Habakkuk

Habakkuk is a book in the form of a dialogue. The prophet opens by complaining: how long will I cry and you not hear? Why does violence prosper? God's answer is even more uncomfortable — he will use the Babylonians, a worse people, as his instrument. Habakkuk protests again, and from there the book moves toward its most quoted answer: "the righteous will live by his faith", a line Paul takes up in Romans and Galatians. The final chapter is an extraordinary poem: even if the fig tree does not blossom, the fields produce nothing and the herds disappear, "yet I will rejoice in the Lord". It is the Bible's definition of joy that does not depend on circumstances.