Habakkuk 1:2

Hab 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! [even] cry out unto thee [of] violence, and thou wilt not save!

Ver. 2. O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? ] Lo, this is the confidence of a good conscience towards God, 1 Peter 3:21 , when it is parleying with him by prayers and bold intercessions ( εντευξεις ), 1 Timothy 2:1 , it dare plead, as Jeremiah 12:1 , and interrogate, as Rom 8:33-35 Isaiah 63:15 , and expostulate, as David often: when God seems to be asleep, he wakes him; when to delay, he quickens him; when to have lost his wonted kindness, he finds it for him; so doth Habakkuk here; for he knew he might do it. See his holy boldness beneath, Habakkuk 1:12 , and learn to continue instant in prayer, Romans 12:12 , crying, Quousque Domine? How long, Lord? This was Mr Calvin’s motto, ever in his mouth, as Deo gratias grace to God, was in Austin’s.

Even cry out unto thee of violence ] i.e. Of all sorts of heinous sins, which I have long cried out upon, and sought by preaching and prayer to redress, but cannot; so incorrigibly flagitious are they grown, that I have now no other way left, but to turn them over to thee, with a Non convertentur, They will not be converted. Shall they still "escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God," Psalms 56:7 , and let them feel the power of thy wrath that will not submit to the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thus the holy prophet Elijah-like, Rom 11:2 maketh intercession to God against Israel (when once incorrigible, uncurable), for whose souls’ health he would have spent and been spent, Impendam et expendar.