Waiting for the battle (Hab 3:16-3:16)

“I hear!

My body trembles!

My lips quiver

At the sound.

Rottenness enters

Into my bones.

My steps tremble

Beneath me.

I quietly wait

For the day

Of calamity

To come upon the people

Who attack us.”

Habakkuk was waiting for the eventual defeat of his enemy.  However, there would be a battle.  Thus, he could hear his body tremble and his lips quivering.  There was a certain rottenness in his bones.  He was weak kneed as he walked.  He was quietly waiting for the day of calamity when his attackers would suffer.


The hired mercenary fighters fled (Jer 46:20-46:21)

“A beautiful heifer is Egypt.

A gadfly from the north

Lights upon her.

Even her mercenaries,

In her midst,

Are like fatted calves.

They too have turned.

They have fled together.

They did not stand.

The day of their calamity

Has come upon them.

It is

The time of their punishment.”

Although Egypt was a beautiful heifer, this Babylonian gadfly from the north was attacking her. Even the Egyptian hired soldiers, the mercenaries, the fatted cows, the real warriors, had fled together. They did not stand strong in the day of calamity. The day of their punishment came upon them.