Habakkuk 1:14
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And make men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
American King James Version (AKJV)
And make men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
American Standard Version (ASV)
and makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
Basic English Translation (BBE)
He has made men like the fishes of the sea, like the worms which have no ruler over them.
Webster's Revision
And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping animals that have no ruler over them?
World English Bible
and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
English Revised Version (ERV)
and makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
Definitions for Habakkuk 1:14
Clarke's Habakkuk 1:14 Bible Commentary
Makest men as the fishes of the sea - Easily are we taken and destroyed. We have no leader to guide us, and no power to defend ourselves. Nebuchadnezzar is here represented as a fisherman, who is constantly casting his nets into the sea, and enclosing multitudes of fishes; and, being always successful, he sacrifices to his own net - attributes all his conquests to his own power and prudence; not considering that he is only like a net that after having been used for a while, shall at last be thrown by as useless, or burnt in the fire.
Barnes's Habakkuk 1:14 Bible Commentary
And makest men as the fishes of the sea - mute, helpless, in a stormy, restless element, no cry heard, but themselves swept away in shoals, with no power to resist.
As the creeping things - whether of the land (as it is mostly used), or the sea Psalm 104:25. Either way, it is a contemptuous name for the lowest of either.
That have no ruler over them - none to guide, order, protect them, and so a picture of man deprived of the care and providence of God.
Wesley's Habakkuk 1:14 Bible Commentary
1:14 And makest - Not infusing cruel appetites, but permitting them to act according to such appetite which was already in them.As the fishes - Of which the greater greedily devour the smaller.Creeping things - Which in the waters are food for the lesser fry; so the world, like the sea, is wholly oppression.No ruler - None to defend the weak, or restrain the mighty.