Habakuk 3:8

3:8 Is the Lord mad at the rivers?

Are you angry with the rivers?

Are you enraged at the sea? ¹ 

Is this why ²  you climb into your horse-drawn chariots, ³ 

your victorious chariots? ⁴ 

Habakuk 3:13

3:13 You march out to deliver your people,

to deliver your special servant. ⁵ 

You strike the leader of the wicked nation, ⁶ 

laying him open from the lower body to the neck. ⁷  Selah.

[3:8]  ¹ sn The following context suggests these questions should be answered, “Yes.” The rivers and the sea, symbolizing here the hostile nations (v. 12), are objects of the Lord’s anger (vv. 10, 15).

[3:8]  ² tn Heb “so that.” Here כִּי (ki) is resultative. See the note on the phrase “make it” in 2:18.

[3:8]  ³ tn Heb “you mount your horses.” As the next line makes clear, the Lord is pictured here as a charioteer, not a cavalryman. Note NRSV here, “when you drove your horses, // your chariots to victory.”

[3:8]  ⁴ tn Or “chariots of deliverance.”

[3:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “anointed one.” In light of the parallelism with “your people” in the preceding line this could refer to Israel, but elsewhere the Lord’s anointed one is always an individual. The Davidic king is the more likely referent here.

[3:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “you strike the head from the house of wickedness.”

[3:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “laying bare [from] foundation to neck.”