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 HABACUC

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HABACUC

it is usually taken to signify "embrace" and is at times explained as "ardent embrace", on account of its intensive form. Of this prophet's birth-place, parentage, and life we have no reliable information. The fact that in his book he is twice called " the prophet" (i, 1; iii, 1) leads indeed one to surmise that Habacuc held a recognized position as prophet, but it manifestly affords no distinct knowledge of his person. Again, some musical particulars connected with the Hebrew text of his Prayer (ch. iii) may pos- sibly suggest that he was a member of the Temple choir, and consequently also a Levite: but most scholars regard this twofold inference as questionable. Hardly less questionable is the view sometimes put forth, which identifies Habacuc with the Judean prophet of that name, who is described in the deutero- canonical fragment of Bel and the Dragon (Dan., xiv, 32 sqq.), as miraculously carrying a meal to Daniel in the lions' den.

In this absence of authentic tradition, legend, not only Jewish but also Christian, has been singularly busy about the prophet Habacuc. It has represented him as belonging to the tribe of Levi and as the son of a certain Jesus; as the child of the Sunamite woman, whom Eliseus restored to life (cf. IV Kings, iv, 16 sqq.); as the sentinel set by Isaias (cf. Is. xxi, 6; and Hab., ii, 1) to watch for the fall of Babylon. Accord- ing to the "Lives" of the prophets, one of which is ascribed to St. Epiphanius, and the other to Doro- theus, Habacuc was of the tribe of Simeon, and a na- tive of Bethsocher, a town apparently in the tribe of Juda. In the same works it is stated that when Na- buchodonosor came to besiege Jerusalem, the prophet fled to Ostrakine (now Straki, on the Egyptian coast), whence he returned only after the Chaldeans had withdrawn; that he then lived as a husbandman in his native place, and died there two years before Cyrus's edict of Restoration (538 B. c). Different sites are also mentioned as his burial-place. The ex- act amount of positive information embodied in these conflicting legends cannot be determined at the pres- ent day. The Greek and Latin Churches celebrate the feast of the prophet Habacuc on 15 Jan.

II. Contents of Prophecy. — Apart from its short title (i, 1), the Book of Habacuc is commonly divided into two parts: the one (i, 2 — ii, 20) reads like a dra- matic dialogue between God and His prophet : the other (chap, iii) is a lyric ode, with the usual characteristics of a psalm. The first part opens with Habacuc's la- ment to God over the protracted iniquity of the land, and the persistent oppression of the just by the wicked, so that there is neither law nor justice in Juda: How long is the wicked thus destined to prosper? (i, 2-4). Yahweh replies (i, 5-11) that a new and start- ling display of His justice is about to take place: already the Chaldeans — that swift, rapacious, terrible, race — are being raised up, anfl they shall put an end to the wrongs of which the prophet has complained. Then Habacuc remonstrates with Yahweh, the eternal and righteous Ruler of the world, over the cruelties in which He allows the Chaldeans to indulge (i, 12-17), and he confidently waits for a response to his pleading (ii, 1). God's answer (ii. 2-4) is in the form of a short oracle (verse 4), which the prophet is bidden to write down on a tablet that all may read it, and which fore- tells the ultimate doom of the Chaldean invader. Con- tent with this message, Habacuc utters a taunting song, triumphantly made up of five "woes" which he places with dramatic vividness on the lips of the na- tions whom the Chaldean has conquered and deso- lated (ii, 5-20). The second part of the book (chap, iii) bears the title: " A prayer of Habacuc, the prophet, to the music of Shigionot." Strictly speaking, only the second verse of this chapter has the form of a prayer. The ver.ses following (3-16) describe a the- ophany in which Yahweh appears for no other purpose than the salvation of His people and the ruin of His

enemies. The ode concludes with the declaration that even though the blessings of nature should fail in the day of dearth, the singer will rejoice in Yahweh (17-19). Appended to chap, iii is the statement: "For the chief musician, on my stringed instru- ments."

III. Date and Authorship. — Owing chiefly to the lack of reliable external evidence, there has been in the past, and there Ls even now, a great diversity of opin- ions concerning the date to which the prophecy of Habacuc should be ascribed. Ancient rabbis, whose view is embodied in the Jewish chronicle entitled Seder olam liabbah, and is still accepted by many Catholic scholars (Kaulen, Zschokke, Knabenbauer, Sclienz, Cornely, etc.), refer the composition of the book to the last years of Manasses's reign. Clement of Alexan- dria says that " Habacuc still prophesied in the time of Sedecias" (599-588 b. c), and St. Jerome ascribes the prophecy to the time of the Babylonian Exile. Some recent scholars (Delitzsch and Keil among Prote.s- tants, Danko, Rheinke, Holzammer, and practically also Vigouroux, among Catholics, place it under Josias (641-610 B. c). Others refer it to the time of Joakim (610-599 b. c), either before Nabuehodo- nosor's victory at Carchemish in 605 b. c. (Catholic: Schegg, Haneberg; Protestant: Kleinert, Cook, Bleek-Kamphausen, etc.), or after that great event (Catholic: Lenormant, Van Hoonacker; Protestant: Schrader, S. Davidson, Konig, Struck, Driver, etc.) ; while others, mostly out-and-out rationalists, ascribe it to the time after the ruin of the Holy City by the Chaldeans. As might be expected, these various views do not enjoy the same amount of probability, when they are tested by the actual contgnts of the Book of Habacuc. Of them all, the one adopted by St. Jerome, and which is now that propounded by many rationalists, is decidedly the least probable: to ascribe, as that view does, the book to the Exile, is, on the one hand, to admit for the te.\t of Habacuc an his- torical background to which there is no real reference in the prophecy, and, on the other, to ignore the prophet's distinct references to events connected with the period before the Babylonian Captivity (cf. i, 2-4, 6, etc.). All the other opinions have their respective degrees of probability, .so that it is no easy matter to choose among them. It seems, however, that the view which ascribes the book to 005-600 B.C." is best in harmony with the historical circumstances under which the Chaldeans are presented in the prophecy of Habacuc, viz. as a scourge which Ls imminent for Juda, and as oppressors whom all know have already entered upon the inheritance of their predeces.sors " (Van Hoonacker).

During the nineteenth centurj', objections have oftentimes been made against the genuineness of cer- tain portions of the Book of Habacuc. In the first part of the work, the objections have been especially di- rected against i, 5-1 1. But, however formidable they may appear at first sight, the difficulties turn out to be really weak, on a clo.ser inspection; and in point of fact, the great majority of critics look upon them as not decisive. The arguments urged against the genu- ineness of chapter ii, 9-20, are of less weight still. Only in reference to chapter iii, which forms the second part of the book, can there be a serious controversy as to its authorship by Habacuc. Many critics treat the whole chapter as a late and independent poem, with no allusions to the circumstances of Habacuc's time, and still bearing in its liturgical heading and musical directions (vv. 3, 9, 13, 19) distinct marks of the col- lection of sacred songs from which it was taken. Ac- cording to them, it was appended to the Book of Hab- acuc because it had already been ascribed to him in the title, just as certain psalms are still referred in the Septuagint and in the Vulgate to some prophets. Others, indeed in smaller number, but also with greater probability, regard only the last part of the