Habakkuk Chapter 3 verse 7 Holy Bible
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
read chapter 3 in ASV
The curtains of Cushan were troubled, and the tents of Midian were shaking.
read chapter 3 in BBE
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
read chapter 3 in DARBY
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
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read chapter 3 in WBT
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The dwellings of the land of Midian trembled.
read chapter 3 in WEB
Under sorrow I have seen tents of Cushan, Tremble do curtains of the land of Midian.
read chapter 3 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 7. - As God moves in his majesty the various nations are struck with fear, as of old were the peoples that heard of the Exodus (see Exodus 15:14-16). I saw. In prophetic vision (1 Kings 22:17). The tents of Cushan; LXX.. σκηνώματα Αἰθίοτων "the tents of the Ethiopians;" Vulgate, tentoria AEthiopiae. "Cushan" is not Chushan-Rishathaim, the Mesopotamian king mentioned in Judges 3, but is a lengthened form of Cush (as Lotan for Lot, Genesis 36:20), the biblical name for Ethiopia. Here the African country is meant, lying along the west coast of the Red Sea. In affliction. Panic-stricken. The prophet particularizes what he had said above generally of the nations hostile to the people of God. The curtains; the tent curtains; Vulgate, pelles. Both "tents" and "curtains" are used by metonymy for their inhabitants. Midian. The country on the Gulf of Akaba, the eastern arm of the Red Sea. Ethiopia and Midian are named, as God is supposed to advance from the south.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(7) "I saw."--Better, I see. Did tremble.--Better, are trembling. Probably the imagery is still borrowed from the Exodus story, the nations instanced being the borderers on the Red Sea--viz., Cushan (Cush, or Ethiopia) on the west, and Midian on the east side. A plausible theory, however, as old as the Targum, connects this verse with later episodes in Israel's history. "Cushan" is identified with that Mesopotamian oppressor, "Cushan-rishathaim," whom the judge Othniel overcame. (Judges 3:8-10). And "Midian" is interpreted by Judges 6, which records how Gideon delivered Israel from Midianite oppression. Both names thus become typical instances of tyranny subdued by Jehovah's intervention. We prefer the other interpretation, because the prophet's eye is still fixed apparently on the earlier history (see Habakkuk 3:8, et seq.), and a reference here to the time of the Judges would mar the elimactic symmetry of the composition. "Cushan," however, is never used elsewhere for "Cush," though the LXX. understood it in this meaning. "Curtains" in the second hemistich is merely a variation on "tents" in the first. (Comp. Song of Solomon 1:5.)
