Habakkuk 1:12 (DRB)

Passage

Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die? Lord, thou hast appointed him for judgment: and made him strong for correction.

Nearby Context

Habakkuk 1:10 And their prince shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock: and he shall laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take it.

Habakkuk 1:11 Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass, and fall: this is his strength of his god.

Habakkuk 1:12 Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die? Lord, thou hast appointed him for judgment: and made him strong for correction.

Habakkuk 1:13 Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest thou upon them that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked devoureth the man that is more just than himself?

Habakkuk 1:14 And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "wast", "thou", "beginning", "lord", "holy", and "shall". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "wast" and "thou", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 11's "Then shall his spirit be changed and..." into verse 13's "Thy eyes are too pure to behold...", so "wast" and "thou" belong inside that flow. In Habakkuk context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "wast" and "thou" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.