Habakkuk 1:9

Habakkuk 1:9 in other versions

• 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.
• New International Version (NIV)they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.
• English Standard Version (ESV)They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.
• New King James Version (NKJV)“They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand.

Context of Habakkuk 1:9

7They cause people to be very afraid. They obey no laws except their own rules. 8Their horses run faster than leopards. They are more cruel than wolves that attack in the evening. Their riders come on fast horses from places that are far away. They quickly attack their enemies, like hungry eagles that fly down to catch chickens. Their whole army comes to do violent things. They march forward like a wind from the desert. They make people their prisoners, as easily as if they are picking up sand. 10They insult kings, and they laugh at rulers. They laugh at all the strong cities of their enemies. They build heaps of earth against the walls, and they take those cities for themselves. 11Their army quickly moves on to another place, like a wind that blows. They think that their own god has made them strong, and so they are guilty.’

Habakkuk 1:9 word by word

כֻּלֹּה֙ לְחָמָ֣ס יָב֔וֹא מְגַמַּ֥ת פְּנֵיהֶ֖ם קָדִ֑ימָה וַיֶּאֱסֹ֥ף כַּח֖וֹל שֶֽׁבִי׃Read the interlinear

Words taken from the KJV.

• They shall comeבּוֹאbô' · to come (in): comeH935
• all for violenceחָמָסchâmâs · violenceH2555
• their facesפָּנֶהpânîym · faceH6440
• shall sup upמְגַמָּהmegammâh · hordeH4041
• the east windקָדִיםqâdîym qâdim · eastH6921
• and they shall gatherאָסַף'âsaph · to gatherH622
• the captivityשְׁבִיshebîy · captivityH7628
• as the sandחוֹלchôl · sandH2344

Cross-references for Habakkuk 1:9

• Habakkuk 1:6I will give more power to the Babylonians. They are a cruel nation with brave soldiers. They march across the whole earth. They take cities that do not belong to them.
• Habakkuk 2:5Wine will destroy that proud enemy. They do not stop attacking other people. They never have enough for themselves. They are like death that is so hungry that it eats as much as it can. The deep hole of death eats everything. The cruel enemy is like that! They want all the nations to belong to them. They catch everyone to be their prisoners.
• Deuteronomy 28:51They will eat your young animals and the crops from your fields, until they have destroyed you. They will not leave any food for you. You will have no grain, no wine, no olive oil, no young cows, no lambs. They will take everything from you until they destroy you.
• Jeremiah 4:7Yes, a strong army is coming, like a lion that has left its cave. It has come out to destroy many nations. It will attack your whole land. Your cities will become heaps of stones, and nobody will live in them.
• Jeremiah 5:15The Lord says this: ‘Listen to me, you people of Israel. I will bring an army to attack you. They will come from a nation that is far away. It is a strong nation that started long ago. You do not know their language. You cannot understand what they say.
• Jeremiah 25:9So I, the Lord, tell you that I will call the nations in the north to come. I will call my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to come. I will bring them to attack this land and the people who live here. They will also attack all the nations that are around you. I will completely destroy this land, its people and all the nations around it. Their houses will become heaps of stones for ever. The land will become a terrible place. People will always see how foolish my people are.
• Isaiah 27:8But Lord you sent your people to a land far away. That is how you punished them. You blew them away with a storm that came from the east.
• Jeremiah 4:11The Lord will tell the people at that time, ‘A hot wind will blow from the hills in the desert. It will not be a little wind that blows chaff from wheat. It will be a strong storm that blows away the people that I love.
• Ezekiel 17:10Yes the plant is in the ground, but will it continue to grow? When the hot wind from the east blows on it, it will become completely dry. It will die in the same good field where it had been growing.” ’
• Ezekiel 19:12But the Lord became angry with that vine. He pulled up its roots and he threw it down to the ground. The east wind made it dry and destroyed its fruit. Its strong branches broke and they became useless. Fire destroyed them.
• Hosea 13:15Among the other nations, Israel has been successful. It has been like a plant that grows well. But now the Lord will send trouble. It will be like a strong east wind that comes from the desert. Israel's wells and springs of water will become dry. All the valuable things that Israel has stored will disappear.
• Genesis 41:49In this way, Joseph stored a lot of food. The food grains were as many as the sand by the sea! Joseph stopped counting how much food he had stored because there was too much food to measure.
• Judges 7:12The valley was full of Midianites, Amalekites and all the people from the east. They covered the ground like locusts. There were too many men to count. Their camels also were more than the sand on the shore of the sea.
• Job 29:18At that time, I thought, “I will live to be an old man. After a long life, I will die in my own home.
• Psalms 139:18They are too many for me to count, more than the sand on the shore of the sea. Even if I finished counting them, you would still be there!
• Jeremiah 15:8There will be more widows in Judah, than there is sand on the shore of the sea. At midday I will send an enemy to destroy the young men. Their mothers will weep for them. It will happen very suddenly. Fear and terror will come!

Commentaries on Habakkuk 1:9

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 9Their 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…Read the comment
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 9They 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 4048 of the…Read the comment
• Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 9The Babylonians took many people from Judah into exile between 605 and 586 BC (see Daniel 1:1–3).Read the comment
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 99. all for violence--The sole object of all is not to establish just rights, but to get all they can by violence. their faces shall sup up as the east wind--that is, they shall, as it were, swallow up all before them; so the horse in Job 39:24 is said to "swallow the ground with fierceness and rage." Maurer takes it from an Arabic root, "the desire of their faces," that is, the eager desire expressed by their faces. Henderson, with Symmachus and Syriac…Read the comment

Topics related to Habakkuk 1:9

• Babylon
• Israel, Prophecies Concerning
• Prophecy

In the dictionaries

• East wind
• Possess
• Pure
• Scoff
• Wrong
• Habakkuk

Commentaries on Habakkuk 1

• Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
• Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
• Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
• Tyndale Open Study Notes
• Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
• Rashi on Tanakh
• Calvin’s Commentaries
• Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
• John Wesley’s Notes
• Darby Translation Notes
• Geneva Bible Translation Notes
• Kingcomments
• Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
• Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
• Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
• Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
• EGW Writings