Habakkuk 3:19 - Exposition

The Lord God is my strength; more accurately, Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength, from Psalms 18:32 ; comp. Psalms 27:1 . He will make my feet like hinds' feet ( Psalms 18:33 ). He makes me active and swift-footed as the gazelle, as a lusty warrior ( 2 Samuel 1:23 ; 2 Samuel 2:18 ) should be. So by the help of God I shall be superior to my enemies. He will make me to walk upon mine high places. The expression is used properly of God ( Micah 1:3 ), and elsewhere, says Keil, to denote the victorious possession and government of a country (see Deuteronomy 32:13 ; Deuteronomy 33:29 ). Here it signifies that believing Israel shall overcome all opposition and dwell in safety in its own land. To the chief singer ( musician ) on my stringed instruments ( neginoth ) . This is a musical direction, answering to the heading in Psalms 27:1 , and implies that the ode is committed to the conductor of the temple music, to be by him adapted for the public service to the accompaniment of stringed instruments. Such directions are elsewhere always found at the beginning, not the end, of psalms (see Psalms 4:1-8 .; 6.; 54.; 55.; 67.; 76.). It has been thought that the suffix of the first person, "my stringed instruments," denotes that Habakkuk had a right to take part in the temple service, and was therefore a Levite; but it is very doubtful whether this suffix is not a clerical error, as Kuenen and Ewald suppose, or merely paragogic. Certainly neither the Greek, Latin, nor Syriac Versions afford it any confirmation. These versions make the subscription part of the ode. Thus LXX ; ἐπι τὰ ὑψηλὰ ἐπιβιβᾶ με , τοῦ νικῆσαι ἐν τῇ ὠδῇ αὐτοῦ , He maketh me to mount upon the high places, that I may conquer by his song;" Vulgate, Super excelsa mea deducet me victor ( victori, Cod. Amiat.) in psalmis canentem.