Habakkuk 2:7-The Babylonians Will Be Plunder for the Nations Who They Plundered

Habakkuk 2:7 Will not your creditors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their prey. (NIV)

Habakkuk 2:7 “Will not in fact your creditors suddenly rise up? Yes indeed, will not in fact those who make you tremble awake? Consequently, you will become plunder for the benefit of them. (My translation)

The fourth section recorded in Habakkuk 2:2-20 contains the Lord’s response to Habakkuk’s argument and records the Lord’s decision to judge the Babylonian empire in the future for their unrepentant sinful behavior.

Habakkuk 2:7 contains two emphatic rhetorical questions, which both demand an emphatic positive response from the recipients of these questions.

They demand an emphatic positive response since the contents of Habakkuk 2:6-20 make clear that the Lord will judge the Babylonians for their unrepentant sinful behavior by permitting the nations plundered by the Babylonians to taunt the Babylonians.

The recipients of both questions are Habakkuk and the faithful remnant in the southern kingdom of Judah in the prophet’s day in 605 B.C.

The Lord God of Israel is asking both questions.

These questions are then followed by an assertion which presents the result of the emphatic assertions contained in these two rhetorical questions.

In the first rhetorical question, the Lord asks the faithful remnant of Judah, “will not in fact the creditors of the Babylonians suddenly rise up against them?”

The verb nā·šǎḵ (נָשַׁךְ), “creditors” is used metaphorically or figuratively for those nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world who were conquered and then plundered by the Babylonians.

Just as the Babylonians acted as the creditors of these nations, so these nations will become the creditors of the Babylonians in the sense that these nations will become rich extorting money from the Babylonians just as the Babylonians became rich extorting money from these nations they conquered.

The verb qûm (קוּם) pertains to the nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world, who were conquered and plundered by the Babylonians, rising up against the Babylonians in the sense of taking hostile military action against them.

The adverb pě·ṯǎʿ (פֶּתַע) is expressing the idea that the nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world, who were conquered and plundered by the Babylonians, will “suddenly” and “unexpectantly” rise up against them in the sense that they will take military action against them.

Now, as we noted, this first rhetorical question demands an emphatic positive response since the contents of Habakkuk 2:6-20 make clear that the Lord will judge the Babylonians for their unrepentant sinful behavior by permitting the nations plundered by the Babylonians to taunt the Babylonians.

Therefore, this rhetorical question is emphatically asserting that the nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world, who were conquered and plundered by the Babylonians, will rise up against the Babylonians in the sense of taking hostile military action against them.

The second rhetorical question in Habakkuk 2:7 is advancing upon and intensifying the first rhetorical question in verse 7.

This question like the first demands an emphatic positive response since again the contents of Habakkuk 2:6-20 make clear that the Lord will judge the Babylonians for their unrepentant sinful behavior by permitting the nations plundered by the Babylonians to taunt the Babylonians.

The Lord asks, “will not in fact those who make the Babylonians tremble wake up?”

Therefore, rhetorically speaking, this second question is emphatically asserting that those who make the Babylonians tremble will wake up.

Thus, the second rhetorical question advances upon and intensifies the first because it is asserting that not only will the various nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world who were conquered by the Babylonians rise up against them but also those who make them tremble will wake up.

When the Lord asserts that those who cause the Babylonians to tremble will wake up, He means that these nations who produce fear in them will take military action against them because they realize the Babylonians are vulnerable to an attack.

As we noted, these two rhetorical questions in Habakkuk 2:7 are followed by an assertion, which presents the result of the previous two emphatic assertions contained in these two questions which together assert that the nations conquered and plundered by the Babylonians will rise up against the Babylonians and those who make them tremble will wake up and take military action against them.

This assertion states that the Babylonians will become plunder for the benefit of these nations.

Therefore, this indicates that the nations conquered and plundered by the Babylonians will rise up against the Babylonians and those who make them tremble will wake up “with the result that” the Babylonians will become plunder for the benefit of these nations.

Therefore, this assertion is describing the Babylonians as becoming plunder in the future for those nations who they conquered and plundered and feared.

Both Habakkuk 2:6-7 were fulfilled in history when the Medo-Persian Empire invaded Babylon and overthrew Belshazzar as recorded in Daniel chapter five.

The Babylonian Empire was plundered by the Medo-Persian Empire and her allies.

Therefore, what Babylon did to other nations, was done to her.

Babylon’s punishment would correspond to the crimes they committed against other nations.

In other words, the punishment of the Babylonians would fit their crimes they committed against God and other nations.

This principle is called lex telionis and the law of retribution.

This law or principle means that because of the unjustified violent acts committed by the citizens of Babylon against other nations and because of God’s holy character, the citizens of Babylon would be treated in the same manner they treated other nations.

The fall of Babylon was sudden as predicted in Habakkuk 2:7.

Daniel chapter five records the sudden defeat of the Babylonian Empire.

The Lord used the Medo-Persian Empire to destroy Babylon.

History states that Babylon fell on the sixteenth day of the Jewish month Tishri which corresponds to either October 11 or 12 539 BC.

Daniel chapter five states that Belshazzar was the ruler of the Babylonian Empire when it was defeated by Medo-Persia.

The prophecy in Habakkuk 2:4-20 of Babylon’s demise was predicted in 605 B.C.

Therefore, the fulfillment of the prophecy did not take place until approximately 66 years after Habakkuk received this prophecy from the Lord.

Therefore, the fulfillment of the prophecy of Habakkuk 2:4-20 taught a principle that appears in the book of Jeremiah, namely, God is watching over His Word to execute it.

Jeremiah 1:12 Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.” (NASB95)

Although Daniel chapter five makes clear that Babylon fell to the Medo-Persian Empire, a comparison of Jeremiah 25 with Habakkuk 2:6-20 indicates that there were many nations besides Medo-Persia that plundered the Babylonians.

In Jeremiah 25:15-30, the prophet Jeremiah prophecies that many nations would fall to Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon while Habakkuk 2:6-20 asserts that the nations who were conquered and plundered by the Babylonians would plunder the Babylonians.

Therefore, Egypt, Uz; the Philistines (those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod), Edom, Moab and Ammon, Tyre and Sidon and the coastlands across the Mediterranean sea plundered the Babylonians.

Also, Dedan, Tema, Buz and all those nations in distant places did as well along with the nations of Arabia, Zimri, Elam and of course Media.