Habakkuk's Analysis Of God’s Creation
God is the Creator of all human and animal life. He created man to live on the earth and he created fish to live in the sea. They have been made differently; therefore, there is nothing in their makeup that is common to them. Yet God referred to man as being like a fish in the sea who has no ruler. He referred to fish as having no ruler to highlight that there is no leader in charge of them. Since fish are leaderless, there is no authority over them; therefore, they take charge of themselves individually. They are accountable to no other fish, so they live in places of their own choice and swim wherever they want to.
Likening man to a fish that has no ruler was to highlight that the Israelites lived their lives independently of God. They had severed their ties with him and did not live in a covenant relationship with him. With no ruler to guide and lead, teach and govern, the Israelites lived as they pleased satisfying their own evil desires. Living out of touch with God resulted in them committing all the atrocious actions of violence, strife, evil, and wickedness that Habakkuk described at the beginning of the chapter.
14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.