoing chapter, respecting the success and prosperity of the Chaldeans, notwithstanding their crimes; in reply to which, God, by a prophetic vision, informs the prophet, that the Chaldean nation should not go unpunished at the appointed time, namely, when they had filled up the measure of their iniquity, but they should be involved in a much greater destruction than the nations which they had conquered; that most of these nations would survive to see the entire overthrow and final ruin of the Chaldeans. Though God may defer the execution of his promises and threatenings a long time, according to our computation, yet they are no less sure than if they were immediately accomplished; and indeed it is only long with respect to our finite and narrow capacities; for with God, the Scriptures tell us, a thousand years are but as one day.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-4 When tossed and perplexed with doubts about the methods of Providence, we must watch against temptations to be impatient. When we have poured out complaints and requests before God, we must observe the answers God gives by his word, his Spirit, and providences; what the Lord will say to our case. God will not disappoint the believing expectations of those who wait to hear what he will say unto them. All are concerned in the truths of God's word. Though the promised favour be deferred long, it will come at last, and abundantly recompense us for waiting. The humble, broken-hearted, repenting sinner, alone seeks to obtain an interest in this salvation. He will rest his soul on the promise, and on Christ, in and through whom it is given. Thus he walks and works, as well as lives by faith, perseveres to the end, and is exalted to glory; while those who distrust or despise God's all-sufficiency will not walk uprightly with him. The just shall live by faith in these precious promises, while the performance of them is deferred. Only those made just by faith, shall live, shall be happy here and for ever.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The answer is, that it is indeed for a long time yet. Write the vision, that it may remain for those who come after and not be forgotten, and make it plain upon the tables, whereon he was accustomed to write ; and that, in large lasting characters, that he may run that readeth it, that it may be plain to any, however occupied or in haste. So Isaiah too was commanded to write the four words, "haste-prey-speed-spoil."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. Write the vision—which I am about to reveal to thee.

make it plain—(De 27:8). In large legible characters.

upon tables—boxwood tables covered with wax, on which national affairs were engraved with an iron pen, and then hung up in public, at the prophets' own houses, or at the temple, that those who passed might read them. Compare Lu 1:63, "writing table," that is, tablet.

that he may run that readeth it—commonly explained, "so intelligible as to be easily read by any one running past"; but then it would be, "that he that runneth may read it." The true sense is, "so legible that whoever readeth it, may run to tell all whom he can the good news of the foe's coming doom, and Judah's deliverance." Compare Da 12:4, "many shall run to and fro," namely, with the explanation of the prophecy, then unsealed; also, Re 22:17, "let him that heareth (the good news) say (to every one within his reach), Come." "Run" is equivalent to announce the divine revelation (Jer 23:21); as everyone who becomes informed of a divine message is bound to run, that is, use all despatch to make it known to others [Henderson]. Grotius, Ludovicus De Dieu, and Maurer interpret it: "Run" is not literal running, but "that he who reads it may run through it," that is, read it at once without difficulty.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

And the Lord, on whom he waited, and who ruleth all affairs, answered me; did hear my desire, and gave direction what I should do.

Write; what is only spoken is soon forgot, but what is written is more lasting, therefore write thou the vision showed to thee.

The vision; the things thou seest, or which thou shalt see.

Make it plain; make the writing very plain, engrave it, as was their manner, upon tables; what was of public concern, and therefore to be published, was anciently written or engraven upon tables, smooth stones, or wood, and then hung up in a public place to be read.

That he may run that readeth it; that none may need to make a stop, but hold on his course; in the greatest haste of business, every one may plainly and clearly discern what is written.

And the Lord, on whom he waited, and who ruleth all affairs, answered me; did hear my desire, and gave direction what I should do.

Write; what is only spoken is soon forgot, but what is written is more lasting, therefore write thou the vision showed to thee.

The vision; the things thou seest, or which thou shalt see.

Make it plain; make the writing very plain, engrave it, as was their manner, upon tables; what was of public concern, and therefore to be published, was anciently written or engraven upon tables, smooth stones, or wood, and then hung up in a public place to be read.

That he may run that readeth it; that none may need to make a stop, but hold on his course; in the greatest haste of business, every one may plainly and clearly discern what is written.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And the Lord answered me,.... As he does his ministers and people sooner or later, in one way or another, when they call upon him with humility and reverence, with faith and fervency:

and said, Write the vision; which the prophet now had from him, concerning the coming of the Messiah, and the destruction of the enemies of the church and people of God: and this he has orders to "write"; not only to tell it to the people then present, for their particular information and satisfaction; but to write it, that it may be read over and over, and that it may remain, and be of use in times to come:

and make it plain upon tables, engrave it in plain legible letters on tables of wood; on box tree, as the Septuagint version; on which they used to write before paper was found out and used. Writing tables are of ancient use; they were used in and before the times of Homer, for he speaks (o) of writing very pernicious things on a two leaved table; wherefore Josephus must be mistaken when he suggests (p) that letters were not found out in the times of Homer. These tables were made of wood, sometimes of one sort, and sometimes of another; sometimes they were made of the pine tree, as appears from Euripides (q) but, for the most part, of box (r), according to the Greek version as above; and consisted sometimes of two leaves, for the most part of three or five, covered with wax (s), on which impressions were easily made, and continued long, and were very legible; and these impressions or letters were formed with an iron style or pen; see Jeremiah 17:1 this the Greeks and Tuscans first used, but was afterwards forbidden by the Romans, who, instead of it, ordered an instrument of bone to be used (t): hence these tables were wont to be called "wax", because besmeared with it; and so, in wills and testaments written on them, the heirs are said to be written either in the first wax, or in the bottom of the wax (u), that is, of the will, or in the lowest part of the table, or what we should call the bottom of the leaf or page: and it was a custom among the Romans, as Cicero (w) relates, that the public affairs of every year were committed to writing by the Pontifex Maximus, or high priest, and published on a table, and set to view within doors, that the people might have an opportunity and be able to know them; yea, it was usual to hang up laws, approved and recorded, in tables of brass, in their market places, and in their temples, that (x) they might be seen and read; the same we call annals. In like manner the Jewish prophets used to write and expose their prophecies publicly on tables, either in their own houses, or in the temple, that everyone that passed by might read them.

That he may run that readeth it; may run through the whole without any difficulty, without making any stop, being written in such large capital letters; and those cut so well, and made so plain, that a man might run it over at once with ease, or even read it as he was running; nor need he stop his pace, or stand to read. The Targum is,

"write the prophecy, and explain it in the book of the law, that he may hasten to obtain wisdom, whoever he is that reads in it.''

(o) , &c. Homer. Iliad. 6. (p) Contr. Apion, l. 1. c. 2.((q) In Hippolito. (r) "Ergo tam doctae nobis periere tabellae, Non illas fixum charas effeceret aurum, Vulgari buxo sordida cera fuit. Propertius. Buxa crepent cerata------" Prudentius. (s) Alex. ab Alex. Genial. Dier. l. 2. c. 30. (t) Isidor. Originum, l. 6. c. 8. (u) "In ima cera", Sueton. in Vit. Jul. Caesar. c. 83. "in extrema cera", Cicero in Verrem, l. 3. Vid. Alex. ab Alex. ib. l. 1. c. 1.((w) De Oratore, l. 2. sect. 34. (x) Taciti Annales, l. 11. c. 14.

Geneva Study Bible

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tablets, that he may run {b} that readeth it.

(b) Write it in great letters, that he that runneth may read it.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. upon tables] upon the tablets. The art. refers either to the customary use of such tablets for public notices (Isaiah 8:1), or to the tablets to be taken in this case for the purpose.

he may run that readeth] The words explain the command to make it plain, and mean that the reader may run on in his reading without being hindered by any obscurity or unwontedness in the writing. Cf. Isaiah 8:1, R.V. margin.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - 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 ver. 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 (unfortunately perpetuated by Keble's well known hymn, "There is a book, who runs may read"), 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." Habakkuk 2:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Habakkuk 2:1-3 form the introduction to the word of God, which the prophet receives in reply to his cry of lamentation addressed to the Lord in Habakkuk 1:12-17. Habakkuk 2:1. "I will stand upon my watchtower, and station myself upon the fortress, and will watch to see what He will say in me, and what I answer to my complaint. Habakkuk 2:2. Then Jehovah answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon the tables, that he may run who reads it. Habakkuk 2:3. For the vision is yet fore the appointed end, and strives after the end, and does not lie: if it tarry, wait for it; for it will come, it does not fail." Habakkuk 2:1 contains the prophet's conversation with himself. After he has poured out his trouble at the judgment announced, in a lamentation to the Lord (Habakkuk 1:12-17), he encourages himself - after a pause, which we have to imagine after Habakkuk 1:17 - to wait for the answer from God. He resolves to place himself upon his observatory, and look out for the revelation which the Lord will give to his questions. Mishmereth, a place of waiting or observing; mâtsōr, a fortress, i.e., a watch-tower or spying-tower. Standing upon the watch, and stationing himself upon the fortification, are not to be understood as something external, as Hitzig supposes, implying that the prophet went up to a steep and lofty place, or to an actual tower, that he might be far away from the noise and bustle of men, and there turn his eyes towards heaven, and direct his collected mind towards God, to look out for a revelation. For nothing is known of any such custom as this, since the cases mentioned in Exodus 33:21 and 1 Kings 19:11, as extraordinary preparations for God to reveal Himself, are of a totally different kind from this; and the fact that Balaam the soothsayer went up to the top of a bare height, to look out for a revelation from God (Numbers 23:3), furnishes not proof that the true prophets of Jehovah did the same, but is rather a heathenish feature, which shows that it was because Balaam did not rejoice in the possession of a firm prophetic word, that he looked out for revelations from God in significant phenomena of nature (see at Numbers 23:3-4). The words of our verse are to be taken figuratively, or internally, like the appointment of the watchman in Isaiah 21:6. The figure is taken from the custom of ascending high places for the purpose of looking into the distance (2 Kings 9:17; 2 Samuel 18:24), and simply expresses the spiritual preparation of the prophet's soul for hearing the word of God within, i.e., the collecting of his mind by quietly entering into himself, and meditating upon the word and testimonies of God. Cyril and Calvin bring out the first idea. Thus the latter observes, that "the watch-tower is the recesses of the mind, where we withdraw ourselves from the world;" and then adds by way of explanation, "The prophet, under the name of the watch-tower, implies that he extricates himself as it were from the thoughts of the flesh, because there would be no end or measure, if he wished to judge according to his own perception;" whilst others find in it nothing more than firm continuance in reliance upon the word of God.

(Note: Theodoret very appropriately compares the words of Asaph in Psalm 73:16., "When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me, until I entered into the sanctuaries of God, and gave heed to their end;" and observes, "And there, says the prophet, will I remain as appointed, and not leave my post, but, standing upon such a rock as that upon which God placed great Moses, watch with a prophet's eyes for the solution of the things that Iseek.")

Tsippâh, to spy or watch, to wait for the answer from God. "This watching was lively and assiduous diligence on the part of the prophet, in carefully observing everything that took place in the spirit of his mind, and presented itself either to be seen or heard" (Burk). ידבּר־בּי, to speak in me, not merely to or with me; since the speaking of God to the prophets was an internal speaking, and not one that was perceptible from without. What I shall answer to my complaint (‛al tōkhachtı̄), namely, first of all to myself and then to the rest. Tōkhachath, lit., correction, contradiction. Habakkuk refers to the complaint which he raised against God in Habakkuk 1:13-17, namely, that He let the wicked go on unpunished. He will wait for an answer from God to this complaint, to quiet his own heart, which is dissatisfied with the divine administration. Thus he draws a sharp distinction between his own speaking and the speaking of the Spirit of God within him. Jehovah gives the answer in what follows, first of all (Habakkuk 2:2, Habakkuk 2:3) commanding him to write the vision (châzōn, the revelation from God to be received by inward intuition) upon tables, so clearly, that men may be able to read it in running, i.e., quite easily.

בּאר as in Deuteronomy 27:8; see at Deuteronomy 1:5. The article attached to הלּחות does not point to the tables set up in the market-places for public notices to be written upon (Ewald), but simply means, make it clear on the tables on which thou shalt write it, referring to the noun implied in כּתב (write), though not expressed (Delitzsch). קורא בו may be explained from קרא בּספר in Jeremiah 36:13. The question is a disputed one, whether this command is to be understood literally or merely figuratively, "simply denoting the great importance of the prophecy, and the consequent necessity for it to be made accessible to the whole nation" (Hengstenberg, Dissertation, vol. i. p. 460). The passages quoted in support of the literal view, i.e., of the actual writing of the prophecy which follows upon tables, viz., Isaiah 8:1; Isaiah 30:8, and Jeremiah 30:2, are not decisive. In Jeremiah 30:2 the prophet is commanded to write all the words of the Lord in a book (sēpher); and so again in Isaiah 30:8, if כּתבהּ על־לוּח is synonymous with על־ספר חקּהּ. But in Isaiah 8:1 there are only two significant words, which the prophet is to write upon a large table after having taken witnesses. It does not follow from either of these passages, that luchōth, tables, say wooden tables, had been already bound together into books among the Hebrews, so that we could be warranted in identifying the writing plainly upon tables with writing in a book. We therefore prefer the figurative view, just as in the case of the command issued to Daniel, to shut up his prophecy and seal it (Daniel 12:4), inasmuch as the literal interpretation of the command, especially of the last words, would require that the table should be set up or hung out in some public place, and this cannot for a moment be thought of. The words simply express the thought, that the prophecy is to be laid to heart by all the people on account of its great importance, and that not merely in the present, but in the future also. This no doubt involved the obligation on the part of the prophet to take care, by committing it to writing, that it did not fall into oblivion. The reason for the writing is given in Habakkuk 2:3. The prophecy is למּועד, for the appointed time; i.e., it relates to the period fixed by God for its realization, which was then still (עוד) far off. ל denotes direction towards a certain point either of place or time. The vision had a direction towards a point, which, when looked at from the present, was still in the future. This goal was the end (הקּץ towards which it hastened, i.e., the "last time" (מועד קץ, Daniel 8:19; and עת קץ, Daniel 8:17; Daniel 11:35), the Messianic times, in which the judgment would fall upon the power of the world. יפח לקּץ, it pants for the end, inhiat fini, i.e., it strives to reach the end, to which it refers. "True prophecy is inspired, as it were, by an impulse to fulfil itself" (Hitzig). יפח is not an adjective, as in Psalm 27:12, but the third pers. imperf. hiphil of pūăch; and the contracted form (יפח for יפיח), without a voluntative meaning, is the same as we frequently meet with in the loftier style of composition. ולא יכזּב, "and does not deceive," i.e., will assuredly take place. If it (the vision) tarry, i.e., be not fulfilled immediately, wait for it, for it will surely take place (the inf. abs. בּוא to add force, and בּוא applying to the fulfilment of the prophecy, as in 1 Samuel 9:6 and Jeremiah 28:9), will not fail; אחר, to remain behind, not to arrive (Judges 5:28; 2 Samuel 20:5).

(Note: The lxx have rendered כּי בא יבא, ὅτι ἐρχόμενος ἥξει, which the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 10:37) has still further defined by adding the article, and, connecting it with μικρὸν ὅσον ὅσον of Isaiah 26:20 (lxx), has taken it as Messianic, and applied to the speedy coming of the Messiah to judgment; not, however, according to the exact meaning of the words, but according to the fundamental idea of the prophetic announcement. For the vision, the certain fulfilment of which is proclaimed by Habakkuk, predicts the judgment upon the power of the world, which the Messiah will bring to completion.)