Habakkuk 1

The prophet enters very abruptly on his subject, his spirit being greatly indignant at the rapid progress of vice and impiety, Habakkuk 1:1-4 . Upon which God is introduced threatening very awful and sudden judgments to be indicted by the ministry of the Chaldeans, Habakkuk 1:5-10 . The Babylonians attribute their wonderful successes to their idols, Habakkuk 1:11 . The prophet then, making a sudden transition, expostulates with God (probably personating the Jews) for permitting a nation much more wicked than themselves, as they supposed, to oppress and devour them, as fishers and foulers do their prey, Habakkuk 1:12-17 .

We know little of this prophet; for what we find in the ancients concerning him is evidently fabulous, as well as that which appears in the Apocrypha. He was probably of the tribe of Simeon, and a native of Beth-zacar. It is very likely that he lived after the destruction of Nineveh, as he speaks of the Chaldeans, but makes no mention of the Assyrians. And he appears also to have prophesied before the Jewish captivity, see Habakkuk 1:5 ; Habakkuk 2:1 ; Habakkuk 3:2 , Habakkuk 3:16-19 ; and therefore Abp. Newcome thinks he may be placed in the reign of Jehoiakim, between the years 606 b.c. and 598 b.c.

As a poet, Habakkuk holds a high rank among the Hebrew prophets. The beautiful connection between the parts of his prophecy, its diction, imagery, spirit, and sublimity, cannot be too much admired; and his hymn, chap. 3, is allowed by the best judges to be a masterpiece of its kind. See Lowth's Praelect. xxi., xxviii.