HABAKKUK (hab'ak-kilk or ha-bak'kuk), (Heb. p7;q, khab-ak-kook', embrace, or perhaps the name of a garden plant).
1. The Prophet. One of the most distin guished Jewish prophets, the eighth in order of the minor class, who flourished about 6to B. C., the name denoting, as observed by Jerome, as well a 'favorite' as a 'struggler.' Of this prophet's birthplace, parentage and life we have only apocry phal and conflicting accounts. The Pseudo-Epi phanius (De Vitis Prophet. Opp.. tom. ii :18, p. 247) states that he was of the tribe of Simeon, and born in a place called BnqoK0,Baythzokdr; that he fled to Ostrarine when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem, but afterwards returned home and died two years before the return of his coun trymen. But rabbinical writers asserts that he was of the tribe of Levi, and name different birth places (Huetius, Dem. Evang. Prop. iv. p. 5o8). Eusebius notices that in his time the tomb of Habakkuk was shown in the town of Ceila, in Palestine; and this is repeated also by Nicephorus (Hist. Eccles. xii :48), and Sozomen (vii :29) ; still there are other writers who name different places where, according to common opinion, he had been buried (Carpzov, Introd. ad libros canon icos V. T., p. 4o2).
2. Book of Habakkuk. A full and trust worthy account of the life of Habakkuk would explain his imagery-, and many of the tvents to which be alludes; but since we have no informa tion on which we can depend, nothing remains but to determine from the book itself its historical basis and its age: (1) Contents. Now, we find that in chapter i the prophet sets forth a vision. in which he dis cerned the injustice, violence and oppression com mitted in his country by the rapacious and terrible Chaldwans, whose oppressions Ile announces as a Divine retribution for sins committed ; conse quently he wrote in the Chakkean period, shortly before the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar which ren dered Jehoiakim tributary to the king of Babylon (2 kings xxiv :I). (i) When he wrote the first chapter of his prophecies, the Chaldwans could not yet have invaded Palestine, otherwise he would not have introduced Jehovah, saying (i :5), 'I wall work a work in your days, which ye will not be lieve, though it be told you' (verse 6) ; 'for I raise up the Chaldmans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall 'march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling-place's that are not theirs.' From verse 12 lt is also evident that the ruin of the Jews had not then been effected ; it says 'the Lord ordained them for judgment, established them for correction.' (2) Agreeably to the general style of the prophets, who to lamentations and an nouncements of Divine punishment add consola tions and cheering hopes for the future, Habakkuk then proceeds in the second chapter to foretell the future humiliation of the conquerors, who plun dered so many nations. He also there promul gates a vision of events shortly to be expected (verse 3) ; 'the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie ; though it tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; it will not tarry.' (3) This is succeeded in the third chapter by an ode, in which the prophet celebrates the deliverances wrought by the Al mighty for his people in times past, and prays for a similar interference now to mitigate the coming distresses of the nation, which he goes on to de scribe, representing the land as already waste and desolate, and yet giving encouragement to hope for a return of better times. (4) Some interpreters
are of opinion that chapter ii was written in the reign of Jehoiachin, the son of Jehoiakim (2 Kings xxiv :6)., after Jerusalem had been besieged and conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, the king made a prisoner, and, with many thousands of his sub jects, carried away to Babylon, none remaining in Jerusalem, save the poorest class of the people (2 Kings xxiv :14). But of all this nothing- is said in the book of Habakkuk, nor even so much as hinted at; and what is stated of the violence and injustik of the Chaldxans does not imply that the Je s had already experienced it. The prophet disti ctly mentions that he sets forth what he had discerned in a vision, and he, therefore, speaks of events to be expected and coming. It is also a supposition equally gratuitous, according to which some interpreters refer chapter iii to the period of the last siege of Jerusalem, when Zede kiah was taken, his son slain, his eyes put nut, the walls of the city broken down and the temple burned (2 Kings xxv :1-1o). There is not the slightest allusion to any of these incidents in the third chapter of I labakkuk, and from the sixteenth verse it appears that the destroyer is only coming, and that the prophet expresses fears, not of the entire destruction of the city, much less of the downfall of the state, but only of the desolation of the country. (5) It thus appears beyond dispute that Habakkuk prophesied in the beginning Of the reign of Jehoiakim, about the year stated above. Carpzov (Introductio ad libr. canon. V. T., pp. 79, 41o) and Jahn (Introd. in libros sacros V. T., ii sec. 12o) refer our prophet to the reign of Manas seh, thus placing him thirty odd years earlier ; hut at that time the Chaldxans had not as yet given just ground for apprehension, and it would have been injudicious in Habakkuk prematurely to fill the minds of the people with fear of them. Some additional support to our statement of the age of this book is derived from the tradition, reported in the apocryphal appendix to Daniel and by the Pseudo-Hpiphanius, that Habakkuk lived to see the Babylonian exile; for if Ilc prophesied under Manasseh he could not have reached the exile at an age under ninety years; but if he held forth early in the reign of Jchoiakim lie would have been only fifty odd years old at the time of the destruc tion of Jerusalem and of the exile. He was, then, a contemporary of Jeremiah, but much younger, as the latter made his first appearance in public as early as B. C. 629, in the thirteenth year of Josiah. Ranitz (Introductio in Hub. Vatic. pp. 24, 59), Stirkel (Prolog. ad interpr. tertii cap. Hab. pp. 22, 27), and De Wette (Lehrbuch der Histor iselz-kritischen Einleit. Berlin, 184o, p. 338) justly place the age of Habakkuk before the invasion of Judea by the Chaltheans.