Habakkuk 3:16

When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. WHEN I HEARD, MY BELLY TREMBLED - namely, at the judgments which God had declared (Habakkuk 1:1) were to be inflicted on Judea by the Chaldeans. BELLY - the bowels were thought by the Hebrews to be the seat of yearning compassion (Jeremiah 31:20 "My bowels are troubled for him") Or, "heard" may refer to Habakkuk 3:3, "O, Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid." 'When...

Those interpreters are mistaken in my view, who connect the verb, “I have heard,” with the last verse, as though the Prophet had said, that he had conceived dread from those evidences of God’s power: for the Prophet had no occasion to fear in regarding God as armed with unexpected power for the salvation of his people; there was no reason for such a thing. Hence these things do not agree together. But he returns again to that dread which he had entertained on account of God’s voice in those terrific threatenings which we before referred to. We must always bear in mind the Prophet’s design—that his object was to humble the faithful, that they might suppliantly acknowledge to God their sins and solicit his forgiveness. His purpose also was to animate them with strong hope, that they might nevertheless look for deliverance. He had already said at the beginning, “Lord, I have heard thy voice...

16-19 When we see a day of trouble approach, it concerns us to prepare. A good hope through grace is founded in holy fear. The prophet looked back upon the experiences of the church in former ages, and observed what great things God had done for them, and so was not only recovered, but filled with holy joy. He resolved to delight and triumph in the Lord; for when all is gone, his God is not gone. Destroy the vines and the fig-trees, and you make all the mirth of a carnal heart to cease. But those who, when full, enjoyed God in all, when emptied and poor, can enjoy all in God. They can sit down upon the heap of the ruins of their creature-comforts, and even then praise the Lord, as the God of their salvation, the salvation of the soul, and rejoice in him as such, in their greatest distresses. Joy in the Lord is especially seasonable when we meet with losses and crosses in the world. Even...

Verse Habakkuk 3:16. _WHEN I HEARD, MY BELLY TREMBLED_] The prophet, having finished his account of the wonders done by Jehovah, in bringing their fathers from Egypt into the promised land, now returns to the desolate state of his countrymen, who are shortly to be led into captivity, and suffer the most grievous afflictions; and although he had a _sure word of prophecy_ that they should be ultimately _delivered_, yet the thoughts of the evils they must previously endure filled his soul with terror and dismay; so that he wishes to be removed from earth before this tribulation should come, that his eyes might not behold the desolations of his country. _When he_ (Nebuchadnezzar) _cometh up unto the people,_ (the Jews,) _he will invade them_ (overpower and carry them away captive) _with_ _his troops_....

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 of the brief triumphing of the wicked and of the trials of God’s people. But awful as are all the judgments of God upon the enemies of His people, it was not this alone which was the object of his terror. This was deliverance. It was the whole course of God’s dispensations, which he had heard; God’s punishment of His people for their sins, and the excision of their oppressors, who, in His Providence, fulfilling their own evil end, executed His chastisements upon them. The deliverances, which shadowed out the future, had their dark side, in that they were deliverances. The whole course of this...

EXPOSITION HABAKKUK 3:1 Part II. PSALM OR PRAYER OF HABAKKUK. HABAKKUK 3:1 § 1. _The title._ A PRAYER. There is only one formal prayer in the ode, that in Habakkuk 3:2; but the term is used of any devotional composition; and, indeed, the whole poem may be regarded as the development of the precatory sentences in the proemium. (For other hymns in the prophetical books, see Isaiah 24:1, and...

WHEN I HEARD, MY BELLY TREMBLED,.... His bowels, his heart within him, at the report made of what would come to pass in future time; and not so much at hearing of the judgments of God that should come upon the enemies of his Church, antichrist and his followers; though even these are awful and tremendous to good men; see Psalms 119:120 but upon hearing what troubles and distresses would come upon the churches of Christ, previous to these, afterwards called a day of trouble in this verse, and more particularly described in the next Habakkuk 3:17: MY LIPS QUIVERED AT THE VOICE; at the voice of these words, as the Targum; at the voice of the Lord, expressing and foretelling these calamities, through fear and dread, consternation and amazement; under which circumstances t

CHAPTER 3 The Vision of the Coming of the Lord _ 1. The prophet's prayer (Habakkuk 3:1) _ 2. The coming of the Lord for judgment and redemption (Habakkuk 3:3) 3. The effect upon the prophet (Habakkuk 3:16) Habakkuk 3:1. Once more we hear the voice of the man of God in prayer. Shigionoth is the plural of Shiggaion, and is found in the superscription of Psalms 7:1. Its meaning is “loud crying.” The connection with the seventh Psalm is interesting. In that Psalm God appeared to David as the God of judgment, the right

HABAKKUK 3. THE PRAYER OF HABAKKUK. Habakkuk 3:1. Shigionoth: probably plural of _shiggaion_ (Psalms 7:1, p. 373). But LXX reads _n e ginoth_, on the stringed instruments (_cf._ Psalms 4:1; Psalms 6:1, etc.). HABAKKUK 3:2. The poet has both heard of and seen Yahweh's doings in days gone by, and prays Him anew to reveal His saving power to His people. For _yarethi_, I was afraid, read _ra-' ithi_, I have seen (LXX), to be taken with the following words: thus, I have seen Thy work, O Lord. IN THE MIDST OF THE YEARS:...

WHEN. HEARD. See the Structure (p. 1269). BELLY. body. VOICE. voice [saying]. ROTTENNESS. decay. Some codices, with Aramaean, Septuagint, and Syriac, read "restlessness". MYSELF. Place. full stop here, and commence. new sentence. THAT. MIGHT. O that. might find (or be at) rest, &c. HE: i.e. the invader. UNTO. against. HE WILL INVADE. he will overcome. Heb _gud._ Occurs only here, and Genesis 49:19....