Commentary on Habakkuk 1:12—2:4

Today we have one reading from the Prophet Habakkuk. The book dates from the years 605-597 BC, i.e. between the great Babylonian victory at Carchemish and Nebuchadnezzar’s invasion of the southern kingdom of Judah which resulted in the capture and destruction of Jerusalem. In addition to the threat of invasion, the city itself was a hotbed of political intrigue and widespread idolatry.

The first two chapters, from which our readings are taken, consist of a dialogue between God and the prophet, and may be the only place in the Bible where someone questions the way God manages events.

The New American Bible comments:

“The third chapter [from which we will not be reading] is a magnificent religious lyric, filled with reminiscences of Israel’s past and rich in literary borrowings from the poetry of ancient Canaan, though still expressing authentic Israelite faith. God appears in all his majestic splendour and executes vengeance on Judah’s enemies. The prophecy ends with a joyous profession of confidence in the Lord, the Saviour.”

In today’s reading, the prophet complains to God about how he can tolerate the evil of those who cause so much suffering among his chosen people. The Jerusalem Bible summarises the prophet’s feelings thus:

“If it is true that the Chaldaean triumph is ultimately due to Yahweh, this only moves the problem back to Yahweh himself who must give the answer. How is it that a just and holy God, the custodian of justice, can treat nations thus, and the chosen people in particular? Will he allow the wicked to engulf the virtuous?”

As well, the New International Bible comments:

Habakkuk cannot see the justice in Judah’s being punished by an even more wicked nation, and thinks that the Babylonians surely would not be allowed to conquer Judah completely.

The prophet acknowledges God as the Holy One who lives in eternity from ancient times, i.e. from the time of the Exodus—the basis of the prophet’s hope for the future. He says to God:

O Lord, you have marked them for judgment,
and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.

He calls God “O Rock!”—a title recognising God’s immutable power. But it is this God who has made Babylon his agent for the judgement of the chosen people.

At the same time, the prophet sees a contradiction here. He says to God:

Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous
and are silent when the wicked swallow
those more righteous than they?

It is the classic question, asked again and again: Why does evil seem to flourish unchecked by a just and holy God? It is a question often asked since September 11, 2001, October 7, 2023 and after so many other murderous attacks in our time.

God, says Habakkuk, treats people:

…like the fish of the sea…

The victims of Babylonia are as helpless as fish swimming into a net. In fact, Mesopotamian reliefs show conquering rulers symbolically catching their victims in fishnets. It seems that the Babylonia is allowed to do anything they like and, in the end, “rejoices and exults.” They the Babylonians offer celebratory sacrifices over their ‘catch’ and burn incense to the booty which rewards them with wealth and luxury.

The prophet wants to know if there is to be no end to all of this:

Is he [Babylon] then to keep on emptying his net
and destroying nations without mercy?

So the prophet goes on a long watch on Jerusalem’s city walls to see if the Lord has any answer at all to his complaints. The prophet keeps watch like a sentry on behalf of his people. He looks out from his “watchpost” expecting a response to his challenge.

Yahweh’s response comes in the second part of today’s reading:

Then the Lord answered me and said…

The prophet is told:

Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets,
so that a runner may read it.

This is so that it can easily be carried and read out by a messenger and delivered to all those meant to receive it. The word used here refers specifically to a prophet’s vision.

The message is “for the appointed time” only, without any specification of when it will happen. It will be fulfilled at the appointed time. In fact, it will deal with the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, 66 years after Habakkuk made his prophecy:

If it seems to tarry, wait for it…

It has an energy of its own, because it is the expression of Yahweh’s word moving to inevitable fulfilment. Our Advent liturgy uses this verse to express expectation of the Messiah.

The message, then, is to be patient. It may be slow in coming, but:

…it will surely come; it will not delay.

In conclusion a contrast is made between two kinds of people. On the one hand there are “the proud” whose “spirit is not right in them”, and there are “the righteous”, those who “live by their faithfulness”. The king of Babylonia and his followers can be numbered among the first kind, as well as those people of Judah who have lost confidence in God. Others remains utterly faithful to God no matter what happens and how long he has to wait.

‘Faithfulness’ to God, i.e. to his word and to his will, is characteristic of the “righteous”, and assures them security and life here on earth. The wicked, who do not have this ‘righteousness’ run to ruin. The righteous and the wicked in this context are respectively Judah and the Chaldaeans—the former will live, the others perish.

In light of God’s revelation about how (and when) he is working, his people are to wait patiently and live by faith, trusting in their sovereign God. The last clause of the reading is quoted frequently in the New Testament to support the teaching that people are saved by grace through faith and should live by faith (see Heb 10:38-39). It also became the rallying cry of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.

There is a distinction to be made between ‘faith’ and ‘faithfulness’. ‘Faith’ implies a deep and unconditional trust in God’s love and care for us, even in our sinfulness. ‘Faithfulness’ or ‘fidelity’ suggests maintaining, through thick and thin and perhaps over a long period of time, the integrity of a relationship (as in marriage). Obviously both apply in this passage.

We all need to live by faith and faithfulness. This is one of the secrets of peace and happiness in our lives.