Who is Habakkuk in the Bible?

Habakkuk, Obadiah and Malachi are the only three of the Minor Prophets of which we know nothing else but their names. Habakkuk together with Zechariah and Haggai however belong to the only prophets of Scripture who name themselves “prophet” (Hab. 1:1). Some connect Habakkuk’s name with an Assyrian name of a plant. But since Hieronymus a Father of the Church (who translated the Bible into Latin) Habakkuk’s name has been translated “embraced” or “embracer”.

Of Habakkuk the same holds good as with most of the other minor prophets; we know nothing of the particulars of his life. It does not matter much. God knows these holy men, whom He called to make known His will and the future, and He has kept the record of their lives, as He keeps the record of all of our lives.

His name means "to embrace," but it has the double meaning "to embrace" and "being embraced." He embraced his own people and embraced God in prayer, then "being embraced"--God answered him. Dr. Martin Luther gave a very striking definition of his name, which cannot be improved upon. "Habakkuk signifies an embracer, or one who embraces another, takes him into his arms. He embraces his people, and takes them to his arms, i.e., he comforts them and holds them up, as one embraces a weeping child, to quiet it with the assurance that if God wills it shall soon be better."

Everything in Scripture is given for our learning, both in its speaking and in its silence. It tells us nothing about Habakkuk himself, nor about the time of his prophecy. The most careful and precise inquiries by the critics about the time in which the prophet wrote have resulted in conflicting conclusions. When the facts presented in God's Word are sufficiently clear and allow us to place the prophecy in the sphere in which it was produced, we receive much clarity and edification. But when God does not speak, the researches of scholars are of limited value to the Christian, no matter how interesting they might be.

Habakkuk therefore was a contemporary of Jeremiah. Habakkuk also bears several similarities with Jeremiah, for example his sensitive nature and his grief over the condition of the people of God.

Habakkuk (an embrace). We have nothing in Scripture as to the personal history or parentage of this prophet, but plenty of tradition as to both, which is not of much value. It has been remarked that Jeremiah's great prophecy has been divided into two parts — the destruction of Jerusalem forming the break between the two — which we might term the moral and prophetic, and further, that Habakkuk takes up the moral side of the book of Jeremiah, as Zephaniah does the prophetic side.

We have neither note of time nor exact historical data as to when or where this prophecy was uttered and written. We should judge, however, from Habakkuk 1:5-6, which intimate the Chaldean invasion of Judea, that the vision of Habakkuk (Hab. 1 and 2) and his sublime and fervent prayer (Hab. 3) considerably preceded the rise of the Chaldeans, and that the southern kingdom of Palestine, probably Jerusalem, was the scene of the "vision" and "prayer." If Nahum announces the judgment of the proud Assyrian who destroyed the kingdom of Israel, Habakkuk on the other hand predicts the utter ruin of the Chaldeans, who in their day of power destroyed the kingdom of Judah. The distinctly moral character of the book, and the prophet's identification with the people in their confession of sin, and then in their turning to Jehovah and hoping in His mercy, are truths of priceless value to every true servant of God whose desire is to serve Him, His saints, and church.

Habakkuk, the 8 th of the Minor Prophets, occupies a special place. For he does not speak to men under God’s commission as do the other prophets but he speaks about his people and their enemies the Chaldeans to God. Together Habakkuk’s questions and comments as well as God’s answers build the prophetical utterance that should hit heart and conscience of the people of God.

Habakkuk’s heart is very heavy over the injustice among the people of God (Hab. 1:2-4). In His answer, which is directed to the people, God announces the Chaldeans’ attack as judgment (chap. 1:5-11). Now Habakkuk is even more terrified that God uses a nation even more unjust than the Jews as a rod to punish the people of Israel (chap. 1:12-17).

There is no prophetic delivery among the twelve lesser books more peculiar and characteristic than that of Habakkuk. It has no longer the occupation with the enemy as its main feature, although the enemy is referred to; but for its prominent topic we find the soul of the prophet himself, as representing the faithful among the Jews, brought into deep exercises, and indeed a kind of colloquy between God Himself and the prophet, so as to set out not only that which gave him trouble of heart, but also divine comfort, as well as exulting hope into which he was led by the communications of the Spirit of God. We shall see too that the hope proves its divine quality; for there is all that which is calculated to sustain in patient waiting, though there be nothing shown outwardly, save indeed the extreme of earthly trial. Still the prophet rejoices in Jehovah, and counts on as undisturbed possession of all that is promised above every foe, as gazelles enjoy on the heights where no other foot can tread in safety.

"The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. O Jehovah, how long shall I cry, and thou dost not hear! even cry out to thee of violence, and thou dost not save! Why dost thou show me iniquity, and beholdest grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention. Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth; for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceeds." Hence there is a goodly measure of spiritual resemblance between the short prophecy of Habakkuk and the longer one of Jeremiah. At the same time Habakkuk is no mere imitator. He alludes to the previous prophets as he does to facts in the early history of Israel: so all the prophets did. There was no avoidance sometimes of direct quotation; nay, we have seen that the Spirit led them to adopt and reiterate that which other prophets had said before them. If the consciousness of originality and affluence of thought sometimes enable men to rise superior to the charge of borrowing from a compeer, much more did divine guidance make prophets less careful and sensitive on this head. Vain souls who yearn after and affect original power are too feeble to act candidly and with freedom, and are apt to show extreme jealousy lest they might be thought to make use of another; if they do not, it is to their own loss and that of their readers; for "non omnia possumus omnes" ["we cannot all do everything" Virgil.].

HABAKKUK is the expression of faith in Jehovah, in spite of everything, and of God's ways in the history of the people. The prophet complains of the iniquity that surrounds him in Israel: God shews to him the Chaldeans, whom He is bringing to visit the land in judgment because of this iniquity; then the prophet's affection for the people is awakened, and he complains of the Chaldeans; and God shews him that he must live by faith: He will punish these violent enemies, whose passions He had used as a rod to chasten Israel; but the man of faith must wait. The day of Jehovah shall come, and the earth shall be covered with the knowledge of the glory of Jehovah as the waters cover the sea. The prophet recalls the former deliverance of Israel, and rejoices in Jehovah, although no blessing from Him be apparent.

Habakkuk occupied a very special place among the prophets, although Jeremiah as far as his personal experiences are concerned, resembled him in certain aspects. Yet, Jeremiah's horizon stretched further. Initially, Habakkuk rebelled against the regime of violence among his people; he cried: “How long?” But as soon as the Lord announced the judgment over Israel by the Chaldeans the heart of this man was deeply moved for his people. Like Moses he pleaded as mediator with the Lord for Israel. God answered that He would judge the Gentiles who were the rod in His hand. But Habakkuk learned a personal lesson that is at all times and under all circumstances of great value: “The just shall live by his faith.” Faith was the only principle on which he had to lean even in the most evil day. This verse is the kernel, the centre of the entire prophecy. From this moment on, his faith fathomed the “why” of the judgments. He viewed the past deliverances, realizing those of the future, and went through the present tribulations with an unmixed joy that clung to the person of the Redeemer with the power that God Himself was for him, and with the unconstrained, happy joy of the eternal blessings. Enriched with such blessing the man of faith had found entrance to the sanctuary, which he entered to bring worship to God.

The prophecy of Habakkuk differs from other prophecies inasmuch as it makes no direct appeal to Israel or the nations, nor is any specific date given for its utterance. It is, however, evident that Habakkuk lived in a day when the people of God had utterly failed, with the result that God's hand was upon them in governmental judgment.