HABAK KUK, Greek forms, Ambalcoum, Abacum, etc.; Latin, Ambacom, Ambacue. Abacue), the eighth of the twelve minor prophets. No account whatever is contained in the book itself either of the events of his life, or even the date when he lived; and tae numberless conjectures that have been made respecting him are unworthy of notice.
In turning to the book itself, we find him, first of all, bewailing the general corrup tion of his people, and prophesying the speedy vengeance of God by the hand of the Chaldeans. These, however, shall, when they have fulfilled the divine wrath, perish suddenly themselves, because of their own iniquities; and the prophet winds up with thanks for this just retribution. It is evident from this that Habakkuk must have lived at a late period, about the time of Nebuchadnezzar's invasion; but whether he wrote, as the rabbinical traditions suppose—at the time of Manasseh, or as others (Keil, Davidson, Delitzsch) assume, at the early time of Josiah, or, finally, in the days of Jelmiakim, according to Ewald, Rosenmuller, Knobel, Meyer, De Wette, Hitzig, Stithelin, are points upon which we cannot enter. We must not omit to mention here, that the
various chapters have also been supposed to have been written under different suc cessive kings (Rosenmfiller, Kalminsky, etc.); but the unity of the whole book is so obvious, that this notion has been almost unanimously rejected.
Critics have, in all times, been unanimous in their praise of the style of this pro phetic composition. It ranks, indeed, for grandeur and sublimity of conception, for vigor and fervor of expression, for gorgeousness of imagery, for melody of language, among the very first productions of sacred literature. It is more especially the peculiar strophic arrangement of the second chapter, with its awful four "woes" denounced against the Chaldeans, and above all, that matchless "Pindaric Ode," as Ewald calls the third chapter, which have challenged universal attention and admiration.