New King James Version
Habakkuk 1:9
9“They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand.
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 Living Translation (NLT)“On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
Context of Habakkuk 1:9
7They are terrible and dreadful; Their judgment and their dignity proceed from themselves. 8Their horses also are swifter than leopards, And more fierce than evening wolves. Their chargers charge ahead; Their cavalry comes from afar; They fly as the eagle that hastens to eat. “They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand. 10They scoff at kings, And princes are scorned by them. They deride every stronghold, For they heap up earthen mounds and seize it. 11Then his mind changes, and he transgresses; He commits offense, Ascribing this power to his god.”
Read all of Habakkuk 1Habakkuk 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 1:6For indeed I am raising up the Chaldeans, A bitter and hasty nation Which marches through the breadth of the earth, To possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
- Habakkuk 2:5“Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, And he does not stay at home. Because he enlarges his desire as hell, And he is like death, and cannot be satisfied, He gathers to himself all nations And heaps up for himself all peoples.
- Deuteronomy 28:51And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.
- Jeremiah 4:7The lion has come up from his thicket, And the destroyer of nations is on his way. He has gone forth from his place To make your land desolate. Your cities will be laid waste, Without inhabitant.
- Jeremiah 5:15Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,” says the Lord. “It is a mighty nation, It is an ancient nation, A nation whose language you do not know, Nor can you understand what they say.
- Jeremiah 25:9behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the Lord, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations.
- Isaiah 27:8In measure, by sending it away, You contended with it. He removes it by His rough wind In the day of the east wind.
- Jeremiah 4:11At that time it will be said To this people and to Jerusalem, “A dry wind of the desolate heights blows in the wilderness Toward the daughter of My people— Not to fan or to cleanse—
- Ezekiel 17:10Behold, it is planted, Will it thrive? Will it not utterly wither when the east wind touches it? It will wither in the garden terrace where it grew.” ’ ”
- Ezekiel 19:12But she was plucked up in fury, She was cast down to the ground, And the east wind dried her fruit. Her strong branches were broken and withered; The fire consumed them.
- Hosea 13:15Though he is fruitful among his brethren, An east wind shall come; The wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness. Then his spring shall become dry, And his fountain shall be dried up. He shall plunder the treasury of every desirable prize.
- Genesis 41:49Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable.
- Judges 7:12Now the Midianites and Amalekites, all the people of the East, were lying in the valley as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seashore in multitude.
- Job 29:18“Then I said, ‘I shall die in my nest, And multiply my days as the sand.
- Psalms 139:18If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.
- Jeremiah 15:8Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas; I will bring against them, Against the mother of the young men, A plunderer at noonday; I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.
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
In the dictionaries
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
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries