Habakkuk is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible. His name is thought to derive from the Hebrew word chabaq, “to embrace,” but its form appears non-Hebraic. More likely the name is related to habbaququ, a word found in the related Semitic language of Akkadian. It denotes a species of garden plant or fruit tree.
Habakkuk predicted the invasion of Judah by the Chaldeans (1:6). The term Chaldean (Hb kasdim; Akk kaldu) was originally used of an ethnic group that appeared in southern Babylonia in the ninth century BC. In the eighth century BC, Chaldeans began to rise to power in Babylon. By the time of Habakkuk “Chaldean” had come to be a synonym for “Babylonian.”
These world events came to affect Judah. Pharaoh Neco of Egypt passed through Palestine in an attempt to support the remnant of the Assyrians in northern Syria against Babylon. The godly King Josiah confronted him at Megiddo but was killed by Neco in 609 BC. Judah then fell into the hands of Egypt from 609–605 BC.
Judah’s fortunes changed again when Nebuchadnezzar II defeated Neco at the battle of Carchemish (May/June 605 BC) and succeeded his father on the throne of Babylon in September of that year. The Babylonian army pursued Neco back to Egypt. This led to Judah falling under control of the Babylonians by 604 BC.
Habakkuk predicted the Chaldean devastation of Judah (1:5-11), but that does not seem to have been fulfilled by the relatively bloodless Babylonian occupation in 604 BC. But when Jehoiakim, whom Neco had placed on Judah’s throne in 609 BC, rebelled against Babylon in roughly 600 BC, Nebuchadnezzar eventually invaded the land and besieged Jerusalem from 598 to 597 BC. This led to Jehoiakim being deposed and killed in 598 BC and his son Jehoiachin going into Babylonian exile in 597 BC. The last king of Judah, Zedekiah, brought even more devastation upon Judah by rebelling against Babylon in 588 BC. When Judah fell to the Babylonians in August of either 587 or 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar devastated Jerusalem and destroyed the temple. And yet as Habakkuk predicted (2:6-20), Babylon had its own day of reckoning in 539 BC when Cyrus of Persia conquered it.
These historical events help us to attach a date to the book of Habakkuk. Habakkuk probably wrote his prophecy during the time of trouble after the death of King Josiah of Judah in 609 BC but before the devastations of Judah in 598/597 BC and 587/586 BC by the Chaldeans. That places the prophecy during the reign of Jehoiakim (ca 609–599 BC), probably in the period of Egyptian domination before Babylon invaded Judah (609–605 BC).
The book of Habakkuk looks at an issue that often confronts people: trying to discern God’s purposes in the midst of this world. There is a realization of the will of God for this world. This truth is seen throughout the Scripture: God’s promises to Abraham; God’s desire for us to have life abundantly; and God’s will for a human community of joy, security, and righteousness. We ultimately triumph in the world and live abundantly only through faith. Habakkuk’s message that the righteous will live by faith prepared the way for the greater understanding of this truth in the NT, which emphasizes salvation through faith in Christ (Rm 1:17; Gl 3:11; Heb 10:38-39).
The first two chapters consist of a dialogue between the prophet and God. Habakkuk first complained of injustice in Judah (1:2-4). God responded by announcing that he was sending the Chaldeans to punish Judah (1:5-11). Habakkuk then complained about God’s answer, arguing that it seemed unfair for God to use the more wicked Babylonians to punish the less wicked Judeans (1:12–2:1). God responded that the Babylonians were indeed arrogant and would ultimately be punished; nonetheless, God would use the Babylonians just as he had determined (2:2-20). The final chapter consists of a psalm in which Habakkuk reflected on this dialogue with God.
Habakkuk’s request was for revival. He means, “Lord, put new life into us. Your cause began with life, but the tendency of all around it is to make it die. Therefore, Lord, make it alive again, give it another birthday and restore all the force and energy of its first love. Give us a new Pentecost, we ask. Give all the spiritual endowments that came with the tongues of fire and so enrich us anew. Revive us! Help us begin again. Start us anew in life.” That is the petition, and it seems to me to be one of the wisest requests that ever fell even from prophetic lips.
1The pronouncement that the prophet Habakkuk saw.
2How long, LORD, must I call for help
and you do not listen
or cry out to you about violence
and you do not save?
3Why do you force me to look at injustice?
Why do you tolerate A wrongdoing?
Oppression and violence are right in front of me.
Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.
QUOTE 1:3
When the Lord pulls a person down, he does it in order that he may build him up again. When he breaks a person’s heart, it is so he may make it anew.
4This is why the law is ineffective
and justice never emerges.
For the wicked restrict the righteous;
therefore, justice comes out perverted.
5Look at the nations B and observe —
be utterly astounded!
For I am doing something in your days
that you will not believe
when you hear about it.
6Look! I am raising up the Chaldeans, C
that bitter, impetuous nation
that marches across the earth’s open spaces
to seize territories not its own.
7They are fierce and terrifying;
their views of justice and sovereignty
stem from themselves.
8Their horses are swifter than leopards
and more fierce D than wolves of the night.
Their horsemen charge ahead;
their horsemen come from distant lands.
They fly like eagles, swooping to devour.
9All of them come to do violence;
their faces are set in determination. E
They gather prisoners like sand.
10They mock kings,
and rulers are a joke to them.
They laugh at every fortress
and build siege ramps to capture it.
11Then they sweep by like the wind
and pass through.
They are guilty; F their strength is their god.
12Are you not from eternity, LORD my God?
My Holy One, you G will not die.
LORD, you appointed them to execute judgment;
my Rock, you destined them to punish us.
13Your eyes are too pure to look on evil,
and you cannot
tolerate wrongdoing.
So why do you tolerate those who are treacherous?
Why are you silent
while one A who is wicked swallows up
one B who is more righteous than himself?
14You have made mankind
like the fish of the sea,
like marine creatures that have no ruler.
15The Chaldeans pull them all up with a hook,
catch them in their dragnet,
and gather them in their fishing net;
that is why they are glad and rejoice.
16That is why they sacrifice to their dragnet
and burn incense to their fishing net,
for by these things their portion is rich
and their food plentiful.
17Will they therefore empty their net
and continually slaughter nations without mercy?
1:3 “Why do you force me to look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Oppression and violence are right in front of me. Strife is ongoing, and conflict escalates.” The question is, Why does the Lord show us iniquity and injustice? It is to deliver us from it. If God has broken our heart, he has broken it to give us a new one. If he has killed us by the law, he has killed us to make us alive by the gospel. If he has wounded us in our conscience, he has done it that he may have room to pour in the oil and the relief of Christ Jesus. If he has stripped us, he has only pulled off our rags that he may put on us a perfect robe of spotless righteousness.
When the Lord pulls a person down, he does it in order that he may build him up again. When he breaks a person’s heart, it is so he may make it anew. If a person has misery of conscience on account of sin, God has had dealings of love with them.
One who knows himself to truly be a sinner who means it when he declares himself to be guilty and vile—then, as the Lord lives, Jesus Christ died for him on Calvary. He will behold the Lord’s face with joy. He will be numbered with the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, and he will sing eternal hallelujahs around the throne of God and the Lamb.
A 1:3 Lit observe, also in v. 13
B 1:5 DSS, LXX, Syr read Look, you treacherous people
F 1:11 Or wind, and transgress and incur guilt
2I will stand at my guard post
and station myself on the lookout tower.
I will watch to see what he will say to me
and what I should C reply about my complaint.
2 The LORD answered me:
Write down this vision;
clearly inscribe it on tablets
so one may easily read it. D
3For the vision is yet for the appointed time;
it testifies about the end and will not lie.
Though it delays, wait for it,
since it will certainly come and not be late.
QUOTE 2:2-3
In order to separate the precious from the vile, God used the winnowing fan of affliction so that the chaff might be blown away and the pure wheat remain.
4Look, his ego is inflated; E
he is without integrity.
But the righteous one will live by his faith. F
QUOTE 2:4
This is what living by faith meant—a faith that does without anything—a faith that can take nothing and be content with it because it finds everything in God—faith under the worst conceivable conditions. This is how the just are to live.
5Moreover, wine G betrays;
an arrogant man is never at rest. H
He enlarges his appetite like Sheol,
and like Death he is never satisfied.
He gathers all the nations to himself;
he collects all the peoples for himself.
6Won’t all of these take up a taunt against him,
with mockery and riddles about him?
They will say:
Woe to him who amasses what is not his —
how much longer? —
and loads himself with goods taken in pledge.
7Won’t your creditors suddenly arise,
and those who disturb you wake up?
Then you will become spoil for them.
8Since you have plundered many nations,
all the peoples who remain will plunder you —
because of human bloodshed
and violence against lands, cities,
and all who live in them.
9Woe to him who dishonestly makes
wealth for his house A
to place his nest on high,
to escape the grasp of disaster!
10You have planned shame for your house
by wiping out many peoples
and sinning against your own self.
11For the stones will cry out from the wall,
and the rafters will answer them
from the woodwork.
12Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed
and founds a town with injustice!
13Is it not from the LORD of Armies
that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire
and countries exhaust themselves for nothing?
14For the earth will be filled
with the knowledge of the LORD’s glory,
as the water covers the sea.
15Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink,
pouring out your wrath B
and even making them drunk,
in order to look
at their nakedness!
16You will be filled with disgrace instead of glory.
You also — drink,
and expose
your uncircumcision! A
The cup in the LORD’s right hand
will come around to you,
and utter disgrace will cover your glory.
17For your violence against Lebanon
will overwhelm you;
the destruction of animals will terrify you B
because of your human bloodshed and violence
against lands, cities, and all who live in them.
18What use is a carved idol
after its craftsman carves it?
It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies.
For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it
and makes idols that cannot speak.
19Woe to him who says to wood: Wake up!
or to mute stone: Come alive!
Can it teach?
Look! It may be plated with gold and silver,
yet there is no breath in it at all.
20But the LORD is in his holy temple;
let the whole earth
be silent in his presence.
2:2-3 “The LORD answered me: Write down this vision; clearly inscribe it on tablets so one may easily read it. For the vision is yet for the appointed time; it testifies about the end and will not lie. Though it delays, wait for it, since it will certainly come and not be late.” Habakkuk had to prophesy to the people that God would eventually deliver them out of the hand of the Chaldeans and send them better times. But he warned them that although the vision would come and, as far as God was concerned, it would not delay, they would grow impatient under their suffering and would say that the vision did delay.
The prophet here hints at the reason God’s merciful deliverances may sometimes be delayed. The Lord is willing to give mercy directly, for he does not delight in judgment. If it were according to wisdom, we would have nothing from God’s hand but what is pleasant and sweet, for he would not cause any one of his creatures a needless pain, and he is full of gentleness and tenderness and mercy.
The reason the vision delayed in Habakkuk’s day and the mercy was slow in coming was that the trials of the people might act as a test of their character. In order to separate the precious from the vile, God used the winnowing fan of affliction so that the chaff might be blown away and the pure wheat remain. It is always God’s purpose to put a division between Israel and Egypt, between the one who fears the Lord and the one who does not.
2:4 “Look, his ego is inflated; he is without integrity. But the righteous one will live by his faith.” The prophet Habakkuk is the one who first uttered these words, “The righteous one will live by his faith.” I wonder whether he fully understood them himself? It is always pleasant to see whether a doctor takes his own medicine and whether a preacher practices his own precepts. I think this is how Habakkuk understood these words. Here is his practical exposition of them, in the last verses of his prophecy. “Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, yet I will celebrate in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!” (3:17-18). This is a hymn, is it not—the hymn of a man who saw his bread going, the meat going, the oil going, and everything going, and yet he rejoiced in the Lord. This is what living by faith meant—a faith that does without anything—a faith that can take nothing and be content with it because it finds everything in God—faith under the worst conceivable conditions. This is how the just are to live.
D 2:2 Lit one who reads in it may run
H 2:5 Or man does not endure ; Hb obscure
3A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk. According to Shigionoth. C
2LORD, I have heard the report about you;
LORD, I stand in awe of your deeds.
Revive your work in these years;
make it known in these years.
In your wrath remember mercy!
3God comes from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran.
Selah
His splendor covers the heavens,
and the earth is full of his praise.
4His brilliance is like light;
rays are flashing from his hand.
This is where his power is hidden.
5Plague goes before him,
and pestilence follows in his steps.
6He stands and shakes D the earth;
he looks and startles the nations.
The age-old mountains break apart;
the ancient hills sink down.
His pathways are ancient.
7I see the tents of Cushan E in distress;
the tent curtains of the land of Midian tremble.
8Are you angry at the rivers, LORD?
Is your wrath against the rivers?
Or is your rage against the sea
when you ride on your horses,
your victorious chariot?
9You took the sheath from your bow;
the arrows are ready F to be used with an oath. G
Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
10The mountains see you and shudder;
a downpour of water sweeps by.
The deep roars with its voice
and lifts its waves H high.
11Sun and moon stand still in their lofty residence,
at the flash of your flying arrows,
at the brightness of your shining spear.
12You march across the earth with indignation;
you trample down the nations in wrath.
13You come out to save your people,
to save your anointed. A
You crush the leader of the house of the wicked
and strip him from foot B to neck.
Selah
14You pierce his head
with his own spears;
his warriors storm out to scatter us,
gloating as if ready to secretly devour the weak.
15You tread the sea with your horses,
stirring up the vast water.
16I heard, and I trembled within;
my lips quivered at the sound.
Rottenness entered my bones;
I trembled where I stood.
Now I must quietly wait for the day of distress
to come against the people invading us.
17Though the fig tree does not bud
and there is no fruit on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though the flocks disappear from the pen
and there are no herds
in the stalls,
18yet I will celebrate in the LORD;
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!
19The LORD my Lord is my strength;
he makes my feet like those
of a deer
and enables me to walk on mountain heights!
For the choir director: on C stringed instruments.
3:2 “LORD, I have heard the report about you; LORD, I stand in awe of your deeds. Revive your work in these years; make it known in these years. In your wrath remember mercy!” Habakkuk’s request was for revival. He means, “Lord, put new life into us. Your cause began with life, but the tendency of all around it is to make it die. Therefore, Lord, make it alive again, give it another birthday and restore all the force and energy of its first love. Give us a new Pentecost, we ask. Give all the spiritual endowments that came with the tongues of fire and so enrich us anew. Revive us! Help us begin again. Start us anew in life.” That is the petition, and it seems to me to be one of the wisest requests that ever fell even from prophetic lips.