building · noun, common feminine singular absolute
iniquity
בְּעַוְלָֽהbe.'av.Lah
H5766
(moral) evil · preposition + noun, common feminine 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
Micah 3:10 They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.
Nahum 3:1 Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;
Daniel 4:27-31 Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to…
Joshua 6:26 And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he shall lay…
Jeremiah 22:13-17 Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and gi…
Revelation 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with gr…
Genesis 4:11-17 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand;
1 Kings 16:34 In his days did Hiel the Beth-elite build Jericho: he laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his firstborn, and set up the gates thereof in h…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Habakkuk 2:5-14
The prophet having had orders to write the vision, and the people to wait for the accomplishment of it, the vision itself follows; and it is, as divers other prophecies we have met with, the burden of Babylon and Babylon's king, the same that was said to pass over and offend, Hab 1:11. It reads the doom, some think, of Nebuchadnezzar, who was principally active in the destruction of Jerusalem, or of that monarchy, or of the whole kingdom of the Chaldeans, or of all such proud and oppressive powers as bear hard upon any people, especially upon God's people. Observe,
I. The charge laid down against this enemy, upon which the sentence is grounded, Hab 1:5. The lusts of the flesh, the lusts of t…
buildeth a town with blood--namely, Babylon rebuilt and enlarged by blood-bought spoils (compare Dan 4:30).
Adam Clarke on Habakkuk 2:12
Wo to him that buildeth a town with blood - At the expense of much slaughter. This is the answer of the beam to the stone. And these things will refer to the vast fortunes gained, and the buildings erected, by means of the slave-trade; where, to a considerate and humane mind, the walls appear as if composed of the bones of negroes, and cemented by their blood! But the towns or houses established by this iniquity soon come to ruin; and the fortunes made have, in most cases, become as chaff and dust before the whirlwind of God's indignation. But where are the dealers in the souls and bodies of men? Ask him who has them in his keeping. He can tell.
John Gill on Habakkuk 2:12
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and establisheth a city by iniquity! This is what the stone and beam should say, if others were silent. The town and city are the church of Rome, mystical Babylon, the great city, called spiritually Egypt and Sodom; the builder of this is the pope of Rome, the bishops of it in succession, who built it with blood: the pope of Rome received his title as head of the church from Phocas, that murdered the emperor Mauritius; the foundation of the church of Rome is the blood of the saints, shed in persecutions and wars; hence she is said to be drunk with the blood of them, and to have the blood of prophets and saints found in her, Revelation 17:5 and it i…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 12 and following) Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, and establishes a town with injustice: are these things not from the Lord of hosts? For the peoples shall labor in vain, and the nations shall exhaust themselves: for the earth shall be filled, that they may know the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. LXX: Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, and establishes a town with wickedness: are these things not from the Almighty Lord? And many peoples have failed in fire, and many nations are crowded: for the earth will be filled to know the glory of the Lord, like water to work the seas. There is no doubt that the prophetic word still speaks against Nebuchadnezzar according to the letter; and he mourns because he built Babylon in blood, and he constructed the walls of that city in the ruins and deaths of many. Since he did this to the city that he had built in blood, he afterwards listens to what will be brought upon him by the Lord. For it follows: Are not these from the Lord of hosts? that is, what is being said. The peoples will labor in much fire, and the nations in emptiness, that is, Babylon in flames, the peoples will labor in vain, and strive for nothing, and the peoples of the Chaldean nation will be exhausted. For the earth will be filled, so that it may know the glory of the Lord, that is, when Babylon has been overthrown, the power of God's might will be made clear to all, like waters covering the sea: thus the glory of the Lord will fill the whole earth, as waters cover the channel and the depths of the sea. These things, as we have said, literally. Moreover, it is clear that both the devil, and the Antichrist, and the perverse doctrine of heretics build the city in blood, that is, their Church in the destruction of those whom they have deceived, and prepare the city in wickedness, speaking against God iniquity, and exalting their mouth. And when they have done this, it is clearly shown that they build the city in blood and prepare it in wickedness of their own. For it follows: Are not these from the Lord Almighty? That is, such a building is not from the Lord of hosts, whom the LXX translators have now interpreted as Almighty. For many peoples will fail, and although countless nations are led astray by them, they will either grow weary, which more clearly means they have fainted, or they will certainly be…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Blood · Illustrative: (Building with,) of oppression and cruelty — Illustrative: (Building with,) of oppression and cruelty
Cities · Often founded and enlarged by blood and rapine — Often founded and enlarged by blood and rapine
Homicide · 24:22; — 24:22;
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 2:11-13
11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
11. Quia lapis ex muro clamabit, et lignum ex tabulato (ad verbum est, ex ligno,) respondebit ei.
12. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!
12. Vae aedificanti urbem in sanguinibus, et paranti civitatem in iniquitate.
13. Behold, is it not of the LORD of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity?
13. Annon ecce a Jehova exercituum? ideo laborabunt populi in igne et gentes in vanitate (hoc est, frustra fatigabuntur.)
There is here introduced by the Prophet a new personific…
The third woe refers to the building of cities with the blood and property of strangers. Hab 2:12. "Woe to him who buildeth cities with blood, and foundeth castles with injustice. Hab 2:14. For the earth will be filled with knowledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea." The earnest endeavour of the Chaldaean to found his dynasty in permanency through evil gain, manifested itself also in the building of cities with the blood and sweat of the subjugated nations. עיר and קריה are synonymous, and are used in the singular with indefinite generality, like קריה in Hab 2:8. The preposition ב, attached to דּמים and עולה, denotes the means employed to attain the end, as in Mic 3:10 a…
In the third taunt song, the Babylonians are condemned for the murder and corruption of human life and society that brought wealth to build their cities. God would make their apparent gain prove to be a total loss. • earth will be filled: The antithesis of violence and ill-gotten wealth is the awareness of the glory of the Lord, which God promises to make as pervasive as water in the ocean (Isa 11:9).
Rashi on Habakkuk 2:11
For a stone For the stones that you stole shall cry from the wall.
and a chip of the wood shall answer it [the stone]. It shall answer aloud the stone that is opposite it; hence both of them cry.
and a chip shall answer it from a beam Jonathan renders: וְשִׁפָּא מִגּוֹ מָרֵישָׁא. שִׁפָּא is an expression of a chip; שְׁפָאִים in the language of the Sages; dokldours in O.F. - chips. מָרֵישׁ is a beam.
