As to the correct pronunciation of the prophet’s unusual Hebrew name, don’t worry about it. The English spelling would suggest Ha-BAK-kuk, the Hebrew is Ha-bak-KUK which sounds slightly insulting in English, and the most common American pronunciation is HA-bak-kuk. Choose one; someone will always be there to point out your error.
The name Habaqquq seems to be a Piel intensive form of the verb habaq which means to fold the hands together, grasp, or embrace, but the name is unique and its meaning ultimately unknown. It might be an Eastern Semitic name for a plant.
The book divides into three sections.
I. Habakkuk’s Complaint and God’s Response in 1:1-11
II. Habakkuk’s Reply and God’s Response in 1:12-2:20
III. Habakkuk’s Psalm on Praise in 3:1-19
Generally, the focus in on three aspects of faith or faithfulness:
Chapter 1: Faith Wrestling with a Problem
Chapter 2: Faith Finding the Solution
Chapter 3: Faith Resting in Confidence
Habakkuk’s prophecy is unlike any other Old Testament prophet’s. The others speak to God’s people to deliver a message from God. Habakkuk speaks directly to God to solve a problem.
Israel and Judah had three great oppressors: Edom, Assyria, and Babylon. The prophet Obadiah dealt with Edom, Nahum with Assyria, and Habakkuk with Babylon. Edom and Assyria were no more as Habakkuk penned his work. They are not mentioned in his book.
Before Habakkuk was born, King Hezekiah was worried about the Assyrian Sennacherib’s attacks on Jerusalem (II Kings 18:13), and had just been miraculously restored from a fatal illness, when a delegation of possible allies appeared at the city gate. These were Babylonians ostensibly come to congratulate Hezekiah on his recovery. Perhaps to convince them what a worthy ally Judah would be, Hezekiah took the Babylonians on a tour of his treasures, the temple’s treasures, and his full armory (Isaiah 30:6ff), knowledge the Babylonians would later use in sacking and destroying Jerusalem. Babylonia’s attack was imminent in Habakkuk’s day. Judah was ruled by Jehoiakim, the wicked king who had Jeremiah’s prophecy scroll burned (Jeremiah 36, II Kings 24). The Babylonians would take him, along with the nobles (including Daniel) of Jerusalem, into captivity before taking almost the entire population away in subsequent attacks.
To Habakkuk’s complaint that Judah was filled with wickedness, God replied that the Babylonians would be the chastening rod to correct things. But the Babylonians were much more evil than the people of Judah. This was Habakkuk’s problem. How could God do this thing?
It is sometimes confusing that the Bible refers to these people as either Babylonians or Chaldeans. Babylonian is the name based on their capital city. Chaldeans is a form of Arpachshad (Genesis 10:22), one of the five sons of Shem, so these were a West Semitic people closely related to Abraham’s descendants (Abram came from Ur of the Chaldeans). The other close relations of the Jews were the Elamites (in Western Arabia), the Assyrians in what is today Northern Iraq (from Asshur), the Ludites (in today’s Turkey), and the Arameans of Syria and Palestine. The Chaldeans pushed east and south, carefully bypassing the rising power of the Assyrians, and settled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers at their extreme southern end near where they enter the Gulf. Chaldeans and Babylonians are synonymous terms.