Habakkuk 3 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Habakkuk 3

Habakkuk’s Prayer

3:1 A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

2   O LORD, I have heard the report of you,
    and your work, O LORD, do I fear.
  In the midst of the years revive it;
    in the midst of the years make it known;
    in wrath remember mercy.
3   God came from Teman,
    and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
  His splendor covered the heavens,
    and the earth was full of his praise.
4   His brightness was like the light;
    rays flashed from his hand;
    and there he veiled his power.
5   Before him went pestilence,
    and plague followed at his heels.¹
6   He stood and measured the earth;
    he looked and shook the nations;
  then the eternal mountains were scattered;
    the everlasting hills sank low.
    His were the everlasting ways.
7   I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
    the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
8   Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD?
    Was your anger against the rivers,
    or your indignation against the sea,
  when you rode on your horses,
    on your chariot of salvation?
9   You stripped the sheath from your bow,
    calling for many arrows.² Selah
    You split the earth with rivers.
10   The mountains saw you and writhed;
    the raging waters swept on;
  the deep gave forth its voice;
    it lifted its hands on high.
11   The sun and moon stood still in their place
    at the light of your arrows as they sped,
    at the flash of your glittering spear.
12   You marched through the earth in fury;
    you threshed the nations in anger.
13   You went out for the salvation of your people,
    for the salvation of your anointed.
  You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
    laying him bare from thigh to neck.³ Selah
14   You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
    who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
    rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
15   You trampled the sea with your horses,
    the surging of mighty waters.
16   I hear, and my body trembles;
    my lips quiver at the sound;
  rottenness enters into my bones;
    my legs tremble beneath me.
  Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
    to come upon people who invade us.

Habakkuk Rejoices in the Lord

17   Though the fig tree should not blossom,
    nor fruit be on the vines,
  the produce of the olive fail
    and the fields yield no food,
  the flock be cut off from the fold
    and there be no herd in the stalls,
18   yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
    I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19   GOD, the Lord, is my strength;
    he makes my feet like the deer’s;
    he makes me tread on my high places.
  To the choirmaster: with stringed⁴ instruments.

Footnotes

[1] 3:5 Hebrew feet
[2] 3:9 The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain
[3] 3:13 The meaning of the Hebrew line is uncertain
[4] 3:19 Hebrew my stringed

Commentary

v1: Habakkuk's response in prayer.

v2: Remember mercy; O Lord, be merciful! Such is the burden of his prayer. Unless God is merciful, there is no hope, but His mercies are great, 2 Sam 24.14.

v3-5: The mighty power of God in His coming; here is awe-full power and majesty, plague and pestilence refer to His coming to the earth.

v6-7: The mighty power of God in nature and nations being subject to Him; even the mountains are scattered, which we think are everlasting. Even those things we consider are permanent are not; for only God is; yet our faith is much more precious than gold that perishes. His ways are truly everlasting.

v8-11: The power of God in judgment; creation itself fears His coming, for even the heavens are not pure in His sight; those things that are, we think, inanimate, feel themselves unholy before Him.

v12-15: The unbelieving nations are trampled in His anger. The Lord is at work for the salvation of His people. Here is our assurance that, in everything that happens, He is faithful to His own. Where others attack His "anointed one," He will fight on our behalf.

v16: No wonder the prophet trembles; he seeks rest in the day of trouble. We can only cast ourselves upon Him.

v17-19: Whatever the circumstances we know that God is God. References to the fig tree and the vine may also relate to Israel's fruitlessness. We not only survive, but we rejoice. Our confidence and strength is in Him.