Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Habakkuk · About this commentary
Chariots of Salvation
Habakkuk 3:8-15
8 Was Yahweh displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers, or your wrath against the sea, that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation? · WEB
God is pictured going to war against water — and the questions that open the passage rule out the obvious misreading of it.
Was Yahweh displeased with the rivers? Was your wrath against the sea? The questions are asked in order to be answered no. What looks like a battle against nature is nothing of the kind; the chariots are chariots of salvation, and verse 13 says plainly whom they are for.
The imagery is the exodus told as combat. Waters split, the deep roars and lifts its hands, sun and moon stand still at the flight of the arrows — Joshua's long day sits inside that line Joshua 10:13 — and the sea is trampled by horses. The Red Sea and the Jordan are both audible here, remembered as a campaign rather than a rescue.
Verse 13 states the purpose twice for emphasis: you went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. And the enemy is dealt with in a phrase that reaches back further than the exodus — you crushed the head of the land of wickedness. The first promise given after the fall was of a head crushed Genesis 3:15, and the prophet's recital of God's acts is reaching for the oldest one.
held with reason What this mark means