Module 30: The Failure of Human Teaching - God's Activities
Nahum - Vindication of Vengeance; and Habakkuk - The Problems of Faith; and Zephaniah - The Severity and Goodness of God
Habakkuk Chapter 1
PART A: THE PROPHET'S PROBLEMS - 1:1-2:4
Title Page - 1:1
1 The revelation which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
A.1. The First Problem and Answer - 1:2-1:11
1. The Problem - 1:2-1:4
2 LORD, how long will I cry, and you will not hear? I cry out to you "Violence!" and will you not save?
3 Why do you show me iniquity, and look at perversity? For destruction and violence are before me. There is strife, and contention rises up.
4 Therefore the law is paralysed, and justice never prevails; for the wicked surround the righteous; therefore justice comes out perverted.
2. The Answer - 1:5-1:11
5 "Look amongst the nations, watch, and wonder marvellously; for I am working a work in your days, which you will not believe though it is told you.
6 For, behold, I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, that march through the width of the earth, to possess dwelling places that are not theirs.
7 They are feared and dreaded. Their judgement and their dignity proceed from themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen press proudly on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly as an eagle that hurries to devour.
9 All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.
10 Yes, he scoffs at kings, and princes are a derision to him. He laughs at every stronghold, for he builds up an earthen ramp, and takes it.
11 Then he sweeps by like the wind, and goes on. He is indeed guilty, whose strength is his god."
A.2. The Second Problem and Answer - 1:12-2:4
1. The Problem - 1:12-1:17
12 Aren't you from everlasting, LORD my God, my Holy One? We will not die. LORD, you have appointed him for judgement. You, Rock, have established him to punish.
13 You who have purer eyes than to see evil, and who cannot look on perversity, why do you tolerate those who deal treacherously, and keep silent when the wicked swallows up the man who is more righteous than he,
14 and make men like the fish of the sea, like the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
15 He takes up all of them with the hook. He catches them in his net, and gathers them in his dragnet. Therefore he rejoices and is glad.
16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net, and burns incense to his dragnet, because by them his life is luxurious, and his food is good.
17 Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?
Footnotes
- Verse 2 (LORD)
- When rendered in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, "LORD" or "GOD" is the translation of God's Proper Name.
- Verse 6 (Behold)
- "Behold" means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.
- Verse 12 (God)
- The Hebrew word rendered "God" is Elohim.