Habakkuk 1:8

Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. THEIR HORSES ALSO ARE SWIFTER THAN THE LEOPARDS. Oppian ('Cyneg.' 3:76) says of the leopard, 'It runs most swiftly straight on: you would fancy it was flying through the air.' AND ARE MORE FIERCE - rather, 'more keen;' literally, sharp. THAN THE EVENING WOLVES - wolves famished with fasting all day, and so most keen in attacking the fold under covert of the approaching night (Jeremiah 5:6; Zephaniah 3:3, "Her judges are evening wolves; cf....

The design of these figurative expressions is the same. The Prophet had spoken of the cruelty of those enemies whom the Jews despised: he now adds, that they would be so active as to surpass in velocity both leopards and eagles, or to be at least equal to them. He then says first, that their horses would be swifter then leopards. The Jews might have eluded his threatenings, or at least have cherished their insensibility by a vain confidence, as we see how this vice prevails in the world; for they might have thought thus within themselves, “The Chaldeans are far away, and the danger of which the Prophet speaks cannot be so near at hand.” Hence he declares that their horses would be swifter than leopards. He then adds, that _they would be fiercer than the evening wolves_. The wolf is a rapacious animal; and when he ranges about all the day in vain seeking what he may devour, then in the ev...

1-11 The servants of the Lord are deeply afflicted by seeing ungodliness and violence prevail; especially among those who profess the truth. No man scrupled doing wrong to his neighbour. We should long to remove to the world where holiness and love reign for ever, and no violence shall be before us. God has good reasons for his long-suffering towards bad men, and the rebukes of good men. The day will come when the cry of sin will be heard against those that do wrong, and the cry of prayer for those that suffer wrong. They were to notice what was going forward among the heathen by the Chaldeans, and to consider themselves a nation to be scourged by them. But most men presume on continued prosperity, or that calamities will not come in their days. They are a bitter and hasty nation, fierce, cruel, and bearing down all before them. They shall overcome all that oppose them. But it is a grea...

Verse 8. _THEIR HORSES ALSO ARE SWIFTER THAN THE LEOPARDS_] The Chaldean cavalry are proverbial for swiftness, courage, c. In Jeremiah, Jeremiah 4:13, it is said, speaking of Nebuchadnezzar, "His chariots are as a whirlwind his horses are swifter than eagles." _Oppian_, speaking of the horses bred about the Euphrates, says, "They are by nature warhorses, and so intrepid that neither the sight nor the roaring of the lion appals them; and, besides, they are astonishingly fleet." The _leopard_, of all quadrupeds, is allowed to be the _swiftest_. _THE EVENING WOLVES_] The wolf is remarkable for his quick sight. _AElian_ says, Οξυωτεστατον εστι ζωον, και μεντοι, και νυκτος και σεληνης ουκ ουσης ὁδε ὁρᾳ; "The wolf is a very fleet animal; and, besides, it can see by night, even when there is no moonlight....

THEIR HORSES ARE SWIFTER - literally, lighter, as we say “light of foot” THAN LEOPARDS - The wild beast intended is the panther, the lightest, swiftest, fiercest, most bloodthirsty of beasts of prey “It runs most swiftly and rushes brave and straight. You would say, when you saw it, that it is borne through the air.” Cyril: “It bounds exceedingly and is exceedingly light to spring down on whatever it pursues.” MORE FIERCE - o THAN THE EVENING WOLVES - Compare Jeremiah 5:6, i. e., than they are when fiercest, going forth to prey when urged to rabidness by hunger the whole day through. Such had their own judges been Zephaniah 3:3, and by s

EXPOSITION VERSE 1:1-2:20 PART I. JUDGMENT UPON THE EVIL, IN THE FORM OF A COLLOQUY BETWEEN THE PROPHET AND GOD. HABAKKUK 1:1 § 1. _The inscription of the book. _THE BURDEN (see note on Nahum 1:1). The prophet (Habakkuk 3:1). This title, which is added in the inscriptions only to the names of Haggai and Zechariah, and cursorily to that of Jeremiah (46, 47; 50.), implies that he exercised the pr

THEIR HORSES ALSO ARE SWIFTER THAN THE LEOPARDS,.... Creatures remarkable for their swiftness: these are creatures born of the mating of a he panther and a lioness, and not of a lion and a she panther, as some have affirmed; and which adultery is highly resented by the lion; nor will he suffer it to go unrevenged, as Pliny u and Philostratus w observe: those thus begotten differ from common lions in this, that they have no manes: the panthers are the creatures here meant, which are very swift, as Bochart x from various authors has observed. Lucan y calls this creature "celerem pardum", t"he swift panther"; and Jerom says z nothing is swifter than the panther; and Aelianus a observes that the panther, by the swiftness of its running, will overtake most creatures, and particularly apes; and Eustathius b confirms the same, saying that it exceeds other creatures in swiftness, and as it were...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1 The Judgment of Judah Through the Chaldeans Announced _ 1. The prophet's cry to Jehovah (Habakkuk 1:1) _ 2. The answer (Habakkuk 1:5) 3. The prophet's plea (Habakkuk 1:12) Habakkuk 1:1. The prophet begins his message with a prayer-cry to Jehovah. He whose name is “the embracer” embraces the Lord and cries to Him on account of the conditions prevailing in Judah. The Spirit of God stirred up the heart of Habakkuk on account of the moral conditions in Judah. He is jealous for Jehovah's glory, which manifested itself in hating the evil. “There is no prophetic

THE CHALDEANS AS MINISTERS OF DIVINE JUSTICE. In His answer Yahweh directly addresses the evil-doers, warning them that He is about to work a work in their days they would never have believed: He is raising against them the fierce and dreaded power of the Chaldeans, who are already carrying destruction to the ends of the earth, swooping from afar like eagles on the prey, gathering captives like the sand, scoffing at kings and princes, carrying fortresses with a rush, and making their strength a god. HABAKKUK 1:5. For _baggoyim_, among the nations, read _bog dim_, ye evil-doers (LXX). I WORK (ptcp.): _i.e._ I am just about to work. Habakkuk 1:6. bitter and hasty: rather, fierce and impetuous (vehement)....

MORE FIERCE. keener. SHALL FLY AS THE EAGLE. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 28:49; Deuteronomy 28:50). App-92....