You went forth for the salvation of your people, even for salvation with your anointed; you wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah.
Continuing: the title is Habakkuk 3:13 and is preceded by telling of the LORD marching through the land in indignation, and threshing the heathen in His anger.
Habakkuk 3
1 A prayer of Habakkuk [taken by [God’s] hand] the prophet upon Shigionoth [those who have strayed into error].
2 O LORD, I have heard your speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive [quicken – bring to life] your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known [give us understanding – knowledge]; in wrath remember mercy [and it is so, My wrath is understanding, and those who forsake it reject mercy].
3 God came from Teman [the right hand (power) from looking toward the sun rise (for light)], and the Holy One from mount Paran [the cloud, where understanding of the knowledge is given by the light seen in it – see Numbers 10:11 thru 14 & Job 37:21 & 38:34 thru 38]. Selah [think about it]. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
4 And his brightness was as the light; he had horns [rays of light] coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.
5 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.
6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow [all the place that have raised themselves up from the earth]: his ways are everlasting.
7 I saw the tents of Cushan [the houses of darkness] in affliction: and the curtains [separation] of the land of Midian [strife] did tremble [agitation as the product].
8 Was the LORD displeased against the rivers [the means by which the waters of death flowed]? was your anger against the rivers? was your wrath against the sea [the people who became agitated by what flowed into them], that you did ride upon your horses [God’s people become His goodly horse in he battle – see Zechariah 10:3 for who the anger is against] and your chariots of salvation [the product of the LORD’s power raised in His people]?
9 Your bow was made quite naked [see Isaiah 52:10], according to the oaths of the tribes [see Genesis 49:8 thru 12, & 22 thru 26], even your word. Selah [see the prior post and think about it]. You did cleave the earth with rivers [this rightly divided pure word of God, flowing directly from Him].
10 The mountains [the high places of men – see Ephesians 6:12] saw you, and they trembled: the [these] overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands [the light coming from His hand, where is His power] on high.
11 The sun and moon [church and civil government] stood still in their habitation: at the light of your arrows they went, and at the shining of your glittering spear [this word coming from the hand of God].
12 You did march through the land in indignation, you did thresh the heathen in anger.
13 You went forth for the salvation of your people, even for salvation with your anointed [I am]; you wounded the head out of the house of the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck. Selah [think about it].
14 You did strike through with his staves the head of his villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly.
15 You did walk through the sea with your horses, through the heap of great waters.
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 comes up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops [the enemy that has come and why there is no life or fruit, and why the herd is scattered].
17 Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labor 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:
18 Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
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.
The words rendered “stringed instrument” is the Hebrew word ngiynah, as fourteen times used word meaning a taunting song when used to tell of man’s actions, and of the LORD’s smiting the enemies of His people. It is used nine times in the Psalms, mostly as an epilogue as it is in Habakkuk. It is telling of the LORD striking the enemies as if strings of an instrument, and the strikes together form the song, a tune we recognize.
The word is used one time in Isaiah where it is also translated “stringed instrument” in Isaiah 38:20 as Hezekiah speaks of the LORD’s salvation when He saved him from the Assyrian king and defended the city. This was Hezekiah’s sickness, his name meaning the strength of Jehovah, which was lost when his father Ahaz “walked in the way of the kings of Israel.” The context is Israel had already set up idols (abominations that caused their desolation) and brought in the devil’s priests (2 Chronicles 11:15), and Ahaz king of Judah did the same thing in Jerusalem (2 Kings 16).
In 2 Kings 20 and Isaiah 38 we are told of when the same Assyrians who Ahaz formed a confederacy with came against Jerusalem and Hezekiah. These chapters tell of when the LORD made the shadow of the sun return ten degrees back from where it had gone down. We know the sun represents the church, and its going down by degrees (ma’alah) tells of the steps of going into darkness, which are the ways of the ten kings of Judah that came after Solomon. The first of these created the breach in the family/house and produced the idols of Israel, and the last Ahaz created the idols of Jerusalem and Judah.
As we know from previous discussions, the shadow receding ten degrees is symbolizing the shadow cast by the kings which grew ever longer and larger the closer the sun came to the horizon. The shortening of it is Hezekiah humbling himself (as if kneeling) before the LORD, the source of the light, and causing his shadow to shorten to the place it was ten kings before him (Solomon). 2 Kings 19 tells of this reality and gives the meaning of the going back to where the breach occurred, for David’s sake: the sure mercies the LORD promised.
2 Kings 19
11 Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria [ashshur, a step – his foreign ways and ideas] have done to all lands, by destroying them utterly: and shall you be delivered?
12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them which my fathers have destroyed; as Gozan [to cut off], and Haran [and dry up], and Rezeph [as if burning stones – coals of fire], and the children of Eden which were in Thelasar [which were the eminent places of Assyria]?
13 Where is the king of Hamath [of the fortress], and the king of Arpad [those spread from there], and the king of the city of Sepharvaim [who multiplied from this number], of Hena [and where troubled], and Ivah [and became a ruin – ashes]?
14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
15 And Hezekiah prayed before the LORD, and said, O LORD God of Israel, which dwell between the cherubims, you are the God, even you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth.
16 LORD, bow down your ear, and hear: open, LORD, your eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which has sent him to reproach the living God.
17 Of a truth, LORD, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands,
18 And have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them.
19 Now therefore, O LORD our God, I beseech you, save you us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the LORD God, even you only.
20 Then Isaiah [who Jehovah has saved] the son of Amoz [the son of God’s strength] sent to Hezekiah [the one strengthened by Jehovah’s salvation], saying, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, That which you have prayed to me against Sennacherib [sin – the moon, civil government as the other cherubim] king of Assyria [the last step in darkening the sun – ruling now by foreign ways and ideas – but they are not the light nor will they prevail against the true light] I have heard.
21 This is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him; “The virgin the daughter of Zion has despised you, and laughed you to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at you.
22 Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? and against whom have you exalted your voice, and lifted up your eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
23 By your messengers you have reproached the LORD, and have said, With the multitude of my chariots I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, and will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof, and the choice fir trees thereof: and I will enter into the lodgings of his borders, and into the forest of his Carmel.
24 I have digged and drunk strange waters, and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places.
25 Have you not heard long ago how I have done it, and of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that you should be to lay waste fenced cities into ruinous heaps.
26 Therefore their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded; they were as the grass of the field, and as the green herb, as the grass on the house tops, and as corn blasted before it be grown up.
27 But I know your abode, and your going out, and your coming in, and your rage against me.
28 Because your rage against me and your tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.”
29 And this shall be a sign unto you, You shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves, and in the second year that which springs of the same; and in the [this time] third year sow you, and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat the fruits thereof.
30 And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.
31 For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of the LORD of hosts shall do this.
32 Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city [God’s heavenly Jerusalem – this place where His word is rightly divided and shows His glory and His strength], nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.
33 By the way that he came, by the same shall he return [go back where he was ten kings before], and shall not come into this city, says the LORD.
34 For I will defend this city, to save it, for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake.
35 And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.
36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh.
37 And it came to pass, as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch [the eagle over the carcass] his god, that Adrammelech [the splendorous king] and Sharezer [the price of the fires – of confusion] his sons smote him with the sword: and they escaped into the land of Armenia [reversing and then suddenly continuing the curse, the falling away from the light – as did Hezekiah]. And Esarhaddon [the steps beginning again] his son reigned in his stead.
Isaiah 38
17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but you have in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for you have cast all my sins behind your back.
18 For the grave cannot praise you, death can not celebrate you: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for your truth.
19 The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known your truth.
20 The LORD was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments [ngiynah – because you have struck down our enemies] all the days of our life in the house of the LORD.
21 For Isaiah had said, Let them take a lump of figs, and lay it for a plaister upon the boil, and he shall recover.
22 Hezekiah also had said, “What is the sign that I shall go up to the house of the LORD?”
In these last words above the writer uses the Hebrew words ma, “what,” and ‘alah, “go up”, as the ma’alah, the step/degree when we will all rise; to ask a question not only when but how; which is answered in the following chapter. It is speaking of when the seat, house, and family of David would be restored from the confusion (Babylon) it was then about to enter.
The time of going up, when the sun and the moon, church and state governance will reach stationary positions from which the will never again move, is what is written of in Habakkuk 3:11 above. This is when the LORD comes for the salvation of people and his anointed, and with indignation and anger toward their enemies.
Isaiah 39
1 At that time Merodachbaladan [the sons of those who rebelled against God], the son of Baladan [the who are worshipping idols and calling them God], king of Babylon [causing confusion to rule the world], sent letters and a present to Hezekiah [the strength of God given as salvation]: for he had heard that he had been sick, and was recovered.
2 And Hezekiah was glad of them, and shewed them the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious ointment, and all the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah shewed them not.
3 Then came Isaiah the prophet unto king Hezekiah, and said unto him, What said these men? and from whence came they unto you? And Hezekiah said, They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon.
4 Then said he, What have they seen in your house? And Hezekiah answered, All that is in mine house have they seen: there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shewed them.
5 Then said Isaiah to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD of hosts:
6 Behold, the days come, that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon: nothing shall be left, says the LORD [when the abominations (idols in God’s place) have caused total desolation].
7 And of your sons that shall issue from you, which you shall beget, shall they take away; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.
8 Then said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the LORD which you have spoken. He said moreover, For there shall be peace and truth in my days.
All these have been taken from (given up by the leaders of) God’s people. This why the LORD sends a soldier, who is also their comforter.
Isaiah 40
1 Comfort you, comfort you my people, says your God.
2 Speak you comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she has received of the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
3 The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare you the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4 Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:
5 And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD has spoken it.
6 The voice said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field:
7 The grass wither, the flower fades: because the spirit of the LORD blows upon it: surely the people is grass.
8 The grass withers, the flower fades: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
9 O Zion, that brings good tidings, get you up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that brings good tidings, lift up your voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
10 Behold, the LORD God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.
11 He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counsellor has taught him?
14 With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
15 Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.
16 And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering.
17 All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity.
18 To whom then will you liken God? or what likeness will you compare unto him?
19 The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains.
20 He that is so impoverished that he has no oblation chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image, that shall not be moved.
21 Have you not known? have you not heard? has it not been told you from the beginning? have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22 It is he that sits upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in:
23 That brings the princes to nothing; he makes the judges of the earth as vanity.
24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.
25 To whom then will you liken me, or shall I be equal? says the Holy One.
26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who has created these things, that brings out their host by number: he calls them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one fails.
27 Why say you, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, My way is hid from the LORD, and my judgment is passed over from my God?
28 Have you not known? have you not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, faints not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.
29 He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength.
30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 54
11 O you afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles, and all your borders of pleasant stones.
13 And all your children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of your children.
14 In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from oppression; for you shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near you.
15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by me: whosoever shall gather together against you shall fall for your sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire, and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
17 No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, says the LORD.
Isaiah 55
1 Ho, every one that thirsts, come you to the waters, and he that has no money; come you, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
2 Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread? and your labor for that which satisfies not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat you that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you know not, and nations that knew not you shall run unto you because of the LORD your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.
6 Seek you the LORD while he may be found, call you upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and returns not thither, but waters the earth, and makes it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11 So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
Isaiah 56
1 Thus says the LORD, Keep you judgment, and do justice: for my salvation is near to come, and my righteousness to be revealed.
2 Blessed is the man that does this, and the son of man that lays hold on it; that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
3 Neither let the son of the stranger, that has joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD has utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
4 For thus says the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
5 Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
6 Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my covenant;
7 Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine altar; for mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people.
8 The LORD God, which gathers the outcasts of Israel says, Yet will I gather others to him, beside those that are gathered unto him.
9 All you beasts of the field, come to devour, yea, all you beasts in the forest.
10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
12 Come you, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.
Psalms 3
1 LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.
2 Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.
3 But you, O LORD, are a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.
4 I cried unto the LORD with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah.
5 I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, that have set themselves against me round about.
7 Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for you have smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; you have broken the teeth of the ungodly.
8 Salvation belongs unto the LORD: your blessing is upon your people. Selah.
To the chief musician, on ngiynah, (when He has struck down the enemies as if a stringed instrument.)
