Habakkuk 1:9 they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like sand.

◄ Habakkuk 1:9 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
they all come intent on violence. Their hordes advance like a desert wind and gather prisoners like 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 collect captives like sand.

King James Bible
They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
All of them come to do violence; their faces are set in determination. They gather prisoners like sand.

International Standard Version
"They all come to oppress— hordes of them, their faces pressing onward— they take prisoners as numerous as the desert 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.

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.

Darby Bible Translation
They come all of them for violence: the crowd of their faces is forwards, and they gather captives as the 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.

Cross References

2 Kings 12:17
Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.

Daniel 11:17
He shall also set his face to enter with the strength of his whole kingdom, and upright ones with him; thus shall he do: and he shall give him the daughter of women, corrupting her: but she shall not stand on his side, neither be for him.

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

1:1-11 The servants of the Lord are deeply afflicted by seeing ungodliness and violence prevail; especially among those who profess the truth. No man scrupled doing wrong to his neighbour. We should long to remove to the world where holiness and love reign for ever, and no violence shall be before us. God has good reasons for his long-suffering towards bad men, and the rebukes of good men. The day will come when the cry of sin will be heard against those that do wrong, and the cry of prayer for those that suffer wrong. They were to notice what was going forward among the heathen by the Chaldeans, and to consider themselves a nation to be scourged by them. But most men presume on continued prosperity, or that calamities will not come in their days. They are a bitter and hasty nation, fierce, cruel, and bearing down all before them. They shall overcome all that oppose them. But it is a great offence, and the common offence of proud people, to take glory to themselves. The closing words give a glimpse of comfort.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

9. all for violence—The sole object of all is not to establish just rights, but to get all they can by violence.

their faces shall sup up as the east wind—that is, they shall, as it were, swallow up all before them; so the horse in Job 39:24 is said to "swallow the ground with fierceness and rage." Maurer takes it from an Arabic root, "the desire of their faces," that is, the eager desire expressed by their faces. Henderson, with Symmachus and Syriac, translates, "the aspect."

as the east wind—the simoon, which spreads devastation wherever it passes (Isa 27:8). Gesenius translates, "(is) forwards." The rendering proposed, eastward, as if it referred to the Chaldeans' return home eastward from Judea, laden with spoils, is improbable. Their "gathering the sand" accords with the simoon being meant, as it carries with it whirlwinds of sand collected in the desert.