HABAKKUK
99
HABIT
chapter iii, 17-19 as a later addition to Habacuc's
work: in reference to this last part only does it appear
true to say that it has no definite allusions to the cir-
cumstances of Habacuc's time. All things consid-
ered, it seems that the question whether chapter iii be
an original portion of the prophecy of Habacuc, or an
independent poem appended to it at a later date, can-
not be answered with certainty: too little is known in
a positive manner concerning the actual circum-
stances in the midst of which Habacuc composed his
work, to enable one to feel confident that this portion
of it must or must not be ascribed to the same author
• as the rest of the book.
IV. Literary and Textual Features. — In the composition of his book, Habacuc displays a literary power which has often been admired. His diction is rich and classical, and his imagery is striking and ap- propriate. The dialogue between God and him is highly oratorical, and exhibits to a larger extent than is commonly supposed, the parallelism of thought and expression which is the distinctive feature of Hebrew poetry. The Mashal or taunting song of five " woes ' ' which follows the dialogue, is placed with powerful dramatic effect on the lips of the nations whom the Chaldeans have cruelly oppressed. The lyric ode with which the book concludes, compares favourably in respect to imagery and rhythm with the best pro- ductions of Hebrew poetry. These literary beauties enable us to realize that Habacuc was a writer of high order. They also cause us to regret that the original te.xt of his prophecy should not have come down to us in all its primitive perfection. As a matter of fact, recent interpreters of the book have noticed and pointed out numerous alterations, especially in the line of additions, which have crept in the Hebrew text of the prophecy of Habacuc, and render it at times very obscure. Only a fair number of those altera- tions can be corrected by a close study of the context ; by a careful comparison of the text with the ancient versions, especially the Septuagint ; by an application of the rules of Hebrew parallelism, etc. In the other places, the primitive reading has disappeared and cannot be recovered, except eonjecturally, by the means which Biblical criticism affords in the present day.
V. Prophetical Teaching. — Most of the religious and moral truths that can be noticed in this short prophecy are not peculiar to it. They form part of the common message which the prophets of old were charged to convey to God's chosen people. Like the other prophets, Habacuc is the champion of ethical monotheism. For him, as for them, Yahweh alone is the living God (ii, 18-20) ; He is the Eternal and Holy One (i, 12), the Supreme Ruler of the Universe (i, 6, 17; ii, 5 sqq.; iii, 2-16), Whose word cannot fail to obtain its effect (ii, .3), and Whose giorj' will be ac- knowledged by all nations (ii, 14). In his eyes, as in those of the other prophets, Israel is God's chosen people whose unrighteousness He is bound to visit with a signal punishment (i, 2-4). The special peo- ple, whom it was Habacuc's own mission to announce to his contemporaries as the instruments of Yahweh 's judgment, were the Chaldeans, who will overthrow everything, even Juda and Jerusalem, in their victori- ous march (i, 6 sqq.). This was indeed at the time an incredible prediction (i, 5), for was not Juda God's kingdom and the Chaldean a world-power character- ized by overweening pride and tyranny? Was not therefore Juda the "just" to be saved, and the Chal- dean really the "wicked" to be destroyed? The an- swer to this difficulty is found in the distich (ii, 4) which contains the central and dLstinctive teaching of the book. Its oracular form bespeaks a principle of wider import than the actual circumstances in the midst of which it was revealed to the prophet, a gen- eral law, as we would say, of God's providence in the government of the world: the wicked carries in him-
self the germs of his own destruction ; the believer, on
the contrary, those of eternal life. It is because of
this, that Habacuc applies the oracle not only to the
Chaldeans of his time who are threatening the exist-
ence of God's kingdom on earth, but also to all the
nations opposed to that kingdom who will likewise be
reduced to naught (ii, 5-13), and solemnly declares
that " the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of
the glory of Yahweh, as the waters cover the sea" (ii,
15). It is because of this truly Messianic import that
the second part of Habacuc's oracle (ii, 4b) is repeat-
edly treated in the New Testament writings (Rom.,
i, 17; Gal., iii, 11; Hebr.,x, 38) as being verified in the
inner condition of the believers of the New Law.
CnMMENTARiEs: Cathoi.ic: — ScHEGG (2nd ed., Ratisbon, 1862); Rheinke (Brixen, 1870); Trochon (Paris, 1883); Kna- BENBAUER (Pans, 1S86); Non-Cathouc; — Delitzsch (Leipzig, 1843); VON Orelli (Eng. tr., Edinburgh, 1893); Kleinert (Leipzig, 1893); Wellhausen (3rd ed.. Berlin, 1898); David- son (Cambridge. 1899); Marti (Freiburg im Br., 1904); No- WACK (2nded.,G6ttingen, 1904); Duhm (Tubingen, 1906); van Hoonacker (Paris, 1908).
Francis E. Gigot. Habakkuk. See Habacuc.
Habington, William, poet and historian; b. at Hindlip, Worcestershire, lG05;d. 1654; son of Thomas Habington the antiquarian. He was educated at Saint-Omer and Paris. The information given by Anthony a Wood in his "Athenae" that Habington returned to England " to escape the importunity of the Jesuits to join their order" rests only on a vague state- ment made by the ex-Jesuit Wadsworth in his " Eng- lish Spanish Pilgrim". Habington married Lucy, daughter of William Herbert, Baron Powis, and a year or two after his marriage, in 1634, issued his well- known "Castara" (see Arber's English Reprints, 1870), a series of poems addressed mainly to his wife. In 1635 and 1640 second and third enlarged editions of the book respectively appeared. The poems are mostly short, many of them sonnets, and interspersed are several prose "characters" such as it was the fashion then to write. A few verses are addressed to friends, one of whom is Ben Jonson. All the poetry of "Castara" shows a peculiarly refined and pure imagination. It is always skilful and melodious and contains some passages of real beauty. It is marked, though not excessively, by the "metaphysical" qualities which pervaded most of the Caroline verse. In 1640 Habington also published a romantic tragedy, the "Queen of Arragon", of less interest for its dra- matic quality, which is small, than for special passages in it which illustrate the poet's independence of mind upon certain social and political questions. It was acted at Court, and after the Restoration was revived. Habington produced in the same year, 1640, a prose "History of Edward IV", reprinted in Kennet 's " Com- plete History of England" (London, 1706), stated by Wood to have been written and published at the desire of King Charles I. In 1041 followed "Obser- vations upon History", a series of reflective sketches in prose of great events in Europe, "such as" (he says) " impressed me in the reading and make the imagina- tion stand amazed at the vicissitude of time and fortune". Professor Saintsbury remarks of Hab- ington that "he is creditably distinguished from his contemporaries by a very strict and remarkable decency of thought and language".
Bullen in Diet. A^at. Biog., s. v.; Wood, AthencE, ed. Bliss (Oxford, 1848). II: Dodsley, Old Plays (London, 1875). ed. Hazlitt, preface, XIII; Ward. English Dramatic Literature (London, 1899), III; Gillow, BiM. Diet. Eng. Cath. (London, 1888), III.
K. M. Warren.
Habit is an effect of repeated acts and an aptitude to reproduce them, and may be defined as "a quality difficult to change, whereby an agent whose nature it is to work one way or another indeterminately, is disposed easily and readily at will to follow this or that particular line of action" (Rickaby, Moral Philos-
