Text -- Habakkuk 3:6-19 (NET)

3:6 He takes his battle position and shakes the earth; with a mere look he frightens the nations. The ancient mountains disintegrate; the primeval hills are flattened. He travels on the ancient roads. 3:7 I see the tents of Cushan overwhelmed by trouble; the tent curtains of the land of Midian are shaking. 3:8 Is the Lord mad at the rivers? Are you angry with the rivers? Are you enraged at the sea? Is this why you climb into your horse-drawn chariots, your victorious chariots? 3:9 Your bow is ready for action; you commission your arrows. Selah. You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. 3:10 When the mountains see you, they shake. The torrential downpour sweeps through. The great deep shouts out; it lifts its hands high. 3:11 The sun and moon stand still in their courses; the flash of your arrows drives them away, the bright light of your lightning-quick spear. 3:12 You furiously stomp on the earth, you angrily trample down the nations. 3:13 You march out to deliver your people, to deliver your special servant. You strike the leader of the wicked nation, laying him open from the lower body to the neck. Selah. 3:14 You pierce the heads of his warriors with a spear. They storm forward to scatter us; they shout with joy as if they were plundering the poor with no opposition. 3:15 But you trample on the sea with your horses, on the surging, raging waters.

Habakkuk Declares His Confidence

3:16 I listened and my stomach churned; the sound made my lips quiver. My frame went limp, as if my bones were decaying, and I shook as I tried to walk. I long for the day of distress to come upon the people who attack us. 3:17 When the fig tree does not bud, and there are no grapes on the vines; when the olive trees do not produce, and the fields yield no crops; when the sheep disappear from the pen, and there are no cattle in the stalls, 3:18 I will rejoice because of the Lord; I will be happy because of the God who delivers me! 3:19 The sovereign Lord is my source of strength. He gives me the agility of a deer; he enables me to negotiate the rugged terrain. (This prayer is for the song leader. It is to be accompanied by stringed instruments.)

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Hab 3:6

¹ tn Heb “he stands.”

² tn This verb has been traditionally understood as “measure” (from מוּד, mud), but the immediately following context (vv. 6b-7) favors the meaning “shake” from מָוד (mavd; see HALOT 555 s.v.).

³ tn Heb “makes [the nations] jump [in fear].”

⁴ tn Or “crumbled,” broke into pieces.”

⁵ tn Heb “ancient ways [or, “doings”] are his.” The meaning of this line is unclear. Traditionally it has been translated, “his ways are eternal.” However, in this context (see vv. 3, 7) it is more likely that the line speaks of the Lord taking the same route as in the days of Moses and Deborah (see Deut 33:2; Judg 5:4). See J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (OTL), 154.

NET Notes: Hab 3:7

¹ tn Heb “under trouble I saw the tents of Cushan.”

sn Cushan was located in southern Transjordan.

² tn R. D. Patterson takes תַּחַת אֲוֶן (takhat ’aven) in the first line as a place name, “Tahath-Aven.” (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah [WEC], 237.) In this case one may translate the verse as a tricolon: “I look at Tahath-Aven. The tents of Cushan are shaking, the tent curtains of the land of Midian.”

NET Notes: Hab 3:8

¹ sn The following context suggests these questions should be answered, “Yes.” The rivers and the sea, symbolizing here the hostile nations (v. 12), are objects of the Lord’s anger (vv. 10, 15).

² tn Heb “so that.” Here כִּי (ki) is resultative. See the note on the phrase “make it” in 2:18.

³ tn Heb “you mount your horses.” As the next line makes clear, the Lord is pictured here as a charioteer, not a cavalryman. Note NRSV here, “when you drove your horses, // your chariots to victory.”

⁴ tn Or “chariots of deliverance.”

NET Notes: Hab 3:9

¹ tn Heb “[into] nakedness your bow is laid bare.”

² tn Heb “sworn in are the arrow-shafts with a word.” The passive participle of שָׁבַע (shava’), “swear an oath,” also occurs in Ezek 21:23 ET (21:28 HT) referencing those who have sworn allegiance. Here the Lord’s arrows are personified and viewed as having received a commission which they have vowed to uphold. In Jer 47:6-7 the Lord’s sword is given such a charge. In the Ugaritic myths Baal’s weapons are formally assigned the task of killing the sea god Yam.

³ tn Heb “[with] rivers you split open the earth.” A literal rendering like “You split the earth with rivers” (so NIV, NRSV) suggests geological activity to the modern reader, but in the present context of a violent thunderstorm, the idea of streams swollen to torrents by downpours better fits the imagery.

sn As the Lord comes in a thunderstorm the downpour causes streams to swell to river-like proportions and spread over the surface of the ground, causing flash floods.

NET Notes: Hab 3:10

¹ tn Heb “a heavy rain of waters passes by.” Perhaps the flash floods produced by the downpour are in view here.

² sn The great deep, which is to be equated with the sea (vv. 8, 15), is a symbol of chaos and represents the Lord’s enemies.

³ sn Lifting the hands here suggests panic and is accompanied by a cry for mercy (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19). The forces of chaos cannot withstand the Lord’s power revealed in the storm.

NET Notes: Hab 3:11

¹ tn Heb “in their lofty dwelling places.”

² tn Or “at the light of your arrows they vanish.”

³ tn Heb “at the brightness of the lightning of your spear.”

NET Notes: Hab 3:13

¹ tn Heb “anointed one.” In light of the parallelism with “your people” in the preceding line this could refer to Israel, but elsewhere the Lord’s anointed one is always an individual. The Davidic king is the more likely referent here.

² tn Heb “you strike the head from the house of wickedness.”

³ tn Heb “laying bare [from] foundation to neck.”

NET Notes: Hab 3:14

¹ tn Some take “warriors” with the following line, in which case one should translate, “you pierce [his] head with a spear; his warriors storm forward to scatter us” (cf. NIV). The meaning of the Hebrew term פְּרָזוֹ (pÿrazo), translated here “his warriors,” is uncertain.

² tc Heb “his shafts.” Some emend to “your shafts.” The translation above assumes an emendation to מַטֶּה (matteh, “shaft, spear”), the vav-yod (ו-י) sequence being a corruption of an original he (ה).

³ tn Heb “me,” but the author speaks as a representative of God’s people.

⁴ tn Heb “their rejoicing is like devouring the poor in secret.”

NET Notes: Hab 3:15

¹ tn Heb “the foaming of the mighty [or “many”] waters.”

NET Notes: Hab 3:16

¹ tn Heb “my insides trembled.”

² tn Heb “decay entered my bones.”

³ tc Heb “beneath me I shook, which….” The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (’asher) appears to be a relative pronoun, but a relative pronoun does not fit here. The translation assumes a reading אֲשֻׁרָי (’ashuray, “my steps”) as well as an emendation of the preceding verb to a third plural form.

⁴ tn The translation assumes that אָנוּחַ (’anuakh) is from the otherwise unattested verb נָוָח (navakh, “sigh”; see HALOT 680 s.v. II נוח; so also NEB). Most take this verb as נוּחַ (nuakh, “to rest”) and translate, “I wait patiently” (cf. NIV).

⁵ tn Heb “to come up toward.”

NET Notes: Hab 3:17

¹ tn Or “though.”

² tn Heb “the produce of the olive disappoints.”

³ tn Heb “food.”

⁴ tn Or “are cut off.”

NET Notes: Hab 3:18

¹ tn Or “in.”

NET Notes: Hab 3:19

¹ tn Or perhaps, “is my wall,” that is, “my protector.”

² tn Heb “he makes my feet like those of deer.”

³ tn Heb “he makes me walk on my high places.”

sn Difficult times are coming, but Habakkuk is confident the Lord will sustain him. Habakkuk will be able to survive, just as the deer negotiates the difficult rugged terrain of the high places without injury.

⁴ tn Heb “For the leader, on my stringed instruments.”