Habakkuk 3:16

And beneath me, my strength was disturbed. However, he rightly says that his strength was disturbed not in himself, but beneath himself, because the prophet, having been taken up to the contemplation of heavenly mysteries, saw himself, as it were, elevated above himself; and the …

I will rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may ascend to the people of my transmigration. For he rests not only in the day of retribution, but also of tribulation, who does not doubt that he will obtain eternal joys through temporal …

The third origin of the fear of the Lord is from the consideration of the severity of divine vengeance. Whence in Habakkuk: "Lord, I have heard your report and was afraid. I heard, and my belly was troubled; at the voice my lips trembled. Let …

When I heard, my belly trembled,....

1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth. 2 O L ORD , I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O L ORD , revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy. This chapter is entitled a prayer of Habakkuk.

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.

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.

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 world is one series of man’s unfaithfulnesses or sins, God’s chastisements of them through their fellow-sinners, and His ultimate overt brow of the aggressors. Those first three centuries of glorious martyrdoms were, on the one side, the malice and hatred of Satan and the world against the truth; on the other side, the prophets of those days told their people that they were the chastisements of their sins. Future deliverance implies previous chastisement of those delivered. The prophet then, at the close, in view of all, for himself and all whose perplexities he represented and pleaded before God, chooses his and their portion. “Suffer here and rest forever!” “Endure here any terror, any failure of hopes, yet trust wholly in God, have rest in the day of trouble and sing the endless song!” Again he casts himself back amid all the troubles of this life. I heard - (i. e. […]