a bow · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
quite
עֶרְיָ֤ה'er.Yah
H6181
nudity · noun, common feminine singular absolute
naked
תֵעוֹר֙te.'Or
H5783
to (be) bare · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
oaths
שְׁבֻע֥וֹתshe.vu.'ot
H7621
properly · noun, common feminine plural construct
tribes
מַטּ֖וֹתma.Tot
H4294
a branch (as extending) · noun, common feminine plural absolute
word
אֹ֣מֶר'O.mer
H562
something said · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Selah
סֶ֑לָהSe.lah
H5542
suspension (of music) · interjection
cleave
תְּבַקַּעte.va.ka'-
H1234
to cleave · verb, piel imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
earth
אָֽרֶץ'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
rivers
נְהָר֖וֹתne.ha.Rot
H5104
a stream (including the sea · noun, common feminine plural 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
Psalms 7:12-13 If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
Psalms 78:15-16 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
Psalms 105:41 He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.
Luke 1:72-75 To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the…
Numbers 20:11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and t…
Deuteronomy 32:23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
Psalms 105:8-11 He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.
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…
bow . . . made . . . naked--that is, was drawn forth from its cover, in which bows usually were cased when not in use. Compare Isa 22:6, "Kir uncovered the shield."
according to the oaths of the tribes even thy word--that is, Thy oaths of promise to the tribes of Israel (Psa 77:8; Luk 1:73-74). Habakkuk shows that God's miraculous interpositions for His people were not limited to one time, but that God's oaths to His people are sure ground for their always expecting them. The mention of the tribes, rather than Abraham or Moses, is in order that they may not doubt that to them belongs this grace of which Abraham was the depository [CALVIN and JEROME]. MAURER translates, "The spears were glu…
Thy bow was made quite naked - That is, it was drawn out of its case; as the arrows had their quiver, so the bows had their cases. A fine oriental bow and bow-case, with quiver and arrows, are now before me; they show with what propriety Jehovah is represented as taking his bow out of its case, in order to set his arrow upon the cord, to shoot at his enemies. It is not the drawing out, or making bare the arrow, that is mentioned here; but the taking the bow out of its case to prepare to shoot.
This verse appears to be an answer to the questions in the preceding: "Was the Lord displeased," etc. The answer is, All this was done "according to the oaths of the tribes;" the covenant of God, frequ…
The Church Fathers
The earth will be split by rivers. Rivers here are not the same as those above, from which he feared the anger and fury of the Lord, but rather those about which he himself said in the Gospel: He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And the evangelist explains: This he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive (John 7:38). By these rivers, therefore, the earth will be split, when the hearts of the carnal, irrigated by the word of saving doctrine, humble themselves, breaking the hardness of their disbelief, and open the bosom of their internal thought, which had been badly closed, to receive the words of salutary reproof or exhortation; which is explained more broadly subsequently when it is said:
Stretching, you extend your bow over scepters, says the Lord. The bow signifies the sudden coming of the divine judgment, by which he foresaw that even scepters, that is, the kingdoms of the world, should be examined. Therefore, the prophet insinuates what the Lord, ascending on his horses, that is, filling and ruling the apostles and their successors with his grace, does among them: Stretching, he says, you extend your bow over scepters, that is, by threatening through the teachers, you will threaten that your judgment will come suddenly, so that whoever is terrified at the threat of wrath, as at an extended bow, and takes care to supplicate to your piety, will not feel the release of the arrows, that is, the threat of eternal punishments. But when he added, stretching, you extend your bow over scepters, he added: Says the Lord, he signifies God the Father, about whom the Son himself says: The Father, he says, judges no one; but has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22).
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
Battle-bow — The war-bow used in fighting (Zech. 9:10; 10:4). “Thy bow was made quite naked” (Hab. 3:9) means that it was made ready for use. By David’s order (2 Sam. 1:18) the young men were taught the use, or…
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…
Selah — A word frequently found in the Book of Psalms, and also in Hab. 3:9, 13, about seventy-four times in all in Scripture. Its meaning is doubtful. Some interpret it as meaning “silence” or “pause;”…
Bow · 3:12; — 3:12;
Geology · 22:16; — 22:16;
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).
Thy bow was made quite naked,.... It was took out of its case, and arrows out of their quiver, and these made use of against the enemies of his people: this is put for all weapons of war; the sword was unsheathed, and all military weapons employed, and the power of the Lord was exerted; or, as the Targum,
"the Lord was revealed in his power;''
fighting the battles of his people, as in the times of Joshua:
according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. That is, to fulfil his word of promise, to which he had annexed his oaths, he at several times swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to the fathers of the Israelites, that he would put them in possession of the land of Canaan;…
Habakkuk 3:9
9. Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
9. Nudando nudatus fuit (vel, manifestatione manifestus fuit) arcus tuus; juramenta Tribuum, sermo: Selach: fluviis scindes terram.
The Prophet explains the same thing more clearly in this verse--that the power of God was formerly manifested for no other reason but that the children of Abraham might be taught to expect from him a continued deliverance: for he says that the bow of God was made bare. By the bow, he means also the sword and other weapons; as though he had said, that God was then armed, as we have found declared before. God therefo…
God has already made bare the bow, to shoot His arrows at the foe. תּעור, third pers. imperf. niph. of עוּר, equivalent to ערר (Isa 32:11), and the more usual ערה, to be naked. To strengthen the thought, the noun עריה is written before the verb instead of the inf. abs. (cf. Mic 1:11). The bow is made bare, not by the shooting of the arrows, but by its covering (γωρυτός, corytus) being removed, in order to use it as a weapon. The reference is to the bow used in war, which God carries as a warrior; so that we are not to think of the rainbow, even if the chariots might be understood as signifying the clouds, as in Isa 19:1 and Psa 104:3, since the rainbow is a sign of peace and of the covenant…
Only God controls the forces of the natural world.
Rashi on Habakkuk 3:9
Your bow revealed itself Your might was revealed.
the oaths to the tribes The oaths that You swore to the tribes.
perpetual statement A statement that is to last forever. אֹמֶר is vowelized with a “pattah,” [meaning a “seggol”] and the accent is on the first syllable, making it a noun.
You split the earth into rivers According to the Targum.
