Habakkukchapter 3
19 verses · Habakkuk · 609 to 605 BC · The Twelve
Though the fig tree does not bud and no fruit is on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the sheep are cut off from the fold and no cattle are in the stalls,
Introduction
Habakkuk, The Twelve, Habakkuk Overview.
This chapter is the prophet's answer to all he has heard, and he wrote it as a song for the temple singers. He knows that an invasion is coming and that he cannot stop it. He prays, remembers, trembles, and then decides how he will live. The first singers were people whose fields and flocks were about to be lost. Listen for the old stories of Israel's rescue woven through the middle, and for the single word near the end on which the whole book turns. It teaches a person how to worship before the loss arrives.
Context
- Who
- A congregation singing it together, before the invasion arrived
- What
- A prayer set to music in which the prophet asks for mercy, recalls God's coming to save His people, and resolves to rejoice in the LORD though everything fails.
- Where
- Judah, in the setting of temple worship, as the chapter's heading and its note to the choirmaster show.
- When
- The book gives no date, and the most likely setting is 609 to 605 BC, while the Chaldean invasion was still ahead.
- Why
- To lead Judah in worship before the invasion came, and to show that faith can rejoice in God when every earthly support is gone.
Historical context
Chapter 3 is formally a psalm. It carries a musical heading ("upon Shigionoth"), the word Selah three times in the body, and a closing note "to the chief singer on my stringed instruments", the same kind of directions found on psalms in the Psalter. This was written to be sung in public worship.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The middle of it is a theophany, a description of God arriving, and it is stitched together from Israel's founding memories. God comes from Teman and Mount Paran, in the south, which is Sinai country. There is pestilence and burning coals, the mountains scatter, the sun and moon stand still, the sea is divided, and the earth is threshed in anger.
The point of reaching back is that the God who is about to let Babylon in is the same God who came out of the desert with Israel in the first place. Habakkuk's prayer is: revive thy work in the midst of the years; in wrath remember mercy.
Then the tone drops from cosmic to physical. Habakkuk says his belly trembled, his lips quivered, rottenness entered his bones, and he trembled in himself, that he would rest in the day of trouble. He is not calm. He is decided.
The last lines are an agricultural inventory of total ruin: no figs, no grapes, the olive crop failed, no herd in the stall. Those were the staples of the whole economy. Losing all of them at once is losing everything.
Significance
This is where a book of complaints lands, and it is not on an explanation. Habakkuk never gets one. He gets God.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
"Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation" was sung by people whose fig trees really were about to fail. It taught a generation how to worship in advance of a loss they could already see coming, and how to walk on high places while the fields were bare.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no reading in the site's synagogue table. Probed for this lane, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed 0 weekly portions and no Haftarah use for Habakkuk 3, and no festival reading for the book. The same probe printed 54 weekly portions and 6 festival readings in the table as a whole.
Under the first verse the corpus carries Megillah 31a:8. That is the Talmud page the site's own table cites for the reading of Jonah on the Day of Atonement. The corpus holds its ref without its text, and the site's table records no reading drawn from this chapter.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Every quotation from it is fifty words or fewer because the translation is modern.
He opens the prayer with two readings. One follows the Targum. By the plain sense, he says, "Habakkuk is begging for mercy for himself because he spoke rebelliously" in the first chapter (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:1:1). The prophet asks pardon for having "criticized the Divine standard of justice" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:1:1).
The report the prophet heard is that God "always inflicted retribution upon those who provoked You, yet You tolerate this wicked man" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:2:1). The prophet then asks God to revive "the deed of the love of Israel and the retribution of the first generations" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:3:1).
The theophany of the third to fifth verses is read as the giving of the Torah. "When You came to give the Torah, You went around to Esau and Ishmael, and they did not accept it" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:3:1). Teman is Esau (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:3:2). The light is "the special light of the seven days of Creation," as Jonathan renders it (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:4:2). At the pestilence Rashi reports a Midrash Aggadah in which God drove away the Angel of Death at Sinai (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:5:1). Of the sparks at His feet Rashi writes, "Fiery angels came with Him to Sinai" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:5:2).
The rest of the prayer is read as the history of Israel's deliverances. The sixth verse recalls the generation of the Flood (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:6:1). The sun and moon standing still recall "the war of Gibeon, as the Targum paraphrases it" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:11:1). The anointed of the thirteenth verse is "Saul and David" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:13:1). The pierced heads of the fourteenth are "Sennacherib and his company" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:14:1).
The close of the prayer turns on the failing harvest. Rashi gives the Targum's reading first. By the simple meaning, "none of Babylon’s deeds shall succeed" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:17:1). The joy of the eighteenth verse belongs to "the nation of Israel" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:18:1). At the last verse Rashi places the prayer in the Temple service, sung by "the Levite who conducts the music in the Temple" (Rashi on Habakkuk 3:19:1).
The corpus carries one further note on this chapter without an English text, marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. It stands cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Habakkuk 3:1:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 40 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 11 that it files under Talmud and 29 under Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased.
On verse 1 it holds Megillah 31a:8, Midrash Tehillim 7:19 and Midrash Tehillim 90:1. On verse 2 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 5:3, Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Miketz 30 and Bereshit Rabbati, Parashat Vayetze 47. On verse 3 it holds Avodah Zarah 2b:12, Bamidbar Rabbah 12:7 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Avodah Zarah 1:2. On verse 4 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 2:6, Ein Yaakov, Pesakhim 1:11 and Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 27:2:1. On verse 5 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 12:3, Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 33:3:26 and Midrash Tehillim 5:5.
On verse 6 it holds Avodah Zarah 2b:17, Bava Kamma 38a:3 and Bava Kamma 38a:8. On verse 8 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 68:9 and Midrash Tehillim 18:12. On verse 9 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 11:3 and Bamidbar Rabbah 13:20. On verse 10 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 84:5 and Jerusalem Talmud Rosh Hashanah 3:8:2. On verse 11 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 33:2 and Bamidbar Rabbah 15:9.
On verse 12 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 15:6 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Shirah 5:16. On verse 13 it holds Midrash Aggadah, Deuteronomy 3:23:7 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 11:3:4. On verse 14 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 38:2 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:15. On verse 15 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 27:1 and Avot DeRabbi Natan 27:2. On verse 16 it holds Ein Yaakov, Yoma 8:6 and Midrash Aggadah, Leviticus 21:1:4.
On verse 17 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan, Recension B 5:4 and Bereshit Rabbah 53:3. On verse 19 it holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:28 and Midrash Tehillim 22:1.
What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Habakkuk 3:1:1 to 3:19:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Habakkuk 3:1:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/habakkuk/3.json, the 40 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter, Megillah 31a:8 among them; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Habakkuk 3: no weekly portion, no Haftarah use and no festival reading; its header cites Megillah 31a for the reading of Jonah on the Day of Atonement.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
God came from Teman and his glory covered the heavens
Habakkuk 3:1-2
This is a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet: The book turns from dialogue to worship with a prayer set "according to Shigionoth," a term the older commentators read as a wild, irregular song. The prophet prays, "Revive them in these years". He accepts the judgment and still asks for mercy inside it: "In Your wrath, remember mercy!"
Habakkuk 3:1
“The prophet Habakkuk gives this title to his canticle: "A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet for ignorance." For he had spoken in a bold manner to the Lord and had said, "How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and you will not hear? Shall I cry to you 'suffering violence,' and you will not save? Why have you shown me iniquity and grievance, to see rapine and injustice before me? Judgment is done against me and opposition is more powerful.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Against the Pelagians 1.39patristic
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Habakkuk 3:1
“A prayer of Habakkuk - o. The “prayer” of the prophet, in the strictest sense of the word, is contained in the words of Hab 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 thanksgiving is an essential part of prayer, and Hannah is said to have “prayed,” whereas the hymn which followed is throughout one thanksgiving .”
Habakkuk 3:1
“He calls it his own prayer, not because he used it himself privately, or composed it for himself, but that the prayer might have some authority among the people; for they knew that a form of prayer dictated for them by the mouth of a Prophet, was the same as though the Spirit itself was to show them how they were to pray to God.”
John Calvin · Commentaries (1554)reformed
Habakkuk 3:1
“More simply, from a Hebrew root to "err," "on account of sins of ignorance." Habakkuk thus teaches his countrymen to confess not only their more grievous sins, but also their errors and negligences, into which they were especially likely to fall when in exile away from the Holy Land [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
In Your wrath, remember mercy!: The prophet accepts the judgment and asks for mercy inside it. John Wesley reads the report as God's answer to the questions of 1:13 and 14. Matthew Henry notes that even those under the tokens of God's wrath must not despair of His mercy.
Habakkuk 3:2
“In the midst of the years - בקרב שנים bekereb shanim, “As the years approach.” The nearer the time, the clearer and fuller is the prediction; and the signs of the times show that the complete fulfillment is at hand. But as the judgments will be heavy, (and they are not greater than we deserve), yet, Lord, in the midst of wrath - infliction of punishment - remember mercy, and spare the souls that return unto thee with humiliation and prayer.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 3:2
O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid,.... Or, "thy hearing" (p); which the Lord had caused to be heard from and of himself; the report that had been made to him, and other prophets before him, particularly Isaiah, who says, "who hath believed our report?"
Habakkuk 3:2
“This is Habakkuk's reply to God's communication [GROTIUS]. MAURER translates, "the report of Thy coming," literally, "Thy report." and was afraid--reverential fear of God's judgments (Hab 3:16). revive thy work--Perfect the work of delivering Thy people, and do not let Thy promise lie as if it were dead, but give it new life by performing it [MENOCHIUS].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Habakkuk 3:2
“Thy speech - In answer to the inquiry made chap. i, 13, 14. Was afraid - Trembled at what thou speakest. In the midst of the years - Even before the seventy years are expired.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Habakkuk 3:3-4
God came from Teman: God is pictured coming "from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran," the southern wilderness of the exodus. Deuteronomy 33:2 names Sinai and Mount Paran for His coming. Then "His glory covered the heavens," and rays flash "from His hand, where His power is hidden."
Habakkuk 3:3
“God came from Teman,.... Or, "may God come from Teman" (t); since it is part of the prayer of Habakkuk: or, as "from Teman" (u); as he of old came from thence, a city in the land of Edom, Jer 49:7 it was five miles from Petra, in Idumea, where was Mount Seir, from whence the Lord arose, and shone forth from Mount Paran, at the giving of the law, Deu 33:2 to which the allusion is here. So the Targum, "at the giving of the law to his people, God was revealed from the south;'' for so Teman signifies.”
2 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 3:3
“God--singular in the Hebrew, "Eloah," instead of "Elohim," plural, usually employed. The singular is not found in any other of the minor prophets, or Jeremiah, or Ezekiel; but it is in Isaiah, Daniel, Job, and Deuteronomy. from Teman--the country south of Judea and near Edom, in which latter country Mount Paran was situated [HENDERSON].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Habakkuk 3:3
“And there are also some of them who say, "The Lord hath spoken in Zion, and uttered His voice from Jerusalem;" and, "In Judah is God known;" -these indicated His advent which took place in Judea. Those, again, who declare that "God comes from the south, and from a mountain thick with foliage," announced His advent at Bethlehem, as I have pointed out in the preceding book. From that place, also, He who rules, and who feeds the people of His Father, has come.”
Irenaeus · written before 202 · Against Heresies 4:33.11patristic
where His power is hidden: The light that shows God also veils Him. John Wesley reads it as a brightness that revealed much of His glory and hid much more. Adam Clarke explains the rays from the Hebrew karnayim, a word that also means horns, as beams of light flashing out from one place.
Habakkuk 3:4
“He had horns coming out of his hand - קרנים karnayim, rays. His hand - his power - was manifested in a particular place, by the sudden issuing out of pencils of rays, which diverged in coruscations of light, so as to illuminate the whole hemisphere. Yet “there was the hiding of his power.” His Majesty could not be seen, nor any kind of image, because of the insufferable splendor. This may either refer to the lightnings on Mount Sinai or to the brightness which occasionally proceeded from the shechinah or glory of God between the cherubim, over the mercy-seat.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 3:4
“His hand - The face of Moses shined; the face, yea, hands of our God, shine with glorious light. There - In that light wherewith he appeared. The hiding - Which discovered much of it, but hid much more; it was light inaccessible.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Habakkuk 3:4
“The rays are His lightnings (Ps 18:8), [MAURER]. there--in that "brightness." In it, notwithstanding its brilliancy, there was but the veil "(the hiding) of His power." Even "light," God's "garment," covers, instead of revealing fully, His surpassing glory (Ps 104:2) [HENDERSON]. Or, on Mount Sinai [DRUSIUS].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Habakkuk 3:5-7
Plague went before Him: The LORD advances with a vanguard of His own, for "Plague went before Him". When "He stood and measured the earth," the "perpetual hills collapsed". The vision then names "the tents of Cushan," which Edward Pusey and Carl Friedrich Keil place in the regions Israel crossed in the exodus.
Habakkuk 3:5
“As Jehovah's advent is glorious to His people, so it is terrible to His foes. burning coals-- Ps 18:8 favors English Version. But the parallelism requires, as the Margin translates, "burning disease" (compare De 32:24; Ps 91:6). went . . . at his feet--that is, after Him, as His attendants (Jud 4:10).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
His ways are everlasting: The oldest hills give way, and God's ways last. Matthew Henry reads His everlasting ways as the eternal counsel behind His providence and His unchanging covenant. Adam Clarke hears in the measuring of the earth the dividing of the promised land among the tribes.
Habakkuk 3:6
“He stood, and measured the earth - ארץ erets, the land; he divided the promised land among the twelve tribes. This is the allusion; and this the prophet had in his eye. God not only made a general assignment of the land to the Hebrews; but he even divided it into such portions as the different families required. Here were both power and condescension. When a conqueror had subdued a country, he divided it among his soldiers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 3:6
“He stood - Gave his presence with Joshua, as one that stood by while the work was done. The land - The promised land. He beheld - Looked with a frowning countenance.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Habakkuk 3:6
“To this he adds, His ways are everlasting, that is, all the motions of his providence are according to his eternal counsels; and he is the same for ever, that which he was yesterday and to-day. His covenant is unchangeable, and his mercy endures for ever.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the curtains of Midian were trembling: The desert tents of Cushan and Midian shake at God's coming. John Gill takes the two names as one people, since their tents were made of curtains. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note Numbers 12:1, where the Midianite wife of Moses is called a Cushite.
Habakkuk 3:7
“I saw - in prophetic vision 1Ki 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 Jdg 3:8-10.. It has been remarked that as “king of Aram-Naharaim” or North Mesopotamia, he was probably sovereign of the Aram, from which Balak king of Moab, allied with Midian, sent for Balaam to curse Israel.”
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 3:7
“So Lotan is found in the Hebrew of Genesis for Lot. BOCHART therefore considers it equivalent to Midian, or a part of Arabia. So in Nu 12:1, Moses' Midianite wife is called an Ethiopian (Hebrew, Cushite).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
You marched through the sea with your horses
Habakkuk 3:8-9
Were You angry at the rivers, O LORD?: The prophet asks whether God was "angry at the rivers," with His wrath "against the streams," and so recalls the parted sea and the Jordan. The same verse names the real purpose, "Your chariots of salvation". The exodus is remembered here as the pattern for deliverance still to come.
Habakkuk 3:8
“Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? - Floods; here is a reference to the passage of the Red Sea. The Lord is represented as heading his troops, riding in his chariot, and commanding the sea to divide, that a free passage might be left for his army to pass over.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 3:8
“For a soul that is at peace quickly turns and corrects itself, even if it has sinned before, and Christ ascends to it more fully and deigns to rule it, to which it is said: "Mount your horses, your chariot of health." And elsewhere: "I have sent forth your horses to Tharsis." Behold the horses of Christ. Thus, Christ ascends his horses, the Word of God ascends to holy souls.”
Ambrose of Milan · written before 397 · On Isaac and the Soul 8.66patristic
You brandished Your bow: God is pictured armed for His people. Adam Clarke and John Gill describe a bow drawn out of its case and arrows taken from the quiver. Older translations read an oath to the tribes in the next phrase, and John Wesley takes it as the promise sworn to the fathers.
Habakkuk 3:9
“Thy bow was made quite naked,.... It was took out of its case, and arrows out of their quiver, and these made use of against the enemies of his people: this is put for all weapons of war; the sword was unsheathed, and all military weapons employed, and the power of the Lord was exerted; or, as the Targum, "the Lord was revealed in his power;'' fighting the battles of his people, as in the times of Joshua: according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah.”
2 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 3:9
“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, Isa 22:6. “Kir laid bare the shield.” Gregory, Mor. xix. 9. n. 54, Compare Augustine in Ps. 59, n. 6.: The bow represents the threat of the vengeance of Almighty God, from which it is at length discharged, if not turned aside; the longer the string is drawn, the sharper issueth the arrow.”
Habakkuk 3:9
“The mention of the tribes, rather than Abraham or Moses, is in order that they may not doubt that to them belongs this grace of which Abraham was the depository [CALVIN and JEROME]. MAURER translates, "The spears were glutted with blood, the triumphal song!" that is, no sooner did Jehovah begin the battle by baring His bow, than the spears were glutted with blood and the triumphal song sung.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Habakkuk 3:10-12
The mountains saw You and quaked: The whole creation answers God's coming, as "The mountains saw You and quaked". "Sun and moon stood still in their places," as the sun stood still over Gibeon in Joshua 10:12 and 13. Verse 12 names the purpose of the display, "You threshed the nations in wrath".
Habakkuk 3:10
“The mountains saw thee - This is the continued answer to the questions in Hab 3:8. These are figures highly poetic, to show with what ease God accomplished the most arduous tasks in behalf of his people. As soon as the mountains saw him, they trembled, they were in pangs. When he appeared, the sea fled to right and left, to give him a passage. “It uttered its voice.” The separation of the waters occasioned a terrible noise. “And it lifted up its hands on high.” Its waters, being separated, stood in heaps on the right hand and left.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 3:10
“Overflowing - The inundation which at that season was wont to be very great in and round Jordan, passed away at the word of God; the waters below flowed, and ran from those above, which stood on a heap to make a path for Israel.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Habakkuk 3:10
“LXX: They shall see you and be sorrowful, whether the peoples are in labor; for it signifies both. Consequently, when the earth is broken and the rivers flow, the peoples who have drunk from the rivers of God shall see God and be in labor. For from the very fact that they see God, they immediately conceive and say with God's word: We have conceived and given birth in the womb from your fear, O Lord, and have brought forth and given birth; we shall make the spirit of your salvation upon the earth.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Habakkukpatristic
Sun and moon stood still: The line recalls Joshua 10:12 and 13, when the sun stood still over Gibeon. Adam Clarke and Albert Barnes both read it of that day, when God fought for Israel with stones from heaven. Habakkuk sets that victory beside his own day.
Habakkuk 3:11
“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 Jos 10:11-13. “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 itself in the great darkness at the crucifixion, as not bearing to look upon the death of its Maker, when the majesty of the Sun of Righteousness was darkened o’er; and signs in the sun and in the moon there shall be to the end.”
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 3:11
“LXX: In light, your javelins shall go forth, in the splendor of the flashing of your armor. The javelins of God, that is, the arrows going and advancing, are not sent for the purpose of killing, but for the purpose of illuminating. In distinction to these arrows and javelins, Christ is called the chosen javelin by Isaiah proclaiming: He has made me as a chosen javelin and has hidden me in his quiver, and he said to me: This is great for you, to be called my servant (Isaiah 49:2-3).”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Habakkukpatristic
You threshed the nations: Threshing is the farmer's work of beating grain from the stalk. Adam Clarke reads the march as the conquest of Canaan, with God going at the head of His people. Albert Barnes notes that the same verb is used of God's solemn coming in Judges 5:4 and Psalm 68:7.
Habakkuk 3:12
“LXX: In the threat, you will approach the earth, and in anger, you will drag away the nations. This can be understood as occurring at the end of the world, when, through frequent wars, a great multitude is killed, and few people are found, and those who did not want to be part of God's people, but remained as nations and foreigners, are led to Tartarus by the anger of the Lord.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Habakkukpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 3:12
“Thou didst march through the land - This refers to the conquest of Canaan. God is represented as going at the head of his people as general-in-chief; and leading them on from conquest to conquest - which was the fact. Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger - Thou didst tread them down, as the oxen do the sheaves on the threshing-floor.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Habakkuk 3:13-15
You went forth for the salvation of Your people: The purpose is stated plainly, "You went forth for the salvation of Your people, to save Your anointed". God "crushed the head of the house of the wicked". "You trampled the sea with Your horses" returns the prayer to the Red Sea crossing, the pattern every later deliverance follows.
Habakkuk 3:13
“LXX: You have lifted up the chains until the neck, to the end. The Lord has lifted up the chains of love, so that with the previous burden set aside, and the heavy yoke by which we were oppressed thrown off, we may take up the light yoke of Christ; and, placed in his chariot, we may carry the excellent charioteer. Theodotius also, taking this in a good sense, says: You have adorned the foundation until the neck. Fifth edition: You have stripped, or emptied, the foundation until the neck, selah, that is, always.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Habakkukpatristic
3 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 3:13
“God from the beginning delivered His people in person, or by the hand of a Mediator (Isa 63:11). Thus Habakkuk confirms believers in the hope of their deliverance, as well because God is always the same, as also because the same anointed Mediator is ready now to fulfil God's will and interpose for Israel, as of old [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Habakkuk 3:13
“It is for salvation with thy anointed, with Joshua, who led the armies of Israel and was a figure of him whose name he bore, even Jesus our Joshua. What God did for his Israel of old was done with an eye to his anointed, for the sake of the Mediator, who was both the founder and foundation of the covenant made with them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Habakkuk 3:13
“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, perhaps to fix the mind on that signal going-forth, when God destroyed Pharaoh, the first enemy who essayed to destroy the chosen line.”
to scatter us: The prophet counts himself among the scattered people. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note that he speaks the same way at 1:12. Adam Clarke reads the verse of Pharaoh and his captains, who rushed on Israel at the sea as if the weak were already theirs.
Habakkuk 3:14
“Thou didst strike through - The Hebrew will bear this sense: “Thou hast pierced amidst their tribes the head of their troops,” referring to Pharaoh and his generals, who came like a whirlwind to fall upon the poor Israelites, when they appeared to be hemmed in by sea, and no place for their escape.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
You trampled the sea with Your horses: The prayer returns to the crossing of the sea. Adam Clarke notes there was no need to hurry, since God had divided the waters and His cloud stood between Israel and Egypt. Albert Barnes pictures God at the head of His people, as Isaiah 63:13 describes.
Habakkuk 3:15
“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 Isa 63:13. “who leddest them in the depths;” and Zechariah Zec 10:11. “And he shall pass through the sea.” God was literally there; for Act 17:28. “in Him we live and move and have our being.” He who “is wholly everywhere but the whole of Him nowhere” manifested His Presence there.”
Though the fig tree does not blossom, yet I will rejoice
I heard and trembled within: The vision's effect on the prophet closes the theophany, for "I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound". Then the turn comes, "Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress," and the prophet trembles and waits in the same verse.
Habakkuk 3:16
“LXX: I kept watch, and my belly was afraid at the voice of my mouth's prayer: and trembling entered into my bones, and under me my strength was troubled. Or as it is found written elsewhere ἡ ἕξις μου, which we can say means my condition: for indeed various readings are found.”
Jerome · written before 420 · Commentary on Habakkukpatristic
2 more voices on this 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…”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Habakkuk 3:16
“The faithful tremble at the voice alone of God before He inflicts punishment. Habakkuk speaks in the person of all the faithful in Israel. trembled in myself--that is, I trembled all over [GROTIUS]. that I might rest in the day of trouble--The true and only path to rest is through such fear.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Habakkuk 3:17-19
Though the fig tree does not bud: The prayer names the loss of everything a farming people lived on, "Though the fig tree does not bud". Against that loss stands "I will rejoice in the God of my salvation". The book that opened in complaint at 1:2 closes with "He makes me walk upon the heights".
Habakkuk 3:17
“Thus Habakkuk, beginning his prayer with trembling, ends it with a song of triumph (Job 13:15; 43:3, 5). labour of the olive--that is, the fruit expected from the olive. fail--literally, "lie," that is, disappoint the hope (Isa 58:11, Margin). fields--from a Hebrew root meaning "to be yellow"; as they look at harvest-time. meat--food, grain. cut off--that is, cease.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Habakkuk 3:17
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom,.... Or rather, as the Septuagint version, "shall not bring forth fruit"; since the fig tree does not bear blossoms and flowers, but puts forth green figs at once.”
Habakkuk 3:17
“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, for sweetness, gladness, cheerfulness Psa 104:15. whereof the well-being of the vine and fig tree furnishes the proverbial picture of peace and rest.”
yet I will exult in the LORD: The word yet turns the whole book. Nothing in the fields of verse 17 has changed, and the prophet rejoices in God Himself. Matthew Henry explains that God is the God of our salvation, so joy in Him can stand in the worst of times.
Habakkuk 3:18
“This is the principal ground of our joy in God, that he is the God of our salvation, our eternal salvation, the salvation of the soul; and, if he be so, we may rejoice in him as such in our greatest distresses, since by them our salvation cannot be hindered, but may be furthered.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
He makes me walk upon the heights!: A deer keeps its footing on steep ground where others fall. Adam Clarke notes that the line takes up Psalm 18:33. The note to the choirmaster hands the prayer to the temple singers, and Matthew Henry observes that a prayer begun in trembling ends in joy.
Habakkuk 3:19
“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.”
1 more voice on this verse
Habakkuk 3:19
“Thus the prophet, who began his prayer with fear and trembling, concludes it with joy and triumph, for prayer is heart's ease to a gracious soul. When Hannah had prayed she went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
How this psalm is built
The form: A psalm with a heading, three Selahs and a closing note to the choirmaster, of the same kind as the psalms of the Psalter, as Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Selah three times | The word Selah stands three times in the prayer, after God comes from Mount Paran, after He calls for many arrows, and after He crushes the head of the house of the wicked. Each falls at a turn in the picture of God's coming, as the word falls in the Psalter.the Berean Standard Bible text, counted in the store, Habakkuk 3:3, 3:9 and 3:13, the three verses that carry Selah. | Habakkuk 3:3, Habakkuk 3:9, Habakkuk 3:13 |
| The exodus told again | The middle of the prayer draws on Israel's founding memories. God comes from Teman and Mount Paran in the south, plague goes before Him, He rides against the rivers and the sea, and sun and moon stand still as they did over Gibeon in Joshua 10:12 and 13.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on Habakkuk 3:11 and 3:15. | Habakkuk 3:3, Habakkuk 3:5, Habakkuk 3:8, Habakkuk 3:11, Habakkuk 3:15 |
| Though, then yet | Verse 17 names six losses one after another, the fig, the vine, the olive, the fields, the sheep and the cattle. Verse 18 answers all six with one word, yet, and the prophet's joy in the God of his salvation.Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, on Habakkuk 3:18. | Habakkuk 3:17, Habakkuk 3:18 |
How this chapter is built
3 more paragraphs on the patterns
The chapter carries the apparatus of a psalm. The heading at verse 1 names the prophet and a musical term, Shigionoth whose meaning is uncertain. Selah stands three times in the body, at verses 3, 9 and 13, and the last line hands the prayer to the choirmaster with stringed instruments. Between the prayer of verse 2 and the prophet's trembling at verse 16 stands a long picture of God coming to save, told in the language of the exodus and the conquest. The close at verses 17 to 19 turns from what God did then to what the prophet will do now.
Sources:
- The Berean text of Habakkuk 3 in the store.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on 3:19.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 3:11 and 3:15.
Keep studying
Studies8
People and groups1
Places1
Words12
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, on Habakkuk 3:19, which reads the last line as the prophet's direction to the chief singer.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.