INTRODUCTION TO THE PROPHETIC BOOKS By Richard S. Hess, Ph.D.

The Prophetic Books include four Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and 12 Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). The distinction is based on the length of the books. As the authors first wrote their words on scrolls, the Major Prophets would each fit on a separate scroll, whereas all the Minor Prophets eventually filled a single scroll. The Major Prophets follow a chronological arrangement: Isaiah ca. 735–681 BC, Jeremiah ca. 622–586 BC, Ezekiel ca. 593– 571 BC, Daniel ca. 605–536 BC. The Minor Prophets also begin with some of the earliest books, such as Hosea and Amos, from the mid-eighth century BC. They conclude with the latest books, Haggai and Zechariah, in the latter part of the sixth century BC, and Malachi from the middle or late fifth century BC.

Prophets A prophecy is a God-given message that speaks to people about their condition, urges change, and may describe future events as a means to motivate the people to faithfulness. Prophets, as intermediaries who brought God’s word to people, were present before some of their number began to write their prophecies. One title of a prophet, Hebrew ro’eh (1 Sam 9:9), describes a “seer,” one whose ability to see goes beyond normal human abilities—either beyond the ability of the eyes (to find Saul’s donkeys in 1 Sam 9:3–10, 20) or into the court of God (to recognize God’s choice for Israel’s king in 1 Sam 9:15–17; Isa 6:1–8). Another frequent title, Hebrew nabi’ (Gen 20:7), identifies someone who named or summoned God or who decreed or proclaimed the word of God. 9TH CENTURY BC PROPHETS Elijah Elisha 8TH CENTURY BC PROPHETS Jonah Amos Hosea Micah

TIMELINE OF PROPHETS

Isaiah PROPHETS FROM BEFORE AND DURING THE TIME OF THE BABYLONIAN DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM (586 BC) Nahum Zephaniah Joel(?) Habakkuk Jeremiah Obadiah Ezekiel Daniel LATE 6TH CENTURY BC PROPHETS Haggai Zechariah Joel(?) 5TH CENTURY BC PROPHET Malachi

Non-Israelite prophets served royal courts outside of Israel. Such prophets in the eighteenth century BC wrote some of the earliest prophetic texts that we have. Along with magical rites to determine the will of their gods, these pagan prophets reported to their kings regarding the best time to go to war and to undertake other matters for their kingdoms. This type of prophecy continued for more than a thousand years, often including predictions of success for the prophet’s own country and of divine judgment and failure for other countries. Prophecies against other nations and endorsements of present leaders occur in the biblical prophetic books. However, prophets also indict their own nation and leaders for failing to follow God’s covenant. They often criticize the people as a whole for their immorality, injustice, and lack of faith. Above all, they frequently predict judgment for Israel and Judah, God’s people. Therefore, destruction of these nations comes because of the sin of the people, not due to any weakness on God’s part. Yet God’s mercy and grace extend beyond the punishment to an age of restoration, hope, and blessing, which the prophets often proclaim will come in the future. As fearless critics of their own rulers and society, the biblical prophets may be contrasted with prophets in other

nations who served the interests of the royal court. Deuteronomy describes the requirements of a prophet of God. Even if a prophet predicts signs and wonders that come to pass, Deut 13:1–5 warns God’s people to reject such a prophet if they counsel following other gods. Deut 18:18–22 identifies the tests to determine a true prophet: they must speak in God’s name, and what they proclaim must occur just as they have said it. Otherwise, their message is not trustworthy. The Bible describes Abraham, Moses, Deborah, and Samuel as prophets, as well as Nathan, Elijah, Elisha, and others. All of these served in a time before the prophets who wrote the named prophetic books. The earliest prophetic books include Hosea, Amos, and Jonah. These three prophets addressed their messages to the northern kingdom of Israel. They prophesied in the mideighth century BC at the time of King Jeroboam II’s expansion of the northern kingdom when Israel enjoyed prosperity. Hosea deplored the prosperity that brought idolatry, immorality, and the loss of faithfulness, love, and awareness of God (Hos 4:1). Amos warned against the injustices of the age, both in international acts between nations (Amos 1:3–2:5) and in the acts of Israel, where the wealthy abused the poor (Amos 2:7; 4:1; 5:11–12; 8:4–6). God called Jonah to warn Nineveh, Israel’s enemy, of judgment and thus afford them opportunity for repentance (2 Kgs 14:25; Jonah 1–3). Isaiah and Micah prophesied later in the eighth century BC and into the seventh century BC. Micah’s message focused on God’s people, whom God chose and to whom he gave his land as an inheritance for all, not just the rich (Mic 2:1–11; 6:1–5). Many prophets address the need for justice, humility, and love for God that Mic 6:6–8 so aptly summarizes. Indeed, Jeremiah later drew upon many texts in Micah to describe a similar situation (Jer 26:18). Isaiah in many ways exemplifies the prophetic books. It includes all the major prophetic themes and traces the history of the people of God from their early confrontation with Damascus and the northern kingdom of Israel (734–732 BC) through the challenge for survival against the Assyrian attack upon Judah (701 BC) down to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (586 BC) and the exile of God’s people. The book predicts the coming of Cyrus, the Persian king who allowed the exiles to return to Jerusalem (Isa 44:28–45:1). It looks forward to the rebuilding of Jerusalem (Isa 54:1–2) and its exaltation in the last days, when God will rule over all peoples of the earth (Isa 66). Thus Isaiah touches upon the various periods of time that the prophetic books address. The other writing prophets expand upon aspects of this proclamation.

Key Themes in the Prophets’ Messages The prophets delivered God’s word to God’s people, Israel, and also to other people (e.g. the people of Nineveh in the book of Jonah). They spoke to the general public and to leaders as well as to false prophets. Because prophets spoke words from God, their messages reflect the concerns of God for his people. These include: 1. The holiness and power of God, who speaks through the prophet. Isa 40–45 acknowledges the limitless power of God the Creator, who has brought the world into being. Jer 18–20 declares that God raises up some nations and destroys others according to his will and according to their

decisions to either follow him or refuse his grace. God speaks through his prophets, calling them to their roles from his throne (Isa 6) in his splendor (Ezek 1), in spite of their occasional reluctance (Jer 1). The holiness of God was visible to Isaiah in his vision of God when the seraphim called, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty” (Isa 6:3). The prophetic books apply “holy” to God an additional 40 times. Carried along by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet 1:21), the prophets repeatedly proclaimed their messages as the very word of God. “This is what the Lord says” occurs 236 times in the prophetic books. 2. Israel’s past relationship with God, especially the covenant they have with him. Israel encountered God when he redeemed them from Egypt (Jer. 2:6; 7:22; 11:4; 16:14; 23:7; 32:21) and made a covenant with them (Jer 31:32; 34:13). God remembers the wilderness wanderings of Israel (Jer 2:2) as a time when Israel loved and followed him. God gave Israel their land (Amos 2:10). Although the prophetic writings do not often mention Saul (Isa 10:29) and Solomon (Jer 52:20), David’s name appears 39 times. God’s covenant with David becomes the standard for a future covenant with redeemed Israel (Isa 55:3) and guarantees that God will fulfill his promises (Jer 33:20–22). Nevertheless, it is God’s covenants with Abraham and with Israel at Sinai that form the basis for the understanding of God’s ongoing relationship with his people. This covenantal concern appears in references to lawsuits and charges that God brings against his people (Jer 2:9, 29; Hos 4:1; 12:2; Mic 6:2). Isa 3:13 is one of the clearest references: “The Lord takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people.” 3. The sin of Israel and the nations. God challenges his people to justify their sins in Isa 41:21: “ ‘Present your case,’ says the LORD. ‘Set forth your arguments,’ says Jacob’s King.” The prophets use various images to portray Israel’s sin. Jer 13:1–11 describes Jeremiah’s ruined belt as a picture of how God bound Israel to himself but they would not obey. Perhaps most dramatic of all is Gomer’s unfaithfulness toward her husband, the prophet Hosea. Hos 2:2 describes Israel’s broken commitment with the words of divorce: “She is not my wife, and I am not her husband.” Israel has sinned against God. Isa 1 summarizes the indictment, a theme also presented in many of the remaining prophets. Only Jonah, Nahum, and Obadiah do not deal directly with the sin and consequent judgment of God’s people. The sin extends through all of Israel and reaches into each Israelite (Isa 1:4–6). It extends into the depths of their hearts and reaches into the courts of the temple in Jerusalem (Ezek 8:1–18; 11:19; 36:26). Even after the punishment of the exile, sin remains so that the prophet Malachi later provides a catalog of Israel’s offenses (Mal 1:1–3:18). The prophetic books also address the sins of the nations. Amos 1:3–2:3 indicts many of the surrounding peoples for their sins. These are not violations of God’s law to Moses but failures against the basic understanding of human decency in the treatment of conquered nations. Isa 13:1– 23:18 lists many more nations and presents their offenses in greater detail (Jer 46:1–51:64; Ezek 25:1–32:32). Isa 66:16 declares fiery judgment on “all people.” The prophet Jonah cries against the sins of Assyrian Nineveh (Jonah 1:1–2; 3:1–4). This leads to repentance (Jonah 3:5, 10), but the sins of Assyria appear again in Nahum. Obadiah describes the sins of Edom, while Habakkuk (Hab 1:12–2:1) focuses on Babylon. Joel 3:1–16 and Zeph 2:1–3:8 mingle the sins of the nations with God’s judgment against them. 4. The judgment and punishment that God brings as a result of disobedience. Just as the sin and judgment of foreign nations are interwoven, so many texts that describe the sins of God’s

people also pronounce the judgment and punishment of God for those sins. Isaiah focuses on the leaders of Israel (Isa 3:14; Jer 21–24; Hos 5:1). Despite their protests of innocence, God will pass judgment on his people (Jer 2:35). Flight is not possible (Ezek 11:10–11). Dan 9:11 looks back to judgments that have already occurred and sees them as already described in the law of Moses (Deut 28:15–68). Amos 7:4 describes fiery judgment against God’s own people. Hab 1:6, 12 identifies the Babylonians as the instrument through which God will judge his people. For the northern kingdom of Israel, the punishment came when the Assyrian army destroyed the kingdom and deported its inhabitants in 722 BC (2 Kgs 17; Hos 10:6; 11:5). Amos uses a series of dramatic visions to describe this deportation (Amos 5:27; 6:7, 14; 7:9, 17; 8:9–9:10). Twenty years later, in 701 BC, another Assyrian king came against King Hezekiah of Jerusalem and Judah. Because of Assyria’s blasphemy and Hezekiah’s faith, God spared Jerusalem and his temple (Isa 36–38). Nevertheless, Isaiah records Hezekiah’s pride in his own defenses and the consequent prophetic warning that another people, the Babylonians, would come against Judah (Isa 39). Much of Jeremiah’s prophecy deals with the events leading up to the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC and the consequent executions, deportations, and desperate events within the land— whether as a prophecy foretold (Jer 25–29) or as a historical narrative (Jer 39–45; 52). The unbelieving King Jehoiakim cuts up and burns Jeremiah’s prophecies of Jerusalem’s doom, leading Jeremiah to prepare a second scroll with the same words and more besides (Jer 36). King Zedekiah imprisons Jeremiah (Jer 37–38). Considered a traitor by his fellow Israelites, Jeremiah pens a collection of “confessions” that describe how this message was not one he wished to proclaim (Jer 11–20). God overpowered him, however, and the divine word became a fire shut up in his bones that he could not refrain from speaking (Jer 20:7–9). The reader gains insight into a prophet’s burden in a manner not found elsewhere in the Bible. Ezekiel had been deported to Babylonia a few years before its army’s final destruction of Jerusalem. With other exiles, he viewed the Babylonian destruction of the temple. Jeremiah had to deal with citizens who looked back upon God’s miraculous deliverance in 701 BC and were therefore convinced that God would never allow his city and temple to be destroyed; Ezekiel, on the other hand, faced those who saw it happen and were tempted to believe that the Lord was too weak to resist the Babylonians and their god Marduk. To explain what actually occurred, God transported the prophet Ezekiel back to Jerusalem, where he witnessed every kind of idolatrous worship in the temple (Ezek 8). God had no choice but to punish these idolaters (Ezek 9). In a dramatic series of scenes, Ezekiel watches the divine Spirit leave the temple, depart from the city, and pass eastward beyond the Mount of Olives (Ezek 10:1–11:25). Jerusalem did not fall because God was weak. Jerusalem fell because Judah continued to sin to such an extent that the Spirit of the Lord could no longer remain among them. God abandoned the temple and the city; then the Babylonians came and destroyed it. Habakkuk asked why God would allow so evil a people as the Babylonians to destroy his people (Hab 1:2–17). In a dramatic response, God commanded the prophet to record his revelation that would come to pass (Hab 2:2–3), but God asserted that “the righteous person will live by his faithfulness” (Hab 2:4). Among later Jews and Christians (Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38), this text became an important summary of the appropriate human response to God’s grace. 5. God’s redemption and the promise of the world to come. This constitutes a promise found

in every prophetic book. Even the generally negative prophecies of Amos conclude with a promise of the restoration of the fallen shelter of David (Amos 9:11–15). The people would return from exile and experience restoration. Thus Isaiah devotes Isa 40–66 to this theme, which the twofold command to comfort those suffering God’s punishment summarizes (Isa 40:1). Jeremiah (Jer 30– 33) promises a new covenant that will bring faithfulness to God because it will be written on the human heart (31:31–34) rather than on tablets of stone. Ezekiel envisions a heart transplant (Ezek 11:19; 36:26), allowing the hearts of Israel to become responsive to God’s will. Ezekiel also anticipates a resurrection of the nation, pictured by dry bones taking on flesh and returning to life (Ezek 37). Ezekiel sees a restored Israel with a rebuilt temple from which a miraculous flow of water brings life to the desert and the Dead Sea (Ezek 40–48). Daniel provides a more detailed account of future kingdoms and events (Dan 2; 5; 7–12). Habakkuk concludes with a psalm praising the power of God (Hab 3). Zephaniah declares God’s promises to gather the exiles and bless them (Zeph 3:9–20). Haggai promises blessings for the people of God and for their temple (Hag 2:1–19). Zechariah concludes more in the style of Daniel and Habakkuk, promising a future and terrible war in which God will fight for his people and against all the nations, bringing into being the Lord’s universal reign (Zech 14:2–21). The theme of a believing remnant from among Israel occurs in Isaiah, where Isaiah’s testimony is bound up for his disciples, who will accept it while others will not (Isa 8:16). This remnant will return from the deportations and exile caused by Assyria (Isa 10:20–22; 11:11, 16; 37:4; Amos 5:15; Mic 2:12) and by Babylonia (Isa 37:31–32; 46:3; Jer 23:3; 50:20; Zeph 2:7, 9). Malachi develops the theme of the surviving faithful, who will be God’s treasured possession (Mal 3:16– 18). 6. The One to Come. Malachi also promises that God will send Elijah, who will bring reconciliation (Mal 4:5–6). Earlier God spoke through the prophet Haggai and identified the governor Zerubbabel as his chosen servant through whom he would bring victory over Israel’s enemies (Hag 2:20–23). God appointed Zechariah to identify in the high priest Joshua one who would rebuild the temple (Zech 6:9–15). These applications draw from an older and more profound divine vision of an anointed king and priest who would come to rule Israel and all the peoples, restoring them to what God intended them to be. Zechariah saw the people mourning for this ruler as one whom they pierced (Zech 12:10–14); he would serve as a shepherd but would be struck down, and his people would be scattered (Zech 13:7–9). He would come to Jerusalem riding on a donkey (Zech 9:9). Micah spoke of him as born in Bethlehem from the line of David (Mic 5:2). Daniel saw him in the divinely appointed son of man to whom God gave authority over everything (Dan 7:8–14, 26–27). Isaiah identifies this future leader in more detail than any other prophet. He appears in the sign of Immanuel (“God with us”) in Isa 7:14. He comes from the line of David with wisdom (Isa 11:1– 3), divine authority, and universal kingship (Isa 9:1–6). In Isa 41:8–16, God redeems his servant, who is the nation of Israel empowered to overcome all nations. Yet in Isa 42:1–4 this servant of the Lord appears to be a single individual endowed with God’s Spirit and bringing justice on earth without making a great noise. Israel as God’s servant recurs in Isa 42:18–20, where it is blind and unresponsive to God. Nevertheless, God has redeemed Israel and brought the people back from captivity (Isa 43:1–7). Israel is God’s chosen servant, and as such the people will receive his Spirit and his blessing (Isa 44:1–5). In Isa 49:1–7, the servant of the Lord is called to redeem Israel. However, the servant also becomes a light to the nations. The “servant of the Lord” texts reach a climax in Isa 52:13–53:12, where the text follows one who comes proclaiming the advent of God’s

reign (Isa 52:7–10). The suffering servant of Isa 53 willingly suffers and dies for the sins of his people before seeing life and receiving “a portion among the great” from God. The role of the servant of the Lord continues in Isa 61:1–3, where the Spirit anoints him to proclaim good news and bring healing and salvation to those who recognize their need.

In Deut 18:15 God promised a prophet to come who would be like Moses. Jesus Christ fulfilled this expectation in a way that the earlier prophets did not. At the transfiguration, Jesus’ face shone like that of the prophet Moses (Exod 34:29–35; Matt 17:2; 2 Cor 3:7–18). The command to listen to God’s Son (Matt 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35) recalls the same command in Deut 18:15. Peter also argued that Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of a prophet like Moses (Acts 3:22). Stephen made the same point (Acts 7:37). Many of the people of Israel, however, did not welcome this prophet. They rejected him just as they had the prophets of the Old Testament (Matt 13:10–17, 57; 23:37; Mark 6:4). God spoke through the prophets of the Old Testament but he has now spoken once for all through Jesus (Heb 1:1–2). As the true image of God (Col 1:15–17), Jesus brings the message of God’s judgment, grace, and salvation more clearly and powerfully than any who preceded him.1

1

Richard S. Hess, “The Prophetic Books,” in NIV Zondervan Study Bible: Built on the Truth of Scripture and Centered on the Gospel Message, ed. D. A. Carson (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015), 1299–1306.