to pace · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
land
אָ֑רֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
indignation
בְּזַ֖עַםbe.Za.'am
H2195
strictly froth at the mouth · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
thresh
תָּד֥וּשׁta.Dush
H1758
to trample or thresh · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
heathen
גּוֹיִֽםgo.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
anger
בְּאַ֖ףbe.'Af
H639
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Jeremiah 51:33 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a littl…
Micah 4:12-13 But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor.
Numbers 21:23-35 And Sihon would not suffer Israel to pass through his border: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and went out against Israel into t…
Joshua 6:1-12 Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.
Nehemiah 9:22-24 Moreover thou gavest them kingdoms and nations, and didst divide them into corners: so they possessed the land of Sihon, and the land of the…
Psalms 44:1-3 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old.
Psalms 78:55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
Isaiah 41:15 Behold, I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth: thou shalt thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Habakkuk 3:3-15
It has been the usual practice of God's people, when they have been in distress and ready to fall into despair, to help themselves by recollecting their experiences, and reviving them, considering the days of old, and the years of ancient times (Psa 77:5), and pleading with God in prayer, as he is pleased sometimes to plead them with himself. Isa 63:11, Then he remembered the days of old. This is that which the prophet does here, and he looks as far back as the first forming of them into a people, when they were brought by miracles out of Egypt, a house of bondage, through the wilderness, a land of drought, into Canaan, then possessed by mighty nations. He that thus brought them at first int…
march--implying Jehovah's majestic and irresistible progress before His people (Jdg 5:4; Psa 68:7). Israel would not have dared to attack the nations, unless Jehovah had gone before.
thresh-- (Mic 4:13).
Adam Clarke on Habakkuk 3:12
Thou didst march through the land - This refers to the conquest of Canaan. God is represented as going at the head of his people as general-in-chief; and leading them on from conquest to conquest - which was the fact.
Thou didst thresh the heathen in anger - Thou didst tread them down, as the oxen do the sheaves on the threshing-floor.
John Gill on Habakkuk 3:12
Thou didst march through the land with indignation,.... Not the land of Canaan, fighting against the inhabitants of it, dispossessing them to make room for the Israelites, whatever allusion may be to it; but the antichristian land, the whole Romish jurisdiction, and all the states of it, through which the Lord will march in wrath and fury, when he pours out the vials of it upon them; or this is desired, and prayed for; for it may be rendered, "do thou march through the land" (r), &c.; foreseeing and believing that he would:
thou didst thresh the heathen in anger; or, "do thou thresh" (s), &c.; these are the Papists, called heathens and Gentiles in Scripture, because of the heathenish custom…
The Church Fathers
In your threatening, you will humble the earth, and in your fury, you will bring down nations. By threatening the severity of judgment by which the wicked are condemned, you will healthily humble those who were accustomed to place earthly things before heavenly things, so that, with earthly desires gradually diminished, they might begin to understand and seek what is above; and by inflicting fury, you will condemn forever those who, in their obstinate exaltation, despised being humbled for a time, which the Psalmist prays might not happen to him, saying: "O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath" (Psalm 6:2).
LXX: In the threat, you will approach the earth, and in anger, you will drag away the nations. This can be understood as occurring at the end of the world, when, through frequent wars, a great multitude is killed, and few people are found, and those who did not want to be part of God's people, but remained as nations and foreigners, are led to Tartarus by the anger of the Lord. But it is better to interpret the threat to the earth as a diminution of earthly works, and those who are established in the Church, not waiting for sinners, are corrected by the anger of the Lord; but hearing in the Scriptures the punishments that await sinners, they repent, and gradually diminish their earthly desires, and advance towards heaven. If anyone of us fears the threatening of the Lord, to him the earth is diminished: but he who perseveres in the number of the nations, and does not want to be among those whose land decreases, nor of the people of God, of whom it is said: They shall see thee, and shall bear children, this one shall be taken away in punishment with the nations.
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
Poetry — Has been well defined as “the measured language of emotion.” Hebrew poetry deals almost exclusively with the great question of man’s relation to God. “Guilt, condemnation, punishment, pardon,…
Psalms — The psalms are the production of various authors. “Only a portion of the Book of Psalms claims David as its author. Other inspired poets in successive generations added now one now another…
Heathen, The · God: Punishes — God: Punishes
Threshing · Illustrative: Of the judgments of God — Illustrative: Of the judgments of God
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).
Habakkuk 3:12
12. Thou didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the heathen in anger.
12. In ira calcasti terram (vel, ambulasti super terram; [dts] enim significat ambulare;) in ira (est tamen aliud nomen, ergo vertamus uno loco, indignationem, vel, furorem,--in furore) triturasti gentes (vel, triturabis.)
The Prophet relates here the entrance of the people into the land of Canaan, that the faithful might know that their fathers would not have obtained so many victories had not God put forth the power and strength of his hand. Hence he says, that God himself had trampled on the land in anger. For how could the Israelites have dared to attack so many nations, who had…
In Hab 3:12 there follows a description of the judgment upon the nations for the rescue of the people of God. Hab 3:12. "In fury Thou walkest through the earth, in wrath Thou stampest down nations. Hab 3:13. Thou goest out to the rescue of Thy people, to the rescue of Thine anointed one; Thou dashest in pieces the head from the house of the wicked one, laying bare the foundation even to the neck. Selah. Hab 3:14. Thou piercest with his spears the head of his hordes, which storm hither to beat me to powder, whose rejoicing is, as it were, to swallow the poor in secret. Hab 3:15. Thou treadest upon the sea: Thy horses, upon the heap of great waters." The Lord, at whose coming in the terrible g…
