Habakkuk 1:1–2:5

1:1 While many Prophetic Books provide information about the prophet’s setting, usually referring to the kings who reigned at the time of the prophet’s ministry, all such information is ignored here in a very brief superscription (only Obadiah’s superscription is briefer). We are simply told we are reading an “oracle” that Habakkuk “saw.” Not all prophetic preaching is called an “oracle,” with the term occurring elsewhere in the OT eighteen times to describe a prophetic message, most commonly one concerning another nation, including eleven times in Isaiah 13–30. What is striking is that in every other instance the concern of the oracle is mentioned, but that is not the case here. Readers familiar with oracles are thus left in a state of uncertainty—does the text address them, or a foreign nation? In fact, both will be addressed, but by leaving this unstated the superscription invites readers to continue in order to discover the object of the oracle.

Habakkuk himself is introduced as “the prophet”; only Haggai and Zechariah are similarly designated (Hag. 1:1; Zech. 1:1). Usually, prophetic superscriptions indicate that the book records the message of a prophet (e.g., “The word of the Lord came to . . .”), but such information is absent here, precisely because Habakkuk’s oracle comes not in the form of a direct word but rather as a mediated conversation. Readers are thus informed that the conversation to follow is to be read as a prophetic message, although it is also something that Habakkuk “saw.” The idea of a prophet seeing an oracle might seem strange, but the concept is quite common in the Prophetic Books (e.g., Isa. 1:1; 2:1) and appears to describe the process by which the prophet was able to perceive God’s message. If so, it functions here to assure readers of the authenticity of what follows, and also prepares them for a range of words associated with sight that will be prominent in the remainder of this section.

1:2–4 Most prophets begin by announcing a word from or about God; Habakkuk starts instead with a record of his own address to God. His address finds its nearest parallels in the Psalms, and some of Jeremiah’s confessions are also similar. Habakkuk’s opening words find an immediate parallel in Psalm 13:1, another prayer complaining about a delay in God’s justice. The question of why God does not act against evil in the world is thus raised from the outset as the pivotal issue of the book. Habakkuk’s point is that the issues he raises are not new concerns but rather are matters he has been presenting to God for some time. Although he has raised the issue of violence, which here describes abuse of the weak within society, it seems that God has not acted. Indeed, what particularly troubles the prophet is that God has caused him to look upon iniquity, while God himself appears untroubled to look upon oppression.

That these are not isolated experiences is made clear by the range of terms for the social decay Habakkuk describes. A world that is full of “destruction” and “violence” is also one that will be filled with “contention” and “strife.” The whole of the prophet’s society is decaying, and, as far as he can see, God is not troubled by it. At the heart of Habakkuk’s concern is that God’s justice ought to be seen—and promptly. Also central to Habakkuk’s unease is that the “law is paralyzed.” Since “law” (torah) represents Israel’s instruction received from God, the implication is that the problems described are internal to Judah. Habakkuk is troubled that Israel’s law appears powerless to address the problems he sees. That which was meant to guarantee the application of God’s justice seems powerless in the face of violence, with the righteous unable to overcome the wicked. It is this that leads to Habakkuk’s cry to God for help.

1:5–11 It is often suggested that one reason we frequently see a shift in mood in the Psalms from complaint to hope is that the petitioner has received an oracle from God, perhaps through a prophet, that gives him hope. There is no direct evidence for this in the Psalms, but we may see something like it here, save for one important distinction: Habakkuk does indeed receive a response to his complaint from God, but he does not find it comforting. That we have a new speaker is indicated by a change to plural verbs, and the “I” who speaks has great authority. Nevertheless, as verse 5 begins, we do not know who is speaking, only that the speaker has the right to direct Habakkuk (and others) to look to the nations. Only gradually do we realize that it is Yahweh who speaks, though this is not finally confirmed until Habakkuk initiates the second dialogue in verse 12. The plural verbs used here imply that Habakkuk is part of a group, suggesting he has not been alone in his complaint, and neither will he be alone in his astonishment at what is about to be described.

Presumably, Habakkuk is included among the righteous who are surrounded by the wicked in verse 4, and this group is collectively summoned to look to the nations and be amazed at what God is about to do, as what is about to happen is something none of them would have expected. This is because, in response to the internal problem of injustice in Judah, God announces he is raising up the Chaldeans (a term roughly equivalent to “Babylonians”; cf. Introduction: Overview) to act. This statement is closely parallel to Amos 6:14, where the Assyrians were to be raised up against Israel, suggesting that this whole response to Habakkuk is in effect a judgment against Judah. However, a description of how exactly they will judge Judah is withheld at this point. What is to amaze the righteous in Judah is that God would use a people like the Chaldeans, who by this time were already known for their militaristic and expansionist policies against other nations. It is astonishing that so violent a people would be used to address the violence occurring in Judah. If the problem is injustice, how could God use a nation whose own idea of justice is so contrary to God’s?

The Lord then describes the Chaldeans as dreaded and fearsome. Although the translation of these verses is far from easy, the ESV makes good sense of them, helping us to see how terrifying the Chaldeans would be. But their description also raises important questions for readers. This problem is exacerbated by the picture of the Chaldeans’ powerful and swift horsemen, who are compared to creatures of prey, swift to enact violence (Hab. 1:8–9), the very issue Habakkuk had raised in verse 2. Habakkuk had asked God to save, but instead he is bringing a powerful nation that scoffs at kings (vv. 9–10), and that does not recognize Yahweh’s authority—for their “own might is their god” (v. 11). That God should use a violent and guilty people against violence within Judah is almost certainly not the response Habakkuk had sought.

1:12–2:1 God had declared (1:5) that his message would astonish Habakkuk (and others), and it is immediately clear that it has indeed done so. Once again, a change in speaker is clear as Habakkuk addresses Yahweh. This address, again like many psalms, uses a range of titles to address God: he is “from everlasting,” “my God,” and “my Holy One” (the third one being unique to Habakkuk). These terms create a clear contrast between God and the Chaldeans, although the clause “We shall not die” (1:12) is difficult to interpret and is frequently emended. The ESV faithfully represents the Hebrew and can be defended, the sense perhaps being an exclamation of faith by Habakkuk as he prepares to “take my stand at my watchpost” (2:1). He thus recognizes Yahweh as his “Rock” (1:12), a term used for God twenty-four times in the Psalms to suggest security and stability.

Although he recognizes the threat the Chaldeans pose, Habakkuk believes his life is safe precisely because of God’s character. Yet this assurance must be balanced in verses 12b–14 by the reality of “judgment” (the same word as that translated “justice” in vv. 4, 7). Habakkuk tries to understand the Chaldean threat as reproof, presumably for the righteous as well as for the wicked, but Habakkuk’s difficulty is that he knows Yahweh to be holy and therefore pure. This conflict leads to the questions of verse 13, as Habakkuk remains troubled that Yahweh does not act directly to prevent injustice, allowing treachery to continue. Yahweh has failed to act against those characterized in the Hebrew of verse 13 as bogedim, referring to either “traitors” (so ESV, suggesting wicked Israelites) or “the treacherous” (suggesting the Chaldeans). In either case, Habakkuk is concerned by Yahweh’s seemingly delayed judgment on unfaithful Israel being meted out by even more unfaithful Babylon. Habakkuk thus wishes to hold God to account—he is holy and just, and therefore ought to act in ways that are likewise holy and just.

That God is sovereign is clear from the fact that he is Creator, and Habakkuk (with a nod to Genesis 1) sees that God has made mankind free, comparing humans to “fish” and “crawling things” (Hab. 1:14). The comparison to fish, however, leads to the metaphor of the Chaldeans as ruthless anglers who catch more than they need through a variety of fishing techniques—“hook,” “net,” and “dragnet” (v. 15). They rejoice in the abundance of their catch and completely ignore the fact that they could do so only because Yahweh had raised them up. Indeed, they treat their fishing implements as gods (v. 16), celebrating their violence in battle.

The point of Habakkuk’s complaint is then driven home by the question of verse 17. He objects to the Chaldeans’ relentlessly violent and aggressive conquests of other nations. His question involves a wordplay impossible to bring out in English, as the word translated “net” (herem) in verses 15 and 17 is a homonym of the word often translated “devoted to destruction” (e.g., Deut. 7:26), pointing to the Chaldeans’ relentless destruction of others.¹ Pitiless killing, says Habakkuk, surely cannot be Yahweh’s way. So, having challenged God, in 2:1 Habakkuk takes his stand, portraying himself as a prophet in a watchtower, waiting to see what God will say in response to his complaint. This stance recognizes that God has made him see iniquity (1:3), and now he wants to see how God will respond to his “complaint,” a word related to the term translated “reproof” in verse 12. Habakkuk has challenged God to show his justice, and as a prophet he now waits for a message to bring to the people.

2:2–5 For the first time, Yahweh is identified as the speaker as Habakkuk receives the response to his complaint. The text here draws parallels between Habakkuk and Moses: Habakkuk is told to write down his “vision” (a noun related to the verb “saw” in 1:1) and to do so plainly “on tablets.” The word translated “tablets” is the same as that used for the tablets of the law seventeen times in Exodus (e.g., Ex. 24:12), while the verb translated “make it plain” occurs elsewhere only in Deuteronomy 1:5 and 27:8, the latter reference also referring to something written. The point is that what God has to say to Habakkuk is important and must be shared, just as Deuteronomy was meant to be passed on from generation to generation. It is likely that the one who “runs” (cf. Hab. 2:5) is a messenger who takes a copy of the tablets in order to read it in public. However, before the vision is revealed (“vision” functions here as a technical way of referring to the prophetic message), we are told that those who hear it are not to be disheartened by any delay in its fulfillment. Its completion is certain—it is from Yahweh, and he has set an appointed time for it.

The content of the vision could be verse 4 (and perhaps v. 5), which would be a word of comfort, although the concern of delay (v. 3) would not seem relevant in that case. Most likely, then, the content of the vision is found in the series of woe oracles in verses 6–20, with verses 4–5 representing the attitude with which they should be read; appreciation of what God was saying required a proper attitude, one that was distinctively unlike the Chaldeans’. Verse 4 is, of course, famous because of its three citations in the NT (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:37–38), as well as its role in the Reformation, but, given the rather different ways the NT applies the text, it is clear that none of them sums up the text in its entirety.

“His” and “him” in the first half of Habakkuk 2:4 refers to the Chaldeans, following the pattern set in God’s previous speech (1:5–11), where Babylon was personified (in the Hebrew) as “he,” rightly translated as plurals in the ESV in terms of its sense. The downside to this translation is that readers in English might miss this reference to the Chaldeans here in verse 4, although it is true that anyone not submitting to God is “not upright.” The Chaldeans are described as “puffed up”; they overrate their own importance and are thus not upright. In contrast the righteous, those who are right with God, will live by faith. Living “by faith” here has two aspects, both of which are equally important. First, it refers to an attitude of life lived in dependence on God. One’s faith is foundational to righteousness, as Paul repeatedly makes clear. But it also involves “faithfulness” (ESV mg.), calling for a recognition of God’s trustworthiness, even when circumstances are challenging. It is this sense that is taken up by the writer to the Hebrews.

Having established a pattern for the righteous, verse 5 then returns to the Chaldeans, again personifying them as an individual (“he,” etc.). The interpretation of the verse is difficult and disputed, with many preferring to follow a Dead Sea Scroll manuscript and read “wealth” (ESV mg.) for the unexpected “wine.” If, however, we understand “wine” as representing the luxurious and acquisitive life for which the Chaldeans strove, we can take the text as it stands, pointing to the reality that luxury never satisfies. In the same way, the Chaldeans will find no satisfaction in what they do. Their relentless drive to acquire by force will never satisfy. Just as the grave is never sated, so also the Chaldeans will never find satisfaction. Such a life is ultimately destructive. This gives the righteous another reason to live by faith, even though it does not guarantee they will see such powerful oppression cease. Thus it is important to know that God’s purposes will ultimately be worked out, even if his timing is not necessarily ours (cf. 2 Pet. 3:9).