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Monday, August 25th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
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New Life Version

Habakkuk 1:9

They all come in anger. Their armies move like the desert wind. They gather prisoners like 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.
Good News Translation
"Their armies advance in violent conquest, and everyone is terrified as they approach. Their captives are as numerous as grains of 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 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 "Look among the nations, and see! Be surprised and full of wonder! For I am doing something in your days that you would not believe if you were told. 6 I am bringing the Babylonians to power. They are people filled with anger who go across the whole earth to take homes that are not theirs. 7 They fill others with fear. They make their own law about what is fair and honored. 8 Their horses are faster than leopards, and show less pity than wolves in the evening. Their horsemen come on running horses from far away. They fly like an eagle coming down to get food. 9 They all come in anger. Their armies move like the desert wind. They gather prisoners like sand. 10 They make fun of kings and laugh at rulers. They laugh at every strong city and build a battle-wall to take it. 11 Then they move through like the wind and keep going. They are guilty men, whose strength 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 God made from nothing the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:2
The earth was an empty waste and darkness was over the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was moving over the top of the waters.
Genesis 1:5
Then God called the light day, and He called the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.
Genesis 1:6
Then God said, "Let there be an open space between the waters. Let it divide waters from waters."
Genesis 1:8
Then God called the open space Heaven. There was evening and there was morning, the second day.
Genesis 1:9
Then God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered into one place. Let the dry land be seen." And it was so.
Genesis 1:11
Then God said, "Let plants grow from the earth, plants that have seeds. Let fruit trees grow on the earth that bring their kind of fruit with their own seeds." And it was so.
Genesis 1:28
And God wanted good to come to them, saying, "Give birth to many. Grow in number. Fill the earth and rule over it. Rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth."
Genesis 1:29
Then God said, "See, I have given you every plant that gives seeds that is on the earth, and every tree that has fruit that gives seeds. They will be food for you.
Job 26:7
He spreads out the north over empty waste, and hangs the earth on nothing.

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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