Habakkuk 1:4

4 The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.

Habakkuk 1:4 Meaning and Commentary

Habakkuk 1:4

Therefore the law is slacked
Is not put into execution against offenders: the civil magistrates, whose office it is to do justice according to law, are dilatory, and do not proceed with vigour and spirit against the transgressors of it, and in favour of honest and good men oppressed: or "it intermits" ^F18, or is "intermitted"; it is like a man whose pulse beats low, and is scarce perceived, which is a sign that he is not in good health as the body politic is not, when the law, which is the soul of it, is not suffered to take place, and do its office. So the Targum,

``the law languishes;''

loses its force and vigour, and is ready to expire; which is a sad symptom of the bad estate of a commonwealth. And judgment doth never go forth;
at least not right, to the justifying of the righteous, acquitting the innocent, and giving the cause on the right side; condemning the wicked, and punishing offenders as their crime deserves: it never appears as it should do; it is either not done at all, or done badly and perversely: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous;
to hurt him or ensnare him, and by frauds and wicked artifices, and false witnesses, to carry a cause against him: therefore wrong judgment proceedeth;
the cause is given on the wrong side, against a good man, and for a wicked man; all these things the prophet saw with grief, and complained of to the Lord, from whom he has an answer in the following words:

---

FOOTNOTES:

F18 (gwpt) "intermittitur", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Burkius; (gwp) "est, animi deliquium pati", Tarnovius.

Habakkuk 1:4 In-Context

2 O Lord, how long must I call for help before you listen, before you save us from violence?

3 Why do you make me see such trouble? How can you stand to look on such wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are all around me, and there is fighting and quarreling everywhere.

4 The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.

5 Then the Lord said to his people, "Keep watching the nations around you, and you will be astonished at what you see. I am going to do something that you will not believe when you hear about it.

6 I am bringing the Babylonians to power, those fierce, restless people. They are marching out across the world to conquer other lands.