Passages · Habakkuk 3:16-19
Ask Derekh about this passage ↓
"Rejoice" in Habakkuk 3:18 translates the Hebrew alaz (exult), a word for joy that is shown outwardly. The line does not come after things improve. It comes after the prophet's body shakes at what he has heard, while he waits for the invaders (verse 16), and after a list of six losses of crop and herd (verse 17). Nothing in the passage has been fixed. What the verse names is the source of the joy: "in Yahweh," "in the God of my salvation."
עָלַז alaz, Hebrew — translated "rejoice" — to exult; joy that is shown outwardly (Habakkuk 3:18)
3:16 I 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. 3:17 For 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, 3:18 yet I will rejoice in Yahweh. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! 3:19 Yahweh, 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.
3:16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. 3:17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: 3:18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 3:19 The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments.
Habakkuk opens with a complaint: "Yahweh, how long will I cry, and you will not hear?" (1:2). The answer he is given is that Babylon is coming: "I am raising up the Chaldeans" (1:6). The last chapter is "a prayer of Habakkuk" set to music (3:1), and these are its final lines. They are spoken before the invasion, not after it.
"Yet I will rejoice in Yahweh" (3:18) — alaz (exult), paired in the next line with gil (rejoice, be glad). Two verbs for the same thing, both in a form that states a resolve: I will. "Yet" translates a one-letter Hebrew word joined to "I." It sets the speaker against everything in the list before it.
"The fig tree... the vines... the olive" (3:17) — six losses in one sentence: fig, vine, olive, field, flock, herd. Vines, figs and olives are among the produce Deuteronomy names as the mark of the good land (Deuteronomy 8:8), and failing vineyards and olive trees are among the curses of Deuteronomy 28 (28:39-40). The list is a whole livelihood with nothing left in it.
"I must wait quietly for the day of trouble" (3:16) — the verb is nuach (rest, settle). The prophet's body is doing the opposite: trembling, lips quivering, "rottenness" in the bones. He does not report calm. The verse holds fear and waiting together. Some translations take the "day of trouble" as coming on the invaders; either way he is waiting.
"He makes my feet like deer's feet" (3:19) — ayyalah (a doe). Nearly the same line appears in David's song in Psalm 18:33. A deer keeps its footing on steep ground. "High places" is bamot (heights). The picture is of sure steps on dangerous ground, in a book that began with the righteous surrounded (1:4).
"For the music director, on my stringed instruments" (3:19) — the last words are an instruction for performance. The prayer is marked for singing at both ends (3:1, 3:19), so the "I" of verse 18 is one that others could take up.
"Hinds' feet" and "deer's feet" — the King James Version reads "he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places." A hind is a female deer, which is what ayyalah means; newer versions say "deer." And where the King James begins verse 17 "Although the fig tree shall not blossom," the World English Bible has "even though the fig tree doesn't flourish." The Hebrew verb is the ordinary one for budding or blossoming.
Something here catch your eye? Ask Derekh about it below — 3 questions, free, no account needed.
Derekh — Hebrew for “the way” — brings this same depth to every passage in all 66 books, and always stops to ask what you see.
Start your 7-day free trial →$7.99/month (early access) · cancel anytime