Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Habakkuk 3:15
Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, [through] the heap of great waters.
15. Thou didst walk through the sea ] Thou hast gone through the sea (Isa 11:15). The verse refers to the passage of the Red Sea; and the thought remains unexpressed, though it is understood, that with this was completed the destruction of the enemy and the deliverance of the people. The strophe reads as a whole:
12. In indignation thou marchest through the earth,
Thou dost thresh the nations in anger.
13. Thou art come forth for the salvation of thy people,
For the salvation of thine anointed.
Thou hast shattered the head from the house of the wicked,
Laying bare the foundation unto the neck.
14. Thou hast pierced through with thy spears the head of his warriors,
Which were come out as a whirlwind to scatter me,
Exulting as about to devour the afflicted in secret places.
15. Thou hast gone through the sea with thy horses,
The heap of great waters.
16. Hab 3:16 returns to Hab 3:2, taking up the words “I heard the report of thee” and “I feared.”
When I heard ] I heard (or, have heard) and my belly, i.e. heart or inward parts.
My lips quivered at the voice ] i.e. the report or voice which he heard.
Rottenness entered ] Or, entered. “Rottenness” is a figure for utter failure of strength.
I trembled in myself ] I tremble in my place, or, where I stand. 2Sa 2:23.
That I might rest in the day of trouble ] The words on to the end of the verse are very obscure. The first half of the verse describes the terror and paralysis that came upon the poet (or community) from what he “heard”; there appears no connexion between this idea and A.V. that I might rest. R.V. renders that I should rest, which appears to mean, that I must rest or remain quiet in the day of trouble, i.e. probably, endure patiently the day of trouble. R.V. marg. suggests: that I should rest waiting for the day of trouble, i.e. wait patiently for (or unto) the day of trouble. The term rest has nowhere else such a sense.
When he cometh up unto the people ] The words might possibly mean: the day of trouble, which is to come up against the people, to invade them (like a troop). The “people” might be the speaker’s own people, for the day of trouble is universal; or possibly it might mean the people of the earth universally (Psa 22:6; Isa 40:7; Isa 42:5). The day of trouble is a day resembling that of which the speaker has “heard” ( Hab 3:3-15), the report of which makes his lips tremble, and such a day can hardly be a time of calamity to come on Israel from any invader, it must rather be the day of general judgment and of the divine Theophany prayed for in ch. Hab 3:2. For this reason the other marginal suggestion of R.V. is not probable: the day of trouble, when he that shall invade them cometh up against the people. The hard ellipses which this rendering assumes in the Heb. text are also against it. Owing to the ambiguity of the pronouns in Heb. another rendering still is possible: the day of trouble, which is to come up against the people that invades (assails) us. So Wellh. Certainty as to the exact meaning is not attainable. The “day of distress,” however, is the Theophany of the judge, in conformity with the whole scope of the poem. Zep 1:15 also calls the day of the Lord “a day of distress.” This manifestation of the great God is terrible even to Israel, notwithstanding that the issue of it will be the deliverance of the people of God and the destruction of their adversaries. The “day” is personified and spoken of as coming on mankind (“the people”) like an invader.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou didst walk through the sea with Thine horses – God Himself is pictured as leading them on the way, Himself at the head of their multitude, having, as Asaph said of old His path in the sea. So Isaiah Isa 63:13. who leddest them in the depths; and Zechariah Zec 10:11. And he shall pass through the sea. God was literally there; for Act 17:28. in Him we live and move and have our being. He who is wholly everywhere but the whole of Him nowhere manifested His Presence there. Such anthropomorphisms have a truth, which peoples favorite abstractions have not.
Through the heap – o of great waters as of old Exo 15:8; Psa 78:13. the waters stood us a heap, and He made the waters to stand a a heap. The very hindrances to deliverance are in Gods hands a way for His ends. The waves of the Red Sea rose in heaps, yet this was but a readier way for the salvation of His people and the destruction of their enemies. Dion.: God prepareth ever a way for His elect in this present evil world, and leadeth them along the narrow way which leadeth unto life.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. Thou didst walk through the sea] There was no occasion to hurry across; all was safe, for God had divided the waters: and his terrible cloud had removed from before, and stood behind them, so that it was between them and the Egyptians. See Ex 14:19-20.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Thou, O God, or thou, O Israel, notwithstanding all plots and opposition,
didst walk; heldest on thy way, and walkedst from thy entering on the east of the land to the west thereof; from Beth-el, Jordan, and Jericho on the east, where they entered the land that lay within Jordan.
Through, rather to, (as Junius, Tremellius, and Grotius,)
the sea, the most western parts Of all the land God gave; they took possession from east to west, to the great sea, the western sea, the mightiest sea the Jews of that time knew, called here by way of eminency
the heap of great waters; called
the great sea, Eze 47:10,15,19,20, as Jos 9:1. So was fulfilled what was promised, and they took possession of that was estated on them, Jos 1:3,4. I rather refer this 15th verse in this manner, than, with most interpreters, to the Red Sea, which is to me a repetition unseemly for so short and elegant an enumeration of Gods wonderful deliverances and blessings to Israel, from their leaving Egypt to their settling in Canaan.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. Thou didst walk through the seawith thine horses (Hab 3:8).No obstacle could prevent Thy progress when leading Thy people insafety to their inheritance, whether the Red Sea, Jordan, or thefigurative waves of foes raging against Israel (Psa 65:7;Psa 77:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses,…. And as thou didst of old, so do again; as Jehovah walked through the Red sea in a pillar of cloud and fire, which were his horses and chariots, and destroyed the Egyptians; so may he walk through another sea by his instruments, and destroy the enemies of his church and people; [See comments on Hab 3:8]. The “sea” here signifies the world, compared to it for the multitude of its people; the noise, fluctuation, and uncertainty of all things in it; and particularly the Roman empire, the sea out of which the antichristian beast arose, Re 13:1. The “horses” are the angels or Christian princes, with whom the Lord will walk in majesty, and in the greatness of his strength, pouring out the vials of his wrath on the antichristian states:
through the heap of many waters; or “the clay”, or “mud of many waters” w; that lies at the bottom of them; which being walked through and trampled on by horses, is raised up, and “troubles” them, as the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it: these “many waters” are those on which the whore of Rome is said to sit; and which are interpreted of people, multitudes, nations, and tongues,
Re 17:1 and the “mud” of them is expressive of their pollution and corruption, with her false doctrines, idolatry, superstition, and immoralities; and of their disturbed state and condition, through the judgments of God upon them, signified by his horses walking through them; trampling upon them in fury; treating them with the utmost contempt; treading them like mire and clay, and bringing upon them utter ruin and destruction.
w “in luto aquarum multarum”, Tigurine version; “calcasti lutum aquarum multarum”, Cocceius, Van Till; “lutum, aquae multae”, Burkius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Some read, “Thou hast trodden thy horses in the sea;” but it is a solecism, that is quite evident. Others, “Thou hast trodden in the sea by thy horses.” But what need is there of seeking such strained explanations, since the verb דרך, darek, means to go or to march? The Prophet’s meaning is by no means doubtful—that God would make a way for himself in the sea, and on his own horses. How? even when great waters were gathered into a mass. The Prophet again refers to the history of the passage through the Red Sea; for it was a work of God, as it has been said, worthy of being remembered above all other works: it is therefore no wonder that the Prophet dwells so much in setting forth this great miracle. Thou then didst make a way for thy horses —where? in the sea; which was contrary to nature. And then he adds, The heap of waters: for the waters had been gathered together, and a firm and thick mass appeared, which was not according to nature; for we know that water is a fluid, and that hardly a drop of water can stand without flowing. (65) How then was it that he stopped the course of Jordan, and that the Red Sea was divided? These were evidences of God’s incomprehensible power, and rightly ought these to have added courage to the faithful, knowing, as they ought to have done, that nothing could have opposed their salvation, which God was not able easily to remove, whenever it pleased him. It follows—
(65) The word is [ חמר ], which many have rendered acervus —heap; but there is no clear instance in which it has such a meaning. It is without a preposition, and the Septuagint render it by a participle, ταρασσοντας, which agrees with “horses.” It is singular in Hebrew, and, if a participle, it agrees with the nominative case to the preceding verb, [ דרכת ], “thou didst guide” or direct. The two lines might then be rendered thus,—
Thou didst guide through the sea thy horses, Disturbing mighty waters.
Both Marckius and Henderson think that the passage through the Red Sea is not what is meant; but the subjugation of the Canaanites, conveyed in a language derived from that event.— Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Thou didst walk.Better, Thou walkest. Heap is probably the correct translation of chmer here, as in Exo. 8:10. With this glance at the miraculous passage of the Red Sea (see Hab. 3:8) this prophetic poem comes to a sudden termination. The new paragraph begins with Hab. 3:16, not, as is indicated in the Authorised Version, with Hab. 3:17.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Hab 3:15 closes the description of the mighty works of Jehovah in the past.
Thine horses See on Hab 3:8.
Sea the heap of great waters Here, as throughout the entire poem, the reference seems to be to the events connected with the Exodus from Egypt; in this verse to the crossing of the Red Sea. Jehovah, the mighty conqueror, delivered his people in that greatest crisis in their history (Exo 14:15; compare Isa 11:15-16); well may the singer trust that he will not fail them in the present calamity.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Hab 3:15. Thou didst walk through the sea See the note on Hab 3:8-9 where an exposition of this verse is given: but Green understands it very differently, thus,
Thou marchedst with thine horses to the western sea, To the heap of great waters.
iam, says he, is frequently put by way of eminence, for the Western, or Mediterranean Sea. Now, as the Israelites entered the land of promise on the east, it is more probably the meaning of the prophet that Jehovah marched before them to give them possession of the whole land, even to the west, than that, after so many incidents mentioned by him since their passage through the Red Sea, he should return to speak of that again: but let every one judge for himself.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Hab 3:15 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, [through] the heap of great waters.
Ver. 15. Thou didst walk through the sea, &c. ] q.d. Shall they thus prevail by iniquity? and did they carry the ball upon the foot till they had gotten the goal? Hath ever any waxed fierce against God, and prospered? Job 9:4 . I think not. Thou that of old didst walk through the Red Sea, didst tread it, or foot it, and that most swiftly, as if thou hadst had thy change of horses.
Through the heap of great waters
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
heap = foaming.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
walk: Hab 3:8, Psa 77:19
heap: or, mud
Reciprocal: Jos 3:13 – stand upon Psa 33:7 – heap Psa 77:16 – General Psa 78:13 – made Psa 114:3 – sea Isa 63:13 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hab 3:15. This event is recorded in Exodus 14.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Yahweh had trodden down the Red Sea as though He rode through it on cosmic horses causing it to surge away and leave a dry road for His people to tread out of Egypt (cf. Hab 3:8). This section closes with the motif with which it opened (Hab 3:8), namely, the crossing of the Red Sea.