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LXX Habakkuk

Septuagint

About this book
Chapter 3

1 A PRAYER OF THE PROPHET AMBACUM, WITH A SONG. 2 Lord, I have heard your report, and was afraid: I considered your works, and was amazed:⁠ you shall be known between the two living creatures, you shall be acknowledged when the years draw near; you shall be manifested when the time has come; when my soul is troubled, you will in fierce anger remember mercy. 3 God shall come from Teman, and the Holy One from the dark shady mount. Pause. His excellence covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 And his brightness shall be as light; there were horns in his hands, and he caused a mighty love of his strength.⁠ 5 Before his face shall go a word, and his feet shall go forth in sandals.⁠ 6 He stood, and the earth trembled: he looked, and the nations melted away: the mountains were violently burst through, the everlasting hills melted 7 at his everlasting going forth. Because of troubles I looked upon the tents of the Ethiopians: the tabernacles also of the land of Midian shall be dismayed. 8 Were you angry, Lord, with the rivers? or was your fierce anger against the rivers, or your anger against the sea? for you will mount on your horses, and your chariots are salvation. 9 Surely you bent your bow at scepters, says the Lord. Pause. The land of rivers shall be torn apart. 10 The nations shall see you and be in pain, as you divide the moving waters: the deep uttered her voice, and raised her form on high. 11 The sun was exalted, and the moon stood still in her course: your darts shall go forth at the light, at the brightness of the gleaming of your arms. 12 You will bring low the land with threatening, and in fierce anger you will break down the nations. 13 You went forth for the salvation of your people, to save your anointed: you shall bring death on the heads of transgressors; you have brought bands upon their neck. Pause. 14 You cut apart the heads of princes with amazement, they shall tremble in it; they shall burst their bridles, they shall be as a poor man devouring in secret. 15 And you caused your horses to enter the sea, disturbing much water. 16 I watched, and my belly trembled at the sound of the prayer of my lips, and trembling entered into my bones, and my frame was troubled within me; I will rest in the day of affliction, from going up to the people among whom I am staying. 17 For though the fig tree shall bear no fruit, and there shall be no produce on the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall produce no food: the sheep have failed from the pasture, and there are no oxen at the cribs; 18 yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in God my Savior. 19 The Lord God is my strength, and he will perfectly strengthen my feet; he mounts me upon high places, that I may conquer by his song.

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Compare Habakkuk 3:2 and LXX Habakkuk 3:2

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

Habakkuk 3 includes an appeal for divine mercy and for God to repeat what he has done in the past. The Greek Septuagint adds details not found in the Hebrew, including a description of God appearing with cherubim, harmonizing it with imagery from Exodus.

Passages

Habakkuk 3:2

Hebrew Bible
1 This is a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet: 2 Lord, I have heard the report of what you did; I am awed, Lord, by what you accomplished. In our time repeat those deeds; in our time reveal them again. But when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy! 3 God comes from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His splendor has covered the skies, the earth is full of his glory. 4 His brightness will be as lightning; a two-pronged lightning bolt flashing from his hand. This is the outward display of his power.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Habakkuk

LXX Habakkuk 3:2

Septuagint
1 A PRAYER OF THE PROPHET AMBACUM, WITH A SONG. 2 Lord, I have heard your report, and was afraid: I considered your works, and was amazed: you shall be known between the two living creatures, you shall be acknowledged when the years draw near; you shall be manifested when the time has come; when my soul is troubled, you will in fierce anger remember mercy. 3 God shall come from Teman, and the Holy One from the dark shady mount. Pause. His excellence covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Habakkuk

References

"... In this connection we cannot avoid the discussion of the early Christian interpretation of Habakkuk 3:2 because the text has played a significant role in Christological argumentations. The earliest Christian interpretation of Habakkuk 3:2 is presented in Irenaeus’s Adversus haereses III 16,7. He quotes the latter part of the Septuagint translation of the verse (“By this Thou shalt be known when the years have drawn nigh; Thou shalt be set forth when the time comes; because my soul is disturbed by anger, Thou shalt remember Thy mercy”) and argues that the life, passion and death of Jesus were preordained by God ... Origen connects Habakkuk 3:2 with Isaiah 6:3 and uses them both as arguments for Christology and, in fact, also for the Holy Triad. Second he is dependent on some early Jewish-Christian material which was mediated for him by his Hebrew Master and which clearly represents an orthodox variant of Christology. That Origen has transmitted an early Jewish Christian interpretation of Habakkuk 3:2 in De Principiis seems reasonable because in his Commentary on Romans (III 8,2–8) he interprets Habakkuk 3:2 otherwise by connecting the verse to Exodus 25:22 and argues – as we have done here – that the two living creatures refer to Cherubim on the Ark. Only then does he make his own Christological implications by emphasizing that at this time the mercy-seat (Romans 3:25) is Jesus and the Word and the Spirit representing Cherubim manifesting themselves in and through Jesus. That Habakkuk 3:2 has played a central role in Christian mission proclamation in the area of Jerusalem receives support from the sermons of Cyril of Jerusalem who refers to this text in his Catechetical Lectures ..."
Antti Laato, “Yahweh Manifests Himself between Two Cherubim: An Approach to the Reception History of Hab 3:2,” in Encounters in Past and Present: Contributions to the Conversation; A Festschrift for the 60th Birthday of Martin Tamcke, ed. Claudia Rammelt et al. (Berlin: LIT Verlag Dr. W. Hopf, 2015), 55–64.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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