Bible Strands
Habakkuk 3:7
I saw the tents of Cushan in distress; the curtains of Midian were trembling.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet records a visionary account of Yahweh’s theophanic march, placing this sight immediately after the description of God measuring the earth and before His rhetorical inquiry about rivers and chariots.
The words — `יִרְגְּזוּ` (yir.ge.Zu) translates literally as "they tremble," describing the reaction of the `אָהֳלֵי` ('o.ho.Lei), or "tents," belonging to Cushan and Midian.
The thread — The trembling of enemy encampments before divine deliverance reappears in Exodus 15:14, while the ethnic origins of these groups are anchored in the genealogies of Genesis 10:6 and 25:1.
Why it lands — The text asserts that hostile nations lose their structural stability when Yahweh acts, requiring the reader to acknowledge that divine judgment precedes salvation and that geopolitical powers are subject to sovereign will.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
Cross-references
- Exodus 15:14 The nations will hear and tremble; anguish will grip the dwellers of Philistia.
- Genesis 10:6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan.
- Genesis 25:1 Now Abraham had taken another wife, named Keturah,
- Numbers 22:3 and Moab was terrified of the people because they were numerous. Indeed, Moab dreaded the Israelites.
- Numbers 31:2 “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.”
- Joshua 2:10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the waters of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to Sihon and Og, the two kings of the Amorites across the Jordan, whom you devoted to destruction.
- Joshua 9:24 The Gibeonites answered, “Your servants were told clearly that the LORD your God had commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land and wipe out all its inhabitants before you. So we greatly feared for our lives because of you, and that is why we have done this.
- Judges 7:24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim to say, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth-barah.” So all the men of Ephraim were called out, and they captured the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth-barah.
- Psalms 83:5 For with one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against You—