Habakkuk the Prophet חבקוק הנביא

The book begins not with "thus said the LORD" but with the prophet's own complaint: how long shall I cry out and You not save? Why do You show me wrongdoing and look on at violence? The law is slack, justice does not come out, the wicked encircle the righteous, and judgement comes out crooked.

An answer comes — and it is worse than the question: I am raising up the Chaldeans, a fierce and swift nation, their horses quicker than leopards. That is, against injustice will be sent one still more unjust. And Habakkuk asks a second time, now about that: how can You, too pure of eyes to behold evil, look on the treacherous and stay silent when the wicked swallows one more righteous than himself?

Then he does something found nowhere else in the prophetic books: "I will stand at my watch and station myself on the tower, and I will look out to see what He will say to me and what I shall answer concerning my complaint." He takes up a position of waiting — and the answer comes. Write the vision plainly, that whoever runs may read it; it is yet for an appointed time, and if it tarries, wait for it; and then the line that became famous: "the righteous shall live by his faith."

The Talmud (Makkot 23b–24a) puts it this way: Moses gave six hundred and thirteen commandments, David reduced them to eleven, Isaiah to six, Micah to three, and Habakkuk stood them all on one — "the righteous shall live by his faith."

The third chapter is a prayer with musical markings; it is read on the second day of Shavuot.