Daily Devotional | Five Woes

“What goes around comes around.” The phrase is common, but we don’t always believe it. However, today’s passage shows that the Lord is serious about ensuring justice in the world He created.

Habakkuk 2:6–20 is structured by a series of five woe statements, each expresses warning for some type of evil behavior. The first woe is “to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion” (v. 6). God promises just recompense for such evil when “the peoples who are left will plunder you” (v. 7). The second woe is “to him who builds his house by unjust gain, setting his nest on high to escape the clutches of ruin!” (v. 8). Such evil results in “forfeiting your life” (v. 10). The third woe is “to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by injustice” (v. 12). However, such “nations exhaust themselves for nothing” (v. 13). Why? Because “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea” (v. 14). In the fourth woe the Lord warns “him who gives drink to his neighbors” for the purpose of “gaz[ing] on their naked bodies!” (v. 15). For this the Lord promises that His “cup…is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory” (v. 16).

The fifth and final woe is “to him who says to wood, ‘Come to life!’ Or to lifeless stone, ‘Wake up!’” (v. 19). Such a thing cannot “give guidance” because “there is no breath in it” (v. 19). The series of woes concludes with a statement of Yahweh’s calm control over all the earth and a command we would all do well to heed: “The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him” (v. 20).