Habakkuk 1:9
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
American King James Version (AKJV)
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
American Standard Version (ASV)
They come all of them for violence; the set of their faces is forwards; and they gather captives as the sand.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
They are coming all of them with force; the direction of their faces is forward, the number of their prisoners is like the sands of the sea.
Webster's Revision
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
World English Bible
All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.
English Revised Version (ERV)
They come all of them for violence; their faces are set eagerly as the east wind; and they gather captives as the sand.
Definitions for Habakkuk 1:9
Clarke's Habakkuk 1:9 Bible Commentary
Their faces shall sup up as the east wind - This may be an allusion to those electrical winds which prevail in that country. Mr. Jackson, in his overland journey from India, mentions his having bathed in the Tigris. On his coming out of the river one of those winds passed over him, and, in a moment, carried off every particle of water that was on his body and in his bathing dress. So, the Chaldeans shall leave no substance behind them; their faces, their bare appearance, is the proof that nothing good shall be left.
Shall gather the captivity as the sand - They shall carry off innumerable captives.
Barnes's Habakkuk 1:9 Bible Commentary
They shall come all for violence - "Violence" had been the sin of Judah Habakkuk 1:3-4, and now violence shall be her punishment. It had been ever before the prophet; all were full of it. Now should violence be the very end, one by one, of all the savage horde poured out upon them; they all, each one of them come for violence.
Their faces shall sup up as the east wind - קדומה occurs else only in Ezekiel 11:1, and Ezekiel 11:16 times in Ezekiel 40-48 of the ideal city and temple as "Eastwards." But except in the far-fetched explanation of Abarb (mentioned also by Tanchum) that they ravaged, not to settle but to return home with their booty, "Eastwards" would have no meaning. Yet "forwards" is just as insulated a rendering as that adopted by John and D. Kimchi, A. E. Rashi, Oh. Sip., Sal. B. Mel. Arab Tr. (following Jonathan) "the East-wind; קדומה standing as a metaphor instead of a simile the הbeing regarded as paragogic, as in לילה. So also Symmachus ἄνεμος καύσων anemos kausōn. Jerome: "ventus urens.") "As at the breath of the burning wind all green things dry up, so at sight of these all shall be wasted." They shall sweep over everything impetuously, like the east wind, scorching, blackening, blasting, swallowing up all, as they pass over, as the East wind, especially in the Holy Land, sucks up all moisture and freshness.
And they shall gather the captivity - i. e., the captives
As the sand - countless, as the particles which the East wind raises, sweeping over the sand-wastes, where it buries whole caravans in one death.
Wesley's Habakkuk 1:9 Bible Commentary
1:9 For violence - To enrich themselves by making a prey of all.Their faces - Their very countenances shall be as blasting as the east - wind.
