O LORD, how long shall I cry for help,
Habakkuk 1:2
and you will not hear?
Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save?
Habakkuk begins his first complaint to the Lord, distressed by what he sees and hears. He asks why God has not acted when there is so much injustice.
Crying Out
There are two words the prophet is using for crying out. The first (translated as “cry for help”) is שׁוע (shiva). It is a desperate request for aid or relief from a bad situation. It only shows up in poetry, predominantly in Job and the Psalms. The Psalmist often cries to God for help (e.g. Psalm 18:6, 30:2, 88:13). Jonah cried from “the belly of Sheol” (Jonah 2:2). The common theme is that when they cry out, they are expecting an answer.
The second “cry” in the verse is זעק (za’ak), which is a more generic cry or shouting out. It is often a call for help. It can be a cry of distress (Judges 3:9, Psalm 107:6, 2 Chronicles 20:9) or over wrongs (Genesis 18:20). In other forms, it can indicate a rallying cry (Judges 12:2, 1 Samuel 14:20) or issuing a proclamation (Jonah 3:7).
Both of these words appear together early in the Bible while the people of Israel are slaves in Egypt, awaiting redemption: “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help (za’ak). Their cry for rescue (shiva as a noun) from slavery came up to God.” (Exodus 2:23). This pair of words also appear in Lamentations 3:8: “though I call (za’ak) and cry for help (shiva), / he shuts out my prayer”.
Violence
What is Habakkuk seeing that distresses him so much? For starters, he sees violence (hamas). Before the flood (with Noah), the world is described as being “filled with violence (hamas)” (Genesis 6:11, 13). It was so bad that God decided to destroy the earth! I find it ironic that the terror organization in the Gaza strip calls themselves Hamas. While it comes from an Arabic acronym (translated as Islamic Resistance Movement), the similarity to the Hebrew word fits them well. Hamas is broader than simply physical violence, however, encompassing other wrongs, as well. We’ll look at these additional nuances later in Habakkuk (see notes on 1:4).
Job issues a similar cry, paralleling our verse from Habakkuk: “Behold, I cry out (za’ak), ‘Violence (hamas)!’ but I am not answered; / I call for help (shiva), but there is no justice” (Job 19:7). He and Habakkuk could relate to each other.
To Ponder…
How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
Psalm 13:1-2
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
Habakkuk asks “How long?” How long must he look at the injustice and violence in the world? How long must he cry to the Lord for help? How long must he wait? He is not alone with such questions. People have been asking such questions for millenia.
Who do you hear crying out, looking for help? How can the Lord use you to be part of the answer to their cries?
Do you believe that when you cry to the Lord that he hears and will respond?
Every day we’re in distress and we see this world is so full of violence and problems, look at our government of what is going on and how the government is causing problems and making it hard for the common man in the government system. Every day we ask the Lord how long how long will we go through this sometime we feel that the Lord do not answer, and we may think that he don’t care to answer, but in reality, we know, God is a on-time God, and he will show himself true, faithful and holy so all the problems was going on in today. It’s been going on long time ago even David, Habakkuh, Job All have problems and cried out before God they got heard their cry and did he prove himself in delivering aid course he did and he did a mighty work in the favor of those men . In other words, the same God that is back, then is the same God and forevermore, and we continues to lead to, and provide for his people. So when we cry out for help, that’s a great thing. Amen.