Habakkuk

About Habakkuk

Habakkuk is unusual among the prophets: instead of speaking to the people for God, he speaks to God for the people, asking why God allows injustice and why He would use a nation as brutal as Babylon to punish Judah. God answers that the proud will fall in time, and that the righteous will live by faith. The book ends with one of the Bible's great statements of trust, choosing joy in God even when everything else fails, and its central line about faith becomes a cornerstone of New Testament teaching.

Written by

The book is presented as the words of the prophet Habakkuk, about whom the Bible tells us nothing beyond this book.

When

Habakkuk likely wrote around 640 to 600 BC, as Babylon was rising to power and shortly before it invaded Judah.

Themes

• Honest questions to God
• Living by faith
• God's justice in His own time
• Joy that outlasts hardship

Key verses

• Habakkuk 2:4Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
• Habakkuk 1:2-3O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! Why dost thou shew me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
• Habakkuk 3:17-18¶ Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.