Hab 3:16

“He who is cautious and wary can avoid sins for a while, but he who is secure in his own justice opposes God, and deprived of his help, he is subject to the snares of the enemy. "Let rottenness," says Habakkuk, "enter into my bones and swarm under me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation, that I may go up to my people that are girded." He prays earnestly for tribulations and trials and affliction of soul so that, in the next world, he may join the company of those who are already reigning with Christ. It is clear from all this that here, in this life, there is strife and contention, and, in the next world, there is victory.”

“LXX: I kept watch, and my belly was afraid at the voice of my mouth's prayer: and trembling entered into my bones, and under me my strength was troubled. Or as it is found written elsewhere ἡ ἕξις μου, which we can say means my condition: for indeed various readings are found. But these things can also be said from the perspective of the prophet, consistent with what came before: Because you, O Lord, have sent death upon the heads of the wicked, and have raised up the chains even to the neck, and have divided in astonishment the heads of the mighty, and have brought in your horses into the sea, disturbing the many waters: therefore I have kept my heart in all vigilance, and my bowels trembled, and my whole strength or condition, is troubled, lest I should endure similar things. And he can also have, as it were, his own beginning, as the prophet narrates his fear and how he was afraid of sinning in any way, and when he was warned by the voice of his lips in prayer, he feared God so much that trembling entered his bones. And being placed under the mighty hand of the Lord, he was troubled with all the strength or disposition of his soul. But what he says, 'Trembling entered my bones,' should be understood emphatically, so that we may see the magnitude of the fear of God penetrating the entirety of the soul, and moving the whole person so as not to do anything that would displease God. And since Scripture also mentions the members of the soul allegorically, let us understand the hungry belly as representing the power of the soul, which receives spiritual food; the lips as representing the mind's inner dialogue; and the strong and solid bones as representing the firm doctrines on which the whole soul is strengthened. These things have been briefly stated by me. But if anyone discovers something wiser and truer, give your agreement to that person's explanation.”

“LXX: I will rest in the day of my trouble, that I may ascend to the people of my pilgrimage. For with all watchfulness I have kept my heart, and my belly trembled at the voice of my prayer. And trembling came upon me, and darkness covered me: and my bones were affrighted. And under me death began to beget: and I was reproved by the multitude. And what do I long for? II will rest in the day of tribulation: that I may go up to the people of my pilgrimage, for there is my staff. But I will ascend downwards, and, like one striving from a valley to higher things, I will eagerly strive with all my might, so that in the time when others are in distress and anguish, my concern will be about the ascent, and how I will find rest in higher places with the people of my own journey. But I consider the day of tribulation to be the end of the world, about which Isaiah also says: The day of the Lord, incurable, full of fury and anger, to make the whole world a desert and to destroy sinners (Isaiah 14).”

“I guarded and my stomach was terrified at the voice of the prayer of my lips. He calls his mind his stomach in the manner customary to prophets, because just as the stomach receives food by which the strength and life of the body are replenished; so are holy thoughts received in the mind, by which the life of the inner man is sustained and maintained, lest it should fail. Therefore, I guarded, says the Prophet, carefully attending to the future passions of Christ and the subsequent glories, the reprobation of my people, the faith of the nations, the disturbance of the same nations at the new preaching, the persecution to be stirred up by unbelievers against believers; and my heart was terrified by these things which I, foreseeing, spoke of as coming. Or certainly contemplating the different states of the human race: I guarded, he says, myself, with a trembling mind more diligently, lest I should sin in deed, in word, or in thought, and lest I, while preaching to others, should become a reprobate. And it should be noted that he says he was terrified by the voice of the prayer of his lips, although he seems to have prayed nothing at all in this whole song; but only describing with fear and trembling the future mysteries of Christ and the Church; nor is he mistaken who calls his song a prayer, he who also gave it such a title: The Prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet for Ignorances, because whatever a holy man speaks, indeed the whole of this is a prayer to God; whatever he does, anyone whose sincere intention is to please the Lord, this itself intercedes with God for him, and recommends him to the Lord.”

“And trembling entered into my bones. Just as Scripture sometimes designates our carnal actions by the name of flesh; so by the name of bones it usually designates strong and spiritual deeds. Therefore, he says, my heart was terrified by the things I foresee coming into the world, and whatever spiritual strength I thought was within me, all of this trembled as if fragile, while I observe the greater virtues and passions of the blessed Christ and His apostles; which is more clearly explained by the following word, when it is said:”

“And beneath me, my strength was disturbed. However, he rightly says that his strength was disturbed not in himself, but beneath himself, because the prophet, having been taken up to the contemplation of heavenly mysteries, saw himself, as it were, elevated above himself; and the higher he is made by the light of contemplation, the more he sees himself as imperfect by the merit of his actions. For being lifted up to the sight of the highest things, he is rightly disturbed by the things he has done in the lowest. Yet the prophet's strength was disturbed, his bones trembled, his belly shuddered, not only because he knew himself to be less perfect in action, but also because all who wish to live piously in Christ are said to suffer persecutions; and he saw that even Christ Himself, who entered the world without sin, would not leave the world without the punishment of sin, as he had also indicated at the beginning of his song. Nevertheless, the same fear and trembling did not remain devoid of consolation, for the hope diminished the adversity present, and made lighter the rewards of the future. This is what follows:”

“I will rest in the day of my tribulation, that I may ascend to the people of my transmigration. For he rests not only in the day of retribution, but also of tribulation, who does not doubt that he will obtain eternal joys through temporal afflictions, according to the saying of the Apostle: For we are saved by hope (Rom. VIII, 24). And again: Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation (Rom. XII, 12). And this is the rest of the elect in this life, that, leaving the desire for lowly things, they strive with the whole intention of their mind and with daily steps of good works to ascend and migrate to the fellowship of those who have preceded them in Christ; and, with the struggles of their sufferings finished, they may receive the crown of life in the example of those who, having been once transported to Babylon from Judea, returned again to their homeland under the leaders Zerubbabel and Jesus, whom the scripture calls the sons of the transmigration. It is recorded that with great devotion they restored the sacred things which the enemy had destroyed; which is the clearest figure of our state. For we were transported in our first parent from the heavenly homeland and brought into this world's Babylon, that is, confusion; but by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the great King and High Priest, whose type Zerubbabel and Jesus bore, we are rightly recalled again to the homeland and the vision of supreme peace, which the name Jerusalem signifies; provided that, meanwhile, laboring in the Jerusalem of the present Church with pious works, we prepare ourselves in due time for entry to the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of us all. If it is read indifferently, as it is found in some Codices: I will rest in the day of tribulation, and my is not added, it can be understood according to that which is sung in the Psalm about the just man: In the evil day the Lord will deliver him (Ps. XL, 2), that is, in the day of judgment, when eternal tribulation will seize the reprobates, eternal rest will oppose and receive the just; but even before that final and general judgment, the saints rest in the day of tribulation, ascending to the people of their migration, when through good works transported from the world, they are united to the joys of the just who preceded them in the heavens, while equally their persecutors, taken from this life, undergo the eternal torments of hell, to be punished forever. Moreover, the day of tribulation can also be understood in this life, when, with the scarcity of temporal goods increasing, those who loved such things excessively, as if surrounded by miseries, grieve; but each chosen one, although enduring the same troubles bodily, has rest in the Lord with fixed hope of mind, knowing that the more he is weighed down in the lower things, the higher he will ascend after the pressures to the eternal fellowship of the celestial citizens. And this understanding aptly agrees with what follows:”

“The third origin of the fear of the Lord is from the consideration of the severity of divine vengeance. Whence in Habakkuk: "Lord, I have heard your report and was afraid. I heard, and my belly was troubled; at the voice my lips trembled. Let rottenness enter into my bones and swarm beneath me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation." He says: "Let rottenness enter into my bones, and let it swarm beneath me, that I may rest in the day of tribulation." Not only in the day of tribulation or severity of the last judgment, but of any other judgment whatsoever, because the judgments of God are many.”