Habakkuk 2:17
For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee
Lebanon was a mountain on the borders of the land of Israel, from
whence cedar wood was brought, of which the temple was built, and
for that reason is sometimes so called, as in ( Zechariah
11:1 ) and so the Targum and Jarchi interpret it,
``the violence of the house of the sanctuary shall cover thee;''
and this was a type of the church of Christ, the violence of which
is that which is offered to it, and which it suffers; and designs
all the injuries, oppressions, and persecutions of it by the
Papists; who shall be surrounded with the judgments of God, and
covered with his wrath and vengeance for the violence done to his
people, as a man is covered with a garment: or else the sense is,
that the same, or a like judgment, should come upon them, as did on
Lebanon, or the material temple of Jerusalem, which with great
force and violence destroyed it; as that was consumed by fire for
the sins of the Jews in rejecting Christ and persecuting his
people, so shall Rome be burnt with fire for the opposition of the
inhabitants of it to Christ, and the injuries they have done to his
church and people:
and the spoil of beasts, [which] made them
afraid;
or, "the spoil of the beasts" shall cover thee, which "made them
afraid"; we read of two beasts, one rising out of the sea, and the
other out of the earth; and both design the pope of Rome in
different capacities, as considered in his secular and
ecclesiastical power; and the spoil he has made of those that
oppose him, the calamities of fire and sword he has brought upon
them, are what have greatly terrified the sheep of Christ; but for
all the spoil and havoc he has made, the judgments of God shall
come upon him on all sides, and utterly destroy him; the beast and
false prophet shall be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone;
see (
Revelation 13:1 Revelation
13:11 ) (
17:8 ) (
19:20 ) :
because
of men's blood, and for the violence of the land, of
the
city, and of all that dwell therein;
the same that is said in (
Habakkuk 2:8 ) and here
repeated, as respecting another body of men, guilty of the same or
like crimes: there Rome Pagan, concerned in the crucifixion of
Christ, the desolation of the land of Judea, and city of Jerusalem,
and their inhabitants, as well as in persecuting the saints, the
citizens of the church of God; here Rome Papal, where our Lord has
been crucified again, and his blood, and the efficacy of it, set at
nought; the blood of the saints and martyrs of Jesus shed in great
abundance, and violent persecutions of the churches of Christ, and
the members of them; for all which the above judgments shall come
upon them; see (
Revelation
11:8 ) (
18:24 ) .