Christian Churches of God
No. 021H
Commentary on Habakkuk
(Edition 1.0 201401107-20141107)
The prophet Habakkuk lived in evil times and complains to the Lord concerning that and he
is told that Judah will be sent into captivity to the Babylonians who will be successors to
the Assyrians (cf. also Psalm 73).
Christian Churches of God
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(Copyright  2014 Wade Cox)
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Commentary on Habakkuk
Commentary on Habakkuk
Introduction
Habakkuk was probably of the Temple Choir
and therefore a Levite (cf. 1:1 and 3:1,19).
The nearest word to his name in Hebrew is the
word chabak meaning to embrace and
rabbinical tradition holds him to be the son of
the Shunammite woman that Elisha restored to
life (2Kgs. 4:16). His name has also been
associated with an Assyrian word hambakuku
which is a flower but chabak is preferred by
rabbinical tradition. His name may well be
embraced because he was used as a prophet to
deal with the union of Israel and Judah
commencing in the Last Days as we will see
below.
It is generally believed that he fled to Egypt in
the debacle that followed 586 BCE returning
after the withdrawal of the Chaldeans. His
tomb is said to be in Keilah, 18 miles SW of
Jerusalem.
It seems that he prophesied shortly after the
Temple scroll was discovered in the reign of
Josiah in 621 BCE. Josiah’s restoration was
short lived and under Jehoiakim the people
began to practice idolatry again and lawlessness
became rampant. The king disguised his
weakness with tyranny and finally became
subservient to Nebuchadnezzar (cf. 2Kgs.
14:1).
The Seder Olam teaches that Joel, Nahum and
Habakkuk all prophesied in the days of
Manasseh (cf. Soncino intro., p. 211). That
king was so wicked they allegedly omitted his
name from their books. The most probable
sequence begins after 621 and begins with the
rise of the Chaldeans. Some think that it was
perhaps between the Battle of Carchemish in
605 BCE and the fall of the Temple in 586
BCE; say ca. 600 BCE during the reign of
Jehoiakim.
However, there is much more to this prophecy
than is deduced by the rabbinical authorities.
Their limitation to post Carchemish may be a
limitation on the prophecy as we see from the
conquests of Nabopolassar, 1st king of the
Chaldean dynasty, and the Medes.
The structure of the Book is:
1. The Prophet’s Cry
2. Yahovah’s Answer
3. The Prophet’s Cry
4. Yahovah’s Answer.
There are 56 verses divided into three chapters
which in turn fall into six divisions, rather than
the four simple structures above.
The divisions are:
1:2-4 which is the prophet challenging God for
allowing the innocent to suffer and the wicked
to prosper.
1:5-11 is God’s reply, in that the agents of His
wrath are already being marshaled.
1:12-17 sees the prophet question the judgment
because surely God cannot allow the nation to
be swallowed up by a nation that is even
guiltier.
Habakkuk Chapter 1
[1] The oracle of God which Habak'kuk the
prophet saw. [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. [4] So the law
is slacked and justice never goes forth. For the
wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes
forth perverted.
God answers Habakkuk. He says He is raising
the Chaldeans, which He did with
Nabopolassar and he was aided by the Medes in
their moves against the Assyrians from the East
and North.
[5] Look among the nations, and see; wonder
and be astounded. For I am doing a work in
your days that you would not believe if told. [6]
For lo, I am rousing the Chalde'ans, that bitter
and hasty nation, who march through the
breadth of the earth, to seize habitations not
their own. [7] Dread and terrible are they;
Commentary on Habakkuk
their justice and dignity proceed from
themselves. [8] Their horses are swifter than
leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves;
their horsemen press proudly on. Yea, their
horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle
swift to devour. [9] They all come for violence;
terror of them goes before them. They gather
captives like sand. [10] At kings they scoff, and
of rulers they make sport. They laugh at every
fortress, for they heap up earth and take it.
[11] Then they sweep by like the wind and go
on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!
Habakkuk acknowledges that God has ordained
them as judgment against Judah. He however
rebukes God for remaining silent when
confronted by evil men.
[12] Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD
my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O
LORD, thou hast ordained them as a judgment;
and thou, O Rock, hast established them for
chastisement. [13] Thou who art of purer eyes
than to behold evil and canst not look on
wrong, why dost thou look on faithless men,
and art silent when the wicked swallows up the
man more righteous than he? [14] For thou
makest men like the fish of the sea, like
crawling things that have no ruler. [15] He
brings all of them up with a hook,
he drags them out with his net, he gathers them
in his seine; so he rejoices and exults. [16]
Therefore he sacrifices to his net and burns
incense to his seine; for by them he lives in
luxury, and his food is rich. [17] Is he then to
keep on emptying his net, and mercilessly
slaying nations for ever?
He questions regarding the Chaldean capture
and robbery of men more just than they and
then asks if they will continue mercilessly
slaying nations forever. Now Daniel was to
reveal that the Chaldeans were to start a system
of world empire that was to last for seven times
over the empires of the Babylonians, the Medes
and Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Holy
Roman Empire and the empire of the Ten Toes
of Iron and Miry Clay that was to end in the
Last Days with the coming of the Messiah, who
was to strike it on the toes and bring it to an
end. This sequence is placed as prophecy with
the rise of the Chaldeans before Carchemish in
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605 BCE and the reign of Nebuchadnezzar.
Chapter 2:1-5 shows the prophet withdraws
into solitude to accelerate the answer to his
challenge.
In verse 4 God delivers the key message of the
text which is that the righteous shall live by
faith. Thus God may choose to place the elect
in the midst of a heathen people in order to
develop their faith and eradicate evil from
them. Tyranny will never endure and triumph
over the elect.
Note the vision is to be written for it is yet for a
time appointed even though the Chaldeans were
developing before Carchemish.
Habakkuk Chapter 2
[1] I will take my stand to watch, and station
myself on the tower, and look forth to see what
he will say to me, and what I will answer
concerning my complaint. [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 seem 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. [5] Moreover, wine is treacherous; the
arrogant man shall not abide. His greed is as
wide as Sheol; like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations, and collects
as his own all peoples."
These empires will be formed of all peoples
and last for some time. In Daniel we see it is
Seven Times or 2520 years.
In 2:6-20 we see the victims taunt their
oppressors with a series of woes. The lust of
conquests and their barbarity provides a lesson
for the whole world to witness. It is a great
lesson against the Babylonian system through
until its collapse in the Last Days and is not just
a lesson against Nebuchadnezzar’s Head of
Gold in Daniel chapter 2 but against the whole
edifice into the Last Days and the coming of the
Messiah.
[6] Shall not all these take up their taunt
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against him, in scoffing derision of him, and
say, "Woe to him who heaps up what is not his
own -- for how long? -- and loads himself with
pledges!" [7] Will not your debtors suddenly
arise, and those awake who will make you
tremble? Then you will be booty for them. [8]
Because you have plundered many nations, all
the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you,
for the blood of men and violence to the earth,
to cities and all who dwell therein. [9] Woe to
him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his
nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm!
[10] You have devised shame to your house by
cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited
your life. [11] For the stone will cry out from
the wall, and the beam from the woodwork
respond. [12] Woe to him who builds a town
with blood, and founds a city on iniquity! [13]
Behold, is it not from the LORD of hosts that
peoples labor only for fire, and nations weary
themselves for nought? [14] For the earth will
be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the
LORD, as the waters cover the sea. [15] Woe
to him who makes his neighbors drink of the
cup of his wrath, and makes them drunk, to
gaze on their shame! [16] You will be sated
with contempt instead of glory. Drink, yourself,
and stagger! The cup in the LORD's right hand
will come around to you, and shame will come
upon your glory! [17] The violence done to
Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of
the beasts will terrify you, for the blood of men
and violence to the earth, to cities and all who
dwell therein. [18] What profit is an idol
when its maker has shaped it, a metal image, a
teacher of lies? For the workman trusts in his
own creation when he makes dumb idols!
[19] Woe to him who says to a wooden thing,
Awake; to a dumb stone, Arise! Can this give
revelation? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and
silver, and there is no breath at all in it.
[20] But the LORD is in his holy temple;
let all the earth keep silence before him.
The entire Assyro-Babylonian religious system
was to cover the earth and the Mystery and Sun
cults and their worship of the idols of the
Mother Goddess system; but the earth is
commanded to keep silence before God and His
Holy Temple. They felled the cedars of
Lebanon and for this God holds them in
punishment and they will be dealt with in the
Commentary on Habakkuk
days of these systems right to the end.
In 3:2-19 the prophet prays and again begs God
to intervene on behalf of his people. Habakkuk
contrasts the style of his prayer to that of
Jeremiah and Ezekiel who condemn the sins of
their people and develop the ongoing
prophecies of the entire period to the Last Days.
Ezekiel brings us to the end of the Times of the
Gentiles and the fall of Egypt in the Last Days.
Jeremiah brings us to the Last Days and the
Warning of the Last Prophet (in Jer. 4:15).
This text deals with the sins of the Babylonian
system and the coming of the Loyal Host of
God to destroy the sinful systems of the world.
Verses 16-19 show the prophet’s total
confidence that out of this carnage Israel and
not just Judah will be saved and re-established.
The vibrancy of the ode in this last chapter is
marveled at by many of the experts in Hebrew
and those such as Driver regard it as some of
the finest poetry Hebrew has produced. The
Soncino also comments and quotes Driver.
Habakkuk Chapter 3
[1] A prayer of Habak'kuk the prophet,
according to Shigion'oth.
Shigionoth (cf. Ps. 8). It is compared to a
‘dithrambic poem in wild ecstatic wandering
rythms’ (cf. Soncino).
[2] O LORD, I have heard the report of thee,
and thy work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst
of the years renew it; in the midst of the years
make it known; in wrath remember mercy. [3]
God came from Teman, and the Holy One from
Mount Paran. His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise. Selah
Teman is NW of Edom and Paran is west of
Edom between the Sinai Peninsula and Kadesh
Barnea. It is north of the port of Aqaba
following the coast. This was the route that the
Commonwealth forces took in their liberation
of Israel and Jerusalem in 1917 to retake
Jerusalem on 25 Chislev 1917 according to the
Temple Calendar based on the conjunctions
with the Australian attack, after taking
Beersheba (see also The Oracles of God (No.
184)). This began the restoration of Israel in the
Commentary on Habakkuk
Last Days from the sacred year 1916/17 to
2027. Messiah will from this sequence come to
the Mount of Olives from the period of 2018/19
to complete the task.
This was seven times from the Battle of
Carchemish in 605 BCE ending in the year
1916/17; 2520 years after that battle and the
beginning of the end period of twice forty years
of Ezekiel’s prophecy of The Fall of Egypt:
Pharaoh’s Broken Arms (No. 036) began.
These were the Wars of the Last Days as we see
in the Fall of Egypt Part II: The Wars of the
End (No. 036_2).
The Anglo-Arab alliance was formed in the
sacred year 1916/17.
On January 24, after a single day of battle, an
Anglo-Arab force seized the port city of Wejh,
which became the Arabs' logistical and
operational base. As the Arabs gathered
victories and adherents, British general Sir
Archibald Murray realized that the Arabs could
provide support for his efforts in the Sinai to
secure the Suez Canal and push the Ottomans
out of Gaza. The Arabs' task was to keep
Fakhri's troops bottled in Medina and sabotage
the Hejaz Railway. This began the prophecies
in Habakkuk that began the liberation of the
Levant and the end of the Ottoman rule. It
commenced from the south as God said it
would, from Paran, which is from Sinai to
Kadesh Barnea and along the coast of Aqaba
West of Edom and through Teman which was
to the NW of Edom towards the Jordan and was
well watered. It is the junction of important
trade routes both then and now.
The Arabs then engaged in railway “line
smashing” over 1917.
The revolt's leaders remained focused on the
larger strategic goal: push north and link up
with tribes and leaders in Syria and
Mesopotamia. This, however, would require a
new operational port. While feverish from
dysentery, T. E. Lawrence conceived a scheme
to take the Red Sea port of Aqaba, which is
today part of Jordan. He declined to attack from
the water, where Aqaba was defended by heavy
guns. Rather, his bold plan called for a force to
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emerge from the Nefudh Desert, which the
Ottomans would never expect. The initial party
of Lawrence and 17 Agayl warriors set out
from Wejh on May 10, 1917 (from the period
of the Second Passover). The men had £20,000
to recruit new tribesmen and, along the way,
their numbers swelled to about 700 fighters.
The head of a number of these other Arab
tribesmen was Auda Abu Tayi chief of the
Howeitat who agreed to join Lawrence in the
attack.
This 600-mile, weeks-long trek was through
terrain so inhospitable even the Bedouin called
it al-Houl (the Terror). Lawrence’s biographer
Michael Asher called it "one of the most daring
raids ever attempted in the annals of war." The
Arabs launched their assault from the northeast,
sweeping up the outlying Ottoman forces with
the loss of only two tribesmen by July 5. The
next day the Arabs, now some 2,500 men,
entered Aqaba without a shot, the garrison
having scurried away. Gaunt, filthy, and
wearing his Bedouin robes, Lawrence crossed
the Sinai to Cairo to inform the new British
commander in chief, Gen. Edmund Allenby, of
this stunning victory. As a reward, the Arabs
received an additional payment of £16,000, and
Lawrence was promoted to major.
During that time from Lawrence’s move to
Allenby at Cairo and return, Aqaba had been
fortified by the forces that consisted of a
battalion of Imperial Camel Corp, heavy
weapons and armoured cars as well as gold.
This Camel Corp and the Arabs assisted him in
these activities from the taking of Aqaba to the
advance up the Jordan Valley to Damascus
protecting Allenby’s right flank.
Allenby ordered the Commonwealth forces on
to Sinai and the Australian Light Horse
captured Beersheba and then the Australians
moved on and captured Jerusalem on 7
December 1917. Thus the prophecy of
Habakkuk of the restoration of the Levant from
Teman and Paran was completed over the
period of Seven Times or 2520 years from the
Battle of Carchemish and the occupation of the
Chaldeans plus one year commencing in 1916
and taking Jerusalem by December 1917.
Lawrence entered Jerusalem with Allenby and
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Commentary on Habakkuk
then the Commonwealth Forces moved on and
engaged the Ottoman and German defensive
lines near Galilee.
The sequence was as follows.
Battle of Beersheba
Tel el Khuweilfe
The breakthrough occurred
(Sinai and Palestine 48 November)
The Great Drive was made
The Maritime Plain was
cleared
The Jerusalem advance
Nahr Auja and El Buij
Final assault for the capture
of Jerusalem
31 October to
1 November
8 November
6-11 November
8-15 November
11-17 November
16-24 November
24 November to
1 December
7 December
The final assault was launched by
Commonwealth troops on 7 December 1917.
According to the true New Moon this was the
actual date of the 24 Chislev (the Hillel
calendar commenced the month two days
later). The Turks and Germans began an
immediate evacuation and by 8 December 1917
Jerusalem had been captured. The infantry had
dug in and established and by 10 December the
Light Horse pushed along the Nablus road
about eight miles. They drew heavy Turkish
artillery fire. They were holding out towards
the southern end of the Jordan Valley and were
attempting to limit Allied access across the
river to the Hejaz railway and thus limit
Allenby’s operations on the right flank.
Allenby officially entered Jerusalem on 11
December 1917, the 28th of Chislev.
The Commonwealth Forces moved on into
Lebanon and Syria and Feisal entered
Damascus. The Sikes/Picot agreement between
Britain and France had divided the Levant with
Suez, Palestine and Mesopotamia being given
to Britain and Lebanon and Syria given to
France. This, however, set the scenes under the
Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the UN
Mandate of 1922 for the creation of the State of
Israel over the next thirty years from the end of
WWI to 1948.
The prophecy in Haggai 2:1-23 is related to this
prophecy of Habakkuk.
The prophecy in Haggai confirms the Temple
Calendar based on the New Moons according
to the conjunction and not as seen in Hillel.
Habakkuk and the groups left for Egypt in 586
BCE and returned after the withdrawal of the
Chaldeans. That is one time cycle of 19 years
from Carchemish and adds one time cycle to
the beginning of the last period. Thus the Seven
Times or 2520 years from the beginning of the
eighty year period and the end with Cambyses’
invasion in 525 BCE ends in 1996/7 at the end
of the Times of the Gentiles. The 2520 years
from the destruction of Jerusalem and
withdrawal of the Chaldeans, i.e. from 587/6
BCE, is plus 19 years. 2520 from 586 is 1937.
On January 30 1933 Hitler was appointed
chancellor of Germany. The years 1933-36
marked the beginning of the crisis in Judah
with the rise of the Nazis and the support of the
Anti-Semites in South Africa from that time
onwards. The extermination and genocide of
the Jews was undertaken particularly over
1941-1945. The wars against Judah in the
Middle East were supported from the rise of the
Nazis and war was commenced in 1948 and
resulted in the declaration of the state of Israel.
In 1967 the time sequence of the end began
with the Six Day war and the reclamation of all
of Jerusalem by Judah in Israel.
Forty years after the rise of the Nazis and the
attempts to wipe out the Jews, in October 1973,
the Yom Kippur war began and, although peace
with Egypt was ensured, war with Syria
continued and a cease fire was only agreed in
May 1974. Forty years later in 2014, after the
Arab Spring had erupted, the entire Middle East
was in crisis with a so-called Islamic State New
Caliphate declared at the expiration of the
probationary period of forty years. A brutal
war of extermination was begun after the end of
the Second Passover all over Syria and
Mesopotamia. These nations are now being
brought to their knees in a war of attrition and
brutality not seen in the Middle East for
centuries. This war is escalating also in the
North and East and it appears that the wars of
Commentary on Habakkuk
the Fifth and Sixth Trumpet are being
developed.
If there is another two periods of forty years
from this period for probation and repentance
we thus can expect Divine action from 2015/16
in the restoration and consolidation of the
Middle East in Israel and the judgment of the
Chaldeans and Arab people. However, the
nations are shaken generally from verse 6. So a
more general event is to be expected.
The Wars went on as we see described in
Revelation.
[4] His brightness was like the light, rays
flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his
power. [5] Before him went pestilence, and
plague followed close behind. [6] He stood and
measured the earth; he looked and shook the
nations; then the eternal mountains were
scattered, the everlasting hills sank low. His
ways were as of old. [7] I saw the tents of
Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of
Mid'ian did tremble. [8] Was thy wrath against
the rivers, O LORD? Was thy anger against the
rivers, or thy indignation against the sea,
when thou didst ride upon thy horses, upon thy
chariot of victory? [9] Thou didst strip the
sheath from thy bow, and put the arrows to the
string. Selah Thou didst cleave the earth with
rivers. [10] The mountains saw thee, and
writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep
gave forth its voice, it lifted its hands on high.
[11] The sun and moon stood still in their
habitation at the light of thine arrows as they
sped, at the flash of thy glittering spear. [12]
Thou didst bestride the earth in fury, thou didst
trample the nations in anger. [13] Thou
wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, for
the salvation of thy anointed. Thou didst crush
the head of the wicked, laying him bare from
thigh to neck. Selah [14] Thou didst pierce
with thy shafts the head of his warriors, who
came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing
as if to devour the poor in secret. [15] Thou
didst trample the sea with thy horses, the
surging of mighty waters. [16] I hear, and my
body trembles, my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones, my steps totter
beneath me. I will quietly wait for the day of
trouble to come upon people who invade us.
Page 7
[17] Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor
fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive
fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut
off from the fold and there be no herd in the
stalls, [18] yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will
joy in the God of my salvation. [19] GOD, the
Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like
hinds' feet, he makes me tread upon my high
places. To the choirmaster: with stringed
instruments.
This is the end of the Last Days and the great
wars of the end. Even though there is
destruction the prophet knows it is for the
restoration of the people of God and the
subjugation of the nations of the world under
the Vials of the Wrath of God at the Return of
the Messiah.
Note that the rivers will be used to afflict the
nations as will the seas. This refers to the great
wars that emerge from the Tigris-Euphrates
basin with the wars of the Fifth and the Sixth
Trumpets of Revelation.
The massive wrath and affliction here is against
the Middle East and the Arab peoples of
Cushan and Midian right through to the Greeks.
Cushan is used in association with Midian and
probably refers to the Cushites in Babylonia
rather than to those associated with the Sudan
to Ethiopia. The Rift systems from Lebanon to
the Red Sea will be torn apart by massive
earthquakes in the Last Days at the coming of
the Messiah and the split of the Mount of
Olives. This activity forms a valley 66 km from
North to South and moves Sinai southward and
blocks the tongue of the Red Sea. It is possible
that the Red Sea Rift is also opened up. There
is little doubt that the Arab sons of Midian and
Cush are meant at the very least. Midian was a
major Arab tribe to the South East of Edom
(and which also went north into Iraq); as are the
sons of Keturah generally. Ishmael is an
Arabicised Arab tribe and not the original true
Arabs who were sons of Keturah.
The prophecies of Habakkuk are still unfolding
and will continue until Messiah.
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