Habacuc

The eighth of the Minor Prophets, who probably flourished towards the end of the

seventh century B.C. Habacuc (Habakkuk)

I. NAME AND PERSONAL LIFE

In the Hebrew text (i,1; iii, 1), the prophet's name presents a doubly intensive

form Hàbhàqqûq, which has not been preserved either in the Septuagint:

Ambakoum, or in the Vulgate: Habacuc. Its resemblance with the Assyrian

hambakûku, which is the name of a plant, is obvious. Its exact meaning cannot

be ascertained: it is usually taken to signify "embrace" and is at times explained

as "ardent embrace", on account of its intensive form. Of this prophet's

birth-place, parentage, and life we have no reliable information. The fact that in

his book he is twice called "the prophet" (i, 1; iii, 1) leads indeed one to surmise

that Habacuc held a recognized position as prophet, but it manifestly affords no

distinct knowledge of his person. Again, some musical particulars connected

with the Hebrew text of his Prayer (ch. iii) may possibly suggest that he was a

member of the Temple choir, and consequently a Levite: but most scholars

regard this twofold inference as questionable. Hardly less questionable is the

view sometimes put forth, which identifies Habacuc with the Judean prophet of

that name, who is described in the deuterocanonical fragment of Bel and the

Dragon (Dan., xiv, 32 sqq.), as miraculously carrying a meal to Daniel in the

lion's den.

In this absence of authentic tradition, legend, not only Jewish but also Christian,

has been singularly busy about the prophet Habacuc. It has represented him as

belonging to the tribe of Levi and as the son of a certain Jesus; as the child of the

Sunamite woman, whom Eliseus restored to life (cf. IV Kings, iv, 16 sqq.); as the

sentinel set by Isaias (cf. Is. xxi, 6; and Hab., ii, 1) to watch for the fall of

Babylon. According to the "Lives" of the prophets, one of which is ascribed to St.

Epiphanius, and the other to Dorotheus, Habacuc was of the tribe of Simeon, and

a native of Bethsocher, a town apparently in the tribe of Juda. In the same works

it is stated that when Nabuchodonosor came to besiege Jerusalem, the prophet

fled to Ostrakine (now Straki, on the Egyptian coast), whence he returned only

after the Chaldeans had withdrawn; that he then lived as a husbandman in his

native place, and died there two years before Cyrus's edict of Restoration (538

B.C.). Different sites are also mentioned as his burial-place. The exact amount of

positive information embodied in these conflicting legends cannot be determined

at the present day. The Greek and Latin Churches celebrate the feast of the

prophet Habacuc on 15 January.

II. CONTENTS OF PROPHECY

Apart from its short title (i, 1) the Book of Habacuc is commonly divided into two

parts: the one (i,2-ii, 20) reads like a dramatic dialogue between God and His

prophet; the other (chap. iii) is a lyric ode, with the usual characteristics of a

psalm. The first part opens with Habacuc's lament to God over the protracted

iniquity of the land, and the persistent oppression of the just by the wicked, so

that there is neither law nor justice in Juda: How long is the wicked thus destined

to prosper? (i, 2-4). Yahweh replies (i, 5-11) that a new and startling display of

His justice is about to take place: already the Chaldeans -- that swift, rapacious,

terrible, race -- are being raised up, and they shall put an end to the wrongs of

which the prophet has complained. Then Habacuc remonstrates with Yahweh,

the eternal and righteous Ruler of the world, over the cruelties in which He allows

the Chaldeans to indulge (i, 12-17), and he confidently waits for a response to his

pleading (ii, 1). God's answer (ii, 2-4) is in the form of a short oracle (verse 4),

which the prophet is bidden to write down on a tablet that all may read it, and

which foretells the ultimate doom of the Chaldean invader. Content with this

message, Habacuc utters a taunting song, triumphantly made up of five "woes"

which he places with dramatic vividness on the lips of the nations whom the

Chaldean has conquered and desolated (ii, 5-20). The second part of the book

(chap. iii) bears the title: "A prayer of Habacuc, the prophet, to the music of

Shigionot." Strictly speaking, only the second verse of this chapter has the form

of a prayer. The verses following (3-16) describe a theophany in which Yahweh

appears for no other purpose than the salvation of His people and the ruin of His

enemies. The ode concludes with the declaration that even though the blessings

of nature should fail in the day of dearth, the singer will rejoice in Yahweh (17-19).

Appended to chap. iii is the statement: "For the chief musician, on my stringed

instruments."

III. DATE AND AUTHORSHIP

Owing chiefly to the lack of reliable external evidence, there has been in the past,

and there is even now, a great diversity of opinions concerning the date to which

the prophecy of Habacuc should be ascribed. Ancient rabbis, whose view is

embodied in the Jewish chronicle entitled Seder olam Rabbah, and is still

accepted by many Catholic scholars (Kaulen, Zschokke, Knabenbauer, Schenz,

Cornely, etc.), refer the composition of the book to the last years of Manasses's

reign. Clement of Alexandria says that "Habacuc still prophesied in the time of

Sedecias" (599-588 B. C.), and St. Jerome ascribes the prophecy to the time of

the Babylonian Exile. Some recent scholars (Delitzsch and Keil among

Protestants, Danko, Rheinke, Holzammer, and practically also Vigouroux,

among Catholics, place it under Josias (641-610 B.C.). Others refer it to the time

of Joakim (610-599 B.C.), either before Nabuchodonosor's victory at Carchemish

in 605 B.C. (Catholic: Schegg, Haneberg; Protestant: Schrader, S. Davidson,

König, Strack, Driver, etc.); while others, mostly out-and-out rationalists, ascribe

it to the time after the ruin of the Holy City by the Chaldeans. As might be

expected, these various views do not enjoy the same amount of probability, when

they are tested by the actual contents of the Book of Habacuc. Of them all, the

one adopted by St. Jerome, and which is now that propounded by many

rationalists, is decidedly the least probable: to ascribe, as that view does, the

book to the Exile, is, on the one hand, to admit for the text of Habacuc an

historical background to which there is no real reference in the prophecy, and ,

on the other,, to ignore the prophet's distinct references to events connected with

the period before the Bablyonian Captivity (cf. i, 2-4, 6, etc.). All the other

opinions have their respective degrees of probability, so that it is no easy matter

to choose among them. It seems, however, that the view which ascribes the

book to 605-600 B.C. "is best in harmony with the historical circumstances under

which the Chaldeans are presented in the prophecy of Habacuc, viz. as a

scourge which is imminent for Juda, and as oppressors whom all know have

already entered upon the inheritance of their predecessors" (Van Hoonacker).

During the nineteenth century, objections have oftentimes been made against the

genuineness of certain portions of the Book of Habacuc. In the first part of the

work, the objections have been especially directed against i, 5-11. But, however

formidable they may appear at first sight, the difficulties turn out to be really

weak, on a closer inspection; and in point of fact, the great majority of critics

look upon them as not decisive. The arguments urged against the genuineness of

chapter ii, 9-20, are of less weight still. Only in reference to chapter iii, which

forms the second part of the book, can there be a serious controversy as to its

authorship by Habacuc. Many critics treat the whole chapter as a late and

independent poem, with no allusions to the circumstances of Habacuc's time,

and still bearing in its liturgical heading and musical directions (vv. 3, 9, 13, 19)

distinct marks of the collection of sacred songs from which it was taken.

According to them, it was appended to the Book of Habacuc because it had

already been ascribed to him in the title, just as certain psalms are still referred

in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate to some prophets. Others, indeed in smaller

number, but also with greater probability, regard only the last part of the chapter

iii, 17-19 as a later addition to Habacuc's work: in reference to this last part only

does it appear true to say that it has no definite allusions to the circumstances of

Habacuc's time. All things considered, it seems that the question whether

chapter iii be an original portion of the prophecy of Habacuc, or an independent

poem appended to it at a later date, cannot be answered with certainty: too little

is known in a positive manner concerning the actual circumstances in the midst

of which Habacuc composed his work, to enable one to feel confident that this

portion of it must or must not be ascribed to the same author as the rest of the

book.

IV. LITERARY AND TEXTUAL FEATURES

In the composition of his book, Habacuc displays a literary power which has

often been admired. His diction is rich and classical, and his imagery is striking

and appropriate. The dialogue between God and him is highly oratorical, and

exhibits to a larger extent than is commonly supposed, the parallelism of thought

and expression which is the distinctive feature of Hebrew poetry. The Mashal or

taunting song of five "woes" which follows the dialogue, is placed with powerful

dramatic effect on the lips of the nations whom the Chaldeans have cruelly

oppressed. The lyric ode with which the book concludes, compares favourably in

respect to imagery and rhythm with the best productions of Hebrew poetry.

These literary beauties enable us to realize that Habacuc was a writer of high

order. They also cause us to regret that the original text of his prophecy should

not have come down to us in all its primitive perfection. As a matter of fact,

recent interpreters of the book have noticed and pointed out numerous

alterations, especially in the line of additions, which have crept in the Hebrew

text of the prophecy of Habacuc, and render it at times very obscure. Only a fair

number of those alterations can be corrected by a close study of the context; by

a careful comparison of the text with the ancient versions, especially the

Septuagint; by an application of the rules of Hebrew parallelism, etc. In the other

places, the primitive reading has disappeared and cannot be recovered, except

conjecturally, by the means which Biblical criticism affords in the present day.

V. PROPHETICAL TEACHING

Most of the religious and moral truths that can be noticed in this short prophecy

are not peculiar to it. They form part of the common message which the prophets

of old were charged to convey to God's chosen people. Like the other prophets,

Habacuc is the champion of ethical monotheism. For him, as for them, Yahweh

alone is the living God (ii, 18-20); He is the Eternal and Holy One (i, 12), the

Supreme Ruler of the Universe (i, 6, 17; ii, 5 sqq.; iii, 2-16), Whose word cannot

fail to obtain its effect (ii, 3), and Whose glory will be acknowledged by all

nations (ii, 14). In his eyes, as in those of the other prophets, Israel is God's

chosen people whose unrighteousness He is bound to visit with a signal

punishment (i, 2-4). The special people, whom it was Habacuc's own mission to

announce to his contemporaries as the instruments of Yahweh's judgment, were

the Chaldeans, who will overthrow everything, even Juda and Jerusalem, in their

victorious march (i, 6 sqq.). This was indeed at the time an incredible prediction

(i, 5), for was not Juda God's kingdom and the Chaldean a world-power

characterized by overweening pride and tyranny? Was not therefore Juda the

"just" to be saved, and the Chaldean really the "wicked" to be destroyed? The

answer to this difficulty is found in the distich (ii, 4) which contains the central

and distinctive teaching of the book. Its oracular form bespeaks a principle of

wider import than the actual circumstances in the midst of which it was revealed

to the prophet, a general law, as we would say, of God's providence in the

government of the world: the wicked carries in himself the germs of his own

destruction; the believer, on the contrary, those of eternal life. It is because of

this, that Habacuc applies the oracle not only to the Chaldeans of his time who

are threatening the existence of God's kingdom on earth, but also to all the

nations opposed to that kingdom who will likewise be reduced to naught (ii,

5-13), and solemnly declares that "the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of

the glory of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea" (ii, 15). It is because of this

truly Messianic import that the second part of Habacuc's oracle (ii, 4b) is

repeatedly treated in the New Testament writings (Rom., i, 17; Gal., iii, 11; Hebr.,

x, 38) as being verified in the inner condition of the believers of the New Law.

COMMENTARIES: CATHOLIC:--SHEGG (2nd ed., Ratisbon, 1862); RHEINKE (Brixen, 1870);

TROCHON (Paris, 1883); KNABENBAUER (Paris, 1886); NON-CATHOLIC:--DELITZSCH (Leipzig,

1843); VON ORELLI (Eng. tr. Edinburgh, 1893); KLEINERT (Leipzig, 1893); WELLHAUSEN (3rd

ed., Berlin, 1898); DAVIDSON (Cambridge, 1899); MARTI (Freiburg im Br., 1904); NOWACK (2nd

ed., Göttingen, 1904); DUHM (Tübingen, 1906); VAN HOONACKER (Paris, 1908).

FRANCIS E. GIGOT

Transcribed by Thomas J. Bress

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII

Nihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor

Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Catholic Encyclopedia: NewAdvent.com