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HABAKKUK

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 784 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HABAKKUK , the name See also:

borne by the eighth See also:book of the Old Testament " See also:Minor Prophets." It occurs twice in the book itself (i. 1, iii. I) in titles, but nowhere else in the Old Testament. The meaning of the name is uncertain. If See also:Hebrew, it might be derived from the See also:root See also:pen (to embrace) as an intensive See also:term of See also:affection. It has also been connected more plausibly with an See also:Assyrian plant name, hambakuku (See also:Delitzsch, Assyrisches Handworterbuch, p. 281). The See also:Septuagint has AOaKouµ. Of the See also:person designated, no more is known than may be inferred from the See also:writing which bears his name. Various legends are connected with him, of which the best known is given in the Apocryphal See also:story of " See also:Bel and the See also:Dragon " (v. 33-39); but none of these has any historic value.. The book itself falls into three obvious parts, viz.

(I) a See also:

dialogue between the See also:prophet and See also:God (i. 4); (2) a See also:series of five woes pronounced on wickedness (ii. 5—ii. 20); (3) a poem describing the triumphant manifestation of God (iii.). There is considerable difficulty in regard to the See also:interpretation of (I), on which that of (2) will turn; while (3) forms an See also:independent See also:section, to be considered separately. In the dialogue, the prophet cries to God against continued violence and injustice, though it is not clear whether this is done within or to See also:Israel (i. 2-4). The divine See also:answer declares that God raises up the Chaldaeans, whose formidable resources are invincible (i. 5-11). The prophet thereupon calls God's See also:attention to the tyranny which He apparently allows to See also:triumph, and declares his purpose to wait till an answer is given to his complaint (i. 12—ii. 2).

God answers by demanding See also:

patience, and by declaring that the righteous shall live by his faithfulness (ii. 3-4). The interpretation of this dialogue which first suggests itself is that the prophet is referring to wickedness within the nation, which is to be punished by the Chaldaeans as a divine See also:instrument; in the See also:process, the tyranny of the instrument itself calls for See also:punishment, which the prophet is bidden to await in patient fidelity. On this view of the dialogue, the subsequent woes will be pronounced against the Chaldaeans, and the date assigned to the prophecy will be about 600 B.C., i.e. soon after the See also:battle of Carchemish (605 B.C.), when the Chaldaean victory over See also:Egypt inaugurated a See also:period of Chaldaean supremacy which lasted till the Chaldaeans themselves were overthrown by See also:Cyrus in 538 B.C. See also:Grave objections, however, confront this interpretation, as is admitted even by such See also:recent defenders of it as See also:Davidson and See also:Driver. Is it likely that a prophet would begin a complaint against Chaldaean tyranny (admittedly central in the prophecy) by complaining of that wickedness of his See also:fellow-countrymen which seems partly to justify it? Are not the terms of reference in 1 These legends are collected in See also:Hastings, D. B. vol. ii. p. 272. He is the watchman of Is. xxi. 6 (cf. Hab. ii.

I); the son of the Shunammite (2 See also:

Kings iv. 16) ; and is miraculously lifted by his See also:hair to carry his own See also:dinner to See also:Daniel in the lions' den (supra). i. 2 f. and r. 12 f. too similar for the supposition that two distinct, even contradictory, complaints are being made (cf. " wicked " and " righteous " in i. 4 and i. 13, interchanged in regard to Israel, on above theory)? And if i. 5-11 is a genuine prophecy of the raising up of the Chaldaeans, whence comes that See also:long experience of their See also:rule required to explain the detailed denunciation of their tyranny? To meet the last objection, Davidson supposes i. 5-11 to be really a reference to the past, prophetic in See also:form only, and brings down the whole section to a later period of Chaldaean rule, " hardly, one would think, before the See also:deportation of the See also:people under See also:Jehoiachin in 597 " (p.49).

Driver prefers to bisect the dialogue by supposing i. 2-11 to be written at an earlier period than i. 12 f. (p. 57). The other objections, however, remain, and have provoked a variety of theories from Old Testament scholars, of which three See also:

call for See also:special See also:notice. (1)The first of these, represented by See also:Giesebrecht,i Nowack and See also:Wellhausen, refers i. 2-4 to Chaldaean oppression of Israel, the same subject being continued in i. 12 f. Obviously, the reference to the Chaldaeans as a divine instrument could not then stand in its See also:present See also:place, and it is accordingly regarded as a misplaced earlier prophecy. This is the minimum of See also:critical See also:procedure required to do See also:justice to the facts. (2) Budde, followed by Cornill, also regards i.

2-4 as referring to the oppression of Israel by a See also:

foreign See also:tyrant, whom, however, he holds to be See also:Assyria. He also removes i. 5-11 from its present place, but makes it See also:part of the divine answer, following ii. 4. On this view, the Chaldaeans are the divine instrument for punishing the tyranny of the Assyrians, to whom the following woes will therefore refer. The date would fall between See also:Josiah's See also:reformation (621) and his See also:death (609). This is a plausible and even attractive theory; its weakness seems to See also:lie in the See also:absence of any See also:positive See also:evidence in the prophecy itself, as is illustrated by the fact that even G. A. See also:Smith, who follows it, suggests " Egypt from 6o8–6o5 as an alternative to Assyria (p. 124). (3) See also:Marti (1904) abandons the See also:attempt to explain the prophecy as a unity, and analyses it into three elements, viz. (a) The See also:original prophecy by Habakkuk. consisting of i.

5-10, 14 f., belonging to the See also:

year 605, and representing the emergent See also:power of the Chaldaeans as a divine See also:scourge of the faithless people; (b) Woes against the Chaldaeans, presupposing not only tyrannous rule over many peoples, but the beginning of their decline and fall, and therefore of date about J40 B.C. (ii. 5-19); (c) A See also:psalm of See also:post-exilic origin, whose fragments, i. 2-4, 12 a, 13, ii. 1-4, have been incorporated into the present See also:text from the margins on which they were written, its subject being the suffering of the righteous. Each of these three theories2 encounters difficulties of detail; none can be said to have secured a dominant position. The See also:great variety of views amongst competent critics is significant of the difficulty of the problem, which can hardly be regarded as yet solved; this divergence of See also:opinion perhaps points to the impossibility of maintaining the unity of chs. i. and ii., and throws the See also:balance of See also:probability towards some such See also:analysis as that of Marti, which is therefore accepted in the present See also:article. In regard to the poem which forms the third and closing See also:chapter of the present book of Habakkuk, there is much more See also:general agreement. Its most striking characteristic lies in the superscription (" A See also:prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to Shigionoth "), the subscription (" For the See also:chief musician, on my stringed See also:instruments "), and the insertion of the musical term " Selah " in three places (v.3, 9, 13). These liturgical notes make extremely probable the supposition that the poem has been taken from some collection like that of our present book of See also:Psalms, probably on the ground of. the authorship asserted by the superscription there attached to it. It cannot, however, be said that the poem itself supports this assertion, 1 Followed by Peake in The Problem of Suffering, pp. 4 f., 151 f., to whose appendix (A) reference may be made for further details of recent See also:criticism.

For the less probable theories of Rothstein, Lauterburg, Happel and Peiser (amongst others), cf. Marti's Commentary, pp. 328 f. and 332. See also:

Stevenson (The Expositor, 1902) states clearly the difficulties for those who regard ch. i. as a unity. He See also:sees two independent sections, 2-4+12-13, and 5-11+14-17,which carries no more See also:intrinsic See also:weight than the Davidic titles of the Psalms. The poem begins with a prayer that God will renew the historic manifestation of the See also:exodus, which inaugurated the See also:national See also:history and faith; a thunderstorm moving up from the See also:south is then described, in which God is revealed (3-7);; it is asked whether this manifestation, whose course is further described, is against nature only (8-r r) ; the answer is given that it is for the salvation of Israel against its wicked foes (12-15); the poet describes the effect in terror upon himself (16) and declares his confidence in God, even in utter agricultural adversity (17-19). As Wellhausen says (p. 171): " The poet appears to believe that in the very See also:act of describing enthusiastically the See also:ancient See also:deed of deliverance, he brings See also:home to us the new; we are See also:left sometimes in doubt whether he speaks of the past to suggest the new by See also:analogy, or whether he is concerned directly with the future, and simply paints it with the See also:colours of the past." In any See also:case, there is nothing in this See also:fine poem to connect it with the conception of the Chaldaeans as a divine instrument. It is the nation that speaks through the poet (cf. v. 14), but at what period of its post-exilic history we have no means of inferring. Our estimate of the theological teaching of this book will naturally be influenced by the particular critical theory which is adopted. The reduction of- the book to four originally independent sections requires that the point of each be stated separately.

When this is done, it will, however, be found that there is a broad unity of subject, and of natural development in its treatment, such as to some extent justifies the See also:

instinct or the See also:judgment of those who were instrumental in effecting the See also:combination of the See also:separate parts. (1) The poem (iii.), though possibly latest in date,3 claims first See also:consideration, because it avowedly moves in the circle of See also:primitive ideas, and supplicates a divine intervention, a See also:direct and immediate manifestation of the transcendent God. He is conceived as controlling or overcoming the forces of nature; and though an earlier See also:mythology has supplied some of the ideas, yet, as with the opening chapters of See also:Genesis, they are transfigured by the moral purpose which animates them, the purpose to subdue all things that could frustrate the destiny of God's anointed (v. 13). The closing verses strike that deep See also:note of See also:absolute dependence on God, which is the See also:glory of the See also:religion of the Old Testament and its chief contribution to the spirit of the Gospels. (2) The prophecy of the Chaldaeans as the instruments of the divine purpose involves a different, yet related, conception of the divine See also:providence. The See also:philosophy of history, by which Hebrew prophets could read a deep moral significance into national disaster and turn the flank of resistless attack, became one of the most important elements in the nation's faith. If the See also:world-See also:powers were hard as See also:flint in their dealings with Israel, the people of God were steeled to such moral endurance that each clash of their successive onsets kindled some new See also:flame of devotion. Through the Chaldaeans God worked a See also:work which required centuries of See also:life and literature to disclose its fulness (i. 5). (3) When we turn from this view of the Chaldaeans to the denunciation of their tyranny in " taunt songs " (ii. 5-20), we have simply a See also:practical application of the See also:doctrine of divine See also:government.

God being what He is, at once moral and all-powerful, the immoral life is doomed to overthrow, whether the immorality consist hi grasping rapacity, proud self-aggrandizement, cruel exaction, exulting triumph or senseless See also:

idolatry. (4) Yet, because the See also:doom so often tarries, there arises the problem of the suffering of the See also:innocent and the upright. How can God look down with tolerance that seems favour on so much that conflicts with His declared will and See also:character ? This is the great 3problem of Israel, finding its supreme expression for all See also:time in the book of See also:Job (q.v.). In that book the See also:solution of the problem of innocent suffering lies hidden from the sufferer, even to the end, for he is not admitted with the reader to the See also:secret of the See also:prologue; it is the practical solution of faithfulness resting on faith which is offered to us. So here, with the principle of ii. 4, " the righteous shall live by his faithfulness." The different application of these words in the New Testament to " faith " 2 Earlier, however, than Ps. lxxvii. 17-20, which is See also:drawn from it. is well known (Rom. i. 17; Gal. iii. rr; Heb. x. 38) though the of the issue of writs of habeas corpus before the See also:charter. Other difference is See also:apt to be exaggerated by those who forget how See also:mach of the See also:element of nim c: lies in See also:Paul's conception of srtvres.

In G. A. Smith's words, " as Paul's See also:

adaptation, ` the just shall live by faith,' has become the See also:motto of evangelical See also:Christianity, so we may say that Habakkuk's original of it has been the motto and the fame of Judaism: ` the righteous shall live by his faithfulness.' " The Hebrew text of this impressive and varied book is unfortunately corrupt in many places; even so cautious a critic as Driver accepts or favourably notices eighteen textual emendations in the three chapters, and suspects the text in at least seven other cases. For the interpretation of the book in detail, the See also:English reader will find Driver's commentary (1906) the most useful. References to earlier literature will be found in the following note-worthy studies of recent date: Davidson, " See also:Nahum, Habakkuk and See also:Zephaniah," in See also:Cambridge See also:Bible (1896); Nowack, See also:Die kleinen Propheten (Hdkr.) (1897); Wellhausen, Die kleinen Propheten 3 (1898) ; G. A. Smith, " The Book of the Twelve Prophets," in The Expositor's Bible, vol. ii. (1898) ; Driver, article " Habakkuk " in Hastings' See also:Dictionary of the Bible, vol. ii. pp. 269-272 (1900); Budde, article " Habakkuk " in Ency. Biblica, vol. ii., c. 1921-1928 (1901); Stevenson, " The Interpretation of Habakkuk," in The Expositor (1902), pp. 388-401; Peake, The Problem of Suffering in the Old Testament (11904), pp.

4-11 and app. A, " Recent Criticism of Habakkuk "; Mart:, Dodekapropheton (K. H. C.) (1904); Driver, " Minor Prophets," vol. ii., in See also:

Century Bible (1906); Duhm, Das See also:Buch Habakkuk (Text, tlbersetzung and Erklarung), 1906 (regards the book as a unity belonging to the time of See also:Alexander the Great). Max L. Margolis discusses the See also:anonymous See also:Greek version of Habakkuk iii. in a See also:volume of Old Test. and Semitic Studies: in Memory of See also:William Rainey Harper (See also:Chicago, 1908). (H. W.

End of Article: HABAKKUK

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