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Selected Verse: Habakkuk 3:10 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Hab 3:10 |
King James |
The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
The mountains--repetition with increased emphasis of some of the tremendous phenomena mentioned in Hab 3:6.
overflowing of the water passed by--namely, of the Red Sea; and again, of the Jordan. God marked His favor to His people in all the elements, causing every obstacle, whether mountains or waters, which impeded their progress, to "pass away" [CALVIN]. MAURER, not so well, translates, "torrents (rains) of water rush down."
lifted . . . hands on high--namely, its billows lifted on high by the tempest. Personification. As men signify by voice or gesture of hand that they will do what they are commanded, so these parts of nature testified their obedience to God's will (Exo 14:22; Jos 3:16; Psa 77:17-18; Psa 114:4). |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
The mountains saw Thee and they trembled - literally, "they tremble." While man is insensate, inanimate nature feels and attests the presence of its Maker. "It saw it trembles." To see, feel, tremble were one. The prophet does not follow a bare order of events, or bind himself to miracles which actually took place. The mountains tremble with earthquakes, or seem to be shaken by the thunders which they re-echo. And so they are signs, how what is firmest and closes up the way to man, trembles at the Presence of God. Whatever is lifted up shall be bowed down before Him. (See Zac 4:7.). But the word "trembled" is that which is especially used of travail pangs and so it may spiritually denote that "they who conceive the fear of God shall bring forth unto salvation." "The overflowing," i. e., the impetuous, sweeping, flow, of the water (or, of waters), such as in themselves would bear all before them, pass by harmless. The more they swell, the more they expend themselves, and pass away. "The whole force of persecution, wherewith they vexed Thy people, at sight of Thee passed away," like a torrent which rages and disappears, and, by raging, the sooner wastes itself.
The deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands - רום = מרום mârôm which stands as the accusative of direction with "lifted up the eyes" Isa 37:23; Isa 40:26.
On high - The noise of the waves, when God brought the strong East wind over it and Psa 106:9. rebuked it, was as a cry to God; the waves, as they swelled, were like hands lifted up to Him, and stricken one against the other. There is no distinct ground against a slightly different rendering it: "the deep uttered his voice, the height lifted up his hands" i. e., to One yet higher, whom height and depth owned as their Lord and worshipped. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
"The mountains see Thee, they writhe: a shower of waters passes along: the abyss lifts up its voice, it lifts up its hands on high. Hab 3:11. Sun, moon, enter into their habitation at the light of Thine arrows which shoot by, at the shining of the lightning of Thy spear." The effect of the coming of God upon the mountains was already referred to in Hab 3:6. There they crumbled into ruins, here they writhe with terror. This difference is to be explained from the fact that there (Hab 3:6) the general effect of the omnipotence of God upon nature was intended, whereas here (Hab 3:10, Hab 3:11) the special effect is described, which is produced upon nature by the judgment about to be executed by God upon the nations. The perfects in the description represent this effect as following immediately upon the coming of God. But in the first clause of Hab 3:10 the perfect ראוּך is followed by the imperfect יחילוּ, because the writhing is a lasting condition. The force of the description is heightened by the omission of the copula before the clauses and the particular objects. The two verbs of the first clause stand in the relation of cause and effect to one another: when the mountains have seen Thee, they writhe with terror. The further description is not founded upon the idea of a terrible storm; for there is no reference to thunder, nor even to lightnings, but only to the arrows (Hab 3:11), which may be explained from the idea of God, as a warlike hero, making bare His bow. The colours and different features of the description are borrowed from the judgment of the flood. Hab 3:10 (a and b) points to this divine judgment of the olden time, both the coming of the showers of water (geshem as in Gen 7:12 and Gen 8:2, and strengthened by mayim, analogous to hammabbūl hâyâh mayim in Gen 7:6; ‛âbhar as in Nah 3:19; Psa 48:5), and also the nâthan tehōm qōlō, the raging outburst of the abyss. Tehōm is the mass of water in the abyss, not merely that of the ocean, but that of the subterranean waters also (Gen 49:25; Deu 33:13), the "great deep" (tehōm rabbâh), whose fountains were broken up at the flood (Gen 7:11); and not the ocean of heaven, as Hitzig erroneously infers from Gen 7:11; Gen 8:2, and Pro 8:27. To this mass of water, which is called tehōm from its roaring depth, the prophet attributes a voice, which it utters, to express the loud, mighty roaring of the waters as they rush forth from the bursting earth. As at the time of the flood, which was a type of the last judgment (Isa 24:18), the windows of heaven and the fountains of the deep were opened, so that the upper and lower waters, which are divided by the firmament, rushed together again, and the earth returned, as it were, to its condition before the second day of creation; so here also the rivers of the earth and rain-showers of heaven come together, so that the abyss roars up with a loud noise (Delitzsch). This roaring outburst of the mass of waters from the heart of the earth is then represented as a lifting up of the hands to heaven, with reference to the fact that the waves are thrown up. Rōm = rūm (Pro 25:3; Pro 21:4) is an accusative of direction, like mârōm in Kg2 19:22. ידיהוּ, for ידיו, a full-sounding and more extended form, possibly to express by the rhythm the greatness of the prodigy, how magna vi brachii tollunt (Delitzsch). The lifting up of the hands is not a gesture denoting either an oath or rebellion; but it is an involuntary utterance of terror, of restlessness, of anguish, as it were, with a prayer for help (Delitzsch). |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Overflowing - The inundation which at that season was wont to be very great in and round Jordan, passed away at the word of God; the waters below flowed, and ran from those above, which stood on a heap to make a path for Israel. The deep - Either the deep channel in which Jordan flowed, or the Red Sea with dreadful roaring parted its waters. Lift up his hands - Its waves which stood on an heap. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
The mountains saw thee - This is the continued answer to the questions in Hab 3:8. These are figures highly poetic, to show with what ease God accomplished the most arduous tasks in behalf of his people. As soon as the mountains saw him, they trembled, they were in pangs. When he appeared, the sea fled to right and left, to give him a passage. "It uttered its voice." The separation of the waters occasioned a terrible noise. "And it lifted up its hands on high." Its waters, being separated, stood in heaps on the right hand and left. These heaps or waves are poetically represented here as the hands of the sea. |
4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.
17 The clouds poured out water: the skies sent out a sound: thine arrows also went abroad.
18 The voice of thy thunder was in the heaven: the lightnings lightened the world: the earth trembled and shook.
16 That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap very far from the city Adam, that is beside Zaretan: and those that came down toward the sea of the plain, even the salt sea, failed, and were cut off: and the people passed over right against Jericho.
22 And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
6 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.
9 He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
23 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
7 Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.
22 Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
4 An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked, is sin.
3 The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
27 When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth:
2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
13 And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the LORD be his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath,
25 Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:
5 They saw it, and so they marvelled; they were troubled, and hasted away.
19 There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
2 The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained;
12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
10 The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.
10 The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.
10 The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.
6 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.
6 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.
11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of thine arrows they went, and at the shining of thy glittering spear.
8 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?