Habakkuk
Authorship and Literary History
Despite the book's first-person style, we know nothing about Habakkuk as a person. His name, similar to an Akkadian word for a certain type of plant, does not appear elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible. Both of the book's superscriptions (1.1 and 3.1) explicitly identify him as a prophet.
Habakkuk appears as a character in later Jewish and Christian literature. In the Addition to Daniel known as Bel and the Dragon, he is transported by an angel to feed Daniel in the lions’ den (Bel 33–39). A commentary on Habakkuk from Qumran, called a “pesher” for its style of applying the biblical text directly to events of the writer's own day, provides not only an early copy of the text itself but also a glimpse of how Habakkuk's words resonated with a later generation.
Content and Literary Style
Habakkuk complains about the violence of the Babylonians, called the Chaldeans in 1.6. Their empire came to power in the seventh century bce after defeating the Assyrians. As described in 1 Kings 23–25, Babylonia soon dominated Judah's political life and in 586 bce destroyed its independent existence as a state: Babylonian armies burned the Temple in Jerusalem and exiled many of the population.
Other prophetic collections such as Isa 14.3–23 and Jer 50–51 pronounce God's judgment on Babylon for its cruelty. While Habakkuk's anti-Babylonian rhetoric is similar, even sharing some vocabulary with Jeremiah, its literary style is different. The core of the book takes the form of alternating speeches of the prophet and God (1.2–17 and 2.1–20). In each case, the prophet voices the community's complaint in the first person, granting it immediacy and poignancy. God's ensuing speech does not directly answer the prophet but rather raises new issues for consideration. The book ends with the speech of the prophet, cast as a prayer for God to act as a warrior on behalf of the people.
Date of Composition and Location in the Canon
Because of its anti-Babylonian theme, Habakkuk is often dated to the late seventh century bce, the height of Babylonian power. Its frequent use of liturgical forms and vocabulary, however, has been seen as evidence that the book in its final form dates to the Persian period. The closing prayer closely mirrors psalms of petition (complete with the refrain of Selah), and while the “watchpost” of 2.1 may be read as a military metaphor, the same word is used to describe the stations of priests and Levites during the Second Temple period (e.g., 2 Chr 7.6; Neh 12.9).
Habakkuk is the eighth of the twelve Minor Prophets (see Introduction to the Prophetic Books [p. 971–75]). Its placement between Nahum and Zephaniah advances the chronological arc of the Book of the Twelve from the defeat of the Assyrians (Nahum) to the rise of the Babylonians (Habakkuk), followed by an imperative for repentance lest the nation fall (Zephaniah). Nahum and Habakkuk explain that a righteous deity may use an unrighteous nation to punish Israel and Judah but that the unrighteous nation will itself be punished. Zephaniah reiterates those themes and offers hope to Judah and a glimmer of hope for the nations.
Interpretation
A classic question in monotheistic traditions is why, if God is just and caring, do believers suffer? While the traditions preserved in Deuteronomy–Kings insist on the justice of God, the book of Habakkuk complains about the suffering of the community at the hand of tyrants. Nowhere does Habakkuk attempt to solve the problem of God's apparent injustice. Instead, it models the legitimacy of human protest as well as the power of trusting in God's power even when it is not apparent.
Julia M. OߣBrien
1 The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
2O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and you will not listen?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
3Why do you make me see wrongdoing
and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
4So the law becomes slack
and justice never prevails.
The wicked surround the righteous—
therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
5Look at the nations, and see!
Be astonished! Be astounded!
For a work is being done in your days
that you would not believe if you were told.
6For I am rousing the Chaldeans,
that fierce and impetuous nation,
who march through the breadth of the earth
to seize dwellings not their own.
7Dread and fearsome are they;
their justice and dignity proceed from themselves.
8Their horses are swifter than leopards,
more menacing than wolves at dusk;
their horses charge.
Their horsemen come from far away;
they fly like an eagle swift to devour.
9They all come for violence,
with faces pressinga forward;
they gather captives like sand.
10At kings they scoff,
and of rulers they make sport.
They laugh at every fortress,
and heap up earth to take it.
11Then they sweep by like the wind;
they transgress and become guilty;
their own might is their god!
12Are you not from of old,
O Lord my God, my Holy One?
Youb shall not die.
O Lord, you have marked them for judgment;
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.
13Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous,
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?
14You have made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler.
15The enemya brings all of them up with a hook;
he drags them out with his net,
he gathers them in his seine;
so he rejoices and exults.
16Therefore he sacrifices to his net
and makes offerings to his seine;
for by them his portion is lavish,
and his food is rich.
17Is he then to keep on emptying his net,
and destroying nations without mercy?
2
I will stand at my watchpost,
and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
and what heb will answer concerning my complaint.
2Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.
3For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.
4Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them,
but the righteous live by their faith.c
5Moreover, wealthd is treacherous;
the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats wide as Sheol;
like Death they never have enough.
They gather all nations for themselves,
and collect all peoples as their own.
6Shall not everyone taunt such people
and, with mocking riddles, say about them,
“Alas for you who heap up what is not your own!”
How long will you load yourselves with goods taken in pledge?
7Will not your own creditors suddenly rise,
and those who make you tremble wake up?
Then you will be booty for them.
8Because you have plundered many nations,
all that survive of the peoples shall plunder you—
because of human bloodshed, and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who live in them.
9“Alas for you who get evil gain for your house,
setting your nest on high
to be safe from the reach of harm!”
10You have devised shame for your house
by cutting off many peoples;
you have forfeited your life.
11The very stones will cry out from the wall,
and the plastera will respond from the woodwork.
12“Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed,
and found a city on iniquity!”
13Is it not from the Lord of hosts
that peoples labor only to feed the flames,
and nations weary themselves for nothing?
14But the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea.
15“Alas for you who make your neighbors drink,
pouring out your wrathb until they are drunk,
in order to gaze on their nakedness!”
16You will be sated with contempt instead of glory.
Drink, you yourself, and stagger!c
The cup in the Lord’s right hand
will come around to you,
and shame will come upon your glory!
17For the violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you;
the destruction of the animals will terrify you—d
because of human bloodshed and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who live in them.
18What use is an idol
once its maker has shaped it—
a cast image, a teacher of lies?
For its maker trusts in what has been made,
though the product is only an idol that cannot speak!
19Alas for you who say to the wood, “Wake up!”
to silent stone, “Rouse yourself!”
Can it teach?
See, it is gold and silver plated,
and there is no breath in it at all.
20But the Lord is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him!
3 A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk according to Shigionoth.
2O Lord, I have heard of your renown,
and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work.
In our own time revive it;
in our own time make it known;
in wrath may you remember mercy.
3God came from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
4The brightness was like the sun;
rays came forth from his hand,
where his power lay hidden.
5Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed close behind.
6He stopped and shook the earth;
he looked and made the nations tremble.
The eternal mountains were shattered;
along his ancient pathways
the everlasting hills sank low.
7I saw the tents of Cushan under affliction;
the tent-curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
8Was your wrath against the rivers,a O Lord?
Or your anger against the rivers,a
or your rage against the sea,b
when you drove your horses,
your chariots to victory?
9You brandished your naked bow,
satedc were the arrows at your command.d Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
10The mountains saw you, and writhed;
a torrent of water swept by;
the deep gave forth its voice.
The sune raised high its hands;
11the moonf stood still in its exalted place,
at the light of your arrows speeding by,
at the gleam of your flashing spear.
12In fury you trod the earth,
in anger you trampled nations.
13You came forth to save your people,
to save your anointed.
You crushed the head of the wicked house,
laying it bare from foundation to roof.d
Selah
14You pierced with theirg own arrows the headh of his warriors,i
who came like a whirlwind to scatter us,j
gloating as if ready to devour the poor who were in hiding.
15You trampled the sea with your horses,
churning the mighty waters.
16I hear, and I tremble within;
my lips quiver at the sound.
Rottenness enters into my bones,
and my steps tremblea beneath me.
I wait quietly for the day of calamity
to come upon the people who attack us.
17Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails,
and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold,
and there is no herd in the stalls,
18yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will exult in the God of my salvation.
19God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
and makes me tread upon the heights.b
To the leader: with stringedc instruments.