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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 3:4 and LXX Habakkuk 3:4

Hebrew Bible · Septuagint

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Summary

The Hebrew version of Habakkuk describes God shining with rays from his hand. The Greek Septuagint instead interprets this as horns in God's hands and reads the hidden power as a love of his strength, language the translators struggled to translate.

Passages

Habakkuk 3:4

Hebrew Bible
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. 5 Plague will go before him; pestilence will march right behind him.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Habakkuk

LXX Habakkuk 3:4

Septuagint
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.
100–1 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in LXX Habakkuk

References

... This verse, consisting of three equal cola, has received an abundance of interpretations and explanations. Here are some of them. The Septuagint shows the following rendering: And his brightness shall be as light there were horns in his hands and he caused (lit. put) a mighty love of his strength. The Septuagint, followed by the Syriac version, turns נֹגַהּ, 'brightness,' into נגהו, 'his brightness,' meaning the brightness of God; קַרְנַיִם were interpreted here, as well as in the Vulgate, to mean the horns of an animal; and מִיָּדוֹ, 'from his hand,' was read by both as בידיו, 'in his hands' (pl.). שָׁם was assumed by the Septuagint, as well as the Vulgate, to derive from the root שׂים, meaning 'to put'; and חֶבְיוֹן to stem from the root חבב, 'to like, love.' The Septuagint rendering makes little sense, and indicates that even the Greek translators had difficulty with the enigmatic verse. ...
Nili Shupak, “The God from Teman and the Egyptian Sun God: A Reconsideration of Habakkuk 3:3–7,” JANES (2001): 99.

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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