Habakkuk 3:7–8

3:7 I see the tents of Cushan overwhelmed by trouble;26

the tent curtains of the land of Midian are shaking.27

3:8 Is the Lord mad at the rivers?

Are you angry with the rivers?

Are you enraged at the sea?28

Is this why29 you climb into your horse-drawn chariots,30

your victorious chariots?31

26	tn Heb “under trouble I saw the tents of Cushan.” sn Cushan was located in southern Transjordan.
27	tn R. D. Patterson takes תַּחַת אֲוֶן (takhat ’aven) in the first line as a place name, “Tahath-Aven.” (Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah [WEC], 237.) In this case one may translate the verse as a tricolon: “I look at Tahath-Aven. The tents of Cushan are shaking, the tent curtains of the land of Midian.”
28	sn The following context suggests these questions should be answered, “Yes.” The rivers and the sea, symbolizing here the hostile nations (v. 12), are objects of the Lord’s anger (vv. 10, 15).
29	tn Heb “so that.” Here כִּי (ki) is resultative. See the note on the phrase “make it” in 2:18.
30	tn Heb “you mount your horses.” As the next line makes clear, the Lord is pictured here as a charioteer, not a cavalryman. Note NRSV here, “when you drove your horses, // your chariots to victory.”
31	tn Or “chariots of deliverance.”