Discovery BoxHabakkuk 3:9-11 
Context3:9 Your bow is ready for action; 1
you commission your arrows. 2 Selah.
You cause flash floods on the earth’s surface. 3
3:10 When the mountains see you, they shake.
The torrential downpour sweeps through. 4
The great deep 5 shouts out;
it lifts its hands high. 6
3:11 The sun and moon stand still in their courses; 7
the flash of your arrows drives them away, 8
the bright light of your lightning-quick spear. 9
1 tn Heb “[into] nakedness your bow is laid bare.”
2 tn Heb “sworn in are the arrow-shafts with a word.” The passive participle of שָׁבַע (shava’), “swear an oath,” also occurs in Ezek 21:23 ET (21:28 HT) referencing those who have sworn allegiance. Here the
3 tn Heb “[with] rivers you split open the earth.” A literal rendering like “You split the earth with rivers” (so NIV, NRSV) suggests geological activity to the modern reader, but in the present context of a violent thunderstorm, the idea of streams swollen to torrents by downpours better fits the imagery.
sn As the
4 tn Heb “a heavy rain of waters passes by.” Perhaps the flash floods produced by the downpour are in view here.
5 sn The great deep, which is to be equated with the sea (vv. 8, 15), is a symbol of chaos and represents the Lord’s enemies.
6 sn Lifting the hands here suggests panic and is accompanied by a cry for mercy (see Ps 28:2; Lam 2:19). The forces of chaos cannot withstand the Lord’s power revealed in the storm.
7 tn Heb “in their lofty dwelling places.”
8 tn Or “at the light of your arrows they vanish.”
9 tn Heb “at the brightness of the lightning of your spear.”
