Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Habakkuk 2:11
For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
11. stone shall cry out of the wall ] For the stone out of the wall shall cry out. The Chaldean gains evil gains to build his nest on high; the materials he uses, the stones and wood, shall cry out against the wrong and oppression perpetrated in procuring them. This sense is preferable to that assumed by Hitzig, that in his constructions the Chaldean kept back the hire of the labourers (Jer 22:13).
beam answer it ] i.e. reecho its cry of injustice.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it – All things have a voice, in that they are . Gods works speak that, for which He made them Psa 19:1 : The heavens declare the glory of God. Psa 65:13 : the valleys are clad with corn, they laugh, yea, they sing; their very look speaks gladness. Cyril: For the creation itself proclaims the glory of the Maker, in that it is admired as well made. Wherefore there are voices in things, although there are not words. Mans works speak of that in him, out of which and for which he made them. Works of mercy go up for a memorial before God, and plead there; great works, performed amid wrong and cruelty and for mans ambition and pride, have a voice too, and cry out to God, calling down His vengeance on the oppressor. Here the stones of the wall, whereby the building is raised, and the beam, the tye-beam, out of the timber-work wherewith it is finished, and which, as it were, crowns the work, join, as in a chorus, answering one another, and in a deep solemn wailing, before God and the whole world, together chant Woe, Woe. Did not the blood and groans of men cry out to God, speechless things have a voice to appeal to Him (See Luk 19:40). Against Belshazzar the wall had, to the letter, words to speak.
Each three verses forming one stanza, as it were, of the dirge, the following words are probably not directly connected with the former, as if the woe, which follows, were, so to speak, the chant of these inanimate witnesses against the Chaldaeans; yet they stand connected with it. The dirge began with woe on the wrongful accumulation of wealth from the conquered and oppressed people: it continues with the selfish use of the wealth so won.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Hab 2:11
The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
Retribution
The prophet in this connection is declaring that the Chaldeans shall be punished for their cruel rapacity. Retribution is everywhere assumed as a great first-truth, which nature itself constantly teaches, and to which mans universal conscience as constantly responds.
I. The sin. What was the iniquity for which the Chaldean monarch is here so solemnly denounced? Not the mere outer act of building a great city, but in the manner and motive of his doing it. He had built his city in blood, and established it in iniquity. There was sin in the motive, for the monarch only built for his selfish aggrandisement. We perceive, then, glaring ungodliness in both manner and motive of this great work of Babylon.
II. The punishment. The Bible does not teach that men are punished eternally for the sins committed in time. Man goes on sinning for ever, and therefore is punished for ever. By a law of a mans own mental constitution, memory and conscience are summoning from the past both ministry and material of a righteous retribution. This is retribution–a punishment really more dreadful than any material imagery whereby the Bible sets it forth–a retribution which becomes, of itself, eternal torment. We do not say that in this is all of retribution. (Charles Wadsworth, D. D.)
The handwriting on the wall
Very startling was the vision which appeared to Belshazzar and his courtiers when their feasting and mirth were at their height. But not in terrible omens and supernatural visions alone do we see the Divine handwriting. To thoughtful men on every wall by the wayside appear mystic letters of profound significance. The hand itself is unseen behind the veil of nature, but the words are formed clear and distinct upon the stones of the wall, and they remain as if graven with a pen of iron. Botanists are familiar with a peculiar genus of lichen called Opegrapha, from the resemblance which the fructification of all its species bears to written characters. On the surface are numerous dark intricate lines, like Arabic, Hebrew, or Chinese letters. The likeness in some instances is remarkably close. Nature has thus mimicked in almost every wood, and on almost every rock and wall, the latest and highest result of mans civilisation; and in her humblest plant forms has written her wonderful runes. It can, indeed, be said in the highest sense of the whole family of lichens that they are Gods handwriting on the wall. Lichens form the nebulae, so to speak, of the firmament of life. Lichens are in the ocean of air that covers the dry land what seaweeds are in the ocean of waters that covers the depths of the sea. They are as the pioneers of vegetation, climbing the bare crag, and penetrating into the lonely wilderness, and planting there the flag of life. As elements in the picturesque, lichens have long held a high place in the estimation of all lovers of nature. What would a ruin be without them? Lichens run through the whole chromatic scale, and show what striking effects nature can produce by an harmonious combination of a few simple lines and hues. Not less worthy of examination is the specialised organ with which the lichen decks itself than the blossom of the brightest flower. Nothing is lost in nature. Gods handwriting on the wayside wall and the weather-beaten rock writes no sentence–Thou art weighed in the balances and art found wanting. (Hugh Macmillan, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.] This appears to refer to the ancient mode of building walls; two or three courses of stone, and then one course of timber. See 1Kg 6:36: thus was the palace of Solomon built. The splendid and costly buildings of Babylon have been universally celebrated. But how were these buildings erected? By the spoils of conquered nations, and the expense of the blood of multitudes; therefore the stones and the timber are represented as calling out for vengeance against this ruthless conqueror.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For the stone, the strength of thy house, accuseth thee.
Shall cry out; as if it had a voice, it crieth to God for vengeance.
The beam, on which thy chambers are laid,
shall answer it; confirms the charge against thee; and that fabric cannot be long a safe or a beautiful habitation, whose stones and beams are shaken with the strong cries of innocent blood, and families ruined by the oppression of the builder.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. stone . . . cryoutpersonification. The very stones of thy palace built byrapine shall testify against thee (Lu19:40).
the beam out of thetimberthe crossbeam or main rafter connecting the timbers inthe walls.
shall answer itnamely,the stone. The stone shall begin and the crossbeam continue the cryagainst thy rapine.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the stone shall cry out of the wall,…. Of their own house; some from among themselves, that truly feared God, seeing the evil practices done among them, and abhorring them, such as their covetousness, ambition, murders, excommunications, and anathemas, should cry out against them in their sermons and writings; such as were lively stones, eminent for religion and godliness, as Bernard, Wickliff, Huss, and others:
and the beam out of the timber shall answer it; such as were of eminent note in things civil, as beams and rafters in the house; emperors and governors of provinces, who observed the complaints of godly ministers and people, answered to them, and checked the evil bishops and clergy, and hindered them in the pursuit of their schemes, and so brought them to shame and confusion. Aben Ezra observes, that the word signifies the hard place in the wood; or the harder part of it, the knotty part, or the knot in it; and which is confirmed by the use of the word in the Arabic language, as Hottinger g observes; and so may have respect to such persons as were raised up at the beginning of the Reformation, who were of rough dispositions, and hardy spirits, fit to go through the work they were called to; such as Luther, and others, who answered and were correspondent to the doctrines of those before mentioned, who preceded them: for not a beetle, as the Septuagint version, which breeds, and lives not in wood, and so represents heretics, as Jerom; much better, as some other Greek versions, a “worm”; though rather the word may signify a brick, as it is used by the Talmudists h for one of a span and a half, which answers well enough to a stone in the former clause; nor is it unusual with heathen writers i to represent stones and timbers speaking, when any criminal silence is kept; see Lu 19:40.
g Smegma Orientale, l. 1. c. 7. p. 163. h T. Bava Metzia, fol. 117. 2. & Bathra, fol. 3. 1. i “—-Secretum divitis ullum Esse putas? servi ut taceant, jumenta loquentur, Et canis, et postes, et marmora.—-” Juvenal. Satyr. 9.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
There is here introduced by the Prophet a new personification. He had before prepared a common song, which would be in the mouth of all. He now ascribes speech to stones and wood, of which buildings are formed. The stone, he says, shall cry from the wall, and the wood from the chamber; that is, there is no part of the building that will not cry out that it was built by plunder, by cruelty, and, in a word, by evil deeds. The Prophet not only ascribes speech to wood and stone, but he makes them also respond one to the other as in a chorus, as in lyrics there are voices which take up the song in turns. The stone, he says, shall cry from the wall, and the wood shall respond to it from the chamber; (37) as though he said, “There will be a striking harmony in every part of the building; for the wall will begin and will utter its song, ‘Behold I have been built by blood and by iniquity;’ and the wood will utter the same, and will cry, ‘Woe;’ but all in due order; there will be no confused noise, but as music has distinct sounds, so also the stones will respond to the wood and the wood to the stones, so that there may be, as they say, corresponding voices.”
(37) The word rendered here “Wood,” lignum , is [ כפיס ], and only found here. The Septuagint has κανθαρος, a beetle,— Sym. σ υνδεσμος, bond, tie, or joint,— Theod. ἔνδεσμος, bandage or jointing. The context shows that it must be something connected with wood-building. Parkhurst says, that it is a verb in Syriac, and means to connect, to fasten together, and he renders it a beam or a rafter, which would exactly suit this place. The word, [ מעף ], “from the wood,” evidently means the wood-building or wood-work. So that tabulatum , a story or a chamber in a building, as rendered by Calvin, is not amiss. Perhaps the best version would be,—
And the beam from the wood-work answers it.
Bochart says, that [ כפיס ], in Rabbinical writings, means a brick, and that it was usual, formerly, as it was in this country not long ago, to build with bricks and wood or timber together; and Henderson has adopted this meaning, but the other is more satisfactory.— Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) The stone shall cry out.Every stone in those giant walls reared by the enforced labour of captives cries aloud to accuse the Babylonian. Every spar out of the woodwork attests the charge.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Hab 2:11 gives the reason for the sentence announced in Hab 2:10. Jehovah cannot overlook the wrongdoing, for the very stones and beams in the house built with blood cry out against the violence practiced in procuring them.
Shall answer it Shall re-echo the cry sent up by the stones.
Woe upon the building of cities with the blood and property of strangers, Hab 2:12-14.
The third woe is a continuation of the second; the latter refers to the building of the empire in general, the former to the extensive building enterprises throughout the land. “The prophet sees the city in process of extension, bands of captives, Jews and Gentiles, bleeding and dying under the blows of their drivers, and he realizes the fraudful dealings by which the treasures expended in the erection of enormous fortifications have been amassed.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hab 2:11. For the stone shall cry, &c. The answer of the beam follows in the next verse. The meaning of these figurative expressions is, that the houses and towns which have been destroyed by the Chaldeans shall cry for vengeance against the destroyers.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Hab 2:11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
Ver. 11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it ] Here are woeful echoes; screech owls of woe cry aloud from the beams of the oppressors’ chambers, and make most hideous noises in the ears of their consciences. So that although none other should dare to mute against them, or accuse them of wrong dealing; yet their very houses, built by rapine and blood, shall testify against them; so shall other creatures that groan under their abuses, Rom 8:19-22 . They seem all to say unto us those three words, saith Hugo, Accipe, Redde, Fuge; Accipe beneficium, Redde Officium, Fuge Supplicium (Lib. 2, de Ar. cap. 3). Receive, Return, Flee, Receive the favour, Return the honour, Flee Punishment. Now, if we hearken not to them, but do the contrary, they shall be one day as so many swift witnesses against us.
And the beam out of the timber shall answer it
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the stone: Gen 4:10, Jos 24:27, Job 31:38-40, Luk 19:40, Heb 12:24, Jam 5:3, Jam 5:4, Rev 6:10
beam: or, piece, or, fastening
answer it: or, witness against it
Reciprocal: Lam 2:18 – O wall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hab 2:11. Stone and beam are inanimate objects and are used figuratively to represent the miraculous judgment that will come upon the man guilty or these wrongs.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2:11 For the {i} stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
(i) The stones of the house will cry, and say that they are built from blood, and the wood will answer and say the same of itself.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The stones and woodwork taken from other nations to build the Babylonians’ fortresses and palaces would serve as visual witnesses to the sinful invasions that brought them to Babylon. They would testify to the guilt of the Babylonians in the day that Yahweh would bring Babylon to judgment. Ostentatious buildings and cities make statements about their builders.