Habakkuk 3:5 - Exposition

After describing the splendour of the theophany, the prophet now turns to the purpose and effects of God's appearing. He comes to avenge and judge, therefore before him went the pestilence. Before him stalks plague, to punish his enemies and the disobedient, as in Egypt, in Canaan ( Exodus 23:27 ; 1 Samuel 5:9 , 1 Samuel 5:11 ); and among his own people ( Numbers 11:33 ; Numbers 14:37 , etc.; Le Numbers 26:25 ). For "pestilence" the LXX . reads "word." Burning coals went forth at his feet. "Fiery belts" followed his advance, "hailstones and coals of fire" ( Psalms 18:12 , Psalms 18:13 ); as in Psalms 97:8 , "A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies on every side." But, regarding the parallelisms of the hemistiches, it is better to take resheph in the sense of "fever heat," as in Deuteronomy 32:24 ; scorching fever follows in his train. Jerome translates the word, diabolus, looking on the evil spirit as the agent of the Divine vengeance. The Jews, he says, had a tradition that Satan was called Reseph, from the speed of his movements. The LXX . has, "It (the word) shall go forth into the plains," which Jerome interprets, "shall make the crooked straight and the rough ways smooth."