Habakkuk 3:5 (DRB)

Passage

Death shall go before his face. And the devil shall go forth before his feet.

Nearby Context

Habakkuk 3:3 God will come from the south, and the holy one from mount Pharan: His glory covered the heavens, and the earth is full of his praise.

Habakkuk 3:4 His brightness shall be as the light: horns are in his hands: There is his strength hid:

Habakkuk 3:5 Death shall go before his face. And the devil shall go forth before his feet.

Habakkuk 3:6 He stood and measured the earth. He beheld, and melted the nations: and the ancient mountains were crushed to pieces. The hills of the world were bowed down by the journeys of his eternity.

Habakkuk 3:7 I saw the tents of Ethiopia for their iniquity, the curtains of the land of Madian shall be troubled.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "death", "shall", "before", "face", "devil", and "forth". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "death" and "shall", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 4's "His brightness shall be as the light..." into verse 6's "He stood and measured the earth He...", so "death" and "shall" belong inside that flow. In Habakkuk context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "death" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.