Habakkuk 2:6

"Yes, moreover, wine is treacherous: an arrogant man who doesn’t stay at home, who enlarges his desire as Sheol; he is like death and can’t be satisfied, but gathers to himself all nations and heaps to himself all peoples."

Key Reflection

In this verse, wine symbolizes the allure of worldly desires that lead to moral corruption and an insatiable appetite for power and wealth. The "arrogant man" represents someone who seeks to dominate others, ultimately leading to their own destruction and the gathering of people into a chaotic, unsatisfying condition.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him? -Nebuchadnezzar gathered,Daniel 3:4-5, “all people, nations, and languages, to worship the golden image which he had set up.” The second Babylon, pagan Rome, sought to blot out the very Christian Name; but mightier were the three children than the King of Babylon; mightier, virgins, martyrs, and children than Nero or Decius. These shall rejoice over Babylon, that,Revelation 18:20, “God hath avenged them on her.” Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his! -Truly wealth ill-gotten by fraud or oppression, “is not his,” who winneth it, before he had it, nor when he hath it, but a woe.

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