Context: Habakkuk is unique among the prophets: instead of bringing God's message to the people, the book records a dialogue between the prophet and God. Habakkuk questions God directly — and God responds. It is the Bible in its most dialogically honest form.

The dialogue: First complaint (1:2–4): why does God tolerate injustice within Israel? The divine response is shocking: God is raising up the Babylonians — a crueler people — to punish his own people (1:5–11). Second complaint (1:12–2:1): but how can God use a more wicked people to punish Israel? Habakkuk "goes to his watchtower" to wait for the response.

The response and the pivot verse: God's response (2:2–20) includes the verse that changed Church history: "the righteous shall live by his faith" (2:4) — quoted three times in the NT (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38) and which became the motto of Luther's Protestant Reformation. Chapter 3 is a theophany psalm of extreme beauty: Habakkuk, even without understanding everything, chooses to trust: "Though the fig tree should not blossom... yet I will rejoice in the Lord" (3:17–18) — naked faith that survives the collapse of all circumstances.