Habakkuk 3 - Introduction
_HABBAKKUK IN HIS PRAYER TREMBLETH AT GOD'S MAJESTY. THE CONFIDENCE OF HIS FAITH._ _Before Christ 690._... [ Continue Reading ]
_HABBAKKUK IN HIS PRAYER TREMBLETH AT GOD'S MAJESTY. THE CONFIDENCE OF HIS FAITH._ _Before Christ 690._... [ Continue Reading ]
A PRAYER OF HABAKKUK— שׁגינות _Shigionoth_ signifies _wanderings._ This word of the prophet seems to relate both to the _deviations_ of the Jewish people from God's law, and also to their wandering, or being removed from their land on that account. Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, render the word... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD CAME FROM TEMAN— The prophet, having offered up his petition for shortening the captivity, proceeds in the next place, from Habakkuk 3:3 to recount the wonderful works which Jehovah had formerly wrought, to deliver his people from Egyptian slavery, and to put them in possession of the land of Ca... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HIS BRIGHTNESS WAS AS THE LIGHT— Green renders this verse thus: His brightness was as the brightness of the sun; He had rays of light beaming from his hand. (See Deuteronomy 33:2.) And there was the hiding-place of his power. As the cloud was a hiding-place or veil to the glory of Jehovah, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE HIM WENT THE PESTILENCE— See Ezekiel 20:47. Houbigant, supposing this to refer to God's appearance on mount Sinai, instead of _pestilence,_ which he thinks ill suited to the subject, renders the word דבר _daber, commandment,_ as the LXX, λογος, or _Word;_ referring to the ten commandments whi... [ Continue Reading ]
HE STOOD AND MEASURED THE EARTH— _He stood, and measured out the land; he beheld, and scattered the nations: The eternal mountains dispersed, the perpetual hills bowed; the everlasting ways opened their Lord._ Green; who observes, that it was customary for a conqueror, as soon as he became possessed... [ Continue Reading ]
I SAW THE TENTS OF CUSHAN IN AFFLICTION— _I saw the tents of Cushan,_ or _of Ethiopia, in consternation, and the tent curtains of the land of Midian trembled._ Since Moses's wife, who was a Midianite, is called Numbers 12:1 a _Cushite_ (that is, _Ethiopian_), _Cushan_ may be here another name for _M... [ Continue Reading ]
WAS THE LORD DISPLEASED AGAINST THE RIVERS— That is, "When thou appearedst, O Jehovah, at the Red Sea, in thy chariot of war, with thy bow drawn in thy hand, was it that thou wast displeased with the sea?"—The answer follows in the next verse, "No; _Thou layedst bare thy bow, to fight for Israel, ac... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DIDST CLEAVE THE EARTH, &C.— The 10th verse should certainly begin with this clause, where the prophet begins a new subject. Green renders it, Thou cleavedst the dry land into rivers. See commentary on Habakkuk 3:8... [ Continue Reading ]
_HABAKKUK 3:10_. The mountains saw thee, and were in pangs: see Psalms 77:16; Psalms 114:4. _HABAKKUK 3:10. THE OVERFLOWING,_ &C.— _The overflowing water hasted away._ Green. At the season when the Israelites passed over Jordan, this river overflowed its banks; but as soon as the priests who bare th... [ Continue Reading ]
AT THE LIGHT OF THINE ARROWS THEY WENT— _By their light thine arrows fled abroad, and by their shinings thy glittering spear._ When Joshua fought against the Amorites, at his command the sun and moon stood still, to give the Israelites time for the destruction of their enemies; and while these gave... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DIDST MARCH, &C.— Jehovah is here represented as marching before his people through the land of Canaan, in his chariot of war, and trampling under foot those that rise up against him. The second clause should be rendered, _Thou didst trample under foot the nations in anger._ It is the same figu... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN FOR SALVATION WITH THINE ANOINTED— _For the salvation of thine anointed. Thou woundedst the head of the house of the wicked; thou rasedst the foundations even to the rock._ Habakkuk 3:14. _Thou piercedst through with thy sceptre the head of the villages._ Green. The persons who are said in this... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DIDST STRIKE, &C.— Green, as we have seen in the former note, joins this clause to the 13th verse. Houbigant reads it thus, _Thou with thy sceptre didst strike through the head of his princes, who rushed forth with violence to destroy me, and who rejoiced like those who are about to devour the... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU DIDST WALK THROUGH THE SEA— See the note on Habakkuk 3:8 where an exposition of this verse is given: but Green understands it very differently, thus, Thou marchedst with thine horses to the western sea, To the heap of great waters. ים _iam,_ says he, is frequently put by way of eminence, for... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN I HEARD, MY BELLY TREMBLED; MY LIPS QUIVERED, &C.— The prophet, having recounted, for the present encouragement of the faithful, the wonderful works which God had formerly done for his people, returns again to set forth in what manner he was affected with the judgments pronounced against them;... [ Continue Reading ]
ALTHOUGH THE FIG-TREE SHALL NOT BLOOM, &C.— For then the fig-tree shall not flourish, Nor shall fruit be on the vines: The produce of the olives shall fail, And the fields shall supply no food: The flocks shall be cut off from the fold, And no herds shall be left in the stalls. It was during this... [ Continue Reading ]
YET— Or, _But for my part._ Instead of, _The God of my salvation,_ the Vulgate reads, _In Jesus my God:_ that Jesus, says Calmet, who is the joy, the consolation, the hope, the life of believers; without whom the world can offer us nothing but false joys; who was the object of the desires, and the p... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE WILL MAKE ME TO WALK, &C.— _And cause me to tread again on my own high places._ By _high places,_ the prophet seems to mean the fruitful hills of Judaea; at least Moses uses the word in this sense, Deuteronomy 32:13. Some are of opinion, that Habakkuk speaks only of the strongholds of the lan... [ Continue Reading ]