Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Their horses are swifter - literally, lighter, as we say "light of foot"
Than leopards - The wild beast intended is the panther, the lightest, swiftest, fiercest, most bloodthirsty of beasts of prey "It runs most swiftly and rushes brave and straight. You would say, when you saw it, that it is borne through the air." Cyril: "It bounds exceedingly and is exceedingly light to spring down on whatever it pursues."
More fierce - o
Than the evening wolves - Compare Jeremiah 5:6, i. e., than they are when fiercest, going forth to prey when urged to rabidness by hunger the whole day through. Such had their own judges been Zephaniah 3:3, and by such should they be punished. The horse partakes of the fierceness of his rider in trampling down the foe .
Their horsemen shall spread themselves - literally, widespread are their horsemen
And their horsemen from far shall come - Neither distance of march shall weary them, nor diffusion weaken them. So should Moses' prophecy be again fulfilled (Deuteronomy 28:49-50, occurs in both.) "The Lord shall raise against thee a nation from far, from the ends of the earth, as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young."
They shall fly as the eagle that hasteth - literally, hasting
To eat - Jerome: "not to fight, for none shall withstand; but with a course like the eagle' s, to whom all fowl are subdued, hasting but to eat." Behold, Jeremiah says of Nebuchadnezzar Jeremiah 48:40, he shall fly as an eagle and spread his wings over Moab; and, he repeats the words Jeremiah 49:22, over Bozrah. Our pursuers, Jeremiah says Lamentations 4:19, are swifter than the eagles of the heavens. Ezekiel likens him to Ezekiel 17:3 "a great eagle with great wings full of feathers;" in Daniel' s vision he is Daniel 7:4 "a lion with eagle' s wings."
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Habakkuk 1:8:
2 Kings 20:14
Isaiah 11:6
Isaiah 11:6
Isaiah 28:28
Jeremiah 5:6
Daniel 7:4
Daniel 7:6
Hosea 8:1
Habakkuk 2:9
Zephaniah 3:3
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