Commentary on Habakkuk Zephaniah Haggai Zechariah and Malachi John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
beyond all hope came from heaven. 69
The import of the whole is---that when the miserable Israelites were without any protection, and exposed to the rage and cruelty of their enemies, they had been miraculously helped; for the Lord destroyed their enemies by their own swords; and that when they came, as it were to enjoy a victory, to take the prey, they were laid prostrate by the hand of God: hence his power shone forth more brightly. It follows---
Habakkuk 3:15
15. Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.
15. Viam fecisti in mari equis tuis per acervum aquarum magnarum.
Some read, ``Thou hast trodden thy horses in the sea;'' but it is a solecism, that is quite evident. Others, ``Thou hast trodden in the sea by thy horses.'' But what need is there of seeking such strained explanations, since the verb {,}דרךdarek, means to go or to march? The Prophet's meaning is by no means doubtful---that God would make a way for himself in the sea, and on his own horses. How? even when great waters were gathered into a mass. The Prophet again refers to the history of the passage through the Red Sea; for it was a work of God, as it has been said, worthy of being remembered above all other works: it is therefore no wonder that the Prophet dwells so much in setting forth this great miracle. Thou then didst make a way for thy horses ---where? in the sea; which was contrary to nature. And then he adds, The heap of waters: for the waters had been gathered together, and a firm and thick mass appeared, which was not according to nature; for we know that water is a fluid, and that hardly a drop of water can stand without flowing. 70 How then was it that he stopped the course of Jordan, and that the Red Sea was divided? These were evidences of God's incomprehensible power, and rightly ought these to have added courage to the faithful, knowing, as they ought to have done, that nothing could have opposed their salvation, which God was not able easily to remove, whenever it pleased him. It follows---
Habakkuk 3:16
16. When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.
16. Audivit, et contremuit (vel, tumultuatus est) venter meus; ad vocem trepidarunt labia mea; ingressa est putredo in ossa mea; et apud me tumultuatus sum (ad verbum, tumultuabitur; sed diximus heri de temporibus verborum,) ad ascendedum ad populum, excidet eum (vel, colliget se.)
Those interpreters are mistaken in my view, who connect the verb, ``I have 69"To devour the poor in secret," seems to have an allusion to the practice of wild beasts, who take their prey to their dens to devour it there. The poor her, as in many other places, mean the helpless, such as are destitute of aid or power to resist their enemies. The line may be thus rendered— Their joy was, as it were, to devour the helpless in secret. —Ed.
70The word is [{,[{חמרwhich many have rendered acervus---heap; but there is no clear instance in which it has such a meaning. It is without a preposition, and the Septuagint render it by a participle, {ταρασσοντας}, which agrees with ``horses.''
It is singular in Hebrew, and, if a participle, it agrees with the nominative case to the preceding verb, ,[{`` ]}דרכתthou didst guide'' or direct. The two lines might then be rendered thus,--- Thou didst guide through the sea thy horses, Disturbing mighty waters. Both Marckius and Henderson think that the passage through the Red Sea is not what is meant; but the subjugation of the Canaanites, conveyed in a language derived from that event.---Ed.