Habakkuk 2:4 (ESV)

4 “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith.

A Puffed-up People & A Righteous People

God showed Habakkuk what the Babylonians were like. They were a proud nation with inflated egos whose desires were not upright. Their souls, which referred to their inner being, were not right with God. They were full of evil which was displayed in their wicked deeds and actions.

In contrast, God’s righteous people were to conduct their lives in a totally different way to that of the Babylonians. He required them to live by faith which meant that they were to trust and depend upon God and not themselves.