Habakkuk 1:14

And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
makest	וַתַּעֲשֶׂ֥ה va.ta.'a.Seh	H6213	to do or make · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
men	אָדָ֖ם 'a.Dam	H120	ruddy i.e. a human being (an individual or the species · noun, common masculine singular absolute
fishes	כִּדְגֵ֣י kid.Gei	H1709	a fish (often used collectively) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct
sea	הַיָּ֑ם hai.Yam	H3220	a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
things	כְּרֶ֖מֶשׂ ke.Re.mes	H7431	a reptile or any other rapidly moving animal · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
ruler	מֹשֵׁ֥ל mo.Shel	H4910	to rule · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Proverbs 6:7 Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Habakkuk 1:12–end

The prophet, having received of the Lord that which he was to deliver to the people, now turns to God, and again addresses himself to him for the ease of his own mind under the burden which he saw. And still he is full of complaints. If he look about him, he sees nothing but violence done by Israel; if he look before him, he sees nothing but violence done against Israel; and it is hard to say which is the more melancholy sight. His thoughts of both he pours out before the Lord. It is our duty to be affected both with the iniquities and with the calamities of the church of God and of the times and places wherein we live; but we must take heed lest we grow peevish in our resentments, and carry…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Habakkuk 1:14

And--that is, And so, by suffering oppressors to go unpunished, "Thou makest men as the fishes . . . that have no ruler"; that is, no defender. All may fish in the sea with impunity; so the Chaldeans with impunity afflict Thy people, as these have no longer the God of the theocracy, their King, to defend them. Thou reducest men to such a state of anarchy, by wrong going unpunished, as if there were no God. He compares the world to the sea; men to fishes; Nebuchadnezzar to a fisherman (Hab 1:15-17).

Adam Clarke on Habakkuk 1:14

Makest men as the fishes of the sea - Easily are we taken and destroyed. We have no leader to guide us, and no power to defend ourselves. Nebuchadnezzar is here represented as a fisherman, who is constantly casting his nets into the sea, and enclosing multitudes of fishes; and, being always successful, he sacrifices to his own net - attributes all his conquests to his own power and prudence; not considering that he is only like a net that after having been used for a while, shall at last be thrown by as useless, or burnt in the fire.

John Gill on Habakkuk 1:14

And makest men as the fishes of the sea,.... That is, sufferest them to be used as the fishes of the sea, which are easily taken in the net, and are common to everyone; whosoever will may take them up, and kill them, and use them for their food; and which also among themselves are often hardly used, the lesser being devoured by the greater; and in like manner the prophet suggests, that the people of the Jews, who were men made after the image of God, and made for society and usefulness, and moreover were God's covenant people; and it might have been expected, that a more special providence would have attended them, more than other men, and especially than what attended the fishes of the sea;…

The Church Fathers

You see, even if it is the wicked who perish, nevertheless the souls of good people are likely to show compassion when they see people being punished. And you will find each of the good people and the inspired writers making earnest supplication for them, as for example the patriarch did for the Sodomites and the inspired writers all continued to do. One, for instance, said, "Woe is me, Lord; are you wiping out the remnant of Israel?" Another said, "Will you make people like the fish of the sea, deprived of a leader?" So since without even this the good man was troubled in mind and sick at heart, the Lord, in case the sight of these things should cast Noah into deeper depression, locked him in the ark as though in a prison, lest he have a sight of these events and be terror-struck. In his care for him, therefore, the loving God does not allow him to view the torrent of water or see the disaster occurring that involved the destruction of the world.
— John Chrysostom, HOMILIES ON GENESIS 25:12

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Fishes · Illustrative: Of those ensnared by the wicked — Illustrative: Of those ensnared by the wicked

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Habakkuk 1:14

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Habakkuk 1:12–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Habakkuk 1:14

Adam Clarke on Habakkuk 1:14

John Gill on Habakkuk 1:14

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Habakkuk 1:14

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Habakkuk 1:12–end

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Habakkuk 1:14

Adam Clarke on Habakkuk 1:14

John Gill on Habakkuk 1:14

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Habakkuk 1:14-15

Keil & Delitzsch on Habakkuk 1:13–end

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Habakkuk 1:14-15

Rashi on Habakkuk 1:14