⁹ Habakkuk listens intently to God’s further words, recorded at Habakkuk 1:6-11. This is Jehovah’s message​—and no false god or lifeless idol can block its fulfillment: “Here I am raising up the Chaldeans, the nation bitter and impetuous, which is going to the wide-open places of earth in order to take possession of residences not belonging to it. Frightful and fear-inspiring it is. From itself its own justice and its own dignity go forth. And its horses have proved swifter than leopards, and they have proved fiercer than evening wolves. And its steeds have pawed the ground, and from far away its own steeds come. They fly like the eagle speeding to eat something. In its entirety it comes for mere violence. The assembling of their faces is as the east wind, and it gathers up captives just like the sand. And for its part, it jeers kings themselves, and high officials are something laughable to it. For its part, it laughs even at every fortified place, and it piles up dust and captures it. At that time it will certainly move onward like wind and will pass through and will actually become guilty. This its power is due to its god.”

12. What is the attitude of the Babylonians, and of what does this formidable enemy “actually become guilty”?

¹² The Chaldean army jeers at kings and derides high officials, all of whom are powerless to stop its relentless advance. It ‘laughs at every fortified place,’ for any fortress falls when the Babylonians ‘pile up dust’ by building a mound of earth from which to assault it. At Jehovah’s appointed time, the formidable enemy “will certainly move onward like wind.” In attacking Judah and Jerusalem, it “will actually become guilty” of doing injury to God’s people. After a whirlwind victory, the Chaldean commander will boast: ‘This power is due to our god.’ But how little he really knows!