aDifotU CIntreS tirt "Book$ The Hebrew Prophets R. L, OTTLEV /^^K^"* BS 1505 .087 1898 "^ - Ottley, Robert L. 2£p The Hebrew prophets Qlkford Church Text Books General Editor, The Rev. LEIGHTON PULLAN, M.A., Fellow of St. John's College, and Lecturer in Theology at St. John's, Oriel, and Queen's Colleges, Oxford. A comprehensive Series of Cheap Scholarly Manuals dealing with the more important branches of Religious Knowledge. The Hebrew Prophets. The Rev. R. L. Ottley, M.A., Rector of Winterbourne Bassett ; formerly Principal of Pusey House, and Dean of Divinity of Magdalen College, Oxford. ^Published. Outlines of Old Testament Theology. The Rev. C. F. Burney, M.A., Lecturer in Hebrew at and Librarian of St. John's College, Oxford. [Published. Old Testament History. W. C. Roberts, B.A., St. Johns College, Oxford, Denyer and Johnson Scholar, 1898. An Introduction to the New Testament. The Rev. W. C. Allen, M.A., Fellow, Lecturer and Librarian of Exeter College, Oxford. The Text of the New Testament. The Rev. K. Lake, M.A., Lincoln College, Oxford. The Teaching of St. Paul. The Rev. E. W. M. O. DE LA Hey, M.A., Tutor of Keble College, Oxford. A Comparative History of Religions. The General Editor. Evidences of Christianity. The Rev. Lonsdale Ragg, M.A., Warden of the Bishop's Hostel, Lincoln, and Vice-Chan- cellor of Lincoln Cathedral. Early Christian Doctrine. The General Editor. {Published. Instructions in Christian Doctrine. The Rev. V. S. S. Coles, M.A., Balliol College, Principal of Pusey House, Oxford. London : Rivingtons, 34 King Street, Covent Garden, ix 99. I Oxford Church Text Books— Continued. The Apostles' Creed. The Rev. H. F. D. Mackay, M.A., Merton College, and Pusey House, Oxford. Mediaeval Church Missions. C. R. Beazley, M.A., Fellow of Merton College, Oxford. The Church, its Ministry and Authority. The Rev. Darwell Stone, M. A., Principal of the Missionary College, Dorchester. A History of the Church to 325. The Rev. H. N. Bate, M. A., Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. An Elementary Church History of Great Britain. The Rev. W. H. Button, B.D., Fellow, Tutor, Precentor and Librarian of St. John's College, Oxford. \Fubli5hed.. The Reformation on the Continent. The Rev. B. J. Kidd, B.D., Keble College, Oxford; Tutor of Non-Collegiate Students, Oxford. The Reformation in Great Britain. H. O. Wakeman, M.A., late Fellow of All Souls' College, Oxford, and the Rev. Leighton Pullan, M.A. A History of the Rites of the Church. The Rev. F. E. Brightman, M.A., Pusey House, Oxfotd. The History of the Book of Common Prayer. The Rev. J. H. Maude, M.A., Fellow, Dean and Lecturer of Hertford College, Oxford. {Published. The Articles of the Church of England. The Rev. B. J. Kidd. B.D., Keble College, Oxford. 2 vols. Vol. I. , A r tic Us I. - VIII. [Published. Vol. II., Articles IX. -XX XIX. {Published. This may also be had complete in One 'Volume, 2s. A Manual for Confirmation. The Rev. T. Field, M.A., Warden of Radley College. The Holy Communion. The Rev. B. W. Randolph, M.A. , Principal of Ely Theological College, and Hon. Canon of Ely. The Future State. The Rev. S. C. Gayford, M.A.. Vice-Principal of Cuddesdon Theological College. London : Rivingtons, 34 King Street, Covent Garden, €^^focti Cljucclj %m 2Book0 The Hebrew Prophets The Rev. R. L. OTTLEY, M.A. RECTOR OF WINTERBOURNE BASSETT, FORMERLY FRINCIPAL OF PUSEY HOUSE, OXFORD, AND BAMPTON LECTURER RIVINGTON& X/NG STREET, CO VENT GARDEN LONDON 1898 CONTENTS I. The Meaning, Origin, and Early History of Prophecy, ...... 1 II. The Prophets of the Eighth Century B.C., . 17 III. Prophecy in the Seventh Century B.C., . 44 lY. The Prophets of the Exile, ... 62 V. After the Exile, 78 VI. Later Post-Exilic Prophecy, ... 91 VII. The Messianic Hope 106 Chronological Table, ..... 119 Index, ........ 123 THE HEBREW PROPHETS CHAPTER I THE WEANING^ ORIGIN, AND EARLY HISTORY OF PROPHECY 'The Propliets' is tlie title g-iven by the Jews to one section of their sacred Scriptures. The first division is called the Law {Torah), and consists of the five books of the Pentateuch ; the second division is called the Prophets (Xebiiin), and consists of two portions, (!) the former Prophets {Nebhm Rishonini), i.e. four historical books which were apparently compiled, and partly written, under the guiding influence of men endued with the prophetic gift : Joshua, Judges, and the books of Samuel and Kings. 1 (2) The latter Prophets {Xvluim ' Acharonbn) are also reckoned as four books, i.e. three great prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and one book of minor prophets, sometimes called in Greek to boiheKairpo^rjTov. The third division of the Hebrew Scriptures, called the Writings {Ketliuhhini, Greek dyioypa^a), contains the remaining books of the Hebrew canon, some of Mhich are poetical, e.g. the Psalms, Job, Lamentations, and the Song of Solomon ; others historical, e.g. Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah ; one only being prophetic in character, viz. the book of Daniel. The former Prophets. — In this book we are only con- cerned with '^the prophets' and not with all of them, but only with the Matter ])rophets.' It is, however, impor- tant to bear in mind the fact that some of the historical books are classed as 'prophets.' This fact is a proof that the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings are not 1 The four books (1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings) formed in the Hebrew only two : the book of Samuel and the book of Kings. A 2 THE PROPHETIC WRITINGS mere annals or chronicles of Hebrew history. They contain history and something more. Tliey interpret the events wliich they describe, and constantly draw attention to the purposes which Almiglity God had in view through- out His dealings with the chosen people. The events recorded are selected and arranged in such a way as to illustrate the leading ideas of the prophetic writers, especially, perhaps, the thought of God's faithfulness to His covenant promises in spite of the oft-repeated rebel- lion and apostasy of His chosen people, the certainty and severity of His judgments, and the depth and constancy of His compassion. Collection of tbe Prophetic Writings. — \'arious writings of the prophets, former and latter, were probably compiled or collected together shortly after the close of the exile, and they gradually came to be regarded as authoritative scripture, worthy of a i)lace next to the sacred 'Law,' during the fifth century b. c. There is doubtless an element of truth in the tradition mentioned in 2 Mace. ii. 13, that Nehemiah founded a library and gathered together the hooks concerning the kings and the prophets and the (books) of David and the letters of the kings about sacred gifts. At any rate, we have good reason to believe, that in the days of Nehemiah's activity at Jerusalem {circ. 44.3-430), there arose a widespread desire to collect and preserve the sacred utterances of the Hebrew prophets ; but it is most probable that even if the work of collecting the prophetic writings began in Nehemiah's time, the process of selection, compilation, and revision was not completed before the middle of the fourth century b.c. Indeed, there are indications that the prophets were not finally ranked as canonical scripture till nearly the close of the third century b.c. The pi-ocess of formation was thus a prolonged one, leaving ample time for the discovery and incorporation in the book of the prophets of various scattered fragments of prophecy. Occasionally these fragments were inserted among the authentic writings of some ancient prophet. For example, the prophecies of the great writer who is usually called 'the second Isaiah' (Isa. xl.-lxvi.), and possibly passages due to other unknown hands, seem certainly to PROPHECY IN HEBREW RELIGION .} have been included among the authentic writings of Isaiali ; and tliere are strong reasons for supposing that otlier books, e.g. Micah and Zechariah, contain considerable portions which are not the work of their reputed authors, it is unlikely tliat any final collection of the prophetic writings took place until there arose among the Jews a consciousness that the gift of prophecy was withdrawn from Israel, and that it was important to collect all that tlie true spirit of prophecy had actually produced. The fact that the book of Daniel is not included among ' the prophets,' confirms the supposition that the compilation was virtually complete before the appearance of that book; the mention of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and 'the twelve prophets' in Ecclus. xlviii., xlix., seems to indicate that their writings were already well known in the form of a separate collection, about the year 180 b.c. It may be accordingly taken for granted that ' the prophets ' assumed their final shape, and were generally recognised as canonical scripture some time before the close of the third century b.c. The place of Prophecy in Israel's reLigion. — In this book we are concerned with the ' latter prophets,' and it will be well to begin by considering briefly, how large and important a part was played by prophecy in the gradual development and growth of Hebrew religion. The Bible describes most of the great servants of God, who were recipients of His promises, leaders of His people, founders of Israel's sacred institutions, or instruments of the divine will, as ' prophets. ' For instance, the patriarch Abraham is called a prophet (Gen. xx. 7) ; Moses is more than once so described (Deut. xxxiv. 10, Hos. xii. 13) ; so also are Samuel (1 Sam. iii. 20), David, the royal psalmist of Israel (Acts ii. 30), and others who left behind them no writings, such as Elijah and Elislia. Jehovah had indeed promised that His people should never be left destitute of the guidance of a prophet, who should declare to them the divine will (see Deut. xviii. 15, etc.). Israel's religion was, in fact, a religion of revelation. The Hebrews firmly believed in a personal God, who was willing to make Himself known to man in ways adapted to human capacity. Thus, throughout the Bible, we 4 THE MEANING OF 'PROPHET' read of God declaring His will to men by means of visions, dreams^ oracles^ angelic communications^ or the direct utterances of inspired prophets. The devout Hebrew felt himself called to a life of true friendship or intimacy with God. He desired to know more of the gracious being wlio had done such great things for his forefathers ; he eagerly awaited the declaration of God's will, and it seemed to him perfectly natural that God sliould have special instruments or messengers through whom His nature, His purjjoses, and His requirements of man were continuously revealed. The word Nabhi. — The Hebrews had two different names for a prophet, one of which is much more rarely employed than the other. In 1 Sam. ix. 9, we read that a more ancient title than j)rophet {Nabhi) was seer {Eo'eli or C'ho.zeh).^ It may be that the change of name implies a change in tlie functions of the prophet ; possibly it indicates a contrast between two different orders of men, or it may point to a difference of origin. The passage in 1 Sam. ix. , liowever, implies no more than that the word lio'eh was an early title which was afterwards superseded by the more familiar Nabhi. At any rate this latter word (plur. Nebnni) became the ordinary term employed to denote a prophet, and an inquiry into its meaning is essential if we are to get a true idea of wliat the Hebrews understood by prophecy. The Semitic root from which Nabhi is derived is found in the ancient language of Assyria and Babylonia, and also in Arabic. In the Assyrian dialect it has the simple meaning 'utter' or 'proclaim.' It appears in such divine or royal titles as Nebo or Nabii, Nebii-kadnesar, Nubo-polassar, etc. In Arabic, however, the root has a more clear and precise connotation ; it implies the utterance of a message which the speaker is commissioned to deliver. Nabhi thus appears to have originally meant 'a commissioned speaker'; one mIio utters a message which he is commanded to deliver on behalf of another. Thus in Exod. vii. 1, Aaron is described as the 'prophet' 1 Ro'eh, 1 Sara. ix. 11, 18, 19 ; 1 Chron. ix. 22 ; xxvi. 28, etc. ; Isa. xxx. 10. Chozeh, 2 Sam. xxiv. 11, frequently in Chronicles and sometimes in the prophets. THE PROPHET'S FUNCTION 5 of Moses because he speaks in tlie name and by the com- mission of Moses ; and in Jer. xv. 1!)^ Jebovali says to Jeremiah, Tlion sitiilt be us my mouth (cp. i. 9). The word 'prophet' then sis^nifies 'an accredited messenger ' of vVlmighty God, and accordingly tlie usual style of address in the older prophets is Thus saith Jehovah.^ The prophet's message is authoritative as being The word of Jehoruh to His people. His main function is to preach, to rebuke, to exhort, to proclaim Jehovah's will. In fact the title Xubhi did not suggest to a Hebrew mind the associations which we usually connect with the English word prophet. We are apt to think of prediction as the main element in a prophet's work. But this was by no means the Hebrew conception of the prophetic office. Xubhi means not so much one who foretells the future, as a forthteller : a proclaimer to men of a divine message. The Propliet's function. — Prediction was by no means the cliief ])art of a prophet's function. Even a superficial study of the writings of Isaiah or Micah will show us that the prophet was more of a j)reacher than a seer. He denounced the sins of his contemporaries ; he proclaimed the righteous judgments of God ; he rebuked in burning words the national sins by which Jehovah's name was dishonoured ; he made it his business to declare unto Jacob his trunscjression and to Israel his sin (Micah iii. 8). The godlessness of statesmen, the heartless luxury of the rich, the formalism and h}'pocrisy of the priests, the greed and deceitfulness of false prophets, — tliese formed the theme of his utterances. And tlie Hebrew prophets differed from the ordinary soothsayers of heathendom, not only in the fact that they were fully conscious of a divine mission when they uttered their oracles, but also because they were above all things preachers of righteousness. They did not busy themselves with the dark secrets of the future;^ they addressed themselves to the crying needs of the present. They laboured to turn sinners from their iniquity and to 1 Lit. (The) oracle of Jehovah. See Professor Cheyne on Isa. i. 24. - Consider Isa. viii. 19 ff. Cp. Deut. xviii. 10, 11. 6 ORIGINS OF PROPHECY bring tliem to repentance ; they strove to keep alive in men's hearts the light of the Lord (Isa. ii. 5), i.e. the fear of Jehovah and the true knowledge of His law. And they well knew that they were enabled for their liard and high task by the Spirit of Jehovah Himself, and that He who bade them speak was present with them to strengthen and protect them according to their need (Jer. i. 8, 19). Origins of Prophecy. — Such then was the Hebrew con- ception of a Nabhi, but we must not suppose that this sublime and simple idea of prophecy arose all at once. The prophetic gift as we see it fully manifested in holy men of God like Amos and Isaiah was a thing gradually developed from very lowly beginnings. An order of prophets was in fact an institution which Israel originally shared with the heathen inhabitants of Canaan and of the adjacent countries. The power of prophecy was closely connected with the tendency to a certain ecstatic religious fervour or excitement which is characteristic of the Semitic temperament^ and which may be witnessed at this day in the wild behaviour of an Eastern dervish, or in the frenzied enthusiasm of the pilgrims at holy Mecca. The gods of Plioenicia had their prophets, and we read in the Old Testament itself of the ' prophets ' of Baal — fanatical devotees who by wild dancing and music en- deavoured to attract the attention of their god or to win his favour, mutilating themselves with knives and lancets and leaping on the altar (1 Kings xviii. 28). In many respects akin to these Canaanitish Nebiim seem to have been the companies of prophets of whom we read in the first book of Samuel. It is very possible that the strain and pressure of Philistine domination excited a strong outburst of patriotic enthusiasm on behalf of Jehovah's land and religion, of which one result was the choice of Saul as Isi-ael's first king. Thus in 1 Sam. x. 5-13, xix. 23 ff., we read of Nebiim who seem to have lived to- gether in schools or companies. Probably they wore a coarse garment of skin as a special mark of their religious calling, and they may have depended for support on the charity of pious Israelites, like the begging friars of medifeval times. But they do not appear to have been SAMUEL 7 regarded with mucli reverence by the people in general. The prophet who was commissioned to anoint Jehu king, Mas contemptuously described as a ' mad fellow ' (2 Kings ix. 11), and men were astonished that a warrior like Saul should be found in the strange company of Nehihn (1 Sam. X. 11, xix. 24). Even in such great men as Elijah and Elisha, the prophetic gift seems to ha^e occasionally depended on certain physical conditions (1 Kings xviii. 46, 2 Kings iii. 15) ; but apparently these conditions accom- panied only the earlier stages in the history of prophecy. In its perfect form prophetic enthusiasm was no mere involuntary ecstasy, but a supernatural exaltation of spirit, of which the prophet was himself fully conscious. It is important to recognise, in the history of prophecy, the principle which pervades Israel's entire religious de velopment. Almighty God condescending, as it were, to use a defective and rudimentary institution — a rude native outgrowth of the Semitic character — as the basis or crude material out of which a high and sacred faculty was to be developed. The lo\vly elements which marked the be- ginnings of prophecy ultimately disappeared, and a comparison of its earliest with its latest stage aptly illustrates the profound maxim of St. Paul : Howbeit that was not first ivhich is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual (1 Cor. xv. 46). The work of Samuel. — The work of Samuel in con- nection with prophecy seems to have been of peculiar importance. In Acts iii. 24, he is mentioned as a prominent figure in the line of prophets, and indeed as having practically inaugurated a new epoch in Israel's religion. His chosen task — one for which his own religious training had specially ({ualified him — was that of regulating and organising the turbulent and boisterous element in the behaviour and character of the Nebiim in order to enlist the prophetic gift in the ser\ice of a higher and purer type of religion. The ' schools of the prophets' formed by Samuel were probably designed to be a means of cherishing the prophetic gift, and of thereby rekindling the religious life of the people which, during the wild and lawless period of the judges, had fallen into decay. Accordingly we find Samuel gathering 8 THE SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS together in schools or companies those Nehnm who had hitherto been in the habit of ti-aversing the land in wild and frenzied excitement, probably preaching a crusade against Philistine oppression, and endeavouring to enlist recruits on behalf of Israel's religion and territory. The Scliools of tlie Prophets. — We know very little of the schools of the prophets. It is probable that many of the Nebiim took the Nazirite vow, and led an ascetic life. Very possibly the art of music was cultivated among them, and they may even have formed a school of sacred literature in which the ancient traditions of Israel's past history were committed to writing, and fragments of early poetry and annals were collected. It is certain at any rate that henceforth the schools of the prophets occupied a recognised and important place among the religious institutions of Israel. Wq hear of them again in connection with the reign of Ahab, which, in con- sequence of the king's marriage with Jezebel, the daughter of the heathen king of Sidon, was a period of special peril to the interests of the true religion. Pre- eminent among the prophets of Ahab's time is of course the majestic figure of Elijah, whose life was devoted to the maintenance of Jehovah's religion against the worship of Baal. Elijah is in a sense the first of the prophets, and his career illustrates the immense influence of personality in the religious history of the Hebrews. Samuel's careful organisation of the Nebiim had doubtless effected much both for the political and religious interests of Israel. The Nebihn had doubtless inspired to a great extent the national movement which led to the foundation of the monarchy. As religious teachers they had pro- bably come to occupy a place alongside of the priests, and already, as it seems, they were recognised as a religious order, ' sons of the prophets,' devoted to the Mork of inculcating and fostering the great religious truths which Israel held in trust for mankind. But the influence of the Nebiim was after all unequal to that of a single powerful leader like Elijah. They were faithful disciples and obedient instruments of greater men than themselves — men who acted on the life and thought of their age by the sheer force of inspired personality. THE PROPHETS AND THE NATION 9 The Prophets and the Nation. — Elijah is tlie foremost of those great leaders of reliiriou whom we call par excellence the Hebrew prophets. He 'introduced into pi'o- phecy,' it has been said, ' that species of categorical imperative which distinguishes him as well as the later prophets ; that brazen inflexibility, that diamond-like hardness of character, which l)ids tliem hold fast by their moi-al demand even should the nation be dashed in pieces against it.'^ Moreover, the active life of Elijah illustrates the extent to which the prophets made their influence felt in the nation's public life. They exercised their ministry in close relation to the political circumstances of their time. They have been truly called ' watchmen of the theocracy,' since they habitually followed with close interest the course of events, whether political or religious, and regarded it as their duty to intervene in public affairs from time to time in order to bring to the remembrance of their countrymen those fundamental religious truths on which the theocratic state was l)ased, viz., that Jehovah alone was Israel's God, that Israel was His chosen people, and that His supreme requirement was the observance by the nation of the revealed law of righteousness. Thus they aimed at keeping Israel faithful to Jehovah, as He had manifested Himself at Sinai — as a God who delighted in pure worship, in righteous dealing, aiul in fraternal charity between man and man. The Prophets and the Kings. — In an oriental state the influence and example of the ruler must always be of paramount importance. Consequently the prophets made it their special business to control and judge the conduct of the reigning monarch. Their reputation and position in the State might indeed vary from time to time in accordance with the character or caprices of a particular king. In the reign of David the office of propliet was exercised harmoniously with that of the monarch, since David himself had apparently from the first set before himself the true theocratic conce])tion of kingship (cp. 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-7), and had himself before he came to 1 Kittel, Historu of the Hebrews, vol. ii. p. 2G6. 10 THE PROPHETS AND THE NATION the throne had close connections with the Nehihn (1 Sam. xix. 18). Prophets were hekl in honour by upright monarchs like Hezekiah and Josiah, but sooner or later their fearless denunciations of vice could scarcely fail to bring them into collision with royal self-will, or popular prejudice and fanaticism. Thus, one and all, they were called, each in greater or less degree, to suffer for their faith, for their boldness in rebuking sin, or for their devotion to the service of Jehovah. Which of the prophets, says St. Stephen, have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One (Acts vii. 52, cp. Luke xi. 47, Matt, xxiii. 80). They suffered indeed not merely as public witnesses for God, but also as godly men who fulfilled their mission by their lives as well as by their preaching. For as ' men of God,' ' servants of Jehovah,' the prophets felt themselves called to a life of special intimacy with Jehovah. Indeed, the title ' servant of Jehovah ' was in an ideal sense applicable to Israel as a people ; but it also expressed the true vocation of each individual Israelite, since the fulfilment of Jehovah's purpose demanded a dispensation in which all should be prophets and all should know Jehovah, from the least even to the greatest. Would God, cried Moses, when Joshua envied for his sake, that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them (Num. xi. 29). The prophets, meanwhile, actually realised in their own persons the vocation which ideally belonged to Israel as a whole. AFhether Me think of the holiness of their own lives, of the close- ness of their intimacy m ith God, or of the sorrows they were called to endure, we shall see that they typically represented the calling and function of the righteous nation (Isa. xxvi. 2) viewed in its entirety. The Prophets and the Priests. — There was another class of persons with whom we find the prophets in frequent antagonism, viz., the priests of the various shrines at which the service of Jehovah was carried on. According to the intention of the earliest law-giver, the priests were to be the permanent religious teachers of the nation. They were to instruct the people on points of religious I'HE I'KOPHETS AND THE PRIESTHOOD 11 and moral duty, and in special cases of difficulty tliey Avere to impart Torah, i.e. oral instruction, wliich gradually assumed tiie shape of customary law and was ultimately embodied in a written code. But while the priests were jjermanent teachers of Torah, and ministers through ' wliom the covenant people exercised its privilege of drawing near to Jehovah, the prophets were the occa- sional messengers through whom God drew near to His people and communicated to them His will. Generally speaking, the priests were ready to submit themselves to the prophets as extraordinary and direct agents of Jehovah ; but naturally the tendencii of the priesthood was to exaggerate the importance of their own functions, to make much of minor points of sacrificial ritual, or formal laws of ceremonial purity, and so in careful observance of details to lose sight of great moral and spiritual principles. The prophets, on the other hand, were chiefly concerned with the preaching of the moral ^ law ; and in placing morality on a higher level than ritual they undoubtedly continued and developed the original teaching of Moses himself. In the most ancient legislation (the Decalogue and the so-called ' Book of the Covenant'), the claims of mercy, justice, and good faith had occupied the most prominent place, and on these the prophets were continually insisting. They often speak in a depreciatory style of sacrifice, though they do not by any means reject it. What they insist upon is that punctiliousness in sacrifice is no equivalent for civil and social well-doing. They abhor the formal profession of religion when divorced from righteous conduct; they cannot tolerate the substitution of sacrifice, however costly and elaborate, for the fulfilmentof ordinary moral duties. On the whole, the attitude of the prophets towards sacrifice is negative. They content themselves with condemning such elements in the popular citltus as are insulting or dishonouring to Jehovah, e.g. the use of images, or riotous excess in the sacrificial feasts ; and they invariably exalt the fulfilment of moral duty above the external practices of religion. Their teaching may be illustrated by such tvpical passages as 1 Sam. xv. 22; Isa. i. 11-1"; Amos v. 21, 22 ; Micah vi. 7 ; Jer. vi. 20, vii. 21-2.3. 12 ELIJAH AND ELISHA We have already noticed the close relation in which prophecy stands to the general history of Israel. During the earlier period of the monarchy;, however, prophecy took the form of an occasional rebuke fearlessly admin- istered by individual men of God to unrighteous rulers. Thus, Samuel had rebuked Saul ; Nathan and Gad had reproved David ; and Elijah had denounced the crimes of Ahab. But with the appearance of the last-mentioned prophet a new epoch begins. Before the accession of Ahab, Israel had come into collision with the neigh- bouring kingdom of Syria, and had thus been drawn, as it were, on to the broad stage of secular history. It was a moment when Israel was in danger of utterly for- getting its peculiar calling. The weak indulgence with which Ahab treated his idolatrous queen did not indeed go to the length of formally extirpating the religion of Jehovah. "NV^e hear of about four hundred prophets of Jehovah. But Ahab, like Solomon, allowed his wife to introduce the worship of the Tyrian Baal, and to erect a sanctuary in his honour. There was acute danger of national apostasy from tlie religion of Jehovah. This is the point of Elijah's (question, How long halt yc between two opinions? (1 Kings xviii. 21). In the worship of Baal the prophet discerned not so much a proof of the royal tolerance, as an act of disloyalty to the national Deity. Israel could not fulfil its true destiny so long as it wavered in its allegiance to Jehovah. Thus, in his denunciation of Ahab's personal crimes, Elijah was acting as the champion of religion itself. Elisha, the disciple and successor of Elijah, was, like his master, a man of special spiritual gifts, and exercised a scarcely less powerful influence on his contemporaries, as is sufficiently proved by the multitude of miracles ascribed to him. Most significant, however, is the very decided part played by Elisha in the revolution which led to the downfall of Ahal)'s dynasty and raised Jehu to the throne of Israel. In his conduct at this crisis Elisha was resolutely carrying out the religious policy of his pi'edecessor Elijah, whose constant aim liad been the total extirpation of Baal-worship. The career of the two great prophets just mentioned THE TASK OF THE PROPHETS 13 illustrates very clearly the functions of a Hebrew prophet. As we have seen, a proi)het was a man guided and inspired by Ciod, and acting under commission from Him ; a man who looked at contemporary liistory in the light of those great religious ideas wliicli Moses had transmitted ; a watchman who kept his eyes open for the signs of the times and who warned his countrymen of the impend- ing judgments of God ; an 'incarnate conscience' who perceived and presented in its true light all that was unjust or corrupt in the ordinary life and social arrange- ments of his time ; who recognised in history, and specially in the disasters which befell his nation, the warnings and chastisements of Almighty God. Nor can we justly estimate tlie influence of the Hebrew prophets luiless Ave bear in mind the relation in \vhich they stood to the nation as a whole. The truths which they preached stood in striking contrast with the popular religion. They were successively raised up by the Holy Spirit not as representatives of the beliefs and practices of average Hebrew religion, l)ut as champions who never ceased to struggle against the down-grade tendencies, customs, and beliefs of their countrymen. Their preaching could not fail to be unpalatal)le to the mass of the people, for the simple reason that the God whom the prophets pro- claimed Mas quite other than He was popularly supposed to be. This will become more apparent as we proceed. Meanwhile it is enough to remember that the progress of Isi'ael's religion absolutely depended upon the subAcrsion of false conceptions of Jeliovah's character and require- ments — a result which could only be achieved by an in- cessant and arduous struggle on the part of the prophets to introduce a more spiritual doctrine of God. Different epoclis in Hebrew Prophecy. — The Hebrew prophets fall into at least four clearly defined groups. 760-700 B.C. — 1. First there are the prophets belonging to the period which preceded the invasion of Judah by Sennacherib's army towards the close of the reign of Hezekiah (702 b. c); during the last sixty years of the eighth century appeared Amos and Hosea in the northern kingdom (cin: 760-722), and Isaiah and Micah in the kingdom of Judah (between 7^0-700). 14 HISTORICAL SUCCESSION OF PROPHETS 640-600.— 2. During tlie reigii of Manasseh (686-641) the voice of prophecy was suppressed thougli not alto- getlier silenced. The next great group of prophets belongs to the half century preceding the exile. 1 o tliis group belongs Nahum, the prophet of Nineveh's decline and fall, an event which took place in 607 b. c, and which led to a collision between the two great monarchies of Babylon and Egypt, both of which aimed at acquiring the western territories of the fallen empire. Zephaniah was probably the contemporary of Jeremiah, whose ministry began about the year 627. To these must be added Hatoakkuk, who apparently wrote during the first years of Jehoiakim's disastrous reign. 592-538. — 3. During the exile in Babylon appeared two prophets of great importance. Ezekiel, who was one of the captives carried away to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar in 597, exercised his prophetic ministry between the years .592-570, a period of incalculable importance in the spiritual history of Israel. Towards the close of the seventy years of exile, apparently at a time when Cyrus had already entered on his victorious career and was threatening Babylon, the prophet usually known as 'the second Isaiah ' was raised up to be the comforter of his people. The last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah, or most of them at any rate, may be confidently assigned to the years between 546 and 5.38. They were most probably written in Babylonia. 520-435. — 4. Lastly, there are the post-exilic prophets, Haggai and Zeehariah, the energetic supporters of Zerubbabel in the task of rebuilding the temple. The date of their public ministry can be precisely fixed in the year 520 when the work which had been intermitted for sixteen years was recommenced. At an interval of nearly a century may have appeared Malachi, whose period of activity is most reasonably placed between the first and second visit of Nehemiah to Jerusalem, about the year 435. So far the facts are tolerably certain, and the arrange- ment of the minor prophets especially is on the whole chronological. But there are weighty reasons for supposing that four prophets at least have had a place ORDER OF THE PROPHETICAL BOOKS 1.5 in the collection assigned to them on somewhat different principles. The book of Joel may he placed where it is because of some internal points of connection with the book of Amos (cp. Joel iii. 1(5 with Amos i. 2). On similar grounds the book of Obadiah linds a place next to that of Amos (cp. Amos ix. 12 with Obad. 19), wliile the narra- tive of Jonah follows the prophecy of Obadiah, which declares that grQjlli£ts, are to. be regarded as products of p ost-exi lic Jthiaism, and tTTey may be referred provisionally tiT the period between Neheniiah and the death of Alexander. There remains one book which is not included among ' the prophets ' — the book of Daniel. There is a general agreement among modern critics that this book belongs to the period of the Maccabaean struggle (16.5- IG-i b.c); its internal characteristics are widely different from those of pro- phecy in the strict sense, and the book ought to be regarded as a speqimen, perhaps the earliest extant, of an apocalyptic writing. This was a type of literature 16 APOCALYPTIC WRITINGS the ajjpearance of which practically marks the close of Hebrew prophecy.^ 1 Prof. G. A. Smith describes the apocalyptic literature of Israel as 'visions of another world that are too evidently the refuges of her despair in this' (Hist. Geog. of the Hohj Land, p. 35). Some account of the apocalyptic literature is to be found in Drummond's Jewish 3Icssiah, and in the new Dictionarij of the Bible (T. & T. Clark), s. v. 'Apocalyptic literature.' See also the references in Driver, Introduction to the liteTature of the Old Testament, p. 513 (ed. vi.). CHAPTER II THE PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY B.C. EflFects of the War with Syria. — Towards the close of the ninth century (circ. 815 b. c. ), the nortliern kingdom was harassed by a wearisome and disastrous struggle with the neighbouring kingdom of Syria. In this conflict it suffered severely ; the territory east of Jordan, and even some cities on the western side of the river, fell into the hands of the Syrians, and so defenceless was the position of Samaria that her territory lay exposed not only to the invasions of the Syrians, but to the ravages of marauding l)ands of Moabites (2 Kings x. 32 tf. , xiii. 3, 20). ' This condition of things, however, was changed on the accession of Joash, the grandson of Jehu and successor of Jehoahaz. We are told that he recovered the cities which his father had lost (2 Kings xiii. 25). But the deliverance of Israel was really due, not so much to the prowess or good-fortune of Joash, as to the intervention of the Assyrian power, which had already begun to ad- vance in a westward direction, and now threatened Syria. The power and prestige of Syria was soon diminished, if not altogether broken ; and the respite thus gained en- abled Israel to recover its strengtli. In the reign of Jeroboam ii., the last king of Jehu's dynasty (781-741), the northern kingdom reached a culminating point of ' material prosperity. Jeroboam not only recovered the lost territory of Israel on the east of Jordan, but even succeeded in capturing Damascus itself (2 Kings xiv. 25, 28). Israel had now regained the position which it had 1 On the exposed and weak position of Samaria, see Prof. G. A. Smith's Historical Geography of the Holy Land, ch. xvi. 18 ISRAEL AND JUDAH enjoyed for a brief space after the conquests of David. It was the mistress of a territory extending from the Nile to the Euphrates. Simultaneously the southern kingdom, under Uzziali (777-736), had enjoyed a period of tranquil development, which recalled to men's minds the splendid reign of Solomon. The two kingdoms together had in fact reached the zenith of their fortunes. The standard of comfort ' and luxui-y was high ; the capital cities of Samaria and Jerusalem were adorned with splendid and substantial buildings ; the military strength of both kingdoms was great ; riches had accumulated in abundance. The ces- sation of hostilities with Syria had, in fact, led to a large increase in the wealth and resources of both peoples. Such was the condition of things during the middle period {circ. 780-740) of the eighth century. Moral and social condition of Israel. — But all this material splendour and prosperity had brought grave evils in its train. In the northern kingdom the condi- tion of things was fast verging towards a perilous crisis. "While the kingdom of Judah enjoyed some of the ad- vantages which result from a comparatively secluded position, and a relative purity of worship, Samaria lay open to influences which contributed to her decay. ' Samaria,' says Prof. G. A. Smith, ' fair and facile, lavished her favours on foreigners, and was oftener the temptation than the discipline, the betrayer than the guardian, of her own. The surrounding paganism poured into her ample life. . . . From Amos to Isaiah the sins she is charged with are those of a civilisation that has ' been ripe and is rotten — drunkenness, clumsy art, servile imitation of foreigners, thoughtlessness and cruelty. For these she falls, and her summer beauty is covered by the mud of a great deluge. . . . Poor province, she grew ripe and was ravished before the real summer of her people.' ^ After the Syrian campaign it was evident that the ruin of the kingdom was not far distant. The simplicity of pastoral and agricultural life had vanished, and had given way before the usual social and 1 Prof. G. A. Smith, I.e. Cp. Isa. xxviii. 1 ff. IN THE EIGHTH CENTURY 19 economic effects of long-continued warfare. The small landliolders had heen utterly impoverished and Mere fast sinking into abject distress and even slavery. The rich accumulated large tracts of land in their own hands (Isa. V. 8), while the reckless extraxagance of the court and aristocracy exhausted tlie national resources. On the other hand, the mercantile spirit had received a great impetus from the recent wars. The sins of a growing and insolent middle class began to make their appearance, especially gross dishonesty in trade and harshness in the exaction of debts. The gulf between class and class became daily wider and more menacing, while the social miseries of the time were embittered by the inveterate curse of Oriental life, viz. venality and corruption in the administration of justice. Thus, the oppressed classes were left without hope and without redress. Condition of relig-ion. — A circumstance which greatly aggravated the social evils of the time was the outwardly flourishing condition of religion. The calf-worship which had been introduced by Jeroboam i., after the separation of the two kingdoms, does not seem indeed to have been an innovation, but it had permanently degraded the character of religious worship in Samaria. Thanks to the exertions of Elijah, during the reign of Ahab, the cnlttis of Baal liad been practically suppressed, but the worship of Jehovah under the form of a bull at local sanctuaries like Dan and Bethel, still flourished. Religi- ous worship was at once pleasant and fashionable. There were stated sacrificeB to Jeho\ah, and religious festivals in abundance : the sanctuary of Bethel, where the court was located, was thus thronged from time to time by crowds of worshippers, who regarded the sacred feasts as a legitimate occasion for self-satisfied enjoyment and tumultuous revelry (cp. Amos vi. ]-7, Isa. xxviii. 8). The Hebrew temperament was naturally prone to sensual indulgence, and the excesses committed in the name of religion betrayed the influence of the Canaanitish heathenism which had to a great extent infected the worshippers of Jehovah. The growth of national prosperity which followed the close of the Syrian wars was popularly regarded as a 20 AMOS comfortable token of Jehovah's favour. There was a widely-diffused notion that under no circumstances would Jehovah fail to befriend the people of His special choice. Israel was the favourite of God, and His interests, it was confidently assumed, were entirely bound up with those of His people. Enough, and more than enough, was being done to secure the divine regard by a richly ap- pointed and well-maintained cultus. Consequently any prophetic utterance which threatened Israel with disaster was regarded as blasphemy against Jehovah Himself. Jehovah must necessarily side with Israel against its foes. To dispute this was to question the very existence of the covenant-relationship established at the exodus. Accordingly, a favourite watchword of tlie time seems to have been The Day of Jehovah (Amos v. 18 ff.), a phrase which embodied the general expectation of some over- whelming and triumphant display of Jehovah's favour, manifested for instance in the overthrow of Israel's enemies. Failing utterly to recognise the essential char- acter and moral requirement of Jehovah, the people persistently claimed to be special objects of His protec- tion and regard. 'Jehovah, God of hosts, is with us, they declared. Us only does Jehovah know of all the families of the earth. Jehovah will surely take our part and de- fend us from invasion or disaster' (Amos v. 14, iii. 2). Amos, B.C. 760. — Such was the state of things which prevailed when, about the year 7f)0, Amos, a simple herds- man, from the little town of Tekoa in South Judah, suddenly appeared at Bethel, proclaiining to the northern kingdom a message of impending ruin. It may have been in the midst of some religious festival that the un- known stranger suddenly raised the note of alarm. Amos was not one of the professional Nebiim, at any rate by birth or training (vii. 14) ; he was a shepherd and a dresser of sycamore trees ; perhaps he was the owner of a small farm, or employed on the estate of some wealthy land- holder. In response to a divine call (vii. 15) he had journeyed to Bethel, and there, at the chief sanctuary of tlie northern kingdom, he uttered his warning (v. 1, 2). He foretold the downfall of the royal house, the destruction of the national sanctuaries, and the captivity THE PROPHECY OF AMOS :^1 of the people. His preaching was received with dismay and indignation, as equally treasonable and blasphemous ; for any menace addressed to Jeliovah's chosen people was ])opularly supposed to imply disparagement of the national liod. In Amos iii. 2, we have an utterance which nnist > have exactly traversed the general expectation. You only hare I knoirn of all tlicjaniilics of the earth. Therefore — not, / ici/l take yoiir part ayauhst your enemies — but, / will punish you for your iniquities. The appearance of Amos may be regarded as a turning- point in the history of Israel's religion. Like St. John the Baptist in a later age, the prophet was sent to be a preacher of repentance. He had been nurtured in the neighbourhood of the Milderness of Judsea, that stern and gloomy region near the Dead Sea, which seemed to bear visible tokens of Jeho^'ah's righteous indignation against sin.^ To him, as to the Baptist, the word of God came in solitude. Go prophesy unto my people Israel (vii. 15). The constraining call Mas one that he dared not disobey. The lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord Jehovah hath spoken, irho can but prophesy? (iii. V>). And in his book we have the substance, if not the exact form, of the discourses he delivered by word of mouth at Bethel. Its excellence, from a literary point of view, consists in the fact that it ' preserves all the effects of panted and dramatic delivery, with that breath of lyrical fervour which lends a special charm to the highest Hebrew oratory. ' - The book of Amos falls into three well-marked sections : — (fl) In the first (i., ii.), the ])rophet proclaims the judgment of God on the nations surrounding Israel for wilful breaches of the elementary and unwritten laws of natural humanity and good faith. The heathen peoples — Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Amnion, and Moab — are judged according to the degree of moral light which each enjoys (cp. Rom. ii. 14, 15). Last of all, Judali and Israel are threatened, as together constituting a single 1 Cp. Prof. G. A. Smith, op. cit. p. 315. 2 Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel (ed. 1), p. 126. 22 THE BOOK OF AMOS nation wliicli had been specially favoured, but had hope- lessly fallen short of the standard of righteousness divinely revealed to it. The ingratitude df God's chosen people had aggravated its sin, and would provoke a cor- responding severity of chastisement (see especially ch. ii. 9ff.). (b) The second part (iii.-vi.) consists of a series of addresses relating to the sins and imminent punishment of the northern kingdom. It is noteworthy that the crimes denounced are mostly breaches of the moral law contained in Israel's earliest legislation (Exod. xx.-xxiii. ) : sins against tlie laws of social righteousness and natural humanity — oppression of the poor, commercial dis- honesty, brutish luxury and sensuality, and an idolatrous worship of Jehovah, which ignored both His spiritual nature and His ethical retjuirements. (c) The third part of the book (vii.-ix. 10) describes a series of five visions of judgment, setting forth the great religious truth of God's government in history. Each vision is followed by a short comment, bringing out more forcil)ly the lesson which Amos desired to impress upon his liearers. The general teaching of this section is that in His dealings with the different nations of the world, and especially with the chosen people, Jehovah has been guided by the rule of His own righte- ousness. The judgment upon the sinful kingdom (ix. 8) could now no longer be averted : it must have its course. While, however, Amos thus symbolically predicts the coming ruin of the nation as a wliole, he makes an earnest appeal to its few righteous members. Their safety shall lie in 'seeking' Jehovah. They are to seek Him" in His own appointed way, by righteous dealing and just judgment (v. G, 14-15). Ch. ix. 11-15 forms a kind of epilogue, drawing a Messianic picture of the restoration of David's house. ^ The ancient promise to David (see 2 Sam. vii. 12 ff. ; Pss. Ixxxix. and cxxxii.) 1 The ijassage ix. 8-15 is by many critics regarded as a later addition to the book. See this point discussed in Dr. Driver's Joel a)id Amos (Cambridge Bible for Schools), pp. 119 ff. A similar hopeful epilogue seems to have been added to the book of Zephaniah (iii. 14-20) during or after the exile. THE TEACHING OF AMOS 23 lives in the prophet's memory^ and coloui-s his vision of the future. . Teaching of Amos. — What is the chief point of nn- portance in the teaching of Amos ? It is his insistence on the necessity of a true conception of Jehovah and ' His requirements. Jehovah is tlie God of the universe, because He is a spiritual being whose will for man is the fulhlment of the law of righteousness. ^ The idea that ^ Jehovah was something more than Israel's national God was new to the average Israelite of Amos's day. The ancient Hebrew was not in a strict sense monotheistic. He regarded the gods of the heathen as really existent beings, who in their own territory were scarcely less potent than Jehovah in His. It was only by slow degrees that Israel learned, first, that Jehovah was an incomparably more powerful God than those of Israel's heathen neighbours, and iinally that He was the Creator and moral Ruler of the entire universe. Amos proclaims that because God is essentially righteous. He is and must be the only (Joel. His kingdom extends wherever the law of righteousness is recognised, however imperfectly, by the human conscience. Judgment falls on the King of Moab who dishonours the bones of his dead foe • (ii. 1 ff. ), not less surely than on the favoured Israelite, to whom God has vouchsafed a more perfect knowledge of the moral law, Amos's conception of Jehovah has, ' in short, outgrown nationalistic limitations. Thus he frequently employs the title Jehovah, God of hosts — a name which seems to imply God's universal sovereignty,, both in nature and in human history. Just as Jehovah creates the stars and marshals their hosts, so He controls the destiny of nations, and rewards or punishes them according to their desert. In a word. He stands in a ^ moral relationship to mankind. Hence fidelity to moral law is the one essential thing in the world, and the will ' of Jehovah is identical with the law of righteousness. This is what is meant by ^ethical monotheis m.' The idea of monotheism was not altogether new ; but it was proclaimed by Amos with fresh emphasis, and under circumstances which gave precision and point to a truth that was as yet only dimly apprehended by a few leading 24 THE TP:ACHING OF AMOS spirits among the chosen people. Further^ the concep- tion of God as sjylritual, righteous, and therefore one only, colours Amos's view of history. He^ like many of his successors, devotes much space to recapitulations and interpretations of history, past and present. He looks on the world as a moral order, and on national calamities as bringing a message of warning from God (cp. iii. 4 S. ; iv. 6 ff.). In this he is a true repi-esentative of the whole prophetic order, for the prophet is one who thinks of Jehovah as everywhere present and powerful, as the one supreme reality in the universe.' Hence his abhor- rence of a merely formal worship of Jehovah however elaborate (see V. 18 ff.). Sacrifice without righteousness is no better than the coarsest and most revolting idolatry. It is true that Amos does not expressly condemn the bull-worship of Samaria, though he speaks of it with bitter irony and contempt (ch. iv. 4). At a later time, indeed, Hosea discerns in this unspiritual worship the very root of Israel's ruinous condition. But Amos con- fines himself to the work of teaching Israel what the religion of Jehovah really demands, and wherein the error of the popular worship consists. He distinguishes lietween the true religion and the false : between that which Jehovah really demands, and that which is pro- fanely offered to Him in the sanctuaries of Israel. Seek tje me and ye shall live : but seek not Bethel, nor enter into Gilgal, and cross not over to Beer-sheba ; for Gilgal shall surely go into exile, and Bethel shall come to trouble (v. 4-5). Thus Amos's testimony is an illustration of the fact already noticed that the Hebrew prophets were raised up to be leaders of religion, and that their preach- ing was necessarily antagonistic to the low and unspiritual beliefs and practices of their contemporaries, i Hosea, circ. 745-735.^ — Hosea, a younger contemporary of Amos, and a native of northern Palestine, has been rightly described as the prophet of Israel's decline and fall. He probably began to prophesy a few years after the appearance of Amos at Bethel, when the northern 1 On tlie literary style of Amos, see Dr. Driver's Joel and Amos, pp. 115 ff. ; Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel, lect. iii. H O S E A 25 kingdom liad already fallen into a condition of ntter anarchy and misrule (see 2 Kings xv. 14 ff. ; xvii. 1 ff.). The first three chapters indeed of Hosea's hook seem to belong to the reign of Jeroboam ii., since they threaten Israel with deprivation of the blessings which it has so ungratefully misused (see i. 4). Tlie latter portion (iv.-xiv. ) corresponds to the wretched condition of the kingdom during the reign of JVIenahem (745-737), who could only maintain himself on the throne which he had violently usurped, l)y purchasing the support of Pul or Tiglath-Pileser (2 Kings xv. ID), and practically becoming a vassal of the Assyrian monarch. In less than fifteen years after Menahem's death, the fall of the northern kingdom took place (722). After three years' siege, Samaria was captured by Sargon ; the northern Israelites were transported to different districts of Meso- potamia, and their land was occupied by colonists from Babylonia. The book of Hosea falls naturally into two divisions. In the first of these are related the circumstances which led the prophet to undertake his ministry (i. 2). •God's message came to him through the sorrows of his home life. He married a young wife called Gomer, who bare him children, two sons and a daughter. To these the prophet was directed to give symbolic and fateful names, Jezreel as a token of the vengeance shortly to descend upon the house of Jehu (i. 4) ; Lo-Ruhaniah 'Unpitied,' and Lo-Ammi ^Not my people' — names prophetic of Israel's rejection. But Gomer proved to be unworthy of her husband's love. She was unfaithful to him and forsook him. Thereupon the wounded husband, pitying his erring spouse, resolved to bring her back from her degradation. He ransomed her at the price of a slave, and kept her in strict seclusion, in order by a firm but tender discipline to raise her from the depth into which she had fallen, and to re-awaken in her heart the love which she had lost. In his own domestic sorrow, the prophet was led to recognise a picture of God's dealings with His chosen peqple. His own experience taught him to interpret Jehovah's love for Israel — Jehovah had taken a degraded 26 THE BOOK OF HOSEA and enslaved people, and had betrothed it to Himself. But Israel had only reciuited the divine love with in- f^ratitude. The pure worship enjoined by Jehovah had become polluted with the depraved rites of Baal-worship ; Israel had forgotten the moral conditions of Jehovah's covenant, and had drawn on itself a just and inevitable doom. But chastisement was not the end of God's deal- ings with His people. Hosea feels himself to be a type of Jehovah, not only in his indignation and grief at Gomer's infidelity, but also in his compassion for her misery. His own bitter experience ' opened to him the secrets of that heart whose tenderness is as infinite as its holiness ; ' ^ his book reflects the boundless hopefulness of the divine love. Israel will surelylearn submission through calamity, she will again yield herself in penitence to God and be- come what she was called to be, a holy people. The second part of the book (iv.-xiv. ) contains a severe indictment of Israel, and was evidently written at a time when the threatened judgment was now at the very door. We gather from this portion of the book the general features of Israel's condition, the social and moral disorganisation of the kingdom, and especially the corruption of its ruling classes — the priests and princes, who ought to have been true ministers of justice and faithful guardians of tlie sanctuary and sacred law. Hosea's picture of the priests is very dark. They per- verted justice, depraved perhaps ])y their close association with the court. ^ Tliey were interested in actually in- creasing the number of" sin and trespass offerings (iv. 8), 'Like the sons of Eli, they greedily devoured what the people brought to atone for their sins. . . . Instead of trying to stem the tide of iniquity, they longed for its onward march, with a view to unholy gains.' ^ Hosea even accuses them of highway robbery and deeds of violence (vi. 9). The priests actually led the way in law- lessness and wickedness ; their Morldliness and careless- ness encouraged the people to sin. In Hosea's view the most serious evil of his day was 1 Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel, p. 178. 2 Consider the position of the priest Amaziah, Amos vii. 10. ■^ Clieyne on Hosea iv. 8. THE SINS OF ISRAEL 27 the idolatrous perversion of Jehovah's worship. As we liave seen, it had lung been customary to worship the national God at the local sanctuaries under the symbol , of a small metal bull. There were three cliief centres where a cultus of this type was practised — Dan, Bethel, and Gilgal (Amos iv. 4, Hos. iv. 1.5). Tlie sinfulness of the worship consisted in a breach not of the first, but of the second commandment, and its special danger lay in the fact that the service of Jehovah tended to become- ' syncretistic,' confusing the God of Israel with the Canaanitish deities who were worshipped in a similar way. The jieople commonly addressed Jehovah as Baal ('owner' or 'lord'), as we learn from Hos. ii. 13 ff. By the Baalim Hosea means ' varieties of tlie one national deity specially worshipped in diiferent localities, such as Baal-Hamon, Baal-Hazor, etc' ' It is true that Amos^ as we have noticed, does not explicitly condemn the bull- worship, but Hosea saw no reason for being tender to it. Nominally the worship of the ' calves,' as the prophet contemiJtuously calls them, was Jehovah-worship (iv. 1-5; viii. 13 ; ix. 4), but in his eyes it was practically idolatry (iii. 1) or nature-worship, inasmuch as it obscured the essential spirituality of Jehovah. The living God (i. 10) can have no connection with mere idols. Hence Hosea speaks of the calves as other god.s (iii. 1 ; ii. 11, 13). That which Amos had treated with contemptuous scorn, is recognised in its true cliaracter by Hosea as a principal cause of Israel's ruin (viii. G). Tlie ' House of God ' (Hefhel) has become a mere 'House of vanity' (Beth- Aveu, iv. 1-5; x. .5, 8; xiii. 2; xiv. 3). Moreover, the sacred feasts were occasions not merely of sliameful excess and sensuality, but of ill-timed boasting and frivolous exultation. ' W&a it not Jehovah, or rather the Baalim, that is, the local manifestations of Jehovah under the form of the golden calves, who had given Israel the good things of peace and plenty (ii. 5).'' The wliole nation seemed given up to mad riotousness under the prostituted name of religion : irhoredom and wine and must had turned their head (iv. 11).' ^ 1 Cheyne on Hosea ii. 13. 2 Robertson Smith, ojj. cit., p. 99. 28 THE TEACHING OF HOSEA Hosea also, like Isaiah in the southern kingdom, denounces the faithless foreign policy of the rulers (viii. 9-10). There were two factions in the state — one advocating the formation of an alliance with Assyria, the other with Egypt (vii. 11 ; viii. 9; xii. 1 ; xiv. 3). This %vas at once a sin and a hlunder. It was sure to lead sooner or later to expatriation (xi. 5), and it implied a sinful distrust of Jehovah, who Himself was Israel's true king. And here we should notice that the idea of a theocracy underlies mucli of Hosea's teaching. In his picture of the Messianic future, Hosea makes only a passing mention of an earthly king ; ^ the restored nation is destined no more to rely on horses, cliariots, and other material resources. It will live in trustful dependence on Jehovah as Israel's rightful lord and king (i. 7). The hook closes with a retrospect summing up the leading features of Israel's sinful past, and predicting its restora- tion tlirough ])enitence in the future (xii. -xiv.). Religious teaching of Hosea. — To this hrief sketch of Hosea's prophecy, a few words must he added on his religious teaching, which is very remarkahle, considering the age in which he wrote. Hosea is akin to Jeremiah in many of his characteristics. He loved his people with a passionate affection, which tauglit him to understand in some measure the depth and constancy of Jehovah's love. His favourite word is 'loving-kindness' (Chefed), an expression which does not occur in Amos. It describes Jehovah's feeling towards His erring people. It implies that there exists between Jehovah and Israel a relationship of love. Sometimes Hosea describes Israel as the betrothed spouse of Jehovah, sometimes as the child whom He has taught to walk, and tended with watchful care (xi. 1 ff. ). Sometimes, on the other hand, he regards Israel as a single person who has entered into a covenant with Jehovah, and taken upon himself the obligations which had been set forth in the Torah, or in- struction, continuously delivered through the mediation of the priesthood (cp. iv. 6; viii. 1, 12). The word 1 Ch. iii. 5. This, with other passages, is held by several modern critics to be a later addition to the original text. See, however, Driver, Introduction (ed. vi.), p. 300. THE TEACHING OF HOSEA 29 Cheqed is a favourite one witli later writers, especially with the Psalmists. As a term of common life (for it is sometimes used of brotherly kindness between man and man), it was calculated to simplify the conception of tiod. He whom Amos had proclaimed as the righteous judge of nations and of individual men, is regarded by Hosea as the tender and compassionate Father of Israel, as one whose loving-kindness invites the response on man's ' part not merely of obedience, but of love. Hosea thus anticipates to some extent the supreme truth disclosed , in the New Testament : God is love. He may claim to be a pioneer in the history of religion in so far as he introduces this deeper conception of the divine nature, which indeed colours his entire retrospect of history. Hence he dwells on the career of Jacob, in whose life chastisement and discipline had been the great factors, but who had ever been the object of Jehovah's pitying and pardoning grace. In Jacob's life the history of Israel was typically summed up. From the days of the patriarchs onwards Israel's development had been con- trolled by an unfailing purpose of grace, and Hosea bids his countrymen discern in the long story of the past ' the action of Jehovah's unwearied love. It should be observed, however, that this appeal is addressed only to the few whom the prophet's warnings can move to repentance. The northern kingdom as such had no future ; its doom was irreversible. But the penitent are encouraged by the promise of spiritual mercies. The outcome of chastisement is to be Israel's conversion and salvation, in accordance with tlie inviolable conditions of Jehovah's covenant of grace. One word as to Hosea's style. The obscurity and difficulty of his book results from the compression and disconnectedness of the thought. St. Jerome says, Osee commaticus est, et quasi per senteutias loqiiens. Tli^ prophet's style in fact reflects the play of conflicting emotions, and the changing moods of a sensitive heart. A modern writer (Cornill) makes the striking remark that in Hosea's book, ' Like the dreams of a fever-stricken patient, the images and thoughts press and chase away each other.' The style of his preaching must in any case 80 ISAIAH liave been very different from that of Amos. If we may judge from his book, Hosea must have been more like a lyric poet than an orator. Each verse of liis book, it has been said, is ' like one heavy toll of a funeral knell.' ^ The fall of Samaria in 722 b.c. marks the epoch in Hebrew history at which prophecy passes from the northern to the southern kingdom. Henceforth the hopes of the faithful were bound up with the fortunes of Judah. Isaiah, circ. 740-700. — Tlie first of the Judsean prophets is also the greatest, namely Isaiah, whose ministry at JerUjSalem began, as it would seem, shortly before or after the close of Hosea's career. He received his call in the last year of Uzziah (740), and, during the critical period of Hezekiah's reign, he took a prominent part in the politics of the southern kingdom. Isaiah was apparently a man of aristocratic birth and connections ; possibly lie was related to the royal family. He was a married man, and two of his sons are mentioned by name. A brief glance at the leading events of the years 740-700 will enable us to form an idea of the conditions under which he exercised his ministry. Condition of Judah. — During the reigns of Uzziah and Jotham, the relations between the two kingdoms were fairly harmonious ; but the attack of Pekah, supported by Rezin of Syria, upon Ahaz in the year 734, induced the king of Judah to look for aid to the Assyrian monarch, Tiglath-Pileser. The position of Ahaz practi- cally became that of an Assyrian vassal (2 Kings xvi. 7 ff.), and thus began that fateful contact between the southern kingdom and the great world-empires of the east which was destined in the future to have such momentous consequences. In Isaiah's teaching the idea of the universality of Jehovah's moral government, previously inculcated by Amos, became through the force of circum- stances more dominant and distinct, and indeed the most characteristic feature of the prophet is his unshaken belief in the all-disposing and omnipresent governance of Israel's God. The restless movements of the petty states which bordered on Palestine, and the immense power ^ Pusey, Minor Proiihcts, Introduction to Hosea. STATE OF JUDAH 31 wielded by the Assyrian monarch, were equally under Jehovah's supreme control. Hence the only course of safety for Judah lay in qidettiess mid in confidence (Isaiah xxx. 15), in trustful dependence on the loving guidance of God. There lay before the nation at this crisis of its history two alternatives. It had to choose between passive acceptance of the present political situa- tion, and tlie futile attempt to hold its own on a stage which was already occupied by great empires with vast resources at their command, and with ambitious aims to carry into effect. During Hezekiah's reign, Judah was constantly tempted to yield to the importunities of Egyptian diplomacy, and to revolt from Assyria, whose iron yoke doubtless pressed very heavily on a kingdom already impoverished by lavish outlay on military defences (2 Chron. xxvi.), and by the recent demands of the Syro- Ephraimitish campaign. In a word, Judah was in danger of yielding to the pressure of circumstances by adopting a worldly policy, and trusting to the material resources on which the great empires of heathendom were accus- tomed to rely, instead of following the path of simple trust in Jehovah's protection and guidance. But the spirit of worldliness had not only infected the policy of the soutliern kingdom : it had entered deeply into the life and habits of society. In the earliest chapters of his book, Isaiah draws a picture of the chief moral evils and religious abuses of his time. Judah was apparently even more subject than the northern kingdom to strange religious superstitions. The cult of the A.shei'a or sacred pole — a C'anaanitish emblem of the reproductive ])Owers of nature (Mic. v. l-i ; Isa. i. 29), seems to have 1)een prevalent at this time. The worship of Xehu.shfan (2 Kings xviii. 4), and even that of Adonis {Tanunux) was not unknown. The arts of divination, magic, and necromancy were commonly practised (Isa. iii. 3 ; viii. 19; xxix. 4; Mic. iii. 7, 11). The land was J'ull of idols (Isa. ii. 8). It is even probable that some forms of fetichism or totemism, akin to the practices of the nomad tribes of the desert, flourished in secret. On the other hand the social evils of this period were such as usually follow a rapid development of national wealth. Both 3-2 STATE OF JUDAH Micali and Isaiah allude to the severe sufferings of the small landholders who were ruined by the accumulation of vast estates in the hands of 'a few, the tyrannical oppression of the poor, and the shameless perversion of justice. The condition of things was naturally aggravated by the calamitous war with. Pekah and Rezin, which necessitated the payment of a heavy tribute to Assyria, the burden of taxation, as usual, falling most hardly ujjon the poorer classes. But what specially aroused the indignation of the prophets was the practical godlessness of their contemporaries, and the fatal blindness of the nation to the divine purposes which were accomplishing themselves openly on the stage of history (Isa. viii. 17). This blindness was sometimes the effect of mere hardness of heart, and sceptical unbelief (Isa. v. 19) ; sometimes of foolish complacency and shortsighted optimism. The leaders of the nation relied upon their armaments and material wealth to secure them from disaster ; but in the eyes of Isaiah this temper of confidence amounted to a practical apostasy or revolt from Jehovah, which could only hasten the day when all the pride of man should be humbled and brought low. The invasion of Pekah and Rezin was in fact the first stage in the fulfilment of the divine purpose of judgment. It was only the earnest of a far more searching and terrible chastisement in the future (Isa. v. 2.5 tf.). The prophecies of Isaiah fall into two groups : (1) pro- phecies relating to the condition of Israel and Judah previous to the fall of the northern kingdom ; (2) pro- phecies concerned with the Assyrian wars. (1) Naturally enough the dominant note of the earlier group is that of judgment. The prophet addresses a perverse and rebelli- ous people, who harden their hearts against his teaching. He predicts the impending overthrow of both kingdoms. In the spirit of the earlier pi'ophets he denounces the pride, cruelty, insolence, and luxury of the ruling and wealthy classes in Judah (see especially ii. G — iv. 1), while in a later chapter (xxviii.) he foretells the imminent ruin of Samaria. But the prediction of judgment is quali- fied by the doctrine of a holy remnant destined to survive the impending storm. Jehovah will not fail to bring His THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH 33 righteous purpose to accomplishment. A sifting judg- ment is to uslaer in the Messianic age^ the blessings of which are to form the counterpart of present calamity. Specially noticeable from this point of view are the pro- phecies belonging to the reign of Aliaz (735-728). In spite of the urgent warnings of Isaiah (see vii.-ix. 7), Ahaz, under pressure of the Syro-Ejjhraimitish attack, formed an alliance witli Tiglath-Pileser, the result of which was that Judah became thenceforth the helpless vassal of Assyria. It was in these dark days of disorder and misgovernment that Isaiah proclaimed the coming establishment of a righteous and stable kingdom. To this period belongs the prophecy of Iii\gigjiy.^l — the child whose very name should be a pledge of Jehovah's pro- tection and help (vii. 14), and possibly also the picture of the iVIessianic king in ix. 6, 7, and xi. 1-9. It is to the faithful remnant that these promises are addressed : to the little company of disciples who welcome and cherish the prophet's teaching, and on whom the pro- spect of a brighter future for Judah depended. These are warned to separate themselves from the faithless nation, and to share neither their fears nor their false confidence (viii. 12-18). (2) The second group of pro- phecies refers mainly to the relations which existed between Judah and iissyria during the period 730-700. During the reign of Hezekiah (728-086) the prophet carried on his ministry under comparatively favourable circumstances. The Assyrian empire was involved in internal troubles shortly after the fall of Samaria, and Palestine enjoyed a brief interval of repose. Hezekiah seems to have resisted, under Isaiah's influence, the temptation to throw off the Assyrian yoke, a course which found powerful advocates among the leading statesmen of Judah. When in the year 711 this party, which favoured a defensive alliance with Egj^pt, was on the very point of succeeding, Isaiah publicly appeared in the garb of a captive, as a sign of the fate that should presently befall both Egypt and Ethiopia (xx.). The efforts of the prophet succeeded for a while. It was not till 70-5, the year of Sargou's death, that Hezekiah yielded to the persistency of those who urged an alliance 34 THE WORK OF ISAIAH with Egypt. On Sennacherib's accession Merodach- Baladan of Babylon revolted, and Hezekiah followed his example, with the result that he brought his king- dom and capital to the verge of ruin. At first the Assyrian monarch contented himself with ravaging the territory of Judah, and laying upon Hezekiah a heavy tribute ; but on second thouglits lie apparently deter- mined to destroy Jerusalem, which was strongly fortified, and seemed likely in the future to give him trouble. In 701 he detached a force from his army, which was now engaged in the campaign against Egy])t, and sent it to Jerusalem to demand the surrender of the city (2 Kings xviii. 17 ft".). This was the moment of Isaiah's crowning triumph. "\\"hile the invasion was still im- minent he had denounced in stern language the insolent pride and ill-timed confidence of the rulers who said. We have made a covenant with death, and ivith hell are we at agreement (xxviii. 15). He had foretold the siege of Ariel (Jerusalem) within a year (xxix. 1 ff.), but with increasing clearness he now predicted the sudden and marvellous deliverance of the capital. Isaiah's con- fidence in the divine protection, and in the inviolable sanctity of Zion, did not fail him in the very crisis of the peril (xxxvii. 29-3-5). A sudden and unexplained catastrophe overtook the host of Assyria on the very borders of Egypt. Sennacherib returned to his own land discomfited, and Jerusalem was saved. The faith and confidence of the prophet were triumphantly vin- dicated. ^ It is scarcely possible to over-estimate the efi"ect of Isaiah's teaching upon the subsequent development of Israel's religion. It is true that the reformation at- tempted by Hezekiah — a movement supported no doubt by the prophets — was followed by a disastrous reaction against their teaching in the reign of Manasseh. But the work of Isaiah survived the storm of persecution. For the truths he had taught were cherished by a band 1 Probably the disaster which overtook the Assyrian host was a sudden outbreak of pestilence, which haunted the southern part of the maritime plain. See Prof. G. A. Smith's Historical Geo- graphij of the Holy Land, pp. 157-159. ISAIAH'S WRITINGS 35 of disciples wlio formed a distinct school of religious thought, trained in prophetic ideas. It seemed to have been from this school that the Book of Deuteronomy - emanated — a work whicli exercised so powerful an effect on the mind of Josiah, and which contained, as it were, the very kernel of the prophetic doctrines. Tlie hook, in fact, kept alive at least in the hearts of a devout minority those fundamental religious ideas which had been inherited from the ^Mosaic age, and had formed the very staple of Isaiah's teaching. Thus we see the practical importance of the method whicli Isaiah adopted in order to propagate his char- acteristic ideas. A\'ith him ' the doctrine of the remnant becomes a practical principle ; the true Israel m ithin Israel, the holy seed in the fallen stock of the nation, is the object of all his solicitude.' ^ A few words are necessary respecting (1) the writings ; (2) the theology of Isaiah. The Writings of Isaiah. — 1. There are overwhelming reasons for assigning the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah's book (xl.-lxvi.) to one or possibly several pro- phetic M-riters, the earliest of whom appeared towards the close of the exile in Babylon. On somewhat similar internal grounds, large ])ortions of the first thirty-nine chapters are pronounced to be non-Isaianic : for instance xiii. 2-xiv. 23 (the doom of Babylon), xxiv.-xxvii. (an apocalyptic vision of judgment), the picture of Edom's downfall and of Judah's restoration in xxxiv., xxxv., together with some minor passages (e.g. xii. and possibly iv. 2-G). The fact is clear that the book of Isaiah, as we now have it, contains a collection of prophecies which are undoubtedly of different origin and date. "Wlien a collection of the writings of the prophets took place, all fragments of prophecy were apparently distributed in different parts of the four books of ' latter prophets' (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, twelve minor pro- phets). In one of these four books every extant fi-agment of ancient prophecy had to take its place whether it bore any pi-ecise title and date or not. Thus in the very 1 Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel, \>. 209. 36 ISAIAH'S THEOLOGY process of redaction ' prophecies by other hands would get to he embedded in the text of Isaiah, no longer to be distinguished except by internal evidence.' ^ It is un- necessary to illustrate this point at length. Let it suffice to say that there is little or no question as to those parts of Isaiah's book which relate to the history of his own '\i mes ; and it is on them that his great reputation rests, and from them tliat we derive our impression of his supreme genius and prophetic force. Theology of Isaiah. — 2. In Isaiah's theology we may specially notice (a) his conception of Jehovah ; (b) his vision of the Messianic king ; (c) his doctrine of the remnant. (a) Isaiah is the first Old Testament writer who gives to Jehovah the title Ho/y One of Israel, in order to in- dicate the relation in which Jehovah stands to His chosen people. All the prophetic visions of impending judgment are based on the fundamental truth that Jehovah is a God of righteousness : His highest requirement of man is well-doing, justice, mercy, and good faith between man and his fellow. To Israel as the chosen people the righteousness of Jehovah had been specially manifested, and by his doctrine of Jehovah's exaltation (cp. ii. 11, 17) Isaiah intends to proclaim the essential supremacy and ultimate triumph of the law of righteousness. This law was outraged not only by the disobedience and apostasy of Israel, but also by the violence and insolent pride of foreign oppressors like the king of Assyria (cp. x. 5, 12, 1.3). The downfall of the oppressor, no less than the signal chastisement of the chosen nation, involved the exaltation of Jehovah, i.e. the manifestation of Israel's Holy One in His necessary hostility to human sin. But as the elect nation, Israel was practically pledged to exhibit a certain moral and spiritual character ; a certain separateness from the corruptions and iniquities of the heathen world, marking its special consecration as a 'holy people.' The divine claim which Israel had for- gotten or despised, Isaiah continually reasserts. He declares that the holiness of Jehovah must manifest itself 1 Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel, pp. 2l2, 21.3 ; cp. Old Testament in Jewish Church, p. 98 ff. ISAIAH'S THEOLOGY 37 in judgment ; and lie warns the sinful nation that Jehovah's presence must needs have a twofold issue : it must bring terror to the godless even while it brings joy to the hearts of the faithful (xxix. 19-24; xxxiii. 14). (b) The prophetic vision of the Messianic king was specially characteristic of the period when Assyria was menacing tlie kingdom of Judah. The elect nation was threatened in the person of its king, and hence the idea arose of a king of David's line through whose agency Israel should be delivered from the power of Assyria. In the writings of Isaiah, and his contemporary Micah, the predictions of a Davidic king reach their highest point. Isaiah proclaims the purpose of Jehovah to establish a kingdom of peace and righteousness in the hand of a scion of David's house, through whose con- ([uests tlie might of Israel's oppressor is to be broken ai> in the day of Midlan (ix. 4). In vii. 14 the birth of a child in the immediate future is predicted as a sign of Jehovah's redemptive purpose and a token of His presence in the midst of His people ; but it is noticeable that Immunuel is not said to be connected with the house of David nor is he personally hailed as a deliverer. It is only in ix. 7, 8 that the prince's Name, i.e. his true char- acter and calling, is proclaimed: and in xi. — 'a vision of peace which has ever since haunted the universe ' * — the character of his rule is described. His kingdom is one of peace, and he is enabled for his high and sacred functions by the spirit of Jehovah Himself. Through him the peace of Paradise is to be restored, and the face of the earth renewed by the true knowledge of God. (c) Isaiah's doctrine of the remnant has been already touched upon. The prophet, with the eye of faith, dis- cerns the true Israel within Israel — an Israel destined to survive the deluge of judgment and emerge cleansed and chastened to be the seed of a renewed and purified nation. This idea of a remnant is indeed common to several prophets. We find it in Amos ; it reappears in Zephaniah and Habakkuk ; but in Isaiah it forms an integral) element of his theology and a keynote of his teaching. 1 Darmesteter, Lcs prophetes d^ Israel, p. 63. 38 M I C A H Isaiah in fact dissociates the future of religion from the fortunes of the nation as a whole. He saw that the hopes of national regeneration henceforth depended upon the character of a little section of the people, and that the ideal calling of Israel as Jehovah's servant would only be fulfilled through the fidelity of the few. We shall see later how fruitful and powerful this idea became in subsequent times. Micah, circ. 728-708. — Micali was probably a younger contemporary of Isaiah, but while Isaiah took a pro- minent and energetic part in affairs of state, and preached to the inhabitants of the capital, Micah was a simple countryman of i\Ioresheth-Gath, a village in the Shepheldh which lay very close to the scene of the military opera- tions of the Assyrian army. His title the Moraathite distinguishes him from his predecessor and namesake IMicaiah.i Probably JMicah's active ministry began at the opening of Hezekiah's reign (cp. Jer. xxvi. 18) some six or seven years before the destruction of Samaria. While Isaiah was a statesman and dealt with matters of public policy, Micah for the most part confined himself to denouncing the moral and social iniquities of his day. There seems to be no good reason for doubting that the two prophets worked in harmony.^ The reformation of religion undertaken by Hezekiah seems to have been chiefly due to the preaching of Micah, and it is probable that this movement marked the culminating point of his ministry. An outline of Micah's book will give a clear idea of the state of the southern kingdom at the period when he wrote. It falls into tliree main sections, each beginning with the word Henrken. It is probable, however, that the last section (vi.-vii.) belongs to a later period than the rest of the book, and it is generally supposed by critics to belong to the reign of Manasseh. In the first part (i.-ii.) Micali threatens the kingdom of Judah with the fate now impending over Samaria. He vividly 1 The name means WJio is like Jahveh ? Cp. Ex. xv. 11 ; Mic. vii. 18. Mic. i. 2 suggests a connection with 1 Kings xxii. 28. 2 Note their common interest in the passage, Mic. iv. 1 ff., Isa. ii. 2 ff., which is jnobably from some older prophet. SOCIAL CONDITION OF JUDAH .39 describes the wave of calamity rolling over the different townships and villages of the Shephehili, each familiar name yielding, as it were, ' nn omen of calamity.'^ In chap. ii. the description of judgment is followed by an exposition of its causes, which in the main are offences against fundamental laws of social righteousness. As a member and champion of the yeomanry class, Micah has an indignant sense of their wrongs. He speaks, indeed, of the idolatries of Samaria and Judah, which are doomed to destruction, but his soul is most profoundly moved by the iniquities of the rich. He denounces those who have become possessors of huge estates, formed by dispossessing the poor landowners (ii. 1-2). He rebukes the meaner vices of the trading class, the exactions of petty creditors (ii. 8), the dishonesty of the judges, who connived at the wrong-doing of the rich, and leagued themselves with them in defrauding the poor (cp. iii. 2 ff.). In the second section one point is specially noticeable, namely, Micah's denunciation of false prophets who flatter and caress the rich and powerful (iii. 5 ff.). The sins of the ruling classes, princes and priests, are largely due to the encouragement given to them by false prophets. False prophec}' arose in Judah as tlie result and counterpart of true prophecy, so soon as the Xebiim had become a professional order of men, with the failings usually ex- hibited by such a class. Prophetic warnings of impending judgment were displeasing ; it was popular not to believe them (ii. 6; iii. 5, 11). Consequently the false prophets preached an easy doctrine of comfort and security ; Jehovali would protect His own ; the temple was tlie guarantee of His favour. The call to repentance was either thought to be no longer necessary, or it was for- gotten and ignored.- This evil of false prophecy was one that became worse as time went on, and it seems to have reached a climax during the reign of Josiah (see Jer. xxiii. D). In the days of Hezekiah for the first time we hear of these false prophets (cp. Isa. ix. 1.5 ft". ; xxviii. 7), who encouraged sensuality (Mic. ii. 11), took pay for their prophecies, and lulled men into security, saying. Peace, 1 Kirkpatrick, The Doctrine of the Prophets, pp. 208, 209. - Cp. Montefiore, Hihhert Lectures, p. 198. 40 MICAH'S TEACHING peace, by perverting' Isaiah's doctrine of Immanuel, Jehovah is with us (Mic. iii. 5-11). The sign of a true prophet, on the contrary, was fearless denunciation of the sins (Mic. iii. 8) which were bringing destruction on Jerusalem ; and naturally enough Micah regards the two capitals, Samaria and Jerusalem, as the centres of national corruption (i. 5, vi. i)). Like Isaiah, he discerns in a crushing retribution the only hope of Zion's spiritual regeneration. Israel is doomed to be scattered like a dispersed flock, but the dispersion of the nation is pre- paratory to a signal display of redemptive grace. Jehovah will once more gather His flock and lead them to their rest, as in the days of old.^ The humiliation of Zion is to be the divine means of victory over her oppressors (iv. 9-13). She must needs pass through a crisis ; she must come forth and dwell in the open field, i.e. in a strange land, but there she shall find deliverance : There, the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies (iv. 10). Two elements in Micah's picture of the future deserve special attention. First, he thinks of the Messianic age as a time in which the Ideal of the theocracy shall be fulfilled. Jehovah shall reign in Zion ; the Kingdom of God shall be established under an ideal king of David's line. In this picture Bethlehem-Judah naturally occu- pies a conspicuous place, for it was the original home of David's family, and the eye of hope eagerly turned thither for encouragement. Micah seems to give utter- ance to the exjjectations of the common people in his reference to Bethlehem (v. 2). ^The significance of this prophecy, in its original context, lies in its suggestion of the circumstances under which the Messiah was to be born, rather than in the prediction of the precise place of his birth. ' ^ Secondly, there is a touch of true universalism in Micah's prophecy of the evangelisation of the world through Zion. Zion, purified and renewed by the 1 Micah makes many alhisions to the Pentateuch, and describes Israel's restoration in imagery borrowed from the narratives of the Exodus. See {e.g. ) ii. 13 ; op. Exod. xiii. 21. " Kirkpatrick, op. cit. p. 217. PROPHETIC UNIVERSALISM 41 iudwelling- presence of her divine King-, is destined to become the spiritual teacher of the nations. And to those who submit to her righteous sway she will be a life-giving power like dew (v. 7, cp. iv. 1 ff) ; but to tliose who resist she will be terrible as a lion and de- stroyer (iv. 12, 13). Jehovah will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the nations which hearkened not (v. 15, R. v.). It will not be out of place to consider in this connec- tion the teaching of Micah's great contemporary, Isaiah, respecting- the heathen, and their relation to the God of Israel. Amos had asserted the sovereignty of Jehovah over tlie heathen, as their moral ruler and judge. Isaiah goes a step further, and thinks of the nations as offering' homage to Israel's God, and recognising His unique power and divinity. Thus, he prophesies that the Ethiopians, in grateful acknowledgment of their deliver- ance from Assyria, shall bring a present to Jehovah to the place of the name of Jehovah of hosts, the Mount Zion (Isa. xviii. 7). And in one celebrated passage the pro- phet speaks of Israel's two great enemies, Assyria and Egypt, as united to the chosen people in the worship of Jehovah, and thus sharing the blessings of the one true faith. In that day, he says, shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth: for that the Lord of hosts hath blessed them, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance (xix. 24, 2.5).^ It is liardly wise to lay much stress on the celebrated passage prefixed both to Isaiah ii. and Micah iv., which seems to be either taken from an older prophecy, or composed and inserted in a much later age. In any case, its date is too uncertain to form the basis of an argument ; but its teaching harmonises with the Messianic visions of both prophets. The passage represents Zion as the spiritual metropolis of the world, and the nations as journeying thither to learn Jehovah's ways, and to hear His Mord. 1 Mr. Moiitefiore accepts the genuineness of this passage, and declares that 'it represents the high-water mark of eighth-century prophecy ' (Hibbert Lectures, p. 149). There seems to be no con- vincing reason for doubting that the passage is Isaianic. 42 MIC AH VI. AND VII. It may be thought to embody an idea which was already current in the prophecy of the eighth century. The third section of Micah's book (vi. and vii., at least to verse 7) is different in tone from the earlier chapters, and seems to presuppose a less hopeful state of things in Judah.^ The question as to the date of this portion is still unsettled. It is possible that j\Iicah lived to see the disastrous reaction against the prophets which took place under Manasseh ; or the passage may be attributed to some unknown prophet of that period. The general character of vi. and vii. is subjective. The prophet speaks of the duty and way of repentance. Thus in vi. 1-7 he describes Jehovah's controversy with His people, and illustrates the contrast between the popular idea of religion and Jehovah's real demand. The prevalent notion was that Jehovah, like the deities of the heathen, required to be propitiated by costly oflFerings, or even by the sacrifice of human victims (vi. 7), whereas His true requirement had been for- gotten : He hath showed thee, mutr, irliat is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee hut to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God ? (vi. 8). The passage vii. 1-7 contains the penitent con- fession and complaint of the faithful remnant, and gives utterance to a spirit of humble submission to the righteous penalties of national sin. The book ends (7-20) with thoughts of consolation and fervent expres- sions of unshaken confidence in Jehovah's mercy. The most striking point in this section is the summary of prophetic religion in vi. 8, which practically forms the substance of Micah's own preaching. It may be com- pared with the teaching of Deuteronomy (esp. x. 12). It comprehends in brief the final message which the propliets of the eighth century Mere commissioned to deliver. There is a remarkable contrast between Isaiah and Micah in one respect. The predictions of the former 1 See Driver, Introduction, p. 332 &., on vii. 7-20, which is thought by some critics to belong to the period of the exile. See the discussion in Kirkpa trick, op. cit. pp. 22G-230, and Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel, p. 439 ff . CONCLUSION 43 culminated in the splendid vision of immediate deliver- ance from the yoke of Assyria. The JMessianic age seemed to be actually dawning. IVIicah, on the otlier hand^ is mainly occupied with the tliought of the inevitable doom about to descend on his impenitent nation ; and indeed little more than a century elapsed before the prophet's warnings were fulfilled. Jerusalem was a heap of ruins, the temple desolate, the people in captivity. The soli- tary hope of a brigliter day lay in tlie undeserved fulfilment by Jehovah of the promises made to Israel's forefathers in the days of old (Mic. vii. 20). CHAPTER III PROPHECY IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY B.C. The seventh century B.C. — When in the year 686 Heze- kiah died, and his son Manasseli succeeded to the throne of Judah, a violent reaction took place against the teach- ing of the prophets. It was manifest that the popular religion^ at the root of which Hezekiah's reformation struck, was not likely to give way \vithout an obstinate struggle. Few details of this period are forthcoming, but its chief feature was a bloody persecution of the pro- phets, and perhaps of their adherents : Isaiah is said to have been sawn asunder. At the same time, a revival of the worst features in the old cultus took place, and heathen rites were introduced from abroad. Manasseh sanctioned the introduction of star-worship, and the hideous rites of Moloch were openly practised. The king himself set an example to his subjects by causing his eldest son to pass through the fire (2 Kings xxi. 6). ^Ve are further told that he practised augury, and used en- chantments, and dealt with them that had familiar spirits and with wizards. This terrible period lasted for nearly sixty years, and the voice of prophecy was practically silenced. It is highly probable however that fragments of prophecy were circulated among the faithful who patiently waited for better days, — fragments the authorship of which it was dangerous to avow, but which were afterwards incorpor- ated in the collected book of ^the prophets.' To the days of Manasseh, as we have already pointed out, may belong the last two chapters of the book of Micah, or at least a considerable portion of them. These, with their lofty teaching as to Jehovah's true requirement of His 44 THE SEVENTH CENTURY B.C. 45 worshippers, illustrate the effect of persecution in deepening and purifying the religious ideas of the faith- ful remnant. Before the close however of Manasseh's reign, the voice of prophecy was again uplifted. About ()30 took place the terrible inroads of the Scythians, who, issuing from the coasts of the Black Sea, oven-an Western Asia for a period of more than twenty years, and spread terror and devastation to the very borders of Egypt. Meanwhile Egypt had shaken off the Assyrian yoke, and the empire of Nineveh was rapidly declining before the growing power of Babylon. In 625, Babylon, under Nabopolassar, emerged from a condition of dependence, and in combination with the rising power of Media, laid siege to Nineveh itself, though apparently without im- mediate success. In 607 however Nineveh succumbed — its fall being sudden and difficult to explain. Tradition says that the overthrow of the city was mainly due to a sudden rise of the river Tigris, which laid a large portion of the outer walls in ruins, thus admitting the forces of the besieging host. Then followed a struggle for su- premacy between Babylon and Egypt, a conflict which was ultimately decided by the signal defeat of the Egyptian army at Carchemish in the year 605. The Babylonian monarch thus became the master of Westei-n Asia. It is important to bear in mind the general character of the period at which prophecy revived. It was a time of unsettlement, disruption, terror, and distress of nations. The incursion of the Scythian hordes does not indeed seem to have actually injured the territory of Judah. The wave of invasion swept, as usual, past Jeru- salem, along the coast of the Mediterranean, in the direction of Egypt. But it was probably the terror of the Scythian advance that again roused the spirit of prophecy. Shortly after the accession of Josiah (640) arose four prophets, who are all alike prophets of judgment. Nabum (circ. 626-608) is the prophet of Nineveh's decline and fall. His theme is the impending doom of the oppressing city, which had so long been the scourge, not only of Judah, but of AVestern Asia as a whole, and which was the very type of insolent violence and godless 46 N A H U M pride. Zephamah (circ. G25-621) proclaims a universal catastrophe as about to overwhelm the world, and especi- ally the chosen people of Jehovah. Judgment must begin at the house of God. The moral iniquities and idolatrous rites which Manasseh had reintroduced were now flourishing' in rank luxuriance. Zephaniah and probably Jeremiah both discerned in the advancing horde of Scythians, a rod of the divine anger. Hence their re- peated and urgent calls to repentance and amendment, — calls which probably did actually produce in the nation a transient inclination to reform. The bulk of Jeremiah's book, however, seems to belong to the period which followed Josiah's religious reformation (621), the effects of which were only superficial ; and the premature death in battle of the king (009) crushed any hope which the prophet might entertain of lasting improvement. Habakkuk, who probably wrote at the time when Nineveh had already fallen (circ. 607-(J05), gives utterance to the distress of that righteous remnant which had set itself, in obedience perhajjs to Zephaniah's preaching, to seek Jehovah (Zeph. ii. 3). He represents the patience of faith waiting upon God amid universal convulsion. Roughly speaking, all these four prophets belong to the last forty years of the seventh century. Nahum, circ. 626-608. — Nahum, whose name means 'consolation' or 'comforter,' was a native of Elkosh, probably a village in the southern district of Jvidah, the traces of which have disappeared since the fourth century. His book was apparently composed at a time when the Medes and Babylonians were now threatening Nineveh. There is no valid reason to suppose that the book was written at Nineveh, with which the writer does not really betray any special acquaintance. On the other hand a slight indication that he was not writing in Judah itself is afforded by the fact that ' he seems to regard it ideally as the kingdom of God, rather than actually in its existing condition,' ^ but this circumstance is not of great weight. Nahum (' comfort ' or ' comforter ') may be aptly compared with the anonymous prophet who nearly 1 Kirkpatrick, op. cit, p. 245. THE FALL OF NINEVEH 47 H century later proclaimed a message of consolation to the exiles in Babylon. ' Nalium in fact idealises the sinful kingdom which in comparison \^ith the bloody city (iii. 1) might appear relatively innocent. At any rate he shows no consciousness of tlie guilt and corruption which Zephaniali depicts in sucli dark colours. His book is rather a cry of agony and revenge wrung from the heart of Judah and the otlier oppressed peoples wlio had for so long a time groaned beneath the iron yoke of Assyria. The prophecy of Nahum naturally recalls to our minds the tradition of Jonah's preaching at Nineveh. If that incident is a historical fact, we must suppose that Nineveh liad neglected its day of grace^ and had fallen back into the greed and violence (Jon. iii. 8 ; Nah. ii. 11, 12) of which it had repented at the call of the earlier prophet. Its crying sin was presumptuous defiance of Almighty God, Sennacherib's wars, for instance, had been religious wars. He had blasphemously defied Jehovah himself (Isa. xxxvi. 18-10; xxxvii. 12). Moreover, Nineveh had sinned by her barbarous and inliuman oppression of subject nations, and especially of Jehovali's chosen people. At length the hour of vengeance has arrived. In vain are the preparations made for withstanding a siege. Swiftly and suddenly the blow falls, and Nineveh becomes a desolation and a terror. As a matter of fact the overthrow of the great city was of unexampled completeness. It is possible that ii. 6 alludes to the river Tigris as a principal agent in Nineveh's destruction. In words of touching beauty Nahum describes the consequences for Judah of Nineveh's ruin. Ziou is released from the oppressor's yoke — messengers carry the glad tidings across the hill-countrj'' of Judaea, and Jerusalem is bidden once more to celebrate her joyous festivals in peace (i. 15). The style of Nahum is in dignity and force comparable to that of Isaiah himself; it has a vivid and picturesque energy such as only genuine poetic and religious fervour can impart. In his conception of God, Nahum is united to Micah and the author of Jonah by a reminiscence of Exod. xxxiv. 6 (cp. Nah. i. 3 ; Jon. iv. 2 ; Mic. vii. 18), 1 Cp. Isa. xl. 1. Nahum i. 15 is quoted b}- Isa. Hi. 7. 48 ZEPHANIAH — that passage wliicli brings out so clearly the two-fold character of Jehovah — His unfailing truth or righteous- ness^ and His plenteous loving-kindness. Ohs. — The Book of Nahum consists of two odes on the approach- ing fall of Nineveh (ii., iii.) to which is j)refixed a poem of a more general kind, declaring the princijjles on which Almighty God inflicts His judgments (i. 2-ii. 4). In this poem there are traces of alphabetic structure. The attempt has been made to restore it by more than one recent critic. See G. A. Smith, Minor Prophets, vol. ii. i^. 81 ff. Zephaniah, circ. 626-621. — The precise date of Nahum's book cannot be fixed with certainty ; but the book of Zephaniah seems to supply its necessary counterpart. Nahum, as we have seen, makes only brief passing allusions to Judah. He says nothing of the sins which had pro- voked the divine judgment. Zephaniah, on the other hand, gives us a picture of the state of Judah shortly after the accession of Josiah, while the baneful influence of Manasseh's reign was still operative. It was Zephaniah's task to proclaim the imminence of the day of the Lord — its nearness and its overwhelming terrors. ^ Like Isaiah, the prophet thinks of that day as an utter consumption falling with desolating effect both on nature and on man, and specially on Judah and Jerusalem. Writing pro- bably at a time when the Scythian hordes were threatening the very borders of Judah, Zephaniah represents the judgment as a second deluge. Its range extends from Ethiopia in the far south, to Nineveh in the north. It is swift, searching, and complete (i. 12, 18) ; even the righteous are scarcely saved. He shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the earth (i. 18). Zephaniah draws a terrible picture of the religious and moral condition of Jerusalem. The extreme youth of Josiah (he was only eight at his accession) pre- vented the court from having any decided influence on the habits of the nation at large. The idolatrous rites which Manasseh had introduced flourished unchecked. Idolatrous priests (chemdrim) were maintained at the public cost ; the worship of strange deities was openly 1 Ohs. — Dies irae dies ilia (i. 15, Yulg.). HABAKKUK 49 tolerated ; the adoration of the sun, moon, and stars was commonly practised. Faith in Jehovali was well- nigh dead. There were many open apostates, and a still larger number who were settled on their lees (i. 12), and were atheists at heart, saying. The Lord will not do good, neither will he do evil. With this practical apostasy from Jehovah was combined a spirit of moral lawlessness. The very bonds of society were loosened. The sins of the ruling classes especially (i. 8, 9) had made Jerusalem ripe for judgment. In chap. ii. of his prophecy, Zephaniah presents us with a more hopeful vision of the future. He describes the effect of Jehovah's searching and sifting visitation. He predicts the universal abandonment of idols and the turning to Jehovah of men belonging to other nations (ii. 11 ; iii. 9). Zephaniah also naturally gives promin- ence to the Isaianic doctrine of the remnant. In an epilogue which was probably added by a later hand during or after the exile, this remnant of true Israelites, few though they be in number, humbled and chastened by adversity, is yet bidden to he glad and rejoice with all the heart (iii. 14). Even in the day of Jehovah's anger they will be hid,' and in the Messianic future they will become a name and a praise among all peoples of the earth (iii. 20). Hatiakkuk, circ. 605. — Habakkuk, who was apparently a Levite (iii. 19), and is distinguished by the title 'the prophet' (i. 1), writes at a time when Babylon was rapidly rising to the foremost place among the nations of the East. His book seems to have been written shortly after the fall of Nineveh, when it was as yet uncertain what would be the issue of the impending struggle between Egypt and Babylon. It is probable that the prophecy belongs to the reign of Jehoiakim, and may be dated shortly before the decisive battle of Carchemish (605). Habakkuk is a representative of those faithful members of the nation who were sorely perplexed at Jehovah's employment of a ferocious, greedy, and lawless power as the instrument of His righteous purposes. It 1 The name Zephaniah means 'Jehovah hideth.' 50 THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK might sometimes seem that after all brute force rather than righteousness was the arbiter of human destiny. The book is written in a dramatic form : it partly consists of an alternate discourse between Jehovah and the prophet ; and if we take into account its leading theme, we may class the book witli other products of religious reflection in the Old Testament. The problem which constantly pressed for solution in the disastrous days of Judah's decline and fall was tliat which Jeremiah raises in his twelfth chapter : Itightcous art fliou, Lord, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments : wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper? where/ore are all they happy that deal very treacherously?^ Habakkuk acknowledges indeed that Judah's chastise- ment is deserved ; hut he ' contrasts the guilt of the heathen foe Mitli the relative "righteousness" of Judali, and confidently appeals to God for the chastisement and expulsion of the invader."- The book falls into three parts. C'liap. i. opens with an appealing cry to Jeliovah : How long is the wicked destined to prosper.'' In verse 6 the answer is given that a day of retrilnition is near at hand. Tlie lawlessness and iniquity prevalent in Judah shall be brought to an end : already the Chaldteans are being raised up as instruments of divine judgment. In verse 12 Habakkuk renews his appeal. Tliis time he thinks of Judah's chastisement as inflicted by a brutal and oppressive power which in its turn must surely perish. ' He complaineth that vengeance should be executed by tliem who are far worse.' -^ AV^hy does the righteous nation suffer so long.'' why is it meshed in the drag-net of the heathen oppressor .'' Ohs. — It is fair to say that the above interpretation is open to several serious objections, but in view of the conflict of opinion between critics respecting the stnicture of ch. i., and the precise references implied in the jirophet's complaints, I adhere for the jjresent to what may be called the traditional account of the chapter. For a recent discussion, see G. A. Smith, Minor P7-02)hets, vol. ii. p. 115 ff. ^ Op. Pss. xi. and Ixxiii. ^ Montefiore, Hihhert Lectures, p. 206. 3 Ch. i., A.V. (heading). THE BOOK Of" HABAKKUK 51 Chap. ii. opens with a picture of the prophet waiting silently for some response to his pleading. In verse -i the answer is given — an oracle which is perhaps to he en- graved on a tablet and publicly exhibited in the city (cp. Isa. viii. 1 ; xxx. 8). Behold, Itiii (the Chaldaean's) soul is puffed up; it is not upright in him; hut the Just shall live by his faith. ' For the true Israel, liis integrity^ liis trustworthiness, his constancy, the correspondence of his nature to God's eternal law, constitute a principle of permanence ; he cannot perish, but is destined to live through all the cataclysms and convulsions which are to shake the world.' ^ Tlien follows a 'taunt song,' pro- nouncing a five-fold woe for the sins of the Chaldapans : their insatiable extortion, their lust of conquest, their cruelty, their cunning deceitfulness, their idolatry. Chap. iii. contains a prayer based on the words of ii. 4, The just shall live Inj his faith. This sublime hymn is the utterance of faith, confident and patient in spite of long and wearisome delay. In prophetic vision Habakkuk beholds the advent of Jehovah to judge and redeem His people. He describes it in language coloured by the won- derful deliverances of the past. And wlien the prophet asks tlie reason of this great theophany, he receives the answer (1.'5 ff.) that Jehovah is manifesting Himself and marcliing like a warrior over the earth yb;- the salvation of His people ; and that He comes to overthrow the kicked one who stands as an adversary over against Jehovali's anointed one. It is noteworthy that evil is here spoken of as if concentrated in a single personality, the wieked one, an expression which seems to include both the Chal- d;ean and e\ery other God-denying power to the end of time. In the concluding verses (16-1'J) the prophet declares his unshaken confidence and joy in God. Ohs. — Ch. iii. is by some regarded as a post-exilic composition, of liturgical character, displa3'ing affinities with some of the later psalms. It is headed like a psalm ' A prater of Habakkuk the prophet' (cp. Pss. xvii., xc, etc.), and has a musical subscription. Hence the question has been raised whether the chapter is i)re- exilic, but the point is likely to remain uncertain. 1 Kirkpatrick, op. cit. p. 273. 52 JEREMIAH Jeremiah, circ. 626-586. — ^Ve must now go back in thought to the thirteenth year of King Josiah (626) when Jeremiah first publicly appeared as a prophet. He belonged to a priestly family, and lived at the village of Anathoth, a few miles north of Jerusalem. He began to prophesy in 626 (i. 2), and apparently continued to do so till the close of the year 586, after the capture of Jerusalem. In the early chapters of Jeremiah's book (i.-vi.), we probably find the substance of his preaching at a time when the abuses introduced by Manasseh still flourished. Ch. i. describes the prophet's call. As a preacher of judgment, he is to bear the burden of re- proach and isolation : They shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee. Chh. ii.-vi. consist of a continuous discourse, describing the idolatry, treachery and ingrati- tude of Judah, who like a faithless spouse has left her first love, and has changed her glorg in order to follow a multitude of strange gods. Like Hosea, Jeremiah de- nounces the faithlessness whicli sought to make alliance with Egypt and Assyria (ii. 18, 36); but appeals and promises alternate with rebukes and remonstrances. Even for the sinful nation a way of penitence and pardon is opened if it will return (iii. 12 ff.). In iv. 3-vi. 20, the inevitable chastisement of Judah's sin is foretold. A pitiless foe is to descend upon her from the north, whose onward marcli shall spread terror and desolation. The prophet dwells on the moral causes provoking this calamity, especially the ti'eachery and faithlessness of the prophets and the priests ; and insists upon the near ap- proach of the danger. We cannot be far wrong in sup- posing that Jeremiah is here alluding to the fearful invasion of the Scythians already mentioned. But it is possible that the discoui-se was re-edited at a later time, and was 'accommodated by the prophet to the Chaldseans, who, in the interval, had become Judah's most formidable foe.' ^ It is uncertain however how much of Jeremiah's book belongs to tbe reign of Josiah. It is manifest that the reformation in the fifth year after 1 Driver, Introduction, p. 238. THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY 53 Jeremiah's call (621) did not produce any lasting amend- ment ; probably chli. vii.-x. (excluding x. 1-10, which is apparently a misplaced section) belong to the beginning of Jehoiakim's reign (circ. 608). History of Judah, 640-621. — In order however to get a clear idea of Jeremiah's times, we must briefly trace the history of Judah after the death of IVIanasseh in 641. Manasseh's son Anion was murdered by some of his ser- vants in the second year of his reign (2 Kings xxi. 23). The murderers were put to death, and Anion's son Josiali, a child of eight years, was placed on the throne (689). The government of Judah was practically in the hands of a group of princes and nobles, who are described in the book of Zephaniah as_/;7//«^ ///e/r master's house ivith vio- lence and deceit (i. 9), and who connived at all the abuses which Manasseh's reign had introduced. Meanwhile, the adherents of the prophets were biding their time, but it Mas not till the eigliteenth year of Josiah's reign (621) that a brighter day seemed to dawn. The Book of Deuteronomy. — In this year the law-book was discovered in the temple by tlie priest Hilkiah. The precise origin and date of the book is as yet uncertain, but it seems to have consisted of the greater portion of the book of Deuteronomy, and its date may be approxi- mately fixed by comparing its teaching with that of the eighth-century prophets. Its leading characteristic is that it provides for the purification of Jehovah's worship by centralising the cultus at Jerusalem. Its authors were anxious to strike a blow at the chief causes of religious corruption in Judah : the existence of the local sanctu- aries, and the possibilities of intercourse with the alien inhabitants of Canaan. ^ The book was immediately brought to the young king and read aloud in his presence. Josiah was greatly alarmed by the severity of its teaching, and instantly re- solved to carry out a drastic reformation of religion based strictly upon the provisions of the newly discovered code. The temple was first thorouglily purged of all idolatrous 1 For a brief but excellent sketch of Deuteronomy, and of the circumstances mider which it was compiled, see Prof. Bennett's Primer of the Bible, ch. vi. 54 JOSIAH'S REFORMATION emblems and usages ; the gloomy valley of Toplieth, wliei-e the terrible rites of JVIolocli had been carried on, was defiled, togetlier with other sanctuaries which had been dedicated to the worship of foreign deities. Finally a determined effort was made, by the ruthless destruction of the local ' high places/ to restrict all sacrificial worship to the temple at Jerusalem. Thus the objects which the writers of the book had in view were to a great extent fulfilled. The enforcement of the newly-found law-book was a death-blow to the popular worship of centuries. Sacrifice necessarily ceased to be an ordinary incident in the religious life of the Israelite ; the practice of it was restricted to the three great religious feasts, when every male Isi-aelite was bound to appear before Jehovah (Dent, xvi. l(j). It is unnecessary to describe in further detail the efi^ects of the discovery of this book. It was vni- doubtedly a turning-point in the religious history of Israel. It was a proplietic appeal to the highest and most spiritual ideas still cherished by devout members of the nation. It embodied the moral teacliing which was most characteristic of tlie prophets, and by its publication the foundations of a canon of scripture were laid. Moreover it is important to observe that the book of Deuteronomy furnished the point of view from which the annals of tlie nation were studied and compiled. The ancient records were carefully collected and edited, with comments and explanations which are written in the spirit of Deuteronomy. Indeed, a regular school of writers seems to have formed itself, imbued with the teaching of the book, and reproducing its special charac- teristics in their literary work. Jeremiah's prophetic writings bear plain tokens of the ^ prophet's acquaintance with the book of Deuteronomy. It seems very probable tliat in his eleventh chapter, where he speaks of the trorrl\ of this covenant, he is alluding to passages in Deuteronomy ; ^ and it has even been thought that Jeremiah visited Jerusalem and other centres of population, in order to set forth the teaching contained in the newly-discovered law-book, and to inculcate its 1 See xi. 2, 3, 8, and cp. Deut. xxvii. 2G. DEATH OF JOSIAH 55 observance. But in spite of the effort made by the pro- phetic party, Josiali's reformation jtrodnced no permanent results. It undoubtedly led to a complete removal of the outward emblems of idolatry, but it had little or no effect on the deep-seated moral corruption of the ruling- classes. It was arrogantly assumed tliat Jehovah's favour was sufficiently secured by the purification of His worship. The people, perverting; in a one-sided direction Isaiah's teaching-, ' pointed to the temple standing in the midst as the palladium of their security.' ^ The prophet's stern denunciation of this infatuated confidence and his calls to repentance fell on deaf ears. The period of Nineveh's decline was one of comparative tranquillity in the history of Judah. In the year 609, the city of Nineveh was again besieged by the Medes, aided apparently by the Babylonians, who had thrown off tlie Assyrian yoke. It was at this moment, when his inveterate foe seemed to be paralysed, that Necho ii., king of Egypt, determined to annex to liis dominions a portion of the vast empire which seemed to be on the verge of dissolution. With a strong force he advanced into Palestine, perhaps with the idea of extending the limits of his empire from the Nile to the Euphrates. Josiah determined to resist this advance. At Megiddo, on the plain of Esdraelon, a bloody conflict took place, in Mhich Josiah himself was slain, and his army defeated. By the king's death (G09), the last hopes of Judah seemed to be (juenclied. After a reign of three months, Jehoahaz, tlie son and successor of Josiah, was put in chains at Riblah, while his brother Eliakim (Jehoiakim), was set up as tributary king of Judah by the Egyptian monarch, wlu) was now ' over-lord ' of Judah. The death of Josiah was indeed a fatal blow to the hopes of the prophetic party in Judah. It was followed by a reaction and relapse into the abuses and idolatries of Manasseh's reign. Practically the effect of the disaster on the nation was to divide them into an apostate party which openly abandoned Jehovah, and a band of soi-disant patriots, who hoped by means of 1 Driver's Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, p. 25.3. 56 THE WARNINGS OF JEREMIAH costlier aud more frequent sacrifices to win back the lost favour of Jehovah^ and to secure the inviolability of Jerusalem. Hence the fanatical zeal for the temple and its sacrifices, which is presupposed in such a passage as Jer. vii. , as if the temple was a visible guarantee of Jehovah's protection. The prophetic call to moral re- formation was forgotten ; the manifest signs of coming judgment were ignored ; and Jeremiah found himself practically alone in his opposition to the religious policy of the king, and in his unwearied denunciation of the iniquities and idolatries by which Jeho\'ah's name was profaned. Accordingly, in his seventh chapter, which apparently contains the substance of a discourse delivered in the temple-courts on a feast day, when the sanctuary was thronged by worshippers from every part of Judah, the projihet vehemently reproves the vain confidence of the people who trusted in lying icords and imagined that the temple was inviolable. He had already pointed to a coming time in which men should say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it: neither shall that be done any more (iii. IG). He now predicts the overthrow of the temple itself. The people had fatally mistaken the true conditions of security. They trusted in the multitude of their sacrifices as if these were a compensation for greed and cruelty, for coarse superstition and faithless un- belief. It was not long before the warnings of Jeremiah were fulfilled. In 601 Nebuchadnezzar actually advanced into Judfea, and Jehoiakim became his vassal. Three years later, instigated apparently by Necho, the king rebelled (598). The inevitable troul)les which followed this rash step had scarcely begun before Jehoiakim died (597), and was succeeded by Jehoiachin, his son. Within three months Nebuchadnezzar's army appeared before Jerusalem and laid siege to it. Resistance was hopeless. Jehoiachin surrendered, and at once a large deportation of the inhabitants took place. The flower of the nation Mas thus carried into exile. The inhabitants who remained were placed under Jehoiachin's uncle (Mattaniah), a THE RUIN OF JERUSALEM 57 young man of tvveuty-oue^ whose name was changed to Zedekiah. After a long time of comparative seclusion^ Jeremiah now reappeared as the counsellor of submission to the supremacy of Babylon. Respecting the condition of things in the city, we derive some information not only from Jeremiah but also from Ezekiel, who was probably one of the captives renn)ved in 597. Both prophets speak of the fearful condition of tilings — the increase of idolatry of a most debased type ; the cruelty and injustice of tlie rulers; the fanatical and misguided patriotism of the populace. Jeremiah gives us an insight into the character and teaching of those false prophets, or false patriots, who proclaimed that Jehovah's anger was satisfied, and that the deliverance of the exiles was imminent. Hananiah (Jer. xxviii.) is mentioned as prominent among these blind guides of his countrymen^ and his speedy doom is foretold. It is evident that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel now regarded the exiles in Babylon, who were objects of contemjit to the degenerate populace of Jerusalem, as the true Israel of the future. These Jeremiah comforts with gracious promises, even while he counsels present submission to a lot which in individual cases must have seemed undeserved (xxix.). He assures the exiles that in the peace of the laud of their captivity, they shall have peace (xxix. 7). Trusting, as his misguided predecessors had done, to the hope of Egyptian support, Zedekiah broke faith with Babylon and re\'olted. In rapid succession followed the final siege of Jerusalem and its destruction after eighteen months in 586. The walls of the city were razed ; the temple was burned ; the king was carried into captivity and his eyes were put out ; several thousands of the people were deported. A miserable remnant was left behind ; over these Gedaliah was appointed governor, and established himself at Mizpeh. Throughout this terrible period Jeremiah never wavered, in spite of persecution and wrongful imprison- ment, in preaching the duty of submission to the king of BabyloJi as the one hope of safety. His sufferings must have been severe. He was regarded as a traitor to 58 JEREMIAH'S TEACHING his country, and on more than one occasion harely escaped with his life. Even after tlie fall of the city the interval of comparative tranquillity was brief. A baud of fanatics, headed by Ishmael, a member of the royal house, treacherously murdered Gedaliah, and the remnant of the people, in spite of Jeremiah's warnings, fled into Egypt. ' There, amid mournful surroundings of obstinate idolatry, his teaching spurned and mis- understood, his country waste and desolate, the curtain falls upon the great prophet's life in darkness and desolation.'^ According to a Jewish tradition he was stoned to death liy his compatriots, yet all his predictions had been literally fulfilled before his death. Jerusalem was a heap of ruins ; its inhabitants were settled in the land of exile ; the monarchy of Judah, the centre of such high hopes, was extinct ; the land lay utterly desolate ; as the chronicler says. She kept sabbath, to fulfil three- score and ten years.^ The Teaching of Jeremiah. — Jeremiah is sometimes compared to Hosea, and the two prophets are certainly alike in their deep religious interest, and in the tender- ness of heai't which made them specially the messengers of Jehovah's outraged love. Jeremiah is a signal ex- ample of those who by the grace of God out of weakness are made strong. His sensitive and somewhat timid nature shrank with fear from the burden of his awful commission (i. 4ff. ). He trembled at the thought that he was called to be an exponent of the divine purpose for Israel and for the nations in an age of universal unrest and convulsion (i. 10). But he was destined to prove the sustaining power of divine grace. Alone he was able to face the opposition of the whole land, its kings, its princes, its ])riests, its people. Again and again a cry of anguish breaks from him as he realises his isolation, and the overwhelming difficulties of his task (ix. 1, XV. 10 ff.). We only know of one faithful ad- herent of Jeremiah, namely Baruch, with whose as- sistance he committed his prophetic discourses to writing : both those denunciations of national sin which he had ^ iMontefiore, ojJ. cit. j). 208. - 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21. JEREMIAH'S TEACHING 59 delivered at various times during the first tweuty-tliree years of his ministry, and tliose words of consolation which foretold tlie restoration of tlie exiles (xxx.- xxxiii. ). Jeremiah's ministry has been truly described as ' a life-long martyrdom ' ; his life was constantly in danger from the inhabitants of his own city Anathoth (xi. 18 ff.), and even from his own familiar friends (xx. 10). Some have even supposed that the picture of the i\lan of Sorrows in Isa. liii., was primarily suggested by the afflictions of Jeremiah. It remains to consider some of the characteristic doctrines of the prophet. Like Hosea, he represents the bond tliat unites Jehovah to His sinful people as a marriage tie (ii. 2), and sometimes as tlie relationship of father to son (xxxi. 9). But there is a note of hope in Hosea's book which finds only a faint echo in the earlier propliecies of Jeremiah, and in later portions of his book is altogether silenced. The prophet is commanded not even to intercede for his people : Pray thou not for thin people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee (vii. 16; cp. XV, 1 ; Ezek. xiv. 1 4). It was in view of the hopeless outlook that Jeremiah seems to liave abandoned the expectation of any general I'esponse on the part of the obdurate nation to his appeals and warnings. He could only look to the future, and his gaze was specially fixed, as we have seen, on the exiles who were now bearing the penalty of the national unfaithfulness. From the ashes of the old nation a new should emerge. The issue of the judgment which had descended on Israel, would be the merciful fulfilment of Jehovah's eternal purpose of grace. The true Israel would survive the deluge of calamity, and should ex- perience the everlasting loving-kindness of Jehovah (xxxi. 3, 20, etc.). Tlie worthless kings under whose feeble sway Judah had been hurried to its fall, should be succeeded by a godly king ruling in peace over a re- generate people (xxiii. 5, G) ; the ruined city should be rebuilt and dwell safely, and bear the name already promised to the Messianic king, Jehovah Tsidkenu (xxiii. 6, xxxiii. IG). Most distinctive, however, of GO THE NEW COVENANT Jeremiah is his prophecy of a New Covenant — a covenant of which g-race, not law, should be the special charac- teristic. The experience of ages had proved the failure of the old covenant to fulfil the purpose for which it was instituted. That covenant was inherently defective. IL was powerless to secure the obedience it enjoined; it was burdensome as a law of positive precepts and ordinances ; in relation to the removal of sin^ it was hopelessly ineffective. Already it was waxing old^ and ready to vanish aivay (Heb. viii. 13). Prophecy could only look to the future for a new covenant of grace, under which the heart of Israel should be renewed unto holiness, and the ideal calling of the nation be realised by the free action of Jehovah's love. Under this new covenant, the law of Jehovah should be written in the heart ; each soul should have immediate knowledge of God, and the clinging burden of defilement and sin should be removed (xxxi. 33 ff'.). It sliould be an everlasting cove- nant (xxxii. 40 ff.), uniting Jehovah to His people for evermore. Another trait peculiar to Jeremiah is liis deeply spiritual conception of religion. The religion of the future is not only to be without tlie emblems peculiar to the old worship (the ark, etc., iii. 16). Jeremiah con- ceives it as involving an immediate relationship between God and the individual soul. They shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them (xxxi. 34). The circumcision of the future should be that of the heart (Jer. xxxii. 39 ; cp. Deut. xxx. 6). True religion should consist in a heart obedient and devoted to Him who tries the reins and the heart. ^ And this spiritualisa- tion of religion in\'olved not only the doctrine of personal responsibility (xxxi. 29), but also the possibility of an immediate contact between the Creator and the human soul as such. In this lay hope for the heathen world. There was a natural aflfinity between the soul of man and God (xvi. 19), and in coming to recognise the God of Israel as the true God, even the heathen would find their 1 Jer. xi. 20 ; xvii. 10 ; xx. 12. Some have thought that this expression was first used by Jeremiah. THE PROPHECY OF OBADIAH 61 place in the Messianic kingdom of tlie future. The grace of Jehovali sliould not only accomplish the divine purpose concerning Israel, but should welcome into loving fellow- ship the nations outside the pale of the chosen people (see iii. 17; iv. 2; xvi. 19; xxxiii. 9). Prophecy thus looked to Jehovah Himself, and to Him alone, for the final accomplishment of His purposes concerning mankind and Israel in particular. In this prophetic expectation of a great display oi grace, a new epoch in the liistory of religion begins. The prophets have been justly called ^the spiritual destroyers of old Israel'; for they became the pioneers of a new era when they fore- told the establishment on earth of a spiritual kingdom which was to be the true goal of Israel's development ; a kingdom no more dependent on accidents of position or on material resources, but on the renewing power of Jehovah's Spirit — a power effectually removing sin, and writing the law on the heart of man. ^ The short prophecy of Obadiah may be mentioned at this point, because of its close connection with a passage in Jeremiah (xlix. 7-22). It seems most probable that both prophets were dependent upon some common original," older than either, which Jeremiah has altered and expanded, while Obadiah seems to have incorporated it with little alteration. A\^e may notice here that verses 10-14 seem to allude to the events of .586, but the book as a whole, in its present form, appears to belong to a later period, when an intense hatred of Edom possessed the restored exiles. This animosity appears in other passages, e.g. Lam. iv. 21, Ezek. xxv. 12 ff. and xxxv., Isa. xxxiv., and Mai. i. 1-.5. The Je«s were never able to forgive the wicked exultation with which the Edomites hailed the downfall of Jerusalem. The book of Obadiah, however, will be considered in a later cliapter. 1 It is impossible here to discuss the complicated and difficult literary problems presented by the book of Jeremiah. The reader is referred to Dr. Driver's Introdvction, Dr. Cheyne's Commentary on Jeremiah (Cambridge Bible for Schools), and the brief sketch in Professor Bennett's Primer of the Bible, chap. iii. 2 The older prophecy probably consists of Obad. 1-9, which, as Dr. Driver remarks, contains no special allusion to the events of B.C. 58G {Introd. p. 319). CHAPTER IV THE PROPHETS OF THE EXILE The period of the exile exercised an influence of profound and far-reaching importance on Israel's history. It gave birth to that type of religion Mhich we call Judaism. It transformed a nation into a cliurch. It produced a sharp separation between the mass of the people, destitute of that living faith in Jehovah which might have resisted the disintegrating effects of the surrounding idolatry, and the little band of true Israelites who clung to the teaching of the prophets. In the ruin of Judah, and in the destruction of the temple and city, the prophetic religion had finally triumphed over the ancient and popular type of worship. The semi-heathen conception of Jehovah as a merely national god, who was bound in any case to befriend His chosen people, and who only needed to be propitiated by an elaborate system of sacrifice, had disappeared for ever. We have a few scattered hints which throw light upon the condition and feelings of the faithful remnant in exile. The later chapters of Isaiah seem to indicate that this remnant had great sufferings to endure and displayed great constancy under them. Their trial was one both of faith and of endurance. The faithful must ha-\e felt keenly the tragic irony of events, which had brought an overwhelming disaster, rendered inevitable by national sin, upon a generation which had displayed at least some inclination towards good, and had earnestly set itself to seek Jehovah in His own appointed way. On the other hand, a large mass of the Jews seem to have fallen away during the exile into idolatry. AVith no living or 62 EZEKIEL G3 intelligent faitli in Jehovah to sustain them, the lukewarm and worldly-minded practically abandoned their religion, and taunted those who stood firm in their devotion to a lost cause. Thus there grew up through the sifting process of national misfortune, a distinction between the idolatrous members of the nation and the faithful servants or chosen ones of God, who though they were oppressed, despised, and rejected even by their own countrymen, yet clung to the spiritual hopes and promises of which the prophets had been the guardians and witnesses. It is to these that the consolatory discourses of Jeremiah and Ezekiel are addressed. Indeed, during the period of Ezekiel's ministry in Babylon, the sifting process was actually going on. Ezekiel is the prophet of the earlier portion of the exile, and he owed his commanding influence chiefly to his inspired insight into the divinely-ordained purpose and meaning of the calamity which had o^'ertaken the nation. Ezekiel, circ. 592-570. — Like Jeremiah, whose personal disciple he had probably been, Ezekiel was a priest as well as a prophet. He was apparently a member of the first band of captives who were carried to Babylon in .597. There he settled at Tel A])ib, by the river Chebar, where a colony of the exiles seems to have been planted. Five years later, i.e. some few years before the final destruc- tion of the temple, Ezekiel entered on his public ministry as a prophet, and the ])eriod of his activity probably lasted for rather more than twenty years. The first part of his l)ook is mainly concerned with the impending ruin of Judah. Among the exiles there were many who fanatically clung to the hope that in some way tlie chastisement that had descended on the nation would be re\'ersed, or at least its extreme consequences averted. Accordingly, J]zekiel continued to denounce the sins of the people and the rulers, until the fall of Jerusalem confirmed the truth of liis warnings. Ezekiel combined with his proplietic ministrj' the func- tions of a preacher and shepherd of souls. He found himself charged with the solemn duty of keeping alive the religious hopes and instincts of his countrymen in the land of their captivity. We must think of the exiled 64 ISRAEL IN EXILE Jews, laot as reduced to the condition of slaves or serfs, but as living in organised settlements and enjoying a fair measure of toleration and even of civil liberty. The want of a temple was supplied by the holding of religious meetings beside the streams of Babylon, where services of prayer were held and acts of ceremonial purification were performed. Probably in course of time fixed forms of worship came into use and houses of prayer were erected, in which the exiles met for the reading of the law and public devotion. Not only in Babylon, but among the Jews of the dispersion generally, these syna- gogues or proseuchae became centres of religious life and spiritual influence.^ Moreover, it would seem that there was a continuous and regular intercourse between the exiles and those who still remained in Judtea,^ and just as Jeremiah wrote letters addressed to the captives in Babylonia (Jer. xxix., li. .59), so Ezekiel doubtless ad- dressed many of his prophecies to the inhabitants still remaining in Jerusalem. Ezekiel then appears to have exercised a regular pastoral ministry among his people ; he was a teacher of religion in a somewhat more special sense than the older prophets had been. It is true he resembles Isaiah in his prophetic method — in his visions of the glory of Jehovah, and in his typical or symbolic actions (iv. 1, v. 1, etc. ); and he was in a sense the spiritual successor of Jeremiah, whose characteristic teaching he inherits and expands, especially the doctrine of individual responsibility (xviii.). But Ezekiel, in spite of the little we know of his personal history, was clearly a man of marked in- dividuality, who not only comprehended the peculiar spiritual needs of his time, but had the force of will and character to direct a movement destined to be of incalcul- able importance in the development of Judaism, namely the gradual codification of the priestly law. Ezekiel has even been compared with such masterful personalities as Gregory vii. and Calvin, as one who by sheer energy of character and force of thought impressed an ineffaceable stamp on the religion of his age. ^ Cp. Ezek. viii, 1, xiv. 1, xx. 1. ~ Ezek. xi. 2, xvii. 11 ff. THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL Go (a) Ezekiel's book falls into three divisions — the first (i.-xxiv. ) containing the prophecies intervening between the prophet's call and the destruction of Jerusalem. In these the prophet's work was to dispel the illusions to which many of his countrymen in exile obstinately clung. Like Jeremiah, he sternly denounces the false prophets, who fed the captives with vain hopes, and flattered the remnant in Jerusalem with the suggestion that the tyranny of Chaldaea was already overpast. On the other hand, Ezekiel consoles the exiles in their depression with spiritual promises, not merely of a final restoration to their ancient home, but also of a renewed heart and will, which should enable them to keep the covenant which they had broken (xi. 16 ff.). At the same time, it Mas his task to deepen the impression made by the more personal religious teaching of Jeremiah : to educate in the faithful a consciousness of personal accountability for sin, and to foretell the advent of a time when consciences should be cleansed and hearts renewed by the gift of Jehovah's Spirit. This teaching was the more necessary in view of the apathy and faithless despair which pre- vailed among the exiles. They either murmured against God : The way of the Lord, they cried, is unequal — the sins of their forefathers were being expiated by a blame- less generation (xviii. 25 ; xxxiii. 17) ; or they sank crushed beneath the sense of their calamities : Our transgressions and our sins are upon us, and we pine away in them. How then should we live? (xxxiii. 10). The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge (xviii. 2). In opposition to this frame of mind Ezekiel insists on the inevitable necessity of Judah's chastisement. He reviews the entire past history of the nation and brings out its essential character, as a long course of ingratitude and trans- gression, in which Judah has behaved far worse than the heathen, than Samaria, than even Sodom herself (xvi. ). But combined with these warnings of judg- ment, we find that personal appeal to individual souls which is characteristic both of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jehovah has no pleasure in the death of him that dieth (xviii. 32). The individual soul is of great price in His 66 THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL eyes. Thus Ezekiel exercises a true pastorate of souls. Even his iVIessianic pictures represent the future prince as a good shepherd, who seeks the lost and gathers the dispersed— in contrast with the shepherds or rulers of Israel who have abused their sacred trust (xxxiv.). Ezekiel in fact regards his own prophetic office in a somewhat new light : the prophet is a watchman, personally responsible for each soul intrusted to his care, and the significance of Ezekiel's conception of his office is that it marks a turning-point in the world-wide extension of Israel's religion. 'A spiritual religion can no longer be a merely national religion ; the law that can be written on the single human heart is a law for mankind. On the sense of individual relationship to God a world-religion can be founded, for God is one and His Spirit one.' ^ (b) The second part of Ezekiel's book consists of a selection of prophecies concerning the nations, especially Tyre and Egypt (xxv. -xxxii. ). These form a kind of intro- duction to the third part, which describes the judgments inflicted on the heathen nations, preparing the way for the restitution of Israel. The general purport of this second group of prophecies is to exalt Jehovah. He who has revealed to Israel His '^Name,' i.e. His unchangeable nature, and who has wrought all that He has wrought Jbr /lis nmne's .sake, manifests Himself to the nations. They shall know that I am the Lord (xxv. 5, 11, 14; xxviii. 26; xxix. IG, 21 ; xxx. 19, 26; xxxii. 1.5). The Name of the Lord shall be made known in the abasing of human pride, and in the chastisement of those heathen nations which have eitlier assailed Jehovah's people, or rejoiced over its calamities (xxv. 3, 8, 12, 15). AV'hen the heathen did despite to the chosen people, ' it was not a nationality among other nationalities that they injured, nor a mere tribal god whom they scorned ; ' ' they were doing despite to the people of Him who was God alone, and were injurious to the one living God.' * Alore- over, the self-exaltation of a Tyre or an Egypt detracted 1 Bampton Lectures (1897), p. 324. 2 Davidson, The Book of Ezekiel (Camb. Bible for Schools), pp. 179, 180. THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL 67 from the glory of Him who is alone exalted. lu presence of the transcendent majesty of Jehovah, the crowning virtue of man is huniility. Hence Ezekiel always speaks of himself as a sou of man, an expression which indicates the weakness and nothingness of human nature in com- parison witli tlie Creator. {e) The third part of the hook (xxxiii.-xlviii.) contains positive prophecies of Israel's restoration, and the re-con- stitution of the divine kingdom. It begins with a descrip- tion of the function of tlie true prophet (xxxiii.), followed by an ideal sketch of the true ruler or shepherd of God's people (xxxiv. ). This is followed by a vivid picture of the spiritual transformation of the land and of its inhabitants by the renewing agency of Jehovah's Spirit (xxxv. , xxxvi. ). Then follows, first, a picture of the resurrection of the nation from the death of exile, and of its subsequent sanctification through the presence of Jehovah dwelling in the midst of His people (xxxvii.); and secondly, an apocalyptic vision of the invasion of Israel in the latter days by Gog and Magog (xxxviii. , xxxix.). The book concludes with a symbolic picture of the condition of the restored people in their own land. This vision of salvation and re- demption forms a kind of ideal programme of the future sanctuary and its worship : ' A nobler temple and a purer worship will be called into existence, answering to an ideal which had never yet been realised ; Jehovah will return to dwell in the midst of His regenerate people ; a life-giving stream will issue from the temple and fertilise the desert ; the curse of barrenness will be removed (xl.-xlviii.).'i The main element in Ezekiel's prophecies which exer- cised a decisive influence on the future was his conception of Israel as a holy communitij sanctified by the indwelling presence of Jehovah. Thus he supplements the teaching of Jeremiah respecting personal religion by the thought of a church or community in which the renewed per- sonality might find an appropriate home and sphere of education. He looks upon the individual Israelite not merely as a soul to be disciplined and trained in the 1 Kirkpatrick, op. cit. p. 336. 68 LEADING IDEAS OF EZEKIEL way of righteousness^ but as a possible member of a church — a visible church having definite organisation and clear-cut structure. Ezekiel in fact aimed at securing the remnant in exile against the danger of being simply absorbed in the surrounding heathendom. He recognised the need of definite and peculiar institutions to mark Israel's separate and distinctive character. Thus he insisted on the observance of tlie Sabbath as a funda- mental institution of Judaism, as a sign between Jehovah and His people (Ezek. xx. 12). On .each Sabbath day Israel was to realise its unique privileges as a holy people of God, and it was to endeavour to make its daily life correspond with its heavenly calling. The purity of family life especially was to be rigorously guarded, and the duty of loving-kindness towards brethren faithfully practised. In this way the scattered remnant of Israel would be com- pacted together by the closest ties of brotherhood. In the vision of the New Jerusalem, which closes his book, we note the influence on the prophet of the teach- ing of Deuteronomy. The temple is the religious centre of the Holy Land, and worship is the principal act of the nation's corporate life. The ruler (or ' prince ' as Ezekiel calls him) has no judicial work in a nation where Jehovah Himself by the gift of a new heart and spirit secures the perfect observance of His law, and by mira- culous intervention wards off the assaults of heathen foes. The prince is simply a representative of the nation in its religious capacity ; his chief function is to care for the temple and to defray the cost of the sacrificial worship by receiving the religious offerings of the people. In these chapters we find the first sketch of an ideal theocracy^the state having been transformed, so to speak, into a congregation or cliurch. The idea that underlies the entire sketch is, as we have seen, that of a community sanctified by the indwelling presence of Jehovah : The name of the city from that day shall he, Jehovah i$ there (xlviii. 35). The Messianic picture of Ezekiel's earlier chapters melts into a vision characteristic of the priestly class to which the prophet belonged : the vision of Jehovah's enthronement and permanent pre- sence in the midst of His people. LEADING IDEAS OF EZEKIEL 09 We have noticed that Ezekiel may he regarded on the one hand as a preacher of penitence and a pastor of souls ; on the otlier^ as a prophet whose function it was to mould the thought and direct the aims of the future. As a preacher his task was to inculcate true ideas of God : ' to create a true religious hopefulness in the mercy of God, and a true religious humility as to the merits of man ' ^ ' Humility combined with hope,' — this was his message to the exiles. The duty of humility was in fact based upon the self-revelation of God, and a large part of Ezekiel's work may be correctly described as 'theodicy,' i.e. the endeavour to justify to man the dealings of Jehovah with His people. The vindication of the divine Majesty demanded on the one hand the chastisement of an idolatrous and rebellious people ; on the other hand, it must be guarded from such profana- tion in the eyes of the heathen as would be involved in Israel's utter destruction. In this transcendent idea of Jehovah's glory, and of the honour of His Name, is rooted Ezekiel's view of the past and his hope for the future. His conception of the nation's pre^'ious history is dark and pessimistic, and it closely resembles the view which evidently dominated the compilers and editors of the historical books. Israel's past career has been a long story of apostasy and rebellion on the nation's ])art, and of long-suffering tenderness on the part of Jehovah. But in the age-long loving-kindness of God, Ezekiel finds hope for the future. He believes that Israel will rise to the fulfilment of its ideal calling, not through any effort or repentance of its own, but as the result of Jehovah's grace. Jehovah will bestow upon His people « new heart, and put a new spirit within them, thus enabling them to keep His covenant and to execute His will (xxxvi. 26). The promise of divine grace is also a call to individual self-humiliation. As we have seen, the exiles were oppressed with the moral difficulty involved in their present forlorn condition. How was it that jtidgment had descended indiscriminately on the good and on the evil, — on those who faithfully served 1 Montefiore, op. cit. p. 245. 70 LEADING IDEAS OF EZEKIEL Jehovah and those who regarded Him not ? Surely the fathers had eaten sour grapes, and the chitdren's teeth were set on edge. Ezekiel does not attenijjt directly to meet this difficulty. He confines himself to delivering God's present message : the soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not hear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son (xviii. 20). Tlie doctrine of individual responsibility is stated without qualification^ and in a way tliat raises furtlier inevitable questionings ; but the teaching of Ezekiel at least pre- pai'es the way for a more satisfying theory as to the relation of the individual to God. Thus the book of Ezekiel ju-actically ends with a message of hope. The exiles who are crushed by the overwhelming burden of their sins, who pine away in their iniquities, are bidden not to despair. They have but to cast away their trans- gressions, to turn themselves and live (xviii. 81, 32). The prophet, in fact, proclaims the gospel of God's unchangeable goodwill towards man. His call to true repentance, and His free offer of cleansing and renewing grace. On the other hand, as a jjrophet Ezekiel may be fairly described as one of tlie founders of Judaism, for the ideas, which he inlierits from the older prophecy, are set in a framework of legalism. But the prophet is chiefly concerned witli the re-constitution of the nation on a basis corresponding to its ideal vocation. The sketch of a new sanctuary and worship doubtless exer- cised a powerful influence on the priestly legislation of the Pentateuch. It set before Israel a new hope — a hope whicli answered to the needs of a nation with none but a religious future before it. And it must l)e remem- bered that tliere underlies the vision of the restored temple a spiritual idea, that of Jehovali's everlasting presence witli His people, and further that a great moral change in the people is pre-supposed. The nation in the midst of whicli Jehovah sets up His sanctuary for evermore is a nation already prepared for His indwelling presence by an entire regeneration of heart and life. In spite of its legalistic framework, Ezekiel's vision of the New Jerusalem is the product of lofty spiritual hopes. LITERARY LABOURS OF THE EXILE 71 Literary activity during the Exile. — Ezekiel's ministry apparently ceased about the year 570, and the period ■which followed seems to have been comparatively un- eventful. It is most probable however that there was much literary activity among the Jews at this time. The historical annals of Israel's past were collected and gradually compiled in a permanent shape. Israel was, as it were, making an inventory of its spiritual posses- sions. ^ The historical books are in fact specimens of 'applied prophecy.' The editors and compilers make it their aim to explain Israel's present forlorn condition l)y reference to its past career. Hence the history is from one point of view essentially a theodicy. The calamities of Israel are uniformly regarded by the compilers as the necessary chastisement of national sin, especially of idolatry. The sins of Jeroboam and of Manasseh had brought upon Israel an inevitable retri1>ution which the short-lived repentance of the nation under Josiali was powerless to avert. But the pessimistic survey of the past was qualified by hopes of a brighter future, as the seventy years of exile predicted by Jeremiah began to draw towards their close. Indeed, with the death in 561 of Nebuchadnezzar, its greatest monarch and virtual second founder, the Babylonian empire began to fall into decay. In 550 Cyrus of Persia made himself master of Media. In 547 Nabomiedos, a pious, peaceful, and learned monarch, entered into a defensive alliance with Egypt, Lydia, and Sparta, against the growing power of Cyrus. Almost without effort Cyrus became master of Babylon in 5.'>8, and the hour of Israel's redemption from captivity had arrived. The second Isaiah, circ. 550. — It was a])parently in the period of Cyrus's earlier victories tliat the voice of pro- phecy was again raised by one of its most glorious representatives — the unknown prophet to whom the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah's book are usually as- cribed. It has been questioned by some modern critics whether these twenty-seven chapters all proceed from one author, but there is little doubt that about nineteen 1 See Additional Note A, p. 76. 72 THE SECOND ISAIAH of the twenty-seven may be i-easonably ascribed to this great unknown comforter of exiled Israel.^ For the characteristic message of the prophet is contained in his opening words, Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortnbly to Jerusalem (xl. 1). He seems to take up that word of consolation with which former prophets had usually closed their predic- tions of judgment. 'God's righteousness which erewhile could only he made manifest in judgment, must now be expressed in salvation.' ^ For Israel's deliverance was not merely the restoration of a despised and down-trodden people to its own land ; it was a decisive revelation of the character of Jehovah, and of those gracious purposes for the heathen of which Israel was called to be the instrument and minister. Hence the prophet combines with his message much theological teaching of which the main points are the following : — (rt) First, he proclaims the omnipotence of Jehovah. No human power can hinder His work, or arrest the fulfilment of His promises. Jehovah is the only God in heaven and earth, the sole ruler of the universe, the sole disposer of the fates of nations. In the second Isaiah the conception of God Himself as executing His own eternal purpose of grace, practically supersedes the vision of a Davidic Messiah, destined to be the divinely directed and triumphant deliverer of Israel. The Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him (xl. 10). Like a shepherd He will lead His scattered flock homeward to their ancient fold. The omnipotence of Jehovah — this then is the master- truth proclaimed by .the prophet. Hence the scorn which he lavishes upon the idols of the heathen, those helpless blocks of wood and stone to which vain man presumptuously likens God (xl. 18). The prophet can scarcely find words adequate to express his contempt. In comparison of the only God the idols are less than nothing and vanity (xl. 17). Jehovah alone is a personal being, having will, character, foresight, power. He alone can foretell the future (xliii. 9-lo, etc.) The prophet's 1 See Additional Note B, p. 77. " JMontefiore, op. cit. p. 265. HIS TEACHING 73 derisive challenge to produce instances in which tlie lieathen gods have predicted future events, meets with no response. Jehovah alone is the God of prophecy, the God who has long since foretold Israel's redemption from captivity, and whose predictions, uttered by the mouth of His messengers, have been already repeatedly accom- plished. Indeed, the teaching of the prophet on this theme amounts to a sustained polemic, the more impas- sioned perhaps because in Babylon idolatry was practised on such an imposing scale, and must have produced on the exiled Jews so overwhelming an impression. (b) Secondly, the originality of the second Isaiah is most clearly seen, in his indication of the instrument through whom Israel's deliverance is to be accomplished. No prince of Hebrew descent, no scion of David's house, is to be the restorer of Israel, but the Persian monarch whose rapid series of conquests was already, no doubt, enkindling the hopes of the exiles. / have raised up one from the north, and he shall come: front the rising of the .sitn shall he call upon my name : and he shall come upon princes as upon mortar and as the potter treadeth clay (xli. 2.5). Cyrus is hailed as the shepherd of Jehovah, who shall perform all His pleasure (xliv. 28) ; as the anointed of Jehovah, before whom the strength of kings shall melt away, and the gates of brass and iron be broken in pieces (xlv. 1 ff.). But Jehovah's employment of Cyrus as His instrument is after all only an additional proof of that supreme sovereignty and power of initiative in the possession of which Jehovah is unique. The doctrine of Isaiah, that the moral government of Jehovah embraces the entire history of the world and that His purpose of grace accordingly extends to all nations, is expanded by the prophet of the exile into the doctrine that since Jehovah is the one God of the universe, Israel is His prophet and chosen servant charged with a mission to the heathen. For the sake of this elect servant the whole course of history is providentially guided and controlled, but the redemptive purpose of God embraces humanity at large. The goal of the world-movement is a catholic Church : Mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all peoples (Ivi. 7). 74 DOCTRINE OF JEHOVAH'S 'SERVANT' (c) Thirdly, to the newly-realised function- of Israel corresponds a title, which sets forth at once the truth of the nation's election, and the purpose whicli that election was designed to fulfil. Israel is the. servant of Jehovah. The title which had belonged to individuals like Moses, Joshua, and David, is now transferred to the nation itself viewed in its corporate capacity. To this ' servant ' the consolations and promises of Deutero-Isaiah are addressed (xli. 8-10). The servant is reminded of his splendid vocation — to be a light of the Gentiles, to open flie blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison-house (xlii. 5-7). The suffer- ings which the nation had undergone were divinely intended to prepare it for the fulfilment of its mission. But hitherto the chastisement has l)()rne fruit only in humiliation and distress. The actual Israel of the exile has utterly failed ; it has been brought low for its sins. It is blind, deaf, and ensnared (xlii. 18 ff. ), but neverthe- less its ideal character remains indelible. Tlie very iin- worthiness and weakness of Jehovah's chosen instrument serves to make it the more submissive to the divine lead- ing. Through its very sufferings, Israel is destined to bring blessing to the world, and so to accomplish the ancient promise concerning Abraham and his seed. There is, however, another division of the book in whicli the servant of Jehovah seems to be expressly dis- tinguished from the nation : tlie ultimate purpose of Jehovah, both for Israel and for the heathen, is to find accomplishment through the agency of one whom the nation at large despises and rejects. In xlix.-liii. the servant speaks as one conscious of a mission, both to his own people and to the (ientiles (xlix. 3 ff. ). lluis, whereas in the first nine chapters the whole nation is addressed as Jehovah's servant, the forty-nintli and follow- ing chapters speak of an individual person who seems to represent tlie ideal Israel, and successfully accomplishes the M'ork which the actual Israel had failed to achieve. This work is conceived, speaking broadly, as that of a divinely commissioned prophet, through wliose agency and teaching Israel is to be restored to its former estate, and the Gentile world is to be brought to a knowledge of the DOCTRINE OF JEHOVAH'S ^SERVANT' 75 true religion (xlii. l-O, xli.x. 5-8). At the hands of his own people the prophet is to meet witli contumely and contempt (1. 4-9). He is even to suffer vicariously for the sins of others, to he despised, rejected, and slain (liii.), hut only in order that through death he may rise to a new and glorified life of fruitfulness and power, in which he s/ia/l see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied^ (liii. 11, 12). On a general review of all the passages bearing upon the work and mission of the servant, the safest and most satisfactory conclusion seems to be that of Delitzsch and others. ' The idea of the servant of Jehovah, assumed, as it were, the form of a pyramid, the base was the people of Israel as a whole, the central section was Israel according to tlie Spirit, and the apex is the person of the mediator of salvation springing out of Israel. And tlie last of tlie tliree is regarded (1) as the centre of the circle of the promised kingdom — the second David ; (2) the centre of the circle of the people of sal- vation — the second Israel ; {■)) the centre of the circle of the human race — the second Adani.'^ This great conception of Jehovali's servant arose as the result of the circumstances in which Israel was now placed. Its fortunes were no longer bound up with those of the monarchy, for the royal house was well-nigh extinguished, and the throne of David cast down. Thus the figure of the king, which is so conspicuous in the projjhecies of Isaiah, finds no place in the pages of the exilic prophet. His hopes are rather fixed upon the suffering people of God, that faithful remnant wliich, through calamity, had come to realise the real significance of Israel's election, and the true tendency and drift of its entire history. One slight but clear indication of the later Isaiah's date appears in his vision of the future, which is coloured by the hopes and ideals of Judaism. Jeremiah, like the writer of Deuteronomy, had sj)oken of a circumcision of the heart, and of a spiritual worsliip without temple or ark ; but the second Isaiah conceives the holiness of the renewed Jerusalem somewhat as Ezekiel does, that is, as consisting in a perfect observance of the ceremonial law, and in the 1 Delitzsch on Isaiah xlii. 1. 76 CLOSE OF THE EXILE exaltation of Zion as the metropolis of nations. 'The Gentiles are regarded mainly from the point of view of increasing the wealth and glory of Israel by the services and tribute which they willingly pay to it' ^ (Ix.-lxii.). As in the case of Ezekiel however the idea underlying the vision of a restored worship and ceremonial is a purely spiritual one. The renewed glory of Jerusalem and of the temple arises from the fact tli;it Jerusalem is the fountain of religious truth to the universe. 'Jerusalem is the world's capital because Jehovah dwells there.' ^ The return from Exile, 537 B.C. — The liberation of the exiles probably followed within a few years after the last prophecies of the second Isaiah were uttered. With lightning-like rapidity Cyrus advanced and delivered his final blow. In the year 538 he entered Babylon^ and though from motives of policy as it seems he did not fulfil the prophet's hopes by putting an end to the idolatry of the great city, he gave permission both to the Jews and to exiles belonging to other nations to return to their own land. In .537, a start was made, and though a comparatively small company (42^360) availed themselves of Cyrus's permission, they were probably so selected as to be representative of the whole nation, and certainly the spiritual hopes of the Jewish people were bound up with their fortunes. Additional Note A Literary activity during the Exile For an admirable account of the gradual compilation of the historical books, see Professor Bennett's Primer of the Bible, part i. , ch. vi. Two schools of writers were successively at work during the exile: first, the 'Deuteronomic editors' who gathered together into a connected historical work the annals and other ancient documents relating to the earlier history of Israel. The result of their labours was 'the combina- tion of the double Prophetic document (JE) with an expanded edition of Josiah's law-book, and works which were substantially our Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The 1 Montefiore, op. cit. p. 281. " Ibid. p. 282. LITERARY POINTS 77 editing was done at different times and by different liands ; but the editors were alike devoted to the faith formulated in Deuteronomy, and their work must have had continuity and concert.' Tlie second school of writers was sacerdotal. It devoted itself to the task first of codifying the ancient 'Law of Holiness' (Lev. xvii.-xxvi., etc.), and perhaps at a later time of compiling the so-called 'priestly code' (P). This was not a new code of law, but rather a kind of exposition of all the ancient customs and usages con- nected with the Levitical priesthood, the national sanctuary and its worship. ' It consisted of a collection of laws set in a historical framework, furnished with a brief system of genealogies and chronology which extends in luibroken continuity from beginning to end.'' The priestly code was probably combined with the Deutero- nomic work above mentioned at the close of the exile, and thus the ' Pentateuch ' in its present form was prob- ably completed before Ezra visited Jerusalem in 4.58. Additional Note B The Authorship 0/ Isaiah xl.-lxvi. In the foregoing pages the above chapters of the book of Isaiah have been treated as forming a literary whole, but a careful examination of the book has led critics to distinguish between its different sections. The ' servant passages ' for instance are regarded as the work of one author (xlii. 1-4; xlix. 1-6; 1. 4-9; lii. 13-liii. 12); while certain chapters, e.g. Ivi. 9-lvii. 21, Iviii.-lix., seem to presuppose a situation quite other than that of the captivity. Again Ix.-lxii., and Ixiii.-lxvi., appear to presuppose the circumstances of a period long subsequent to the restoration. The whole question is very difficult and complicated, and for the present any expression of opinion by a non-expert would be premature. The reader is referred to Dr. Driver's Introduction, to a series of papers by Dr. Davidson in the Expositor for 1883, 1884, and to Dr. Cheyne's well-known works. 1 Bennett, op. cit. ch. viii. ; cp. Montefiore, Hihhert Lectures, No. vi. CHAPTER V AFTER THE EXILE The return of the Exiles. — ^V^itl^ tlie return from Babylon !i new epocli in Israel's history opens. Tlie iirst care of the restored exiles was to repair the ruined altar of burnt-offerings and to reorganise the sacrificial worship ; but the foundation of tlie temple had scarcely been laid before the opposition of the Samaritans ^ brought the Avork to a standstill (Ezra iii. , iv.). For about sixteen years this unhappy state of things continued^ until in 520 the voice of prophecy was again uplifted. The period was one of severe distress in Judsea, and of political excitement in the East. Judaea was suffering from pro- longed famine and scarcity ; and Darius had recently raised himself to the throne of Persia after its brief usurpation by a Magian adventurer (521). The temple was left unfinished^ but the progress of the work was hindered even more by the apathy of the exiles than by the hostility of the Samaritans. Haggai, 5*20 B.C. — It ^vas at this critical moment that the venerable prophet Haggai, who had apparently seen with his own eyes the city and temple before its destruction in 586, appeared to warn his countrymen that the present distress was a divine chastisement for the supiueness which had left the temple for nearly seventeen years in ruins. Is it time, he asked, for ye yourselves to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts. Consider your ways (Hag. i. 4, 5). It seems 1 This term is not strictly accurate ; it includes the descendants of the ten tribes, as well as the alien settlers who had been transplanted from Assyria (2 Kings xvii. 24). 78 HAGGAI 79 indeed that the Jews had been too easily daunted by the opposition of tlieir adversaries. They said to themselves that the time was not come for Jehovali's house to be built (Hag. i. 2). They may have supposed that the period of seventy years since the destruction of the temple was not yet completed. In any case there seems to have been a widespread feeling of depression among the exiles. They had returned cheered and uplifted by the glowing oracles of the great prophet of the exile (see Isa. li. 11 ; lii. 7 H. ; Iv. 12), but their hopes were speedily quenched. Jehovah's promises seemed to have failed ; all went on as before. Instead of Babylon, an- other heathen power, Persia, was Israel's over-lord. Jerusalem was a wretched and comfortless town without walls, inhabited by a poverty-stricken population. It Mas indeed only the shadow of its former self. It was no wonder that tears and lamentations mingled with the thanksgivings with wliich the foundations of the temple were laid in 536 (Ezra iii. 12, 13; cp. Hag. ii. 3). But nevertheless Haggai was right in his conception of the gravity of this crisis in Israel's history. The Jews were contentedly leaving the temple in ruins ; but, humanly speaking, a visible and central sanctuary was vitally necessary for the maintenance of Israel's faith. 'The temple was the outward symbol of the dwelling of God in the midst of Israel. To let it be neglected was, alike for themselves, and in the sight of the nations around, a practical denial of the truth which gave mean- ing to their return from exile. . . . The temple was the necessary centre for the people, whose bond of unity must henceforth be their religion.' ^ For the needs of the period of 500 years which was yet to elapse before the coming of Christ, the existence of a national sanctuary was in fact indispensable. Two persons were specially pro- minent among the 'children of the captivity' : Zerubbabel, who as the heir of Jehoiachin was the official representa- tive of David's house, and who was probably appointed governor of Judah by Cyrus ; ^ and Joshua the priest, the 1 Klrkpatrick, op. cit. p. 427. - Some critics, e.g. Cornill, suppose that a Persian commissary called Sheshbazzar was the nominal governor of Judah, and that 80 ZECHARIAH grandson of Seraiali, who had been put to death by Nebuchadnezzar. Accordingly these two names figure in the prophecy of this period, but after its brief revival in the person of Zerubbabel, the house of David sank into complete obscurity, and the leadership of the nation was practically left in the hands of the priesthood. It is specially to Zerubbabel and Joshua that Haggai's exhorta- tion is addressed, bidding them be strong and work, and foretelling the future glory of the temple. Chap. ii. 1-9 contains a message of encouragement and consolation for those who had resumed the building of the temple, and were distressed by its poverty and insignificance. The revival of Messianic hopes appears in the special message to Zerubbabel as the servant of Jehovah (ii. 23). In the impending overthrow of thrones and kingdoms, Zerubbabel, as the representative of his people, is to be the signet, i.e. the most treasured possession of Jehovah. Thus the doom pronounced on Jeconiah is reversed (Jer. xxii. 24). Three separate prophecies of Haggai seem to have been delivered in the 6th, 7th, and 9th months of the year 520. His voice was not yet silent before Zechariah appeared to support the older prophet. His first pro- phecy was probably delivered in the 8th month of the same year, 520. The general subject of Zechariah's preaching, as we gather from the part (i.-viii.) tliat sound criticism warrants us in ascribing to him, is the same as that of Haggai, viz. the restoration of the temple, and the revival of Messianic royalty in the person of Zerubbabel. Zechariah was still only a youth when he was called to tlie prophetic office (ii. 4). Probably he was of priestly descent, and may have been himself a priest (Neh. xii. IG). His book reflects to some extent the spirit of anxious and even painful interest with which the Jews were then watching the course of events in the great empires surrounding them. The least dis- Zerubbabel, as one of the council of twelve elders, actually ad- ministered the affairs of the province. But it is quite possible that Sheslibazzar is a Persian title of Zerubbabel. See Ryle, Ezra and Nehemiah, xxxi. ff. THE VISIONS OF ZECHARIAH 81 turbance was apt to be taken as a sij^n that Israel's period of humiliation Mas at an end, and that her exaltation was about to begin. The series of visions in i.-vi. of Zechariab's book describes with progressive clearness the destiny and fortunes of God's people, and is intended to encourage the people and its leaders. In- cidentally we learn how close and strong were the links of connection between the Jews who remained in Babylon and the ' children of the captivity ' (vi. 15). The crown- ing of Joshua may have been a typical expression of the fact that the Jews dispersed abroad still shared the hopes of Israel, and still looked for the coming of the priest- king who should be Jehovah's representative, and the sharer of His throne (vi. 9-15).i ^Yiih. the coming of the Messianic priest is connected the building of the temple, and the removal of sin (vi. 12 ff. ). The eight visions of Zechariah are symbolic of Israel's future fortunes. The first vision of four horsemen on divers-coloured horses (i. 7-17) represents the instruments of the divine vengeance prepared to execute judgment on the whole earth. It implies the nearness of Zion's restoration (cp. Rev, vi. 1-10). The horns of iron (i. 18-21) are emblems of the world-power which has scattered Israel. Beside them are four smiths ready to shatter tliem. The vision of the man with a measuring line (ii.) speaks of protection. Jerusalem shall be the centre of a world-wide kingdom, guarded by the presence of Jehovah Himself. In the picture of Joshua's trial we see the spiritual representative of the people first arraigned and then pardoned — an emblem of the change by which Zion's humiliation shall be turned into a condition of glory and favour (iii.). The golden candlestick is an emblem of the present power of the Spirit of God, as a source of grace and strength to the nation. The candlestick {i.e. the nation) 1 It is noteworthy that there does not seem to be an actual nnion in one xx'rson of the offices of priest and king. Ch. vi. 13 speaks of a king and priest sharing a throne, sitting side by side. Between them will be the counsel of peace. Elirkpatrick takes his throne to mean Jehovah's throne. Cp. Pusey, Minor Prophets, p. 538, and Jerome quoted by him. 82 THE VISIONS OF ZECHARIAH is fed by golden oil tlirough the agency of heavenly ministers of grace (iv. ). In spite of all obstacles, the temple shall yet be built, and the head-stone successfully laid. The next two visions typify the spiritual purgation of the restorefl people. The flying roll proclaims the extermination of sinners (v. 1-4). Tlie vision of the woman in the ephali speaks of the taking away of sins, — tlie utter removal of iniquity (v. 5-11). Thus Israel is destined to become a holy land (ii. 12). The four chariots of the concluding vision are an emblem of judgment on the guilty world which has rejoiced over the suffering people of Jehovah (vi. 1-8; cp. Rev. xi. ). The visions are closed by the description of the symbolic act already noticed, the solemn crowning of Joshua by the prophet (vi. 9 if.). The book of Zechariah marks what is in some respects a new departure in prophecy — or rather prophetic dis- course assumes a new form. The direct address of Jehovah to the prophet is superseded by tlie vision ; that which was an occasional incident in the experience of earlier prophets becomes in Zechariah the normal method of divine teaching. Further, the prophet's relation to Jehovah is somewhat altered. The older prophets felt themselves to be in direct and living com- munion with God Himself; in the case of Zechariah it is an intermediary angel that instructs him in the purposes of God. The seventh and eighth chapters represent a discourse delivered two years after the visions. Zechariah answers the inquir)', whether it was still obligatory to observe the fasts by which the Jews were accustomed to com- memorate the destruction of Jerusalem. Zechariah's message is at once full of warning and of consolation. Sin had been the cause of Zion's rejection ; obedience would be followed by the restoration of Jerusalem as the spiritual metropolis of the world and the gathering of pilgrims from the heathen world, in order to share Israel's fellowship Mqth her divine king (see viii. 20-28). The preaching of Haggai and Zechariah was successful. It roused the nation to a sense of the importance of the work which they had allowed to lapse. The building HAGGAI AND ZECHARIAII 83 of tlie temple was recomnieiioed^ and as tlie Persian satrap of the province, Tatnai, allowed the work to g-o on with- out interference, the temple was completed and dedicated in the year SK!. In some respects the writings of the two prophets, Hag-gai and Zechariah, show signs of declension in the gift of prophecy, and have rather the character of literary productions. Haggai's preaching is plain, simple, and unadorned ; Zechariah's hook seems not so much to embody personal preaching like that of the older prophets as to he the outcome of meditation and study. Nevertheless in some of their characteristics these two prophets are closely akin to their great predecessors. Thus both of them are persuaded that the IMessianic age is close at hand, but that the divine promises to Israel are conditional , their fulfilment depending- on the moral character of the restored exiles. Both prophets preach the need of mercy, justice, and righteousness in the ordinary dealings of civic and social life, and the future for which they look is one of spiritual renewal. Zechariah in particular predicts the abolition of wicked- ness, and the sanctification of Israel through the free outpouring- of Jehovah's Spirit of grace (Zech. iii. 4 ; iv. C ; v. 5-11; viii. 16, 17). Again, though the visions of l)oth prophets are to a great extent coloured by the religious revival of their day, and point to the exaltation of the temple and priesthood, their prophecies contain an element of true universalism. llie second Isaiah's conception of Israel's special mission to the heathen ■world reappears in them. The heathen will be judged, but through judgment they will be brought to acknow- ledge Israel's God (Zech. viii. 20-23). The temple is to receive the offerings of the Gentiles (Hag. ii. 7 ; Zech. ii. 11; vi. 15; viii. 20 ff.); thither the desirable things of all nations shall be brought (Hag. ii. 7) ; ^ and Zion shall be the spiritual metropolis of the world. Tlie thought of a Davidic king is not absent though it is kept in the background (see Hag. ii. 23 ; Zech. iii. 8). Condition of the Je^ws between 516 and 458. — The half- 1 Possibly this passage alhules to Isa. Ix. 5 ff. 84 AFTER THE EXILE century which intervened between 51 G and the mission of Ezra in 458^ was one of grievous depression and dis- illusionment. The high and glowing anticipations of the prophets had pointed to the completion of the temple as the inauguration of Israel's Messianic age, but the external and internal conditions of the people became worse instead of better. Men were tempted to ask, Where are the promises made to the fathers ? More- over, Jehovah's requirements seemed oppressive ; the service of the temple was a costly burden, and the daily restraints of the law seemed irksome. Hence many gave way to a temper of moroseness, indifference, and even hostility to God. They were tempted to fall back into heathen habits of thought and life ; zeal for the maintenance of Israel's distinct and separate character as a people died down. The mood of the Jews at this period seems to be depicted in the book of Malachi, pi'esently to be noticed ; liut one marked consequence of it may be gathered from the book of Ezra, viz. the general prevalence of mixed marriages — unions of Israelites with the half-breed ' people of the land,' alliances which were in many cases dictated by pru- dential and worldly motives. It is indeed possible that these mixed marriages represented something higher, namely a genuine desire on the part of the half-breeds to become full members of Jehovah's community, and a similar readiness on the part of some Jews to put the universalist aspirations of the prophets into practice. Nevertheless there was imminent danger of Judaism losing its proper character, and sinking back to the level of pre-exilic religion. For ' neither the inward nor the outward religion of that time was firmly enough established to assimilate without debasement or retro- gression, a large influx of elements from a lower religious plane. ' ^ In order to understand the work of Ezra, it must be borne in mind that in opposition to the prevailing laxity, there was forming itself at this period a group of zealots, who clung the more closely to their religion as their 1 Montefiore, op. cit. p. 303. AFTER THE EXILE 85 one consolation in these days of trial. Tliey^ like the proud (Did eril doers (Mai. ii. 17; iii. !■>), but in a different temper of mind, were sensible of the apparent failure of Jehovah's promises ; but instead of laying the blame on Jehovah and complaining of the hardness of His service and tlie heaviness of His yoke, they recognised in Israel itself the cause of the disappointment. It was Israel's faithlessness and indifference that now as of old hindered the accomplisliment of the prophetic visions, Tlie one hope of their fulfilment lay in a more strenuous and loyal observance on Israel's part of the moral conditions of Jehovah's covenant. It was this party — small indeed but resolute — which welcomed the mission of Ezra in 458. They felt that the restored exiles had much to learn from those who were still in Babylon. There a school had already formed itself on the basis of Ezekiel's teaching — a school which had devoted itself to the study, compilation, and transcription of the law, and whose peculiar view of the real gist and tendency of Israel's history is reflected in the priestly narrative of the Pentateuch and in the uniform tone of the historical books. Ezra's mission may have been dictated by a widespread anxiety among the Jews in Babylon, as to the religious condition of their compatriots in 'the province' (Neh. i. 3). Ezra himself was apparently a Zadokite, nearly related to the family of the high priest. He is also described as a scribe (Ezra vii. 6^ etc.), a title which points to his having taken an active personal part in the codification and revision of the law. He received a commission from Artaxerxes Longimanus i., to inquire concerning Juduh lutd Jernsulem, according to the law o/'his God ivhich was in hi.s hand (vii. 14-25). Mission of Ezra, 458 B.C. — He came then to Jerusalem avowedly as a reformer, accompanied by a considerable company of more than 1000 persons. The object of his mission was to carry out a reform of the temple ceremonial on the basis of the new law-book, which was probably completed by about 500 b.c.^ Ezra's first 1 There is reason to think that this ' law-book ' was substantiall}' identical with the Pentateuch. 86 EZRA AND NEHEMIAH task, however, was that of dealing with the mixed marriages — an abuse of which he does not seem to have been fully aware till his arrival at Jerusalem. A struggle now began between the strict party, resolved under Ezra's leadership to put an end to the illegal marriages, and those, on the other hand, who were either hostile to reform on religious grounds, or were personally interested in upholding the status quo. It is obvious that a social reform of this kind was calculated to provoke a bitter and passionate resistance. An attempt of Ezra to rebuild the fortifications of Jerusalem failed owing to tlie intrigues of the neighbouring tribes, among \vliom there were doubtless individuals who felt personally aggrieved by Ezra's reformation. The result was that he lost his influence. For more than twelve years the party which supported him was compelled to remain inactive. First visit of Nehemiah, 445. — In 445, however, it was reinforced and inspired with new hopes by the arrival of Nehemiah, who had obtained permission from Artaxerxes to visit his native city, ostensibly in order to repair the ruined walls and gates. By this time other serious social evils had arisen : the condition of the poorer Jews cried for redress ; tliere were many practical grievances and abuses which demanded the prompt attention of the new governor. Furtlier, the civil power represented by Nehemiah ranged itself on the side of the religious movement. Ezra now emerged from his retirement and reappeared upon the scene. In 444 a great assembly was held, in which the people bound themselves by a solemn oath to observe the statutes of the law. This occasion was the beginning of a determined effort to carry out the projected reform of Ezra, but the struggle was ob- stinate and the opposition was bitter. A certain nunlber of malcontents even followed their wives into exile, and thus ' helped to kindle a flame of anger and revenge among the neighbouring communities, whose daughters had been exposed to indignity.' ^ Judaism. — The movement we have briefly described 1 Moiitefiore, op. cit. }). 310. MALACHI 87 laid, as it were, the foundation-stone of post-exilic Judaism. The ri^fid race-separation of the Jew which made him liateful to all nations, and caused him to look down on all other religions as unclean and heathen, dates from this epoch. That proud scorn of the Gentile world, that fierce longing- for the annihilation of Israel's enemies, whicli distinguishes some of the later literature of Judaism, may be said to have begun at this period. Humanly speaking, it was necessary that Jewish religion should pass through this stage, by which it was being providentially prepared for its struggle with Hellenism. After Alexander's death (323 b.c.) and the collapse of the Persian monarchy, Grecian influence became pre- dominant in the East, and only one nation resisted the process of absorption and dissolution through which oriental thought and life became amalgamated with Greek culture and civilisation. The Jewish nation did not by any means escape the influence of the spii'it of Hellenism, but it at least preserved what was peculiar and distinctive in its creed and liabits of life. The law was a kind of coat-of-mail which enabled Judaism to present an impenetrable surface to the refined darts of Hellenism ; it was a hard sliell containing the precious kernel of a divine religion. ^ MalacM, circ. 440. — The book of MalacM seems to be- long to the period intervening between Nehemiah's first (445) and second visit (433). During his absence the abuses which Nehemiah had sternly repressed seem to have revived, and the two chief evils denounced by Malachi are those actually mentioned in Neh. xiii., viz. great negligence on the part of both priests and people in making provision for tlie temple-services, the payment of tithes, etc. ; and the divorce of Israelitish wives and intermari-iage witli the heathen. (Cp. Mai. ii. 8-16 witli Neh. xiii. 23-29; and Mai. iii. 8-10 with Neh. xiii. 10-12, 31.) There is some reasonable doubt as to Malachi's per- sonality. The name Maluchi, 'My messenger' (cp. iii. 1) is very possibly not a proper name at all. In 1 Cp. Cornill, Dcr Jsraelitische Prophetismus, p. IGSi. 88 THE PROPHECY OF MALACHI the Septuagint version the heading- of the book is Oracle of the Word of the Lord against Israel hij the hand of His messenger ; and the Targum adds the words ' whose name is called Ezra the scribe.' It is not improbable that the autlior of the book remained anonymous^ and the compiler of the minor prophets may have prefixed to it a title taken from iii. 1.^ Indeed, the words The Burden of the Word of the Lord point to a connec- tion between three passages, viz. Zech. ix.-xi., Zech. xii.-xiv., and the book of Malachi. It has been supposed that these represent three anonymous prophetic writings which came into an editor's hands and were arranged in their present order at the close of the book of Zechariah. Some slight indication may be thus afforded of the true date of the last six chapters of Zechariah. In any case, there can be little question that the date traditionally assigned to the book of Malachi is correct. The book itself is mainly a reproof grounded on the fact of Jehovah's unclianging love to Israel (i. 2-5). Jehovah had revealed Himself as the Father of His people (i. 6), and had entered into a covenant with Levi (ii. 4), but the priesthood had led the way in sinful neglect of the covenant conditions by contenting them- selves with a perfunctory and grudging service of Jehovah. The earlier portion of the book (i. 6-ii. 9) accordingly contains a severe reproof addressed to the priests. There was a tendency among them to relax the observance of the Sabbath, and a growing disposition to look on the duties of the temple-service as monotonous taskwork. The worship of Jehovah seemed to be lost labour, since the yoke of the foreigner still pressed on Israel as heavily as before. The second portion of the book is addressed to the people (ii. 10 - iv. G). The prophet specially denounces the sin of intermarriage with the heathen, and the perfidy with which divorce was resorted to (ii. lO-K!). Malachi's message to the sceptical indifference and dull despondency of his con- temporaries is that Jehovah shall suddenly appear as judge in the person of tlie angel of the covenant (iii. 1). 1 Cp. Hag. i, 13. STYLE AND TEACHING OF MALACHI 89 Tliat clay will make manifest the distinction between the rii^hteous and the sinner — bet\\een libn that serveth God (Did him that svrrt'fh iUni not. To Malaclii, as to Haggai, the temple is the destined scene of this future theophany, and the main object of the divine judgment is to purity the sons of Le\'i, that there may once more be a faithful j)riestliood in Israel^ and a pure oii'ering acceptable to Jehovah (iii. 1-4). Two things are specially noticeable in the teaching of this prophet. First, his style has a peculiar character. It is dialectical and didactic. He asks pointed questions, which he sometimes puts in the mouth of his hearers, and then gi^'es a terse and abrupt answer of his own {e.g. i. (5, 7 ; ii. 17 ; iii. 13, 14). Further, he points the people to the law of Moses as supplying tliem with a disciplinary rule of life intended to prepare them for the day of Jehovah's coming. But jNIalachi's exaltation of the law, as con- stituting Israel's peculiar glory, is qualified by a touch of the older universalism. He probably felt that the rigid observance of Ezra's code was after all not an end but only a means, and that the aspirations of ancient prophecy pointed to a consummation wider and more satisfying than the mere triumj)!! of Judaism. Thus in i. 11 he seems to teach that the true and acceptable worship of God might be independent of the temple ; and the mention of incense cutd a pure offering (Minchah, 'vegetable offering') even points to the cessation of the sacrificial system of the law. Noteworthy also is Malachi's conception of the priestly function. He regards the priesthood mainly as a teaching office. Jehovah demands of His priests not merely personal sanctity. He requires that the prient's lips shou/d keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth ; Jbr he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts (ii. 7). Secondly, the teaching of Malachi is akin to that of earlier prophets in its ethical tone. It holds up before the people the moral conditions of acceptance with Jehovah. The ^ery conception of the advent of the angel of the covenant for the purpose of a sifting and searching judgment implies that Israel's sin is the cause of its present tribulation. The passage iii. 5 is entirely 90 TEACHING OF MALACHl in the m;iuuer of the older prophets : I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against false swearers and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. Again, the call to repentance with which the book concludes recalls tlie characteristics of pre-exilic prophecy. The predicted appearance of Elijah is in- tended to prepare the people by penitence for the advent of Jehovah Himself, whose visitation of an impenitent nation must necessarily bring not a blessing but a curse (iv. 4-6). CHAPTER VI LATER POST-EXILIC PROPHECY The century of Jewish history wliich followed Nehemiah's work at Jerusalem, and which, roughly speaking, closes with the death of Alexander (323), is one of which we know hut little. It is certain, however, that a literary process of expansion and redaction was being applied to the writings of the prophets. As we have already noticed, fragments of propliecy were carefully collected and in- serted in one or other of the four books of the prophets. There is little reason to doubt that editorial additions were occasionally made. It has been supposed, for ex- ample, that the striking homily on fasting, which forms the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah, is an instance of such expansion. Such additions would, as a rule, deal with the Messianic expectations of Israel, depicting the age of the Messiah in one or other of its generally recognised aspects. But the general character of Judaistic writings is as might be expected nationalistic, representing Israel as relatively righteous, and the heathen as objects of divine vengeance. The intention of these passages is to console Israel rather than to reprove it, and to sustain it by predictions of overwlielming judgments on the nations which had either actually oppressed the chosen people or had menaced its tranquillity. Apocalyptic literature. — It is necessarily somewhat un- certain what parts of four books of the ' prophets ' are to be attributed to this period ; ^ but one indication of date is to be found in the fact that some of the later writings are of an apocalyptic type, dealing with the 1 Possibly Isa. xi. 10-lG ; xxiv.-xxvii. ; xxxii.-xxxiii. ; Ixiii.- Ixvi. ; Jer. 1., li. ; Zech. xii.-xiv., belong to this group of writings. 91 92 ZECHARIAH IX. -XIV. distant future ratlier tliaii with the conditions of the present ; %\ith the fortunes of Israel and the prospects of the divine kingdom in its rehition to the Morld rather than with the personal glories of the promised Messiah. Apocalyptic literature is in fact specially cliaracteristic of Judaism, just as prophecy is of pre-exilic religion, and the vision of Ezekiel, which concludes his hook, forms perhaps a kind of connecting link between prophecy and apocalypse. The most indisputable specimen in tlie Old Testament of an apocalyptic book is the book of Daniel, but some of the peculiar features of this type of literature already appear («) in the last six chapters of Zechariah ; (h) in the books of Joel and Obadiah, and (c) in the fragment whicli forms Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii. Zecliariali ix.-xiv. — (ti) The last six chapters of tlie book of Zechariah are wholly distinct in style and tone from the admitted work of that prophet. There is still a great conflict of opinion respecting their date : some, like Schultz, regarding them as belonging to the eightli or seventh century b. c. , others, like Cornill, placing them as late as the time of Alexander, towards the close of the fourth century. Possibly tlieir position in the canon between Zechariah and JNIalachi corresponds to a well- grounded tradition respecting their date, but the point in any case is not of crucial importance. ^ Dr. Driver's conclusion probably represents the utmost we can safely maintain in the present state of our knowledge. ' Perliaps we may be justified in concluding . . . that the pro- phecy as a whole dates from the eighth century b. c, but that it was modified in details, and accommodated to a later situation by a prophet^ living in the post-exilic 1 Bennett, Primer of the Bible, p. 114. ' The history of these jjrophecies is probablj- similar to that of Isaiah xl.-lxvi. The writings of Zechariah closed the volume of the minor prophets, and the two anonymoiis works, Zech. ix.-xiv., and the book of Malachi, were added as appendices, and the absence of any name in the heading, ix. 1, led to ix.-xiv. being considered an integral part of the book of Zechariah.' 2 Or possibly two prophets, one the author of ix.-xi., the other the author of xii.-xiv. See Driver's Introduction (ed. 1), p. 328. In ed. 6, p. 349, Dr. Driver very slightl}- modifies his former view. ZECIIAllIAII IX. -XIV. 9;3 period wlien the Greeks had hecome formidable to the Jews and many Jews had been exiled amon^ them.' We seem thus to be justified in regardiiiij^ Zech. ix.-xiv. as a specimen of that expansion of prophecy which we have already noticed ; it combines some features of pre-exilic Mritings witli distinct characteristics of a late post-exilic age. In these chapters four main subjects may be dis- tinguished :— (1) The advent of Mes.'iiah. In ix. x. the author de- scribes the progress of a purifying judgment through the Holy Land, destroying the nations (heathen) who dwell in it, or reducing them to dependence and subjection. Thus the way is prepared for the king Messiah, who is welcomed to Zion, destroys the weapons of war, proclaims peace, and reigns over the land. In virtue of the covenant sealed by blood (Exod. xxiv. 8) Zion's children have already been restored from the dungeon of exile ; those who are still waiting for release are invited to return (ix. 11-12). But peace and plenty are only restored through conflict ; Judah is Jehovah's bow, Ephraim His arrow, Zion His sword, her sons His spear (ix. 13). Jehovah is tlie hope of His land ; not the idols or diviners through whom Zion has become an un- shepherded flock, and has fallen into the hands of false shepherds (x. 1, 2). Jehovah will substitute new rulers for these unworthy shepherds, and Judah now united to Ephraim will gain a decisive victory over its foes ; Egypt and Asshur will be humiliated. Here the main idea is that of Messiah's advent as a prince of peace, righteous and victorious over Israel's foes. But this conception is qualified by the hint in ix. 9, 10. The king is victorious (lit. delivered ; cp. 1 Sam. xiv. 45) but lowly. Thus the thought is suggested of a prince triumphant through humiliation. The exilic picture of the suffering servant of Jehovah has so far modified the ancient presentment of the Messianic king. (2) In xi. we have an allegory that might be en- titled 'the rejected shepherd.' A hostile invasion of Palestine takes place from the north filling tlie unworthy shepherds (rulers) with dismay. The prophet himself, representing Jehovah, undertakes the care of the people 94 ZECHARIAH IX. -XIV. — the flock of slaughter, i.e. the flock neg'lected and mal- treated by its proper rulers. He assumes as emblems of his office two staves, called ' graciousness ' and 'union' (in reference to Jehovah's goodness and the union of Judah with Israel). He deposes the evil rulers, but his authority is ungratefully repudiated by the people. They give him for his wage a paltry sum — the price of a slave. In token that he is God's representative he places the money in the temple treasury, and solemnly breaks his staves in order to show that the divine protection is at end, and that the union of Israel with Judah is dissolved. The prophet then assumes the character oi a foolish shep- herd, i.e. a hard and merciless ruler, mIio makes havoc of the people ; but he himself is linally smitten by the sword and the flock dispersed. Only a third part remains to constitute the faithful people of God (xiii. 9).^ There seems to lie behind these passages the well- known prophecies of Jeremiah xxiii. 1-8, and of Ezekiel xxxiv. It is a solemn warning of the way in which divine grace may be frustrated by human obstinacj'. The truth which it conveys had been abundantly illustrated in tlie past history of Israel. It was to receive a more terrible illustration in the subsequent history of the nation. - (3) The restoration and penitence of the people (xii.-xiv. ). Here the writer evidently recalls the propliecies of Ezekiel, relating to the attack of tlie nations on Jerusalem (Ezek. xxxviii. and xxxix.). The prophet in xii. sees an assault of the nations upon Jerusalem. Among her foes is mentioned Judah (xii. 1-3). These are however stricken with panic, and the chiefs of Judah, seeing that Jehovah fights for His own city, come to Jerusalem's aid. Jehovah Himself then delivers both Judah and Jerusalem. But the day of deliverance is also a day of mourning (xii. 10). On the inhabitants of Jerusalem is poured out the Spirit of grace and of supplication. A general lamentation takes place ; a fountain is opened for the purgation of sin and of uncleanness ; the idols are cut ofl", and prophets cease out of the land, the pretension to be a prophet being ^ The passage xiii. 7-9 must be closely connected with xi. from which it has become somehow detached. ^ Kirkpatrick, op. cit. p. 465. THE BOOK OF JOEL 95 for some reason regarded as no longer honourable. The clue to this picture of repentance is perhaps supplied by xiii. 7-0, a passage whicli seems to suggest that the penitence of the people is occasioned by some unjust deed of blood of which they have been guilty. (4) In xiv. the final asmidt of the heathen on Jeru- salem is described. The nations capture the holy city and carry half of its inhabitants into captivity. Jehovah appears in order to provide a way of escape for the re- mainder, and the Messianic age thereupon begins. Two streams issue forth from Jerusalem to fertilise the land (8-11). The city itself is rebuilt, and a desolating and terrible judgment falls upon the heathen nations. Those who escape join with Jeliovah's people in doing homage to Him at the feast of tabernacles. Tlie vision ends H'ith the picture of a city wholly consecrated to Jehovah's ser- vice. This nationalistic representation of the ^lessianic age is obviously characteristic of Judaism ; we note especially the exaltation and increased importance of the capital, and the vehement hatred of the heathen. The universalism of the earlier prophets reappears in the predictions pointing to the ultimate triumph of Judaism, and the incorporation of the heathen into the kingdom of God as fellow-worshippers of Jehovah in the mode characteristic of Israel itself. In the last chapter it will be pointed out what import- ant elements the concluding part of the book of Zechariah contributes to the Messianic idea. It is only necessary here to note that in its present shape this section of the ' Prophets ' is Judaistic in tone ratlier than Hebraistic. Joel, circ. 350. — (b) We now come to the book of Joel, with regard to which there is much uncertainty. The choice lies between assigning to it a verj' earlj' date, e.g. the early part of the reign of Joash, before Syria or Assyria had become formidable (circ. 887-817); or the period l>etween Ezra's work at Jerusalem and the death of Alexander. On the whole the considerations in favour of this later date preponderate, as there are several features of the book characteristic of Judaism rather than of pre-exilic prophecy, e.g. the absence of any mention of the northern kingdom, the reference to ceremonial and 96 THE BOOK OF JOEL hierarchical ideas, tlie prediction of A-eugeance upon the heathen, and, above all, the absence of reproofs. The pro- phet speaks of Israel as if it were relati^'ely righteous in the eyes of Jehovah, and herein the book presents a marked contrast to the writings of early prophets, such as Hosea and Amos. It is on the whole the most reasonable view that Joel combines many elements derived from the older prophecy,^ but in many of its characteristics the book appears to resemble the apocalyptic literature. The occasion of Joel's prophecy seems to have been an unprecedented plague of locusts, accompanied by a severe drought. This terrible visitation prefigures the advent of the great Daji of the Lord, which in earlier prophets had been so prominent a tlieme. The actual circum- stances of the visitation are regarded by the prophet as typical. The locust army destroyed is a type of hostile nations repelled ; the retiu-n of the rain is a symbol of the outpouring of the Spirit ; the present temporal de- liverance is a proof of Jehovah's favour towards His people (ii. 27), and a pledge of that perpetual divine in- dwelling which is the climax of blessing (iii. 21). An indication of late date is Joel's distinction between Israel and the nations. The day of Jehovah is not regarded by him as a day of moral sifting for Israel itself, but as a day in which the nations shall be judged and Israel saved and blessed. 'The nations are judged for the wrongs done by them to Israel ; they have no share in the bless- ings of the future ; the outpouring of the Spirit is limited to Israel ; deliverance is promised only to Jerusalem and to those found there. - The following then are the leading ideas of Joel : — (1) The day of the Lord is regarded in its twofold aspect as a day of terror yet of blessing, of judgment yet of salvation. Tlie coming of the plague marks the dawn of that awful day. The visitation, it should be observed, is somewhat idealised and probably points back to the plague of locusts in Egypt. Joel's locusts are ' the proto- type of the apocalyptic locusts of llev^ ix. 8-10.' (2) The outpouring of the Spirit, the spiritual blessing 1 See Driver, Introduction, p. 311. " Driver, The Book of Joel, p. 32. THE BOOK OF OBADIAH 97 being suggested by the promise of a lower blessing, ruin and harvest. Joel is the ' Old Testament prophet of tlie Holy Ghost.' 1 (y) The counterpart of the blessing outpoured on Israel is tlie judgnieiit upon the nations. Joel predicts a great judicial act whereby Israel is to be finally delivered from its foes. Tliere is no hint even such as closed Zech. xiv., that the nations will one day be gathered into Jehovah's kingdom, and share the privileges and blessings of His covenant. Nevertheless Joel differs from the later apocalyptic writers in the fact that there are no ' exaggerated national pretensions ' in liis book. Tlie Israel of the future, upon which the divine blessings are destined to descend, is the present Israel spiritually transformed (ii. 28) and calliny upon Jeliovah in faithful- ness (ii. 32). On the other hand, in his earnest call to repentance, in the invitation to return to Jehovah, Joel is in line with tlie older prophets, while his prophecy of an indwelling of Jehovah in the midst of His renewed people, and of an outpouring of the Spirit, suggest a connection between his book and the great visions of Ezekiel and the later Isaiali. Probably lie owes his position among the prophets to the fact that Joel iii. 16 is appa- rently repeated from Amos i. 2 ; and that the Day of the Lord is so prominent a theme in his book (cp. Amos v. 18). Obadiah.^ — As in the case of Joel, so in that of Otaadiah, a book of similar tendency, the question of date is uncertain. The settlement of this point mainly turns upon the relation of Obadiah to Jeremiali xlix. 7-22. But the general standpoint in regard to the nations, which are objects of judgment not of grace, may betoken either an early or late date. The day of distress mentioned in Obad. 11-14 may have been the destruction of the city and temple by the Chaldsans in 586 ; ^ or it may have been some earlier occasion, such as the capture of the city by united bands of Philistines and Arabs in Jehoram's reign (81:8-844) described in 2 Chron. xxi. 16, 17. There seems to be one verse of Joel (ii. 32), which makes a 1 Ohs. the words all flesh (iu ii, 28) are limited by the context to Israel's sons and daughters. 2 Cp. Ps. cxxxvii. 7. 98 THE BOOK OF OBADIAH distinct reference to Obadiah 17. If he is post-exilic lie cannot have been later than Joel. In any case the terms used of Edom's conduct by Obadiah seem to be too strong to refer to any mere predatory excursion. On the whole it seems best to treat the question of date as entirely open ; but the indications are in favour of the conclusion that the book, in its present form, while it incorporates earlier elements, belongs to the post-exilic period, when the former fate of Edom was perhaps commonly regarded as '^an episode in Jehovah's judgment on the heathen generally.' ^ In the book of Obadiah then, the special foe of Israel is Edom. The offence of Edom was aggravated by the nearness of its kinship to Israel. Edom was the descend- ant of Esau, Jacob's brother, ' Loud and long has been the wail of execration which has gone up from the Jewish nation against Edom. It is the one imprecation which breaks forth from the Lamentations of Jeremiah ... it is the bitterest drop in the sad recollections of the Israelite captives by the waters of Babylon. ' - In Obadiah's prophecy, however, Edom seems to be taken as the representative of the whole heathen world re- garded as hostile to God's kingdom. The later Jews understood Edom in Ps. cxxxvii. to mean Pagan Rome ; others fouiul in '^ Edom ' a mystical designation of the Christians, 'the Nazarene people who are of the sons of Edom, whose beginning and origin is the city of Rome.' ^ The object of Obadiah's book is to denounce the pride and malignity of Edom, and to predict the judgment about to descend on it and on all the nations (Obad. 1.5). In the great dui/ of Jehovah the one hope of salvation will be on mount Zion. Hebrew captives will be restored to their home, and Jehovah's kingdom shall be finally established. Deliverers* will come up on mount Zion who shall judge the mount of Esau (21). 1 So "Wellhaiisen ; see Driver, Introduction (ed. 6), p. 321. 2 Stanley, The Jewish Church, vol. ii. p. 556. See Lam. iv. 21, 22; Ps. cxxxvii. 7. See also Ezek. xxv. 8, 12-14; Jer. xlix. 7-22 ; Isa. Ixiii. 1-4. ^ Abarbanel, Corn, on Obacl.,CY). Perowne on Ps. cxxxvii. 7. * This term recalls the Judges ( Judg. iii. 9, 15 ; Neh. ix. 27) ; but LXX. has di/dpes aecrucfiivoi. Heb. D"'ytJ^O. ISAIAH XXIV.-XXVII 99 Isaiali xxiv.-xxvii. circ. 330. — It has been surmised tliat the splendid passagelsa. xxiv.-xxvii.^ which closes theseries of prophecies against the nations, Mas occasioned by the fall of the Persian empire before the arms of Alexander. Its subject is the general judgment upon the M'orld and its inliabitants. The proi)hecy evidently partakes of au ideal and apocalyi)tic character, describing not merely the judgment that descends upon this or that oppressive power, but tlie final ruin of the world-power. The scene of ruin alternates ^vith the triumph-songs of the redeemed. The hostile power is alluded to as a great city (xxv. 2, 3 ; xxvi. .5), and its overthrow as the work of Jehovah Himself, not of the iVIessianic king. Israel takes no part in the conquest. It is enjoined as of old to stmid still and see the salvation of Jehovah (Exod. xiv. 18). Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee ; hide thyself for a little moment until the indignation he overpast. For l>ehold, Jehovah eometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity : the earth also shall disclose her blood and shall no more cover her slain (Isa. xxvi. 20, 21). The goal of history is conceived as a reign of Jehovah on mount Zion, a heavenly feast, and a removal of the veil spread over all nations (xxv. 6, 7). Only Moab is excluded from the salvation which is extended to all other peoples. For individual Israelites there is a hope held out of a resurrection from tlie dead. The idea of a resurrection of Israel as a nation from its grave is found already iu Hosea (vi. 2 ; xiii. 14), and Ezekiel (xxxvii. ). The divine victory over death of which the prophet speaks in Isa. xxvi. , includes the awakening to new life of the godly members of the elect nation who have perished. A quickening dew falls from hea\en on the bones of them who dwell iu dust. The earth yields up her dead, and no more covers her slain (Isa. xxvi. 19-21). Jonali. — There remains yet another book which is in- cluded among the minor prophets, but which has peculiar and special characteristics. The book of Jonah is not a book of prophecy iu the same sense as the other writ- ings Me have considered. It narrates a particular passage in the life of one of the very earliest prophets, Jonah, 100 THE BOOK OF JONAH the son of Amittai^ who is mentioned in 2 Kings xiv. 25 as having exercised his ministry in the days of Jeroboam ii. He seems to have predicted that great extension of the boundaries of the northern kingdom which actually took place during the reign of the last king of Jehu's dynasty. According to a Jewish tradition, Jonah was the son of the widow of Zarephath, who was recalled to life by Elijah (1 Kings xvii.), and his birthplace is said to have been Gath-Hepher, in Zebulun (2 Kings xiv. 2.5). The original prophecies of Jonah are not extant, but the book which is ascribed to him, or rather of which he is the hero, relates an epocli- making incident in Israel's history — the preaching of the gospel of repentance to a great heathen nation. The nature of the book is noticeable. It is a nan-ative of much the same kind as those which relate to Elijah and Elisha in the two books of Kings. The miraculous element in it is twofold. First, there is Jonah's own marvellous preservation from death in the belly of the great fish by which he is swallowed. Again, there is the rapid growth of the gourd, or paJma Christi, under which the prophet shelters himself from the fierce heat of the midday sun. There is also the moral miracle of a huge population being brought by a kind of spon- taneous impulse to repentance and amendment. It is possible that there were traditions of Jonah's history which supplied a basis of fact for the story contained in the book. For instance, it is quite possible that Jonah was actually sent to preach at Nineveh after some wonderful deliverance froui death which made his appearance a sign to the Ninevites (St. Matt. xii. 39). Nor is there any a prwri difficulty in supposing that a notable miracle may have marked the important crisis in the history of redemption which the mission of Jonah implies. On the contrary, every such new beginning in Old Testament history seems to be signalised by the occurrence of miracles. But there are very strong reasons for believing that the writer of the book lived several centuries after the death of Jonah, and that the story is to be regarded as a narrative written with didactic intention ; in other words, that it is a story THE BOOK OF JONAH 101 intended to convey a moral. A close examination of the book has led most modern critics to declare with confidence that it is a post-exilic work, very probably composed at some time during- the fifth, or possibly the fourth century, B.C., i.e. during- the very period when Israel was going through that process of rigid self- separation from the heathen world which was indeed a necessary stage in its spiritual education, but which was very possibly carried out with indiscriminate and sometimes exaggerated zeal. The book seems to have been written with the design of correcting- the narrow, exclusive, 'particularist' idea tliat the sphere of salva- tion and grace was confined to Israel alone. Jonah's reluctance to preach at Nineveh, and his anger at its repentance, reflects the usual attitude of Judaism towards the heathen world. ^ Jonah represents the characteristic Jewish temjier \\hich Tacitus describes in the sentence, Adrersu.9 oiimcs aliof hostile odium {Hist. v. 5). Already in Jeremiah xviii. 7 ff. there is a tacit protest against this temper ; the prophet there teaches that repentance might avert punishment even in the case of the heathen nations. The mission of Jonah illustrates Jeremiah's teaching, and somewhat extends it. For its last word is a message of the creative compassion of God for all that He has made, the mercy which extends over all His works. Accordingly, we should observe the evangelic purport of the book. Whenever God brought Israel into rela- tion with any heathen peoples He made Himself known to them : to Egypt He manifested Himself through Joseph and Moses, to Philistia in the capture of the Ark, to Syria through Elisha, to Babylon through Daniel, to Persia through Esther. It is the teaching of Jonah that God is more merciful than man, and that the work of taking vengeance upon Israel's foes is not so dear to Him as that of bringing all men everywhere to repentance and salvation. A noble spirit of univer- salism appears in the book. The conduct of the Ninevites is perhaps intentionally made to contrast 1 Cp. Acts xiii. 45 ; 1 Thess. ii. 16. 102 THE TEACHING OF JONAH favourably with that of the prophet fleeing from the voice of Jehovali ; and the behaviour of the heathen sailors on board Jonah's ship is marked b_v natural humanity. Further, the hated 'nations' are seen to be capable of responding- to divine grace^, and to be objects of divine mercy. Again, we should notice the typical character of the book. Jonah is at once a true repre- sentative of the people to which he belonged, and a type of Jesus Christ. The narrow-heartedness of the prophet makes him a type of his people. His story illustrates the truth that 'the self-ttill and transgression of an actual individual may be the most complete of all parables to illustrate the self-will and transgressions of his class or nation.' ^ Hence the whole book may be looked on as an allegory, in which God's purpose for Israel is preiigured. Like Jonah, Israel was designed by God to be the prophet of the nations, and the light of the Gentiles (Isa. xlii. 6). Like Jonah, Israel was removed from its own land and cast into the great sea of nations which encircled it ; it was, as it were, swallowed up by the great world-power of Babylon. It is noteworthy that Jeremiah li. 34 does, in fact, employ this very image in describing the captivity.^ Like Jonah, Israel in its affliction turns to God in penitence. Like Jonah, it is restored to life (cp. Ezek. xxxvii.), and then longs to see vengeance wreaked upon its heathen foes, and murmurs because the judgment is delayed. No one can deny that the lesson of the book of Jonah was mucli needed after the exile. The thought with which it closes is indeed from some points of view the most sublime in the Old Testament. It carries the revelation of Israel's God to a point only one step removed from the teaching of the New Testament. 1 Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament, p. .354. ■- On 'The great fish and what it means' see the admirable chapter in Dr. G. A. Smith's The Book of the Twelve Prophets, vol. ii. p. 523. Dr. Smith proves convincingly that the writer of Jonah employs a familiar image sup]3lied by the popular mythology of ancient Palestine, traces of which may be dis- cerned in other parts of Scripture : e.g. Job iii. 8, vii. 12, xxvi. 12, 13 ; Ps. Ixxiv. 14 ; Isa. xxvii. 1, li. 9, and especially Jerem. li. 34, 44. JONAH A TYPE OF CHRIST 103 It speaks of Jehovah as not only the national Deity of a single people, but as the God and Father of the whole world, whose mercy is over all His works, and to whom man as such, man created in His own image, is precious. The last note of prophecy is thus the note of divine love, ' ^V^e are left with this grand vague vision of the immeasurable city ^ with its multitude of innocent children and cattle, and God's compassion brooding over all.' On the other hand, God's dealings with the prophet make him a type of Jesus Christ. His fate is prophetic. He is cast out as a propitiatory victim, is restored to life, and becomes a preacher of peace to the heathen. In His reference to the book (St. Matt. xii. 39), our blessed Lord deals with the story of Jonah rather as a prophecy than as literal history. He sets His seal to the spirit and tendency of the book, but His allusion does not in any sense determine its precise literary character. We shall best recognise the true import and tendency of the book, and its bearing on our Lord's atoning work, by careful consideration of such passages as St. Matt. xii. 39; St. Luke xi. 29, and especially St. John xii. 32. With the book of Jonah the prophetic literature of Israel may be said to close, for the book of Daniel, next to be considered, is not classed by the Jews among the prophets. It is inserted among the 'Hagiographa,' a fact which at once indicates a comparatively late date, and discriminates the book from those of the ' Prophets ' already considered. The Book of Daniel, circ. 165. — The book of Daniel seems indeed to be a book of consolation addressed to the confessors and martyrs who suffered during the persecu- tion of Antiochus Epiphanes. The book reflects the conditions of the last and most significant crisis in the history of Old Testament religion, when it was fighting a life-and-death struggle with Hellenism. 1 G. A. Smith, op. cit., p. 541. Iiicidentallj- Professor Smith points out that Nineveh, 'the great city,' must have long ceased to be what it was before its fall in 606. Its greatness had become ' a matter of tradition ' when the author of Jonah wrote. 104 THE BOOK OF DANIEL After the division of Alexander's empire^ Palestine remained for upwards of a century an Egyptian pro- vince. During this period the Jews enjoyed compara- tive tranquillity under the mild and wise rule of the Ptolemies. In 198 however Antiochus the Great an- nexed Phoenicia and Palestine to the kingdom of Syria. Antiochus iv. (Epiphanes), who succeeded to the throne in 175^ had been brought up at Rome, where he had imbibed a strong contempt for the religion and peculiar customs of the Jews. Accordingly he at first actively favoured the Hellenising party in Judsea, and ultimately made a determined effort to abolish Judaism by force. He polluted the temple and the altar with swine's flesh, forced the Jews to take part in heathen rites, destroyed all copies of the Law on which he could lay his hands, and carried on a relentless persecution against all who still held fast to the sacred rites of their religion. A desperate struggle for freedom began under the leader- ship of the sons of the priest Mattathias, of whom Judas JMaccabseus was the most prominent. The struggle was ultimately successful. In 165 Antiochus died, and in the same year the daily sacrifice was restored at Jeru- salem. Thus the Jews emerged from their terrible ordeal with their religious independence restored under the leadership of the family of the Maccabees. It was seemingly at the height of the struggle in the year 165 or 164 that the book of Daniel was written. Tlie design of the unknown writer of Daniel is to com- fort his suffering compatriots and nerve them for their conflict by a book whicli is of an apocalyptic rather than a prophetic character. By study, by calculation of dates, by comparison of ancient predictions, the apocalyptic writer sought to discover some clue to the drift of present events, and the probable developments of the future. Nevertheless it is probable that the book of Daniel rests upon a traditional basis, and that the writer availed himself of some work or works dealing with the history of Babylon in the sixth century b.c. The book of Daniel differs from the earlier prophetic literature chiefly in the circumstance that its outlook is wider and more comprehensive. It is the first attempt THE BOOK OF DANIEL 105 at a philosophy of history. ' It is dominated by an over- mastering' sense of a universal divine purpose which overrules all the vicissitudes of human history, the rise and fall of dynasties, the conflicts of nations, and the calamities that overtake the faithful.' ^ Indeed the circumstances of their later history forced the Jews to face the question, How long that heathen domination, from which they seemed destined never to escape, was likely to last. The writer of Daniel surveys the future history of the elect people in its relation to the kingdoms of the world, and depicts in glowing colours the final deliverance of the saints. He is akin to the ancient prophets in his sense of God's control and ordering of history, and in his conception of salvation as a certain blessing of the future. He differs from them in his free use of symbolic imagerj^, and in certain theological ideas which point to a late date. For instance, the book illustrates some characteristic religious practices of later Judaism : e.g. its fervour in fasting and prayer, and its growing tendency to exalt the merit of alms- giving. It has been said that the teaching of the Old Testament is summed up in one word — the word God. It is in their persistent witness to the nature and requirement of God that all the prophetical and quasi-prophetical books of the Old Testament are united. It is true that in the latest books, the spirit of Jewish nationalism makes its appearance ; but the splendid visions of Israel's future presuppose an inward purification and renewal of the nation itself. It is the righteous, and they only, who are destined to behold the glory of God, and to inherit the blessings of the Messianic kingdom. Penitence, faith, loyalty to the divinely-revealed law — these are the essential conditions of acceptance with God, inculcated alike by Isaiah and Ezekiel, by Hosea and by Daniel. Thus the goodly fellowship of the prophets with one voice proclaims that the righteous Lord loveth righteousness, and that the moral law is the chief link between the soul of man and God. 1 Bampton Lectures, 1897, p. 332. CHAPTER VII THE MESSIANIC HOPE As we have seen, prediction is by no means tlie most essential element iu prophecy. The prophet was above all else a preacher of righteousness to the men of his own day. His teaching was rooted in present exijerience and dealt with moral questions of present urgency. His visions of the future were likewise coloured by the facts of the present. ' The prophetic oracles were addressed to the present, were rooted in the present, were ex- pressed iu language suited to the present, and pointed to a good in the near future forming a counterpart to pre- sent evil, or to an evil in the near future which was to be the penalty of present and past sin.' ^ Nevertheless, it remains true that inspired prophecy ever points to a future time, when the great principles which it had dis- cerned to be at work in Israel's history, would be openly manifested and developed. From first to last the pro- phets of the Old Testament look and wait for a Kingdom of God ; they depict its nature and conditions in varied and many-sided imagery ; they point with ever-increasing clearness to a personal Being, in whom and by whom all the types, figures and anticipations of the old dispensa- tion will be brought to fulfilment. Thus, the Messianic doctrine of the prophets is best understood if studied iu close connection with the history of their times ; and we must ever bear in mind that they spoke under limitations of which they were, to some extent, conscious (1 Pet. i. 11). The result is that we discover in Christianity not so much the literal accomplishment of particular predictions 1 Bruce, The Chief End of Revelation, p. 221. lOG EARLY PREDICTIONS 107 as a broad but close correspondence between Messianic prediction in tjeneral^ and its spiritual fulfilment in Christ. This concluding chapter will be devoted to a brief sketch of the gro\\'th of the Messianic liope during the period covered by the prophetic literature. Early stages in Messianic prediction. — It is necessary to remember at the outset that there already existed spiri- tual hopes which the prophets inherited. The primjeval promise to Abraham (Gen. xxii. 18) was doubtless an ancient and cherished tradition (Mic. vii. 20). The earliest stage of the Messianic expectation was a belief in man's dominion, and his destined victory over evil (Gen. iii. 15). This took more definite shape in the promise that in Abraham and his seed all the inhabitants of the world should be blessed (Gen. xxii. 17, 18). The so- called '^ Blessing of Jacob' (Gen. xlix. ) which is probably a primitive ode composed of different tribal songs or proverbs, and which perhaps originally formed part of an ancient collection of national poetry, exalts the figure of Judah as the future holder of sovereignty over his people. Judah is depicted as a judge or ruler with the staff' of office in his hand, exercising in his own right the sovereignty which was the promised heritage of Abraham's descendants. The prediction ascribed to Balaam (Num. xxiv. 17), hints at the sway of an individual, which is to j)roceed from Israel and to be ultimately extended over the other nations of the East. Israel's deliverance from the bondage of Egypt and its experiences in the wilder- ness had already indeed suggested certain ideas which later prophecy develops. For instance, the foundation of the notion of a visible kingdom of God M'as laid in the primitive polity organised by Moses ; the thought of triumph over heathen enemies by an elect people separ- ated to Jehovah's service Mas a natural result of the dis- comfiture of Egypt and of Amalek. The promulgation of the Law on Sinai indicated that the future pre-eminence of Israel would be a spiritual rather than a physical fact, and would depend on ethical conditions. At the same time, the judgments which descended on Israel's enemies \\ ere already seen to be successive declarations in regard to the divine estimate of human sin. Finally, Moses 108 THE HOUSE OF DAVID himself was a typical figure. His commanding and authoritative position in Israel indicated the principle that the divine guidance of Israel was, and would con- tinue to be, direct but mediatorial. It is true that the promise of Deut. xviii. 15 is not expressly connected with the person of the Alessiah anywhere in the Old Testament,' but towards the period of the close of the canon, the expectation of a coming prophet seems to have revived (see Mai. iv. 5 ; cp. 1 Mace. xiv. 41). Reign of David, circ. 1010-978. — The reign of David gave a direction and impulse to the Messianic idea which was never afterwards lost. It manifested the compatibility of a human hereditary monarchy with the fact of a divineh'-ruled polity. In David the hopes of Israel were centred, as in one who had been chosen by God to fulfil and realise in his own person the ideal of theocratic sovereignty. David himself seems to have been con- scious of a unique vocation (Ps. xviii., 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-8) and of a promise of divine favour pledged to his house for evermore. 2 Sam. vii. 4flF. — The oracle of Nathan (2 Sam. vii. 4 ff.) seems to embody the hopes which the men of David's own generation connected with his name and family. It pre- dicts the everlasting continuance of David's throne and house ; it bestows on the theocratic king the dignity of divine son-ship. Thus, long before the earliest of the eighth- century prophets appeared, popular tradition already ascribed an ideal glory and greatness to David's house. David's reign was commonly regarded as the pattern of Messianic times, a kind of golden age in Israel's history which was destined to be restored in the future. In the light of this promise to David's house, each king who sits on the throne of Judah is transfigured and invested with more than human attributes, M'hether he is hailed as a victorious warrior (Ps. ii. ), or as a royal bridegroom taking to himself a consort from the heathen world (Ps. xlv.), as a monarch reigning in righteousness and peace (Ps. Ixxii.), or finally, as one who combines the ^ This passage primaril.y refers to a continuous line of prophets, through whom Jehovah from time to time manifests His Will. THE MESSIANIC KING 109 functions of royalty with those of priesthood (Ps, cx.)^ — - the promised dignity of the Davidic prince with the prero- gatives of tlie ancient king who had blessed the patriarch Abraham himself (Gen. xiv. 19). Thus the figure of David loomed large in the imagination of the people at the period when written prophecy began. In the eighth century b. c.^ when the huge empire of Assyi-ia threatened Israel's very existence as a nation, faith clung to the covenant established by Jehovah with David and his house. It is accordingly not a matter of surprise that in the earliest prophetic writings a frequent Messianic vision is that of a royal personage, in and through whom Israel is to iind deliverance from its foes. The world-power attacked the theocracy specially in the person of its monarch, and naturally enough the figure of the king became more and more the centre of Israel's hopes ; in allegiance to David's house alone would there be any prospect of salvation for the hardly-pressed northern kingdom. The Davidic King. — The predictions of a Davidic king reach their climax on the very eve of the struggle with Assyria, in the prophecies of Micah and Isaiah. Projjhecy now declares that the future king is to come from David's own city (Mic. v. 2 ; cp. Matt. ii. 6), and is to stand and feed his flock in Jehovah's name (Mic. v. 4). In other words he is destined to stand in a unique relation to God, gifted with His Spirit (Isa. xi. 1), executing His righteous purpose, guided by His wisdom, even acting as the medium of His self-revelation (Isa. ix. 6). His chosen city, Jerusalem, is to be the metropolis of nations ; His throne will be everlasting and His peoi)le holy (Isa. iv. 3). In all these representations we may discern a two-fold aspect of sovereignty. On the one hand, since David was a typical man of war (1 Chron. xxviii. 3), the Messianic ideal necessarily included the thought of victory and triumph over foes. The title of 'king' was essentially that of a warrior, a leader of hosts in the wars of the Lord. It M-as a pledge not only of the deliverance of Israel from its enemies, but of a perpetual extension of the visible boundaries of the theocratic kingdom. 110 THE DAY OF JEHOVAH This aspect liowever of the Messianic character^ was not perhaps the most prominent. The workl-wide conquests of the Davidic king were destined only to form tlie prelude to a peaceful rule. The advance of the Assyrian power no douht gave a stimulus to universalistic ideas^ to the conception of a world-monarchy extended by warlike prowess ; hut the permanent form of Messianic prediction was mainly determined by visions of a stable and peaceful re-establishment of Da^'id's kingdom. Such ideas derived colour from the fact that in Hezekiah, during whose reign Isaiah and Micah were at the height of their activity, a relatively' righteous, able, and upright monarch was seated upon the throne of Judah, and amid the downfall of neighbouring kingdoms Jerusalem still remained comjjaratively secure. The advent of Jehovali. — The idea of a' Davidic king which dominates the prophets of the pre-Assyrian epoch, runs parallel to another conception which was specially prominent at this time, viz., that of an appearance of Jehovah Himself, to set up His kingdom as personal sovereign in the midst of His chosen i)eople, and as judge and redeemer in Zion. This expected moment of divine self-manifestation is to the prophets a turning-point in hmnan history — the day of judicial intervention, the day of God's decisive act, the day of Jehovah's exaltation. In this conception of the day of the Lord, as in that of the Davidic king, the prophets take up a popular cry, but give it their own peculiar turn. The mass of the nation clung with fanatical confidence to the thought of Jehovah's 'day.' They looked forward to it as a supreme object of hope in all times of distress. They assumed that Jehovah's self- manifestation must necessarily end in the discomfiture of Israel's foes. It was, as we have seen, the special task of Amos (v. 18 ff".) to combat this delusion, and to insist that only through the overthrow of the theocracy in its existing state, and the salvation of a mere remnant, would the divine purpose for Israel find accomplishment (Amos ix. 8; cp. Isaiah vi. 10 ft'.). Accordingly, from the rise of prophecy until its close in literature of an apocalyptic type, the thought of ' the day of Jehovah ' LIMITATIONS OF PROPHECY 111 continually recurs. That momentous crisis was to be a day of outward terror ; the ordinary course of nature would be violently interrupted ; the works of man would be brought low ; his loftiness would be humbled to the dust (Isa. ii. 12). It was to inaugurate a process of moral sifting; it was to be a moment of judgment^ in which Jehovah would test and refine both the nations- of the world and His own people, by the spirit of judgment and bi/ the spirit of burning (Isa. iv. 4). On the other hand, however, the day of the Lord was proclaimed by the prophets as an epoch ushering in the age of Messianic blessings, Tliough the ungodly mass of the people are warned not to wish for a day which to them shall be darkness and not light (Amos v. 18), the faithful in Israel are encouraged to look forward to it with confidence and hope. For that day will be one of deliverance and consolation. It will not merely bring terror to the evil; it will be a day of everlasting joy to the righteous, of relief to the oppressed. Two distinct lines of thought, then, pervade the prophetic writings of this period and colour the vision of the future : (i) the idea of a Davidic king reigning in righteousness over a spiritually renewed Israel, and (ii) that of a self-manifestation of Jehovah as His people's redeemer and king. Limitations of prophecy.— The prophets do not however attempt to adjust or combine these two parallel lines of prediction. They describe the Messianic deliverance sometimes as the achievement of a Davidic king, some- times as the outcome of Jehovah's personal advent. The two conceptions are nowhere actually combined in a single divine-human figure. They form continuous and co-existent elements in Messianic prophecy, and meet us again in the writings of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The last-mentioned prophet places the two ideas in close juxtaposition in his thirty-fourth chapter (vv. 11, 23, 24), where he represents Jehovah Himself as the shepherd of His people, and the Davidic king as a prince ruling in His name. It should also be noticed that the prophets represent the Messianic kingdom under forms and figures sug- 112 LIMITATIONS OF PROPHECY gested by their present experience. They picture a kingdom of God visibly founded on earth, with Jerusalem for its recognised centre. Thus Isaiah takes as the key- note of his earlier prophecies a prediction, perhaps borrowed from some older prophet, in which Zion's exaltation is described. In the after-days Zion is to be the spiritual metropolis of the world. ' Its spiritual pre- eminence is represented under the figure of a physical elevation of the temple mount. Thither not Israel only, but the nations of the world, will go up to worship and to learn from Israel's God.'^ The tendency of later projjhetic thought was to revert to this early conception. Thus Ezekiel's book closes with a vision of the temple restored as the earthly dwelling-place of Jehovah in the midst of His people, while the later Isaiah looks for the restoration of Jerusalem in radiant splendour, as the scene of a spiritualised Levitical worship, in which all the nations of the earth are summoned to participate. Once more, in their prediction of future blessings, the prophets know not tlie time or manner of fulfilment. To them the present and future are contiguous and as yet undistinguished. They generally proclaim salvation as a blessing of the near future ; yet the delay of Messianic blessings does not shatter their hope or confidence, mainly because they are so keenly alive to the conditional cluiracter of Jehovah's word ; they teach that impenitence or apostasy on Israel's part necessarily interrupts or postpones the dawn of the Messianic age. The idea of the Messiah as a Davidic king seems, as we have observed, to culminate during the reign of Hezekiah, and it meets us again in the writings of Jere- miah (xxiii. 3-6, xxxiii. 1.5), of Ezekiel and of Zechariah. The date of the passage Zech. ix. 10 is very uncertain, but its insertion in the writings of a 2)ost-exilic prophecy shows that the hope of earlier times was not materially changed. In this passage Messiah is depicted as enter- ing into Jerusalem in the garb of a prince of peace, just, and having salvation, lowly, and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. Without the 1 Kirkpatrick, o^:, cit. p, 183, MANASSEH'S REIGN 113 implements of war He extends His righteous sway. He shall speak peace tinto the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth. Effect of Manasseh's reign. — But the reign of Manasseh not only produced a violent anti-prophetic reaction, during which the active ministry of the prophets was suspended ; ^ it gave birth to a consciousness of the distinction between the faithful few, and the ungodly mass of the nation which had fallen away into idolatry and libertinism. The hopes of the future came to be connected no longer with the discredited fortunes of the royal house, but with the constancy of the pious remnant of Israel, which amid circumstances of the utmost dis- couragement still clung to the hopes, and obeyed the teachings of 2)rophecy. This remnant of the nation became more and more distinctly conscious of Israel's true vocation ; but although it set itself with zeal to seek Jehovah (Zepli. ii. 3), it nevertheless found itself involved iu the overwhelming calamities which after the death of Josiah overtook the Hebrew people. The cataclysm of the exile followed, bringing to the faithful a long period of suffering and probation, during which the Israel of God gradually awoke to the sense of its function as a missionary to the nations. This faithful remnant, in accordance with a characteristic tendency of the Hebrew mind, is individualised as a righteous person who bears the iniquity, even while he fulfils the true destiny of his people. ' In this ideal servant of Jehovah are concen- trated the scattered characteristics of God's faithful : their spirit of dependence, their patient devotion, their unswerving faithfulness in the fulfilment of vocation, their brave constancy under trial, their meek acceptance of death. '2 Isaiah liii. — In the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah we again reach a culminating point in prophecy. The righteous servant of Jehovah is depicted as pouring out his soul unto death, making atonement for the transgressions of 1 Mic. vi. and vii. possibly belong to Manasseh's reign. " The Doctrine of the Incarnation, 1. 55. 114 POST-EXILIC PROPHECY his people, and passing through death to a new and glorified life of fruitfulness and power in which he sees of the travail of his soul and is satisfied. The exile thus developed in Israel's consciousness the thought of the mediatorial functions of God's people as emhodied in a representative individual. The universal- istic ideas of earlier prophecy revived. In Ezekiel Israel is represented as a restored people renewed by the power of Jehovah's Spirit, sanctified by the presence of His sanctuary in their midst, and enjoying under the sway of an upright prince the blessings of righteous government. Israel is contemplated as a priestly people separated from the world by a ring-fence of sacred institutions. But the later Isaiah is full of the thought of the universal mission of His people. He recognises the prophetic and mission- ary character of Israel — its vocation to be a light to the Gentiles (xlix. 6). Zion becomes the spiritual mother of the nations. Thither the Gentiles bring their offerings ; the sons of the alien serve her and build up her walls ; the abundance of the sea is converted to her, the forces of the Gentiles minister to her (Isa. Ix.-lxii.). Post-exilic Prophecy. — This sense of the priestly character and office of Jehovah's people may have enhanced the new significance assigned to the priesthood by post-exilic prophecy. In Zechariah's book, Joshua the high-priest stands on a level with Zerubbabel the theocratic prince. The idea of atonement found a fixed outward expression in the ritual of the restored sanctuary. The sense of sin was gradually educated ; hopes and anticipations of a spiritual kind were developed. Thus in Psalm ex. is to be found another climax. Zechariah represents the prince and priest as ruling in perfect liarmony and even sharing a single throne. The counsel of peace shall he between them both (vi. 13). But in Psalm ex. prophecy rises to the thought of a monarch who, as the repre- sentative of the priestly nation, himself holds the dignity of the priesthood, being made by the oath of Jehovah a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. This is the nearest approach we have to a combination of the figure of the suffering servant with that of the Davidic king. THE NEW COVENANT 115 The new Covenant.— The restoration of the temple- worship naturally hrought again into prominence the idea of a covenunt hetween Jehovah and Israel — an idea M'hich corresponds to that of a people of God charged with a spiritual mission to mankind. The hope of a covenant of grace, under which Jehovah would Himself accomplish what Israel had failed to fulfil, had already appeared in Jeremiah (xxxi. 81 ff.). Jehovah had purposed to make Israel a kingdom of priests and an holy nation, hut tlie only hope of the ideal being realised lay in the free action of Jehovah's grace. The old covenant had failed ; it was powerless to secure the obedience it enjoined ; it was powerless to remove sin. A new covenant would be characteristic of the Messianic age, in which not merely the outward life, but the heart of Israel was destined to be renewed unto holiness. The law of Jehovah should be written in the heart ; each soul should have immediate knowledge of God ; above all, the burden of sin and defilement should be finally done away. The conception of a new covenant marks an onward step in Israel's religious education ; for it implies that the Messiah was not destined to fulfil tlie aspirations of national ambition, but to satisfy the yearnings of spiritual need. Moreover, it implies that religion is not merely a matter of national obligation, but a personal and individual relationship with Jehovah. A spiritual religion can no longer be a merely national religion. ' When religion is thus carried back to its deepest centre, to the fellowship of man in his heart witli God, the separating limits of the national cults fall away as meaningless ; the most inward experience of what is purely human can no longer be a privilege of one people above the others — it must become a thing of the whole of mankind.' ^ In the post-exilic prophets the interest of prophecy naturally centres in the temple, which is regarded as the scene of a future theophany. The sudden coming of Jehovah to His temple will uslier in the age of Messianic blessings. Thither the desirable things of all nations shall be brought ; there the deepest yearnings of man's 1 Pfleiderer, Gifford Lectures, ii. 51. 116 POST-CANONICAL BOOKS heart shall be finally satisfied (Hag. ii. 7-9 ; Zech. ix. 9). Ill the book of Malachi the thought of Jehovah's coming is modified in a manner characteristic of the period when the prophet wrote. Jehovah will manifest Himself, but through the mediation of an angel, tlie minister of His covenant and executor of His righteous judgment. On the other hand, we seem to find after the exile a growing sense of the relation of the Messiah to humanity at large. He is again called tJie Brunch (Zech. iii. 8, vi. 12 ; cp. Jer. xxiii. 5), though he stands in unique relation to Jehovah. In Daniel vii. 13, the expression one like unto a son of man does not apparently in its original context denote the Messiah. It seems rather to describe the characteristics of that ideal kingdom of the saints which is destined to supersede the heathen empires founded on brute violence and material force. The Messiah (Dan. ix. 2-5, 2(5, anointed prince) is regarded as one with the saints of the Most High — their liead and representative, exercising the universal dominion bestowed on Israel by Jehovah Himself. The Post-Canonical Literature. — The general tendency, however, of the later apocalyptic literature is to depict Messiah as a liuman prince, exalted, majestic, and even divinely endowed, but as one whose victorious sway ministers to the national exaltation of Judaism and of the synagogue. Thus in the apocryplial books, for instance, there is ,practically no reference to a personal Saviour. Vague hopes of the future glory of Zion, of the conversion of tlie Gentiles, and of the deliverance of Israel from its heathen foes, are the most prominent elements in the Messianic pictures of these books. It falls however outside the limits of our jjresent task to describe them particularly. ^ The argument from prophecy when re-stated in the form rendered necessary by our present critical know- ledge is very parallel in its results to the modern shape assumed by the argument from design. In both cases 1 For an account of the Messianic expectation in its later stages, see Schlirer, The Jeivish History in the time of Christ, § 29, THE FULFILMENT OF PROPHECY 117 tlie inductive conclusion is drawn, no longer from the narrow field of special cases of correspondence, but from the broad area of prophecy surveyed as a whole. Approaching the Old Testament from the point of view of l>elief we find a geucrcil correspondence between ful- filment and prediction sometimes rising to the point of wonderful minuteness. But it is needless to lay stress on special predictions, or to look for particular miracles of foresight wliere all is divine. A critical study of various Messianic passages shows us that their original application and reference is to events and circumstances of the 2)ropliet's own day ; but the ultimate reference to Christ is justified by the maxim of 2 Peter i. 20 : Xo prophecy is of private interpretation. Scripture is seen to have successive applications corresponding to different stages in the work of God. That which, for instance, was originally spoken of the chosen nation {e.(j. Hos. xi. 1), found a fresh and ideal fulfilment in Him who embodied in His representative humanity the people from whom as touching the flesh He sprang, and who recapitulated in His own life the experience of all the ancient saints ; and that which was trulj"^ accomplished in Him necessarily had a mystical reference also to the spiritual Israel of God and the Christian C'hurch of which He was the founder and archetype. Finally, the individual Christian, in so far as he realises his union with Christ, discerns in the narrative of Israel's fortunes and in the institutions of its polity and worship, a kind of description, writ large, of his own spiritual course and moral experience. For what gives prophecy its peculiar character, as at once a message addressed to the present, and a picture of future glory, is the fact of inspiration. The word of pliets on the other hand, was both to reveal the essential character of God, and to educate the conscience and will of their fellow-men. In proclaiming the supremacy of the law of righteous- ness and identifying it v^■ith the will of Almighty God, they laid the foundations of a universal religion ; their teaching contained in germ the everlasting Gospel pro- claimed by Jesus Christ. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE I.— BEGINNINGS OF PROPHETISM. Legislation of Moses, cir. 1320. Samuel, cir. 1040. David, King, ? 1010-978. Solomon, 978-938. B C. Kings of Israel. Kings of Judah. General Historj'. Prophets. 937 Jeroboam I., Relioboam, . 920 Abijam, 915 Nadab, . Asa (917), . 914 Baaslia, 890 Elah, . 889 Zimri, . 889 Omri, . 877 Ahab, . Jehoshaphat (876). Elijah. 855 Ahaziah, 854 Jehoram, 851 Joram, Elisha. 843 Ahaziali, 842 Jehu, . [Athaliah], . Israel engaged in disastrous war with Syria. 836 Joash, . 814 Jehoahaz, 797 Jehoasli, Amaziali (796). 119 120. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE II.— THE ASSYRIAN PERIOD. B.C. Kings of Israel. 1 Kings of Judah. General History. Prophets. 781 Jeroboam II., 777? Uzziah, Amos (cir. 760) 745 Ticilath-Pilcscr ^III. (Pill.) King of As- syria. 760-V;f6 740 ' Zecliariah, . HosEA (cir. 740). Shallum, ■^^^'iZ.lt Menahem, 737 Pekahiah, Jotham (sole ruler). Isaiah (cir. 737). 735 Pekah, . Aliaz, . Syro-Epliraimi- tisli War. MicAH (cir. 735). yxo-yoo 733 Hoshea, 732 Fall of Damas- cu.s. 730 Hezekiali, . 727 722 Fall of nor- thern King- dom. Shalmancser IV. Sargon, . o&Api/iJ:f. 7->f"<^ ^f^C- 711 Siege of Aslidoil, 705 Sennacherib, 701 Assyrian Inva- sion of Phoe- nicia, Philistia, and Judah. 686 Manasseh, . ? Micah, chli. vi., vii. 681 Esarhaddon, . 641 Amon, . CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 121 III.— CHALDEAN PERIOD. B.C. Kings of Judah. G39 Josiah, G27 Gas I 621 GIO j 60S Jelioaliaz, GOT 601 597 592 586 Jehoiachin, Siege of Jerusa- lem and first deijortation. Zedekiah, . Fall of Jerusalem, second deporta- tion. General History. Nahopolassar, King of Babylon. Inroads of the Scy- thians [cir. 625). Fall of Nineveh, Neh'uchadnezzcw. Battle of Carclie- mish. Prophets. Jeremiah (627).(S^t-r?^ Nahum (1Qai»).Ua-en Zephaniah (?625). Discovery of the book of the Law (Deuter- onomj'). Habakkuk (?608).--rf '■ EzEKiEL in exile (592- 570). ~~ IV.— PERIOD OF PERSIAN DOMINATION. B.C. General Historj'. Prophets. 550 Cyrus, King of Medes and Author of Isaiah xl.-lxvi. Persians. [cir. 550-538). 538 Fall of Babylon, 537 First retiu-n of the Jews, . 521 Darius I. (H3'staspes), 520-516 Re-building of the Temple, Haogai and Zechariah 485 Xerxes, 0«AZ>/4'-' ..72.( er '^g(r 465 Artaxd-^cs I., Longimanus, 458 Mission of Ezra, 445 Nehemiah appointed Governor, . Malachi {cir. 440). 433 Second visit of Nehemiah, 350 ? Book of Joel. PJg ,/c!0 122 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE v.— GREEK PERIOD. B.C. General History. Prophets. 333 Alexander defeats Darius at Issus, . ? Isaiah xxiv.-xxvii. .332 Alexander invades Egypt, >. 324 Death of Alexander, . 322 Ptolemy I. (Soter), King of Egy^it, . ?315 Seleucus expelled from Babylon by Antigoniis, ► ? Zechariah ix. -xiv. 312 Seleucus recovers Babylon, 301 Palestine a province of Egyj^t, . ? Book of Jonah. 280 Antioclius I. of Syria, . . . \}^(f\t..m 198 Palestine falls to the Seleucidfe, / 175 Antiochus IV. (Ejjiphanes), King of Sj-ria. 168 Persecution of the Jews by An- tiochus IV. 166 Judas Maccabieus 165 Book of Daniel. INDEX Ahab, 12. Amos, 13, 20 ; book of, 21 ff. ; teaching, 23. 7(,D -Itti, Antiochus, persecution of Jews by, 104. Apocalyptic writings, 15, 91. Assj'ria, 33 ff. Baalhit, 27. Baal-worship, 12. Babylon, rise of, 45. Balaam, prediction of, 108. Bull-worship, 24, 27. Canon of Scripture, 2. Carchemish, battle of, 45. Covenant, the new, 60, 115 ff. Cyrus, 71. Daniel, Book of, 15, 103 ff. David, reign of, 109. Davidic king, the, in prophecy, 37, no. Day of Jehovah, the, 20, 96, in. Deuteronomy, book of, 35, 53, 68. Edom, 98. Elijah, 7, 8, g. Elisha, 7, 12. ^fO-Foo Ezekiel, 14, 63 ff., 115. J'f2 - yfO Ezra, work and mission of, 84 ff. Exile, the, 62 ; literary activity dur- ing the, 70, 76 ; return of Jews from, 76, 78. Gedaliah, 57. Hagiografha, the, i. Habakkuk, 14, 46, 49 ff. fog - Ctfy Hananiah, 57. Haggai, 14, 78 ff. Hosea, 13, 24 ; book of, 25 ff. ; religious teaching of, 28 ff. 7 A*/ -7jy- Israel, kingdom of, war with Syria, 17 ; condition in eighth century, 18, 19. Isaiah, 13, 30; prophecies of, 32 ff. ; present book of, 3s ; theology of, 36 ff. .x.xiv.-xxvii., author of, 99 ff. .xl.-lxvi., author of, 71 ff., 77, 115. liii., teaching of, 75, 114. Jacob, blessing' of, loS. Jeremiah, 14, 46, 52 ff. ; teaching of, 58ff g-4^-f/£ Jeroboam 11., 17. Jews, condition of, after return from exile, 78, 84. Joash, 17. Joel, book of, 15, 95 ff. ''}(> -^^° Jonah, book of, 15, 99 ff. h^Vi t/l Joshua, the high priest, 79, 114. Josiah, reformation of, 53 ff. ; death of, 55. Judah, kingdom of, condition in eighth centurj', 30, 31 ; history after death of Manasseh, 53. Judaism, 86. Judas Maccabaeus, 104. Rlalachi, book of, 14, 87 ff. Manasseh, reaction under, 44, 114. Megiddo, battle of, 55. Messiah, Messianic hope, 107 ff. Micah, book of, 13, 38 ff. '72-0 -Jco 123 yvc-vc 124 ^,, IND Moses, io8, 109. IVabhi, Nebuni, meaning of, 4. Nahum, book of, 14, 45 ff. ti,i4 -6>/2 Nathan, oracle of (2 Sam. vil. 4 ff.), 109. Nebuchadnezzar, 56. Necho n., king of Egypt, 55. Nehemiah, 2, 86. Nineveh, fall of, 45. Obadiah, book of, 15, 61, 97 ff. IX. ■T ^ Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries 1 1012 01 189 8675 Bythe. Kev. A. rt. SAYCii. aeconu r-uiuun. v^iuuuovu. /b.uJ. London : Rivingtons, 34 King Street, Covent Garden. This Church and Realm: Some Difficulties of the Dcay Examined. By tlie Kcv. C. li. 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