Still the correspondence is kept up between God and his prophet. In the Hab. 1:1–17 he spoke to God, then God to him, and then he to God again; in the Hab. 2:1–20 God spoke wholly to him by the Spirit of prophecy; now, in Hab.

This chapter is entitled a prayer of Habakkuk. It is a meditation with himself, an intercession for the church. Prophets were praying men; this prophet was so (He is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, Gen. 20:7); and sometimes they prayed for even those whom they prophesied against.

It has been the usual practice of God’s people, when they have been in distress and ready to fall into despair, to help themselves by recollecting their experiences, and reviving them, considering the days of old, and the years of ancient times , and pleading with God in prayer, as he is pleased…

Within the compass of these few lines we have the prophet in the highest degree both of trembling and triumphing, such are the varieties both of the state and of the spirit of God’s people in this world. In heaven there shall be no more trembling, but everlasting triumphs. I.