Havakuk 1 | “How Much Longer Must I Implore You, O Lord, Though You Do Not Listen”

Sefer Havakuk opens in a very turbulent way. Unlike the usual pattern of prophetic literature, the book begins not with a prophecy from God to the prophet, but rather with a cry from the prophet to God. And it is a harsh cry: “How much longer must I implore You, O Lord, though You do not listen. I scream out to You ‘violence!’ yet You bring no salvation” (1:2). The prophet not only cries out, but also declares that God does not listen to his outcry, and he protests this — why do You not bring salvation?

In several places in Tanakh, prominent figures and prophets cry out to God and ask the question of suffering and evil in the world, and Chapter 1 of Sefer Havakuk is one of the most striking among them — both in its length and in the power of the prophet’s claims. The terms “wicked” and “righteous” serve as key words in the chapter. Havakuk asks why the wicked besiege the righteous (1:4), and why God remains silent when the evildoer devours one more righteous than himself (1:13). Havakuk also argues that the success of the wicked constitutes a desecration of God’s name, and it is this success that leads the Chaldeans to sacrifice to idols: “And so they worship their net, make offerings to their trawl” (1:16).

Midway through the chapter, the prophetic style shifts and becomes more like a classic prophecy — in which God is the speaker and describes the impending disaster: “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that harsh and impetuous nation that sweeps the span of the earth seizing homes not theirs” (1:6). Thus, this chapter contains both the contents of the calamity and Havakuk’s sharp responses to it and to the destruction that is to come.

In the next chapter, we find Havakuk standing and waiting to hear God’s reply: “I stand watch at my post; I will not move from my lookout; I wait to see what God will say to me and how I will respond to the rebuke” (2:1). The essence of God’s reply, which we will expand upon tomorrow, is: “Though it lingers, wait for it, for when the time is right it will come” (2:3). Havakuk waits for an answer from God, and God’s answer is that Havakuk must wait for salvation, which will come. What kind of answer is that? Havakuk cries out from the pain and anguish of the moment — he wants an answer! What good is it to wait? In the meantime, the wicked continue to besiege the righteous!

It seems that here — and in many other places in Tanakh (such as several cases in Psalms) — the response to the question of suffering is: wait, eventually salvation will come. One might indeed ask — what kind of answer is this? But on a deeper level, it appears there is a very profound idea here: the power of truth and the power of the righteous do not lie in the present moment, but in the outcomes viewed over a long period of time. One does not need to be a great philosopher to recognize that the strength of the Jewish people lies in long-term survival, not necessarily in the present — which is not always the most impressive.

On another level, it seems that the idea that salvation will come after a time includes within it a space in which the human being can act. If God were to intervene and bring immediate salvation every time someone cries out, there would be no room left for human action — and consequently, there would be no free will. God created a world in which people must face struggle and challenge, in which human beings are free to choose. Salvation will come, but only after a while. First, the person must grapple with the situation on their own — and choose good. For further discussion of this theological principle, see the attached piece written by Rav Eliezer Berkovits, from his book Faith After the Holocaust.