Hearing God’s voice revealing his plan to him made Habakkuk’s body tremble and his lips quiver as if he were shivering with the cold. It was an overwhelming experience for him to be told what God was about to do to the Babylonians. The message made him feel as if rottenness had entered his bones causing them to decay so that his legs trembled beneath him making him unable to stand. He experienced a weakness that drained him physically and emotionally. It was as if his body was crumbling under the weight of the explanation given to him of what was about to happen.
The feelings that he experienced in his body was as if the wrath of God which was to fall upon the Babylonians fell upon him. God’s judgment would come as he planned. Therefore Habakkuk would wait patiently for the day of calamity to take place. This day would come, thus Habakkuk would rest in the certainty that through his power, God would save his people.
16 I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.