Habakkuk — Chapter 1
Synopsis Capitis
Chapter 1 presents Habakkuk's bold complaint to God about unpunished injustice in Judah, and God's even more troubling answer: He is sending the Chaldeans as His instrument of judgment. À Lapide treats this as the great biblical dialogue on theodicy, resolved not by philosophical argument but by prophetic vision and faith. The chapter establishes the dialectical structure of the book: human complaint, divine response, prophetic trust.
Verse 1
Onus quod vidit Habacuc propheta
À Lapide discusses the peculiar Hebrew name Habakkuk (wrestling, embracing), which Jerome interprets as one who wrestles with God like Jacob or who embraces God in contemplative prayer. Both meanings illuminate the prophet's character: one who dares to contend with God about injustice while ultimately clinging to him in faith. This is the prophetic theodicy tradition at its most intense.
Verse 2
Usquequo Domine clamabo
'How long, O Lord, shall I cry and thou wilt not hear?' À Lapide reads this as the Church's prayer in persecution and every soul's prayer in spiritual darkness. He cites the Psalms' tradition of the lament (qinah) and insists that honest complaint addressed to God is itself a form of faith. Silence before God would be the true apostasy; wrestling speech maintains the relationship.
Verse 5
Aspicite in gentes et videte
'Behold among the nations and see, and be astonished and wonder; for a work shall be done in your days which no man will believe, when it shall be told.' Paul cites this in Acts 13:41 as a warning to those who reject the Gospel. À Lapide reads the double fulfilment: historically, the Chaldean invasion no one would believe; spiritually, the Resurrection and Gentile mission that Jews refused to credit.