Habakkuk 3:8-11

Why did Jehovah manifest himself in terror? Habakkuk 3:8-11.

In Habakkuk 3:8 the poet inquires of Jehovah why all this was done; in 9-11 he continues the description; but throughout the whole section runs the question, Why?

Was Jehovah displeased against the rivers? A literal translation of the first two lines is as follows, “Was displeasure against rivers, O Jehovah? was thy anger against the rivers?” Had they done anything to arouse the divine indignation? This is only a rhetorical question, for the singer knows well enough that a loftier motive impelled Jehovah (Habakkuk 3:13).

The sea Undoubtedly the Red Sea; the reference is again to events connected with the Exodus.

Ride upon… horses… chariots Jehovah is pictured as a man of war advancing to battle; his horses and chariots are the storm clouds (Psalms 18:10; Isaiah 19:1).

Of salvation The chariots are so called because wherever Jehovah appears deliverance is sure to be wrought. The idea is still very general; not until Habakkuk 3:13 is there a specific reference to the deliverance of Israel. A suitable rendering would be “victorious chariots.” Some take the last words as a separate statement, “thy chariots are salvation,” but this involves an improbable interpretation. The text of Habakkuk 3:8 is not above suspicion, but even as it stands the thought is clear; the poet inquires why Jehovah has smitten the rivers and the sea with such terrible fury. Various emendations have been attempted. Marti thinks the original to have been, “Was against the rivers thine anger, or against the sea, O Jehovah, thy wrath? thou didst cause to walk over the sea thy horses, thy chariots over heaps of water.”

Habakkuk 3:9 pictures Jehovah standing upon his chariot ready for battle.

Thy bow was made quite naked R.V., “bare.” The covering is removed and the bow is ready for use. The bow is not, as is thought by some, the rainbow, but the bow of the warrior God with which he shoots the thunderbolts. According to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word R.V., “The oaths to the tribes were a sure word.” The present Hebrew text plus a considerable amount of imagination may give this translation, the thought being that the promises made to the tribes of Israel by Jehovah were sure of fulfillment. The peculiarity of the Hebrew and the fact that the thought which can be gotten from it does not fit in the context have led most commentators to suspect a corruption of the text. The marginal translation, “Sworn were the chastisements of thy word,” does not remove the difficulty. Of the many translations offered, in Delitzsch’s day about one hundred, not one can be considered quite satisfactory. An easy way out of the difficulty is to say with Von Orelli that “the words are intentionally enigmatical in solemn menace.” It is more likely, however, that the obscurity has arisen from a corruption of the text. Partly on the basis of LXX. and partly by conjecture Nowack emends, “Thou hast filled with arrows thy quiver,” which is more suitable than the present text.

Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers Or, into rivers. Jehovah cleaved the earth and rivers flowed from it. If the poet thinks of manifestations of divine power in general, this is the most natural rendering; if he has in mind the Exodus, a better translation, equally possible so far as the Hebrew is concerned, would be, “Thou didst cleave the rivers into dry land.” Jehovah smote the rivers, so that they became dry land, and the people passed over them dry-shod (Isaiah 11:15).

Habakkuk 3:10 presents another picture of the convulsions in nature.

The mountains saw thee, and they trembled Even the majestic mountains were terror-struck (compare Habakkuk 3:6); literally, were in agony. The verb denotes the agony of a woman in childbirth. LXX. reads “nations saw,” but the Hebrew is preferable.

The overflowing of the water passed by Here again the Hebrew is peculiar. The clause is commonly interpreted as meaning that when the mountains were rent in pain, water burst forth. A very slight emendation, favored by the similar passage in Psalms 77:17, would give “the clouds poured out water,” which gives good sense and supplies a suitable contrast to the next clause.

The deep uttered his voice The deep denotes ordinarily the great subterranean waters (see on Amos 7:4; compare Genesis 7:11), but here the poet may be thinking of the Red Sea (compare Isaiah 63:13). The voice is the roar of the troubled waters.

And lifted up his hands A figurative description of the heaping up of the waves by the storm. The throwing up of the hands is an involuntary act of terror; perhaps there is also implied the thought of raising the hands in a frantic appeal for mercy. Partly on the basis of LXX. some commentators change “hands” into “roar.”

11. To increase the terror, black darkness covered the whole earth.

Stood still in their habitation The habitation is the place whence the sun and moon were thought to come forth, and whither they were thought to return at the close of the journey. “The sun and the moon,” says Delitzsch, “withdraw altogether, from the fear and horror which pervade all nature and which are expressed in the mountains by trembling, in the waters by roaring, and in the sun and moon by obscuration.” This interpretation is preferable to that of Ewald, that they “turn pale in consequence of the surpassing brilliancy of the lightnings” (compare Isaiah 24:23).

Arrows… spear The thunderbolts and flashes of lightning which Jehovah sent against his enemies (Psalms 18:14; Psalms 77:17-18). From Habakkuk 3:8 on the manifestation of Jehovah is described, as frequently in the Old Testament, in the imagery of a thunderstorm.

The salvation of his people was the object of Jehovah, 12-15.