How were the Chaldeans in Hab 1:5-6?

[B. W.]

Question - whom are the Chaldeans Habakkuk spoke of and whom Paul quoted in Acts 13:40 which refers to the Chaldeans?

Habakkuk 1:5-6, "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told. 6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation, who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own."

The Chaldean empire was destroyed by the passing of Nebuchadnezzar.


Habakkuk lived around the late 7th century BC. Book of Daniel around 603 BC. Yet Paul in book of Acts 13:40-41 quotes Habakkuk 1:5 which is part of verse 6 which refers to the Chaldeans specifically. The Chaldeans came took captive the Jeiwsh people way before the Book of Acts was written.

So why would Paul use Hab 1:5 in a quote that specifically refers to the Chaldeans being raised up again? That nation was destroyed when the hand writing on the wall happened etc...

More I read it the puzzling it is...

Yes Acts 13 Paul and Barnabas were speaking about Jesus and yes he did the astounding work and yes, 70 AD came and the temple destroyed and people scattered... Is there a layered meaning here - such as like the Chaldeans did before - they do again thru Rome - when Paul wrote this?

Exhaustive Dictionary of Bible names by Stelman Smith, Judson Cornwall, 1998 explains the meaning of the word Chaldean and its etymology and root word means: "as it were - Demons, Wanderers.

Other books on bible name meaning describe them as ambushers and described as more fierce and cunning than wolves or leopards. And that Chaldeans codified the pagan religious system and practices by writing a written record of these. They practiced witchcraft, sorcery, conjured spirits, occult practices are all traced back to them. Rome practiced these as well too... it spread world wide.

So whom does the Chaldeans refer too in Hab 1:5-6? One meaning only, Two meanings? maybe three applications?

Kind of puzzling...
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[DBowling]

Some thoughts...

Here is the text from Acts 13:40-41

40 Therefore take heed, so that the thing spoken of in the Prophets may not come upon you:

41 ‘Behold, you scoffers, and marvel, and [v]perish;
For I am accomplishing a work in your days,
A work which you will never believe, though someone should describe it to you.’”

Note that Paul quotes Hab 1:5 but he does not quote Hab 1:6

In Hab 1:5, God tells us what he is doing to do...

“Look among the nations! Observe!
Be astonished! Wonder!
Because I am doing something in your days—
You would not believe if you were told.

In Hab 1:6 (which Paul does not quote) God tells us who he is going to use to do his work which in the context of Hab 1:6 involves the Chaldeans.

“For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans,
That fierce and impetuous people
Who march throughout the earth
To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.

So I believe that Paul is saying that God is going to do something similar to what he does in Hab 1:6 (the text Paul quotes)
But he is not necessarily going to use the same people to do that work because Paul does not include Hab 1:6 in his quote.

In retrospect we can see that God uses Rome of the first century to do things that are similar to what he had Babylon do in OT times... Sacking Jerusalem and destroying the Temple being significant similarities.

[B. W.]

That is pretty good, DBowling!

Could also the Chaldeans also refer to their demonic religion and sorcery - occult arts too?
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[thatkidakayoungguy]

Other books on bible name meaning describe them as ambushers and described as more fierce and cunning than wolves or leopards. And that Chaldeans codified the pagan religious system and practices by writing a written record of these. They practiced witchcraft, sorcery, conjured spirits, occult practices are all traced back to them. Rome practiced these as well too... it spread world wide.


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That spread worldwide long before them.
Native people have conjured up spirits such as the dead for tens of thousands of years beforehand. The Chaldeans were just an example.
You can still go to places such as parts of Africa and literally feel the evil there.

[DBowling]

That is pretty good, DBowling!

Could also the Chaldeans also refer to their demonic religion and sorcery - occult arts too?

I don't see any explicit references to the occult in the description of the Chaldeans in Hab 1. The context of Hab 1 appears to refer to an overwhelming military force.

However, I do equate the Chaldeans in the context of Hab 1 with Babylon. And the OT is full of linkages and relationships between Babylon and the spirit world. So I don't think it is stretching Scripture to see a spiritual component to the behavior of the Babylonians of the OT.

I think we can see a similar relationship between the spirit world and the behavior of Rome in the first century. And Judaism did frequently draw parallels between OT Babylon and first century Rome.

So I really have no problem thinking that the spiritual component might have been one of the similarities that Paul is drawing between OT Babylon and first century Rome.

My .02

[Philip]

DB: I think we can see a similar relationship between the spirit world and the behavior of Rome in the first century. And Judaism did frequently draw parallels between OT Babylon and first century Rome.

Yes, can you imagine a people so evil that they wagered on and saw as sport people being ripped to shreds by wild beasts and gladiators in the arena of the Coliseum? Course, evil men down through history have done these things. In medieval and even later Europe, those sentenced to the sword - at least a SHARP one - were the lucky ones. Others were impaled, drawn and quartered, burned at the stake, etc. In the pre-Columbus Americas, virgin and child sacrifice was demanded by the gods of the Incas and Aztecs - hearts sometimes ripped from chests, etc. Throughout the American landscape, before the Europeans came in large numbers, warfare was sport, captives tortured with unimaginable cruelty. Asia, New Guinea, Africa, all sorts of hideous things were done to satisfy gods and spirits. This is the history of mankind, in so many parts of the world. And those spirits and gods - all part of the same club, with the same demonic head. The common threads being mysticism, belief in spirits, sorcery, conjuring spirits, fortune telling, strange, bloodthirsty gods, torture, murder, and ruling elites that used such things to buttress their own asserted power and importance.