Habakkuk 3:7

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

I saw the tents - i:e., the dwellers.

Of Cushan - the same as Gush, made Cush-an, to harmonize with Midian in the parallel clause. So Lotan is found in the Hebrew of Genesis for Lot. Bochart therefore considers it equivalent to Midian, or a part of Arabia. So in Numbers 12:1 Moses Midianite wife is called an Ethiopian (Hebrew, Cushite). Maurer thinks the dwellers on both sides of the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea are meant; because in the preceding verse God's everlasting or ancient ways of delivering His people are mentioned; and, in the following verse, the dividing of the Red Sea for them. Compare Miriam's song as to the fear of Israel's foes far and near caused thereby (Exodus 15:14-2). (See my note, Jeremiah 5:15, where is noticed the fact proved by the Babylonian inscriptions of the mounds of Chaldea proper, that there was a Cush, or Ethiopia, on the east or Asiatic side of the Arabian Gulf, as well as that on the western or African side. The primitive Babylonian empire was on the borders of the Persian Gulf. And Babylon is proved by its vocabulary to be Cushite, even as Scripture represents.) Hebrew expositors refer it to Cushanrishathaim, king of Mesopotamia or Syria, the first oppressor of Israel (Judges 3:8; Judges 3:10), from whom Othniel delivered them. Thus the second hemistich of the verse will refer to the deliverance of Israel from Midian by Gideon (Judges 6:1 and Judges 7:1). The latter half of Habakkuk 3:14, "Thou didst strike through with his (the foe's) staves the head of his villages," refers plainly to the overthrow of Midian by his own sword (Judges 7:22). Whichever of these views be correct, the general reference is to God's interpositions against Israel's foes of old.

In affliction - rather 'under affliction' [ tachat (H8478) 'aawen (H205)] (regarded) as heavy burden under which they were oppressed-literally, vanity or iniquity, hence, the punishment of it; I under suffering, the consequence of their sin (cf. Numbers 25:17-4, where God lays affliction upon Midian, because Midian caused sin and consequent affliction to His people. "Vex the Midianites, and smite them, for they vex you with their wiles").

The curtains of the land of Midian - the coverings of their tents; the shifting habitations of the nomad tribes, which resembled the modern Bedonius.

Did tremble - namely, at Yahweh's terrible interposition for Israel against them.