Habakkuk 3:2 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

O Lord, I have heard thy speech and was afraid I have heard what thou hast revealed to me concerning thy judgments to be executed, first upon thy own people, and afterward upon their enemies the Chaldeans, and the terribleness of them hath filled me with a reverential awe and dread. O Lord, revive, or preserve alive, thy work in the midst of the years Habakkuk having understood, by divine revelation, that some time would intervene between the desolation of Judea and the punishment of the Chaldeans, here entreats God, that, during that interval, he would preserve or take care of his work; that is, his Israel, that work of his hands which he had formed for himself, that they might show forth his praise: (see Isaiah 43:21; Isaiah 45:11:) together with the work of his grace in and among them; that he would keep that spark alive amidst the waters of tribulation and temptation through which they had to pass. Although all men are the work of God, yet the Jews might be called so more emphatically, because he had, by many extraordinary interpositions, raised them to be a peculiar people to himself, and had formed them such by laws given to them in a singular manner, not used with regard to any other people. In the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy Or, as Grotius interprets the clause, In that intervening time show, that although thou art angry, thou rememberest mercy. In the midst of these years of calamity let thy people experience, that even in thy indignation thou thinkest upon mercy, and dost not lay more upon them than thou enablest them to bear. The years here referred to seem plainly to be those in which the Jews were under the power of the Chaldeans, and Judea lay desolate. Mr. Green translates the verse, O Jehovah, I have heard thy report: (that is, what thou hast revealed concerning the captivity:) I am in pain, O Jehovah, for thy work: (that is, the Jewish people:) in the midst of the years revive it: (restore the Jews to their own land before the years appointed for their captivity are expired:) in the midst of the years show compassion; in wrath remember mercy.