he
action of the rhapsody consists in the gradual effect of intercession:
God at first refuses so much as to answer the sinful People, and speaks
only through the Prophet; at last he answers the People directly, but
only to threaten; finally he shows mercy to the repentant remnant.

/II. Habakkuk's Rhapsody of the Chaldeans./ This is a thoroughly typical
and a splendid specimen of the rhapsody as a form of literature, (1) The
historic situation is the appearance of the Chaldeans as a conquering
power trampling down surrounding nations. This suggests the thought of
judgment upon unpunished sin in Israel. But the Prophet feels a
difficulty: how can a righteous God use a godless people as an
instrument for the punishment of wickedness that is less than its own?
The elaboration of this spiritual problem, in dramatic dialogue between
God and the Prophet, makes the first section of the rhapsody.--(2) The
Divine solution of this problem comes under the image of intoxication:
the haughty career of the Chaldean is no more than the drunkard's
reeling which precedes his fall. But as the idea of the fall of the
Chaldean is reached there is a sudden change from dialogue to the doom
form. This Doom of the Chaldeans has five stanzas of the usual
combination between prose and verse: the prose is Divine denunciation,
the verse passages are the imagined triumphing of the down-trodden
nations over their fallen oppressor. Four of the stanzas express the
fall of the Chaldean in four images: his uninterrupted career has been a
heaping up of usury, but the exactor shall come; it has been building a
house of refuge, but shame has been built into its walls; it has been
building a huge city only to make a bigger bonfire to the glory of the
avenging God; it has been giving drink to behold shame, but the drink of
shame shall be given to the oppressor. The fifth stanza goes to the root
of the matter: the Chaldean has trusted to senseless idols: Jehovah is
the true teacher.--(3) So far the overthrow of the Chaldeans has been
presented as a thing of the distant future; in the third section it is
realised as visibly present: thus the movement of the rhapsody has been
steadily advancing from the first forming of a problem to the climax of
its solution. The literary form now changes to that of an Ode, realising
the idea of Jehovah come to judgment. The prelude and postlude express
the Prophet's feelings at the vision he hears and sees; the body of the
o