You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.
God has just told Habakkuk that He Himself will raise up the Chaldeans against His own people. The answer troubles the prophet more than his question did, and in reply he pictures people caught like fish, with no one over them to guard them.
The prophet's second question
The complaint is not that Israel was innocent. Israel, for all its faults, was still better than the nation sent to crush it. The prophet cannot fit that with what he knows of God.
H. L. RossierIt is true that Israel had many wicked things in it. But it also had some "good things" that the nations around it lacked. These good things were there during the reign of Josiah. Israel really was more righteous than its enemies. The prophet wanted an answer to this problem too. If God saw something good in those who were oppressed by the wicked one, why did He then give them success in what they set out to do?
Men treated as fish
The force of the image lies in what fish and crawling things lack. No one guides them and no one defends them. They are simply there for the taking, and that is how the invader treated people.
Hamilton SmithThis wicked nation was treating men as if they were only fish of the sea, or crawling things, with no ruler to guide or protect them. They seized the weak and the helpless, and used them to provide a rich portion, and plenty, for themselves.
Why there was no ruler
The verse does not say the Chaldeans made men like fish. It says God did. God hands out the right to govern, and He can take it back. That is what left the nations, and Israel too, with no one to stand between them and the conqueror.
H. L. RossierWhen God has trusted a government to men, He has the right to take it away from them completely. He can hand them over as prey to those He gives the power to. So it would soon go with the nations that Babylon conquered. The same fate would fall on Israel, which once stood as one whole under God's government. It had deserted the Lord, and it would be left without king, without prince, and without help against the enemy.
Pleading God's own words back to Him
Habakkuk does not argue from his own feelings. He takes the short word God had already given him and turns it into a plea for people who have no defender.
William KellySee with what skill he turns the little word the Lord had given him into a foundation. He now pleads reasons why God should not spare these merciless enemies of Himself and His people. Nothing can be more beautiful. A single eye — an eye that knows the love God has for His own people, and above all for Christ Himself — takes hold of the truth that fits and uses it for the needy who hold fast to His name.
Worship of the net
The fishing picture runs on into the next verses, and it ends in idolatry. The gear that brought in the catch now gets the sacrifice and the incense. The Chaldean worships his own success.
Arno C. GaebeleinThe Chaldean took men as if they were fish. As a fisherman puts out the net and the dragnet, so they catch men by the net and the dragnet. He gathers in the people with their wealth, and he rejoices and is glad... He sacrifices to his net. He burns incense. He makes the thing that gives him success his idol, his god. Is this to go on and on? Shall he who empties his net, and throws it out to catch more, do this again with the nations forever?
Correction, not destruction
Underneath the protest is confidence. Habakkuk pleads like a lawyer who is sure of the God he is addressing, and his fear does not stop him asking for mercy.
J. G. BellettHe speaks with the deepest fear and feeling, with the skill of an advocate whose love makes him eloquent. He pleads against the Chaldean, sure that the Lord would not hand His own people over to the reckless rage of men more wicked than themselves, however guilty His people might be. He also asks that in the Lord's grace this terrible scourge may be only for the correction of Israel, and not for its destruction.
Summary
- Problem. Israel was guilty, yet more righteous than the nation God was sending. That gap set the prophet asking.
- Picture. The invader treats men like fish and crawling things — weak, helpless, no one to guide or protect them, caught to fill his own table.
- Cause. God gives government, and God can take it back. A people left without king, prince or help becomes prey.
- Plea. Habakkuk takes the one word God gave him and turns it into prayer. An eye that knows God's love for His people finds the truth that fits and uses it for the needy.
- End. The fisherman who worships his own net cannot go on forever. The prophet asks that the blow correct Israel, not destroy it.