Lectionary Calendar
Saturday, July 26th, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Habakkuk 1:9

"Their armies advance in violent conquest, and everyone is terrified as they approach. Their captives are as numerous as grains of sand.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Babylon;   Israel, Prophecies Concerning;   Prophecy;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Babylon;   Heathen, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Chaldeans;   Habakkuk;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Babylon;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - East wind;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Habakkuk;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
All of them come to do violence;their faces are set in determination.They gather prisoners like sand.
Hebrew Names Version
All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.
King James Version (1611)
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup vp as the East winde, and they shall gather the captiuitie as the sand.
King James Version
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.
English Standard Version
They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.
New American Standard Bible
"All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They gather captives like sand.
New Century Version
They all come to fight. Nothing can stop them. Their prisoners are as many as the grains of sand.
Amplified Bible
"They all come for violence; Their horde of faces moves [eagerly] forward, They gather prisoners like sand.
Geneva Bible (1587)
They come all to spoyle: before their faces shalbe an Eastwinde, and they shall gather the captiuitie, as the sand.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"All of them come for violence. Their horde of faces moves forward. They collect captives like sand.
Legacy Standard Bible
All of them come for violence.Their horde of faces moves forward.And they gather captives like sand.
Berean Standard Bible
All of them come bent on violence; their hordes advance like the east wind; they gather prisoners like sand.
Contemporary English Version
They are eager to destroy, and they gather captives like handfuls of sand.
Complete Jewish Bible
All of them come for violence, their faces set eagerly forward, scooping up captives like sand.
Darby Translation
They come all of them for violence: the crowd of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the sand.
Easy-to-Read Version
The one thing they all want to do is fight. Their armies will march fast like the wind in the desert. And the Babylonian soldiers will take many prisoners—as many as the grains of sand.
George Lamsa Translation
They all come for plunder; the appearance of their faces is fearful, and they shall gather booty as the sand.
Lexham English Bible
All of them come for violence, their faces pressing forward. They gather captives like the sand.
Literal Translation
All of him shall come for violence; the eagerness of their faces is forward; and they gather captives like the sand.
American Standard Version
They come all of them for violence; the set of their faces is forwards; and they gather captives as the sand.
Bible in Basic English
They are coming all of them with force; the direction of their faces is forward, the number of their prisoners is like the sands of the sea.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
They come all of them for violence; their faces are set eagerly as the east wind; and they gather captives as the sand.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
They come all to spoyle: before their faces shalbe an eastwinde, and they shall gather the captiuitie as the sande.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Destruction shall come upon ungodly men, resisting with their adverse front, and he shall gather the captivity as the sand.
English Revised Version
They come all of them for violence; their faces are set eagerly as the east wind; and they gather captives as the sand.
World English Bible
All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Alle men schulen come to preye, the faces of hem is as a brennynge wynd; and he schal gadere as grauel caitifte,
Update Bible Version
They come all of them for violence; the set of their faces is forwards; and they gather captives as the sand.
Webster's Bible Translation
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 English Translation
All of them intend to do violence; every face is determined. They take prisoners as easily as one scoops up sand.
New King James Version
"They all come for violence; Their faces are set like the east wind. They gather captives like sand.
New Living Translation
"On they come, all bent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind, sweeping captives ahead of them like sand.
New Life Bible
They all come in anger. Their armies move like the desert wind. They gather prisoners like sand.
New Revised Standard
They all come for violence, with faces pressing forward; they gather captives like sand.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Solely for violence, will he come, the intent of their faces, is - To the east! And he hath gathered, as the sand, a captive host;
Douay-Rheims Bible
They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as the sand.
Revised Standard Version
They all come for violence; terror of them goes before them. They gather captives like sand.
Young's Literal Translation
Wholly for violence it doth come in, Their faces swallowing up the east wind, And it doth gather as the sand a captivity.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
They come all to spoyle: out of them commeth an east wynde, which bloweth and gathereth their captyues, like as the sonde.

Contextual Overview

5 Then the Lord said to his people, "Keep watching the nations around you, and you will be astonished at what you see. I am going to do something that you will not believe when you hear about it. 6 I am bringing the Babylonians to power, those fierce, restless people. They are marching out across the world to conquer other lands. 7 They spread fear and terror, and in their pride they are a law to themselves. 8 "Their horses are faster than leopards, fiercer than hungry wolves. Their cavalry troops come riding from distant lands; their horses paw the ground. They come swooping down like eagles attacking their prey. 9 "Their armies advance in violent conquest, and everyone is terrified as they approach. Their captives are as numerous as grains of sand. 10 They treat kings with contempt and laugh at high officials. No fortress can stop them—they pile up earth against it and capture it. 11 Then they sweep on like the wind and are gone, these men whose power is their god."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

for: Habakkuk 1:6, Habakkuk 2:5-13, Deuteronomy 28:51, Deuteronomy 28:52, Jeremiah 4:7, Jeremiah 5:15-17, Jeremiah 25:9

their faces shall sup up as the east: or, the supping up of their faces, as, etc. or, their faces shall look toward the east. Heb. the opposition of their faces shall be toward the east. Isaiah 27:8, Jeremiah 4:11, Ezekiel 17:10, Ezekiel 19:12, Hosea 13:15

they shall gather: Habakkuk 2:5, Genesis 41:49, Judges 7:12, Job 29:18, Psalms 139:18, Jeremiah 15:8, Jeremiah 34:22, Hosea 1:10, Romans 9:27

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 4:29 - as the sand Job 39:24 - He swalloweth Ezekiel 1:4 - a whirlwind Obadiah 1:16 - swallow down Habakkuk 1:17 - and Habakkuk 2:6 - that increaseth Hebrews 11:12 - as the sand

Cross-References

Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, when God created the universe,
Genesis 1:2
the earth was formless and desolate. The raging ocean that covered everything was engulfed in total darkness, and the Spirit of God was moving over the water.
Genesis 1:5
and he named the light "Day" and the darkness "Night." Evening passed and morning came—that was the first day.
Genesis 1:6
Then God commanded, "Let there be a dome to divide the water and to keep it in two separate places"—and it was done. So God made a dome, and it separated the water under it from the water above it.
Genesis 1:8
He named the dome "Sky." Evening passed and morning came—that was the second day.
Genesis 1:9
Then God commanded, "Let the water below the sky come together in one place, so that the land will appear"—and it was done.
Genesis 1:11
Then he commanded, "Let the earth produce all kinds of plants, those that bear grain and those that bear fruit"—and it was done.
Genesis 1:28
blessed them, and said, "Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all the wild animals.
Genesis 1:29
I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat;
Job 26:7
God stretched out the northern sky and hung the earth in empty space.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

They shall come all for violence,.... Or, "the whole of it" s; the whole army of the Chaldeans, everyone of them; this would be their sole view, not to do themselves justice, as might be pretended, or avenge any injuries or affronts done to them by the Jews; but purely for the sake of spoil and plunder:

their faces shall sup up [as] the east wind: their countenances will appear so stern and fierce, that their very looks will so frighten, as to cause men to sink and die through terror; just as herbs and plants shrivel up and wither away, when blasted by a nipping east wind. So the Targum,

"the reception or look of their faces is like to a vehement east wind.''

Some render it,

"the look or design of their faces is to the east t;''

when the Chaldeans were on their march to Judea, their faces were to the west or south west; but then their desire and views were, that when they had got the spoil they came for, as in the preceding clause, to carry it to Babylon, which lay eastward or north east of Judea, and thither their faces looked:

and they shall gather the captivity as the sand; or gather up persons, both in Judea, and in other countries conquered by them, as innumerable as the sand of the sea, and carry them captive into their own land. Captivity is put for captives.

s כלה "illa teta", Junius Tremellius "sub. gens", Pagninus, Piscator; "totus exercitus", Vatablus; "populus", Calvin. t קדימה "ad orientem", Pagninus, Montanus, Drusius; "orientem versus", Junius Tremellius, De Dieu, Burkius so Abarbinel.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

They 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 Ezek. 40–48 of the ideal city and temple as “Eastwards.” But except in the far-fetched explanation of Abarb (mentioned also by Tanchum) that they ravaged, not to settle but to return home with their booty, “Eastwards” would have no meaning. Yet “forwards” is just as insulated a rendering as that adopted by John and D. Kimchi, A. E. Rashi, Oh. Sip., Sal. B. Mel. Arab Tr. (following Jonathan) “the East-wind; קדומה standing as a metaphor instead of a simile the הbeing regarded as paragogic, as in לילה. So also Symmachus ἄνεμος καύσων anemos kausōn. Jerome: “ventus urens.”) “As at the breath of the burning wind all green things dry up, so at sight of these all shall be wasted.” They shall sweep over everything impetuously, like the east wind, scorching, blackening, blasting, swallowing up all, as they pass over, as the East wind, especially in the Holy Land, sucks up all moisture and freshness.

And they shall gather the captivity - i. e., the captives

As the sand - countless, as the particles which the East wind raises, sweeping over the sand-wastes, where it buries whole caravans in one death.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 9. Their 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 bare appearance, is the proof that nothing good shall be left.

Shall gather the captivity as the sand. — They shall carry off innumerable captives.


 
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