The Pulpit Commentary — Habakkuk — Section 57

Vor. 8.-Intorrupting hie description of for the latter, as instrumenta of ch,istie,·- tho thoophany, the prophet asks the ment, rendering," Rods are sworn by word." motive of this wrathrul revelation. This is Henc!erson, taking the worrls as a military done, not with expectation of an answer, signal, curiously translates, "• Sevens ,,f but giving life and vigour to the composi- spears' was the word." Pusey supports tion. Suoh sudden transitions are not un- the Authorized Version, which, indeed, oommon (comp, Judg. v. 12; Pe. lxxviii. gives a good sense, and is probably correct. 19, eto.). Was the Lord displeased against It is virtually supported by Jerome, who the rivers 1 Waa it against the rivers, 0 has, " Suacitana suscite.bi,, arcum tuum, Jehovah ? was thy wrath kindled against the juramenta tribubus qum locutua es," "Thou rivers f Was God angry with inanimate wilt a.waken the oaths," which, so long a.a nature, when he showed bis power, for the evil prospered, seemed to be forgotten instance, in the Nile and the Jordan and ancl sleeping. The LXX. omits the word the Red Sea? God meant more by these rendered "oe.tha," anc! translates mattolh, acts. He showed hie supremacy over all u1e-ij1r-rpa., thns : 'Ev-re[vc.111 EvE-rewas -r&(ov o-ou creation, and hie will to se.ve his people and l..-1 tTK71..--rpa., 7'ry« K6pws, " Thou didst. to crush all opposition to the execution of surely bend thy bow ogain•t sceptres." his grce.t design (see Pe. ovi. 9 ; cxiv. 3, Sela.h. A pause ensnes before the introduc- etc.). That thou didst ride upon thine horses. tion of a new series of natural phenomenn, The prophet spee.ke of the Lord as a Leader accompanying the Lorc!'a epipliany (see of a mighty host which came with chariots on ver. 3). The next clause would be more and horses to defend the Israelites e.nd to fitly joined with ver. 10. Thou didst cleave crush their foes (comp. Ps. xviii. 10). And the earth with (or, in!o) rivers. This refers thy ohariots of salvation. "And," which is to some catastrophe like that which hap- not in the Hebrew, is better omitted, the pened a.t the Flood, when "the fountains of clause being an explanation of "thine the great deep were broken up " (Gen. vii. horses." The chariots come for the salva- 11; comp. Ps. lxxvii. 16). Others think tion, i.e. the deliverance, of Israel (ver. 13). that the allusion is to the miracles at the Some tre.uslate, "Thy chariots are salva- Red Sea, or Sinai, or Rephidim in the tion; " as the Septuagint, ,cal -1, i1r1ra.tTla. wilderness, as in Pa. lxxiv.; lxxviii.; CL tTou tTOYr1Jpla.: and Vulgate, et quadrigm tUtB But though the prophet glances at such aalvatio. It comes to the same thing, particular circumstances, hie scope is more whichever rendering we adopt. general. Ver. 9.-The prophet continues hie de- Ver. 10.-The mounta.ine saw thee, an,l scription of the Lord e.s "e. me.n of we.r" they trembled; literally, were in pain; (Exod. xv. 3). Thy bow we.a me.de quite Septuagint, w6u11wovtT,. The words point naked, The sheath of the bow was le.id to the phenomena of an earthquake, as asicle to make it ready for use. In the Sinai shook at the presence of the Lord ,~ssyrian monuments the bow-case forms (Exod. xix. 18 ; Pa. cxiv. 6). So Virgil, part of the quiver, and holds only the lower ' lEn.,' vi. 256- ha.If 6f the bow (Rawlinson, 'Anc. Mon.,' " Sub pedibus mugire sol um, et juga ccepta. ii. 55, edit. 1864). It we.e fastened to the moveri ~- side of the chariot or carried e.t the back of Silvarum , .. the archer. (For the general sense, comp. Adventante dee.-'' Deut. xxxii. 40, eto.; Pe, xiv. 5.) In the Revehttion (vi. 2) he that site on the white For" mountaine,"the LXX. reads, "peoples." horse has a bow. Acoording to the oaths of The overfl.owing of the water passed by; the tribes, even thy word ; i.e. thou doest the torrent of water passed along. Catltrncts all this to confirm the promises of deliver- of rain fell, as in the Deluge. " The windows ance and salvation made to the tribes of on high are open, and the foundations of tho Israel. 'fhis sense is satiBfaotory ; but the earth do shake" (Isa. :xxiv.18). Those who Hebrew text is corrupt, and cannot be ex- confine the reference to pust events see here plo.ined with a.ny certainty. The Revised an intimf\tion of the passage of the J orda.n Version gi vee, " The oaths to the tribes were (Josh. iii. 15, 16). The deep uttered his a sure word;" in the margin, " Sworn were voioe. The mass of waters iu the oce,in allll the cho.stisements (Heb1·ew, 'rods') ·or thy under the earth roars mightily us it bursts word." Thus Dr. llrigge : "Sworn are the forth (Gtin. xlix. 25 ; Deut. xuiii. 13). His rode of thy word." Orelli translates," Oo.tha, hands, Its waves (Ps. xoviii. 8). Septua- rode of the word," and explains the clo.use gint, 3,yor ,PllV-ratTla.s a.v-r71s, •• the height of to mean that the Lord comes to exeoutu the its form." denounced punishment, which proceeds Ver.11.-The aun and moon stood still in from his mouth like ohaetising rods. The their habitation; or, stein£! still, or with- word mattoth is translated "tribes" (as in draw i11to their habitation. They hide them- 2 Ohron. v. 2) or "rods." Keil contends selves in the tabomacle11 whence they arc' s,tiJ. 54 THE BOOK OF HABAKKUI(. [on. m. 1-Hl.