King James Bible Dictionary

Habakkuk - Embrace, the eighth of the twelve minor prophets. Of his personal history we have no reliable information. He was probably a member of the Levitical choir. He was contemporary with Jeremiah and Zephaniah.

he that embraces; a wrestler

A prophet and poet, who prophesied after the destruction of Nineveh
Habakkuk 1:1; Habakkuk 3:1

His hymn of praise of the majesty of God
Habakkuk 35:3

(embrace), the eighth in order of the minor prophets. Of the facts of the prophet's life we have no certain information. He probably lived about the twelfth or thirteenth year of Josiah, B.C. 630 or 629.

Were probably written about B.C. 650-627, or, as some think, a few years later. This book consists of three chapters, the contents of which are thus comprehensively described- "When the prophet in spirit saw the formidable power of the Chaldeans approaching and menacing his land, and saw the great evils they would cause in Judea, he bore his complaints and doubts before Jehovah, the just and the pure (1:2-17). And on this occasion the future punishment of the Chaldeans was revealed to him (2). In the third chapter a presentiment of the destruction of his country, in the inspired heart of the prophet, contends with his hope that the enemy would be chastised." The third chapter is a sublime song dedicated "to the chief musician," and therefore intended apparently to be used in the worship of God. It is "unequalled in majesty and splendour of language and imagery."

The passage in 2:4, "The just shall live by his faith," is quoted by the apostle in Romans 1:17. (Comp. Galatians 3:12; Hebrews 10:37, 38.)

consists of three chapters, in the first of which he foreshadows the invasion of Judea by the Chaldeans, and in the second he foretells the doom of the Chaldeans. The whole concludes with the magnificent psalm in ch. 3, a composition unrivalled for boldness of conception, sublimity of thought and majesty of diction.