HABAKKUK (pwri ; '.A.aparcoo,a), a distin , guished Jewish prophet who flourished about 610 B.C., the name descending, in the form of 1113./e.), from pzn, amplecti, and denoting, as observed by Jerome, as well a favourite ' as a struggler. Abarbancl thinks that in the latter sense it has al lusion to the patriotic zeal of the prophet fervently contending for the welfare of his country : but other prophets did the same; and in the former and less distant signification, the name would be one like Theophilus, 'a friend of God,' which his parents may have given him for a good omen. The Greeks, not only the Septuagint translators but the fathers of the Church, probably to make it more sonorous, corrupt it into 'ApapaicooK, 'Apai3aKolipw, or as Jerome writes, 'Ai3cucapco, and only one Greek copy, found in the library of Alcala in Spain, has 'A/313aKol.',K, which seems to be a recent correc tion made to suit the Hebrew text. Of this prophet's birth-place, parentage, and life, we have only apocryphal and conflicting accounts. The Pseudo-Epiphanius (De Vitis Prophet., Opp. tom. ii. 18, p. 247) states that lie was of the tribe of Simeon, and born in a place called Itnoi-or6p (al. 131,5Psxdp); that he fled to Ostrarine when Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem, but after wards returned home, and died two years before the return of his countrymen. But rabbinical writers assert that he was of the tribe of Levi, and name different birth-places (Huetius, Dem. Evans:, Prop. iv. p. soS). In the apocryphal appendix to Daniel, in the story of Bel and the Dmgon, we are told that an angel seized Habakkuk by the hair, when he was in Judtea carrying food to his reapers in the field, and transported him through the air to the lions' den in Babylon, where Daniel then lay ; and that, after having provided the latter with victuals, he was the same day carried back to his own country in like manner. Eusebius notices that in his time the tomb of Habakkuk was shewn in the town of Ceila, in Palestine; and this is re peated also by Nicephorus (Hut. 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, intrad. ad libras cananicas V. T., p. 402).• A full and trustworthy account of the life of Habakkuk would explain his imagery, and many of the events to which he alludes ; but since we have no information on which we can depend, nothing remains but to determine from the book itself its historical basis and its age. Now, we find that in chap. i. the prophet sets forth a vision, in which he discerned the injustice, violence, and op pression committed in his country by the rapacious and terrible Chaldxans, whose oppressions he an nounces as a divine retribution for sins committed ; consequently he wrote in the Chaldtean period, shortly before the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar which rendered Jehoiakim tributary to the king ot Babylon (2 Kings xxiv. I). When he wrote the first chapter of his prophecies, the Clialdans could not yet have invaded Palestine, otherwise he would not have introduced Jehovah saying (i. 5), " I .70,7/ work a work in your days, which ye will not be lieve, though it be told you ;' (ver. 6) for I raise up the Chaldxans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling-places that are not theirs.' From ver. 12 it 1S 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.' Agreeably to the general style of the prophets, who to lamentations and announcements of divine punishment add consolations and cheering hopes for the future, Habakkuk then proceeds in the second chapter to foretell the future humilia tion of the conquerors, who plundered so many nations. He also there promulgates a vision of
events shortly to be expected ; (ver. 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, be cause it will surely came ; it will not tarry.' This is succeeded in the third chapter by an ode, in which the prophet celebrates the deliverances wrought by the Almighty 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 describe, representing the land as already waste and desolate, and yet giving en couragement to hope for a return of better times. Some interpreters are of opinion that ch. ii. was written in the reigm of Jehoiachin, the son of Jelloi akim (2 Kings xxiv. 6), after Jerusalem had been besieged and conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, the king made a prisoner, and, with many thousands of his subjects, carried away to Babylon ; none re maining in Jerusalem save the poorest class of the people (2 Kings xxiv. 14). But of all this nothing, is said in the book of IIabakkuk, nor even so much as hinted at ; and what is stated of the violence and injustice of the Chaldmans does not imply that the Jews had already experienced it. The prephet distinctly 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 ch. iii. to the period of the last siege of Jerusalem, when Zedekiah was taken, his sons slain, his eyes put out, the walls of the city broken down, and the temple burnt (2 Kings xxv. 1-1o). There is not the slightest allusion to any of these incidents in the third chapter of Habakkuk ; and from the 16th verse it appears that the destroyer is only coming, and that the prophet expresses fears, not of the entire destruc tion of the city, much less of the downfall of the state, but only of the desolation of the country. It thus appears beyond dispute, that Habakkuk prophesied in the beginning of the reign of Jehoi akim, about the year stated above. Carpzov (haroductio ad. libr. canon. V. T., pp. 79, 41o) and Jahn (Introd. libros saeros V. T., ii. sec. r2o) refer our prophet to the reign of Manasseh, thus placing him thirty odd years earlier ; but 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 ad ditional 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 Epiphanius, that Habakkuk lived to see the Baby lonian exile ; for if he prophesied under Manasseh he could not have reached the exile at an age under go years ; but if he prophesied early in the reigm of Jehoiakim Ile would have been only 5o odd years old at the time of the destruction 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 Hab. Vatic., pp. 24, 59), Stirkel (Prolog. ad interpr. tertii cap. flab., pp. 22, 27), and De \Vette (Einleit. Berlin, 1840, p. 338) justly place the age of Habakkuk before the invasion of Juda. by the Chaldivans.