Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
Art thou not from overlasting. In opposition to the impious deifying of the Chaldeans' power as their god (Maurer, or, as the English version, their attributing of their successes to their idols), the prophet, in an impassioned address to Yahweh, vindicates His being "from everlasting," as contrasted with the Chaldean so-called "god."
O Lord my God, mine Holy One? Habakkuk speaks in the name of his people. God was "the Holy One of Israel," against whom the Chaldean was setting up himself (Isaiah 37:23).
We shall not die - Thou, as being our God, wilt not permit the Chaldeans utterly to destroy us. This reading is one of the 18 called by the Hebrews 'the appointment of the scribes;' the Rabbis think that Ezra and his colleagues corrected the old reading х lo' (H3808) taamuwt (H4191), 'thou shalt not die', into х lo' (H3808) namuwt] 'we shall not die,' But there is no authority for the so-called old reading proposed by the Rabbis.
Thou hast ordained them for judgment - i:e., to execute thy judgments.
And, O mighty God - literally, 'O Rock' х tsuwr (H6696)] (Deuteronomy 32:4, "He is the rock;" margin, Isaiah 26:4, 'In the Lord Yahweh is the Rock of ages').
Thou hast established them for correction - to chastise transgressors (Isaiah 10:5-7, "O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger ... howbeit he meaneth not so"). But in using them as His rod for correction, God does not mean that they should deify their own power (Habakkuk 1:11; because their power is from Him, and only for a time); nor that they may destroy utterly His people. However the world is shaken, or man's faith wavers, God remains unshaken as "the Rock of ages."