HABAKKUK, Book of. The question of authorship is puzzling. The book can hardly be by a single author. But there is a great diversity in the opinions concerning the details of authorship. The views that seem most probable are here indicated.
The first portion of the book consists of i, 2-11. In this the prophet first cries to Yah weh for judgment upon the wicked, i, 2-4, The answer of Yahweh in 5-11 says that he is raising up an instrument of punishment upon the wicked, the Chaldeans, expressly named in verse 6, who are then described. The refer ence to the Chaldeans fixes the time of this portion with much definiteness. It is after the Chaldeans have become a prominent power, doubtless after the battle of Carchemish in 605, in which the Chaldeans established their supremacy over the Egyptians. The wicked re ferred to in 2-4 are then the people of Judah, particularly the king and court. The time is soon after 605, and must have been before 597, when the punishment actually descended upon Judah. The whole treatment shows that the Chaldeans are considered a new power which Yahweh raises up, verse 6, which sets itself in opposition to the kings and princes of the earth, verse 10.
Beginning with i, 12 the parties concerned are in a different relation. The wicked here, verse 13, are not the same as in verse 4; they arc the instrument of correction, verse 12, as the Chaldeans were in 5-11, and the prophet protests against the excess of correction which they are inflicting. The nation here in mind, also, is not a new power, but has a long i career of -violence, i, 15; ii, 8. The nation in mind is not named, but the natural supposition is that it refers to the chief oppressive nation, the Chaldeans, and was written toward the end of the Babylonian exile, about 550. There seems no reason to doubt that the most of i, 12- ii, 20 is by a single author, with the date just indicated. The third malediction, ii, 12-14, is made up ofuotations, not entirely verbatim, J from Micah, Jeremiah and Isaiah. This is out of accord with the style of the remainder of this portion, and doubtless marks this as a later addition, with which goes the preceding verse, 11, which introduces this malediction. The au thor of this portion writes it as a supplement to the earlier oracle. There the Chaldeans had
been introduced as the instrument of punish ment on Judah; here the author, under the later conditions, protests against the excess of this punishment, and calls for punishment upon the Chaldeans. This is the thought of i, 12-17. Yahweh gives the assurance, in ii, 1-5, that the righteous shall live, and the oppressing nation shall be visited with the maledictions which fol low. Of these there are five, of which the third,. as already indicated, is probably a later addition. These maledictions are pronounced upon the Chaldeans for their oppressive vio lence, 6b-.8, their evil gain at the expense of other peoples, 9-11, the cruelty and crime by which their cities were built, 12-14, their bar barous delight in reducing other nations to help lessness, and their senseless idolatry, 19 20, 18 being a later prosaic addition.
Chapter iii is entirely distinct from the re mainder of the book. This is a psalm, similar to those in the book of Psalms. It bears a title like those found in Psalms. This title shows that it was in the Director's Psalter, one of the larger and more prominent of the smaller collections which preceded the present book of Psalms. The Director's Psalter wasprobably compiled in the early Greek period. This psalm seems to have been of postexilic com position. It seems clear that neither author of the earlier part of the book had anything to do with this psalm. It probably bore the title in the Director's Psalter which attributes it to Habakkuk, which led an editor to attach it to this book. Presumably the author of the first part of chapter i, was Habakkuk. The psalm is one of great poetic vigor and imaginative fire. It depicts a theophany, Yahweh coming to judgment. The psalm has no specific points of contact with the rest of the book, it is much more general in its nature.
Davidson, A. B., 'Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah' ((Cambridge Bible,' Cambridge 1896) ; Driver, S. R., (The Minor Prophets) Bible,' Edinburgh 1906) ; Smith, G. A., (The Book of the Twelve ets' ((Expositor's Bible,) Vol. II, 1898) ; Ward, W. H., 'Habakkuk' Critical Commentary,' New York 1911).