12 Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
(Verse 12.) Surely you are from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one? And shall we not die? O Lord, you have appointed him for judgment; you have established him as a strong one to correct him. LXX: Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one? And shall we not die? O Lord, you have appointed him for judgment: and he has formed me, so that I may chastise in his discipline. Symmachus more clearly: Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, so that I would not die? O Lord, you have appointed him for judgment, you have established him for reproof. To the prophet's complaint, saying: How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? God had answered, saying: Look at the nations and see: and after the preface he had added: Behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation. With every detail complete, whether about Nebuchadnezzar or the devil in the end, it is stated: Then the spirit will change, and it will pass through, and it will fall, this is the might of his God. When the prophet heard and understood, therefore Nabuchodonosor, against Judam, or the devil against believers, can obtain power to rebuke them, and after the rebuke, he himself is also punished in the end, he responded to the Lord: So, are you, my Lord God, my holy one (he speaks these words with a tone of flattery and repentance), the one who created us from the beginning? Upon whose mercy do we still rely? For I did not know that our adversaries could have so much power, nor did I know that Nabuchodonosor or the devil of this world, and all the powers of the nations, had received power. Therefore, no one of us can resist his might. But as for your mercy, it is all that we live, for we have not been killed by him, and have been led to the works of death. For you, Lord, have placed him to judge, so that he himself may be the enemy and avenger, and through him you may rebuke all who have sinned against you. But because we have once interpreted the Chaldeans about demons, and Nebuchadnezzar about their king the devil, we must briefly describe the devil and his power, so that the prophet may justly say: Lord, you have placed him to judge, and have founded him as a mighty one to rebuke. It is raised up against unbelievers and scorners of the nations of demons, bitter for punishment, and present everywhere. It also walks wherever the width of the earth is, in order to possess men, in whom Christ was supposed to dwell. It is horrible and terrifying, and can hardly be overcome by anyone, and is not broken before it comes to fruition with the magnitude of sins and the weight of its own wickedness. His horses and horsemen are always thirsty for blood, like leopards and wolves; they desire plunder, they pretend to be absent, and when they are not expected, they will quickly come from afar. They will fly like an eagle, which, raising its flight, wants to place its nest among the stars of the sky, and always hastens towards its prey. And in Ezekiel, it is described under the figure of Nebuchadnezzar and the king of Egypt, upon the devil. There is no demon who spares: all will come quickly for plunder: ahead of them is a burning wind: whatever they see, whatever is in their sight, they will desire to burn and destroy. But the most powerful king will be in the midst of captives, and he will take their number as the sand of the sea from his satellites on all sides, and he himself will triumph over kings, and his ridiculous tyrants will be. For by his deceit, he will deceive many saints, and those who seemed to be the most powerful to themselves, and exercise tyranny against demons, and cast them out of possessed bodies, he will subject to his servitude, and consider them a laughingstock. But he, the strongest, with a forced hand and a gathered army of the wicked, will laugh at every fortification and will strive to overthrow whatever may happen to be there. For he will bring together a mound, that is, he will surround with earthworks; and when the earth is heaped up, he will easily capture every fortification. However, after such a great victory, his spirit will change, and his mouth will reach up to the heavens, and he will make himself a god, beginning to blaspheme his Creator. And when he does this, he will fall, and the ruin will show how strong his divinity was, and the imitation of idols under whose images he enslaved people to his worship. Therefore, hearing these things, the prophet understands that such a great and powerful king of this world will gather captivity like the sand of the sea and triumph over kings; and that his tyrants will be ridiculous, and he will laugh at every fortification, and he will construct the first rampart and then capture it; and he will be so arrogant as to dare to resist his Creator and make himself like a god, who previously spoke boldly to the Lord; and he had declared himself, or his people, or those on whose behalf he was speaking, to be just: now he bursts forth in words of flattery and says, 'Are you then my Lord God, my Holy One, from the beginning?' And as we do not die, nor are captured by such a great enemy, it is by your mercy. For you, O Lord, have established him as if a torturer; and you have made him strong, so that no one or very few can resist his strength. Moreover, according to the Septuagint, what is said at the end 'And he formed me, that I may reprove in his discipline' can be referred to the person of prophet, so that the meaning is: I have also been inspired as a prophet, that I may reprove the evildoers and teach the discipline of the Lord. Some people think that the Lord, who was formed by the Father and took on a body, is called that in order to teach people about the doctrine of God the Father. But whether this is in harmony with the context of the previous statements and the consistency of the whole passage, it will be for the judgment of the reader rather than me.
[AD 420] Jerome on Habakkuk 1:12