Habakkuk’s Prayer (3:1–19)
Shigionoth (3:1). The hymnic character of chapter 3 is expressed by the inclusion of a superscription, the use of the rubric “Selah,” and a colophon (3:19b). While the meaning of shigionoth is uncertain, it is related to šāgâ (“to go astray”), suggesting a lament or possibly a song with uneven meter (see Ps. 7:1).45 If a linguistic connection can be made with Akkadian shegu, then its usage, in the form shigû, in a prayer to Marduk indicates a sense of emotion and supplication, perhaps accompanied by a whimpering sound.46
Teman … Mount Paran (3:3). Teman is a place name associated with Edom (see Jer. 49:7; Obad. 9) and is an indicator in this text of God, “the Holy One” (qādôš), whose epiphany arises from the east (cf. Ps. 78:26). The name also appears in the Kuntillet ʿAjrud inscription in association with Yahweh. This verse is the only place in the Bible where Teman and Paran are paralleled since the former is associated with Esau (Gen. 36:15) and the latter with Ishmael (Gen. 21:21). The desert of Paran generally refers to the area between Mount Sinai and the oasis of Kadesh Barnea, but its usage suggests a wider range of territory, extending to the east of the Arabah in the vicinity of Teman (see Num. 10:12; 1 Sam. 25:1).47
His splendor was like the sunrise (3:4). God’s “glory” is worn like a garment (see Ps. 104:1). It may also be a form of divine armor. Note how Marduk in the Enuma Elish is “garbed in a ghastly armored garment…. His head is covered with terrifying auras.”48 Once the obscuring clouds are swept away (cf. the rays of Aten in the Egyptian hymn that “dispel the dark”49), a virtual light show accompanies God’s approach, with lightning and fire streaking from his hand50 and obscuring any attempts to anthropomorphize or minutely describe God’s visage.51 Evidence of the solar aspects of Yahweh worship have appeared on a bulla, inscribed with “Yaho has shown forth,” that dates to about 700 B.C., as well as in personal names containing the element zeraḥ (“shining forth”).52 Phrases similar to those in this verse occur in Babylonian hymns describing theophanies (cf. “Shamash has shone forth on the foundation of heaven … Shamash has filled the lands with his heavenly splendor”).53
Seal impression with deity surrounded by glow of melammu
Kim Walton, courtesy of the Oriental Institute Museum
Plague … pestilence (3:5). Yahweh goes forth accompanied by a retinue of forces, including beams of light as well as these destructive elements (cf. Deut. 33:2). Some have interpreted “pestilence” and “plague” here as living creatures since at least the second one is found as a divine name in Canaanite contexts. Some Ugaritic texts describe Baal as having attendants, and Akkadian texts describe Marduk accompanied by other gods who go before and behind.54 A similar depiction is also found in the Poem of Erra and Ishum, where Erra, a god of war and plague, has seven minor deities as his companions, each of which contributes to the devastation of the lands he chooses to attack.55 Similarly, in Deuteronomy 32:23–24, the calamities heaped on a disobedient people by Yahweh include arrows (cf. the metaphor for the fever brought by the plague deity Resheph), as well as pestilence and plague.56
Tents of Cushan (3:7). This ethnic term, possibly a subgroup of the Midianites (see Ex. 2:15; Num. 22:4–7 for this tribal designation), refers to a pastoral nomadic group, and it appears only in this text. Kushu is mentioned in Egyptian texts from the Middle Bronze Age, referring to a people in the southern Transjordanian region.57 Habakkuk here predicts the route of the divine warrior from his holy mountain to attack the Babylonians. Apparently this mighty epiphany, heralding Yahweh’s omnipotence and designed to make the nations tremble, will be manifested first to the inhabitants of these southern regions.58
Rage against the sea (3:8). While there are some similarities in these passages to Ugaritic literature, especially the cycle of stories about Baal and his conflict with the sea god Yamm, it is unlikely that there is a direct compositional or thematic reliance on them in Habakkuk.59 Thus the pairing of nahārîm (“rivers”) with yām (“sea”) is only suggestive of the cosmic struggle found between the gods Baal and Yamm in Ugaritic literature.60 In fact, the only direct parallel in Ugaritic with the word pair in Habakkuk 3:8 is found in a nonconflict passage,61 which may indicate that the prophet is not referring to the Ugaritic cosmic battle motif, but instead to a Canaanite metaphoric usage of “river” and “sea” as traditional enemies of Yahweh in the trek from Egypt across the Red Sea and then the Jordan River.62
Protective deities in chariot from Phoenicia, 1st millennium B.C.
Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY, courtesy of the Louvre
The reference to Yahweh’s horse-drawn chariots being ridden to victory is similar in tone to twentieth-century B.C. Ur III Hymns, which speak of the storm gods Ninurta, Enlil, and Adad thundering through the sky in their chariots.63 In this way, Yahweh’s attributes play on earlier hymnic tradition but do not identify Yahweh as a storm god; this thus removes any comparisons that might be made with the Canaanite storm god Baal.
Your flying arrow … your flashing spear (3:11). One common understanding of the role of the deity in the ancient Near East was that of divine warrior. Expressions of this concept of cosmic participation in battle include the mention in the Gebel Barkal stele of Pharaoh Thutmose III (1479–1425 B.C.) of a “flashing star” from the south that drove the enemy forces before it.64 A more personified example is Marduk, the patron god of Babylon, who assumes the role of the gods’ champion in the Babylonian creation epic, Enuma Elish. He gathers his divine weapons, deploys the four winds to serve his needs, mounts his chariot, and sets forth to do single combat with the chaos monster Tiamat.65 Similarly, the Ugaritic Baal epic describes how Baal’s smiting of Lotan, the serpent god (comparable to God’s crushing the head of Leviathan in Ps. 74:14), causes “the heavens to wither and go slack.”66
The seven sebetti, typically pictured with Lamashtu
Rama/Wikimedia Commons, courtesy of the Louvre
In a text popular from the eighth or seventh centuries B.C., the Poem of Erra and Ishum, Erra is given control of the seven Sebitti gods, each a power of nature. They march at his side to wreak havoc as his fierce weapons while he plots to overthrow countries and destroy peoples.67 Among the biblical examples is the “Song of the War of Yahweh,” which provides an excellent example of this motif of an angry God who slaughters armies and soaks the mountains with blood (Isa. 34:2–3).
You strode through the earth (3:12). The song at this point is a call for a theophany in which Yahweh will manifest divine power to save the people. It describes the marching forth of a transcendent Creator, freely using the elements of nature to salve the injuries of a devastated land.68 This strident characteristic of the divine warrior is found in the Akkadian phrase alakki ili (“the gait of a god”).69 There is a tension expressed as the prophet anticipates the day when a majestic divine reaction will fulfill his petition. This, in turn, suggests a basic liturgical character to this composition and the use of this poem in a priestly procession or dramatic ritual. However, it may also provide an opportunity for an audience familiar with Israelite hymnic tradition to join in the chorus, singing of their hope for eventual liberation (see Ps. 68).70
You trampled the sea (3:15). In Habakkuk’s victory hymn, Yahweh’s divine rage is displayed against the sea, and a vast slaughter of the enemy’s soldiers occurs (3:13–14; cf. the “Song of Moses” in Ex. 15:1–18). The moon is stopped in its course (cf. Josh. 10:12–13), and the earth splits open as God treads on the mountaintops (3:8–15). The idea of nature trembling in response to either Yahweh’s approach or anger is found elsewhere in hymnic passages and in prophetic literature (2 Sam. 22:8; Ps. 18:7; 114:7). Similar language is found in the Sumerian balag-lamentation entitled, He Is a Storm, At the Howling. The passage (ll. A+10–11) states: “The heavens continually rumbled; The earth continually shook; The sun lay at the horizon; The moon stopped still in the midst of the sky.”71
Fig tree … vines … olive crop … sheep … cattle (3:17). The prophet provides a basic list of those products and livestock that form the basis of the ancient economy. These are the objects that would be taken in tribute and taxes and by rampaging armies, leaving the land barren.72 In the face of this devastation, the faith of the author comes through, “rejoicing in the Lord” and knowing that God will be their “Savior” (cf. Ps. 13:5–6). Similar expectation of an eventual return to the good graces of the gods is found in the Babylonian Theodicy, which concludes that Shamash “will pasture people as a god should.”73
Bibliography
Andersen, F. I. Habakkuk. AB 25. New York: Doubleday, 2001. Academic-level commentary, especially useful for philological and literary study, with a full discussion of history of interpretation, and theology.
Floyd, M. H. Minor Prophets, Part 2. FOTL 22. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000. Academic-level commentary, with particular attention given to structural analysis of the text. Abbreviated treatment of Habakkuk among the Minor Prophets and very helpful in examining literary aspects of its poetic nature.
Roberts, J. J. M. Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. OTL. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991. Academic-level commentary, which contains an abbreviated treatment of Habakkuk, with real strength on comparative materials from the ancient Near East.
Smith, R. L. Micah-Malachi. WBC 32. Waco, Tex.: Word, 1984. Academic-level commentary, which contains an abbreviated treatment of Habakkuk among several prophets addressed. Helpful theological discussion, but less useful for comparative materials.
Chapter Notes
Main Text Notes
1. R. Haak, “Habakkuk among the Prophets” (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1986).
2. M. Cogan, Imperialism and Religion: Assyria, Judah and Israel in the Eighth and Seventh Centuries B.C.E. (Missoula, Mont.: Scholars Press, 1974), 70–71.
3. J. A. Brinkman, Prelude to Empire: Babylonian Society and Politics, 747–626 B.C. (Philadelphia: Occasional Publications of the Babylonian Fund, University Museum, 1984), 93.
4. N. Naʾaman, “The Kingdom of Judah under Josiah,” TA 18 (1991): 38–41.
5. J. M. Miller and J. H. Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1986), 383–85.
6. D. B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 1992), 448–49.
7. D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldean Kings (London: Trustees of the British Museum, 1956), 21, 65.
8. Naʾaman, “The Kingdom of Judah under Josiah,” 58–59.
9. P. R. House, “Dramatic Coherence in Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah,” in Forming Prophetic Literature: Essays on Isaiah and the Twelve in Honor of John D. W. Watts, ed. J. W. Watts and P. R. House (JSOTSup 235; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), 202.
10. M. E. W. Thompson, “Prayer, Oracle and Theophany: The Book of Habakkuk,” TynBul 44 (1993): 35–37.
11. COS, 1:154:XXIII, p. 494. This piece of Old Babylonian wisdom literature contains a dialogue between the sufferer and his friend and includes the world-turned-upside-down theme so common to ancient theodicy.
12. COS, 1:43: B1 88–138, pp. 101–2. Similar concerns are found in the eighteenth dynasty (ca. 1990) “Prophecies of Neferti,” which bemoan a land devastated by disasters and overrun by Asiatic invaders, with all people living in confusion. Eventually, however, order will prevail as the divine pharaoh uproots injustice and expels the enemy (COS, 1:45, pp. 106–10).
13. COS, 1:43: B1 289–322, p. 103.
14. “The Babylonian Theodicy,” COS, 1:154: IV, p. 493, advocates listening to a “well-thought-out speech.”
15. COS, 1:47: XII.7–XIII.1, p. 118.
16. E. Wendland, “ ‘The Righteous Live by Their Faith’ in a Holy God: Complementary Compositional Forces and Habakkuk’s Dialogue with the Lord,” JETS 42 (1999): 609. On the Cyrus Cylinder, see COS, 2:124, p. 315.
17. Y. Yadin, The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands in the Light of Archaeological Discovery (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1963), 297.
18. COS, 2:119, p. 301.
19. B. Oded, War, Peace and Empire: Justifications for War in Assyrian Royal Inscriptions (Wiesbaden: Ludwig Reichert Verlag, 1992), 145.
20. M. Liverani, “The Ideology of the Assyrian Empire” Power and Propaganda, ed. Mogens Trolle Larsen (Mesopotamia 7; Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag, 1979), 300.
21. K. L. Younger, Ancient Conquest Accounts (JSOTSup 98; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1990), 76–77. He gives examples from Ashur-Dan II (92) and Ashurnasirpal II (95, 98).
22. COS, 2:119B, p. 303.
23. R. Chapman, “Weapons and Warfare,” in OEANE, 5:338.
24. See I. Ephʾal, “On Warfare and Military Control in the Ancient Near Eastern Empires: A Research Outline,” History, Historiography and Interpretation, ed. H. Tadmor and M. Weinfeld (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983), 88–106; idem, “Ways and Means to Conquer a City,” Assyria 1995, ed. S. Parpola and R. M. Whiting (Helsinki: Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project, 1997), 49–53.
25. Andersen offers “his strength is like the sand,” referring to the many gods of Babylonia, or possibly the sacrifice of prisoners of war, as in the Mesha inscription from Moab (Habakkuk, 159–60).
26. COS, 2:121, p. 307.
27. Andersen, Habakkuk, 180.
28. For a dozen additional examples see H. B. Huffmon, Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1965), 258. For Hebrew examples see J. Fowler, Theophoric Personal Names in Ancient Hebrew (JSOTSup 49; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1988), 54.
29. P. E. Newberry, Beni Hasan: With Plans and Measurements of the Tombs by G. Willoughby Fraser (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1893).
30. H. Goedicke, The Battle of Megiddo (Baltimore: Halco, 2000), 76.
31. ARM 13.23:9b–10a; ARM 10.80:14b–15; see A. Marzal, Gleanings from the Wisdom of Mari (Rome: Biblical Institute Press, 1976), 56–57.
32. J. J. M. Roberts, Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1991), 109.
33. On the activities of Old Babylonian messengers, see V. H. Matthews, “Messengers and the Transmission of Information in the Mari Kingdom,” in Go to the Land I Will Show You, ed. J. Coleson and V. H. Matthews (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1996), 267–74.
34. See ARMT, 14.97:5–14.
35. Andersen, Habakkuk, 236–37.
36. K. A. D. Smelik, “The Literary Structure of the Yavneh-Yam Ostracon,” IEJ 42 (1992): 55–61.
37. ANET, 275.
38. ANET, 307.
39. E. M. Curtis, “Images in Mesopotamia and the Bible: A Comparative Study,” in The Bible in the Light of Cuneiform Literature: Scripture in Context III, ed. W. W. Hallo et al. (Lewiston, N.Y.: Mellen, 1990), 42.
40. W. Rudolph, Micha-Nahum-Habakuk-Zephanja (KAT 13:3; Güttersloh: Mohn, 1975), 229.
41. Andersen, Habakkuk, 254.
42. M. B. Dick, “Prophetic Parodies of Making the Cult Image,” in Born in Heaven, Made on Earth: The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Near East, ed. M. B. Dick (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1999), 38–39.
43. A. Berlejung, “Washing the Mouth: The Consecration of Divine Images in Mesopotamia,” in The Image and the Book: Iconic Cults, Aniconism, and the Rise of Book Religion in Israel and the Ancient Near East, ed. K. van der Toorn (Leuven: Peeters, 1997), 45.
44. W. Farber, “Witchcraft, Magic, and Divination in Ancient Mesopotamia,” CANE, 1903–7.
45. P. C. Craigie, Psalms 1–50 (WBC; Waco, TX: Word, 1983), 97.
46. M.-J. Seux, “Šiggayôn = šigû,” in Mélanges bibliques et orientaux en l’honneur de M. Henri Cazelles, ed. A. Caquot and M. Delcor (AOAT 212; Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag, 1981), 425–29.
47. Andersen, Habakkuk, 292–93; C. Rasmussen, NIV Atlas of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1989), 247, 254.
48. COS, 1:111: IV.57–58, p. 397.
49. COS, 1:28, p. 45.
50. Both reliefs and texts portray deities holding thunderbolts in their hands, see Y. Avishur, Studies in Hebrew and Ugaritic Psalms (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1994), 161.
51. R. L. Smith, Micah-Malachi (WBC; Waco, Tex.: Word, 1984), 116.
52. O. Keel and C. Uehlinger, Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1998), 277. See also one of the inscriptions from Kuntillet ʿAjrud that portrays El shining forth and the mountains melting and crumbling at his appearance (see Z. Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel [London: Continuum, 2001], 372–73).
53. Quoted from an incantation in Avishur, Studies in Hebrew and Ugaritic Psalms, 157.
54. For discussion and details see ibid., 164–65.
55. COS, 1:113: I.30–40, p. 405.
56. N. Wyatt, “Qeteb,” in DDD, 673.
57. W. F. Albright, “The Land of Damascus between 1850 and 1750 B.C.,” BASOR 83 (1941): 34.
58. Thompson, “Prayer, Oracle and Theophany,” 42.
59. D. Tsumura, “Ugaritic Poetry and Habakkuk 3,” TynBul 40 (1988): 24–48, and “The ‘Word Pair’ *qšt and *mt in Habakkuk 3:9 in the Light of Ugaritic and Akkadian,” in Go To the Land I Will Show You, ed. J. Coleson and V. H. Matthews (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1996), 353–61.
60. For extensive discussion of the Ugaritic background, see Avishur, Studies in Hebrew and Ugaritic Psalms, 125–33.
61. KTU 1.3 [ʿnt]: VI:5–6; Tsumura, “Ugaritic Poetry and Habakkuk 3,” 30.
62. B. Batto, Slaying the Dragon (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1992), 146–47.
63. M. Weinfeld, “Divine Intervention in War in Ancient Israel and in the Ancient Near East,” in History, Historiography and Interpretation: Studies in Biblical and Cuneiform Literatures, ed. M. Weinfeld and H. Tadmor (Jerusalem: Magnes, 1983), 142–47.
64. Ibid., 124–27.
65. COS, 1:111: IV, pp. 396–98.
66. COS, 1:86: CTA 5, p. 265.
67. COS, 1:113: I.1–110, pp. 405–6.
68. M. A. Sweeney, “Structure, Genre and Intent in Habakkuk,” VT 41 (1991): 79.
69. CAD A1, “alaktu,” 297. A similar sense of a god’s marching to war is found in the Assyrian text KAH 2 84:97 (CAD A1, “alâku bʾ, p. 317), in which Ishtar “marches in front of my large army.”
70. J. W. Watts, “Psalmody in Prophecy: Habakkuk 3, ed. J. W. Watts and P. R. House (JSOTSup 235; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996), 222.
71. M. Cohen, The Canonical Lamentations of Ancient Mesopotamia (Potomac, Md.: Capital Decisions, 1988), 2:429–35.
72. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel (Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 1987), 4, for the campaigns of Thutmose III, which describe “the gardens filled with fruit … wines in their presses … grain on the terraces” of the lands he despoiled.
73. COS, 1:154: XXVII, p. 495.