Fathers

Habakkuk 3

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A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, set to victorious music. Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh. Renew your work in the middle of the years. In the middle of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy. God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth. His splendor is like the sunrise. Rays shine from his hand, where his power is hidden. Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet. 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. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The dwellings of the land of Midian trembled. Was Yahweh 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? You uncovered your bow. You called for your sworn arrows. You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in the sky, at the light of your arrows as they went, at the shining of your glittering spear. You marched through the land in wrath. You threshed the nations in anger. You 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. You 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. You trampled the sea with your horses, churning mighty waters. 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. For 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: yet I will rejoice in Yahweh. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! 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.

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What the Fathers say

Habakkuk 3:15

Western Saints

Ambrose of Milan

For a soul that is at peace quickly turns and corrects itself, even if it has sinned before, and Christ ascends to it more fully and deigns to rule it, to which it is said: "Mount your horses, your chariot of health." And elsewhere: "I have sent forth your horses to Tharsis." Behold the horses of Christ. Thus, Christ ascends his horses, the Word of God ascends to holy souls.

On Isaac and the Soul 8.66 ↗

Jerome

70: And you led your horses into the sea, disturbing the many waters. After God sent death upon the heads of the unjust, and the heads of the mighty were brought down in astonishment, and you broke them in the sea (for it is written in the Psalms: You have broken the heads of the dragons (Psalm 73:4)), with the princes slain, or broken, and the strong one overcome, they came to his house and all his possessions were plundered (Mark 13). …

Commentary on Habakkuk ↗

Bede

You sent your horses into the sea, stirring up many waters. For the sea, indeed, means the world; the horses of God, the holy preachers; the many waters, the peoples of the nations. When the horses of God were sent into the sea, the many waters were stirred up, because when the heralds of the word were scattered into the world, the hearts of the nations were disturbed, some to believe and receive the sacrament of faith, others to contradict or even persecute the heralds of this faith. …

Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk ↗