A Protest and an Answer (i): After the introduction (v. 1), Habakkuk challenges Yahweh about faithlessness and violence in Judah and Yahweh’s failure to act in deliverance (vv. 2–4), and Yahweh announces the intention to take action by means of the Babylonians (vv. 5–11).

1:5–11 Yahweh is stung into responding and implies that Habakkuk’s protest was quite proper. It is necessary to do something about the way people are treating each other in Jerusalem, and Yahweh is committed to acting. Typically Yahweh will act by using some other human groups as agents. Earlier in its history, especially in the story told in Joshua, Yahweh had used Israel as an instrument of judgment against other people, though in the Latter Prophets Yahweh does not speak in these terms. But Yahweh had always also used o…