Habakkuk 3:6 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Habakkuk 3:6
He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.
to stand · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
measured
וַיְמֹ֣דֶדvay.Mo.ded
H4128
to shake · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
earth
אֶ֗רֶץ'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
beheld
רָאָה֙ra.'Ah
H7200
to see · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
asunder
וַיַּתֵּ֣רvai.ya.Ter
H5425
to jump · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
nations
גּוֹיִ֔םgo.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
everlasting
עַ֔ד'Ad
H5703
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
mountains
הַרְרֵיha.rei-
H2042
a mountain · noun, common masculine plural construct
scattered
וַיִּתְפֹּֽצְצוּ֙vai.yit.po.tze.Tzu
H6327
to dash in pieces · conjunction + verb, hithpael sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
perpetual
עוֹלָ֑םo.Lam
H5769
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
hills
גִּבְע֣וֹתgiv.'ot
H1389
a hillock · noun, common feminine plural construct
bow
שַׁח֖וּsha.Chu
H7817
to sink or depress (reflexive or causative) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
ways
הֲלִיכ֥וֹתha.li.Khot
H1979
a walking · noun, common feminine plural construct
everlasting
עוֹלָ֖םo.Lam
H5769
properly · 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
Genesis 49:26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall…
Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
Deuteronomy 33:15 And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting hills,
Joshua 11:18-23 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.
Isaiah 51:6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath: for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old…
Isaiah 64:1-3 Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Micah 5:8 And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forest, as a young lion a…
Zechariah 14:4-5 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave i…
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…
He stood, and measured the earth--Jehovah, in His advance, is represented as stopping suddenly, and measuring the earth with His all-seeing glance, whereat there is universal consternation. MAURER, from a different root, translates, "rocked the earth"; which answers better to the parallel "drove asunder"; the Hebrew for which latter, however, may be better translated, "made to tremble."
everlasting mountains--which have ever been remembered as retaining the same place and form from the foundation of the world.
did bow--as it were, in reverent submission.
his ways are everlasting--His marvellous ways of working for the salvation of His people mark His everlasting character: such as He w…
He stood, and measured the earth - ארץ erets, the land; he divided the promised land among the twelve tribes. This is the allusion; and this the prophet had in his eye. God not only made a general assignment of the land to the Hebrews; but he even divided it into such portions as the different families required. Here were both power and condescension. When a conqueror had subdued a country, he divided it among his soldiers. Among the Romans, those among whom the conquered lands were divided were termed beneficiary; and the lands beneficia, as being held on the beneficence of the sovereign.
He beheld, and drove asunder the nations - The nations of Canaan, the Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites, etc…
The Church Fathers
He looked, and the nations melted away. Which is to say openly: The Lord had mercy, and the nations repented; by which gaze he looked at Peter when he denied; and he, pricked by the memory of his sin, immediately melted into tears.
The mountains were broken exceedingly. He calls them proud mountains, and about the vanity of this world, or kingship, or wisdom, or wealth, exalting themselves, who, with the Lord watching, were not only broken but exceedingly broken, when, by His mercy, some from such ranks not only descended from empty and proud heights but also opposed the same by living and preaching. Indeed, Saul and Matthew were mountains, the former elevated by the wisdom of carnal letters, the latter by the mammon of iniquity, but when each was converted to the teaching of humility, they were made disciples of Christ, the mountains surely were exceedingly broken.
His feet stood, and the earth was moved. For when the steps of truth are impressed upon the minds of the listeners through the preaching doctor, soon the mind itself, troubled in its consideration, is moved. However, the feet of the Lord can not inconveniently be understood as the doctors themselves, through whom the word is ministered, for he who is present everywhere by himself is carried into the whole world through them as through his feet. These feet stand, and the earth is moved, because the more the holy doctors persist strongly in preaching and preserving the truth, the sooner the hearts of earthly people are struck to repent of their errors; and because this action of repentance should be attributed not to the human preacher but to illuminating grace, it is rightly added:
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
Earthquake — Mentioned among the extraordinary phenomena of Palestine (Ps. 18:7; comp. Hab. 3:6; Nah. 1:5; Isa. 5:25). The first earthquake in Palestine of which we have any record happened in the reign of Ahab…
God — (A.S. and Dutch God; Dan. Gud; Ger. Gott), the name of the Divine Being. It is the rendering (1) of the Hebrew ’El, from a word meaning to be strong; (2) of ’Eloah_, plural _’Elohim. The singular…
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…
Earth · Perpetuity of — Perpetuity of
Hills · Perpetual — Perpetual
Midianites · Terrified at approach of Israel — Terrified at approach of Israel
Mountains · God: Scatters — God: Scatters
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).
He stood and measured the earth,.... This alludes to the ark of the Lord, the symbol of his presence, standing and abiding at Gilgal for the space of fourteen years, while the land of Canaan was subdued by Joshua; and then measured out by him, and divided by lot, as an inheritance to the children of Israel, according to the direction and appointment of the Lord, Joshua 13:1 &c.: here it may have respect to the mission of the apostles into the various parts of the world, and the distribution of it among them; some being sent into one part, and some into another, called their particular line and measure, 2 Corinthians 10:14 some into India, others into Ethiopia; some into Asia, and others int…
Habakkuk 3:6
6. He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.
6. Stetit et mensus est terram; aspexit et dissolvit gentes; et afflicti sunt montes aeterni; incurvati sunt colles seculi; itinera seculi ei.
He says that God possessed every power to subdue the earth to himself, and that he could at his will destroy it, yea, dissolve mountains as veil as nations. Some of the Jews understood this of the ark, which stood at that time in Gilead. They then suppose that the Prophet meant this in short--that when God chose a place for the ark of the covenant in Gilgal,…
"He stands, and sets the earth reeling: He looks, and makes nations tremble; primeval mountains burst in pieces, the early hills sink down: His are ways of the olden time. Hab 3:7. I saw the tents of Cushan under affliction: the curtains of the land of Midian tremble." God coming from afar has now drawn near and taken His stand, to smite the nations as a warlike hero (cf. Hab 3:8, Hab 3:9, and Hab 3:11, Hab 3:12). This is affirmed in עמד, He has stationed Himself, not "He steps forth or appears." This standing of Jehovah throws the earth and the nations into trembling. ימדד cannot mean to measure here, for there is no thought of any measuring of the earth, and it cannot be shown that mâdad…
God is the divine warrior who intervenes on behalf of his own (see 3:8-15; see also Isa 63:1-6).
3:5 Habakkuk personifies pestilence (see Deut 32:24) and plague (see Exod 7–12; Amos 4:10) as soldiers in God’s army, fulfilling his purposes.
Rashi on Habakkuk 3:6
He stood and meted out to the earth He waited to examine minutely the case of the generation of the Flood, to mete out to them a measure for a measure, and He meted it out. “He stood” is to be understood in the sense of (Isa. 3: 13) “The Lord stands to plead, and He stands to judge the peoples.” He waits and examines their case minutely.
and meted out to the earth They sinned with heat, and they were judged with boiling water.
He saw the generation of separation, who, since they were of one language, all came upon the plan, as it is written (Gen. 11:1): “And all the earth was of one language.”
and caused nations to wander He caused them to jump into seventy languages as it is said (Lev. 1…
