How can God, who is holy and just, use evil men to fulfil his purposes in the world? This question is the main topic of the prophecy of Habakkuk. The book is therefore unusual in that it deals with the prophet’s challenge to God rather than God’s challenge to his people. Of Habakkuk himself we know for sure only what is stated in 1:1 and 3:1, that he was a prophet. Even the meaning of his name, which occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Old Testament, is uncertain. Some
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