Habakkuk
biblical prophet associated to the Book of Habakkuk

Habakkuk, or Habacuc, who was active around 612 BC, was a prophet whose oracles and prayer are recorded in the Book of Habakkuk, the eighth of the collected twelve minor prophets in the Hebrew Bible. He is revered by Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
Almost all information about Habakkuk is drawn from the book of the Bible bearing his name, with no biographical details provided other than his title, "the prophet". He is mentioned in the deuterocanonical Additions to Daniel, and outside the Bible, he is mentioned over the centuries in the forms of Christian and Rabbinic tradition.
Name
The name Habakkuk, or Habacuc, appears in the Hebrew Bible only in Habakkuk 1:1 and 3:1. In the Masoretic Text, it is written in Hebrew: חֲבַקּוּק (Standard Ḥavaqquq Tiberian Ḥăḇaqqûq). This name does not occur elsewhere. The Septuagint transcribes his name into Greek as Ἀμβακοὺμ (Ambakoum), and the Vulgate transcribes it into Latin as Abacuc.
The etymology of the name is not clear, and its form has no parallel in Hebrew. The name is possibly related to the Akkadian khambbaququ (Akkadian: 𒄩𒄠𒁀𒄣𒄣, ḫâmbaququ), the name of a fragrant plant, or the Hebrew root Hebrew: חבק, meaning "embrace".
The public source identifies “Habakkuk” as biblical prophet associated to the Book of Habakkuk. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Habakkuk, biblical and prophet.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q135106. VIAF identifies the subject as 9739544. The Library of Congress control number is nr95044736. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Habakkuk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.