In the prayer of Habakkuk, what is meant when it states "God is from Teman and The Holy One from Mount Paran?
Habakkuk 3:3
ESV - 3 God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. Selah
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Asked December 27 2015
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Avril Farmer
Supporter
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Tim Maas
Supporter
Teman and Mount Paran were locations situated to the east of Israel. Teman was located in southern Edom (the name given to the nation that was located in a portion of what is now Jordan, and that was descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob, who was known as Edom (meaning "red", in reference to Genesis 25:25 and Genesis 25:30), and the same location that one of the three friends who came to console Job (Eliphaz the Temanite) was from (Job 4:1). Mount Paran, located opposite of Teman, is first mentioned in Deuteronomy 33:2. Its general location (the wilderness or desert of Paran) was the place where Ishmael (the son of Abraham by Hagar) settled (Genesis 21:21). Habakkuk used those two reference points to compare the involvement of God with regard to His people (specifically with the hope of allowing the people of Judah to return to the land following their captivity in Babylon) with the brightness associated with the appearance of the sun in the eastern sky each morning. This analogy is made clearer in the verse immediately following the wording being asked about (Habakkuk 3:4), which reads, “His splendor was like the sunrise.”
Kenneth Heck
Supporter
In this verse, I believe the word "teman" should not have been capitalized, since it suggests a city named after a grandson of Esau. The word "teman" in Hebrew means the "south" or "southwards" For the land of Israel, God came from the south, that is, from Mount Sinai. Mount Paran is used as a synonym for Mount Sinai (Mount Sinai was in or near the land of Paran). Another synonym for Mount Sinai was Mount Horeb. The wilderness of Paran would be directly south of Israel and Mt Horeb south of that. This is realistic if Mt Sinai/Horeb is in Arabia/Arabah as Deut 1:1 and Paul in Galatians tell us.) Interestingly, Paran was the wilderness where Hagar had her experience with God and where Ishmael grew up (Gen 21:21).
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