| Habakkuk 3:2
| O Lord, I have heard thy hearing, and was afraid. O Lord, thy work, in the midst of the years bring it to life: In the midst of the years thou shalt make it known: when thou art angry, thou wilt remember mercy.
| Thy hearing, etc. That is, thy oracles, the great and wonderful things thou hast revealed to me: and I was struck with a reverential fear and awe. (Challoner) --- I saw that the unjust would not escape. (Calmet) --- Work. The great work of the redemption of man, which thou wilt bring to life and light in the midst of the years, when our calamities and miseries shall be at their height. (Challoner) --- Years, at the time appointed. (Worthington) --- Septuagint read, "Lord, I considered thy works, and was astonished; in the midst of two living creatures, or lives, thou shalt be known," (Haydock) or found, between an ox and an ass, as the Church has it. (Nat. and Circumc.[Nativity and Circumcision?]) (Worthington) --- Christ appeared when the world was most dissolute. (Menochius) --- The tradition of two animals being near the crib where he was born, is not of earlier date than about the fifth century. Some explain this of the Father between the Son and the Holy Ghost; others of Christ between the thieves, or the two testaments, or collecting his Church from Jews and Gentiles, etc. (Sanct.; Calmet) --- Moderns agree with St. Jerome's version. The prophet begs that God would perform his ancient miracles in his days, (Calmet) by relieving the captives, as he had formerly delivered their ancestors. (Haydock) --- Make. Hebrew and Septuagint, "when the years approach, thou shalt be made known; when the time shall come, thou shalt be manifested; when my soul shall be troubled, in wrath thou," etc. (Haydock) --- God never shuts the gate of mercy to the penitent, Nahum 1:3. (Calmet)
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