Habakkuk 1

Habakkuk’s First Complaint

¹This is the burden that Habakkuk the prophet received in a vision:

• HAB 1:1[NOTE]THE BURDEN. The Hebrew word means a heavy load: a hard message the prophet had to carry.
• HAB 1:1[NOTE]HABAKKUK. His name may come from a Hebrew word for embrace. Martin Luther said it fit him: he hugs his people and holds them up in their trouble.

²How long, O Yahweh, must I call for help

but You do not hear,

or cry out to You, “Violence!”

but You do not save?

• HAB 1:2[NOTE]HOW LONG? Habakkuk does not preach to the people. He takes his complaint straight to God. See Why Does God Allow Evil?

³Why do You make me see iniquity?

Why do You tolerate wrongdoing?

Destruction and violence are before me.

Strife is ongoing, and conflict abounds.

⁴Therefore the law is paralyzed,

and justice never goes forth.

For the wicked hem in the righteous,

so that justice is perverted.

Yahweh’s Answer

⁵“Look at the nations and observe—

be utterly astounded!

For I am doing a work in your days

that you would never believe

even if someone told you.

• HAB 1:5[PROPHECY]God would raise up the Chaldeans (Babylonians) to punish Judah → 2KI 24:1-2; 2KI 25:8-10
• HAB 1:5[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → ACTS 13:41
• HAB 1:5[NOTE]THE FIRST ANSWER. From here God speaks, so His words print red. Paul quoted this verse to warn his listeners, Acts 13:41.

⁶For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans—

that ruthless and impetuous nation

which marches through the breadth of the earth

to seize dwellings not their own.

• HAB 1:6[NOTE]THE CHALDEANS. The Babylonians. In 605 BC they beat Egypt at Carchemish and became the new superpower. See The Babylonian Chronicle, 2 Kings, and Why Use Babylon?

⁷They are dreaded and feared;

from themselves they derive justice and sovereignty.

⁸Their horses are swifter than leopards,

fiercer than wolves of the night.

Their horsemen charge ahead,

and their cavalry comes from afar.

They fly like a vulture,

swooping down to devour.

• HAB 1:8[NOTE]LEOPARDS, WOLVES AND VULTURES. Moses warned of a nation that would swoop down like an eagle, Deuteronomy 28:49.

⁹All of them come bent on violence;

their hordes advance like the east wind;

they gather prisoners like sand.

¹⁰They scoff at kings

and make rulers an object of scorn.

They laugh at every fortress

and build up siege ramps to seize it.

¹¹Then they sweep by like the wind

and pass through.

They are guilty;

their own strength is their god.”

• HAB 1:11[DEMONIC]Babylon's army makes its own strength its god

Habakkuk’s Second Complaint// Psalm 11:1–7

¹²Are You not from everlasting,

O Yahweh, my God, my Holy One?

We will not die.

O Yahweh, You have appointed them

to execute judgment;

O Rock, You have established them

for correction.

• HAB 1:12[TEXT]WE WILL NOT DIE. An old Jewish list of the corrections of the scribes says this line first read You will not die, about God, and was changed out of respect.

¹³Your eyes are too pure to look upon evil,

and You cannot tolerate wrongdoing.

So why do You tolerate the faithless?

Why are You silent

while the wicked swallow up

those more righteous than themselves?

• HAB 1:13[NOTE]TOO PURE TO LOOK ON EVIL. Habakkuk's real question: how can a holy God use people worse than the ones He is punishing?

¹⁴You have made men like the fish of the sea,

like creeping things that have no ruler.

¹⁵The foe pulls all of them up with a hook;

he catches them in his dragnet,

and gathers them in his fishing net;

so he rejoices gladly.

¹⁶Therefore he sacrifices to his dragnet

and burns incense to his fishing net,

for by these things his portion is sumptuous

and his food is rich.

• HAB 1:16[DEMONIC]Babylon offers sacrifices and incense to its fishing net
• HAB 1:16[NOTE]WORSHIPING THE NET. The Habakkuk Commentary from Qumran says this means the Kittim, most likely the Romans, who sacrificed to their army standards.

¹⁷Will he, therefore, empty his net

and continue to slay nations without mercy?