Prophet Habakkuk (Judah)

Habakkuk is the prophet who argued with God. His book opens with a complaint, "How long, O Lord, shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?", as violence and injustice go unpunished in Judah. God's answer is more troubling still: he is raising up the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, "that bitter and hasty nation." Habakkuk protests again and takes his stand on his watchtower; the reply comes that the vision will come in its time, that the arrogant will fall, and that "the righteous shall live by his faith" (2:4). Five woes against the plunderer follow, and the book closes with a psalm-like prayer: "Though the fig tree does not blossom... yet I will rejoice in the Lord" (3:17–18).

The Talmud (Makkot 24a) says that Habakkuk distilled all 613 commandments into one principle, "the righteous shall live by his faith." Chapter 3 is the haftarah of the second day of Shavuot. Among the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Habakkuk Pesher from Qumran Cave 1 applies chapters 1–2 to the community's Teacher of Righteousness and the Wicked Priest, and the Greek additions to Daniel tell how an angel carried Habakkuk to Babylon by his hair to bring food to Daniel in the lions' den.