Verse 14
Rather than the earth being filled with the glory of Babylon, it will one day be filled with knowledge of God’s glory, as comprehensively as the waters cover the sea (cf. Numbers 14:21; Psalms 72:19; Isaiah 6:3; Isaiah 11:9; Jeremiah 31:34). This has yet to be. This prediction refers to the ultimate destruction of Babylon in the eschatological future (cf. Revelation 16:19 to Revelation 18:24).
The Babylon in view in the Book of Habakkuk was mainly the Neo-Babylonian Empire, but ever since Babel (Genesis 11:1-9) "Babylon" had a symbolic meaning as well as a literal one. Symbolically it represented all ungodly peoples who rose up in self-reliance to glorify themselves and reach heaven by their own works. God destroyed the Neo-Babylonian Empire in 539 B.C., but what Babylon represents will continue until God destroys it when Jesus Christ returns to the earth to set up His new order in the Millennium (cf. Revelation 17-18).
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