SUMMARY
Habakkuk is influenced by other prophets in his oracleAn oracle is a divine utterance of guidance, promise, or judgment delivered to humans through an intermediary (who is often also called an oracle). In the Bible oracles are given by Balaam (in the book of Numbers) and by David (in 2 Samuel). A number... More against those who perpetrate violence.
ANALYSIS
Habakkuk likely borrows from two other prophets in his woe oracle of 2:12-14. In verse 13, he asks a rhetorical question that quotes from and slightly modifies a similar woe oracle in JeremiahProphet who condemned Judah's infidelity to God, warned of Babylonian conquest, and promised a new covenant. More 51:58 against Babylon. The woe oracle in Habakkuk seems to be aimed not against Babylon alone, but against all perpetrators of violence, those who “build a town by bloodshed.” The prophet echoes his near contemporary Jeremiah by asserting that such violence will not prevail, that “nations weary themselves for nothing.”
The vision of hope that contrasts with the woe oracle asserts that in the future, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.” This vision of the new age is, again, almost a direct quotation of IsaiahIsaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied in Jerusalem, is included among the prophets of the eighth century BCE (along with Amos, Hosea, and Micah)--preachers who boldly proclaimed God's word of judgment against the economic, social, and religious disorders of their time. More 11:9, a verse that concludes Isaiah’s vision of a peaceable kingdom.
It is impossible to prove that Habakkuk borrowed from the other two prophets. Linguistic details, however, as well as the fact that Isaiah 11 falls in the part of the book attributed primarily to the eighth-century prophet, would give credence to such an argument. If this theory is correct, it demonstrates that the oracles of the prophets, with their concern for justice and God’s glory, influenced both their contemporaries and their successors.
