Habakkuk 3:13

3:13 You march out to deliver your people,

to deliver your special servant. ¹ 

You strike the leader of the wicked nation, ² 

laying him open from the lower body to the neck. ³  Selah.

Habakkuk 3:4

3:4 He is as bright as lightning; ⁴ 

a two-pronged lightning bolt flashes from his hand. ⁵ 

This is the outward display of his power. ⁶ 

[3:13]  ¹ tn Heb “anointed one.” In light of the parallelism with “your people” in the preceding line this could refer to Israel, but elsewhere the Lord’s anointed one is always an individual. The Davidic king is the more likely referent here.

[3:13]  ² tn Heb “you strike the head from the house of wickedness.”

[3:13]  ³ tn Heb “laying bare [from] foundation to neck.”

[3:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “[His] radiance is like light.” Some see a reference to sunlight, but the Hebrew word אוֹר (’or) here refers to lightning, as the context indicates (see vv. 4b, 9, 11). The word also refers to lightning in Job 36:32 and 37:3, 11, 15.

[3:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “two horns from his hand to him.” Sharp, pointed lightning bolts have a “horn-like” appearance. The weapon of “double lightning” appears often in Mesopotamian representations of gods. See Elizabeth Van Buren, Symbols of the Gods in Mesopotamian Art (AnOr), 70-73.

[3:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “and there [is] the covering of his strength”; or “and there is his strong covering.” The meaning of this line is unclear. The point may be that the lightning bolts are merely a covering, or outward display, of God’s raw power. In Job 36:32 one reads that God “covers his hands with light [or, “lightning”].”