Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk 1 is the first chapter of the book of Habakkuk. A brief superscription is followed by the prophet's complaint, God's answer, and a second complaint from the prophet. The answer to the second complaint comes in Habakkuk 2.

Outline

• Verse 1 Superscription. It identifies the book as the burden (oracle) that Habakkuk the prophet saw, that is, revelation received in a vision.
• Verses 2–4 The first complaint. The prophet laments that although violence and iniquity are before his eyes, he cries out and the Lord does not hear. He says that the law is slacked and that the wicked compass about the righteous, so that judgment is perverted.
• Verses 5–11 The LORD's answer. God declares that He will work a work in their days which they will not believe, and that He is raising up the Chaldeans, that "bitter and hasty nation." Their horses are swifter than leopards and fiercer than the evening wolves; they gather captives as the sand and scoff at kings. Yet they offend by making their own strength their god.
• Verses 12–17 The second complaint. Habakkuk acknowledges that the Lord has ordained the Chaldeans for judgment. Yet he asks why the Lord, who is of purer eyes than to behold evil, holds His peace while the wicked devour the righteous. The Chaldeans catch men like fish with the angle and the net, and they sacrifice to their net and burn incense to it. Habakkuk asks whether they shall go on slaying the nations continually.

Key Verses

• Habakkuk 1:2 "O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear!": The book's central question, why God allows evil to continue, begins with this verse.
• Habakkuk 1:5 "For I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you": In the New Testament, Paul quotes this verse in a sermon.
• Habakkuk 1:13 "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity": This verse exposes the tension between God's holiness and the injustice of the world as it is.

People and Places

• Habakkuk: The prophet who received this book. The text says nothing about his origins or life.
• The LORD: God, who answers the prophet's complaint.
• The Chaldeans: A people of southern Mesopotamia. The name is generally taken to refer to the Neo-Babylonian Empire, that is, Babylon, which rose to power in the time of Nebuchadnezzar.

Points for Reflection

• This chapter directly confronts the question of why God permits evil. Because God's answer is that He will use an even greater evil, a second question follows. The matter is not resolved within chapter 1.
• The text does not state when the book was written. Many interpreters date it to around the late seventh century BC, when Babylon was rising.
• The Habakkuk commentary found among the Dead Sea Scrolls covers chapters 1–2. It interprets the Chaldeans as the "Kittim" and applies the text to the Qumran community's own time. This is a later interpretation and should be distinguished from the content of the text itself.
• In Acts 13, Paul quotes 1:5 at the close of his sermon in Pisidian Antioch, warning those who do not believe the gospel. The quotation follows the wording of the Septuagint ("ye despisers") rather than the Hebrew text.
• Habakkuk 2:4, which comes shortly afterward, "the just shall live by his faith," is quoted in Romans 1, Galatians 3, and Hebrews 10:38. For this reason, the questions of chapter 1 are also read as the background to that verse.