The prophet Habakkuk gives this title to his canticle: A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet for ignorance. For he had spoken in a bold manner to the Lord and had said, How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and you will not hear? Shall I cry to you ‘suffering violence,’ and you will not save? Why have you shown me iniquity and grievance, to see rapine and injustice before me? Judgment is done against me and opposition is more powerful. Therefore the law is torn to pieces, and judgment comes not to the end, because the wicked prevails against the just; therefore, wrong judgment goes forth.^[1] As a reproof to himself for having spoken these words through ignorance, he writes the Canticle of Penance. If ignorance were no sin, it was a futile effort on his part to compose a book of penance, and his desire to express sorrow over an act that was not a sin was an empty gesture.

When the sacred lesson was read just now, we heard that at the time when the twelve spies were sent to view the land of promise, two of them brought back on a lever to the children of Israel a bunch of grapes of wonderful size. Those two men can be understood in many ways, dearly beloved, for they are not unfittingly believed to have signified both the two Testaments and the two precepts whereby God and the neighbor are loved. They can, likewise, be understood both historically and allegorically. That they were a type of the two Testaments we know definitely from the fact that the grapes are read to have been brought between those two men, just as Christ our Lord is clearly recognized in the middle of the two Testaments. According to what is written, In the middle of the two animals you will be known, that is, between the Old and New Testaments. When we read in the middle, we are not to understand that Christ was between the New and Old Testaments in such a way that he was contained in neither one. This is not true, beloved brothers, but when it says, In the middle of the two animals you will be known, we must realize that he is in the midst of the Old and New Testaments, that is, within in an interior and spiritual sense. This is not according to the letter, . . . but according to the spirit that vivifies all Christians who have spiritual understanding. Therefore in the middle of the two animals you will be known means in the inner sense of the New or Old Testaments.

For mildness will come upon us, and we shall be corrected. Who knows the power of your anger, or can number your wrath for fear?^[1] He now elaborates on his earlier statement: the greatest number of them are labor and sorrow.^[2] He says that we must not go beyond the precepts of the law, for Jesus Christ, who is mildness perfected, comes upon us and corrects and improves us if we wantonly ignore his Testaments. Since he used the word corrected, he prefaced it with mildness, so that we may realize that all the changes wrought by God in the faithful result from the application of devoted love. Next comes Who knows the power of your anger or can number your wrath for fear?^[3] Moses, who had experienced the severity of the Lord’s response to his errant people when they roused him with incessant grumbling, rightly exclaims that no one’s reckoning can measure his vengeance and that the potentialities of angry action open to him cannot be numbered. Observe in both instances that his boundless power is proclaimed, for just as the Lord’s rewards cannot be understood in their fullness, likewise the measure of his vengeance cannot be grasped. He did well to add for fear; as another prophet remarks: I have pondered your works and was afraid.

With him nothing is incomplete or out of due season, just as with the Father there is nothing incongruous. For all these things were foreknown by the Father, but the Son works them out at the proper time in perfect order and sequence. This was the reason why, when Mary was urging on to perform the wonderful miracle of the wine and was desirous before the time to partake of the cup of emblematic significance, the Lord, checking her untimely haste, said, Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come^[1]—waiting for that hour which was foreknown by the Father. This is also the reason why, when men were often desirous to take him, for the hour of his being taken was not yet to come,^[2] nor the time of his passion, which had been foreknown by the Father; as also says the prophet Habakkuk: By this you shall be known when the years have drawn close; you shall be set forth when the time comes; because my soul is disturbed by anger, you shall remember your mercy.

And we think that the expression also which occurs in the hymn of Habakkuk, In the midst either of the two living things, or of the two lives, you will be known, ought to be understood of Christ and the Holy Spirit. For all knowledge of the Father is obtained by revelation of the Son through the Holy Spirit, so that both of these beings which, according to the prophet, are called either living things or lives exist as the grounds of the knowledge of God the Father. For it is said of the Son that no one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.^[1] The same also is said by the apostle of the Holy Spirit, when he declares, God has revealed them to us by his Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.^[2] And again in the Gospel, when the Savior speaks of the divine and profounder parts of his teaching, which his disciples were not yet able to receive, he thus addresses them: I cannot bear them now; but when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is come, he will teach you all things, and will bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you.^[3] We must understand, therefore, that as the Son, who alone knows the Father, reveals him to whom he will, so the Holy Spirit, who alone searches the deep things of God, reveals God to whom he will: For the Spirit blows where he lists.^[4] We are not, however, to suppose that the Spirit derives his knowledge through revelation from the Son.

The Father gave to the Son new disciples after Moses and Elijah had been exhibited along with him in the honor of his glory and had then been dismissed as having fully discharged their duty and office. . . . But we have the entire structure of this same vision in Habakkuk also, where the spirit in the person of some of the apostles says, O Lord, I have heard your speech and was afraid. What speech was this, other than the words of the voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son, hear him?^[1] I considered your works and was astonished. When could this have better happened than when Peter, on seeing his glory, knew not what he was saying? In the midst of the two you shall be known—even Moses and Elijah.

And there are also some of them who say, the Lord has spoken in Zion, and uttered his voice from Jerusalem,^[1] and in Judah is God known^[2]—these indicated his advent, which took place in Judea. Those, again, who declare that God comes from the south, and from a mountain thick with foliage, announced his advent at Bethlehem, as I have pointed out in the preceding book. From that place, also, he who rules and who feeds the people of his Father, has come. Those, again, who declare that at his coming the lame man shall leap as a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall speak plainly, and the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear,^[3] and that the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, shall be strengthened,^[4] and that the dead which are in the grave shall arise,^[5] and that he himself shall take our weaknesses, and bear our sorrows^[6]—proclaimed those works of healing which were accomplished by him.

Habakkuk the prophet says, God shall come from the south, and the holy one from the dark and dense mountain. Whom would they have come from the south? If they say that God the Father almighty came, then God the Father came from a place; consequently, he is also enclosed by space and contained within the limits of some abode. Thus the sacrilegious heresy of Sabellius, as we said, takes concrete form because of these people who believe that Christ is not the Son but the Father. It is strange how these heretics, while insisting that Christ is a mere man, make an about-face and acknowledge that Christ is the Father, God almighty.

Where we recognize Christ in what is written: God will come from the south and the holy one from the shady mountain; his strength will cover the heavens, there we recognize the church in what follows: And the earth is full of his praise. Jerusalem was settled from Africa, as we read in the book of Joshua, son of Nun; from there the name of Christ was spread abroad; there is the shady mountain, the Mount of Olives, from which he ascended into heaven, so that his strength might cover the heavens and the church might be filled through all the earth with his praise.^[1]

What does the psalm have to say of the Savior? As the beloved Son of unicorns.^[1] Our beloved Lord and Savior is the Son of the unicorns, the Son of the cross, of whom Habakkuk sings, Rays shine forth from beside him, where his power is concealed. After this beloved Son was crucified, then, was fulfilled the prophecy of the psalm: The voice of the Lord strikes fiery flames.^[2] For when Christ had been baptized and the entire universe had been purified in his cleansing, the fire of hell was extinguished.

In all of what he said he conveyed to us the ineffable power of God: action follows his will, and by merely wishing it (the sense of he took his position and looked down) he moves the earth, undoes human nature, splits open the mountains and melts the hills like wax. In fact, he has not ceased doing such things for people’s benefit (by passing referring to his doings). Now in what is said he implies also the cross, which is the source of salvation for all people. On it Christ the Lord took his position, shook the earth, moved and split open the mountains, struck with fear the hordes of demons, and destroyed their shrines on mountains and hills. While it was from the beginning and before the formation of the world that he so decided, it was in the last days that he accomplished it.

However, we who are exposed to the outbreaks of barbarians and the storms of war are tossed in the midst of a sea of many troubles and can only infer from these labors and trials more grievous trials in the future. The saying of the prophet seems to be in accord with our condition: I saw the tents of the Ethiopians for their labors. Having now lived fifty-three years in the body, amid the shadows of this world that obscure the reality of the future perfection, and having already endured such heavy sorrows, am I not encamping in the tents of the Ethiopians and dwelling with the inhabitants of Midian? They, owing to their knowledge of the works of darkness, fear to be judged even by mortal men. For the spiritual man judges all things, and he himself is judged by no man.^[1]

Chariots and steeds lay stilled.^[1] Let us examine this verse in its tropological significance. At last Pharaoh mounted his steeds, sank into sleep and perished. The Egyptians too had steeds, but they perished. That is the reason for the prescription found in the law^[2] that no Hebrew should possess a horse. Solomon, you recall, had no horses from Jerusalem or Judea but bought some from Egypt.^[3] Horses are always for sale in Egypt. Some are strong in chariots; some in horses; but we are strong in the name of the Lord, our God.^[4] They, in truth, who mounted horses slumbered and perished. Our Lord has horses too, and he has shining mountains besides, whereas the devil’s mountains are full of darkness. Now just as there are bright mountains and dark mountains, there are good horses and again bad horses. We have made a few remarks about bad horses; let us say something about good horses. When horsemen came to Elisha^[5] to arrest him and the servant boy went out and saw an army of Assyrians round about the city, Elisha said, Fear not: for there are more with us than with them. A little further on in Kings it says, Lord, open the eyes of your servant that he may see. And when his eyes had been opened, he saw chariots and horses. These were helpmates. You notice that it says chariots and horses. There were no men on the horses, only chariots and horses, in other words a multitude of angels. They were the chariots and they were the horses; the charioteer was the Lord. That is why the prophet Habakkuk sings, Your chariots are salvation. This is said to God. O, if only we too were God’s horses, and God deigned to ride us! But those other horses slept their long sleep and their charioteers with them.

He cast forth horse and rider into the sea; he became my helper and protector in salvation.^[1] The men who pursue us are horses, and, so to speak, all who have been born in the flesh are figuratively horses. But these have their own riders. There are horses that the Lord mounts, and they go around all the earth, of whom it is said, And your cavalry is salvation. There are horses, however, who have the devil and his angels as riders. Judas was a horse, but as long as he had the Lord as his rider he was part of the cavalry of salvation. Having been sent with the other apostles indeed, he gave health to the sick and wholeness to the weak.^[2]

But when he surrendered himself to the devil—for after the morsel, Satan entered him^[3]—Satan became his rider, and when he was guided by his reins he began to ride against our Lord and Savior. All, therefore, who persecute the saints, are neighing horses, but they have evil angels as riders by whom they are guided and therefore are wild. If, then, you ever see your persecutor raging very much, know that he is being urged on by a demon as his rider and therefore is fierce and cruel.

And the prophet Habakkuk proclaims the ascension of Christ and the strength of the ecclesiastical order under the titles of the sun and the moon: The sun raised high its hands; the moon stood still in its exalted place. So the heart of each of the faithful is not improperly called a spiritual sun terrace, because it is illumined for its salvation by the rays of that sun above. Therefore Rahab the harlot hid those spies of Joshua on the terrace of her house. That is, she kept them in the upper parts because of the deep love of a heart illumined by spiritual knowledge so that she might sing this prophetic word by the truth of her deed: I treasure your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you.^[1]

Concerning [his] companions in the anointing, the apostle says, To each of us grace is given according to the measure of Christ’s bestowal.^[1] Both the priests and kings are called christs in the law, undoubtedly as figures of this king and high priest, our Lord and Savior, and as a type of him they were also anointed with the earthly oil. Not only they, but also the faithful of our own time, as they are called Christians from Christ, so also are they rightly called christs—from the anointing with the sacred chrism, from the grace of the spirit with which they are consecrated. The prophet testified to this when he said, You went forth for the salvation of your people, so that you might save your christs.^[2] He did indeed go forth for the salvation of his people, so that he might save his christs. On account of us human beings and on account of our salvation, he descended from heaven and became incarnate so that he might grant to us who have been thoroughly anointed and healed by spiritual grace to be sharers in his holy name.

And yet, someone may say, we shall find the name Christ applied not to Emmanuel alone, but also applied to others. For God said somewhere about those chosen and sanctified by the Spirit, Do not touch my anointed ones, and to my prophets do no harm.^[1] The divinely inspired David calls Saul, who had been anointed as king by God through the hand of Samuel:^[2] the Lord’s anointed.^[3] And why do I mention this when it is possible for those who desire to look at the matter calmly to see that those who have been justified by faith in Christ and have been sanctified in the Spirit are honored by such a name? And therefore the prophet Habakkuk has foretold the mystery of Christ and salvation through him, saying, You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed ones. Consequently the name Christ would not be applicable exclusively and properly to Emmanuel, as I said, but also to all the rest who may have been anointed with the grace of the Holy Spirit. For the word is derived from the action and the name anointed from the fact of having been anointed.

For the soul at peace swiftly turns and corrects itself, even though it sinned before, and Christ mounts it, rather, and considers it appropriate to guide it. To him it is said, Mount your horses, and your riding is salvation,^[1] and in another passage, I have sent your horses into the sea. These are the horses of Christ. Therefore Christ mounts his horses; the Word of God mounts pious souls.

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.

And [Joseph] called his name Jesus.^[1] Jesus in Hebrew means saving or Savior in Latin. It is clear that the prophets most certainly call upon his name. Hence these things are sung in great desire for a vision of him: My soul will exult in the Lord and take delight in his salvation.^[2] My soul pines for your salvation.^[3] I, however, will glory in the Lord; I will rejoice in God my Jesus.^[4] And especially that [verse]: God in your name save me! as if [the prophet] would say, You who are called Savior; make bright the glory of your name in me by saving.