Habakkuk 1:5-11, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Habakkuk 1:5-11
The First Answer: The Chaldeans Are Raised Up
An astonishing work: the Chaldeans are raised
Behold ye among the heathen, and regard, and wonder marvellously: for I will work a work in your days, which ye will not believe, though it be told you. The work is then named: I raise up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwellingplaces that are not theirs.
Leopard-swift horses, evening wolves, eagles toward prey, violence as their faces, captives like sand, scorn of kings, heaps against strongholds: the poetry is speed and seizure. It is not a campaign diary, and it is not applause.
They are their own law, and the last line calls them guilty
They are terrible and dreadful: their judgment and their dignity shall proceed of themselves. Then shall his mind change, and he shall pass over, and offend, imputing this his power unto his god. The closing clause is difficult, but the moral turn is not: the raised instrument offends. Power is treated as a god.
That the LORD raises the Chaldeans does not make invasion righteous, does not make every empire holy, and does not invite readers to celebrate conquest. Military success is not proof of divine approval. The name is an ancient imperial power, not a slur against a living people, and not a code for a present state.
How this should shape us
Do not baptize momentum. Ask what a rising power takes and what it worships. Providence can use an agent without washing that agent clean, and an old ethnic-political name must not be turned into hostility toward people alive now.
Teach it back
Explain Habakkuk 1:5-11 in your own words. Include its place in Habakkuk's complaint-answer-woe-prayer movement, the unit's main turn, one material uncertainty, and one misuse the context rules out.
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Go deeper
The explanation above is meant to stand on its own. Open these notes only if you want language, history, disagreements, or source locations.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The audience of verse 5, the precise force of verse 11, and the relation of the oracle to historical campaigns are debated. The strongest reading keeps the Chaldeans explicit, God's raising action real, and the conqueror's guilt equally real.
How certain? probableResearch trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and canonical verse coverage.
Habakkuk 1:5-11, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated terms, clause relationships, and base forms behind translation discussion.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hab.xml, 1:5-11
Supports: Verse-level translation, Hebrew, text-critical, literary, historical, and uncertainty notes.
NET Bible Habakkuk PDF, printed pp. 1770-1771, translation and notes on 1:5-11
Supports: Whole-book setting, complaint-and-answer structure, 2:4, five woes, chapter 3 theophany, and closing trust.
Gowan, 'Habakkuk,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 601-604
Supports: Book movement, complaint and oracle forms, Chaldean horizon, 2:4, five woes, 2:20 transition, theophany, salvation, and the closing confidence.
Thompson, 'Prayer, Oracle and Theophany,' pp. 35-36
Supports: Controlled English access to the Old Greek form and its material differences from the Masoretic tradition.
NETS, The Twelve Prophets, printed pp. 807-810, Habbakoum 1:5-11
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed Scripture, paragraph markers, supplied-word markup, and canonical verse coverage.
Exact location: Habakkuk 1:5-11, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Habakkuk
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording, morphology, repeated terms, clause relationships, and base forms behind translation discussion.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Hab.xml, 1:5-11
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Habakkuk with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-level translation, Hebrew, text-critical, literary, historical, and uncertainty notes.
Exact location: NET Bible Habakkuk PDF, printed pp. 1770-1771, translation and notes on 1:5-11
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Habakkuk
Donald E. Gowan
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book setting, complaint-and-answer structure, 2:4, five woes, chapter 3 theophany, and closing trust.
Exact location: Gowan, 'Habakkuk,' Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 601-604
Open source ↗peer reviewed journal article
Prayer, Oracle and Theophany: The Book of Habakkuk
Michael E. W. Thompson
Tyndale Bulletin 44.1, 1993
Supports: Book movement, complaint and oracle forms, Chaldean horizon, 2:4, five woes, 2:20 transition, theophany, salvation, and the closing confidence.
Exact location: Thompson, 'Prayer, Oracle and Theophany,' pp. 35-36
Open source ↗ancient greek translation in modern english
A New English Translation of the Septuagint: The Twelve Prophets
George E. Howard
Oxford University Press / International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies, 2009, electronic corrections through 2021
Supports: Controlled English access to the Old Greek form and its material differences from the Masoretic tradition.
Exact location: NETS, The Twelve Prophets, printed pp. 807-810, Habbakoum 1:5-11
Open source ↗