A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.
This sublime ode begins with an exordium Habakkuk 3:1-2), then follows the main subject, then the peroration (Habakkuk 3:16-19), a summary of the practical truth which the whole is designed to teach (Deuteronomy 33:2-5 and Psalms 77:13-20 are parallel odes). This was probably designed by the Spirit to be a fit formula of prayer for the people-first in their Babylonian exile, and now in their dispersion, especially toward the close of it, just before the Great Deliverer is to interpose for them. It was used in public worship, as the musical term, Selah (Habakkuk 3:3; Habakkuk 3:9; Habakkuk 3:13), implies.
Prayer - the only strictly called prayers are in Habakkuk 3:2: but all devotional addresses to God are called "prayers" (Psalms 72:20, "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended;" where the term "prayers" is applied to a prophetic and thanksgiving Psalm). The Hebrew х tªpilaah (H8605)] is from a root х paalal (H6419), in the Hithpael conjugation] 'to apply to a judge for a favourable decision:' 'to bring one's cause before God in prayer.' Prayers, in which praises to God for deliverance, anticipated in the sure confidence of faith, are especially calculated to enlist Yahweh on His people's side. So King Jehoshaphat-having exhorted his people when Ammon and Moab assailed them, "Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be establish; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper" - proceeded to appoint "singers unto the Lord, that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth forever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against ... Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir ... and they were smitten:" whence the valley was called Berachah; or, "the valley of blessing" (2 Chronicles 20:20-22; 2 Chronicles 20:26).
Upon Shigionoth - a musical phrase, 'after the manner of elegies,' or mournful odes, from an Arabic root (Lee); the phrase, is singular in Psalms 7:1-17, title, "Shiggaion of David." More simply, from a Hebrew root х shaagaah (H7686)], to err, 'on account of sins of ignorance.' It accords with this view that the Hebrew root occurs in 1 Samuel 26:21, "Behold, I have ... erred exceedingly." Habakkuk thus teaches his countrymen to confess not only their more grievous sins, but also their errors and negligences, into which they were especially likely to fall when in exile away from the Holy Land (Calvin). So the Vulgate, and Aquila and Symmachus. 'For voluntary transgressors' (Jerome). Probably the subject would regulate the kind of music, so that the style of music, like its subject, would be erratic. Delitsch and Henderson translate 'With triumphal music,' from the same root, to err, implying its enthusiastic irregularity.