Habakkuk II
The Commentary on
Habakkuk
Habakkuk
asks God a further question: "Why do you allow those who have
despised the Laws to go unpunished?"
God's
reply is to show that in the past He has punished them and will continue
to do so in the future. He proves this by citing examples.
At
the time David appointed Zadoc and Abiathar as priests. His sons were
also made priests.
The
founder of the Hasmonean dynasty was Mattathias, a priest. Therefore,
the rulers in the Davidic line and the Hasmonean line were all priests.
It is as priests, rather than rulers, that they are referred to in the
Commentary.
A wicked
priest is a ruler who punished those seeking to prevent his wrongdoing.
Example
I
"This
concerns the Wicked Priest who was called by the name of truth when he
first arose. But when he ruled over Israel his heart became proud and he
forsook God and betrayed the precepts for the sake of riches."
The
Wicked Priest is Solomon
Wicked
because he exiled a Chief Priest, Abiathar. "Initially he loved
the Lord". He excelled all kings of the earth in riches, "When
he was old he went after Ashtoroth and after Milcom. So Solomon did what
was evil in the sight of the Lord.
His
punishment: For David's sake Solomon was spared but he was told that
"his son would have all Israel torn out of his hands except for the
tribe of Judah" because of his wickedness.
Example
II
"This
concerns the Priest who rebelled against the precepts of God...his
chastisement by means of the judgment of wickedness. And they inflicted
horrors of evil diseases and took vengeance upon his body".
The
Priest is Jehoram
He
"walked in the ways of the Kings of Israel and he led Judah into
unfaithfulness" and was warned in a letter from Elijah that
"he would have a severe sickness with a disease of the
bowels".
His
punishment: "The Lord smote him in his bowels with an incurable
disease and at the end of two years his bowels came out because of the
disease and he died in great agony."
Example
III
"This
concerns the last priests of Jerusalem who shall amass money and wealth
by plundering the people. But in the last days their riches and booty
shall be delivered into the hands of the army of the Kittim".
*Note:
From that point the future tense is used.*
The
last priests of Jerusalem were the kings of Judah before Zedekiah that
"they broke God's covenant with your fathers that at the end of six
years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to
you and has served you six years you must set him free from you service
but you fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me".
The
Punishment: "The treasures of the King and his princes all of these
he (the King of the Chaldeans) brought to Babylon".
Example
IV
"Concerns
the Wicked Priest whom God delivered into the hands of his enemies
because of the iniquity committed against the Teacher of Righteousness
and the men of his Council that he might be humbled by means of a
destroying scourge in bitterness of soul because he had done wickedly to
His elect".
The
Wicked Priest is Manasseh
Wicked
because he had Isaiah put to death. "He seduced Judah and its
inhabitants so they did more evil than the nations whom God had
destroyed".
The
Punishment: "The King of Assyria took him with hooks and bound him
with fetters and brought him to Babylon"
"And
when he was in distress he entreated the favour of the Lord (see his
prayer in Apochrypha) and he humbled himself greatly before the God of
his fathers".
Example
V
"Concerns
the priest who...that its stones might be laid in oppression and the
beam of its woodworking robbery".
The
Priest is Zedekiah
Zedekiah
made a covenant to free all the Hebrew slaves with six years serviture
but "then profaned God's name by taking them back into subjugations
to be his slaves" (Jeremiah)
The
Punishment: "The Chaldeans slew the sons of Zedekiah before his
eyes and put out his eyes and took him to Babylon".
Example
VI
"Concerns
the condemned House whose judgment God will pronounce in the midst of
many people. He will bring him thence to judgment and will declare him
guilty in the midst of them with fire and brimstone".
The
Condemned House is Judah
Jeremiah
warned the people repeatedly not to resist the
Chaldean invasion because it was God's punishment for their wrongdoing.
By ignoring these warnings Judah became the condemned house.
Another
possibility is that God's condemnation stemmed from the reign of
Manasseh who "seduced the people to do more evil than the nations
had done whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel".
As
a result God told them He would "cast off the remnant of His
heritage and give them into the hands of their enemies."
Example
VII
"Concerns
the Spouter of Lies who led many astray that he might build his city of
vanity with blood and raise a congregation in deceit, causing many
thereby to perform a service of vanity for the sake of its glory and to
be pregnant with works of deceit, that their labour might be for nothing
and that they might be punished with fire who vilified and outraged the
Elect of God."
The
Spouter of Lies is Jason
Jason, brother of Onias,
the legitimate High Priest, "labored underhand" to replace
Onias. He was successful and "brought the nation to the Greek
fashion and increasing of heathenish manners" and the people
"no longer setting by the honors of their fathers but liking the
glory of the Grecians best of all".
This so angered God that
He brought the Seleucid invaders to punish the people. "They took
the spoils of the city and then set the city on fire" and "the
people fled and the city became a habitation of strangers".
Jason had to flee from
city to city pursued by all men "and died in a foreign land"
with none to mourn for him nor any solemn funerals, nor sepulcher with
his fathers."
Example
VIII
"Concerns
the Wicked Priest who pursued the Teacher of Righteousness to the house
of his exile that he might confuse him with his venomous fury and at the
time appointed for rest, for the Day of Atonement, he appeared before
them to confuse them on the Day of Fasting,
their Sabbath of repose."
The
Wicked Priest is Menelaus
The
Teacher of Righteousness is Onias. Onias, the legitimate High Priest who
accused Menelaus of stealing, and was forced to flee for his life..
At the instigation of
Menelaus, the Seleucids under Andronicus pursued Onias, tricked him into
leaving his sanctuary and killed him.
The Seleucids were
punished when their general Nicanor decided to attack Judas forces
"on the Sabbath day."
The night before the
battle Judas had a vision in which "Onias appeared and prayed for
the Jews" and "there appeared a man with grey hairs and
exceeding glorious" who proved to be Jeremiah who "holding
forth his right hand gave Judas a sword of gold "saying it was a
gift of God to wound his adversaries.
In the battle Judas forces
"slew no less that 35,000 men and when the battle was
over...Nicanor lay dead."
Menelaus' punishment was
meted out by Antiochus, who blamed him for the Jewish rebellion and had
him taken up to a tower full of ashes into which "men thrust him to
his death."
Example
IX
"Concerns
the Priest whose ignomy was greater than his glory...He walked in the
ways of drunkenness that he might quench his thirst. But the cup of the
wrath of God will confuse him."
The
Priest is Alexander Jannius
In
his military campaigns he had great success but his glory was tarnished
by his treatment of the people. He was reviled for trying to go beyond
his rights by performing the sacrificial rites. In retaliation "he
slew about 6000 of them". Later he killed "no fewer than
50,000 of them. He continued to commit atrocities against his people
until his death.
Punishment:
Eventually "he fell into a distemper of hard drinking and had a
quartan ague which held him for three years before his death".
Example
X
Concerns
the Wicked Priest, inasmuch as he shall be paid his reward which he
himself tendered to the poor. For Lebanon is the Council of the
Community and the beasts are the simple of
Judah who keep the Law.
The
Wicked Priest is Aristobolus
Wicked because Aristobolus,
a Sadducee, seized the High Priesthood from Hyrcanus, a Pharisee, who
fearing for his life fled the country.
Later Hyrcanus returned
with an army and besieged Aristobolus forces who had taken refuge in the
temple. He killed the priests who were carrying out their rituals and in
the ensuing fighting killed some 12,000 of their countrymen.
Aristobolus' punishment
was death by poisoning.
Example
XI
"Concerns
the City of Jerusalem where the Wicked Priest committed abominable deeds
and defiled the temple of God. The "violence done to the land"
concerns the cities of Judah where he robbed the poor of their
possessions."
The
Wicked Priest is Antigonus
Wicked
because he "cut off the ears" of the legitimate High Priest,
Hyrcanus, so he could never again hold office because of the blemish.
With
the help of the Parthians, Antigonus was able to rule for a short while
before Herod, with the help of the Romans, bottled them up in Jerusalem
where "they betook themselves to plundering and fell upon the
houses of those that had fled and upon the king's palace and spared
nothing" including the cloisters which he had banned.
Antigonus
was taken away from Jerusalem in bonds to Antony, "there did the
axe bring him to his end".
| Introduction | Community Rule | Habakkuk I | Habakkuk II | Damascus Document | Ecclesiastes | Essenes |
No comments:
Post a Comment