19. Woe to him who says to a wooden thing, Awake; to a dumb stone, Arise!
This is the mockery that will be sung and spoken at the time of the destruction: "Ho, now call upon your wood and stone that you made into gods and regarded as gods! How miserably and shamefully they forsake you! Now you can see that they are wood and stone. For though you call on them, saying: 'My god, help! Awake, my Bel! Arise, my Nebo! Save me!' he will not hear, for he is wood and stone overlaid with gold.
Can this give revelation?
This means to say: "How could he be able to give good advice? After all, it is only a mute stone."
Obviously it behooves a real God to teach and counsel His people with His Word.
Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in it.
A poor, wretched god who lets himself be compressed and caught in gold and has no breath and life in him! The prophet indulges in such jeering and spewing for the consolation of the Jewish people. They should be convinced of their deliverance, as I have said, lest they fall into unbelief and be offended in God's work and Word. For this they had great cause and reason, because Babylon was so mighty and so firmly established, while they, on the other hand, were utterly forsaken and destroyed.
20. But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before Him.
He is not cast or compressed into silver or gold but "is in His holy temple," that is, in His castle and royal hall, which is heaven and wherever He resides through His Word. And yet He is so mighty and resplendent that all the world must stand in awe and keep silent before Him, so that He may deal with them according to His will. That is, He is mighty and reigns to the end of the world. That must indeed be a true God; for when the heathen and the heretics rave and rage against Him, He lets this go on for a while, but soon He can set an example and show them that they will all perish and be annihilated and that they must keep silent before Him when He comes. For in Hebrew the expression "before Him" or "before His countenance" means as much as when He comes or when He, coming to us, turns His face toward us.
Thus Mal. 3:1 writes of John: "Behold, I send My messenger to prepare the way before Your countenance," that is, "before Your advent, or when You come." Habakkuk wants to say: "But when our
God comes with His visitation, all the earth will keep silent," For then everybody will go into hiding; then strutting, boasting, and all haughtiness will come to an end. For He punishes the ungodly and helps the godly. Thereby He sets things aright and effects silence wherever He comes. No other god can do that.
May that suffice on Habakkuk's prophecies. Here we see how many words are required to preserve faith in the people, particularly when they are weak and the trials are strong and powerful, as was the case in the Jewish nation. How he chastised, implored, contended, prophesied, admonished, and consoled! And again, how he chided, jeered, and threatened Babylon with God's judgment and wrath! And yet this proved of help only for a few; "for not all have faith" (2 Thess. 3:2). And now he adds a prayer in the form of a song, in order to console and strengthen the weak in faith still more. He collects and gathers many of the ancient wonderful deeds of God, which He showed His people in times past and by which He often delivered them miraculously. They must bear these in mind and not doubt that their God, who often delivered them mightily in the past, will also deliver them now from Babylon. For it is most heartening to faith to recall miracles of the past. Thus the prophet often professes in the Psalter and declares (Ps.
119:52): "When I think of Thy ordinances from of old, I take comfort, O Lord." Also (Ps. 77:11–12): "I will remember Thy wonders of old. I will meditate on all Thy work." Thus pious Judith consoled her fellow citizens (Judith 8:21 f.), and Mattathias consoled his sons, the Maccabees, saying (1 Macc. 4:9):
"Remember how our fathers were saved, etc." We now want to take a look at the prophet's song. Its title reads:
1. This is the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk for the innocent.
SUBMITTING his innocence to God, David, too, uses such a title in Ps. 7:1. But in Hebrew this means as much as ignorantia et ignorantiae, "ignorance." If we were to speak Latin, we might choose the word inconscientia—when a person is unaware of something or when this does not touch his conscience, as was true of David in the aforementioned psalm. When Shimei accused him (2 Sam. 16:7 ff.) of having wrested the kingdom from Saul, he indicated that his conscience knew nothing of this. He called it ignorantia. In the absence of a better German term, we must translate this with Unschuld ("innocence"). However, this is too strong a term. For it sounds far humbler and far more Christian to boast before God not of one's
- 95 innocence but of one's conscience. For a person may not feel any evil in his conscience and yet not be innocent, as Paul declares in I Cor. 4:4: "I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me." Thus Abimelech, too, had a clear conscience when he took
Sarah; and yet his deed was wrong before God, Gen. 20:3 ff. Thus Habakkuk here wants to pray for the godly, who were led away to Babylon together with the ungodly. For undoubtedly there were many godly people among these, such as Daniel and his companions. These were innocent, that is, they had no bad conscience, they were not aware of any evil; and yet they had to go along. For, as St. Paul says, it is God who judged them. In Jer. 25:29 God Himself professes that they did not deserve to drink such a cup. But call it innocence, ignorance, a free conscience, or whatever you like—as long as the correct meaning is present, one may be patient with the term. I believe that we Germans express this best when we say: "A prayer for the innocent."
2. O Lord, I have heard the report of Thee, and I am afraid.
As is proper for a good prayer, he begins the prayer with praise and thanks. For he enumerates many great miracles that God had shown the fathers, saying: "I have heard much said about You; for our fathers told us, leaving this behind them in writings." Thus Ps. 44:1 declares: "We have heard with our ears, O
God, our fathers have told us, etc." "Such a report and proclamation of You causes me to fear; that is, I regard You highly, I fear You and stand in awe of You. I do not despise You as the ungodly do, who hear nothing about You or know nothing of You, or hear with unbelief and ignore it."
For Thou dost impart life to Thy work in the midst of the years; Thou makest it known in the midst of the years. In tribulation Thou rememberest mercy.
"This is the report that causes You to be feared and revered. For it is said of You, and the histories also attest this, that You are this strange God, who helps in the midst of need. You lay low, and You raise up;
You permit things to break apart when You want to build, and You kill when You wish to impart life (of.
1 Sam. 2:6 ff.). You do not do as the world does, which fends off evil in the very beginning, or remains stuck in it completely. No, You let us sink into the midst of it, and yet You pull us out again. You want to give us the Christ's kingdom, and at the same time You have us driven to Babylon into the pit of servitude; and yet You do not leave us there. That is the pattern You follow in all Your works; that is Your method. That is what is sung, heard, and said of You, namely, that You are indeed a God to be feared and honored and praised greatly in such works."
The text is obscure here; that is to say, it is very Hebrew. Therefore many have tripped over it. "To impart life to the work" means nothing but to help in time of need. For to be in need is practically the same as to be in death. And when a person is helped, he feels as though he had been made alive and born anew. "In the midst of the years" expresses as much as "at the right time." It signifies that God does not appear as soon as the need begins, as though any time were the right time. Nor does help remain away forever, as though every time for helping had passed. But He comes in the midst of time, that is, He knows how to follow a middle course, so that He does not help too soon and also not too late. For if He would help too soon, we would not learn to despair of ourselves but would remain arrogant. If He would be too tardy with His help, we would not learn to believe but would despair of Him. But now that He adopts a middle course, He also holds us in the middle. In Hebrew "in the midst of the years" does not imply that something constituted the beginning and something the end. It means: Intra vel inter annos, id est, suo tempore; that is, He chooses the hour for His help from among the years or within the time. Just as I say that the sun is among the stars, not exactly in the middle of the stars, but mingled among the other stars, so the hour of help is also in the midst of the years, that is, among the years or amid the time, so that He will not let all the years come to an end and forsake us eternally, until no more years are left. But he says "in the midst of the years" and not "in the midst of the days," because he is speaking from the heart of those in need. For them a day is as long as a year; indeed, every period of time is long for them. He uses the phrase also because a year is the longest measure of time. Through summer and winter the world always becomes new again in a year, and thus year is added to year. By the years we compute the length of time thus:
"Lord, You help among the years, that is, in the course of time. When the time seems so long to us, You will appear in the course of that time." He speaks about many years because he speaks about many miracles and works of God, each of which is performed in its time and in its year, making the years as - 96 many as the works. In His works He always arranges to come within the year's needs, that is, in the course of the need.
"To impart life" and "to make known" are practically identical, except that the former means to perform the miracle and to provide help, whereas the latter means that this is also felt and that it affords pleasure. In Hebrew the words "in tribulation" read in turbatione, that is, also in the midst of need, when worst comes to worst, when fear and trepidation are greatest; "then," he says, "You remember mercy, then
You help. Now, whoever wants to be saved must learn to know You thus." This is comforting to believers, but unbearable for the ungodly.
3. God came from the South, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah.
Here he begins to portray the ancient miracles as on a tablet or cloth, one after the other. The first: when He led the people from Egypt, through the wilderness, into the land of Canaan. Paran is the mountain range that borders on the land of Canaan on the south. When God broke in here with the people of Israel, He came upon the Canaanites directly from the south and defeated them. The fact that Israel marched out of Egypt and through so many nations and wildernesses and drove out so many peoples was as miraculous as their deliverance from Babylon. And yet this happened when the hour came. We should surely be used to it that Scripture calls God "the Holy One." For wherever He is, He hallows through His
Spirit. The meaning of "Selah" has been sufficiently explained elsewhere, especially in Ps. 68.1
His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise.
That is to say, with such a work He caused people to speak of Him everywhere in the countries under heaven. Here is another Hebrew obscurity. It reads: His glory covers the heavens. Not above but below.
The Psalter also speaks about covering heaven with clouds. Habakkuk wants to say that God's praise resounded so fully everywhere under the heavens that, if this praise had been clouds or fog, it would have covered the heavens. We speak of this as of covering the heavens from beneath. It is the same as when
Moses says to Pharaoh in Ex. 9:16: "For this purpose have I let you live, to show you My power, so that My name may be declared throughout all the earth." It is also characteristic of the Hebrew tongue to speak of heaven as of many heavens. For every country speaks of heaven as far as it can be surveyed by the eye in that country as of its own heaven. That is why we say in the Lord's Prayer "Who art in the heavens,"2 that is, in all heavens to the end of the earth. Thus God's praise was in the heavens that were above these countries. And His glory was in whatever country His praise was.
4. His brightness was like the light, rays flashed from His hand; and there He veiled His power.
That is why heaven and earth were full of His praise. For His might, that is, His kingdom, was veiled in the people of Israel. For no one beheld Him. But when He did such wondrous things, these works were as light that manifested His presence. They emanated from Him like brightness from the sun in the clouds and like rays from His hands, that is, from His strength which He demonstrated. For although the sun is hidden under the clouds, its light reveals its presence. Thus this brightness issued not from the countenance of the Lord—He was concealed there—but from His hands; that is, His presence was evident from His works. And of this it is said that heaven and earth were full of His praise. The Hebrew language calls such rays "horns." According to Ex. 34:29 ff., Moses had horns, that is, brightness, in his face.
5. Before Him went pestilence, and plague issued at His feet.
One of the rays that sprang from His hands was His smiting of Egypt, killing all the firstborn in one night. That was Passa Domini, His passing. That is where He left these footprints. Wherever He stepped, pestilence came forth at His feet (Ex. 12:27 ff.).
6. He stood and measured the earth; He looked and broke up the heathen; so that the mountains of the world were shattered and the hills in the world had to bow down when He walked in the world.
Another ray: When He walked on the earth at the Red Sea, He stood between Israel and the Egyptians, measuring the land so that the Egyptians could not proceed beyond the place He had measured off for them. Furthermore, in the morning He looked at them and broke them up so that not only their order was dissolved but that also the great princes, who are like mountains in the world, were drowned in the sea by - 97 a glance and were smashed. Thus the proud hills, the bigwigs, the hills of the earth, had to bow down and be humbled before Him when He took such a devastating walk among them on earth.
7. I saw the huts of the Ethiopians troubled and the tents of the Midianites saddened.
The fact that such great countries round about were frightened and terrified by such rays constituted a part of His praise under the heavens. Some will not accept the translation "huts of the Ethiopians" here.
They say that in view of the word "Cushan" found here this refers to the king of Mesopotamia, Cushanrishathaim (Judg. 3:8). I do not accept that. It does not fit into the context of things. It is well known that in Hebrew Cus and Cushan may be the same. It is a matter of an "n." Thus also Moses sings in his hymn of praise found in Ex. 15:14 f. that all the surrounding countries were frightened when they heard of such deeds. That is the meaning of the prophet's words "I saw" (that is, someone had seen) that the Ethiopians at the Red Sea, the neighbors of the Egyptians, were frightened, were troubled, were in pain and in fear; likewise their other neighbors on the other side of the sea, the Midianites. They were all afraid of the God of Israel, who dealt thus with Pharaoh.
THE EIGHTH AND NINTH VERSES 8. Wert Thou not angry, Lord, in the flood, and was Thy wrath not in the waters and Thy anger in the sea, when Thou didst ride upon Thy horses and Thy chariots were salvation?
This verse may be construed in a positive sense and in a negative sense. I prefer the latter in accord with the Hebrew manner of speech. And then this is the meaning: After the prophet has related a few miracles of God, he rejoices in the Lord and speaks lovingly to Him, saying: "I believe indeed that it was mercy and not anger when You rode in the flood of the sea and its waters on Your horses and on Your chariots, that is, on the horses and chariots of Israel. For You were present and led them through, effecting complete salvation and victory. There no trace of wrath or anger that You might have entertained could be detected." But if the positive construction appeals to anyone, as we find it translated here, he must refer the wrath and anger to the Egyptians, whom He smote to save His people. However, no one may doubt that the children of Israel had horses and chariots; for, as Moses says in Ex. 13:18, they "went up out of the land of Egypt" like an army "equipped for battle."
9. Thou didst awaken Thy bow, as Thou hadst sworn to the tribes. Selah.
With "the bow" he refers to the entire armor. Thus Ps. 78:9 speaks of the Ephraimites who were to wield the bow. In Gen. 49:24 God said through the patriarch Jacob that Ephraim's bow should "remain firm, etc." That is what Habakkuk here calls "sworn to the tribes" of Israel. This verse shows one of the rays by which God manifested Himself. It may be the battle that Joshua waged against the Amalekites, Ex.
17:13, or against Arad, Num. 21:1 ff., or against the Midianites and Moabites, Num. 31, or against the kings Sihon and Og (Num. 21:23 ff.), or against all of these. He wishes to say that God had awakened and strengthened their bow to make them successful in battle.
Thou didst divide the streams into the land.
That was also a ray when from the rocks He provided water that provided streams in the wilderness so that both man and beast could drink thereof (Num. 20:2 ff.).
10. The mountains saw Thee and were frightened; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; the summit lifted up its hands.
Here he summarizes all the rays of the works accompanying the children of Israel when they went through the Jordan. For then "the mountains were frightened," that is, the great lords in the land of Canaan or in the country which is very mountainous, together with its inhabitants. Thus Moses also says in Ex.
15:15: "Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; the leaders of Moab, trembling seized them; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away." At that time the Jordan also flowed away and became dry,
Joshua 3:16. Also "the deep gave forth its voice, and the summit lifted up its hands," that is, everything that was deep and high stirred and moved with fear. Neither the deep waters nor the high mountains could help anyone. Everything had to yield and give Way.
11. The sun and moon stood still in their habitation.
- 98 This means that they stood still contrary to their nature and habit and served Joshua, according to Thine arrows sped along refulgently, and Thy spears with the flash of lightning.
That is the story of the great storm and the hail with which God slew the heathen at Azekah, Joshua 10:11. For Scripture calls hail and lightning God's arrows and spears. Thus Ps. 18.14 declares that He sent out His arrows and frightened them at Mount Sinai. And as the text reads here, one might well say and interpret these arrows and spears as referring to the battles that Joshua waged against the cities Makkedah,
Libnah, Lachish, Eglon, Hebron, Debir, as we have it in Joshua 10:28 ff. For these were conquered, one after the other, with such ease that one was obliged to say that the Israelite arrows and spears were God's and that He was shooting and stabbing mightily with them. The prophet says that they "glitter and flash."
That is what weapons do in battle—they glitter and gleam. They do not do this when sheathed. And I like this interpretation best.
12. Thou didst bestride the earth in fury, Thou didst trample the nations in anger.
This happened when Joshua smote the remaining kings by the waters of Merom, Joshua 11:7.
13. Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, for the salvation of Thine anointed.
This happened in the days of Samuel, Saul, David. When they went forth to war, God helped them everywhere, as the First and the Second Book of the Kings attest.
Thou didst crush the head in the house of the wicked, and didst lay bare the foundation to the neck.
These heads and foundations are the kings in the surrounding countries, such as Edom, Ammon, Syria, Philistia, which David defeated and subjugated. For "to crush the head" means to occupy a kingdom, so that it no longer had a head or its own king but was subject to David. The other expression, "to lay bare the foundation," refers to these same kings and princes. To lay them bare means to dispose of them up to the neck. The trunk and the body remain and become subject to David. For a king is the head and the foundation in a kingdom, the people and the country are the trunk and the body. Up to this point
Habakkuk gratefully depicted and related the rays of the divine hands in order to console the people; and heaven and earth have been filled with the praise of these. Now he begins to plead against the king of 14. Oh, that Thou wouldst curse his scepter together with the head of his towns, who come like a whirlwind to destroy me and rejoice as though they were devouring the poor in secret.
This means: "Oh, that You would not be gracious but unmerciful to the kingdom of Babylon 'together with the head of his towns,' that is, to the city of Babylon, which is the head of all of his cities. To be sure, other kings and other heathen also plagued us, but they permitted us to remain in the country. The Babylonians, however, came rushing along like a whirlwind and scattered us away from our country. Not satisfied with that, they also mock us and rejoice over our misfortune, 'as though they were devouring the poor in secret,' that is, as though there were no judge and they would go unpunished." "To devour in secret" means to say that they suppose that God does not see it or does not regard it as wrong and that no outcry or judgment is made over this.
15. Thine horses tread in the sea, in the mire of great waters.
This means: "While You helped us, our mounted soldiers and our army were so completely successful and victorious and moved along mightily, as though flying in the air; but now that You are forsaking us, they tread in the mire and in deep water, that is, in misery and want, and can no longer accomplish anything."
THE SEVENTEENTH VERSE 16. I hear, and my body trembles, my lips quiver at the sound.
This means: "I am not eating and drinking now to make my belly happy, but I am fasting and mourning. Nor do I sing, as is customary in joyful times. Then people eat, drink, and sing. But instead of laughing and singing, my lips are now quivering when I hear of such misery.
Rottenness enters into my bones.
- 99 This means that my marrow and bones are pining away. These are all Hebrew expressions: A happy heart fattens the bones; a sad or jealous heart makes the bones fester. It is equivalent to saying that a happy mind is half a body, a sad mind also weakens the bones. That is all borne out by experience. As follows:
For I am saddened within me.
This means, as I said, that my sadness causes this condition in my belly, my lips, and bones.
Oh, that I might rest at the time of trouble when we march against the people who make war on us.
This means: "I wish I were dead and reposing in my grave rather than to be constrained to hear of the misery of leaving our country and going to the land of the enemy, who leads us away as he wars against us. For conditions in the country will be bad." As follows:
17. For the fig tree will not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; the produce of the olive will fail, and the fields will yield no food; the flock will be cut off from the fold, and there will be no herd in the stalls.
This means that the land will be desolate because the people are led away. There will be no real farming or raising of stock. Everything will be in a most wretched condition. Thus also Is. 5:5 ff. declares that the land will become cheap because of the few inhabitants remaining there. Also Moses says in Lev.
26:34 that the land will have its Sabbaths after they have been ejected from it.
18. Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
This means that in all such affliction and distress I take comfort from the fact that God will again help us. For the visions of the prophet are not yet at an end. The Christ will still come. And then we shall again rejoice.
19. God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes my feet like hinds' feet, He makes me tread upon high places as I sing joyously to my stringed instrument.
This verse is taken from the Psalter, for in Ps. 18:33 David says: "He makes my feet like hinds' feet and sets me secure on the heights." That is equivalent to saying: "The Lord is still my God and my whole strength, We shall rejoice over that, skipping about and leaping like hinds. That is how our feet will be, no longer wading and crawling in the mire but soaring and flying joyfully on the heights. We shall do nothing but sing happily, play, and express our joy in every way. That will happen when the Babylonian scepter is cursed and destroyed and we are delivered and the Christ has appeared with His kingdom. Amen."
This is Habakkuk's prayer and song, composed for the solace of the Jews, but with very inadequate expressions, with words which are unfamiliar to us Germans. However, we must familiarize ourselves with Hebrew poetical language. For if they would hear our songs, I am sure they would sound just as strange to them as their songs do to us. But I hope that we have hit the prophet's meaning. Eternal praise and thanks be to God for that.
1Luther, M. (1999, c1974). Vol. 19: Luther's works, vol. 19 : Minor Prophets II: Jonah and Habakkuk (J.
J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works (Ha,2.19). Saint Louis: Concordia