Verse 1
1. prayer—the only strictly called prayers are in Habakkuk 3:2. But all devotional addresses to God are called "prayers" (Psalms 72:20). The Hebrew is from a root "to apply to a judge for a favorable decision." Prayers in which praises to God for deliverance, anticipated in the sure confidence of faith, are especially calculated to enlist Jehovah on His people's side (2 Chronicles 20:20-22; 2 Chronicles 20:26).
upon Shigionoth—a musical phrase, "after the manner of elegies," or mournful odes, from an Arabic root [LEE]; the phrase is singular in 2 Chronicles 20:26- :, title. More simply, from a Hebrew root to "err," "on account of sins of ignorance." Habakkuk thus teaches his countrymen to confess not only their more grievous sins, but also their errors and negligences, into which they were especially likely to fall when in exile away from the Holy Land [CALVIN]. So Vulgate and AQUILA, and SYMMACHUS. "For voluntary transgressors" [JEROME]. Probably the subject would regulate the kind of music. DELITZSCH and HENDERSON translate, "With triumphal music," from the same root "to err," implying its enthusiastic irregularity.
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