Minor Prophets · Chapter 1 of 3

Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk opens by crying out to God about the violence and injustice, asking how long the LORD will not hear or save. God answers that he is raising the Chaldeans, a fierce and dreadful nation, to sweep through the land. This deepens the prophet's dilemma: how can a God too pure to look on evil use a people more wicked than those they punish? Habakkuk ends perplexed but addressing his questions to God.

What happens in Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk voices a raw complaint: how long must he cry out about violence before God hears and saves? He sees iniquity, strife, and a paralyzed justice system where the wicked surround the righteous and judgment comes out perverted. God responds with a startling announcement: look among the nations and be astonished, for he is raising up the Chaldeans, a bitter and hasty people who march through the earth seizing lands not their own. They are terrible, swifter than leopards, fiercer than evening wolves, mocking kings and scooping up captives like sand, crediting their strength to their god.

This answer troubles Habakkuk more. He appeals to God as the everlasting, holy One, acknowledging that God ordained them for judgment. Yet he protests: God is of purer eyes than to behold evil, so how can he stay silent while the wicked devour those more righteous than themselves, treating people like fish caught in a net that the conqueror then worships.

Habakkuk 1 in context

Habakkuk prophesied in Judah near the end of the seventh century before Christ, as Babylon under the Chaldeans was rising to dominate the region. Unlike most prophets who address the people for God, Habakkuk addresses God on behalf of the people, making the book a sustained dialogue about divine justice.

His first complaint concerns injustice within Judah; God's answer that Babylon will come raises the harder problem of God using a crueler nation as his instrument, which drives the rest of the book.

Main themes of Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk 1 (KJV)

1The burden which Habakkuk the prophet did see. 2O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save! 3Why 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. 4Therefore the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth. 5Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. 6For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs. 7They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. 8Their horses also are swifter than the leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves: and their horsemen shall spread themselves, and their horsemen shall come from far; they shall fly as the eagle that hasteth to eat. 9They shall come all for violence: their faces shall sup up as the east wind, and they shall gather the captivity as the sand. 10And they shall scoff at the kings, and the princes shall be a scorn unto them: they shall deride every strong hold; for they shall heap dust, and take it. 11Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god. 12Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction. 13Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he? 14And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them? 15They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore they rejoice and are glad. 16Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous. 17Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

Verses to carry from Habakkuk 1

“O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!”Habakkuk 1:2

“Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you.”Habakkuk 1:5

“Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?”Habakkuk 1:13

Reflection

Habakkuk teaches that faith is allowed to ask hard questions. When injustice goes unanswered and God seems silent, bring your confusion to him rather than away from him. His answer may unsettle before it comforts, but the God who invites the question is working a redemption deeper than you can yet believe.

A prayer from Habakkuk 1