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PROPHECY AND THE PROPHETS 
 
PROPHECY AND 
 THE PROPHETS 
 
 By 
 
 BARNARD C. TAYLOR, D. D. 
 
 Professor Emeritus of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis 
 in Crozer Theological Seminary 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE JUDSON PRESS 
 
 BOSTON CHICAGO LOS ANGELES 
 
 KANSAS CITY SEATTLE TORONTO 
 
Copyright, 1923, by 
 GILBERT N. BRINK, Secretary 
 
 Published October, 1923 
 
 Printed in U. S. A, 
 
TO 
 
 MY FATHER AND MY MOTHER 
 WHO TAUGHT ME AS A CHILD TO REVERE THE BIBLE 
 AS THE WORD OF GOD, AND LED ME TO FIND IN IT 
 THE WAY OF LIFE IN JESUS CHRIST SON OF GOD 
 THIS BOOK IS GRATEFULLY 
 DEDICATED 
 
PREFACE 
 
 In Part I of this book the purpose of the author has 
 been to present in a brief way the characteristic fea¬ 
 tures of Prophecy so that the ordinary reader may be 
 helped to understand better this most important part 
 of the Scriptures. An exhaustive study of the sub¬ 
 ject has not been undertaken. Such a study will be 
 found by any one who has access to the excellent work 
 of Fairbairn on Prophecy, or the later work of David¬ 
 son. Both of these may be highly recommended. 
 While Old Testament Prophecy is generally regarded 
 as a difficult part of the Bible, the difficulties are not 
 too great to be overcome, and any effort to this end will 
 be richly rewarded. 
 
 In Part II there is given in a concise way the condi¬ 
 tions, political, social, and religious, of the Israelites at 
 the time of each prophet that the reader may get a 
 clearer insight into the meaning of the prophet’s mes¬ 
 sage. The divisions of each book are also suggested, 
 
Preface 
 
 so that the scope of the different parts and their 
 mutual relations may be better comprehended. A 
 further attempt is made to give briefly the course of 
 thought in each chapter or minor division, as it is 
 believed that in many cases this will be of as great 
 help as a commentary on the separate verses or phrases. 
 The work is not a commentary, nor is it intended to 
 take the place of commentaries. Without question the 
 best of commentaries are almost indispensable to one 
 who would fully understand the prophets. It is hoped 
 however, that what is here offered may be of some 
 use, especially to those who do not have access to the 
 commentaries. Any contribution, however slight, that 
 will help to a higher appreciation of this rich portion 
 of God’s word, it is confidently believed, will be accept¬ 
 able to those who will read the prophets. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PART I 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 I. Old Testament Prophecy Defined. ... 3 
 
 II. The Special Work of the Prophets. .. 9 
 
 III. Prophecy as Scripture. 15 
 
 IV. The Theme of Prophecy as Scripture. 21 
 
 / V. The Interpretation of Prophecy. 26 
 
 VI. Prophecy in Relation to Israel’s His¬ 
 tory . 32 
 
 PART II 
 
 A STORY OF THE INDIVIDUAL PROPHETS 
 
 I. Isaiah. 41 
 
 II. Jeremiah. 52 
 
 III. Ezekiel. 62 
 
 IV. Daniel. 73 
 
 V. Hosea. 84 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 VI. Joel . 92 
 
 VII. Amos . 96 
 
 VIII. Obadiah . 103 
 
 IX. Jonah . 106 
 
 X. Micah . 109 
 
 XI. Nahum . 114 
 
 XII. Habakkuk . 118 
 
 XIII. Zephaniah . 122 
 
 XIV. Haggai. 127 
 
 XV. Zechariah . 131 
 
 XVI. Malachi . 140 
 
PART I 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY 
 
I 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY DEFINED 
 
 The term is applied to those books called the 
 Prophets, beginning with Isaiah and ending with 
 Malachi. There are some prophecies found in the 
 other books of the Old Testament, and in some of these 
 Prophets there occur historical narratives. In the 
 Hebrew Scriptures most of the books that we call His¬ 
 torical are called Prophets. The name was probably 
 given to them because they were regarded as the work 
 of members of the prophetic class. 
 
 The word “ prophet ” means one who speaks for 
 another, and it is well explained by the directions given 
 to Moses with reference to Aaron’s relation to him. 
 (Exod. 7 : i, 2.) What Moses wished to say to the 
 people he was to speak to Aaron, and the latter, as a 
 prophet, was to speak it to the people. 
 
 The very common idea that a prophet was one who 
 foretold, is inadequate. It is true that we find predic¬ 
 tion in prophecy, but it is in reality only a relatively 
 small part of prophecy. In some of the prophets there 
 is scarcely any prediction. 
 
 Prophecy as we find it in the Old Testament may be 
 defined as special messages given by God to special men 
 to be delivered to the people at particular times. 
 
 Some things that we find in the Prophets are also 
 found in other of the Old Testament books. Some 
 
 3 
 
 $ 
 
4 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 of the work of the prophets may be common to the 
 work of the modern Christian preacher. But in its 
 essential features Old Testament Prophecy is unique. 
 
 In elaborating the above definition it is to be noted: 
 
 i. The prophets were specially chosen men. It was 
 evidently expedient that any word from God to the peo¬ 
 ple must be given through particular men, and not 
 directly to the people in mass. While the message was 
 intended for all, it had to be given through some. No 
 charge of partiality can be based upon this method, as 
 all alike could receive the message. 
 
 During much of the history of the Israelites there 
 was among them a class of men called “ prophets ” 
 who at times, at least, lived in communities more or 
 less separated from the rest of the people, and whose 
 chief purpose seems to have been to maintain in Israel 
 a knowledge of Jehovah, and to secure continued loy¬ 
 alty to him. Not all of these men performed the dis¬ 
 tinctive functions of “ prophets.” But nearly all of 
 those prophets whose writings we have belonged to this 
 class. They were chosen by God to deliver messages 
 from him. 
 
 The kings of Israel, especially those of the line of 
 David, ascended the throne by right of birth, not by a 
 special divine commission. Likewise the priests, 
 belonging to the other of the three divinely appointed 
 institutions, engaged in the priestly work because of 
 descent from Aaron. But a prophet entered upon the 
 work of speaking for God only if he was specially com¬ 
 missioned to do so. 
 
 Usually the prophets furnish no evidence by which 
 others could be assured that their claim that God had 
 
Old Testament Prophecy Defined 
 
 5 
 
 directed them to speak was true except the evidence 
 furnished by the character of their messages. At times 
 the fulfilment of a prediction was relied upon as a final 
 test of authority. But such was not always available. 
 Convincing proof was found when the message of a 
 prophet was in harmony with the character of God as 
 already revealed, and with his truth as already deliv¬ 
 ered. In most cases we do not know how the prophet 
 knew he was called. He was conscious of the fact that 
 his words were the words of Jehovah. This divine 
 authority for the messages was the constant claim of 
 the prophets, and this claim was not denied by the 
 people, except when the message condemned too 
 severely their conduct or was in conflict with their 
 hopes. 
 
 The men thus chosen were fit for their work because 
 of their natural endowments, their environments, and 
 their experiences. They were not of equal mental abil¬ 
 ity, nor were they alike in their surroundings and 
 experiences. These differences may account in large 
 part for the differences that we find in prophecies they 
 have left on record. But their messages did not orig¬ 
 inate either in themselves or in their surroundings. 
 The style of Isaiah differs from that of Jeremiah; that 
 of Hosea, from that of Haggai. Each of these with 
 his characteristic style was chosen by God for his 
 individual work. That which is specially to be noted 
 is that these prophets did not undertake their work 
 because they were prompted by the needs of the people, 
 nor because they were conscious of having the ability 
 to speak, but because God commanded them to speak. 
 Their words were with divine authority. 
 
6 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 2. These messengers received from God special mes¬ 
 sages to be delivered to the people on particular occa¬ 
 sions. What they had to say was not what they had 
 thought out for themselves. It was not merely the 
 result of their own experience or observation. It may 
 be that sometimes they were made to see the full sig¬ 
 nificance of what they were commanded to speak by 
 the experiences through which they had passed, or by 
 realizing the depths to which their people were sunken 
 in sin. Yet what they uttered was specially given 
 them for the occasion. 
 
 To be thus special it was not necessary that the 
 message be original with the prophet who then deliv¬ 
 ered it. The substance of it may have been used 
 before. Sometimes the thought of a prophet is prac¬ 
 tically identical with that of a former prophet. Some¬ 
 times its meaning did not go beyond what was already 
 current in prophetic teaching. The truth they were to 
 speak on any occasion need not be new. It did not mat¬ 
 ter how many times that special truth had been uttered 
 before, if it had been used at all; it did not matter 
 whether the facts they were to proclaim were already 
 known to others, or were revealed to them by God at 
 the time of their mission; what they spoke at any time 
 was specially commanded them by Jehovah who sent 
 them. Thus their words were always claimed to be 
 what Jehovah had spoken to them. 
 
 In a number of instances we find parallel passages 
 in the prophets. Thus Isaiah 2 : 2-5 is the same as 
 Micah 4 : 1-5, except a few slight verbal changes. 
 Whether one of these quoted from the other, or both 
 from some unknown source, or whether each is origi- 
 
Old Testament Prophecy Defined 
 
 7 
 
 nal, does not in the least affect the value of the mes¬ 
 sage of either of them. Each was to deliver that mes¬ 
 sage at that time. Another case of parallel thought is 
 found in Obadiah and Jeremiah 49 : 7-22. In this 
 instance the arrangement of the thought is not the 
 same in the two prophets. 
 
 The prophets delivered messages only occasion¬ 
 ally. They were not engaged in this work all the 
 time. In some cases, as that of Amos, it seems they 
 had but one or two messages to deliver, and then 
 returned to their usual occupation. At times, sev¬ 
 eral years passed without any word from God being 
 given to the prophet, if we may judge from what is 
 left on record. This is especially clear in the case of 
 Isaiah. 
 
 3. The methods by which the word of God was com¬ 
 municated to the prophets were not always the same . 
 The dream and vision seem to have been common 
 methods, and may be regarded as of a lower order. 
 In contrast with these God said he would speak with 
 Moses “mouth to mouth” (Num. 12 : 6-8). The 
 term “ vision ” is used at times in a sense wider than 
 an ecstatic condition. It is so used in the title to the 
 book of Isaiah, and applies to the entire contents of his 
 prophecies, most of which must have been received by 
 the prophet in ways other than in a vision in the 
 ordinary sense. 
 
 Because dreams usually have no special significance, 
 it does not follow that God did not give thoughts to 
 these prophets at times by means of dreams. It is dif¬ 
 ficult to know just what was the mental state of a 
 prophet when he had a vision. In case of either dream 
 
 B 
 
8 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 or vision the prophet knew that God had spoken to 
 him, and the divine authority of his message must be 
 admitted. 
 
 Most of the ideas of the prophets they probably 
 received when their minds were in a specially exalted 
 state, though otherwise in a normal condition. How 
 the Holy Spirit conveyed thoughts to the mind of the 
 prophet directly, without the medium of the physical 
 senses, we cannot explain. Neither can we explain 
 how a thought passes by means of the sense of hear¬ 
 ing to the consciousness of a man in ordinary con¬ 
 versation. But we cannot deny the fact in the one 
 case any more than in the other. 
 
 We may the more readily admit the claims of the 
 prophets that God had thus spoken to them, while 
 we would doubt such a claim in our own dav, because 
 the prophets belonged to that period of teaching when 
 God was revealing to men his will, which period came 
 to an end in the culminating work of Jesus Christ. 
 Such teaching is no longer needed. It was needed 
 then. (See i Cor. io : n; Heb. i : i, 2.) 
 
II 
 
 THE SPECIAL WORK OF THE PROPHETS 
 
 There are two distinguishable features of the pur¬ 
 pose of Prophecy: that which was for the benefit of 
 those who heard the prophet speak, and that which 
 when written was to form an important part of the 
 sacred Scriptures. The use of the latter was to be 
 for all times. Much of the former was likewise of 
 such character as to be of permanent use. In some of 
 the prophecies one or the other of these features may 
 predominate, or may appear to the exclusion of the 
 other. In some cases it may be difficult to determine 
 to what extent a prophet’s message was special or 
 temporary only. 
 
 We will first consider the prophet’s message as 
 meant for his own times. 
 
 In the consideration of this part of the subject it is 
 to be noted: 
 
 i. Both the matter and form of a prophetic mes¬ 
 sage were, in most cases at least, determined largely 
 by the political, moral, or religious condition of the 
 people to whom the prophet spoke. Only rarely was 
 the word of the prophet so general in its character that 
 it might belong equally to any occasion. 
 
 In order to understand then in full what a prophecy 
 meant we must study the times and conditions of its 
 delivery. It can, for instance, be easily seen that sim- 
 
 9 
 
10 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 ilar expressions might have widely different meanings 
 if delivered before or after the exile. We must learn, 
 so far as possible, what it was that led the prophet to 
 say what he did, and thus better understand what he 
 meant. If we know the historical occasion, we may 
 infer that some things were in the mind of the prophet 
 that the prophet did not express. If we can know 
 how gross were the forms of idolatry that the people 
 were practising at the time of a prophet, we can better 
 measure the terms of condemnation that he utters. We 
 should, if possible, put ourselves in the position of the 
 people and listen to the prophet from that position. 
 
 2. Most of the energy of the prophets was spent in 
 trying to induce the chosen people to be faithful to 
 Jehovah. The Israelites were so constantly and so 
 grievously sinning against God, that the chief work of 
 the prophets was rebuking and threatening them 
 because of their sins. The work of Elijah was repre¬ 
 sentative. He sought to turn Israel back from Baal 
 to Jehovah. For this he prayed to God at the contest 
 on Carmel, (i Kings 18 : 37.) The Israelites had 
 been chosen for a special people, not that they alone 
 might receive blessings from God, but that through 
 them Jehovah might be made known to men; that the 
 oracles of God might be entrusted to them. (Rom. 
 3:2.) This purpose would be prevented or hindered 
 if Israel should deny that Jehovah was the true God 
 and should serve idols. In direct contradiction to the 
 statement sometimes made that the Israelites were nat¬ 
 urally monotheistic, the fact is they were almost all 
 the time practising polytheism to a greater or less 
 degree. In all their history they sinned by worshiping 
 
The Special Work of the Prophets 
 
 11 
 
 idols. (Deut. 9 : 24; 1 Sam. 8:8; Hos. 11 : 1, 2; 
 Amos 5 : 25, 26.) 
 
 The character of Jehovah as holy was to be taught 
 through his chosen people, not merely by what they 
 said of him, but by being like him in holiness. In 
 this the Israelites most miserably failed in much of 
 their career. There was chief need that the prophets 
 rebuke them for their sinfulness, whether that was 
 shown in their conduct toward God, or in their oppres¬ 
 sion of their fellows. Since a trespass against a fellow 
 Israelite, who was one of God’s people, was a sin 
 against God, we find the prophets often threatening 
 their hearers for such sin. 
 
 The reforms instituted in Judah by Jehoshaphat, 
 Hezekiah, and Josiah, though with little success, were 
 no doubt mainly due to the work of the prophets of 
 these times. 
 
 3. The prophets were besides spokesmen for God in 
 giving assurance of ultimate victory over their enemies 
 and of deliverance from the afflictions that came upon 
 them because of their sins. The kingdom of Israel, 
 even when greatest, was not equal in power to the 
 kingdoms that sought to subdue it. Because of the 
 position of Palestine, lying as it did on the highway 
 that led from Mesopotamia to Egypt, the Israelites 
 were exposed to invasion from the two great powers 
 that lay on either side of them, Egypt and Assyria 
 (afterward Babylon), in the frequent attempt of each 
 of these to destroy the other. It may easily have seemed 
 to the Israelites when suffering from such invasions 
 that nothing could save them from destruction by these 
 mighty foes. It was in such times that God sent his 
 
12 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 prophets with messages of cheer. Not only would his 
 people be kept from destruction, but these terrible 
 foes would themselves be destroyed. Even if the 
 heathen should be called upon to punish God’s people 
 for their sins, they could chastise only, not destroy. 
 Israel would be gathered again, even if they should be 
 scattered from their land among all the nations of 
 the earth. 
 
 Many of the most important prophecies were occa¬ 
 sioned by these dark times of oppression through 
 which Israel had to pass. Desolation by enemies 
 caused prophetic promises of prosperity; the horrors 
 of war caused promises of peace; captivity and exile, it 
 was declared, would be followed by restoration to 
 the land God had given to them. The sins of the rulers, 
 the oppression by the strong, the faithlessness of the 
 kings, gave occasion for the word of God through the 
 prophets declaring that afterward their rulers would 
 be just, Zion would be holy, and a king would come 
 whose reign would be characterized by righteousness. 
 Even when the Israelites were most sunken in sin, there 
 were no doubt some who remained faithful to Jehovah, 
 and it was part of the work of the prophets to give 
 comfort to these. 
 
 4. The Israelites were chosen by God that there 
 might be imparted to them truths, not only for their 
 own enlightenment and guidance, but to be treasured 
 as a permanent possession for later ages. Hence a 
 large part of the work performed by the prophets was 
 teaching. Much had been taught in the law given 
 through Moses. Many lessons were taught by God’s 
 dealings with the Israelites of which we have a record 
 
The Special Work of the Prophets 
 
 13 
 
 in the historical books. But there was much instruc¬ 
 tion besides that was to be given through the prophets. 
 
 It was their duty to set forth the principles involved 
 in the laws that were of essential worth, and to teach 
 the people that a mere outward observance of the laws 
 did not satisfy the requirements of God. There are 
 some instances where the words of the prophets seem 
 to set aside the law as of no importance, or even as 
 in conflict with their own higher ethical teaching. And 
 it has been claimed by some that there is antagonism 
 between the law, particularly the ceremonial parts of 
 it, and prophecy. But a fair consideration of the con¬ 
 text in such cases will show that the prophets did not 
 condemn the law, but condemned the people who 
 thought there was merit in the heartless observance of 
 it and that sacrifices offered by hands stained with 
 murder would yet be accepted of God. 
 
 It was the work of the prophets also to interpret the 
 meaning of the calamities that fell as judgments upon 
 the Israelites. Not all calamities were judgments. 
 Those that were could be known as such by the accom¬ 
 panying message of the prophet. (See Amos 3 : 7 
 and context.) The great part of the work of Jeremiah 
 was this of interpreting the history of Israel. It had 
 been predicted long before that severe punishment 
 would result from Israel’s persistent sinning. Jere¬ 
 miah showed that the ruin into which his people were 
 entering was the fulfilment of these threats. 
 
 The prophets besides taught the great truths about 
 the character of God. Jehovah especially revealed 
 what he was through his prophets. They emphasized 
 the doctrines of his holiness, justice, mercy. They 
 
14 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 made known his moral excellence. They preached his 
 hatred of sin, and that he would punish sinners. They 
 also proclaimed in almost every message God’s won¬ 
 derful long suffering, and that he would quickly for¬ 
 give if men would repent. Our knowledge of the excel¬ 
 lence of God’s character would be far less than it is if 
 we did not have what the prophets said in the messages 
 God gave them for Israel. 
 
 5. The prophets have been called politicians, states¬ 
 men, reformers, teachers of morality. But they were 
 such only incidentally as they endeavored to do their 
 work as spokesmen for God. The political and relig¬ 
 ious interests of Israel were inseparable from each 
 other because as a nation they had been chosen to 
 accomplish God’s purpose. Any course that the kings 
 and leaders of the people entered upon in directing the 
 nation might be very decisive in the achievement of the 
 nation’s purpose. In such the counsel or rebuke of the 
 prophet would be most needful. Some of the prophets 
 did a large work in advising right policies and urging 
 the kings to follow their advice, while warning them 
 of the disaster that would result from its rejection. 
 
 They were reformers because there was so much 
 need of turning the Israelites from wrong courses, 
 because social evils were so prevalent among all classes 
 of the people, and because the prophets sought to have 
 the people of God conform their conduct more fully 
 to the requirements of God. 
 
 What the prophets taught of morality was not inde¬ 
 pendent of what they taught of religion. The mutual 
 relation of the Israelites was determined by their rela¬ 
 tion to God. 
 
Ill 
 
 PROPHECY AS SCRIPTURE 
 
 In the preceding chapter there was considered the 
 work of the prophets as related to their own times. 
 But Prophecy had a further and a wider purpose. Its 
 great truths were to form an important part of the 
 body of sacred Scriptures. 
 
 It has been insisted upon, especially in more recent 
 times, that we are to find in a prophecy only what 
 we may be sure those who heard it understood; that 
 the prophets did not, either consciously or uncon¬ 
 sciously, speak for the future; that the work of each 
 was an independent unit; that Messianic ideas are 
 found in the prophets only when unscientific methods 
 of interpretation are resorted to in order to corrobo¬ 
 rate unwarranted views to the Bible, but that the pro¬ 
 phetic writers themselves intended no such ideas. 
 
 In order to reach right conclusions on this point we 
 need to consider both what is probable and what is 
 actual. 
 
 i. The redemption that Christ wrought for man 
 when he was on the earth was the central and the most 
 stupendous fact in all the history of the human race. 
 It stands out so prominent, so high, so great, that all 
 else dwarfs into comparative insignificance. This 
 redemption was purposed by God from the beginning. 
 It was not an afterthought. It was not wrought to 
 
 15 
 
16 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 take the place of something else that failed. Man’s 
 Saviour had been provided before man sinned and 
 needed one. All of history before Christ came was 
 related to his coming; all of history since is related to 
 what he accomplished by his coming. 
 
 The people of Israel was chosen to* be specially 
 God’s, not for their own sake, but that through them 
 the need of redemption, and the person and work of 
 the Redeemer might be *set forth to such an extent 
 that men of all times might understand and accept 
 Christ as Saviour. This preparation was not merely 
 that Christ might come into the world, but that the 
 purpose of his coming might be understood, and he 
 be acknowledged as the Saviour sent from God. Such 
 preparation was needful, not for the Jews only, but for 
 all men so long as there are sinful men who need a 
 Saviour. For this reason the Old Testament Scrip¬ 
 tures, the oracles of God, were committed to the Jews. 
 They were not written for the Jews only, but for all 
 men, for all times. 
 
 Instead of its being improbable that the prophets 
 would speak of what was to be realized at a time long 
 after their own, since they were specially chosen that 
 through them God might reveal himself and make 
 known his will concerning man, and since the work of 
 redemption was thus central in all history, it is most 
 improbable that the prophets would be silent on this 
 subject, and it would have been altogether unaccount¬ 
 able if they had not given some intimations, if not more 
 or less clear knowledge, of the purpose of God that was 
 to be accomplished in the future, even though that 
 future was remote. 
 
Prophecy as Scripture 
 
 17 
 
 2. We are not only justifiable in seeking to know 
 how Christ and the writers of the New Testament 
 interpreted the contents of Prophecy, but zve are under 
 obligation to accept their interpretation as valid. We 
 may not doubt the testimony of the inspired writers of 
 the New Testament on matters that determine our 
 knowledge of Christ, and we cannot assert that Christ 
 was ignorant in matters concerning himself unless he 
 himself confessed such ignorance. When he spoke we 
 must accept his word as final. Of course we must be 
 sure of the real meaning of his words. 
 
 It has been said that the writers of the New Testa¬ 
 ment did not use the methods of scientific exegesis in 
 their interpretations of the Old Testament Scriptures, 
 and that we should not accept their views of the mean¬ 
 ing of these. But such a position denies the inspiration 
 of the New Testament writers, and involves the rejec¬ 
 tion of the Bible as in a true sense God’s word. 
 
 It has been said of Christ that his kenosis included 
 all superhuman knowledge; that he knew only what 
 he had been taught by his Jewish teachers, and that 
 his views of the Scriptures were but the views of his 
 people and his time. But his teaching was not on a 
 level with the teaching of his time. It was so much 
 above it that he was acknowledged to be a Teacher 
 sent from God. And we must claim that he could 
 not have been mistaken about the meaning of the 
 Scriptures that concerned himself as the Messiah. 
 
 The further assertion that Christ knew that the views 
 of the Jews about their Scriptures were wrong, but 
 instead of correcting them, used them to confound the 
 Jews in his arguments with them, needs no serious 
 
18 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 refutation. Those who know him know he would not 
 do that. 
 
 3. Many passages may be cited from the Gospels 
 and the Epistles to show that the zvriters of the New 
 Testament understood that the prophets spoke of what 
 was to be true in the Messianic times. Not merely did 
 they quote specific statements of the prophets as having 
 their fulfilment in the person and work of Jesus Christ, 
 but they constantly refer to the Old Testament Scrip¬ 
 tures as having the authority of God’s word. They did 
 not concern themselves especially to know which of 
 the prophets uttered a particular prophecy, they rather 
 regarded all of Prophecy as one whole, from which 
 they got their proof that the Holy Spirit spoke before¬ 
 hand through prophets of those facts and truths that 
 they themselves saw becoming actual in their own time. 
 
 Thus Matthew says the birth of Jesus was the fulfil¬ 
 ment of what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. 
 (Matt. 1 : 22.) 
 
 Luke says, “ And hath raised up an horn of salva¬ 
 tion for us, in the house of his servant David; as he 
 spake by the mouth of his holy prophets ” (Luke 
 1 : 69, 70). 
 
 John quotes Philip as saying, “ We have found him, 
 of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets did write ” 
 (John 1 : 45). 
 
 Peter said that God had shewed by the mouth of all 
 his prophets that Christ should suffer. (Acts 3 : 18.) 
 
 Peter further said, “ Yea, and all the prophets from 
 Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have 
 spoken, have likewise foretold of these days ” (Acts 
 3 • 24). 
 
Prophecy as Script 
 
 19 
 
 Paul declared that in his continued witnessing to all 
 about Christ he had said no other things than those 
 which the prophets and Moses did say should come. 
 (Acts 26 : 22.) And when Paul was in Rome he 
 testified the kingdom of God, persuading them con¬ 
 cerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out 
 of the prophets. (Acts 28 : 23.) 
 
 4. The testimony of Jesus to the prophets has still 
 greater weight. He said he had not come to destroy 
 the law or the prophets, but to fulfil them. (Matt. 
 5 : 17)- 
 
 He told the twelve, “ Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, 
 and all things that are written by the prophets con¬ 
 cerning the Son of man shall be accomplished ” (Luke 
 
 18 : 3I }‘ 
 
 He said to the two disciples as they went to Emmaus, 
 “ O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe all that 
 the prophets spoke” (Luke 24 : 25). “ And begin¬ 
 
 ning from Moses and from all the prophets he inter¬ 
 preted to them in all the Scriptures the things con¬ 
 cerning himself.” (Luke 24 : 27.) Well might these 
 disciples say to each other, “ Was not our heart burn¬ 
 ing within us, while he talked to us in the way, while 
 he opened to us the Scriptures? ” (Luke 24 : 32.) 
 
 5. This purpose of Prophecy as a part of the Old 
 Testament Scriptures which were intended as an aid to 
 understand Christ when he came, gives a unity to the 
 various prophetic messages that they would not other¬ 
 wise have had. While each prophet had a work for 
 his own time, he also had a part in the work for all 
 time. The hearers of the prophet, even the prophet 
 himself, may not have fully understood the wider 
 
20 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 significance of any message, but that fact does not pre¬ 
 vent us from believing that the Holy Spirit who was 
 speaking through the prophets, thus gave truths that 
 were parts of a larger whole. 
 
 When we consider the work of these prophets in its 
 special relation to the needs of their own times in view 
 of this wider purpose of Prophecy, it appears that even 
 what was meant for the special good of the hearers, 
 had also a permanent value for the instruction of the 
 readers. 
 
 The people of Israel were chosen that they might 
 receive and transmit truths concerning redemption, and 
 the instruction which they received through the 
 prophets, the rebukes, threats, and exhortations, by 
 which they were shown God’s character and will, 
 formed an important part of these redemptive truths. 
 Not only may we see that the lessons taught the 
 Israelites are applicable to our own times, but that 
 these lessons were meant for our own times. 
 
IV 
 
 THE THEME OF PROPHECY AS SCRIPTURE 
 
 The special work of the prophets as applicable to 
 their times and conditions has already been consid¬ 
 ered. It is intended in this chapter to consider what 
 we find in Prophecy as a part of the Scriptures. 
 
 Here also we find that all their messages center about 
 the idea of a people of God, or as it might be put, a 
 kingdom of God on earth. It is to be noted, however, 
 that while the prophets spoke of a people or kingdom 
 that should be in the future, their teachings about that 
 people were put in general terms; they did not attempt 
 to give in minute detail the history of that coming 
 kingdom*, 
 
 i. The fact that God purposed to have a people on 
 the earth, a people in a real sense separate and distin¬ 
 guishable from all others, is made evident from the 
 first, and this purpose was not thwarted, nor could it 
 be prevented, by the failure of the Israelites to be 
 faithful to God. Even when Israel, nominally God’s, 
 turned from him and worshiped idols, when they had 
 rejected the Holy One of Israel, his prophets declared 
 that in that future which they foresaw there would be 
 a real people of God. 
 
 It was natural, if not necessary, that prophetic ref¬ 
 erences to this true people of God, should be put in 
 terms that fitted Israel’s relation to Jehovah. Prob- 
 
 21 
 
22 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 ably the prophets could not have spoken to those of 
 their own times and have been understood, without 
 using Israelite terms. That people of God of the future 
 is thus called “ Israel ”; their home is the “ Holy 
 Land ”; their chief city is “ Zion ”; their enemies are 
 “ Edom,” “ Egypt,” “ Philistia,” “Assyria,” and 
 “ Babylon.” 
 
 But the prophetic idea of God’s future people was 
 clearly larger than Israel. It was to be a people not dis¬ 
 tinguished by family descent, nor marked off by 
 national barriers. There would be included in it men 
 of all nations, even of those who had been the per¬ 
 petual, hating enemies of the Israelites. There are very 
 many passages that show this, none perhaps more cer¬ 
 tainly than Isaiah 19 : 24, 25, where it is declared that 
 Israel shall be one of three, the other two being Egypt 
 and Assyria, and terms of close relationship to God 
 that had been applied to Israel only, are here applied 
 to these veteran enemies of Israel. “ Blessed be 
 Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, 
 and Israel mine inheritance.” 
 
 2. This future people of God would he his by virtue 
 of the fact that he would choose them out of the world 
 for himself. They would be the objects of his favor, 
 the recipients of his grace. It would be a people whose 
 sins would be forgiven because of the vicarious suffer¬ 
 ing of the Servant whom God would send. The 
 highest idea of the work of the suffering innocent 
 One, through whom the nations would be turned back 
 to Jehovah, and who would himself bear the stripes due 
 the guilty, is given in the fifty-third chapter of 
 Isaiah. No interpretation of this wonderful passage 
 
The Theme of Prophecy as Scripture 23 
 
 that denies its reference to Christ can ever be finally 
 acceptable. Of the two divisions of the Messianic 
 ideas presented in the Old Testament, that of the 
 Sovereign and that of the Sufferer, the climax of the 
 latter is reached in this passage. 
 
 3. The prophetic assertion that a King would reign 
 over this future people of God is not a mere figure of 
 speech suggested by the fact of the Israelite kingdom, 
 but rather the kingdom of Israel was established under 
 the direction of Jehovah, with a king of his own choos¬ 
 ing, that it might be a type of the spiritual kingdom 
 still future. By the character and history of the 
 first kings of Israel we learn what the Theocratic, Mes¬ 
 sianic King was to be, though the reality far exceeded 
 what was thus foreshadowed. 
 
 The failures of Israel’s kings gave occasion for 
 the prophets to predict the coming of a King who 
 would rule in accord with the will of God; who would 
 reign in righteousness; whose scepter would be one 
 of justice; whose sway would be as wide as the earth; 
 a King whom other kings would serve, and whose rule 
 would be one of peace. 
 
 The two chief functions of the Israelite king were to 
 be realized in him: that of defender, and that of judge. 
 He would defend his people from all their enemies. 
 Under his reign they would be secure from oppres¬ 
 sion. And he would be a just Judge, arbitrating all 
 cases with equity, and rendering to each according to 
 his deserts. 
 
 This Messianic idea in its twofold aspect is a domi¬ 
 nant one in Old Testament Prophecy. Sometimes 
 the Messianic thought is given only in outline and very 
 c 
 
24 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 general terms; sometimes, especially towards the close 
 of the prophetic period, the delineation of the person 
 and work of the Messiah stands out with more clear¬ 
 ness. Yet all that we get is far less than what was 
 revealed by the Messiah himself when he at last came. 
 What is here given is but an introduction that we 
 might become acquainted with him later. 
 
 4. This people of God was to be characterized by 
 righteousness, justice, mercy or loving-kindness, and 
 holiness. All these characteristics would result from 
 the fact that they were the people of Jehovah, and 
 that they were to be like him. While the Israelites 
 were nominally God’s people, in character they were 
 scarcely different from the nations about them during 
 much of their career. They were distinguished by 
 name as the worshipers of Jehovah, though in prac¬ 
 tise the mass of them much of the time worshiped 
 idols. They followed the formal ceremonies of their 
 religious ritual, but too often their worship was the 
 form only, while in heart they were far from God. 
 
 The prophets declared that in the future the people 
 of God would have his law written in their hearts; that 
 they would be faithful to Jehovah, instead of for¬ 
 saking him and worshiping the gods of the heathen. 
 There would be none unholy among them. The city 
 where they would dwell would be called the city of 
 righteousness, and none but those with a character like 
 God’s would be found in it. 
 
 In their relation to the peoples about them this people 
 of God was to be preeminent. All the other nations 
 were to be subservient to them. This idea was espe¬ 
 cially suggested, and especially comforting, at a time 
 
The Theme of Prophecy as Scripture 25 
 
 when the Israelites were being ruled over by the 
 heathen. They were invaded, despoiled, oppressed, 
 exiled. These conditions would not obtain in the Mes¬ 
 sianic times. These terms are undoubtedly figurative, 
 yet there is in them the great truth that it was God’s 
 purpose that all the nations of the earth should be 
 made to contribute to the glory of his kingdom. Not 
 only should the world powers be prevented from 
 dominating his people, but his people should be served 
 by the world powers. 
 
V 
 
 THE INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY 
 
 The principles by which Prophecy is to be inter¬ 
 preted are for the most part the same as those to be 
 followed in other parts of the Bible, but because of 
 the nature of the subject there are in addition some 
 special facts to be observed. 
 
 i. The interest of the prophet in what was to be in 
 the future as well as in what concerned his own time 
 has already been noted. Not only specific instances 
 of prediction, but the general outlook of the prophets 
 toward the Messianic times, involves the obligation 
 of interpreting the messages of the prophets with ref¬ 
 erence to the culmination of, not only Prophecy, but 
 the entire Old Testament period. The claim that a 
 prophet could see only what was within his own hori¬ 
 zon might be admitted if we make his horizon wide 
 enough. A prophet could see what the Holy Spirit 
 showed to him, however far off it might be. 
 
 The claim that a prophet could get only those 
 thoughts that were associated with, or the outgrowth 
 of, thoughts that he already had, that we must limit 
 the meaning of his message to what we can under¬ 
 stand was genetically connected with truths that were 
 already held, practically denies the fact, or possibility, 
 of revelation, and the prophets persistently claimed 
 that revelations were given to them. 
 
 26 
 
The Interpretation of Prophecy 27 
 
 In interpreting Prophecy we may well begin by see¬ 
 ing what our Lord and the New Testament writers 
 stated was contained in it. There may be much of 
 which they did not speak, and the meaning of which 
 we must seek without such special guidance, but what 
 they assert to be the meaning of a prophet’s words 
 gives us a helpful clue to understand the rest. 
 
 2. In close connection with the preceding it is to be 
 noted that any prophet, or any part of a prophet’s mes¬ 
 sage, is to be interpreted in view of a wider whole. 
 The words of the prophets are not to be regarded as 
 isolated, and independent assertions, or teachings, but 
 as parts of the whole of Prophecy, and this itself as a 
 part of the entire word of God. 
 
 In any case of interpretation we need to study the 
 context of a passage to determine its meaning, and 
 here we must take into consideration, not only all that 
 the prophet which we study said, but all that the other 
 prophets may have said that bears upon the truth of the 
 special part to be interpreted. The later prophets based 
 much of their teaching upon that which the former 
 prophets had already taught; and the earlier prophets 
 at times presented but a sketch of what was to be 
 filled in by those who should come after them. It is 
 most essential that the general theme and scope of 
 Prophecy be got well in mind in order fairly to inter¬ 
 pret its various parts. 
 
 3. What the prophets foretold of the future people 
 of God was given in general terms, not in minute 
 detail, except in a comparatively few instances. It is 
 held by some interpreters that Prophecy was a fore¬ 
 writing of history; that all that the prophets spoke of 
 
28 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 the future was to be literally fulfilled; that we may 
 search the prophets to find out what is yet to take 
 place, or to find a prediction of what is taking place. 
 But we would neither expect this, nor do we find it to 
 be the case. 
 
 The prophets told of a true people of God who 
 should be faithful to him in the end of the days; they 
 portrayed the character of that people; they gave 
 assurance of the preeminence of God’s people over 
 all opposing powers; they told of a Sufferer who 
 should accomplish the purpose of God who would send 
 him; they predicted a King, and described his glorious 
 reign; they declared his rule would be without limit, 
 and unbounded peace would result from, it. But 
 these great truths were given by the prophets in gen¬ 
 eral terms. They did not picture in minute detail all 
 that would take place in the Messianic times, nor give a 
 particular account of all that would be realized. 
 
 The claim that the prophets were writing the details 
 of future history has led to the view that since much 
 they predicted has not been literally fulfilled, they were 
 merely guessing about the future, expressing their un¬ 
 inspired hopes, which were to prove false ones, or else 
 that their predictions are yet to be so fulfilled, however 
 impossible such fulfilment may seem to be. Thus not 
 only are the Jews to be restored to Palestine, and 
 their city to be rebuilt, but the temple and its entire 
 system of sacrifices will be seen again in Jerusalem. 
 Since Babylon was not destroyed in strict accordance 
 with the prediction of the prophets, it shall be rebuilt 
 so that it may thus be destroyed. 
 
 It has well been pointed out that we should look to 
 
The Interpretation of Prophecy 
 
 29 
 
 the New Testament for the latest and fullest word 
 about the destiny of the Jews. 
 
 4. Some prophecies were conditional. The words 
 of the prophets that are of the nature of predictions 
 may be divided into two classes: threats and promises. 
 Threats were made against both the Israelites and 
 the outside nations. Almost all of those against the 
 heathen were because of their hostility toward God’s 
 people; were never meant for the ears of the heathen, 
 with some exceptions, and were merely intended for 
 teaching the Israelites themselves: showing them God’s 
 hatred of sin, that it would be punished, and assuring 
 them that their God would protect them from the 
 oppression of the enemies. 
 
 Threats against the Israelites were intended to turn 
 them from sin and to lead to their repentance. If 
 such repentance followed the prophet’s message, the 
 punishment threatened would of course be averted, 
 and the prediction in form would be unfulfilled. The 
 condition upon which the predicted calamity might be 
 averted was not always stated. But if the threat was 
 to secure repentance, the conditional character of it 
 was necessarily implied. 
 
 It seems that in some cases the people had persisted 
 in sin for so long a time that no degree of repentance 
 would be able to secure their escape from punishment. 
 Most, if not all, of the special calamities sent upon 
 the Israelites as judgments from God for sin were 
 intended for didactic purposes. They were to teach 
 great lessons meant for all ages, and at times the 
 repentance of Israel would have come too late to stop 
 the teaching of such lessons. 
 
30 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 Promises were made to God’s people only, or to those 
 besides who were willing to identify themselves with 
 his people. These promises were likewise often con¬ 
 ditional, though the mercy of God was so great, and 
 his redemptive purposes were so eternal, that even the 
 faithlessness of the chosen people could not prevent 
 the fulfilment of his promises. Thus the promise of 
 a Saviour from sin could not be conditioned upon the 
 goodness of the Israelites. Sin itself was the condi¬ 
 tion of his coming. 
 
 In the absence of any expressed condition accom¬ 
 panying either threat or promise, there is need of 
 special care in the interpretation to decide whether the 
 prophecy is conditional or not. Each instance must be 
 decided by itself. 
 
 5. Prophecy abounds in figurative language. Almost 
 all of the writings of the prophets are in the form 
 of poetry. This must be taken into account in deter¬ 
 mining its meaning. Besides the specially elevated style 
 of composition common to all poetry, we find very 
 abundant figures of speech used by the prophets. 
 Especially is this to be noted in what they say of the 
 future. 
 
 They were speaking in Old Testament times under 
 conditions that then obtained, and they used terms sug¬ 
 gested by such conditions, and which alone could have 
 been understood by their hearers. Thus they spoke of 
 Israel, meaning God’s people of whatever blood; of 
 Zion, meaning the place where God dwelt among his 
 people; Egypt, Edom, Babylon, and the rest, meaning 
 the enemies of God’s people wherever they might be 
 found, or to whatever nation they might belong. They 
 
The Interpretation of Prophecy 
 
 31 
 
 spoke of returning from exile at times when their 
 words involved much more than a literal return of the 
 Jews from Babylon. The splendor of Solomon’s reign 
 is used by the prophet to furnish terms to portray the 
 splendor and preeminence of the people of God, though 
 this was never to be realized literally, but shall be 
 most fully in a spiritual sense. 
 
 Here too, whether the language is to be understood 
 literally or figuratively must be determined by the com 
 text, and by a full study of the whole theme and scope 
 of Prophecy. 
 
 6 . It has been seen that a large part of the work of 
 a prophet grew out of the needs and conditions of his 
 own times. In order to understand the meaning of 
 this part of a prophet’s words we must put ourselves 
 so far as possible in the times of the prophet. It is 
 necessary to consider the historical setting of the 
 prophecy in order to discover its exact meaning. This 
 is true of almost all the prophets. Sometimes, how¬ 
 ever, the theme of the prophet is so general in character 
 that its truth remains of equal value whatever its time 
 of delivery. 
 
 Much help is got for understanding the prophets 
 from the historical books. The weakness of a king; the 
 idolatry prevalent among the people; the faithlessness 
 and crimes of the leaders; the approach of an enemy; 
 the attempts to form alliances with the heathen nations, 
 and the amount of success achieved in attempted 
 reforms, are to be taken into consideration in order 
 to interpret correctly the messages of the prophets. 
 
VI 
 
 PROPHECY IN RELATION TO 
 ISRAEL’S HISTORY 
 
 Only a brief sketch of the work of the prophets in 
 their relation to the history of the Israelites is purposed 
 in this chapter. A complete consideration of the sub¬ 
 ject of Prophecy would involve a study of what has 
 been termed the “ preprophetic period.” Many funda¬ 
 mental truths were taught during this time, truths 
 that were elaborated and added to by the writing 
 prophets. No one indeed surpassed Moses in the qual¬ 
 ities that distinguish the Old Testament prophets. God 
 communicated to him directly some of the highest 
 conceptions of his own character, and the laws and 
 principles of the relations that existed between Jehovah 
 and his chosen people. 
 
 It was promised through Moses that prophets would 
 be raised up after Moses should be taken away, who 
 would instruct the Israelites in their duties toward God 
 and each other. Before the time of the monarchy these 
 promised prophets do not seem to have been frequent* 
 nor their work of very great significance. After that 
 time the prophetic institution became of prime impor¬ 
 tance. 
 
 i. About the time of the transition from the Judges 
 to the Kings, the need of special messengers from God 
 became imperative. The priests had been appointed, 
 32 
 
Prophecy in Relation to Israel’s History 33 
 
 not only to officiate at the altar, but also as the religious 
 teachers of the people. But the priests themselves had 
 become corrupt; they were often chief among the sin¬ 
 ners of the Israelites. Their failure may have been 
 due in part to the lack of support by the rest of the 
 tribes. Tithes were withheld, and sacrifices were not 
 offered. Their failure gave occasion for bringing into 
 prominence the prophetic institution, which was 
 appointed of God, not merely to make good that in 
 respect to which the priests had failed, but to reveal 
 with greater fulness the character of God and his will. 
 Samuel is regarded as the founder of the so-called 
 “ schools of the prophets.” There were, however, 
 prophets before his day. His great work as prophet 
 was to encourage these schools and to regulate their 
 activity. 
 
 2. In the days of Ahab the northern kingdom had 
 adopted the worship of Baal so generally that the 
 worship of Jehovah was almost excluded. There 
 were but relatively few that remained faithful to the 
 God of their fathers. The two prophets Elijah and 
 Elisha were raised up to endeavor to bring Israel back 
 to the faithful service of Jehovah. The work of each 
 supplemented that of the other. Elijah, by condemna¬ 
 tion and punishment, sought to arouse the people to a 
 consciousness of their sin, while Elisha followed with 
 repeated assurances of God’s readiness to show mercy 
 if they would repent. There was but a temporary 
 check given to the downward course of the rebellious 
 people. There were, however, some great truths added 
 to the contents of prophetic teaching. Elijah was 
 shown on Horeb that the real people of God, the true 
 
34 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 Israel, were those who were faithful to Jehovah, and 
 that they would abide after the sinners of the chosen 
 people were destroyed. Through the beneficent mir¬ 
 acles of Elisha there was taught the truth of perma¬ 
 nent worth, that the mercy of God was unbounded. 
 He would bruise, but he would also bind up. 
 
 3. During the time that the Israelites, both the 
 northern and the southern kingdom, were in contact 
 with the Assyrian power, called the “ Assyrian ” period 
 in Israel’s history, the prophets that were chiefly impor¬ 
 tant were Amos and Ho sea in the North and Isaiah 
 and Micah in the South. 
 
 The reign of Jeroboam II was exceedingly pros¬ 
 perous. Riches were abundant, luxury was every¬ 
 where, and there was consequent wickedness. The 
 people gave themselves up to the gratification of all sen¬ 
 suous appetites, and the poor were especially oppressed 
 by the avarice of the rich and strong. Amos was 
 sent from Judah to condemn the northern sinners for 
 their crimes, and to warn them of imminent punish¬ 
 ment. They were secure in the belief that the “ day 
 of Jehovah ” predicted by Joel would come with 
 destruction for the heathen nations only. Amos assured 
 them that Israelite sinners would perish like the rest. 
 Being God’s chosen people would not save them. 
 
 Hosea prophesied during the same conditions, and 
 had in part a message like that of Amos, but as a back¬ 
 ground for the portrayal of the blackness of their sin 
 and the terribleness of the coming calamity he set forth 
 in strongest terms the wonderful love that Jehovah 
 had shown them from the first. But since God’s love 
 had been spurned by them, the punishment they de- 
 
Prophecy in Relation to Israel’s History 35 
 
 served was all the greater. Hosea preached God’s love, 
 but his threats were terrific. 
 
 The greater part of the work of the two prophets 
 Isaiah and Micah in Judah centers about the reign of 
 Ahaz, who sought an alliance with Assyria against his 
 two enemies Israel and Aramea, and the reign of Heze- 
 kiah, who was attacked by Sennacherib because the 
 customary tribute from Judah was withheld. The 
 refusal of Ahaz to trust Jehovah gave occasion for 
 severe denunciation by Isaiah, and the prediction that 
 destruction would come upon Judah. But the king’s 
 infidelity also led to the prophet’s prediction that God 
 would raise up a true King. Hezekiah’s refusal to 
 yield to the demands of the Assyrian king who had 
 already captured some of the cities of Judah, but who 
 was not content with less than the complete surrender 
 of Jerusalem, was most likely due to the encourage¬ 
 ment given him by Isaiah. The help of Jehovah was 
 never promised with greater assurance than in this dark 
 hour of Judah’s threatened downfall. Micah’s proph¬ 
 ecies were likewise in great part occasioned by the 
 immanence of Assyria’s blow. 
 
 4. In what is called the “ Babylonian ” period there 
 remained the kingdom of Judah only. Israel had 
 fallen in 722. About a hundred years later the fall of 
 the Assyrian power, which had been dominant in the 
 east for many centuries, was succeeded by the suprem¬ 
 acy of Babylon. This power lasted but a short time, 
 but it was a very mighty force in determining the 
 destiny of Judah. The end of this kingdom was now 
 near. The sins of many generations were at last to be 
 punished by the captivity of the chosen people, the 
 
36 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 destruction of their holy temple and the desolation of 
 their sacred city. 
 
 At this time Jeremiah in Judah and Ezekiel among 
 those already carried captive were chief of those who 
 prophesied to the kings and common people. Their 
 work differs in its special character from that of the 
 prophets who had preceded them. Very many of the 
 messages of each grew out of the personal experiences 
 through which they passed. The truths they pro¬ 
 claimed, the lessons they taught, form an important 
 part of Prophecy. The minor prophets Habakkuk and 
 Obadiah emphasized special truths that were pertinent 
 to this critical time. 
 
 It was just in the midst of the ruin of Judah, when 
 there seemed no prospect but one of final defeat, that 
 Daniel prophesied of the overthrow of the world 
 powers and of the glorious triumph of the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 5. After the Jews had returned to Jerusalem to 
 rebuild their temple, the special work that the prophets 
 had to do was to give them encouragement in the face 
 of weakness, poverty, and the hostility of their enemies. 
 Haggai and Zechariah were especially concerned with 
 the work on the temple. Malachi sought to check the 
 tendency of the Jews to intermarry with the heathen, 
 and he condemned those who denied the importance 
 of serving Jehovah. The work of all these post- 
 exilic prophets was needed to keep distinctly in the 
 minds of the chosen people that they were a separate 
 nation, Jehovah’s special possession. 
 
 6. The work of the prophets is thus seen to be inti¬ 
 mately connected with the history of Israel. It is not 
 
Prophecy in Relation to Israel’s History 37 
 
 something apart from, an addition to, the manifesta¬ 
 tion of the purpose of God in his dealings with his peo¬ 
 ple. The threats and promises of the prophets arose 
 from the moral and political condition of the Israelites. 
 We learn from both the historical condition and the 
 prophecy occasioned by it what Jehovah revealed con¬ 
 cerning himself and what he demands of man. We are 
 taught by his act and by his prophetic word that he 
 will punish sin, which he hates, and that his mercy is 
 beyond expression in words. Old Testament Prophecy 
 stands out preeminent, towering above all else that was 
 given to aid us in understanding Christ, but it stood 
 amid the every-day doings of the Israelites. It con¬ 
 tinually interpreted to Israel the meaning of what 
 God sent upon them, warned them of the results of 
 their sins, and exhorted them to righteousness. The 
 messages of the prophets abide as the fullest revelation 
 that God made before his final revelation in Christ. 
 They demand and they will reward the most careful 
 and sympathetic study. 
 
PART II 
 
 A STUDY OF THE INDIVIDUAL 
 
 PROPHETS 
 
I 
 
 ISAIAH 
 
 Parallel Reading: 2 Kings 14 to 21; 2 Chronicles 
 26 to 33; Micah; Hosea; Amos. 
 
 1. Date and Occasion 
 
 The exact date of the beginning of Isaiah’s work 
 is not known, but it was before Uzziah died. (1 : 1.) 
 He continued to prophesy at intervals until the close 
 of the reign of Hezekiah, possibly was slain by the 
 next king, Manasseh. A period of about forty years, 
 740-698 B. C. 
 
 Judah was flourishing in the reign of Uzziah, or 
 as he is otherwise called, Azariah. Wealth there, as in 
 Israel under Jeroboam II, produced wickedness, vice, 
 oppression. Jotham is classed among the better kings 
 of Judah, but some of the rebukes of Isaiah were caused 
 by the sin of his reign. Ahaz was the worst king Judah 
 had because he deliberately chose to trust in a heathen 
 power instead of Jehovah. The destiny of Judah 
 was largely determined by the infidelity of Ahaz. His 
 unwise policy of seeking help from Assyria led to 
 Judah’s becoming tributary to Assyria. Much that we 
 have in Isaiah was occasioned by the sins of this reign. 
 The remarkable Immanuel prophecy (7 to 12) was 
 made the day Ahaz rejected Jehovah. This wicked 
 
 41 
 
42 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 king was succeeded by his good son, Hezekiah. His 
 attempted reforms were probably encouraged by Isaiah. 
 His kingdom was threatened by the invasion of the 
 Assyrians under Sennacherib. These two prominent 
 features occasioned many of the important messages of 
 Isaiah. Thus very much of the book of Isaiah was 
 due to the political and religious condition of Judah in 
 the reigns of the two important kings, Ahaz and 
 Hezekiah. 
 
 The northern kingdom came to an end while Heze¬ 
 kiah was king of Judah, 722 B. C., but before it 
 fell Isaiah was interested in its religious condition. 
 His work included threats against these Israelite sin¬ 
 ners. The prophecies of Hosea and Amos help us to 
 understand what it was that Isaiah had to condemn 
 in the northern kingdom. Both Israel and Judah were 
 the people of Jehovah. The apostasy of Israel con¬ 
 cerned the prophet of Judah. Crimes of all kinds 
 were committed by the people. Idol worship in forms 
 practised by all the surrounding heathen was adopted 
 by the Israelites, north and south. Idolatry was worse 
 in Israel, but prevalent in Judah. Such conditions, 
 political, social, religious, characterized the time of 
 Isaiah, and they must be kept in mind in studying 
 his prophecies. 
 
 Judging from what we have in his book he was not 
 prophesying all the time. There seem to have been 
 intervals of several years between some of his mes¬ 
 sages during which he was silent. The dates of the 
 prophecies cannot be determined in many cases, except 
 approximately. A few of them are dated. Thus we 
 know the occasion of their delivery. Some can be 
 
Isaiah 
 
 43 
 
 placed by internal evidence. When we know the date, 
 we can better understand the message. 
 
 2. The Divisions of the Book 
 
 The book is made up of a collection of prophecies 
 delivered at different times. Some of the prophecies 
 form only a chapter, or but part of a chapter, some 
 of his messages make a number of chapters. Thus 
 chapter 5 is a separate prophecy; so is chapter 6. 
 The contents of the six chapters, 7 to 12, seem to be 
 practically all of one discourse, at least so far as the 
 chief thought is concerned. 
 
 These various prophecies may be arranged in groups 
 for convenience of study. 
 
 The entire book is divided into two parts, chs. 1 to 
 39, and 40 to 66. There are easily recognized differ¬ 
 ences between the thought, outlook, purpose, teaching, 
 and style of these two parts. 
 
 In part one, chs. 1 to 39, we find prominent: Charge 
 of sins; rebuke for crimes; threats of punishment, 
 including even the overthrow of the kingdom, because 
 the people have forsaken Jehovah. The prophet is 
 deeply interested in what he sees going on about him. 
 Only occasionally he lifts his eyes to the future and 
 speaks of, a brighter time. The key-word of the 
 Prophet, even while he threatens, is, however, the 
 word “ Remnant.” There would be destruction, but 
 not total. 
 
 In part two, chs. 40 to 66, what we find of charge of 
 sin is made in order to explain the punishment that 
 had come, or was seen as having come, upon the chosen 
 people. The time of affliction is regarded as passed, 
 
44 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 the time of favor has come. God was about to visit 
 his people and deliver them from the results of their 
 sins and from their sin. 
 
 In the first part the actual condition of Israel at the 
 time is most prominent in the prophet’s mind; the 
 future Messianic times are only occasionally presented. 
 
 In the second part the Messianic times are the chief 
 theme, while the present actual condition of Israel is 
 incidental. 
 
 In the first part the Messianic idea is that of King. 
 In the second part it is that of Sufferer. In the first 
 God’s people are oppressed, invaded, exiled; in the 
 second, restored, prosperous, triumphant, dominant. 
 
 In the first part the style suggests oral speech, deliv¬ 
 ered to the assembled people in the midst of stirring 
 times. In the second part we find calm, consecutive 
 composition, with elaborately sustained argument. 
 
 These differences give evidence for the view of a 
 diverse authorship, but they do not prove it. Other 
 facts are cited for oneness of authorship. The mean¬ 
 ing of the book for us remains practically the same 
 on either view. We will lose none of the rich truth of 
 these prophecies if we read them as Isaiah’s. We will 
 gain much of the evidence furnished by the power of 
 Jehovah to predict, if we place the whole in the 
 days of Isaiah. 
 
 See especially chapters 44,45, and 48, where the claim 
 that Jehovah is the only God is argued from the fact 
 that he alone can predict. The facts here mentioned 
 must have been so far in the future at the time they 
 were foretold that the prophet could not have merely 
 guessed they would come to pass. 
 
Isaiah 
 
 45 
 
 (i) The first part of the book may be subdivided 
 into the following sections: 
 
 a. Chapters i to 11. Of these ch. i is an introduc¬ 
 tion to the entire book, giving a summary of the main 
 thought of Isaiah: rebuke for sins; threatened pun¬ 
 ishment, and promise of God’s favor. The sudden 
 transition from charge and condemnation to exhorta¬ 
 tion and promise is found in many places in Isaiah. 
 
 Chs. 2 to 4 form one message, beginning with a 
 prediction of a time when all nations would serve 
 Jehovah, and then exhorting Israel to be faithful to 
 him, with the threat that all their wicked haughtiness 
 would be brought low, and ending with a prediction of 
 a purified people with Jehovah dwelling among them. 
 
 Ch. 5 sets forth God’s disappointment in his people 
 from whom he had expected righteousness. Woes 
 are pronounced upon various classes of sinners with a 
 threat of the nation’s fall. 
 
 Ch. 6 gives the vision the prophet saw by which he 
 was impressed with the thought of God’s holiness and 
 his people’s sinfulness, and showing the mercy of God 
 who cleansed the prophet of his sin. 
 
 Chs. 7 to 12 contain the Immanuel prophecy, occa¬ 
 sioned by the refusal of Ahaz to accept the prophet’s 
 offer of help from Jehovah, because he was look¬ 
 ing for help from Assyria, to whose king he had 
 sent a bribe when he was threatened by the com¬ 
 bined powers of Israel and Syria. The chief points 
 of the prophecy are found in ch. 7, where the birth of 
 the Immanuel is told to Ahaz, who, however, is threat¬ 
 ened with punishment because he would not trust Jeho¬ 
 vah; in ch. 9, where the character of the coming King 
 
46 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 Immanuel is given, and in ch. n, where the character 
 and peaceful effects of his reign are foretold. In ch. 8 
 there is a message to the people of an import similar 
 to that given to the king in the preceding chapter. In 
 both cases the prophecy takes on a twofold aspect: 
 assurance is given that the people cannot perish because 
 God is with them, as the name Immanuel shows, but 
 the desolation of the land is also announced. In ch. 
 10 it is declared that the Assyrians would be used as 
 God’s agent to punish his people, and that the Assyrians 
 would themselves be punished. In chs. n and 12 is 
 given a prediction of the restoration of the people, and 
 their triumph, like that over the Egyptians when they 
 came out of Egypt. 
 
 b. Chapters 13 to 23. This group of prophecies is 
 almost entirely concerned with the heathen nations, 
 delivered at various dates, but collected and put by 
 themselves. In most cases the complete destruction of 
 the nation mentioned is foretold. They are to be pun¬ 
 ished because of hostility towards God’s people. These 
 messages were not expected to reach the peoples named, 
 but were intended as comfort to the Israelites, whose 
 enemies would thus perish, and to teach the permanent 
 lesson that enmity to God will be punished. 
 
 Babylon and Egypt are prominent in this number 
 of heathen nations. The description of the fall of 
 Moab is graphic. It is declared that Egypt will turn to 
 Jehovah after her punishment, a most remarkable 
 prophecy. The small neighboring peoples are espe¬ 
 cially condemned because they showed hate toward 
 Israel instead of friendship. 
 
 c. Chapters 24 to 35. In this group are prophecies 
 
Isaiah 
 
 47 
 
 most difficult to understand. They have in part an 
 apocalyptic character, and the connection of thought 
 is by no means clear. 
 
 Chs. 24 to 27 are to some extent connected with 
 the preceding group and contain a threat of punish¬ 
 ment upon the whole world. The description of the 
 destruction in chapter 24 is terrific. Then ch. 25 
 shows that salvation will come to the nations after 
 their punishment. Ch. 26 gives the song of triumph by 
 Israel, God’s chosen people, and ch. 27 shows that 
 Israel, though desolated, will flourish again. 
 
 Chs. 28 to 33 contain woes pronounced against God’s 
 people, which were prophesied at various times by 
 Isaiah. The condemnation and threats are severe 
 because they have sinned against the Holy One of 
 Israel. But even in the midst of such denunciation 
 there is held out the hope of mercy from Jehovah. 
 Isaiah seldom delivered a message that did not have 
 some comfort in it. It is declared that the peoples to 
 whom Israel looked for help should themselves per¬ 
 ish. God alone would make his people strong. 
 
 Chs. 34 and 35 may be taken together as giving in 
 contrast the most terrible destruction that was to come 
 upon the heathen, especially Edom, and the glad resto¬ 
 ration of God’s people from captivity. The land of the 
 enemy shall forever lie waste, the land of Israel shall 
 blossom abundantly. In this case as in most of those 
 where outside nations are mentioned, Edom may be 
 taken as representative of the enemies of God’s people. 
 The prophecy would have its fulfilment in the punish¬ 
 ment of any people that persisted in hostility towards 
 the people of God. 
 
48 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 d. Chapters 36 to 39. This may be regarded as a 
 sort of appendix to the first part of the book. It is 
 simple history, rather than prophecy of the usual char¬ 
 acter. It gives an account of the invasion by the Assyr¬ 
 ian king in the days of Hezekiah; the message of 
 assurance given by Isaiah in answer to the prayer of 
 Hezekiah; the account of the king’s illness and recov¬ 
 ery, and of the embassy that came from Babylon to 
 congratulate him on his recovery, with the rebuke of 
 the prophet because Hezekiah had shown a willingness 
 to form an alliance with Babylon. 
 
 This division is pertinent here because it shows how 
 Judah came into contact with Babylon, and gives the 
 prediction that Babylon should at last take Judah cap¬ 
 tive. This prepares the way for the second part of 
 Isaiah, in which the captivity is assumed as a back¬ 
 ground for the promises of restoration, which is a 
 chief thought of the second part. 
 
 (2) The second part of Isaiah is divided into three 
 groups of nine chapters each: 40 to 48; 49 to 57; 58 to 
 66 . There is a common refrain at the end of each of 
 these divisions. 
 
 The theme of the whole of this part is found in ch. 
 40: the announcement that God is coming to deliver 
 his people. This is given at first in general terms. 
 Then the prophet shows that God’s coming will be in 
 the person of a Deliverer, and that he is coming to 
 rescue his people from oppression. The real thought 
 here is that of a spiritual deliverance, which had its 
 fulfilment in the work of Jesus Christ. The teaching 
 of Isaiah here is not surpassed in the Old Testament, 
 a. In the first group of this part, chs. 40-48, chief 
 
Isaiah 
 
 49 
 
 emphasis is put upon the fact of deliverance. The 
 prediction of the work of Cyrus in delivering Israel 
 from captivity forms an important part of this thought, 
 but it is not this deliverance that is the chief thing in 
 the mind of the prophet. Cyrus and his work illus¬ 
 trated the greater deliverance that would be wrought 
 by the greater Deliverer. 
 
 The term “ servant ” occurring in these chapters is 
 used in two or three ways. Sometimes it means the 
 whole people of Israel, sometimes the true people of 
 God called Israel, and sometimes an individual distin¬ 
 guished from Israel, for whom he is to do a work. 
 This use is found in chapter 49 also. 
 
 Special comfort is given in chs. 40, 41, 43, because 
 God will deliver his people from their affliction. He 
 will be with them and protect them. Ch. 42 describes 
 the work of the servant in general terms. In chs. 
 44 and 45 it is declared that God would raise up Cyrus 
 to cause his people to return to their land and build 
 their temple. It is said that this is predicted in order 
 that Cyrus might know that he was victorious by the 
 help of Jehovah. 
 
 Chs. 46 and 47 give assurance of the fall of Baby¬ 
 lon the oppressor of God’s people. In the first part of 
 ch. 46 occurs one of those frequent instances of teach¬ 
 ing by contrast that Isaiah uses. The people of the 
 idols carry their idols, Jehovah carries his people. Ch. 
 48 shows the chief purpose of prediction: to give evi¬ 
 dence that Jehovah was the true God, and that there 
 was no other god. 
 
 b. Chapters 49-57. In this division the greatest 
 thought is that of the Deliverer, in ch. 53. But the 
 
50 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 great love of God for his people is emphasized in it all. 
 In ch. 49 we find the thought, afterwards so fully 
 developed, that the Servant seems at first to fail, 
 though at last he is to triumph. This reaches its climax 
 in ch. 53, where the seeming defeat reaches even to 
 death, but the sufferer succeeds, not in spite of death 
 merely, but by means of it. This is the only place in 
 the Old Testament where the idea of vicarious suffer¬ 
 ing is so plainly taught in words. The same truth was 
 taught in all the bloody sacrifices. 
 
 In chs. 51 and 52, Zion is called to arise because her 
 deliverance is at hand. She is described as rejoicing 
 in the goodness of God. So in ch. 54 it is declared that 
 the time of Zion’s chastisement is passed. In chs. 55 
 and 56 the thought is all of gladness and rejoicing in 
 the mercy of God. Ch. 57 teaches that Israel’s suffer¬ 
 ing was due to her sin, but God had mercy and saved. 
 
 c. Chapters 58-66. In this division the greater em¬ 
 phasis is put upon the condition of the people deliv¬ 
 ered. The triumph of glorious Zion is the theme. 
 
 In ch. 58 the true conditions of favor with God 
 are given. Ch. 59 shows that sins caused their calam¬ 
 ities, and that God will redeem his people. Ch. 60 
 describes all the nations as serving God’s people, con¬ 
 tributing their wealth for the glory of his house. Ch. 
 61 is a message of liberty. The prosperity of the peo¬ 
 ple of God shall be boundless. Ch. 62 gives assurance 
 of the power of God on behalf of his people. They 
 shall no more be forsaken. Salvation has come. In 
 ch. 63 God’s punishment of the Edomites, Israel’s 
 enemy, is graphically portrayed, and though his people 
 had sinned, he would show mercy. In chs. 64 and 65 
 
Isaiah 
 
 51 
 
 there is a confession that God’s people had sinned 
 against him, yet the infinite mercy of God would secure 
 the redemption of Israel and their future glory. Then 
 in the last chapter there is a summing up of the 
 doctrine that God will severely punish sin, but will save 
 with a mighty power those who put their trust in him. 
 At last all nations shall worship Jehovah. 
 
II 
 
 JEREMIAH 
 
 Parallel reading: 2 Kings 22 to 25; 2 Chronicles 34 
 to 36; Obadiah; Habakkuk; Zephaniah: Leviticus 26 ; 
 Deuteronomy 28, 29. 
 
 1. Date and Occasion 
 
 This prophet began his work among the people of 
 the kingdom of Judah about 627 B. C., in the reign of 
 Josiah, and continued in the reigns of Jehoiakim and 
 Zedekiah till the fall of Jerusalem, 586 B. C. How 
 long he prophesied after this date is not certain, but 
 he delivered some prophecies while in Egypt whither 
 he had gone with the little band escaping from Judah, 
 which had been left at home when the army of Baby¬ 
 lon carried away the Jews into captivity. 
 
 Jeremiah’s career was thus during the overthrow of 
 Judah. The reforms in the days of Josiah effected 
 little in averting destruction. Jehoiakim and Zedekiah 
 were wicked kings, and their sin was all the greater 
 because the punishment threatened was so imminent. > 
 The people generally seem to have been given up to 
 idolatry of all forms more completely than at any other 
 period. The worship of Jehovah was continued, but it ' 
 was perfunctory, not genuine. 
 
 It was the Babylonian period, because Babylon was 
 the dominant, threatening, crushing power, having suc- 
 
 52 
 
Jeremiah 
 
 53 
 
 ceeded the Assyrian. The political conditions, so far 
 as they affected God’s people, were practically the 
 same as in the Assyrian period. 
 
 2. The Chief Work of Jeremiah 
 
 This was to interpret the calamities that were fall¬ 
 ing upon Judah as the fulfilment of early and repeated 
 threats made by the former prophets. Moses and the 
 prophets had declared that even exile would result if 
 the people persisted in sin. They sinned, and exile was 
 now at hand. Jeremiah was in the midst of the crash, 
 to explain, direct, counsel, warn. He had not only to 
 face the angry defiance of professed loyalists, the party 
 urging an alliance with Egypt, and those urging inde¬ 
 pendence, but had also to advise the king to surrender 
 to Babylon to save himself from destruction by Baby¬ 
 lon. No prophet before Jeremiah had such personal 
 opposition to meet, and none showed greater courage. 
 He is called the weeping prophet. He wept over his 
 nation’s sin and fall. 
 
 3. The Chief Teaching of Jeremiah 
 
 For the most part the views that this prophet got 
 were not new. He got rather a clearer conception of 
 views already given by former prophets. These had 
 seen a future in which God’s people would be pun¬ 
 ished, and then restored, purified, dominant, and 
 ideally faithful to Jehovah. They did not see a radical 
 change, but a lopping off of dead branches ; a purging 
 away of all dross from those already God’s people. 
 Government, political relations, and worship that ob¬ 
 tained in their days were so prominently in view, that 
 
54 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 radical changes to other conditions were not clearly 
 seen by these earlier prophets. 
 
 Jeremiah sees government, political relations, and 
 forms of worship breaking to pieces before his eyes. 
 But he does not believe that all is lost, he is rather 
 triumphantly sure of a glorious issue, which will be, 
 not the old conditions restored and bettered, but in 
 reality a new people based on a new covenant. The 
 kernel will germinate though it fall to its death. The 
 essential part will not perish. And this central essential 
 substance will be a new growth rather than a branch. 
 And all this will be the fulfilment of God’s former pur¬ 
 pose. In the midst of the terrific storm that has come 
 upon God’s people, Jeremiah looks beyond the ruins. 
 In the flashes of God’s anger he gets views of the calm 
 heavens above it all, and of God enthroned directing 
 all. 
 
 4. The General Style of Jeremiah’s Prophecies 
 
 There is something of abruptness, a lacking of finish, 
 seen in the messages of this prophet. This was prob¬ 
 ably due in part to the fact that he was in the midst of 
 the calamities, and his spirit was agitated by what he 
 saw; in part it may be due to the fact that what we 
 have in his book is sometimes but abstracts recalled 
 from the addresses that were delivered orally to the 
 people. Parts of his prophecies were closely connected 
 with his personal experience when persecuted by the 
 Jewish officials. At the outset of his work he saw its 
 difficulties and shrank from it, and during its progress 
 he often longed for release from the cruel strain. He 
 remained steady and faithful to his duty. It was well 
 
Jeremiah 
 
 55 
 
 for him that he knew that God had chosen him for 
 this work, and that he would defend him in it. 
 
 5. The Divisions of the Book 
 
 We find here no large distinct divisions such as are 
 found in Isaiah. Except one srnall group of chapters 
 placed at the end of the book, all the prophecies are 
 concerned about Judah, were delivered under prac¬ 
 tically similar conditions, and they present the same 
 general themes. 
 
 There will result some advantage from subdividing 
 the main body of the prophecies, chapter i to 45, into 
 smaller groups, and examining the special meaning of 
 each of these. 
 
 The first twenty-four chapters differ chiefly from 
 what follows in that they were not so closely con¬ 
 nected with the personal experiences of the prophet. 
 The main thought is the punishment that is about to 
 come upon Judah because of her sin. The horrors of 
 the invasion are described, but the invader is not yet 
 at hand. The people are without excuse. The love 
 of Jehovah has been constantly shown them, but they 
 have forsaken Jehovah and become sunken in idolatry. 
 The heart of the prophet is torn at the sight of the sin 
 of Judah and in view of the awful punishment that is 
 coming. 
 
 The chapters from 25 to 39 show this in common, 
 that the prophet himself is prominent. His suffering 
 and persecution are not the chief facts given, but they 
 show the occasion of the prophecies uttered during 
 the reigns of the two kings, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. 
 These are not placed in the chronological order of their 
 
 E 
 
 1 
 
56 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 delivery. Later prophecies are put before earlier ones. 
 Their significance is not affected by this. The per¬ 
 sonal life of no other prophet enters so much into his 
 message as does that of Jeremiah into his. 
 
 Chapters 40 to 45 belong to the time immediately 
 after Jerusalem had fallen, and are concerned with the 
 history of the little company the Babylonians left in 
 the land when they took the rest captive. These Jews 
 purpose going into Egypt. The prophet advises 
 against it. 
 
 Chapters 46 to 51 contain prophecies delivered at 
 various times against the outside nations, who are 
 threatened with destruction because of their hostility 
 against God’s people. 
 
 6. The Chief Thought in Each Prophecy 
 
 Chapter 1 contains the account of Jeremiah’s call to 
 his work. He feels incapable, but is assured of help 
 and safety in danger. 
 
 Chs. 2 and 3 give a severe charge against Judah for 
 turning away from Jehovah who had loved her. 
 Israel’s fate had not been heeded by Judah, hence she 
 too must suffer. But her God would take her back 
 afterwards. 
 
 Chs. 4, 5, and 6 are of the same general character. 
 Great devastation from an invader from the north is 
 predicted because of the persistent sin of the people. 
 All classes have sinned. All are indifferent about the 
 threatened danger. 
 
 f Ch. 7 has an important teaching: The temple because 
 of which they thought themselves safe, since it was 
 Jehovah’s dwelling-place, would itself be destroyed as 
 
Jeremiah 
 
 57 
 
 Shiloh was. Not sacrifices, but obedience and right¬ 
 eousness were required. 
 
 Chs. 8 and 9 show the lamentable condition of 
 Judah, and the terrible punishment imminent, includ¬ 
 ing captivity. 
 
 Ch. 10 may be compared with ch. 44 of Isaiah, in 
 which Jehovah is contrasted with the wooden idols of 
 the heathen. 
 
 Ch. 11 gives the command to Jeremiah to show the 
 people what was demanded by the covenant made 
 with their fathers, and the punishment that would come 
 because they had violated it. 
 
 In ch. 12 we have Jeremiah’s perplexity because the 
 wicked flourish, then the prediction that God would 
 give up his inheritance to desolation, followed by an 
 assurance of restoration of his people and the promise 
 that other nations would join them if they would serve 
 Jehovah. 
 
 Ch. 13 contains an account of one of those prophetic 
 actions meant to teach a truth. The prophet was to 
 hide his girdle in the ground and afterwards find it 
 soiled. So Judah would be removed into exile and 
 marred. The people would be dashed to destruction 
 like drunken men. Sin was the cause of all this. 
 
 In chs. 14 and 15 Jeremiah predicts a great famine 
 and destruction; the false prophets deny that these will 
 come, but they shall depart with the rest into a strange 
 land. Intercession even by the most holy men of God 
 could not avert the calamity, because the people have 
 so wretchedly sinned. In the latter part of ch. 15 we 
 have the discouragement of Jeremiah because of his 
 sad task, but he is assured of help and safety. 
 
58 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 Chs. 16 and 17 continue to give threats of captivity, 
 the sin specially named being idolatry. The people 
 have forsaken Jehovah for idols. Jeremiah promises 
 them the favor of God if they will keep his sabbaths, 
 and thus show they are his people doing his will. 
 
 Chs. 18 and 19 are connected by the use of one 
 figure, that of a potter making an earthen vessel. God 
 has power to do as he will with a nation. Repentance 
 only can prevent his purpose to destroy a nation. His 
 purpose is to destroy Judah because of her apostasy. 
 Jeremiah’s life is threatened. Then he is directed to 
 break a potter’s vessel in their sight as a sign of their 
 impending fate. 
 
 Ch. 20 gives the suffering of Jeremiah caused by his 
 bold speaking.' He thinks his life a failure; the people 
 do not heed him, but reproach, and like Job he wishes 
 he had never been born. 
 
 The thought in chapter 21 is simple. Zebekiah, asks 
 the prophet if the Lord will deliver them from the 
 army of Babylon. The answer is, No. 
 
 Ch. 22 belongs to the time of Jehoiakim, before 
 the event of ch. 21. Threats are made against the 
 kings of Judah because of their sins that bring deso¬ 
 lation upon the land. It is to be noticed that in all 
 this book the chief sin condemned is that of forsaking 
 Jehovah for other gods. 
 
 Ch. 23 contains a severe threat against the pastors 
 of the people, which term seems to include both kings 
 and false prophets. The latter are especially condemned 
 because they claimed falsely to have a word from 
 Jehovah. They not only failed to warn of danger, but 
 assured the people of safety. 
 
Jeremiah 
 
 59 
 
 In ch. 24 under the figure of baskets of figs it is 
 shown that those already taken captive are better off 
 than those left in Jerusalem. 
 
 In ch. 25 we have the specific prediction of the fall 
 of Judah because the people have not listened to the 
 prophet and repented. But here occurs the wonderful 
 promise that the destroying enemies shall themselves 
 afterwards be destroyed, and God’s people shall return 
 to their land at the end of seventy years. 
 
 Ch. 26 gives the account of Jeremiah’s trial because 
 he had said Jerusalem should fall like Shiloh. He was 
 not condemned to die as some wished. 
 
 The figure of the yoke indicating bondage occurs in 
 chs. 27 and 28. Hananiah opposed Jeremiah, and as 
 predicted, died in two months for his false prophecy. 
 
 Ch. 29 tells of letters sent between Jerusalem and 
 the captives in Babylonia. Jeremiah says they will not 
 soon return. False prophets there write to have Jere¬ 
 miah killed for such predictions, God declared that 
 these prophets should therefore perish. 
 
 ^Chs. 30 and 31 belong together. The improbable 
 thing that the Jews would again be gathered to their 
 land is not only predicted, but the prediction was to 
 be written in a book, as a permanent witness to the 
 certainty of God’s word. Not only will they be 
 brought back, but God’s people in that future would 
 have God’s law in their heart under a new covenant. 
 This was the more wonderful prediction as it was 
 made just at the time that Judah’s case seemed the 
 most hopeless. Utter destruction was at hand. 
 
 Chs. 32 and 33 belong to the year before the city 
 fell while it was besieged. Jeremiah was in prison. 
 
60 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 Captivity is sure, yet the prophet was to buy a field in 
 Anathoth, to show that they would come back. And 
 out of his prison Jeremiah predicts the most glorious 
 prosperity and glad joy of his people according to 
 God’s word, and that was as sure as the ordinances of 
 the heavens. Day and night were no more sure. 
 
 In reading ch. 34 it must be borne in mind that 
 the besieging army had departed from the city for a 
 time to meet the advancing Egyptians. Before they 
 went Jewish slaves had been set free by their Jewish 
 owners. When the siege was raised the slaves were 
 taken back. Jeremiah repeats his warnings of 
 destruction. 
 
 Ch. 35 gives the condemnation of the Jews because 
 they were not so faithful in obedience as the Recha- 
 bites, who obeyed their ancestor in abstaining from 
 wine. The Jews would not obey Jehovah their God. 
 
 In ch. 36 we have the account of Jeremiah’s writing 
 all his earlier prophecies, which the king cut and burnt 
 when they were read to him, thinking he could prevent 
 their fulfilment. But the prophet renews his threats. 
 
 Chs. 37, 38, and 39 are immediately connected with 
 the city’s fall. Jeremiah’s suffering is described, show¬ 
 ing the wickedness of the Jews to the very end. 
 
 Chs. 40 to 43 are historical, giving an account of the 
 Jews left in the land. 
 
 Ch. 44 contains a prophecy by Jeremiah while in 
 Egypt against the Jews who still sinned in spite of 
 their punishment. Pharaoh himself whom they trusted 
 would be destroyed by Babylon. 
 
 Ch. 45 is one of comfort to Baruch the attendant of 
 the prophet. 
 
Jeremiah 
 
 61 
 
 In the prophecies against the heathen nations 
 recorded in chs. 46-51 it should be noted that all these 
 are to be punished because of their enmity to God’s 
 people, and that along with the threat of punishment 
 there is also a prediction of restoration in the case 
 of all of them except Philistia, where nothing is said 
 about it, and in the case of Edom and Babylon, who 
 would have no remnant, but would be desolate forever. 
 These were the two most uncompromising enemies of 
 Judah. 
 
 Ch. 52 gives the history of the fall of the city. It 
 adds an account of the release from prison of king 
 Jehoiachin, who had been taken captive thirty-seven 
 years before. 
 
Ill 
 
 EZEKIEL 
 
 Parallel reading: The same passages as in Jeremiah. 
 1 . Date and Occasion 
 
 Ezekiel was taken into captivity 597 B„ C., when 
 the king Jehoiachin was taken and many of the leading 
 Jews with him. The prophet began his work in the 
 fifth year of his exile, 592-3. His whole career as 
 prophet was spent in Babylonia. He continued to 
 prophesy until 570 at least, perhaps longer. 
 
 Jeremiah had been prophesying for thirty years 
 before Ezekiel was carried away, and without doubt the 
 latter had often listened to his words of condemnation 
 and threat. The messages of the two had much in 
 common, and we may suppose that Ezekiel was in part 
 influenced by Jeremiah. He probably heard all the 
 prophecies against Jehoiakim; he may have seen some¬ 
 thing of the reforms attempted by Josiah. Like Jere¬ 
 miah, Ezekiel was in the midst of the ruin of Judah, 
 but part of it he passed through with the captives in 
 exile. 
 
 There are good reasons for believing that the words 
 of the former prophets besides those of Jeremiah had 
 been collected into a body of writings that were 
 regarded as having divine authority, as being inspired 
 Scriptures. The messages of the prophets when deliv- 
 62 
 
Ezekiel 
 
 63 
 
 ered by them were accepted as coming from God, as the 
 prophets claimed, and it is evident that these words 
 had been preserved in written form. We may well 
 suppose that Ezekiel had access to these, or at least was 
 acquainted with their contents. 
 
 Ezekiel was a priest, and as such he must have been 
 informed about the earlier history of the Israelites: 
 God’s purpose in choosing them; their constant ten¬ 
 dency to depart from Jehovah; the many instances of 
 punishment that had already come upon them; the 
 threat long before made^that their sins would result in 
 exile, as well as the bright promises held out by the 
 former prophets of a future of restoration and glory. 
 
 This knowledge that Ezekiel had was not the source 
 of the messages he had to deliver, nor did it altogether 
 determine their character, yet his prophecies were in 
 view of these facts of which he had knowledge. What 
 we have in the book of Ezekiel could have been pro¬ 
 duced at no other time, nor occasioned by other 
 conditions. 
 
 Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah belong to the period 
 when it may be truly said Prophecy had reached its 
 climax; not had reached its fulfilment, except in one 
 prominent, but incidental feature, the extreme of 
 Israel’s punishment. The stream of Prophecy had 
 been flowing for centuries, and had been gradually 
 augmented in its course, till now it reached its full 
 strength. All the essential truths of Prophecy had 
 been taught when Ezekiel finished his teaching. So 
 far as the chief purpose of Prophecy was concerned, it 
 ended with the work of Ezekiel. He stood on the bor¬ 
 der-line that divided Israel’s past of sin and punish- 
 
64 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 ment from Israel’s future of favor and blessing. Some 
 centuries would yet pass before that future should 
 reach its culmination, but the time of comfort had 
 arrived. The prophets of the post-exilic period added 
 no truth of an import different from what had been 
 given by the time of Ezekiel. 
 
 2. Chief Work of Ezekiel 
 
 In part the work of Ezekiel was like that of Jere¬ 
 miah : he had to interpret the calamities that were 
 falling upon Judah as judgments long before predicted 
 because of sin. Both these prophets were near enough 
 to that “ future,” that “ end of the days,” of which 
 the earlier prophets had spoken, to get full views of 
 it. Jeremiah saw a “ new covenant,” practically a new 
 people, not merely Israel reformed. Ezekiel got a 
 fuller view of what this new people of God would be. 
 
 He gives more definitely the goal and purpose of all 
 the dealings of Jehovah with his people in the past. 
 He stood nearer the dawn of the greatest day in the 
 world’s history. That goal and purpose was the mak¬ 
 ing known of Jehovah to all the nations of the earth. 
 Thus we find in Ezekiel the frequent refrain, “ and they 
 shall know that I am Jehovah.” 
 
 The restoration of Israel which should reveal the 
 glory of Jehovah was to take place in order that Jeho¬ 
 vah might be known to the nations. The people thus 
 restored were to bear witness to Jehovah as the true 
 and only God. But this restoration and this witnessing 
 were necessarily conditioned upon the righteousness of 
 the individual Israelite. Not the might of Jehovah but 
 his moral excellence was to be manifested to the 
 
Ezekiel 
 
 65 
 
 nations as proof that he was God and as the impor¬ 
 tant truth about him as God. What he was should be 
 shown by the people among whom he would dwell, not 
 shown by the nation as a whole, but by the individual. 
 
 3. The Chief Teaching of Ezekiel 
 
 Ezekiel puts emphasis upon the individual. It is 
 not, however, true that hitherto the individual had been 
 lost in the mass. While many of the laws were national 
 in form, most of them involved individual obligation, 
 and most of the laws were meant for the individual. 
 The sacrifices were nearly all individualistic. The 
 offerer confessed his own sin, and was himself for¬ 
 given. Yet it can be said that most of the recorded 
 dealings of God with his people were of a national 
 character. They were treated as a unit, as a solidarity. 
 When the king sinned the nation was punished, as in 
 the case of David’s numbering the people. In Ezekiel 
 there is emphasis put upon the fact that each individual 
 has personal relations to Jehovah. 
 
 But the individual was not the end in view. He was 
 the means to an end, and that was the manifestation 
 of the holy God. The holiness of God is the under¬ 
 lying thought of the prophecies of Ezekiel, and thus 
 the main thought that he emphasizes is the need of 
 holiness on the part of the individual people of God. 
 The doctrine of the holiness of God is given in Isaiah 
 in the repeated title “ Holy One of Israel.” In the 
 book of Ezekiel it is given rather in the sublime the- 
 ophanies that he describes, especially at the beginning 
 of his ministry. This doctrine had also been taught by 
 the laws enjoining holiness upon the people because the 
 
66 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 holy God was dwelling among them. The key-word 
 of Leviticus is “ holiness.” 
 
 The elaborate and wonderful ritual that Ezekiel 
 describes for the restored people of God, with the 
 temple in which they would worship, makes prominent 
 this great truth of the holiness of Jehovah and of the 
 people- of Jehovah because they were his and he was 
 dwelling among them. In his early work the prophet 
 had to portray the awful wickedness of the people, 
 and then in contrast he gives a vivid picture of the 
 time when the people would be holy, and the holy God 
 would dwell among them, manifest to all the nations of 
 the earth. This is Ezekiel’s chief contribution to the 
 Bible’s great truths. 
 
 4. The Style of Ezekiel and Form of His Prophecies 
 
 The chief distinguishing feature of the contents of 
 this book is the vision. Ezekiel saw a vision at the 
 beginning of his ministry, a theophany that gave him 
 an impression that remained with him in all his work. 
 There came to him a revelation of God. It was not so 
 much a conviction of some attribute of God; not the 
 solitary truth of his holiness, of his might, or his omnis¬ 
 cience, but the great, overwhelming, sublime thought, 
 “ God.” The parts of the vision that Ezekiel attempts 
 to describe are not distinct, but the impression made 
 by the whole is vivid. From its effect the prophet fell 
 prostrate. 
 
 He gave messages in the form of visions, and the 
 last great truth of his book, the chief thought of all 
 that he gives, is the vision of the holy people in the holy 
 land worshiping God in the holy temple. There are 
 
Ezekiel 
 
 67 
 
 several instances of what may be called prophetic 
 actions, either really performed, or else described as 
 if performed, meant to convey important truths to the 
 people. The personality of the prophet is prominent 
 in some places, not so fully as in the case of Jeremiah, 
 but more so than either of the other prophets, except 
 Jonah, whose work was one of action rather than of 
 words. 
 
 Aside from the visions the prophecies of Ezekiel are 
 not difficult to interpret. Some of the figures that he 
 uses are given with much detail, and have been charac¬ 
 terized as crude compared with our Western manner of 
 speech. There seldom appears the abruptness of 
 speech, indicating agitation of spirit, that is seen in 
 Isaiah and in some of the Minor Prophets. Some 
 of his prophecies were delivered to the captive Jews as 
 they gathered to the prophet to learn what word had 
 come from Jehovah. And while he delivers messages 
 to these captives, his words are usually meant to apply 
 to those in the homeland, and to the whole people in 
 all their history. Ezekiel is a captive, but in his exile 
 he sees as if before him the sacred Jerusalem falling 
 to ruin. 
 
 5. The Divisions of the Book 
 
 Both the general divisions and the subdivisions of 
 this book are clearly marked off from each other. 
 
 There are two principal divisions: one half of the 
 book, chs. i to 24, having to do with the punishment 
 of Jerusalem for sin; the other half, chs. 25 to 48, 
 having to do with the destruction of enemies and the 
 restoration of the people. All the first part belongs to 
 
68 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 the time before the city fell; the second part after the 
 fall, except some of the prophecies against the heathen. 
 The special purpose of each of these divisions is 
 distinct. 
 
 In the first part, there is condemnation for sins that 
 the nation has committed, and sins that are still per¬ 
 sisted in, and there are repeated assurances that Jerusa¬ 
 lem cannot escape the destruction that threatens her. 
 Ezekiel is at one with Jeremiah in this prediction. 
 
 In the second part, after the punishment has fallen 
 upon the city, there is nothing but comfort for God’s 
 people: in the threats against their enemies, and in the 
 description of their glorious restoration. 
 
 In the first part are the following divisions: 
 
 (1) Chs. I to 3. Ezekiel appointed to his ministry. 
 
 (2) Chs. 4 to 7. Destruction foretold, partly by 
 prophetic actions. 
 
 (3) Chs. 8 to 11. The wickedness of the city shown 
 in a vision, with the threat of punishment. 
 
 (4) Chs. 12 to 19. Repeated assurances of the 
 certainty of punishment. 
 
 (5) Chs. 20 to 23. Causes of Israel’s destruction 
 and its imminence. 
 
 (6) Ch. 24. Jerusalem to be purified by fire. 
 
 In the second part are the following divisions: 
 
 (1) Chs. 25 to 32. Prophecies against the heathen. 
 
 (2) Chs. 33 to 39. God’s people revived, restored, 
 established. 
 
 (3) Chs. 40 to 48. The religious reestablishing of 
 God’s people: The temple; the ordinances; the dwell¬ 
 ing of the tribes. 
 
Ezekiel 
 
 69 
 
 6. The Chief Thought in Each Group 
 
 In chs. i to 3 is given the call of Ezekiel to his work. 
 In a theophany he gets the idea of God, awful, sublime, 
 and is prostrated. He is told to preach to a rebellious 
 people. The heathen would be more likely to heed 
 his words than his own people who talk his language. 
 He is to be a watchman. For a time his messages will 
 not be received, so it is said he will be dumb. His 
 Speaking will be as though he had not spoken. Later 
 they will hear, his mouth will be open. 
 
 Chs. 4 to y. The destruction of Jerusalem is por¬ 
 trayed very vividly by what the prophet is told to do. 
 It is improbable that Ezekiel actually went through 
 what is here described, though it is given as though he 
 did. The end has come, escape will be impossible. 
 
 In chs. 8 to ii the prophet is represented as being 
 in Jerusalem, observing the abominations that defile the 
 holy city, and declaring that the people are not safe, 
 as they think, but will be destroyed. 
 
 In the next division, chs. 12 to 19, there are different 
 prophecies all having the same import: the sin of the 
 people in departing from Jehovah who had so pitied 
 and loved Israel, and the sure punishment that was com¬ 
 ing. The prediction that Zedekiah should go to Baby¬ 
 lon, but not see it, ch. 12, was literally fulfilled. His 
 eyes were put out. The lying prophets are like men 
 who build a wall with poor mortar, it will not stand. 
 Even intercession by Noah, Job, and Daniel could not 
 avert the calamity. The figure of the cast-out child 
 taken up by Jehovah, loved and cared for, ch. 16, is 
 most full of meaning. The wrong policy of the king 
 
70 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 in looking to Egypt for help against Babylon it is 
 declared will only lead to captivity, ch. 17. The great 
 principle of God’s justice, and his readiness to forgive 
 is given in ch. 18. The lamentation over the destruc¬ 
 tion of the princes of Judah, ch. 19, under the figure of 
 a vine, is pathetic. 
 
 In the next division, chs. 20 to 23, prominence is 
 given to the causes that have brought about Judah’s 
 fall. The nation has sinned from the first. The king 
 of Babylon is at Libnah, deciding by divination whether 
 he shall go against Jerusalem or Ammon. Both are to 
 perish, ch. 21, the two kingdoms, Israel and Judah, 
 under the figure of adulteresses, ch. 23, are to be 
 destroyed by the very powers with which they seek an 
 alliance : as Israel was by Assyria, so Judah shall be by 
 Babylon. 
 
 It is to be noted that the prophecy of ch. 24 was 
 delivered the very day the siege of Jerusalem began. 
 The city is likened to a pot in which there is meat, the 
 meat is to be burnt, and the pot purified by the fire. 
 It is not certain whether the statement about the death 
 of the wife of Ezekiel is to be taken literally or not. 
 Such a calamity, greater than any signs of grief could 
 show, was to illustrate the calamity coming upon Judah. 
 
 The first division of the second part of the book con¬ 
 tains a collection of prophecies against the outside 
 nations, chs. 25 to 32, very similar to those in Isaiah 
 and Jeremiah. They are condemned, not for idolatry, 
 but for hostility against God’s people. This teaching 
 by the prophets is an important one, and still has force. 
 The three chapters of prophecies about Tyre are of spe¬ 
 cial interest. Tyre stood for the rich world power. 
 
Ezekiel 
 
 71 
 
 The effect of her fall would be wide-reaching. The 
 destruction of Egypt is described in terms suggested by 
 that land. It will be like a fish thrown out on the dry 
 ground. The dates given in the case of some of these 
 prophecies are significant. In all these heathen proph¬ 
 ecies it is to be remembered that they were not expected 
 to be heard by these peoples. They were meant for the 
 ears of God’s people, to give them encouragement 
 from the fact that their enemies were to be destroyed. 
 They were also to teach that sin against God would be 
 punished. 
 
 In the first chapter of the next division, ch. 33, it 
 is shown that the evil that came upon Judah was wholly 
 due to their refusal to live righteously, according to the 
 injunction of the prophet. The mercy of God is shown 
 in ch. 34 by his promise to send a faithful Shepherd, 
 “ David,” who will gather and care for the scattered 
 sheep. Ch. 36 gives promise of restoration; a new 
 heart of flesh will be given to the people, and because 
 of this all peoples shall come to know Jehovah. This 
 prediction occurs like a refrain many times in the 
 book of Ezekiel. The restoration of the people is 
 further predicted in the vision of the dry bones. This 
 probably is meant only in a national sense, not a 
 teaching of the resurrection of the individual after 
 death. The restored, united people, with “ David ” a 
 shepherd and Prince, had a spiritual significance far 
 beyond the literal Israelites. 
 
 In a graphic picture the destruction of the enemies 
 of God’s people is described in chs. 38 and 39. All 
 this is in order that Jehovah may be known. 
 
 In the last group, chs. 40 to 48, the description of 
 
72 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 the temple, the temple service, and the land occupied 
 by the tribes of Israel, should not be taken literally. 
 The idea of the whole is that of “ holiness.” It is to 
 teach, not only that Mt. Zion would be a holy place, but 
 that wherever God’s people were, in all of a far- 
 extended region holiness would prevail. It is put in 
 exact contrast with the former wickedness of the peo¬ 
 ple by which the land had been defiled. In that future 
 there would be nothing to defile. All the place and all 
 the people would be holy, because the holy God would 
 be dwelling there among men. 
 
 v 
 
 \ 
 
 
 \ 
 
IV 
 
 DANIEL 
 
 Parallel reading: Same passages in Kings and 
 Chronicles as for Jeremiah and Ezekiel; Ezra i to 3. 
 
 1. Date and Historical Occasion 
 
 There are two widely divergent views concerning 
 the date of this book: in one view, it was written by 
 Daniel approximately within the years 603-635 B. C.; 
 in the other it was produced at the time of the great 
 persecutor of the Jews, Antiochus Epiphanes, 175- 
 163 B. C. 
 
 According to the former view it is for the most part 
 prophecy in the sense of prediction; according to the 
 latter view it is history given in allegorical form. 
 
 The reasons urged for holding the one or the other 
 of these views need not here be cited. They can be 
 found in Driver’s “ Introduction,” in the Bible Dic¬ 
 tionaries, and in commentaries on Daniel. 
 
 Assuming that the contents of the book were written 
 by Daniel, the occasion was important. Daniel was 
 among the captives taken by the army of Nebuchadrez¬ 
 zar (605 B. C.) as he was driving the Egyptians back 
 from their campaign into Mesopotamia. Judah at 
 that time became subject to Babylon instead of Egypt. 
 The Jewish kings who were allowed to stay on the 
 throne, were little more than agents to collect tribute 
 
 73 
 
74 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 for Babylon. When Zedekiah attempted to withhold 
 the tribute, looking to Egypt for help, he was removed, 
 and Jerusalem was destroyed. (586 B. C.) 
 
 Jeremiah was prophesying at Jerusalem and Ezekiel 
 in Babylonia among the exiles, where Daniel was. Eze¬ 
 kiel did not begin his work until 597, six years after 
 Daniel and his companions had been chosen for the 
 royal court. Thus Daniel began his career about 
 eighteen years before Jerusalem fell, and his last mes¬ 
 sage was given after the Jews had returned to build 
 again the temple. (10 : 1.) He lived through the 
 period of the captivity foretold by Jeremiah, and felt 
 the full force of the sway of the world power over the 
 people of God. It may be that the contentment of 
 the Jews in their exile home would make any prospect 
 of restoration seem all the more hopeless. Not only 
 Gentile enemies, but Jewish indifference would prevent 
 the fulfilment of the earlier prophetic hopes. 
 
 2. The Chief Work of Daniel 
 
 In its formal aspect the work of Daniel was with the 
 rulers of Babylon. He was given the opportunity to 
 teach them truths about the true God, Jehovah, God of 
 the Jews. He was able to show that Jehovah only was 
 almighty, and that he could defend his people against 
 the hate of their enemies. Fundamentally the work 
 of Daniel was to give comfort to God’s people. In this 
 his work is like that of Isaiah in the second part of his 
 book. He belongs to the time of God’s favor after 
 the time of chastisement, although he lived while the 
 chastisement was still in progress. His work was to 
 give grounds of encouragement to God’s people, to help 
 
Daniel 
 
 75 
 
 them see, not so much the cause of their downfall, as 
 shown in Isaiah and Jeremiah, but the certainty that 
 they would come forth again from oppression, that 
 their* suffering was no proof that God had forgotten 
 them, that he still was intervening on their behalf, and 
 that all powers that opposed them would at length be 
 overthrown. 
 
 3. The Chief Teachings of Daniel 
 
 Whichever view be taken of the date of this book the 
 teaching is the same. The following may be noted: 
 
 (1) To give consolation to God’s people in their suf¬ 
 fering. The instances recorded of God’s deliverance 
 of those who feared him from suffering imposed by 
 the heathen idol-worshipers gave proof of his constant 
 care over them, and the assurance that there would be 
 a favorable issue from all oppression. There was not 
 taught the doctrine that God would prevent his people 
 from all suffering, for they did suffer, but that suf¬ 
 fering imposed as a punishment would end in mercy. 
 And in this the chief thought is not freedom from suf¬ 
 fering, but the care of God over those who feared him. 
 
 (2) Another prominent truth taught in Daniel is 
 that Jehovah whom the Jews worshiped was the true 
 God, that there was no other. 
 
 Much truth of a theological character had already 
 been given to the Israelites to be handed down through 
 them in the teachings of Moses, in God’s dealings with 
 his people as recorded in the historical books and in the 
 earlier prophets. The doctrine of monotheism had 
 before been taught, but it is needful now to emphasize 
 this doctrine. It must be insisted that there was, and 
 
76 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 could be, but one God, and that it was he who had 
 made himself known to the Israelites. 
 
 Isaiah had taught that Jehovah was above all the 
 gods, indeed he had said these gods were no gods. 
 Daniel was to teach that “ gods ” were not God. 
 Ezekiel's frequent refrain was, “ And they shall know 
 that I am Jehovah.” His great thought was that God 
 would be manifested to all the nations. 
 
 The consummation of all the pre-Messianic revela¬ 
 tions was soon to be reached in the coming of man’s 
 Redeemer, and there was need of the incontrovertible 
 proof that Jehovah, who had promised a Redeemer, 
 was God, that it might be known that the Redeemer 
 who should come came from God, not a god. There 
 can be but one. The one God was the God of the 
 Jews. All the grounds of hope for spiritual life that 
 man could have were to be based upon the claims of 
 the Messiah whom Jehovah had promised to send. In 
 order that such grounds might be known to be sure it 
 was needful to teach that God against whom man had 
 sinned was no other than the one sending this 
 Redeemer. 
 
 The highest evidence of the character of God is 
 found in the supreme excellence of the moral attributes 
 shown in the manifestations of himself through the 
 prophets, and especially in Christ. But the proof of 
 the existence of the Supreme Being who concerned 
 himself about man must precede the proof of his char¬ 
 acter. The miraculous is therefore not only unobjec¬ 
 tionable but necessary. If God would save men in 
 his mercy he must give proof that it is a Person and 
 not a force that is watching the interests of man, not 
 
Daniel 
 
 77 
 
 a mere power continuing the operations of the laws of 
 nature. Nor was it enough to show omnipotent power, 
 but such power must be exercised with gracious pur¬ 
 poses. All recorded Biblical miracles are connected 
 with the unfolding of God’s purpose of redemption. 
 They were not simply evidences of almightiness, nor 
 proofs of benevolence, they were didactic. They helped 
 to teach that God willed to redeem men. 
 
 It is by no means clear that the heathen kings of 
 Daniel’s day came to believe in Jehovah as the true 
 God. The proofs placed before them were intended as 
 the permanent possession of God’s people. 
 
 (3) The third prominent teaching of Daniel is that 
 the kingdom of God was to be triumphant over the 
 world powers. 
 
 However much there may be that is common to all 
 men, there yet has always been a distinction between 
 those classed as God’s people and those who are not. 
 This is not merely a distinction in character, it is one 
 evidenced in conduct. Men have shown enmity against 
 God by attacks, sometimes apparently successful, 
 against God’s people. The one thing for which the 
 Old Testament prophets condemn the heathen is this 
 enmity. At the time of Daniel the heathen enmity had 
 reached its climax in the Jewish captivity. It would 
 seem that God’s enemies had been victorious; that 
 God’s kingdom would not endure; that his people must 
 perish from the earth. 
 
 From this darkest hour sprang the brightest promises 
 with the strongest assurances. The world powers, now 
 triumphant, should at last be overthrown, all opposi¬ 
 tion should be utterly demolished, and the kingdom of 
 
78 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 God, whose beginning would be miraculous and its 
 origin heaven, would itself overthrow, destroy, and 
 endure forever. 
 
 Whoever the author, or whatever the date of this 
 book, its teaching is that the triumphant, glorious 
 kingdom of God shall permanently abide. This truth 
 will be valuable so long as opposition to God’s people 
 tends to discourage them. Physical opposition may 
 be past; others more potent continue. Whatever the 
 form of opposition to God’s cause, his people may rest 
 assured that it cannot be overthrown, though it may 
 be hindered. The final victory of Christ is not uncer¬ 
 tain. Its date would seem to be fixed by the amount 
 of valor shown by those who contend for him. 
 
 4. The General Character of the Book 
 
 In the other prophetic books we find charge, con¬ 
 demnation, and threat predominant. The chief work 
 of the other prophets was to turn the people of Israel 
 back from their sins, to endeavor to secure their fidel¬ 
 ity to Jehovah. Besides this, their work was to inter¬ 
 pret the calamities that were befalling Israel as judg¬ 
 ments sent for punishment. 
 
 Daniel does not rebuke nor threaten God’s people. 
 He comforts only. The dream and vision is rare in the 
 other prophets except in Ezekiel. In Daniel the dream 
 and vision make up the bulk of the book. The rest is 
 the narrative of miraculous events by which truth was 
 taught. 
 
 The other prophets delivered messages to their peo¬ 
 ple, Daniel delivers none directly to them, though all 
 that he writes is for them. Thus this book is unique 
 
Daniel 
 
 79 
 
 among the prophets. This is evident even on the view 
 that the book was written by Daniel. On the other 
 view that it was not produced until the days of the Mac¬ 
 cabees, it is regarded as apocryphal. Its apocalyptic 
 character marks it off still more clearly from the other 
 prophets. 
 
 5. The General Divisions of the Book 
 
 The chapters may be divided into two groups: 
 
 (1) Chs. i to 6. In these occur narratives of the 
 experiences of Daniel and his companions, and the 
 dreams of the king Nebuchadrezzar and the vision of 
 Belshazzar, which Daniel interpreted. 
 
 (2) Chs. 7 to 12. In these we have the visions that 
 Daniel saw; his prayer for the fulfilment of God’s 
 promised deliverance, and the revelation made to him, 
 in which he was shown the great conflicts that were 
 to come, in which the people of God would suffer, and 
 from which at last they would be delivered. 
 
 The same general truths are found in both these 
 parts, and there is recognized a close correspondence 
 between the meaning of the fourfold image of the 
 king’s dream, and the four beasts of Daniel’s vision. 
 (Ch. 2; comp, with ch. 7.) 
 
 6. The Chief Thought of the Different Chapters 
 
 Chapter 1 shows how Daniel came to be among the 
 king’s counsellors. The class to which he belonged was 
 famous for learning and wisdom. The objection that 
 was made to the food furnished probably arose from 
 religious scruples. 
 
 Ch. 2. The great truth of this chapter is that the 
 
80 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 world powers were at length to be overthrown by the 
 kingdom of God. The latter was to have a divine 
 origin. There are different views about what world 
 powers are meant, whether the last of the four is the 
 Roman or the Grecian. On the supposition that the 
 book is only history under the guise of symbolical 
 terms, and was written while Antiochus was persecut¬ 
 ing the Jews, the fourth part of the image meant 
 Greece, not Rome. This view limits the scope of teach¬ 
 ing, it does not change its character. 
 
 Ch. 3. The miraculous escape of the three Jews from 
 the fire of the furnace was to teach that Jehovah, God 
 of the Jews, was the true God, and was the only God. 
 There was also the teaching that he was not only able 
 to deliver, but would. The power of all who hated the 
 servants of Jehovah could not withstand the merciful 
 intervention of Jehovah in behalf of his people. The 
 king was willing to decree at least that none should 
 speak against the God of the Jews. 
 
 Ch. 4. The abasement of the proud king narrated in 
 this chapter was to show that Jehovah was not the God 
 of the Jews only, but universal Sovereign. This truth 
 had been taught to some degree from the first. It is 
 not unlikely that even the Israelites themselves during 
 much of their history held the common idea that each 
 country had its own god, and that Jehovah ruled espe¬ 
 cially, if not only, in Palestine. Such a doctrine was 
 not held by the divinely appointed teachers of Israel, 
 but it could easily have been accepted by the common 
 people from the beliefs of the other nations. The uni¬ 
 versal sovereignty of Jehovah needed now to be spe¬ 
 cially emphasized. 
 
Daniel 
 
 81 
 
 Ch. 5. It was when Daniel was old that he was sent 
 for to give the interpretation of the handwriting on the 
 wall. The teaching of the chapter is similar to that of 
 the preceding, with the further condemnation of the 
 king because he profaned the vessels of the holy tem¬ 
 ple, and praised the gods instead of God. 
 
 Ch. 6. It has been difficult to identify Darius the 
 Mede. There are, however, sufficient reasons for 
 regarding the account as trustworthy. He manifests 
 nobility of character, even if something of weakness, 
 in his anxiety for Daniel, whose miraculous deliver¬ 
 ance from the death decreed teaches again that Jehovah 
 is God, and that loyalty to him is not only right, but 
 will be rewarded. Not alone our sympathy for Daniel, 
 but our sense of justice makes us approve the fate of 
 those who would stop Daniel from praying to his God 
 because they were jealous of his preeminence. 
 
 Ch. 7. The meaning of this vision of Daniel is sim¬ 
 ilar to that of Nebuchadrezzar’s dream. (Ch. 2.) It 
 is certain that the scope of the vision included the estab¬ 
 lishing of the kingdom of Christ on the earth. Its full 
 meaning may not yet be exhausted by what has already 
 taken place, but the interpretation that makes the 
 fourth beast mean the Roman power seems the best 
 one. This is accepted in accordance with the general 
 view that the book is prediction and not history sym¬ 
 bolized. 
 
 Ch. 8. The general thought of this vision is also one 
 of conflict and desolation. It was in part interpreted to 
 Daniel, in part was left obscure. Daniel himself was 
 overcome by the terribleness of what he saw. This is 
 also regarded as including the Roman power. 
 
82 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 Ch. 9. Daniel studied the Scriptures of the former 
 prophets and saw the promise of restoration that God 
 had made. And now he prays that the promise may 
 be fulfilled. He confesses that the affliction that had 
 come upon his people was just, for they had sinned. 
 But he prays that the anger of Jehovah may be turned 
 away from his people. While he prayed the answer 
 came. Gabriel assures the prophet that there shall be 
 desolation, and an end of desolation. The Messiah 
 shall come, and shall be cut off. The length of time is 
 given in terms whose meaning has been disputed. Many 
 atterppts have been made to determine from these 
 prophecies of Daniel the date of the fulfilment of God’s 
 purposes. It seems to have been left for the event itself 
 to solve. 
 
 Chs. 10 to 12 belong together. There is no part 
 of the book more puzzling than this. It is to be noted 
 that the events described took place after Cyrus had 
 given the decree that the Jews might return to build the 
 temple. There is no account of this in Daniel. It is 
 thought that the first chapters of Ezra were originally 
 a part of this book. 
 
 The very minute description of the conflict between 
 the powers lends support to the view that it is really a 
 history of what had already taken place in the reign of 
 Antiochus, intentionally made obscure. But the book 
 in general professes to be prophecy, not history. In ch. 
 12 the revelation given to Daniel goes far beyond what 
 occurred in the Grecian period. It is declared that the 
 distant future is included in the view presented. 
 
 Daniel was not told all that should be, but was 
 assured that in the end it would be well for God’s peo- 
 
Daniel 
 
 83 
 
 pie, that they would be delivered, and that he himself 
 would stand in his lot at the last. Not only is there 
 the comforting’ thought that God would care for his 
 people as a whole, but the individual would not be lost 
 sight of. 
 
 Note— The Interpretation of Daniel 
 
 A fuller statement seems needed about the different 
 interpretations of this book. What may for conveni¬ 
 ence be called the traditional view accepts the historical 
 trustworthiness of the narratives, as having been writ¬ 
 ten by Daniel himself, and believes the dreams and 
 visions to have been actual facts. It takes the contents 
 to be prophetic of future events, as the book itself 
 claims. The other view is that the book was produced 
 in the time of Antiochus, and that it only intends to 
 give events already past or conditions then present, but 
 gives these in the form of symbols and allegories. The 
 chief reason for this view is that we do not find other 
 apocalyptic writings in the Old Testament, and that it 
 is not probable that such minute details would have 
 been predicted and so exactly fulfilled. It is said that it 
 was not unusual for writers to place the name of 
 another as the author of their work. This has not been 
 proved. The reader is referred to the articles cited for 
 a full discussion of the subject. 
 
V 
 
 HOSEA 
 
 Parallel reading: 2 Kings'9 to 17; Amos; Jonah; 
 Ezekiel 23. 
 
 1. Date and Occasion 
 
 In the title of the book the time of the prophecy is 
 put during the reign of Jeroboam of Israel, where the 
 prophet worked, and of four kings of Judah, Uzziah 
 to Hezekiah. These are named probably to help indi¬ 
 cate more definitely the character of the times of 
 Hosea. Jeroboam died about 745 B. C, and it is 
 likely that Hosea began his career in the latter part 
 of this reign. It is not certain how late he continued 
 to prophesy. Hezekiah of Judah ascended the throne 
 not before 726. 
 
 Hosea thus belongs to the Assyrian period. The fall 
 of Samaria was not far in the future. (722.) The 
 reign of Jeroboam was a remarkable one because of 
 the extensive power reached by Israel under this king, 
 and because of the excessive wickedness that resulted 
 from the luxury of the times. The sway of Israel had 
 been no wider at any time since the reign of Solomon. 
 The Syrian power was checked, and Assyria had been 
 going through one of her periods of decline in power. 
 The Israelites were rich and living in ease. They gave 
 themselves up to the gratification of sensuous appe- 
 84 
 
Hosea 
 
 85 
 
 tites. They became greedy for gain, and selfish avarice 
 ruled everywhere. They forsook Jehovah even more 
 completely than they had before, and adopted all forms 
 of idolatry. Crime of every sort prevailed, and the 
 greedy rich used their strength to oppress the defense¬ 
 less poor. It would not be easy to exaggerate the 
 depth of wickedness reached by the Israelites at this 
 time. The two chief national characteristics were 
 idolatry and oppression. 
 
 In studying Hosea it must also be kept in mind that 
 the punishment so long threatened was near at hand. 
 For centuries the sins of the people had been accumu¬ 
 lating. There were no prospects of reform. Israel 
 was confronted by destruction, though she refused to 
 see it. 
 
 Assyria was about to enter upon that last great 
 period of empire sway under the reign of Tiglath-pil- 
 eser III. Had Israel remained faithful to Jehovah she 
 might have escaped this terrible power, but she was to 
 be swept from her land within a few years. 
 
 2. The Chief Work of Hosea 
 
 Although the northern tribes had separated from 
 the kingdom of Judah, and established a kingdom of 
 their own, they still called themselves the people of 
 Jehovah, and continued to be treated as such. Their 
 use of the name of Jehovah seems to have been little 
 more than a formal title to distinguish themselves 
 from the nations worshiping other gods, for they had 
 adopted almost all forms of idolatry, while they kept 
 the name of Jehovah. During most of the history of 
 the kingdom of Israel the prophetic class was active in 
 
86 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 the endeavor to secure fidelity to Jehovah. These 
 prophets were more numerous in the north than in the 
 south. Elijah and Elisha belonged to Israel, the 
 northern kingdom. The tribes of the north were not 
 cut off from being God’s chosen people when they 
 revolted from Rehoboam. Jehovah’s care over them 
 and love for them were constantly manifested. 
 
 The work to which Hosea was called was that of 
 reproving, condemning, threatening. He shows that 
 Israel’s condemnation is all the more certain, and 
 clearly just, because they have despised the love of 
 Jehovah which had been so abundant. Hosea was not 
 only to threaten the Israelites with the punishment that 
 was at hand, but was especially to show that this 
 chiefly resulted because they had despised God’s love. 
 Thus his work was to warn and to interpret, and both 
 the warning and the interpretation were for the per¬ 
 manent teaching that God loves man, and that he will 
 punish sin. 
 
 3. The Chief Thought of Hosea 
 
 Hosea has been called the prophet of love. He does 
 make prominent the fact of Jehovah’s great love for 
 his people, but the most of his book is devoted to the 
 description of the sins of the Israelites and the punish¬ 
 ment that would come. The love of God is used as a 
 background for destruction, and the destruction would 
 be all the greater because the love was so great. 
 
 The figure of speech that appears so often and so 
 prominently in Hosea is that of the marriage relation. 
 Jehovah is the husband, Israel is the wife. The husband 
 loved; the wife was untrue. The spiritual adultery 
 
Hosea 
 
 87 
 
 of Israel would be punished by exile. But Jehovah 
 would take his people back in spite of their faithless¬ 
 ness, just as Hosea was commanded to love a woman 
 who was an adulteress. 
 
 The principal truths that are found in Hosea occur 
 in other prophets, though Israel’s sinning against the 
 love of God is more emphasized here. So the figure 
 of the marriage relation is used by other prophets, but 
 it is more prominent in Hosea. 
 
 4. General Style of Hosea’s Writings 
 
 It is very likely that what we have in this book is 
 for the most part abstracts of the addresses of the 
 prophet. The style is exceedingly abrupt in places, and 
 there is great difficulty in determining the connection 
 of the thought. In part, it must be remembered that 
 we have prophecies that belong to a number of years, 
 and are not to expect a continuous thought through the 
 book. Sometimes the present chapter divisions do not 
 correspond to the real divisions of thought. Where the 
 thought seems to be continuous, and is yet difficult to 
 understand, it is often most helpful to seek the general 
 course of the thought, and then determine the meaning 
 and connection of each part. This often requires 
 much study and careful thinking. In places the 
 prophet changes to a thought that is suggested by some 
 word or phrase that he has used in a different sense. 
 The connection can be discovered, but it is not obvious. 
 There is an illustration of this in ch. 7. The figure 
 of the oven gives the ideas of heat, bread, eating, then 
 the cake not fit for food, and the people eaten, de¬ 
 voured by the heathen. 
 
 G 
 
88 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 5. The Chief Divisions of the Book 
 
 Only two divisions are evident: chs. i to 3, which 
 are connected with the account of the marriage of the 
 prophet; and chs. 4 to 14. This part of the book is not 
 clearly divisible into minor parts. It is all of the same 
 general character, and could all have been delivered 
 at one time. Little help can be got from any attempt 
 to group some of the chapters together. 
 
 6. The General Meaning of These Divisions 
 
 The account of the marriage of the prophet men¬ 
 tioned in ch. 1 is differently interpreted. Some think 
 the marriage was actual; some think it an allegory. 
 Most of those who think it actual believe that the 
 woman Hosea married was either bad before he mar¬ 
 ried her or became bad afterwards. Then ch. 3 is 
 understood as showing that his wife left him, became 
 the slave of another, and he bought her back at the 
 command of Jehovah. Many of the reasons for this 
 view are far-fetched. The slave idea is got from the 
 claim that according to Exodus the price of a slave 
 was thirty shekels, and according to 2 Kings 7 : 18 
 barley was worth a half-shekel per measure, and it is 
 estimated that the woman Hosea bought cost thirty 
 shekels, one half in money, the other in barley. 
 
 There is really no evidence that Hosea’s wife was a 
 bad woman either before or after her marriage. It is 
 clear from the context that the expression used in con¬ 
 nection with her is suggested by the wicked conduct of 
 the people. The children are named, just as were 
 Isaiah’s, in order to teach the apostasy of Israel, and 
 
Hosea 
 
 89 
 
 not because of anything wrong in them or in their 
 mother, so far as the account shows. (See Isa. 7:3; 
 8:3; See Hastings’ H. D. B., art. “ Hosea.”) 
 
 The idea of the faithless wife, meaning Israel, in ch. 
 2 is very full of meaning. The people had forsaken 
 Jehovah and turned to Baal. They thought what they 
 possessed was given by Baal as a reward for service. 
 God says by the prophet that he will take away what 
 he has given that Israel may realize that all came from 
 him, and that they may turn back to him. This gives 
 the key to the teaching of the book: Israel has been 
 faithless, and punishment will be sent to bring back 
 Jehovah’s people to himself. The certainty of the 
 restoration is given along with the threat. 
 
 The general thought in chs. 4 and 5 is the excessive 
 wickedness of the people, and the certainty of punish¬ 
 ment. In most of this part the priests are regarded as 
 leaders in sin. When they seek help from Assyria 
 instead of from Jehovah, it will only result in a greater 
 punishment. It was Jehovah who had bruised, and he 
 only could deliver, or bind up. This pair of terms 
 often occur together. 
 
 Words of confession and repentance are put into 
 the mouths of the sinning people in the beginning of 
 ch. 6. The rest of the chapter shows that the break¬ 
 ing of the covenant caused the desolation that was 
 coming. And ch. 7 continues the same thought. They 
 had sunken to the lowest depths of sin. They would be 
 devoured. They might fly to Egypt or Assyria for 
 help; they would be taken like birds in a net. 
 
 The trumpet sounds the alarm in ch. 8. An invader 
 is coming like an eagle, or vulture, swooping down 
 
90 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 upon the nation. Instead of their idols saving them, 
 they would be the cause of their destruction. The 
 heathen to whom they look for help would devour. 
 They treated with contempt the laws that God wrote 
 for them, and so far as they have observed the law 
 it was mere form. So instead of the sacrifices securing 
 a removal of sin, their iniquity would still be remem¬ 
 bered. 
 
 Ch. 9 contains threats of exile. They shall return to 
 a condition of captivity, such as they experienced in 
 Egypt, hence that country is here named, though it is 
 declared that they shall go to Assyria. The great love 
 of Jehovah for the people of Israel at the beginning of 
 her course is here expressed. But all that was attrac¬ 
 tive shall perish. 
 
 In ch. io the course of thought is as follows : Israel 
 has sinned in proportion to her prosperity; altars are 
 many, and shall be destroyed; the very idols men 
 trusted in shall be carried off with the rest; they have 
 sinned from the first as at Gibeah. In ver. io the ref¬ 
 erence is probably to the two calves set up for worship. 
 This suggests the figure of a heifer plowing, and this, 
 the figure of sowing and reaping. 
 
 Ch. ii starts with the thought that Jehovah had 
 loved the people from the beginning, and had been 
 calling to them ever since they came out of Egypt. He 
 had been tenderly holding them. But because of their 
 sins they shall go away into exile. The threat made 
 long before that the land should be like the cities of 
 the plain, shall now be fulfilled. Yet afterwards they 
 shall be gathered again because of God’s great love and 
 unswerving purpose. 
 
Hosea 
 
 91 
 
 The thought in ch. 12 is the weakness and poverty 
 of the Israelites in their origin, as illustrated by the 
 history of their ancestor Jacob, the goodness of God 
 shown in all that he had done for them, and the pun¬ 
 ishment that shall result from their sin. 
 
 So in ch. 13 the wickedness of Israel in turning to 
 worship idols is put in strong contrast with the fact 
 that Jehovah had taken the people for his own, and 
 there was no other that could help. The expression in 
 v. 14 is better understood as a threat than a promise, 
 because all the context is threat. Death and the grave 
 are summoned to destroy. 
 
 After all the terrible threats in the most of the book, 
 the promise of the wonderful favor of God in ch. 14 
 is all the more emphatic. They will turn from their 
 false gods, and Jehovah will love them freely. The 
 beautiful figures of the lily and the Lebanon are used 
 to portray the blessed condition of Israel once more 
 faithful to Jehovah. 
 
VI 
 
 JOEL 
 
 Parallel reading: 2 Kings 11, 12; 2 Chronicles 23, 
 24; Ezra; Nehemiah. 
 
 1. Date and Occasion 
 
 The date of Joel is not given in his book, and it can 
 be decided by internal evidence only. There are two 
 chief views concerning it: some think it to belong to 
 the time of the minority of Joash king of Judah, while 
 Jehoiada the priest was acting as regent, others that it 
 belongs to the post-exilic period. The arguments for 
 these views will be found in the dictionaries and com¬ 
 mentaries. 
 
 The teaching of the book is so general in character 
 that it does not depend upon the historical occasion of 
 the prophet. Its meaning remains the same whatever 
 date be accepted as correct. 
 
 The special occasion of the prophecy was the severe 
 devastation of the land by locusts as a punishment for 
 the sin of turning away from Jehovah. The warning 
 that a worse calamity would come unless the people 
 repented, was heeded. Then the calamity and the 
 blessings promised suggest the more terrible day of 
 Jehovah and greater spiritual blessings. 
 
 2. The Chief Work of Joel 
 
 Like almost all the other prophets the work of Joel 
 was to induce the people to repent. It is remarkable 
 
 92 
 
Joel 
 
 93 
 
 that no specific sin is named as being the cause of the 
 calamity that had come. It seems merely that in some 
 way the people had turned away from Jehovah. We 
 might suppose that if they had actually fallen into 
 idolatry, it would have been distinctly mentioned. 
 Unlike what was true of the effect of the messages of 
 the other prophets, Joel’s warning was heeded; the peo¬ 
 ple repented, and that gave occasion to the prophet to 
 predict that they would receive abundant blessings 
 from Jehovah, among them the overthrow of their 
 enemies. 
 
 3. The Chief Thought of the Book 
 
 All the contents of this book may be connected with 
 the term “ judgment.” The locusts had been sent as 
 a judgment, but a worse one would come if the people 
 did not repent; they could avert it if they did. Then 
 the idea of judgment is presented in the prediction of 
 the gathering of all the nations who had shown enmity 
 to Jehovah that they might be judged in the valley 
 of judgment. Such judgment would result in punish¬ 
 ment coming upon the heathen, but blessings upon 
 God’s people. Both the locust devastation and the 
 future judgment predicted are associated with the term 
 “ day of Jehovah.” With this there is always the idea 
 of punishment. 
 
 4. The Divisions of the Book 
 
 There are two clear divisions: (i) Ch. i : i to 
 2 : 17; and (2) 2 : 18 to 3 : 21. In the first division 
 the people of all classes are aroused to the greatness 
 of the calamity that had come, and that might be 
 
94 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 still worse. The extent of the devastation is described 
 in vivid terms, and the people are urged to repent. The 
 thought is clear, the style simple. 
 
 In the second division, it seems best to understand 
 that the repentance had taken place, rather than to 
 suppose that the prophet assumed that the people 
 would repent. Here we have the answer 1 of Jehovah, 
 promising first every temporal blessing, especially such 
 as would result from the rain that had been sent to end 
 the drought that accompanied the locust calamity. 
 Then spiritual blessings are promised, the greatest 
 being the gift of the Spirit of God, by which the 
 hearts of the people would be refreshed as the ground 
 had been by the rain, and they would all show their 
 close relation to God by the signs common in Old 
 Testament times, dreams and visions. 
 
 5. The Chief Teaching of the Book 
 
 The fact that God will punish for sin is taught. That 
 some physical calamities were sent as judgments in 
 Old Testament times is also taught. The Israelites 
 could know that the locusts were sent as a judgment 
 because the prophet of God said so. Such judgments 
 were for the purpose of teaching, (i Cor. io : n.) 
 We may not understand calamities as judgments now, 
 because the period of teaching culminated with the 
 coming of Christ. 
 
 Joel teaches that God readily forgives when his peo¬ 
 ple repent. The blessings that had been withheld came, 
 it would seem, quickly after the prayer. 
 
 The term “ day of Jehovah ” occurs in Joel for the 
 first time, and it means here, as always, a time of judg- 
 
Joel 
 
 95 
 
 ment. In the second part of the book the day was one 
 of threatening to the heathen only. A distinction is 
 made between God’s people and all others, and here it 
 is determined by nationality. The heathen are sinners 
 and will be punished; God’s people are righteous, and 
 will be blessed. 
 
 The promised giving of the Spirit of God was not 
 fulfilled till the day of Pentecost, when it only began 
 to be fulfilled. 
 
 The whole of the book is very simple and the 
 thought easily followed. 
 
VII 
 
 AMOS 
 
 Parallel reading: The same as for the book of 
 Hosea, and 2 Chronicles 26. 
 
 1. Date and Historical Occasion 
 
 Amos prophesied about 750 B. C., while Jeroboam 
 was king of Israel, and Uzziah king of Judah. His 
 work came before that of Hosea, though the occa¬ 
 sion of both was practically the same. His home was 
 in Judah, but he prophesied in Israel, being sent there 
 with a special message. 
 
 The further statement that the time was two years 
 before the earthquake is supposed to refer to the fulfil¬ 
 ment of a threat found in his prophecy. (Ch. 8:8; 
 
 9; so 
 
 The marked prosperity of the reign of Jeroboam of 
 Israel led to luxury, greed, sensuousness, oppression, 
 religious indifference. Hence Amos was sent from the 
 care of his flocks to condemn Israel, and tell of the 
 imminent punishment. 
 
 The purpose in naming the time of a prophecy seems 
 to have been to give aid to understand it. The men¬ 
 tion of the reign of Uzziah was probably because the 
 success of that king too led to conditions in Judah 
 similar to those in Israel, and shows how Amos was 
 at times led to include Judah within the scope of his 
 threat. 
 
 96 
 
Amos 
 
 97 
 
 The northern kingdom began 935 B. C., and when 
 Amos delivered his message the fall of the kingdom 
 was less than thirty years away. These two hundred 
 years had been a period of unbroken sinning. Every 
 king of Israel followed in the wickedness of the first. 
 The longsuffering of God that had spared his people 
 so many years was about to end, so far as that king¬ 
 dom was concerned. Amos was to sound the alarm. 
 
 2. The Chief Work of Amos 
 
 There are not sufficient reasons for believing that 
 any parts of this book were added after the first visit 
 of Amos to Bethel. He had one message to deliver. 
 An attempt was made to prevent this, but it was not 
 successful. The prophet himself says he went to 
 Bethel to prophesy because Jehovah sent him. It was 
 not because he had seen the wickedness that prevailed, 
 and was therefore moved to speak. It was not because 
 he was accustomed to simpler living in his tent at 
 Tekoa, and was envious of the splendid houses of the 
 wicked Israelites. He did not go to deliver a message 
 that would have occurred to any one who looked at the 
 state of things, and who would easily see that the end 
 of such a course could be ruin only. The kingdom of 
 Israel was never greater and more powerful than it 
 was at the very time that Amos went to tell them 
 that utter destruction was at hand. 
 
 The power and wealth of Israel made the powerful 
 and the rich feel secure. The most cruel oppression 
 was practised to satisfy greater greed. The chief 
 thing that Amos had to do was to condemn this greed, 
 and to warn the oppressors of their impending doom. 
 
98 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 The sin of idolatry is also condemned by Amos, but 
 most stress is put upon the oppression of the weak by 
 the strong. 
 
 3. The Chief Thought of Amos 
 
 Almost all of this prophecy is taken up with con¬ 
 demnation and threat. There is comparatively little of 
 promise found in the book. This is so clearly the case 
 that some claim that what promises we do find must 
 have been added by another, as they are not in accord 
 with the style and general subject of Amos. His 
 dominant thought is, not only destruction, but destruc¬ 
 tion imminent. It is as near at hand as the enemy is 
 when the alarm trumpet is heard. We may suppose 
 that the danger would have been averted even at this 
 late day if Israel had turned from sin and served Jeho¬ 
 vah. But Amos seems to see no prospect of such 
 turning. The end has come. 
 
 It cannot be maintained, however, that any promise 
 of restoration was out of harmony with the purpose 
 of Amos, that the assurance of mercy was inconsistent 
 with the message of punishment. If we accept the fact 
 that God had chosen the people of Israel in order that 
 through them he might make known his purpose of 
 redemption; then such people must be holy, and if they 
 sin they must be punished, not to destroy them, but to 
 chastise them. God’s purpose was not to be thwarted 
 by the failure of Israel to obey. There must be then 
 ultimate favor; restoration must follow exile; blessing 
 must follow punishment. If Amos or any other 
 prophet did not speak of this aspect of the course of 
 God’s dealings with his people, he must yet have known 
 
Amos 
 
 99 
 
 of it, and believed in it. And as this assurance of per¬ 
 manence was as ancient as the origin of God’s people, 
 no prophecy was too early to include the thought. 
 
 4. The Divisions of the Book 
 
 While the contents of this book form one proph¬ 
 ecy, delivered at one time, they may yet be divided 
 for convenience of study into two chief divisions, 
 besides an introduction, and a few verses of promise 
 at the close. 
 
 Chs. i, 2 form the introduction, giving the general 
 thought that God is coming to punish. 
 
 Chs. 3 to 6. Three of these chapters begin with the 
 same words, and the general thought of all is, sins that 
 have made punishment certain and near. 
 
 Chs. 7 to 9. The main thought of this division does 
 not differ from that of the preceding, but it is here 
 presented in connection with visions that Amos had. 
 
 Ch. 9 : 11 -15. These closing verses contain the 
 promise of the restoration of God’s people and the 
 blessings that should come to them. 
 
 5. The Chief Teaching of These Divisions 
 
 Amos takes as a sort of text for his entire prophecy 
 the words of Joel 3 : 16, 
 
 The Lord will roar from Zion, 
 
 And utter his voice from Jerusalem. 
 
 The thought is, God will come to punish sin. Amos 
 shows that this will be true, not only in case of the 
 surrounding heathen nations, but also of Judah, and 
 especially of Israel. It is with Israel that he is particu- 
 
100 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 larly concerned. But his teaching is that sinners will 
 be punished whoever they are. The heathen shall be 
 punished for hostility to God’s people; Judah, because 
 they have despised the law of Jehovah; Israel, for their 
 wickedness. 
 
 The repetition of the same phrases in these succes¬ 
 sive threats was not due to a lack of ability in Amos, 
 but it gave terrible emphasis to his words. The sin 
 of Israel is seen to be all the greater because of what 
 God had done for them. In this introduction Amos 
 declares that the sinner shall not escape. 
 
 In the first part of chapter 3 the series of questions 
 show that the prophet has come up to Bethel by the 
 appointment of Jehovah, and he has been sent to warn 
 of danger, for when God sends a judgment upon a city 
 he sends a prophet to interpret it as such. When the 
 lion roars, when the trap springs, when the trumpet 
 sounds, the danger is at hand. The sin that deserved 
 such punishment was so great that even heathen Egypt 
 and Philistia would be astonished at it. 
 
 The first part of ch. 4 seems to have been addressed 
 to the wives who were leaders in their husbands’ 
 oppression. Their selfish greed shall be fully punished. 
 Then follows a list of a number of chastisements in 
 the past which had not wrought repentance, hence a 
 greater shall now come. 
 
 In ch. 5 there is exhortation and promise mingled 
 with threat. Where joy had been there should be wail¬ 
 ing. If they sought to flee, they would only run into 
 another danger. In v. 18 we have a thought suggest¬ 
 ing the book of Joel. As already stated, that prophet 
 showed that the day of Jehovah would be dark to the 
 
Amos 
 
 101 
 
 nations only, while Israel would be blessed. These 
 wicked Israelites in the days of Amos seem to be rest¬ 
 ing in that belief, as though they were safe in sinning. 
 Amos teaches that they will be punished as well as 
 the heathen. Their offerings to Jehovah were not 
 acceptable, coming from wicked hearts. What God 
 demanded was righteousness, justice toward their 
 fellows. From their first days in the wilderness they 
 had turned away from Jehovah. Captivity then is sure. 
 
 Ch. 6 shows how completely the Israelites had given 
 themselves up to sensuous gratification. They thought 
 no harm could reach them. They were secure. The 
 leaders are here addressed. But they shall be the first 
 to go into captivity. The desolation shall be complete. 
 
 In the second part, beginning with ch. 7, there are 
 a series of visions, the first two indicating punishments 
 that had been sent in the past, which were stopped 
 before the people were utterly consumed. The third 
 vision, that of the plumbline, differs from the former 
 in teaching that God would no longer pass by their 
 sins. The test was to be put to the people, and they 
 must meet it, or be destroyed. The basket of summer 
 fruit of the fourth vision, ch. 8, has the same meaning, 
 but is still more significant. In the Hebrew the word 
 for “ summer fruit ” and the word for “ end ” have 
 nearly the same sound. 
 
 The attempt of the priest of Bethel to stop Amos 
 from his task gave occasion for the prophet to show 
 why he had journeyed from his home to deliver such 
 severe messages against the northern kingdom. God 
 had sent him. 
 
 The wicked greed of the Israelites is especially 
 
102 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 shown in the eighth chapter, in their selling to the 
 poor, and even selling them if they could not pay what 
 they owed for a pair of sandals. Hence the earth¬ 
 quake, darkness, and destruction. God then would not 
 hear their cry. 
 
 In ch. 9 the altar is smitten, the worshipers cut 
 down by the sword. None shall escape by flight. They 
 thought themselves the people of Jehovah because he 
 brought them from Egypt, so they were safe. But God 
 had caused the other nations also to migrate from one 
 country to another. Israel was to be different in con¬ 
 duct, but they were not, and Israelite sinners must 
 die like others. 
 
 Amos did not close his message with darkness. He 
 added a bright promise of hope. Beginning at ver. 
 11 of ch. 9 we have in few words a remarkable pre¬ 
 diction of the restoration and blessing of God’s people. 
 The nations would seek Jehovah. (See the quotation 
 in Acts 15 : 17.) The time of captivity would end. 
 God’s people should be planted in their land, and not 
 be pulled up again. 
 
VIII 
 
 OBADIAH 
 
 Parallel reading: 2 Kings 8 : 16-24; 2 Chronicles 
 21 : 5-17; 2 Kings 25; Jeremiah 52. Compare a 
 similar prophecy in Jeremiah 49 : 7-22. 
 
 1. Date and Historical Occasion 
 
 Some think that Obadiah prophesied during the 
 reign of Jehoram king of Judah, when the Edomites 
 rebelled against the authority of Jehoram, and with¬ 
 stood his attack upon them, about 845 B. C. There 
 is more reason for taking the view that the book 
 belongs to the time immediately after the fall of Jerusa¬ 
 lem. (586.) Some of the peoples around Judah had 
 aided the army of Nebuchadrezzar in subduing Judah 
 a few years before. (2 Kings 24 : 2.) It may be 
 easily seen that Edom would be glad to share in the 
 despoiling of her old enemy and former ruler. Edom 
 itself afterwards was invaded by enemies, and ceased 
 to exist as an independent people in the days of the 
 Maccabees. 
 
 2. The Theme of the Prophecy 
 
 This prophecy is concerned wholly about Edom in 
 its relation to Judah. It is the smallest of the prophets, 
 but contains important truth. Edom is condemned for 
 taking part in the overthrow of Judah. When Jerusa¬ 
 lem was spoiled, the Edomites shared in the plunder. 
 H 103 
 
104 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 Obadiah condemns them for their hostility, declares 
 their rocky fastnesses will not protect them, predicts 
 an invasion of their land and the utter destruction of 
 the whole people. Connected with the threat against 
 Edom there is a prediction of the establishment and 
 prosperity of God’s people. 
 
 3. The Course of Thought 
 
 Messengers are sent to the other nations to summon 
 them to make war upon Edom, ver. i. Edom thought 
 herself perfectly safe among her lofty crags, but Jeho¬ 
 vah would bring her down, and all her treasures would 
 be carried off, far more thoroughly than robbers would 
 do, or grape-gatherers, ver. 3-6. Edom’s former allies 
 will not help her, ver. 7. Her own famous wisdom 
 will utterly fail to deliver her, ver. 8, 9. 
 
 The reason for this destruction is that Edom had 
 committed violence upon Judah. When Jerusalem 
 was taken, the Edomites had entered the city with the 
 enemy, had shared the spoil, had rejoiced in Judah’s 
 calamity, had stood at the crossroads to intercept any 
 that fled, and delivered all the captives they caught 
 into the hand of the chief enemy, ver. 10-14. 
 
 Because the “ day of Jehovah,” that awful day of 
 punishment, is coming upon all the heathen nations, 
 Edom especially will perish for her act, ver. 15, 16. 
 
 In the rest of the prophecy there is presented, in 
 strong contrast with the destruction of Edom, the 
 permanence and wide possessions of Jacob. It is to be 
 noticed that the prophet uses the names of the two 
 brothers, Jacob and Esau, founders of the two peo¬ 
 ples, thus calling attention to the original promise of 
 
Obadiah 
 
 105 
 
 God that the older should serve the younger, and 
 promising now that Jacob shall continue to hold the 
 possessions given him, which Esau cannot take. 
 
 Jacob shall be as fire consuming the whole of Esau 
 as stubble. There shall not be even a remnant left to 
 Edom. In the case of almost all the other enemies of 
 Israel there is something of hope held out that they 
 will after punishment come into the favor of God. 
 Edom shall perish. 
 
 The translation of ver. 19 obscures the thought, 
 ' which is quite expressive. The prediction is that 
 instead of the Negeb (“ south ”) being a district held 
 only in part by Judah, it shall be fully inhabited by 
 God’s people, and its inhabitants shall extend their pos¬ 
 sessions to the land where Esau dwells; the Shephelah 
 (“the plain”), the strip of hilly land lying between 
 the highland of Judah and the plain of Philistia, some¬ 
 times occupied by the Philistines, sometimes by Judah, 
 the scene of so many conflicts, shall not only be inhab¬ 
 ited by Judah, but its inhabitants shall extend their 
 possessions to the very land of Philistia. So all the 
 upper part of the land, and the east of the Jordan, shall 
 be occupied by the people of Jacob. They shall be far 
 from being dispossessed by Esau. 
 
 The language of ver. 20 is obscure, but the general 
 thought is clear. The Israelites who should be taken 
 captive, would again return and possess the whole 
 of the land that God had given to them. When Zion 
 should be inhabited by the saved of God’s people, 
 Edom should be condemned. This would result from 
 the great fact that the right of kingship belongs to 
 Jehovah. He is sovereign over nations. 
 
IX 
 
 JONAH 
 
 Parallel reading: 2 Kings 14 : 23-29; Nahum. 
 
 1. Date and Occasion of the Book 
 
 The events connected with the career of Jonah here 
 narrated belong to the time of the prosperous reign of 
 Jeroboam, already considered in connection with the 
 prophecies of Hosea and Amos. It was thedime of the 
 excessive wickedness of the Israelites. The king had 
 followed the advice of Jonah in some of his policies, 
 and had extended his dominion thereby. (2 Kings 
 14 : 25.) The kingdom of Israel had been greatly 
 reduced by the Arameans in the reigns of the immedi¬ 
 ate predecessors of Jeroboam, but the time for the 
 final punishment of the people had not yet come, and 
 deliverance was wrought through Jeroboam. But his 
 successes led to even greater sin. The former help of 
 Jehovah was forgotten. The obligation to serve God 
 was ignored. The teaching of Elijah and Elisha had 
 grown dim. There were schools of prophets, but 
 they were inefficient to stop the rapid course of apos¬ 
 tasy. The doom of Israel was not far away. It was 
 at such a time that the teaching of the mission of 
 Jonah was given. The book of Jonah cannot be rightly 
 understood without considering the condition of Israel 
 at the time. 
 
 106 
 
Jonah 
 
 107 
 
 2. The Purpose of the Book 
 
 We have in this book the history of acts of Jonah, 
 rather than a record of the words of Jonah. The book 
 gives Jonah’s mission rather than Jonah’s prophecies. 
 Yet the book is wholly a prophecy. It was intended to 
 teach the Israelites that God demanded repentance 
 from sin, and that in his great mercy he would forgive 
 if they repented. 
 
 Jonah was commanded to go to Nineveh, and pre¬ 
 dict its early overthrow. Aside from the idolatry that 
 prevailed in Nineveh usually, we do not know what 
 special sin led to this special threat. It may have been 
 worse idolatry, greater immorality, or the intention 
 to advance against Israel to destroy it. The particu¬ 
 lar occasion of the prophet’s mission, so far as Nineveh 
 is concerned, is not given, and it is immaterial. 
 
 Jonah’s mission to this heathen city was not meant 
 for Nineveh, so much as it was for Israel. The 
 announcement of the prophet that the great city was to 
 be overthrown was made without condition, yet a con¬ 
 dition must have been implied, for when the city 
 repented in sackcloth, the calamity was thereby averted. 
 The warning then was to secure repentance, and the 
 repentance brought forgiveness. By this Israel was 
 to be impressively taught that the mercy of Jehovah 
 was great enough to save from destruction even this 
 wicked, heathen city, Israel’s greatest foe. 
 
 A further purpose of the book of Jonah, though 
 this is not so obvious, may have been to teach that 
 Jehovah was not only sovereign over all peoples, but 
 was concerned about their religious condition, as well 
 
108 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 as that of Israel. The people of Israel was not chosen 
 for its sake alone, but that through it the nations of 
 the earth might be blessed, and though the highest 
 form of such blessing would be secured through the 
 Messiah, before he should come the blessing of God’s 
 mercy and love might be theirs. The other prophets, 
 as Isaiah, do teach that the Gentiles were to be united 
 with the Jews as one people of God to serve him. 
 
 3. Chief Points to Be Noted 
 
 Other prophets delivered messages about the out¬ 
 side nations, but they were not sent to preach to them. 
 The reason that Jonah at first refused to go was 
 because he expected the people of Nineveh would be 
 forgiven by God, and that he did not wish. They were 
 Israel’s enemies, and Jonah wished them destroyed. 
 He probably would have gone gladly if he had 
 expected his threat would have been fulfilled. 
 
 Even the sailors were made to know Jehovah 
 through the presence of Jonah, and their prayer was 
 heard. 
 
 The fish that God prepared to swallow up Jonah was 
 of importance, but we should not regard the fish as the 
 chief thing in the book. The great teaching of the 
 book should not be obscured by a flippancy that makes 
 it all an occasion for a joke. 
 
 The Ninevites may already have known of the God 
 of the Israelites, and thus were the more ready to heed 
 his prophet’s warning. Their repentance was evidently 
 sincere, though it may not have been lasting. 
 
 Jonah would gladly have seen the destruction of 
 Nineveh but grieved for the gourd. 
 
X 
 
 MICAH 
 
 Parallel reading: The same as noted for Isaiah. 
 
 1. Date and Historical Occasion 
 
 Micah prophesied in the kingdom of Judah, and 
 belonged to the same period as Isaiah. The conditions 
 that led to the work of Isaiah produced also the mes¬ 
 sages of Micah. Uzziah, who is named as the first 
 king in Isaiah’s career, is not mentioned in the title of 
 the book of Micah, but it is not probable that Isaiah 
 had been engaged in his work very long when Micah 
 entered upon his work. The wickedness of the people, 
 idolatry, oppression, crime of every sort, the failure of 
 the king, all these led Micah also to condemn and 
 threaten. The character of his work was thus deter¬ 
 mined by the conditions of his time. 
 
 2. The Chief Thought of the Book 
 
 The controlling ideas in the book of Micah are very 
 similar to those found in Isaiah. There is the con¬ 
 demnation of the people for their sins, the threat that 
 punishment will come upon them, with the promise of 
 the restoration and reestablishment of God’s people. 
 The rich ones of the nation are condemned for oppress¬ 
 ing the poor; the judges and priests, who should have 
 been leaders in good, are condemned because they have 
 
 109 
 
110 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 led in wickedness; the false prophets are threatened 
 because they have led the people into error instead of 
 into right, they promised plenty and security when 
 there was punishment at hand, they professed to speak 
 for God when he had given them no message. 
 
 Along with these threats there are bright promises 
 in Micah. There is scarcely any exhortation. It would 
 seem that the prophet saw no hope that the people 
 would turn from their sins, but would go on to the 
 destruction that was before them. But beyond the fall 
 he saw that the kingdom would rise again. His Mes¬ 
 sianic ideas are not given with such fulness as in Isaiah, 
 but they are at times A^ery clear. He, too, foretells of 
 the coming of the heathen to the service of Jehovah. 
 
 In the future that he sees there would be no more 
 idolatry, no more corruption, no apostasy from Jeho¬ 
 vah. God’s people would be in the light, and the enemy 
 in the darkness. 
 
 Micah teaches that God demands right living, rather 
 than sacrifices. Forms of worship are condemned, not 
 because they are wrong, but because: they are not 
 enough. 
 
 3. The General Style of Micah’s Writing 
 
 The prophecies of Micah are not so simple as some 
 of the others, Joel, or Amos, but they are more easy to 
 understand than much that we find in Hosea. It is 
 likely that much in the book is made up of abstracts of 
 the original messages delivered orally to the people. 
 
 There are instances of what is called paronomasia, 
 giving a thought suggested by the sound of a name. A 
 remarkable instance of this occurs in ch. i. This is 
 
Micali 
 
 111 
 
 not, however, punning. Isaiah makes some of his 
 thoughts very impressive by the same means. The 
 connection of thought is abrupt in some places, and 
 often there is a sudden change from threat to prom¬ 
 ise, the two being found mingled, as in Isaiah. A 
 number of cases of references to what Isaiah had been 
 prophesying occur, expressions being used that would 
 be difficult to understand without help from the other 
 prophet. (See 5 : 3; 7 : 11; cf. Isa. 7 : 14; 5 : 5.) 
 
 There are allusions to the past history of the Israel¬ 
 ites, showing what God had done for them, and refer¬ 
 ences to the laws that had been given. These are not 
 so numerous, however, as they are in Hosea and Amos. 
 
 4 . Divisions of the Book 
 
 The contents of this book are not divided into very 
 clear divisions, yet the following groups may be recog¬ 
 nized : 
 
 Ch. 1-3. In these chapters there is especially threat 
 against Samaria as well as Judah, description of the 
 devastation of the latter, ch. 1, condemnation of the 
 greedy, and the false prophets, who shall perish, and 
 the rulers who oppress for gain, with the prediction of 
 the utter overthrow of Zion, ch. 2, 3. 
 
 Chs. 4 and 5. This division is full of promise. The 
 outcast shall be regathered; enemies shall be overcome, 
 and God’s people shall trust in him. 
 
 Chs. 6 and 7. Here we find charges of sin, espe¬ 
 cially oppression and idolatry, and a statement of 
 what God required of his people. The latter part is 
 a repetition of the promised restoration and triumph 
 over enemies. 
 
112 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 5. The Course of Thought 
 
 Ch. i begins with the announcement of the coming 
 of Jehovah to punish the people, with a special threat 
 against Samaria, which had not yet fallen. But the 
 devastation is to extend into Judah. The progress of 
 this is described along with the naming of the cities 
 of Judah affected. 
 
 In ch. 2 the rulers who oppress are threatened; their 
 land shall be taken from them; they are to be exiled 
 from Palestine, which shall not be their land of rest, for 
 they have evicted the women from their homes. But a 
 promise is added to this division. (Ch. 2 : 12, 13.) 
 
 Ch. 3 begins with the condemnation of the rulers 
 who afflict the poor. Then the prophets who deliver 
 messages only that they may be supported by the peo¬ 
 ple, and who lead the people astray, are assured that 
 they shall enter into darkness, and be put to confusion. 
 On the other hand, Micah is strong and bold to speak 
 the truth. He condemns the leaders, and predicts that 
 their holy city shall be like a field that is plowed. 
 
 In the beginning of ch. 4 there is a passage parallel 
 with the one in ch. 2 of Isaiah, a remarkable promise 
 of the worship of Jehovah by all the nations of the 
 earth. This is closely connected with the close of ch. 
 3, giving the destruction of Zion. Not only shall it 
 be the city of God’s chosen people again, but the holy 
 city of all peoples. Meantime desolation shall come, 
 and Zion shall lament, and shall go to Babylon, but 
 afterwards she shall be restored, and shall conquer her 
 enemies. 
 
 In ch. 5 there is the specific prediction of the birth- 
 
Micah 
 
 113 
 
 place of the coming Messiah, Ruler and Defender of 
 God’s people, who shall be both a blessing and a 
 power among the nations of the earth. When the peo¬ 
 ple have been restored they will no longer trust in any¬ 
 thing but Jehovah. All that has been a source of sin 
 and apostasy will be cut off. 
 
 Ch. 6 opens with a form of controversy between God 
 and his people, who are condemned because they have 
 forsaken him, while he has done so much for them. 
 Then ver. 6-12 show what is really required of the 
 people: not sacrifices, but justice and righteousness, 
 instead of the corruption that still prevails. Hence the 
 land shall be made a desolation. They are following 
 in the sins of Israel. 
 
 In the first part of ch. 7 the picture of the social con¬ 
 dition of Judah is a sad one. There is not one good 
 man left; all are earnestly engaged in wickedness; no 
 one can be trusted. The case seems hopeless. The 
 prophet then looks forward to the time when the pun¬ 
 ishment shall have passed; when Zion’s enemy shall 
 be put to shame; when the hedge about God’s vineyard 
 should be built up again, and the decree of its destruc¬ 
 tion should be afar off, ver. 11; God’s people shall 
 come back from captivity, and their enemies shall be 
 subdued. In that day the ancient promises of God will 
 be fulfilled. 
 
XI 
 
 NAHUM 
 
 Parallel reading: 2 Chronicles 32, 33; Isaiah 10 : 
 5 - 27 - 
 
 1 . Date and Occasion 
 
 There is nothing in the title of Nahum to indicate 
 the time of the prophecy, but the contents of the book 
 help to fix the date within narrow limits. The refer¬ 
 ence (3 : 8) to No-Amon of Egypt (Thebes), which 
 was overthrown by the Assyrians 664 B. C, would 
 indicate that the fall of that city had already taken 
 place, perhaps recently. Nahum prophesied then after 
 that date. He foretells the fall of Nineveh, which 
 occurred 606 B. C., and thus his prophecy was before 
 that date. Since he was a prophet, and not a historian, 
 we need not suppose that what he describes was already 
 beginning when he wrote. He was in Judah, not at 
 Nineveh, and was not an eye-witness to the invasion 
 of Nineveh which he portrays. 
 
 His prediction of Nineveh’s fall did not require an 
 actual oppression of Judah by Assyria at the time of 
 his prophecy. Assyria had been an enemy long enough, 
 and her cruel oppression had been burdensome enough, 
 to give a sufficient occasion for the threat of her 
 destruction that Nahum makes. 
 
 The conjecture that the first chapter of this book was 
 
 114 
 
Nahum 
 
 115 
 
 not written by Nahum, but belongs to the post-exilic 
 period, lacks certainty at least. Its thought is as 
 appropriate to the time of Nahum as to any later time. 
 Confidence in the hope of the overthrow of the enemies 
 of Judah did not originate late. The book may be 
 studied, so far as its teaching is concerned, as a unit. 
 
 Two centuries before the time of Nahum Assyria 
 was a mighty power in the east, and subdued in 
 repeated campaigns the countries lying to the west of 
 her own territory, including Israel in the days of Ahab 
 and Jehu. Then the power of Assyria declined, but 
 rose again (745) under the reign of Tiglath-pileser 
 III. This king overthrew Damascus, and made Judah 
 tributary. (732 B. C.) This was the first time that 
 there had been a direct contact between Assyria and 
 Judah, and except for a part of the reign of Hezekiah, 
 who sought independence of this foreign power, Judah 
 remained subject to Assyria till the dominance of the 
 latter ceased with the death of her great king Ashur- 
 banipal. (625 B. C.) 
 
 During this time of Assyria’s sway, and while she 
 was yet strong, Nahum tells of her fall. 
 
 2. The Theme 
 
 All of this prophecy is about the fall of Nineveh. 
 Nahum has no message of condemnation for Judah, 
 nor message of promise, except in the assurance of the 
 destruction of Judah’s enemy, which furnishes ground 
 for the one direct word of comfort, ch. 1 : 13, 15. 
 
 The prophecy has in its beginning a summary of 
 the teaching that belonged to the destruction that 
 God would bring upon Nineveh. The first chapter 
 
116 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 asserts the might of Jehovah against those who rise up 
 against him, declaring that he will cut them off forever. 
 In form the threat is terrific. 
 
 The description of the destruction of Nineveh is 
 exceedingly vivid. The language of this prophecy is 
 recognized as surpassing in sublimity and fire, in 
 intensity of force and picturesqueness. The reader 
 will gain much in ability to realize the meaning of the 
 prophet’s words by adopting the present tense instead 
 of the future throughout most of chs. 2 and 3. 
 
 The prediction of the fall of the Assyrians by Nahum 
 does not stand alone. Isaiah had declared that they 
 should be destroyed after God had used them to punish 
 his people. (Isa. 10 : 5-27.) Hosea and Amos fore¬ 
 told the captivity of Israel by Assyria, and predicted 
 the return of God’s people from exile, which would 
 imply the fall of the Assyrian power. 
 
 The reason for this destruction is given by Nahum. 
 It was not that Nineveh had been the seat of idolatry, 
 nor a cruel power destroying the nations merely. 
 Nineveh was condemned because of her hostility to 
 Jehovah. She had imagined evil against Jehovah, 
 1 : 11. This is the usual ground of condemnation of 
 the heathen found in the prophets. 
 
 3. The Course of Thought 
 
 Chapter 1 is a psalm setting forth the general 
 thought that Jehovah punishes his enemies, and is a 
 stronghold for those who put their trust in him. He 
 is so almighty that none should hope to withstand 
 him. They who think evil against him shall be like 
 thorns and stubble in the fire. The enemy had put 
 
Nahum 
 
 117 
 
 a yoke upon God’s people, but it should be broken, and 
 Judah shall resume her service to Jehovah in peace. 
 
 Ch. 2 gives the description of the siege of Nineveh 
 and the reason for it, ver. I, 2; the tumult inside of 
 the city, ver. 3-5; the fall of the city, ver. 6, 7; the 
 flight of her many inhabitants, ver. 8; the looting of 
 the city, ver. 9, 10; Nineveh, though she had torn her 
 prey like a lion, should perish, ver. 11-13. 
 
 In ch. 3, after pronouncing woe upon the city 
 because it was full of bloody plunder, ver. 1, the 
 prophet returns to a most graphic description of the 
 conflict, ver. 2, 3. Then the shame and degradation of 
 Nineveh is threatened because of her idolatrous power, 
 ver. 4-6. 
 
 She will have none to help her, and will be as 
 defenseless, and as surely destroyed, as the city of No 
 was in Egypt, ver. 7-10. The fortresses of Nineveh 
 will not protect, those hiding in them will be shaken 
 out as easily as figs from a tree; her men will be 
 weak, the enemy will enter, ver. 11-13. She may 
 prepare for the siege, ver. 14, but they will be de¬ 
 stroyed, ver. 15. Those in Nineveh may be as many 
 as swarms of locusts, they will be devoured as leaves 
 are devoured by locusts, ver. 15-17. 
 
 The leaders of Assyria lie scattered, sleeping in 
 death; the calamity upon the city is beyond remedy, 
 and all that hear of her fall will clap their hands for 
 joy, because they have all suffered from her, ver. 
 18, 19. 
 
XII 
 
 HABAKKUK 
 
 Parallel reading: 2 Kings 21 to 25; 2 Chronicles 33 
 to 36; Isaiah 10: 5-27. 
 
 1. Date and Historical Occasion 
 
 Habakkuk prophesied probably about 605 B. C. In 
 the former part of that century the reign of Manasseh 
 had been excessively wicked. Reforms had been insti¬ 
 tuted by Josiah, but the people were not turned back to 
 Jehovah in faithfulness. They continued in-sin. Idol¬ 
 atry was prevalent. After the death of Josiah (608), 
 the condition of Judah grew more hopeless. The king 
 Jehoiakim led his people into deeper wickedness. The 
 apostasy of the chosen people was more complete than 
 ever before. 
 
 The Assyrian power had come to an end practically 
 with the death of the great king Ashurbanipal. Nine¬ 
 veh, the Assyrian capital fell. (606.) The Babylon¬ 
 ians had been an important power in the east for cen¬ 
 turies. They had opposed the sway of the Assyrians, 
 and had been conquered by them many times during 
 the last period of Assyria’s greatness. (745-625.) 
 After they had destroyed Nineveh, the Babylonians 
 succeeded the Assyrians as masters of all Asia, includ¬ 
 ing Palestine. The Egyptian power was checked, and 
 their army driven back to their own l^nd. Judah, 
 118 
 
Habakkuk 
 
 119 
 
 subject to Egypt after Necho’s victory, now was to 
 become subject to Babylon. 
 
 Just before the advance of the Babylonians to grasp 
 dominion over Palestine, Habakkuk was troubled 
 because God did not punish his people for their wicked¬ 
 ness. He was perplexed because the sins of Judah 
 seemed a matter of indifference to Jehovah. His 
 prophecy contains this thought and the answer to it. 
 
 2. The Chief Thought 
 
 As already indicated, there is first the complaint of 
 the prophet that sin is allowed to go unpunished. God 
 answers him that the people shall be punished by the 
 Babylonians. The terribleness of this foe is described, 
 and the certainty of punishment by them asserted. 
 
 This threat gives the prophet further trouble. How 
 can it be that God will allow these heathen to triumph 
 over his people, since they are worse than the Jews. 
 It cannot be just that the more wicked shall be 
 victorious over the less wicked, and utterly destroy 
 them. 
 
 The answer to this is, the punishment will be with 
 discrimination. The just shall live by his faithfulness, 
 or faith, and the Babylonians themselves shall be 
 destroyed because of their wickedness. 
 
 All this part of the prophecy is given in the form of 
 a dialogue between the prophet and his God. Chapter 
 3 is a psalm of praise to Jehovah for all his wonderful 
 interventions on behalf of his people in the past, when 
 he had displayed his majesty and terrible power. The 
 mighty power of God makes even the prophet tremble, 
 but he closes his psalm with a declaration of the 
 
 i 
 
120 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 fact that whatever comes he has the utmost confidence 
 in God who is his strength! and Saviour. 
 
 The general truth of this prophecy, that God would 
 use the outside heathen to punish his people, and after¬ 
 wards destroy these heathen, is found also in the pas¬ 
 sage cited in Isaiah, ch. io : 5-27. The fact that the 
 heathen power was accomplishing the will of Jehovah 
 did not relieve them from the guilt that resulted from 
 an act that their own wickedness prompted them to 
 do. A distinction must be recognized between God’s 
 purpose in an act and the motive of the agent. (Cf. 
 Acts 2 : 23; 4 : 27, 28.) 
 
 3. The Course of Thought 
 
 The prophet asks how long he must continue to cry 
 to God about violence that he sees about him without 
 getting an answer. Everywhere wrong prevails, and 
 there is no judgment, 1 : 1-4. 
 
 God answers that he is about to work a wonderful 
 thing, till now incredible : he will raise up the cruel, 
 swift, dreadful Chaldeans, and they shall swoop down 
 upon Judah like an eagle, 1 : 5-11. 
 
 In view of this threat, the prophet appeals to the 
 justice of God. How can he see the wicked devour 
 those more righteous than himself ? He further recalls 
 the cruel progress of the Chaldeans as they plunder the 
 nations at will. He waits for God’s answer, 1 : 12 to 
 2 : 1. 
 
 The word that is returned to the prophet he is to 
 write upon tablets, that it might be clearly seen that 
 God had foretold the destruction when it should come 
 upon them, 2 : 2, 3. 
 
Habakkuk 
 
 121 
 
 The most significant truth of the prophecy is given 
 in 2 : 4 : The just would not be destroyed. Two read¬ 
 ings of this have been urged as correct: that of the 
 common version, “ the just shall live by his faith,” and 
 “ the just by his faithfulness shall live,” i. e., those who 
 remain faithful to God, and are thereby just, shall not 
 perish in the destruction by the wicked Chaldeans. 
 Paul uses the words in the former sense (Rom. 
 i : 17), the original Hebrew favors the latter. 
 
 Beginning with 2:5, there follows a description of 
 the devastation wrought by the Chaldeans, as they 
 conquered and plundered all nations. Successive woes 
 are pronounced upon them for their selfish wickedness, 
 with a threat that they themselves shall be destroyed. 
 Idols cannot deliver them, ver. 5-20. 
 
 The whole of ch. 3 is a psalm growing out of the 
 revelation which God had made to the prophet. 
 
 In ver. 2 there is the prayer that God would carry 
 on his work in his people, that he would show mercy, 
 and not wrath only. 
 
 Then from ver. 3 to ver. 15 there is a magnificent 
 description of God’s manifestation of his power on 
 behalf of his people during the past history of Israel 
 from the time that he brought them from Egypt. 
 There is something like this in the Sixty-eighth psalm. 
 
 This thought makes Habakkuk tremble, but he 
 expresses his supreme confidence in the midst of any 
 calamity that might come. His trust is in the God 
 whose might is terrifying to the wicked, but comfort¬ 
 ing to those who fear him. 
 
XII 
 
 ZEPHANIAH 
 
 Parallel reading: 2 Kings 22 to 25; 2 Chronicles 
 33 to 36. 
 
 1 . Date and Occasion 
 
 Zephaniah prophesied in the reign of Josiah, who 
 was on the throne of Judah from 639 to 608 B. C. 
 Manasseh, the grandfather of Josiah, ruled for fifty- 
 five years, and his reign was the most wicked of any 
 of Judah’s kings. He was taken captive to Babylon, 
 and after being held for a time was allowed to return 
 to his home. He humbled himself before Jehovah, but 
 it does not seem that he accomplished any considerable 
 reforms. At any rate his son Amon led the people in 
 the worst forms of idolatry. 
 
 Josiah was one of the best kings of Judah, and he 
 attempted to correct the evil practises of his people, 
 but the nation had become so sunken in sin, they had 
 so long rebelled against Jehovah, that the punishment, 
 long before threatened against them, could not be 
 averted by what goodness there was in Josiah’s reign. 
 Judah’s fall was not only sure, it was near. 
 
 The exact date of Zephaniah’s prophecy cannot be 
 determined. It was probably in the early part of 
 Josiah’s reign. Nineveh was not yet destroyed. It 
 would seem that the reforms of Josiah were not yet 
 122 
 
Zephaniali 
 
 C} 
 
 . till O 
 
 begun. The book of the law was not yet recovered 
 from the rubbish of the temple rooms. (2 Chron. 34 : 
 15.) This prophecy would thus come after that of 
 Nahum, and before that of Habakkuk. In purpose it 
 is not the same as either of these two, though it was 
 the outgrowth of the same general conditions. 
 
 2. The Chief Thought 
 
 The book of Zephaniah is brief, but it has been 
 described as a compendium of all prophecy. There are 
 in it threats of most severe punishment for sin, not 
 only upon the Jews, but upon all the nations ; and there 
 is the strongest assurance of the restoration of God’s 
 people, and of the favor of God to be shown to those 
 of other nations who shall serve him. 
 
 The thought of punishment is centered in the 
 declaration that God had prepared a sacrifice, meaning 
 here death for sin. It is the “ day of Jehovah,” a day 
 of darkness, as it was described in Joel 2 : 2, which 
 Zephaniah quotes. The punishment will fall upon 
 Judah, Jerusalem being made desolate. Any that 
 attempt to hide from the calamity will be searched out 
 with lanterns. None of the wicked will escape, though 
 the righteous may be hid from the anger. 
 
 But the threat includes the outside nations as well 
 as Judah. In this part of the prophecy a distinction 
 is made between the people of God and their enemies, 
 but there is little of promise to Judah in this threat 
 against the nations. Jerusalem is then severely con¬ 
 demned because in her intense wickedness she did not 
 heed the warning given in the punishment of the 
 heathen. 
 
124 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 But the prophecy is not all threat. There is also 
 bright promise. Even the nations shall be converted 
 to Jehovah as a result of their chastisement, and shall 
 serve him. But especially his chosen shall be restored 
 from all the nations whither they shall be scattered. 
 They shall enjoy to the full the blessing of God’s 
 presence, and they themselves shall be a holy people. 
 Zephaniah’s exhortation to Zion to rejoice is as earnest 
 and as full of gladness as any that we find in Isaiah. 
 
 It is thought by some that the calamity that the 
 prophet foretells as coming upon all the nations was 
 the invasion of the Scythians. This view is taken 
 mainly because these terrible hordes did sweep over 
 this part of the world about the time of the prophecy 
 of Zephaniah, and that he did not know of any other 
 power that could so punish. The prophet was not, 
 however, guessing, nor telling what any other could 
 have told as well, he was uttering what was revealed to 
 him by the Spirit of God. 
 
 3. The Divisions of the Book 
 
 The divisions of this prophecy are quite clear and 
 distinct from each other. They are as follows: 
 
 Ch. i consists of a threat of punishment that is to 
 come upon Judah. The whole land is to be utterly con¬ 
 sumed, all the inhabitants removed. 
 
 Ch. 2 : i to 3 : 7 contains a second division of the 
 prophecy. It begins with an exhortation to repent and 
 scape the wrath of God, which is to be manifested 
 gainst the wicked nations lying about Judah, whose 
 destruction would be a warning to God’s people that 
 they would incur the wrath of God themselves, since 
 
Zephaniah 
 
 125 
 
 they had sinned although so much light had been given 
 them, and they had been so favored of God. 
 
 Ch. 3 : 8-20. This division is in marked contrast 
 with the preceding. The main thought is the restora¬ 
 tion of God’s people. There is also the prediction that 
 the heathen nations will turn to Jehovah after they 
 have been punished. This, however, is barely touched 
 upon. Special emphasis is put upon the glorious con¬ 
 dition of God’s people as they are brought back from 
 their dispersion. Jehovah will dwell among them. 
 
 4. The Course of Thought in These Divisions 
 
 In ch. i the thought is not difficult to follow. The 
 threat is made that all the wicked are to be cut off from 
 the land of Palestine. The sins committed by the 
 people are named, and under the figure of a sacrifice 
 the death of the sinners is foretold. The destruction is 
 to be great, the goods of the people shall be carried 
 off, and their houses destroyed. Here again we have 
 the term “ day of Jehovah,” and the description of it 
 seems to be quoted from Joel. The wicked inhabitants 
 shall not buy themselves free by their gold. 
 
 The second division begins with an exhortation to 
 gather themselves that they may escape the awful judg¬ 
 ment of Jehovah. This is to include all the sinful 
 nations. Here the thought is something like that of 
 Amos. All sinners are to be punished. 
 
 Philistia is to be destroyed, and her land occupied 
 by the remnant of the house of Judah. 
 
 Moab shall suffer for her reproaching God’s people. 
 Cush shall perish. 
 
 A special threat is made against Assyria. Her 
 
126 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 capital, Nineveh, shall be a place for the flocks of the 
 nomads, and the wild birds shall lodge in her ruins. 
 
 In the first seven verses of ch. 3, which belong to 
 this second division, Jerusalem is specially rebuked for 
 her sinning when so favored by God. Her princes, 
 priests, and prophets have been leaders in the people’s 
 sin against Jehovah. Their chastisement had not 
 turned them back to their God. 
 
 The third division, ch. 3 : 8-20, contains the thought 
 of the restoration of God’s people. In the beginning, 
 however, there is the promise of the fact that the 
 heathen will call upon Jehovah. The thought is not 
 dwelt on. The prophet proceeds to the description of 
 the coming back of the scattered people from all 
 nations. The condition of the people when thus 
 restored is described as holy, they will be-faithful to 
 God. He will rejoice over them, and they shall be 
 safe from all harm. Instead of Israel being a reproach 
 among the nations, they shall be praised. 
 
XIV 
 
 HAGGAI 
 
 Parallel reading: Ezra i to 6; Zechariah i to 8. 
 
 1. Date and Historical Occasion 
 
 This prophet gives the precise date of the prophecies 
 that he delivered. Not only the time in general, but the 
 year and month, and even day of the month. He 
 prophesied in the second year of the reign of Darius, 
 king of Persia. (520 B. C.) 
 
 He is one of two prophets belonging to the period 
 after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile, 
 the post-exilic period. Cyrus had issued his decree per¬ 
 mitting the Jews who wished to do so to return to 
 their own land to build their temple. This was in 
 536. They began the work the next year (535), but 
 were hindered in it by their neighbors, so that the work 
 ceased altogether. But after Darius became king of 
 Persia, to which power the Jews were tributary, under 
 the influence of the prophets Haggai and Zechariah the 
 temple work was resumed, and was finished in the sixth 
 year of Darius. 
 
 The Jews who had come back to their land were not 
 numerous, and for the most part they belonged to the 
 cities and villages scattered throughout Judea. Their 
 original homes were not in Jerusalem. They were 
 poor. They were oppressed by their jealous neighbors. 
 
 127 
 
128 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 These conditions account for the fact that they at 
 length not only became discouraged about being able to 
 finish the temple, but became indifferent to the work. 
 They must have acquired some property, for they were 
 able to build houses for themselves, as Haggai says. 
 They did not regard their possessions sufficient to build 
 the temple, however. 
 
 It was at such a time, and under such conditions 
 that Haggai prophesied. The people were few; they 
 were oppressed and hindered by enemies; they were 
 poor; they had become discouraged, and they had 
 become indifferent. 
 
 The entire work of these two prophets was to meet 
 these conditions. 
 
 2. The Theme of the Prophecy 
 
 The purpose of the prophet was to arouse the people 
 to the obligation of building the temple, rebuking them 
 for their neglect, and assuring them of success. Evi¬ 
 dence of their sin is found in the fact that their crops 
 had failed as a punishment from God. The word of 
 the prophet came to them just after the time of the 
 harvest in the fall. It is probable that their recent 
 crops were poor. 
 
 They are assured that they will be blessed in all 
 their possessions if they will enter with zeal upon the 
 work for the Lord. They are also told that means to 
 finish the temple will be furnished by the nations 
 around them. 
 
 The prophecy is thus very definite and special. It 
 contains thoughts connected with the more general 
 truths taught by the former prophets. It does not 
 
Haggai 
 
 129 
 
 really add to those truths. The development of pro¬ 
 phetic thought had in reality reached its climax in the 
 prophecies of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. 
 
 3. The Different Messages of Haggai 
 
 The first message of the prophet was spoken espe¬ 
 cially to Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high 
 priest on the first day of September, 520 B. C. The 
 people are condemned because they think they cannot 
 build the house of God, that the time for that has not 
 yet come, though they can build fine houses for them¬ 
 selves. They are reminded that they have suffered in 
 their crops. There had been drought on the land. They 
 are urged to go to work on the temple. 
 
 The people were roused to the work on the twenty- 
 fourth day of the same month. 
 
 On the twentieth day of October the prophet gave 
 another message. This also was addressed to the two 
 leaders, though all the people were meant. They are 
 reminded that the prospects of the present building 
 are small compared with the old temple that had been 
 destroyed. But they are assured that the latter glory 
 of the house will be greater than the former, because 
 God will shake all the nations, and they will bring 
 their desirable things, which belong to Jehovah, to 
 make the house glorious. This special promise is to 
 be kept in mind in the study of Zechariah. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth day of December, in the win¬ 
 ter, the rainy season, perhaps when the work had begun 
 to slacken, the prophet speaks again. He cites a well- 
 known ceremonial law to the effect that anything 
 unclean defiles what it touches, in order to teach them 
 
130 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 that their own sin has been the cause of the calamities 
 that have come upon them, and that hitherto they have 
 not heeded the teaching of these calamities. They are 
 now assured that from this very day, when they go 
 to work on the temple, God will bless them. 
 
 On the same day the prophet also declared that the 
 enemies would be overthrown. 
 
XV 
 
 ZECHARIAH 
 
 Parallel reading: The same as for Haggai. 
 
 1. Composition of the Book 
 
 There are two very distinct parts of this book: chs. 
 i to 8, and chs. 9 to 14. The difference between the 
 two in style and character of contents is very marked. 
 Neither of these peculiarities would be sufficient, how¬ 
 ever, taken alone, to decide in favor of diverse author¬ 
 ship. The expression found in ch. 11 : 13 is quoted in 
 Matthew 27 : 9 as having been spoken by Jeremiah. 
 The text in Matthew is accepted as correct. These 
 words do not occur in the present book of Jeremiah. 
 It is remarkable that they are not ascribed to Zechariah, 
 if he was known to be the author of the part of this 
 prophecy in which they occur. Some believe that the 
 book as we have it is a unit; some, that the latter part 
 was by another prophet after the exile, and some, that 
 it belongs to the pre-exilic period. It may have be¬ 
 longed originally to the prophecies of Jeremiah, as 
 would be indicated by the quotation in Matthew, or it 
 may have been written by another Zechariah, other¬ 
 wise unknown. 
 
 Besides the great difference in style, the chief differ¬ 
 ence between the two parts of the book is in the setting 
 of the thought. Everything that indicates the condi- 
 
 131 
 
132 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 tion of the people is in accord with the conditions that 
 obtained before the exile, and the threats of dispersion 
 and the promises of restoration are just such as are 
 found in the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and 
 they are of such a character that they would be inap¬ 
 propriate in the days after the Jews had already 
 returned to their land when they had already suffered 
 the captivity threatened. 
 
 Without entering fully upon the evidences for the 
 different views already mentioned, in the study of the 
 book here it will be assumed that the second part was 
 not written by Zechariah, but belongs to the pre-exilic 
 times. 
 
 2. Date and Historical Occasion 
 
 The occasion of this prophet was practically the same 
 as that of Haggai, except that he prophesied later than 
 Haggai. He began his work two months after the 
 first message of Haggai, namely, in the eighth month 
 of Darius’s reign, received most of what we have in his 
 book in the eleventh month of the same year, and a 
 further message for the people in the fourth year of 
 Darius. (518 B. C.) 
 
 After the work had been resumed, as Haggai had 
 urged, the enemies of the Jews again attempted to pre¬ 
 vent them from building the temple. They demanded 
 to know the authority for the work, and when told that 
 it was granted by decree of Cyrus, these enemies sent 
 letters to Darius telling him what these Jews were 
 doing, intimating that damage would result to the king 
 if they continued, and suggested that search be made 
 to ascertain the truth of the claim of the Jews. 
 
Zechariah 
 
 133 
 
 The messages from the prophet were probably given 
 after this letter had been sent and before the answer 
 was received. The repeated encouragement that 
 Zechariah gives seems to belong to such a condition. 
 
 3. The Theme of the Prophecy 
 
 Confining our consideration to the first eight chap¬ 
 ters of the book, all the prophecies of Zechariah were 
 intended for the encouragement of the Jews in their 
 work of rebuilding the temple. Haggai had induced 
 them to begin this work. A few days before Zechariah 
 first prophesied, Haggai had assured his people that 
 Jehovah would so shake the nations that they would 
 bring of their wealth to make the temple glorious. 
 The first brief message of Zechariah was intended to 
 warn the people against following the example of their 
 fathers, who had refused to heed the words of the 
 prophets that had spoken to them. Then the visions 
 that Zechariah saw in the eleventh month were wholly 
 intended for encouragement. They seem especially to 
 have been meant to meet objections that would 
 naturally suggest themselves to the Jews, and that 
 would lead them to doubt their ability to complete the 
 temple building. 
 
 4. The Meaning of the Different Messages 
 
 As already indicated, the first prophecy was a warn¬ 
 ing to the Jews not to disobey the words of the 
 prophets now, as their fathers had disobeyed the words 
 spoken by the former prophets. It was true that the 
 fathers died and the prophets died, but their dying did 
 not annul the warning given them, the words of the 
 
134 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 prophets did not fail, and their threat came upon 
 the fathers before they did die. 
 
 The visions that follow seem to have been on the 
 one occasion. All of them belong to the night of the 
 twenty-fourth of February. They are in some respects 
 rather obscure, and have been thought difficult to 
 understand. They are, however, very interesting and 
 very important. Only the meaning of each in general 
 will here be attempted. 
 
 Four months before Haggai had promised that the 
 nations would be shaken, and their possessions be 
 brought to aid the Jews. In this first vision of Zech- 
 ariah, the horsemen report that the nations are not 
 disturbed, all are quiet. Then God is asked how long 
 before the promise will be fulfilled. The answer is 
 that Jehovah is displeased with the nations that are 
 at ease, he will show his jealousy for Jerusalem, the 
 house shall be built. More, not only shall Jerusalem 
 be built, but the cities of Judah shall also be built again 
 because of the prosperity that shall come upon the peo¬ 
 ple of God. 
 
 The visions of the horns, representing the powers 
 that scattered the Jews, and of the carpenters, or 
 smiths, that were to overpower the horns, are properly 
 one message. The enemies of the Jews were actively 
 hostile, but their hostility would not prevail. 
 
 The Jews who had returned were so few, and par¬ 
 ticularly those whose homes were in Jerusalem, that 
 there seemed small prospect of being able to accomplish 
 the work. The next vision, ch. 2, is to meet this objec¬ 
 tion, and to remove such ground of discouragement. 
 Not only shall there be inhabitants enough to fill Jerusa- 
 
Zechariah 
 
 135 
 
 lem, but they will overflow the city, so that walls can¬ 
 not contain them. Those who had not yet returned 
 from Babylonia are called to come home, with the 
 promise that those who had spoiled them should them¬ 
 selves be spoiled. But more even is promised; instead 
 of the people of God being few, many nations would 
 join them, and they would thus become a great host, 
 with Jehovah dwelling among them. 
 
 But the Jews had sinned, they had become defiled. 
 Would Jehovah be willing, in reality, so to favor them 
 that they could do this work of temple building? The 
 next vision is to meet this difficulty. (Ch. 3.) 
 
 The high priest, Joshua, here is representative of 
 the entire people. He stands clothed with garments 
 that are defiled, emblem of sin. But the garments are 
 removed, and holy garments are put upon him, show¬ 
 ing that God removes the iniquity. Special privileges 
 will be granted to them if they keep the charge given 
 them. Joshua and the other priests are declared to be 
 types of One who should come, called Branch. Later, 
 it is declared that he shall build the temple. The work 
 given Joshua to do is under the care of Jehovah, his 
 eyes are upon it, and he will adorn it in its complete¬ 
 ness. 
 
 The next vision, ch. 4, is to show that the real power 
 by which the work should be accomplished, was not 
 the wealth they might have, nor the ability of the 
 leaders or the people, but the Spirit of God. The lamp- 
 stand with its oil might not easily indicate this thought, 
 but the interpretation is given by the interpreting 
 angel. The essential thing was the oil for burning. 
 This was abundant, and its supply would be inex- 
 
 K 
 
136 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 haustible, as shown by the olive trees, all the time 
 growing the oil, and constantly pouring it forth. The 
 translation “ anointed ones ” in ver. 14, is not war¬ 
 ranted by the Hebrew, nor in accord with the context. 
 
 In ch. 5 the two visions, the flying roll and the ephah, 
 seem to be but parts of one, expressing the thought 
 of the removal of wickedness. Although the promise 
 had been given that God would show favor to the peo¬ 
 ple, would forgive their sins, and give them power for 
 their work, they were not to suppose that he was indif¬ 
 ferent to wickedness. The flying roll going through 
 the land showed that he would search out all sin, and 
 would punish it. Sinners were not to be left undis¬ 
 turbed in the holy land. The further assurance that 
 the land should be holy is indicated by the ephah in 
 which sin was to be placed, and which was to be car¬ 
 ried off to Shinar, which was thought of as the home 
 of wickedness, or the place the people were removed 
 to when they were exiled for their sins. 
 
 The last vision, ch. 6 : 1-8, presents again the pic¬ 
 ture of horses and of chariots. This was to teach the 
 oppressed Jews that their enemies, though now show¬ 
 ing opposition to them in their work, should be over¬ 
 come, and be punished by the power of Jehovah. The 
 chariots mean, at least, conflict and victory. 
 
 At another time, which is not definitely given, the 
 prophet was directed to take silver and gold of those 
 who had just arrived from the exiles, and make a 
 crown for the head of Joshua. By this act two offices 
 are represented as inhering in one person: that of priest 
 and that of king. Then the One whose name was 
 “ Branch” is again promised, and it is declared that 
 
Zechariah 
 
 137 
 
 he will build the temple. Since it had been promised 
 that Zerubbabel should himself finish this stone temple, 
 this further prediction can only refer to the spiritual 
 temple that the Messiah would build. When all these 
 predictions should be fulfilled, it would be known that 
 Zechariah was sent by Jehovah with these messages. 
 
 Two years later Zechariah delivered another mes¬ 
 sage. Some men came to the priest and prophets to ask 
 if they were to go on with the annual fasts, of which 
 there were four: one for the beginning of the siege of 
 Jerusalem; one for its capture; one commemorating its 
 burning, and one the death of the governor, Gedaliah. 
 It is not known how long these had been observed. 
 
 In the answer they are shown that the fasts were 
 due to their own sin. The calamities that they were 
 commemorating by these fasts came as punishments 
 because they did not heed the warnings of the former 
 prophets. It is to be observed that the words in 7 : 9, 
 10 are quoted from the former prophets. Then the 
 assurance is given that Jehovah has turned with favor 
 to the people, and with repeated emphasis it is declared 
 that blessings shall be bestowed upon God’s chosen 
 people. They are urged to be true, and are encouraged 
 to be strong. The fasts shall be changed to feasts. 
 
 5. The General Thought in the Rest of the Book, 
 Ch. 9 to 14 
 
 It is not difficult to see what the chief theme of 
 these chapters is, but it is difficult to determine the con¬ 
 nection of the thought in some places. The general 
 thought is the overthrow of the world powers, and the 
 establishing of the kingdom of God. 
 
138 
 
 Prophecy and the Prophets 
 
 It will be noticed by the reader that the different 
 aspects of this general theme are not presented in one 
 place only, but found in different passages. Some 
 phase of the whole subject is partly given in one con¬ 
 nection, then amplified in a later passage. 
 
 It will be an advantage to recognize at the outset 
 of an attempt to study this prophecy that there are 
 certain prominent ideas that govern the entire passage, 
 and that these are not placed in view of their chrono¬ 
 logical relations, as they were historically realized. 
 
 In general the succession of principal thoughts may 
 be stated as follows: 
 
 (1) Punishment shall come upon the heathen 
 powers, 9 : 1-7. 
 
 (2) But Jehovah’s King will come to Zion, ver. 
 8-10. 
 
 (3) Israel shall be redeemed from captivity, and 
 conquer her enemies, ver. ix-17. 
 
 (4) Because of sin punishment came upon God’s 
 people, but they should be redeemed, brought back 
 from their exile, and made strong in their land, ch. 10. 
 
 (5) The shepherds of Israel had failed in their 
 task, and were punished; God appoints another, whom 
 the people will not appreciate, but will spurn, so that 
 further evil shall come upon the people, ch. 11. 
 
 (6) The nations that come against Jerusalem shall 
 be destroyed, and the people of God shall be protected, 
 ch. 12 : 1-9. 
 
 (7) Israel shall lament its rejection of the Saviour, 
 ver. 10-14. 
 
 (8) Idolatry and false prophets shall be cut off 
 from the land, 13 : 1-6. 
 
Zechariah 
 
 139 
 
 (9) The Shepherd, Messiah, shall be smitten, the 
 people scattered, but gathered again, ver. 7-9. 
 
 (10) Jerusalem shall be attacked, but God’s people 
 delivered, 14 : 1-5. 
 
 (11) Jehovah shall rule in Zion, and there shall be 
 peace, ver. 6-1 r. 
 
 (12) The nations attacking Jerusalem shall be de¬ 
 feated, ver. 12-15. 
 
 (13) The remnant among the nations shall worship 
 Jehovah, ver. 16-19. 
 
 (14) All then shall be characterized by holiness, 
 
XVI 
 
 MALACHI 
 
 Parallel reading: Ezra 7-10; Nehemiah. 
 
 1 . Date and Occasion 
 
 While the time of this prophet is not given in the 
 book, it is quite certain that he belonged to about the 
 time of Nehemiah, probably after the reforms under¬ 
 taken by Nehemiah. Malachi condemns the faults 
 that Nehemiah sought to correct. As he is not men¬ 
 tioned in the book of Nehemiah, his work may have 
 been undertaken a short time after Nehemiah. The 
 Jews were taught by their captivity the evils of idol¬ 
 atry, and did not fall into that sin again after they 
 returned from exile, but they did become indifferent 
 to the commands of God that separated them from 
 the other peoples. They were in danger of losing sight 
 of the fact that they were a special people of God, hold¬ 
 ing a special relation to him, for a special purpose. 
 They had intermarried with the heathen when Malachi 
 was called to rebuke them for this sin. 
 
 The prophets before the exile had predicted, not 
 only the punishment that would come upon the people 
 by captivity, but also their restoration. They had 
 described the glory that should belong to God’s people 
 after they should be restored to their land. They had 
 declared that Israel should not only be free from the 
 140 
 
Malachi 
 
 141 
 
 power of other nations, but that they should rule over 
 the heathen and be served by them. God’s people were 
 to be prosperous, triumphant, glorified. 
 
 The Jews dwelling in Judea in the days of Malachi 
 had not seen the fulfilment of these promises. They 
 were a mere province of Persia, paying tribute to this 
 heathen power. They were not even independent, far 
 less predominant. They were despised and oppressed 
 by their neighbors, and they were poor. 
 
 The greater part of the Jews thus lost faith in the 
 promises of God, and reached the conclusion that there 
 was no advantage in serving God. Those who did 
 not serve him fared as well as those who did. 
 
 2. The Work of Malachi 
 
 This prophet had to rebuke the priests, the religious 
 leaders of the people, who by their actions were bring¬ 
 ing contempt upon all the religious services. They 
 ignored the distinction betwen things holy and things 
 unholy, and had become weary of the whole service of 
 Jehovah. 
 
 Malachi also had to rebuke those who had divorced 
 their Jewish wives in order to marry wives from the 
 heathen nations. He had to rebuke the people for their 
 sins against Jehovah, their oppression of the weak, 
 their failure to support the temple service, and their 
 ignoring the necessity of right living. 
 
 He assures the discouraged, the indifferent, and the 
 sinful that the Messenger of the covenant shall come, 
 but come for judgment, and the difference between the 
 righteous and the wicked will then be acknowledged by 
 those who had said there was no difference. 
 
142 
 
 Prophecy anchthe Prophets 
 
 3 . The Thought of the Chief Divisions of the Prophecy 
 
 Much of this prophecy is put in the form of a 
 dialogue between the people and God. Charges are 
 made against them, and they answer by asking for 
 the evidence of the sin. 
 
 (1) The evidence of God’s love for his people, 
 denied by the Jews, is given by the contrast between 
 God’s dealings with Esau and Jacob, although they 
 were brothers, and might be expected to be treated 
 alike, ch. i : 1-5. 
 
 (2) God has not been honored as a father by his 
 people; the priests have treated the altar with con¬ 
 tempt, offering diseased animals, ver. 6-14. 
 
 (3) The priests are to be punished in order that 
 God’s covenant with Levi might be confirmed. It 
 was intended that the priests should teach the people 
 the law, to keep them from sin. These priests had mis¬ 
 led the people through their interpretation of the law, 
 ch. 2 : 1-9. 
 
 (4) They were brothers, yet had acted treacher¬ 
 ously by putting away their Jewish wives, and marry¬ 
 ing heathen wives, ver. 10-16. 
 
 (5) They are saying God approves of evil, since he 
 does not come to judge the wicked, ver. 17. But the 
 prophet declares that God will come suddenly to judge, 
 and the wicked shall be punished, ch. 2 : 1-6. 
 
 (6) It is only God’s covenant faithfulness that has 
 saved Israel from destruction, for they have been sin¬ 
 ning from the first, and now they are robbing God in 
 withholding the support of his ministers, ver. 6-12. 
 
Malachi 
 
 143 
 
 (7) They say the wicked are blessed, and it does 
 not pay to serve God. But in the coming “ day of 
 Jehovah,” when the wicked shall be punished and 
 those who fear God be blessed, it will be seen that 
 there is a difference between serving God and sinning 
 against him, ch. 3 : 13 to 4 : 3. 
 
 (8) They are to remember the law given by Moses, 
 and to look for the “ day of Jehovah,” which shall be 
 preceded by the coming of the prophet Elijah to turn 
 the hearts of God’s people back to him. 
 
1 
 
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BS1505 A.T%3 
 Prophecy and the prophets, 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00012 4414