Habakkuk 2:20

But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(20) But the Lord.—And while all this false worship prevails, the true World-ruler abides, and His presence is in His temple at Jerusalem. To Him the prophet’s eyes are now turned. He ceases his denunciations of the invader, and finds solace in the glorious anticipations of the lyrical ode (Habakkuk 3:1-15) which follows.

Benson Commentary

Habakkuk 2:20. But the Lord is in his holy temple — But Jehovah, the true God, is not like one of these, but lives for ever in his holy temple, the heavens, from whence he beholds and governs all things, and is the fountain of being, life, power, and salvation to his people. Let all the earth keep silence before him — Or, as the LXX. render it, stand in awe, or fear before him. The consideration of his infinite perfections, his self-existence, independence, supremacy, immensity, eternity; his omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence; his unspotted holiness, his inviolable truth, and impartial justice; and especially his sovereign authority and dominion, should strike all men with a reverential awe, and should dispose them to the most perfect submission toward him; particularly when they see him executing his judgments in the world, as he would shortly do upon the Chaldeans. The expression is taken from the reverent behaviour which young persons, servants, and others are wont to manifest by keeping silence in the presence of their superiors. Or, it alludes to such a silence as is kept in courts of justice, when a judge pronounces the sentence.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:15-20 A severe woe is pronounced against drunkenness; it is very fearful against all who are guilty of drunkenness at any time, and in any place, from the stately palace to the paltry ale-house. To give one drink who is in want, who is thirsty and poor, or a weary traveller, or ready to perish, is charity; but to give a neighbour drink, that he may expose himself, may disclose secret concerns, or be drawn into a bad bargain, or for any such purpose, this is wickedness. To be guilty of this sin, to take pleasure in it, is to do what we can towards the murder both of soul and body. There is woe to him, and punishment answering to the sin. The folly of worshipping idols is exposed. The Lord is in his holy temple in heaven, where we have access to him in the way he has appointed. May we welcome his salvation, and worship him in his earthly temples, through Christ Jesus, and by the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And now having declared the nothingness of all which is not God, the power of man or his gods, he answers again his own question, by summoning all before the presence of the majesty of God.

But the Lord - He had, in condemning them, pictured the tumult of the world, the oppressions, the violence, bloodsheddings, covetousness, insolence, self-aggrandizement of the then world-empire, and had denounced woe upon it; we see man framing his idols, praying to the lifeless stones; and God, of whom none thought, where was He? These were people's ways. "But the Lord," he joins it on, as the complement and corrective of all this confusion.

The Lord is in His holy temple - awaiting, in His long-suffering, to judge. "The temple of God" is where God enshrines Himself, or allows Himself to be seen and adored. "God is wholly everywhere, the whole of Him no where." There is no contrast between His temple on earth, and His temple in heaven. He is not more locally present in heaven than in earth. It were as anthropomorphic but less pious to think of God, as confined, localized, in heaven as on earth; because it would be simply removing God away from man. Solomon knew, when he built the temple, that "the heaven and heaven of heavens could not contain 1 Kings 8:27 God." The "holy temple," which could be destroyed Psalm 79:1, toward which people were to pray Psalm 5:7; Psalm 138:2; Jonah 2:4, was the visible temple 1 Kings 8:29-30, 1 Kings 8:35, 1 Kings 8:38, 1 Kings 8:42, 1 Kings 8:44, 1 Kings 8:48, where were the symbols of God's Presence, and of the stoning Sacrifice; but lest His presence should be localized, Solomon's repeated prayer is 1 Kings 8:30, 1 Kings 8:39, 1 Kings 8:43, 1 Kings 8:49, "hear Thou in heaven Thy dwelling place" 1 Kings 8:32, 1 Kings 8:34, 1 Kings 8:36, 1 Kings 8:45; "hear Thou in heaven." There is then no difference, as though in earlier books the "holy temple" meant that at Jerusalem, in the later, "the heavens?" In the confession at the offering of the "third year's tithes," the prayer is, Deuteronomy 27:15, "look down from Thy holy habitation, from heaven;" and David says, "the Lord is in His holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven" Psalm 11:4; and, Psalm 18:6, Psalm 18:9 : "He heard my voice out of His temple - He bowed the heavens also and came down;" and, Psalm 29:9, "In His temple doth everyone say, Glory." The simple words are identical though not in the same order as those, in which David, in the same contrast with the oppression of man, ushers in the judgment and final retribution to good and bad, by declaring the unseen presence of God upon His Throne in heaven, beholding and testing the sons of men.

In His Presence, all the mysteries of our being are solved.

The Lord is in His holy Temple - not, as the idols in temples made with hands, but revealing Himself in the visible temple (Jerome), "dwelling in the Son, by Nature and Union, as He saith John 14:10, "The Father who dwelleth in Me doeth the works;" in each one of the bodies and souls of the saints by His Spirit 1 Corinthians 6:19, in the Blessed, in glory; in the Heavens, by the more evident appearance of His Majesty and the workings of His Power ; "everywhere by Essence, Presence, and Power, 'for in Him we live, and move, and have our being;' nowhere as confined or inclosed." Since then God is in Heaven, beholding the deeds of people, Himself Unchangeable, Almighty, All-holy, "let all the earth keep silence before Him," literally, "hush before Him all the earth," waiting from Him in hushed stillness the issue of this tangled state of being. And to the hashed soul, hushed to itself and its own thought, hushed in awe of His Majesty and "His Presence, before His face," God speaks .

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. But the Lord—Jehovah; in striking contrast with the idols.

in his holy temple—"His place" (Isa 26:21); heaven (Ps 11:4; Jon 2:7; Mic 1:2). The temple at Jerusalem is a type of it, and there God is to be worshipped. He does not lie hid under gold and silver, as the idols of Babylon, but reigns in heaven and fills heaven, and thence succors His people.

keep silence—in token of reverent submission and subjection to His judgments (Job 40:4; Ps 76:8; Zep 1:7; Zec 2:13).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

But the Lord: what idols are. he had already showed, a doctrine of lies, impotent and lifeless statues; but the God of Israel is not like them. He is Jehovah, fountain of being, life, power, and salvation to his people; he can do all he will for or against a people.

Is in his holy temple, or palace of his holiness: he is in his temple and in heaven, every where at all times; though his people be in Babylon, yet he is where he doth hear, see, and discern their state, and whence he promised to relieve and help them.

Let all the earth; both Chaldea the oppressive, and Judea the oppressed, and Medes and Persians and all their confederates, let all these nations

keep silence before him; fear, submit, pray, wait for, and depend on him: let his enemies be silent, fear, make their peace, and prevent his displeasure; let his people be silent, reverence, hope, pray, and wait for him. who will arise and have mercy on them, and destroy their enemies; who will make it to be well with the righteous, and again will make it ill with the wicked; who will fully and satisfactorily solve the doubts and unfold the riddles of his own providence.

But the Lord: what idols are. he had already showed, a doctrine of lies, impotent and lifeless statues; but the God of Israel is not like them. He is Jehovah, fountain of being, life, power, and salvation to his people; he can do all he will for or against a people.

Is in his holy temple, or palace of his holiness: he is in his temple and in heaven, every where at all times; though his people be in Babylon, yet he is where he doth hear, see, and discern their state, and whence he promised to relieve and help them.

Let all the earth; both Chaldea the oppressive, and Judea the oppressed, and Medes and Persians and all their confederates, let all these nations

keep silence before him; fear, submit, pray, wait for, and depend on him: let his enemies be silent, fear, make their peace, and prevent his displeasure; let his people be silent, reverence, hope, pray, and wait for him. who will arise and have mercy on them, and destroy their enemies; who will make it to be well with the righteous, and again will make it ill with the wicked; who will fully and satisfactorily solve the doubts and unfold the riddles of his own providence.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But the Lord is in his holy temple,.... Not in graven and molten images; not in idols of wood and stone, covered with gold and silver; but in heaven, the habitation of his holiness, the place of his residence, where he is seen and worshipped by the holy angels and glorified saints; and from whence he surveys all the children of men, and their actions; observes the folly and stupidity of idol worshippers; and hears and answers the prayers of his own people: or this intends his church, which is his temple, sanctified by him, and set apart for his service, worship, and glory: here he grants his gracious presence to those who worship him in spirit and in truth; and here he will appear as King of saints, in a most glorious manner, when these several woes before mentioned have taken place; as on Rome Pagan already, and in part on Rome Papal at the Reformation, so completely on it, and all worshippers of images hereafter. The word here used, signifies that part of the temple, called the holy place, as distinct from the holy of holies; which was the proper seat of the divine Majesty, and a figure of heaven, as the holy place was of the church; and so he was, as it were, removed from the one to the other; hence the more observable and remarkable, and the greater reason for what follows; and this serves to illustrate and confirm the sense given:

let all the earth keep silence before him; stand in awe of him, and reverence him; be subject to him, and silently adore him; as all the inhabitants of the earth will when the above enemies of his are entirely removed out of it; there will be no more clamours and objections against the Christian religion by Jews and Mahometans, on account of image worship, which will be no more; no more wars, or rumours of wars, but a profound peace everywhere; no more persecutions of the saints; no more will be heard the cry of violence and oppression, all their enemies being destroyed; no more repining and murmurings among the people of God, through impatience and unbelief, all afflictions being at an end; there will be an entire silence of this kind everywhere; only the voice of the Gospel, prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, will be heard. This is not the case now, nor was there ever as yet such a time on earth; this shows that the prophecy regards time to come.

Geneva Study Bible

But the LORD is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. The verse expresses the contrast between the idols and Jehovah. Isaiah 46.

holy temple] i.e. the heavenly temple as in Psalm 11:4. And “he who sitteth in heaven” is living and all powerful, watchful of the affairs of men (Psalm 11:4), into which He may throw Himself at any moment (Psalm 2:12).

Let all the earth keep silence] The expression occurs again Zephaniah 1:7; Zechariah 2:13. In the former passage reference is to the manifestation of Jehovah in “the day of the Lord,” the final judgment upon the earth, and in the other a similar idea appears to be expressed. The sense of the present passage is probably the same: the silence is that of expectancy and dread before the Revelation of the Lord.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - The prophet contrasts the majesty of Jehovah with these dumb and lifeless idols. His holy temple. Not the shrine at Jerusalem, but heaven itself (see Psalm 11:4, and note on Micah 1:2). Let all the earth keep silence before him. Like subjects in the presence of their king, awaiting his judgment and the issue to which all these things tend (comp. ver. 14; Psalm 76:8, etc.; Zephaniah 1:7; Zechariah 2:13). Septuagint, Αὀλαβείσθω ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ, κ.τ.λ, "Let all the earth fear before him."



Habakkuk 2:20

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Fifth and last strophe. - Habakkuk 2:18. "What profiteth the graven image, that the maker thereof hath carved it; the molten image and the teacher of lies, that the maker of his image trusteth in him to make dumb idols? Habakkuk 2:19. Woe to him that saith to the wood, Wake up; Awake, to the hard stone. Should it teach? Behold, it is encased in gold and silver, and there is nothing of breath in its inside. Habakkuk 2:20. But Jehovah is in His holy temple: let all the world be silent before Him." This concluding strophe does not commence, like the preceding ones, with hōi, but with the thought which prepares the way for the woe, and is attached to what goes before to strengthen the threat, all hope of help being cut off from the Chaldaean. Like all the rest of the heathen, the Chaldaean also trusted in the power of his gods. This confidence the prophet overthrows in Habakkuk 2:18 : "What use is it?" equivalent to "The idol is of no use" (cf. Jeremiah 2:11; Isaiah 44:9-10). The force of this question still continues in massēkhâh: "Of what use is the molten image?" Pesel is an image carved out of wood or stone; massēkhâh an image cast in metal. הועיל is the perfect, expressing a truth founded upon experience, as a fact: What profit has it ever brought? Mōreh sheqer (the teacher of lies) is not the priest or prophet of the idols, after the analogy of Micah 3:11 and Isaiah 9:14; for that would not suit the following explanatory clause, in which עליו (in him) points back to mōreh sheqer: "that the maker of idols trusteth in him (the teacher of lies)." Consequently the mōreh sheqer must be the idol itself; and it is so designated in contrast with the true God, the teacher in the highest sense (cf. Job 36:22). The idol is a teacher of lying, inasmuch as it sustains the delusion, partly by itself and partly through its priests, that it is God, and can do what men expect from God; whereas it is nothing more than a dumb nonentity ('elı̄l 'illēm: compare εἴδωλα ἄφωνα, 1 Corinthians 12:2). Therefore woe be to him who expects help from such lifeless wood or image of stone. עץ is the block of wood shaped into an idol. Hâqı̄tsâh, awake! sc. to my help, as men pray to the living God (Psalm 35:23; Psalm 44:24; Psalm 59:6; Isaiah 51:9). הוּא יורה is a question of astonishment at such a delusion. This is required by the following sentence: it is even encased in gold. Tâphas: generally to grasp; here to set in gold, to encase in gold plate (zâhâbh is an accusative). כּל אין: there is not at all. רוּח, breath, the spirit of life (cf. Jeremiah 10:14). Habakkuk 2:18 and Habakkuk 2:19 contain a concise summary of the reproaches heaped upon idolatry in Isaiah 44:9-20; but they are formed quite independently, without any evident allusions to that passage. In Habakkuk 2:20 the contrast is drawn between the dumb lifeless idols and the living God, who is enthroned in His holy temple, i.e., not the earthly temple at Jerusalem, but the heavenly temple, or the temple as the throne of the divine glory (Isaiah 66:1), as in Micah 1:2, whence God will appear to judge the world, and to manifest His holiness upon the earth, by the destruction of the earthly powers that rise up against Him. This thought is implied in the words, "He is in His holy temple," inasmuch as the holy temple is the palace in which He is enthroned as Lord and Ruler of the whole world, and from which He observes the conduct of men (Psalm 11:4). Therefore the whole earth, i.e., all the population of the earth, is to be still before Him, i.e., to submit silently to Him, and wait for His judgment. Compare Zephaniah 1:7 and Zechariah 2:13, where the same command is borrowed from this passage, and referred to the expectation of judgment. חס is hardly an imper. apoc. of הסה, but an interjection, from which the verb hâsâh is formed. But if the whole earth must keep silence when He appears as Judge, it is all over with the Chaldaean also, with all his glory and might.