Habakkuk 3:15
in Habakkuk 3You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Thou didst tread the sea with thy horses, The heap of mighty waters.
KJV
Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.
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This verse in Habakkuk 3
Commentary
10 notes on this verse(Verse 14 and following) You have cursed his scepters, the heads of his warriors, who come like a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing is like that of someone who devours the poor in secret. You have made a path in the sea for your horses, in the mud of many waters. I heard, and my stomach trembled; at the sound my lips quivered. Let decay enter my bones, and let it rage beneath me: so that I may rest on the day of my tribulation, so that I may rise up against our encircled people.
This site's exposition
for the salvation of thy people
on Habakkuk 3:13-15
Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for salvation with thine anointed states the theophany's purpose plainly after eleven verses of storm and mountain, every image in the chapter serving Israel's rescue and the anointed one's cause. Thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck pictures a decisive, total defeat, and the third Selah falls immediately after, marking the pause before the closing violence, they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me, their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters returns the vision to the exodus crossing one final time. Keil and Pusey read the repetition across the chapter as deliberate, the Red Sea remembered as the pattern every future deliverance follows.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
70: And you led your horses into the sea, disturbing the many waters. After God sent death upon the heads of the unjust, and the heads of the mighty were brought down in astonishment, and you broke them in the sea (for it is written in the Psalms: You have broken the heads of the dragons (Psalm 73:4)), with the princes slain, or broken, and the strong one overcome, they came to his house and all his possessions were plundered (Mark 13). But the vase and the strong house and the prince's belongings, what else can be interpreted except the sea of this world, in which the dragon dwells? Therefore, God, the outstanding knight and chief charioteer, adds his horses, namely angels, and sublime powers above the sea of this world, to disturb the many waters, demons and contrary powers. But if we want to interpret it as the coming of Christ, according to what is written in the Apocalypse (Chapter 19), that the word of God sits on a white horse and the whole army follows him on white horses, we will see how Christ ascended among his apostles, saying to them: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world; and: Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them, and the rest (Matthew 28). And later he mounted a white horse, which I believe to be none other than the apostle Paul, upon which he rode and traveled around the whole world. Now, the word of God ascended upon his horses, so that many waters, that is, many people who were previously in the sea and held captive by the dragon, were troubled. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13), and they were troubled, abandoning their initial error: then they were disturbed and received the approaching rider. […]
The Medieval Church1 voice
You sent your horses into the sea, stirring up many waters. For the sea, indeed, means the world; the horses of God, the holy preachers; the many waters, the peoples of the nations. When the horses of God were sent into the sea, the many …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses,.... And as thou didst of old, so do again; as Jehovah walked through the Red sea in a pillar of cloud and fire, which were his horses and chariots, and destroyed the Egyptians; so may he walk through another sea by his instruments, and destroy the enemies of his church and people; See Gill on Hab 3:
He affects himself with a holy concern for the present troubles of the church, but encourages himself and others to hope that the issue will be comfortable and glorious at last, though all visible means fail,
When they came to enter Canaan the overflowing of the water passed by, that is, Jordan, which at that time overflowed all his banks, was divided, Jos. iii. Note, When the difficulties in the way of perfecting the salvation of Israel seem most insuperable, when they rise to the height, and overflow, yet then God can put them by, break through them, and get over them.
3 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
There were three things that God had a eye to, in giving Israel so many bloody victories over the Canaanites:-- (1.) He would hereby make good his promise to the fathers; it was according to the oaths of the tribes, even his word,
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
Thou didst walk through the sea - There was no occasion to hurry across; all was safe, for God had divided the waters: and his terrible cloud had removed from before, and stood behind them, so that it was between them and the Egyptians. See Exo 14:19, Exo 14:20.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
You pierced the heads.. with war clubs Sennacherib and his company. they storm Who were storming with a tempest to scatter me. [Sennacherib] was the staff with which you chastised the nations.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 3 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| דָּרַ֥כְתָּ | darakhta | you trod | H1869 → | |
| בַיָּ֖ם | vaiyam | on the sea | H3220 → | 396 times |
| סוּסֶ֑יךָ | suseikha | horses your | H5483 → | 140 times |
| חֹ֖מֶר | chomer | a heap of | H2563 → | |
| מַ֥יִם | mayim | waters | H4325 → | 581 times |
| רַבִּֽים׃ | rabim | many | H7227 → | 454 times |
דָּרַ֥כְתָּyou trod
darakhtaH1869 →
בַיָּ֖םon the sea
vaiyamH3220 →396 times
סוּסֶ֑יךָhorses your
suseikhaH5483 →140 times
חֹ֖מֶרa heap of
chomerH2563 →
מַ֥יִםwaters
mayimH4325 →581 times
רַבִּֽים׃many
rabimH7227 →454 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Habakkuk 3:8Were You angry at the rivers, O LORD? Was Your wrath against the streams? Did You rage against the sea when You rode on Your horses, on Your chariots of salvation?
it leads to
- Exodus 14:21–22
Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove back the sea with a strong east wind that turned it into dry land. So the waters were…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 68:17
The chariots of God are tens of thousands— thousands of thousands are they; the Lord is in His sanctuary as He was at Sinai.
- Deuteronomy 33:26–27
“There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty.
- Psalms 114:5
Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,
- Psalms 18:10
He mounted a cherub and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind.
- Exodus 14:21–22
Through
Exodus 15:8At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
it leads to
- Job 4:9
By the breath of God they perish, and by the blast of His anger they are consumed.
- Job 4:9
Through
Psalms 77:19Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found.
it leads to
- Exodus 14:28
The waters flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had chased the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.
- Psalms 29:10
The LORD sits enthroned over the flood; the LORD is enthroned as King forever.
- Exodus 14:28
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Habakkuk
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jerome, Commentary on Habakkuk; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
