III. (1-15) A hymn describing a future self-manifestation of Jehovah on Israel’s behalf, accompanied by the signs and wonders of the early history. It is impossible to give the English reader an idea of the rhythmical structure of this beautiful composition. We will only observe that it is independ... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON SHIGIONOTH. — This term points, not to the contents of the composition, but either to its metrical structure or its musical setting. See on the Inscription of Psalms 7. Inasmuch as this ode is throughout an account of the deliverance anticipated by prayerful faith, it is called not a Psalm, _mi... [ Continue Reading ]
THY SPEECH. — Better, _thy report,_ as in margin. The tone is that of Psalms 44:1, “We have heard with our ears O God! our fathers have told us... ” Jehovah’s doings at the _beginning_ of the years are well known; the prophet seeks that they may be manifested again, now in the _midst_ of the years.... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD CAME. — Render “_God shall come from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covers the heavens, and the earth is full of His praise._” Jehovah reveals Himself from the south: _i.e.,_ from Mount Sinai, as in Deuteronomy 32; Judges 5; Psalms 68. The southern country is here des... [ Continue Reading ]
(3-15) Habakkuk describes the “Theophany” or self-manifestation of Jehovah, which is to introduce the desired deliverance. The Authorised Version has unfortunately rendered all the verbs in this section in the _past_ tense, thus obscuring the sense of the poem. They all refer to a scene really futur... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HIS BRIGHTNESS WAS AS THE LIGHT.... — Better, _And a brightness shall there be, like sunlight, and rays are at His side; and there_ [_i.e.,_ in this radiance] _is the tabernacle of His power. _... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE HIM WENT THE PESTILENCE.... — Better, _Before Him shall go the plague, and burning pestilence shall go forth where He sets His feet._ Kleinert remarks that it was with these angels of death that Jehovah revealed Himself in the south, and destroyed the armies of Sennacherib (2 Kings 19:35).... [ Continue Reading ]
HE STOOD, AND MEASURED THE EARTH... — Better, _He has taken His stand and measured the earth, He has looked and made the heathen tremble; and the primeval mountains are broken up, the ancient hills sink down; His goings are as of old; i.e.,_ His proceedings are the same as of old time, when He broug... [ Continue Reading ]
“I SAW.” — Better, I _see._ DID TREMBLE. — Better, _are trembling._ Probably the imagery is still borrowed from the Exodus story, the nations instanced being the borderers on the Red Sea — viz., Cushan (Cush, or Ethiopia) on the west, and Midian on the east side. A plausible theory, however, as old... [ Continue Reading ]
WAS THE LORD DISPLEASED? — Better, _Is it with the rivers Jehovah is wroth? Is Thine anger against the rivers? Is Thy wrath against the sea? — that Thou_ (thus) _ridest upon Thy horses, that Thy chariots_ (thus appear) _for deliverance?_ OF SALVATION. — Better, _for salvation,_ or _for deliverance.... [ Continue Reading ]
THY BOW WAS MADE QUITE NAKED. — Better, _Thy bow shall be bared, even the chastisements sworn by Thy word. Selah. With rivers shalt thou cleave the earth._ God’s chastisements, which are compared in Psalms 21:12 to arrows fitted to the string, are here represented as a bow taken out of the case, and... [ Continue Reading ]
THE MOUNTAINS SAW THEE. — The earthquake at Sinai and the dividing of the Red Sea, the waters of which were lifted up “as a wall on the right hand and on the left” of Israel, lie at the basis of this description. This imagery, however, of sweeping floods and quaking mountains is usual in poetical ac... [ Continue Reading ]
(10-18) All the verbs in these verses are misrendered as regards tense. (See note on 3-15.)... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SUN AND MOON STAND STILL IN THEIR HABITATION — _scil.,_ where they were at the beginning of the judgment. Here, of course, Habakkuk has in mind Joshua 10:12. The rest of the verse is best rendered, _at the light of Thine arrows which go abroad, at the bright glancing of Thy spear._ Apparently, t... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DIDST MARCH. — Here the verbs are in the future, and are to be rendered accordingly.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU WENTEST. — Here the verbs, though past, are best rendered by the English present. EVEN FOR SALVATION... — Better, _even for the salvation of Thine anointed_ — _scil.,_ Thy chosen people, as also, perhaps, in Psalms 105:15. The rendering of the Authorised Version has the support of Aquila and t... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DOST STRIKE THROUGH WITH HIS STAVES... — Better, _Thou dost pierce with his_ (_scil.,_ thine anointed people’s) _spears the head of his_ (the enemy’s) _princes, when they sweep by to scatter me abroad, when they exult as if to devour the afflicted secretly._ The first clause is very obscure. _M... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DIDST WALK. — Better, _Thou walkest._ “Heap” is probably the correct translation of _chômer_ here, as in Exodus 8:10. With this glance at the miraculous passage of the Red Sea (see Habakkuk 3:8) this prophetic poem comes to a sudden termination. The new paragraph begins with Habakkuk 3:16, not,... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT I MIGHT REST... — Better, _that I should be resting quiet in the day of trouble, when he cometh up against the people who is to oppress them. _... [ Continue Reading ]
(16-19) Habakkuk now reverts abruptly to the Divine sentence of Habakkuk 1:5 _et seq.,_ and describes with what emotion he meditates on the coming disasters, and on his own inability to prevent them. His anxiety is, however, swept aside by a joyful and overpowering confidence in God. These verses ar... [ Continue Reading ]
ALTHOUGH. — Better, _For._ The conjunction connects this verse with what precedes, and explains Habakkuk’s affliction more fully. With the sword shall come famine, invasion as usual producing desolation.... [ Continue Reading ]
YET — _i.e.,_ in spite of all the afflictions predicted in Habakkuk 3:17. We are reminded of St. Paul’s expression of confidence in Romans 8:37.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD GOD. — This is an adaptation from Psalms 18:33. The “hinds’ feet” indicate the strength and elasticity of the prophet’s confidence; the “high places” are, as Kleinert observes, “the heights of salvation which stand at the end of the way of tribulation, and which only the righteous man can c... [ Continue Reading ]