Habakkuk

Authorship

The name Habakkuk (Ḥabaqquq) might come from the root word “embrace” (ḥabaq). We know nothing about Habakkuk beyond what we have here in his book.

Date

The book doesn’t offer a date for itself, so we need to rely on internal evidence to surmise a date. Since the Chaldeans are well-known (Hab. 1:6-10), this likely places Habakkuk’s ministry before 605 BC, when the Babylonians made their first deportation of the people of Judah. Moreover, the book implies that the Assyrians had already fallen at the battle of Nineveh in 612 BC (Hab. 1:12-17; 2:6-20). Archer dates the prophet sometime around 608 and 607 BC.

Is Habakkuk 3 a later addition?

Critics charge that chapter 3 is a later interpolation based on two central arguments: (1) the genre switches from prophetic literature to a psalm in chapter 3 and (2) the Dead Sea Scrolls contain the Habakkuk Commentary in Cave One, but the commentary does not include chapter 3.

Response to Argument #1. The genre of the psalms dates as early as David (Amos 6:5). Even if critics hold that the genre of the psalms is post-exilic, we see no reason for accepting this—especially when we consider the vast tradition that David wrote scores of psalms ~1,000 BC.

Response to Argument #2. Several responses can be made: First, the absence of chapter 3 is consistent with the critical view, but it doesn’t prove their view, because it is an argument from silence. Second, Habakkuk chapter 3 is a psalm, and it may not have been deemed important to comment on this section. Third, the Septuagint contains all three chapters. Fourth, the commentator may have intended to finish the commentary, but ran out of time. In fact, the document includes “a sizable space for a column of text which was never written out.”

Main theme of Habakkuk

Habakkuk focuses on the problem of God’s judgment for Israel. He wrestles through the fact that God is judging the nation, while other nations (seemingly more sinful) are going unpunished. How can this be the work of a loving God? Habakkuk choses to wait on God (Hab. 2:1)