Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvelously: for I will work a work. Here Yahweh replies to Habakkuk's complaint (Habakkuk 1:2), Though I do not punish violence and wrong immediately, it is not that I am an unconcerned spectator; in my own good time I will work a work of vengeance upon the transgressors past all that could be expected (cf. Isaiah 29:14, "Behold I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder"). Quoted by Paul (Acts 13:41, "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish; for I work a work in your days, which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you").
... Among the heathen. In Acts 13:41, "ye despisers," from the Septuagint So the Syriac and Arabic versions; perhaps from a different Hebrew reading. [Some conjecture that for bagowyim (H1471) the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic read bogªdiym]. Pococke supposes a root [baagaa'], to be haughty. But all our Hebrew manuscripts support the English version reading here. The seeming variation is to be accounted for thus: In the English version reading of Habakkuk, God, in reply to the prophet's expostulation, addresses the Jews as about to be punished, "Behold ye among the pagan (with whom ye deserve to be classed, and by whom ye shall be punished as 'despisers;' the sense implied, which Paul expresses): learn from them what ye refused to learn from me." For "wonder marvelously," Paul, in Acts 13:41, has, "wonder and perish," which gives the sense, not the literal wording of the Hebrew, 'wonder, wonder' - i:e., be overwhelmed in wonder. The despisers are to be given up to their own stupefaction, and so perish.
Which ye will not believe, though it be told you. Herein the unbelief of the Jews is reproved: unbelieving as ye are, ye will not credit the announcement of coming vengeance, which shall exceed all your conception. But at last you will know to your cost, and believe in spite of yourselves, that I have spoken the truth. The Israelite unbelievers would not credit the prophecy as to the fearfulness of the destruction to be done by the Chaldeans, nor afterward the deliverance promised from that nation. So, analogously, in Paul's day, the Jews would not credit the prediction of awful judgment coming on them by the Romans, nor the proclamation of salvation through Jesus. Thus the same Scripture applied to both.
Ye will not believe, though it be told you - i:e., ye will not believe, now that I foretell it.