Habakkuk

HABAKKUK (LXX., Ambakoum; Vulgate, Habacuc): The eighth of the Minor Prophets. From the subscription to the third chapter it has been inferred that the author was a Levite, and in the superscription of Bel and the Dragon in Codex Chisianus this is stated as a fact. The subscription mentioned suggests personal official partici pation in the song service of the Temple. While there is no certain knowledge of Habakkuk's life, a very rich body of legend clusters about his name (F. Delitzsch, De Habacuci prophets vita atque state, Leipsic, 1842). The titles of chaps. i. and iii. show that he was a well-known prophet of Judah.

The book is cast in the form of dialogue. Chap. i. 2-1 contains the prophet's complaint against the corruption among his people; i. :rll is the divine answer foretelling the impending judgment through the Chaldeans; i. 12-17 expresses the prophet's wonder at their use by the Almighty; the divine answer follows in a fivefold "wo" presaging the overthrow of the enemy (ii. 2-20); chap. iii. is the answer of the trusting community to this double revelation, closing with an expression of perfect confidence in God. The kernel of the book is in the second announcement, ii. 2-3.

Against the early and persistent interpretation that in i. 2-4 the prophet has the Chaldeans in mind are: (1) that the same sins are denounced by other prophets (e.g., Ezek. xiii. 8); (2) that as component parts of the prophecy appear the sin, the punishment, forgiveness, and restoration; (3) the use of "law" in i. 4, which must mean the divine law. Also that the punishment of the Hebrews by the Chaldeans involves retribution of the instrument also is an integral part of the prophecy. The interpretation given avoids any necessity for considering i. 5-11 an interpolation, or for taking ii. 9-20 as a later addition, or for regarding the whole as a short preexilic prophecy worked over in the Exile.

There is only internal evidence upon which to determine the date either of the prophet or of his writing. Delitzsch's date, after the twelfth regnal year of Josiah, involving the assumption that Zeph. i. 7 depends on Hab. ii. 20, is doubtful-the dependence may be the other way. It is better to accept the verdict of most of the later critics and place it shortly before the battle of Carchemish. Delitzsch's later placing of Habakkuk under Manasseh is against i. 5 "in your days."

The diction of Habakkuk is classical, the words are rare and often peculiar to himself, the style is artistic and independent of earlier models. Chap. iii., an example of the highest art in Hebrew poetry, pictures Yahweh coming forth from Sinai in the ophany to judge the foes of his people. All creation is in consternation at his presence; the earth is shaken to its foundations, sun and moon withdraw before the bright glow of his arrows and spear. Even the prophet, to whom the purpose of this coming is known, is stricken with terror until he recovers in view of the end which he sees and breaks off in a song of triumph. There is a close relationship between parts of the song and Ps. lxxvii. 16-20, and between Jer. iv. 13, v. 6, and Hab. i. 8. The passage ii. 4 is used by Paul in Rom. i. 17 and Gal. iii. 11; it is used also in Heb. x. 37-38, but in much altered form. (W. VOLCxt.)

It is scarcely possible to regard as a unit the prophecy ascribed to Habakkuk. At any rate chap. iii. gives no indication of a close relation with the first two chapters. The inscription (iii. 1) and the musical note (iii. 19) indicate the use of the chapter in the second temple, while the style and contents correspond to those of some of the latest psalms (e.g., Ps. lxviii:). The Chaldeans of i. 6 are not mentioned or suggested, and the fact that in verse 13, as the parallelism shows, it is the people of Israel that is called the "anointed" indi-

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cates that the regal period is past and that the community has taken the place of the king as the theocratic representative. The poem does not give information regarding the nature of the impending danger which is to bring about the intervention of Yahweh (as in the days of old). This danger can hardly be a drought and failure of the crops, such as is suggested in verses 17-19; hence many recent critics assume that these verses constitute an addi tional hymn, also by an unknown late author. If this be the am, these two compositions had appar ently been written on the same roll and thus came to be used as a single liturgical psalm. Before the canonical limitation of the Psalter this composite psalm was plated alongside the prophecy contained in the first two chapters on account of their general internal kinship.

The first two chapters are not very easily explained as an original unit. It is not plain how the several sections of which they are composed are related to one another; and whsle it is possible to connect them as is done in the text above, such an explanation seems somewhat forced and is rather to be accepted as tentative than as final. On the other hand, it must be admitted that no alternative view of the composition of the prophecy has as yet met general approval.

J. F. McCurdy.

Bibliography: F. Delitzsch, Der Prophet Habakkuk, Leip sie, 1843; L. Reinke, Der Prophet Habakuk, Briaen. 1870 (contains full list of earlier works); A. G. Baumgartner, Le Prophhto Habakkuk, Leipsic, 1885; F. W. Farrar, The Minor Prophets, in Men of the Bible Series, London 1890; F. Giesebreeht, Beiträge zur Jesaiakritik. DP. 170 sqq., Göttingen, 1890; R. Sinker, The Psalm of Habakkuk. Cambridge, 1890; K. Budde; in Expositor, May, 1895; A. B. Davidson, in Cambridge Bible for Schools, 1898; W. Nowack, Die kleinen Propheten, Göttingen, 1897 G. A. Smith, The Book of as Twelve, vol. ii., London, 1898; DB, ii . 269-273; EB, ii. 1921-28; JR, vi. 117-118; B. Duhm, Dos Buch Habakkuk, Tübingen, 1906; F. Nicolar dot, La Composition du livre d'Habacuc, Paris, 1908.