Habakkuk 2:11-The God of Israel Presents Two Witnesses Against the Babylonians

Habakkuk 2:11 The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. (NIV)

Habakkuk 2:11 “For the stones from the walls are always crying out while the beams from the woodwork are always echoing it.” (My translation)

As we noted in our studies of Habakkuk 2:2-10, Habakkuk 2:2-20 contains the fourth major section of the book of Habakkuk.

The first section was Habakkuk 1:2-4, which records the prophet Habakkuk complaining on behalf of himself and the faithful remnant of Judah that the Lord had failed to judge the unrepentant, apostate individuals in the southern kingdom of Judah.

However, the second section in Habakkuk 1:5-11 records the Lord’s response to these complaints by asserting that He will send the Babylonians as His instruments to judge these unrepentant, apostate individuals in the southern kingdom of Judah.

The third section of the book is found in Habakkuk 1:12-17, which records Habakkuk questioning the Lord’s choice of the Babylonians as His instrument of judgment to discipline the apostate citizenry of the southern kingdom of Judah in 605 B.C.

Now, the fourth section recorded in Habakkuk 2:2-20 contains the Lord’s response to Habakkuk’s argument against His decision to use the Babylonians as His instrument to discipline the apostate citizenry of the southern kingdom of Judah at the end of the seventh century B.C.

This section records the Lord’s decision to judge the Babylonian empire in the future for their unrepentant sinful behavior directed toward the various nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world at the end of the seventh century B.C. and at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.

Habakkuk 2:2-3 form a prologue presenting the context for this vision and Habakkuk 2:4-20 contains the content of this vision.

So therefore, Habakkuk 2:11 continues this fourth major section of the book of Habakkuk.

As was the case in Habakkuk 2:5-9, this prophecy in Habakkuk 2:11 is communicated by the Lord God of Israel and is addressed to the faithful citizens of the southern kingdom of Judah in 605 B.C.

The subject of course is the Babylonians.

Verse 11 contains two statements which coincide with each other in that the events described in these two statements take place simultaneously with each other.

The first asserts that the stones from the walls are always crying out.

This is a reference to the stones from the walls of the buildings built by the Babylonians.

This statement contains the figure of personification, which is the ascribing of human characteristics to any inanimate object, abstract concept, or impersonal being or to animals.

Therefore, these stones from the walls of the buildings of the Babylonians are depicted as crying out as witnesses against the Babylonians because these stones were purchased from the wealth plundered from the peoples they conquered in the seventh century and sixth centuries B.C.

This first statement in Habakkuk 2:11 is advancing upon and intensifying the previous statement at the end of Habakkuk 2:10, which asserts that the Babylonians forfeited their lives because they plotted the destruction of many peoples.

Therefore, a comparison of these statements indicates that the Babylonians forfeited their lives “indeed” the stones from their walls and beams from their woodwork cry out against them as witnesses.

These materials cry out as witnesses against the Babylonians because they had been purchased from the wealth plundered from the various peoples of the nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world at the end of the seventh century B.C. and at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.

Many expositors and translators interpret the conjunction kî (כִּי) which introduces this first statement in verse 11 as a marker of cause.

This means that it is introducing a statement which presents the reason for the previous statement at the end of Habakkuk 2:10, which asserts that the Babylonians forfeited their lives because they plotted the destruction of many peoples.

Therefore, this interpretation would indicate that the Babylonians forfeited their lives “because” the stones of their walls and beams of their woodwork cry out against them as witnesses.

However, I believe this interpretation is incorrect since the Babylonians did not forfeit their lives because they were witnesses against them but rather because they plundered the wealth of many peoples.

The stones of the Babylonians’ walls and the beams of their woodwork were witnesses to the fact that they were guilty and worthy of death.

These building materials which the Babylonians employed for their various building projects were taken from the peoples of the various nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world which they had conquered at the end of the seventh century B.C. and at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.

The second statement in Habakkuk 2:11 asserts that the beams from the woodwork of the buildings of the Babylonians are always echoing the stones from the walls of the buildings of the Babylonians in crying out against as witnesses against them.

This statement like the first in verse 11 also contains the figure of personification.

As we noted, this event described in the second statement coincides with the event described in the first.

Therefore, this indicates that the stones from the walls built by the Babylonians will cry out against them as witnesses testifying that they plundered the wealth of many peoples “while” the beams from the woodwork of their buildings will echo these stones as witnesses against the Babylonians.

Therefore, these beams from the walls of the buildings of the Babylonians are depicted here as echoing the action of the stones from the walls of their buildings in crying out as witnesses against the Babylonians.

They cry out together as witnesses against the Babylonians because they had been plundered from the various peoples of the nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world at the end of the seventh century B.C. and at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.

Their testimony serves to support the Lord God of Israel’s decision to destroy them as a nation because in Habakkuk 2:10, the Lord asserts that they plotted the destruction of many peoples and consequently forfeited their lives.

Numbers 35:30-34, Deuteronomy 17:6-7 and 19:15 teach that capital punishment “cannot” take place unless there are two or more witnesses to the crime and that they all agree in their testimony after being individually interviewed.

So therefore, these stones and beams constitute the two witnesses who can testify to the crimes of the Babylonians against the various peoples of the nations in the Mediterranean and Mesopotamian regions of the world as the end of the seventh century B.C. and at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.

Now, as we noted in our study of Habakkuk 2:10, although Habakkuk received this revelation from the Lord in 605 B.C., these peoples were not only those conquered by the Babylonians at the end of the seventh century B.C. but also at the beginning of the sixth century B.C.

This is indicated by the fact that the statements in Habakkuk 2:5-20 are prophetic of what the Babylonians were about to do and not only what they had accomplished at the time Habakkuk received this revelation from the Lord.