Habakuk 1:2

1:2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help?

But you do not listen!

I call out to you, “Violence!”

But you do not intervene! ¹ 

Habakuk 3:9-11

3:9 Your bow is ready for action; ² 

you commission your arrows. ³  Selah.

You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. ⁴ 

3:10 When the mountains see you, they shake.

The torrential downpour sweeps through. ⁵ 

The great deep ⁶  shouts out;

it lifts its hands high. ⁷ 

3:11 The sun and moon stand still in their courses; ⁸ 

the flash of your arrows drives them away, ⁹ 

the bright light of your lightning-quick spear. ¹⁰ 

[1:2]  ¹ tn Or “deliver.”

[3:9]  ² tn Heb “[into] nakedness your bow is laid bare.”

[3:9]  ³ tn Heb “sworn in are the arrow-shafts with a word.” The passive participle of שָׁבַע (shava’), “swear an oath,” also occurs in Ezek 21:23 ET (21:28 HT) referencing those who have sworn allegiance. Here the Lord’s arrows are personified and viewed as having received a commission which they have vowed to uphold. In Jer 47:6-7 the Lord’s sword is given such a charge. In the Ugaritic myths Baal’s weapons are formally assigned the task of killing the sea god Yam.

[3:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “[with] rivers you split open the earth.” A literal rendering like “You split the earth with rivers” (so NIV, NRSV) suggests geological activity to the modern reader, but in the present context of a violent thunderstorm, the idea of streams swollen to torrents by downpours better fits the imagery.

[3:9]  sn As the Lord comes in a thunderstorm the downpour causes streams to swell to river-like proportions and spread over the surface of the ground, causing flash floods.

[3:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “a heavy rain of waters passes by.” Perhaps the flash floods produced by the downpour are in view here.

[3:10]  ⁶ sn The great deep, which is to be equated with the sea (vv. 8, 15), is a symbol of chaos and represents the Lord’s enemies.

[3:10]  ⁷ sn Lifting the hands here suggests panic and is accompanied by a cry for mercy (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19). The forces of chaos cannot withstand the Lord’s power revealed in the storm.

[3:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “in their lofty dwelling places.”

[3:11]  ⁹ tn Or “at the light of your arrows they vanish.”

[3:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “at the brightness of the lightning of your spear.”