Habakkuk 3:6 - Exposition

He stood, and measured the earth. God takes his stand, and surveys the earth which he is visiting in judgment. As his glory filled the heavens, so now he with his presence paces the earth, measuring it, as it were, with his foot. He considers, too, all the doings of the children of men, and requites them accordingly. Vulgate, Stetit, et mensus est terram. So the Syriac. On the other hand, the LXX . gives, ἔστη καὶ ἐσαλέυθη ἡ γῆ , "The earth stood and quaked." Thus the Chaldee, and many modem commentators, "rocketh the earth." This rendering seems to anticipate what follows, and is not so suitable as the other, though it is quite admissible. Drove asunder. Dispersed and scattered. Septuagint, διετάκη ἔθνη , "nations melted away." Others translate, "made to tremble" ( Exodus 15:15 , etc.). The everlasting mountains. Mountains that have lasted as long as creation, and are emblems of stability and permanence ( Deuteronomy 33:15 ). Were scattered; or, were shattered (comp. Micah 1:4 ; Nahum 1:5 ). His ways are everlasting. This is best taken alone, not as connected grammatically with the preceding clause, and epexegetical of the "hills and mountains," which are called God's "ways," i.e. his chief creative acts, as Job 40:19 ; Proverbs 8:22 ; but it means that, as God acted of old, so he acts now; "The ancient ways of acting are his" ( Proverbs 31:27 ). "He reneweth his progresses of old time" (Delitzsch). The eternal, unchangeable purpose and operation of God are contrasted with the disruption of "the everlasting hills." The Greek and Latin Versions connect the words with what precedes. Septuagint, ἐτάκησαν βουνοὶ αἰώνιοι πορείας αἰωνίας , "The everlasting hills melted at his everlasting goings;" Vulgate, Incurvati sunt colles mundi ab itineribus aeternitatis ejus, where the idea seems to be that the high places of the earth are God's paths when he visits the world.