From: Habakkuk 1:2-3; 2:2-4
The prophet’s first complaint
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[2] O Lord, how long shall I cry for help,
and thou wilt not hear?
Or cry to thee “Violence!”
and thou wilt not save?
[3] Why dost thou make me see wrongs
and look upon trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me;
strife and contention arise.
God’s reply
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[2] And the Lord answered me:
“Write the vision;
make it plain upon tablets,
so he may run who reads it.
[3] For still the vision awaits its time;
it hastens to the end — it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come, it will not delay.
[4] Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail,
but the righteous shall live by his faith.
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Commentary:
1:2-2:4. The message and historical references contained in the book are con-
centrated in these verses. They appear to be a conversation between the Lord
and Habakkuk. The prophet has recourse to the Lord for his help to right grie-
vous wrongs (1:1-4). God’s reply is a surprising one, for he tells the prophet that
he is going to raise up a people, violent and cruel, “whose own might is their god”
(1:5-11). This disconcerts the prophet: How an it be that, to purify his elect, the
Lord should use such an irreligious and pitiless nation (1:12-17)? Still, the pro-
phet does not despair; he decides to remain attentive to the voice of the Lord
(2:1) – and the Lord does indeed respond to him by telling him in words what he
previously told him by gestures: there is a time for everything; obstacles will over-
throw the one whose soul is not upright, but he who is righteous shall live (2:1-4).
1:2-4. In his complaint to God, the prophet lists all the things that have gone
wrong for the people — wickedness, violence, neglect of the Law, injustices etc.
(vv. 3-4). However, what the prophet finds worst of all is the fact that the Lord
does nothing about it (v. 2). The vigour of Habakkuk’s words probably lies in the
fact that he is not just bemoaning the people’s lot; he is actually praying — and
prayer should never be contrived; it should come straight from the heart: “I say
to God simply what I want to say to Him, without using sweet words of beautiful
phrases, and He always hears and understands me. […] For me, in times of suf-
fering and times of joy, prayer is an impulse of the heart, a glance up to heaven,
an expression of gratitude and love” (St Therese of the Child Jesus, Autobiogra-
phial Writings, 25).
2:2-4. As if admitting that the prophet is right, God answers his questions. The
first point he makes clear is that when he promises something, it will happen:
time may pass, but his word will not pass away unfulfilled (vv. 2-3). And this de-
lay is a test of people’s faithfulness (v. 4).
The last verse here (”Behold … the righteous shall live by his faith”) is important
in both the Jewish and Christian biblical traditions. Some rabbis saw it as a sum-
mary of all 613 commandments of the Law; the writers of the Qumran commen-
tary understood it to mean that he who kept the Law would escape the Judgment;
and in the New Testament it is quoted on a number of occasions in connexion
with the power of faith and the need for fortitude.
However, the verse is difficult to translate; this can be seen in various transla-
tions and even in the way the text is quoted in the New Testament. The Letter to
the Hebrews 10:38 quotes this passage, working from the Greek translation, to
exhort Christians to persevere in the faith they have received: “My righteous one
shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” Al-
though the author of Hebrews inverts the order of the original, the meaning is
unchanged.
Similarly, “faith” (”faithfulness”: note d) translates a very common word (’emu-
nah) which means stability, faithfulness, faith. It is a quality of God (Deut 32:4)
and also of those who honour him (2 Chron 19:9) and who are righteous in his
eyes (Prov 12:22). In Romans 1:17 and Galatians 3:11, St Paul quotes the se-
cond part of the Habakkuk verse (”the righteous shall live by his faith”) applied
to the individual, to ground his teaching on justification by faith rather than by
the works of the Law. St Paul’s use of the verse means that it is very important
from a Christian point of view.
St Jerome’s interpretation takes account of both the original audience and the
Christian readership: “If your faith is weak and you begin to doubt that what was
promised will come about, you will cause my soul great displeasure. But the just
man, who believes in my word and never doubts the promises I make, will receive
eternal life as his reward […]. It is clear that these words contain a prophecy of
the coming of Christ. The problem they contain will be resolved by him: sin will
triumph and punishment be never-ending until He comes” (Commentarii in Abu-
cuc, 2, 4). The verse is similar in style to a proverb (or maxim), and can be rea-
dily applied to the Christian life. For example, just as the New Testament says
of St Joseph that he was a just man (cf. Mt 1:19), the Habakkuk passage can
be applied to him as a sign that justice implies faith: “To be just is not simply a
matter of obeying rules. Goodness should grow from the inside; it should be deep
and vital – for ‘the just man lives by faith’ (Hab 2:4). These words, which later be-
came a frequent subject of St Paul’s meditation, really did apply in the case of
St Joseph. He didn’t fulfill the will of God in a routine or perfunctory way; he did
it spontaneously and wholeheartedly. For him, the law which every practising Jew
lived by was not a code or a cold list of precepts, but an expression of the will of
the living God. So he knew how to recognize the Lord’s voice when it came to him
so unexpectedly and so surprisingly” (St. J. Escriva, Christ is Passing By, 41).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.