Habakkuk in Fausset's Bible Dictionary

"The cordially embraced one (favorite of God), or the cordial embracer." "A man of heart, hearty toward another, taking him into his arms. This Habakkuk does in his prophecy; he comforts and lifts up his people, as one would do with a weeping child, bidding him be quiet, because, please God, it would yet be better with him" (Luther). The psalm (Habakkuk 3) and title "Habakkuk the prophet" favor the opinion that Habakkuk was a Levite. The closing words, "to the chief singer on my stringed instruments," imply that Habakkuk with his own instruments would accompany the song he wrote under the Spirit; like the Levite seers and singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun (1 Chronicles 25:1-5). A lyrical tone pervades his prophecies, so that he most approaches David in his psalms. The opening phrase (Habakkuk 1:1) describes his prophecy as "the burden which," etc., i.e. the weighty, solemn announcement. Habakkuk "saw" it with the inner eye opened by the Spirit. He probably prophesied in the 12th or 13th year of Josiah (630 or 629 B.C.), for the words "in your days" (Habakkuk 1:5) imply that the prophecy would come to pass in the lifetime of the persons addressed. In Jeremiah 16:9 the same phrase comprises 20 years, in Ezekiel 12:25 six years. Zephaniah 1:7 is an imitation of Habakkuk 2:20; now Zephaniah (Zephaniah 1:1) lived under Josiah, and prophesied (compare Zephaniah 3:5; Zephaniah 3:15) after the restoration of Jehovah's worship, i.e. after the 12th year of Josiah's reign, about 624 B.C. So Habakkuk must have been before this. Jeremiah moreover began prophesying in Josiah's 13th year; now Jeremiah borrows from Habakkuk (compare Habakkuk 2:13 with Jeremiah 51:58); thus, it follows that 630 or 629 B.C. is Habakkuk's date of prophesying (Delitzsch)...