Let your foreskin be uncovered (Habakkuk 1-3)

Episode 227: Let your foreskin be uncovered

Habakkuk 1-3

Habakkuk's burden

1 ¹ This is the burden that Habakkuk saw:

² I've been crying to you for a long time. But you don't hear or save me.

⁴ The wicked are defeating the righteous.

⁵ God answered Habakkuk, saying,

⁶ I'm sending the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to take your land.

⁸ They have horses that are faster than leopards and fiercer than wolves. Their horsemen can fly like eagles.

¹² Habakkuk said to God,

You've sent them to correct us.

¹³ But why send wicked people to punish us?

Let your foreskin be uncovered

2 ² God said to me,

Write down this vision.

³ It might take a while, but the vision won't lie to you. It'll come soon.

⁵ People transgress by drinking wine.

¹⁵ Woe to those who get their neighbors drunk, just to see them naked!

¹⁶ So go ahead and drink, and let your foreskin be uncovered.

The cup of God's right hand will spew shame on your glory.

¹⁷ You'll be destroyed by the wild beasts of Lebanon.

¹⁹ Woe to the one who says to wood, "Wake up!" Or to the dumb stone, "Get up!"

²⁰ God is in his holy temple. Let everyone else be silent.

God had horns coming out of his hand

3 ¹ Habakkuk's prayer:

² I heard your speech, God, and was afraid.

³ God came from Teman and mount Paran.

⁴ He had horns coming out of his hand.

⁵ Before him went the pestilence, with burning coals at his feet.

⁶ He measured the earth, made nations tremble, scattered mountains, and made the hills bow.

¹⁰ The mountains trembled when they saw you. The ocean spoke in a deep voice and lifted up its hands.

¹¹ The sun and the moon stopped moving.

¹² You marched through the land, trampling the heathen in your anger.

¹³ You wounded the heads of the wicked.

¹⁵ You walked through the sea with your horses.

¹⁶ When I heard about it, my belly trembled, and my bones rotted.

^17-18 Though there are no figs, grapes, olives, meat, or food, I'll rejoice in God.

¹⁹ He'll make my feet like deer's feet, so I can climb up the mountain.

A few more words about this episode

Habakkuk (1:1, 3:1)

When Habakkuk is introduced in 1:1, and 3:1, we are told nothing about him, so we don't know when or where he might have lived at the time of his writing. He is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, although he is mentioned in the additions to the Book of Daniel in the Apocrypha or Deuterocanonical books.

Here is the story from chapter 14 of the additions to Daniel:

³² Meanwhile, a Judean prophet named Habakkuk had some bread and soup.

³³ An angel came to him and said, "Take your dinner to Babylon and give it to Daniel in the lions' den."

³⁴ Habakkuk said, "I've never been to Babylon and I don't know about any den."

³⁵ So the angel grabbed him by his hair and carried him to Babylon.

³⁶ When Habakkuk arrived he said, "Here's your dinner, Daniel."

³⁷ Daniel thanked God and ate the dinner.

³⁸ Then the angel carried Habakkuk back to his home in Judea.

I'm sending the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to take your land. (1:6)

From this verse, Habakkuk is often dated to the period of Babylonian Empire (605-539 BCE).

God came from Teman and mount Paran. (3:3)

Teman probably refers to Moab to the southeast of Judah. Mount Paran is "a desolate mountainous area on the Sinai Peninsula to the west of the Gulf of Aqaba," according to the note for this verse in the SBL Study Bible.

He had horns coming out of his hand. (3:4)

The "horns" here in the King James Version probably are like the "horns" that Moses had when he came down from Mount Sinai. Other translations say "rays" rather than "horns." (Exodus 34:29)