WHO WROTE:  Habakkuk.

 

 

WHAT TIME PERIOD IS COVERED:  Since Habakkuk was a contemporary with Jeremiah and Zephaniah, the time period would cover B.C. 704 - B.C. 615.

 

 

WHEN WRITTEN:  B.C. 704 - B.C. 615.

 

 

INTRODUCTION:  The name Habakkuk means, “he that embraces; embrace; ardent embrace; a wrestler.”  Of his personal history we have no reliable information.  He was probably a member of the Levitical choir, because of the psalm in Habakkuk, Chapter 3, where Habakkuk uses the liturgical term “Selah,” Habakkuk 3:3, 9, 13, which follows along with the Psalmist style.  Also, the title “Habakkuk the prophet,” Habakkuk 1:1, favors the opinion that Habakkuk was a Levite.  Besides the allusions to musical instruments and music directors (Hab. 3:19), both of which were central to the Temple worship, he speaks of Yahweh as being in His Temple (Hab. 2:20).

 

The closing words of the Book, “to the chief singer on my stringed instruments,” implies that Habakkuk, with his own instruments, would accompany the song he wrote under the Spirit; like the Levite seers and singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun (1Ch. 25:1-5).

 

He probably prophesied in the 12th or 13th year of Josiah (B.C. 630 or 629), for the words “in your days,” Habakkuk 1:5, imply that the prophecy would come to pass in the lifetime of the persons addressed.  Moreover, Jeremiah began prophesying in Josiah’s 13th year, and Jeremiah borrows from Habakkuk (compare Hab. 2:13 with Jer. 51:58).  Thus, it follows, that B.C. 630 or 629 is Habakkuk’s date of prophesying.

 

Zephaniah 1:7 is an imitation of Habakkuk 2:20, and Zephaniah (see Zep. 1:1) lived under Josiah and prophesied (compare Zep. 3:5 to Zep. 3:15) after the restoration of Jehovah’s worship, i.e., after the 12th year of Josiah’s reign (about B.C. 624).  Therefore, Habakkuk must have been before this time.

 

Habakkuk is unique among the prophets because he did not speak for God to the people, as much as he spoke to God about the people.  His most famous statement, and one that puts him well into the New Testament (Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11), is found in Habakkuk 2:4: “the just shall live by his faith.”

 

According to Habakkuk 3:19, that Chapter (and possibly the entire Book) was to be a song.

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