An Overwhelming Flood of Judgment
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder (tamah) marvelously:
for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. For, lo,
I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter (mar) and hasty (mahar) nation, which
shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves (mimmennu).
Their horses also are swifter than the leopards (minnemarim), and are more fierce
than the evening wolves (mizevei): and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and
their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat.
Habakkuk 1:6ff (Spoke 13, Cycle 2)
 Habakkuk's
opening passage displays many features of the Thirteenth Letter. The word mar is familiar from the Exodus when the
children of Israel "could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter:
therefore the name of it was called Marah" (Exo 15:23). There is an obvious word-play between
it and mahar. We also see the Mem Prefix as the
sign of similarity in the comparison of the Chaldean army with swift leopards and ravenous wolves.
This contains another word-play between the conjugation of mahar (nimhar) and word for a leopard
(nahmer). And most significantly, the self-sufficient pride of the Chaldean army is revealed
in the KeyWord mimmennu (of themselves), which directly contradicts David's humble and holy recognition of
his utter dependence on God from whom he received all blessings,
sustenance, and power (see BW book pg 266).
This opening passage warns of the impending judgment God was about to bring upon the Kingdom
of Judah through the Chaldean (Neo-Babylonian) army. It shows how God used the heathen nations to execute His judgment,
as noted in the New American Commentary (Vol. 20, pg 305):
God's raising the Chaldeans showed that he is sovereign over the whole earth. He is not confined to one nation or one people.
God can work through other peoples to accomplish his purpose. God used the Assyrians as the "rod of his anger"
[Spoke 12, BW book pg 255] to punish recalcitrant Judah at an earlier time.
He chose Cyrus the Mede to deliver the people of Judah from the exile imposed by the Babylonians. In Habakkuk’s day
God would use Babylon to punish Judah for its rebellion against the Lord.
This judgment would come like an overwhelming flood. Imagery based on water appears in every chapter of little Book of Habakkuk:
- Habakkuk 1:14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea ...
- Habakkuk 2:14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
- Habakkuk 3:8 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea?
- Habakkuk 3:9 ... Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
- Habakkuk 3:10 The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water (mayim) passed by: the deep (tahom) uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.
- Habakkuk 3:15 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.
The New American Commentary (Vol. 20, pg 368) notes the obvious relation between verse 3:10 and the first great
judgment of God, the Flood of Noah (Mem KeyWord mabul):
The last two lines are literally, "He gave the deep its voice / high its hands he lifted."
The "deep" is the same word [tahom] used in Gen 1:2: "and darkness was upon the face of the deep." It also alludes to
the flood that overwhelmed the earth in the days of Noah (Gen 7:11; 8:2).
The word often refers to the forces of the sea which obey the Lord (Exo 15:5, 8; Isa 51:10;
Ezek 26:19; 31:15; Pss 33:7; 77:16; 135:6). The "hands" of the deep, that is, "its waves,"
the Lord lifted like weapons against the earth.
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An Overwhelming Flood of Judgement
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