The sun and moon stood still in their place
Habakkuk 3:11
at the light of your arrows as they sped,
at the flash of your glittering spear.
Habakkuk continues his depiction of God as a warrior.
Exalted
He says that the sun and Moon stood in their place. That place (Hebrew זְבֻל, zebul) isn’t just any place. Rather, it is an exalted or lofty place. While this may refer to the sun and moon standing still during the conquest (Joshua 10:12-13), it is a different wording. It refers to their high place in the heavens, watching God strike with his arrows.
We see other instances of zebul referring to heaven. For instance, when Solomon dedicated the temple, he called it בֵּית זְבֻל (beit zebul), the exalted/lofty house (1 Kings 8:13, 2 Chronicles 6:2). Isaiah uses the word to describe God’s dwelling in heaven by calling on him to look down “from your holy and beautiful habitation (zebul)” (Isaiah 63:15). This stands in contrast to Sheol: “Their form shall be consumed in Sheol, with no place to dwell” (Psalm 49:14). The last phrase is literally “from zebul to/for him”. They will be consumed in Sheol, far from their exalted dwelling.
One of Jacob’s wives, Leah, named one of her sons Zebulun, saying “God has endowed me with a good endowment; now my husband will honor (zabal) me, because I have borne him six sons” (Genesis 30:20).
The Canaanite god Baal had many titles. One of them was Baal-Zebul (Exalted master). The Bible plays on this name by calling him Baal-Zebub (Master of flies). (See 2 Kings 1:2-3) Some Pharisees accused Jesus of driving out demons by Beelzebul (Matthew 12:24), which is the same name transliterating the Greek.
To Ponder…
What do you exalt or highly honor? Objects? People? Or God?