49 lines
2.9 KiB
XML
49 lines
2.9 KiB
XML
<div2 id="Hab.i" n="i" next="Hab.ii" prev="Hab" progress="89.69%" title="Introduction">
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<h2 id="Hab.i-p0.1">Habakkuk</h2>
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<hr/>
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<pb id="Hab.i-Page_1352" n="1352"/>
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<div class="Center" id="Hab.i-p0.3">
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<p id="Hab.i-p1" shownumber="no"><b>AN</b></p>
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<h3 id="Hab.i-p1.1">EXPOSITION,</h3>
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<h4 id="Hab.i-p1.2">W I T H P R A C T I C A L O B S E
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R V A T I O N S,</h4>
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<h5 id="Hab.i-p1.3">OF THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET</h5>
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<h2 id="Hab.i-p1.4">H A B A K K U K.</h2>
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<hr style="width:2in"/>
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</div>
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<p class="indent" id="Hab.i-p2" shownumber="no"><span class="smallcaps" id="Hab.i-p2.1">It</span> is a very
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foolish fancy of some of the Jewish rabbin that this prophet was
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the son of the Shunamite woman that was at first miraculously
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given, and afterwards raised to life, by Elisha (<scripRef id="Hab.i-p2.2" osisRef="Bible:2Kgs.4.18-2Kgs.4.37" parsed="|2Kgs|4|18|4|37" passage="2Ki 4:18-37">2 Kings iv.</scripRef>), as they say also that the
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prophet Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath, which Elijah
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raised to life. It is a more probable conjecture of their modern
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chronologers that he lived and prophesied in the reign of king
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Manasseh, when wickedness abounded, and destruction was hastening
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on, destruction by the Chaldeans, whom this prophet mentions as the
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instruments of God's judgments; and Manasseh was himself carried to
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Babylon, as an earnest of what should come afterwards. In the
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apocryphal story of Bel and the Dragon mention is made of Habakkuk
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the prophet in the land of Judah, who was carried thence by an
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angel to Babylon, to feed Daniel in the den; those who give credit
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to that story take pains to reconcile our prophet's living before
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the captivity, and foretelling it, with that. Huetius thinks that
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that was another of the same name, a prophet, this of the tribe of
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Simeon, that of Levi; others that he lived so long as to the end of
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that captivity, though he prophesied of it before it came. And some
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have imagined that Habakkuk's feeding Daniel in the den is to be
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understood mystically, that Daniel then <i>lived by faith,</i> as
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Habakkuk had said <i>the just should do;</i> he was <i>fed</i> by
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that word, <scripRef id="Hab.i-p2.3" osisRef="Bible:Hab.2.4" parsed="|Hab|2|4|0|0" passage="Hab 2:4">Hab. ii. 4</scripRef>. The
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prophecy of this book is a mixture of the prophet's addresses to
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God in the people's name and to the people in God's name; for it is
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the office of the prophet to carry messages both ways. We have in
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it a lively representation of the intercourse and communion between
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a gracious God and a gracious soul. The whole refers particularly
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to the invasion of the land of Judah by the Chaldeans, which
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brought spoil upon the people of God, a just punishment of the
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spoil they had been guilty of among themselves; but it is of
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general use, especially to help us through that great temptation
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with which good men have in all ages been exercised, arising from
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the power and prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the
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righteous by it.</p>
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</div2> |