I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
Habakkuk's prayer has moved from God appearing in blazing glory to the reaction of the nations on the ground. Verse 7 names two of them. Two questions sit under the line. Who are Cushan and Midian? And is the prophet describing the past or the future?
The first name is not certain. One reference work lists two possibilities side by side:
Perhaps it means Ethiopia, as the margin note at Habakkuk 3:7 says. Or it may refer to Chushan-rishathaim, the first oppressor on record in the time of the judges (Judges 3:8-10).
Midian is firmer ground. The Midianites were desert neighbours of Israel. God had already broken their power once. When Israel cried out under their oppression, He raised up Gideon. There was a great slaughter of the Midianites, "so that they lifted up their heads no more" against Israel (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
Habakkuk does not say their cities shook. He says their tents and tent-curtains shook. Those are the homes of wandering desert peoples, the flimsiest shelter there is. One writer reads the two names as marking out the compass points of the region:
With awe the prophet thought of events that still had to happen, but which he saw in his vision as already having happened. The territories of Cush to the West and to the North, and Arabia to the East and the South, will tremble before the Lord.
Note what that comment does with the tense. The verb is past — I saw — but the thing seen is future. The prophet's vision is so certain that he reports it as finished.
Why reach for these two old names at all? Because what God did once is a sample of what He will do again:
Then the prophet sees the tents of Cushan in affliction and the curtains of Midian tremble. Cushan means the Ethiopians, and the Midianites inhabited the Arabian coast along the Red Sea. The past is seen as a prophecy of the future. He once came at Sinai, and the mountains shook and the hills trembled. News of the disaster at the Red Sea once struck terror into the neighbouring nations. So it will be again, only on a larger scale, when He comes in great power and glory.
Note what made these peoples shake: news of what God had done, not an army at their border. The two readings of Cushan differ: Ethiopia, or the oppressor from the days of the judges. Both land in the same place. Either way, this is a people who once felt the shock of God stepping in, named here again as a preview.
The older rescue is the smaller of the two. One writer sets them side by side: the past deliverance, when Israel went out of Egypt, "did not come anywhere near as far as the future deliverance described here" (H. L. Rossier).
The shaking is not random panic. It is the effect of something aimed:
The homes of the nations were in distress, and their lands trembled when, at the word of the LORD, "the rods of discipline" fell upon them (verse 9, N. Tr.). None of the powers of nature could hold back the LORD's work of judgment — not the rivers, not the mountains, not the sun and moon. He marched through the land in indignation, to thresh the nations in anger.
("N. Tr." points to a different translation of verse 9.)
The nations tremble. The rivers and the sea are stirred up. But none of these is the target. The verses that follow ask whether God's anger was against the rivers. The answer is no:
Still, God occupies Himself with what men may despise. He takes notice of small things, and He does it just because He is great beyond measure. People who only reach after a greatness they do not have are afraid of lowering themselves by noticing what is small. It is not so where the greatness is real. Israel was His object, not the rivers or the sea. He sought His people, and He would save them.
That is the hinge of the whole passage. Judgment on the surrounding peoples is the outward noise of a rescue operation. The passage calls the chariots of that judgment "chariots of salvation," because God's purpose in it "is not just judgment" (H. L. Rossier).
- Named: commentators read Cushan as Ethiopia or as the oppressor from the days of the judges. Midian was the desert people God once crushed through Gideon.
- Fragile: tents and tent-curtains shake — the homes of wandering peoples, with nothing solid to hide behind when God moves.
- Pattern: the past works as prophecy. Sinai and the Red Sea terrified the neighbours once; the same thing comes again, only larger.
- Purposeful: the trembling is the rod of discipline falling on the nations, and no power in nature can stop it.
- Aimed: the rivers and the sea were never the target. God was after His people, and the chariots of judgment are chariots of salvation.
Was Jehovah wrathful with the rivers? Was thine anger against the rivers? Was thy rage against the sea, That thou didst ride upon thy horses, Thy chariots of salvation?
Habakkuk ends his book with a prayer that turns into a song, and here he speaks to God directly, asking whether the rivers and the sea were what angered Him. The answer is no: God unleashed His power on creation, but His quarrel was with someone else.
The waters were not the target. They were only in the way. Why then does God bother with a people as small as Israel?
God occupies Himself with what men may despise. He takes notice of the little, and this precisely because He is infinitely great. Those who merely reach after a greatness they do not have are afraid of lowering themselves by noticing what is small. It is not so where there is real greatness. Israel were His object, not the rivers or the sea. He sought and would save His people.
If God had no argument with the sea, why did He split it? Because He can make physical things serve a purpose that is not physical at all:
It is the prayer of faith that moves the hand of Him who rules creation. In this way the natural serves the spiritual and the material serves the moral. The very things that hide our Creator from our gaze become the means by which He shows Himself. God opened a path through the sea in answer to His people's need and the cry of Moses. God, having no controversy with material things, makes them serve His end for moral reasons... If He turns a river into blood, or stops another in full flood so that it flows backward, it is an intervention on behalf of His people.
Commentators differ on how literally to read the water here. Some keep it to the plain history: a sea opened, a river turned back. Others read the imagery as standing for something larger:
The verses which follow (verses 8-15) are in the form of an address to God. The rivers and the seas, and the mountains feel His wrath; they stand for the nations and the world-powers. He is seen marching in anger through the earth and in His fury treading down the nations.
The verse ends by naming what God rides. It is a chariot of salvation, not a chariot of war. That one word changes the whole march:
God will do away with the boundaries of the nations; He Himself will strike them down in their confusion. But when He acts in this way, His purpose is not judgment only, for His chariots are "chariots of salvation."
Does the song only look backwards? Rossier reads it forwards too:
In these verses we find a comparison between the future deliverance and that out of Egypt, which was only a weak picture of the former.
Habakkuk is not reciting history for its own sake. The Chaldeans were coming. He reaches back to what God did at the start of the nation's life and asks Him to do it again:
He seeks that there may be "a revival" — that now in the middle of the years God would do the works that so wonderfully marked the beginning of the years. And with moving beauty he recounts those early works of the Lord for Israel in God's presence. He speaks in the broken style of a man carried along by a heart alive to its subject. He recalls Egypt, the wilderness and Canaan. He wants the Lord to look at those mighty acts of His and do the same in these present Chaldean times.
Centuries later that same strong hand was at work among people who did not recognise it:
His hand was as strong for them now as when He rode with His chariots of salvation through the sea and covered the Egyptian sky with sackcloth. But there was no one (Isaiah 50:1-2). Israel did not know, the people did not consider, that the tenants refused and rejected the Heir of the vineyard.
- Target — The anger was never aimed at rivers or sea. Israel was His object, and He sought to save His people.
- Means — God has no quarrel with material things. He makes them serve His end for moral reasons, so the natural serves the spiritual.
- Scale — Some read the rivers, seas and mountains as the nations and world-powers that feel His wrath.
- Purpose — His chariots are chariots of salvation. Even when He strikes the nations, judgment is not the whole of what He intends.
- Plea — Habakkuk rehearses the old works of Egypt, wilderness and Canaan so that God will do the same again — and the deliverance still ahead makes the escape from Egypt look like only a weak picture.
Thy bow was made naked, The rods [of discipline] sworn according to [thy] word. Selah. Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers.
Habakkuk's prayer in chapter 3 pictures God marching out as a warrior. Verse 9 is the moment the weapon comes out of its cover. Two questions press. Why is the bow uncovered? And what word stands behind the blow that splits the earth with rivers?
An uncovered bow means a weapon no longer stored but in use. One commentator links the bare bow to blows that fall on the nations. He reads the second line as rods of discipline sworn by God's own word.
The homes of the nations were in distress. Their lands trembled when "the rods of discipline" fell on them at the word of the LORD (verse 9, New Translation). No power of nature could stop the LORD's work of judgment. The rivers, the mountains, the sun and the moon were of no help when He marched through the land in indignation, to thresh the nations in anger.
Commentators differ over the middle line. Older translations read it as oaths sworn to the tribes. Others read it as rods of discipline sworn by God's word. The ESV reads it as a call for many arrows.
Your bow is made completely bare; rods of chastisement are sworn by Your Word, You cleave the earth with rivers.
Either way, God draws the bow on the strength of something He has sworn. The whole prayer works like a man holding up a token in front of God, asking Him to look at it and act on what He promised.
It is as if Habakkuk were lifting up the bow under the eye of God in the day of the cloud. He does it so that God, looking at it, might remember His covenant, His grace, and His power for His saints. He might remember His promises and His mercies, and save His people from this threatened flood.
The surrounding verses ask whether God's anger was against the rivers and the sea. The answer is that the water and the land were never the point. One writer draws out why the great God stoops to such small matters at all.
God occupies Himself with what people may despise. He takes notice of the little, and this is exactly because He is infinitely great. Some people only reach for a greatness they do not have. They are afraid that noticing what is small will lower them. Not so where there is real greatness. Israel were His object, not the rivers or the sea. He sought and would save His people.
Splitting the earth with rivers sounds like sheer destruction. But the same chapter has already called God's horses and chariots by a name that fixes their purpose.
When He acts in this way, His purpose is not only judgment. His chariots are "chariots of salvation." The judgments will still have to run their course to the end. The stripes foretold by God's Word come down on the nations, and He wipes out their boundaries (v. 9).
The picture of the split earth reaches back to Israel's rescue out of Egypt. Commentators read these verses as a deliberate comparison. The older rescue is the smaller of the two.
In verses 7-15 we find a comparison between the future deliverance and the one out of Egypt. The rescue from Egypt was only a weak picture of the future one.
The prophet spends the chapter going back over what God has already done.
The prophet is aware of God's presence as he reviews His past dealings against Israel's enemies. In them he sees the pledge of the future salvation.
The word breaks the verse in half. Its exact sense is disputed. One source says the meaning "is not really known" and suggests "Pause, consider" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). Another writer treats it as a call to stop and then to worship.
This 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. It appears seventy-one times in the Psalms and three times in this chapter of Habakkuk.
- Word — The bow does not come out at random. Rods of discipline fall on the nations at the word of the LORD, and the whole action rests on something sworn.
- Covenant — Habakkuk holds up that pledge before God like a token. He asks God to remember His covenant and His mercies, and to save His people.
- Object — The rivers and the sea were never the target. Israel was His object, and He takes notice of the little precisely because He is infinitely great.
- Salvation — The stripes do fall and the borders of nations vanish. Yet the chariots driving through it all are chariots of salvation.
- Pledge — What God did in Egypt was only a weak picture of what is coming. The prophet reviews the past and reads it as the guarantee of the future rescue. Then: Selah — pause, think, and lift up your voice.
The mountains saw thee, they were in travail Torrents of waters passed by; The deep uttered its voice, Lifted up its hands on high.
Habakkuk is looking back at what God did when He rescued His people out of Egypt, and he sees in it a picture of what God will yet do. Verse 10 is the moment creation itself reacts to Him, and commentators differ over whose hands are lifted there.
The chapter moves in stages. God first comes from far off, with heaven and earth lit by His glory. Then He arrives and takes His stand.
With the sixth verse He draws nearer. Up to this point in this appearing of God, He comes forth like the sun coming out from where it rests, while heaven and earth reflect His glory. But now He stands and measures the earth. He looks, and the nations tremble. All creation feels it, and earthquakes shake down the mountains.
By verse 10 the shaking has reached everything. Mountains, water and the deep all react to a Person who has come near.
The rivers, seas and mountains named in verse 10 are not only rivers, seas and mountains.
The verses that follow (verses 8-15) are spoken directly to God. The rivers, the seas and the mountains feel His wrath. They stand for the nations and the world-powers. He marches in anger through the earth and in His fury treads down the nations. It is a majestic picture the Spirit of God gives of that coming day of wrath and judgment.
Commentators differ on who lifts up the hands. Some leave the image with the deep itself. Others hear people behind the roar, and see the hands of those who cannot escape. Yet even in this scene, God's purpose reaches past judgment.
When God acts in this way, His purpose is not only judgment, for His chariots are "chariots of salvation." The rulers will be terrified. The whole world will cry out in fear. The people will lift up their hands in vain while a flood of judgments pours over them (v. 10). Nothing will be able to stop the Lord's battle against the godless until they are fully consumed.
Verse 10 belongs to a longer list. It runs on through rivers, mountains, sun and moon — every force people treat as immovable.
The homes of the pagan nations were in distress, and their lands trembled when, at the word of the LORD, "the rods of discipline" fell on the nations (verse 9). All the powers of nature — the rivers, the mountains, the sun and moon — could do nothing to stop the LORD's work of judgment. He marched through the land in anger, to thresh the nations in His fury.
So is God's anger aimed at the rivers and the sea? The answer decides how we read verse 10. The shaking of nature is not the target; it is the stir made by a God on His way to rescue a people others despise.
God gives His attention to what people may despise. He takes notice of the little, and He does so just because He is infinitely great. People who only reach after a greatness they do not have are afraid of lowering themselves by noticing what is small. It is not so where greatness is real. Israel was His object, not the rivers or the sea. He sought and would save His people.
Habakkuk is not writing history for its own sake. The shaking he describes belongs to a rescue already past, and other Scriptures use that same rescue in the same way.
Psalm 77 takes the rescue from Egypt and draws from it the confidence that the Lord will rescue His people in the time of the Great Tribulation. So all these passages, like Habakkuk's prayer, sing of God stepping in to save His people in the past as a pledge of the rescue in the last days.
Verse 10 is not where the chapter stops. It closes in song.
How wonderfully the chapter closes with what is true for the believer at all times (v. 17). Even when nothing seems to prosper, and all that the flesh would lean on is gone — "Yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation." And so it turns "prayer" (v. 1) into praise.
- He comes. God is not watching from a distance. He stands, He looks, and creation shakes because He has come near.
- He shakes. Mountains and seas here stand for nations and world-powers. So verse 10 shows everything people rely on shaking.
- He cannot be stopped. Rivers, mountains, sun and moon are all listed — and all of them fail to hold Him back.
- He is aiming at His people. The upheaval is not anger at rivers and sea; His object is a small people He means to save.
- He is remembered, then trusted. Habakkuk recalls past rescues as a pledge of the future. That is why a prayer that began in fear ends in praise.
The sun [and] moon stood still in their habitation, At the light of thine arrows which shot forth, -- At the shining of thy glittering spear.
Habakkuk's last chapter is a prayer, and in verse 11 the sun and moon stand still while God fights. Commentators read the scene both as a memory of an old battle and as a preview of the day of the Lord.
The picture reaches back to the day God fought for Israel under Joshua. One writer sets the coming judgment on that same course.
Nothing will be able to stop the Lord's battle against the godless until they are completely consumed. It will be as it was in the days of Joshua (Joshua 10:13).
Gaebelein goes further than a memory. He reads Joshua's day as a set pattern for the day of the Lord.
It was the most remarkable battle in Israel's history. There was no day like it, nor any since, because the Lord listened to the voice of Joshua. The Lord fought for Israel. The sun stood still, and the moon stayed until the people had taken revenge on their enemies. This is a prophetic type of the coming day of the Lord.
The second half of the verse gives God weapons. One writer describes how He appears and what He fights with.
There will be visible signs of His presence with His people, as there were when He led them through the wilderness. He will fight for them, as He did long ago when He threw down great hailstones on their enemies (Joshua 10:11). Only here the lightning is His weapon. As Habakkuk says, "at the light of Your arrows as they sped, at the flash of Your glittering spear." (Hab. 3:11)
Rivers, mountains and sea fill the lines around this verse. The sun and moon close the list, and not one of them can slow God down.
All the powers of nature — the rivers, the mountains, the sun and moon — were of no use to stop the work of the LORD in judgment. He marched through the land in indignation, to thresh the nations in anger.
From verse 8 on, the prophet speaks straight to God. Commentators differ on how to read the scenery, and some take the rivers, seas and mountains as figures for nations.
The verses which follow (verses 8-15) are in the form of an address to God. The rivers and the seas, and the mountains feel His wrath; they stand as symbols of the nations and the world-powers. He is seen marching in anger through the earth and in His fury treading down the nations.
Barker turns memory into expectation. God once made nature serve His ways with Israel, and He will do it again.
Had sea and mountain, sun and moon been made to serve God's ways with Israel in the past? It will be the same in the future, when plague and fire and other ways God steps in announce the arrival of the Lord's day.
The verse is full of great powers, yet none of them is God's aim. Kelly names what He is really after.
Still, God occupies Himself with what men may despise. He takes notice of the little; and this just because He is infinitely great. People who only reach for a greatness they do not have are afraid of lowering themselves by noticing what is small. It is not so where there is real greatness. Israel was His object, not the rivers or the sea. He sought and would save His people.
- Pattern. The still sun and moon point back to Joshua's battle. One writer calls that day "a prophetic type of the coming day of the Lord."
- Weapon. One writer reads the flashing arrows and spear as lightning — God Himself fighting for His people.
- Reach. Rivers, mountains, sun and moon "were of no use to stop the work of the LORD." Some writers read them as symbols of nations and world-powers.
- Pledge. Sea, mountain, sun and moon once served God's ways with Israel. Habakkuk expects the same in the coming day.
- Purpose. The whole display has a small object: not rivers or sea, but a people God "sought and would save."
Thou didst march through the land in indignation, Thou didst thresh the nations in anger.
Habakkuk's last chapter ends with God Himself on the move, striding across the earth and treading the nations down. Why such fury, and who is it for?
Which nations are being threshed? One writer points to a gathering that has not happened yet.
Habakkuk 3 looks on to the future. The Lord will take up His ways with Israel again. Then the nations will band together to dispute His putting the true remnant of Israel back into possession of the whole extent of the land promised to Abraham. The last of the judgments carried out on them will fall in Edom, the land of Esau. Teman was his eldest son (Genesis 36:15). The reason is their undying hatred of Israel.
God has marched like this before. What happened then sets the pattern.
He once came at Sinai, when the mountains shook and the hills trembled. The news of the Red Sea disaster once struck terror into the neighbouring nations. So it will be again, only on a larger scale, when He comes in great power and glory.
The chapter piles up rivers, mountains, sun and moon. Here is what all of them amounted to.
The homes of the pagan peoples were in distress, and their lands shook, when at the word of the LORD "the rods of discipline" fell on the nations. All the powers of nature could do nothing to stop the LORD's work of judgment — not the rivers, not the mountains, not the sun and moon. He marched through the land in indignation, to thresh the nations in anger.
Rivers, seas and mountains fill this chapter. One writer says they stand for more than water and rock.
The rivers, the seas and the mountains feel His wrath. They are symbols of the nations and the world-powers. He is seen marching in anger through the earth, treading down the nations in His fury. It is a majestic picture the Spirit of God gives of that coming day of wrath and judgment.
The older translation these writers used reads "through the land" where the ESV reads "through the earth." Read as Israel's own land, the line has a sobering edge.
Moreover, God's wrath will not spare the land, Israel's territory. The unbelieving and apostate part of the people will, like the nations, receive the stripes of the Lord's indignation.
The same chapter puts horses and chariots under God's fury. One writer notes what those chariots are called.
But when He acts in this way, His purpose is not just judgment, for His chariots are "chariots of salvation."
But who is all this power for? One writer answers by contrasting real greatness with the false kind.
Still, God occupies Himself with what people may despise. He takes notice of the little, and He does so just because He is infinitely great. Those who only reach after a greatness they do not have are afraid that noticing small things will lower them. Not so where there is real greatness. Israel were His object, not the rivers or the sea. He sought and would save His people.
Judgment is not the last word here. One writer names the people the march is for.
But while He comes in this way, carrying out wrath and judgment upon the ungodly, He comes in mercy. He goes forth for the salvation of His people, for the salvation of Your anointed. That means the elect nation and the God-fearing, waiting remnant of the last days.
- March. God moves in person across the earth in anger. The prophet sees a day still ahead: the nations band together against the restored remnant of Israel, and meet Him instead.
- Resistance. Rivers, mountains, sun and moon each appear in turn, and none can hold back His judgment. They picture nations and world-powers, not just scenery.
- Reach. The anger does not stop at foreign borders. Read as Israel's own land, the verse means the unbelieving part of the people takes the same blows as the nations.
- Aim. This chapter calls His chariots chariots of salvation. The fury is not an end in itself. It clears the way for rescue.
- Object. God spends all this power on something small and despised. He notices the little because He is great, and He marches to save His people.
Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, For the salvation of thine anointed; Thou didst smite off the head from the house of the wicked, Laying bare the foundation even to the neck. Selah.
Habakkuk has just watched God march across the earth in fury and thresh the nations. This verse gives the reason for it: rescue. It also raises two questions — who is the "anointed" God goes out to save, and who is the "head" He crushes.
God was not venting His anger on creation. One writer explains why so great a God troubles Himself with something small:
God occupies Himself with what men may despise. He takes notice of the little, and this just because He is infinitely great. People who only reach for a greatness they do not have are afraid of lowering themselves by noticing what is small. Not so where there is real greatness. Israel was His object, not the rivers or the sea. He sought and would save His people... There we see what was near the prophet's heart: was it not also near Jehovah's heart?
Another writer marvels at how much God will disturb for so few:
Isn't this a wonderful thing? That small nation will be the object of the loving care of the almighty God. And even then it is represented by only a small, insignificant remnant. His care goes so far that He will throw the whole world into turmoil to save that nation.
The commentators read the word here of the people God has chosen. One writer names exactly who they are:
He goes out for the salvation of His people, for the salvation of Your anointed. That is, the chosen nation and the God-fearing, waiting remnant of the last days (Ps. 105:15).
Another writer explains what that title carries with it:
It is because Israel is His anointed. He has put the seal of His Spirit on it. He wants to have it near Him, sharing His glory at the centre of a reign where His eternal righteousness will rule. The true Israel may be small in the eyes of men; in the day when He exercises His authority it will be His "precious jewel."
The blow falls on a whole house, from top to bottom. Older translations render the second line "laying bare the foundation even to the neck," and that is the wording these writers follow. They see one target in Habakkuk's own day and a fuller one still ahead.
These words doubtless refer to the Chaldean, who had founded his house on unrighteousness. They also point us to the "godless one" of the last days. His house too will be destroyed from the rooftop to the foundation.
Another writer names that final figure as one man:
And there will be on the earth in that day the head of the house of the wicked — the ungodly head, the man of sin, the heading up of all apostasy and opposition to God. Verse 13 predicts his doom, followed by another Selah, like verses 3 and 9.
The same going out destroys and delivers. One writer links this verse to Isaiah's picture of the Lord returning from Edom:
We find the thought of verse 13 again in that beautiful passage of Isaiah. There we see the Lord coming out of Edom, from Bozrah, with His great power. He has trodden the winepress alone, treading the nations in His fury. Then He says: "For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and My year of redemption had come" (Isa. 63:1-6).
"Salvation" here means something different from what it means for a Christian. One writer sets the two side by side:
When salvation comes to the Jews it will be by the putting down of the enemies that press around and against them. That is, power comes down to earth and deals with the world. It leaves the Jews for blessing by destroying their enemies under the hand of God. We, on the other hand, have the right to enjoy the salvation of God in Christ through His cross, while the evil of mankind still goes unjudged.
- Cause. God threshed the nations for one reason: to save His people. The judgment is not an end in itself.
- Gift. The "anointed" here is the chosen nation and the waiting remnant. God has sealed them as His own, to share His glory.
- Reach. He will throw the whole world into turmoil to rescue a people the world counts insignificant. His greatness is the reason He notices the small.
- Result. God strips the wicked house from roof to foundation — first the Chaldean oppressor, and beyond him the godless head of the last days.
- Two doors. For Israel, salvation comes as power that crushes enemies. For the Christian, it comes through the cross, while the world's evil still stands unjudged.