References to earlier literature will be found in the following noteworthy studies of recent date: Davidson, “Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah,” in Cambridge Bible (1896); Nowack, Die kleinen Propheten (Hdkr.) (1897); Wellhausen, Die kleinen Propheten3 (1898); G. A. Smith, “The Book of the Twelve Prophets,” in The Expositor’s Bible, vol. ii. (1898); Driver, article “Habakkuk” in Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, vol. ii. pp. 269-272 (1900); Budde, article “Habakkuk” in Ency. Biblica, vol. ii., c. 1921-1928 (1901); Stevenson, “The Interpretation of Habakkuk,” in The Expositor (1902), pp. 388-401; Peake, The Problem of Suffering in the Old Testament (1904), pp. 4-11 and app. A, “Recent Criticism of Habakkuk”; Marti, Dodekapropheton (K. H. C.) (1904); Driver, “Minor Prophets,” vol. ii., in Century Bible (1906); Duhm, Das Buch Habakkuk (Text, Übersetzung und Efklärung), 1906 (regards the book as a unity belonging to the time of Alexander the Great). Max L. Margolis discusses the anonymous Greek version of Habakkuk iii. in a volume of Old Test. and Semitic Studies: in Memory of William Rainey Harper (Chicago, 1908).
(H. W. R.*)
[1] These legends are collected in Hastings, D. B. vol. ii. p. 272. He is the watchman of Is. xxi. 6 (cf. Hab. ii. 1); the son of the Shunammite (2 Kings iv. 16); and is miraculously lifted by his hair to carry his own dinner to Daniel in the lions’ den (supra).
[2] Followed by Peake in The Problem of Suffering, pp. 4 f., 151 f., to whose appendix (A) reference may be made for further details of recent criticism.
[3] For the less probable theories of Rothstein, Lauterburg, Happel and Peiser (amongst others), cf. Marti’s Commentary, pp. 328 f. and 332. Stevenson (The Expositor, 1902) states clearly the difficulties for those who regard ch. i. as a unity. He sees two independent sections, 2-4 + 12-13, and 5-11 + 14-17.
[4] Earlier, however, than Ps. lxxvii. 17-20, which is drawn from it.
HABDALA (lit. “separation”), a Hebrew term chiefly appropriated to ceremonies at the conclusion of Sabbath and festivals, marking the separation between times sacred and secular. On the Saturday night the ceremony consists of three items: (a) benediction over a cup of wine (common to many other Jewish functions); (b) benediction over a lighted taper, of which possibly the origin is utilitarian, as no light might be kindled on the Sabbath day, but the rite may be symbolical; and (c) benediction over a box of sweet-smelling spices. The origin of the latter has been traced to the bowl of burning spice which in Talmudic times was introduced after each meal. But here too symbolic ideas must be taken into account. Both the light and the spices would readily fit into the conception of the Sabbath “Over-soul” of the mystics.
(I. A.)