to see · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
heathen
בַגּוֹיִם֙va.go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
regard
וְֽהַבִּ֔יטוּve.ha.Bi.tu
H5027
to scan · conjunction + verb, hiphil imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
wonder
וְהִֽתַּמְּה֖וּve.hit.ta.me.Hu
H8539
to be in consternation · conjunction + verb, hithpael imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
marvellously
תְּמָ֑הוּte.Ma.hu
H8539
to be in consternation · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural
work
פֹּעֵ֣לpo.'El
H6466
to do or make (systematically and habitually) · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
work
פֹ֙עַל֙fo.'al
H6467
an act or work (concretely) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
days
בִּֽימֵיכֶ֔םbi.mei.Khem
H3117
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine plural
believe
תַאֲמִ֖ינוּta.'a.Mi.nu
H539
properly · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
told
יְסֻפָּֽרye.su.Par
H5608
properly · verb, pual imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
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
Acts 13:40-41 Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets;
Isaiah 29:14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wi…
Lamentations 4:12 The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered i…
Jeremiah 5:12-13 They have belied the LORD, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
Isaiah 29:9 Stay yourselves, and wonder; cry ye out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
Jeremiah 9:25-26 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised;
Jeremiah 18:18 Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, n…
Jeremiah 25:14-29 For many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according to their deeds, and according to…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Habakkuk 1:5-11
We have here an answer to the prophet's complaint, giving him assurance that, though God bore long, he would not bear always with this provoking people; for the day of vengeance was in his heart, and he must tell them so, that they might by repentance and reformation turn away the judgment they were threatened with.
I. The preamble to the sentence is very awful (Hab 1:5): Behold, you among the heathen, and regard. Since they will not be brought to repentance by the long-suffering of God, he will take another course with them. No resentments are so keen, so deep, as those of abused patience. The Lord will inflict upon them, 1. A public punishment, which shall be beheld and regarded among the…
Behold . . . marvellously . . . a work--(Compare Isa 29:14). Quoted by Paul (Act 13:41).
among the heathen--In Act 13:41, "ye despisers," from the Septuagint. So the Syriac and Arabic versions; perhaps from a different Hebrew reading. In the English Version reading of Habakkuk, God, in reply to the prophet's expostulation, addresses the Jews as about to be punished, "Behold ye among the heathen (with whom ye deserve to be classed, and by whom ye shall be punished, as despisers; the sense implied, which Paul expresses): learn from them what ye refused to learn from Me!" For "wonder marvellously," Paul, in Act 13:41, has, "wonder and perish," which gives the sense, not the literal wording, o…
Behold ye among the heathen - Instead of בגוים baggoyim, among the nations or heathen, some critics think we should read בגדים bogedim, transgressors; and to the same purpose the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic have read; and thus it is quoted by St. Paul Act 13:41. But neither this, nor any tantamount reading, is found in any of the MSS. yet collated. Newcome translates, "See, ye transgressors, and behold a wonder, and perish."
I will work a work in your days - As he is speaking of the desolation that should be produced by the Chaldeans, it follows, as Bp. Newcome has justly observed, that the Chaldeans invaded Judah whilst those were living whom the prophet addressed.
Which ye will not beli…
The Church Fathers
This is Habakkuk the ninth in order, who was also privileged to speak concerning the resurrection of Christ in these terms: Behold, ye despisers, and regard, and wonder marvellously, and vanish for ever, because I work a work in your days which ye will not believe though it be told you. This passage Paul cited at Antioch of Pisidia as having reference to the resurrection of the Lord Christ.
He remained Lord of all things even when he came, for the divine economy, in the form of a slave, and this is why the mystery of Christ is truly wonderful. Indeed God the Father said to the Jews through one of the prophets, "Look on this, you scoffers, be struck with wonder and disappear, for I am doing a work in your days, a work in which you will not believe even if one were to explain it to you."
(Verse 5.) Look among the nations and see, be astonished and astounded; for a work is being done in your days that you would not believe if you were told. LXX: Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish; for I am doing a work in your days, a work that you will not believe, even if someone tells you. Symmachus, in response to what we have said: "a work is being done in your days", interpreted it as "a work will be done in your days". The rest is similar. Again, at the beginning of the chapter, where it is written in Hebrew 'Rau Baggoim', and we have translated it, look among the nations, and the Septuagint has put 'contemptores', except for Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion, who agree with our interpretation, in another edition I found 'ἀνωνύμῃ' you will see the slanderers, and in another similarly without the title of the author, you will see the decliners. Therefore, in response to the complaints of the prophet who causes and says: 'How long, O Lord, will I cry out, and you will not hear?' And the rest, up to the end of this introduction, the voice of the responding Lord is introduced, so that he may see this injustice, which he thinks is happening only in Israel, among the Gentiles: and that not only the Jews and Jerusalem, as he thought as a prophet, would be handed over to the Chaldeans, but all nations around, and that he would be so powerful and afterwards overthrown, that if someone were to predict what is going to happen, they would seem incredulous because of the magnitude of the matter. But even this, which the 70 and the other interpreters have put forth: See the despisers, whether you will see the slanderers and those who turn away, it agrees with the meaning of this place, and they are shown from the very discourse of their audacity and contempt towards the Lord: from the person of whom the prophet had cried out, why they have dared to despise the majesty of God and speak rashly, and as much as they can, to slander the providence of God, and to turn away from the Lord, thereby convicting themselves of wickedness. So you will see, you who scorn, and then you will admire, and you will consider all your complaining as nothing, when you perceive what I will do in your days; lest perhaps you say: What does the future have to do with us? The work that will be so great will overwhelm all your reasoning: so that if someone were to predict it now,…
Heathen, The · Employed to chastise the Church — Employed to chastise the Church
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).
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard,.... This is the Lord's answer to the prophet's complaint, or what he directs him to say to the Jews, guilty of the crimes complained of, which should not go long unpunished; and who are called upon to look around them, and see what was doing among the nations; how the king of Babylon had overturned the Assyrian empire, and was going from place to place, subduing one nation after another, and their turn would be quickly: for these words are not addressed to the heathen, to stir them up to observe what was doing, or about to be done, to the Jews; but to the Jews themselves, to consider and regard the operations of the Lord, and the works of his providen…
Habakkuk 1:5
5. Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you
5. Videte in gentibus, et aspicite, et admiramini, admiramini; quia opus operans in diebus vestris, non credetis, quum narratum fuerit.
The Prophet turns his discourse to the Jews, after having related the private colloquy, in which he expostulated with God for having so patiently borne with the obstinate wickedness of the nation. Being now as it were furnished with God's command, (as the case really was,) he performs the office of a herald, and proclaims an approaching destruction. He indeed adopts a preface, which ought t…
"Look ye among the nations, and see, and be amazed, amazed! for I work a work in your days: ye would not believe it if it were told you." The appeal to see and be amazed is addressed to the prophet and the people of Judah together. It is very evident from Hab 1:6 that Jehovah Himself is speaking here, and points by anticipation to the terrible nature of the approaching work of His punitive righteousness, although פּעל is written indefinitely, without any pronoun attached. Moreover, as Delitzsch and Hitzig observe, the meaning of the appeal is not, "Look round among the nations, whether any such judgment has ever occurred;" but, "Look about among the nations, for it is thence that the terribl…
God’s answer to Habakkuk’s question is startling. God would send a violent people—the Babylonians—to deal with the violence in Judah. The Babylonian army, well-trained and battle-hardened, was an unstoppable force.
1:5 Look . . . look: Two different Hebrew verbs, both of which are here translated look, are translated as see and watch in 1:3. This forms a literary link between Habakkuk’s questions in 1:3 and God’s reply in 1:5-11.
Rashi on Habakkuk 1:5
You shall not believe when it is told When this is told to you, that I am setting up the Chaldeans, the people that did not deserve to be created, as it is written (Isa. 23:13): “This people has never been.” They are one of three things whose creation God regrets, and now [they] will rise, and [they] will be bitter, and [they will be] impetuous to run and to march to the breadth of the lands of all the nations.