Charles Ellicott Commentary Habakkuk 3:9

"Thy bow was made quite bare; The oaths to the tribes were a [sure] word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers." — Habakkuk 3:9 (ASV)

Your bow was made quite naked. —This is better understood as: Your bow will be bared, even the chastisements sworn by Your word. Selah. With rivers You will cleave the earth.

God’s chastisements, which are compared in Psalm 21:12 to arrows fitted to the string, are here represented as a bow taken out of its case, and so “made naked,” or “bared.”

The word matteh (meaning “rod,” “stem,” and by extension, “tribe”), used to denote an instrument of chastisement in Micah 6:9 and Isaiah 30:32, here apparently means the punishment, or chastisement, of heathen iniquities, which God has sworn to execute .

Regarding the term Selah, see the note on Psalm 3:4.

The phrase With rivers You will cleave the earth means that the rocks will send forth new watercourses at Jehovah’s bidding, so that rivers run in the dry places (Numbers 20:11).