Habakkuk 3
Commentary from 14 fathers
I considered thy works, and was amazed: thou shalt be known between the two living creatures, thou shalt be acknowledged when the years draw nigh; thou shalt be manifested when the time is come; when my soul is troubled, thou wilt in wrath remember mercy.
Κύριε, κατενόησα τὰ ἔργα σου καὶ ἐξέστην. ἐν μέσῳ δύο ζῴων γνωσθήσῃ, ἐν τῷ ἐγγίζειν τὰ ἔτη ἐπιγνωσθήσῃ, ἐν τῷ παρεῖναι τὸν καιρὸν ἀναδειχθήσῃ, ἐν τῷ ταραχθῆναι τὴν ψυχήν μου, ἐν ὀργῇ ἐλέους μνησθήσῃ.
гдⷭ҇и, разꙋмѣ́хъ дѣла̀ твоѧ̑ и҆ ᲂу҆жасо́хсѧ: посредѣ̀ двою̀ живѡ́тнꙋ позна́нъ бꙋ́деши: внегда̀ прибли́житисѧ лѣ́тѡмъ, позна́ешисѧ: внегда̀ прїитѝ вре́мени, ꙗ҆ви́шисѧ: внегда̀ смꙋти́тисѧ дꙋшѝ мое́й во гнѣ́вѣ, млⷭ҇ть (твою̀) помѧне́ши.
With him nothing is incomplete or out of due season, just as with the Father there is nothing incongruous. For all these things were foreknown by the Father, but the Son works them out at the proper time in perfect order and sequence. This was the reason why, when Mary was urging on to perform the wonderful miracle of the wine and was desirous before the time to partake of the cup of emblematic significance, the Lord, checking her untimely haste, said, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come”—waiting for that hour which was foreknown by the Father. This is also the reason why, when men were often desirous to take him, “for the hour of his being taken was not yet to come,” nor the time of his passion, which had been foreknown by the Father; as also says the prophet Habakkuk: “By this you shall be known when the years have drawn close; you shall be set forth when the time comes; because my soul is disturbed by anger, you shall remember your mercy.”
Against Heresies 3:16.7
The Father gave to the Son new disciples after Moses and Elijah had been exhibited along with him in the honor of his glory and had then been dismissed as having fully discharged their duty and office.… But we have the entire structure of this same vision in Habakkuk also, where the spirit in the person of some of the apostles says, “O Lord, I have heard your speech and was afraid.” What speech was this, other than the words of the voice from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, hear him”? “I considered your works and was astonished.” When could this have better happened than when Peter, on seeing his glory, knew not what he was saying? “In the midst of the two you shall be known”—even Moses and Elijah.
Against Marcion 4.12
And we think that the expression also which occurs in the hymn of Habakkuk, “In the midst either of the two living things, or of the two lives, you will be known,” ought to be understood of Christ and the Holy Spirit. For all knowledge of the Father is obtained by revelation of the Son through the Holy Spirit, so that both of these beings which, according to the prophet, are called either “living things” or “lives” exist as the grounds of the knowledge of God the Father. For it is said of the Son that “no one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.” The same also is said by the apostle of the Holy Spirit, when he declares, “God has revealed them to us by his Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” And again in the Gospel, when the Savior speaks of the divine and profounder parts of his teaching, which his disciples were not yet able to receive, he thus addresses them: “I cannot bear them now; but when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is come, he will teach you all things, and will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.” We must understand, therefore, that as the Son, who alone knows the Father, reveals him to whom he will, so the Holy Spirit, who alone searches the deep things of God, reveals God to whom he will: “For the Spirit blows where he lists.” We are not, however, to suppose that the Spirit derives his knowledge through revelation from the Son.
On First Principles 1:3.4
When the sacred lesson was read just now, we heard that at the time when the twelve spies were sent to view the land of promise, two of them brought back on a lever to the children of Israel a bunch of grapes of wonderful size. Those two men can be understood in many ways, dearly beloved, for they are not unfittingly believed to have signified both the two Testaments and the two precepts whereby God and the neighbor are loved. They can, likewise, be understood both historically and allegorically. That they were a type of the two Testaments we know definitely from the fact that the grapes are read to have been brought between those two men, just as Christ our Lord is clearly recognized in the middle of the two Testaments. According to what is written, “In the middle of the two animals you will be known,” that is, between the Old and New Testaments. When we read “in the middle,” we are not to understand that Christ was between the New and Old Testaments in such a way that he was contained in neither one. This is not true, beloved brothers, but when it says, “In the middle of the two animals you will be known,” we must realize that he is in the midst of the Old and New Testaments, that is, within in an interior and spiritual sense. This is not according to the letter, … but according to the spirit that vivifies all Christians who have spiritual understanding. Therefore “in the middle of the two animals you will be known” means in the inner sense of the New or Old Testaments.
Sermon 107:1
“For mildness will come upon us, and we shall be corrected. Who knows the power of your anger, or can number your wrath for fear?” He now elaborates on his earlier statement: “the greatest number of them are labor and sorrow.” He says that we must not go beyond the precepts of the law, for Jesus Christ, who is mildness perfected, comes upon us and corrects and improves us if we wantonly ignore his Testaments. Since he used the word corrected, he prefaced it with “mildness,” so that we may realize that all the changes wrought by God in the faithful result from the application of devoted love. Next comes “Who knows the power of your anger or can number your wrath for fear?” Moses, who had experienced the severity of the Lord’s response to his errant people when they roused him with incessant grumbling, rightly exclaims that no one’s reckoning can measure his vengeance and that the potentialities of angry action open to him cannot be numbered. Observe in both instances that his boundless power is proclaimed, for just as the Lord’s rewards cannot be understood in their fullness, likewise the measure of his vengeance cannot be grasped. He did well to add “for fear;” as another prophet remarks: “I have pondered your works and was afraid.”
Exposition of the Psalms 89:11
Lord, I heard Your report and feared. The report of the Lord the Savior is what He heard from the Father, that He would come in the flesh, be born into the world, dwell among the weak as the Almighty, among sinners as the Just, among men as God, perform heavenly works, teach heavenly precepts, promise heavenly gifts, be tempted, scourged, mocked, killed, and by His death destroy our death; rising from the dead, ascend into the heavens, and having sent the Spirit from above, illuminate the world with the grace of truth. Of this report He Himself frequently made mention in the Gospel, saying: "But He that sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of Him" (John 8:26). And again: "But I have called you friends, because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you" (John 15:15). Concerning this, John the Baptist also says: "He that comes from heaven is above all, and what He has seen and heard, that He testifies" (John 3:31). Therefore, the prophet heard this report of the Lord in spirit, and feared because he complained of the oppressions of the righteous in the world, while even the Lord Himself, who makes the prosperous journey for us to salvation and life, met with death's end in the world. He feared because he lamented over the tribulations of the saints, who are not only to be delivered from tribulations by the Lord but also to be crowned eternally with the Lord.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
I considered Your works and was afraid: surely those works by which He redeemed the world, becoming obedient to the Father unto death, even the death of the cross: that, as the Apostle again says, through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Hebrews 2:14). Indeed, the more one diligently considers these works, the more one trembles at the works of one's own frailty.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
In the midst of two animals you will be known. It can be understood as in the midst of two animals, in the midst of Moses and Elijah. For there he was known to the three disciples on the holy mountain because he was to die, telling them that he would suffer in Jerusalem. There, he was known because he would rise again and would become immortal, with his countenance made bright like the sun, and his garments shining like snow. There, he was known because he was the Son of God, with a voice from the Father in heaven saying to him: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; listen to him (Matthew 17:5). It can also, not unreasonably, be taken as in the midst of two thieves, among whom he was crucified and by dying was known to be a man. However, with the sun darkened, the earth shaken, and the other miracles narrated in the Gospel happening around the cross, he was known to be God. By interceding himself to the Father for his murderers, he was known to be most pious. By this same example, the prophet, who foresaw this in the spirit, was admonished not only to patiently bear the oppressions of the wicked but also to extend the grace of his kindness to those persecuting him.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
When the years draw near, you will be known, when the time arrives, you will be revealed. The Apostles refer to this when they say: After the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law (Gal. IV, 4). The prophets foresaw these times and years from afar and greeted them from a distance, saying that when the years drew near and the time arrived, the Lord would be revealed and recognized. For it was also heard above, as the Lord said to him: Though the vision is yet for an appointed time; it will speak at the end and will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not delay (Habak. II, 3). Hearing this, and considering the works of the passion, he feared and was in awe, because he was moved by the transitory happiness of the wicked and the temporal affliction of the good. However, for having made a penance worthy of his unaware wrongdoings, he soon trusted that he could obtain forgiveness for his error. Hence he consequently adds:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
In that time when my soul is troubled, in the wrath of mercy you will remember. When my soul is troubled, he said, struck with worthy sorrow of satisfaction and repentance because of the fear of your wrath and judgment, which I dread to have incurred carelessly, I believe that I will more quickly obtain the mercy of the pardon desired from you: where the marvelous swiftness of divine pity should be considered. He said that he was troubled in soul only because of the wrath of God, and immediately added that he was turned to mercy from wrath. To which the Psalmist's saying is similar: I said: I will confess my injustices against myself to the Lord, and you forgave the impiety of my heart (Ps. 31:3). But such indulgence can be for the smallest faults. Otherwise, our offenses, the graver they are, the greater and longer repentance, weeping, and alms they require. Up to this point, the prophet briefly encompasses with what fear of mind he was struck, having heard and more carefully considered the event of the Lord's incarnation and passion. Then, more fully, he immediately describes what that hearing, what those works of the Lord were that he was so moved by. It follows:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
God shall come from Thaeman, and the Holy One from the dark shady mount [Pharan]. (Pause.) His excellence covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
ὁ Θεὸς ἀπὸ Θαιμὰν ἥξει, καὶ ὁ ἅγιος ἐξ ὄρους κατασκίου δασέος. (διάψαλμα). ἐκάλυψεν οὐρανοὺς ἡ ἀρετὴ αὐτοῦ, καὶ αἰνέσεως αὐτοῦ πλήρης ἡ γῆ.
Бг҃ъ ѿ ю҆́га прїи́детъ, и҆ ст҃ы́й и҆з̾ горы̀ приѡсѣне́нныѧ ча́щи: покры̀ небеса̀ добродѣ́тель є҆гѡ̀, и҆ хвале́нїѧ є҆гѡ̀ и҆спо́лнь землѧ̀.
And there are also some of them who say, “the Lord has spoken in Zion, and uttered his voice from Jerusalem,” and “in Judah is God known”5—these indicated his advent, which took place in Judea. Those, again, who declare that “God comes from the south, and from a mountain thick with foliage,” announced his advent at Bethlehem, as I have pointed out in the preceding book. From that place, also, he who rules and who feeds the people of his Father, has come. Those, again, who declare that at his coming “the lame man shall leap as a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak plainly, and the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear,” and that “the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, shall be strengthened,” and that “the dead which are in the grave shall arise,” and that he himself “shall take our weaknesses, and bear our sorrows”9—proclaimed those works of healing which were accomplished by him.
Against Heresies 4:33.11
Habakkuk the prophet says, “God shall come from the south, and the holy one from the dark and dense mountain.” Whom would they have come from the south? If they say that God the Father almighty came, then God the Father came from a place; consequently, he is also enclosed by space and contained within the limits of some abode. Thus the sacrilegious heresy of Sabellius, as we said, takes concrete form because of these people who believe that Christ is not the Son but the Father. It is strange how these heretics, while insisting that Christ is a mere man, make an about-face and acknowledge that Christ is the Father, God almighty.
On the Trinity 12:7
(Verse 3) God will come from the South, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. LXX: God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from the dark and thickly wooded mountain. Diapsalma. Aquila and Symmachus, and the fifth edition, set forth the Hebrew itself in Teman (): only Theodotion interpreted what Teman meant, saying, 'God will come from the South, and the holy one from Mount Paran, to the end.' From this we understand that the reading of the Seventy is from the dark and thickly wooded mountain. But even this, which the Seventy translated as 'psalm', and we have retained, forever; Symmachus interpreted as 'eternity'; Theodotion, 'to the end'; the fifth edition has the Hebrew 'Sela'. Therefore, God will come from the South, that is, from the South, from the clear light, and from those who are called the sons of days. Hence, in the Song of Songs, the bridegroom drives away the north wind and calls the south wind, saying: Arise, o North wind, and come, o South wind, blow through my garden, and let my spices flow (Song of Songs IV, 16). God is always in the midday: Where, he says, do you graze? Where do you lie down? in the midday (Ibid., I, 6). And to Abraham when he was under the oak, God did not come except in the midday (Gen. XVIII and XLIII). And Joseph, who foreshadowed the Savior, makes a meal for his brothers at midday. Therefore, the recognition of God the Father comes to those who are worthy in full light. And the recognition of the Holy One, that is, the Son of God, comes from the shady and thick mountain. The shady and dense mountain, or rather the Father himself, is understood to be full of virtues and all wisdom, protecting all things with his majesty, and spreading his wings, and cherishing his children; or certainly a paradise and heaven full of angels, full of virtues, full of abundant trees. And I wish that it may also happen to me, that God may come to my voice and my exposition in clear light, and his Son, of whom it is written: 'Be holy, for I am holy' (Lev. 20:26), from the lofty and dense eloquence, and the intertwining testimonies of the Scriptures from here and there, and as the Father and the Son come together, may their listener be made their dwelling, and may the Scripture be fulfilled, saying: 'I and my Father will come to him, and we will make our dwelling with him' (John 14:23). But because it is written in Hebrew as the shady and dense mountain, it is interpreted as the mountain Pharan, and Pharan means the mouth of the seer: fittingly, according to our interpretation, the knowledge of the Son comes in the eloquent speech of a learned man, and not just any speech, but one that is full of light, full of eyes, so that it may be clearly and purely conveyed to the ears of the listeners. And by what he says about the mountain, understand sublime teachings. I have heard this Hebrew passage explain that Bethlehem is located to the South, where the Lord and Savior was born, and it is he about whom it is now said: The Lord will come from the South, that is, he will be born in Bethlehem and rise from there. And because he who was born in Bethlehem once gave the Law on Mount Sinai, he is the Holy One who came from Mount Paran: for Paran is adjacent to the mountain of Sinai. And what is inferred, diapsalma, that is, always, has meaning: he who was born in Bethlehem, and who in Sinai, that is, in Mount Paran, gave the Law, is always the author and giver of all past, present, and future benefits. In the Psalter, there is a more detailed discussion about the diapsalmate, which is called Sela in Hebrew. Also, according to the Septuagint, the diapsalmate is only found in the Psalter and in the present place. From this, we rightly understand that the song of prayer was marked by the Septuagint.
Commentary on Habakkuk
But tell us the other thing you were saying you were going to tell us. “The prophet,” says he, “says God ‘will come from Afric,’ and now of course where the Afric is, there is Africa.” Well, there’s a fine testimony for you! God will come from the Afric, and from Africa God will come. The heretics are announcing another Christ who is born in Africa and goes through the world. I’m asking what it means, God will come from Africa. If you said, “God has only remained in Africa,” you would certainly be saying something shameful enough. But now you also say, “He will come from Africa.” We know where Christ was born, where he suffered, where he ascended into heaven, where he sent his disciples from, where he filled them with the Holy Spirit, where he instructed them to evangelize the whole world, and they complied, and the world is filled with the gospel. And you say, “God will come from Africa!” …So how does he come from “the shady mountain”? Read the Gospel once more: it was from the Mount of Olives that Christ ascended into heaven. Continue. And what could be clearer? You hear “from the Afric”; you have heard “from the shady mountain.” We recite the law, we recite the Gospel; you have heard “beginning from Jerusalem”; now hear “throughout all the nations.” In the same prophet continue with those words that you ignored, those words you left out.… “God will come from the Afric, and the Holy One from the shady mountain,” that is, from the Mount of Olives, where he ascended into heaven, where he sent his disciples from, where he also said as he was about to ascend, “It is not for you to know the times which the Father has placed in his own power; but you will receive might from on high, and you will be witness to me … in Jerusalem, and in Judea and in Samaria, and as far as the whole earth.”
Sermon 46:38-40
Where we recognize Christ in what is written: “God will come from the south and the holy one from the shady mountain; his strength will cover the heavens,” there we recognize the church in what follows: “And the earth is full of his praise.” Jerusalem was settled from Africa, as we read in the book of Joshua, son of Nun; from there the name of Christ was spread abroad; there is the shady mountain, the Mount of Olives, from which he ascended into heaven, so that his strength might cover the heavens and the church might be filled through all the earth with his praise.
Letter 105
God will come from Lebanon and the Holy One from the dense and dark mountain. Lebanon is the highest mountain of Phoenicia, notable for its lofty, incorruptible, and aromatic trees, from which the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem was also made, as Scripture testifies; hence in the Scriptures, sometimes even the temple itself is designated by the name of Lebanon. Hence, for instance, Zechariah speaks about the coming of the Chaldean army against it: "Open, O Lebanon, your gates, and let fire consume your cedars" (Zech. XI, 1). Therefore, God comes from Lebanon, because the Lord appearing in the flesh sowed the first seeds of the Gospel in that very temple, and from there filled the entire world with the seed of His faith and truth. Hence, Isaiah says, "For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Isaiah II, 3). He sprinkled there the first seeds of faith not only through the apostles, who, filled with the Holy Spirit after His passion and resurrection, laid the first foundations of the Church there by preaching, whose sound then went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Psalm XVIII, 5); but also through Himself, first in that very temple giving testimony of the faith to be had in Him, sitting in the midst of the doctors when He was of tender age, asking them questions as a mere boy, but answering those teaching as God of eternal majesty; where, being sought and found by His parents, He Himself indicated that He was God and God's Son by saying: "Did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" (Luke II, 49). However, it should be noted that in the Hebrew truth this verse is as follows: "God will come from Teman," that is, from the South, which has an easy sense according to the letter, because Bethlehem, where the Lord was born, is situated to the south of Jerusalem. And when He was brought to Jerusalem by His parents on the fortieth day of His birth, that an offering might be made for Him according to the law, God indeed came from the South. And he says, "the Holy One from the dense and dark mountain." The Holy One, the same Mediator of God and men, who is plainly called God above, of whom Gabriel announcing to the Virgin Mother said: "Therefore, the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke I, 35). The mountain from which the same Holy One is sung to come can be understood to mean the kingdom of the Jews, from which He took His fleshly origin. From which also Daniel saw the stone cut out without hands, that is, Christ begotten without the work of a man, who crushing the kingdoms of the world, would fill the whole world with the glory of His name (Dan. II, 45). This mountain is rightly called dense and dark; for it has many fruitful trees, that is, many holy men laden with the fruits of virtue, who both instruct our hunger with the sweetest taste of their doctrine, and with the shade of their intercession protect our frailty from being dried up by the heat of tribulations from the inner greenness of love. This fits figuratively with what the apostle Peter, certainly a distinguished tree of this mountain, not only refreshes the hungry and thirsty for righteousness with the fruit of doctrine but also saves the sick with the shadow of his body (Acts V, 15). These holy and sublime men can also be designated by the term "South," from whom God is said to come, on account of the fervent love with which they are usually enflamed in the Lord and the doctrine with which they enlighten men, from which South God came because He deigned to be incarnate from such men. From which South God comes daily, when, reading or hearing their words or examples, the love or knowledge of truth is more perfectly generated in our hearts.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
His majesty covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise. The dispensation of the Lord's incarnation having been described, he immediately added the mystery of the ascension by which the same humanity was to be glorified, according to the saying of the Psalmist: His going forth is from the end of heaven, and his circuit reaches to the end thereof (Ps. 18:7). For his majesty covered the heavens, because he who was made a little lower than the angels through the incarnation, was crowned with glory and honor through the resurrection, and established above the works of the Father's hands through the ascension, and all things are placed under his feet (Ps. 8:6), and as the apostles preached, the earth was filled with his praise: this very thing being briefly but very clearly included at both the beginning and end of the same psalm, when it is said: O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth! for your magnificence is elevated above the heavens (Ps. 8:2). But even before the passion and resurrection, when the Word made flesh dwelt among us, his majesty covered the heavens, because the assumed humanity, though still mortal, surpassed the heavenly powers. And the earth is full of his praise, with the same heavenly virtues truly knowing that he was the creator of the earth, as of all creation by divinity, who then dwelled on earth through humanity: from which, at his birth, they sang: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will (Lk. 2:14).
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
And his brightness shall be as light; [there were] horns in his hands, and he caused a mighty love of his strength.
καὶ φέγγος αὐτοῦ ὡς φῶς ἔσται, κέρατα ἐν χερσὶν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἔθετο ἀγάπησιν κραταιὰν ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ.
И҆ сїѧ́нїе є҆гѡ̀ ꙗ҆́кѡ свѣ́тъ бꙋ́детъ: ро́зи въ рꙋка́хъ є҆гѡ̀, и҆ положѝ любо́вь держа́внꙋ крѣ́пости своеѧ̀.
What does the psalm have to say of the Savior? “As the beloved Son of unicorns.” Our beloved Lord and Savior is the Son of the unicorns, the Son of the cross, of whom Habakkuk sings, “Rays shine forth from beside him, where his power is concealed.” After this beloved Son was crucified, then, was fulfilled the prophecy of the psalm: “The voice of the Lord strikes fiery flames.” For when Christ had been baptized and the entire universe had been purified in his cleansing, the fire of hell was extinguished.
On the Epiphany and Psalm 28, Homily 89
(Verse 4.) He covered the heavens with his glory, and the earth is full of his praise. His splendor is like light: horns are in his hands. There his strength is hidden. LXX: His power covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise, and his splendor shall be like light: horns are in his hands, and he set strong love of his strength. Because the Seventy have interpreted, and he set strong love of his strength: and we have said, there his strength is hidden: Aquila translated, and he set a hiding of his strength: Symmachus, and he set his hidden strength; only Theodotion agrees with our translation, he says: and there is a hiding of his strength. For the word 'ibi' in this sentence, it is understood and placed there for the sake of the quality of the place. More accurately, it should be read as 'ibi' in the present location, rather than 'posuit,' in order to make sense and maintain the order of the sentence. 'Cornua in manibus ejus' should be understood as 'ibi,' meaning that his strength is hidden in the horns. It is clear, according to the Hebrew, that all things are filled with glory in the coming of Christ, as it is said in the Gospel: 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men' (Luke 2:14). And elsewhere: He made peace in heaven and on earth through the blood of the cross, and he sits at the right hand of greatness: for his word runs swiftly. And elsewhere: O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is your name in all the earth (Ps. CXLVII, 1)! And again in the eighteenth Psalm: Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps. XVIII, 5). And his splendor, like the sun of righteousness, shone with clear light; and in his hands are horns, the banners and trophies of the cross, and in these horns is hidden his strength: For though he was in the form of God, he did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped; but he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant: he became obedient to the Father unto death, even death on a cross (Phil. II, 6 seqq). Therefore, for a little while, His strength was hidden on the cross, when He said to the Father: My soul is sorrowful even unto death (Matt. XXVI, 38, 39): And: Father, if it is possible, let this chalice pass from me (Luke XXIII, 13). And on the cross itself: Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Furthermore, according to the Septuagint, in that which is said: His power covered the heavens, we should understand that what is covered is less than the one covering: if, however, the whole is covered and not just a part, then what is covered. Therefore, when the power of God covers the heavens, His power is greater than the heavens themselves, which are covered by it. The heavens, moreover, are those who bear the image of the heavenly, and who proclaim the glory of God, as we often read. The apostle also proves the power of God the Lord Savior: Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:30). This power is like the mother of all special (or spiritual) virtues, for example, it is called virtue, wisdom, fortitude, justice, temperance, truth, holiness, redemption. But Christ has become for us from God wisdom, justice, sanctification, and redemption. Therefore, these special virtues, in which Christ is manifested (according to the progress of those who receive him either in wisdom, or in fortitude, or in justice, and other such attributes), are contained in the general virtue of God, that is, in the Lord Savior: and in this way we understand the earth, that those who were first called earth because of the image of the earthly, and it was said to them: You are earth, and to earth you shall return (Gen. 3:19), may be filled with the praise of the Lord in the coming of the Savior. But when the heavens, by the power of God, will have been covered (indeed protected and clothed on every side), and the whole earth will be filled with the praise of God, then His splendor will be like light. However, the apostle does not remain silent about the image of God and the splendor of His glory, which is the God Savior: After the splendor of the glory of God appeared to us, He returned to His original majesty (Hebrews 1). For although we knew Christ according to the flesh, now we no longer know Him according to the flesh, but rather according to the Spirit; because, In Him was life, and the life was the light of men (John 1:3, 4). And what is shown even more clearly in the Gospel of the Savior, he says: Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world was made (John 17:5); so that after his ascension to heaven, there may be a radiance that is light, that is, the Son begins to be what the Father is. And what follows, 'Horns in his hands,' is a customary expression in the Scriptures, that horns are always set for kingdoms. For even what Anna speaks in the first book of Kings, 'He has exalted the horn of his Christ' (1 Samuel 2:10), signifies the magnificence of the Savior's kingdom. And in Daniel, ten horns symbolize ten kingdoms (Dan. VII). However, it is now said: Horns in his hands, as we also read elsewhere: The heart of the king is in the hand of God (Prov. XXI, 1): because it is the mind and the principal of the holy heart (which goes towards the kingdoms of heaven, but still located on earth, reigns over the body without sins) does not wander externally; but is situated under the protection of God. However, since in Hebrew and in other editions it does not have written: Horns in his hands, but in his hand, which is called Jado (), let us understand the strong and robust hand of God as His Son. And let us say that in this hand are all the kingdoms of heaven and those who strive to ascend to heaven: which Isaiah also signifies, saying: A vineyard is made for the beloved in a fertile place, for it is in the kingdom. For this reason, I think no horned animal is considered unclean in Leviticus, and it also signifies the unicorn in the Psalms (Psalm 49 and 91), or ῥινοκερότα; and that: In you we will scatter our enemies with a horn (Psalm 44, 7). But as we read in the Septuagint: and he placed the love of his strong power, this also must be understood of Christ, that God the Father therefore covered the heavens with his power, and filled the earth with praise, and made his splendor to be as light, and placed his kingdom in the hand of his Son, that he might make his beloved to be loved by men, and to be loved not lightly, but vehemently and strongly, so that those who loved him strongly, and remained in his love, no one would take them out of his hand. On the contrary, the devil makes us love the world, and, out of a love for virtue, to love vices, and not lightly, but strongly, so that it can be said of us: And the devil placed strong love in his vices.
Commentary on Habakkuk
His brightness will be like the light. The brightness of the virtues and the doctrine of the Lord and Savior will enlighten the believers; from which he is called the Sun of Righteousness in the Scriptures; but because the same brightness could not shine perfectly in the world unless he, having tasted death for a time, destroyed the kingdom of death, and rising from the dead granted the hope and faith of rising to the world, it is rightly added:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
Horns are in His hands. There the power of His glory was confirmed. He calls the transverse wood of the cross horns, which He held fixed by the hands, so that by overcoming all death in this manner of death, He might thus confirm the power of His glory in the hearts of the chosen, so that they are not retarded from His love by any terrors or blandishments; also promising them the glory of future incorruption, through which the last enemy, death, will be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26). Finally, on the holy mountain, with Peter, James, and John present, His splendor shone like light; and they were indeed delighted by the sight of this splendor, but nonetheless, it was proven how fragile and weak they still were at the time of His passion: but after He accepted the horns of the cross in His hands, there the power of His glory was confirmed: so that it could not be driven away from the hearts of the faithful by terrors, nor wounds, nor even death itself. The kingdoms of this world can be suggested in the horns, as is the custom of the prophets. (The sublimity of the human mind, whether good or reprobate, can be designated by the term horns). And horns are in the hands of Christ, because He Himself is the King of kings and the Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15). Horns are in His hands, to humble one, and exalt another, He breaks all the horns of sinners, which are foolishly exalted, and the horns of the just are exalted, namely desires devoted to God, by which they strive to overcome all contests of the impious and vices.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
And He placed the love firm in the strength of His fortitude. The saints indeed loved the fortitude of Christ with intimate love, even before His passion; but this very love was not firm until, having completed His passion and resurrection, He more fully gave them the grace of the Holy Spirit. Then indeed it was made so firm that not even the horns of kings themselves, namely the power of the insolent, could break it.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
Before his face shall go a report, and it shall go forth into the plains,
πρὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ πορεύσεται λόγος, καὶ ἐξελεύσεται εἰς παιδείαν κατὰ πόδας αὐτοῦ
Пред̾ лице́мъ є҆гѡ̀ пред̾и́детъ сло́во, и҆ и҆зы́детъ на по́ле при ногꙋ̀ є҆гѡ̀.
(Verse 5.) Before his face, death will go, and the devil will go forth before his feet. LXX: Before his face, the word will go, and it will go forth into the field behind his feet. For because we have translated death, in Hebrew three letters are placed, Daleth, Beth, Res, without any vowel, which if they are read as Dabar (), they signify word; if Deber, pestilence, which in Greek is called λοιμός. Finally, Aquila has interpreted it as Before his face, pestilence will go; Symmachus, Before his face, death will go ahead; the fifth edition, Before his face, death will walk; only the LXX and Theodotion have interpreted the word as death. And in the following verse, where we said, 'The devil will go out before his feet,' and the Seventy translated differently, according to whom we will discuss later: Aquila translated it as 'bird' instead of 'devil'; Symmachus and Theodotio, and the fifth edition, as 'bird,' which is called Reseph in Hebrew (). However, the Hebrews convey that, just as the prince of demons is called Beelzebub in the Gospel (Matthew 12): so Reseph is the name of a demon who holds authority among others, and because of his excessive speed and running in different directions, he is called a bird; and that he is the one who spoke to the woman in paradise in the form of a serpent, and received the name from the curse with which he was condemned by God: for Reseph, crawling on the belly, is interpreted. This is therefore what is said: immediately when the Lord came and was baptized in the Jordan, and the voice of the Father thundered at the descent of the dove: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matt. III, 17), as the devil goes out from the waters, death will meet him and the ancient serpent will stand before him, who tempted him for forty days in the wilderness. But if we read according to the Septuagint, the word will go before him and come out into the fields behind his feet, this signifies that the word of God, before his visitation, which is now called his face allegorically, should precede and prepare the hearts of the believers: so that crooked things may be made straight, and uneven things may be made level, and the soul of the listener may be like a cultivated field, able to receive the spiritual seed.
Commentary on Habakkuk
The word will go before his face, and it went out into the fields. Before the Lord came in the flesh, the words of the prophets preceded, bearing witness to his coming; and these same words went out into the fields when, as the apostles preached, they were spread throughout the whole world: not only in the prophetic writings did the word of preaching precede the Lord, but also in the apostles, when they evangelized the world about the now accomplished advent of Christ in the flesh, the word went before his face, because obviously the doctrine of truth first reaches the ears of those who are to be taught, and then the faith and understanding of the Word enlightens hearts and makes them worthy for God to inhabit; this is typologically designated in the Gospel, when the Lord himself sent disciples to preach in every city and place to which he himself was about to come: which we see done in the same order even to this day; for the Lord follows his preachers, because the word of the teacher must first be heard, and thus the light of truth is established in the heart of the listener, whence it is aptly added:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
the earth stood at his feet and trembled: he beheld, and the nations melted away: the mountains were violently burst through, the everlasting hills melted at his everlasting going forth.
ἔστη, καὶ ἐσαλεύθη ἡ γῆ· ἐπέβλεψε, καὶ διετάκη ἔθνη. διεβρύθη τὰ ὄρη βίᾳ, ἐτάκησαν βουνοὶ αἰώνιοι.
Ста̀, и҆ подви́жесѧ землѧ̀: призрѣ̀, и҆ раста́ѧша ꙗ҆зы́цы: стры́шасѧ го́ры нꙋ́ждею, и҆ раста́ѧша хо́лми вѣ́чнїи, шє́ствїѧ вѣ́чнаѧ є҆гѡ̀,
(Verse 6.) He stood and measured the earth: he beheld, and scattered the nations, and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. For there are also other mountains and hills, which the bridegroom leaps upon and transgresses in the Song of Songs (Chapter 2), about which it is also said in the second psalm of degrees: I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence shall my help come (Psalm 120, 1). But the mountains of the world themselves are also the dark mountains; concerning them Jeremiah commanded that our feet should not stumble upon them (Jeremiah 31). These are the hills in which Saul reigned when he killed the priests of God (I Samuel 22): for indeed Gabaa is interpreted as a hill. And the hills of the world were elegantly curved, he said. Before the coming of the Savior, they walked with their heads held high, and no one could humble their pride. But they were crushed and bent by the paths of His eternity, that is, God's, because His eternity deemed it worthy to come to us, either because He always came to the saints from the beginning of the world until His incarnation and became the Word of God in the hands of each of them, and He triumphed over all and bent His eternal journey, breaking the hills and mountains. These things should be said through metaphor, according to the Hebrew. Furthermore, according to the Septuagint, after the word of God has preceded, and has gone out into the open, God the Father comes there, where a royal preparation is made for his word, and he comes after the footsteps of his word, and he stands; never going before, but always waiting, so that he may prepare a way for himself. But when he stands by the footsteps of his word, immediately the earth, namely the works of flesh and bodies, unable to withstand the presence of God, are moved. And when they have been stirred up, the power of speech and the presence of God look upon all the nations of souls, whose thoughts and manifold opinions we are able to understand, which there are dissolved and wasted away. If anything has also exalted itself against the knowledge of God on earth, and has taken hold of the mind of the listener, it will be broken and crushed by this preceding speech and the coming of God. But when the mountains have been broken and crushed at the sight of God, the hills will be consumed by liquification and reduced to nothingness. For the mountains of God are not, but the mountains of the world. For the eternal journey of God, looking back at those things which His word precedes, will consume and destroy them more strongly than the hills of the world. Moreover, the mountains can also be understood as demons, who dwell in heretics and rise up against the knowledge of God. The hills are also other fortresses of demons, which make people admire the beauty of bodies, dignities, riches, nobility of birth, and other goods of the world. It is allowed to see after the advent of the word of God, and the presence of God the Father, how human souls are moved, and everything that is earthly is dissolved, and former thoughts are reduced to nothing. Then demons are destroyed, then the heights of the world are brought to nothing, and all knowledge of heretics, which was once swollen, is humbled, crushed, and consumed by the advent of the word of God. And what previously seemed beautiful and great is cast aside and considered small. And this happens because of the coming of God and the hospitality of Christ, as it is written elsewhere: I will dwell in them, and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Lev. XXVI, 12).
Commentary on Habakkuk
In all of what he said he conveyed to us the ineffable power of God: action follows his will, and by merely wishing it (the sense of “he took his position and looked down”) he moves the earth, undoes human nature, splits open the mountains and melts the hills like wax. In fact, he has not ceased doing such things for people’s benefit (by “passing” referring to his doings). Now in what is said he implies also the cross, which is the source of salvation for all people. On it Christ the Lord “took his position,” shook the earth, moved and split open the mountains, struck with fear the hordes of demons, and destroyed their shrines on mountains and hills. While it was from the beginning and before the formation of the world that he so decided, it was in the last days that he accomplished it.
Commentary on Habakkuk 3:6
His feet stood, and the earth was moved. For when the steps of truth are impressed upon the minds of the listeners through the preaching doctor, soon the mind itself, troubled in its consideration, is moved. However, the feet of the Lord can not inconveniently be understood as the doctors themselves, through whom the word is ministered, for he who is present everywhere by himself is carried into the whole world through them as through his feet. These feet stand, and the earth is moved, because the more the holy doctors persist strongly in preaching and preserving the truth, the sooner the hearts of earthly people are struck to repent of their errors; and because this action of repentance should be attributed not to the human preacher but to illuminating grace, it is rightly added:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
He looked, and the nations melted away. Which is to say openly: The Lord had mercy, and the nations repented; by which gaze he looked at Peter when he denied; and he, pricked by the memory of his sin, immediately melted into tears.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
The mountains were broken exceedingly. He calls them proud mountains, and about the vanity of this world, or kingship, or wisdom, or wealth, exalting themselves, who, with the Lord watching, were not only broken but exceedingly broken, when, by His mercy, some from such ranks not only descended from empty and proud heights but also opposed the same by living and preaching. Indeed, Saul and Matthew were mountains, the former elevated by the wisdom of carnal letters, the latter by the mammon of iniquity, but when each was converted to the teaching of humility, they were made disciples of Christ, the mountains surely were exceedingly broken.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
The everlasting hills flowed down. By the name of hills, as with mountains, proud men are expressed, but perhaps inflated with a lesser arrogance of elation, yet not free from the guilt of swelling pride, and therefore healthily inclined, so that they may deserve to be elevated by the Lord. They are rightly called everlasting hills, because while temporarily humbled, they flow down from the swelling of pride, they are glorified forever by Him who says: And everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled (Luke 14:11). Another translation for everlasting hills plainly has hills of the world, which pertains to the distinction of the hills of the Lord, that is, of holy men, who, because of the loftiness of mind, disregarding all temporal and lowly things, are worthy of such a name, about whom the Psalmist says to the Lord: Let the mountains receive peace for Your people, and the hills righteousness (Psalm 72:3).
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
I have seen His ways of eternity beyond the labors. The ways are of the temporality of the Lord, by which He came into the world, so that He might appear to men for a time; but His ways of eternity, by which, leaving the world bodily, He returned to the Father, with whom He remained eternally, even while He conversed temporally in the world: indeed, He longed for these ways, when approaching His passion, He said to the Father: I have glorified You on the earth, I have finished the work which You gave Me to do (John 17:4). These are concerning the ways of assumed temporality, and immediately concerning the ways of eternity He added: And now, Father, glorify Me with Yourself with the glory which I had with You before the world was (John 17:5). The prophet saw these ways of eternity beyond the labors, namely of the incarnation and passion, of which it was said above: God shall come from Lebanon, or from the South, and: Rays are in His hands, and other such things, which are found many in this same song. Of these labors the Apostle says: He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8); and immediately concerning the ways of eternity, which the Mediator of God and men deserved through these labors, he added: Therefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and under the earth; and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:9-10); and because through these same labors of His, and through these same ways of His eternity, when, having completed the labors of His passion, He returned to the Father, not only the people of the Jews but also of the nations were to come to eternal rest, aptly it is added:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
Because of troubles I looked upon the tents of the Ethiopians: the tabernacles also of the land of Madiam shall be dismayed.
πορείας αἰωνίας αὐτοῦ ἀντὶ κόπων εἶδον· σκηνώματα Αἰθιόπων πτοηθήσονται καὶ αἱ σκηναὶ γῆς Μαδιάμ.
за трꙋ́дъ ви́дѣша селє́нїѧ є҆ѳїѡ́пскаѧ, ᲂу҆боѧ́тсѧ и҆ кро́вы землѝ мадїа́мскїѧ.
We meanwhile, exposed to the outbreaks of the barbarians and the storms of war, are tossing in the midst of troubles, and from these toils and dangers can only gather that those of our future life will be still more grievous. Wherefore that saying of the Prophet seems to accord with our condition, "I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction." For since I have now lived in the body fifty and three years, among the shadows of this world, whereby the truth of future perfection is obscured, and have already endured such heavy afflictions, am I not camping in the tents of Cushan, and having my habitation among the dwellers of Midian? For these, owing to their consciousness of their darksome works, dread being judged even by mortal men, "but he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man."
Letter 59
(Verse 7.) I have seen the tents of Ethiopia because of iniquity, the skins of the land of Midian will be troubled. LXX: I have seen the dwellings of the Ethiopians because of their labors; they will be afraid, and the dwellings of the land of Midian. The dark Ethiopians (or rather the darkest) and lovers of darkness, not belonging to any light, who feed on the flesh of the dragon (of whom it is written: You have given him as food to the peoples, to the Ethiopians, Ps. 73:14), are understood to be demons, whose dwelling place is made by anyone in this world who labors for honors and riches: which is significantly shown by one word of iniquity, for indeed every rich person or unjust person, or heir of the unjust, is such. See how men cross the seas: they stand guard at the doors before the powerful: they endure all that the condition of slaves barely allows, in order to gather riches, in order to obtain some dignity. And once they have achieved this, they surrender themselves to luxury and pleasures and all kinds of wickedness, so that what greed has gathered, extravagance may consume. Therefore, these people, for their efforts, become the dwelling place of demons, and those who should be the temple of God become the dwelling place of Ethiopians. But also this which follows: The skins of the land of Midian will be troubled, or they will fear and the tabernacles of the land of Midian, understand the same tabernacles of the Ethiopians, and the tabernacles of the land of Midian. For after they have become enriched, and have risen to the highest degree through right and wrong, then the conscience of their sins will always fear death, always judgment, and they will sigh for eternal punishments like thieves in prison sigh for a slight fever. But the word 'Madian' in our language signifies 'judgment', that is, condemnation, and it is shown that they always live in fear of eternal judgment and punishment, and endure daily torment, knowing that they deserve the torments.
Commentary on Habakkuk
The tents of the Ethiopians will be terrified, and the tents of the land of Midian. For who does not know that the Ethiopians and Midianites are peoples of the nations? By whose names all the nations of the Gentiles are hinted, who, upon hearing the preaching of the gospel, would be shaken with a healthy fear, so that just as the prophet heard the future report of the Lord and feared, considered the future works of His incarnation, and trembled, so the nations, upon hearing the same report through the apostles, and with His works already accomplished, would begin to serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. And appropriately, he first mentioned the Ethiopians, who are at the ends of the world, to mystically indicate that the sound of the preachers would go out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. In this mystery, the eunuch of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, as it is read in the Acts of the Apostles, the first fruits of the Gentiles, with Philip evangelizing, received the faith and sacraments of Christ. The people of the Midianites, however, descended from one of the sons of Abraham from Keturah, who was called Midian, and is in the desert of the Saracens towards the east of the Red Sea in Arabia. Therefore, let the Ethiopians fear the name of Christ, so that His faith may be signified as reaching the ends of the world. Let the Midianites also fear, thus indicating that the Mediterranean peoples too may be saved through this. But that he did not say: The Ethiopians and Midianites will be terrified, but the tents of the Ethiopians will be terrified, and the tents of the land of Midian, is said in that manner of speech, as it is said in the Gospel: And the whole city went out to meet Jesus; and in the psalm: And your cup intoxicating (Psalm 21:5), while it was not the city itself, but those who were in the city, who went out; nor was it the cup itself, but that which is in the cup that is accustomed to intoxicate: this figure of speech is called metonymy in Greek, that is, transnomination, when through that which contains, that which is contained is shown.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
Wast thou angry, O Lord, with the rivers? or [was] thy wrath against the rivers, or thine anger against the sea? for thou wilt mount on thine horses, and thy chariots are salvation.
μὴ ἐν ποταμοῖς ὠργίσθης, Κύριε, ἢ ἐν ποταμοῖς ὁ θυμός σου; ἢ ἐν θαλάσσῃ τὸ ὅρμημά σου; ὅτι ἐπιβήσῃ ἐπὶ τοὺς ἵππους σου, καὶ ἡ ἱππασία σου σωτηρία.
Є҆да̀ въ рѣка́хъ прогнѣ́ваешисѧ, гдⷭ҇и; є҆да̀ въ рѣка́хъ ꙗ҆́рость твоѧ̀; и҆лѝ въ мо́ри ᲂу҆стремле́нїе твоѐ; ꙗ҆́кѡ всѧ́деши на ко́ни твоѧ̑, и҆ ꙗ҆жде́нїе твоѐ спасе́нїе.
“He cast forth horse and rider into the sea; he became my helper and protector in salvation.” The men who pursue us are horses, and, so to speak, all who have been born in the flesh are figuratively horses. But these have their own riders. There are horses that the Lord mounts, and they go around all the earth, of whom it is said, “And your cavalry is salvation.” There are horses, however, who have the devil and his angels as riders. Judas was a horse, but as long as he had the Lord as his rider he was part of the cavalry of salvation. Having been sent with the other apostles indeed, he gave health to the sick and wholeness to the weak.But when he surrendered himself to the devil—for “after the morsel, Satan entered him”—Satan became his rider, and when he was guided by his reins he began to ride against our Lord and Savior. All, therefore, who persecute the saints, are neighing horses, but they have evil angels as riders by whom they are guided and therefore are wild. If, then, you ever see your persecutor raging very much, know that he is being urged on by a demon as his rider and therefore is fierce and cruel.
Homilies on Exodus 6:2
8–9(Verse 8, 9.) Are you angry, Lord, with the rivers? Or is your anger against the rivers, or your wrath against the sea? For you have ascended upon your horses, and your chariots are salvation. You will surely bring forth your bow, fulfilling the oaths you have spoken to the tribes. Selah. (Septuagint: Are you angry, Lord, with the rivers? Or is your wrath against the rivers, or your fury against the sea? You who ride upon your horses, and your horse is salvation: stretching out, extending your bow over the scepters, says the Lord.) Diapsalma. Where the Septuagint has diapsalma, and Aquila always, the others have translated similarly. And because the discourse hastens to a tropological interpretation, briefly encompassing the literal sense of the chapter, I will continue to the rest. Just as you dried up the Jordan and the Red Sea, fighting for us; for you are not angry with rivers and seas, nor could anything insensible of offense provoke you: so now, ascending your chariots and taking up your bow, you will give salvation to your people, and you will fulfill the oaths that you swore to our fathers and tribes forever. But when he says, 'Are you angry, O Lord, with the rivers, or is your wrath against the rivers, or is your fury against the sea?' he speaks ambiguously, and more in the manner of someone asking a question than someone affirming. For there are both good rivers and bad rivers. The sea is very bad, and yet it is also very good. An example of good rivers is this: 'The streams of the river make glad the city of God' (Psalm 46:4). And whoever drinks of the water of the Lord will have rivers of living water flowing from his belly into eternal life.' (John 4). That which Pharaoh speaks in Ezekiel, 'The rivers are mine, and I have made them' (Ezek. XXIX, 9), refers to the rivers in which the dragon dwells, and many similar things. The fact that the sea is interpreted in a positive way is attested by the twenty-third psalm, in which it is tropologically said about the Church under the term 'οἰκουμένῃ', that is, the world: 'The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. He hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods', that is, upon the world. But what is founded by the Lord upon rivers, and prepared upon the sea, is surely taken in a good sense. Likewise, what is said about the vineyard that was transferred from Egypt: You have extended its branches up to the sea, and its tendrils up to the rivers (Psalm 79:12), I think can also be taken in a good sense. And we say that the divine words which are more manifest, and offer themselves as a drink to those who are thirsty, are called rivers: but those which are full of sacraments, and placed in the profound depths (about which the Apostle says: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! (Romans 11:33)). And the Prophet agrees: Out of the depths I have cried to thee, O Lord (Psalm 129), the sea is called in the Scriptures. This can be understood in a better sense. But that it can also be understood in the opposite sense, there are many testimonies, of which this is one in the Psalms: This great and wide sea: therein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. This sea, which thou hast made to play therein (Psalm 104:25-26). And from the Gospel, when the Savior rebuked the winds and the sea and said to them, 'Be silent and be still' (Mark 4:39). For whatever is rebuked is evil, according to the saying of Zachariah: 'The Lord rebuke you, Satan' (Zechariah 3:2). And to Timothy: 'Reprove, rebuke, and exhort' (2 Timothy 4:2). Therefore, the prophet asks: 'Are you angry, O Lord, with the rivers, or is your fury in the rivers, or is your wrath in the sea?' Let us say whether the rivers of Egypt are red and bloody; the Lord is angry and strikes them, rushing with full force into their depths, rising up against the knowledge of God. When the sea saw it, it fled (Ps. CXIII), unable to bear the presence of God. And the Jordan turned back, yielding to the glory of the people passing by, divided by both Elijah and Elisha. To speak more clearly, understand the eloquence of heretics that flows against truth and the Church as rivers against which the Lord is angry. But the souls of those who are carried about by every wind of doctrine, and always fluctuate with malice, and are overwhelmed by salty waves, let the sea on which the impulse of the Lord is made recognize and feel His coming, and let it understand by what boundaries and obstacles it is enclosed, and let it hear: Your waves will be broken within you. And if the rivers and the sea are good, Jesus washes in them, and He places His Church on such a sea. After this follows: He who rides on your horses, and your chariot is salvation. I seek the horses on which the Lord ascends, and I believe there are no others except the souls of the saints, on which the divine Word ascends, in order to save them and others through them. Let us consider examples of horses. The bridegroom speaks in the Song of Songs: My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Look! He is standing behind our wall, gazing through the windows, peering through the lattice. (Song of Songs 2:9). Not that Christ compares the Church, or the Word of God compares the soul, which He calls His bride, to Pharaoh's chariots; but that every soul, although holy and perfect, compared to God, is like Pharaoh's chariot and beast of burden. And Moses speaks to the Lord: But I am irrational, that is, irrational (Exod. IV, 10). And David: I have become like a beast before you (Psal. LXXII, 23). Not that he was absolutely a beast; but that he is a beast before God. These horses are contrary to those that Pharaoh has, and it is said of them: He has thrown horse and rider into the sea (Exod. XV, 2): this kind of riding is not salvation, but destruction. Let us also seek other horses, on which the Lord ascends: In the book of Fourth Kingdoms, we read that the servant of Elisha rose early in the morning, and saw an army encircling the walls of the city, and horses and chariots (IV Reg. VI). And after the prophet's eyes were opened to prayers, he looked and behold, a mountain full of horses and fiery chariots around Elisha. Pay close attention to how the horses and chariots appear, and yet in so many thousands of horses and chariots, there is no rider: the driver of these horses was Elijah and he was the guide about whom the Psalmist sings: You who sit upon the Cherubim, manifest yourself (Psalm LXXIX, 2). With such horses and such a chariot, Elijah was taken up to heaven (2 Kings II). But if anyone wants to learn about the red horses, and the black, and the spotted, and the white horses going out from the myrtle trees, and from the hills placed in the depths, or, as it is written in the Septuagint, of bronze, in the same prophet, if the Lord of life gives us time, we will attempt to explain (Zech. 1). And John saw white horses, and their riders (Rev. 6): from which I think the bodies of those who rise in glory are white horses; and the riders are the souls of the saints. But if someone is truly a sinner and is like me, he will sit upon a black horse, and it will be said of him: All those who rode horses have fallen asleep (Psalm 75:7). Concerning such horses, it is written: The deceitful horse is for salvation (Psalm 32:14), for the flesh desires against the spirit, and its wisdom is hostile to God. Let this be said of those who love the body and sit upon black horses. But let us prepare our souls on horses and chariots of the Lord, who ascends in Paul, ascends in Peter, and riding upon such chariots, has traveled throughout the whole world. He also aimed his bow and arrows, that is, he uprooted, destroyed, and annihilated the kingdoms which Jeremiah was sent against (Jerem. XVIII): and he made it so that sin would not reign in our mortal bodies. And the arrows, that is, the kingdoms of the devil, which he revealed to the Lord, understand as different sins: greed, lust, anger, slander, theft, perjury, against which the Word of God, seated on his horses and chariots, aims the curved arrows of his brightness, but does not yet release them, so that the one who is terrified by the drawn bow does not feel the release of the arrows. And this is what the eagle always does, as Aquila interpreted it, in place of singing. For he always sits in his holy places, always armed. And preparing sharp arrows on their tongues, he rides and runs to and fro in the world of salvation.
Commentary on Habakkuk
“Chariots and steeds lay stilled.” Let us examine this verse in its tropological significance. At last Pharaoh mounted his steeds, sank into sleep and perished. The Egyptians too had steeds, but they perished. That is the reason for the prescription found in the law that no Hebrew should possess a horse. Solomon, you recall, had no horses from Jerusalem or Judea but bought some from Egypt. Horses are always for sale in Egypt. “Some are strong in chariots; some in horses; but we are strong in the name of the Lord, our God.” They, in truth, who mounted horses slumbered and perished. Our Lord has horses too, and he has shining mountains besides, whereas the devil’s mountains are full of darkness. Now just as there are bright mountains and dark mountains, there are good horses and again bad horses. We have made a few remarks about bad horses; let us say something about good horses. When horsemen came to Elisha to arrest him and the servant boy went out and saw an army of Assyrians round about the city, Elisha said, “Fear not: for there are more with us than with them.” A little further on in Kings it says, “Lord, open the eyes of your servant that he may see.” And when his eyes had been opened, he saw chariots and horses. These were helpmates. You notice that it says “chariots and horses.” There were no men on the horses, only chariots and horses, in other words a multitude of angels. They were the chariots and they were the horses; the charioteer was the Lord. That is why the prophet Habakkuk sings, “Your chariots are salvation.” This is said to God. O, if only we too were God’s horses, and God deigned to ride us! But those other horses slept their long sleep and their charioteers with them.
Homilies on the Psalms 9
Is your wrath against the rivers, O Lord, or your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea? By the term "rivers" and "sea," the hearts of the unbelievers are signified, which are rightly called rivers because they flow downwards with the whole force of their intention; the sea, because they are darkened within by turbulent and bitter thoughts, and they exalt themselves above others with swollen waves of arrogance. Therefore he asks, did those who sink their minds from heavenly desires into the appetite for lowly things, and those who, unstable with pride in their spirits, raise themselves against their neighbors, sin so grievously that the deserved wrath in such people should never be lifted? Or will you bestow the grace of your mercy on all those around the world sinning in either a lighter or graver manner as it appears in the world? For indeed I see that you are going to send apostles to proclaim your glory to the nations; but who will believe is known by you, not by human knowledge. This is what follows:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
For you will ascend riding on your horses, and your cavalry is salvation. That is, you will ascend into the hearts of your chosen ones through the illumination of grace, through which, under your guidance, they will tread the path of virtues, and by preaching you across the whole world, carrying the life of eternal salvation, they will proclaim it to the world. The figure of this cavalry was also shown in the Lord literally when, while heading to Jerusalem, he rode a donkey, with the crowds that went before, and those that followed, and those that came together singing: Hosanna, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord (John 12:13). In this riding, salvation was proclaimed, for surely it signified their spiritual journey, whereby with the Lord leading them through the apostles, they are led to see the kingdoms of the Jerusalem above, which is the mother of us all (Galatians 4:26).
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
Surely thou didst bend thy bow at scepters, saith the Lord. Pause. The land of rivers shall be torn asunder.
ἐντείνων ἐντενεῖς τὸ τόξον σου ἐπὶ σκῆπτρα, λέγει Κύριος. (διάψαλμα). ποταμῶν ῥαγήσεται γῆ.
Налѧца́ѧ налѧче́ши лꙋ́къ тво́й на ски́птры, гл҃етъ гдⷭ҇ь: рѣка́ми разсѧ́детсѧ землѧ̀.
Stretching, you extend your bow over scepters, says the Lord. The bow signifies the sudden coming of the divine judgment, by which he foresaw that even scepters, that is, the kingdoms of the world, should be examined. Therefore, the prophet insinuates what the Lord, ascending on his horses, that is, filling and ruling the apostles and their successors with his grace, does among them: Stretching, he says, you extend your bow over scepters, that is, by threatening through the teachers, you will threaten that your judgment will come suddenly, so that whoever is terrified at the threat of wrath, as at an extended bow, and takes care to supplicate to your piety, will not feel the release of the arrows, that is, the threat of eternal punishments. But when he added, stretching, you extend your bow over scepters, he added: Says the Lord, he signifies God the Father, about whom the Son himself says: The Father, he says, judges no one; but has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22).
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
The earth will be split by rivers. Rivers here are not the same as those above, from which he feared the anger and fury of the Lord, but rather those about which he himself said in the Gospel: He who believes in me, as the Scripture says, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And the evangelist explains: This he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive (John 7:38). By these rivers, therefore, the earth will be split, when the hearts of the carnal, irrigated by the word of saving doctrine, humble themselves, breaking the hardness of their disbelief, and open the bosom of their internal thought, which had been badly closed, to receive the words of salutary reproof or exhortation; which is explained more broadly subsequently when it is said:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
The nations shall see thee and be in pain, [as thou dost] divide the moving waters: the deep uttered her voice, and raised her form on high.
ὄψονταί σε καὶ ὠδινήσουσι λαοί, σκορπίζων ὕδατα πορείας αὐτοῦ· ἔδωκεν ἡ ἄβυσσος φωνὴν αὐτῆς, ὕψος φαντασίας αὐτῆς.
Оу҆́зрѧтъ тѧ̀ и҆ поболѧ́тъ лю́дїе, расточа́ѧ во́ды ше́ствїѧ є҆гѡ̀: дадѐ бе́здна гла́съ сво́й, высота̀ привидѣ̑нїѧ своѧ̑:
10–13(Verse 11 onwards) The mountains saw you and trembled; the raging waters passed by. The abyss gave forth its voice; the heights lifted their hands. The sun and moon stood still in their dwelling place; they will go in the light of your arrows, in the radiance of your glittering spear. In your fury, you trample the earth; in your wrath, you astonish the nations. You have come for the salvation of your people, for salvation with your Christ. You have struck the head from the house of the wicked; you have laid bare the foundation to the neck. Always. We have placed our edition alone, so that according to it, that is, according to the Hebrew, we may discuss the coherence of the passage, then we may discuss the same passage comically by chapters. The mountains saw you, God, and they grieved: namely, the high kingdoms and the lofty powers of this age, and the four chariots in Zechariah, which go forth from the bronze mountains (Zech. VI): these saw you and trembled. And the surge of waters passed over: this is, all their impetus and persecution, by which they vexed your people, passed over after they saw you. Then the abyss, that is, the underworld, praised you: then even the gods, that is, the angels, clapped their hands in applause, as if with a certain gesture and exultation of raised hands they showed you as the victor. Your sun and moon, and all the splendor with which you had previously shone upon your people, and afterwards had been covered by the weight of evil, were enveloped in the horror of darkness, received their light again, and regained their former brightness. Your arrows and your flashing spear, that is, your wounds, and your teaching, provided light to your people. Finally, in the light of your arrows, and in the splendor of your spear, which hast struck them to correct them, your people walked in your fury. So when will you avenge the injury of your people, you will tread upon earthly kingdoms, and cause all nations to marvel, for you have come forth for the salvation of your people, and you have come to them with your Christ: although it is written in Hebrew, 'You have come forth for the salvation of your people with your Jesus Christ: or with your Savior Christ: for Jesus indeed means Savior.' But when Jesus Christ, your Son, comes, you will strike the Antichrist from the house of the wicked, that is, in this world, which is placed in evil. Whether you strike the devil himself, who is the head of wickedness, and uncover its foundation up to its neck, that is, you reveal its hidden things, not for a short time, but forever. For this is what Sela means, that is, always.
Commentary on Habakkuk
(Verse 10) You will split the rivers of the earth. LXX: The earth will be split by rivers. Because the Lord has stirred up his bow, in order to fulfill the oaths he spoke to the tribes, it is subsequently said, you will split the rivers of the earth, which means that the kings of the earth who fight against your people, you will divide and scatter. According to the Septuagint, which says, The earth will be split by rivers, let us first consider this example, so that we can proceed to higher things as if in steps. We read in those who have written volumes about wonders, and who have brought the Olympic Games of Greece down to our own memory, explaining what new things happened in each year in the world, namely that among other things rivers have burst forth from the movement of the earth, which were not there before, and on the other hand other rivers have been swallowed up and have disappeared: namely, that all the veins of the earth, just as blood does in the human body, contain hidden waters which are broken open by the shaking of the earth, and they remain as rivers. If we understand this, let us see that the human soul naturally contains waters and rivers, and our compassion, which are hidden and do not flow. But when it is shaken by the preaching of God's word and moved from its previous state, then what was hidden bursts forth and flows for the refreshment of those who drink. I believe that this is what is also signified in Genesis by the wells dug by Isaac's servants, which were buried in the land by the Philistines (Genesis 26). As long as Abraham is alive, his wells are not closed; but when he dies and the wells are closed, if the servants dig, the Philistines object, and there is a dispute. But if Isaac himself comes and digs a well and finds water, the Philistines cannot object. Look at Peter and Paul, and you will not doubt about the wells and rivers of Christ. Observe all the apostles, and you will understand that not four rivers, but twelve rivers flow out of the paradise of the Scriptures. These rivers were hidden before the earth was moved, and when they were in the veins of the earth, they did not provide cups for the thirsty. But after the coming of Christ, the world and all the earth were shaken, they suddenly burst forth, and then it was fulfilled: He turned rivers into a desert, and the exits of water into thirst, fruitful land into salt marsh, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it (Psalm 33). He turned a desert into pools of water, and a waterless land into fountains of water, and there he made the hungry to dwell, and they built a city to inhabit. For when the Lord came into the world, and that which he said in the Gospel was fulfilled: 'I came into this world for judgment, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind' (John 9:39): then the land of Israel, from which rivers used to flow forth and water the entire Jewish people, became dry and its springs were blocked up. But the entire world, which was once deserted and sterile and did not have the waters of the Lord's preaching, turned into marshes of water, and as many teachers as it sent forth, so many springs it had. It was not enough for them to irrigate the peoples of the world with fountains and rivers; but in each province, gathering together those who were hungry and suffering from the hunger for the word of God, they built the Church, which is called the city to dwell in, and which is made joyful by the rushing of the river.
Commentary on Habakkuk
LXX: They shall see you and be sorrowful, whether the peoples are in labor; for it signifies both. Consequently, when the earth is broken and the rivers flow, the peoples who have drunk from the rivers of God shall see God and be in labor. For from the very fact that they see God, they immediately conceive and say with God's word: We have conceived and given birth in the womb from your fear, O Lord, and have brought forth and given birth; we shall make the spirit of your salvation upon the earth. Blessed, says He, are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). These people, therefore, cleansed by the rivers, have not yet seen, but they will see God: and when they see, they will conceive, so that they may bear the fruits of teachings. But because they are called people, and it is not possible for the people to see the face of God, although the prayer may be extended to the future, they will see and bear: however, according to the allegory it is more Hebraic to follow, where it is said: They have seen You, and the mountains have given birth: for it is the mountains' task to see God and bear children, whom they conceived from the word of God.
Commentary on Habakkuk
LXX: Disperse the waters of the journey. There are different types of waters: some eternal, others temporary. Concerning the eternal waters, and those that flow from the fountains of Israel, it is said: The land will be split by rivers. Concerning the sudden and temporary ones: All streams flow into the sea. The end of such waters is destruction. Therefore, God will disperse all waters that have been trampled upon by perverse doctrines, when He has dissipated the plans of the rulers and the wisdom of this world. If ever you see that a heresy has briefly flourished and then, by the grace of God, has been dissipated, say that it is complete: you will scatter the waters of the journey. However, what is said, 'of the journey,' can be understood as 'of the devil,' so that the meaning is: The waters which the devil has trampled upon, and which have provided a pathway for many, that is, have made many errors possible, the Lord will divide and scatter. Hence, other interpreters, wanting to describe heretical madness, have translated it as: Mockery, or the onslaught of waters will pass. For they are said to rush headlong in the course of eloquence, and to drag along with them whoever they come across, light and easy.
Commentary on Habakkuk
LXX: The abyss gave voice to its depth of imagination. The abyss is often interpreted in a positive way: sometimes in a negative way, and sometimes indifferently. In a positive way: Your judgments are a vast abyss (Psalm 35:7). And: Deep calls to deep (Psalm 42:7), and so on. In a negative way: The waters saw you, O God (Psalm 77:17), and so on. But even demons plead not to be sent into the abyss (Luke 8), and in Genesis: The abyss over which darkness prevailed (Genesis 1:2), I do not know if it can be interpreted in a positive way. However, it is mentioned there in an indifferent way: The fountains of the deep were broken up, and the floodgates of heaven were opened (Genesis, 7:11). And in the one hundred and forty-eighth psalm: Sea monsters and all deeps, fire and hail, snow and storms, unless perhaps because it is mentioned among sea monsters, fire and hail, it should be interpreted in a negative sense. I do not know if anyone could say this, unless they have seen it resonate with the others in praise of the Lord. Therefore, if we understand the abyss in a positive way, let us say that, with the waters of the worst journey dispersed, your wise ones saw you and borrowed the depth of knowledge they had from your presence. And whatever they previously thought about you, they proclaimed it in praise of their words. And beautifully, the opinion of imagination is called depth, according to Jesus son of Sirach, who says: Who will investigate the abyss and wisdom (Eccl. I, 2)? And from a small mountain (Psalms 41), that is, from the assumption of the human body, which Daniel calls the stone cut out without hands from the mountain, that is, without a wedding work (Daniel 2), Christ invokes the abyss, calling the Father the other abyss, in the voice of his waterfalls (Psalms 41), so that he may give the word with great power to those who proclaim the gospel. Or certainly, the abyss of the New Testament, as a testimony of the small mountain from which the Prince of Tyre was wounded, invokes the abyss of the Old Testament, so that through the waterfalls of Christ, that is, the apostles, the preaching may become more firm. But if anyone wishes to interpret this passage in a negative sense when it says, 'The deep gave forth its voice, the height of its imagination' (Isaiah 14), they will use the argument that after the waters of the journey were dispersed, which were certainly received in a negative sense, this should be rightly understood in the opposite way. At the same time, observe that it does not say 'its height,' but 'the height of its imagination,' that is, of shadows and images. For they seem to possess the height and knowledge of the Scriptures, but all their height, compared to the truth, is imagination, and they raise their voice in vain, because the waters of the journey have already been dispersed. Let us search in the Scriptures wherever we can find imagination in a good sense, and if it has been rarely or never found, we will interpret it as a darker abyss and its imagination in a bad sense.
Commentary on Habakkuk
The waters shall see you, and the nations shall mourn. Indeed, the hearts of sinners, broken to the acknowledgment and confession of the truth by the frequent exhortation of teachers, as if by the flood of frequent torrents, see God for now through faith, and lament that they have been separated from Him for so long by their guilt; yet when their sorrow of repentance is ended, they see Him more fully in the future by sight, and rejoice forever in the blessed vision of Him. It can also be understood in this way that it is said the earth will be split by rivers, as if it were said that the earth is to be split so that newly formed rivers might arise from it—a phenomenon often recounted in ancient histories, namely, that, when an earthquake occurs, rivers that were not there appear. Whoever understands prudently does not doubt that this can happen, because the earth is as full of countless water veins as the human body is full of blood veins; according to this perception, the earth is split by rivers when a carnal conscience, broken to repentance, progresses so much over time with the help of divine grace that it can also bring forth streams of doctrines to others, watering the parched hearts of others with its example or words to bear the fruits of virtues.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
Sprinkling waters on the paths, the abyss gave its voice from the height of its imagination. The same teachers are symbolized by the name abyss, who are also symbolized above by the rivers, but they are called rivers because of the power of stronger reproach, by which they cut through the hardness of the earthly mind to bring it to repentance for its errors. The abyss is rightly called by the depth of knowledge with which they are filled within, attested by Solomon, who says: "Deep waters are the words from the mouth of a man" (Prov. XVIII, 4). Therefore, the abyss gives its voice sprinkling waters on the paths, when the holy preachers, filled inwardly in their hearts with the deep knowledge of truth, outwardly present the ministry of the word to those who listen, gradually and in parts according to the capacity of the weak, bringing forth what they themselves hold inwardly in much and ample measure. However, he says "on the paths" in the works, either of the same teachers or their hearers. For they sprinkle waters on their paths when they show examples of rightly living wherever they walk, with the voice of preaching always showing to those who watch. They sprinkle waters on the paths of those who watch when, by teaching and living, they show in advance by which ways of actions they should enter. If, however, it is read as some manuscripts have: “Disperse waters on the paths,” it is clearly said by God, who Himself spread the waters of life from the fountains of Israel far and wide into the nations of the whole world, saying to His disciples: "Go, teach all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Well then, when He had said that the abyss would give its voice, He added "from the height of its imagination," because that which the holy preachers proclaim marvelously outside to us proceeds indeed from that fountain of wisdom by which they, amazed themselves, are illuminated inwardly with contemplation of heavenly joys. Did not the great abyss give its voice from the height of its imagination when the apostle Paul said: "Our mouth is open to you, O Corinthians, our heart is enlarged; you are not narrowed in us, but you are narrowed in your own bowels. I speak as to children, be enlarged yourselves also" (II Cor. VI, 11). However, from where or in what order it happened that the world was sprinkled with saving waters, and that the abyss of heavenly wisdom thundered unto the earth, is subsequently shown when it is said:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
The sun was exalted, and the moon stood still in her course: thy darts shall go forth at the light, at the brightness of the gleaming of thine arms.
ἐπῄρθη ὁ ἥλιος, καὶ ἡ σελήνη ἔστη ἐν τῇ τάξει αὐτῆς· εἰς φῶς βολίδες σου πορεύσονται, εἰς φέγγος ἀστραπῆς ὅπλων σου.
воздви́жесѧ со́лнце, и҆ лꙋна̀ ста̀ въ чи́нѣ свое́мъ: во свѣ́тѣ стрѣ́лы твоѧ̑ по́йдꙋтъ, въ блиста́нїи мо́лнїй ѻ҆рꙋ́жїй твои́хъ.
LXX: The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its place. If we follow a simple interpretation, the progress of the sun and moon is shown by the words at hand: that, according to Isaiah, in the future age the sun will shine sevenfold in light, and the moon will shine with the brightness of the sun (Isaiah XXX, 26). For since the creature will be set free from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God (Romans VIII), which is now subjected to vanity, because of the one who subjected it in hope of freedom, when at the consummation of the world every creature will be set free, the sun and the moon will also be set free, and they will stand in their place. But if we desire to receive Christ, the sun of justice, in whose wings is health, and the moon, which is illuminated by the splendor of this sun, as the Church: it is not difficult to say that the true light, the light of men, and the splendor of the glory of God, and the splendor of eternal light, may illuminate it: which now in this age may increase and decrease according to prosperities and trials. But when the sun will be exalted, and, according to the Apostle, God will exalt it, and give it a name above every name (Philippians 2): then also the Church, which in the present age cannot maintain its order, will return to its rightful order, and will not be changed; but will stand firm in its position, and will hear with Moses: But you stand here with me (Exodus 34:2).
Commentary on Habakkuk
LXX: In light, your javelins shall go forth, in the splendor of the flashing of your armor. The javelins of God, that is, the arrows going and advancing, are not sent for the purpose of killing, but for the purpose of illuminating. In distinction to these arrows and javelins, Christ is called the chosen javelin by Isaiah proclaiming: He has made me as a chosen javelin and has hidden me in his quiver, and he said to me: This is great for you, to be called my servant (Isaiah 49:2-3). This arrow will have many arrows (as) it sends into the entire world. Hence even the wounded bride (spouse) says: Wounded by love, I. (Song of Songs 4:9). According to which we can also say: Wounded by chastity, I; wounded by wisdom, I. By this dart of wisdom wounded, the Queen of the South (or, the Queen of Sheba) was not herself, and, astonished, she found more in the true Solomon than the reports had narrated to her. (1 Kings 10). Therefore, these arrows which are sent into the light also pass into the splendor of his armor, that is, of God. For whoever is armed, in order to stand against the cunning of the devil, and girded with the armor of the Apostle (Ephesians VI), the arrows of light come to him, so that it can be said to him: You are the light of the world (Matthew V, 14). But if anyone is a sinner and laments that he dwells in the tents of Kedar, sharp arrows with desolating coals are sent to him (Psalm CXIX), so that he may be first pierced by the words of God and say: I am surrounded by misery, when the thorn is thrust into me (Psalm XXXI). And after he has been struck with remorse, then a scorching coal should be sent to him through the Seraphim, that is, the burning word of God, which not only cleanses the unclean lips that Isaiah had (Isa. VI), but also burns all the parts of his body and leads him to the solitude of sinners.
Commentary on Habakkuk
And the prophet Habakkuk proclaims the ascension of Christ and the strength of the ecclesiastical order under the titles of the sun and the moon: “The sun raised high its hands; the moon stood still in its exalted place.” So the heart of each of the faithful is not improperly called a spiritual sun terrace, because it is illumined for its salvation by the rays of that sun above. Therefore Rahab the harlot hid those spies of Joshua on the terrace of her house. That is, she kept them in the upper parts because of the deep love of a heart illumined by spiritual knowledge so that she might sing this prophetic word by the truth of her deed: “I treasure your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you.”
To Euthymius, on the Forgiveness of Sins 1:21.4
Concerning this glory of His Ascension, Habakkuk also says, "The sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order." For who is designated by the name of sun except the Lord, and who by the name of moon except the Church? For until the Lord ascended to heaven, His holy Church utterly feared the adversities of the world; but after it was strengthened by His Ascension, it openly preached what it secretly believed. Therefore the sun was lifted up, and the moon stood in its order, because when the Lord sought heaven, His holy Church grew in the authority of preaching.
Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 29
The sun was raised, and the moon stood in its place. For the sun, the Lord of righteousness, was raised to heaven after his passion and resurrection, and having sent the Spirit from the Father, he illuminated the Church and spread it through the whole world, so that it might stand in its place, that is, after the mystery of the Lord's incarnation was fulfilled, rising from a long languor of infidelity, standing in faith, acting manfully, and being strengthened in his love. And because he had aptly compared Christ to the sun and the Church to the moon, he immediately subjected it to the same sun.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
In light, your arrows will go forth, in the brightness of the splendor of arms. The arrows of Christ, however, are his words, by which the hearts of men are pierced, so that with the wound of salvation inflicted, the faithful soul may say: "I am wounded with love." Certainly, these arrows go forth in light, because through the ministry of teachers, the words of truth became known openly to the world, according to what the same Truth commanded them, saying: "What I tell you in darkness, speak in the light; and what you hear whispered, preach on the rooftops" (Matthew 10:27). And since the brightness of miracles followed the words of light, he added: "In the brightness of the splendor of your arms." For warriors strike down their adversaries with arrows, defending themselves from wounds with weapons; hence, appropriately it signifies the words of the preachers, by which they overcome the depravity of unbelievers, and the miracles by which they confirm the truth of their preaching. Therefore, the arrows of Christ go forth in light, they go forth in the brightness of the splendor of his arms, because the great deeds he accomplished, the mysteries he revealed, the commandments he set forth, the rewards he promised, are now known to the whole world more clearly than the sun through the evangelical writings. And the holy teachers, because they are children of light, whatever they do or speak with his gift, naturally shine brightly with light and splendor.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
Thou wilt bring low the land with threatening, and in wrath thou wilt break down the nations.
ἐν ἀπειλῇ ὀλιγώσεις γῆν καὶ ἐν θυμῷ κατάξεις ἔθνη.
Преще́нїемъ ᲂу҆ма́лиши зе́млю и҆ ꙗ҆́ростїю низложи́ши ꙗ҆зы́ки.
LXX: In the threat, you will approach the earth, and in anger, you will drag away the nations. This can be understood as occurring at the end of the world, when, through frequent wars, a great multitude is killed, and few people are found, and those who did not want to be part of God's people, but remained as nations and foreigners, are led to Tartarus by the anger of the Lord. But it is better to interpret the threat to the earth as a diminution of earthly works, and those who are established in the Church, not waiting for sinners, are corrected by the anger of the Lord; but hearing in the Scriptures the punishments that await sinners, they repent, and gradually diminish their earthly desires, and advance towards heaven. If anyone of us fears the threatening of the Lord, to him the earth is diminished: but he who perseveres in the number of the nations, and does not want to be among those whose land decreases, nor of the people of God, of whom it is said: They shall see thee, and shall bear children, this one shall be taken away in punishment with the nations.
Commentary on Habakkuk
In your threatening, you will humble the earth, and in your fury, you will bring down nations. By threatening the severity of judgment by which the wicked are condemned, you will healthily humble those who were accustomed to place earthly things before heavenly things, so that, with earthly desires gradually diminished, they might begin to understand and seek what is above; and by inflicting fury, you will condemn forever those who, in their obstinate exaltation, despised being humbled for a time, which the Psalmist prays might not happen to him, saying: "O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor chasten me in your wrath" (Psalm 6:2).
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, to save thine anointed: thou shalt bring death on the heads of transgressors; thou hast brought bands upon [their] neck. (Pause.)
ἐξῆλθες εἰς σωτηρίαν λαοῦ σου τοῦ σῶσαι τὸν χριστόν σου· ἔβαλες εἰς κεφαλὰς ἀνόμων θάνατον, ἐξήγειρας δεσμοὺς ἕως τραχήλου. (διάψαλμα).
И҆зше́лъ є҆сѝ во спⷭ҇нїе люді́й твои́хъ, спⷭ҇тѝ пома̑занныѧ твоѧ̑, вложи́лъ є҆сѝ во главы̑ беззако́нныхъ сме́рть, воздви́глъ є҆сѝ ᲂу҆́зы да́же до вы́и въ коне́цъ:
LXX: You went out for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed ones. First, let us see how many anointed ones there are, and then we will discuss how the Lord went out for the salvation of his anointed ones. The anointed ones in the Old Testament were called Christ and patriarchs, about whom it is written in the Psalms: He rebuked kings for their sake: 'Do not touch my anointed ones, and do not harm my prophets' (Psalm 105:14-15). And in the first book of Chronicles, all those who came out of Egypt are called anointed ones. The anointing oil in Exodus (Ch. XXX) is also used for the priestly consecration, which is later mentioned in Leviticus (Ch. VIII) when the anointed priests are referred to. There is another anointing oil used for anointing kings in the kingdom, which is divided into two. If it is David or Solomon, that is, one who is strong in hand and peaceful (I Sam. XVI), the horn is anointed. But if it is Jehu or Hazael, they are drenched with lentil (II Kings IX and XIX): and the vessel in which it is carried is called fictile, that is, φακός. But even Cyrus, the king of the Persians and the Medes, who released the people from captivity (although many may err and think that it refers to the Lord Savior), is mentioned in Isaiah: Thus says the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have held to make the nations listen before him (Isaiah 45:1), etc. And at the end it is said: But you did not know me, which is blasphemous to understand about the Savior. It is the prophetic ointment, with which Elijah is commanded to anoint Elisha as a prophet (1 Kings 19). And above all kinds of ointments, there is a spiritual ointment called the oil of gladness, with which the Savior is anointed, and it is said to Him: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions (Psalm 44:8). And I consider those to be His companions to whom John speaks: And you have an anointing from the Holy One (1 John 2:20). And a little later: These things I have written to you concerning those who deceive you: And the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you; but as the anointing teaches you about all things, and it is true, and it is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, abide in Him (ibid., 26, 27). So that those who have lost the anointing of baptism may not despair of receiving the anointing, it is written in Leviticus: When a leper who has been cast out of the camp comes to the priest and his leprosy is cleansed, the priest shall take in his left hand some olive oil and with his right finger sprinkle it seven times before the Lord. The priest shall then touch with the same oil the ear of the one who was a leper, as well as his right hand, his right foot, and the remainder of the oil he shall pour on his head (Leviticus 14). And when he has properly completed all these things: then let him offer a burnt offering for himself, and let him be called the Christ of God. I want to say something; but I fear that I may give occasion for ruin to the negligent: that in the Holy Scriptures the same man is frequently found anointed. Finally, David was anointed a third time (2 Samuel 6 and 19): which we do not understand to be about someone who has sinned; and he is anointed again (for it is enough for a leper to be anointed a second time after the first anointing has been lost), but it is about someone who progresses day by day, and his anointing is always increased. And it goes from the oil of the leper to the oil of the people and the saints, and from the oil of the people it reaches the oil of the priests, and it surpasses the priests to the anointing oil of the high priest, and from the high priest it even goes to the king, from the king to the patriarchs, and from the patriarchs it goes to Christ, and he is anointed with the oil of joy (Psalm 44:8), by which whoever is anointed becomes one with God in spirit, and where the Father and the Son are, there he will also be. But this is rare, and there are the wishes of the believers. However, I do not know if the effect will follow. For it is said: God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your companions, that is, with that oil which those who are your companions will seldom or never be able to find. Therefore, God has gone out from his place for the salvation of these Christians, just as Micah says: And he will go forth from his place to save (Micah 1:3). For those who were in need of salvation did not want to enter to him, therefore he went out from his majesty and his place, so that he could lead those who were outside into the land of gentle ones and the region of the living, from which Adam had been expelled: from which Cain, when he went out, dwelled in the land of Nod (Gen. III and IV, according to the Septuagint). It should be known, however, as we have said above, that where the Septuagint placed the plural number, 'to save your Anointed Ones,' in Hebrew it is Joshua son of Nun and the Anointed One (Messiah), which Aquila translated, 'to salvation with your Anointed One (Messiah),' not that God went out to save the people and save his Anointed One (Messiah), but that he came to the salvation of the people with his Anointed One (Messiah), according to that passage of the Gospel: 'The Father is in me, and I am in the Father'; and the Father, remaining in me, he himself does his works (John XIV, 10). But even the fifth edition translated similarly: 'You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation with your Christ.' However, Theodotion, being truly like a poor Ebionite, and Symmachus of the same belief, following a poor interpretation, translated: 'You went out for the salvation of your people, in order to save your Christ.' And: 'You went out to save your people, to save your Christ.' I am going to say something unbelievable, but nevertheless true. These half-Christian Jews translated: and the Jew Aquila interpreted, as a Christian. The sixth edition, clearly revealing the sacrament, thus translated from Hebrew: 'You came forth to save your people by your Jesus Christ,' which in Greek is said: 'ἐξῆλθες τοῦσῶσαι τὸν λαόν σου διὰ Ἰησοῦν τὸν Χριστόν σου.' This meaning can be applied to the fact that the Father came forth with the Son from the temple and the ceremonies of the Jews, saying: 'Your house will be left to you desolate' (Luke 13:35); and he came for the salvation of the Gentiles, to save those who believe through Jesus Christ his Son.
Commentary on Habakkuk
LXX: You have sent death upon the heads of the wicked. We cannot consider this death to be the common one by which we all die, for even Abraham died and was laid to rest with his forefathers (Gen. XXV); and the prophets, and even Christ himself, died (John XIX), but death was sent upon the wicked (1 Sam. II, 6), so that those who had previously lived in wickedness, dead to sin, might live in righteousness (1 Pet. II). Anna also signifies this in her prayer: The Lord kills and gives life. For he kills sinners, sending death upon the heads of the wicked, so that he may give life to righteousness. I will say something bolder: Christ came into the world for this very purpose, to send death upon the heads of the unjust. And just as he himself died for sin once (1 Peter 3): so they also may die to iniquity; and those who have become partakers of this death may also become partakers of life. But according to the Hebrew, where it is written: You have struck the head from the house of the wicked, let us also take the head, as I said, the prince of this world, and his house, the world, and every soul of the sinner, in which the devil had a dwelling. Therefore, the head of the wicked is struck in the house, so that, with him struck and expelled, the house of God may be made, and justice may dwell there, and walk in it. And this is worthy to be understood of God, who went forth for the salvation of his people with his Christ, so that, with such a head struck, he may become in us the head, who is the head of every man and of his Church. If anyone, therefore, still feels the house of the wicked within himself, let him pray for the coming of the Son of God, so that the head of the wicked may be crushed within him.
Commentary on Habakkuk
LXX: You have lifted up the chains until the neck, to the end. The Lord has lifted up the chains of love, so that with the previous burden set aside, and the heavy yoke by which we were oppressed thrown off, we may take up the light yoke of Christ; and, placed in his chariot, we may carry the excellent charioteer. Theodotius also, taking this in a good sense, says: You have adorned the foundation until the neck. Fifth edition: You have stripped, or emptied, the foundation until the neck, selah, that is, always. For the foundation of Christ, which was in the soul of each individual, had been buried under the foreign earth, the accumulated soil is dug out, and the best foundation is uncovered and adorned, so that what was hidden may appear and receive its own clarity, and this is done eternally, which is called 'Sela' in Hebrew. At the same time, consider that the LXX themselves, compelled by the necessity of things, who always interpreted 'sela' as diapsalma, have now translated it as 'in finem'.
Commentary on Habakkuk
And yet, someone may say, we shall find the name Christ applied not to Emmanuel alone, but also applied to others. For God said somewhere about those chosen and sanctified by the Spirit, “Do not touch my anointed ones, and to my prophets do no harm.” The divinely inspired David calls Saul, who had been anointed as king by God through the hand of Samuel: the “Lord’s anointed.” And why do I mention this when it is possible for those who desire to look at the matter calmly to see that those who have been justified by faith in Christ and have been sanctified in the Spirit are honored by such a name? And therefore the prophet Habakkuk has foretold the mystery of Christ and salvation through him, saying, “You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed ones.” Consequently the name Christ would not be applicable exclusively and properly to Emmanuel, as I said, but also to all the rest who may have been anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit. For the word is derived from the action and the name anointed from the fact of having been anointed.
Letter 1:16-17
Concerning [his] companions in the anointing, the apostle says, “To each of us grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s bestowal.” Both the priests and kings are called “christs” in the law, undoubtedly as figures of this king and high priest, our Lord and Savior, and as a type of him they were also anointed with the earthly oil. Not only they, but also the faithful of our own time, as they are called “Christians” from Christ, so also are they rightly called “christs”—from the anointing with the sacred chrism, from the grace of the spirit with which they are consecrated. The prophet testified to this when he said, “You went forth for the salvation of your people, so that you might save your christs.” He did indeed go forth for the salvation of his people, so that he might save his christs. “On account of us human beings and on account of our salvation, he descended from heaven and became incarnate” so that he might grant to us who have been thoroughly anointed and healed by spiritual grace to be sharers in his holy name.
Homilies on the Gospels 1:16
You went out for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed ones. The Mediator between God and men went forth from the Father and came into the world, not to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He calls all the elect anointed ones, who are most rightly named by this title because of the anointing of spiritual grace; hence the Psalmist says about those who, wishing to harm the saints, were restrained by divine prohibition: "He rebuked kings for their sake, saying, 'Do not touch my anointed ones'" (Psalm 105:14). However, he saved his anointed ones, not those he found as anointed, but those he made his own anointed, that is, anointed ones, by going forth from the Father and appearing in the flesh through the Spirit of adoption. Concerning this anointing, admonishing his listeners, the Apostle John says: "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth" (1 John 2:27). This verse is found in some editions as: "You went out to save your people through Jesus Christ your Son," which is understood as said to the Father because he went out to save his people through Jesus Christ his Son. For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and because the same going forth, that is, his coming into the world, was to be not only for the resurrection of the faithful but also for the ruin of the faithless, it is aptly added:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
You sent death upon the heads of the enemies; you stirred up bonds up to the neck. For indeed, to his chosen ones, whom the prophet had called Christ's, he brought the joy of salvation, but to those who neglected his anointing grace, he sent eternal death. This was fulfilled even corporally in the very Jewish people, who pursued the Lord appearing in flesh unto death, after they crucified him, not many years intervening, when the Roman army fell upon them; excepting only those who withdrew into the faith of evangelical grace, they were condemned with an enormous disaster, and moreover deprived of their kingdom and homeland; and this is what he said: You stirred up bonds up to the neck; namely the neck of the kingdom, which they had raised against the Lord before, about which the most blessed protomartyr Stephen said to them in their fury against him: Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit (Acts VII, 51). But the Lord stirred up bonds up to the neck, when he sent the hostile army for the overthrow of the proud nation, not only of the Jews but of all who refused to accept the humility of the Christian faith. The Lord dashes pride according to what the Psalmist sings about the saints: And the two-edged swords in their hands to execute vengeance on the nations, reproaches on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with iron fetters (Ps. CXLIX, 6); iron, evidently, because eternal, which once taken, can never be loosed. But if anyone were to say it should be read in the plural: You stirred up bonds up to the necks, the sense is the same. For the just Lord will strike down the necks of sinners.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
Thou didst cut asunder the heads of princes with amazement, they shall tremble in it; they shall burst their bridles, [they shall be] as a poor man devouring in secret.
διέκοψας ἐν ἐκστάσει κεφαλὰς δυναστῶν, σεισθήσονται ἐν αὐτῇ· διανοίξουσι χαλινοὺς αὐτῶν ὡς ἐσθίων πτωχὸς λάθρᾳ.
разсѣ́клъ є҆сѝ во и҆зстꙋпле́нїи главы̑ си́льныхъ, сотрѧсꙋ́тсѧ въ не́й: разве́рзꙋтъ ᲂу҆зды̑ своѧ̑ ꙗ҆́кѡ снѣда́ѧй ни́щїй та́й.
14–16(Verse 14 and following) You have cursed his scepters, the heads of his warriors, who come like a whirlwind to scatter me. Their rejoicing is like that of someone who devours the poor in secret. You have made a path in the sea for your horses, in the mud of many waters. I heard, and my stomach trembled; at the sound my lips quivered. Let decay enter my bones, and let it rage beneath me: so that I may rest on the day of my tribulation, so that I may rise up against our encircled people. And now we are discussing only the Hebrew (as Alexander has proposed), so let us discuss separately the edition of the Septuagint, for it differs greatly from all other translations: 'You have cursed the scepters,' that is, the kingdoms of the wicked; no doubt, the impious one of whom he had spoken above: 'You have struck the head from the house of the wicked; you have laid bare the foundation to the neck.' And by the wicked one, we understand either Nebuchadnezzar or any adversary of the people of God. And not only his scepter, but also the heads of the warriors whom you had struck, they came like a whirlwind to scatter me, that is, to overthrow Israel and lead it captive in different directions. Thus they rejoiced, devouring the poor and subduing Israel, as if they were doing it in secret, and they would devour us, while you were unaware. Therefore, you came to battle for your people, and by releasing your chariots into the waters, that is, among many nations, you made a way for them in the mud of many waters, that is, to trample them down, as if they were the mud of your horses' hooves and the wheels of your chariots. But as it follows: I have heard, and my stomach is troubled: at the sound of (as it is understood, your) lips tremble, let corruption enter into my bones, and under me be filled with worms: that I may rest on the day of tribulation, that I may ascend to our girded people, here is the meaning: Now we willingly suffer hardships, and tremble with all our innards at your threat. Now my lips tremble, and the fear of a trembling mind is marked on my mouth, and not only this, but I also desire something willingly and desire it kindly: let corruption enter into my bones, and under me be filled with worms; that is, I willingly suffer what Job suffered, not only my flesh, but also the marrow of my bones I desire to waste away, and my bed to be filled with the corruption of my body and teeming with countless worms, so that after I have endured these things here for my sins, I may rest on the bitter day, on the day of tribulation, on the day of necessity and distress. And I will ascend to our girded people, indeed strong, a warrior and fighter. And beautifully, I will ascend: for it is always to the girded people that one ascends. And elegantly ours: for he who has been troubled, and willingly endured struggles, and compensated for present evils with future rewards, speaks boldly like our fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and may he himself sleep in good old age, full of days, and be gathered to his ancestors. But if someone were to say, 'Look, in the exposition of history, while you are ignorant, you are enclosed by the nets of allegory, and you have mixed the tropology of history.' Let them hear that the metaphor of history does not always harmonize with allegory, because frequently history itself is woven metaphorically, and under the image of a woman, or of one man from the whole people, it is preached. And now therefore we can say from the perspective of the people: 'I willingly undergo captivity, I endure afflictions with an equal mind, and I am heavily burdened by the yoke of the Babylonians, and whatever there is of ultimate and harsh necessity, I suffer joyfully, only so that at that time I may rest when you curse the scepters of the impious, and your horses will trample the mud of many waters, so that afterwards I may return to the promised land with your saints Zerubbabel and Jesus the son of Josedech, and the priest Ezra, and Nehemiah.' Until now, in order not to seem to entirely overlook history, we have in a way directed our attention to the intellect and have brought forth inconsistent opinions into captivity. Now let us turn to the seventy translators and to the moral interpretation.
Commentary on Habakkuk
LXX: You have divided the heads of the mighty in astonishment. Just as Christ is the head of the Church and of all men (I Cor. XI), so Beelzebub, the prince of demons, is the head of all the demons who roam about in this world, and each of their groups has its own head and leaders. For example, the spirits of fornication have their own supervisor, the spirits of greed have their own ruler, the spirits of vain glory, the spirits of lies, and the spirits of unfaithfulness have their own leaders of wickedness. And so, God, most merciful, who sent death upon the heads of the wicked, who loosened the bonds even to the neck, divides the heads of the powerful in their astonishment, so that he may first separate the rulers from their subjects, and as if beheading the body from the head, and where the worst head was, there the best head may be placed. Let us give an example, so that what we say may be made clearer: whenever a tyrant is slain, his images and statues are also taken down, and with only the face changed and the head removed, the face of the victor is placed over it, so that while the body remains, and the heads have been severed, a different head is substituted. I want to understand about the councils of heretics, which, with the heads of heresies separated from other nations, begin with Christ as their head. Also, consider the significance of the Holy Scriptures, that it does not say 'you have cut off' or 'you have cut down the heads of the mighty,' but 'you have divided.' For what is divided is not so much cut off and lost as it is separated into parts. Just as in the building of the tower (Genesis 11), the language which had been improperly united was separated, and the wicked pact was torn apart by a beneficial division: so also, these heads, which seemed to have agreement among their bodies, for there are many heads of heretics which have different eyes, yet bark in one common language of blasphemy against the Church, were divided into parts and separated from the deceived bodies, making room for the good head. We can use this verse whenever we see kings and their leaders shed Christian blood, and afterwards witness the vengeance of the Lord. We have seen this recently in the case of Julian, and before him in Maximian, Valerian, Decius, Domitian, and Nero; and we can say to the Lord with joy and prayer in the Song: You have struck the heads of the mighty in astonishment, that is, in the astonishment of the believers, or in the astonishment of all nations, which did not think they could fall so quickly. While I was still a boy, and was exercising in the game of grammar, and all the cities were being polluted with the blood of victims, and suddenly it was announced in the midst of the very heat of Julian's persecution that he had died, one of the pagans wittily said, 'How, he said, do the Christians say that their God is patient and without malice? Nothing is more irritable, nothing is more present with this fury: he could not even delay his indignation for a little bit.' He said this jokingly. Nevertheless, the Church of Christ sang with joy: You have divided in astonishment the heads of the mighty. I will also say something similar: Divide, Lord, in astonishment all of them, Ahab, and Jezebel (III Kings 21 and 18). I am not Elijah, but nevertheless, they Ahab and Jezebel killed Naboth and took his vineyard, and made their garden for indulgence (IV Kings 9 and 10). Let one of your servants, Obadiah, be found, who will feed your poor and beggar, let the blood of fornicators be given to the dogs; let the impious and greedy Ahab be killed by the spear of the Lord.
Commentary on Habakkuk
LXX: They will be moved in it (or in that), they will open their mouths like a poor person eating in hiding (or in a hidden place). When their heads are divided from their bodies, and divided only in a state of stupor, which in Greek is called ἐν ἐκστάσει: hence according to that, it is declined and said, ἐν αὐτῇ, which means in it, they will also open their mouths, or of them (both can be understood), so that that authority by which they previously ruled over their subjected bodies, giving way to a better horseman, and a better charioteer. And let them do this as if they are eating in secret, not having freedom, nor an abundance of food, but rather small portions of food, with which they eat secretly, not wanting anyone to see what they are doing. It can also be interpreted differently: When their heads are divided in astonishment, as if separated from the rest of the body, they will open their mouths, which had been unrestrained like a muzzle of condemnation, and, resembling those who are eating, they will gnash their teeth against themselves, desiring to eat again but lacking the power to devour. Understand how after the coming of Christ the heads of demons from the nations, which had previously been subjugated to them, desire to exercise their ancient power again. But because they have been separated from their bodies, they do not have full freedom to feed: they eat like the poor, and not only are they poor, but they are poor in hiding. They are poor because they have lost their former riches: they eat in hiding, because they always lie in wait, intending to kill the innocent in secret. These headings have the same teeth as arrows. And although he may have said before, I will ascend above the stars of heaven, I will place my nest on high, and I will hold the whole world like eggs in my hand, yet they will be taken down from the heights and will lose their former furnishings, and all the substance of their house, so that they will scarcely try to eat and bite like beggars. I know that the Hebrew text differs greatly from what has been said, but what can I do, to whom it has once been proposed to interpret both the Hebrew and the commonly known scriptures throughout the whole world?
Commentary on Habakkuk
You cut off the heads of the mighty in their alienation; the nations will be moved in it. In the Greek, it is written "in ecstasy," which some have interpreted as "in stupor," others "in mental excess." Whether it is called stupor, alienation, or mental excess, it all means the same thing: when someone, astonished and bewildered by a sudden miracle, is rendered alien from their own mind, something the Evangelical history frequently recounts as having happened to the Jews, saying they were astounded and marveled at the teachings and virtues of Jesus, saying: "Where did this man get all these things, whose father and mother we know?" (John 6:42). And in the Acts of the Apostles, when the lame man was healed by Peter and John at the temple gate, it says: "They were filled with astonishment and ecstasy" (Acts 3:10), in which ecstasy, that is, admiration or mental alienation, many people were moved to believe in the Lord; but the heads of the mighty, that is, the chief priests and elders, were cut off by not believing, from the lot of the faithful. Nations were also moved in it, when, hearing or seeing the virtues of the Lord and his apostles, they were so astonished and amazed that, anathemaing and rejecting the gods they had worshipped, they devoutly received the new faith of Christ. Regarding them, aptly it is added:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
“They will open their mouths like a pauper eating in secret.” Just as a pauper who has remained fasting for some time, if he happens to find food somewhere, hastens to refresh himself with it in secret, and does not want to bring it out in public, lest it be snatched away by another, and he perishes from hunger: similarly, the peoples of the nations, having been offered by the apostles the bread of the word, from which they had long remained fasting, immediately opened the mouths of their hearts and began to taste it with all avidity, dedicating themselves more to hearing or reading the Scriptures, the more they remembered they had long subjected their ears and minds to superfluous, even harmful, teachings in the most miserable kind of poverty. The order in which the poverty of the nations came to perceive the delicacies of the word is hinted at when it is added:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
And thou dost cause thine horses to enter the sea, disturbing much water.
καὶ ἐπεβίβασας εἰς θάλασσαν τοὺς ἵππους σου ταράσσοντας ὕδατα πολλά.
И҆ наве́лъ є҆сѝ на мо́ре ко́ни твоѧ̑, смꙋща́ющыѧ во́ды мнѡ́ги.
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
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). But the vase and the strong house and the prince's belongings, what else can be interpreted except the sea of this world, in which the dragon dwells? Therefore, God, the outstanding knight and chief charioteer, adds his horses, namely angels, and sublime powers above the sea of this world, to disturb the many waters, demons and contrary powers. But if we want to interpret it as the coming of Christ, according to what is written in the Apocalypse (Chapter 19), that the word of God sits on a white horse and the whole army follows him on white horses, we will see how Christ ascended among his apostles, saying to them: Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world; and: Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them, and the rest (Matthew 28). And later he mounted a white horse, which I believe to be none other than the apostle Paul, upon which he rode and traveled around the whole world. Now, the word of God ascended upon his horses, so that many waters, that is, many people who were previously in the sea and held captive by the dragon, were troubled. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13), and they were troubled, abandoning their initial error: then they were disturbed and received the approaching rider. Certainly, the hordes of demons we have spoken of above should not rule over the sea in such a way; rather, they should be disturbed and retreat, fearing the wounds of a fighting knight. And I hope that the word of God will also rise in me and kill, through the spear of my mouth, the one who reigns in the waters, so that the waters that were subjected to them will be disturbed unto the destruction of the king, and offer their necks to my knight, and when brought together in one chariot, we may become the Cherubim of the Lord, which is interpreted as a multitude of knowledge. For never before has a charioteer been so well composed and so adorned, as in those who are connected by the multitude of knowledge and the reins of wisdom among themselves.
Commentary on Habakkuk
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. Hence the Psalmist aptly says: "All who saw them were troubled, and every man feared, and they declared the works of God and understood His deeds" (Ps. 63:9). For although all were troubled, not all feared and declared the works of God, but whosoever remained rational men; and those who were estranged from human reason were compared to senseless animals and became like them. Although such people were disturbed and moved by the virtues of the saints, they neither wanted to fear God nor to declare or understand His deeds. Furthermore, it is aptly said of these horses, namely the holy preachers, earlier: "You will ascend, you will ascend on your horses," and now it is added about the same: "You sent your horses into the sea," so that from both sentences it may be gathered that the Lord sent preachers into the world in such a way that, while they preached, He was never absent, but like a charioteer to horses, He was always present to guide their minds.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
I watched, and my belly trembled at the sound of the prayer of my lips, and trembling entered into my bones, and my frame was troubled within me; I will rest in the day of affliction, from going up to the people of my sojourning.
ἐφυλαξάμην, καὶ ἐπτοήθη ἡ κοιλία μου ἀπὸ φωνῆς προσευχῆς χειλέων μου, καὶ εἰσῆλθε τρόμος εἰς τὰ ὀστᾶ μου, καὶ ὑποκάτωθέν μου ἐταράχθη ἡ ἕξις μου. ἀναπαύσομαι ἐν ἡμέρᾳ θλίψεως τοῦ ἀναβῆναι εἰς λαὸν παροικίας μου.
Сохрани́хсѧ, и҆ ᲂу҆боѧ́сѧ се́рдце моѐ ѿ гла́са моли́твы ᲂу҆сте́нъ мои́хъ, и҆ вни́де тре́петъ въ кѡ́сти моѧ̑, и҆ во мнѣ̀ смѧте́сѧ крѣ́пость моѧ̀: почі́ю въ де́нь ско́рби моеѧ̀, да взы́дꙋ въ лю́ди прише́льствїѧ моегѡ̀.
He who is cautious and wary can avoid sins for a while, but he who is secure in his own justice opposes God, and deprived of his help, he is subject to the snares of the enemy. “Let rottenness,” says Habakkuk, “enter into my bones and swarm under me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation, that I may go up to my people that are girded.” He prays earnestly for tribulations and trials and affliction of soul so that, in the next world, he may join the company of those who are already reigning with Christ. It is clear from all this that here, in this life, there is strife and contention, and, in the next world, there is victory.
Against the Pelagians 2.24
LXX: I kept watch, and my belly was afraid at the voice of my mouth's prayer: and trembling entered into my bones, and under me my strength was troubled. Or as it is found written elsewhere ἡ ἕξις μου, which we can say means my condition: for indeed various readings are found. But these things can also be said from the perspective of the prophet, consistent with what came before: Because you, O Lord, have sent death upon the heads of the wicked, and have raised up the chains even to the neck, and have divided in astonishment the heads of the mighty, and have brought in your horses into the sea, disturbing the many waters: therefore I have kept my heart in all vigilance, and my bowels trembled, and my whole strength or condition, is troubled, lest I should endure similar things. And he can also have, as it were, his own beginning, as the prophet narrates his fear and how he was afraid of sinning in any way, and when he was warned by the voice of his lips in prayer, he feared God so much that trembling entered his bones. And being placed under the mighty hand of the Lord, he was troubled with all the strength or disposition of his soul. But what he says, 'Trembling entered my bones,' should be understood emphatically, so that we may see the magnitude of the fear of God penetrating the entirety of the soul, and moving the whole person so as not to do anything that would displease God. And since Scripture also mentions the members of the soul allegorically, let us understand the hungry belly as representing the power of the soul, which receives spiritual food; the lips as representing the mind's inner dialogue; and the strong and solid bones as representing the firm doctrines on which the whole soul is strengthened. These things have been briefly stated by me. But if anyone discovers something wiser and truer, give your agreement to that person's explanation.
Commentary on Habakkuk
LXX: I will rest in the day of my trouble, that I may ascend to the people of my pilgrimage. For with all watchfulness I have kept my heart, and my belly trembled at the voice of my prayer. And trembling came upon me, and darkness covered me: and my bones were affrighted. And under me death began to beget: and I was reproved by the multitude. And what do I long for? II will rest in the day of tribulation: that I may go up to the people of my pilgrimage, for there is my staff. But I will ascend downwards, and, like one striving from a valley to higher things, I will eagerly strive with all my might, so that in the time when others are in distress and anguish, my concern will be about the ascent, and how I will find rest in higher places with the people of my own journey. But I consider the day of tribulation to be the end of the world, about which Isaiah also says: The day of the Lord, incurable, full of fury and anger, to make the whole world a desert and to destroy sinners (Isaiah 14).
Commentary on Habakkuk
I guarded and my stomach was terrified at the voice of the prayer of my lips. He calls his mind his stomach in the manner customary to prophets, because just as the stomach receives food by which the strength and life of the body are replenished; so are holy thoughts received in the mind, by which the life of the inner man is sustained and maintained, lest it should fail. Therefore, I guarded, says the Prophet, carefully attending to the future passions of Christ and the subsequent glories, the reprobation of my people, the faith of the nations, the disturbance of the same nations at the new preaching, the persecution to be stirred up by unbelievers against believers; and my heart was terrified by these things which I, foreseeing, spoke of as coming. Or certainly contemplating the different states of the human race: I guarded, he says, myself, with a trembling mind more diligently, lest I should sin in deed, in word, or in thought, and lest I, while preaching to others, should become a reprobate. And it should be noted that he says he was terrified by the voice of the prayer of his lips, although he seems to have prayed nothing at all in this whole song; but only describing with fear and trembling the future mysteries of Christ and the Church; nor is he mistaken who calls his song a prayer, he who also gave it such a title: The Prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet for Ignorances, because whatever a holy man speaks, indeed the whole of this is a prayer to God; whatever he does, anyone whose sincere intention is to please the Lord, this itself intercedes with God for him, and recommends him to the Lord.
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
And trembling entered into my bones. Just as Scripture sometimes designates our carnal actions by the name of flesh; so by the name of bones it usually designates strong and spiritual deeds. Therefore, he says, my heart was terrified by the things I foresee coming into the world, and whatever spiritual strength I thought was within me, all of this trembled as if fragile, while I observe the greater virtues and passions of the blessed Christ and His apostles; which is more clearly explained by the following word, when it is said:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
And beneath me, my strength was disturbed. However, he rightly says that his strength was disturbed not in himself, but beneath himself, because the prophet, having been taken up to the contemplation of heavenly mysteries, saw himself, as it were, elevated above himself; and the higher he is made by the light of contemplation, the more he sees himself as imperfect by the merit of his actions. For being lifted up to the sight of the highest things, he is rightly disturbed by the things he has done in the lowest. Yet the prophet's strength was disturbed, his bones trembled, his belly shuddered, not only because he knew himself to be less perfect in action, but also because all who wish to live piously in Christ are said to suffer persecutions; and he saw that even Christ Himself, who entered the world without sin, would not leave the world without the punishment of sin, as he had also indicated at the beginning of his song. Nevertheless, the same fear and trembling did not remain devoid of consolation, for the hope diminished the adversity present, and made lighter the rewards of the future. This is what follows:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
I will rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may ascend to the people of my transmigration. For he rests not only in the day of retribution, but also of tribulation, who does not doubt that he will obtain eternal joys through temporal afflictions, according to the saying of the Apostle: For we are saved by hope (Rom. VIII, 24). And again: Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom. XII, 12). And this is the rest of the elect in this life, that, leaving the desire for lowly things, they strive with the whole intention of their mind and with daily steps of good works to ascend and migrate to the fellowship of those who have preceded them in Christ; and, with the struggles of their sufferings finished, they may receive the crown of life in the example of those who, having been once transported to Babylon from Judea, returned again to their homeland under the leaders Zerubbabel and Jesus, whom the scripture calls the sons of the transmigration. It is recorded that with great devotion they restored the sacred things which the enemy had destroyed; which is the clearest figure of our state. For we were transported in our first parent from the heavenly homeland and brought into this world’s Babylon, that is, confusion; but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great King and High Priest, whose type Zerubbabel and Jesus bore, we are rightly recalled again to the homeland and the vision of supreme peace, which the name Jerusalem signifies; provided that, meanwhile, laboring in the Jerusalem of the present Church with pious works, we prepare ourselves in due time for entry to the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all. If it is read indifferently, as it is found in some Codices: I will rest in the day of tribulation, and my is not added, it can be understood according to that which is sung in the Psalm about the just man: In the evil day the Lord will deliver him (Ps. XL, 2), that is, in the day of judgment, when eternal tribulation will seize the reprobates, eternal rest will oppose and receive the just; but even before that final and general judgment, the saints rest in the day of tribulation, ascending to the people of their migration, when through good works transported from the world, they are united to the joys of the just who preceded them in the heavens, while equally their persecutors, taken from this life, undergo the eternal torments of hell, to be punished forever. Moreover, the day of tribulation can also be understood in this life, when, with the scarcity of temporal goods increasing, those who loved such things excessively, as if surrounded by miseries, grieve; but each chosen one, although enduring the same troubles bodily, has rest in the Lord with fixed hope of mind, knowing that the more he is weighed down in the lower things, the higher he will ascend after the pressures to the eternal fellowship of the celestial citizens. And this understanding aptly agrees with what follows:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
For [though] the fig-tree shall bear no fruit, and there shall be no produce on the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall produce no food: the sheep have failed from the pasture, and there are no oxen at the cribs;
διότι συκῆ οὐ καρποφορήσει, καὶ οὐκ ἔσται γενήματα ἐν ταῖς ἀμπέλοις· ψεύσεται ἔργον ἐλαίας, καὶ τὰ πεδία οὐ ποιήσει βρῶσιν· ἐξέλιπον ἀπὸ βρώσεως πρόβατα, καὶ οὐχ ὑπάρχουσι βόες ἐπὶ φάτναις.
Занѐ смо́ковь не плодопринесе́тъ, и҆ не бꙋ́детъ ро́да въ лоза́хъ: солже́тъ дѣ́ло ма́слинное, и҆ полѧ̀ не сотворѧ́тъ ꙗ҆́ди: ѡ҆скꙋдѣ́ша ѻ҆́вцы ѿ пи́щи, и҆ не бꙋ́детъ волѡ́въ при ꙗ҆́слехъ.
(Verse 17.) For the fig tree will not blossom, and there will be no fruit on the vines. The work of the olive tree will deceive, and the fields will not produce food. The flock will be cut off from the fold, and there will be no cattle in the stalls. According to the Septuagint: For the fig tree will not bear fruit, and there will be no blossoms on the vines. The work of the olive tree will deceive, and the fields will not produce food. They have vanished, because the sheep have been devoured, and there are no cattle in the stalls. According to the Hebrew text as we have mentioned before: Let rot enter my bones and let it spread beneath me, so that I may rest in the day of trouble. Let me ascend to our prepared people. What has gone before will be connected to what follows. Therefore, I have chosen to endure tribulation for now, and afterwards ascend to our strong people. For a day of trouble and necessity will come, and to those who are established in distress, I will rejoice in your majesty. For the fig tree will not blossom, and there will be no fruit on the vines. The work of the olive tree will deceive, and the fields will not produce food, and so on. Since these things do not differ much from the Septuagint, let us likewise discuss their interpretation. When the day of tribulation comes and I ascend to the people with whom I have once traveled as a pilgrim, or certainly when the day of the destruction of Judah comes and the former people and daughter of Zion are abandoned, like a tent in a vineyard, and like a hut in a cucumber field, and like a city that is besieged, I, who have been chosen from the perishing people (of whom it has been said, 'Unless the Lord had left us a seed, we would have been like Sodom and Gomorrah, similar to them'), will join myself to the disciples of Christ, whom he teaches on the mountain, leaving the crowds and the weak below, I will ascend to the mountains. For indeed the fig tree did not bear fruit, to which the Lord came in the Gospel hungry, and did not find any fruits on it, and he cursed it, saying: You shall not bear fruit forever (Matt 21:19). And consider carefully what he said: You shall not bear fruit forever, not until forever and ever, but when this age has passed, and the fullness of the Gentiles has come in, then this fig tree will also bear its fruits, and all Israel will be saved. This is the fig tree to which the master of the house came for the third time, and wanting to uproot it because it was not producing fruit. For this reason, the farmer, to whom it was entrusted, pleads that he give it more time and says: Master, let it be for another year, until I dig around it and put manure, and if indeed it bears fruit: but if not, then you can cut it down (Luke 13). This farmer is either Gabriel or Michael, to whom the people of Judah have been entrusted, who pleads with the Lord during his suffering and says: Lord, give them time for repentance, and do not uproot them, and if indeed they bear fruit: but if not, then uproot them. If they produce fruit, he said, he did not say what they endured; nor did he say, if they produce fruit, they will remain as they were; but if they produce fruit, the sentence is suspended, so that it may be understood, you will transfer them into the Church of the Gentiles, and you will transplant them into another vineyard. The Lord came a third time, and did not find fruit in them. He gave the Law first through Moses: second, he spoke through the prophets: third, he himself descended. And after the Passion, with forty-four years given for repentance, because they did not produce fruit, they were overthrown on the fourth occasion. However, it is left to our understanding. For in the parable it is not written what the master of the house did afterwards, but only what the farmer prayed for. From this we understand that those who have made fruit from this fig tree have been transferred to the people of the nations, to whom the prophet also ascended, saying: I will rest on the day of tribulation, so that I may ascend to the people of my pilgrimage. However, those who did not bear fruit and remained in their hardness have been uprooted. This very thing signifies the voice of John in the Gospel: Behold, the axe is laid at the roots of the trees. Every tree that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. (Matt. III, 10; Luc. III, 9) We have spoken about the fig tree, showing that it represents the Jewish people: let us also speak about the vineyard, which will be easily understood by those who have read Isaiah: The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are his pleasant planting. (Isai. V, 1). And afterwards: And I waited for it to bring forth fruit: but it made thorns, and not judgment, but outcry. And in Jeremiah: But I planted you as a fruitful vineyard, all of it true: how have you turned into the bitterness of a foreign vine (Jer. II, 21)? And more clearly in the Psalms: You brought a vine out of Egypt, you drove out the nations, and you planted it (Ps. LXXIX, 9). This therefore is the vineyard to which the master of the house often sent his servants (Matth. XXI), to receive from it the wine that gladdens the heart of man, but it has turned into bitterness, and finally it even dared to kill the son of the master of the house, not producing grapes, but thorns, and not judgment, but outcry: Crucify him, crucify him! And we have no king but Caesar (John 19:15). Therefore, the boar from the forest has destroyed it, and the savage beast in the field has devoured it (Psalm 79:14). Moreover, the olive tree will clearly represent the people of the synagogue, who, by breaking off the branches of the olive tree, will be grafted in as wild olives (Romans 11), and we, being grafted in from the wild olive tree, will understand that the multitude of the Jews has been cut off, but the election of the apostles has been preserved at its roots, and we will remain grafted in if we bear fruit, and it will be said of us: Your children are like olive saplings around your table (Psalm 128:3). Many people think that the fig tree, vine, and olive tree are symbols of the Holy Trinity. The fig tree represents the sweetness of the fruits, which is understood as the Holy Spirit. The vine is our Lord Jesus Christ himself, as he said in the Gospel: 'I am the vine' (John 15:1). The olive tree represents God the Almighty Father, from whom all things are illumined, and from whom light proceeds. We can say to Him: 'O olive tree, in your light we shall see light' (Psalm 36:9), meaning that in the Son we shall see the Holy Spirit. In the book of Judges (Chapter 9), there are fruitful trees and a very fertile vineyard. However, unfruitful trees come and ask to reign over them. But never does the olive, fig, or vine, which are owed to the fire, reign over the trees of the forest. Rather, the bramble full of thorns commands them, and the hedgehog-like creature that dwells in Babylon and always moves about in the pits. This little tree not only has thorns, but also fire, injuring and burning whatever it touches. Finally, the fire went out and consumed the wood of the forest. But so that you may know, according to the higher understanding in which we have received from the synagogue, it is said: The fig tree will not bear fruit, and there will be no offspring in the vineyards. It is not about the fruits, but about good deeds. In the olive, the riddle is clearly revealed and it is said: The work of the olive will lie. For the fruits that should have been brought forth are shown in deeds. But the work of the olive, promising one thing and doing another, saying to Moses: We will do everything that the Lord has spoken (Exod. 24:7), they did not want to believe in him who was preached by Moses. The fields also will not produce fruit. Consider that Jerusalem, which once was situated on mountains, and the mountains surrounding it (Ps. 124:2), and its foundations were in holy mountains (Psalm 86:1), is now called lowly and flat, which not only does not feed humans, that is, rational animals, but not even animals such as sheep and cows, of which Solomon speaks in Proverbs: Take care of the regions that are in the field, and tend the grass, and gather hay so that you have food for the sheep to eat. Cattle also will not be in the mangers: because where the mangers are full, the strength of the ox is evident (Prov. XIV, 4). The ox is a worker: the ox of the Lord bearing the yoke: blessed is the one who follows in its footsteps. All these things will be taken away from the people, because they have acted unjustly towards their Creator God. But if you are willing (or unwilling) to accept the day of tribulation, the day of consummation, you will see that all those who claim to be of the Church but do not have the works of justice will be referred to them. Both the fig tree and the vine and the olive, namely the mystery of the Trinity, do not bring forth their fruit in them, and not only the grains and food of the rational ones; but neither do they have food even for their livestock in their fields and their stables are empty, and they are turned from lofty mountains to plains and low places.
Commentary on Habakkuk
For the fig tree will not bear fruit, and there will be no generation in the vineyards. The work of the olive will lie and the fields will not yield food. The sheep have failed from their food, and there will be no oxen in the stalls. But I will glory in the Lord, and I will rejoice in God my Savior. For when the opulence of worldly things fails, carnal and lovers of this life are troubled, the righteous do not grieve over the loss of temporal goods but rejoice in the possession of the heavenly kingdom promised to the poor of Christ, mindful of the promised consolation of Him who said: Do not fear, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. And what wonderful faith, hope, and love of the prophet! The Son of God had not yet appeared in man receiving the name Jesus from His parents, and he, foreseeing the same name in the Spirit, testifies that he rejoices in Him amidst adversities, who would open the gate of the heavenly homeland for His faithful long after being born in the flesh. If anyone also seeks to expound these verses figuratively, the fig tree, vineyard, and olive were the synagogue of the Jews, which brought forth the sweetness of good works, the fragrance of fervent love, and the richness of a merciful soul devoted to God. Sheep and oxen were typically in the same people; the sheep, namely, in those who humbly heard the voice of the supreme Shepherd; the oxen, on the other hand, were in those who, zealously bearing the yoke of the law, by diligently teaching and correcting the hearts of listeners, as it were plowing the land of the Lord, prepared for the fruits of good works; and for those living spiritually, the fields of the divine Scriptures most widely made spiritual foods, with whose nourishment he who was made like a beast before the Lord delighted, and always adhered to Him, saying: The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want, in a place of pasture, He has placed me there (Ps. 22:1). But this fig tree, to which the Lord came the third time, that is, in the legislation through Moses, in the diligent rebuke and exhortation through the prophets, in the offering of grace through Himself, neglected to bear the fruit of virtue, because of which it was condemned to eternal dryness by His curse. The generation in the vineyards of the Lord once failed, that is, the fruit of charity failed among the crowds of the Jews, because they offered vinegar to Him who thirsted instead of wine, that is, the sweetness of virtues He sought in them, they brought forth the bitterness of vices desiring virtues. The work of the olive lied, when that people anointed the heads of the wretched with the oil of flattery, and echoed the true words of the prophet falsely, saying: But I, like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have trusted in the mercy of God (Ps. 51:10), wherefore at the time of the final retribution, bringing forth extinguished lamps, with their own darkness, they will be excluded from the entrance to the heavenly homeland. The fields do not yield food when the same people, opening the pages of divine writings, cannot rightly understand and find the pastures of truth. The sheep fail from their food, for those whom the refreshment of internal sweetness is absent, whence the innocence of a simple life may not come forth. Thus it was said: the sheep have failed from their food, that is, because food was lacking, as the Prophet in the Psalms: And my flesh, he says, was changed because of the oil (Ps. 108:24), that is, because the oil with which I might be refreshed or anointed was not there. Indeed, some Codices have it this way: The sheep have failed because they did not eat, and there are no oxen in the stalls. For although there are abundantly in the Jews the stalls of heavenly writings; yet because they do not taste the food of heavenly understanding in them, those who bear the sweet yoke of the Gospel are absent. Considering all these things that are to come upon the perfidious part of his people, the prophet immediately shows what he himself would do with the faithful of the same people, or rather with the society of the Church, which was gathered in Christ from all over the world, or elected: But I, he says, will glory not in my own righteousness, but in faith in the divine protection, I will rejoice in God my Savior, that is my Savior, because I perceive salvation to be not in me, but in Him. And as if we were to ask him why he glories in the Lord and rejoices in God his Savior, whom he called his own with great affection of love, he immediately, as if insinuating the most just cause of the same joy, ended his song thus:
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
yet I will exult in the Lord, I will joy in God my Saviour.
ἐγὼ δὲ ἐν τῷ Κυρίῳ ἀγαλλιάσομαι, χαρήσομαι ἐπὶ τῷ Θεῷ τῷ σωτῆρί μου.
А҆́зъ же ѡ҆ гдⷭ҇ѣ возра́дꙋюсѧ, возвеселю́сѧ ѡ҆ бз҃ѣ сп҃сѣ мое́мъ.
18–19(Verse 18, 19) But as for me, I will rejoice in the Lord, and exult in God my savior. God, the Lord, is my strength, and he will make my feet like the feet of deer. And he will lead me up to the high places triumphantly, singing in Psalms. According to the Septuagint: But as for me, I will exult in the Lord; I will rejoice over God my savior. The Lord God is my strength, and he will set my feet in the consummation: he will place me upon the high places, so that I may overcome in his song. Ficus tree, vine, and olive tree, as I explained, not producing their fruit, and the fields of the Jews not yielding food, and also the livestock and cattle being cut off from the sheepfold and the stalls, after they heard from the Lord: Your house shall be left desolate (Matthew 23:38), and the people also being handed over to captivity and dispersed throughout the whole world, the prophet from the people of Judah, who is called the embrace (because he loved the Lord and clung to him, and joined himself to him), speaks on behalf of the apostles and the people who believe in Christ: But I will rejoice in the Lord, and I will exult in the God of my Jesus. For they translated LXX as τῷ Σωτῆρί μου, that is, my Savior. The same with Gabriel interpreting: And His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people (Matt. II, 21). God the Lord is my strength; for I shall have no other but in Christ, and I shall count all the righteousnesses of the law as garbage. And He shall make my feet like the feet of a deer, to tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and like a little child I shall put my hand in the hole and draw out the serpent (Alexandria. Judah) and play. For my brother is like a roe or a young stag (Song of Solomon II, 9). And because he himself is a stag, he also gave to me, that I may be a stag, with lofty horns, splitting hooves, chewing cud, and driving away serpents by my scent: of which it is said in the seventeenth Psalm: He made my feet like those of stags, and he will set me on high. And in the twenty-eighth: The voice of the Lord who accomplishes stags. Therefore, he will set my feet among his other stags, and he will lead me to the heavenly things, so that I may sing the glory of the Lord among the angels, and announce peace on earth to people of good will. Let us sing of his victory and triumph and the trophy of the cross. This, according to the Hebrew version and the fifth edition, we should refer to the time of the destruction of Judea and the coming of the Lord. But if we wish to understand the consummation of the world, it should be explained as follows: just as in Exodus (Chapter 9) when Egypt was struck, and God struck their vineyards and fig trees, and killed the firstborn of men and animals with hail, and destroyed the Egyptian crops with caterpillars and locusts. The fig trees in Egypt did not bear fruit, nor were there any buds on their vines; the olive tree, where it could still be found in Egypt, produced no oil, and their fields did not yield food; and their cattle were dying in the pasture and there were no oxen in the stalls. But the people of Israel rejoiced in the Lord, and delighted in God their Savior: so in the consummation of the world, when charity shall have grown cold through multiplied iniquity, and the fig-tree shall not bear fruit, and the vineyard shall not yield grapes, and the work of the olive shall be deceitful, and the fields shall not yield food, and other things that follow: then whoever shall be found just and worthy of God's election, shall speak in exultation. But I will rejoice in the Lord, I will exult in God my Savior. The Lord is my strength. And being placed by God above the end of the age, so that afterwards He might ascend to higher things, and being educated by God to the highest, He shall say: He will set my feet upon the end, He will place me upon the highest places, so that when with Jesus, the ἀγωνοθέτης, who first triumphed in the struggle, the reward will be given to those singing hymns: I will conquer in His song, and my hands will play the lyre, and the harp, and every kind of instrument, and I will write a panegyric praising the triumphant one. And I, who spoke at the beginning, said: How long shall I cry out, and you will not hear? I will cry out to you of violence, and you will not save? And I have been accused of his justice and judgment: then I will praise his equity, and surpass the other singers with my song.
Commentary on Habakkuk
“And [Joseph] called his name Jesus.” “Jesus” in Hebrew means “saving” or “Savior” in Latin. It is clear that the prophets most certainly call upon his name. Hence these things are sung in great desire for a vision of him: “My soul will exult in the Lord and take delight in his salvation.” “My soul pines for your salvation.” “I, however, will glory in the Lord; I will rejoice in God my Jesus.” And especially that [verse]: “God in your name save me!” as if [the prophet] would say, “You who are called Savior; make bright the glory of your name in me by saving.”
Homilies on the Gospels 1:5
The Lord God is my strength, and he will perfectly strengthen my feet; he mounts me upon high places, that I may conquer by his song.
Κύριος ὁ Θεὸς δύναμίς μου καὶ τάξει τοὺς πόδας μου εἰς συντέλειαν· ἐπὶ τὰ ὑψηλὰ ἐπιβιβᾷ με τοῦ νικῆσαί με ἐν τῇ ᾠδῇ αὐτοῦ.
Гдⷭ҇ь бг҃ъ мо́й си́ла моѧ̀, и҆ ᲂу҆чини́тъ но́зѣ моѝ на соверше́нїе, и҆ на высѡ́каѧ возво́дитъ мѧ̀, є҆́же побѣди́ти мѝ въ пѣ́сни є҆гѡ̀.
The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet as sure as deer’s, and He will set me on high places, so that I may triumph in His glory. As if He openly says: Indeed, beneath me my strength is troubled, that is, while I contemplate the condition of human frailty, which is below; and while I lift the eyes of my mind to the grace of divine help, I trust that I can make strength in Him. He is able to lead the steps of my works to the completion of a firm end; He can set me on high so that we may utterly despise all the loftiness of worldly power by the contemplation of eternal goods. I shall overcome all temptations which come to me either from the adversities or the blandishments of the world in His love through which I will be, that is, while in all things I do not seek my own glory, but His, from whom I remember that I have received whatever good I do. For deservedly, they are helped by the Lord, that having overcome temptations, they, having been proven, may reach the prize of the heavenly calling, who refer the entire cause of their victory to His praise. Some manuscripts have: And I will triumph in His Song, which looks to the same sense. For whoever knows how to give thanks to Him from the heart in all the tribulations he suffers, he triumphs in the Lord's Song, knowing that all things work together for good to those who love God, and as accustomed with blessed Job: Blessed be the name of the Lord (Job 1:21). Finally, the apostles Paul and Silas, amid beatings, darkness, and chains of prison, sang a hymn to God; and thus divinely helped, they suddenly emerged as victors, for indeed, although their feet seemed to be tightly bound in stocks, the steps of their works were made complete in virtues. Beautifully, the end of this prophetic song corresponds to its beginning. For he who, having heard and considered the works of the Lord appearing in the flesh, faithfully fears and trembles, is made so that, despising those things which in this life are borne in various states like the waves of the sea, he may glory and rejoice in Him alone whose joys he can perpetually enjoy; helped by Him, so that he is neither broken by the adversities of the present world nor enervated by its allurements; he sings the praises of His grace both in the present, that he may deserve to conquer, and in the future, because he has conquered, he should never cease to sing. It also happens that such a soul overcomes the world in the glory of the Lord, namely, by His same glory, both often recalled to memory in times of struggles, and beheld perpetually in times of rewards, according to what He promised: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). It should be noted, however, that with the prayer or song of Habakkuk explained, his name, which is interpreted as embracing, corresponds to the sense of the same prayer. For it is clear that he embraced the Lord with the inward love of the heart and adhered to Him, who testifies that he glories and rejoices in Him alone. May it happen, dearest sister and virgin of Christ, that also we, loving Him, may be made worthy of such a name. If indeed we strive to embrace Him with all our heart, all our soul, and all our strength, He will deign to embrace us with the arms of His love, mindful of His promise where He says: He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him (John 14:21); and thus we will deserve to be numbered among the members of that bride who is accustomed to joyfully sing to her Creator, her heavenly spouse: His left hand is under my head, and His right hand shall embrace me. Amen (Song of Solomon 2:6).
Commentary on the Song of Habakkuk
A PRAYER OF THE PROPHET AMBACUM, WITH A SONG. O Lord, I have heard thy report, and was afraid:
Προσευχὴ ᾿Αμβακοὺμ τοῦ προφήτου μετὰ ᾠδῆς. - ΚΥΡΙΕ, εἰσακήκοα τὴν ἀκοήν σου καὶ ἐφοβήθην·
Моли́тва а҆ввакꙋ́ма прⷪ҇ро́ка съ пѣ́снїю. Гдⷭ҇и, ᲂу҆слы́шахъ слꙋ́хъ тво́й и҆ ᲂу҆боѧ́хсѧ: