Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin (continued)
MINOR PROPHETS
Since, he says, thou canst not look on trouble, we find that he confirms himself in that truth---that the justice of God cannot be separated from his very nature: and by saying, {,}לא{ }תוכלla tucal, ``thou canst not,'' it is the same as though he had said, ``Thou, O Lord, art just, because thou art God; and God, because thou art just.''
For these two things cannot be separated, as both the eternity, and the very being of God, cannot stand without his justice. We hence see how strenuously the Prophet struggled against his own impetuosity, so that he might not too much indulge himself in the complaint, which immediately follows.
For he then asks, according to the common judgement of the flesh, Why dost thou look on, when the ungodly devours one more just than himself? The Prophet here does not divest God of his power, but speaks in doubt, and contends not so much with God as with himself. A profane man would have said, ``There is no God, there is no providence,'' or, ``He cares not for the world, he takes his pleasure in heaven.''
But the Prophet says, ``Thou seest, Lord.'' Hence he ascribes to God what peculiarly belongs to him---that he does not neglect the world which he has created. At the same time he here inclines two ways, and alternates; Why does thou look on, when the ungodly devours one more just than himself? He says not that the world revolves by chance, nor that God takes his delight and ease in heaven, as the Epicureans hold; but he confesses that the world is seen by God, and that he exercises care over the affairs of men: notwithstanding, as he could not see his way clear in a state of things so confused, he argues the point rather with himself than with God. We now see the import of this sentence. The Prophet, however, proceeds---
Habakkuk 1:14, 15
14. And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
14. Facis hominem quasi pisces maris, quasi reptile, quod caret duce (ad verbum, non est dux in illo.)
15. They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad.
15. Totum hamo suo attrahet, colliget in sagenam suam, et congregabit in rete suum; propterea gaudebit et exultabit (hoc est, gaudet et exultat.)
He goes on, as it has been said, in his complaint; and by a comparison he shows that the judgement would be such as though God turned away from men, so as not to check the violence of the wicked, nor oppose his hand to their wantonness, in order to restrain them. Since, then, every one would oppress another as he exceeded him in power, and would with increased insolence rise up against the miserable and the poor, the Prophet compares man to the fish of the sea,---``What can this mean?'' he says. ``For men have been created after God's image: why then does not some justice appear among them? When one devours another, and even one man oppresses almost the whole world, what can be the meaning of this? God seems to sport with human affairs. For if he regards men as his children, why does he not defend them by his power? But we see one man (for he speaks of the Assyrian king) so enraged and so cruel, as though the rest of the world were like fish or reptiles.'' Thou makes men, he says, like reptiles or fishes; and then he adds, He draws up the whole by his