Habakkuk 3:10-15

3:10 When the mountains see you, they shake.

The torrential downpour sweeps through. ¹ 

The great deep ²  shouts out;

it lifts its hands high. ³ 

3:11 The sun and moon stand still in their courses; ⁴ 

the flash of your arrows drives them away, ⁵ 

the bright light of your lightning-quick spear. ⁶ 

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. ⁷ 

You strike the leader of the wicked nation, ⁸ 

laying him open from the lower body to the neck. ⁹  Selah.

3:14 You pierce the heads of his warriors ¹⁰  with a spear. ¹¹ 

They storm forward to scatter us; ¹² 

they shout with joy as if they were plundering the poor with no opposition. ¹³ 

3:15 But you trample on the sea with your horses,

on the surging, raging waters. ¹⁴ 

[3:10]  ¹ tn Heb “a heavy rain of waters passes by.” Perhaps the flash floods produced by the downpour are in view here.

[3:10]  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.

[3:10]  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.

[3:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “in their lofty dwelling places.”

[3:11]  ⁵ tn Or “at the light of your arrows they vanish.”

[3:11]  ⁶ tn Heb “at the brightness of the lightning of your spear.”

[3:13]  ⁷ 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.

[3:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “you strike the head from the house of wickedness.”

[3:13]  ⁹ tn Heb “laying bare [from] foundation to neck.”

[3:14]  ¹⁰ 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.

[3:14]  ¹¹ 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).

[3:14]  ¹² tn Heb “me,” but the author speaks as a representative of God’s people.

[3:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “their rejoicing is like devouring the poor in secret.”

[3:15]  ¹³ tn Heb “the foaming of the mighty [or “many”] waters.”