The destruction of the beasts, that is, "You have devastated the land; you have led away all the cattle; in accordance with your own wishes, you have exercised tyranny against the men whom you conquered.
The same thing will happen to you, etc."
18. What profit is an idol? Up to this point we have seen the threats of the prophet against the kingdom of the Chaldeans. Finally he adds here a kind of taunt, imitating Moses in this respect, who in a similar way taunted the children of Israel when they were idolaters who had departed from the true God and His worship, saying to them, "Where now are your gods, etc.?"17 In this manner the prophet is here also taunting the king and the kingdom of the Chaldeans, as if to say: "See, I have predicted that misfortune will come to you; you will be destroyed, you will lose your kingdom, your captives will be led away because all your sins have deserved this. But now let your gods help you whom you worship and pray to as true gods! Call on them! Let them now free you from this catastrophe, etc. But how will they be able to help you since they are mute statues, silent stones?" With a strong emphasis he calls their idols "mute statues and silent stones." In fact, he is saying: "At last you understand that your idols are not true gods.
When you are in the depths of despair, when they especially ought to help you, they cannot help you."
This is the way the Jews used to taunt other nations, as in the psalm (Ps. 115:3–6): "The statues of the nations are silver and gold, the works of men's hands; they have a mouth, but they do not speak; they have ears, but they do not hear, etc. However, our God is in heaven. He has done all things that he wished." In the same way the prophet is adding this comparison, for he is contrasting the true God with the idols of the nations.
20. But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before His face, that is, our God lives in such a way that the entire earth trembles and is silent before Him. The world becomes dumb, does not dare even to whisper before Him, just as we have it in Isaiah (Is. 41:1): "Let the islands keep silent before Me, etc." This is a brief sentence, to be sure, but, as brief as it is, it contains things of the greatest importance, for it includes both Testaments, the Old and the New. The expression "the face of the Lord" in Scripture indicates either the knowledge or the coming of the Lord when He becomes known and is revealed to us. And so before the Gospel was revealed, God was known in the world, but since the revelation of the Gospel He has become known much more fully. From this knowledge of God every man has his crowning glory so that no one has anything in which he can boast other than in the Lord alone, etc.
This is what the prophet means here by "all the earth keeping silence before the face of the Lord."
THE prophet Habakkuk has suffered serious loss in this prayer of his not only at the hands of translators but also at the hands of commentators. Almost all the commentators have devised such different opinions that to this very day it remains uncertain from all their writings what the prophet saw in his prayer. For even to the present time writers in both the Greek and Hebrew language disagree with one another. Jerome has often rambled horribly, not only in his judgment about the prophet's meaning or intention but even in matters of grammar. His mistakes in grammar are so serious that sometimes a person with only a limited knowledge of Hebrew letters can be very certain that Jerome has made a mistake. The thing I especially wonder about is why the excellent and most high God has permitted men so eminent and singularly learned to make such childish mistakes. Then they treat the thoughts piecemeal; they explain one passage about the king of the Persians—and I do not know what else—and another passage about the suffering of Christ. As far as I am able, I shall go straight to the real meaning of the prophet, rejecting the opinions of all those commentators.
1. A prayer of Habakkuk on behalf of the ignorances. The title clearly affirms that it is a prayer rather than a song, for he confesses and praises God and asks for deliverance from captivity. This is the summary of the whole thing, just as Moses prays rather than sings, prostrating himself before God, confessing his calamity, and praying to be delivered, etc. Habakkuk adds in the title the phrase "on behalf of the ignorances,"1 just as Ps. 7 does in its title. Ignorance, therefore, stands for nothing else but innocence, as is plain when Job says (cf. Job 9:21): "If I shall be whole, my soul will be ignorant of this very thing," that is, "Even if I were whole, still I would be forced to conduct myself before God as though totally ignorant of anything, as though nothing pertained to me." The entire Seventh Psalm points in this direction when it says (Ps. 7:3): "O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there is wrong in my hands, etc.," which means:
"Blame is thrust on me of which I am totally unaware; they accuse me of wickedness, although I am innocent in this matter, etc." Therefore the prophet prays "for the ignorances," that is, for himself and for - 56 the other godly people who were innocently captive. He prays that the Lord would be willing to bring them back, since indeed their conscience is ignorant of the sin for which others had deserved captivity. In this way he is complaining that the guilty and the innocent are being afflicted equally, as often happens in wars. For example, the prophet Jeremiah was led off into captivity with many other godly people. This seems to me to be the meaning, and I cannot understand it in any other way. In this way the prayer agrees very well with the preceding prophecy. Although I have myself as the only authority for this interpretation, still I do not think that I am mistaken.
2. O Lord, I have heard the report of Thee, and I feared. Habakkuk is doing the same thing in this prayer that other prophets also are accustomed to do, as one can see in Scripture, that is, that they set forth immediately at the beginning in a few short verses a summary of the whole matter. Then they expand it to give in great detail the wonderful works of God. This they do as praise and thanks to God. In Judges, chapter 5, Deborah and Barak do the same thing after a victory has been gained. First they set forth in a few words the gist of the matter; then they immediately proceed to recount the exodus of the children of Israel out of Egypt and tell of the marvelous works of God, as one can easily see in that passage. The same thing happens in Ps. 18:7. First of all the prophet David discusses his cause, his affliction, but he soon directs his attention to the narrative of the exodus from Egypt when he says: "Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled, etc." Similarly, in Ps. 68:7–10 David was going to speak about the Christ, who would arise from the dead and ascend to heaven, about the grace to be revealed through the Gospel. He prepared the way by repeating the earlier stories of ancient times, that is, he set forth the miracles performed by the hand of the Lord for the Israelites when He led them out of Egypt, when He went before them, when He guided them, when He gave them food from heaven, etc. It is a characteristic of the Hebrew language that they repeat this account of the exodus from Egypt as the starting point for all the other stories, and they frequently mention it, repeat it, and connect the other stories to it. At this place the prophet Habakkuk is clearly doing the same thing. When he asks for redemption, he inserts first of all this marvelous work of God and weaves it in like a tapestry in which he enumerates the various marvelous deeds of God, just as if someone would explain fully and place before the eyes a painted picture that describes Christ's suffering. He also strengthens himself by all these miracles of God, etc. And so this is the thought: "O Lord, I have heard what is said about You, that is, about all Your miracles, about the acts of Your kindness, which You have done with Your people, to whom You have shown Your eminent goodness." The same idea is also in the psalm (Ps. 44:1): "We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, etc."
I feared, that is, "Because of the greatness of those marvelous deeds of Yours, a certain reverence came over me and made me terribly frightened when I felt this great majestic goodness that is Yours."
This is the way spiritual people become frightened and feel awe when they hear about such marvelous deeds of God and instances of divine goodness, since they reflect on the matter by pondering a little more deeply. The other people, however, who only read these things in an offhand manner, do not feel such reverence and fear.
Thy work, O Lord, in the midst of the years renew it. The word "it," which the Latin translator has added, is unnecessary. The Hebrew language very frequently places a relative pronoun at the head of such a clause, as in Ps. 1:4: "Which the wind drives it from the surface of the earth, etc."2 In my opinion this is the meaning: "O Lord, do the thing You are accustomed to do. This is the thing You have been accustomed to do, namely, in the middle of the years You would bring Your work back to life, You would make it known, and You would remember mercy in wrath." In strange ways all the interpreters have tortured themselves in an attempt to find out what the prophet means by the phrase "in the midst of the years." With general agreement they want it to refer to the donkey and the ox, between whom the infant
Christ lay in the manger, as the story goes.3 Who does not see how inept this opinion is and how improper for this passage? First, I translate from the Hebrew: "Lord, renew Your work within the years." The meaning is: "Do not for years delay Your work, for which I am asking now. Help us. Set us free from captivity, since the time of captivity seems too long to us. O Lord, make Your work to stand; make it live.
Fulfill what other prophets have promised, for to us the delay seems too long, etc." He is using very intense words, the kind of words people use who are in serious trouble, who are suffering, who are in the greatest danger. When they think they are already done for, when everywhere there is despair and no hope of escaping, then the Lord is present and helps them. In this way the Lord is present in the middle of the - 57 years, that is, He is the Helper in the middle of troubles and at the right times, as we have it in the psalm
(Ps. 138:7). Job also speaks this way: "When you think you are done for, etc."4 He is teaching us in an eminent way all those things about the exodus of the children of Israel from Egypt through the sea, how they passed through the sea safely, although Pharaoh was pressing on and pursuing them with his entire army and they already thought they were done for. He gave them water out of a rock in the desert; food fell from heaven, etc. What follows is the same.
In the midst of the years make it known, that is, "Show Yourself at last, O Lord. Many years have passed; our captivity is oppressive. Therefore end the delay and waiting; cut off the waiting and delay.
Show that You are our God. Redeem us; dear Lord, make an end of it, etc."
In wrath remember mercy. I translate this way from the Hebrew: "In trouble remember mercy." He is not speaking about the trouble with which God was troubled but about the trouble with which we were troubled. Bernard treats this passage beautifully, but his opinion is not stated in this verse; it is not pertinent at this point. The Hebrew word which we translate "trouble" in this verse is also in Ps. 4:4: "Be angry, but sin not." This means, "Do not be, troubled, do not be so impatient that you sin, that you give place to wrath, etc." And so this is the meaning of the prophet: "Lord, remember mercy in our trouble or our agitation, so that we will not be overcome by the trouble," as that psalmist says in Ps. 85:8: "Let me hear what the Lord says to me, etc.," lest the saints be turned to foolishness, that is, lest they, overcome by a long temptation, grumble at last against God. The Lord is present in His own place and at His own time, as the apostle says (1 Cor. 10:13): "God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape."
3. God came from the south.5 As I mentioned before,6 it is the custom for the prophets and other holy men in Scripture, when they pray, to set forth their proposition in the very first verses and then to expand it in a long prayer in praise of God. They base this praise on all God's marvelous works. It is evident that the prophet Habakkuk is doing the same thing here; he is laying out, as it were, a tapestry into which all the things which he asserts about God are woven, as I have mentioned. And so here nothing but figures of speech are going to be composed, and the verbs in the future tense must be read in the present indicative.
Then the things will be understood more easily, in the same way that someone with his finger would point out to a person the history of the suffering of Christ painted on a wall as he recounts all the things in their sequence. In this way Habakkuk also must be understood when he recounts the marvelous works of God.
First of all he remembers the exodus from Egypt as the starting point, so to say, of all the well-known miracles of God for His people Israel. Egypt lies to the south; therefore he says that the Lord has come
Paran is the proper name of the desert near the tribe of Judah, in which the Israelites tarried for a long time, etc., as sacred history tells us (Num. 12:16). It is also called by another name in Scripture, KadeshBarnea.
His glory covered the heavens. Many psalms are full of this thought, the praise of Him over heaven and earth. Example: "Because Your glory is chanted above the heavens" (Ps. 8:1). Habakkuk is saying the same thing here: "Everywhere in all lands His name, glory, and magnificence were being praised because of that wonderful work of His, that He led out of Egypt the people whom He had chosen for Himself."
The things which follow show that this is the true meaning.
And the earth was full of His praise. This is the way Rahab speaks in Joshua 2:9–11: "I know that the Lord has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you, etc. For the Lord your God is He who is God in heaven above and on earth beneath."
4. His brightness was like the light. What our translator7 translated "brightness" would be translated more accurately "ray," "radiance," that is, His rays are spread abroad. The meaning is that the showing forth and revealing of God, the proclamations of His power, are so widely disseminated and are becoming so well known that they spread out to very great distances; within a short time His deeds are made known everywhere in the lands.
Horns are on His hands. The horns mentioned are also to be understood figuratively for the rays or for the brightness. This is the way Scripture speaks about the face of Moses (Ex. 34:29): "The face of Moses was horned,"8 that is, he was emitting from himself rays that give off light and look like pointed horns.
- 58 Then the Hebrew must be read this way: "The horns from His hand." This phrase means that marvelous works were being disseminated from His hand like rays of light.
And there He veiled His power. In that light, in that projection, in that proclamation and publication of His marvelous deeds His power tarried. In other words, He was not proclaiming those marvelous deeds of His; He did not permit His rays to shine forth in other lands but only in the south and in Paran.
5. Before Him went death. Here Habakkuk begins a new section, for he is obviously painting a new picture, as he will recount many pictures one after another in great abundance, as prophets ordinarily do.
We shall see this passing parade of pictures. Here he is painting an accurate picture in which he will describe, just as in the other pictures which follow, what he has called the light and the rays of the Lord, namely, His very famous marvelous works which have become known to the nations, especially to those who lived round about. The Hebrew noun [ֶּד ֶב ר] means both "death" and "pestilence." In this passage I translate it "pestilence," for it denotes the plague with which the Lord smote the Egyptians with the result that in one night all the firstborn died, both of men and of beasts. Then, what follows,
And the devil followed close behind, I translate: "And fever went out at his feet," because the Hebrew noun does not mean "the devil," as those other people9 think, but some kind of destructive fever. Fevers of this kind are usually very harmful. In this way the same thought is stated twice. For it is not only the prophets who often repeat the same things, but the other writers in Scripture follow this pattern also.
6. He stood and measured the earth. Another picture is drawn, which Moses also describes in Ex. 14.
After the children of Israel had departed from Egypt, Pharaoh followed with a fully armed band, with chariots and horsemen, intent on wiping out God's people. When God was saving His people in this way, an angel stationed himself midway between the two armies to prevent the Egyptians from following on that night and injuring Israel. Moses very clearly states that it was an angel of the Lord who stood between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of the Israelites, etc. (Ex. 14:19–20). This is what Habakkuk means when he speaks about "measuring the earth." Then, when he adds:
He looked and shook the nations, Habakkuk has used almost exactly the same words that Moses used in Ex. 14:24–25, for Moses says the same thing with the same words: "The Lord in the pillar of fire and of a cloud looked down upon the host of the Egyptians and discomfited the host of the Egyptians, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily." God fights just by looking when He strikes terror and fear into the hearts of those whom He wishes to destroy. Then they are easily conquered and fall, no matter how well armed they are, and flee; they are not able to endure when they feel the presence of the Lord in their heart, just as the Egyptians also said (Ex. 14:25): "Let us flee from before Israel; for the Lord fights for them against us."
Then the eternal mountains were scattered. Figuratively Habakkuk calls the rulers and aristocrats "eternal mountains," because the supreme control of affairs was in their hands. Moses speaks the same way in Deuteronomy (cf. Gen. 49:26)10: "According to the desire of the eternal hills." That scattering or abasement of the leaders was brought about By His ways in the world. This is the way I translate from the Hebrew, for the Hebrew word11 means both "eternity" and "world," as in Ps. 24:7: "Be lifted up, O doors of the world," where we read "eternal doors." Therefore the Lord dispersed the nations and abased the leaders of the world, because He Himself walked in the world, that is, He lived with His people, walked in their midst as leader and victor, as He had promised.
7. I saw the tents of Ethiopia in affliction. Our Latin translation is so hard to understand that you might rather call it an incantation than a prayer. Nothing can be concluded from this verse. This is again another part of the picture, another "ray" of the Lord. Since our Latin translation12 is very bad, I translate it this way from the Hebrew: "I saw the tents of the Ethiopians in grief, the curtains in the land of Midian were troubled." The word "affliction" in our translation is the word ָאֶוֶו ן in Hebrew, about which we have said several times before that it means "toil," in German "exertion" (Mühe), as is plain in Ps. 90:10: "Yet what is left of them13 is toil and trouble." And so this is the meaning: "The Ethiopians, the Midianites, and all the other nations were disturbed and smitten with great fear when they heard about the coming of His people, whom the Lord had brought out of Egypt both so wonderfully and with such a powerful hand and such great signs. The Lord had delivered His people from the hand of Pharaoh and had led them wonderfully through the Red Sea at the very time when Pharaoh, together with his whole army, was drowned, etc." The Ethiopians and the Midianites were nations who lived nearby, especially those who are
- 59 called Egyptian Arabs, dwelling on the western shore of the Red Sea, for at that place there is a passage to Egypt, as the maps show.
Tents, for they did not build so expensively as we do in Germany or in other regions, but they lived in tents. So our Turks today laugh at the foolishness of the Germans because they build so magnificently—as though they were going to remain here forever. But they have received this tradition from their ancestors, that is, the Arabs, from whom they derive their origin. Curtains,14 that is, tents made out of curtains.
8. Was Thy wrath against the rivers, O Lord? This entire verse can be understood as a question expecting either a negative or a positive answer. The prophet gives free rein to his feelings in this verse.
He stops at this point in admiration of that great work about which he had spoken before. And so, if we should wish to expect a negative answer to the question, the meaning would be that he is speaking about the grace and the goodness of God by which He saved His people and truly caused the light to come forth.
If we should expect an affirmative reply to the question, he is speaking about the wrath and anger of the Lord with which He opposed Pharaoh and drowned him in the sea with his entire army. However, in my opinion the Hebrew question ought to receive a negative reply, as in the psalm (Ps. 95:11): "Therefore I swore in My anger that they should not enter My rest."15 And thus, by means of a negation, he makes an affirmation in this way: "You were angry with the adversaries; You destroyed them, but You saved us."
"Surely those were not signs of His wrath against us, that He led us through the rivers, were they? By no means. For He watches us with such great kindness when all the nations are raging against us. He leads us safely through the rivers in a wonderful way." The thing that causes me to approve this meaning is thai the prophet at this point is describing the safety that comes from chariots, for the Israelites went out of Egypt armed, namely, equipped with wagons and carts, as is plain from the Book of Numbers (cf. Num. 7:2 ff.).
In this way, with strong feeling, the prophet basks in the recollection of God's kind deeds and strengthens himself, as if to say: "These are the strong horsemen and swift chariots in which God rides."
9. Thou didst strip the sheath from Thy bow. This is another part of the picture. In this picture he includes the encounter16 with Sihon, the king of the Amorites, and with Og, the king of Bashan, which the historical books of the Old Testament (Num. 21:21–35; Deut. 2:24–3:11) and the Psalms (Ps. 135:11;
136:19–20) narrate fully. For after they had passed through the sea, they were attacked by these kings, whom they conquered through the Lord. The way it sounds, the word "bow" very simply means the soldiers and their weapons. It is not necessary to understand a spiritual bow, as some have imagined, for it is obvious that the prophet has used the same word in Ps. 78:9: "The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle," that is, the tribe of Ephraim was brave, was waging war, had a military tradition, etc. The meaning of the expression "the Lord stripped the sheath from His bow" is that He used
His soldiers in the service of His own people, made His people strong with His own strength, so that His people might escape victorious over all the enemies, just as He had promised both that He would give victory and that He would be an enemy to their enemies.
At this point the word Selah occurs again, which was also added once before.17 What this word really means has been discussed among all the churchmen, both Greek and Hebrew, from the earliest days of the church until this day. The Septuagint translators have translated it διάψαλμα, that is, a pause or a stop. I agree completely with those who say that it is some kind of addition to fill in a gap or an empty space in the verse, just as also our Latin and Greek poets often needed to insert into their verses fill-in particles to complete the metrical schemes of the verses. Otherwise they could be omitted, since they add nothing to the meaning of the verse, etc.
Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers. Now he is describing the passage through the Jordan. These are nothing but personifications, which also appear in the psalm verse "The hills gird themselves with joy"
(Ps. 65:12); also in "The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs" (Ps. 114:4). I think that this is a synecdoche, so that by the mountains are meant the people dwelling on the mountains. It is as if he were saying: "You are able to divide the rivers, and men have seen this; therefore they grieve, they bring forth to birth (this is the force of the Hebrew word), that is, they have been in as much pain as those who give birth, they are in agony. They have been perplexed and placed in anguish, they despaired of their own powers as they saw that You were so powerful with Your people that Your people were able to walk through the waters" (see Joshua 5:1).
10. The deep gave forth its voice. He sums it up in the figure of speech ἐπιφώνημα18 as if to say: "So deep and high are the things that serve God's people."
11. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation. Here he combines two events. The first occurred when the sun and the moon stood still until the Israelites could avenge themselves on their enemies (see
Joshua 10:12–13). The other event follows.
At the light of Thine arrows as they sped. This, too, is described in Joshua 10 when, on the occasion of the killing of the five kings, the Lord sent large stones from the sky on those who were fleeing, as the stow relates. Here he is describing this storm. He calls the flashes of lightning "arrows," for the flashes of lightning are the arrows of the Lord, as we have it in the psalm (Ps. 144:6): "Flash forth the lightning and scatter them, send out Thy arrows and rout them!"
12. Thou didst bestride the earth in fury. I translate this way from the Hebrew: "In wrath You walk on the earth, in anger You trample the nations," namely, Canaan. This means: "You walk with a certain majesty of wrath, because many are the adversaries of Your people, all of whom You destroy." In this verse Habakkuk is grouping together all the remaining peoples of Canaan who opposed Israel, the people of God, as one can see in the Book of Joshua.
13. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people. Up to this point he has portrayed all the incidents that occurred after the departure from Egypt until the fathers gained possession of the Promised
Land. Now he adds those incidents by which he shows what works the Lord did in the peaceful kingdom after they had thoroughly defeated the hostile nations and were able to remain at home. He describes the things accomplished under the kings, especially under Saul and David, when they had seized the land and dwelt in it. Therefore he describes them as marching out to war. He calls both Saul and David "the anointed" (Christum)19 king of the Lord, for Scripture ascribes this title even to Saul, although he was wicked. For often even Saul fought very successfully, and this success came about for the sake of the people, to whom the Lord had promised both that He would be with them and would fight for them, according to the promises which they had, etc.
Thou didst crush the head of the wicked. The Hebrew reading usually joins these words with the preceding words. However, if I may be so bold, I would prefer to join them with the following words. And yet I leave you free to decide which interpretation seems better, for it can be understood in two ways. One explanation is that what is expressed in the singular number is plural, as he also called kings "the anointed one" of the Lord. This is the interpretation that I do not approve of, that he is talking about different kings, that is, about the king of the Moabites, the king of the Ammonites, the kings of Syria, etc., all of whom he speaks of as shattered, namely, by the kings of Judah and Israel. But I would prefer to understand this about the king of the Assyrians, that is, that He had shaken him from the house of the wicked one. This means that He deprived him of his rule, etc. However, if someone does not approve of this meaning, I will not argue. Moreover, "to make bare the foundations and to crush the head" is to scatter the kingdom and to take away their king, whom Scripture calls the head. To leave the people without a king and a ruler is what Scripture calls "to make bare," just as Moses speaks about making the head bare.20
To neck. This metaphor is extremely harsh and is unique to this prophet. He is inserting a double metaphor, with which he denotes the rulers in two ways. When he speaks about laying the foundations bare, he is calling the rulers the foundations. In the second place, he calls them heads, etc.
14. Thou didst curse his scepters with the head of his cities. This is especially directed against the king of the Chaldeans, for here the prophet is again drawing a new picture. He involves him with the king of the Assyrians (for in this way, I think, the former passage must be understood about the king of the Assyrians) when he adds the word "his," as though still speaking about only one Assyrian. And so this is the meaning: "The kingdom of the Chaldeans has not yet been destroyed, as the other kingdoms and kings have, but now the destruction of that kingdom is imminent also. The verdict has been rendered, You have cursed his scepters. Therefore, O Lord, bring it about that the thing which You have threatened will happen. Let the king of the Persians come and avenge our disgrace, etc., because You have cursed his scepters with the head of the cities, Babylon."
Who came like a whirlwind to scatter me. In Hebrew there is only one word where we read "who came like a whirlwind" just as if he were saying "who came storming." For in this way the Hebrew language is accustomed to use such elegant words. This is the meaning: "Until now our kings have suffered much, we have been miserably mistreated by the other hostile kings and nations. Nevertheless, you, O king of the Chaldeans, have been our fiercest enemy of all, you who have overwhelmed us like a storm and miserably mistreated us. You have led us away into captivity; and not only that, but we have become a laughingstock
- 61 to you. You laugh at us; you are so arrogant about the victory you have gained that you even rejoice if some wicked man oppresses a poor person in secret, that is, without being punished, where there is no judge who might avenge the injustice." This is what the prophet means when he says rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
15. Thou didst trample the sea with Thy horses. Formerly we used to conquer our enemies everywhere with the help of God, no matter how powerful they were, just as he said before (v. 8): "Thou didst ride upon Thy horses, upon Thy chariot of victory." But now we have been overwhelmed by tribulation. "Now
You have trampled us in the sea, that is, in tribulation."
The surging of mighty waters. The same expression is in Ps. 69:1–2: "For the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold; I have come into deep waters, and the flood sweeps over me." All these expressions indicate excessive tribulation. Obviously the meaning of this passage is the same, as he further explains that trampling when, in the words that follow, he recounts how the Chaldean scattered them.
16. I hear, and my body trembles. "You were afflicting us extraordinarily, you were oppressing us; we were crawling, as it were, in the mud of many waters. When I was listening to these things, my stomach was troubled and my lips trembled. The boasting and insulting by your horsemen and soldiers, who were trampling and mining us, greatly grieved me."
Rottenness enters into my bones. This is another expression unique to this prophet. The meaning is:
"My bones were weak from fear and from confusion when I was forced to hear all these things." My steps totter beneath me, that is, "In my solitude I was shaken where I stood," or as we say in German, "I sat and ate my heart out."21
I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. "Our nation has been taken into captivity; those who robbed us and captured us with their army prevailed against us." This is what the Hebrew word means: "The Lord had allowed them to prevail against us; no prayer had any effect," just as Isaiah says (Is. 64:7): "There is no one that calls upon Thy name, that bestirs himself to take hold of Thee, etc." "But now peace will return to us; we will be led back safe to our kingdom; we will be delivered from the captivity with which you now oppress us, and then the curse will come upon you.
For this reason I was not able to rest when you were oppressing us in this way."
17. Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, that is, "All things had been destroyed. So great was your wrath against us, so great your tyranny."
The produce of the olive fail, that is, "Fruit was not coming forth from the olive tree, no matter how well it was cultivated."
The flock be cut off from the fold, that is, "The Chaldeans were seizing all things, so that nothing remained in our land."
18. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, that is, "I will give thanks to the Lord for our salvation. It will happen some day that the king of the Persians will triumph over you; you will no longer be able to exercise your tyranny over us; your destruction is drawing near. We, however, will be led back safe to Jerusalem, and therefore there will come a time when I will again rejoice and praise God." This is the same thought that the prophet David expresses in the psalm (Ps. 43:5): "Why are you east down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my Help and my
19. He makes my feet like hinds' feet. These words have been taken from a psalm, for the same words are also in the psalm (Ps. 18:33): "He made my feet like hinds' feet, etc.," that is, "He will cause the progress of my affairs to be favorable, there will be success, He will keep me safe as I run both in the ministry of the Word and in a safe kingdom," as he here adds:
He makes me tread upon my high places, that is, the kingdom will still be strong, for he includes here the kingdom of the return from captivity, as if he were saying: "It will happen that I will be brought back again to glory from this mud in which you are now trampling us."
For the victory on musical instruments. This word occurs very often in the titles of psalms as חֵּצֵּצ ַַנַַמְלַ, which is translated with the Greek word ἐπινίκιον, that is, "song of triumph." So this is the meaning: "I will again ride on high, I will be established on high again with songs of triumph on my musical instruments." In my German translation of the Psalms I have translated this word "to sing high,"22 that is, this kind of psalm ought to be sung with a high and sonorous voice, the voice we ordinarily refer to as - 62 discantus.23 And so this is the meaning: "I will sing in the high range with joy and gladness; at the present
I am being afflicted, at the present I am being oppressed, but within a short time I will glory again, I will rejoice and triumph. This will happen when we will be brought back from captivity." This is a brief ἐπιφώνημα24 of all that has preceded. In this way he is indicating the complete enjoyment of redemption from captivity.25
PREFACE TO THE PROPHET HABAKKUK I RESOLVED to expound this prophet Habakkuk1 so that he, too, may finally come to light and that his contents may be learned, and that we may note what the Holy Spirit says and teaches us through him. For I believe that he has not seen the light of day since the time of the apostles. This is due in part to the unfamiliarity of the Hebrew tongue. It is impossible to understand a number of passages of Scripture, in particular the prophets, without a knowledge of Hebrew. Moreover, the ancient and early teachers2 who were conversant with that language were prevented by other causes from applying themselves diligently to this task. And yet it would have been meet and right, also useful and necessary, to expound Habakkuk clearly, because the last chapter, his prayer, was used daily; it was both sung and read in all the churches,3 but probably according to the proverbial saying "the way the nuns read the Psalter."4 St. Paul honors
Habakkuk greatly, quoting his statement "The righteous shall live by faith" (Hab. 2:4) more than once (Gal. 3:11; Rom. 1:17).5 He immediately makes this the theme of his finest letter, the Epistle to the Romans. Furthermore, Luke cites him twice in the Book of Acts.6 This reflects the high regard Habakkuk must have enjoyed among the apostles. Although we may not boast over against the ancient fathers (for God alone lays claim to such a judgment, 1 Cor. 3:21), yet we must confess and cannot deny that we, by God's grace, possess more clarity and light on many Scriptural passages than they did. May God also grant that we be grateful and that we may bear all the more fruit. Amen.
But before beginning with the text, I must pave the way with a general introductory remark. This is necessary and useful for a better understanding not only of this prophet but also of most of the others. For it has been most confusing in the past to hear the prophets speak of the Jewish kingdom and then to break off so abruptly and intersperse remarks about Christ. Everybody who is not familiar with their method regards that as an odd way of doing things, and he supposes that they observe no order but ramble along from one subject to another. This seems incomprehensible to all; people cannot get used to it. It is indeed very irritating to read a book that observes no order, in which statements are so disconnected that they do not fit together and therefore lack proper coherence. All of that may reasonably be expected of correct and proper speech. Thus the Holy Spirit was accused of an inability to express Himself properly, of talking like a drunkard or a fool, of mixing everything together and of delivering Himself of wild and odd words and statements. But it is we who were at fault; we did not understand the speech, and we were not acquainted with the method of the prophets. For it cannot be otherwise: the Holy Spirit is wise, and He also makes His prophets wise. Now, a wise man must necessarily be able to speak well; this can never fail.
But to him who does not hear well or is not sufficiently conversant with a language, to him a speech may seem faulty because he hears or understands hardly half of the words. That has been our experience to date with Scripture. That is why we, too, groped in the dark so, aped others, and often missed the mark and arrived at another meaning. As the saying goes: He who cannot hear well, invents well.7
It is certain, first of all, that all the prophets direct their prophecies primarily toward Christ. St. Peter shows in Acts 3:24 that all the prophets spoke of the time of the New Testament. Moreover, the entire Old
- 63 Testament has been nothing else but a preparation for and forerunner of the New Testament. It is comparable to a tutor who rears and trains the master's son so that he might one day become a competent master and father himself. Thus Paul declares in Gal. 3:24: "The Law was our custodian until Christ came, etc." The fact that the prophets meanwhile reprove the people, that they pronounce many prophecies that pertained only to their own time and served only their time, also that they have interspersed prophecies regarding heathen kingdoms and principalities, also the fact that they have performed miracles—all this has been done to train the Jewish people and to prepare them for the advent of Christ. Similarly a Christian must do many things—eat and drink and perform other physical acts—not just to nourish the body; no, the body is thereby sustained and nourished to enable the mind to serve God here on earth in faith and with the Gospel. We in Christendom and in the New Testament must also do that, namely, teach the people to live right; and yet both our doctrine and our life are directed to the expectation of the Last
Day and of eternal life. In no way does this suggest that we intend to remain here on earth.
In the second place, when the time had come for Christ and the New Testament to appear, as all the prophets had foretold and as they had pointed out to the people, then God, in His divine way, acted as though nothing were to come of this. He made it appear as if He would turn out to be a liar in all the prophets. He destroyed the country and its inhabitants through the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Now the prophets had to take it on the chin. They were accused of not having spoken by God but by the devil, because the events and the fulfillment of their words turned out so absurdly and far differently than these had been understood by the people. Here is an illustration: When the people occupied the country, had kings and princes; when they were waiting and gaping for the Messiah and His new kingdom, about which the prophets had spoken so grandly and with which they had consoled the people; indeed, when the people felt most assured and assumed that all was well and the Christ8 was about to come: then the king of Assyria appeared and led all the people away into Assyrian captivity. What a splendid advent for the Christ and His kingdom! Don't you suppose many people at that time said, "May the devil believe a prophet in the future! They are all rascals and liars in disguise"? Jeremiah quotes these people (Jer. 14:19):
"We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror." "Did they not deceive us beautifully with their prophecy of the Messiah?"
However, one hope still remained. The tribe of Judah was still dwelling in the country, and through King Hezekiah God had miraculously preserved the city of Jerusalem. Now the hope that the Christ would appear in such a time of peace still survived. But then our Lord God shattered that hope thoroughly and completely, for He also permitted Judah and Jerusalem to be destroyed, and that far worse than Israel had been. While they were waiting for the Christ, the king of Babylon appeared and dealt worse with Judah than the king of Assyria had dealt with Israel. My dear man, who could believe the prophets any longer under those circumstances? What hope remained now that the country was ravaged and devastated, now that kings, princes, priests, prophets, and all others had vanished and only the peasants remained in the country and alien, pagan princes ruled at will? Is that what you call the coming of the Christ and the establishment of a new, great, and mighty kingdom that would reign throughout the world? Indeed, that is what you call destroying kingdoms and laying them waste. No, they did not understand this work of God; for it is impossible for flesh and blood to comprehend that life should originate where life ends, that honor should come forth where dishonor appears, and that a kingdom should arise when captivity is at hand. For all of this is entirely contrary to and beyond the thinking, the custom, and the experience of the whole world. But God does not act otherwise and cannot act otherwise. It is as Scripture says of Him in 1 Sam.
2:6 f.: "The Lord kills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich, etc."
Now the prophets had to bestir themselves. That was a time to preach and to comfort lest the Jews despair of the advent of the Messiah and of His kingdom. Here Jeremiah, Ezekiel, also Isaiah and many others before them, had to proclaim that this would not prevent the advent of the Christ, so that, even if not all believed this, at least some would be preserved in faith and become partakers of the coming Christ.
One of these prophets was our Habakkuk. His entire prophecy aimed at proclaiming that the king of Babylon would appear and devastate the land of Judah because of the sin of the people; that God would punish them in that way; however, that this would not prevent or delay the Christ's advent, but that God would carry out His work in this way, that the king of Babylon, without knowing it, would execute this punishment and then would perish. As the saying goes: "A father uses the rod to punish a child and then