Rabbi Natasha Mann

This piece first appeared in Rabbi Natasha's commentary on the 929 Tanakh Project here . The Psalm of Habakkuk is a song of theophany, and it is filled with undertones of Semitic mythology. These mythological references would have been much clearer to ancient listeners than modern readers. In verse 5, Habakkuk writes: ‘Pestilence marches before Him, and plague comes forth at His heels.’ The ‘plague’ following at God’s heels is ‘ reshef ’, a name of a Canaanite deity associated with plague. And Reshef is only the beginning. In verse 8, Habakkuk asks: ‘Is Your anger against Neharim [Rivers], Your rage against Yam [Sea]?’ Water is a common mythological symbol of chaos, and is famously the chaotic matter with which the Divine battles in the first creation narrative of Genesis. This kind of imagery is drawn upon in other areas of the Tanakh, such as Job (see Job 7:12 and 3:8) and in the Psalms (see Psalm 74:12-17). However, like with ‘ reshef ’, these words would also be heard by anci...

Background of Habakkuk Time:  Between 612BCE and 586BCE             (After rise of Babylonian power and before the Babylonian exile) Place: Southern Kingdom Kings: Unnamed Political Backdrop: ·        Babylonians have arisen as the Big Bad ·        A long commentary on Habakkuk was preserved within the Dead Sea Scrolls (called Pesher Habakkuk ). This does not include the third chapter! o    Pesher Habakkuk identifies the Chaldeans as the Romans – implications on how prophetic literature is supposed to be read? Primary Themes of Habakkuk: ·        Lamentation ·        The Problem of Evil o    The place of the oppressor in a theological framwork ·        Relating to God while living under injustice ·  ...