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Habakkuk 3

Habakkuk’s prayer moves from awe at God’s saving might through fear of invasion to joy amid the prospect of loss.

Habakkuk addresses YHWH in a prayer framed for music, asking him to renew his work and remember mercy amid wrath. The prophet describes God coming in splendor, shaking mountains and marching through the land to save his people. Habakkuk trembles as he waits for invasion and trouble. His closing words imagine failed crops and empty stalls, then declare joy in the God of his salvation and strength drawn from the Lord.

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1A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, set to victorious music.
2LORD, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy.
3God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth.
4His splendor is like the sunrise. Rays shine from his hand, where his power is hidden.
5Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet.
6He 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.
7I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The dwellings of the land of Midian trembled.
8Was the LORD displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers, or your wrath against the sea, that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation?
9You uncovered your bow. You called for your sworn arrows. Selah. You split the earth with rivers.
10The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.
11The sun and moon stood still in the sky at the light of your arrows as they went, at the shining of your glittering spear.
12You marched through the land in wrath. You threshed the nations in anger.
13You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the land of wickedness. You stripped them head to foot. Selah.
14You pierced the heads of his warriors with their own spears. They came as a whirlwind to scatter me, gloating as if to devour the wretched in secret.
15You trampled the sea with your horses, churning mighty waters.
16I heard, and my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble, for the coming up of the people who invade us.
17For even though the fig tree doesn’t flourish, nor fruit be in the vines, the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food, the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls,
18yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!
19GOD, the Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like deer’s feet, and enables me to go in high places. For the music director, on my stringed instruments.
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Habakkuk 3:3God’s coming from Teman and Paran opens the vision of his glory filling heaven and earth.
Habakkuk 3:16Habakkuk’s bodily trembling shows the terror of awaiting invasion, even after recounting God’s acts of salvation.
Habakkuk 3:17The failure of crops and livestock names the threatened loss of food and livelihood before Habakkuk declares his joy.
Where this chapter reaches

The plague and sea imagery recalls the deliverance events in Exodus, while the sun and moon standing still echo Joshua’s account of battle. Psalm and 2 Samuel share the image of God giving strength and feet like a deer’s for the heights.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

Which image of God’s saving power most shapes how you read Habakkuk’s trembling in verse 16?

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What would the losses named in verse 17 threaten in your own life?

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Questions people ask about Habakkuk 3

What does Habakkuk 3:17 mean?

Habakkuk imagines the collapse of the land’s food supply: fruit trees and vines fail, fields produce nothing, and livestock disappear. These losses threaten survival and livelihood. Verse 18 completes the thought with his resolve to rejoice in God. The passage leaves the losses in view as he declares his trust.

What does it mean that God came from Teman in Habakkuk 3:3?

Teman is associated with Edom, and Mount Paran belongs to the southern wilderness region. Habakkuk pictures God appearing from that direction in overwhelming glory. The scene recalls God’s past dealings with Israel, though the poem does not identify one precise event or explain every feature of its geography.

How can Habakkuk rejoice while he is afraid?

The prayer holds both responses together. Verse 16 describes physical trembling as Habakkuk waits for invasion; verses 17–19 declare joy in God even if food and livestock vanish. His confidence rests in God as his salvation and strength. The text records no promise that the threatened hardship will disappear.

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Habakkuk · 3 chapters
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What the Bible says about fear →What the Bible says about money →What the Bible says about worship →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).