Place Written: Judah

Writing Completed: c. 628 B.C.E.(?)

3. What circumstances affecting Judah help to indicate the time of writing of Habakkuk?

³ When did Habakkuk make his prophetic pronouncements? The above-mentioned subscription and the words “Jehovah is in his holy temple” indicate that the temple in Jerusalem was still standing. (2:20) This, together with the message of the prophecy, suggests that it was spoken not long before Jerusalem’s destruction in 607 B.C.E. But how many years before? It must have been after the reign of God-fearing King Josiah, 659-629 B.C.E. The prophecy itself provides the clue in foretelling an activity that the people in Judah will not believe even if it is related. What is this? It is the raising up of the Chaldeans (Babylonians) by God to punish faithless Judah. (1:5, 6) This would fit the early part of the reign of idolatrous King Jehoiakim, a time when disbelief and injustice were rampant in Judah. Jehoiakim had been put on the throne by Pharaoh Necho, and the nation was within Egypt’s sphere of influence. Under such circumstances the people would feel they had cause to discredit any possibility of invasion from Babylon. But Nebuchadnezzar defeated Pharaoh Necho in the battle of Carchemish in 625 B.C.E., thus breaking the power of Egypt. The prophecy would therefore have been delivered before that event. So the indications point to the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign (begun in 628 B.C.E.), making Habakkuk a contemporary of Jeremiah.