+God came from Teman, And the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covereth the heavens, And the earth is full of his praise.
Habakkuk has just begged God to revive His work and to remember mercy while wrath is falling. God's answer opens with a vision. He is on the march from the desert country south of Israel. Is the prophet looking back at what God once did, or forward to what He will do?
Both names point to the same region: the desert south of Israel, in and around the land of Edom. One reference work traces Teman to Esau's line and to the country his descendants settled:
Son of Eliphaz, a son of Esau, and a duke of Edom; also his descendants and the district in which they lived. It is connected four times with Edom and twice with Dedan, which places it in the south. Scripture speaks of its wisdom, and God pronounces judgements on it. In Habakkuk 3:3 the margin reads "south."
Moses used the same picture. God shining out of that wilderness once meant rescue from Egypt and a people made His own:
The great ode, cast in the form of a Psalm, begins with the statement that God comes from Teman and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Moses in his prophetic blessing begins with a similar declaration. Just as He was revealed when He had redeemed them out of Egypt and made them His kingdom people at Sinai, so He will appear again to deliver the remnant of His people from the rule of the world-power. He comes from the direction of Edom, for Teman is the southern district of Idumea, while Paran lies further south.
"God came from Teman" is not a statement about where God started. It describes a movement of majesty at the head of His people:
First, as to the expression that puzzles you, "God came from Teman." This has nothing to do with His eternal existence. Compare Deuteronomy 33:2: "The LORD came from Sinai ... he shone forth from Mount Paran." This expresses the same act of majesty on His part. Judges 5:4 refers to the same triumphant progress of the Lord at the head of His people Israel. They came out of the wilderness to threaten the nations that tried to stop them taking possession of the Land of Promise.
Commentators differ on the tense. Some read verses 3–6 as a memory of the exodus:
These verses show us the Lord coming from the east, from Teman and the mountains of Paran. Those mountains tower over the wilderness of the same name. In short, He comes from Edom's territory. He comes to help His people, to deliver them out of slavery in Egypt by destroying the nations that oppressed and resisted Israel.
Others read the verb as future. "It is unfortunate that the Authorized Version has 'God came from Teman,' when it is 'God comes,' not a past but a future event" (Gaebelein). Either way, God is on the march for His people.
The reason for the backward look is a request. Habakkuk holds up God's old works so that God will act like Himself again:
He asks that there may be "a revival". He asks that now, in the middle of the years, God would do the works that so wonderfully marked the beginning of the years. He rehearses, as in the divine presence, those early works of the Lord for Israel — done in Egypt, in the wilderness, and in Canaan. He does it so that the Lord might look at those mighty deeds of His and do the like in these present Chaldean times.
A single word halts the verse in the middle. Its exact sense is uncertain: "Pause, consider, is perhaps its meaning" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). One writer adds what the pause is for: "It means to pause and to lift up. We are to pause and meditate, and then lift up our hearts and voices in praise and thanksgiving" (Arno Clemens Gaebelein).
The last part of the verse reaches both sky and land:
His glory covers the heavens, while the earth is filled with His praise. Heaven and earth reflect the glory of the Coming One. He comes in power and great glory, in the clouds of heaven, as Daniel saw Him in the night vision, and as our Lord testified Himself.
Trench follows the same march forward. The last judgment falls in Edom, where the verse begins, and it opens into the kingdom:
Habakkuk 3 looks on to the future. The last of the series of judgments on the nations will be in Edom, the land of Esau — Teman was his eldest son — for their undying hatred of Israel. But in wrath He remembers mercy. The judgments will result in the thousand years of the kingdom of Christ, and the earthly blessing of Israel and the nations under His universal rule.
- Place — Teman and Paran are Edom's desert country in the south, where God once shone out for His people at Sinai.
- Movement — the verse describes a march of majesty, not where God began; He goes at the head of His people.
- Memory — Habakkuk holds up the old deliverance so that God would do the same again in his own day.
- Pause — Selah stops the reader: think it over, then lift the heart in praise.
- Fullness — the march ends in the kingdom of Christ, with glory over the heavens and praise filling the earth.
And [his] brightness was as the light; Rays [came forth] from his hand; And there was the hiding of his power.
Habakkuk's last chapter turns from argument into prayer. The prophet sees God Himself coming, with light streaming from Him. The same hand that pours out that light is where His power stays hidden.
One commentator sees a sunrise in these rays, and hears something more in them:
Brightness fills the sky as He appears in person, while glory rays stream out from His hand — the hiding of His power. The picture evidently comes from the rising sun, which shoots out great rays, announcing its rising. As Delitzsch remarks, "His hand" is meant in a general sense, the hand as such, not one hand only. May we not have here a hint of His hands, once pierced, but now streaming with glory?
The rays are what a sunrise does: the first edge of a glory still below the horizon.
The verse just before names Teman and Paran. One writer ties the prophet's words there to times when God acted for His people:
Then in sublime language he recalls the different ways God had acted in the past, for His own glory and for the blessing of His people. He refers to Teman and Paran, where there had been the most striking displays of divine power and glory, as we know from Deuteronomy 33:2. "Before Him" the enemies of His people were driven apart and scattered, and every opposing power was brought low.
One writer places Habakkuk's prayer alongside other Bible songs about God's past rescues:
All these passages, like Habakkuk's prayer, sing of God's past intervention to save His people as a pledge of the deliverance in the last days.
Light pours from His hand, and that same hand hides His power. Older translations read the line as "there was the hiding of His power." One writer takes that hand to the cross:
Consider the indescribable grace of the Lord's person. The hand that was nailed to the cross in pain and shame was the hiding place of almighty power (Hab. 3:4). Yet He suffered in weakness. He cried out in deep distress, and that cry told of a heart broken under the sense of God's abandonment (Matt. 27:46). This is what the Holy Spirit sets before the believer, to produce in him a Christian frame and temper in the true sense of the word.
So the hiding is real. At the cross almighty power was there, and not used.
Why would God hide anything? One writer answers that what God keeps back is worth more than what He shows:
But in divine things, the hidden and inward is always deeper and more precious than the outward. What is going to be displayed is more precious than the display itself. ("There was the hiding of His power" — Hab. 3:4.) The white stone comes from the hand of the glorified Jesus. It tells of secret blessings dearer even than the glory that will be revealed to us, and that we are to share.
The hiding does not last. In the next verse He simply stands, and the oldest powers on earth give way. The writer quotes an older translation:
"He stood, and measured the earth; He looked, and routed the nations; and the eternal mountains were scattered, the everlasting hills gave way: His ways are everlasting" (v. 6). The nations who tried to resist Israel were scattered, the power of ancient Egypt broken. The eternal hills picture the authorities God Himself set up. Their rule should therefore have lasted without limit. Yet they gave way before Him who came from His holy mountain to deliver His people.
- Rays — light streams out from God as He comes; the image is sunrise, the first rays of a glory not yet fully risen.
- Hand — the light streams from His hand, and one writer sees a hint of hands once pierced, now pouring out glory.
- Hiding — that same hand at the cross hid almighty power. He suffered in real weakness while that power stayed unused.
- Deeper — what God hides is not less than what He shows. One writer calls the hidden more precious than the display.
- Standing — the hidden power will not stay hidden. He stands, He looks, and the oldest authorities on earth give way.
Before him went the pestilence, And a burning flame went forth at his feet.
Habakkuk 3 is the prophet's prayer, and in it he describes God on the march. Verse 5 gives Him an escort in front and behind, and commentators differ over whether the prophet is looking back at an old rescue or forward to one still ahead.
One writer reads the opening lines of this prayer as a picture of the escape from Egypt:
These verses describe the Exodus from Egypt. They show us the Lord coming from the east, from Teman and the mountains of Paran. Those mountains dominate the wilderness that carries their name. In short, He comes from Edom's territory. He comes to the aid of His people, to deliver them out of slavery in Egypt by destroying the nations who oppressed them and resisted Israel.
Another writer takes the whole scene as still to come. The past tense in the English versions, he says, is a translation problem:
It is unfortunate that the King James Version has "God came from Teman," when it is "God comes" — not a past but a future event. Just as He appeared when He had redeemed them out of Egypt, and made them His kingdom people at Sinai, so He will appear again. He will deliver the remnant of His people from the rule of the world-power, and judge that power as He judged Egypt.
On that reading, verse 5 describes what still lies ahead of that coming:
Before Him goes the pestilence. It points to the trouble that comes before His coming. That is when the four apocalyptic riders bring war, famine, pestilence, and death in judgment for this earth.
Writing to someone puzzled by these verses, another writer held the old event and the coming one together, and traced where it ends:
This has nothing to do with His eternal existence. Compare Deuteronomy 33:2: "The LORD came from Sinai and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran." Judges 5:4 refers to the same triumphant progress of the Lord at the head of His people Israel... This as to the past. Habakkuk 3 looks on to the future. After the Lord takes up His ways with Israel again, the nations will band together to dispute His putting the true remnant of Israel back into possession of the whole land promised to Abraham. The last of these judgments will fall in Edom, the land of Esau — Teman was his eldest son (Genesis 36:15) — for their undying hatred of Israel. The judgments will result in the thousand years of the kingdom of Christ, and the earthly blessing of Israel and the nations under His worldwide rule.
The same pattern shows up elsewhere in the chapter. When the prophet later names Cushan and Midian, one writer sums it up simply:
The past is seen as a prophecy of the future.
The ESV ends the verse with "plague followed at his heels." Older translations read that line differently: burning coals, or a burning flame, at His feet. That word does not mean what a modern reader assumes:
Mineral coal is now known to exist in the Lebanon range, but was unknown in Bible times... The coal usually meant in the Old Testament was charcoal. Other words there point to the hot or glowing stones people baked cakes on. 1 Kings 19:6; Song of Solomon 8:6; Isaiah 6:6; Habakkuk 3:5.
Plague and fire sound like pure destruction. One writer points out who this display of power is for:
Then in sublime language he recalls the different ways in which God had acted, in the past, for His own glory and the blessing of His people... "Before Him" the enemies of His people were driven apart and scattered, and every opposing power brought low.
Recalling what God once did is not nostalgia. It is the ground of confidence:
What assurance this thought gives to faith! What God has done in the past, He will also do in the future; with Him "there is no variation or shadow due to change" (James 1:17).
The same writer turns that into a call for today:
This was all the more a reason to call upon God's mercy. Just when He pours out His judgments over the world, we ought to trust His grace — today as much as in the past.
- He goes — from Edom. The march starts at Teman and Paran, in Edom's territory. God moves to help His people and break the nations that held them down.
- He goes — again. Commentators differ on the tense. Some read a remembered Exodus. Others read a coming still ahead, with the pestilence in front of Him as the trouble that runs before His arrival.
- He goes — with escort. Pestilence goes in front. Burning charcoal, not mineral coal, glows at His feet. His approach is armed on both sides.
- He goes — for someone. God scatters every opposing power for His own glory and the blessing of His people. The judgments end in the kingdom of Christ, not in ruin.
- He goes — the same. In Him there is no variation or shadow due to change. So what He did once is the ground for trusting His grace now, even while judgment falls.