Habakkuk 2:5
“Yea also, because he transgresseth by wine, he is a proud man, neither keepeth at home, who enlargeth his desire as hell, and is as death, and cannot be satisfied, but gathereth unto him all nations, and heapeth unto him all people:”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The arrogant conqueror, intoxicated and restless, has an appetite as insatiable as death itself, sweeping up all nations and never satisfied.
What Does Habakkuk 2:5 Mean?
The portrait of the proud man sharpens into Babylon. Like one drunk and reeling, he is restless and overreaching, never content to stay home. His craving is bottomless — wide as the grave, devouring as death — so that he gathers nation after nation to himself and is still not satisfied.
This is the anatomy of greed taken to its extreme: an appetite that can never be filled, always needing more lands, more peoples, more conquest. Such hunger is its own punishment, for it can never rest. The verse sets up the woes that follow by exposing the emptiness at the core of insatiable ambition. Against this stands the contentment of the righteous, who live by faith and find in God a satisfaction the conqueror's endless acquisition can never reach.