9 You uncovered your bow. You called for your sworn arrows. Selah. You split the earth with rivers.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
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 therefore was then furnished with weapons, and marched to the battle, having undertaken the cause of his chosen people, that he might defend them against the wicked. Since it was so, we hence see that these miracles were not to avail only for one period, but were intended perpetually to encourage the faithful to look ever for the aid of God, even in the midst of death; for he can find escapes, though they may not appear to us. We now see the import of the text; but he emphatically adds, The oaths of the tribes; for hereby he more fully confirms that God had not then assisted the children of Abraham, so as to discard them afterwards; but that he had really proved how true he was in his promises; for by the oaths of (or to) the tribes he means the covenant that God had made not only with Abraham, but also with his posterity for ever. He puts oaths in the plural number, because God had not only once promised to be a God to Abraham and to his seed, but had often repeated the same promise, in order that faith might be rendered more certain, inasmuch as we have need of more than one thing to confirm us. For we see how our infirmity always vacillates, unless God supplies us with many props. As, then, God had often confirmed his servant Abraham, the Prophet speaks here of his oaths: but then as to the substance, the oath of God is the same; which was, that he had taken the race of Abraham under his protection, and promised that they should be to him a peculiar people, and, especially, that he had united the people under one head; for except Christ had been introduced, that covenant of God would not have been ratified nor valid. As, then, God had once included every thing when he said to Abraham, "I am God Almighty, and I shall be a God to you and to your children;" it is certain that nothing was added when God afterwards confirmed the faith of Abraham: but yet the Prophet does not without reason use the plural number; it was done, that the faithful might recomb with less fear on God's promise, seeing, that it had been so often and by so many words confirmed. He calls them too the oaths to the tribes: for though God had spoken to Abraham and afterwards to Moses, yet the promise was deposited in the hands of Abraham, and of the patriarchs, and afterwards in those of Moses, that the people might understand that it belonged equally to them; for it would have been no great matter to promise what we read of to a few men only. But Abraham was as it were the depository; and it was a certain solemn stipulation made with his whole race. We hence see why the Prophet here mentions the tribes rather than Abraham, or the patriarchs or Moses. He had indeed a special regard to those of his own time, in order to confirm them, that they might not doubt but that God would extend to them also the same power. How so? Because God had formerly wrought in a wonderful manner for the deliverance of his people. Why? That he might prove himself to be true and faithful. In what respect? Because he had said, that he would be the protector of his people; and he did not adopt a few men only, but the whole race of Abraham. Since it was so, why should not his posterity hope for that which they knew was promised to their fathers? for the truth of God can never fail. Though many ages had passed away, the faith of his people ought to have remained certain, for God intended to show himself to be the same as he had been formerly known by their fathers. He afterwards adds 'mr, amer, which means a word or speech; but it is to be taken here for a fixed and an irrevocable word. The word, 'mr, amer, he says; that is, as they say, the word and the deed: for when we say, that words are given, we often understand that those who liberally promise are false men, and that we are only trifled with and disappointed when we place confidence in them. But the term, word, is sometimes taken in a good sense. "This is the word," we often say, when we intend to remove every doubt. We now then perceive what the Prophet meant by adding 'mr, amer, the word. "O Lord, thou hast not given mere words to a people; but what has proceeded from thy mouth has been found to be true and valid. Such, therefore, is and faithfulness in thy promises, that we ought not to entertain the least doubt as to the event. As soon as thou givest to us any hope, we ought to feel assured of its accomplishment, as though it were not a word but the exhibition of the thing itself." In short, by this term the Prophet commends the faithfulness of God, lest we should harbour doubts as to his promises. [1] He then says, that by rivers had been cleft the earth. He refers, I doubt not, to the history we read in Numbers 14; for the Lord, when the people were nearly dead through thirst, drew forth water from the rock, and caused a river to flow wherever the people journeyed. As then he had cleft the earth to make a perpetual course for the stream, and thus supplied the people in dry places with abundance of water, the Prophet says here, that the earth had been cleft by rivers or streams. It was indeed but one river; but he amplifies, and justly so, that remarkable work of God. He afterwards adds--
1 - This clause has been variously explained: the interpretation here given has been mostly adopted. In the Barberinean manuscript the whole of this prayer is given in many respects different from the present received text of the Septuagint, and this clause is thus found in it--echortasas bolidas tes pharetras autou. It is evident that this idea falls in more with the preceding clause than any other; and the Hebrew will admit of a sense bordering on this with less alteration than any other that has been offered. No version has been given without supposing something to be understood. Newcome says, that sixteen MSS. read [svvt]; by leaving out the [v], it may be a verb in Kal in the past tense, as rendered above, and writers might have easily put down ['mr] for ['zvr]. Then the line in Hebrew would be, [svt mtvt 'zvr] "Thou hast filled with arrows the girdle." It is a description of one equipped for battle; his bow was made ready, and he had filled his girdle, that is, his military guide, with arrows; for this girdle the preceding Greek version introduced the quiver, in which arrows were commonly carried. The word [mtvt], means rods or staves, that is, of arrows, as we may take it here. This is the most satisfactory solution of the difficulties connected with this line, of which there have been, as Henderson says, more than a hundred interpretations. The last clause of the verse is thus rendered by Newcome,-- Thou didst cleave the streams of the land; and by Henderson,-- Thou didst cleave the earth into rivers. The words will not admit the first version; the genitive case in Hebrew is always by juxtaposition; here "streams" and "earth" are separated by the verb. The other version contains hardly a meaning. The most literal rendering is that given by Calvin, and it affords the best sense. The words will admit of the following, which is materially the same,-- By streams didst thou cleavest the earth. The allusion evidently to the streams of that water which miraculously issued from the smitten rock, and followed the Israelites in the wilderness.--Ed.
Thy bow was made quite naked - The word is repeated for emphasis. Literally, (In) "nakedness, it was laid naked;" the sheath being laid aside and cast away, as Isaiah says, Isaiah 22:6. "Kir laid bare the shield." Gregory, Mor. xix. 9. n. 54, Compare Augustine in Ps. 59, n. 6.: The bow represents the threat of the vengeance of Almighty God, from which it is at length discharged, if not turned aside; the longer the string is drawn, the sharper issueth the arrow. So then the more the coming of the day of judgment is delayed, the stricter is the severity of the judgment then issuing. So long as judgment is delayed, the bow seems laid up in its sheath. God's judgments mostly strike suddenly. Psalm 64:7, "as with a swift arrow," because men regard them not, coming from a bow at a distance which they see not. His more signal judgments He makes bare in sight of all.
According to the oath of (to) the tribes - "the oath which He swore unto our father Abraham," which oath He often renewed to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and again to David This oath, the word and promise of God, was the pledge of the deliverance of His people, that they "should be saved from their enemies, and from the hand of all that hate them." It lay, as it were, covered and hid, so long as God completed it not. Selah. A pause followeth, wherein to meditate on all which is contained in the word or promise of God, which is all time and eternity.
Thou didst cleave the earth with (into) rivers - Sea and river had become dry land for the passing through of God's people; again, the rock, struck by Moses' rod, was split, so that "rivers ran in the dry places." Until that Rock, which was Christ, was stricken, and "out of His side came blood and water" John 19:24, the whole world was desert and barren; then it was turned into streams of water, and "now not four but twelve streams went forth from the Paradise of Scriptures" (Jerome) For from the One Fountain which is Christ, there issue many streams, even as many as convey the waters of His teaching, to water the earth.
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, frequently repeated and renewed, which he made with the tribes, to give them the land of the Canaanites for their inheritance.
Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers - Or, "Thou didst cleave the streams of the land." Or, "Thou cleavedst the dry land into rivers." This may be a reference to the passage of Jordan, and transactions at Arnon and the brook Jabbok. See Numbers 21:13-15.
In this verse we have Selah again, which, as before, may signify a pause, or some alteration in the music.
Thy (k) bow was made quite naked, [according] to the (l) oaths of the tribes, [even thy] word. Selah. Thou (m) didst cleave the earth with rivers.
(k) That is, your power.
(l) For he had not only made a covenant with Abraham, but renewed it with his posterity.
(m) Read (Numbers 20:11).
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; and which being worthy of notice, and to be remarked, the word "Selah" is added. So the Targum,
"in revealing thou art revealed in thy power, because of thy covenant which thy word made with the tribes for ever.''
The "bow" here is an emblem of the Gospel, with which Christ the Captain of our salvation, the antitype of Joshua, went forth, more especially in the first ages of Christianity, conquering and to conquer, Revelation 6:2. The arrows of this bow are the doctrines of the Gospel, which are sharp in the heart of Christ's enemies, his elect; who are so in a state of nature, whereby they are brought into subjection to him, Psalm 45:5 and hereby the promises of God confirmed by his oaths are accomplished, that the spiritual seed of Christ shall endure for ever; or he shall never want a seed to serve him, Psalm 89:35,
Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers; which is generally supposed to allude to the smiting of the rock, from whence waters gushed out, and ran in dry places like a river; for which channels or canals were made in the earth, in which they flowed and followed the Israelites wherever they went, and supplied man and beast with water. So the Targum,
"for thou didst break strong rocks, rivers came forth overflowing the earth;''
see Psalm 105:41 but this seems to be going back in the history; rather therefore this refers to the rivers formed in the land of Canaan, whereby it became fertile; hence it is called a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths, that spring out of valleys and hills, Deuteronomy 8:7. This may respect, in futurity, either the provisions of grace, and the large abundance of the blessings of it, made for the supply and satisfaction of the children of God in times of distress and difficulty, Isaiah 41:17 or that help and assistance against, protection and deliverance from, the flood of persecution, cast out after the church by Satan, in order to overwhelm her, by the earth opening its mouth, and swallowing up the flood, Revelation 12:15.
bow . . . made . . . naked--that is, was drawn forth from its cover, in which bows usually were cased when not in use. Compare Isaiah 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 (Psalm 77:8; Luke 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 glutted with blood, the triumphal song!" that is, no sooner did Jehovah begin the battle by baring His bow, than the spears were glutted with blood and the triumphal song sung.
Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers--the result of the earthquake caused by God's approach [MAURER]. GROTIUS refers it to the bringing forth water from the rock (Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:10-11; Psalm 78:15-16; Psalm 105:4). But the context implies not the giving of water to His people to drink, but the fearful physical phenomena attending Jehovah's attack on Israel's foes.
God has already made bare the bow, to shoot His arrows at the foe. תּעור, third pers. imperf. niph. of עוּר, equivalent to ערר (Isaiah 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. Micah 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 Isaiah 19:1 and Psalm 104:3, since the rainbow is a sign of peace and of the covenant, whereas God is represented as attacking His enemies. The next clause, שׁבעות מטּות אמר, is very obscure, and has not yet been satisfactorily explained. Of the two meanings which may be given to mattōth, viz., branches, rods, or staffs, and tribes of the people of Israel, the latter can hardly be thought of here, since mattōth would certainly have been defined by either a suffix or some determining clause, if the tribes of Israel were intended. On the other hand, the meaning staffs or sticks is very naturally suggested both by the context - viz. the allusion to the war-bow - and also by Habakkuk 3:14, where mattı̄m unquestionably signifies staves or lances. At the same time, the meaning spears or darts cannot be deduced from either Habakkuk 3:14 or 2-Samuel 18:14. In both passages the meaning staves, used as lances or weapons, is quite sufficient. Matteh, a stick or staff with which blows were struck, might stand, as an instrument of chastisement, for the punishment or chastisement itself (cf. Isaiah 9:3; Isaiah 10:5), and in Micah 6:9 it denotes the rod. שׁבעות may be either the plural construct of שׁבוּע, the seventh, the heptad, or the plural of שׁבוּעה, an oath, or the passive participle of שׁבע, to be sworn, like שׁבעי שׁבעות in Ezekiel 21:23. There is no material difference in the meaning obtained from the last two; and the view we take of the word אמר must decide between them and the first explanation. This word, which is peculiar to poetry, denotes a discourse or a word, and in Job 22:28 the affair, or the occasion, like דּבר. Here, at any rate, it signifies the address or word of God, as in Psalm 68:12; Psalm 77:9, and is either a genitive dependent upon mattōth or an adverbial accusative. The Masoretic pointing, according to which mattōth is separated from 'ōmer by tiphchah, and the latter joined to selâh by munach, is connected with the evidently false rabbinical rendering of selah as eternity (in sempiternum), and being decidedly erroneous, cannot be taken into consideration at all. But the interpretation of שׁבעות as the seventh, does not suit either of these two possible views of 'ōmer. We therefore prefer the second meaning, chastising rods or chastisements. אמר, however, cannot be a genitive dependent upon mattōth; since chastisements of speech would hardly stand for chastisements which God had spoken, but, according to the analogy of שׁבט פּיו in Isaiah 11:4, would point to chastisements consisting in words, and this does not agree with the present train of thought. 'Omer is rather an adverbial accusative, and belongs to שׁבעות, indicating the instrument or media employed in the swearing: sworn with the word or through the word, like חרבּך in Psalm 17:13 (for the use of the accusative to describe the substance or the instrumental medium of an action, see Ewald, 282, c).
Hence שׁבעות cannot be a noun, but must be a passive participle, sworn. The expression, "chastising rods (chastisements) are sworn through the word," points to the solemn oath with which God promised in Deuteronomy 32:40-42 to take vengeance upon His enemies, and avenge the blood of His servants: "For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, As I live for ever, when I have sharpened my glittering sword, and my hand grasps for judgment, I will render vengeance to mine adversaries, and repay them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword will eat flesh; from the blood of the slain and the captives, from the hairy head of the enemy." That Habakkuk had in his mind this promise of the vengeance of God upon His enemies, which is strengthened by a solemn oath, is unmistakeably evident, if we compare בּרק חניתך in Habakkuk 3:11 with בּרק חרבּי in Deuteronomy 32:41, and observe the allusion in ראשׁ מבּית רשׁע and ראשׁ פּרזו in Habakkuk 3:13 and Habakkuk 3:14 to ראשׁ פּרעות אויב in Deuteronomy 32:42. From this promise the words of the prophet, which are so enigmatical in themselves, obtain the requisite light to render them intelligible. Gesenius (Thes. p. 877) has explained the prophet's words in a similar manner, jurejurando firmatae sunt castigationes promissae (the threatened rods, i.e., chastisements, are sworn), even without noticing the allusion to Deuteronomy 32:40. upon which these words are founded. Delitzsch was the first to call attention to the allusion to Deuteronomy 32:40.; but in his explanation, "the darts are sworn through his word of power (jurejurando adstricta sunt tela verbo tuo)," the swearing is taken in a sense which is foreign to Deuteronomy, and therefore conceals the connection with the original passage. Of the other explanations not one can be vindicated. The rabbinical view which we find in the Vulgate, juramenta tribubus quae locutus es, is overthrown by the fact that שׁבעות without a preposition cannot mean per, or ob, or juxta juramenta, as we should have to render it, and as Luther actually has rendered it in his version ("as Thou hadst sworn to the tribes"). Ewald's rendering, "sevenfold darts of the word," is precluded by the combination of ideas, "darts of the word," which is quite foreign to the context. According to our explanation, the passage does indeed form simply a parenthesis in the description of the judicial interposition of God, but it contains a very fitting thought, through which the description gains in emphasis. In the last clause of the verse the description is continued in the manner already begun, and the effect indicated, which is produced upon the world of nature by the judicial interposition of God: "Thou splittest the earth into rivers." בּקּע is construed with a double accusative, as in Zac 14:4. This may be understood either as signifying that the earth trembles at the wrath of the Judge, and rents arise in consequence, through which rivers of water burst forth from the deep, or so that at the quaking of the earth the sea pours its waves over the land and splits it into rivers. The following verses point to an earthquake through which the form of the earth's surface is changed.
Thy bow - One part of armour is put for the whole. The Lord is represented as armed, in readiness to smite through all his enemies. According to the oaths - In pursuance of his oath made to our fathers, and their posterity. Cleave the earth - When they were to march through a dry and thirsty land.
*More commentary available at chapter level.