Habakkuk 3:14

3:3-15 God's people, when in distress, and ready to despair, seek help by considering the days of old, and the years of ancient times, and by pleading them with God in prayer. The resemblance between the Babylonish and Egyptian captivities, naturally presents itself to the mind, as well as the possibility of a like deliverance through the power of Jehovah. God appeared in his glory. All the powers of nature are shaken, and the course of nature changed, but all is for the salvation of God's own people. Even what seems least likely, shall be made to work for their salvation. Hereby is given a type and figure of the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ. It is for salvation with thine anointed. Joshua who led the armies of Israel, was a figure of Him whose name he bare, even Jesus, our Joshua. In all the salvations wrought for them, God looked upon Christ the Anointed, and brought deliverances to pass by him. All the wonders done for Israel of old, were nothing to that which was done when the Son of God suffered on the cross for the sins of his people. How glorious his resurrection and ascension! And how much more glorious will be his second coming, to put an end to all that opposes him, and all that causes suffering to his people!

(14) Thou dost strike through with his staves . . .—Better, Thou dost pierce with his ( scil., thine anointed people’s) spears the head of his (the enemy’s) princes, when they sweep by to scatter me abroad, when they exult as if to devour the afflicted secretly. The first clause is very obscure. Matteh means not only “spear,” but also “rod,” “stem,” “tribe” (see on Habakkuk 3:9 ); and the word which we translate “princes” may also, perhaps, mean “villages.” (See on Judges 5:7 .) It is also uncertain to whom the possessive pronouns attached to these substantives refer the last clause we are reminded of several passages in the Psalms, notably, Psalm 10:9 ; Psalm 14:4 ; Psalm 17:12 .

Thou didst {s} strike through with his staffs the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly. (s) God destroyed his enemies both great and small with their own weapons, though they were ever so fierce against his Church.

14. strike … with his staves—with the "wicked" (Hab 3:13) foe's own sword (Maurer translates, "spears") (Jud 7:22). head of his villages—Not only kings were overthrown by God's hand, but His vengeance passed through the foe's villages and dependencies. A just retribution, as the foe had made "the inhabitants of Israel's villages to cease" (Jud 5:7). Grotius translates, "of his warriors"; Gesenius, "the chief of his captains." to scatter me—Israel, with whom Habakkuk identifies himself (compare Hab 1:12). rejoicing … to devour the poor secretly—"The poor" means the Israelites, for whom in their helpless state the foe lurks in his lair, like a wild beast, to pounce on and devour (Ps 10:9; 17:12).

14 . Thou didst strike through ] Thou hast pierced through with thy spears the head of his warriors . The Heb. text reads his spears or staves, which would mean that the weapons of the enemy were turned against himself. But though the idea is not uncommon ( Ezekiel 38:21 ; Zechariah 14:13 ; cf. 1 Samuel 14:20 ) that the enemies of God’s people shall be thrown into a panic and mutually destroy each other, there is nothing in the present passage to suggest that idea. The term rendered warriors with Vulgate (A.V. villages ) does not occur again; Sept. princes . They came out ] which were come out as a whirlwind . Their rejoicing was] exulting as about to devour the afflicted in secret places ; lit. their exulting was as to devour . The figure is taken from the wild beast who devours his prey in his covert ( Psalm 10:7-9 ; Psalm 17:12 ). The enemy exulted or raised a cry of exultation, feeling that their prey, the afflicted, that is the people Israel, was within their grasp. Comp. Exodus 14:3 ; Exodus 15:9 , “The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my desire shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them.”

Thou, O God, didst strike through with his staves; either meant of the staves or arms of the Canaanitish kings which they lifted up against Israel, thereby provoking Israel to fight, in which being overcome, they perished by their own arms taken from them; or it may be meant of the weapons of Joshua and Israel, called staves, for that they were arrows and spears, which are armed staves: or it might be translated tribes; so with the tribes of Israel, the tribes of God’s anointed, or by them, were these Canaanites destroyed. The head of his villages; all the cities, and all the unwalled towns; for so Israel destroyed the daughters with the mothers, i.e. the villages with the cities. They; the inhabitants of Canaan, but particularly the five kings, Habakkuk 3:11 ; of whose conspiracy you read Joshua 10 , which see. Came out as a whirlwind; with violence invading every side; a tempest made up of contrary winds and exhalations, moving as violently as irregularly. To scatter; to disperse and drive away from the earth. Their rejoicing was as to devour; the joy they took was such as is the joy of men who take the spoil of enemies, and come to feast, not fight; they dreamed of nothing else but eating up God’s people as they would eat bread. The poor; helpless and friendless as they seemed to be, poor Israel. Secretly; either by secret conspiracy, or by secret execution of the plot they laid against Israel.

Verse 14. - Thou didst strike through with his staves; thou didst pierce with his own spears. Thou dost turn on the Chaldeans and all thine enemies the destruction which they intended for others. The people meet with the same fate as the royal house (ver. 13); Vulgate, maledixisti sceptris ejus , which seems to be a mistranslation. The head of his villages ( פרזים ). There is a difficulty in arriving at the meaning of this last word. The LXX. renders it, "mighty men;" Jerome, "warriors;" Chaldee, "army;" Delitzsch and many modern critics, "hordes" or "inhabitants of the plain;" others again, "rulers" or "judges." The most probable version is either "warriors" or "hordes." The head, i.e. collectively the heads of his warlike troops. They came out (or, who rush ) as a whirlwind to scatter me (see the description of the Chaldees, Habakkuk 1:6 , etc.). The prophet identifies himself with his people. (For the figure of the whirlwind, comp. Isaiah 41:16 ; Jeremiah 13:24 ; Hosea 13:3 .) Dr. Briggs renders, "Thou dost pierce with his rods the chief, when his rulers are rushing in to scatter me." Their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly; or, as in ambush, to devoter the helpless. They exult in acting the part of robbers and murderers, who lurk for the defenceless and afflict the poor ( Psalm 10:8 , etc.). As is equivalent to "as it were." Vulgate, Sicut ejus qui. "The poor" are primarily the Israelites, and then all meek worshippers of God. Habakkuk 3:14

Thou didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages - The destruction comes not upon himself only, but upon the whole multitude of his subjects; and this not by any mere act of divine might, but "with his own staves," turning upon him the destruction which he prepared for others. So it often was of old. When the Midianites and Amalekites and the children of the east Judges 6:3-4 wasted Israel in the days of Gideon "the Lord set every man's sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host" Judges 7:22 ; and when God delivered the Philistines into the hand of Jonathan 1 Samuel 14:12 , 1 Samuel 14:16 , 1 Samuel 14:20 so it was with "Ammon Moab and the inhabitants of Mount Seir," at the prayer of Jehoshaphat and his army 2 Chronicles 20:22-23 . And so it shall be, God says, at the end, of the army of God; "every man's sword shall be against his brother," Ezekiel 38:21 . and Isaiah says, Isaiah 9:20 , "every man shall eat the flesh of his own arm," and Zechariah Zechariah 14:13, "a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them; and they shall lay every man hold on the hand of his neighbor, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor." So Pharaoh drove Israel to the shore of the sea, in which he himself perished; Daniel's accusers perished in the den of lions, from which Daniel was delivered unharmed; Daniel 6:24. and so Haman was hanged on the gallows which he prepared for Mordecai Esther 7:10.

So it became a saying of Psalmists (Psalm 7:5, add Psalm 9:15; Psalm 10:2; Psalm 35:8; Psalm 57:6; Psalm 94:23; Psalm 141:10; Proverbs 5:22; Proverbs 26:27; Ecclesiastes 10:8.) "He made a pit and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made; his mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate:" and this from above, sent down by God. The pagan too observed that there was "no juster law than that artificers of death by their own art should perish." This too befell him, when he seemed to have all but gained his end. "They came (out) as a whirlwind to scatter me," with whirlwind force, to drive them asunder to all the quarters of the heavens, as the wind scatters the particles of Job 37:11. cloud, or (Jeremiah 13:24, add Jeremiah 18:17; Isaiah 41:16, Delitzsch) "as the stubble which passeth away by the wind of the wilderness." Pharaoh at the Red Sea or Sennacherib, sweep all before them. Pharaoh said Exodus 15:9. "I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them." Their rejoicing - It is no longer one enemy. The malice of the members was concentrated in the head; the hatred concentrated in him was diffused in them. The readiness of instruments of evil to fulfill evil is an incentive to those who conceive it; those who seem to ride the wave are but carried on upon the crest of the surge which they first roused.