Chavakuk HaNavi
635 BCE–580 BCE · Biblical · Jerusalem
Chavakuk (Habakkuk) is the prophet who argues with God. His short book opens with a complaint about violence and injustice going unpunished (Habakkuk 1:2-4), and God's answer is even harder to bear: 'I am raising up the Chaldeans, that fierce, impetuous nation' (Habakkuk 1:6). He asks how a just God can use a crueller nation to punish a less wicked one (Habakkuk 1:13), then takes up his watch to wait for a reply. The reply contains the line 'the righteous shall live by their faithfulness' (Habakkuk 2:4), which the Talmud calls the single principle on which all 613 commandments rest (Makkot 24a). The book ends with a prayer-psalm 'of the prophet Habakkuk' (Habakkuk 3:1) that carries psalm-style musical directions, 'For the leader; with instrumental music' (Habakkuk 3:19). Scholars date him to the rise of Babylon around 610-597 BCE; Seder Olam places him in the reign of King Menashe.
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JerusalemירושליםJudea
What they did here
The book does not name Chavakuk's town. Its concern is Judah facing the Chaldeans (Habakkuk 1:6), and chapter 3 carries psalm-style musical notes, 'For the leader; with instrumental music' (Habakkuk 3:1, 3:19), so scholars generally place him in Judah, probably Jerusalem. That is an inference, not a stated fact.
Jerusalem in this era
In the Hebrew Bible, David takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and makes it his capital, Solomon builds the First Temple there, and Nehemiah rebuilds its walls after the return from Babylon; in 164 BCE Judah Maccabee rededicated the Temple, the origin of Hanukkah. Archaeologists debate how large the city was in the 10th century BCE; it is well attested as the capital of Judah by the 8th century BCE, and Babylon destroyed it in 586 BCE.
About Jerusalem
Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.
In Jerusalem at the same time
King of Judah, Baruch HaSofer, King of Judah, Gedaliah ben Achikam
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Chavakuk HaNavi’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
King of Judah, Baruch HaSofer, King of Judah, Gedaliah ben Achikam
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Chavakuk HaNavi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.