Who is Habakkuk?

ChubbyCherub · Sunday at 7:22 PM

We are reading this book in church right now but, to be honest, I never heard of him before and I have no idea who he is?

From what I understand, he was a prophet who prayed on behalf of Judea and the wrongs inflicted on it via other countries. God used Babylon to defeat these countries but also punished Babylon for being evil.

Does anyone else know anything else about him? Where did he come from? Why was he a prophet? What made him special in the eyes of God?

Thank you!

DragonFox91 · Sunday at 7:26 PM

I think Habakkuk is one of the few books I haven't read.

It's interesting to me how the prophets were picked to be Scriuptual when the prophets were often in the minority. What would lead the mob to pick them as canon?

Delvianna · Monday at 7:59 AM

ChubbyCherub said:
Does anyone else know anything else about him? Where did he come from? Why was he a prophet? What made him special in the eyes of God?

Very very little is known about him. People consider him a minor prophet probably for this reason because it's not like we have great stories about him like we do Elijah or Samuel. His book reminds me of Psalms and makes me think it was a song, just by the end of the book where it says, "For the director of music. On my stringed instruments." There's a few Psalms that are prophetic, so it's not out of place if it was a song. But literally any information about his life is speculation and could be totally wrong. Like, because of the prophesy against the Babylonians, people place his life around 600BC which would put him around the same time as Jeremiah. But there's honestly no way to know for sure. There isn't any outside sources on his life or him in particular, so we just will never know until we are in heaven's side of things.

Bob Crowley · 2025-11-12T01:00:35-0600

There is one take on Habbukuk at this link. It would seem he was a minor, minor prophet, but he was prepared to speak his mind to God.

He was upset with all the evil that was going on and wanted to know what God was going to do about it.

Habakkuk: A minor prophet with major passion

Like the prophet Habakkuk, proclaim both calls for justice and your love for God.

uscatholic.org

The kicker is, both times Habakkuk appears, it’s nearly the same passage: different verses from Chapter 1 of the Book of Habakkuk paired with the same verses from Chapter 2. It’s unfair, considering this prophet only gets two shots at speaking to us. Maybe we’re not missing much. Habakkuk’s prophecies are only three chapters long, which means you can become an expert on his writings pretty quickly. Not so with Isaiah, whose thought encompasses 66 chapters. By comparison, Habakkuk’s a fellow who gets to the point.

There is a Wikipedia article here.

Habakkuk - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

LIFE

Almost nothing is known about Habakkuk, aside from what is stated within the book of the Bible bearing his name, or those inferences that may be drawn from that book.[3] No biographical details are provided other than his title "the prophet".[4]

For almost every other prophet, more information is given, such as the name of the prophet's hometown, his occupation, or information concerning his parentage or tribe.[13] For Habakkuk, however, there is no reliable account of any of these.[14] Although his home is not identified, scholars conclude that Habakkuk lived in Jerusalem at the time he wrote his prophecy.[15] Further analysis has provided an approximate date for his prophecy and possibilities concerning his activities and background.

Beyond the Bible, considerable conjecture has been put forward over the centuries in the form of Christian and Rabbinic tradition, but such accounts are dismissed by modern scholars as speculative and apocryphal.[5][6]

The Septuagint translation of Daniel in the Codex Chisianus refers to him as "the son of Jesus of the tribe of Levi".[16]

Bob Crowley · 2025-11-12T07:28:40-0600

This extract on Habakkuk is from "The Collegeville Bible Commentary" which is a Catholic publication.

Date

The prophecy is to be dated sometime after the Babylonians became an active threat against Judah but before their destruction of the city of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. Habukkuk's serious complaints about violent injustice among the people in Judah suggests sometimes in the reign of Jehoiakim (609-597 BCE), a king despised by Jeremiah for his abuse of power at the cost of much suffering by the poor and defenseless. Jeremiah declares that he will be given the "burial of an ass" (Jer 22:12-19); (see also 2 Kgs 23:37). Certainly chapter 3 qualifies Habbukuk to be numbered among the "cult prophets", who functioned at the temple; chapters 1-2 may leave some clues for a liturgical ceremony.

Themes

Several major religious motifs thread their way through the prophecy: God's absolute trustworthiness; God's control of the universe; our inability to understand adequately the mysterious ways of God; our failure to fathom the mysteries fo the universe and the colossal struggles of nature and politics; God's detemination not to tolerate violence, begotten by pride

I've highlighted "our inability to understand ... " since more trouble was to come. Habbukuk expressed his faith in God's overall justice, but not long after he gave his prophecy, he would most likely have witnessed the sack of Jerusalem by the Babylonians and the beginning of the 70 years of captivity. His faith would have been put to the test.

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Who is Habakkuk?

ChubbyCherub

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DragonFox91

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Delvianna

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Bob Crowley

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Habakkuk: A minor prophet with major passion

Habakkuk - Wikipedia

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Bob Crowley

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