Habakkuk 1:12 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Habakkuk 1:12
Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
to die (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common plural
LORD
יְהוָה֙Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
ordained
שַׂמְתּ֔וֹsam.To
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
judgment
לְמִשְׁפָּ֣טle.mish.Pat
H4941
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
God
וְצ֖וּרve.Tzur
H6697
properly · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
established
יְסַדְתּֽוֹye.sad.To
H3245
to set (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
correction
לְהוֹכִ֥יחַle.ho.Khi.ach
H3198
to be right (i.e. correct) · preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
Psalms 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art G…
Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, D…
Jeremiah 30:11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make…
Jeremiah 46:28 Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven t…
Psalms 93:2 Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting.
Amos 9:8-9 Behold, the eyes of the Lord GOD are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from off the face of the earth; saving that I will not u…
Lamentations 5:19 Thou, O LORD, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Habakkuk 1:12–end
The prophet, having received of the Lord that which he was to deliver to the people, now turns to God, and again addresses himself to him for the ease of his own mind under the burden which he saw. And still he is full of complaints. If he look about him, he sees nothing but violence done by Israel; if he look before him, he sees nothing but violence done against Israel; and it is hard to say which is the more melancholy sight. His thoughts of both he pours out before the Lord. It is our duty to be affected both with the iniquities and with the calamities of the church of God and of the times and places wherein we live; but we must take heed lest we grow peevish in our resentments, and carry…
In opposition to the impious deifying of the Chaldeans power as their god (MAURER, or, as the English Version, their attributing of their successes to their idols), the prophet, in an impassioned address to Jehovah, vindicates His being "from everlasting," as contrasted with the Chaldean so-called "god."
my God, mine Holy One--Habakkuk speaks in the name of his people. God was "the Holy One of Israel," against whom the Chaldean was setting up himself (Isa 37:23).
we shall not die--Thou, as being our God, wilt not permit the Chaldeans utterly to destroy us. This reading is one of the eighteen called by the Hebrews "the appointment of the scribes"; the Rabbis think that Ezra and his collea…
Art thou not frown everlasting - The idols change, and their worshippers change and fail: but thou, Jehovah, art eternal; thou canst not change, and they who trust in thee are safe. Thou art infinite in thy mercy; therefore, "we shall not die," shall not be totally exterminated.
Thou hast ordained them for judgment - Thou hast raised up the Chaldeans to correct and punish us; but thou hast not given them a commission to destroy us totally.
Instead of לא נמות lo namuth, "we shall not die," Houbigant and other critics, with a little transposition of letters, read אל אמת El emeth, "God of truth;" and then the verse will stand thus: "Art thou not from everlasting, O Jehovah, my God, my Holy One?…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 12.) Surely you are from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one? And shall we not die? O Lord, you have appointed him for judgment; you have established him as a strong one to correct him. LXX: Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one? And shall we not die? O Lord, you have appointed him for judgment: and he has formed me, so that I may chastise in his discipline. Symmachus more clearly: Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, so that I would not die? O Lord, you have appointed him for judgment, you have established him for reproof. To the prophet's complaint, saying: How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? God had answered, saying: Look at the nations and see: and after the preface he had added: Behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation. With every detail complete, whether about Nebuchadnezzar or the devil in the end, it is stated: Then the spirit will change, and it will pass through, and it will fall, this is the might of his God. When the prophet heard and understood, therefore Nabuchodonosor, against Judam, or the devil against believers, can obtain power to rebuke them, and after the rebuke, he himself is also punished in the end, he responded to the Lord: So, are you, my Lord God, my holy one (he speaks these words with a tone of flattery and repentance), the one who created us from the beginning? Upon whose mercy do we still rely? For I did not know that our adversaries could have so much power, nor did I know that Nabuchodonosor or the devil of this world, and all the powers of the nations, had received power. Therefore, no one of us can resist his might. But as for your mercy, it is all that we live, for we have not been killed by him, and have been led to the works of death. For you, Lord, have placed him to judge, so that he himself may be the enemy and avenger, and through him you may rebuke all who have sinned against you. But because we have once interpreted the Chaldeans about demons, and Nebuchadnezzar about their king the devil, we must briefly describe the devil and his power, so that the prophet may justly say: Lord, you have placed him to judge, and have founded him as a mighty one to rebuke. It is raised up against unbelievers and scorners of the nations of demons, bitter for punishment, and present everywhere. It also walks wherever the width of…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Rock — (Heb. tsur), employed as a symbol of God in the Old Testament (1 Sam. 2:2; 2 Sam. 22:3; Isa. 17:10; Ps. 28:1; 31:2, 3; 89:26; 95:1); also in the New Testament (Matt. 16:18; Rom. 9:33; 1 Cor. 10:4).…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine holy One? .... The prophet, foreseeing these calamities coming upon his nation and people, observes some things for their comfort in this verse; and expostulates with God in the following verses Habakkuk 1:13 about his providential dealings, in order to obtain an answer from him, which might remove the objections of his own mind, and those of other good men he personates, raised against them; being stumbled at this, that wicked men should be suffered to succeed and prosper, and the righteous should be afflicted and distressed by them: but for his own present consolation, and that of others, in a view of the worst that should befall them, he…
Habakkuk 1:12
12. Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgement; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
12. Annon tu ab initio, (vel, jampridem,) Jehova, Deus meus? sanctus meus, non moriemur; Jehova, ad judicium posiusti eum; et fortis, ad castigationem fundasti eum.
The Prophet now exulting, according to what all the faithful feel, shows the effect of what he has just mentioned; for as ungodly men wantonly rise up against God, and, while Satan renders them insane, throw out swelling words of vanity, as though they could by speaking confound earth and heaven; so also the faithful derive…
On this threatening announcement of the judgment by God, the prophet turns to the Lord in the name of believing Israel, and expresses the confident hope that He as the Holy One will not suffer His people to perish. Hab 1:12. "Art Thou not from olden time, O Jehovah, my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. Jehovah, for judgment hast Thou appointed it; and, O Rock, founded it for chastisement." However terrible and prostrating the divine threatening may sound, the prophet draws consolation and hope from the holiness of the faithful covenant God, that Israel will not perish, but that the judgment will be only a severe chastisement.
(Note: "Therefore," says Calvin, "whoever desires to fight brave…
Habakkuk found it difficult to harmonize God’s answer (1:5-11) with what he understood about God’s character. How could a holy and just God chastise Judah by using a people more unrighteous than they were?
1:12 Despite his perplexity, Habakkuk did not renounce God. With the words my God, my Holy One, he reaffirmed his commitment to the Lord before asking serious questions about what God had revealed to him. • In light of God’s character and covenant relationship with Israel, Habakkuk was certain that God would not wipe his people out. • to correct us: Cp. Heb 12:5-11. • our Rock: A common image of God’s faithfulness and strength (see Deut 32:15; 1 Sam 2:2; Ps 18:2; 1 Cor 10:4; 1 Pet 2:6-8).
Rashi on Habakkuk 1:12
Are You not from everlasting, O Lord, my God, my Holy One? Who shall not die. Now, the reason it is written לֹא נָמוּת we shall not die, is that it is one of the emendations of the scribes in Scripture, by which Scripture euphemizes. Likewise, (Mal. 1:13) “And you sadden it.” And so are many of them [these euphemisms] explained in Sifre (Num. 10:35). According to the emendation of the scribes, this is its explanation: Are you not my God from everlasting, my Holy One? Do not deliver us into their hands to die.
O Lord, You have ordained them for judgment I know that You have set this one [Nebuchadnezzar] up only to judge those who rebel against You. In any case, why should all this come about…
