HABAWKUK. The eighth of the minor prophets. Concerning his life absolutely nothing is known. Legends about Habakkuk are plenti ful in the later Apocryphal literature. In Bel and the Dragon (q.v.), for example, Habakkuk is ordered to bring food to Daniel in the lion's (len, and in order to carry out this command, an angel seizes Habakkuk by the hair and trans ports him to Babylon. The etymology of the strange name, which has not a Hebrew sound, is unknown.
The Book of Habakkuk consists of two parts: (1) Chapters i. and ii., which deal with the threatened Chaldean invasion of Judea. The book opens with a dialogue between the prophet and God. The prophet complains of the preva lence of iniquity and violence among the Jews. God replies, threatening to punish them by allowing the Chaldeans to come against them. The prophet then humbly expostulates with Cod for using, as an instrument in punish ing the Jews, a nation more guilty than themselves. God again replies, intimating that the pride of the Chaldeans will lead to their downfall, and promising aid to the righteous. The destruction of the Babylonian Empire is fore told with attending judgments on the Chaldeans for their covetous exaltation of themselves on the ruin of others; their murderous violence in build ing up their cities; their enticement of men to drunkenness as a means for effecting their fall; and their extension of idolatrous worship. (2) Chapter iii., called the prayer of Habakkuk, but in reality a sublime lyric ode, expressive of con fidence that God will execute vengeance on His people's enemies. It opens with a prayer that
God will give increased energy to His promised work of mercy reaching through the ages. God is praised for His interposition in behalf of His people in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the promised land. Confidence is expressed that, in times of utmost want and peril, He will give triumphant deliverance. Internal evidence en ables us to fix the date of the book at the time when the Neo-Babylonian Empire founded by the Chaldean Nabopolassar c.625 B.C. had assumed a commanding position, and was already threat ening to engulf Judea (cf. i. 6). Since the Chat deans actually began to invade Palestine c.601 n.c., we are thus brought to the end of the seventh century as the approximate date for the first two chapters. Whether the third chapter, so totally different in character belonged to the book originally is an open question, and the gen eral trend of scholarly opinion is to regard it as an independent poem of uncertain date, which has been attached to chaps. i. and ii. because it seemed to accord with the subject treated in the latter. Consult the commentaries on the Minor Prophets (q.v.) ; Delitzsch, De Habakkuk Pro phetw Vita atque zEtate (Leipzig, 1842) ; id., Der Prophet Habakkuk ausgelegt (ib., 1843) ; for chapter iii., see Cheyne, on the Psalter (Bamp ton Lectures, London, 1888).