﻿ Habakkuk 3:6 - He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder th...

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Habakkuk 3:6

    Habakkuk 3:6 Translations

    King James Version (KJV)


    American King James Version (AKJV)


    American Standard Version (ASV)


    Basic English Translation (BBE)


    Webster's Revision


    World English Bible

    He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.

    English Revised Version (ERV)


    Definitions for Habakkuk 3:6

    Asunder - Apart from one another.
    Drove - Flock; company.

    Clarke's Commentary on Habakkuk 3:6

    He stood, and measured the earth - ארץ erets, the land; he divided the promised land among the twelve tribes. This is the allusion; and this the prophet had in his eye. God not only made a general assignment of the land to the Hebrews; but he even divided it into such portions as the different families required. Here were both power and condescension. When a conqueror had subdued a country, he divided it among his soldiers. Among the Romans, those among whom the conquered lands were divided were termed beneficiary; and the lands beneficia, as being held on the beneficence of the sovereign.

    He beheld, and drove asunder the nations - The nations of Canaan, the Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites, etc., and all who opposed his people. Even his look dispersed them.

    The everlasting mountains were scattered - Or, broken asunder. This may refer to the convulsions on Mount Sinai; and to the earth quake which announced the descent of the Most High. See Exodus 19:18. "God occupied the summit of the eternal Mount Sinai; and led his people over the eternal mountains of Arabia Petraea; and this sense is preferable to the figurative one, that his ways or doings are predetermined front everlasting." - Newcome.

    The epithets עד ad, and עולם olam, eternal, and everlasting, are applied to mountains and immense rocks, because no other parts of nature are less subject to decay or change, than these immense masses of earth and stone, and that almost indestructible stone, granite, out of which Sinai appears to be formed. A piece of the beautiful granite of this mountain now lies before me. This is a figurative description of the passage of the Israelites through the deserts of Arabia, over mountains, rocks, and through the trackless wilderness; over and through which God, by his power and providence, gave them a safe passage.

    The following beautiful piece from the Fragments of Aeschylus will illustrate the preceding description, and please the learned reader.

    Χωριζε θνητων τον Θεον, και μη δοκει

    Ομοιον αυτῳ σαρκινον καθεσταναι·

    Ουκ οισθα δ' αυτον· ποτε μεν ὡς πυρ φαινεται

    Απλαστον ὁρμῃ ποτε δ' ὑδωρ, ποτε δε γνοφος.

    Και θηρσιν αυτος γινεται παρεμφερης,

    Ανεμῳ, νεφει τε, κᾳστραπῃ, βροντῃ, βροχῃ.

    Ὑπηρετει δ' αυτῳ θαλασσα, και πετραι,

    Και πασα πηγη, χ' ὑδατος συστηματα·

    Τρεμει δ' ορη και γαια και πελωριος


    Barnes' Notes on Habakkuk 3:6


    And measured - So Kimchi, A. E., Rashi, Tanchum, Vulgate. It is borne out by Hithpolel. "extended himself," 1 Kings 17:21. By an interchange of dentals; מוד might be equals מוט, and so the Aramaic and the Septuagint but in no other case do the two forms co-exist in Hebrew.

    The earth - Joshua, after he had conquered the land, meted it out and divided it among the people. He who should come, should measure out the earth in its length and breadth, that earth which His glory filleth. "He stood," as Stephen saw Him, Acts 7:56, "standing at the right hand of God." Isaiah saith, Isaiah 3:13 : "The Lord standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people." He had not need to go forth, but, in the abode of His glory, "He stood" and beheld and with His eye "measured the earth," as His own, whereas, before the cross, it lay under 1 Corinthians 2:5, "the Prince of this world," and he had said, Luke 4:6, "it is delivered unto me, and unto whomsoever I will, I give it." "He measureth it," and gave it to His apostles. Mat 28:18; Mark 16:15 : "all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," and, Psalm 19:4, "their sound is gone out into all lands, and their words into the ends of the world." He measureth it also, surveying and weighing all who dwell therein, their persons, qualities, deeds, good or bad, to requite them, as "Judge of quick and dead;" as David cast down Moab and measured them with a line, 2 Samuel 8:2, "to put to death and to keep alive."






    Wesley's Notes on Habakkuk 3:6

    3:6 He stood - Gave his presence with Joshua, as one that stood by while the work was done. The land - The promised land. He beheld - Looked with a frowning countenance. Drove asunder - Cast them out, his eye did this, for he looked on them, and did this. His ways - The wisdom, goodness, justice, holiness, and power of God, which he shews in governing his people.