Habakkuk 1:14 (YLT)

Passage

And Thou makest man as fishes of the sea, As a creeping thing--none ruling over him.

Nearby Context

Habakkuk 1:12 Art not Thou of old, O Jehovah, my God, my Holy One? We do not die, O Jehovah, For judgment Thou hast appointed it, And, O Rock, for reproof Thou hast founded it.

Habakkuk 1:13 Purer of eyes than to behold evil, To look on perverseness Thou art not able, Why dost Thou behold the treacherous? Thou keepest silent when the wicked Doth swallow the more righteous than he,

Habakkuk 1:14 And Thou makest man as fishes of the sea, As a creeping thing--none ruling over him.

Habakkuk 1:15 Each of them with a hook he hath brought up, He doth catch it in his net, and gathereth it in his drag, Therefore he doth joy and rejoice.

Habakkuk 1:16 Therefore he doth sacrifice to his net, And doth make perfume to his drag, For by them <FI>is<Fi> his portion fertile, and his food fat.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "thou", "makest", "fishes", "creeping", "thing--none", "ruling", and "over". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "thou" and "makest", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 13's "Purer of eyes than to behold evil..." into verse 15's "Each of them with a hook he...", so "thou" and "makest" 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 "thou" and "makest" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.