1. the prophet Habakkuk interpreted
by D. Martin Luther.*)
Published by Luther himself in German around mid-June 1526.
Preface to the Prophet Habakkuk.
(1) This prophet Habakkuk I have taken upon me to interpret, that he also may once come to day, and be seen what he hath in him, and what the Holy Ghost saith and teacheth us by him. For I believe that he has never seen the light since the time of the apostles. This is partly due to the fact that the Hebrew language was unknown, without which it is not possible to understand the Scriptures, especially the prophets, clearly in some places, and that the old and previous teachers, who had the language, were prevented from doing so by other circumstances, and took little pains to do so, so that it would have been fair and right, and also useful and necessary, for this Habakkuk to be interpreted clearly, because the last chapter, his prayer, which was in daily use, is both sung and read in all churches, but almost after the first chapter, the first chapter, the second chapter, the third chapter, the third chapter, the third chapter.
the saying: as the nuns read the Psalter.
2) St. Paul honors him highly and more than once cites his saying [Cap. 2, 4]: "The righteous lives by his faith" and uses it as a basis for his most beautiful epistle to the Romans [Rom. 1, 17; Gal. 3, 11; Hebr. 10, 38], and Lucas also cites it twice in the apostles' history, so that it seems that he had no small reputation among the apostles. Although we may not boast about the old fathers, for God wants to have such a judgment of the persons alone, 1 Cor. 3, 21, we must nevertheless confess, and cannot deny, that we have more light and clarity in many places of Scripture, by God's grace, than they had. God
*) After Luther had given lectures on the prophet Habakkuk from July 18 to August 2 in 1525, he published this prophet himself in German around the middle of June 1526. We arrive at this closer time determination by the fact that Luther writes to Nicolaus Hausmann on June 2, 1526 (De Wette, Vol. Ill, p. 114 f.]: "I would have seemed to brother Philipp to be burdened with the prophet Habakuk, but it will hardly be ready for printing within eight days." Dietz, "Wörterbuch zu Dr. M. Luthers deutschen Schriften," p. I.II, says: "L. had the Prophet Habakuk in progress June 2, 1526 (cf. De Wette Br. 3, 114); Oct. 14 it is finished together with the Proph. Jonas finished (De Weste Br. 3, 129)." In the last cited passage, Luther again writes to Hausmann and says (1. e. p. 130): "I am occupied with Zechariah (2noknrinrn rasclitor), so that he follows Habakuk and Jonah." That Dietz misinterprets both passages of the letter, but that we are correct in our determination of the time, is proven by the fact that as early as August 1526 (as indicated by the title) not only a German reprint was published by Adam Petri in Basel, but also in the same month the Latin translation by Johann Lonicer was published by Johannes Knoblauch in Strasbourg. The first German edition was published in Wittenberg by Michel Lotter under the title we have placed above our text. In the same year, in addition to the already mentioned edition by Petri, three other editions were published, as well as two editions by Gabriel Kantz, without indication of place and year. Finally, Loniker's Latin translation "Vnno 1526. iVIsnss VuZusto", which was included in the Wittenberg edition (1552) and is found there toin. IV, loi. 622 is found. German in the collections: in the Wittenberg (1556),vol.V, p. 335d; in the Jena (1556), vol. ill, p. 246 l>; in the Altenburg, vol. ill, p. 418; in the Leipzig, vol. vlll, p. 462; and in the Erlangen, vol. 42, p. 1. We reproduce the text according to the original edition reproduced in the Erlangen edition, but omit the translation of the prophet that precedes the interpretation, because it is reproduced in full in the interpretation itself. We compare the Wittenberg, the Jena and the Latin.
that we may also be thankful and the more fruitful, amen.
(3) But before we begin the text, I must first build the way, (1) and make a common entrance, which is not only necessary and useful to understand this, but almost all the prophets. For this has hitherto made much astray in the prophets, that, when they speak of the Jewish kingdom, they break off short, and speak of Christ among them; and it seems to everyone who does not know their manner, that they have a strange way of speaking, as they keep no order, but throw the hundred into the thousand, that they may not be grasped, nor sent in. Now it is a very unfunny thing to read a book that keeps no order, since one cannot bring one thing to another and hang it on each other, so that it may spread out finely one after the other; 2) as is proper, where one wants to speak rightly and well.
4 So the Holy Spirit is to blame for not being able to speak well, but speaking like a drunkard or a fool, he mixes them together and utters wild and strange words and sayings. But it is our fault that we have not understood the language, nor known the way of the prophets. For this cannot be otherwise; the Holy Spirit is wise, and makes the prophets wise also. But a wise man must be able to speak, and this is never lacking. But he who does not hear well, or does not know the language well enough, may think that he speaks evil, because he hardly hears or hears half of the words. This is exactly what has happened to us so far in the Scriptures. That is why we have tapped and imitated in this way, 3) and have often gone astray and hit another; as the saying goes, "He who does not hear well, rhymes well.
5 First of all, it is certain that all prophets focus their prophecy on Christ, as St. Peter shows in Acts 3:24. 3, 24, that all the prophets spoke of the time of the New Testament. For the whole old testament was nothing else but a preparation and forerunner of the new testament,
1) build the way - pave the way.
2) Erlanger: "spümme" instead of: spünne, which is found in the Wittenberger and in the Jenaer.
3) In Latin: vaeei cnecos ünees 86<iuuti sumn8. Jenaer: after geomet; Wittenberger: after geömet.
just as a disciplinarian raises up the son of the Lord and prepares him to be a skillful householder and father; as St. Paul says Gal. 3:24. "The law has been our disciplinarian unto Christ" etc. Now that the prophets punish among the people and prophesy much, which alone was valid and served in their time, so also that they have included kingdoms and dominions of the Gentiles, also performed miraculous signs, everything has happened to keep the Jewish people in discipline and to prepare them for Christ's future. As a Christian, we must do much, eat and drink, and cultivate other bodily works, not that the body alone should be sought with them, but that the body should be preserved and nurtured, so that the spirit may serve God here on earth in faith and the Gospel. 4. For so must we also do in Christianity, and in the New Testament, that we teach people to live rightly, and yet both our doctrine and life are directed toward waiting for the last day and eternal life, and by no means intend to remain here with all of this.
6th On the other hand, when the time came for Christ and the New Testament to come, as the prophets had all said, and the people were looking to it, God did as is his divine way, and pretended as if nothing would come of it, and let himself be seen as if he wanted to become a liar in all the prophets, and devastated the land and the people through the Assyrians and Babylonians. Then the prophets must be held up and punished, as they did not speak from God, but from the devil, because the work and fulfillment of their words is much different, and equally absurd, than the people had understood. Take this example: When the people were sitting in the land, and had kings and princes, and were now waiting and gazing for the Messiah and his new kingdom, of which the prophets had spoken so magnificently, and had put the people off, just when they were most sure, and thought, "There is no need, and Christ will come," then the king comes to Assyria, and wins the whole land, and leads all the people away in Assyria. How fine is Christ and his king-
4) Wittenberger: all.
come rich! Don't you think that many will have said: Now the devil believes a prophet more, there are all at all boys and liars in the skin! For we thought it would be good (as Jeremiah [Cap. 14, 19] says of them), but it will be worse; we thought it would be peace, but it will be calamity. Have they not deceived us with their prophesying of the Messiah?
(7) Yet there was still a hope that the tribe of Judah would remain in the land, and that God would preserve Jerusalem wonderfully through King Jehizkiah; there was still a hope that Christ would come in that time and peace [2 Kings 20, Isa. 37]. But then our Lord God completely destroyed Judah and Jerusalem, much worse than Israel: and while they were waiting for Christ, the king of Babylon came and made Judah worse than the king of Assyria had made Israel [2 Kings 25]. Dear, who should believe the prophets? What hope was there now, since the land was ruined and desolate, kings, princes, priests, prophets and everything was gone, only the peasants remained in the land, and foreign, pagan princes ruled in the land as they pleased?
8) Does this mean that Christ will come and start a new, great and mighty kingdom that will rule over the whole world? Yes, it is called destroying and devastating kingdoms. Behold, they do not understand such a work of God, for it is impossible for the flesh and reason to understand that life should begin where life ends, and that honor should come where disgrace comes, and that kingdoms should become where prisons become, for it is too contrary to and above the sense, custom and experience of all the world. But God does not do otherwise, and cannot do otherwise, as the Scripture says of Him 1 Sam. 2, 6. 7.: "The Lord kills, and makes alive; He pushes into hell, and leads to heaven; He makes poor, and makes rich" etc.
(9) Now here the prophets had to work; there was time for preaching and comforting, so that the Jews would not despair of the future of Messiah and his kingdom. Here Jeremiah, Ezekiel, also before Isaiah, and many others had to be, to proclaim such things, so that it should not hinder the future of Christ, and whether they should
not all would believe it, but some would be preserved in the faith and become partakers of the future Christ.
10. One of them is also this prophet Habakkuk, whose prophecy is entirely to the effect that he preaches how the king of Babylon will come and devastate the Jewish land because of the sin of the people, whom God will punish in this way; but Christ's future will not be prevented or delayed because of this, but it is God's work who causes the king of Babylon to carry out this punishment (even though he does not know it), and after that he himself will perish; as it is said: The father needs the rod to punish the child, and then throws it into the fire.
(11) For just as God works with every man in particular, that He lifts him up highest when He pushes him down lowest, so He also does with a whole kingdom, yes, with the whole world. Faith and the Word of God listen to this, that one may endure and endure such things. This is how it happened to the Jewish people that their kingdom fell when Christ was present. For everything that happened to this people after the Babylonian prison was nothing more than a short and hasty preparation for Christ to come when the land had been somewhat rebuilt and the people had been brought together after it had been destroyed, so that he would only find room and people to preach and begin his kingdom.
12. 1) So this Habakkuk is a prophet of comfort, who is supposed to strengthen and endure the people, so that they do not despair of Christ's future, no matter how strange it may be. For this reason he uses all the artifices and devices that serve to keep the faith firm in their hearts about the promised Christ, and so he preaches: it is true that because of their sin the land will have to be destroyed by the king of Babylon, but still Christ and his kingdom should not remain outside, but the destroyer, the king of Babylon, should not have much happiness from it, and should also perish. For
1) The following up to the end of this preface is found again in the prefaces to Luther's German Bible translation. Walch, old edition, vol. XIV, 74 and in the Erlanger, vol. 63, p. 84.
It is God's work and way that He helps when there is need, and comes in the middle of the right time, and as His song sings [Cap. 3, 2.]: "He remembers mercy when there is tribulation"; and as it is said: "When the rope holds hardest, it breaks. Just as we Christians must endure with God's word until the last day, even though it seems that Christ is almost gone, and will not come, when he himself says [Matth. 24, 37. ff. Luc. 17, 26. ff.] that he will come when it is least thought of, when they will build, plant, buy, sell, eat, drink, marry and be free, etc. so that some, though not all, may be preserved in the faith. For here is a need of faith and preaching, as can be seen daily.
13) From all this it is clear that this Habakkuk was before the Babylonian prison, perhaps around the time of Jeremiah; and it is also easy to understand what he wants and means.
But that some books report about Habakkuk, that he brought food to the prophet Daniel in Babylon in the prison from the Jewish country, has neither reason nor appearance. So it does not fit well with the calculation of the time, because, as much as the prophecy gives Habakkuk, he is older than Jeremiah, who experienced the destruction of Jerusalem; but Habakkuk prophesies about it. Daniel was after Jeremiah, and lived long before he was cast into prison.
014 Now Habakkuk had a proper name for his office. For Habakkuk is called in the first place a heart-bearer, or one who bears with another and takes him in his arms. He also does this with his prophecy, that he caresses his people and takes them in his arms, that is, he comforts them and holds them in his arms, just as one caresses a poor weeping child or man, so that he should be silent and content, because he will be better (if God wills it).