Habakkuk 3:16

I heard and trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Decay entered my bones; I trembled where I stood. Yet I must wait patiently for the day of distress to come upon the people who invade us.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Habakkuk speaks as a prophet recording a divine vision, positioned between a description of God's power over the waters and a catalog of agricultural collapse. He addresses a community facing invasion, stating that the revelation physically paralyzed him before he resolved to wait for the coming distress.

The words — The Hebrew שָמַ֣עְתִּי (sha.Ma'.ti) means "I heard," and רָקָ֛ב (ra.Kav) translates literally as "rottenness" or "decay." These terms anchor the prophet's bodily collapse to the auditory reception of God's judgment.

The thread — This physical terror parallels the prophetic collapse recorded in Jeremiah 23:9 and Daniel 10:8, while echoing Habakkuk 1:5's call to witness God's astonishing work. The motif links divine revelation with involuntary bodily response across the prophetic corpus.

Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge that confronting divine judgment produces paralysis before it yields patient endurance. Faithful waiting is presented as a deliberate act that follows, rather than replaces, the terror of revelation.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

שָׁמַ֣עְתִּי׀sha.Ma'.tiI heard וַתִּרְגַּ֣זva./tir.Gazand/ it trembled בִּטְנִ֗יbit.N/ibelly/ my לְקוֹל֙le./kOlto/ [the] sound צָלֲל֣וּtza.la.Luthey quivered שְׂפָתַ֔יse.fa.Ta/ilips/ my יָב֥וֹאya.Vo'it came רָקָ֛בra.Kavrottenness בַּעֲצָמַ֖יba./'a.tza.Ma/iin/ bones/ my וְתַחְתַּ֣יve./tach.Ta/iand/ under/ me אֶרְגָּ֑ז'er.GazI trembled אֲשֶׁ֤ר'a.Sherthat אָנ֙וּחַ֙'a.Nu.achI will be quiet לְי֣וֹםle./Yomfor/ [the] day of צָרָ֔הtza.Rahtrouble לַעֲל֖וֹתla./'a.Lotto/ come up לְעַ֥םle./'Amto/ [the] people יְגוּדֶֽנּוּ׃ye.gu.De./nu[which] attacks us/ it

King James Version

When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.

Cross-references

Jeremiah 23:9 As for the prophets: My heart is broken within me, and all my bones tremble. I have become like a drunkard, like a man overcome by wine, because of the LORD, because of His holy words.
Daniel 10:8 So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision. No strength remained in me; my face grew deathly pale, and I was powerless.
Habakkuk 1:5 “Look at the nations and observe—be utterly astounded! For I am doing a work in your days that you would never believe even if someone told you.
Habakkuk 3:2 O LORD, I have heard the report of You; I stand in awe, O LORD, of Your deeds. Revive them in these years; make them known in these years. In Your wrath, remember mercy!
Psalms 94:12 Blessed is the man You discipline, O LORD, and teach from Your law,
Psalms 119:120 My flesh trembles in awe of You; I stand in fear of Your judgments.
Jeremiah 25:9 behold, I will summon all the families of the north, declares the LORD, and I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, whom I will bring against this land, against its residents, and against all the surrounding nations. So I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and contempt, an everlasting desolation.
Jeremiah 45:3 You have said, ‘Woe is me because the LORD has added sorrow to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.’”
2 Thessalonians 1:6 After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
Jeremiah 15:10 Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and conflict in all the land. I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.