Habakkuk 3:6

He stood and measured the earth,.... This alludes to the ark of the Lord, the symbol of his presence, standing and abiding at Gilgal for the space of fourteen years, while the land of Canaan was

He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. He stood, and measured the earth.

He stood; gave his presence with Joshua and others, as one that stood by while the work was done. Measured: he divided to them their inheritance, and did this without toil or difficulty, his very presence with his people was enough to make it known what he allotted to them. The earth; the Promised Land. He beheld; looked with a frowning countenance, with anger in his eye. Drove asunder; cast them out, or caused them to flee, as many did out of that country; his eye did this, for he looked on them and did this. The nations; the cursed nations. The everlasting mountains were scattered; either literally understood, as , and may relate to that the psalmist minds, ,6, when the whole mount, all the mountainous parts of Sinai, tremble, , &c.; or figuratively, the state of these nations, seeming as immovable as mountains, yet soon shook and dissolved, before the rebuke of the Lord. The perpetual hills did bow; an elegant immutation of the phrase, to illustrate and confirm the same thing. His ways are everlasting; the wisdom, goodness, justice, holiness, faithfulness, and power of God, which he showeth in the methods of his governing his church and people, are everlasting, they are the same, and where the same circumstances concur the same effects of his power may be hoped for. So the prophet pursueth the argument; they are everlasting loving-kindnesses with which he embraceth his church.

Habakkuk 3:6 He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways [are] everlasting.Ver. 6. He stood, and measured the earth] Not Joshua, but God, brought his people into the promised land, and divided it among them, Psalms 78:55. Like as also he had divided the whole earth by bounds and borders to the various nations, Psalms 74:17, and doth still appoint men the bounds of their habitations, Acts 17:26. He beheld, and drove asunder the nations] He did it with his looks, as it were; that is, with very little ado. Let the Lord but arise only and his enemies shall be scattered, let him but frown and they fall before him. If Augustus could frown to death Asinius Pollio, and Queen Elizabeth her chancellor Hatton, what shall we think of God’ s bended brows? And the everlasting mountains were scattered] i.e. Those kingdoms of the Canaanites that were held firm and immoveable as the mountains, yea, riveted as it were upon eternity, see Numbers 13:28-29; Numbers 13:33. These were scattered, dissilierunt, fell in pieces, and leaped this way and that way, as stones broken with a great hammer. God threshed these mountains, and beat them small, he made the hills as chaff, Isaiah 41:15. No worldly height could stand before him. By mountains here some understand kings and princes, as by hills those of inferior rank. His ways are everlasting] Heb. His walks or journeys, that is, his government of the world by his power and wisdom, is perpetual, he never casteth off the care thereof. There are those who refer the word his to the Canaanites, who had of old possessed the land without disturbance (αυτοχθονες); but the former sense is the better.

(6) He stood, and measured the earth . . .—Better, He has taken His stand and measured the earth, He has looked and made the heathen tremble; and the primeval mountains are broken up, the ancient hills sink down; His goings are as of old; i.e., His proceedings are the same as of old time, when He brought up Israel from Egypt. God measures or parcels out the earth; and the usurping invader is put to confusion. The mountains are convulsed, as was Sinai of old. (Comp. Judges 5:5, Psalms 68:8.)

Verse 6. He stood, and measured the earth] ארץ erets, the land; he divided the promised land among the twelve tribes. This is the allusion; and this the prophet had in his eye. God not only made a general assignment of the land to the Hebrews; but he even divided it into such portions as the different families required. Here were both power and condescension. When a conqueror had subdued a country, he divided it among his soldiers. Among the Romans, those among whom the conquered lands were divided were termed beneficiary; and the lands beneficia, as being held on the beneficence of the sovereign. He beheld, and drove asunder the nations] The nations of Canaan, the Hittites, Hivites, Jebusites, c., and all who opposed his people. Even his look dispersed them. The everlasting mountains were scattered] Or, broken asunder. This may refer to the convulsions on Mount Sinai and to the earth quake which announced the descent of the Most High. See Exodus 19:18. "God occupied the summit of the eternal Mount Sinai; and led his people over the eternal mountains of Arabia Petraea; and this sense is preferable to the figurative one, that his ways or doings are predetermined front everlasting." -Newcome. The epithets עד ad, and עולם olam, eternal, and everlasting, are applied to mountains and immense rocks, because no other parts of nature are less subject to decay or change, than these immense masses of earth and stone, and that almost indestructible stone, granite, out of which Sinai appears to be formed. A piece of the beautiful granite of this mountain now lies before me. This is a figurative description of the passage of the Israelites through the deserts of Arabia, over mountains, rocks, and through the trackless wilderness; over and through which God, by his power and providence, gave them a safe passage. The following beautiful piece from the Fragments of AEschylus will illustrate the preceding description, and please the learned reader. ΧωριζεθνητωντονΘεον, καιμηδοκει Ομοιοναυτῳσαρκινονκαθεσταναι· Ουκοισθαδ' αυτον·ποτεμενὡςπυρφαινεται Απλαστονὁρμῃποτεδ' ὑδωρ, ποτεδεγνοφος. Καιθηρσιναυτοςγινεταιπαρεμφερης, Ανεμῳ, νεφειτε, κᾳστραπῃ, βροντῃ, βροχῃ. Ὑπηρετειδ' αυτῳθαλασσα, καιπετραι, Καιπασαπηγη, χ' ὑδατοςσυστηματα· Τρεμειδ' ορηκαιγαιακαιπελωριος Βυθοςθαλασσης, κωρεωνὑψοςμεγα, Οτανεπιβλεψῃγοργονομμαδεσποτου. AESCHYLI Fragm. Confound not God with man; nor madly deem His form is mortal, and of flesh like thine. Thou know'st him not. Sometimes like fire he glows In wrath severe; sometimes as water flows; In brooding darkness now his power conceals And then in brutes that mighty power reveals. In clouds tempestuous we the Godhead find; He mounts the storm, and rides the winged wind; In vivid lightnings flashes from on high; In rattling thunders rends the lowering sky; Fountains and rivers, seas and floods obey, And ocean's deep abyss yields to his sway; The mountains tremble, and the hills sink down, Crumbled to dust by the Almighty's frown. When God unfolds the terrors of his eye, All things with horror quake, and in confusion lie. J. B. B. CLARKE.

6. stood, and measured] “Measured” could only mean surveyed, measured with His eyes, and this might be supposed taken up again in “he looked” of next clause; but the parallelism with the next clause rather requires that the effect of His standing or taking His stand should be stated. Possibly the word “measured” has the sense of a similar word used Isaiah 24:19, he made the earth to rock. Sept. renders in the pass., the earth was shaken. The preceding verses describe the Theophany as seen in heaven, it has not yet touched the earth, though its baleful accompaniments of pestilence and fever-glow are spoken of. Now the tempest in which the Deity is shrouded descends and touches the earth, enfolding the heights within it. “He stood” means He took his stand, He set His foot; 2 Samuel 20:4; Isaiah 1:8; Ezekiel 22:30. The earth felt His tread and rocked, Micah 1:3-4. Or, “stood” might describe an apparent stationariness of the storm-cloud during which it discharged itself, making the earth rock. Cf. Psalms 29:4-5. He beheld, and drove asunder] He looked, and His look scared the nations into violent commotion. The term means to make one spring, up from terror, Job 37:1. mountains were scattered] Or, do cleave asunder. The sense is scarcely that the hills were scattered from one another, rather that the individual mountains were cleft. Cf. Zechariah 14:4, “His feet shall stand on the mount of Olives, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof, toward the east and toward the west.” perpetual hills did bow] Or, eternal hills.—Genesis 49:26; Deuteronomy 33:15. Their bowing refers to the sinking and rising motion, as in an earthquake, under the feet of Jehovah in the tempest. His ways are everlasting] R.V. his goings were as of old. If this sense were adopted it would decide that the previous description referred to a Theophany about to appear, which is compared to the former historical one, the term “going” being equivalent to way. The term “goings” however might be in apposition to “eternal hills,” and the meaning be that these hills were Jehovah’s eternal pathways—the trailing tempests, in which Jehovah moves, are seen passing over the mountains, and thus these are considered the pathways of the Lord. Cf. Amos 4:13, “he treadeth upon the high places of the earth”; Micah 1:3. The past tenses of A.V. might be retained in the verse, but as the poet feels himself in presence of the imposing phenomenon, it is perhaps better to throw them into the present: He taketh his stand, and maketh the earth to quake, He looketh, and causeth the nations to tremble; And the everlasting mountains are cleft asunder, The eternal hills do bow; Even his pathways from of old. The last line overloads the parallelism, and in whatever sense it be taken rather drags.

He stood - It is “a metaphor of his giving victory to Israel” Tanchum. And measured - So Kimchi, A. E., Rashi, Tanchum, Vulgate. It is borne out by Hithpolel. “extended himself,” 1 Kings 17:21.

Jehovah’s terrible approach, Habakkuk 3:3-7.3. Teman — See on Amos 1:12. Mount Paran — In all probability the mountain range between Mount Seir and Mount Sinai.