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Hab.3:1. Lord, I heard Your hearing and was afraid. Hab.3:2. Lord, I understood Your works and was horrified. I was filled with fear, O Lord, when I heard Your words; having seen the justice of Your decree; Seeing how You manage everything that is done truthfully, I am in extreme surprise. In the midst of two animals you will be known. This is understood differently by others. Some meant angels and men by two animals; others are from the ethereal Forces that are close to God’s glory - the Cherubim and Seraphim; and some are Jews and Babylonians. But it seems to me that the Prophet is not talking about two animals, but about two lives, present and future, in the midst of which the righteous Judge appears. Whenever you come closer in the summer, you know: sometimes in time, you appear. For with the passage of time and the manifestation of the events themselves, the falsity of Your prophecies is revealed. Whenever my soul is troubled in anger, remember mercy. When you confuse the souls of people with punishments, and then, led by mercy, you again change their disastrous state. Hab.3:3. God will come from Teman, and the Holy One from the shaded mountain. The word Feman was translated by some as “Liv”, by others as “South”. The prophet predicts and foretells the incarnation of our God and Savior, which took place in Bethlehem, which lies to the south, or liv, of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem itself, which in ancient times abounded in many different gifts, was overshadowed by a cloud and was under the roof of the heavenly God, is called the overshadowed mountain. Cover the heavens with His virtue, and fill the earth with His praises. Blessed David also said this: O Lord our Lord, for Your name is wonderful throughout all the earth, for Your splendor is taken above the heavens (Psalm 8:1). For the only begotten Word of God, having become man, dispelled the darkness of ignorance, enlightened people with the rays of the knowledge of God, and taught everyone that God is the Creator of heaven, earth and everything. Hab.3:4. And His radiance will be like light; because he emitted the brightest ray with which he illuminated the universe. Rose in His hands: and make love the mighty power of Your strength. Not only, by spreading the light of teaching, did he show them the truth, but also, by the power of miracles, he moved every tongue to wonder. He did both out of great love for human nature. And the Lord Himself said this in the sacred Gospel: I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11); and: no one can show greater sowing love, but whoever lays down his life for his friends (John 15:13). And the Prophet called strength horns, because horns constitute the weapons of the animals equipped with them. This is the meaning of what was said by blessed David: because of You we will rip our enemies with their horns (Psalm 43:6). Hab.3:5. The word will go before Him, and it will come out as punishment under His foot. Because the word precedes deeds, and, predicting the future, it leads to events that are very consistent with the words. The word είς παιδείαν (for punishment), in some lists has the letter ν at the end, and makes it clear that God uses both words and deeds to admonish and teach people; and in some lists this word does not have the letter ν at the end, and means that with great convenience, as on a battlefield, prophecies are followed by events that agree with them. Hab.3:6. A hundred, and the earth moved: it looked, and the nations melted: the mountains were shaken by need, and the hills of eternity melted, with His eternal processions. With all that has been said, the Prophet showed us the ineffable power of God; because after God’s intention the deed itself follows; having only willed (this was expressed by the Prophet with the words: a hundred and a hundred), He shakes the earth, crushes the human race, tears apart the mountains, makes the hills melt like wax. God does this and similar things for the benefit of people. For the Prophet calls works processions; What has been said also means the cross, which brought salvation to all people. The Lord Christ stood on it, and shook the earth, set in motion and dissolved the mountains, struck with terror the demons, destroyed the churches on the mountains and hills, having determined this from the beginning until the foundation of the world, and fulfilled it at the end of days. Hab.3:7. For the labors that I have seen, the villages of Ethiopia will fear, and the shelters of the land of Midian. But after the saving sufferings, I saw fallen demons who, at their own will, likening themselves to the natural color of the Ethiopians, deceive the souls of people. If anyone wants to understand this about people, then he will not move away from the purpose of Divine Scripture; because after the saving cross and suffering and after the resurrection of the Master, the divine face of the Apostles, filled with spiritual grace, saw the shelters of Midian, and the dwellings of the Ethiopians, and filled the whole universe with the vision of God. Hab.3:8. Food in the rivers Are you angry, Lord? food in the rivers is your wrath? or is your aspiration in the sea? That is, shaking the earth and erasing mountains from the face of the earth, are You, Lord, angry with all nations, and preparing the final destruction of all people? For the Prophet called the nations rivers and sea. For You are all around on Your horses, and Your eating is salvation. Hab.3:9. Lay your bow on the sceptres, says the Lord. But it is obvious that, providing for human salvation, You accepted this suffering. Therefore, as if sitting on certain horses on the sacred Apostles, he grants salvation to all believers, and uses punitive weapons on those who dissent, among whom the tribes of Israel take precedence; therefore the Prophet called these tribes sceptres. Similar to this is what the Lord said to Ananias in Damascus about blessed Paul: go, for this vessel is chosen by Me, to carry My name before the tongues and kings and the sons of Israel (Acts 9:15). And this: when you bow, comb your bow, very much in accordance with what was said by blessed David: come, and prosper, and reign (Psalm 44:5); and after a few words: Thy arrows are sharper than the mighty: the people under Thee will fall into the hearts of the enemies of the kings (Ps. 44:6). Just as farmers, managing to irrigate the land, divert rivers into the ditches they have dug, so You, like certain rivers, will separate the divine Apostles and their followers, and provide people with spiritual irrigation. Hab.3:10. They will see You, and people will be sick, This has a double meaning. Those who believe, seeing Your power revealed, will love it, and will begin to feel sick, wanting to see the eternal kingdom; those possessed by unbelief will feel the pain of the wife giving birth from envy and hatred of Your glory. wasting the waters of his procession: And this is in accordance with what has been said; because He poured out the waters of His Divine teaching through the divine Apostles on all nations. the abyss gave its voice, the height of its ghost, raised up 2. Hab.3:11. The sun and moon are one hundred in their rank: The Prophet continued the allegory and maintained the sequence of ideas. For, having called the holy Apostles rivers, he calls the peoples mired in the bitterness of wickedness the sea. But just as when rivers flow into the sea, a great noise occurs from the confrontation of sea waves that prevent the flow, so when the divine Apostles, going around the nations, brought a saving sermon, unrest and rebellion arose against them among the infidels who contradicted them and tried to extinguish the flame of the teaching. And this is clearly shown to us by the history of Acts. For in Ephesus, Demetrius, the silversmith, raised a rebellion against the Apostles (Acts 19:23-29). Others in Corinth cried out: those who corrupted the world have come here too (Acts 17:6); and in Jerusalem the Jews, having moved the whole city against the God-wise Paul, finally betrayed him to the Romans. You can find thousands of other similar examples. in the light of Your arrows they will go, in the flash of the lightning of Your weapons. Hab.3:12. Destroy the earth with repression of the mind, and destroy the tongues with rage. And during these uprisings against the preachers sent by You to the nations, You, says the Prophet, have ineffable power, abounding in all sorts of punitive weapons, although with one rebuke you can corrupt the whole earth with its inhabitants, yet you will remain long-suffering. You will show this long-suffering, because Hab.3:13. You came forth to save Your people, to save Your anointed ones. And this is similar to what our Savior said in the Holy Gospel: The Son of Man came into the world, not to judge the world, but to let the world be saved by him (John 3:17). And the Prophet calls anointed those who were worthy of the calling, who accepted the preaching with faith, and who were worthy of the grace of the Divine Spirit. Thou hast put death upon the heads of the wicked: Thou hast erected bonds even to the neck and to the end. How You have granted salvation to those who believe; So he put those who did not fully believe to death, putting them in chains. Hab.3:14. If you cut off the heads of the mighty in a frenzy, they will shake in it: they will break open their bridles, like a devoured beggar's secret. When Your power becomes obvious to all people, then those invested with high power will come to such fear that, not with boldness, but in secrecy and secretly, they will begin to express their opposition, so that others will rightly liken them to a beggar who does not dare to eat food openly, but chews it without opening his lips. Hab.3:15. And You brought Your horses upon the sea, which troubled many waters. The Prophet said above that when rivers influence the sea, a storm occurs. And here he also called those named rivers horses, upon the entry of which unrest arose among the people, but the unrest was followed by deep silence. The Lord said this in the Holy Gospel: He did not come to bring peace into the world, but with a sword, to separate man from his neighbor, a son from his father, and a daughter from his mother, and a bride from her mother-in-law (Matthew 10:34, 35). Because they loved wickedness in agreement; then, through good division, he destroys bad harmony, and after praiseworthy disagreement produces unanimity of piety. Hab.3:16. I was preserved, and my belly was afraid, from the voice of the prayer of my lips, and there was a trembling in my bones, and my strength was shaken within me. The Prophet, concluding from what was said that he would comprehend the unbelieving Jews according to the faith of the pagans, said that, moved by compassion for his fellow tribesmen, he came into awe and fear from the predictions uttered in prayer. However, he says, I have this consolation that I will not be a witness to their disaster. I will rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may go forth among the people of my coming. Before the prophecies are fulfilled, I will have the end of my life, and I will be freed from the captivity of this life. Hab.3:17. The fig tree will not bear fruit, and there will be no generation in the vines; the olive tree will lie, and the fields will not produce food; the sheep will be scanty for food, and there will be no oxen in the manger. I will not see, says the Prophet, neither the barrenness of the fig tree, nor the failure of the olive harvest, nor the vine devoid of grapes, nor the naked fields that bear no ears of grain, nor the cattle dying of hunger. Each of these sayings contains an allegory. For the Prophet called Jerusalem a fig tree. The Lord taught us to understand this way, by using a parable to point out a barren fig tree, which the gardener intended to cut down for its barrenness; but the gardener begged to give her some time, so that when special care was taken for her, she would either bear fruit or be uprooted. The Divine Scripture repeatedly called the people of God grapes. I will not cite other evidence; Through the mouth of Isaiah God says: For the Lord of hosts is the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, the house of Israel is, and the house of Judah is a new and beloved garden; And the olive tree that does not bear fruit, without sinning, will be called by others the Pharisees and Sadducees, who, while boasting about the name of righteousness they appropriated to themselves, did not bear its fruit at all. And that the olive tree is taken as an image of the righteous, the great David is a witness to this, who cries out: for the olive tree is fruitful in the house of God: I have trusted in the mercy of my God forever (Ps. 51:10). The Prophet calls those who are obedient to these mentors barren fields, to whom Jeremiah also calls: renew your fields, and do not sow on thorns (Jer. 4:3). And the Prophet calls his subordinates, who are threatened with hunger, sheep. For it is said: Behold, I will send a famine on the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord (Amos 8:11). This: there will be no oxen in the manger, says the Prophet about the priests, without whom the ancient altars remained empty. Just as oxen cultivate the land, so priests cultivate the souls of people, collecting from them what they bring to the divine altars, like some kind of food, like some kind of manger. Blessed Paul also said about them: do not block the walls of the threshing ox (1 Cor. 9:9). And one more thing: those who serve the altar share with the altar (1 Cor. 9:13). But they will fall into such disasters Hab.3:18. I will rejoice in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Savior. Hab.3:19. The Lord my God is my strength, and he makes my nose like wood and lifts me up on high, so that I can overcome him in His songs. Although I was filled with sadness and fear for them; but because the glory of my God will become clear to all people, I rejoice and am glad. For God will strengthen the weakness of my nature, and will cause me, like a deer, to trample on snakes and scorpions and spirits of evil, until I ascend to the heights of virtue and sing a victorious song to the Savior and Creator. I know that others, understanding the entire prayer of Avvakum historically, claimed that the Prophet predicted this about the return from Babylon. I will not contradict if anyone wants to believe that this is prophetically predicted about those who returned from captivity; because such an understanding is in accordance with my interpretation; if the Old Testament is truly a real prototype of the New Testament. But I would consider it inconsistent with anything, when reality prevails and the shadow is covered by the body, to understand a prophecy about something else that does not quite correspond to it. If anyone wants to know exactly, let him interpret the prophecy and see that most of it does not correspond to the prototypes. However, let anyone judge this as they please. And I beg the readers to benefit from what is being interpreted, and with the help of divine power to complete the course, and to desire the victorious crowns, the giver of which is the Lord Christ. To Him belongs all glory forever and ever! Amen. Blessed Theodorite instead of: είς πεδία (on the field) reads: είς παιδείαν. According to ordinary reading: the sun has risen.