Back to Habakkuk 3

Habakkuk 3:10

The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high.

  • KJV King James Version

    The mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water passed by: the deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    The mountains have seen Thee, and they tremble; the tempest of waters floweth over; the deep uttereth its voice, and lifteth up its hands on high.

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Cross-references (33)

Passages linked to Habakkuk 3:10 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Joshua 4:23-24 For Yahweh your God dried up the waters of the Jordan from before you until you had crossed over, as Yahweh your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up from before us, until we had crossed over, that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh’s hand is mighty, and that you may fear Yahweh your God forever.’ ”
  • Psalms 93:3 The floods have lifted up, Yahweh, the floods have lifted up their voice. The floods lift up their waves.
  • Psalms 98:7-8 Let the sea roar with its fullness; the world, and those who dwell therein. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing for joy together.
  • Isaiah 43:20 The animals of the field, the jackals and the ostriches, shall honor me, because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen,
  • Jeremiah 4:24 I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.
  • Joshua 4:18 When the priests who bore the ark of Yahweh’s covenant had come up out of the middle of the Jordan, and the soles of the priests’ feet had been lifted up to the dry ground, the waters of the Jordan returned to their place, and went over all its banks, as before.
  • Hebrews 11:29 By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do so, they were swallowed up.
  • Exodus 19:16-18 On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of an exceedingly loud trumpet; and all the people who were in the camp trembled. Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the lower part of the mountain. All of Mount Sinai smoked, because Yahweh descended on it in fire; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly.
  • Psalms 74:13-15 You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures. You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers.
  • Psalms 136:13-15 to him who divided the Red Sea apart; for his loving kindness endures forever; and made Israel to pass through the middle of it; for his loving kindness endures forever; but overthrew Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea; for his loving kindness endures forever:
  • Isaiah 63:11-13 Then he remembered the days of old, Moses and his people, saying, “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put his Holy Spirit among them?” Who caused his glorious arm to be at Moses’ right hand? Who divided the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name? Who led them through the depths, like a horse in the wilderness, so that they didn’t stumble?
  • Isaiah 64:1-2 Oh that you would tear the heavens, that you would come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence. As when fire kindles the brushwood, and the fire causes the water to boil; Make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence!
  • Matthew 27:51 Behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth quaked and the rocks were split.
  • Exodus 14:22-28 The children of Israel went into the middle of the sea on the dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand, and on their left. The Egyptians pursued, and went in after them into the middle of the sea: all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. In the morning watch, Yahweh looked out on the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and of cloud, and confused the Egyptian army. He took off their chariot wheels, and they drove them heavily; so that the Egyptians said, “Let’s flee from the face of Israel, for Yahweh fights for them against the Egyptians!” Yahweh said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the waters may come again on the Egyptians, on their chariots, and on their horsemen.” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it. Yahweh overthrew the Egyptians in the middle of the sea. The waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even all Pharaoh’s army that went in after them into the sea. There remained not so much as one of them.
  • Joshua 3:15-16 and when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests who bore the ark had dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan overflows all its banks all the time of harvest), the waters which came down from above stood, and rose up in one heap a great way off, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those that went down toward the sea of the Arabah, even the Salt Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people passed over near Jericho.
  • Judges 5:4-5 “Yahweh, when you went out of Seir, when you marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, the sky also dropped. Yes, the clouds dropped water. The mountains quaked Yahweh’s presence, even Sinai at the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel.
  • Nehemiah 9:11 You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the middle of the sea on the dry land; and you cast their pursuers into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters.
  • Psalms 18:15 Then the channels of waters appeared. The foundations of the world were laid bare at your rebuke, Yahweh, at the blast of the breath of your nostrils.
  • Psalms 65:13 The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing.
  • Psalms 66:6 He turned the sea into dry land. They went through the river on foot. There, we rejoiced in him.
  • Psalms 68:7-8 God, when you went out before your people, when you marched through the wilderness... The earth trembled. The sky also poured down rain at the presence of the God of Sinai— at the presence of God, the God of Israel.
  • Psalms 77:16-19 The waters saw you, God. The waters saw you, and they writhed. The depths also convulsed. The clouds poured out water. The skies resounded with thunder. Your arrows also flashed around. The voice of your thunder was in the whirlwind. The lightnings lit up the world. The earth trembled and shook. Your way was through the sea; your paths through the great waters. Your footsteps were not known.
  • Psalms 96:11-13 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness! Let the field and all that is in it exult! Then all the trees of the woods shall sing for joy before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.
  • Psalms 97:4-5 His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
  • Psalms 114:3-8 The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs. What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back? You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs? Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.
  • Isaiah 11:15-16 Yahweh will utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his scorching wind he will wave his hand over the River, and will split it into seven streams, and cause men to march over in sandals. There will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, like there was for Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt.
  • Isaiah 55:12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.
  • Micah 1:4 The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.
  • Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake before him, and the hills melt away. The earth trembles at his presence, yes, the world, and all who dwell in it.
  • Habakkuk 3:6 He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal.
  • Revelation 6:14 The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
  • Revelation 16:12 The sixth poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates. Its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings that come from the sunrise.
  • Revelation 20:11 I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (14 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Habakkuk proceeds with the history of the people’s redemption.…

Habakkuk proceeds with the history of the people’s redemption. We have said what his object was, even this that the people, though in an extreme state of calamity, might yet entertain hope of God’s favor; for he became not a Redeemer to the race of Abraham for one time, but that he might continue the same favor to them to the end.

He says that mountains had seen and grieved. Some explain this allegorically of kings, and say, that they grieved when envy preyed on them: but this view is too strained. The Prophet, I have no doubt, means simply, that the mountains obeyed God, so as to open a way for his people. At the same time, the verb חול, chul, signifies not only to grieve, but also to bring forth, and then to fall and to abide in the same place. We might then with no less propriety read thus—see thee did the mountains, and were still, or fell down; that is, they were subservient to thy command, and did not intercept the way of thy people. I think the real meaning of the Prophet to be, that God had formerly imprinted on all the elements evident marks of his paternal favor, so that the posterity of Abraham might ever confide in him as their deliverer in all their distresses: and even the context requires this meaning; for he subjoins -

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The stream or the inundation of waters, etc.: and this second part cannot be explained allegorically. We then see, that the import of the words is—That God removed all obstacles, so that neither mountains, nor waters, nor sea, nor rivers, intercepted the passage of the people. He says now, that the inundation of waters had passed away. This applies both to Jordan and to the Red Sea; for God separated the Red Sea, so that the waters stood apart, contrary to the laws of nature, and the same thing happened to Jordan; for the flowing of the water was stayed, and a way was opened, so that the people passed over dryshod into the land of Canaan. Thus took place what is said by the Prophet, the stream of waters passed away. We indeed know that such is the abundance of waters in the sea and in the rivers, that they cannot be dried up: when therefore waters disappear, it is what is beyond the course of nature. The Prophet, therefore, records this miracle, that the faithful might know, that though the whole world were resisting, their salvation would still be certain; for the Lord can surmount whatever impediments there may be.

He then ascribes life to waters; for he says, that the abyss gave its voice, and also, that the deep lifted up its hands; or that the abyss with uplifted hands was ready to obey God. It is a striking personification; for though the abyss is void of intelligence, and it cannot speak, yet the Prophet says, that the abyss with its voice and uplifted hands testified its obedience, when God would have his people to pass through to the promised land. When anxious to testify our obedience, we do this both with our voice and in our gesture. When any one is willing to do what is commanded, he says, “Here I am,” or “I promise to do this.” As, then, servants respond to others, so the Prophet says, that a voice was uttered by the abyss. The abyss indeed uttered no voice; but the event itself surpassed all voices. Now when a whole people meet together, they raise their hands; for their consent cannot be understood except by the outstretching of the hands, and hence came the word hand-extending, χειροτονια. This similitude the Prophet now takes, and says, that the abyss raised up its hands; that is, shows its consent by this gesture. As when men declare by this sign that they will do what they are bidden; so also the abyss lifted up its hands. If we read, The deep raised up its hands, the sense will be the same. Let us proceed -

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He alludeth to the red sea and Jordan, which…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Hab 3:10 The mountains saw thee, [and] they trembled:…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The mountains; literally taken, it is an elegant hyperbole,…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain The mountains saw thee, and they trembled,.... At the…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Overflowing - The inundation which at that season was…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 10. The mountains saw thee] This is the…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The mountains saw Thee and they trembled - literally,…
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Grieved. They seemed full of surprise, as in labour,…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The mountains--repetition with increased emphasis of some of the…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 10. The mountains saw thee, and] the mountains see…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (10) The mountains saw thee.—The earthquake at Sinai and…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The mountains saw thee, and they trembled; literally, were…
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:10 waters: See study note on 3:8; see also…

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