They are dreaded and fearsome;
Habakkuk 1:7-8
their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.
Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on.
Their horsemen come from afar;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
We continue to look at Habakkuk’s description of the Chaldeans/Babylonians. He presents an image of them marching onward, displaying the discipline of an organized fighting force ready to pounce on its prey. How do we respond when people are attacking each other like ferocious wild animals?
Dreaded and Dignified
They are dreaded and feared. The first word is rare, only appearing elsewhere in 2 other verses (Song of Songs 6:4, 6:10), translated “awesome”. Imagine seeing a powerful, foreign army marching towards your home. What would you feel? Mixed with fear and dread is awe of their strength if only a wish for the strength to counteract it.
We previously talked about justice (or judgment). The word dignity (שְׂאֵת, s’et) comes from a verb meaning to carry or lift up. This word connotates something that is lifted up or elevated, sometimes translated as splendor or majesty (Job 13:11, 31:23). When Cain felt dejected by God’s acceptance of only his brother Abel’s offing, God asks him, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted (s’et)?” (Genesis 4:6-7). His face is down but if he does what is right, his face will be lifted back up.
Swifter than a Speeding Stallion
He goes on, comparing them to fierce, swift animals. He first compares their horses to leopards (נָמֵר, namer). Habakkuk says their horses are swift, more so than leopards. The word “swift” (קָלַל, kalal) is closely related to the word “curse”. The commonality is the idea of making light of something else. A horse and leopard are light on their feet, enabling them to move fast. When someone curses another, they are making light of that person, regarding the other as insignificant.
The wolf (זְאֵב, z’ev) is mentioned in just a handful of places. When Jacob blessed his sons, he compared Benjamin to a ravenous wolf (Genesis 49:27). Zephaniah also uses the phrase “evening wolf” like here, comparing them to judges of a rebellious city (Zephaniah 3:3). The word “fiercer” only shows up elsewhere in the causative form in Ezekiel 21:14-16 and Proverbs 27:17, where it is translated as “sharpen”. When a sword is sharpened, it is caused to become sharp/dangerous.
He then turns his gaze to their horsemen, comparing them to eagles (נֶשֶׁר, nesher) in swift flight. A nesher can be translated as eagle or vulture. More generally, it is a large bird of prey. In some verses, the identification is ambiguous like being on the list of unclean birds (Leviticus 11:13). Others are clearer, like in Micah 1:16 where he says to “make yourselves as bald as the nesher“. Eagles have feathers on their heads, but vultures do not. Jeremiah also compares horses to being swifter than eagles (Jeremiah 4:13). I preached a sermon on soaring eagles some time ago.
Facing Judgment
Like the people in Habakkuk’s time, judgment loomed over Jerusalem in Jesus’ day, too. While Jesus didn’t enter on a stately horse, he came humbly on a donkey. However, he recognized that all was not right, weeping over the city at its pending punishment:
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”
Luke 19:41-44
The call to repent went unheeded by much of the population, eventually resulting in their destruction.
The Animals Stop Fighting
While Jeremiah pairs the leopard and wolf together to describe judgment (Jeremiah 5:6), Isaiah uses them to look forward to a time of peace when the “wolf shall dwell with the lamb / and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat” (Isaiah 11:6, similarly in Isaiah 65:25).
While we now have to contend with enemies who want to tear us apart like wild animals, we look forward to a day in the future when there will be peace. Even dangerous animals will get along. The wolf will become a shepherd dog; the leopard will become a tame cat. The oppressor will sit down with the oppressed; old enemies will forgive each other.
To Ponder…
While I hope you never witness an enemy army invade your home, we live in a violent world. Turn on the news and it will not take long to find something terrible happening. Whether racial injustice, mass shootings, or general hatred in a divided world, we can be more ferocious than wild animals towards one another. Do you believe God can make the wolf and lamb get along? Can he also enable enemies to reconcile? How can he use you to bring healing and reconciliation to this broken world?