1A PRAYER OF Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth.
2LORD, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD.
Renew them in our day,
in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy.
3God came from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His glory covered the heavens
and his praise filled the earth.
4His splendor was like the sunrise;
rays flashed from his hand,
where his power was hidden.
5Plague went before him;
pestilence followed his steps.
6He stood, and shook the earth;
he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
and the age-old hills collapsed.
His ways are eternal.
7I saw the tents of Cushan in distress,
the dwellings of Midian in anguish.
8Were you angry with the rivers, O LORD?
Was your wrath against the streams?
Did you rage against the sea
when you rode with your horses
and your victorious chariots?
9You uncovered your bow,
you called for many arrows. Selah
You split the earth with rivers;
10the mountains saw you and writhed.
Torrents of water swept by;
the deep roared
and lifted its waves on high.
11 Sun and moon stood still in the heavens
at the glint of your flying arrows,
at the lightning of your flashing spear.
12In wrath you strode through the earth
and in anger you threshed the nations.
13You came out to deliver your people,
to save your anointed one.
You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness,
you stripped him from head to foot. Selah
14With his own spear you pierced his head
when his warriors stormed out to scatter us,
gloating as though about to devour
the wretched who were in hiding.
15You trampled the sea with your horses,
churning the great waters.
16I heard and my heart pounded,
my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
to come on the nation invading us.
17Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.
Original Meaning
HABAKKUK 3 IS a song to Yahweh about his power and way in the world. Some have argued that Habakkuk 3 was added to the oracle rather than being a part of the oracle.1 True, it is different in form and content from the rest of the book. Like a psalm it has a title that sets it apart. Nevertheless, it is integral to the book. The concluding verses (3:16–19) enclose the song into the whole revelation. They refer back to Yahweh’s revelation of the rise of the Babylonians and their demise (ch. 2). The song functions as a response to the revelation within the book. It continues Habakkuk’s dialogue with Yahweh concerning the success of violent people. It is an integral conclusion of the entire oracle, received in a vision by Habakkuk and announced in 1:1. The words of the prophet, even those spoken to God in chapter 3, are a gift from God. This circle of inspiration is a legacy of biblical prophecy in general.
Title and Structure (3:1)
THE TITLE IN 3:1 identifies the chapter as “a prayer of Habakkuk.” This prayer was sung, the last verse giving instrumental directions for the music leader (3:19). “On Shigionoth” is probably the tune or musical setting for singing.2
The formal part of the song begins in verse 2 with the refrain (“LORD, I have heard of your fame”) and continues in three musical “stanzas” through 3:15. Verses 16–19 follow a freer form (like a musical “bridge”), beginning again with the verb used in 3:2, “I heard.” Although the tenses are different in the NIV, the verbs in 3:2 and 3:16 are identical (šamaʿti).
The main themes of the song are found in the refrain (3:2): standing in awe, remembering God’s acts of power, and praying for their return with mercy. The first stanza (3:3–8) describes the powerful and awesome manifestations of God’s presence in creation in the past. It expresses wonder about the physical power of God’s wrath in the earth. The second stanza (3:9–13a) declares the purpose of Yahweh’s wrath. The motivation behind his anger is to save his chosen people and the “anointed one” (the king). The third stanza (3:13b–15) describes Yahweh’s defeat of the leader of wickedness who is about to destroy God’s people.3 The final bridge (3:16–19) is Habakkuk’s response to his description of God’s acts of power. Although he is terror-stricken, he declares his willingness to endure God’s judgment of his people and to rejoice and trust in Yahweh’s strength, even in starvation.
The three stanzas are introduced by half verses that serve as stanza titles. Each title is followed by the dividing word “Selah.”4 This pause coming at the end of the title, not at the end of the stanza, may appear at first a bit odd in an English Bible. But the original audience and choir would have seen the title as an announcement of the stanza to come. While awkward in textual form, it works well poetically and musically. If the refrain (3:2) was sung between each stanza, it would have been sung as follows:
Refrain: “LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy” (3:2).
Stanza 1 title: “God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah” (3:3a).
Lyrics continue (3:3b–8), followed by Refrain.
Stanza 2 title: “You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows. Selah” (3:9a).
Lyrics continue (3:9b–13a), followed by Refrain.
Stanza 3 title: “You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. Selah” (3:13b)
Lyrics continue (3:14–15), followed by Refrain.
Musical bridge (3:16–19).
The three stanzas of the song describe an appearance of Yahweh in the world, commonly called a “theophany” (a physical manifestation God’s presence to humanity).5 God strides forth on the earth as a warrior against crime, visible in the storm of his creation: sun, lightning, flood, plague, and earthquake. When he appears, people and the earth tremble at his power.
The Refrain (3:2)
THIS SUNG PRAYER is a response to Yahweh’s long response (ch. 2) to Habakkuk’s questions. Habakkuk struggles in this song with his newly forming faith and understanding of Yahweh”s way in the world. He is not “silent before him” (2:20) but praises him in a song that struggles to let go of the powerful images of his dearly held beliefs. The song expresses his faith in the way of Yahweh by his past deeds in contrast to his recently revealed intentions (ch. 2). He looks back to a time when God’s power seemed more direct and evident. He preferred that past display of visible power to the course that Judean and Babylonian history is about to take.
The song praises Yahweh for how Habakkuk would like him to act in this new situation, similar to how he acted in Israel’s memory. It is a subtle form of protestation that does not stop with protest. In verse 16, when the song changes form and enters its concluding bridge, Habakkuk has accepted a new realization—the revelation that Yahweh will work in a different and unsettling way to accomplish his purpose of covering the earth “with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD” (2:14). In the end he declares his unconditional allegiance to Yahweh, no matter what the personal consequences may be for him (3:17–19).
As in all good refrains, the themes of Habakkuk’s song are contained in Hab. 3:2. The first phrase addresses God as “LORD” and witnesses to the telling and retelling of his “fame” in the community. “Fame” (šemaʿ ) means reputation or what the prophet has heard people say about Yahweh. That fame alludes to Yahweh’s acts of deliverance of Israel from Egypt, their entrance to Canaan, and the later assaults of the Philistines (Josh. 9:9; Isa. 66:19).
The second phrase of the refrain is a witness to Habakkuk’s faith in those dramatic deeds of deliverance: He “stands in awe.” He pleads in the third and fourth phrase that Yahweh will return to this mode of operation in the world in his time (a longing, in contrast to the victory of the Babylonians and their delayed demise described in Hab. 2). Finally, the prophet sings for the “mercy” that always accompanies Yahweh’s wrathful response to sin.
The song’s three verses speak primarily of Yahweh’s coming forth in “deeds” of power. Not until the concluding bridge (3:16–19) does the prophet relinquish the plea and accept the revelation of chapter 2. Until then, he returns to the memory of the awesome presence of Yahweh in Israel’s history, his famous acts of deliverance, and his displays of power in the creation. He longs for them to be “renewed” (ḥayah in 3:2; lit., “let them live”).
In Days of Old, God Came Forth (3:3–8)
AS ALREADY NOTED, the title of the song’s first stanza (3:3a) is marked off by “Selah.” This stanza declares the visible presence of God in the battles of Israel’s history. He is visible in the display of his power in the sunrise, lightning, plague, earthquake, and storms on the waters. Earth, water, and sky serve the Creator, who comes forth to deliver.
“God came from Teman … from Mount Paran” (3:3a) leaves the reader wondering where Teman is and what God is doing there. The context would be clearer to the original listener. Teman is in southern Palestine and the Paran mountains lie further south, on the eastern edge of the Sinai Peninsula. God’s formation of Israel began in this region. It is the place in which Israel found refuge from Egypt after deliverance from the Egyptian army at the sea. It is the place of Mount Sinai, where the order of the community was established under God’s instructions. It is the place that God began to act in mighty ways to lead, protect, judge, and shape his people.
In Israel’s memory God went forth before his people as a warrior against their oppressors, using the forces of nature as his armies. In Exodus 14–15 he used cloud, fire, darkness, and the sea to deliver them. He used an earthquake at Jericho under Joshua. In Judges 5 God used torrential rains. In 1 Samuel 7 he used a thunderstorm to rout the enemy. David consolidated his power over the Philistines in 2 Samuel 5 with Yahweh’s direction and a wind in the balsam trees. In 2 Kings 18–19 a plague defeated the Assyrian army that surely would have taken Jerusalem.
Concerning those days, Habakkuk sings, “His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth” (Hab. 3:3b). This phrase looks back to the time that Yahweh said would come again (“the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,” 2:14). The sound and sight of Yahweh’s splendor were audible and visible to all. In the verses that follow Habakkuk vividly describes the visual and auditory experiences of Israel’s memory.
Verses 4–6 describe the visible powerful presence of the Creator-Warrior God in the creation, warring against the wicked. His bright splendor is seen in the light of the sun at sunrise and his power in the flashing rays of lightning (3:4). In these things, however, his true power was held back (“hidden, veiled,” ḥabah). A plague outbreak paved his way and pestilence (burning fever) followed him in his attack on the wicked (see 2 Kings 19:35–36). They were his creation and worked his purposes as he walked (Hab. 3:5). When he stood still (3:6), he shook the earth with an earthquake. The mountains crumbled in an avalanche of rock and the “age-old hills collapsed.”
Those age-old hills were known as the domain of the Baals and the Ashtoreth, Canaanite gods and goddesses widely worshiped (even in Israel) for the prosperity and fertility they were reputed to bring. They were household gods that had shrines on hilltops near every village. Habakkuk follows the description of these crumbling “age-old hills” with the counterpoint: “His ways are eternal” (Hab. 3:6). False worship on them may be old, but the Maker is both before and after, forever. The hills themselves acknowledge his presence, bowing down. When the Creator-Warrior walks on his eternal pathway, the whole earth dramatically responds. Especially in exile, faith in the eternal Creator who “shook the earth” will be remembered (Isa. 40:12, 28; 42:5–9; 43:1, 15–21).
In Hab. 3:7–8 the distress of the people of the earth (mentioned in 3:4a) is brought into focus. The “tents of Cushan” and “dwellings of Midian” refer to the people living in the south, past whom Yahweh marched north on the way from the southern mountains of Paran. They were in anguish because of the Creator’s presence with Israel (Num. 31:7; Judg. 3:10). The word translated “distress” (ʿawan) means distress resulting from injustice. Its second meaning, “idolatry,” may be the proper context here. Cushan and Midian are in distress at the presence of the Creator-Warrior because they have been worshiping gods of their own making. Yahweh is marching north to deal with Babylon, but his presence and passing-by are terrifying to those who do not honor him.
In 3:8 Habakkuk sings three rhetorical questions. Was Yahweh’s anger against the rivers, streams, and sea? Of course not! They were in tumult on behalf of the Creator-Warrior, who fought for his people. They were his arsenal against the people who opposed his rule. These three rhetorical questions are perhaps the most subtle expression of the song’s theme, longing for a more dramatic and obvious display of Yahweh’s power. Habakkuk and all Israel know that Yahweh can fight for them through the creation. The stopping of rivers (Jordan), the flooding of wadis (Deborah), and the tumult of the Red Sea (Exodus) were obviously not natural events of creation. They were used in the fighting for Israel because Yahweh is present and they are his creation. Habakkuk directly addresses Yahweh in these questions, remembering and longing for this kind of intervention again.
You Uncovered Your Bow and Arrows (3:9–13a)
THE SECOND STANZA continues describing the Creator-Warrior’s presence, his action in the earth, water, and sky, and its effect on the peoples of the earth. The title of this stanza (“You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows”) is followed by the “Selah.” Yahweh arrives as a bowman (Deut. 32:23; Ezek. 5:16). No single historical event is indicated, but the usual memories of Israel are the background for the audience of this collage of musical images (the Exodus, Deborah’s victory, Samuel and Israel at Ebenezer; Ps. 77:11–20).
The main part of this stanza recalls how three main elements have responded to Yahweh’s actions: the “mountains … writhed” (Hab. 3:10a), the ocean “deep roared and lifted its waves” (3:10b), and the “sun and moon stood still,” out of the way of Yahweh’s bright flashes (3:11a). Earth, water, and fire in the sky acknowledged the Creator and acted for his delivering purposes.
The cause of creation’s acknowledgment of the Creator-Warrior is a powerful storm with which he fought against the nations. Torrential downpours caused flooding (Hab. 3:10a; see Judg. 5:4; Ps. 77:16–18), the ocean roared with hurricane force, and lightning was hurled as spears. This storm was more than a show of nature in Israel. It represents all the times that Yahweh changed the course of history for his people by fighting for them, against the odds, with timely storms. Because their warring and delivering God is also the Creator, anything is possible (see Bridging Contexts section).
In Hab. 3:12–13, Habakkuk recalls how Yahweh “came out” in the historical storms to “thresh,” “deliver,” and “save.” He would like Yahweh to do this in the situation with Babylon. Knowing that he will not, Habakkuk’s song takes comfort in and continues to believe in the God who is still able to stride on the earth to deliver. Yahweh’s simple striding is enough to “thresh” or tread on the nations who oppose him.
“He came out” (in the Heb. text of 3:13) echoes Habakkuk’s complaint in chapter 1 that “justice is perverted” (1:4b: lit., “comes out crooked”). In Yahweh’s appearance in days of old, he “came out to deliver” (3:13). In Habakkuk’s day, by contrast, justice has come out crooked. Habakkuk longs for a return to the day when things come out right.
In the past, Yahweh came out “to deliver your people” and “to save your anointed one” (Israel). In the Old Testament “the anointed one” sometimes refers to Israel (Ex. 19:6; Ps. 28:8), sometimes to the king of Israel (anointed by the prophet to rule on behalf of Yahweh, the true king), and, in later writings, to the expected righteous King, the Messiah (mašiaḥ, “anointed”).6
You Crushed the Leader of Wickedness (3:13b–15)
THIS STANZA GIVES the reason for Yahweh’s personal intervention. As with the first two stanzas, this one’s title is announced just before the “Selah”: “You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot.” It describes Yahweh’s victory over a violent leader whose army was attacking the defeated and helpless people of Israel (3:14b). Yahweh completely defeated him with a head wound: “You crushed the leader … you pierced his head” (3:13b, 14a). This stanza ends with a reminder that the Creator-Warrior churned the sea with his horses: “You trampled the sea” (3:15).
The “crushing of the head” is also seen in Psalm 74:12–14, where the head of the chaos monster, Leviathan, is crushed and Yahweh establishes cosmic order and justice. In Psalm 89:9–10, Rahab, also a symbol of evil chaos and the force behind evil enemies, is crushed by Yahweh. Habakkuk draws on this common ancient tradition of personifying evil as Rahab and her dragon associate, Leviathan (see also Job 26:12–13; Isa. 27:1; 51:9–10).
Habakkuk’s song describes a battle scene in which Israel’s helpless people are about to be scattered by an attacking army that “stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding” (Hab. 3:14b). Chaos was about to descend on God’s people. God turned the tables, defeating chaos with an actual storm. The leader of chaos was defeated as God walked on the storm (controlling it). The original listener would have heard this as a reference to several well-known historical events (Ex. 14; Deut. 33; Judg. 5; 1 Sam. 7). With these biblical referents in mind, Habakkuk’s song turns toward the cosmic battle against the persistence of evil in the world, which continually threatens to undo God’s creation.
The collage of historical referents in Habakkuk 3:13b–15 is combined to express the collective memory of Yahweh’s fighting and victory for his oppressed people. The combined memory of his intervention against evil is the hope that holds Habakkuk and his congregation in the face of an impending devastating defeat. They believe that Yahweh will eventually do this to Babylon as well. Until then, the song and the memories it elicits will hold them in faith, as they believe in the Creator-Warrior of Israel. They will need it, for soon they will be “the wretched who were in hiding” (cf. Lam. 4:18–19).
The Fear, Faith, and Joy of Habakkuk (3:16–19)
HABAKKUK FINALLY ACKNOWLEDGES that he has gotten the message about Babylon’s coming triumph (3:16). He is afraid because he believes the words concerning Judah’s demise to be true. His song has expressed hope in the earlier displays of the power of Yahweh. Nonetheless, he vows to rejoice in spite of what may come.
As Habakkuk’s song comes to its conclusion, the form and content change. In musical terms this is called a “bridge,” which introduces a new musical theme and sometimes a change in key or tempo. The lyrics, as in Habakkuk’s song, often offer a counterpoint to the previous theme of the song. The counterpoint cannot be more powerful than it is in Habakkuk’s song. In 3:2–15 he sang of the visible power of Yahweh. Now, in 3:16–19, he will sing of his joy, even when the simplest sign of Yahweh’s favor (food on the table) is absent.
The musical bridge begins (3:16a) with a connection to the refrain (3:2) in the words “I heard.” Habakkuk acknowledges that he has heard what God said about the devastation that the Babylonians will bring (chs. 1–2). He feels the horror in every part of his body. His heart, lips, bones, and legs are internally shaken. “Heart pounded” in Hebrew also is associated with the involuntary trembling of a stomachache that may lead to a cry of grief. The “decay in his bones” indicates a general weakness, and the “trembling” in the legs is faltering or stumbling. In spite of this Habakkuk says: “I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to fall” on Babylon. He knows Israel’s devastation will be great as long as the Creator-Warrior does not intervene, but the prophet will wait patiently. In the meantime, he will believe. No matter what the external evidence, he believes what Yahweh has spoken. He “heard” (3:2, 16), he “trembled” (3:16), and yet he “will rejoice” (3:18).
Habakkuk believes and trusts in this powerful “striding” God. He believes that Yahweh will establish justice on the earth. He trusts his word and will patiently wait, because God is the guarantor of the victory. He does not trust first in his own perspective but in the potency of God, which enables him to wait in faith, even when the wicked rule the earth.
This idea is reinforced in 3:17–19. God’s display of power in the past (3:2–15), which Habakkuk’s congregation can sing again and again, enables them to abide Yahweh’s restraint in the present, even amidst the coming suffering. Because they have experienced and remember God’s presence in the storm, they can be sure of that presence in the silence. His presence, even in this prophecy, has instructed them to prepare to wait (“though it linger, wait for it,” 2:3). He has left them with a promise that “it will certainly come and will not delay” (2:3). He has also left them with five strong woes to repeat in the midst of their suffering as they remember their promised deliverance (2:6–17).
Verse 17 should be read in the context of verse 16. “I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on … [Babylon] though the fig tree does not bud.…” Even though Habakkuk believes that Babylon will eventually fall (ch. 2), he knows it will be a horrible wait and goes on to describe the experience of oppression and poverty that will settle on the conquered. These are the conditions the prophet expects and anticipates overcoming in patience (3:16b, nuaḥ, “rest”). He will not be a victim. He will be a survivor. He lists all the sources of food and agricultural commerce of the ancient world: fig trees, grape vines, olive trees, field produce, sheep, and cattle. Under these terrible conditions, Habakkuk resolves to be joyful, not superficially with eyes closed to the struggle for justice or deliverance but looking truth in the face.
His emphatic assertion of faith in 3:18–19 consists of two sets of parallel statements (A, B). In the center is Habakkuk’s confession of faith:
A Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
Center: The Sovereign LORD is my strength.
B He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
He enables me to go on the heights.
Habakkuk’s joy is also typical in the Psalms but is a contrast to the usual rejoicing over God’s good gifts and protection (Ps. 5:11–12; 13:5–6; 16:5–11; 47:1–4). Habakkuk rejoices despite the lack of goods and protection. He shows he is prepared to live by faith in unseen promises, even in suffering. His joy is in contrast to the pleasure of the Babylonian, who rejoices because “he lives in luxury and enjoys the choicest food” (Hab. 1:15–16).
The central expression (“The sovereign LORD is my strength”) is also common in the Psalms (Ps. 28:7; 59:10, 17; 118:14; cf. Ex. 15:2; Isa. 12:2; 49:5; Jer. 16:19). In contrast, however, the typical word for “strength” (ʿoz) is absent. Its synonym (ḥayil), translated “strength” in the NIV, can mean “army.” God is Habakkuk’s army, standing against the Babylonians, “whose own strength is their god” (Hab. 1:11b).7 Habakkuk’s faith has found its sure footing as faith. He does not hope or believe in what he sees but in what he has heard as promises from Yahweh. His feet are established on the path by Yahweh, even on the difficult and rocky heights.
Bridging Contexts
Habakkuk 3 creates and maintains hope in the face of a calamitous future and provides a lasting resource for survival following the devastation of an enemy attack. The prophet demonstrates the geography of hope in two ways: looking back by reciting Yahweh’s victories on Israel’s behalf (cf. Deut. 26:1–11; Ps. 78; Acts 7) and looking up at creation’s wonders as a sign of the Creator’s presence and power (cf. Ps. 19:1–4; Rom. 1:19–20). When Israel was suffering and lamenting under the hardship of foreign rule, remembering God’s creating power and mighty acts of salvation became the substance of their hope and faith (Isa. 40:12–31; 42:5–25).
Habakkuk prefers his vision of Yahweh’s manifest power in Hab. 3:2–15 (see his refrain at 3:2). At the end of his song, he begins the musical bridge (3:16a) by describing how much he doesn’t like what he has learned about Israel’s captivity in chapter 1. He has a physically manifested anxiety attack (trembling and quivering). In difficult times, when God’s power is not obvious, the people rely on his past mighty acts and the creation’s witness to the Creator. This song is a model for renewing and maintaining hope in the face of difficult circumstances.
Looking back. Looking back into Israel’s history establishes a foundation of trust and hope for the faithful. Songs of Yahweh’s intervention that rescued and brought victory to a helpless people are essential to remembering the past. Remembering provides the basis for their present and future hope of deliverance. Through these songs we maintain meaningful connection between God’s past actions and the present reality. Many songs of deliverance were sung in Israel and are found in Scripture (see Jonah 2). They have the double function of giving praise to God for what he has done and creating hope for his deliverance in the future.
A special feature of some of these songs is the theophany, when Yahweh appears to humanity in a physical manifestation (usually in what we would call “a force of nature”). The primary avenue of hope and meaning in 3:1–15 is Yahweh as the Creator-Warrior. Using the power of creation, Yahweh appeared to (theophany), fought for, and miraculously established Israel. He saved the people from Pharaoh’s army (Ex. 15:3–12). At Sinai, he appeared to establish his instructions for community and personal living (Ex. 19:16–19). He came forth to save the people in dire times (Judg. 5:4–5). The people were established in the land by Yahweh’s intervention (Ps. 68:4–19). David was established as a secure king by theophany (Ps. 18:6–19).
Theophanies are dramatic because they change common perceptions of reality. They remove the illusion that God is not present. The earth convulses, and the convulsions are understood to be an act of the Creator against the nations. They are “against” the nations, because the nations do not acknowledge Yahweh as Creator. The most stable and visible mountains are affected (Hab. 3:6, 10; cf. Judg. 5:5; Mic. 1:4; Hag. 2:6–7). Like Elijah at Horeb after he ran from Jezebel, Yahweh’s power is seen despite the depressing political situation (1 Kings 19). God convulses the mountain with wind, earthquake, and splitting rocks. He also speaks in a still, small voice for those who wait for it.
In some circumstances, plagues were also used as a weapon. Not every plague was Yahweh’s battle, but he did use plagues as a weapon against Egypt in Exodus 5:3 and 9:15, when Pharaoh would not let the people go. It was threatened against Israel (Lev. 26:25) if they were ever rebellious, and it was used against them at Baal Peor when they began joining in worship through cultic prostitution (Num. 25:3–9). It was also brought against them in the time of Jeremiah (a contemporary of Habakkuk); he was told not to pray for the people to be spared the sword, famine, or plague (Jer. 14:11–12). Plague is also the vision of the future offered in the book of Revelation. The fourth pale-horse rider of judgment is death, killing by means of sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague (Ezek. 14:21; Rev. 6:8).
The dramatic manifestations of shattering mountains and devastating plagues serve the Creator in decimating the view that the creation is centered on humanity. Anthropocentrism is deconstructed when microorganisms rain down terror or tectonic plates convulse and level cities. God uses such micro-and mega-means to reorient illusory idolatries.
Habakkuk is tapping a strong tradition of hope when he sings his general remembrance of Yahweh’s “coming forth.” In those days now past, Habakkuk sings, “His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth” (Hab. 3:3). He looks back to the time that Yahweh said would come again (“the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,” 2:14). Remembering the past gives an anchor to the present while the faithful wait for the future.
Habakkuk’s song about Yahweh’s intervention in past battles recalls his actual victories that delivered the helpless. The purpose of Yahweh’s violent interventions was to rescue his people: “You came out to deliver your people, to save your anointed one. You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness, you stripped him from head to foot. With his own spear you pierced his head when his warriors stormed out to scatter us” (Hab. 3:13–14). The LXX suggests a cosmic referent: “You did smite the head of Death.”8
This reference to death’s defeat helps us to connect Habakkuk to the New Testament and to the present. It is eternal death, not physical death, that ultimately concerns Yahweh. His actual victories for Israel are the necessary background for understanding the possibility of a final cosmic defeat of evil. God delivers his people from Pharaoh, from the Assyrians, from Babylon, from the enemy of all creation through Christ, and finally, from death. Biblical songs endure, as songs to be sung by the faithful, as means to create hope of this deliverance in the present. For the Christian, no theophany is more life-changing than the Incarnation. Reading the narratives of Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection and singing of them are essential to the building of character, hope, and faith today.
Looking up and around. Creation is a witness to God’s glory (Hab. 3:3b; 2:14; see Ps. 19:1–4). The power of the created world is another avenue of hope and meaning in Habakkuk’s song. When God intervened on Israel’s behalf, it was often through the natural forces of water, wind, and earth. By considering the rivers, mountains, earthquakes, and floods, those who suffer are reminded of the Creator’s presence, power, and love. They are reminded of the Creator who has also redeemed them by means of these things, and of the redemption gained through them.
God’s rule over the basic elements of nature is demonstrated in 3:8–10. The water of the heavens, the terrestrial sea, and the subterranean rivers are each noted in Hebrew.9 Sun, moon, lightning, and earthquake declare his glory. In all creation, above, on, and under the earth, Yahweh rules.
The Israelites saw actual storms that gave them victory in battle against stronger foes. What they saw is celebrated in their memory. As a result they knew that their Deliverer was also their Creator. They knew that anything was possible from their God. Any deliverance from a storm becomes a witness to that deliverance. For Christians, the tree of the empty cross, and by extension any tree, can be a witness to the Creator and Christ’s victory over death.
The memory of the Creator-Warrior using his creation to fight for the Israelites was a constitutive and necessary part of their faith. This is further revealed in the Incarnation and is developed in Athanasius’ fourth-century writing “On the Incarnation.” Why did God become human? God became incarnate because only Jesus, the one through whom everything was made (John 1:3), could save the lost creation. Like Father, like Son. If the Redeemer is also the Creator, anything is possible; even the dead can be raised and sin, death, and the devil be defeated.10
Yahweh “split the earth with rivers” (Hab. 3:9b). This recalls the original creation as well as Yahweh’s use of a flash flood to defeat Israel’s enemies (Judg. 5:5). God is still creating new realities through his created world. This odd image of “splitting” or tearing the earth is echoed in Jesus’ creating power demonstrated in Mark 1:10. At his baptism, “he saw heaven being torn open.” The barrier of heaven was removed. At Jesus’ death, the graves were opened, and the barrier of the earth and death were removed. The temple curtain was also torn as the barrier of holiness was removed. God splits the barriers that separate him from his human creation.11
Part of Habakkuk’s refrain is “I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day” (Hab. 3:2). Asking Yahweh to renew his deeds is a cry for life to be established as God intended it. It is like the Christian praying, “Your kingdom come.”12 It will surely come without our praying for it, but we pray that it may also come to us.13 To pray for and hope in a renewal of God’s mighty acts is like Moses on Mount Pisgah looking into a promised land that the people will soon enter (Deut. 34:1–4). It is also like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration receiving a glimpse of Jesus’ glory with Moses and Elijah (Mark 9:2–8).14
The observance of the Lord’s Supper is a present way of publicly practicing that hope for renewal. As a foretaste of the feast to come, it is a place to “stand in awe” of the Lord’s deeds on our behalf and to pray that he will “renew them” soon.
Shaken and transformed by Yahweh’s response. When Yahweh begins responding to Habakkuk’s questions, Habakkuk does not like what he hears (Hab. 1:13b). His song (3:2–19) is about the military power of Yahweh, recalling a kaleidoscope of history. This remembrance stands in stark contrast to the submission of Israel that God has promised will come (2:6–20) and is expected in Habakkuk’s personal future (3:16b). The song in chapter 3 subtly continues Habakkuk’s previous objections while accepting this hard word about Judah’s future in exile.
The song has “four stupendous moments.”15 Each of them spans the centuries to connect to the modern believer. (1) The refrain (3:2) and bridge (3:16–19) are intensely personal addresses to Yahweh. Even in the midst of approaching national calamity, Yahweh speaks and listens to the individual who seeks him. (2) The opening stanza is cosmic in scope, as God’s acts are remembered in the third person. (3) The prophet shifts to the personal “you” as Yahweh’s might ranges from the heavens to the deeps in the middle stanza. God may be addressed directly, even in his most awesome works. (4) God is involved in human history in the final stanza.
Concluding his song of past remembrance, Habakkuk is shaken (3:16a) as he accepts Yahweh’s power and the mystery of God’s way in the world. He knows that they will be delivered, but only after a great national and personal experience of calamity. By the end of the song he is transformed, for he says: “Yet I will wait patiently for the calamity” (3:16b) and “Yet I will rejoice” (3:18a). Although he does not like what he has heard (his heart pounds, his lips quiver, and his legs tremble), he comes to accept and trust, not in his own preferences, but in the word of the One he has heard and believed.
Contemporary Significance
A SEASONED FAITH. Believing in a Warrior-Creator has two possible outcomes. God can defeat your enemies, or he can defeat you. If we believe that God will only defeat our enemies, we may not ready be for a Messiah like Jesus. If faith is only grounded in Yahweh’s defeating enemies in the way that Habakkuk describes in 3:3–15 (e.g., flashing fingertips), it will not be strong or based in reality. Habakkuk’s song continues to accept Yahweh’s judgment and his march against his own people, for their sake. Habakkuk’s faith is made strong by remembering the power of God’s deliverance. Yahweh’s saving acts in the Exodus, the desert wanderings, and the settlement of the land are a necessary grounding in history that make verses 3:17–19 possible.
Yet Habakkuk accepts Yahweh’s judgment against his own country and the consequences of his nation’s sin. His entrance into conversation with God is a call for a legal judgment on the sin within his own country. The ending of his conversation is an acceptance of the judgment’s verdict (“I will wait patiently for the day of calamity”). This acceptance of judgment close to home is a necessary part of a double-fisted and reality-based faith. The challenge of Habakkuk 3 is whether one matures in faith from 3:3–15 to 3:16–19. Both perspectives are necessary to a full faith. Hope is surely generated by memories of deliverance (3:3–15) as well as by trust in Yahweh, regardless of immediate circumstances (3:16–19).
Its application is found in growing in the grace and the knowledge of God (1:13b and 3:16b). This chapter demonstrates the necessary process of struggling with our previously held conceptions of God as well as growing into God’s revelation of his way in the world. Through the centuries, people of faith have used 3:16–19 more often than 3:1–15. The last four verses represent a more seasoned, deepened, and stalwart faith than the earlier verses. They are the necessary maturing of a lasting faith, free of illusions.
Nevertheless, 3:1–15 is not just an immature “stage” or process that must be left behind. Their strength is given by Yahweh in Habakkuk’s vision as a necessary memory of God’s power. They are a necessary confession of the historic deeds of God and the awe inspired by his majesty in acts of ongoing creation.
A flexible steeled faith (3:16–19). Amazing things can happen when worshiping Yahweh. Perspectives change. People change. After singing his song of his triumph (3:3–15), Habakkuk’s faith finds a renewed vigor. His concluding lines are perhaps the most loved in the entire book. They illustrate a person who has begun to “live by faith” (2:4b).
Habakkuk moves from terror and deprivation (3:16–17) to satisfaction, joy, and confidence (3:18–19) in four verses. These verses give four glimpses into the prophet’s heart. The first two tell the truth about his acceptance of judgment. Verse 16 describes his trembling legs as he accepts God’s judgment. Verse 17 describes the experience of the loss of the common blessings in life. The second two reflect the power of faith and hope in Yahweh. Verse 18 expresses joy and satisfaction, simply “in the LORD.” Verse 19 describes confident and strong legs on the heights.
These four verses summarize the shape of the whole book. Habakkuk is faithful in his questioning and worries, trembling in honest and accepting conversation with God. He recognizes the need for judgment and accepts the suffering it will bring. His faith, however, is not shaken. He perseveres in a joy that is beyond common logic. As a result, his faith is established in full confidence and sure footing.
Habakkuk is resolute in his faith, even when Yahweh’s response is not the answer he prefers to hear (Hab. 3:17–19). His faith is like a strong steel blade that is flexible but does not break. Habakkuk’s resolution is like Job’s: “I spoke … twice but I will say no more” (Job 40:5b); “Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” (Job 2:10); and “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face” (Job 13:15). Jeremiah’s collection of Lamentations is similar in his stalwart, gritty expression of faith in a loving God in spite of immediate sociological and psychological evidence to the contrary. The center of the graphic and extensive laments in Lamentations is also a confession of undying belief:
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him. (Lam. 3:20–24)
Applying Habakkuk’s stalwart faith in the midst of judgment or trouble involves four movements of the heart, developed below: accepting Yahweh’s judgment (Hab. 3:16a), accepting scarcity as a consequence of sin (3:17), resolving to rejoice in Yahweh in all circumstances (3:18), and experiencing the gifts of confidence and hope from Yahweh (3:19).
Accepting Yahweh’s judgment (3:16). When we see that we will suffer for our own sins or because someone else sinned, the normal response is fear (cf. Isa. 13:5–9; Jer. 6:23–24): “I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled.” Though Habakkuk does not like the answer he has heard, he is ready to say, “Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity to come on the nation invading us.” When suffering is a path to someone’s redemption, it can be endured in faith. Habakkuk’s faith includes his acceptance of the Babylonian captivity of Judah (3:16).
Habakkuk’s initial question about the justice of the Babylonians’ invasion (Hab. 1:13b) is set aside. His trembling fear remains, yet he accepts even the likelihood of his own death, having faith that Yahweh has an ultimate victory in store. For the just to live by faith means loving and serving him in one’s dying as well as in one’s living. As Bonhoeffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship, when Christ calls us, he bids us to come and die to ourselves.16 When Jesus tells his disciples that he will be put to death (Mark 10:32–34; Luke 18:31–34), they are incredulous. Likewise, Habakkuk at first does not believe that God will lead his people to their deaths (Hab. 1:12–17). In the end he believes that God’s promise is trustworthy, even if it means the destruction of the temple and waiting for its restoration in faith. Believing leads to trembling.
Trembling is also a normal response to an experience of the presence of Yahweh (Isa. 6:5). Matthew’s account of Jesus and the three disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration echoes Habakkuk’s fear and trembling after seeing a vision of God’s presence (Hab. 3:3–15). Habakkuk’s fear, however, becomes confidence because of Yahweh’s comforting presence. The disciples also are “terrified” and fall on the ground, but Jesus touches them and tells them, “Don’t be afraid” (Matt. 17:7). When they look, the shining of Jesus’ transfiguration and the vision of Moses and Elijah are gone. They are comforted in seeing “no one except Jesus” (Matt. 17:8).
Accepting scarcity as a consequence of sin (Hab. 3:17). “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls.…” When the harvest is in, everyone is happy. God’s people are expected also to give credit for their success to the Giver of the harvest and to bring a firstfruit offering (Deut. 26:1–11).
But when the harvest does not come in, who accepts the scarcity as right? William Cowper (d. 1800) draws from Habakkuk’s mature faith in his well-known hymn “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.”17 He reminds Christians to “judge not the Lord by feeble sense” (by what is in the barn or bank), “but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence [scarcity], He hides a smiling face.” Scarcity is not always a consequence of sin; but when it is, the mature recognize and accept their difficulties as well as their blessings as God’s righteousness and presence in their life. Cowper adds a verse that reflects Yahweh’s advice to “wait” in faith because “it … will not prove false” (Hab. 2:3–4). “Blind unbelief is sure to err and scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter and he will make it plain.” In another hymn Cowper also intones Habakkuk’s exemplary faith in the hymn: “Sometime a Light Surprises the Child of God Who Sings.” The presence of God is the bounty found in scarcity.
Though vine nor fig tree neither their wonted fruit shall bear;
Though all the fields should wither nor flock nor herds be there;
Yet God, the same abiding, his praise shall tune my voice;
For while in him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.
Jesus claimed a similar reality in response to the tempter when he quoted, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). The original text is Moses’ explanation that God “humbled you and let you hunger” so that you might know the blessing of hearing him speak (Deut. 8:3). Habakkuk has learned what God taught the people in the desert and what Jesus reiterates for us. Scarcity leads us to recognize our need for a God who seeks to speak with us.
Resolving to rejoice in Yahweh in all circumstances (Hab. 3:18). Only by “plumbing the depths of our deepest pains and disillusionments and lifting them up” in conversation with God can this kind of joy be known.18 Habakkuk says, “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” Habakkuk has every reason not to rejoice. He is himself a righteous man. Yet, he and other good people he knows are going to suffer hardship and death as a part of Yahweh’s judgment against the wicked. His resolution to be joyful makes the best of a bad situation, but it is more than that. He knows that despite the circumstances, life is good and God is good and worthy of praise. No matter how bad life is, God is the source of hope and joy.
Such rejoicing happens by faith. Mary was visited by the Lord and became pregnant, but only by faith did she trust that her child would be the Messiah. When Elizabeth highlighted Mary’s faith and blessedness for believing the Lord’s word to her and work in her, Mary rejoiced (Luke 1:45–46). Habakkuk’s joy is similar. He believes that Israel will eventually be delivered from exile in Babylon, but first they must endure it. His faith that Yahweh’s work will be done on earth causes him to rejoice in spite of the difficult circumstances. In each case, the subject of rejoicing is not simply individual situations but rejoicing that their faith has involved them in the greater work of God for his people and the future of blessing on the earth.
What makes the steeled faith of Hab. 3:17–19 possible? God’s presence makes all the difference. It is not the content of the message that Habakkuk receives or even the promise that the Babylonian oppression will pass after a while (2:3b, “It will certainly come”; the Exile lasted seventy years). Nor is the faith and joy made possible by Habakkuk’s memory of past displays of power, recalled to memory by thunderstorms (ch. 3). Each of these is necessary to his faith’s foundation, but Yahweh knows that Habakkuk will not be able to believe it even if told (1:5). How, then, is he able not only to believe the prophecy of coming doom, but also to declare his joy, even if reduced to poverty? It is because God is present to him, speaks to him, responds to him, addresses and listens to his questions, and gives him a vision of his presence and a song to write about it.
What single event can overcome all your doubts and objections to the condition of the world? Is it not God’s actual presence before you, speaking with you, addressing you, and listening in person? A living and conversant faith is a faith like Habakkuk’s. The psalmist has such a resilient faith in Psalm 73. He has a determination to remain faithful even in unpromising circumstances. He is among those “who cherish divine presence above presents.”19
Experiencing the gifts of confidence and hope from Yahweh (Hab. 3:19). “The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.” The sure footing of faith in difficult times and places can be celebrated. Generations of Christians know and bear witness to the strength of daily communion with the Lord in prayer, singing, reading, and remembering Scripture. That is what leads Habakkuk to this classic celebration.
“To go on the heights” certainly describes the place of confidence and hope that Yahweh gives to those who seek him. He is faithful. “Going on the heights” also has a broader application than the habit of the “devotions” of prayer, singing, and reading. It means that the confidence and hope gained result in the ultimate victory over the enemy that seeks our defeat. It means a defeat of bondage to false gods, usually related to money, sex, fame, and power. These were the benefits sought from the Baals and Ashtoreth worshiped in the high places of Canaan (Deut. 32:12–13; 33:29). The means to this victory over bondage to the false gods in the high places is seen in David’s image of the surefooted deer on the heights (2 Sam. 22:22–37; cf. Ps. 18:34). The power of purity through keeping Yahweh’s commandments is an important element of this victory.
These aspects of “going on the heights” help us to understand the events and significance of the New Testament. Victory in purity, in prayer, and over bondage to false gods and values foreshadows the cosmic victory over sin, death, and the devil accomplished in the resurrection. Jesus’ battle and defeat of the enemy are expressed in the phrase “with his own spear you pierced his head” (Hab. 3:14a). In the New Testament the death of the Son looks like a victory for evil to the outside observer. The enemy sought to kill the Son of righteousness, who defeated death by dying. The descent of the Son of God to the realm of the dead became the spear that unexpectedly defeated the attacker.
The resurrection is celebrated as a cosmic victory over death and the forces of chaos. Every Easter and every Sunday’s “little Easter” worship are a cry of victory. This shout of triumph is foreshadowed in Habakkuk’s victory image, “you trampled the sea with your horses” (3:15a). This is Habakkuk’s ultimate hope in treading the heights (3:19). Death and chaos are defeated by Yahweh. Jesus inaugurates the restoration of justice and righteousness in the kingdom of God in fulfilling Isaiah 35:6: “Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy” (Matt. 11:5; Luke 7:22).
We can learn much from Habakkuk’s extended dialogue with Yahweh. With him we can ask difficult questions (Hab. 1:2–4) and be persistent in questioning (1:12–2:1). We can be historically grounded in God’s mighty acts of deliverance (3:1–15). We are also invited to join him in his profound faith in song (3:16–19). Habakkuk’s humanity and joy are a model and a challenge. May we be witnesses, like Habakkuk, to God’s purposes in a world dominated by corruption. May Yahweh’s kingdom come also to us.