A PRAYER OF HABAKKUK - o. The “prayer” of the prophet, in the strictest sense of the word, is contained in the words of Habakkuk 3:2. The rest is, in its form, praise and thanksgiving, chiefly for God’s past mercies in the deliverance from Egypt and the entering into the promised land. But thanksgiv... [ Continue Reading ]
O LORD, I HAVE HEARD - i. e., with the inward ear of the heart, “Thy speech,” (rather as English margin, Thy report, i. e., the report of Thee) i. e., what may he heard and known of God, or, what he had himself heard . The word contains in one both what God had lately declared to the prophet, the ju... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD CAME - literally, shall come FROM TEMAN - “God shall come,” as He came of old, clothed with majesty and power; but it was not mere power. The center of the whole picture is, as Micah and Isaiah had prophesied that it was to be, a new revelation Isaiah 2:3; Micah 4:2 : “The law shall go forth fro... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HIS BRIGHTNESS - that wherein God dwelleth Ezekiel 10:4, “the brightness of the Lord’s glory,” before which darkness fleeth Psalms 18:12, “was as the light,” or as the sun. Out of the midst of the darkness, wherewith God, as it were Exodus 19:9, Exodus 19:16; Exodus 20:21, hid Himself, the brigh... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE HIM WENT (GOETH) THE PESTILENCE - then to consume His enemies. Exodus 23:27 : “I will send My fear before thee, and will destroy all the people, to whom thou shalt come,” and the lightnings are a token that, Psalms 68:1, “they which hate Him, flee before Him, and the wicked perish at the Pres... [ Continue Reading ]
HE STOOD - It is “a metaphor of his giving victory to Israel” Tanchum. AND MEASURED - So Kimchi, A. E., Rashi, Tanchum, Vulgate. It is borne out by Hithpolel. “extended himself,” 1 Kings 17:21. By an interchange of dentals; מוד might be = מוט, and so the Aramaic and the Septuagint but in no other c... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAW - in prophetic vision 1 Kings 22:17. THE TENTS OF CUSHAN IN (UNDER) AFFLICTION - Upon the coming of the Lord there follows the visitation of those alien from Him. . Cushan-Rishathaim was the first, whose ambition God overruled to chasten His people Judges 3:8.. It has been remarked that as “ki... [ Continue Reading ]
WAS THE LORD DISPLEASED AGAINST THE RIVERS? - The prophet asks the question thrice, as to the two miracles of the dividing of the Red Sea and the Jordan River, thereby the more earnestly declaring, that God meant somewhat by these acts and beyond them. He asks, as Daniel Daniel 7:16. and Zechariah a... [ Continue Reading ]
THY BOW WAS MADE QUITE NAKED - The word is repeated for emphasis. Literally, (In) “nakedness, it was laid naked;” the sheath being laid aside and cast away, as Isaiah says, Isaiah 22:6. “Kir laid bare the shield.” Gregory, Mor. xix. 9. n. 54, Compare Augustine in Psalms 59, n. 6.: The bow represents... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MOUNTAINS SAW THEE AND THEY TREMBLED - literally, “they tremble.” While man is insensate, inanimate nature feels and attests the presence of its Maker. “It saw it trembles.” To see, feel, tremble were one. The prophet does not follow a bare order of events, or bind himself to miracles which actu... [ Continue Reading ]
SUN AND MOON STOOD STILL (AS ONE ACT RETIRING INTO) IN THEIR HABITATION - They withdrew, as it were, in the midst of the great tempest, wherein Joshua 10:11. “God cast down great stones from heaven upon” His enemies and they died; and “the sun stood still, and the moon stayed.” The sun too withdrew... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DIDST MARCH THE EARTH IN INDIGNATION - The word “tread” is used of very solemn manifestations of God, (Judges 5:4; Psalms 68:8; of the procession of the ark, 2 Samuel 6:13. It is denied as to the idols, Jeremiah 10:5.) of His going to give to His own victory over their enemies Not the land only... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU WENTEST FORTH - Even a Jew says of this place, Kimchi: “The past is here used for the future; and this is frequent in the language of prophecy; for prophecy, although it be future, yet since it is, as it were, firmly fixed, they use the past concerning it.” The prophet speaks again in the past,... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DIDST STRIKE THROUGH WITH HIS STAVES THE HEAD OF HIS VILLAGES - The destruction comes not upon himself only, but upon the whole multitude of his subjects; and this not by any mere act of divine might, but “with his own staves,” turning upon him the destruction which he prepared for others. So i... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DIDST WALK THROUGH THE SEA WITH THINE HORSES - God Himself is pictured as leading them on the way, Himself at the head of their multitude, having, as Asaph said of old “His path in the sea.” So Isaiah Isaiah 63:13. “who leddest them in the depths;” and Zechariah Zechariah 10:11. “And he shall p... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I HEARD - , better, “I heard and ...” The prophet sums up, resuming that same declaration with which he had begun, “I heard, I was afraid.” Only now he expresses far more strongly both his awe at God’s judgments and his hopes. He had just beheld the image of the destruction of Pharaoh, the end... [ Continue Reading ]
ALTHOUGH - literally, For THE FIG TREE SHALL NOT BLOSSOM - The prophet repeats his confidence in God, premising his knowledge that all human hopes should fail. I know, he says, all stay and support shall fail; he numbers from the least to the greatest, the fruits of trees, the fig, vine and olive,... [ Continue Reading ]
YET I WILL REJOICE IN THE LORD, I WILL JOY IN THE GOD OF MY SALVATION. - The words are very impressive, as they stand in the Hebrew. “For,” he says, “the fig tree shall not blossom, and there is no fruit in the vines, the labor of the olive hath failed;” (the prophet does not look on, only to these... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD GOD IS MY STRENGTH - The prophet does not inwardly only exult and triumph in God, but he confesses also in words of praise, that in Him he hath all things, that He is All things in him. And as he had confessed the Father, under the Name whereby He revealed Himself to Moses, and the Son, “th... [ Continue Reading ]