Before him went pestilence,
Habakkuk 3:5
and plague followed at his heels.
Habakkuk continues his theophany, depicting God’s arrival as a plague spreading around him.
Spreading Disease
Habakkuk says the disease goes before God (literally “to his face,” a very common Hebrew phrase). Then he says it follows after him (literally, “to his feet”). It sounds like he’s infectious, spreading disease where he goes. Plagues have been a common occurrence throughout human history, although we’ve been reminded of that since the onset of COVID-19.
Pestilence
The Hebrew word translated pestilence is deber. It’s rooted in the noun dabar, which has a wide range of meanings. Most prominent is “word”, but we could generalize to “thing”. Its verbal form means to speak. While I don’t know what this connection is, it helps us understand why the Septuagint (ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) translates this verse this way: “A word will go before his face, / and it will come out into the plain at his feet”. Given that the original Hebrew did not have vowels, dbr could be translated either way.
Deber appears in a triad of judgments, most prominently in Jeremiah: “I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence (deber)” (Jeremiah 14:12). This triad appears about fifteen times in Jeremiah as well as other scattered places. When David sinned by numbering his army, God gave him a choice of punishment: “either three years of famine, or three months of devastation by your foes while the sword of your enemies overtakes you, or else three days of the sword of the LORD, pestilence (deber) on the land, with the angel of the LORD destroying throughout all the territory of Israel” (1 Chronicles 21:12), using the same basic triad of famine, sword, and pestilence. He chose the deber, God’s sword.
Isaiah, describing the Servant of the Lord, says God “made my mouth like a sharp sword” (Isaiah 49:2). God has a sword: his word. While his words brought life and created the world, they can also destroy. The New Testament writers picked up on this imagery, describing God’s word as his sword (Ephesians 6:17, Hebrews 4:12, Revelation 1:16, 2:12). Having the power of the sword meant having judgment.
Plague
The Hebrew word translated plague is resheph. The primary meaning of this word is around a bolt of lightening or a spark of fire. The Psalmist, recounting the plagues in Egypt, says, “He gave over their cattle to the hail / and their flocks to thunderbolts (resheph)” (Psalm 78:48). Love is described as a resheph of fire:
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
Song of Songs 8:6
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes (resheph) are flashes (resheph) of fire,
the very flame of the LORD.
Using resheph to refer to a plague appears to be a metaphor, describing a disease rapidly spreading from place to place like a forest fire. As part of Moses’ warning to the people of Israel before his death, he said they would be “devoured by plague (resheph)” (Deuteronomy 32:24) because of their disobedience.
Battles of the Gods
There is another way we can look at this verse. Deber and Resheph were both the names of gods of war and destruction in the ancient world. Some wonder if this verse depicts these destructive gods in procession with the Lord: “before him went Deber, and Resheph went forth at his feet” (Lexham Bible Dictionary).
However, the gods and what they represented were interchangeable. Hebrew borrows other words like this. For instance, Yam is the name of the sea god and also the word for sea. Shemesh is the sun and the sun god. Mot meant death and was the name fo the god of death.
To Ponder…
When you think of the season of Advent, what comes to mind?
When we think of God arriving, we like to think of baby Jesus in the manger, humble and approachable. While this is true, we must not forget how scary God is. The season of Advent is not just for remembering Jesus coming the first time. It is also meant to remind us that is he coming again. We need to remember the Word of God is powerful: “Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29).
I form light and create darkness;
Isaiah 45:7
I make well-being and create calamity;
I am the LORD, who does all these things.