Bible Commentaries

INTRODUCTION

HABAKKUK, from a Hebrew root meaning to "embrace," denoting a "favorite" (namely, of God) and a "struggler" (for his country's good). Some ancient authors represent him as belonging to the tribe of Levi; others [PSEUDO EPIPHANIUS], to that of Simeon. The inscription to Bel and the dragon in the Septuagint asserts the former; and

Hab 3:19

perhaps favors this. EUSEBIUS [Ecclesiastical History, 7.29] states that in his time Habakkuk's tomb was shown at Celia in Palestine.

The time seems to have been about 610 B.C. For the Chaldeans attacked Jerusalem in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim, 605 B.C.

(2Ki 24:1; 2Ch 36:6; Jer 46:2; 36:9).

And Habakkuk

(Hab 1:5, 6,

&c.) speaks of the Chaldeans as about to invade Judah, but not as having actually done so. In the second chapter he proceeds to comfort his people by foretelling the humiliation of their conquerors, and that the vision will soon have its fulfilment. In the third chapter the prophet in a sublime ode celebrates the deliverances wrought by Jehovah for His people in times past, as the ground of assurance, notwithstanding all their existing calamities, that He will deliver them again.

Hab 3:16

shows that the invader is still coming, and not yet arrived; so that the whole refers to the invasion in Jehoiakim's times, not those under Jehoiachin and Zedekiah. The Apocryphal appendix to Daniel states that he lived to see the Babylonian exile (588 B.C.), which accords with his prophesying early in Jehoiakim's reign, about 610 B.C.

The position of the book immediately after Nahum is appropriate; as Nahum treated of the judgments of the Lord on Assyria, for its violence against Israel, so Habakkuk, those inflicted by, and on, the Chaldeans for the same reason.

The style is poetical and sublime. The parallelisms are generally regular. Borrowed ideas occur (compare

Hab 3:19, with Ps 18:33;

Hab 2:6, with Isa 14:4;

Hab 2:14, with Isa 11:9).

The ancient catalogues imply that his book is part of the canon of Scripture. In the New Testament,

Ro 1:17 quotes Hab 2:4

(though not naming him); compare also

Ga 3:11; Heb 10:38.

Ac 13:40, 41 quotes Hab 1:5.

One or two Hebrew words peculiar to Habakkuk occur

(Hab 1:9; 2:6, 16).

Hab 1:1-17.

HABAKKUK'S EXPOSTULATION WITH JEHOVAH ON ACCOUNT OF THE PREVALENCE OF INJUSTICE: JEHOVAH SUMMONS ATTENTION TO HIS PURPOSE OF SENDING THE CHALDEANS AS THE AVENGERS. THE PROPHET COMPLAINS, THAT THESE ARE WORSE THAN THOSE ON WHOM VENGEANCE WAS TO BE TAKEN.

1. burden--the prophetic sentence.

2, 3. violence . . . Why dost thou show me iniquity?--Similar language is used of the Chaldeans

(Hab 1:9, 13),

as here is used of the Jews: implying, that as the Jews sinned by violence and injustice, so they should be punished by violence and injustice

(Pr 1:31).

Jehoiakim's reign was marked by injustice, treachery, and bloodshed

(Jer 22:3, 13-17).

Therefore the Chaldeans should be sent to deal with him and his nobles according to their dealings with others

(Hab 1:6, 10, 11, 17).

Compare Jeremiah's expostulation with Jehovah,

Jer 12:1; 20:8; and Job 19:7, 8.

3. cause me to behold grievance--MAURER denies that the Hebrew verb is ever active; he translates, "(Wherefore) dost Thou behold (without doing aught to check) grievance?" The context favors English Version.

there are that raise up strife and contention--so CALVIN. But MAURER, not so well, translates, "There is strife, and contention raises itself."

4. Therefore--because Thou dost suffer such crimes to go unpunished.

law is slacked--is chilled. It has no authority and secures no respect.

judgment--justice.

wrong judgment proceedeth--Decisions are given contrary to right.

5. Behold . . . marvellously . . . a work--(Compare

Isa 29:14).

Quoted by Paul

(Ac 13:41).

among the heathen--In

Ac 13:41,

"ye despisers," from the Septuagint. So the Syriac and Arabic versions; perhaps from a different Hebrew reading. In the English Version reading of Habakkuk, God, in reply to the prophet's expostulation, addresses the Jews as about to be punished, "Behold ye among the heathen (with whom ye deserve to be classed, and by whom ye shall be punished, as despisers; the sense implied, which Paul expresses): learn from them what ye refused to learn from Me!" For "wonder marvellously," Paul, in

Ac 13:41,

has, "wonder and perish," which gives the sense, not the literal wording, of the Hebrew, "Wonder, wonder," that is, be overwhelmed in wonder. The despisers are to be given up to their own stupefaction, and so perish. The Israelite unbelievers would not credit the prophecy as to the fearfulness of the destruction to be wrought by the Chaldeans, nor afterwards the deliverance promised from that nation. So analogously, in Paul's day, the Jews would not credit the judgment coming on them by the Romans, nor the salvation proclaimed through Jesus. Thus the same Scripture applied to both.

ye will not believe, though it be told you--that is, ye will not believe now that I foretell it.

6. I raise up--not referring to God's having brought the Chaldeans from their original seats to Babylonia (see on

Isa 23:13),

for they had already been upwards of twenty years (since Nabopolassar's era) in political power there; but to His being about now to raise them up as the instruments of God's "work" of judgment on the Jews

(2Ch 36:6).

The Hebrew is future, "I will raise up."

bitter--that is, cruel

(Jer 50:42;

compare

Jud 18:25,

Margin;

2Sa 17:8).

hasty--not passionate, but "impetuous."

7. their judgment and . . . dignity . . . proceed of themselves--that is, they recognize no judge save themselves, and they get for themselves and keep their own "dignity" without needing others' help. It will be vain for the Jews to complain of their tyrannical judgments; for whatever the Chaldeans decree they will do according to their own will, they will not brook anyone attempting to interfere.