Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Habakkuk 3:5
Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.
5. went the pestilence ] goeth pestilence. His manifestation carries death in its train.
burning coals went forth ] and burning plague goeth forth at his feet, i.e. behind Him. The word again in this sense Deu 32:24.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Before Him went (goeth) the pestilence – then to consume His enemies. Exo 23:27 : I will send My fear before thee, and will destroy all the people, to whom thou shalt come, and the lightnings are a token that, Psa 68:1-2, they which hate Him, flee before Him, and the wicked perish at the Presence of God. So, on His Ascension, Herod and Pilate were smitten by Him, and Elymas and Simon Magus before His apostles, and whatsoever hath lifted itself up against Him hath perished, and antichrist shall perish, Psa 11:4, at the breath of His mouth, and all the ungodly on the Day of Judgment.
And burning coals – rather, as English, burning fever, Deu 32:2. (where also it is singular, as only beside in beney resheph Job 5:7.) So A. E., burning coals is from Kimchi, Tanchum gives as different opinions sparks or arrows or pestilence; but the meanings sparks, arrows, are ascribed only to the plural. Psa 76:4; 88:48; Son 8:6. The central meaning is probably burning heat.
Went forth at his feet – i. e., followed Him. Messengers of death went as it were before Him, as the front of His army, and the rear thereof was other forms of death Death and destruction of all sorts are a great army at His command, going before Him as heralds of His Coming (such as are judgments in this world) or attendants upon Him, at the judgment when He appeareth 2 Tim. 6:1. in His kingdom, when, Mat 13:51, Mat 13:42, they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Before him went the pestilence] This plague was several times inflicted on the disobedient Israelites in the wilderness; see Nu 11:33; Nu 14:37; Nu 16:46; and was always the proof that the just God was then manifesting his power among them.
Burning coals event forth at his feet.] Newcome translates, “And flashes of fire went forth after him.” The disobedient Israelities were consumed by a fire that went out from Jehovah; see Le 10:2; Nu 11:1; Nu 16:35. And the burnt-offering was consumed by a fire which came out from before Jehovah, Le 11:24.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Before him: when God was leading the Israelites out of Egypt into Canaan, he made the pestilence to go before him, so preparing room for his people.
The pestilence, which wasted the inhabitants of Canaan, swept them out.
Burning coals; burning fevers, and other distempers of fiery and destructive nature, which destroyed the accursed nations.
Went forth; as sent, and observing the way he directed.
At his feet; kept even pace, or waited on him, were his immediate forerunners. All this mentioned as arguments to prevail for somewhat like these for Israel, and against Israels enemies. O God, revive some such work amidst us.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. pestilenceto destroy Hispeople’s foes (1Sa 5:9; 1Sa 5:11).As Jehovah’s advent is glorious to His people, so it is terrible toHis foes.
burning coals Ps18:8 favors English Version. But the parallelism requires,as the Margin translates, “burning disease” (compareDeu 32:24; Psa 91:6).
went . . . at his feetthatis, after Him, as His attendants (Jud4:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Before him went the pestilence,…. Either in the land of Egypt, when he marched through that, and slew all their firstborn,
Ps 78:50 or rather which he sent before him, and Israel his people among the nations of the land of Canaan, with other diseases and judgments, and destroyed them to make way for his people, which may be here alluded to, Ex 23:27 and may point at the judgments of God, and those pestilential diseases which seized upon the persecutors of the Christians, both among the Jews, as Herod, Ac 12:23 and among the Gentiles, as many of the Roman emperors, who died violent and grievous deaths; and particularly it may regard the pestilence, famine, and other sore judgments preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, and the inhabitants of it, for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah:
and burning coals went forth at his feet; which some understand of hailstones mingled with fire, to which the allusion may be, being one of the plagues of Egypt, Ex 9:23. Some interpret it of hot diseases, burning fevers, so Kimchi; which are at the command of God, and sent forth by him when he pleases, to do his will. The ancient fathers expound all this of the destruction of death, and the devil, and his principalities, by Christ upon the cross; and the Targum is,
“from before him was sent forth the angel of death, and his word went forth in a flame of fire;”
but this seems to have respect to the burning of the city and temple of Jerusalem, which was done by the Romans as instruments, but according to the direction, order, and will of Christ, Mt 22:7 see
Ps 18:12.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet repeats here, that God came armed to defend his people, when he went forth from Teman; for he connects with it here the deliverance of the people. He does not indeed speak only of the promulgation of the law, but encourages all the godly to confidence; for God, who had once redeemed their fathers from Egypt, remained ever like himself, and was endued with the same power.
And he says, that before God’s face walked the pestilence; this is to be referred to the Egyptians; and that ignited coal proceeded from his feet. Some render רשף, reshoph, exile; but its etymology requires it to be rendered burning or ignited coal, and there is no necessity to give it another meaning. (54)
The import of the whole is—that God had put to flight all the enemies of his people; for we know that the Egyptians were smitten with various plagues, and that the army of Pharaoh was drowned in the Red Sea. Hence, the Prophet says, that God had so appeared from Teman, that the pestilence went before him, and then the ignited coal; in short, that the pestilence and ignited coal were God’s officers, which were ready to perform his commands: as when a king or a judge, having attendants, commands them to put this man in prison, and to punish another in a different way; so the Prophet, giving us a representation of God, says, that all kinds of evils were ready to obey his orders, and to destroy his and their enemies. He does not then intend here to terrify the faithful in mentioning the pestilence and the ignited coal; but, on the contrary, to set before their eyes evidences of God’s power, by which he could deliver them from the hand of their enemies, as he had formerly delivered their fathers from Egypt. By God’s feet, he then means his going forth or his presence; for I do not approve of what some have said, that ignited coals followed, when pestilence had preceded; for both clauses are given in the same way. It follows—
(54) Most agree in the view given of this verse, only there is some shade of difference as to the word [ רשף ]; but though Calvin renders it carbo ignitus —ignited coals, yet in his exposition he seems to regard it with many others as a burning disease. In the six other instances in which the word occurs, it certainly has not this sense, except it be in Deu 32:24, which is doubtful. It signifies not a burning coal, but a glowing fire, burning or lightening. Compare Exo 9:23, with Psa 78:48; where it designates the fires or lightnings produced by thunder, which accompanied the hail. Lightning would be its most proper rendering here; for instead of referring this verse to the plagues in Egypt, it may be considered as a continuation of what is contained in the foregoing verse; and the Septuagint and Theodotion have rendered [ דבר ] in the preceding clause, not pestilence, but word —λογος, its most usual meaning. This makes the whole to comport to what we read of God’s appearance on mount Sinai. See Exo 19:16; Deu 33:2. The version then would be this—
From before him proceeded the word ( i.e. the law;) And forth came lightning at his feet.
Most of the ideas in this, and in the two preceding verses, seem to be similar to those we find in Deu 33:2.— Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) Before him went the pestilence. . . .Better, Before Him shall go the plague, and burning pestilence shall go forth where He sets His feet. Kleinert remarks that it was with these angels of death that Jehovah revealed Himself in the south, and destroyed the armies of Sennacherib (2Ki. 19:35).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
‘Before him went the pestilence,
And fiery bolts (burning coals, thunderbolts, fearsome heat, plague) went forth at his feet,
He stood and measured the land (or ‘earth’),
He beheld and drove asunder the nations,
And the eternal mountains were scattered,
The everlasting hills did bow,
His goings were of old.
The ‘fiery bolts’ (burning coals), translated as burning heat, and therefore plague in Deu 32:24, or thunderbolts in Psa 78:48, represent something burning and fiery.
Because the parallel line has pestilence we are possibly to see it as the burning heat experienced by those who suffer from certain kinds of plague. Faithless Israel was threatened with pestilence in the wilderness (Num 13:12), after which God would produce a new nation. And those who did not observe the covenant were promised terrible plagues (Deu 28:59). But here the thought, while including this, probably refers to God’s wider judgments. He is the God Who punishes by pestilence and plague. Compare the words of Jesus in Luk 21:11.
On the other hand pestilence denotes a variety of afflictions, and so it may well be paralleled with thunderbolts. Thus the thought may be of the afflictions that would come on the Canaanites, and on all the enemies of God’s true people, as they had on Egypt, softening them up in preparation for the arrival and triumph of His people..
‘He stood and measured the land (or ‘earth’), He beheld and drove asunder the nations.’ Again we have reference to the entry into Canaan as God conducts affairs and leads His people, especially through the captain of His host (Jos 5:14). First He is seen as weighing up the land. And then He drove asunder the nations before His people But He will also do this on a universal scale. He also measures the whole earth and there too has His way on the nations.
‘And the eternal mountains were scattered, the everlasting hills did bow, His goings were of old (or ‘were everlasting’).’ Even that which is most permanent could not, and cannot, resist His coming. The eternal mountains and the everlasting hills give way before Him and yield to His presence (see Nah 1:5). For He is the eternal God, and His ways are of old, even from everlasting, from before time began.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Hab 3:5. Before him went the pestilence See Eze 20:47. Houbigant, supposing this to refer to God’s appearance on mount Sinai, instead of pestilence, which he thinks ill suited to the subject, renders the word daber, commandment, as the LXX, , or Word; referring to the ten commandments which God promulged when the fire went forth at his feet. But, taking the passage as explained on Hab 3:3 pestilence is very proper; and the word rendered burning coals, would more justly be translated devouring fire, or lightning. See Psa 50:3; Psa 78:48.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Hab 3:5 Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.
Ver. 5. Before him went the pestilence ] Dever, the word signifieth such a disease as cometh by a Divine decree, . So Hippocrates call the pestilence , because sent by God in a spiritual manner, a stroke of his own bare hand as it were. Here it is made one of his apparitors or pursuivants, sent before him to destroy the Canaanites, as it had done the Egyptians.
And burning coals went forth at his feet
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Before Him went, &c. Supply the logical Ellipsis: “[As He went forth to conquer for His People] before Him went”, &c. See Exo 28:27. Psa 68:1, Psa 68:2.
burning coals: or, lightning Compare Psa 18:8; Psa 76:3; Psa 78:48.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
went: Exo 12:29, Exo 12:30, Num 14:12, Num 16:46-49, Psa 78:50, Psa 78:51, Nah 1:2, Nah 1:3
and: Psa 18:7-13
burning coals: or, burning diseases, Deu 32:24
Reciprocal: Exo 24:17 – like devouring fire 2Sa 22:9 – coals Job 41:21 – General Psa 18:12 – At the Psa 18:13 – coals Psa 46:6 – earth Psa 50:3 – a fire Psa 97:3 – General Psa 104:32 – looketh Amo 8:8 – the land
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Hab 3:5. God controls pestilences and all the elements of the earth. If such forces are needed to carry out His plans they will be used.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
As God moves through the earth, like the sun, He burns up what is in front of Him and chars what He leaves behind. Pestilence (lit. burning heat) and plague (i.e., devastation) are the accompaniments, the results and evidences of His searing holiness.
"In the ancient Near East, important people were accustomed to being accompanied by attendants (cf. 1Sa 17:7; 2Sa 15:1)." [Note: Baker, p. 71.]