1 Super custodiam meam stabo, et figam gradum super munitionem: et contemplabor ut videam quid dicatur mihi, et quid respondeam ad arguentem me.
Jerome · AD 420 (Chapter 2, Verse 1) I will stand upon my watch, and set myself upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. LXX: I will stand upon my watch, and get upon the rock, and will watch to see what will be said unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Where, then, did I find you in order to learn about you? For you were not already in my memory before I learned of you. Where, then, did I find you in order to learn about you, unless in yourself above me? Yet there is no place. We go backward and we go forward, yet there is no place.
John Cassian · AD 435 If someone perseveres continually in this watchfulness, therefore, he will effectively bring to pass what is quite plainly expressed by the prophet Habakkuk: "I will stand on my watch and go upon my rock, and I will look out to see what he will say to me and what I should reply to him who reproaches me." The laboriousness and difficulty of this is very clearly proved by the exp…
2 Et respondit mihi Dominus, et dixit: Scribe visum, et explana eum super tabulas, ut percurrat qui legerit eum.
Clement of Rome · AD 99 The all-merciful and beneficent Father has [a heart for] those who fear him, and kindly and lovingly he bestows his favors upon those who come to him with a simple mind. Therefore let us not be double-minded; neither let our soul be lifted up on account of his exceedingly great and glorious gifts.
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 You are perhaps distressed that you are driven outside the walls, but you shall dwell under the protection of the God of heaven. The angel who watches over the church has gone out with you. So they lie down in empty places day by day, bringing upon themselves heavy judgment as seen in the dispersion of the people.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Of what else than the advent of Christ, who was to come, is Habakkuk understood to say, "And the Lord answered me, and said, 'Write the vision openly on a tablet of boxwood so that the one who reads these things may understand.' " For the vision is yet for a time appointed, and it will arise in the end, and it will not become void.
3 Quia adhuc visus procul; et apparebit in finem, et non mentietur: si moram fecerit, exspecta illum, quia veniens veniet, et non tardabit.
Galatians · AD 50 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
Romans · AD 56 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. [Habakkuk 2:3-4]
Hebrews · AD 69 Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed wit…
4 Ecce qui incredulus est, non erit recta anima ejus in semetipso; justus autem in fide sua vivet.
Cyprian · AD 258 "And if you will not believe, neither will you understand." Also the Lord in the Gospel: "For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sins." Moreover, righteousness should subsist by faith. In it was life, as predicted in Habakkuk: "Now the just shall live by faith in me." Hence Abraham, the father of the nations, believed.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 For it is not simply the enduring of such things that is advantageous, but the bearing of such things for the name of Christ not only with a tranquil mind, even with exultation.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 It should be noted that the Church was placed in paradise, like the first man, "to till it," in such a way that no one would say "that anything he possessed" was "his own." For it began in a state of great perfection that is observed today in the religious life, for the love of Christ was still recent, and in those days "a large number also of the priests accepted the faith." T…
5 Et quomodo vinum potantem decipit, sic erit vir superbus, et non decorabitur: qui dilatavit quasi infernus animam suam, et ipse quasi mors, et non adimpletur: et congregabit ad se omnes gentes, et coacervabit ad se omnes populos.
Cyprian · AD 258 Since, therefore, the Lord thus threatens such shepherds through whom the sheep of the Lord are neglected and perish, what else ought we to do, dearly beloved brother, but to show full diligence in collecting and restoring the sheep of Christ and to apply the medicine of paternal piety to care for the wounds of the lapsed?
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 5 and following) And just as wine deceives a drinker, so too will the proud man be, and he will not be adorned, who has expanded his soul like Sheol and is like death, and he will not be satisfied. And he will gather all nations to himself, and he will heap all peoples to himself.
6 Numquid non omnes isti super eum parabolam sument, et loquelam ænigmatum ejus, et dicetur: Væ ei qui multiplicat non sua? usquequo et aggravat contra se densum lutum?
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Let your people not desire many things, for the reason that few things are many to them. Poverty and riches are names that imply want and satiety. He is not rich who wants anything, nor poor who does not want. Let no one spurn a widow or cheat an orphan or defraud his neighbor. Woe to him who has a fortune amassed by deceit and builds in blood a city, in other words, his soul.
Cyril of Alexandria · AD 444 As for the inventors of impure heresies, those profaners and apostates who have opened their mouths wide against the divine glory, "those who have uttered perverted things," we could accuse them of having slipped in their madness as low as the foolish pagans.
7 Numquid non repente consurgent qui mordeant te, et suscitabuntur lacerantes te, et eris in rapinam eis?
8 Quia tu spoliasti gentes multas, spoliabunt te omnes qui reliqui fuerint de populis, propter sanguinem hominis, et iniquitatem terræ, civitatis, et omnium habitantium in ea.
9 Væ qui congregat avaritiam malam domui suæ, ut sit in excelso nidus ejus, et liberari se putat de manu mali!
Apostolic Constitutions · AD 380 You shall not speak evil; for he says, "Love not to speak evil, lest you be taken away." You shall not be mindful of injuries, for "the ways of those that remember injuries are unto death."?
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 9.) Woe to him who gathers evil greed to his house, that his nest may be on high and he may escape from the power of evil. You have devised ruin to your house, you have destroyed many peoples, and your soul has sinned. For the stone will cry out from the wall, and the beam from the woodwork will answer.
10 Cogitasti confusionem domui tuæ; concidisti populos multos, et peccavit anima tua.
11 Quia lapis de pariete clamabit, et lignum, quod inter juncturas ædificiorum est, respondebit.
Ambrose of Milan · AD 397 Helena adored the king, not the wood [of the cross], indeed, because this is an error of the Gentiles and a vanity of the wicked. But she adored him who hung on the tree, whose name was inscribed in the title; him, I say, as a scarab, cried out to his Father to forgive the sins of his persecutors.
12 Væ qui ædificat civitatem in sanguinibus, et præparat urbem in iniquitate!
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 12 and following) Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed, and establishes a town with injustice: are these things not from the Lord of hosts? For the peoples shall labor in vain, and the nations shall exhaust themselves: for the earth shall be filled, that they may know the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
13 Numquid non hæc sunt a Domino exercituum? laborabunt enim populi in multo igne, et gentes in vacuum, et deficient.
14 Quia replebitur terra, ut cognoscant gloriam Domini, quasi aquæ operientes mare.
15 Væ qui potum dat amico suo mittens fel suum, et inebrians ut aspiciat nuditatem ejus!
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 What then are we to do who received such instructions about interpretation from Paul, a teacher of the church? Does it not seem right that we apply this kind of rule that was delivered to us in a similar way in other passages? Or as some wish, forsaking these things that such a great apostle taught, should we turn again to "Jewish fables"?
Jerome · AD 420 (Verg. 15 seqq.) Woe to him who gives drink to his friend, sending forth his gall and intoxicating him, so that he may see his nakedness. He is filled with shame instead of glory. Drink also yourself, and be drunk, for the cup of the Lord's right hand will surround you, and the vomit of shame will be upon your glory.
16 Repletus es ignominia pro gloria; bibe tu quoque, et consopire. Circumdabit te calix dexteræ Domini, et vomitus ignominiæ super gloriam tuam.
17 Quia iniquitas Libani operiet te, et vastitas animalium deterrebit eos de sanguinibus hominum, et iniquitate terræ, et civitatis, et omnium habitantium in ea.
18 Quid prodest sculptile, quia sculpsit illud fictor suus, conflatile, et imaginem falsam? quia speravit in figmento fictor ejus, ut faceret simulacra muta.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 18.) What profit is there in a carved image, because the maker thereof hath carved it, a molten and a false image? because the maker thereof hath trusted in his own workmanship, to make dumb idols. LXX: What profit is there in a carved image, because they have carved it, and fashioned it by the molten workman, a false image?
19 Væ qui dicit ligno: Expergiscere; Surge, lapidi tacenti! Numquid ipse docere poterit? ecce iste coopertus est auro et argento, et omnis spiritus non est in visceribus ejus.
Jerome · AD 420 (Verse 19, 20). Woe to him who says to wood, 'Wake up!' or to silent stone (or lying stone), 'Arise!' Can it give instruction? Look, it is covered with gold and silver, but there is no breath in its midst. The Lord, however, is in his holy temple; let all the earth be silent before him.
20 Dominus autem in templo sancto suo: sileat a facie ejus omnis terra!
Methodius of Olympus · AD 311 And then, as to that which is subjoined, "When the time is come, Thou shalt be shown forth," what exposition doth this require, if a man diligently direct the eye of his mind to the festival which we are now celebrating?