Old Testament

Habakkuk

Habakkuk is a prophet's argument with God. He asks how long God will tolerate violence in Judah, is told that God is raising up the Babylonians to judge it, and then asks how a holy God can use a nation more wicked still. God's answer, that the proud will fall and 'the righteous will live by faith' (), leads to a closing prayer in which Habakkuk resolves to rejoice in the LORD even if every crop and herd fails. It belongs in the Bible because it brings the hardest questions about God's justice to God Himself, and because its central line became one of the foundations of the apostles' teaching on faith.

Author: Habakkuk the prophet (1:1; 3:1), about whom Scripture tells us nothing else. The musical notes in chapter 3 have led some to suggest he served in temple worship, but that is a guess.
Audience: Judah in its last decades before the exile, where law and justice were failing (1:4). The dialogue is overheard by the people, and the vision is to be written plainly so it can be carried and read (2:2).
When: As the Chaldeans, or Babylonians, were rising to power, late in the seventh century BC. Many date it around 609-598 BC in the reign of Jehoiakim, though some place it a little earlier.
Where: Judah, probably Jerusalem. The threat comes from Babylon in Mesopotamia, whose armies reached Judah from 605 BC onward.
Genre: Habakkuk is prophecy in the form of a dialogue: two complaints from the prophet, two answers from God, then a psalm. Instead of carrying God's word to the people, the prophet carries the people's question to God. Chapter 2 contains a taunt song of five woes, and chapter 3 is a prayer with musical directions and 'Selah' markers, written in the style of old victory songs about the exodus and Sinai. Read it as a journey from protest to trust, and do not rush past the questions to the answers.

Shape of the book

How Long? Two Complaints · ch 1Habakkuk protests injustice in Judah, God answers that the Babylonians are coming, and Habakkuk asks how a pure God can use such a cruel tool.
The Vision and the Five Woes · ch 2From his watchpost Habakkuk receives the answer: the vision will surely come, the righteous will live by faith, and the plunderer will be plundered.
The Prayer of Habakkuk · ch 3Recalling God's march from the south at the exodus and Sinai, the prophet trembles, waits, and chooses joy in God when everything else fails.

Themes

Bringing Questions to God. Habakkuk opens with 'How long, O LORD' and 'Why' (), and his second complaint is sharper still (). He does not stop believing; he calls God 'my Holy One' () and waits for an answer (). The book treats honest protest addressed to God as part of faith.
The Righteous Live by Faith. God's answer contrasts the proud, whose soul is not upright, with the righteous, who live by faith (). In Hebrew the word means steady trust and faithfulness: holding on to God and His word through the delay before the vision comes.
Pride Destroys Itself. The five woes () show the oppressor's sins returning on him: the plunderer is plundered, the violent builder sees his work burn, the one who shames others drinks shame. God's judgment often works through the consequences of evil itself.
The Glory That Will Fill the Earth. In the middle of the woes stands a promise that the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea (). Babylon's empire is temporary; God's glory is the goal of history, and all the earth is to be silent before Him ().
Joy Without Outward Supports. The book ends with fig tree, vine, olive, field and flock failing, yet Habakkuk will rejoice in the God of his salvation (). His joy rests on God's past acts of rescue (), not on present circumstances.

Where Christ is

Habakkuk's influence on the New Testament comes through one verse: 'the righteous will live by faith' (), quoted by Paul in Romans and Galatians and by the writer of Hebrews. The apostles see in it the pattern of life given in Christ: right standing with God and endurance through trust in His promise. Paul also uses Habakkuk's warning about an unbelievable work of God to call his hearers to believe in the risen Jesus.

The Righteous Will Live by Faith. Fulfillment in principle. What Habakkuk applied to surviving the Babylonian crisis, Paul applies to the gospel: in it God's righteousness is revealed, and the one who is righteous by faith will live. Galatians uses the verse to show that no one is justified by the law. (; ; )
The Coming One Who Will Not Delay. Fulfillment as Hebrews reads it. Hebrews joins and , reading the vision that will surely come as the coming of Christ, and calls believers to endure by faith until He comes. (; )
A Work You Would Not Believe. Application. God told Habakkuk He was doing a work no one would believe (). Paul quotes it at Pisidian Antioch after announcing forgiveness through the risen Jesus, warning his hearers not to scoff at God's new and astonishing work. (; )
The Divine Warrior Saves His Anointed. Echo. God goes out to save His people and His anointed and crushes the head of the house of the wicked (). In context the anointed is Israel or its king, but the picture belongs to the larger hope, fulfilled in Christ, of God's final victory over evil that brings mercy to His people. (; ; )

Reading well, key terms and common misreadings

Read it well

Follow the conversation. Mark who speaks in each part: Habakkuk (1:2-4), God (1:5-11), Habakkuk (1:12-2:1), God (2:2-20), Habakkuk's prayer (chapter 3).
Read 2:4 in its setting first, as the way God's people survive a coming invasion, then read Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11 to see how Paul draws out its meaning.
Read chapter 3 with Exodus 15, Judges 5 and Psalm 18 nearby. Habakkuk borrows the language of God's past victories to ground his hope.
Note that the famous Qumran commentary on Habakkuk covers only chapters 1-2. Some once took that as a sign chapter 3 was added later, but other ancient copies include it, and the book's movement from complaint to praise needs it.

Key terms

Violence חָמָס (chamas) — Habakkuk's first cry (1:2-3), and the charge later turned on Babylon (1:9; 2:8, 17). It is the same word used for the violence that filled the earth before the flood (Genesis 6:11).
Faith, faithfulness אֱמוּנָה (emunah) — Firmness, steadiness, trustworthiness. The Hebrew of 2:4 reads 'his faith', the ancient Greek translation reads 'My faithfulness' (God's), and Paul quotes the line without either pronoun, stressing trust in God.
Righteous צַדִּיק (tsaddiq) — The one in right relationship with God and living by His standards. In 1:4 and 1:13 the wicked surround and swallow the righteous; in 2:4 the righteous one lives.
Shigionoth שִׁגְיֹנוֹת (shigyonot) — A musical or literary term in the heading of chapter 3, related to the heading of Psalm 7. Its exact meaning is unknown.

Easy to misread

Treating the 'vision' of 2:2 as a call to set personal goals or write a mission statement. The vision is God's revealed answer about judgment on Babylon, written plainly so a messenger could carry it and so people could wait for it.
Thinking Habakkuk's questions were sinful doubt. God answers them rather than rebuking them, and the questions lead to deeper trust. Faith in this book includes asking God why.
Reading faith in 2:4 as bare agreement with ideas. It means steady trust in God that holds on through delay. Paul's use fits this, since for him faith is reliance on God's promise in Christ, the kind of trust that endures.
Hearing 3:17-18 as grim resignation. Habakkuk does not merely put up with loss; he rejoices in the LORD and finds strength in Him (3:18-19), because he remembers what God has done.

Further reading: David Guzik, Enduring Word · Matthew Henry on CCEL · BibleProject overview video