Bible Strands
Habakkuk 3:9
You brandished Your bow; You called for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Habakkuk 3:9 falls within a prophetic prayer where the speaker recounts God’s past military campaign against chaotic waters and hostile nations. The prophet addresses God directly, following the rhetorical questions of verse 8 about His wrath against rivers and the sea.
The words — The Hebrew קַשְׁתְּךָ (kash-techa) and מַטּוֹת (matot) denote a drawn bow and arrows, while נְהָרוֹת (neharot) literally means rivers. The text uses these terms to describe God’s martial posture and His capacity to fracture the earth with flowing waters.
The thread — The drawn bow imagery appears in Psalms 7:12, and the motif of splitting rock to release rivers connects to Psalms 78:15 and 105:41. These passages track a consistent scriptural pattern where God’s judgment and provision are expressed through combined martial and hydrological language.
Why it lands — The verse requires the reader to acknowledge that divine wrath and life-giving provision operate through the same sovereign authority. It demands that one stop treating God’s destructive power and His sustaining power as separate domains and recognize them as unified actions.
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
King James Version
Thy bow was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
Cross-references
- Psalms 7:12 If one does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has bent and strung His bow.
- Psalms 78:15 He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as abundant as the seas.
- Psalms 105:41 He opened a rock, and water gushed out; it flowed like a river in the desert.
- Luke 1:72 to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant,
- Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. And when you strike the rock, water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel.
- Numbers 20:11 Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his staff, so that a great amount of water gushed out, and the congregation and their livestock were able to drink.
- Deuteronomy 32:23 I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them.
- Psalms 105:8 He remembers His covenant forever, the word He ordained for a thousand generations—
- Psalms 143:6 I stretch out my hands to You; my soul thirsts for You like a parched land. Selah
- Isaiah 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD. Wake up as in days past, as in generations of old. Was it not You who cut Rahab to pieces, who pierced through the dragon?