Bible Commentaries

prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet — Habakkuk signifieth a wrestler, that by closing striveth to get the better, as hath been before noted on Habakkuk 1:1 . To close with the adversary is the best way to supplant him, or to avoid the blow: so is running into God the way to escape him. The prophet had heard God’s speech and was afraid, Habakkuk 3:2 . He saw his wrath ready to break forth, and therefore gets in with him by this prayer. He knew that,

“ Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus ”( Ovid).

God suffereth himself often to be overcome by the prayers of his people; and yieldeth much unto them when most bitterly bent, Matthew 24:20 ; he therefore sets shoulders and sides to work, and wrestles lustily in this chapter. He knew it was a prophet’s work to pray as well as preach; and between these two to divide his time. "God forbid" (saith Samuel, who is reckoned the first of prophets, Acts 3:24 ), "that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: I will also teach you the good and right way," 1 Samuel 12:23 . So doth this prophet; he both preferreth a prayer (the word úôìä say some, signifieth such a prayer as is made by a mediator before a judge; we have an advocate with the Father, 1 John 2:1 ), and dedicated the same to the people, to be used by them in the time of the captivity: which yet they shamefully neglected to do, as Daniel acknowledgeth, Daniel 9:13 ; or if they did anything towards it, they merely sought themselves in it, and so lost their labour, Zechariah 7:5 ; whereas had they prayed as here is prescribed, confessing their sins, and beseeching God not to deal with them after their deserts, but according to his ancient lovingkindnesses, that never fail, they might have found mercy, Lamentations 3:22 . The altar of incense stood against the mercy seat; and, Revelation 9:13 , the prayers of the saints from the four corners of the earth sound and do great things in the world, make it ring. It was the speech of a learned man; If there be but one sigh come from a gracious heart it fills the ears of God, so that God hears nothing else.

Upon Shigionoth — Vocabulum musicum est, cuius ratio Hebraeis ignota, saith Buxtorf; it is a musical term, the reason whereof is unknown to the Hebrew doctors to this day. Yet Rabbi Salomon (and with him most interpreters) rendereth it pro ignorantiis, for ignorances, or as touching his own and his people’s errors; which the prophet here (convinced by God’s former answer to his expostulation) confesseth with confusion of face. Ignorance surely is a blushful sin; especially if affected and delighted in (as the Hebrew word seemeth to imply, confer Proverbs 5:1 ; Proverbs 20:1 ). Private ignorance, though it do somewhat excuse a man ( sc. a tanto from so much not a tote, from everything, Luke 12:47 ), yet is it a sin to be confessed and bewailed; for Christ died for the not knowing of the people, Hebrews 9:7 , αγνοηματα , and destruction is threatened, pro nonscientia, or lack of knowledge, Hosea 4:6 . But Calvin well observeth here, that the prophet by begging pardon for ignorances, doth not omit his own and the people’s more grievous sins; but showeth that men must also be sensible of their lesser lapses, and cry out with David (after whose example this whole song is framed), "Who can understand his errors" (or ignorances, unwitting and inconsiderate sins)? "O cleanse thou me from secret faults," Psalms 19:12 .

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O LORD, I have heard thy speech, [and] was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

O Lord, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid — Audivi auditionem tuam. I have heard (not thy fume or thy report, as some render it, unless it be in the prophet Isaiah’s sense, Isaiah 53:1 , but) thy preceding discourse, in answer to my disceptation. I have heard that the Babylonians will come, and that my people must go into captivity. This was no pleasant hearing; for we all naturally shrink in the shoulder when called to carry the cross; but those that do what they should not must look to hear and feel too what they would not.

And was afraid — Fear is constrictio cordis ex sensu mali instantis, a passion of the soul shrinking in itself from some imminent evil. The wicked hear and jeer: or their fear driveth them from God, as it did guilty Adam. Contrarily, the godly tremble at God’s judgments while they hang in the threatenings; and draw nigh to him with entreaties of peace. In this fear of the Lord is strong confidence, "and his children have a place of refuge," Proverbs 14:26 .

O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years — i.e. Preserve alive thy Israel, that work of thine hands, Isaiah 45:11 , together with thy work of grace in their hearts; keep that spark alive upon the sea of tribulations and temptations. The angels (saith a reverend man) are kept with much less care, charge, and power, than we; because they have no bias, no weights of sin hung upon them, … There is not so much of the glory of God (saith another) in all his works of creation and providence as in one gracious action that a Christian performeth.

in the midst of the years make known — sc. Thy power in perfecting thy glory, and not forsaking the work of thine own hands, Psalms 138:8 . It was Luther’s usual prayer, Confirm, O God, in us that thou hast wrought; and perfect the work that thou hast begun in us, to thy glory. So be it. So Queen Elizabeth, when prisoner at Woodstock, prayed thus: Look, Lord, upon the wounds of thine hands; and despise not the work of thine hands. Thou hast written me down in thy book of preservation with thine own hand: O read thine own handwriting, and save me, … But what meant the Seventy here to translate, In the midst of two beasts: which while Ribera striveth to defend, he tells us a tale of the babe of Bethlehem, born in a stable, and laid in a manger between two beasts, an ox and an ass ( εν μεσω δυο ζωων ). It may very well be that the Church here prayeth for God’s grace and favour during the time of her captivity.

In wrath remember mercy — In commotione irae: when thou art most moved against us, and hast as much ado to forbear killing of us as thou hadst to forbear Moses when thou mettest him in the inn, then remember to show mercy, call to mind thy compassions which fail not. "Look then upon us, and be merciful unto us, as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name," Psalms 119:132 . The wicked are threatened with an evil, an only evil, without any mixture of mercy; this the prophet here deprecateth, and beggeth mercy, Ezekiel 7:5 . Per miserere mei, tollitur ira Dei. through mercy to me, the wrath of God is born away.

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God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

God came from Teman — The prophet alludeth to that of Moses in his swan-like song, Deuteronomy 33:2 , and allegeth God’s benefits of old, for his own and their present confirmation of faith; without which prayer would be to no purpose; hence effectual prayer is called the "prayer of faith," James 5:15 . Whatsoever ye ask believing ye shall receive, saith our Saviour, Mark 11:24 . "Cast thy burden" (or thy request) "upon the Lord," saith David, Psalms 55:22 . To help us so to do it is of singular use to consider what God hath done heretofore; for thou hast, thou wilt, is an ordinary medium of Scriptural logic, see Psalms 85:1-4 . There be six hast’s drawing in the next, Turn us again, …, Psalms 85:4 ; see also 2 Corinthians 1:10 . God’s majesty and might when he gave the law in Sinai is here set forth, to show how easily he can, if he please, turn again the captivity of his people, as the streams in the south, Psalms 126:4 .

And the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah — He that is holiness itself (a title far too good for that man of sin, that Merum Scelus pure wickedness, the Pope, Philip the Fair of France did him right in writing to him thus, Sciat tua maxima Fatuitas, …, Be it known to your foolishness, not to your holiness), and that must be sanctified in righteousness, Isaiah 5:16 . Mount Paran was contiguous to the mountains Sinai and Teman, otherwise called Seir for its roughness, Deuteronomy 33:2 . Selah. This the Seventy make to be a musical notion, rendering it Diapsalma. a pause in music. It seemeth to import an asseveration of a thing so to be, and an admiration thereat. The Jews to this day use it in their prayers for Legnolam, i.e. For ever, or Amen. It is probable, that when the singers of the temple came to a Selah (which word is used ninety-two times in Scripture, and only in Psalms and Songs) they made a pause, that the hearers might stay their thoughts awhile upon the preceding matter, worthy of more than ordinary observation. Hence Tremellius and Junius express Selah by the adverbs Summe, Maxime, Vehementissime, Excellenter. It was doubtless a singular mercy of God to his people of Israel, that be came from Teman, …, to speak with them from heaven; and there to give them "right judgments and true laws, good statutes and commandments,"Nehemiah 9:13-14; Nehemiah 9:13-14 . This when he did,

His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise — The law was given in a most majestic manner, Exodus 19:17-25 partly to procure reverence to the doctrine of it, partly to set forth the nature and office of it, which is to terrify offenders, and to drive them to Christ; and partly also to show that God hath power and weapons enough to defend those that keep his law, and to punish such as would draw them off from their obedience thereunto. That is a pious meditation of a reverend writer (Dr Hall), if the law were thus given, how shall it be required? If such were the proclamation of God’s statutes, what shall the sessions be? I see and tremble at the resemblance.

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And [his] brightness was as the light; he had horns [coming] out of his hand: and there [was] the hiding of his power.

And his brightness was as the light — The glory of the Lord was as a devouring fire on the top of the mountain, Exodus 24:17 ; the noonday light, the sun in his strength was nothing to this incomparable brightness, which was as the light, or as the sun, see Job 31:26 ; Job 37:20 . Hence the heathens called Apollo or the sun Orus (which is the word here used), hence also the Greek οραω , to see ( àåø ).

He had horns coming out of his hand — Or, bright beams out of his side, as the sun hath: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place," Proverbs 16:3 , and every man before him is all window, Job 34:22 ; the whole world is to him as a sea of glass, Revelation 4:6 , a clear transparent body, he shines and sees through it. God’s hand or side is said to be horned in the sense that Moses’s face was, Exodus 34:30 .

And there was the hiding of his power — Not the revealing of it, but velamen, symbolum, integumentum, the veil, the cover, such as God put over him when he showed Moses his glory. He could see but his back parts, and live; we need see no more that we may live. God is invisible, incomprehensible, and dwelleth in light unapproachable. How little a thing doth man here understand of God, Job 26:14 ; the greatest part of that which he knoweth is but the least part of that which he knoweth not. Surely as a weak eye is not able to behold the sun, no, nor the strongest eye without being dazzled; we cannot look upon it in rota, in the globe but only in radiis, into the rays; so here we cannot see God in his essence, but only in his effects, in his works, and in his Word, where also we have but a show, but a shadow of him, we see but his train in the temple, as Isaiah; the holy angels cover their faces with their wings as with a double scarf before God’s brightness, which would put out their eyes else, Isaiah 6:2 ; see Psalms 104:2 1 Timothy 6:16 .

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Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.

Before him went the pestilence — Dever, the word signifieth such a disease as cometh by a Divine decree, θεηλατον . So Hippocrates call the pestilence το θειον , because sent by God in a spiritual manner, a stroke of his own bare hand as it were. Here it is made one of his apparitors or pursuivants, sent before him to destroy the Canaanites, as it had done the Egyptians.

And burning coals went forth at his feet — Or, the carbuncle burning bile, Deuteronomy 32:24 . The Vulgate translate it the devil; others Aνθραξ , a deadly inflammation, whereof good Oecolampadius died, and was lamented by Melancthon. But Luther very uncharitably (the best have their failings) wrote that he believed Oecolampadium ignitis Satanae telis et hastis confossum, subitanea metre periisse (Lib. de Missa privat.), that Oecolampadius died suddenly, being stabbed to death with the fiery darts of the devil.

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He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways [are] everlasting.

He stood, and measured the earth — Not Joshua, but God, brought his people into the promised land, and divided it among them, Psalms 78:55 . Like as also he had divided the whole earth by bounds and borders to the various nations, Psalms 74:17 , and doth still appoint men the bounds of their habitations, Acts 17:26 .

He beheld, and drove asunder the nations — He did it with his looks, as it were; that is, with very little ado. Let the Lord but arise only and his enemies shall be scattered, let him but frown and they fall before him. If Augustus could frown to death Asinius Pollio, and Queen Elizabeth her chancellor Hatton, what shall we think of God’s bended brows?

And the everlasting mountains were scattered — i.e. Those kingdoms of the Canaanites that were held firm and immoveable as the mountains, yea, riveted as it were upon eternity, see Numbers 13:28-29 ; Numbers 13:33 . These were scattered, dissilierunt, fell in pieces, and leaped this way and that way, as stones broken with a great hammer. God threshed these mountains, and beat them small, he made the hills as chaff, Isaiah 41:15 . No worldly height could stand before him. By mountains here some understand kings and princes, as by hills those of inferior rank.

His ways are everlasting — Heb. His walks or journeys, that is, his government of the world by his power and wisdom, is perpetual, he never casteth off the care thereof. There are those who refer the word his to the Canaanites, who had of old possessed the land without disturbance ( αυτοχθονες ); but the former sense is the better.

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I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: [and] the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

I saw the tents of Cushan — King of Mesopotamia, who tyrannized over Israel eight years after Joshua’s death; God selling his people to him for nought, and not increasing his wealth by their price, Psalms 44:12 Judges 3:8 . But delivering them in the end by that valiant Othniel, who brought the tents of Cushan under affliction or vanity. Some render it propter iniquitatem, because of iniquity, and set this sense upon it; It was for sin that God sold his people into the hands of Cushanrishathaim, and yet afterwards sent them a Saviour; why then should they now despair of a seasonable return out of captivity, though by their sins they have provoked the Lord to wrath; since if they return unto him and seek his favour, there is yet mercy with the Lord, that he may be feared? Lo, this is the right use of histories: and this is our duty, to make observations to ourselves, as did the prophet here: I saw the tents of Cushan; I considered the thing that hath been, it is the same which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, …, Ecclesiastes 1:9 . Historiae fidae monitrices dicuntur παρα το ισταναι τον ρουν .

And the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble — Cortinae vel pelles, … When by the sword of the Lord and of Gideon they were cut off and discomfited, Judges 7:7 .

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Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? [was] thine anger against the rivers? [was] thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thine horses [and] thy chariots of salvation?

Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? — As Xerxes, that brutish man, was against the Hellespont, for battering his bridge of boats, beating it and casting a pair of fetters into it? Was God thus angry against Jordan and against the Red Sea? No such matter. If God seem angry at any time against the reasonless or lifeless creatures, it is for a punishment of man’s sin. But here his end and purpose was to show that he did ride upon those horses and chariots (the rivers and sea) for the salvation of his people. He did so when time was, and that he will do so again, when time shall serve, this question in the text shows that there is no question to be made of it.

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