UC-NRLF 
 
GIFT OF 
 Gladys Isaacson 
 
pilgrim Series 
 
 ADVANCED LESSONS 
 
 The Prophets 
 
 as 
 
 Statesmen and Preachers 
 
 BY 
 HENRY T. FOWLER, Ph. D. 
 
 Professor of Biblical Literature and History, Brown 
 University 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 Hbe pilgrim press 
 
 NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 
15 S 
 
 Fe. 
 
 Copyright, 1904 
 By M. C. HAZARD 
 
 GIFT OF 
 GLADYS ISAACSON 
 
 THE PLIMPTON PRESS 
 
 NORWOOD MASS U S A 
 
Preface 
 
 IN the present course of lessons, the effort is made to 
 understand the life and work of Israel's great prophets in 
 connection with the history of their times, and to show 
 how their teachings developed with the changing con- 
 ditions and needs of successive generations. This his- 
 torical method of studying prophecy has the twofold 
 advantage of giving vital interest to books that often 
 seem remote from human life, and of avoiding many 
 dangers of erroneous interpretation. Application of the 
 prophetical teaching to our own day is made only after 
 an attempt to understand what the prophet intended to 
 teach his own generation; and then the application is 
 often so plain that no thoughtful Christian can fail to 
 make it for himself. 
 
 This second book in the "Pilgrim Series of Advanced 
 Lessons " follows naturally after the more general study of 
 "The Books of the Bible with Relation to their Place in 
 History, 1 ' yet the present course is complete in itself and 
 may profitably be pursued by those who have not fol- 
 lowed the earlier course. The lessons are arranged in 
 two groups of twelve with a review following each group, 
 so that the course offers one lesson a week for six months. 
 If time permits, the final review may well be extended 
 over two weeks, as indicated in the text. 
 
 3 
 
4 PREFACE 
 
 All Biblical quotations in the lessons follow the transla- 
 tion of the Revised Version, American Standard Edi- 
 tion. A copy of this, or of the British* Revision, should 
 be in the hands of every one following the present course 
 of study. Some may prefer to read from the version of 
 1611, but constant reference should be made to the Re- 
 vised Version for help in interpreting difficult passages. 
 
 The discussion of debatable questions is, as far as 
 possible, excluded. Where it is necessary to speak 
 upon some point on which scholars differ, the view 
 which seems to have the preponderance of evidence in 
 its favor is stated as probable, often with one or two of 
 the most obvious reasons in its support. In all their 
 positive statements, the lessons aim to present only that 
 upon which most competent Biblical scholars are in 
 agreement. The books suggested in the appendix con- 
 tain discussions of all important problems of history and 
 interpretation that will be apt to arise. 
 
 This little book is offered to advanced classes in the 
 Sunday-school and other Bible students, in the hope that 
 it may help some toward a better knowledge of the real 
 course of divine revelation and a fuller appreciation of 
 the Old Testament as a book of life. 
 
The Prophets 
 
 as 
 Statesmen and Preachers 
 
The Prophets 
 
 as 
 
 Statesmen and Preachers 
 
 OUTLINE OF COURSE 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 1. General classification of prophets. 
 
 2. Prophecy before the eighth century. 
 
 I. PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 1. Amos. 
 
 2. Hosea. 
 
 3. Isaiah 1-39 (early ministry). 
 
 4. Isaiah 1-39 (later ministry). 
 
 5. Micah. 
 
 II. PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 1. Zephaniah. 
 
 2. Jeremiah (first period). 
 
 3. Nahum. 
 
 4. Jeremiah (second period). 
 
 5. Habakkuk. 
 
 6. Jeremiah (third period). 
 
 III. PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 1. Ezekiel (first period). 
 
 2. Obadiah and prophecies of Ezekiel against foreign 
 
 nations. 
 
 7 
 
8 OUTLINE OF COURSE 
 
 3. Ezekiel (second period). 
 
 4. Isaiah 40-55. ^ 
 
 5. Haggai. 
 
 6. Zechariah. 
 
 7. Malachi. 
 
 8. Isaiah 56-66. 
 
 IV. PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEQALISM 
 
 1. Joel. 
 
 2. Jonah. 
 
 3. Daniel 1-6. 
 
 4. Daniel 7-12. 
 
The Prophets as Statesmen and 
 Preachers 
 
 LESSON I *" ;* 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 I. GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF PROPHETS 
 
 A reference in the book of Jeremiah distinguishes 
 three classes of teachers in ancient Israel, the priests, the 
 Israel's wise, and the prophets. Each of these 
 Teachers contributed its portion to the thirty-nine 
 books that compose our Old Testament. The conduct 
 of formal worship, with the development and preserva- 
 tion of the many laws and customs controlling it, was 
 the chief task of the priests. Even when they wrote 
 their nation* s history, their dominant purpose was evi- 
 dently to emphasize its ritual aspects. The wise occu- 
 pied themselves largely with observations upon the con- 
 duct of practical life and with problems concerning the 
 divine government or the value of human life. Prov- 
 erbs, Job and Ecclesiastes illustrate the various tenden- 
 cies of their thought. It was through the prophets, 
 chiefly, that the nature of God and his moral and spirit- 
 
 9 
 
IO INTRODUCTION 
 
 ual demands were revealed. They developed the ethical 
 and spiritual religion of Israel. 
 
 In English, the words prophet and prophesy are used 
 ordinarily in the meaning foreteller and foretell ; but the 
 Title Hebrew words that they represent in the 
 Prophet Old Testament were not necessarily used 
 in any such limited sense, and did not have such mean- 
 ing in^ their, origin. Abimelech was told that Abraham 
 was jp>phfct whose prayer would be effective; here the 
 word seems to mean one who enjoyed a peculiarly close 
 r^l&tibn with God. Indeed, the terms man of God and 
 prophet are often used interchangeably. Still, this does 
 not give us in full the Old Testament idea of the 
 prophet, nor the exact root meaning of the word. When 
 Moses objected that Pharaoh would not hearken to him, 
 he was told that Aaron should be his prophet and should 
 speak unto Pharaoh. This passage illustrates the proba- 
 ble root meaning of the word prophet, namely " speaker/' 
 When Jeremiah is made aware of his appointment as 
 a prophet, his instant cry is, "Ah, Lord Jehovah 1 
 behold, I know not how to speak." When he and Isaiah 
 and Ezekiel are called to the prophetic office, they 
 are all commissioned to speak unto the people and the 
 message assigned to them is not primarily, or exclu- 
 sively, one of prediction of the unknown future. A 
 careful historical study of the life work of each of Israel's 
 great prophets will recognize a large element of foretell- 
 ing, but will not find this, by any means, the chief thing 
 in their messages. From every point of view one is 
 forced to the conclusion that the Old Testament idea of 
 
INTRODUCTION 1 1 
 
 true prophecy included far more than prediction. The 
 Hebrew prophet was God's spokesman, whether his mes- 
 sage at the particular time concerned chiefly the past, 
 present, or future. The Jews, themselves, denominate 
 Former tne books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and 
 Prophets Kings, the " Former Prophets," counting 
 these writings that impress the lessons from Jehovah's 
 past dealings with his people, the work of prophets as 
 truly as the writings of Isaiah or Jeremiah. To these last 
 two, together with Ezekiel and " the Twelve " they apply 
 Latter tne caption "Latter Prophets," while 
 Prophets Daniel is not included within their pro- 
 phetic canon at all. This last fact, however, was prob- 
 ably due to the circumstance that the book was not writ- 
 ten till the prophetic canon had been completed. While 
 Daniel is very different from the earlier prophetic writings 
 of Israel, it is the culmination of certain distinct tenden- 
 cies that developed in the books of the prophetic canon. 
 
 It is common to speak of the prophets whose names 
 are prefixed to separate books as the " writing prophets,' 1 
 Writing m distinction from those whom we know 
 Prophets only from narratives in the historical 
 books. The list of these latter is a long one, from 
 Abraham and Moses, through Samuel, Nathan, Gad, and 
 others less conspicuous, to Elijah and Elisha. The dis- 
 tinction that differentiates the writing prophets from these 
 is a convenient one, though it may foster the error of 
 supposing that the writing prophets necessarily wrote the 
 books bearing their names. In some cases, it is highly 
 probable that the prophets' disciples gathered together all 
 
12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 possible memorials, whether written or preserved only in 
 the tablets of their hearts, and from these composed our 
 existing books; again, one of the "latter prophets" is a 
 narrative of which the prophet is the subject rather than 
 the author. 
 
 The distinction between the " Major " and the " Minor 
 Prophets" is another convenient one for purposes of 
 Major and reference, but one that is dangerous, in 
 Minor Prophets that it may lead to regarding the twelve 
 shorter, or minor books, as necessarily of inferior signifi- 
 cance; whereas, some of them stand in the very first 
 rank in the development of Old Testament revelation. 
 In the present course of study, this common distinction 
 will be avoided. 
 
 II. PROPHECY BEFORE THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 While Abraham is once called a prophet and Moses 
 has this title given him several times, a passage in Samuel 
 implies that the title was introduced in Israel at a com- 
 paratively late date. It must have been applied to these 
 earlier men of God only by a later generation which 
 recognized in them the spirit of the true prophet. 
 
 In the narratives concerning the days of Samuel, there 
 appear groups of religious enthusiasts traveling about the 
 Sons of the country who are called " sons of the 
 Prophets prophets." They are prominent again, 
 some two hundred years later, in the narratives concern- 
 ing Elisha. From these enthusiasts, going about with 
 music and song, or living together in a communal state, 
 whose ecstatic practices suggest a very primitive type of 
 
INTRODUCTION I 3 
 
 religion, to the great prophetic teachers of Israel, is a 
 long step, indeed. Samuel and Elisha appear, it is true, 
 in connection with these companies, but the great Elijah 
 stands forth as a lone figure, and, before the wondrous 
 succession of Israel's writing prophets begins its work, 
 these primitive companies disappear from the historical 
 narratives. The earliest writing prophet denies that he 
 has any connection, whatever, with such an order. 
 These companies may have accomplished something for 
 Israel, but the references to them give little help in the 
 effort to trace the nourishing roots of later prophecy. It 
 is not improbable that, like so many religious orders 
 which were sincere in their early years, they became cor- 
 rupt and were a source of the multitude of false prophets 
 that swarmed in Israel, more truly than of the great 
 writing prophets. 
 
 The picture of the prophet Nathan rebuking David for 
 his great moral sin, contains some suggestion of the 
 
 Nathan WOr ^ ^ ^ mos anc * I sa i an > but it is Elijah, 
 
 in the middle of the ninth century, 
 
 a hundred and fifty years after Nathan, who seems the 
 
 typical forerunner of the great statesmen-preachers of the 
 
 eighth century. His teaching would lead to a political 
 
 Elijah course upon which^the later prophets in- 
 sisted with great unanimity, namely, com- -*>.' 
 plete avoidance of foreign alliances. David sought 
 alliance, with no prophet rebuking him, but such con- 
 nections led, inevitably, in the next generation, to cor- 
 ruption of Jehovah worship through its intermingling 
 with the heathen practices of the national allies. In 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Elijah's generation, the king had renewed Israel's ancient 
 alliance with Phoenicia by marrying the Tyrian princess 
 Jezebel, who proved an active propagator of her own 
 religion. Elijah's great principle of jealousy for Jehovah 
 came to its full expression in opposition to the influences 
 for which Jezebel stood. The carrying out of this prin- 
 ciple involved complete hostility to all political alliance 
 with Israel's neighbors. The other great prophetic princi- 
 ple for which Elijah stands, is the recognition of the rights 
 of the private citizen against the tyranny of the ruler. It 
 was not on the occasion of Ahab's fostering of Baal worship, 
 but of his conduct in the matter of Naboth's vineyard 
 that Elijah announced the signal downfall of his dynasty. 
 A study of the prophets, considered as statesmen and 
 preachers, will show these principles of Elijah develop- 
 ing far beyond his presentation of them, taking new 
 forms in the midst of new conditions and adding to 
 themselves other teachings, till the combined body of 
 prophetic truth reveals the foundation principles of all 
 wise statesmanship, right morals, and true religion. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Three classes of teachers in Israel (Jer. 18: 18); Abraham called a 
 prophet (Gen. 20: 7); tUfte called prophet of Moses (Ex. 7: I, 2) ; 
 prophetic commissions of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel (Isa. 6 : 5-13, 
 Jer. 1 : 4-10, Ezek. 2-3 : 15) ; the early name for a prophet in Israel 
 (I Sam. 9: 9); sons of prophets (i Sam. 10: 5, 10-12, 19: 18-24; 
 " Vi I '*""' I ' T* IT p | A ' I^JUiihi)- the work of 
 Nathan (2 Sam. 12 : 1-15) ; Elijah's fundamental principles ( I Kings 
 19: 14, 2l*i 7-24). 
 
 , ^ 
 
INTRODUCTION 1 5 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Israel's classes of teachers and the distinctive functions of each ; 
 meaning of the title " prophet " in Old Testament ; significance of 
 the term " former prophets " ; the term " writing prophets " ; danger 
 of misinterpretation of term " minor prophets " ; characteristics of 
 " sons of the prophets " ; distinction between these and the great 
 individual prophets; special importance of narrative of Nathan; 
 the two great principles for which Elijah stood ; date of Elijah ; his 
 interest in relation to the eighth century writing prophets ; his in- 
 terest in relation to the age-long struggle for human liberty ; the 
 political significance of his jealousy for Jehovah ; the religious sig- 
 nificance of this principle for our own lives. 
 
1 6 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 I. Prophets of the Eightji Century 
 
 LESSON II 
 AMOS 
 
 Suggestions for Review. The three classes of teachers in Israel ; 
 meaning of the name " prophet " in Old Testament ; application of 
 the terms " former " and " latter prophets " ; meaning of the term 
 " writing prophets " ; great principles for which Elijah stood j rela- 
 tion of his work to that of the prophets of later centuries. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 Some twelve miles south of Jerusalem, on the crest of 
 the central ridge of Palestine, lay Tekoa, where Amos 
 Th Ma dwelt. It was a high and desolate region 
 from which the broken cliffs of the wilder- 
 ness of Judaea descended precipitously to the Dead Sea. 
 Here Amos was a herdsman tending a stunted variety of 
 sheep, characteristic of the district, and caring for the 
 sycomore figs that furnished a poor quality of food. 
 While his occupation was of the humblest and he denied 
 any connection with the professional prophets of his age, 
 Amos was a man possessed^ of a power of eloquence, which 
 combined astute appeals to men's interest and passion 
 with logic inexorable, and o^ejwho expressed his thought 
 withji wealth of illustration from history and nature. Yet 
 these were but accessories of the prophet. To his intense, 
 direct, absolutely sincere heart the secret of the ages had 
 been laid open. 
 
AMOS 17 
 
 Amos lived during the long and exceedingly prosper- 
 ous reign of Jeroboam II, and, probably, fulfilled his 
 mission during the latter half of the reign, 
 when success had already been achieved 
 by that monarch. His work was thus done about the 
 middle of the eighth century B. c., approximately one 
 hundred years later than the labors of his great fore- 
 runner Elijah, and nearly two centuries after the division 
 of the kingdom under Rehoboam and Jeroboam I. 
 Before the reign of Jeroboam II, Israel had suffered 
 greatly from her protracted wars with Syria, but this 
 ancient foe had, in turn, been almost annihilated by the 
 Assyrian attack from the east, and the Hebrews had thus 
 been able to recover the territory they had lost during 
 their weakened condition. Thus, in the days of Jero- 
 boam II, the combined territory of Israel and Judah com- 
 pared favorably in extent with the kingdom of David and 
 Solomon. In the book of Amos one may discover that 
 this era of military success was also an age of great luxury 
 and self-confidence, with their accompanying moral vices, 
 especially, cruel oppression of the poor, perversion of 
 justice for bribes, and dishonest business practices. The 
 nation of Israel evidently regarded its prosperity as a 
 mark of Jehovah's especial favor, and deemed it necessary 
 only to maintain generous and elaborate ritual worship 
 in order to retain his blessings. 
 
 In the midst of these conditions Amos appeared at 
 Jeroboam's sanctuary at Beth-el and declared, in burning 
 
 utterances, that Israel should suffer for her 
 The Message . T 
 
 sins just as other nations : indeed, Je- 
 
1 8 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 hovah's peculiar blessings upon her were but the ground 
 of greater responsibility. If the people would turn from 
 their acts of injustice, oppression, dishonesty, from their 
 cruel and frivolous lives, the remnant might be saved ; 
 but Jehovah was about to raise up a nation to afflict 
 Israel from whose oppression escape could not be found. 
 The mass of Israel clearly held the view common 
 among Semitic peoples that their God was the god of the 
 nation simply, whose especial favor was to be won by 
 conformity to his ritual and whose satisfaction and 
 prowess were shown when the nation was triumphant 
 over its enemies. Amos flung back the curtain that 
 veiled all eyes and revealed Jehovah ofjsrael as a Godjrf 
 justice. He introduced the epoch-making teaching that 
 'God^demanded Justice between nation and nation,, man 
 and_man, rather than sacred assemblies and offerings, 
 and^that he would bring vengeance upon all nati'onsy in- 
 cluding his^own people7^6ecause^oY ttiejrjnpral evils. 
 Since the prophet^vision hacTpierceato the very nature 
 of Jehovah, as no man's before had done, he alone was 
 able to see that the nation's proud success was but the 
 prelude of utter ruin, because beneath power and pros- 
 perity lay moral corruption. The preacher of righteous- 
 ness was thus the enunciator to Israel and to the world 
 of this eternal truth of statesmanship the nation that 
 persistently allows the selfish exploitati^ 
 pefvertiTjuttce4}^^ its business system, 
 
 is doomed to extinction. To-day, one may read the 
 pages of the world's history writ full with the verifica- 
 tion of Amos 1 political doctrine. With him it was based 
 
AMOS 19 
 
 
 
 on something deeper and more certain than human ex- 
 perience, however wide and unvarying. It followed 
 inevitably from Amos' knowledge that a God of justice 
 ruled the nations. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Preface. 1: I, 2. 
 Opening Address. 1 : 3-2. 
 
 Nations shall be punished for sins. 1 : 3-2 : 5. 
 
 Israel will fare similarly. 2 : 6- 1 6. 
 Discourses Expanding Indictment of Israel. 3-6. 
 
 First discourse. 3. 
 
 Second discourse. 4. 
 
 Third discourse. 5, 6. 
 Visions of Destruction. 7-9. 
 
 Locusts (7: 1-3); Fire (4-6); Plumbline (7-9); Historical 
 statement (10-17); Summer fruit (8: 1-14); Jehovah by 
 the altar (9: 1-6). 
 Epilogue. 9:7-15. 
 
 Home Readings. The above analysis will furnish a helpful out- 
 line for daily reading of Scripture and the entire prophecy may thus 
 be read during the week by the expenditure of a few moments 
 each day ; or the following selections may be made : ( i) 1 : 3-15 ; 
 (2) 2: i-io; (3) 3: 1-8; (4) 4: i-ii; (5) 5: i-n; (6) 5: 12-24; 
 (7) 7: 7-17. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Facts concerning the prophet (1: I; 3: 7, 8; 7: 10-15); some 
 Biblical references to Tekoa (2 Sam. 14: 2ff.; 23: 26; Nehemiah 
 3: 5, 27); the ruler of Israel (1: I; 7: 10); prosperity of Israel 
 (3 : 12, 15 ; 5 : 1 1 ; 6 : 4-7 ; 2 Kings 14 : 23-29) ; preceding calamities 
 (4:6-11; 2 Kings 13 : 7) ; moral corruption (2 : 6-8-; 3 : 9 ; 4 : I ; 
 
2O PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 5: II; 8:4; 5: 1 2 ; 8:5,6; 2: 12; 5: io); empty and idolatrous 
 worship (3: 14; 4:4-6; 5:4, 5, 21-24; 8: 14) ;(,self-confidence 
 (6: 13; 9: io); privileges and responsibilities^: I, 2); true means 
 of securing divine favor (5 : 14, 15, 22-24) ; impending doom 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 The home and occupation of Amos ; Amos* reason for preach- 
 ing ; probable date of ministry ; political conditions of the time ; 
 indications of luxury at this period ; principal moral vices attacked 
 by the prophet; expressions of self-confidence attributed to the 
 people by Amos ; means used by the people to retain Jehovah's 
 favor ; Amos' doctrine of responsibility ; true means of securing 
 God's favor advocated by Amos ; Amos' outlookjbr the future of 
 his nation ; some lessons from Amos for our nation, in 'reference to 
 national privileges and responsibilities, to the public and private 
 corruption connected with a time of prosperity, to confidence born 
 of material prosperity; some lessons for our personal lives, in 
 reference to the relative value of worship and moral conduct, to a 
 layman's call to service by the needs of his day, to luxury versus 
 consideration for the poor, to the vital necessity of a living sense 
 that Jehovah is a God of justice and demands jusfic~e in his 
 creatures. 
 
 V* 
 
HOSEA 21 
 
 LESSON III 
 HOSEA 
 
 Suggestions for Review. The king under whom Amos lived ; 
 the date of Amos' preaching ; the political condition of Israel ; 
 the moral condition ; Amos' teaching in view of these conditions ; 
 the most prominent attribute of Jehovah in the teaching of Amos. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 A greater contrast than that between the logical, inex- 
 orable preacher of divine justice and the next prophet of 
 
 Israel could hardly be conceived. Hosea 
 The Man 
 
 was " above all other prophets a man of 
 
 deep affections, of a gentle, poetic nature." Like the 
 prophecy of Amos, his message was delivered to north- 
 ern Israel, but, unlike Amos, Hosea was probably him- 
 self of the northern tribes into whose misfortunes he 
 entered with a tender sympathy impossible to one of the 
 south ; to him, their king, however unworthy, was "our 
 king." 
 
 If the references of the first three chapters in the book 
 are to be understood as actual reflections of Hosea' s fam- 
 ily experiences, we have intimate knowledge of his 
 personal life in its tragic details. Many regard the 
 story of wife and children as merely a parable, but, 
 to a large number of scholars, it seems far more prob- 
 able that Hosea actually found himself wedded to one 
 who could neither comprehend nor value his singleness 
 of love and devotion and that, through the tragedy of his 
 
22 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 private life, he was prepared for his prophetic work. As 
 he looked back, after many years, and saw how he had 
 been led through suffering to the liglit, he came to feel 
 that it had all been a part of the divine plan for his life 
 mission. If this explanation be the true one, then 
 Hosea, like Isaiah, gave to his children names that made 
 them continual prophecies to their generation. 
 
 The opening chapters of Hosea belong to the reign of 
 Jeroboam II and may be but a very few years later than 
 The Times ^ e sermons f Amos. The latter part of 
 the book (chapters 4-14) seems clearly to 
 reflect the years of anarchy that followed the death of 
 Jeroboam, whose son sat upon the throne but six months 
 before the blood of Jezreel was avenged upon the house 
 of Jehu (Hosea 1:4). The assassin ruled but a month 
 and was, in turn, deposed by Men ahem. This ruler 
 was forced to pay heavy tribute to Assyria. After a 
 short reign Menahem died and his son had ruled little 
 more than one year when Pekah, the general of the 
 army, seized the throne. In alliance with Damascus, the 
 new ruler attacked Ahaz of Judah, probably seeking to 
 force him into a coalition against Assyria. Ahaz, in alarm, 
 appealed to Assyria whose king came in reponse and de- 
 populated the northern and northeastern districts of 
 Israel. The last of Hosea's messages probably antedates 
 by a short time these fatal complications, and thus be- 
 longs more than a dozen years before the complete over- 
 throw of northern Israel. During the proud reign of 
 
 T Jeroboam, Hosea gave his eldest son the 
 
 fateful name Jezreel, significant of the 
 
HOSEA 23 
 
 bloody doom soon to fall upon the royal house, as it had 
 fallen at Jezreel upon the house of Ahab through the 
 founder of Jeroboam's dynasty. Two other children 
 were born to the prophet, in the same reign, to whom 
 names were given declaring the coming end of divine 
 favor and national disinheritance. Like Amos, Hosea 
 saw the years of national aggrandizement pregnant with 
 impending ruin. His vision, however, is not so promi- 
 nently one of devastation through a foreign foe, but 
 rather that of ^spiritual separation between ... God and 
 faithless Israel, who has preferred the sensual gods of 
 Canaan before the pure worship of Jehovah. 
 
 Through the gloom of Hosea' s oracles there break 
 again and again bright rays of glory in the supreme faith 
 of the husband who loves the erring wife and will buy 
 her back to himself when she has fallen to lowest depths ; 
 faith that the unquenchable love of Jehovah must win his 
 people back after a long period of chastening. 
 
 In the succeeding chapters one feels that the national 
 ruin had already begun when the words were uttered. 
 The succession of weak monarchs had come. They 
 looked now to Egypt and now to Assyria for help and 
 knew not whither to turn. Priests were as corrupt as 
 usurping monarchs. Treachery, whoredom, bloodshed, 
 idolatry were everywhere. The nation must become vas- 
 sal to Assyria, yet Jehovah's love could not be killed as 
 that of a man might be : " I will not execute the fierce- 
 ness of mine anger . . . for I am God, and not 
 man." 
 
24 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Title.! : I. 
 
 Israel, the Faithless Wife. 1 : 2-3. 1 
 
 Hosea's unhappy marriage and the prophetic names of his 
 
 children. 1 : 2-2: I. 
 
 Punishment followed by reconciliation. 2 1-2-23. 
 Love to unfaithful wife the type of Jehovah's love to 
 
 Israel. 3. 
 
 Discourses upon the Faithlessness of Israel and the Faithfulness 
 of Jehovah. 4-14. 
 
 Rejection of knowledge. 4-6 : 3. 
 
 Internal anarchy and weak foreign policy. 6 : 4-7. 
 
 Exile in Egypt and Assyria. 8-9 : 9. 
 
 Innocent Israel corrupted. 9 : IO-13. 
 
 Return and blessing. 14. 
 
 Home Readings. The above analysis will furnish a helpful out- 
 line for daily reading of Scripture. From three to five minutes each 
 day of the week will suffice for a careful reading of the entire 
 prophecy ; or, the following selections may be made : ( I ) 1 : 2-2 : I ; 
 (2) 2: 2-23; (3) 4; (4) 6:4-7: 3 ; (5) 9: 1-9; (6) 11 : i-ii ; (7) 14. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 The marriage and children (1 : 3-6, 8, 9 ; 2 : 2, 5 ; 3 : 1-4) ; Hosea 
 a prophet before fall of house of Jehu (1:4); usurpations and 
 national weakness after death of Jeroboam II (2 Kings 15 : 8-14, 19, 
 20, 24, 25, 29, 30) ; Hosea preaches after fall of house of Jehu 
 (5: 13; 7:7, ii; 8:4); moral corruption of priests, princes and 
 people (4 : I, 2 ; 6 : 9 ; 7 : 3-7) ; lack of knowledge of God (4 : I, 6) ; 
 coming doom (3 : 4; 8 : I ; 9 : 3) ; the unquenchable love of Jehovah 
 (2 : 16, 23 ;4 : 4, 5 ; 11 : 9) ; Jehovah's supreme requirement (6 : 4-6) \ 
 hope for Israel (3 : 5 ; 11:9; 13 : 14 ; 14 : 4, 5). 
 
HOSEA 25 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 The temperament of Hosea compared with that of Amos ; 
 Hosea's nationality ; two interpretations of the narrative in chs. 
 1-3 ; the significance of the names ascribed to Hosea's children ; 
 the date of the opening chapters of Hosea ; the national conditions 
 reflected in the later sermons ; the moral and religious condition of 
 Israel as seen by Hosea ; Hosea's emphasis upon knowledge of 
 God ; the ground of the prophet's certainty of coming judgment ; 
 Hosea's pictures of Jehovah's love, man's duty to a God of love ; 
 the ground of Hosea's hope in the midst of ruin and despair ; does 
 the love that Hosea preaches exclude justice ? is the message of 
 Amos or Hosea complete without that of the other ? human suffer- 
 ing as a means of leading one to knowledge of God ; foreglimpses 
 of the gospel message in Hosea ; the vital necessity for our Chris- 
 tian lives of a vivid realization that the God of justice is all-loving 
 too. 
 
26 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 LESSON IV 
 
 I 
 
 ISAIAH 1-39 (Early Ministry) 
 
 Suggestions for Review. The political conditions of Israel 
 during Hosea's ministry ; the moral and religious conditions ; 
 Hosea's teaching in view of these conditions ; the attribute of God 
 most emphasized in Hosea's teaching. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 As we turn to consider the next member of Israel's 
 company of writing prophets, we pass from the corrupt 
 and disintegrating kingdom of the north 
 to the capital of the small, but compact 
 and more stable kingdom of Judah. Isaiah fulfilled his 
 mission chiefly, if not exclusively, in Jerusalem itself. 
 Various slight indications of his prominence in govern- 
 mental affairs under successive monarchs have led to the 
 inference that he was probably of noble birth. 
 
 Historical allusions in his various discourses clearly in- 
 dicate that Isaiah's ministry extended throughout fully 
 thirty-five years ; Jewish tradition would include at least 
 fifteen years more. In the present lesson only those 
 prophecies which can, with some probability, be ascribed 
 to the first fifteen years of the public ministry are in- 
 cluded. From these it may be learned that the prophet 
 was married and had two sons to whom names were 
 given that emphasized the prophet's message of doom 
 and of hope for a remnant. In the record of Isaiah's 
 inaugural vision (ch. 6) the soul experience of the 
 
ISAIAH 27 
 
 prophet is wonderfully revealed. It is the consciousness 
 of the exaltation of Jehovah, before whom the shining 
 ones veil their faces and cry " Holy, holy," and of the 
 moral debasement of the people that leads the prophet to 
 cry out "Here am I; send me." But first, the vision 
 of God had brought a sense of his own uncleanness and 
 it was only after the symbolic coal from the altar had 
 touched and purified his own lips that he was ready to 
 become a messenger. In one of the first public scenes of 
 Isaiah's ministry, he appears as the calm, confident ad- 
 viser of his timorous, faithless monarch, Ahaz. Through- 
 out the great political crises in which he appears again 
 and again, striving to direct rulers and people in a course 
 that will preserve the national independence, he .is seen 
 always as a balanced, wise statesman. 
 
 Amos strove to bring to repentance a prosperous but \ 
 corrupt people whose ultimate doom was inevitable. / 
 
 The Times Hosea be S an nis ministry in the facev 
 of similar conditions, but lived to see/ 
 the beginning of the end for the people whom he[ 
 loved. With his last message of mingled hope and ) 
 despair the voice of prophecy became silent in the 
 fated northern kingdom. Little more than a dozen 
 years later, Israel ceased to be a nation; its cap- 
 ital was destroyed and multitudes of its people were de- 
 ported by the Assyrian monarch, while heathen tribes, 
 conquered elsewhere, were in time settled upon the fruit- 
 ful hills of Ephraim. 
 
 Hosea's voice was hardly hushed when the torch of 
 true prophecy was caught up by Isaiah, in Jerusalem. 
 
28 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 In large measure through his influence, the southern 
 kingdom was guided through the dark years when her 
 sister fell. It was a year or two before northern Israel 
 and Syria united in their attack upon Judah that Isaiah 
 dates his call to the prophetic office, and it was in con- 
 nection with that crisis that he appeared counseling 
 Ahaz to trust in Jehovah and not call in the aid of As- 
 syria. The failure of Ahaz to heed Isaiah at this time 
 led directly to the first deportation from Israel in 734 
 B. c. and to the Assyrian suzerainty over Samaria itself. 
 The other great national crises during Isaiah's ministry 
 will be considered in the next study. 
 
 Amos had preached the judgment of a just God upon ^ 
 the unjust. Hosea had shown the dark veil of separation 
 
 The between a loving God and an utterly in- v 
 
 Message sensible, light and faithless people. In 
 the wonderful first chapter of Isaiah, which may be one 
 of his earliest, the truth of both Amos and Hosea is re- 
 iterated with the brilliance and wealth of Jiteiary and 
 oratorical power jvvhich v^^s~^^\2^ facile j^rinceps 
 among the princely orators and writers of Israel. In the 
 next four chapters we have sermons that may still ante- 
 date the crisis of 734 and which contain Isaiah's own 
 characteristic teachings of the wondrous exaltation of the 
 holy God of Israel and of a gloriousj'uture for a holy 
 remnant of his people together_with the great Reaching 
 that Israel's religion shall spread among the nations and 
 bring in universal peace. The following chapter is the 
 record of the inaugural vision. Other messages that 
 may be assigned to the earlier years of ministry show 
 
ISAIAH 29 
 
 Isaiah now seeking to persuade Ahaz that safety lies in ^ 
 Jehovah and not in help from Assyria ; now picturing in 
 mournful lyric utterance the coming collapse of the 
 northern kingdom, fruit of its moral and social disin- 
 tegration ; now warning Jerusalem herself that she, too, 
 is guilty. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 NOTE. The prophecies of Isaiah are not arranged in chrono- 
 logical order. The fact that the inaugural vision is not at the be- 
 ginning is the most obvious indication of this. The entire book 
 was probably a gradual compilation in which various influences 
 determined the exact order of the addresses, poems and narra- 
 tives that make up the whole. 
 
 The portions included in the present study are : 
 
 The " Great Arraignment." 1. 
 
 Judgment coming upon Judah, yet hope for the Remnant and 
 for Israel's Religion. 2-5. 
 
 Inaugural Vision. 6. 
 
 The Syro-Ephraimitish War of 735-734. 7-9: 7. 
 
 The Downfall of Ephraim. 9 : 8 ; 10 : 4. 
 
 The Downfall of Syria and Ephraim. 17 : I 1 1. 
 
 Judah Corrupt like Northern Israel. 28. 
 
 Home Readings. The above analysis will furnish a helpful out- 
 line for daily reading of Scripture. - If time does not permit the 
 reading of the entire passages the following selections may be 
 made: (i) 1; (2)5: 1-24; (3)6; (4)7: 1-17; (5)9:8-10:4; 
 (6) 17: i-n;(7)28. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Time of Isaiah's call (6: I); Isaiah's sons (7:3; 8: 1-4); in- 
 fluence of the vision of the exalted God (6 : 5) ; symbolic purifica- 
 
3O PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 tion (6 : 6, 7) ; the prophetic commission (6: 8-10) ; Isaiah and 
 Ahaz (7: 3-9; 2 Kings 16: 5-8); the first deportation from Israel 
 (2 Kings 15: 29) ; an Amos come to judgment (I: 10-17); an 
 Hosea pleading (1:2-5); Isaiah's glorious hope (2:2-4); 
 ground of Ephraim's doom (10:i-4) Jerusalem guilty like 
 Ephraim (28: 7, 14); Isaiah's doctrine of a remnant (4: 2-4; 
 6:13; 7:3; 17:4-6; 28:5); the chief attributes of Jehovah 
 emphasized by Isaiah (1:4; 2: 17; 5: 16; 6: 1-4). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN. CLASS 
 
 Change of scene of prophetic activity after Hosea ; length of 
 Isaiah's ministry ; the twofold message in names of Isaiah's sons ; 
 the motive that led Isaiah to his prophetic ministry ; his sense of 
 unworthiness and its removal ; the contrast in the national policy 
 of Isaiah and Ahaz and the reason for the difference ; the direct 
 result of Ahaz's calling on Assyria for help ; Isaiah's expectation 
 as to the future of the religion of Jehovah and its influence in the 
 world; Isaiah's view as to the moral condition of Israel and 
 Judah ; his doctrine of a remnant ; the chief attributes of Jehovah 
 as revealed by Isaiah ; do the teachings of Amos, Hosea and Isaiah 
 when combined give all the essential attributes of the Christian 
 conception of God ? is there anything more fundamental and vital 
 in the religion of ancient prophet or modern Christian than one's 
 conception of the nature of God ? does Isaiah's prophetic call con- 
 tain any essential motives that may not be just as real for a Chris- 
 tian worker to-day ? do Amos, Hosea and Isaiah lay much stress 
 upon religious forms as essential in a life conformed to Jehovah's 
 will ? upon what do they lay the most stress ? did the conditions 
 of their age lead to a one-sided teaching as to God's will that needs 
 supplementing in other times, e. g., our own day? 
 
ISAIAH 31 
 
 LESSON V 
 
 ISAIAH 1-39 (Later Ministry) 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Time and place of Isaiah's ministry; 
 his call to the prophetic office ; the first great national crisis in 
 which Isaiah advised the king; some of Isaiah's characteristic 
 teachings. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 The calm trust of Isaiah in the God of Israel, that 
 shone in such strong contrast to the attitude of Ahaz 
 
 when that king called in the aid of As- 
 The Man 
 
 syria, appeared even more conspicuously 
 
 in later crises. The prophet ever protested against seek- 
 ing help in foreign alliance, as Elijah had done in the 
 preceding century. In the days of Ahaz he denounced 
 alliance with Assyria for defense against Israel *and Syria ; 
 after these nations had fallen, he opposed alliance with 
 Egypt for defense against Assyria. Trust in the Qod of 
 Israel for protection and keep free from enfanglrng alli- 
 ances was the national policy of Isaiah ; yet when coali-* 
 tion had been made with Egypt and had brought Jeru- 
 salem to the verge of ruin, Isaiah alone was confident, 
 resting in perfect assurance that Jehovah would fight as 
 a lion against the foe, and hover as a bird with protecting 
 wings above his city. 
 
 The prophet used every possible means to impress his 
 convictions upon his countrymen. Now he begins a lilt- 
 ing song of love that soon proves a parable of judgment 
 (5 : 1-7), or again, he hymns a solemn dirge " for the 
 
32 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 destruction of the daughter of my people" (22: 1-14). 
 His sermons are resplendent with wonderful imagery, 
 but some in Jerusalem are deaf to *song and sermon. 
 For such his sons are made perpetual prophecies by the 
 significant names given them, or the great prophet him- 
 self condescends to become a visible message, going 
 about for three years in the garb of a slave to declare the 
 coming captivity of Egypt (20). In the nineteenth chap- 
 ter, however, the breadth of this prophet's outlook is 
 seen in his picturing of the despised ally, Egypt, and the 
 dreaded scourge, Assyria, as future worshipers with Israel. 
 The prevision of Amos, Hosea and Isaiah was fulfilled 
 in the complete downfall of northern Israel (721 B. c.). 
 The fate of the larger portion of ancient 
 Israel must have shaken the little southern 
 kingdom from center to circumference. Two years later, 
 the Assyrian armies marched past the foot of Judah's 
 hills and defeated the Egyptians in a battle on the bor- 
 ders -of their land. Some nine years later the Philistine 
 . town of Ashdod revolted from Assyria, only to be speedily 
 subdued. It was at this time that Isaiah gave his object- 
 lesson to convince the people that Egypt, which was con- 
 stantly fomenting rebellions in Palestine, would herself be 
 utterly overcome by Assyria. On this expedition the 
 Assyrian king accepted presents from Judah, Edom and 
 Moab. With the death of the dreaded conqueror, six 
 years later, revolts broke out and the regions of Palestine 
 were roused to throw off the yoke. Isaiah was powerless 
 to prevent Judah from joining her neighbors. The new 
 Assyrian king was, at first, fully occupied with quelling 
 
ISAIAH 33 
 
 revolts in the eastern parts of his vast domains. At last 
 he was free to turn his attention to the western regions 
 and was soon victorious almost to the borders of Egypt. 
 Judaea was devastated and multitudes of captives were 
 carried off. Jerusalem stood only until the main force 
 of the Assyrians might undertake its regular siege, when, 
 suddenly, destruction came upon the Assyrian hosts. 
 The Biblical historian tells us that the angel of the Lord 
 went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a 
 hundred fourscore and five thousand. ... So 
 Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went and 
 returned and dwelt at Nineveh. An obscure statement 
 in Herodotus (II, 141) has led many to believe that the 
 instrument of destruction was a pestilence breaking out 
 in the army as it lay in the swampy district at the border 
 of Egypt. 
 
 Isaiah was keenly alive to the great movements of em- 
 pires which characterized his age. In the midst of these 
 
 Th he sought to guide the kingdom of Judah 
 
 in the safest course. With his eye fixed 
 thus upon the affairs of the great contending empires of 
 Egypt and Assyria or upon the plots and counterplots of 
 Judah's more immediate neighbors, his heart and mes- 
 sage centered on Judah and her religion. To his enlight- 
 ened vision Jehovah was the God of nations* who might 
 use proud Assyria for the rod of his anger, but before 
 whom Assyria and Egypt alike would finally come to 
 worship. The teaching that^a remnant of the people 
 would be spared from Jehovah's judgment is reiterated in 
 Isaiah 1 s later preaching, but in his various prophecies 
 
34 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 that seem to center about the years 702-1, the teaching 
 that the sacred city itself would be spared is more pom - 
 inent. " l rhe pictures of the remote and ideal future given 
 at this time of incompetent rule and of war, present the 
 figure of a prince of the house^ of David ujxm whom 
 the spirit of the Lord shall rest, the spirit of wis^Qm and 
 understanding th,e spirit of cppn^el and m^ht, and hope 
 for an a^ejvjiejij:hwork of righteousness shall be peace. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 The portions of Isaiah 1-39 included in the present study are : 
 The Assyrian scourge ; its destruction. 
 
 A Reign of Peace. 10 : 5-!! : 9. 
 Coming Overthrow of Assyrian Army. 14 : 24-27. 
 Philistia to be Destroyed by Assyria. 14 : 28-32. 
 A Fragment, referring, probably, to Assyria. 17: 1214. 
 Ethiopia seeks Alliance. 18. 
 Egypt's coming Humiliation, Ultimate Union of Egypt and 
 
 Assyria in Worship with Judah. 19. 
 Coming Captivity of Egypt and Ethiopia. 20^ 
 Oracles concerning Edom and Arabia. 21 : 11-17. 
 Lament over Conduct of Citizens of Jerusalem. 22: 1-14. 
 Rebuke of Shebna, the treasurer. 22: 15-25. 
 Coming Fall of Tyre, Ultimate Worship of Jehovah. 23. 
 Coming Siege and Deliverance, Futility of Aid from Egypt, 
 
 Future Age of Righteousness and Peace 29-32. 
 
 Speedy Deliverance from Assyria. 33. 
 
 NOTE. The above sections, together with those given in the 
 preceding study, include practically all the material of which the 
 original authorship can with much confidence be ascribed to 
 Isaiah. Chapters 36-39 give an account of the crisis of 701 
 almost identical with 2 Kings 18: 13-20: 19. 
 
ISAIAH 35 
 
 Home Readings. The following selections are made from the 
 above passages as giving typical examples of Isaiah's work and 
 teaching after 722 B. c. : (i) 10:5-34; (2) 11:1-9; (3) 
 14:24-27; 17: 12-14; (4) 19; (5) 22:15-25; (6)30; (7) 
 32: 1-8; 15-18. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Isaiah's attitude toward foreign alliance (20 : 4-6 ; 30 : 1-7, 
 15-17; 31: 1-6, cf. interview with Ahaz 7); Isaiah's resources 
 in teaching lyric poems (5: 1-7 ; 22 : 1-14), figures and illustra- 
 tions (1: 3,5,8,9, 18; 3:4, 155 5: 24; 11:6-9; 17:6; 29: 8; 
 31: 4, 5; 32: 2, etc.), symbolic acts (20), pleading (1: 18), stern 
 rebuke (1 : 10-17 ; 5 : 8, etc.) ; catholicity of hope (19 : 23-25) ; the 
 great deliverance of 701 (37:33-38); inviolability of Zion 
 (10:24-34; 14:24-27, 32; 29: 1-8; 31:4,5); the ideal prince 
 (11: 1-9; 32: 1-8); future of peace (32: 15-18). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Isaiah's foreign policy ; the source of the prophet's confidence in 
 national crises ; Isaiah's resources as a teacher and preacher ; the 
 universality of his hope ; the struggle of empires in Isaiah's day ; 
 the fate of Sennacherib's hosts in 701 B.C.; Isaiah's faith as to 
 Jerusalem ; features of Isaiah's hope for Israel's future ; elements 
 of the gospel message in Isaiah 1-39; Isaiah as a man of his 
 times ; lessons for all times in Isaiah's teaching on patriotism, in his 
 faith, breadth of view, hope. 
 
36 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 LESSON VI J 
 niCAH 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Great national events in last twenty 
 years of Isaiah's ministry ; Isaiah's political activity ; Isaiah's gifts 
 as a teacher ; Isaiah's most striking personal characteristics. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 Micah is commonly spoken of as a " younger con- 
 temporary of Isaiah. ? ' He seems to have begun his preach- 
 ing at about the time of the fall of Samaria, 
 the capital of northern Israel. Jeremiah 
 quotes Micah (3 : 12) and regards this message as the imme- 
 diate cause of Hezekiah's reform. As this reform must 
 have occurred some years after the fall of Samaria, it 
 seems pretty clear that Micah' s ministry lasted for a 
 number of years. It is generally agreed, further, that 
 the last two chapters cannot be earlier than the reign of 
 Manasseh. Hence, if they are the work of Micah at all, 
 his ministry must have extended well into the seventh 
 century. Isaiah and Micah give us two most interesting 
 supplementary views of the closing decades of the eighth 
 century. In the one, the age is seen from the point of view/ft* 
 of the capital and international relations are prominent ; in 
 the other, the view- point is that of the outlying rural 
 districts where the high politics of the capital make little 
 direct impression. The gross oppression by the upper 
 classes, the perversion of justice through bribery, and the 
 
MICAH 37 
 
 corruption of religion are seen from beneath where they 
 grind the common people. Micah, living in a little 
 town, on the border between Judaea and Philistia, speaks 
 as representative of the common people, while Isaiah^ 
 attacks the vices of his age from the social level of the/ 
 rich and oppressive rulers. 
 
 Isaiah did not hesitate to picture with all the power of 
 his brilliant rhetoric the pride and luxury of the wealthy 
 
 whom he saw in Jerusalem, but it is from 
 The Times . ' 
 
 Micah that we learn how the oppression 
 
 by the rich really affected the poor. To him, it seemed 
 that the rulers plucked the skin from off the people and 
 their flesh from off their bones. He accuses the heads of 
 Jerusalem of judging for reward and the priests of teach- 
 ing for hire and the prophets of divining for money. He 
 sees the land full of divination, sorcery and idolatry, 
 and yet the people are confident that Jehovah is in their 
 midst as were the inhabitants of the sister kingdom in 
 Amos' day. 
 
 The closing chapters of the book, like the later sermons 
 of Hosea in northern Israel, show a desperate condition 
 of the nation ; oppression, persecution and corruption of 
 justice are crowned by a very dissolution of the ties of 
 society; friendship, wedded and filial love are hardly 
 known "all lie in wait for blood ; they hunt every man 
 his brother with a net/' 
 
 The word of Micah is one of judgment upon 
 Samaria and Judah because of the vices of rulers, priests 
 
 and prophets. Zion, for their sake, shall 
 The Message , ' 
 
 be plowed as a field, yea, the sacred 
 
38 PROPHETS OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY 
 
 city shall become heaps. In the earlier part of the 
 prophecy the avowed purpose is to "declare unto 
 Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin." The 
 message was so effective that, a century later, it was 
 recalled as an example of the right influence of a prophet 
 upon a ruler. The message of doom is followed in 
 chapters 4 and 5 by pictures of the establishment of 
 Zion in peace, the coming of a ruler who shall be the 
 peace of Israel when the Assyrian shall come into the 
 land, and the destruction of worship in the high places. 
 In chapter 6, there is given a wonderful summary of the 
 combined teaching of Amos, Hosea and Isaiah regard- 
 ing the life demanded by the God of Israel and the com- 
 parative worthlessness of sacrifice "What doth Jehovah 
 require of thee, but to do justly, and to love kindness, 
 and to walk humbly with thy God ? " 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Title. 1 : I. 
 
 Doom of Samaria and Jerusalem. 1 : 2-3. 
 
 Advent of Jehovah in judgment. 1 : 2-16. 
 
 Rebellion against Jehovah. 2: i-ii. 
 
 (Disconnected expression of hope). 2: 12, 13. 
 
 Sins of rulers, priests and prophets. 3. 
 Hope for Future. 4, 5. 
 
 Restoration of Zion. 4 : i-8. 
 
 Future triumph over enemies. 4 : 9-5 : I. 
 
 Coming age of peace and true worship. 5: 2-15. 
 Dramatic Presentation of Israel's Relations to Jehovah. 6, 7. 
 
 The case of Jehovah against Israel. 6 : 1-7 : 6. 
 
 Israel and the prophet. 7 : 7-20. 
 
MICAH 39 
 
 Home Readings. With the above analysis in mind, the little book 
 of Micah should be read in its entirety. It may be apportioned to 
 the days of the week, as follows: (i) 1; (2) 2; (3) 3; (4) 
 4: 1-5: I; (5)5: 2-15; (6) 6: 1-7:6; (7)7:7-20. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Date of Micah's preaching (1:6; 3: 12; cf. Jer. 26: 17, 18; 
 6: 10, n, 16; 7: 2, 3, 5, 6 thought to show the effects of "cold 
 biting wind which King Manasseh brought over Judah " cf. 2 
 Kings 21: 1-9); home of Micah (1: I, 14), (1: 10-14 places 
 named seem to be on borderland of Judaea and Philistia) ; oppres- 
 sion by rich and powerful (2:2; 3: 1-3, 10) ; bribery (3:9, n) ; 
 priests and prophets mercenary (3:5, II); heathenish sorceries 
 (3:7; 5:12); idolatry (5: 13, 14); false confidence (3:ii); 
 judgment on Samaria (1: 6, 7); on Jerusalem (3: 12); effect of 
 Micah's message (Jer. 26 : 17-19) ; coming reign of peace (4: 3, 4; 
 5:2-5); future .destruction of heathen practices (5: 12-14); 
 Jehovah's requirements (6 : 6-8). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Date of Micah relative to Isaiah ; earliest possible date for chs. 
 6, 7 ; difference in point of view of Isaiah and Micah ; different 
 classes whose conduct is attacked by Micah ; characteristic sins of 
 each class ; false confidence of Judah pictured by Micah, compared 
 with that of Israel in Amos' day; dark elements of picture in 
 chs. 6, 7 ; Micah's expectation for the future of Samaria and Jeru- 
 salem in chs. 1-3 ; outlook for the future in chs. 4, 5 ; tradition 
 of Micah's influence a century after his ministry ; the idea of God's 
 requirements taught by Amos, by Hosea, by Isaiah ; the combina- 
 tion of these in Micah 6 ; the conception of God the determin- 
 ing principle in a prophet's message ; Micah's practical lessons 
 for our day ; morality versus ritual in the prophets of the eighth 
 century ; elements of a spiritual religion taught by these prophets. 
 
4O PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 II. Prophets of the Seventh Century 
 
 LESSON VII 
 ZEPHANIAH 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Time and place of Micah's ministry ; 
 social conditions of Judah as seen by Micah ; judgments threatened 
 by Micah ; hope for future ; the threefold demand of Jehovah. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 The latter half of the eighth century B. c. must ever 
 remain memorable as the era of the great ethical proph- 
 Th M etSj f rmat * ve spirits in the religion of 
 Israel, who revealed the requirements of 
 a God of justice, mercy and holiness, who saw both the 
 social life of their age and the strife of contending nations 
 in the pure, white light of the righteous God of nations. 
 Many providential forces united to produce these states- 
 men-preachers, but the most obvious of the external 
 influences are the corruption of their own people and the 
 movements of the nations in which they saw the working 
 out of divine judgment. 
 
 It is the latter half, almost the last quarter of the next 
 century, before the voice of prophecy again breaks on 
 the ear. Then we find another group of four raising the 
 old trumpet cry with some new tones, unheard by the 
 earlier age. The first of these, it would seem, was 
 Zephaniah, The name means "whom Jehovah hides" 
 
ZEPHANIAH 41 
 
 and suggests that the child may have been born in the 
 terrible days of Manasseh's reign, when those who were 
 loyal to the God of Israel needed to be hidden from the 
 persecution of the dominant heathen party. The proph- 
 et's ancestry is traced back for four generations to Heze- 
 kiah. Slight indications lead to the inference that this 
 Hezekiah was the king who had hearkened to Isaiah 
 and Micah and had instituted a reform in Israel's wor- 
 ship. If this be the case, and if Zephaniah uttered 
 his first prophetic message about the year 626, he must 
 have been a young man connected with the royal line of 
 the young reigning king, Josiah. The intensity of the 
 prophet's message accords well with this inference as to 
 his age. 
 
 The generations from Hezekiah to Josiah and Zephaniah 
 were a dark period for the religion of Jehovah. 
 Manasseh's half-century of rule was a 
 time of great reaction from the partial re- 
 form under Hezekiah. Assyria was politically domi- 
 nant over Judah, which paid tribute of money and tribute 
 of servile imitation, introducing every foreign fashion of 
 heathen worship. Amon, unworthy son of unworthy 
 father, was cut off after two years of rule ; then the peo- 
 ple rose, put to death the conspirators and made Amon's 
 young son, Josiah, king. Before the year 626 the boy of 
 eight had reached the full age of manhood and had be- 
 come the actual head of the nation. The heavy hand 
 of Assyria had now been withdrawn, or had come to 
 rest very lightly upon Judah, for that blood-stained 
 monarchy was ready to totter to its fall. The face of all 
 
42 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 southwestern Asia to the borders of Egypt was being 
 swept by hordes of Scythian invaders from beyond the 
 Caucasus. Into Palestine, across the ^lain of Esdraelon, 
 over the passes of Carmel, and through the Philistine ter- 
 ritory, they passed on toward Egypt. Thence they were 
 turned back, we read, by the force of rich presents from 
 the Pharaoh. The hills of Judaea protected their inhabit- 
 ants from this invasion of horsemen ; but the devasta- 
 tion that they left in the neighboring lowlands must have 
 deeply affected the heart of the nation. Zephaniah' s 
 language probably reflects the impression produced. It 
 would seem, indeed, that this awe-inspiring invasion 
 formed, in part, the immediate occasion for unsealing the 
 lips of prophecy, as the terrible advance of Assyria had 
 done in the previous century. The other condition of 
 the earlier century was present, too, and was certainly in- 
 fluential in leading Zephaniah to utter his warning cry. 
 The remnant of Baal and those that worshiped the host 
 of heaven upon the housetops had not yet been swept 
 away by the great reform instituted later in Josiah's reign. 
 There were those in Judah who had turned back from 
 following Jehovah, and those who had not sought him. 
 A fatal indifference had settled upon the citizens of 
 Jerusalem, who had concluded that Jehovah would 
 neither do good nor do evil. Jerusalem was rebellious 
 and corrupt. Her princes in the midst of her were roar- 
 ing lions ; her judges were evening wolves ; her prophets 
 were light and treacherous ; her priests had profaned the 
 sanctuary. 
 
 The prophecy of Zephaniah opens with the threat that 
 
2EPHANIAH 43 
 
 Jehovah will consume all things from off the face of the 
 T .. earth, man and beast alike. The day of 
 
 the Lord is at hand, a day of judgment 
 when those who have introduced the customs of heathen 
 nations into Judah shall be punished, and those who are 
 indifferent to Jehovah shall be searched out. The threat 
 of Amos that those who build houses shall not dwell in 
 them and those who plant vineyards shall not eat their 
 fruit is reiterated. The second chapter is a doom- song 
 upon the nations, followed in the opening of the third by 
 the doom of polluted Jerusalem. This leads on to a 
 rather somber picture of hope when the remnant, poor 
 and afflicted, shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, and 
 shall dwell in security. 
 
 The book closes with a joyous song of triumph, much in 
 the spirit of those that are connected with the end of the 
 Babylonian exile. It is very commonly held that this song 
 was composed at that time, when Zephaniah's expectation 
 had at last been fulfilled and a remnant had survived, 
 an afflicted and poor people, but trusting now in Jehovah 
 alone. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Title. 1 : I. 
 
 The Day of the Lord upon Judah. 1 : 2-18. 
 
 The Day of the Lord upon the Nations and Judah. 2 : 1-3 : 8. 
 
 The Purified Remnant. 8:9-13. 
 
 Jehovah in the Midst of Zion (a lyric). 3 : 14-20. 
 
 Home Readings. (i) 1; (2) 2; (3) 3: 1-8; (4) 3: 9-13; (5) 
 3: 14-20; (6) 2 Kings 21; (7) 2 Kings 23: 1-14. 
 
44 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURV 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Character of Manasseh's reign (2 Kings 2L: 1-9) ; Zephaniah's 
 ancestry (1: I); possible reflections of Scythian invasion in 
 Zephaniah's pictures (1 : 2, 3, 70, 13, 16, 170) ; religious condition 
 of Judah, (1: 4-6, 12; 3: 2,4); civil corruption (8:3); foreign 
 customs (1:8); the day of the Lord, a day of wrath (1:7, 
 14-16); hope for the remnant (3: 12, 13); the restored exiles 
 (3: 15-17,20). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Influences that called forth prophets of eighth century ; partial 
 reproduction of conditions in seventh century ; significance of 
 name Zephaniah ; Zephaniah's probable descent ; religious con- 
 dition of Judah in years intervening between eighth and seventh 
 century prophets ; political status of Judah in Manasseh's reign ; 
 condition of Assyria when Zephaniah began mission ; the social 
 and religious condition of Judah in early years of Josiah as seen by 
 Zephaniah ; the day of the Lord as pictured in Zephaniah ; the 
 hope of Zephaniah for the doomed people ; probable occasion of 
 the song at close of prophecy of Zephaniah ; attitude of Zephaniah 
 the reformer toward those who are " settled on their lees " ; 
 which class is more dangerous to efforts for moral reforms to-day, 
 those who are hostile or those who are characterized in Zeph. 
 1: 12? the essence of the ideal of true blessedness presented in 
 3: 16, 17. 
 
JEREMIAH . 45 
 
 LESSON VIII 
 JEREfllAH (First Period) 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Interval between eighth and seventh 
 century prophets ; religious and political condition of Judah when 
 Zephaniah began his work; the leading ideas of Zephaniah's 
 preaching, as to the day of the Lord, chief sins of people, future 
 of people. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 The prophet Jeremiah inevitably reminds one of Hosea. 
 Both were men of intensely emotional natures, deeply 
 sensitive and sympathetic, so that their 
 personal sorrows led them into realms of 
 spiritual insight, hitherto unknown even in the teachers 
 of Israel. More is known of the facts of Jeremiah's life 
 than is the case with any other prophet. He sprang 
 from the company of priests settled at Anathoth, a village 
 hardly more than an hour's walk to the northeast of 
 Jerusalem, located on the eastern edge of the central 
 range from which the barren hills that broke down to the 
 north end of the Dead Sea constituted the prospect. 
 Jeremiah's full consciousness of his prophetic mission 
 first came in the thirteenth year of Josiah's reign (626 
 B. c.). The opening of his ministry was thus almost 
 coincident with that of Zephaniah. At this time he 
 seems to have regarded himself as too young to under- 
 take the work to which he felt himself set apart. This 
 circumstance, together with the fact that he was still 
 active as a prophet more than forty years later, indicates 
 
46 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 that he was a very young man at the time of his call. It 
 is probable that both he and Zephaniah were of almost 
 the same age as the youthful king who was now about 
 twenty-one years old. 
 
 The prophetic activity of Jeremiah falls most naturally 
 into three periods, which may be designated by the names 
 of the three rulers, J^si^h; Jehoiakim and Zedekiah. 
 
 The first period of Jeremiah's ministry includes some 
 eighteen years, nearly half of the prophet's career. Of 
 
 Th Ti ^ e tnree hundred and fifty years of 
 
 Judah's history from the division of the 
 kingdom under Rehoboam to the Babylonian exile, this 
 was, perhaps, the happiest period. The Scythian in- 
 vasion that swept the coast plains left few if any scars 
 upon the hills of Judah. The last important reign in 
 Assyria closed at about the beginning of Jeremiah's 
 ministry, so that her heavy tribute was removed from 
 southwestern Asia. The neighboring tribes of Palestine 
 had been so devastated that Judah was left the strongest 
 state of the region. In these conditions, Josiah spread 
 his dominion northward over no small part of the ancient 
 territory of Israel. The religious glory of Josiah's reign, 
 however, far surpassed any possible political renown. 
 This was the era of the great Deuteronomic reform when, 
 for the first time, the law of the central sanctuary, so 
 prominent in Deuteronomy, was dominant and the an- 
 cient high places, always tainted with heathenish, sensual 
 practices were thoroughly devastated. It is highly prob- 
 able that Zephaniah and Jeremiah, with all the ardor of 
 youthful reformers, were, in sympathy with such faithful 
 
JEREMIAH 47 
 
 priests as Hilkiah, influential in bringing about that turn- 
 ing to Jehovah which led to the restoration of the sadly 
 desecrated temple. In the course of this work, the book 
 of the law was brought to light and read to the king. 
 As a consequence, the great reformation, carrying out in 
 detail the lofty requirements of the Deuteronomic law, 
 was instituted under the personal direction of King 
 Josiah. This was in the eighteenth year of the young 
 king's reign (621 B. c.), some five years after the begin- 
 ning of Jeremiah's ministry. While the keenly sensitive 
 and deeply spiritual Jeremiah may have felt the super- 
 ficial character of any religious reformation carried out 
 by royal authority, on the whole the period must have 
 been a happy one for the prophet. This period termi- 
 nated in the sad tragedy of the king's death, when he 
 went forth to dispute the passage of Pharaoh Hophra 
 across Palestine. Assyria was about to be dismembered 
 by the Medes and Babylonians, and Pharaoh was seeking 
 to share the prey. The rash attempt of Josiah to prevent 
 the Pharaoh's passage cost the good king his life and 
 marked the close of Judah's political independence. 
 
 A few years after the death of Josiah, Jeremiah com- 
 mitted to writing the substance of his earlier preaching. 
 The This first roll was destroyed by King 
 
 Message Jehoiakim, and when Jeremiah rewrote he 
 added other matter. The present book of Jeremiah 
 clearly combines with these earlier utterances much that 
 comes from still later years in the prophet's ministry, be- 
 sides material, chiefly historical and biographical, that 
 was written by other hands. A comparatively small 
 
48 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 part of the present book gives evidence of belonging to 
 the first period of the ministry. Chapters 2-6 may well 
 be regarded as presenting Jeremiah's brief condensation 
 of much of his preaching during those earlier years. 
 Chapter i is the account of the prophet's call and n : 
 1-8 has, with plausibility, been connected with the reform 
 of 621. 
 
 The account of the inaugural vision contains the 
 prophet's commission over the nation to pluck up, break 
 down, build and plant, and the message of divine judg- 
 ment upon Judah for her idolatry. The nations of the 
 north are pictured as the instrument of this judgment. 
 The following chapter suggests instantly Hosea's figure 
 of Israel as the bride of Jehovah and his picture of her 
 early devotion, followed by ingratitude and unfaithful- 
 ness. It includes also Hosea's charge that help had 
 been sought from Egypt and Assyria. Idolatry is at- 
 tacked again and again, while the figure of the unfaith- 
 ful wife comes often to the surface, as the prophecy 
 moves onward. The vices of cruelty and dishonesty that 
 had called forth the great ethical demands of the eighth 
 century prophets are less prominent, yet covetousness, 
 false dealing and the blood of the poor call out for judg- 
 ment. In one place the prophet compares Judah unfa- 
 vorably with Israel, for, though she has seen her sister 
 put away for unfaithfulness, she has not been warned, but 
 has pursued a like course. 
 
 Here and there, in the midst of the black threatenings, 
 gleams of hope flash out, if the nation will but return to 
 Jehovah in sincerity. Remembering Jeremiah's own 
 
JEREMIAH 49 
 
 revision of his sermons in the midst of the religious re- 
 action under Jehoiakim, one cannot be sure just how 
 much of the dark picture may refer to the years before 
 Josiah's reform and how far the coloring has been af- 
 fected by the conditions of Jehoiakim' s reign. During 
 the years immediately following Josiah's reform, it may 
 be reasonably inferred from chapter n, the substance of 
 Jeremiah's preaching consisted of the requirements of 
 the law of Deuteronomy. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Title.-!: 1-3. 
 
 Inaugural Vision. 1 : 4-19. 
 
 Early Preaching. 2-6. 
 
 Judah's idolatry. 2. 
 
 Judah a faithless wife. 3 : 1-5. 
 
 Judah not warned by fate of Israel. 3 : 6- 1 8. 
 
 Penitent nation to be pardoned. 3 : 19-4 : 2. 
 
 The foe from the north. 4 : 3-6. 
 Preaching Covenant throughout Judsea. 11 : 1-8. 
 
 Home Readings. The above analysis will furnish a helpful out- 
 line for daily reading of Scripture or the following selections 
 may be made: (I) 1; (2) 2: 1-18; (3)2: 19-35? (4)3: 1-5; 3: 19- 
 4:2; (5)3:6-18; (6) 5: 10-19; (7)11:1-8. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Family home of Jeremiah (1 : I ; i Kings 2 : 26; Josh. 21 : 18; 
 Jer. 11 : 21 ; 37 : 12) ; opening of ministry (1:2); probable youth- 
 fulness at call (1 : 6 ; cf. 1 : 3) ; writing of Jeremiah's earlier preaching 
 (36 : I, 2, 27, 28, 32) ; assurance of divine support in prophetic 
 mission (1 : 8, 19) ; the commission (1 : 10) ; the message (1 : 14-16) ; 
 
5O PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 the nation a faithless wife (2 : 2 ; 3 : 1-5, 8) ; idolatry (2 : 1 1, 13, 28 ; 
 5: 19) ; judgment to be executed by foe from north (4: 6, 16; 6 : I, 
 22, 23); ethical demands (2:34; 5; 26-2*8; 6:13); Israel and 
 Judah (3: 10, n) ; the prophet's hope (3: 12-18; 22-25; ^: I, 2); 
 preaching the Deuteronomic covenant (11 : 1-8). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Temperament of Jeremiah ; family and home ; date of call ; 
 probable age at call; length of ministry; natural divisions of 
 ministry; Israel's political history during first eighteen years of 
 Jeremiah's ministry ; religious history of period ; date of Deuter- 
 onomic reform ; probable attitude of Jeremiah toward Josiah's re- 
 form ; close of happy period ; the first record of Jeremiah's first 
 twenty-two years of preaching; composition of present book of 
 Jeremiah; the harsh character of the message assigned to Jere- 
 miah ; assurance given the prophet at his call ; Hosea's figure that 
 Jeremiah adopted ; chief sins attacked by Jeremiah ; means of 
 divine judgment seen by the prophet ; Jeremiah's comparison be- 
 tween Israel and Judah ; the prophet's message of hope ; service 
 probably rendered by Jeremiah, at time of Deuteronomic reform ; 
 was Jeremiah's hesitancy to undertake his prophetic mission com- 
 mendable? the possibilities and limits of moral reform by 
 power of government and of religious reform by external author- 
 ity illustrated by the reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah. 
 
NAHUM 5 1 
 
 LESSON IX 
 NAHUfl 
 
 Suggestions for Review. The length and historical background 
 of the first period of Jeremiah's ministry; home and family of 
 Jeremiah; chief thoughts of Jeremiah's earlier preaching; pos- 
 sible substance of much of his preaching after 621. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 The little oracle ascribed to Nahum furnishes almost 
 no information as to the life of the writer, and hardly of- 
 fers a basis for an estimate of his personal 
 ine Man . . . 
 
 characteristics. The heading indicates 
 
 the name of the prophet's home ; yet three widely sepa- 
 rated regions vie, in tradition, as the locality indicated. 
 One of these is near Nineveh, one in Galilee, while the 
 third and most probable is in the south of Judaea. 
 
 Nahum's prophecy was unquestionably uttered between 
 the fall of No-amon (Egyptian Thebes) about 66 1, 
 and the destruction of Nineveh, about 607. The 
 former event is referred to as already past ( 3: 8) and the 
 latter is anticipated as yet to be consummated. In the 
 present course, the book is taken up after Zephaniah and 
 the first period of Jeremiah's work, in the belief that it 
 should be dated only a very few years before Nineveh's 
 fall. In one aspect, the book offers adequate ground for 
 a definite statement as to the author Nahum was a 
 prophet of the greatest literary power. For vivid, in- 
 tense, picturesque utterance he is hardly surpassed by 
 
52 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 Isaiah himself. He pictures the noise, the rush, the 
 terror of the siege of Nineveh with supreme force. The 
 pent passion of a nation that has suffered indescribable 
 woe for centuries finds brief, yet adequate, outlet in 
 Nahum's burning cry of exultation over the downfall of 
 the bloody city, a veritable lions' den. 
 
 The chief historical events of Nahum's age have al- 
 ready been rehearsed in the preceding lesson. In order 
 
 Th Ti t0 a PP rec ^ ate more f ul ty> however, the 
 
 one theme of Nahum's prophecy, we may 
 rapidly review the historic relations of Assyria and 
 Israel. It was in the middle of the ninth century that 
 northern Israel first felt the power of this conquering 
 people. Then Ahab had united with other Palestinian 
 peoples in an attempt to repel one of Assyria's early 
 western campaigns. A dozen years later, Jehu, who had 
 overthrown the house of Ahab, was forced to pay tribute 
 to an Assyrian monarch. Later on, a period of inaction 
 on the part of Assyria gave opportunity for the long and 
 prosperous reign of Jeroboam II. A few years after 
 Jeroboam's death, the fatal device of Ahaz, King of 
 Judah, for securing help against Israel and Syria made 
 Judah tributary to Assyria, and led on to the complete 
 destruction of both Syria and Israel. From this time 
 (734) forward, Judah paid tribute, with more or less of 
 regularity, till the time of Josiah. Assyria and Egypt 
 were, during much of the period, face to face ; distracted 
 Judah sought aid now from one and now from the other ; 
 the true prophet, Isaiah, insisted that they should remain 
 loyal to that allegiance to Assyria which they had volun- 
 
NAHUM S3 
 
 tarily assumed. In his day, intrigue with Egypt led to 
 the devastation of all the outlying districts of Judaea and 
 only the providential destruction of Sennacherib's army 
 saved Jerusalem from the fate of Samaria. 
 
 Now, at last, in Nahum's time, the death-knell of Assyria 
 has struck and Judah's smothered hatred bursts forth 
 
 in lurid flame. Assyria, weakened by 
 The Message f 
 
 the sweep of Scythian hordes over its 
 
 territory, threatened by the rising power of the 
 Medes and Babylonians, is seen by the waiting prophet, 
 with its fortresses mere fig-trees bearing the first- 
 ripe figs; if they be shaken, they fall into the 
 mouth of the eater. He cries " Woe to the bloody city ! 
 it is all full of lies and rapine." He hears, with inner 
 ear, the noise of the whip, and the noise of the rattling 
 of wheels, and prancing horses, and bounding chariots. 
 He sees, with inner eye, the horseman mounting, and the 
 flashing sword, and the glittering spear ; then a multi- 
 tude of slain, so that they stumble upon their bodies. 
 
 Is the message only an exultant cry of vengeance from 
 the cruelly oppressed ? One cannot escape the convic- 
 tion that, at times, in the Old Testament, human hard- 
 ness of heart colors utterance. Christ said that it was 
 for the hardness of their hearts that the ancient law per- 
 mitted what he forbade, thus clearly recognizing a prog- 
 ress in revelation necessitated by human limitations. It 
 is evident, to the historical student, that Israel's teachers 
 progressed slowly from natural exultation in the downfall 
 of hated foes to the supreme conception of sacrifice for 
 others, in which sacrifice the marks of suffering are the 
 
54 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 marks of the servant of Jehovah. Nahum lived before 
 that truth had been revealed, when suffering was still 
 viewed only as the token of divine judgment. The 
 prophets before him had taught that nations fell at Je- 
 hovah's just will and because of their sins against his 
 laws of justice and mercy. They had seen Assyria, the 
 scourge in Jehovah's hand, lashing his unjust, unmerci- 
 ful and unfaithful people, and now the cruel instrument 
 of punishment was itself receiving just chastisement long 
 predicted and long awaited. The platform to which the 
 gradual revelation of the principles of divine government 
 had risen in the sixth century before Christ, was the plat- 
 form on which Nahum stood. The elevation of this 
 position is to be appreciated, not by looking down from 
 the heights of later prophecy or from the teachings of 
 Jesus, but by looking up from the common Semitic con- 
 ceptions in the midst of which Israel's prophets lived and 
 according to which, as we have seen (Lesson II), the 
 strife of nations was the personal struggle of their tribal 
 gods. The victory of one people was the triumph of the 
 god of that people over the god of the vanquished, or, 
 at best, the defeat of one was due to the aloofness of its 
 god who had been offended by lack of generous offerings 
 and rigid observance of his forms of worship. From 
 this common Semitic idea up to the conception of a just 
 God, ruling over nations with an even hand, permitting 
 one to triumph for a time, that he might thus punish 
 cruelty, deceit and oppression in another, but, in turn, 
 bringing vengeance upon this for its bloody rapine, is a 
 lofty ascent, which speaks at every step of a righteous God 
 
NAHUM 55 
 
 revealing himself to his children, just so far as they have 
 advanced toward the possibility of apprehending him. 
 
 The first chapter of Nahum is a poem, uttering in gen- 
 eral terms confident assurance through trust in Jehovah, 
 who, slow to anger and great in power, will by no 
 means clear the guilty. The second and third chapters 
 are the application of these principles of divine govern- 
 ment to guilty Nineveh. With the intense oracle of 
 Nahum the cycle of prophecy concerning Assyria, begun 
 by Amos, closes. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Title. 1 : i. 
 
 Jehovah's Appearance in Judgment and Defense. 1 : 2-15. 
 
 Siege and Capture of Nineveh. 2. 
 
 Cruelty and Fall of Nineveh. 3. 
 
 Home Readings. With the above outline of the prophecy in 
 mind, the following division may be followed for daily Scripture 
 reading: (i) 1: 1-7; (2) 1:8-15; (3) 2; (4) 3: i-ii; (5) 3: 
 12-19; (6) Amos' view of divine government, Amos 2: i-io; (7) 
 Early pictures of Jehovah as a God of war, Judges 5:23-31; 
 Ex. 15 : 1-7. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Nahum's home (1 : i) ; date of oracle (3 : 8-12) ; vivid word 
 painting (2: 4-6, 8-12; 3 : 1-4, 12, 13) ; Assyria's guilt (2: 12, 13; 
 3 : I, 19); conception of God (1 : 2-8). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Traditions as to Nahum's home; possible limits in dating 
 Nahum's prophecy; probable date of Nahum relative to the be- 
 
56 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 ginning of work of Zephaniah and Jeremiah ; literary excellence 
 of Nah urn's prophecy ; time at which Israel first came in contact 
 with Assyria ; Judah's first relations with Assyria ; final chapter in 
 relations of Northern Israel and Assyria ; Judah's relations with 
 Assyria in Isaiah's time ; condition of Assyria in Nahum's time ; 
 the theme of Nahum's oracle ; views of the divine government 
 held by Nahum ; these views compared with common Semitic 
 ideas ; the imprecatory element in Old Testament prophets and 
 poets explained in the light of Christ's principle that revelation 
 progressed with human capacity ; what are the principal ideas about 
 God and his government taught by the prophets from Amos to 
 Nahum ? are these ideas fundamental for our day ? would their 
 complete adoption change our civic life for the better ? our church 
 life? 
 
JEREMIAH 57 
 
 LESSON X 
 JEREfllAH (Second Period) 
 
 Suggestions for Review. The date and occasion of Nahum's 
 prophecy; its theme; its literary quality; its fundamental principles 
 as to the divine government of nations. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 The second period of Jeremiah's ministry includes the 
 eleven years of Jehoiakim's reign together with the three 
 months of his son, Jehoiachin. During 
 this period, we have vivid pictures of the 
 prophet engaged in his ministry and unusual revelations 
 of the deep inner struggles through which he passed. 
 We see him standing in the court of the temple, warning 
 the worshipers who have come thither from the cities of 
 Judah ; we see him at the temple gate, denouncing the 
 false confidence of those who trust in the sanctuary as a 
 defense while they are guilty of moral and religious 
 wrongs. In this period, plots against the life of the 
 prophet are rife, even among the men of his native 
 Anathoth. At times, bitter persecution calls from him 
 fierce prayers for vengeance upon those who have plotted 
 against him while he has been seeking their good. In 
 his despair, he turns even upon Jehovah himself who has 
 set him as a prophet of doom, making him a laughing- 
 stock and his message a reproach. From rebellion his 
 mood passes to confident trust that Jehovah will defend 
 him from those who watch to entrap him, and will bring 
 
58 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 vengeance upon them. Again he breaks forth, this time 
 with those terrible imprecations upon the day of his 
 birth, reechoed in the curse of Job. At another time the 
 sensitive, passionate one pleads with Jehovah to spare his 
 countrymen the doom which it is his fate to pronounce. 
 Destined to know no comfort in wife and child, not per- 
 mitted to enter a house of feasting, denied all the joys of 
 the social life of humanity, the prophet must himself 
 serve as a constant symbol of approaching doom. 
 
 In this period Jeremiah often teaches through symbolic 
 acts and vivid illustrations. A fresh girdle, buried in a 
 distant land and then brought back marred, is the symbol 
 of captivity. The potter, shaping the clay at will, be- 
 comes the type of the ruler of nations. Taking advan- 
 tage of the presence of a company of Rechabites in Je- 
 rusalem, Jeremiah offers them wine to drink. They 
 steadfastly adhere to the command of abstinence, given 
 long before by the founder of their tribe, and the prophet 
 is able to draw a telling contrast, unfavorable to faithless 
 [udah. It is during this second period of his ministry 
 chat Jeremiah commits the substance of his earlier 
 preaching to writing. Thus, by every possible means, 
 Dy preaching where the people congregate, by symbolic 
 action, and by writing, the prophet delivers his message 
 to his generation. Standing alone against false prophets, 
 priests and rulers, ridiculed, forbidden to teach, locked 
 in the cruel stocks, with his very life in constant danger, 
 his sensitive, almost feminine heart shrank and quivered 
 before his fate. He loved his people to whom he became 
 an alien and a hated enemy ; he rebelled against his mis- 
 
JEREMIAH 59 
 
 sion ; in passion he called for vengeance or turned and 
 accused his God ; yet he went forth from his hours of 
 weakness and rebelliousness to the duties of a prophet 
 called to a mission of tragedy, which seems almost to 
 prefigure that of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 With the death of the good king Josiah, the party in 
 Judah favorable to reform met speedy reverses. The son 
 
 of Josiah, who was chosen to succeed his 
 The Times - -/ , , , , 
 
 father, was deposed by the victorious 
 
 Pharaoh, now master of Palestine. This monarch ap- 
 pointed another son, Jehoiakim, to reign as an Egyptian 
 vassal. Jehoiakim was the ruler who showed his scorn of 
 Jehovah's prophet by cutting in pieces and burning the 
 roll of his sermons. Under him idolatry, suppressed but 
 not destroyed by Josiah' s measures, returned in full 
 flood. 
 
 Early in Jehoiakim's reign, Nineveh fell before the ris- 
 ing power of the Medes and Babylonians. Then came 
 the death-grapple between Egypt and Babylon at Car- 
 chemish on the Euphrates (604 B. c.). The Egyptian 
 hordes were swept back through Palestine in hopeless de- 
 feat. Nebuchadnezzar, son of the Babylonian king, 
 thus added all Syria and Palestine to Babylon. For a 
 few years Jehoiakim ruled as a vassal of Babylon, and 
 then died, just as his faithlessness to his new master 
 brought the army of Nebuchadnezzar to chastise Jerusa- 
 lem. The son, Jehoiachin, sat upon the wretched throne 
 for three months and then surrendered at discretion to 
 the besieging army (597 B. c.). 
 
 It was probably during Jehoiakim's Egyptian vassalage, 
 
60 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 when there was a brief era of peace, that Jeremiah stood 
 The at tne temple gate, declaring to all that 
 
 Message their safety lay, not in any fancied invio- 
 lability of the sacred mount, but in amending their ways 
 by executing justice between a man and his neighbor, by 
 not oppressing the helpless, and not shedding innocent 
 blood, nor walking after other gods. He accused them 
 of stealing, murdering, committing adultery, swearing 
 falsely, burning incense unto Baal, and then coming to 
 stand before Jehovah in his house and saying, " We are 
 delivered." He charged the people with offering child 
 sacrifices like the heathen, of worshiping sun, moon 
 and stars, and of forgetting Jehovah. Though he ex- 
 pressed, in the strongest manner, the hopelessness of a 
 change in the evil character of his people, he also de- 
 clared most definitely that Jehovah's message of doom 
 and destruction was conditional; if the people would 
 turn from their evil, God would repent of the evil that he 
 thought to do unto them. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Vanity of Trust in the Temple. 7 : 1-20. 
 Refusal to Listen to Prophets. 7: 21-8: 22. 
 Lamenting the Fate of the People. 9, 10: 17-25. 
 Failure to Observe Covenant. 11 : 9-17. 
 Persecution by Men of Anathoth. 11 : i8-12: 6. 
 Judah Overrun by Neighboring Tribes. 12 : 7-17. 
 Symbol of the Buried Girdle. 13: 1-17. 
 Lament for Captivity of King. 13: 18, 19. 
 Can the Ethiopian Change his Skin ? 13 : 20-27. 
 Jeremiah Pleading with Jehovah. 14 : 1-17 : 18. 
 
JEREMIAH 6 1 
 
 Lessons from the Potter. 18-20. 
 
 Prophecy conditional ; plots. 18. 
 
 Ruin irrevocable. 19. 
 
 In the stocks ; sentence of exile. 20 : 1-6. 
 
 The prophet's hard fate. 20: 7-18. 
 Judgments on Rulers, Promise of Righteous Ruler. 22: IO- 
 
 23:8. 
 
 Babylon to Rule for Seventy Years. 25. 
 Temple to be Destroyed. 26. 
 Faithfulness of the Rechabites. 35. 
 Writing Prophecies. 36. 
 Message to Baruch. 45. 
 
 Home Readings. The following selections from the passages 
 included in the above outline are suggested for daily reading of 
 Scripture: (I) 7: 1-20; (2) 11: i8-12:6; (3) 13: 1-17; (4) 
 14: 1-18; (5)18: 1-12 ; (6)19; (7)35. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Some scenes of Jeremiah's preaching (7:2; 11:6; 19 : 2, 14 ; 
 26 : 2) ; plots against the prophet's life (11 : 21 ; 18 : 18) ; in the stocks 
 (20:2); Jeremiah's inner struggles (11: 20; 12: 1-6; 14: 10-13; 
 18 : 19-23 ; 20 : 7-18) ; excluded from family and social life (16 : 2, 8) ; 
 symbolic and figurative teaching (13: 1-9; 18: 1-6; 19: 10, n; 
 35: i-n) ; Jeremiah's preaching committed to writing, destroyed 
 and rewritten (36 : 2, 4, 9, 10, 18, 21-23, 3 2 ) \ Jeremiah's message 
 as to false and true grounds of trust (7: 4-15) ; worship of nature 
 (8: 2, 3); desertion of Jehovah (18: 13-17) ; hopeless fixity in evil 
 (13 : 23) ; message of doom conditional (18 : 8) ; Nebuchadnezzar 
 the instrument of punishment (25: 8-1 1). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Extent of second period in Jeremiah's ministry ; places chosen 
 by Jeremiah for delivering his message ; dangers which threatened 
 
62 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 him ; the prophet's attitude toward his persecutors, toward his 
 mission, toward God, toward his doomed countrymen ; his isolated 
 condition; his methods of teaching; a true picture of Jeremiah's 
 character ; the political condition of Judah during the eleven 
 years following Josiah's defeat and death ; the fate of Nineveh, of 
 Egypt ; the moral and religious condition of Judah under Jehoia- 
 kim ; Jeremiah's attitude toward the temple compared with that of 
 the people ; the true ground of hope ; the conditional character of 
 prediction ; Jeremiah's predictions as to Nebuchadnezzar ; Jere- 
 miah's attitude toward his persecutors compared with that of 
 Nahum toward Nineveh ; was Jeremiah a weak and unworthy 
 minister ? the human weaknesses of a prophet, his source of 
 strength; circumstances in the conditions of Jeremiah's ministry 
 and in his own temperament that made his life peculiarly tragic ; 
 constant danger of placing the minor and conditional before the 
 universal and absolute in religion, illustrated in the application by 
 the men of Jeremiah's day of Isaiah's teaching to his generation 
 that Zion could not be captured; application of principle to our own 
 religious lives. 
 
HABAKKUK 63 
 
 LESSON XI 
 
 HABAKKUK 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Chief events of political history during 
 Jeremiah's second period ; moral and religious condition of Judah ; 
 persecution of Jeremiah ; Jeremiah's methods of work ; the ground 
 of his message of doom. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 The little book of Habakkuk has a much more per- 
 sonal note than that of Nahum. Nahum utters the na- 
 tional outcry against cruel Nineveh and 
 The Man f . 
 
 accounts for the judgment upon the city 
 
 on those principles of the just government of nations that 
 have been declared by the prophets preceding him. 
 Habakkuk finds himself unable to square their grandly 
 simple philosophy of retributive justice with all the facts 
 that the complex development of history presents to his 
 view. His brief oracle is long enough to give us a dis- 
 tinct view of the prophet's inner struggle with the per- 
 plexity. The truth is not given to him complete, in one 
 perfect inspiration. He has to stand upon his watch- 
 tower and wait for an answer to his doubt. He thus 
 gives us a clear glimpse of the fact that a prophet may 
 have to endure the pain of struggle with doubt, before he 
 can attain a satisfying view of truth and confidently 
 utter his "Thus saith the Lord." Hosea and Jeremiah 
 reached their deepest insight through suffering, while 
 Habakkuk arrived at his "audacious certitude of faith " 
 through the dark valley of doubt. 
 
64 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 It is probable that Habakkuk's oracle was uttered not 
 far from the time of the battle of Carcljiemish, during the 
 second period of Jeremiah's ministry. Some modern 
 scholars, who believe that the violence against which he 
 cries out, in the opening verses, is that of the Assyrian 
 dominance, would place him within the first period of 
 Jeremiah, when the hand of Assyria may still have been 
 felt in Judah, but it seems more probable that Habak- 
 kuk's picture of the Chaldeans was drawn after they had 
 begun their world-conquering career, and thus the 
 earliest possible date for his message would be about the 
 time of the battle of Carchemish, in which Nebuchad- 
 nezzar decisively defeated the Egyptians. If this view 
 be correct, Habakkuk belongs to the very close of the 
 seventh century, and the spoiling and violence against 
 which he cries out are either the work of the Egyptians 
 during their brief sway from the death of Josiah to the 
 victory of Nebuchadnezzar over Pharaoh -necoh, or they 
 are the work of the evil leaders and rulers of Judah dur- 
 ing Jehoiakim's reign. 
 
 Whether the perpetrators of violence are thus the 
 Egyptians or the rulers within the state of Judah, Ha- 
 bakkuk pictures his age as one in which 
 the law is slacked and righteous judgment 
 is wanting, while the wicked triumph over the righteous. 
 As indicated already, the new Chaldean rulers of Babylon 
 have begun their conquering career with a dash and fierce- 
 ness that can only be compared to the swift movement 
 of leopard or eagle, the ravenousness of wolves, or to the 
 rush of the wind. For some years, Babylon had been 
 
HABAKKUK 6$ 
 
 practically free from her former vassalage to Assyria 
 under the Chaldean prince Nabopolassar, whose right 
 arm was his swift and determined son and general, 
 Nebuchadnezzar. The defeat of Pharaoh-necoh, on the 
 banks of the Euphrates, had laid all Syria and Palestine 
 open to Nebuchadnezzar's advance, when the death of 
 his father compelled him to hurry back to Babylon, in 
 order to secure his seat upon the throne. He soon es- 
 tablished himself securely and was able to confirm his 
 dominance over Palestine. 
 
 The oracle of Habakkuk opens with a cry to Jehovah 
 because spoiling, violence, strife, contention, injustice 
 
 Th _. prevail. To the question, " How long?" 
 
 the prophet receives the answer that 
 the fierce Chaldeans shall soon come as the instru- 
 ment of judgment. Thus far his message is closely 
 parallel with that of earlier prophets, who had seen 
 Assyria as the instrument of judgment in Jehovah's 
 hand. Assyria has now fallen, the victim of her 
 own cruel rapacity, and Chaldea, haughty in the lust 
 of conquest, rises before the prophet's vision as a new 
 scourge in the hand of the just Ruler of nations ; but 
 Habakkuk cannot rest here, as his predecessors had done, 
 in the simple faith that Jehovah is using the conqueror to 
 punish those who have done violence and wrong. How 
 can it be, questions this prophet, and with his question 
 a new era opens in Israel's developing knowledge of God, 
 how can it be that a righteous God can use the worse to 
 chastise the better? So far as this is a philosophical 
 question, Habakkuk finds no answer to his problem of 
 
66 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 world-history. On his watch-tower, waiting, he receives, 
 rather, the old, direct, prophetic message that one who 
 increases that which is not his shall in turn become a 
 prey ; he who builds a town with blood and stablishes 
 a city by iniquity labors for fire and wearies himself for 
 vanity. " Tyranny is suicide" is the terse phrase in 
 which the essence of Habakkuk's series of "woes" has 
 been well expressed. This truth which great conquerors 
 have so rarely known, which dominant individuals, 
 classes and nations have so rarely apprehended, Ha- 
 bakkuk uttered in a series of songs of doom against 
 mighty Babylon, not when she was sinking to her ruin, 
 but when she was rising in the lusty power of her un- 
 contaminated youth. Tyranny is suicide, for justice does 
 reign, though all about us we may see naught but the 
 strong crushing the weak and worshiping his own power. 
 This is the "audacious certitude of faith" that makes 
 Habakkuk a prophet for the ages. The vision is yet for 
 the appointed time and it panteth toward the end, and 
 shall not lie ; though it tarry, wait for it ; because it will 
 surely come, it will not delay. The day will yet dawn 
 when nations, classes, individuals will know that the 
 principle declared by the prophet of Jehovah in the little 
 subject state, and applied to the nation that then domi- 
 nated the world, shall not lie. 
 
 The book closes with one of the most magnificent 
 hymns of confident trust in Jehovah though all else fail, 
 ever uttered by the inspired psalmists of Israel. Many 
 scholars believe the poem to be by a later hand than 
 Habakkuk's, but, if this be so, it was indeed an inspira- 
 
HABAKKUK 6/ 
 
 tion that placed it, not in the general book of Psalms, 
 but as a fitting conclusion for Habakkuk's sublime faith 
 born out of doubt. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Title. 1 : I. 
 
 The Prophet's Perplexity. 1 : 2-2 : 3. 
 
 Outcry against unchecked violence and injustice. 1: 2-4. 
 The Chaldeans as the instrument of judgment. 1 : 5-11. 
 How can God permit the wicked to swallow up those more 
 
 righteous ? 1 : 12-17. 
 The prophet waits for an answer. 2 : 1-3. 
 The Answer. 2 : 4-20. 
 
 . The Chaldeans elated with pride, but the just shall be pre- 
 served. 2 : 4, 5. 
 Assurance of Chaldeans' fall for their cruelty and rapacity. 
 
 2:6-20. 
 
 Prayer of Habakkuk A Psalm. 3. 
 Invocation. 3 : i, 2. 
 Majesty of Jehovah and discomfiture of his enemies. 
 
 3:3-15. 
 In the prophet, fear and confidence. 3: 16-19. 
 
 Home Reading's. The following division of the prophecy may 
 be made for daily reading of Scripture : (i) 1 : i-n ; (2) 1 : 12-17 ; 
 (3)2:1-5; (4)2:6-20; (5)3:1-8; (6) 3: 9-15; (7) 3 : 16-19. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 The prophet in doubt (1 : 2-4, 12, 13 ; 2 : i) ; Habakkuk's picture 
 of his times (1 : 4) ; description of Chaldeans (1 : 6-1 1); Jehoiakim 
 subject to Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24: I) ; answer to Habakkuk 
 (2 : 4, 6-8, etc.) ; the certainty of justice (2:3); the coming of 
 Jehovah (3 : 3-11); query why Jehovah comes (3:8); answer (3 ; 
 12-15) 5 effect upon the poet (3 : 16-19). 
 
68 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Habakkuk and Nahum compared ; waysj in which great truths 
 were revealed to Jeremiah, Hosea, Habakkuk ; probable time of 
 Habakkuk's ministry ; Habakkuk's picture of his age ; his char- 
 acterization of the Chaldeans; the change of ruling power in 
 Palestine at about Habakkuk's time ; parallel between the thought 
 of Habakkuk and that of earlier prophets; point at which Ha- 
 bakkuk goes beyond earlier prophets ; essence of the answer that 
 came to Habakkuk ; applicability of Habakkuk's great principle 
 to present social conditions, to our daily lives; theme of ch. 3. 
 
JEREMIAH 69 
 
 LESSON XII 
 JEREniAH (Third Period) 
 
 Suggestions for Review. The times of Habakkuk ; the in- 
 strument of Jehovah's judgment seen by Habakkuk ; the problem 
 raised ; the faith of Habakkuk. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 The third period of Jeremiah's ministry extends from 
 the surrender of Jehoiachin and the partial exile of 597 
 to the close of Jeremiah's ministry, after 
 the destruction of Jerusalem in 586. 
 During this period, the interest of the prophet is divided 
 between the exiles in Babylon and the people left in Jeru- 
 salem. He instructs those in exile by letter, but the 
 desperate folly of those left behind in Judaea calls forth 
 his most constant energies, in a vain effort to check its 
 course. 
 
 The weak king, Zedekiah, who seems, at times, dis- 
 posed to listen to the warnings and advice of Jeremiah, 
 is unable to protect the prophet from the hatred of the 
 nobles, who, during the last siege of Jerusalem, secure his 
 arrest and imprisonment on a false charge of desertion 
 to the Chaldeans. Jeremiah's persistence in declaring 
 the certainty of Chaldean dominance, finally leads 
 the exasperated nobles to let him down into an empty 
 cistern, there to sink in the mire at the bottom, and to 
 starve. From this extremity he is rescued by permission 
 of the king, and remains a prisoner till Jerusalem is 
 captured. 
 
70 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 Throughout these years, Jeremiah finds himself con- 
 stantly opposed by the swarm of " false prophets," who 
 give pleasant assurances that those already in exile shall 
 soon be restored and that the Babylonian supremacy shall 
 be brief. Early in Zedekiah's reign, Jeremiah placed a 
 bar upon his neck and gave similar bars to. the ambassa- 
 dors that had come to Jerusalem from neighboring 
 peoples, plotting rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar. By 
 this symbol he would teach that Nebuchadnezzar's yoke 
 of supremacy must rest upon them all. Hananiah, the 
 prophet, broke the bar from Jeremiah's neck, and de- 
 clared that within two years Jehovah would break the 
 yoke of Babylon and restore the exiles ; Jeremiah re- 
 placed his wooden yoke with one of iron. Priests and 
 prophets alike came under his fierce condemnation dur- 
 ing this period. The prophets taught those whose ways 
 were evil that Jehovah would protect them. Jeremiah 
 stood absolutely alone in announcing judgment upon the 
 sinful nation. To the princes he seemed a traitor, for, 
 when the nation had entered upon its last mad resistance 
 to Babylon, he still taught that the Chaldeans would be 
 victorious. After the capture of the city, Jeremiah 
 was permitted to remain with the remnant of the people 
 whom Nebuchadnezzar left in the land ; upon the murder 
 of the governor, this little company fled in terror to 
 Egypt, and carried the prophet with them. The last 
 glimpse of Jeremiah shows him denouncing the worship 
 of the queen of heaven, to whom the exiles in Egypt 
 were burning incense. Traditions as to the close of this 
 tragic career vary. According to one, his countrymen in 
 
JEREMIAH 7 1 
 
 Egypt stoned to death the faithful prophet, but another 
 has it that he escaped to Babylon, and there died. 
 
 We have seen the close of the second period of Jere- 
 miah's ministry marked by the surrender of King 
 Th Ti Jehoiachin in 597. At that time the king 
 
 and court and the flower of the popula- 
 tion, including nobles, warriors and skilled artisans, 
 some ten thousand men, besides women and children, 
 were carried into exile. During the next nine or ten years 
 Zedekiah, uncle of Jehoiachin, ruled over those remain- 
 ing in Jerusalem, as a Babylonian vassal. Then, how- 
 ever, under the influence of his nobles and looking to 
 Egypt for support, he took the fatal step of revolt. The 
 army of Nebuchadnezzar soon lay before the doomed 
 capital of Judaea. The siege lasted a year and a half and 
 the wretched people had known almost the last horrors 
 of starvation before the city fell. The vessels of the 
 temple that had not been taken in the former capture, 
 and all other treasures were carried to Babylon. Jeru- 
 salem was burned, and its walls were thrown down. 
 Many had already fled to Egypt ; many had perished ; 
 the remainder, save the very poorest of the land, were 
 carried exiles to Babylon ; the city that was full of peo- 
 ple sat solitary. The Babylonians appointed Gedaliah 
 governor of the little community that was left, establish- 
 ing his seat of government at Mizpah, a few miles north 
 of Jerusalem. All went well for a short time and then 
 the king of Ammon instigated a renegade Jew to 
 murder Gedaliah and his supporters. It was against 
 Jeremiah's protest that those who were left fled to Egypt. 
 
72 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 In Judaea there remained only a few scattered peasants, 
 without any form of local government. 
 
 From the standpoint of practical national policy, sub- 
 sequent events showed that Jeremiah was right and the 
 T . nobles of his day, supported by the false 
 
 prophets, were wrong. Rebellion against 
 Nebuchadnezzar was absolutely hopeless. Egypt was 
 unable to render any effective aid and, without her, 
 Jerusalem was powerless to resist the siege of Nebu- 
 chadnezzar. Even after Jeremiah's warnings had been 
 disregarded and rebellion had actually begun, it is prob- 
 able that speedy submission, such as the prophet urged, 
 was the best course then open for the political welfare of 
 Judah. For the exiles in Babylon, too, Jeremiah's ad- 
 vice that they adapt themselves speedily and quietly to 
 the conditions of existence in the distant land, and 
 preserve their family and community life was, politically, 
 the wisest. 
 
 , Jeremiah's political foresight was far more than a 
 shrewd grasping of the situation and adopting a course of 
 prudent submission to the inevitable. He saw in the 
 moral and religious conduct of his contemporaries a break- 
 ing of the covenant with Jehovah, and his enlightened 
 vision perceived in the conquests of Nebuchadnezzar 
 the hand of God in judgment. When Egypt's 
 abortive effort to aid temporarily relieved Jerusalem 
 from siege, the people reenslaved their Hebrew servants, 
 whom, under the stress of fear, they had released, in 
 obedience to the law of Deuteronomy. Such a situation 
 as this reveals the true temper of Jeremiah's preaching. 
 
JEREMIAH 73 
 
 He proclaims, in the name of an outraged God, in 
 whose very house they had covenanted to free their 
 Hebrew slaves, liberty to the sword, to the pestilence 
 and to the famine. 
 
 During these last hopeless years, Jeremiah's message 
 was not wholly one of siege, famine and exile. It was 
 while he was himself a prisoner in the court of the guard, 
 that he bought a piece of ancestral land in Anathoth 
 and weighed out the purchase money and subscribed the 
 deed in the presence of witnesses, to testify that houses 
 and fields and vineyards should yet again be bought in 
 the land. The prophet looked beyond the long years of 
 coming exile to the day when He that scattered Israel 
 would gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his 
 flock. He held firm faith that, when calamities had 
 shown human help useless, Jehovah would bring back his 
 people to their own land. During the years when the 
 breaking of the written covenant was bringing its full 
 measure of judgment, Jeremiah saw a day when a new 
 covenant should be made ; and this was the new cove- 
 nant, that the law should be written in their hearts, so 
 that no more any man should need to teach another, say- 
 ing, Know Jehovah ; for they should all know him from 
 the least unto the greatest. To the heart-sick, weary ' 
 prophet whose fate it was to stand alone, while his nation 
 went madly on to her ruin, came, thus, out of the depths 
 of despair, a clear, divine light revealing the spiritual 
 character of true religion, as no other light revealed it 
 till Christ himself taught among men. Jeremiah had 
 seen the horrible idolatry of Manasseh's reign swept 
 
74 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 away by the reform of Josiah, in conformity to the 
 written law, and had heard the covenant of Jehovah and 
 his people renewed. He had probably participated 
 actively in the great reform. He had seen the tide 
 sweep back, after a few short years, the covenant tossed 
 aside, and all evil returning, while the doom of iniquity 
 hastened on. Now the vision comes of a day when a 
 new covenant shall be written in the heart of man and 
 when iniquity shall be forgiven. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Reply to Zedekiah's Inquiry during Last Siege. 21 : l-io. 
 Appeal to the Court for Just Rule. 21 : 1 1-22 : 9. 
 The False Prophets. 23 : 9-40. 
 The Good and Bad Figs. 24. 
 Against False Hopes. 27-29. 
 
 Effort to restrain Zedekiah from revolt. 27. 
 
 Controversy with Hananiah. 28. 
 
 Letter to Captives. 29. 
 Restoration. 30-33. 
 
 Jerusalem to be ruled again by prince of David's line. 30. 
 
 Hope for Ephraim and Judah. 31 : 1-3' 
 
 The New Covenant. 31 : 31-34. 
 
 Purchase of land at Anathoth. 32. 
 
 Purification and restoration of nation. 33 : 1-16. 
 Breaking of Covenant to Free Slaves. 34. 
 Experiences of Jeremiah during Last Siege. 37-39. 
 Experiences of Jeremiah after Fall of Jerusalem. 40-44. 
 Prophecies against Foreign Nations (different periods). 46-49. 
 Fall of Jerusalem. 52. 
 
 Home Readings. From the above outline the following selec- 
 tions are especially suggested for daily reading of Scripture : (I) 
 
JEREMIAH 75 
 
 21: i-io; (2) 21: 1 1-22:. 9; (3) 28: 1-14; (4) 29: 1-14; (5) 30 : 
 1-9, 18-23; (6) 37: 11^15; 38 : 1-6; (7) 31 : 29-34. 
 
 Ill POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Jeremiah's attitude toward exiles of 597 (24: 1-5 ; 29 : I, 5-10); 
 attitude of Zedekiah and nobles toward Jeremiah (21: I, 2; 37: 3, 
 11-15, 16-21; 38: 4-10, 14-16, 24-26); the message of the false 
 prophets (23 : n, 16; 27: 9, 10, 16; 28 : 2-4, 10, n) ; bars of iron 
 (28: 12-14); Jeremiah's policy of submission to Babylon (21 : 
 8-10 ; 38 : 17, 1 8 ; 29 : I, 5-10) ; Jeremiah accused of being a traitor 
 (37: 11-15 ; 38: 1-4) ; last glimpse of Jeremiah (44: I, 2, 7-10, 
 24, 25, 30) ; Jeremiah's fundamental principles of government (22 : 
 1-5, n, 12; 34: 6-II, 17); Jeremiah's message of hope (32: 9, 
 10, 15 ; 31 : 10 ; 30 : I, 2, 8, 9, 18, 21 ; 31 : 3 I -35)- 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Limits of last period of Jeremiah's mission ; prophet's double in- 
 terest in third period ; scene of his chief efforts ; attitude of Zede- 
 kiah toward Jeremiah ; attitude of nobles toward Jeremiah, and his 
 sufferings at their hands ; teachings of the false prophets ; accusa- 
 tion made against Jeremiah ; Jeremiah's experiences after fall of 
 Jerusalem in 586; last glimpse of the prophet ; the captives of 597, 
 who, and how many ? the new king ; the destruction of Jerusalem, 
 when, and how brought about ? the remnant left in the land ; na- 
 tional policy advocated by Jeremiah ; why wise ? advice to exiles 
 in Babylon ; true basis of Jerusalem's attitude on national ques- 
 tions ; Jeremiah's hope for the nation's future on the temporal 
 side, on the spiritual side ; Jeremiah's view of a religion based 
 upon written law ; his ideal for religious guidance ; a comparison 
 of his teaching on these two points with those of Christ ; do we 
 realize the ideal of Jeremiah for the new covenant in our lives ? 
 
76 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 LESSON XIII 
 REVIEW 
 
 I. THE PROPHETS AND THEIR WORK 
 The twelve lessons now completed have dealt with 
 eight different prophets, from Amos, the first whose 
 message is preserved in a separate book, 
 to Jeremiah, whose work marks the close 
 of the truly prophetic period of Israel's history. Later 
 prophets labor in an age that is dominated by priestly 
 ideals. 
 
 The personality of most of these prophets is plainly 
 recognizable in their writings. The epoch-making truth 
 of Amos shines clear through the crystal of his sternly 
 just nature. The writing of Hosea mirrors a deep, lov- 
 ing nature, born to suffer and to enter within the veil. 
 Isaiah shines forth, brilliant in his supreme gifts and at- 
 tainments, towering above kings and all principal men of 
 his age, the glory of his race, yet hating in the name of 
 the exalted God, all that exalts itself among men. 
 Micah stands in strong contrast to his brilliant, cultured 
 contemporary, the embodiment of the peasants' cry for 
 justice. Zephaniah has absorbed the great truths of his 
 predecessors and applies them fearlessly to his own day, 
 but his little oracle does not reveal one who stands forth 
 among the others as a great, creative prophet. The mes- 
 sage of Nahum is too brief to give a rounded picture of 
 the writer's personality, yet it shows, focused in one in- 
 tense nature, a burning element of the national spirit. 
 
REVIEW 77 
 
 Habakkuk's short oracle is long enough to reveal the 
 prophet as an earnest, devout thinker, who must needs 
 strive to know and understand the God whom he serves. 
 Jeremiah's words reveal a passionate, loving, faithful, in- 
 tensely human nature that longs for man's sympathy and 
 yet can stand alone with God, scorned and hated by all 
 men. As a whole, these eight men illustrate the fact 
 that God's chosen revealers of truth are selected by their 
 inborn and cultivated capacities. Hosea, by his very 
 nature, could not have done the work of Amos, nor 
 could Amos have uttered the truth of Hosea. Isaiah and 
 Micah give, in part, the same teaching, yet Micah could 
 never have apprehended Isaiah's truth in its multiple 
 aspects. It was, however, the peasant prophet whose 
 influence was quoted to the king a century later. Ha- 
 bakkuk started a long line of fruitful thought that was 
 absolutely foreign to the intense, direct vision of earlier 
 prophets like Amos and Hosea. 
 
 All of these prophets were men who lived intensely in 
 their own nation and age, yet they looked beyond the 
 confines of Israel and comprehended the movement and 
 struggle of nations, in a way that transcended the wisest 
 human statesmanship, and they enunciated, for the first 
 time in human speech, truths that the civilized world has 
 yet fully to apprehend. In their manner of expressing 
 these truths, they proved themselves teachers, poets, and 
 orators, worthy to be studied as skilful teachers, strong and 
 graceful poets, and resourceful orators among the chiefest 
 in history. Yet all this was but the guinea's stamp to 
 the souls of these men, who, by what they were and what 
 
78 PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 they suffered, became fit to know and reveal God to the 
 ages. 
 
 About one hundred and seventy-five years of history 
 are included between the work of Amos and the close of 
 Jeremiah's ministry. From the political 
 standpoint, it was the period of the de- 
 cline and fall of the nation. The external forces, how- 
 ever, that destroyed the nation made possible the devel- 
 opment of teachings which an earlier age could not ap- 
 prehend. Israel lay between the two most ancient centers 
 of civilization known to history, the Tigris-Euphrates 
 valley and the Nile valley. When David rose to power 
 and extended his sway widely over the peoples of Pales- 
 tine, neither of these centers was striving to draw to 
 itself the intervening regions, as both had done in cen- 
 turies before Israel had settled in the land. Through- 
 out the age of prophecy, however, from Amos to Jere- 
 miah, Palestine was the bone of contention between them. 
 The two little kingdoms of Israel lacked the faith of the 
 great prophets who strove to keep them neutral in reliance 
 on Jehovah alone, and looked, now to Egypt, now to As- 
 syria, for help. In the heart of this great struggle for 
 world-supremacy, the people of Israel formed a new con- 
 ception of the world. 
 
 Amos and Hosea taught in northern Israel a few years 
 before its fall at the hands of Assyria. Isaiah and Micah 
 labored in Judah at the time of the destruction of the 
 federation of her sister tribes. The prophecy of the next 
 century was probably called forth, in the first instance, 
 by the ravages of the Scythian hordes, whose devastating 
 
REVIEW 79 
 
 march seems reflected in Zephaniah. The approaching 
 destruction of Assyria filled the vision of Nahum. Jere- 
 miah labored throughout the years of Assyria's weakness 
 and fall, the struggle for dominion between Egypt and 
 Babylonia, and the conquest and destruction of Judah 
 by Babylon. Habakkuk belongs to the time of conflict 
 between Egypt and Babylon. 
 
 The domestic conditions of both northern and southern 
 Israel, as seen through the eyes of the prophets of the 
 eighth century, were characterized by those inequalities 
 *and social injustices that ever attend rapid development 
 from simple, agricultural conditions to a more complex 
 civilization, with developing class distinctions and mon- 
 opolistic ownership. The prophets of the next century 
 give far less attention to moral conditions, and emphasize 
 especially the prevalence of idolatry, which became so 
 rife in the intervening reign of Manasseh and was only 
 temporarily checked by the drastic reform of Josiah. 
 
 With the new conception of the world that Israel 
 gained through her contact with the great powers, she 
 
 to com " 
 
 The Messa e ' 
 
 prehend the^rnessapre nf 
 
 nations, who controlled the ambitions of kings to the 
 working out of his righteous purposes. When the north- 
 ern kingdom fell, the prophets interpreted its destruction 
 as the just judgment of a just God, but they did not lose 
 hope, for they saw that the righteous remnant within the 
 nation would be saved. Before Judah sank to her ruin, 
 they had begun to teach that the same righteous God 
 would, in turn, bring destruction upon Israel's selfish 
 
8O PROPHETS OF THE SEVENTH CENTURY 
 
 oppressors. Within the nation itself, when social in- 
 equalities and injustices developed, the prophets began to 
 lay stress upon justice and mercy between man and man, 
 rather than solemn assemblies and multitudes of costly 
 offerings, as the true means of pleasing God. When the 
 threatened judgment at last fell upon Judah, prophecy 
 had already taught the divine lesson of a spiritual religion 
 whose laws were to be written in the heart, and the 
 loyal remnant was, at least, partly prepared to preserve 
 its faith in Jehovah, even when the visible signs of his 
 presence were destroyed. Thus, out of the conditions, 
 needs, and capacities of the times, unfolded the great 
 teachings of the prophets as to the true nature of God 
 and the principles of his government. On these great 
 conceptions of God and his government, the teaching of 
 the prophets as to the history of the past, the statesman- 
 ship of the present, and the hope for the future, rest. 
 On these same conceptions, rest, too, their demands for 
 justice and mercy toward one's fellow men, and for hu- 
 mility and trust toward God, as the essential require- 
 ments of true religion. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 I. Prophets of the Eighth Century. 
 
 1. Amos the prophet of righteousness. 
 
 2. Hosea the prophet of love. 
 
 3. Isaiah the prophet of an exalted God. 
 
 4. Micah the prophet of the common people. 
 
 II. Prophets of the Seventh Century. 
 
 1. Zephaniah the prophet of the judgment day. 
 
 2. Jeremiah the prophet of Judah's fall and of the kw writ- 
 
 ten in the heart. 
 
REVIEW 8 1 
 
 3. Nahum the prophet of Assyria's doom. 
 
 4. Habakkuk the prophet of philosophical questioning. 
 
 Home Readings. The following typical selections from each 
 prophet are suggested for daily reading of Scripture, during the 
 week of review: (i) Amos 2: i-io ; (2) Hosea 11: l-ii; (3) 
 Isaiah 6; (4) Micah 3 ; (5) Zephaniah3: 1-8; Nahum 3 : l-ii; 
 (6) Habakkuk 1: 12-2: 3; (7) Jeremiah 27: 12-15 ; 31: 31-34. 
 
 III. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 NOTE. A selection may wisely be made from the following 
 points for review, according to the interests and capacity of the 
 particular class. 
 
 Names of eighth century prophets ; a striking characteristic of 
 each man ; a prominent teaching of each ; names of seventh cen- 
 tury prophets ; a striking characteristic of each man ; a prominent 
 teaching of each ; individuality of the prophets as men in relation 
 to their respective parts in revelation ; skill of the prophets of the 
 eighth and seventh centuries as teachers, poets, and orators ; their 
 greater glory. 
 
 General course of Israel's political history from Amos to Jere- 
 miah ; the significance of Israel's geographical position ; Israel's 
 new ideas in the ninth and eighth centuries ; chronological posi- 
 tion of Amos and Hosea in Israel's history ; of Isaiah and Micah ; 
 historical circumstances that reawakened prophecy in the seventh 
 century; great historical events during Jeremiah's ministry. 
 
 Sins chiefly attacked by prophets of eighth century ; by those 
 of seventh century ; religious significance of Israel's enlarged con- 
 ception of world ; the prophetic interpretation of the fall of Israel ; 
 ground of hope in spite of national ruin ; the prophetic teaching as 
 to God's requirements ; significance of Jeremiah's doctrine of the law 
 in the heart coming just before destruction of Jerusalem ; progress 
 of divine revelation in relation to human needs and capacities; 
 the fundamental element in the teaching of the prophets; the sum 
 of prophetic teaching as to man's duty to man, man's duty to God. 
 
82 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 III. Prophets of the Exile abd Restoration 
 
 LESSON XIV 
 EZEKIEL (First Period) 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Great national events during Jere- 
 miah's later years ; Jeremiah's national policy and his fundamental 
 principles of government ; the tragic personal experiences of Jere- 
 miah during the third period of his ministry ; his vision of the 
 future. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 Among those carried away from Jerusalem by Nebu- 
 chadnezzar in 597 B. c. was the young priest Ezekiel. 
 Th Ma ^ ve y ears l ater > when he was in Baby- 
 lonia, on the banks of one of the sluggish 
 watercourses which traversed the low alluvial plains of 
 that region, he saw a vision of Jehovah coming in stormy 
 wind and flashing lightning, and heard a voice that comr 
 missioned him a prophet to Israel. Whether or not 
 Ezekiel had actually ministered as a priest in Jerusalem 
 before his captivity, he certainly had the greatest famil- 
 iarity with all the details of the temple and its worship. 
 In Babylonia, he lived in the community of exiles that 
 was settled at Tel-abib by the river or canal Chebar, to 
 the east of the city of Babylon, occupying his own house 
 where the elders of Israel resorted to hear his message. 
 We learn that the prophet's wife died at about the time 
 
EZEKIEL 83 
 
 when the final siege of Jerusalem began, and that he 
 could not mourn publicly for her because he must serve 
 as a warning of the grief that would stupefy Israel at the 
 coming judgment. 
 
 In his public ministry, Ezekiel carried symbolic teach- 
 ing further than any of his predecessors. On a tile, he 
 portrayed a city and round about it placed the means of 
 mimic siege. He lay long upon his side and ate polluted 
 food, carefully weighed and measured. He cut off his 
 hair and burned some and scattered some to the winds 
 of heaven. At another time, he carried out his goods by 
 day and in the night dug through the wall and bore his 
 goods on his shoulder, as though departing into exile. 
 
 In the Book of Ezekiel, the prophet's symbolic acts 
 mingle almost indistinguishably with his far more com- 
 plex symbolic visions. In these, we have the prototype 
 of that elaborate symbolism which characterizes the later 
 apocalyptic writings, such as Daniel and Revelation. 
 Shining, winged beings with faces of man, lion, ox, and 
 eagle ; wheels set with eyes ; the likeness of a throne as 
 the appearance of a sapphire stone ; one having the ap- 
 pearance of fire from his loins and downward and from 
 his loins and upward as it were glowing metal ; such are 
 some of the strange images that appear in Ezekiel' s pages 
 and almost baffle the sober Occidental imagination. Yet v 
 Ezekiel lacks almost wholly the charming, poetic pictures f 
 and illustrations from nature that were so abundant in an/ 
 Isaiah or Hosea. Israel and the prophet have been torn 
 from the vine-clad hills of Palestine and set in the midst 
 of a teeming population on the hot plains of Babylonia, 
 
84 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 where the monotony is varied only by man -reared struc- 
 tures, and where a polytheistic religion has developed 
 most elaborate symbolic sculpture. The Hebrew prophet, 
 ever sensitive to his surroundings, ever ready to seize 
 whatever might impress his hearers and make it the ve- 
 hicle for his message, steeps his soul in the imagery of the 
 region to which he and they have been rudely transferred. 
 The first period of Ezekiel's ministry coincides with a 
 portion of the third in Jeremiah's work. Both prophets 
 divide their interest somewhat between the 
 people left in Jerusalem and those trans- 
 ferred to Babylonia. Jeremiah's book reveals much of 
 the political confusion that characterized the wretched, 
 weak reign of Zedekiah, who was unable to withstand the 
 intrigues of the unprincipled nobles left in Jerusalem. 
 Ezekiel, in his vision, is transferred to the temple and 
 sees the abominable idolatry of creeping things and 
 beasts and the worship of the sun, which fill its sacred 
 precincts. Jeremiah shows that the exiles were expecting 
 speedy release, and that those in Jerusalem were misled 
 by false prophets, who taught that the captivity would be 
 brief indeed, while Ezekiel indicates that the same false 
 prophecy was rife in Babylonia. It may be inferred 
 from Ezekiel and Jeremiah that Nebuchadnezzar allowed 
 much of local independence to the company of exiles on 
 the Chebar. They could build houses, preserve their 
 family life, transact business, and maintain their national 
 forms of life, under a large measure of local self-govern- 
 ment, while messengers might pass between them and 
 their fellow countrymen in Judaea. 
 
EZEKIEL 85 
 
 At this period, the message of Ezekiel for the Baby- 
 lonian exiles, like that of Jeremiah for those left in Pales- 
 tine, was chiefly the declaration of the 
 coming destruction of Jerusalem and the 
 complete exile of its inhabitants. From the standpoint 
 of political expediency it was, as we saw in the preceding 
 lesson, vitally necessary that Israel, at home and abroad, 
 should understand that resistance to the Babylonian 
 power was utterly futile. Ezekiel' s symbols of siege and 
 flight, of eating polluted food carefully measured and, 
 again, eating his food with trembling, or of burning and 
 scattering his hair, all carried the one message of destruc- 
 tion, flight, scattering in exile, and living among the 
 heathen. During the final siege of Jerusalem, when the 
 last revolt had been undertaken in the confidence that 
 Egypt would give effective aid, Ezekiel uttered messages 
 of doom upon the wretched helper. As with other 
 prophets, however, Ezekiel' s political wisdom was the 
 fruit of his religious insight and his statesmanship was 
 but an aspect of his high prophetic mission. His nation 
 was without faith in Jehovah ; it was seeking help from 
 a heathen power, and was offering worship to heathen 
 gods in the hope of obtaining their aid. The great les- 
 son of the prophets, that Jehovah ruled among the nations 
 and used their proud conquests to execute his sovereign 
 will, had not yet been learned by the people. The Baby- 
 lonian exile was needed to impress the soul of the nation, 
 through long years of meditation during the stagnancy 
 of the outward national life. Ezekiel was busily engaged 
 in preparing the way for the right reception of the 
 
86 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 coming judgment which, if received wrongly, might 
 crush out the last vestiges of his peoplp's faith in Jehovah. 
 If the death of Josiah and the partial exile of 597 had 
 been followed by a flood of idolatry, in the belief that 
 Jehovah had deserted his people and that other gods 
 must be sought, what might not follow the destruction of 
 the sacred city and temple ! Ezekiel's visions of the 
 glory of Jehovah riding above the cherubim, coming to 
 Babylonia, leaving the temple and city, were instinct 
 with the all- important truth for his age, the truth that 
 Jehovah could come and had come to his people in the 
 distant land. Another truth that was peculiarly neces- 
 sary to enable Ezekiel's generation to receive the exile 
 aright, concerned the relation of the individual to Jehovah. 
 Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel quote the proverb which was 
 evidently on many lips in those days of retribution, 
 "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's 
 teeth are set on edge." By an easy application of 
 Israel's earlier doctrine of retribution, those upon whom 
 the terrors of these final days fell pitied themselves as the 
 victims of their fathers' guilt. Now the time had come 
 when, in the fall of the nation, thejidividual must stand 
 in his naked personality before his God. Ezekiel elab- 
 orated the truth that Jeremiah had begun dimly to see, 
 the truth that, before a just God, each stood or fell as an 
 individual, according to his own personal life and present 
 character, whatever the record of his fathers, whatever 
 his own earlier vice or virtue. Thus, with a wise po- 
 litical foresight that pointed out to his generation the inev- 
 itable conclusion of the present struggle of nations, and 
 
EZEKIEL 87 
 
 with a divine religious insight that saw the great truths 
 necessary to make the chastisement a blessing, Ezekiel 
 taught his fellow exiles, from the fifth year of Jehoia- 
 chin's captivity to the destruction of Jerusalem, six years 
 later (592-586 B. c.). 
 
 Can one comprehend the twofold message of divine v 
 justice and divine mercy, that came to northern Israel 
 through Amos and Hosea, just before her fall, and the 
 manifold message of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that prepared 
 southern Israel for the destruction of the nation and the 
 night of exile, and fail to see God opening to Israel just 
 that measure of divine truth that the successive crises 
 needed ? 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Preface. 1 : 1-3. 
 
 Ezekiel's Repeated Call. 1 : 4-8. 
 
 Symbols of Doom. 4, 5. 
 
 The Pollution and Doom of the Land. 6, 7. 
 
 Visions of Jerusalem's Sin and Punishment. 8-11. 
 
 Idolatry in the temple. 8. 
 
 Slaughter of idolaters. 9. 
 
 Fire scattered on the city. 10 : 1-7. 
 
 The glory of Jehovah above the cherubim. M) : 8-2O. 
 
 Judgment on wicked counselors. 11 : 1-13. 
 
 Jehovah's care for the exiles. 11 : 14-21. 
 
 Glory of God leaves the city. 11 : 22-25. 
 Further Announcements of Jerusalem's Sin and Fall. 12-19. 
 
 Symbols of siege and exile. 12 : 1-20. 
 
 The false prophets. 12: 21-14. 
 
 Allegories of the nation's sin. 15-17. 
 
 The individual and his God. 18. 
 
88 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 A dirge for the rulers of Israel. 19. 
 Later Prophecies of Judgment. 20-23. 
 
 Israel's sinful history. 20 : 1-44. 
 
 Fire and sword directed against Jerusalem. 20 : 45-21. 
 
 Jerusalem's moral corruption. 22. 
 
 Israel and Judah unfaithful wives. 23. 
 At the Opening of the Final Siege. 24. 
 
 Jerusalem to be cleansed by fire. 24 : 1-14. 
 
 Death of prophet's wife. 24: 15-27. 
 Doom of Egypt 29: 1-16; 30, 31. 
 
 Home Readings. From the above list, the following typical pas- 
 sages are suggested for daily reading of Scripture : (I) 1; (2) 
 4- I-I3J (3) ; (4) 11 : 14-25; (5) 12: 1-20; (6) 18; (7) 22. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Place and time of EzekiePs repeated call (1 : i, 2; 3: 22, 23) ; 
 his life in Babylonia (8: I ; 14: 1 ; 20: I ; 24: 15, 16) ; symbolic 
 teaching (4: 1-3, 4-8; 12: 1-6, etc.); symbolic visions (1: 4-28; 
 1 : 8 ; 8 : 2, 3, etc.) ; vision of idolatry in Jerusalem (8 : 9-16) ; false 
 prophets (13 : 1-7, 10, II) ; principal subject of Ezekiel's message 
 during first period, see " Analysis of Lesson " ; belief in Jerusalem 
 that Jehovah had forsaken his people (8: 12); glory of Jehovah 
 in Babylon (1 : 28 ; 3 : 23 ; 11 : 14-16) ; glory of Jehovah leaving 
 temple (10 : 1 8, 19) ; the individual judged as an individual (18 : 4, 
 5-9, 10-13, *>. 2I 2 4). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Date of the beginning of Ezekiel's captivity, of his call to the 
 prophetic ministry ; his time relatively to Jeremiah's ; circumstances 
 of Ezekiel's life in Babylonia ; his use of symbolic teaching ; char- 
 acter of the imagery in his visions ; condition of worship in Jeru- 
 salem as pictured by Ezekiel ; false prophets in Jerusalem and Tel- 
 abib ; conditions of life for the first exiles in Babylonia ; the great 
 
EZEKIEL 89 
 
 theme of Jeremiah and Ezekiel prior to 586 B. c. ; the political 
 wisdom of Ezekiel's preaching ; scepticism in Jerusalem ; the two 
 great troths that Ezekiel taught the exiles ; why were these truths 
 especially important at that time? the progressive revelation of 
 truth through Israel's prophets to meet new crises; is prophecy 
 simply a natural growth ? the truth in the doctrine of the visitation 
 of iniquities unto the third and fourth generation and in Ezekiel's 
 doctrine of individualism can the two be harmonized ? 
 
9O PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 LESSON XV j 
 
 OBADIAH AND PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL AGAINST 
 FOREIGN NATIONS 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Date and historical circumstances of 
 EzekieFs first period ; great theme of Ezekiel prior to 586 B. C. ; 
 two important truths especially taught. 
 
 I. OBADIAH AND His WORK 
 
 The subject of Obadiah's vision is clear, but the 
 prophet's date is somewhat uncertain. On the whole, 
 
 it seems probable that the references in 
 The Man 
 
 verses 11-14 concern the hostile conduct 
 
 of the Edomites at the time when Jerusalem was des- 
 troyed by the Chaldeans. The prophet, in that case, prob- 
 ably delivered his oracle soon after 586 B c. and voiced 
 the national condemnation of Edom's attitude at that 
 fateful time. The first nine verses of his little oracle are, 
 almost certainly, quoted from some earlier prophecy 
 against Edom, which Jeremiah also quotes. 1 The latter 
 part of the book, however, bears some marks of a post- 
 exilic date, so that the problem of the time of Obadiah's 
 work is a complex one. We can hardly characterize the 
 prophet as more than a voice which utters the bitterness 
 of the nation when she sees her neighbors exulting in her 
 complete humiliation before Nebuchadnezzar. 
 
 1 For the arguments which show that both Jeremiah and Oba- 
 diah quote an earlier prophecy, see Driver, " Literature of Old 
 Testament," p. 319. 
 
OBADIAH AND PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL 9 1 
 
 It is evident from Obadiah 11-14 tnat > when Jerusalem 
 was sacked, the Edomites rejoiced and even participated 
 
 in the plundering and in cutting off the 
 The Times r . . , . ,. 
 
 fugitives who were escaping. The earlier 
 
 verses of the prophecy give a vivid picture of the dwelling- 
 place of Edom in the rocky fastnesses south of Judaea. 
 There this people, counted as kindred of Israel, main- 
 tained itself through long centuries, in which mutual 
 hatred found repeated opportunity for expression amid 
 the vicissitudes of the two little peoples. 
 
 The first half of the prophecy is, like Nahum, an un- 
 relieved message of doom against a cruel foe, but, brief 
 as it is, the book of Obadiah does not 
 stop here. It catches up in swift utterance 
 the message of Zephaniah, of a day of judgment upon 
 the nations, a day when their dealing shall return upon 
 their own heads, and passes quickly to the firm, prophetic 
 expectation that a saved and blessed remnant of Jehovah's 
 people shall yet possess the land. 
 
 II. FOREIGN PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL 
 
 The book of Ezekiel may be divided into three clearly 
 marked sections. The second division (chapters 25-32) 
 is made up of prophecies concerning foreign nations. A 
 large part of these have the same general background 
 as Obadiah 11-14. I* 1 chapter 25, Judah's immediate 
 neighbors, Ammon, Edom, Moab, and the Philistines, are 
 denounced because of their attitude on the occasion of 
 Judah' s captivity. Ammon and Moab have regarded Jeru- 
 
gi PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 salem's downfall as the refutation of Israel's claim to be 
 the people of Jehovah. Edom and the Philistines have 
 taken actual vengeance in the day of ner distress. Fol- 
 lowing these short oracles, there comes an elaborate 
 prophecy against Tyre for rejoicing in the discomfiture 
 of Judah. The rich merchant city is pictured as a ship, 
 equipped from every quarter of the world, wrecked and 
 foundering. A short prophecy against Sidon declares 
 that there shall no more be a hurting thorn of any that 
 are round about the house of Israel, and that Jehovah 
 shall be known in the execution of judgment. The re- 
 maining chapters of the section consist of a series of 
 oracles against Egypt. Some of these are dated within 
 the first period of Ezekiel's ministry and have been 
 touched upon in the previous lesson. Others were de- 
 livered about two years after the fall of Jerusalem, and 
 one bears the latest date given in Ezekiel's book, the 
 twenty-seventh year, 5 70 B. c. One of these prophecies, 
 ascribed to a time about two years after Jerusalem's fall, 
 is a remarkable dirge over Pharaoh and his army descend- 
 ing into Sheol to join Asshur and the other oppressors of 
 Israel. The weird poem might well be styled a primi- 
 tive Inferno. Ezekiel's vision searched the entire horizon 
 of contemporary history as, with a wonderful wealth of 
 Oriental imagery, he pronounced judgment upon strong 
 cities and mighty rulers. A true prophet, he read the 
 complex struggles of his stirring age in the light of faith 
 in Jehovah, the just ruler of nations. 
 
OBADIAH AND PROPHECIES OF EZEKIEL 93 
 
 III. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 Obadiah. 
 
 Destruction of Edom. 1-16. 
 Restoration and supremacy of Israel. 17-21. 
 Prophecies of Ezekiel against Foreign Nations. 25-32. 
 Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia. 25. 
 Tyre (586 B. c.). 26-28 : 19. 
 Zidon. 28 : 20-23. 
 Israel restored. 28 : 24-26. 
 Egypt. 29-32. 
 
 (Shortly before fall of Egypt. 29 : 1-16). 
 Nebuchadnezzar to conquer Egypt (570 B. C.). 29 : 
 
 17-21. 
 
 (Shortly before fall of Jerusalem. 30,31.) 
 The nation's lament over Egypt (584 B. C.). 32 : I- 1 6. 
 EzekiePs dirge for Egypt. 32 : 17-32. 
 
 Home Readings. The entire Biblical material indicated in the 
 above analysis may easily be read during the week, or the follow- 
 ing selections may be made : (i) Ob. 1-16; (2) Ob. 17-21; (3) 
 Ezek. 25:12-17; (4) Ezek. 27:i-ii; (5) Ezek. 27 : 26-36 ; (6) 
 Ezek. 32: 1-16; (7) Ezek. 32; 17-32. 
 
 IV. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Conduct of Edom at time of Jerusalem's capture (Ob. 1 1-14 ; 
 Ezek. 25:12); Edom's dwelling-place (Ob. 3, 4); the day of 
 judgment upon the nations (Ob. 15, 16); the restored remnant, 
 (Ob. 17); attitude of Judah's neighbors at time of captivity (Ezek. 
 25 : 3, 8, 12, 15 ; 26 : 2) ; the ship of state (Ezek. 27 : 3ff.) ; latest 
 date given in (Ezek. 29 : 17) ; dirge over Pharaoh (Ezek. 32 : 19-32). 
 
 V. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Probable date of Obadiah ; Obadiah 's function ; conduct of 
 Edom at the fall of Jerusalem ; home of Edom ; subjects treated by 
 
94 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 Obadiah ; ground of Ezekiel's condemnation of Ammon and Moab, 
 of Edom and the Philistines, of Tyre ; apprppriateness of picturing 
 Tyre as a ship; hope of Ezekiel expressed in prophecy against 
 Sidon ; latest date in Ezekiel ; Ezekiel's literary power as seen in 
 dirge over Pharaoh ; breadth of Ezekiel's view ; fundamental prin- 
 ciple in Ezekiel's view of the nations ; lessons for our own day in 
 prophecies of Obadiah and Ezekiel against foreign nations. 
 
EZEKIEL 95 
 
 LESSON XVI 
 EZEKIEL (Second Period) 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Time of Obadiah ; substance of his 
 message ; conduct of Judah's neighbors as pictured by Obadiah 
 and Ezekiel; prophetic principle underlying messages of doom 
 upon nations. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 The second period of Ezekiel' s ministry opens six 
 months after the fall of Jerusalem (January, 585 B. c.) and 
 Th M extends to the year 570. The prophet, 
 
 whose mouth had been closed before the 
 fall of the city, began to speak again when the announce- 
 ment came that the city was smitten. The fulfilment of 
 his predictions in the city's fall gave him great reputa- 
 tion among his fellow exiles, so that they talked of him 
 by the walls and in the doors of the houses, saying, 
 "Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that 
 cometh forth from Jehovah" (33 : 30). To Ezekiel 
 himself, the opening of the new stage in his ministry was 
 marked by a renewed sense of his pastoral responsibility. 
 This prophet's clear vision of the relation of the individ- 
 ual to God enabled him to see with terrible distinctness 
 the responsibility of one who had been charged with a 
 message of warning. To him, the prophet was a re- 
 sponsible watchman upon whose head blood would rest if 
 he failed to give his message of judgment upon the sinner. 
 The heroic character of the true prophet is strikingly 
 exhibited in the contrast between the two periods of 
 
96 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 Ezekiel's preaching. While blind, false confidence pre- 
 vails, it is the duty of the prophet t4> show that Jehovah 
 must bring judgment upon the sinful. This is indeed a 
 thankless task in every age, and one that engenders hos- 
 tility and contempt. When the crushing blow has fallen, 
 and those who have rested their confidence on emptiness 
 lie stunned and despairing, it becomes the prophet's duty 
 to forget his own grief and to bring hope and strength to 
 the miserable weaklings whose boastings had previously 
 filled all ears. Ezekiel before the fall of Jerusalem and 
 Ezekiel after the catastrophe seem different men, and yet, 
 when understood aright, Ezekiel is seen as the one who 
 stands out among all that wretched company in Babylon, 
 truly consistent. The same convictions that made him, 
 in the earlier period, the constant messenger of doom, 
 make him, in the later time, the equally constant minister 
 of hope. 
 
 In the second period of the prophet's ministry, the 
 priestly element in his teaching becomes prominent. 
 Earlier prophets, from Amos to Jeremiah, had shown lit- 
 tle but scorn for all forms of worship. Ezekiel's hope for 
 restored Israel included a temple more elaborate than 
 that of Solomon, together with a rigid observance of 
 formal distinctions in religious persons, places, things, 
 and times. 
 
 Our knowledge of the life of Israel in Babylon during 
 the twenty-six years from the fall of Jerusalem to the last 
 
 Th U ^ ate m Ezekiel * s ver y slight- It is prob- 
 
 able, however, that those exiles who were 
 carried away upon the fall of Jerusalem were subjected to 
 
EZEKIEL 97 
 
 much harsher treatment than those deported in 597. 
 Nebuchadnezzar continued to reign till several years after 
 the last date named in Ezekiel. His long rule was an 
 era of great splendor and prosperity for Babylonia. He 
 rebuilt the city of Babylon on a stupendous scale. He 
 restored and extended the wonderful system of canals that 
 gave to all parts of the land fertility and easy intercom- 
 munication. Great commercial activity prevailed, and, 
 doubtless, many of the foreign exiles brought into the 
 community were needed to develop its agricultural re- 
 sources and supply food products for its teeming popula- 
 tion. Others were required to carry out Nebuchadnez- 
 zar's great building enterprises. Slight references in the 
 Biblical writings suggest that actual enslavement at task 
 labor may have been the lot of many among the Jewish 
 exiles, particularly those of the second deportation. Cer- 
 tain it is that great discouragement and much doubt as 
 to Jehovah's care for his people demanded the most ear- 
 nest efforts of the great priest-prophet. 
 
 Ezekiel had foreseen Jerusalem's doom, for he had 
 known her wickedness and had understood the righteous- 
 
 T . .. ness of Jehovah. He now foresees her 
 
 restoration, for he trusts absolutely the 
 mercy of Jehovah toward his stricken and penitent peo- 
 ple. He had prepared the way for the heavy affliction 
 by teaching that Jehovah was in Babylon with his people 
 and that each individual might expect recognition before 
 God's justice, independently of the sin of his nation, and 
 of his own past life. Now, when nearly all outward sym- 
 bols of Judah's relation to Jehovah are obliterated, and 
 
98 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 the people are surrounded by the visible symbols of dom- 
 inant and elaborate heathen worship, if any are to be 
 kept faithful to Jehovah, prophecy must speak with no 
 uncertain tones. 
 
 The prophet reiterates his lessons of individual respon- 
 sibility, denounces the exiles who listen to his words as 
 to pleasant music, without heeding his calls to righteous- 
 ness, and declares that the former rulers have been evil 
 shepherds, but that Jehovah will shepherd his people and 
 give them a prince of David's house. He promises that 
 they shall be restored to their land which shall be popu- 
 lous and fertile, while they, themselves, shall receive a 
 new heart. Terrible nations shall attack them after their 
 restoration, but to their own annihilation, and Jehovah 
 shall be vindicated. Near the close of his ministry, the 
 prophet commits to writing visions of the restored city 
 and temple and plans for the conduct of worship there 
 and for the ideal division of the land between the twelve 
 tribes, the priests, Levites, and prince. This priest- 
 prophet, living when almost all outward forms of worship 
 are impossible, knows that the vision of a religion which 
 is purely spiritual, is beyond the attainment of human 
 nature as it exists about him. So he pictures, in splendid 
 colors, the hope of a renewal of those visible symbols 
 without which men lose the inner life. 
 
 Ezekiel's visions of elaborate ritual largely inspired, 
 no doubt, the development of the priestly distinctions 
 of Judaism, for which later generations were content to 
 die. Ezekiel thus marks the transition from the age 
 of pure prophecy, with its sole emphasis upon the spiritual 
 
EZEKIEL 99 
 
 and moral, to a growing sacerdotalism, with its emphasis 
 upon distinctive forms. In Ezekiel, both elements of 
 religion are marvelously united. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Israel Restored 33-48. 
 
 The Prophet's Responsibility. 33 : 1-9. 
 
 The Individual's Responsibility. 33 : 10-20. 
 
 Message on Receipt of News of Jerusalem's Fall. 33 : 21-33. 
 
 Restoration Hopes. 34-39. 
 
 Promise of Davidic prince. 34. 
 
 A restored land and a new heart. 35, 36. 
 
 The nation restored to life. 37 : 1-14. 
 
 Reunion of Judah and Israel under David. 37: 15-28. 
 
 Jehovah's vindication upon distant nations. 38, 39. 
 Restoration Plans. 40-48. 
 
 The new temple and altar. 40-43. 
 
 The new priesthood. 44. 
 
 Allotment of land. 45 : 1-8. 
 
 Regular provision for sacrifices. 45 : 9-46. 
 
 The land made fertile and divided. 47, 48. 
 
 Home Readings. The following selections from the above out- 
 line will give a glimpse of some of the leading elements in 
 Ezekiel's hopes and teachings shortly after the destruction of 
 Jerusalem: (i) 33: 1-9, cf. 3: 16-21; (2) 33: 10-20, cf. 18; (3) 
 33:21-33; (4) 36: 22-31; (5) 37: 1-14; (6)34:11-24; (7)38: 
 14-23. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Extent of second period of Ezekiel's ministry (33 : 21). (The date 
 indicated by the " twelfth year" is January, 584, but the reading 
 eleventh year," supported by some manuscripts of the Hebrew 
 and Greek and by the ancient Syriac translation, is far more proba- 
 
IOO PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 ble) (29: 17); occasion of renewed ministry (33: 21, 22, cf. 24: 
 25) ; Ezekiel's reputation after fall of Jerusalem (33 : 30-32) ; 
 Ezekiel's own feelings at opening of each stage .of his ministry 
 (3 : 1 6-2 1 ; 33 : 7-9) ; Israel's unfaithful rulers (34 : 1-3) ; the good 
 shepherd (34: n, 12); the new ruler (34: 23, 24); the restored 
 land (36: 8-1 1): the renewed people (36:25-28; 37: 11-14; 
 39: 28, 29); Jehovah vindicated (39: 21-24); Ezekiel's emphasis 
 upon ritual, see " Analysis " chapters 40-48. 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Years included in second period of Ezekiel's ministry ; occasion 
 for Ezekiel's resuming his prophetic ministry ; effect of Jerusalem's 
 fall upon Ezekiel's reputation, cf. influence of Jerusalem's deliver- 
 ance in 701 B. c. upon the reputation of Isaiah; Ezekiel's appli- 
 cation of his doctrine of individual responsibility to himself; sig- 
 nificance of reiteration of this doctrine in chapter 33; heroic 
 element seen in Ezekiel ; Ezekiel's consistency ; was Ezekiel 
 strictly a prophet ? probable fate of exiles of 586 B. c. ; general 
 character of Babylonian history during first thirty-five years of 
 exile ; spirit of exiles after fall of Jerusalem ; real basis of Ezekiel's 
 certainty of doom and hope ; chief elements in Ezekiel's hopes for 
 future ; changed conditions that demanded a priest-prophet, rather 
 than an Amos, Hosea, or Isaiah ; importance of Ezekiel's priestly 
 influence ; what are the true elements of religion as taught by the 
 great prophets from Amos to Jeremiah ? are outward forms, on 
 which Ezekiel lays so much stress, important in the present age 
 for the church in general ? for ourselves ? 
 
ISAJAH 101 
 
 LESSON XVII 
 
 ISAIAH 40-55 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Time and occasion of second period 
 of Ezekiel's ministry ; general theme of teaching in this period ; 
 Ezekiel's expectation as to his nation's future ; the two great ele- 
 ments of Israel's religion that were combined in Ezekiel. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 The prophecies of Isaiah the son of Amoz were closed 
 with the historical appendix, Isaiah 36-39. Chapters 40 ff. 
 
 evidently became attached to this collec- 
 The Man J 
 
 tion at a later time. Isaiah 40-48 is 
 
 commonly regarded as belonging to the later years of 
 Babylon's rule, between 549 and 538 B. c. Chapters 
 49-55 do not bear as strong marks of their historical back- 
 ground as 40-48, but they probably come from the same 
 hand and period. 
 
 Of the personality of the author, it is difficult to ob- 
 tain even a glimpse. He styles himself a " voice " and 
 by no other prophet is the function of a " voice " speak- 
 ing for Jehovah more absolutely realized. As we read 
 these beautiful messages, our thought does not rest upon 
 the speaker, but upon the God of power and mercy who 
 is preparing deliverance for the hopeless exiles. The 
 writer has been called "the great unknown, " and not 
 the least great of his attributes is his power to transmit 
 the divine word as through a perfect crystal which does 
 not tinge the white light with any color of its own. 
 
;102 '^ f kp?#ETS< OF THE EXtLE AND RESTORATION 
 
 vj After, the, long reign of Nebuchadnezzar ended, few 
 and evil were the 4 'days of the thrdne that he had es- 
 tablished. Two assassinations and usurpa- 
 
 TfiA Tim AC 
 
 tions occurred within the next six years, 
 and soon the rising power of Cyrus on the east portended 
 the downfall of Babylon. A dozen years after the death 
 of Nebuchadnezzar, this new ruler, who had already 
 united the Persian tribes under his sway, conquered and 
 united with his own the Median kingdom, to the north 
 of Babylonia. During the next few years the strong 
 kingdom of Lydia in western Asia Minor and other 
 Asiatic territory fell under his rule. In the year 538, 
 he conquered Babylon, itself. It was the progress of this 
 "shepherd" and " anointed" one of Jehovah that un- 
 stopped the voice of prophecy, silent during the middle 
 portion of the exile. The Jews, sadly in need of faith 
 in Jehovah in Ezekiel's day, now doubted the power of 
 their God to release them. The Babylonian deities, 
 whose splendid worship the exiles saw about them, had 
 clearly given the victory to .the oppressors of Jehovah's 
 people. While Cyrus is still in the distant north and the 
 last king of Babylon is devoting himself to restoring, 
 with splendid pomp, the worship of Babylonia's most 
 ancient gods, the voice is heard of one that crieth, and 
 
 the words fall sweet upon the ear, " Com- 
 
 The Message _ _ . . . 
 
 fort ye, comfort ye my people, saith 
 
 your God "; and suddenly there seems a multitude of 
 heavenly voices crying, "Prepare ye in the wilderness 
 the way of Jehovah." "All flesh is grass, . . . 
 but the word of our God shall stand forever." "Be- 
 
ISAIAH IO3 
 
 hold, the Lord Jehovah will come. . . . He will 
 feed his flock like a shepherd.' 1 In splendid lyric 
 strain the song goes on to picture the power of 
 Jehovah in nature, in his unique Godhead, and in his 
 rule over the nations. With scorn it declares the im- 
 possibility of representing Him that sitteth above the 
 circle of the earth in image of wood or stone. This 
 God will give power to faint and weary Israel, if they 
 will but wait for him. He it is who has raised up 
 Cyrus and sent him on his world-conquering career. 
 He has chosen Israel, his servant, and is still Israel's 
 God. The idol gods of Babylon have neither knowledge 
 nor power. They are made of common metal or 
 of wood such as one burns, and they must needs be 
 carried about, while Jehovah bears up his people and 
 will bring them through perils of land and flood, safe 
 back to their native land. Proud Babylon is doomed. 
 Israel shall go forth from her. With a voice of singing, 
 declare it to the end of the earth, Jehovah hath redeemed 
 his servant Jacob. Interwoven with these prophecies, 
 there is a series of passages concerning some wonderful 
 " servant" of Jehovah who is to set justice in the earth 
 without even quenching a dimly burning wick. He will 
 open the blind eyes and bring out the prisoners from the 
 dungeon. The figure of this servant is elusive. He is 
 called Israel, yet he is to bring Israel back unto Jehovah. 
 More than this, he is to be a light unto the Gentiles, 
 salvation unto the ends of the earth. He has known how 
 to bear a message of comfort to the weary, and he has 
 submitted himself to persecution and scorn. Despised 
 
IO4 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 and rejected, he has borne the griefs and sorrows of 
 others, suffering for their iniquitiep. Therein he tri- 
 umphs, for he pours out his soul unto death. 
 
 We have reached in these " servant passages" the 
 highest and most divine thought that human language 
 ever uttered. Prophecy has mounted on eagle wings 
 above its own earlier self, when it has attained to the con- 
 ception of sacrifice for service as the achievement of 
 Jehovah's true servant. It has been thought that the 
 sufferings of Jeremiah, or of the prophets generally, may 
 have suggested the picture of the servant. Again, the 
 figure has been interpreted as a personification of Israel 
 herself, conceived as suffering for humanity. Israel is 
 certainly called Jehovah's servant again and again in 
 Isaiah 40-55, but, as we have seen, the servant is also 
 distinguished from Israel as a whole, for his mission is to 
 call Israel back. Some have thought accordingly that 
 the servant was the true kernel of the nation whose serv- 
 ice was to restore Israel and to be a light to the Gentiles. 
 
 The true son of Israel to-day, when his nation has 
 lived on through millenniums more of scorn and rejection, 
 counts her Jehovah's suffering servant, scattered abroad 
 as yet to prove a light to the Gentiles. The Christian finds 
 the ideal perfectly realized in Jesus, the Christ. Both 
 may unite in seeking to make this ideal supreme for 
 every age. Sacrifice, in the service of humanity, for the 
 sake of a just and merciful Father, is the supreme life- 
 principle of Israel's ancient prophecy. Sacrifice, in the 
 service of humanity, for the sake of a just and merciful 
 Father, has never been perfectly realized save in the life 
 
ISAIAH IO5 
 
 and death of Jesus of Nazareth. To-day, and still in 
 ages to come, this life-principle must remain God's guid- 
 ing star for humanity's highest achievement. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Deliverance of Israel through Cyrus. 40-48. 
 
 Jehovah to lead back his people. 40, 41. 
 
 The servant. 42 : 1-9. 
 
 Jehovah the deliverer. 42 : IO-48. 
 The Assured Restoration. 49-55. 
 
 The servant. 49 ; 1-3. 
 
 Jehovah's power and purpose to restore. 49 : 14-50 : 3. 
 
 The servant. 50 : 4-9 ( io, 1 1 ). 
 
 Exultant songs of coming restoration. 51-52 : 12. 
 
 The servant. 52 : 13-53. 
 
 Zion's future glory. 54. 
 
 Exhortation to prepare for deliverance. 55. 
 
 Home Readings. To gain an adequate appreciation of this won- 
 derful prophecy, it should be read as a whole, with the aid of the 
 above analysis. The following selections will, however, give some 
 taste of its treasures : (i) 40 : 1-17 ; (2) 41 : 8-20 ; (3) 45 : l-io; (4) 
 46; (5)51:9-20; (6) 42: 1-9; 49:1-6; (7)50:4-9; 52:13-53. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Some indications of the historical background of Isaiah 40-55, 
 (43:5, 6, 14; 47:i-n; 48: 14, 15, 20; 51:ii, 14; 52:3; 
 40:2; 44:26; 51: 17, 19; 52 : I, 2; 41 : 2-5 ; 45:1-4); the 
 people's doubt (40:27; 49:14, 24, 25); Jehovah's power to 
 deliver (40:12-23; 46:l-n, etc.); his purpose to deliver 
 (43 : 1-7, etc.) ; his instrument of deliverance (44 : 28; 45: i); the 
 folly of idols (44 : 12-17) '> Babylon's doom (47 : 1-3) ; the service 
 of Jehovah's servant (42: 1-4, 7; 49: 5, 6; 50 .-4, 6; 53: 3-5); 
 reason for his glory (53 : 12). 
 
IO6 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 Relation of Isaiah 1-39 and 40ff. ; personality of the writer of 
 40-55; his conception of his function; political- conditions in 
 Babylon after the death of Nebuchadnezzar ; rise of Cyrus ; date 
 of his conquest of Babylon ; the occasion of a renewal of proph- 
 ecy ; condition of mind of the exiles at time of renewal of proph- 
 ecy; theme of the message by which the prophet seeks to rouse 
 the exiles ; arguments as to Jehovah's power, his attitude toward 
 Israel ; work of Cyrus as seen by the prophet ; the character and 
 mission of Jehovah's ideal servant ; how far was the ideal realized in 
 Jeremiah, in the prophets as a whole, in Israel or the faithful kernel 
 of Israel ? has it ever been fully realized ? has this ideal any re- 
 lation to our personal lives ? does the Bible or any literature con- 
 tain any loftier thought than that of the servant passages of Isaiah 
 40-55 ? compare this thought with the ideals of the writers of 
 Greece, Rome, England, America, or any other nation ; apply it to 
 our daily living. 
 
HAGGAI IO7 
 
 LESSON XVIII 
 HAGGAI 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Date and historical occasion of Isaiah 
 40-55 ; great themes of these chapters exclusive of servant pas- 
 sages ; elements in the picture of Jehovah's ideal servant. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 In passing to the study of Haggai, the scene changes 
 from Babylon back to Jerusalem. Some eighteen years 
 have passed since Cyrus annexed Baby- 
 lonia to the Medo-Persian empire. Under 
 his tolerant rule the Jews have been permitted to begin 
 rebuilding their city, but they have not restored the 
 temple. Haggai is moved with an intense zeal for the re- 
 building of the sanctuary. Like the prophets of old, he 
 sees the vital need of his day, and addresses himself to it 
 with inspired devotion. As far as we can gather from 
 the remains of Haggai ? s addresses, he is a man of a 
 direct and practical nature who knows how to get things 
 done. He appeals, at first, to those motives that will be 
 most apt to rouse the governor, high priest and people to 
 undertake the work toward which they are as yet apathetic. 
 When their spirit has been stirred and the work begun 
 and they have become discouraged in its midst, because 
 of their meager ability, this practical leader of men 
 encourages them with a vision of the future glories which 
 shall flow from their endeavor. Haggai presents a very 
 strong contrast to the great poet-souls among the proph- 
 
IO8 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE ANt) RESTORATION 
 
 ets who saw within the veil and revealed, for their own 
 day and all time, the loftiest truths ftiat the human soul 
 can apprehend ; but he accomplished for" his day the 
 work that, just then, was most necessary. 
 
 Cyrus founded a vast empire on the basis of the larg- 
 est measure of local freedom consistent with a united 
 domain. His successor, Cambyses, added 
 Egypt to the great Asiatic possessions of 
 Cyrus. A usurper then seized the throne which was 
 soon taken from him by Darius Hystaspis. Many parts 
 of the empire were now in revolt and their complete sub- 
 jugation required four years of vigorous effort on the part 
 of Darius. It was during this time of uncertainty, in 
 the second year of Darius, that Haggai's first address 
 was delivered (September, 520 B. c.). It is not im- 
 probable that the general restlessness of the empire had 
 stirred Jerusalem and that the prophet took advantage of 
 this to direct the hopes and energies of rulers and people 
 toward the building of the temple. The little commu- 
 nity in Jerusalem had experienced great want and hard- 
 ship while trying to wrest a livelihood from the de- 
 nuded and desolate land upon which the neighboring 
 tribes had sadly encroached during the years of exile. 
 The rebuilt Jerusalem was, as yet, but a collection of 
 dwellings, without protecting walls. The local governor 
 of the wretched community was Zerubbabel, grandson of 
 King Jehoiachin, and the high priest was Joshua, grand- 
 son of the priest Seriah whom Nebuchadnezzar had exe- 
 cuted after the capture of Jerusalem. 
 
 The prophet's message is addressed, in the first instance, 
 
HAGGAI 
 
 to Zerubbabel and Joshua, but the people are evidently 
 
 included in its intent, for he reminds them 
 The Message 
 
 that they dwell in ceiled houses while 
 
 Jehovah's house lies waste. He refers to the hardships 
 and disappointments that they have experienced and 
 declares them providential visitations because they have 
 attended to their own houses, rather than Jehovah's. In 
 three weeks' time, encouraged by Haggai's assurance 
 that Jehovah is with them in the undertaking, they 
 begin to build. A month passes and the people are dis- 
 couraged as they see how inferior this temple will be to 
 its predecessor, in the erection of which Solomon had 
 commanded the resources of a kingdom, and had even 
 secured foreign material and skill. Now, the apparently 
 prosaic prophet bursts forth into glowing pictures of the 
 glory that Jehovah will bring to the poor structure 
 raised in his honor. The latter glory of the house shall 
 be greater than the former ; here peace shall abide. Two 
 months more of labor go by, and, again, the prophet 
 appeals to the people. This time he argues from a 
 principle of ceremonial uncleanness to show how the lack 
 of a temple has necessarily caused the evil estate of the 
 people ; but henceforth, Jehovah's blessing is assured. 
 A second time on the same day he speaks, and this time 
 it is to apply the old hope in the Davidic line to its pres- 
 ent representative, Zerubbabel, whom Jehovah has 
 chosen as a signet ring. 
 
 Here the voice of Haggai becomes silent, but the 
 temple building, which he had inaugurated, goes for- 
 ward during four years, in the face of opposition and dis- 
 
I IO PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 couragement, until it is brought to a successful issue. 
 Around this little building, that rose, J thus, out of poverty 
 and discouragement, centered, for five long centuries, 
 the worship of a God not made with hands, eternal in 
 the heavens. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Opening Message (Second year of Darius, sixth month, first 
 
 day), Sept., 520 B. c. 1 : i-n. 
 
 Work Begun (sixth month, twenty-fourth day). 1 : 12-15. 
 Message of Encouragement (seventh month, twenty-first day). 
 
 2: 1-9. 
 Message of Instruction and Hope (ninth month, twenty-fourth 
 
 day). 2 : 10-19. 
 The Davidic Prince (ninth month, twenty-fourth day). 2 : 20-23. 
 
 Home Readings. The above analysis will give a convenient 
 division for five daily readings. The following passages are sug- 
 gested for the remaining days of the week (i) Ezra 5: 1-5; 6: 
 14, 15 ; (2) Ezra 6 : 1-5. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 The motives to which Haggai makes his first appeal (1 : 4, 8-1 1) ; 
 the attitude of the people toward the work (1:2); the motive to 
 which Haggai appeals later (2 : 5-9) ; the hard experiences of the 
 Judsean community prior to 520 B. c. (1 : 10, 1 1 ; 2 : 15-19) ; Haggai's 
 view of the cause of the hardships (1 : 9 ; 2 : 1 1-14) ; the people's dis- 
 couragement (2:3); expectation for future glory of temple (2 : 6-9) ; 
 hope in Davidic representative (2 : 23). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Scene of Haggai's ministry ; time of ministry ; Haggai's pur- 
 pose ; the strongest characteristics of Haggai ; the motives to 
 
HAGGAI 1 1 1 
 
 which he appeals; attitude of the people before Haggai's work, 
 after work has been begun; contrast between Haggai and the 
 greatest of the prophets; outline of Persian history from 538-520 ; sig- 
 nificance of the time chosen by Haggai for his endeavor; con- 
 dition of Jerusalem at opening of Haggai's mission ; the local 
 rulers in Jerusalem; Haggai's interpretation of hardships ex- 
 perienced ; effect of Haggai's first message ; cause of later dis- 
 couragement; substance of the prophet's message of encourage- 
 ment ; the Messianic hope of Haggai ; lessons to be drawn from the 
 noticeable variety in the character and abilities of Jehovah's 
 prophets; lessons from the building of the second temple out of 
 poverty and weakness. 
 
I I 2 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 LESSON XIX 1 
 ZECHARIAH 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Occasion of Haggai's prophecy ; 
 effect of his work; differences between Haggai and other 
 prophets. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 The narrative in Ezra associates the name of Zechariah, 
 the son of Iddo, with that of Haggai in the work of re- 
 Th M building the temple, and the dates given 
 in the book of Zechariah show that he 
 worked, in part, contemporaneously with Haggai. His 
 first message was delivered in the eighth month, between 
 Haggai's promise to the discouraged builders and his last 
 prophecies. The next date given in Zechariah is two 
 months later than the last in Haggai, while his last 
 prophecies are ascribed to a time when the temple 
 builders have been at work a little more than two years. 
 Zechariah' s symbolic imagery, reminding us of that 
 of Ezekiel, is in marked contrast to the plain, matter-of-fact 
 utterances of his fellow laborers. Indeed, Haggai and 
 Zechariah must have supplemented each other admirably 
 in the work that they accomplished together. There 
 seems every reason to regard Haggai as a layman, but 
 Zechariah was, like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, of priestly 
 family, being the son of the priest Iddo who returned 
 from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Joshua. 
 
 The revolts throughout the empire, that, in all prob- 
 
ZECHARIAH 1 1 3 
 
 ability, led the Jews to hope for independence and 
 
 caused them to lend a ready ear to 
 The Times ,. . 
 
 Haggai s predictions as to Zerubbabel, 
 
 were temporarily quelled, soon after the temple build- 
 ing began. With this quenching of excited expectations, 
 the temple builders must have felt again that the time 
 had not yet come for accomplishing their work. 
 
 At this juncture, Zechariah delivered his series of 
 visions to urge forward their great labor. His first oracle 
 
 _. .. had been a warning to his generation 
 
 drawn from the sad fate of their disobe- 
 dient fathers, framed in the simplest of speech ; now he 
 adopts elaborate symbolism to interest and impress his 
 hearers. The first vision, that of the angelic horsemen, 
 recognizes the existing peace which seems so contrary to 
 Haggai 's prediction that soon Jehovah would shake the 
 nations, and so destructive to the hope that Israel would 
 become independent under Zerubbabel. The prophet is 
 undismayed by the situation and gives firmest assurance 
 that Jehovah is displeased with the nations which are at 
 ease, that he has returned to Jerusalem, that the temple 
 shall be rebuilt, and that the cities of Judah shall yet 
 overflow with prosperity. The vision fades into another, 
 wherein the prophet sees four horns, symbols of the na- 
 tions that have scattered Judah, and four smiths who are 
 to cast down the horns of these nations. The third 
 vision is the sequel of the first. A young man goes 
 forth to mark out the boundaries of the restored Jeru- 
 salem ; he is taught that the city of the future is not to 
 be a narrowly walled fortress ; but a great, wide-spread- 
 
1 14 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 ing community, for which Jehovah himself will be a wall 
 of fire round about. The vision fc followed by a song 
 urging the exiles to come back from Babylon to Jeru- 
 salem, where Jehovah is to dwell and where many nations 
 shall come to join themselves to him. The old doctrine 
 that Haggai had adopted, the doctrine that material mis- 
 fortune is the sign of divine disapproval, weighed heavily 
 upon the people for whom prosperity delayed her coming 
 so long. The next vision symbolized Jehovah's forgive- 
 ness and removal of the people's sin. Joshua, the high 
 priest, stood clothed in filthy rags, the garment of the 
 people's sin, accused before Jehovah by the adversary ; 
 then exonerated and clothed with new garments. Obe- 
 dience to Jehovah is declared to be all that is necessary 
 to bring in the promised Messianic age. The vision of the 
 golden candlestick, which follows, seems to typify the 
 inpouring of the divine Spirit through the civil and re- 
 ligious heads of the restored community, making the 
 completion of the temple possible. This great work is to 
 be brought to a successful conclusion under Zerubbabel, 
 not by might, nor by power, but by Jehovah's Spirit. 
 The sixth vision reiterates the teaching of Ezekiel that 
 henceforth the curse of sin shall fall upon the sinner and 
 not on the community as a whole. The next vision rep- 
 resents wickedness shut up in a great measuring vessel 
 and borne away from Palestine to Babylon. Not only 
 the curse of sin, but sin itself, is removed from the com- 
 munity laboring faithfully to fulfil God's behest. The 
 eighth and last vision bears a certain resemblance to the 
 first in its symbolism of horses going beyond the confines of 
 
ZECHARIAH 1 1 5 
 
 Palestine. In the first, however, the horsemen brought 
 news of peace throughout the world, while, in this, the 
 horses are attached to war chariots and go forth to exe- 
 cute vengeance, especially upon Persia. Thus, the vi- 
 sions center in the hope of a glorious future for Jerusalem, 
 with its temple restored, its enemies destroyed, its exiles 
 returned, its sin forgiven, its wickedness removed, and 
 with Jehovah's Spirit flowing in through priest and prince 
 of Davidic line. The visions lead on to the symbolic 
 crowning of the living Davidic representative, as the 
 promised ruler. 
 
 In the oracles that follow, the prophet turns from sym- 
 bolism of vision and of act to simple practical exhorta- 
 tion and encouraging promises. His exhortation repeats 
 the old message of the earliest writing prophets, the mes- 
 sage of justice, mercy, and truth, rather than ceremonial. 
 His promise repeats the picture of restored Jerusalem, a 
 city of wondrous peace, whither the nations of the world 
 come to seek Jehovah. 
 
 The message of Zechariah is rich and full, for the 
 prophet has drunk deep from the well-springs of earlier 
 prophecy. He has caught the ethical truth of Israel's 
 great eighth century prophets and has enriched it by the 
 spiritual insight of Jeremiah and the glorious hopes of 
 the exilic prophets. His symbolism, to be sure, does 
 not appeal to our present-day modes of thought as illu- 
 minating. The pictorial form of the teaching, however, 
 doubtless made his message impressive to the men of his 
 own generation to whom the symbols were familiar, bor- 
 rowed, as they were, from Ezekiel or, like Ezekiel's, 
 
1 1 6 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 adopted from the impressive outward features of the life 
 of the day. 
 
 Haggai labored simply to get the temple 'built. Zech- 
 ariah cooperated in this great work and also impressed 
 upon the builders those moral and spiritual truths with- 
 out which the temple and its worship would be hollow 
 mockery. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Lessons from the Past (second year of Darius, eighth 
 
 month). 1 : 1-6. 
 
 Symbolic Visions (second year of Darius, eleventh month), 
 -1:7-6:8. 
 
 The angelic horsemen. 1 : 7-17. 
 
 The four horns and their destruction. 1 : 1 8-2 1. 
 
 The man measuring Jerusalem. 2 : 1-5. 
 
 Song of the restoration. 2: 6-13. 
 
 The high priest and Satan. 3. 
 
 The candlestick and olive-trees. 4. 
 
 The flying roll. 5 : 1-4. 
 
 Wickedness shut up in an ephah measure. 5: 5-11. 
 
 The four chariots. 6 : 1-8. 
 Symbolic Crowning of the Prince. l 6 : 9-15. 
 Right Conduct vs. Ceremonialism. 7. 
 The Glorious Future of Jerusalem. 8. 
 
 Chapters 9-14 are not included in the present study. It is gen- 
 erally agreed among Old Testament scholars that they form a sep- 
 
 1 The text of this passage has clearly suffered corruption. As 
 it stands, it is impossible to find any reference for " both " at the 
 end of verse 13. We should probably read "Zerubbabel" for 
 "Joshua " in verse 1 1, and " shall be priest on his right hand" 
 (referring to Joshua) for " shall sit and rule upon his throne " 
 (verse 13). For discussion, see George Adam Smith, " Book of 
 the Twelve Prophets," II, 309. 
 
ZECHARIAH 
 
 arate and anonymous prophecy, or collection of prophecies. They 
 cannot be dated with certainty, but probably belong to a time long 
 after that of Zechariah. 
 
 Home Readings. The entire eighth chapter should be read with 
 the summary of the visions given under " The Message " and the 
 above " Analysis " as a guide, or the following typical passages 
 may be selected : (i)l: i-6;(2)2: 1-13; (3) 3; (4) 4; (5) 5: i-U ; 
 (6) 7; (7) 8. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Relation of Haggai and Zechariah (Ezra 5:1; 6:14; Hag. 
 2 : I ; Zech. 1 : I ; Hag. 2 : 10 ; Zech. 1 : 7 ; 7 : i) ; Zechariah's fam- 
 ily (Neh. 12: 1-4, 12, 16) ; moral and spiritual preparation for 
 the glorious future taught in the visions ; Zechariah's expectation 
 of the " Branch " (6 : 12) ; moral requirements of Jehovah (7 : 9, 10; 
 8 : 1 6, 17) ; Jerusalem's future (8 : 3-5, 12, 22, 23) ; emphasis upon 
 presence of Spirit (4:6, 7). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 The relation of Haggai and Zechariah as stated in Ezra, as indi- 
 cated in the dates attached to their prophecies ; differences in the 
 methods of the two ; the family of Zechariah, of Haggai ; cause 
 for discouragement of temple builders found in conditions of Per- 
 sian empire ; historical occasion for Zechariah's visions ; subject of 
 Zechariah's first prophecy ; teaching of the visions as to Israel's 
 enemies, as to the moral and spiritual conditions necessary in the 
 city of Jehovah's abode, as to the glories of Jerusalem's future; re- 
 lation of first and last visions ; meaning of the symbolic crowning ; 
 Zechariah's estimate of relative value of ceremonial and moral con- 
 duct ; his ideal for Jerusalem, for the nations ; the real breadth and 
 depth of Zechariah's work compared with that of Haggai ; the use 
 of the practical man of affairs in God's work, illustrated from 
 Haggai ; the danger of the mere man of affairs, illustrated from a 
 comparison of Haggai and Zechariah (note especially the motives 
 to which each appealed). 
 
1 1 8 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 LESSON XX 3 
 flALACHI 
 
 Suggestions for Review. The especial work of Zechariah ; his 
 method of teaching; his teaching as to morals, spiritual power, 
 the future of Jerusalem, the future of Jehovah's religion. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 The title Malachi means my messenger. It is prob- 
 ably not a proper name, but suggested by 3 : i. Haggai 
 is once designated as Jehovah's malach, 
 messenger (Hag. 1:13). The author of 
 this prophecy labored, it would seem, shortly before the 
 great reform of Nehemiah and Ezra, preparing the way 
 for their rigorous measures in repression of foreign mar- 
 riages and in providing for the suitable maintenance of 
 temple worship. The manner of his teaching is very dif- 
 ferent from that of any earlier prophet and suggests that 
 of Israel's later rabbinical teachers. It is not the orator 
 and poet, or the seer of strange visions, who speaks in 
 Malachi, but the methodical teacher who states each time 
 a general principle, then raises a possible objection, and, 
 in meeting this, illustrates his principle by concrete ex- 
 amples which lead into the personal application of his 
 truth. The method is rigid and prosaic, but it makes 
 the truth clear and impressive. 
 
 In spirit " Malachi " rises as a true prophet of old 
 above the despair and indifference of his contemporaries, 
 and, with a reformer's zeal, attacks the sin of the people 
 
MALACHI 119 
 
 and of the religious authorities of his day. Yet, he is no 
 narrow reformer, for, in the midst of his teachings, we 
 come upon an utterance that almost staggers us by its 
 breadth. He recognizes that there is worship among the 
 Gentiles which, in its sincerity, is acceptable to Jehovah. 1 
 After the last message of Zechariah, some seventy years 
 pass by to which we cannot ascribe, with certainty, any 
 prophetic utterance. These years must 
 have been marked by deep disappoint- 
 ment. The temple had been completed and yet the 
 precious things of all nations had not been poured into 
 Jerusalem, nor had the anticipations roused by Haggai 
 and Zechariah for the glorious rule of a son of David 
 been realized. The little community enjoyed a large 
 measure of local freedom, but still it was subject to a 
 foreign power, and had to meet its burden of taxation to 
 a foreign government. The people may have made some 
 attempt to reconstruct the city's walls after completing 
 the temple, but, if so, the attempt had proved unsuccess- 
 ful and Jerusalem lay open, incapable of defense. The 
 half heathen Samaritan neighbors on the north were, ap- 
 parently, stronger and more prosperous than the Jews. 
 
 1 In the Hebrew the tense is present throughout I : II. Our 
 English versions vary between translating it literally and changing 
 to a future, interpreting the present as a vivid anticipation of the 
 future Messianic age. If we are justified in understanding the 
 present literally, the passage is an anticipation of the splendid 
 catholicity seen a little later in the author of Jonah. If the passage 
 is merely predictive, it still shows the writer's breadth of view to 
 be great, for he recognizes that the Gentiles will be able to make 
 acceptable offerings to Jehovah in every place and not exclusively 
 in Jerusalem. 
 
I 2O PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 Indeed, many of the Jews were divorcing their wives in 
 order to make favorable marriage lalliances with their 
 neighbors. The prophet's statement that Jehovah loved 
 Israel was met with scepticism. To the people, it seemed 
 that Jehovah favored the man who did evil, rather than 
 the just man. They declared that it was vain to serve 
 God and that no profit came to them because they had 
 kept his charge. With such scepticism prevailing, it 
 is not strange that the worship rendered to Jehovah was 
 half-hearted. The priests offered polluted bread upon 
 the altar, and presented in sacrifice blind, lame, and sick 
 animals, such as they would not dare to present to their 
 Persian governor. The people kept back a part of their 
 tithes, thus robbing God of his portion. 
 
 In such a time the prophet lived, and to these disheart- 
 ening conditions he addressed himself, trying, line upon 
 
 line, to teach Jehovah's love, to impress 
 The Message , , .. . U1 . . , 4 
 
 moral and religious obligations and to 
 
 warn of judgment to come. In the contrasted lot of 
 Israel and Edom, he finds proof of Jehovah's care for 
 his people. By a comparison between the offerings made 
 to Jehovah and to the governor, or between Israel's faith- 
 less worship and the sacrifice of sincere Gentiles, he seeks 
 to make plain the sin of the priests. In the light of 
 God's fatherhood of Israel, he interprets the villainy of 
 the prevalent divorce, and marriage with the daughter of 
 a strange god. Indeed, his teaching on the subject of 
 divorce is second only to that of Jesus. In firm faith 
 that Jehovah does rule in the affairs of men and does re- 
 quire right conduct among them, he denounces the seep- 
 
MALACHI 121 
 
 ticism of his day, and gives assurance that a book of re- 
 membrance is written before God for them that fear him. 
 The prophets of the early years of restoration exulted 
 in the thought that Israel's sin had been purged away by 
 her exile and that now her glorious hopes were to be 
 realized in fullest measure. In Malachi's day, the years 
 have shown that sin still dwells in the people, and the 
 new prophet of righteousness sees that the process of 
 separation between the righteous remnant and the sinful 
 must go on. The day of Jehovah's judgment, the day 
 that shall consume the wicked, root and branch, is yet to 
 come. But, to those who fear Jehovah's name, the sun 
 of righteousness shall arise with healing in its -wings. 
 In the meantime, duty lies in observing the law. Before 
 the great and terrible day of Jehovah comes, prophecy 
 shall return, in the spirit of its first great representative, to 
 make the effort for man's conversion before the curse falls. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 Title. I : I. 
 
 Jehovah's Love. 1: 2-5. 
 Unworthy Priests. 1 : 6-2 : 9. 
 Heathen Intermarriage and Divorce. 2 : 10-16. 
 Scepticism. 2; iy-3 : 6. 
 
 Robbing Jehovah in Heave Offerings and Tithes. 3: 7-12. 
 Scepticisms. 3: 13-15. 
 The Book of Remembrance. 3 : 1 6, 17. 
 The Great and Terrible Day. 4. 
 
 Home Readings. The prophecy may be assigned to the days of 
 the week as follows: (i) 1; 1-5; (2) 1 : 6-2 : 9; (3) 2; 10-16; (4) 
 2: 17-3:6; (5)3:7-12; (6)3: 13-17; (7)4. 
 
122 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Abuses attacked by Malachi compared with those attacked by 
 Nehemiah and Ezra (Neh. 10: 30; 13 : 23-^31 ; Ezra 9:2; 10 : 3 ; 
 16-44) 5 Malachi's catholicity (1 : 1 1) ; heathen marriages (2 : 1 1) ; 
 divorce prevalent (2: 14) ; doubt as to Jehovah's love for Israel 
 (1 : 2) ; Jehovah favorable to wicked (2 ; 17 ; 3 : 14, 15) ; unworthy 
 service of Jehovah (1:7,8; 3: 10) ; the prophet's insistence on 
 Jehovah's love for Israel (1 : 2-4) ; his teaching as to unworthy 
 offerings (1 : 8-1 1 ; 3:7,8); teaching as to divorce (2 : 10, 14-16) ; 
 Jehovah's care for those that fear him (3 : 16, 17; 4: 2) ; Jeho- 
 vah's judgment yet to come (4: I, 6) ; emphasis on keeping law 
 (4:4); prophetic warning before the great and terrible day (4 : 5). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Meaning of title Malachi ; probable date of prophecy ; relation 
 of this prophet's work to that of Nehemiah and Ezra ; difference in 
 method of teaching between Malachi and earlier prophets; the 
 prophetic spirit of the writer ; his breadth of view ; discouraging 
 experiences between time of Zechariah and that of Malachi; 
 dangerous social tendency in Malachi's time ; skeptical views of 
 the age ; character of worship in Jerusalem ; the relation of 
 Malachi's teaching to the conditions of his time ; arguments by 
 which he tries to show love of Jehovah, contemptibleness of the 
 service that is rendered to him ; teaching on divorce ; teaching as 
 to divine Providence ; teaching in regard to Jehovah's judgment ; 
 attitude toward Mosaic law ; the coming prophet and his mission ; 
 lessons suggested by Malachi as to whole-hearted service, faith in 
 Jehovah's care for man, mutual encouragement among Jehovah's 
 true followers. 
 
ISAIAH 
 
 LESSON XXI 
 
 ISAIAH 56-66 
 
 Suggestions for Review. The abuses attacked in Malachi ; re- 
 lation of the prophet's work to that of Nehemiah and Ezra ; posi- 
 tive duties insisted upon in Malachi. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 In passing from chapter 55 to 56 of the book of Isaiah 
 one feels a strong contrast in the tone and spirit of the 
 writing. Instead of a messenger of hope, 
 whose song of comfort and cheer rings 
 out, we have the words of a practical teacher dealing 
 with questions that must arise in the restored community, 
 or a stern reformer severely denouncing ritual and moral 
 sin. Later on, there are reminders of the triumph songs 
 of " the great unknown " and of " the servant passages. " 
 Then come cries for mercy from a penitent people and 
 visions of new heavens and a new earth. It is not possi- 
 ble to say that these are not the words of the author of 
 40-55 simply because they differ in thought, style and 
 spirit from his utterances ; still the whole section is dis- 
 connected and it is extremely difficult to fit some parts of 
 these last eleven chapters into the closing years of exile 
 or even the years immediately following. It is very 
 probable that we are to recognize in this disconnected 
 series of messages the work of one or more prophets who 
 labored in Israel during the restoration period and, with 
 Malachi, helped in the great movement of reform which 
 
124 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 we connect so exclusively with the names of Nehemiah 
 and Ezra. 
 
 If this is the case, the times are, j in the main, essen- 
 tially the same as those considered in the preceding les- 
 son. Chapters 56-59 seem to be ad- 
 dressed to the Palestinian community 
 after the rebuilding of the temple and before the work of 
 Nehemiah has been accomplished. The people are in- 
 different and dejected. The rulers are unworthy ; blind 
 and dumb watchmen seeking only their own gain. 
 Licentious worship, such as characterized pre-exilic 
 days, is practised, and social anarchy exists, with its in- 
 justice and violence. Chapters 60-62, on the other 
 hand, are full of hope. There is a notable absence of at- 
 tack on moral or ritual error, and a strong sense of Jeho- 
 vah's favor. Beyond this the background is not very 
 manifest, although some verses may indicate that the 
 temple is built, and one passage suggests that Nehemiah's 
 building of the walls is not yet accomplished. Possibly 
 these chapters reflect the effect of the first coming of Ne- 
 hemiah on the prophet's hopes. Chapters 65 and 66 
 seem to find their best explanation in the separation 
 which Nehemiah instituted between the Jews and the 
 Samaritans, who had free access to the temple before the 
 city walls were rebuilt. In 63 and 64 the picture is very 
 different. The temple is burned and Zion is become a 
 wilderness. This suggests the days of exile, but the 
 statement that Jehovah's people possessed their sanctuary 
 a little while and then adversaries trod it down seems to 
 fit better with some devastation after the rebuilding; 
 
ISAIAH 125 
 
 possibly, it was during the persecution by Artaxerxes 
 Ochus, near the close of the Persian rule. 
 
 This series of oracles opens with a message of empha- 
 sis upon righteousness and Sabbath observance, as the 
 
 T . ground of true participation in the privi- 
 
 leges of Jehovah's people. A severe de- 
 nunciation of the selfishness and incapacity of the Jewish 
 rulers follows. The immoral superstitions of Israel's 
 neighbors are next rebuked and a promise is given to the 
 contrite and humble. The message that follows, with its 
 scorn for the folly of expecting Jehovah's favor because 
 of solemn fast with bowed head, sackcloth and ashes, in- 
 stead of mercy to the poor and oppressed, reminds one 
 of Amos, Hosea, and Micah, or perhaps more closely 
 resembles Zechariah 7 : i-io. A new message of em- 
 phasis upon Sabbath observance ensues; then the 
 prophet declares that Jehovah and his people have been 
 separated by sin. Violence and lies are rampant, 
 therefore are they in darkness and misery. Jeho- 
 vah himself will come in judgment. He will estab- 
 lish his covenant, the keeping of his words for genera- 
 tions to come. 
 
 Israel shall be exalted above all nations; they shall 
 upbuild and serve her. Zion, that has been forsaken, 
 shall be glorious. Wealth will pour in to her; Jehovah 
 himself will be her light ; peace and righteousness shall 
 dwell within her. The messenger is divinely endowed to 
 preach good tidings of comfort and liberty. Judaea shall 
 be gloriously restored and Israel recognized as Jehovah's 
 priests, blessed of him. In him is joy. Jerusalem shall 
 
I 26 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 be known as Jehovah's delight. Zion's salvation com- 
 eth. The context is interrupted, at this point, by a brief 
 prophecy dealing with Jehovah's vengeance upon Edom. 
 Then the thought returns to Jerusalem. Israel possessed 
 her sanctuary a little while only and adversaries trod it 
 down. The prophet voices the cry of the people to Je- 
 hovah, recalling his past deliverances and humbly seek- 
 ing pity as Judaea and Jerusalem lie desolate, and the 
 temple is burned with fire. Jehovah has been accessible 
 even to those who have despised his ordinances, but now 
 they shall be cut off. He will create new heavens and a 
 new earth. In Jerusalem shall be joy and all shall be at 
 peace. Jehovah desires not a material house but a peni- 
 tent and humble spirit. Jerusalem shall be comforted. 
 The nations shall be punished, Jehovah's glory made 
 known to the ends of the earth, and the despised of 
 Israel restored from all lands. The new heavens and 
 new earth shall remain, and all flesh shall come to wor- 
 ship before Jehovah and be warned by the dread fate of 
 those who have transgressed against him. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Ground of Participation with Jehovah's People. 56 : 1-8. 
 Denunciation of Rulers and False Worshipers Promise. 56:9-57. 
 Mercy rather than Sacrifice. 58: 1-12. 
 Promise to those who Keep the Sabbath. 58 : 13, 14. 
 Present Sin and Misery Future Judgment and Blessings. 59. 
 Jerusalem's Future Glory. 60-62. 
 
 Jerusalem upbuilded and Jehovah in her midst- 
 
 The messenger of good tidings. 61 : 1-3. 
 
 Israel recognized as Jehovah's people. 61 : 4-62. 
 
ISAIAH 127 
 
 Vengeance on Edom. 63 : 1-6. 
 Judah's Present Devastation. 63 : 7-64. 
 Jerusalem's Future Glory. 65, 66. 
 
 A new dispensation in Jerusalem. 65. 
 
 True worship and superstition. 66 : 1-5, 17, i8a. 
 
 Jerusalem the center of the world's worship, 66 : 6- 1 6, 
 180-24. 
 
 Home Readings. The entire section 56-66 may well be read 
 with the aid of the above analysis, or the following selections may 
 be made for daily reading of Scripture : ( I) 56 : 1-8 ; (2) 58 : 1-12 ; 
 (3) 59; (4) 60: 1-14; (s) 61; (6) 65; (7) 66 : i, 2, 15-24. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Indifference and dejection (57 : I ; 58 : 3) ; unworthy rulers 
 (56 : 9, 1 1 ) ; licentious worship (57 : 5 ) ; anarchy (59 : 3, 7, 1 1 ) ; 
 walls apparently not yet built (60 : 10) ; devastation of the land 
 (64 : 10, 1 1 ; 63 : 18) ; moral demands of Jehovah (56 : I ; 59 : 1-4 ; 
 61 : 8) ; emphasis upon Sabbath (56 : 2, 6; 58 : 13, 14; 59 : 13-15) ; 
 emphasis on penitence and humility (57 : 15 ; 66 : 2) ; mercy rather 
 than sacrifice (58 : 5-8 ; Amos 5 : 21-24 ; Hosea 6:6; Micahb : 8 ; 
 Zechariah 7: i-io) ; Jehovah's judgment (59: 17-19); Jehovah's 
 covenant (59 : 21) ; dispersed of Israel restored (66 : 20) ; nations 
 drawn to Jerusalem (60 : 3, 10, n, 14; 66 : 23, etc.); spiritual glory 
 of Jerusalem 60 : 18-22 ; 62 : 12 ; 66 : 22, 23); the messenger of good 
 tidings (61 : 1-3) ; Jehovah's glory to the ends of the earth 
 (66 : 18, 19). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 Difference in tone between Isaiah 40-55 and 56-66 ; the 
 probability as to authorship of 56-66, as to date ; grounds of par- 
 ticipation in privileges of Jehovah's people ; grounds of denuncia- 
 tion of rulers ; character of those who obtain Jehovah's promise ; 
 prophetic teaching as to true method of securing Jehovah's favor 
 repeated in Isaiah 58 ; real cause of separation between Jehovah 
 
I 28 PROPHETS OF THE EXILE AND RESTORATION 
 
 and people ; result of establishing covenant j chief elements in 
 picture of Jerusalem's future ; that which Jehovah desires rather 
 than a material house ; chief elements in the message of good 
 tidings of chapter 61 ; the future of Jerfovah's religion in the 
 world ; the most important truths for our personal lives taught in 
 Isaiah 56-*6. 
 
JOEL 129 
 
 IV. Prophets of the Age of Legalism 
 
 LESSON XXII 
 JOEL 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Probability as to authorship and date 
 of Isaiah 56-66; Jerusalem's future pictured in these chapters; 
 some great moral truths taught in them. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 Joel was completely saturated with the writings of the 
 prophets who preceded him, his words exhibiting the 
 closest parallels to passages from many of 
 these. His thought, however, is domi- 
 nated by the priestly spirit, rather than that of the early 
 ethical prophets. When gaunt famine threatens the land 
 and Jehovah's hand seems heavy in judgment, his grief 
 is that the sacrifices cannot be offered and his call is, not 
 to moral reformation, but to a fast and solemn assembly. 
 In this respect, he presents a marked contrast to Ezekiel, 
 Zechariah, and the author of Isaiah 56-66, whom we 
 have seen combining the moral demands of early 
 prophecy with prominent recognition of priestly institu- 
 tions. 
 
 We have reached the age of legalism established by 
 the reforms of Nehemiah and Ezra. When the walls of 
 
 Jerusalem were rebuilt, and the Levitical 
 The Times ; 
 
 law first completely carried out in the life 
 
 of the community, a half century of comparative pros- 
 
I 3O PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 perity ensued. Now, at last, it must have seemed that 
 Jehovah's favor was being secured, and that the one thing 
 needful for his people was to observe Irigidly all his ritual 
 ordinances. Suddenly, one of those locust plagues, which 
 occasionally devastate Palestine, threatens the little strug- 
 gling community with starvation. The vine is laid waste, 
 the fig-tree stands with white, barked branches, adding 
 desolation to the scene. The wheat and the barley are 
 perished, the new wine and oil fail, the pomegranate, the 
 palm, and the apple, even all the trees of the field are 
 withered. There is nothing from which to furnish the 
 meat-offering and the drink-offering of the temple. As 
 so often happens after such a pest, the dry stubble left 
 has been burned by drought or fire, so that the pastures 
 of the wilderness are consumed. This is the scene with 
 which the book of Joel opens. 1 
 
 The prophets have long predicted the coming of 
 Jehovah's great and terrible day. Joel declares it now 
 
 nigh at hand, for a devastation such as no 
 The Message . ., , , T . . , 
 
 man can recall is upon the land. In vivid, 
 
 concrete pictures, he presents the misery and suffering 
 that have fallen upon all classes of the community. He 
 describes the resistless advance of the locust swarms in 
 highly poetic language that, nevertheless, quite accurately 
 pictures similar devastations which have been witnessed 
 in Palestine within the last century of our own era. 
 
 1 The locust plague in Joel is sometimes interpreted as the fig- 
 urative presentation of a devastating human army, but the consid- 
 erations in favor of a literal interpretation seem overwhelmingly 
 strong. 
 
JOEL 131 
 
 Joel, like the prophets of old, finds in the events of his 
 day the great judgment of Jehovah and cries out that 
 even yet, if they will turn with all their heart unto God, 
 who is gracious and merciful, they may be delivered. 
 Here the resemblance to the prophets of an earlier age 
 ceases. They would have called for repentance, for a 
 change in moral conduct, while Joel calls for observance 
 of religious ceremonies, a fast and solemn assembly with 
 weeping and prayer by the priests who stand between the 
 temple porch and altar. The ceremony is performed, 
 and glad assurance of Jehovah's favor comes to his 
 stricken people. Rains fall, and all the land gives 
 promise of abundant harvest which will restore the years 
 that the locust has eaten. 
 
 From the restoration of physical plenty, the prophet 
 passes to contemplation of the deeper riches of the coming 
 age when the Spirit shall be poured out upon all flesh; 
 and he recalls that before Jehovah's great judgment comes, 
 there shall be warning, and all who call on Jehovah's 
 name shall escape. He finally passes on to the thought 
 which had been growing more prominent from Ezekiel's 
 day forward, that Jehovah's great day is to be a day of 
 judgment upon the nations when he shall be a stronghold 
 to the children of Israel. Then it will be recognized 
 that God dwells in Zion and no strangers shall pass 
 through Jerusalem any more. Ancient enemies that 
 have done violence to the children of Judah shall be 
 desolate ; Judah shall abide forever. 
 
 The book of Joel is a monument of the intense faith of 
 Judaism in the efficiency of the perfect observance of 
 
132 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 outward forms. It marks a long step toward the pathetic 
 struggle of sincere souls, in still later centuries, to fulfil 
 God's will by perfect observance of ptual. In estimat- 
 ing the significance of Joel, it must not be forgotten that 
 Judaism was soon to pass through trials demanding in- 
 tensest devotion to the outer forms of her religion. 
 Without such adherence, for which prophecy had begun 
 to prepare the way as early as Ezekiel, Judaism must 
 have disappeared in the two or three centuries after JoePs 
 age. Again we follow the guiding hand shaping Israel's 
 ideals, through the prophets, until the fulness of time 
 shall come for bursting the protecting wall of formalism 
 and ritual exclusiveness. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Title. 1 : I. 
 
 The Day of Jehovah upon Israel. 1 : 2-2 : II. 
 
 Seeking unto Jehovah. 2: 12-17. 
 
 Restoration of Fertility. 2 : 18-27. 
 
 Outpouring of Spirit. 2 : 28-32. 
 
 Day of Jehovah on the Nations. 3 : l-i6a. 
 
 Jehovah a Refuge. 3 : i6b-2i. 
 
 Home Readings. The book of Joel may conveniently be divided, 
 for daily reading of Scripture, as follows : (i) 1 : I-I2; (2) 1 : 13- 
 2:3; (3)2:4-17; (4) 2: 18-27; (5) 2 128-32; (6)3:i-i6a; 
 (7) 3: i6b-2i. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Some passages that show influence of earlier prophets on Joel's 
 language (3 ; 16, cf. Amos 1 : 2 ; 3 : 10, cf. Isa. 2 : 4, Mic. 4 : 3 ; 2 : 2 f 
 cf. Zeph. 1:15; 1 115, cf. Isa, 13 ; 6, etc.) ; circumstances that called 
 
JOEL 133 
 
 forth Joel's message (1: 2, 4, 7, 9, 10, etc.); Joel's first interpre- 
 tation of the devastation (2: i, 2, n); description of the coming 
 of the locusts (2: 4-10); hope of averting destruction (2 : 12-14); 
 means of averting (2: 12, I3a, 15-17); eftect of means employed 
 (2: 1 8); the outpouring of the Spirit (2: 28, 29); warning before 
 great and terrible day (2: 30, 31, cf. Mai. 4: 5); day of judgment 
 on the nations (3: 2, 12, 13); Jerusalem inviolate (3: 17). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 Influence of earlier prophets upon Joel ; limits of this influence 
 and real spirit that dominates the prophecy; gradual growth of 
 priestly element in prophecy ; probable location of Joel in Jewish 
 history ; immediate occasion of Joel's prophecy ; Joel's first inter- 
 pretation of the calamity that befel Judaea ; the means of averting 
 the trouble urged by Joel ; contrast to teaching of earlier prophecy ; 
 sudden change in the situation ; Joel's picture of the coming age ; 
 final picture of the day of Jehovah drawn by Joel ; the tendency 
 of later Judaism seen in Joel ; the historical necessity of this tend- 
 ency; its dangers, as seen in the Judaism of Christ's day; the 
 hopelessness, for a sincere soul, in a religion of mere formalism. 
 
1 34 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 LESSON XXIII 
 l 
 
 JONAH 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Period of Israel's history in which Joel 
 prophesied ; immediate occasion of his prophecy ; dominant spirit 
 of the age seen in the prophecy; the conception of the day of 
 Jehovah at the beginning and at the close of the book. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 The book of Jonah is quite different from all the other 
 "latter prophets." While they sometimes contain his- 
 torical and biographical material, this is 
 The Man . . , 
 
 incidental, for they are primarily collec- 
 tions of the prophets' words. The book of Jonah, on 
 the other hand, is simply a narrative in which the prophet 
 is the central figure. 
 
 Jonah, the son of Amittai, is mentioned in Kings as 
 having predicted the national expansion under Jero- 
 boam II. He thus antedated Amos, whom we regard as 
 the earliest of the "writing prophets." The prophet 
 whose character and work we are to consider at this time 
 is not Jonah, but the author of our book of Jonah, whose 
 personality shines through the vivid story as one of the 
 most attractive figures in the company of Israel's prophets. 
 The book was written, we may be almost sure, during 
 the age of legalism and, probably, even later than Joel. 
 The writer's inspired vision saw the evil side of Jewish 
 exclusiveness only less perfectly than Jesus himself. He 
 had assimilated the thought of Isaiah 40-55, that Israel 
 
JONAH 135 
 
 was blind to her mission as Jehovah's servant and mes- 
 senger and that, for her sin, God had given her as a 
 spoil to the robbers. He was capable, in the breadth of 
 his nature, of appreciating that the heathen might be 
 men of sympathy and reverence, and that the God of 
 Israel cared for them with tender pity. 
 
 The age in which we place the author of Jonah is that 
 
 in which Israel's rigid separation from her neighbors and 
 
 her careful adherence to the details of 
 
 priestly distinctions have intensified her 
 
 sense of being peculiarly the people of Jehovah. Her 
 
 anticipations for the Gentiles are pictured in the last 
 
 chapter of Joel, their slaughter in the valley of Jehovah's 
 
 judgment. Very probably the bitter persecution suffered 
 
 under Artaxerxes Ochus, about 350 B. c., has already 
 
 had its effect on the national temper. 
 
 As the darkness of " the night of legalism " falls, the 
 book of Jonah shines forth, a lone and brilliant star. 
 
 The writer tells a vivid story, which proves 
 The Message *\ 
 
 to be a parable, wherein the outer form 
 
 symbolizes an inner meaning. This method of teaching 
 had been practiced by some of his predecessors. The 
 hero of the story is one whose name is already familiar 
 as a prophet who had correctly foretold Israel's success 
 against an ancient foe. ^Jot impossibly^ some narra- 
 tive telling of Kicking sept with a message to a foreign 
 capital had come down through the centuries. The 
 Elisha material in Kings tells of that prophet's deliver- 
 ing an oracle to Hazael, king of Syria, in Damascus. 
 As to this, however, we can do no more than conjecture. 
 
I 36 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 Whatever basis of fact may have been known by the 
 author's contemporaries, the real meaning of the story 
 must have been plain to those whoj recalled how the 
 earlier prophets had pictured Israel's enemies as great 
 water monsters, and had represented the Babylonian exile 
 as a swallowing up and vomiting forth by Nebuchad- 
 nezzar or by the Babylonian god, Bel. If they recalled, 
 also, such a prophecy as that in which Israel is called 
 Jehovah's messenger and servant who is blind, the mean- 
 ing must have been very plain to Orientals, so fond of 
 symbolic teaching. Jonah is surely Israel, Jehovah's serv- 
 ant and messenger to the world. The messenger has re- 
 jected God's will and sought to flee from him. God has 
 prepared the great fish, Babylon, to swallow up the mes- 
 senger and bring him to penitent submission. Then he 
 cries unto God and is delivered. Now he goes upon his 
 mission sullenly obedient, but with a heart that still 
 dreads Jehovah's mercy to the Gentiles and longs for a 
 day of vengeance upon them, that still cares more for the 
 ephemeral shadow of his own little gourd than for the 
 fate of a great city that perishes without knowledge. 
 
 Isaiah had anticipated the day when Egypt and 
 Assyria should worship Jehovah ; the author of the 
 " servant passages " had pictured Israel's true service as 
 that of a messenger, and had spoken of the servant as a 
 light to the Gentiles. Malachi had contrasted the half- 
 hearted worship of the Jews with the sincere worship of 
 Gentiles. The nation, however, had delighted in pictures 
 of Jehovah coming in terrible vengeance on the nations, 
 or, at best, bringing them, as humble dependents, to 
 
JONAH 137 
 
 worship in Jerusalem. The unnamed author of Jonah 
 saw the canker in his nation's life and, full of the noblest 
 thought of the greatest prophets, told his interesting story. 
 In the opening section of the story, the trust of the 
 heathen sailors in their gods and their courageous 
 efforts to save Jonah are in noble contrast to 
 Jonah-Israel's faithlessness to God and indifference 
 to the destruction of those of other race and creed. 
 In the third section, the ready repentance of the heathen 
 Ninevites teaches the same broad catholicity of spirit as 
 the first scene. At the end, the wondrous compassion of 
 Jehovah is presented in supreme contrast to the anger 
 and cruelty of Jonah-Israel. Of this gospel message of\ 
 Israel's mission to the heathen, of Gentile capacity for I 
 courage, kindness and repentance, and of God's mercy \t 
 extending even to the crudest enemy of Israel, the story) 
 of Jonah is the vehicle. 1 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF PROPHECY 
 
 Flight and Catastrophe. 1. 
 Prayer and Deliverance. 2. 
 Preaching and Repentance. 3. 
 Cruelty of Jonah and Mercy of God. 4. 
 
 Home Readings. The four chapters form a natural division in 
 the book which may be adopted for daily reading. For the re- 
 maining days of the week the following readings are suggested : 
 
 1 Many are troubled in interpreting the story of Jonah, by the 
 thought that Christ's reference to it stamps the narrative as actual 
 history. Such may profitably read the reverent discussion of Prof. 
 George Adam Smith, "Book of the Twelve Prophets," II, 
 507-509. 
 
I 38 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 (i) Isaiah's hope for the Gentiles, Isa. 2:2-4; 19 : 19-25 ; (2) Mal- 
 achi's recognition of Gentile worship, Mai. 1 : 6-14; (3) A light to 
 the Gentiles, Isa. 49 : 1-7. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 Historical reference to Jonah, son of Amittai, (2 Kings 14 : 25) . 
 Israel a blind servant and messenger (Isa. 42 : 19) ; Israel's punish- 
 ment (Isa. 42 : 24) ; the good conduct of the heathen sailors (Jonah 
 1 : 11-13, 5, 6, 16); of the heathen Ninevites (3: 5-9) ; Jehovah's 
 compassion on the heathen (3 : 10; 4: 2, 11) ; prophetic use of the 
 parable, (Isa. 5 : 1-7, etc.); Israel's enemies pictured as water 
 monster (Isa. 26 : 21 ; 27 : I ; 51 : 9, 10) ; Babylonian exile pictured 
 as swallowing up and belching forth (Jer. 51 : 34, 44) ; earlier 
 expressions of hope for Gentiles, see " Home Readings " ; Jonah's 
 cruel attitude toward the Gentiles (4: 1-4). 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Difference between Jonah and other books of the " latter proph- 
 ets " ; date and message of the historical Jonah of 2 Kings ; who is 
 the true prophet whose personality and message are found in the 
 book of Jonah? date of the writer; beautiful elements in his char- 
 acter ; evil elements in the Judaism of his age ; symbolic teaching, 
 especially in the form of parable, in the Bible ; possible traditional 
 basis for story of Jonah ; Israel's previous familiarity with the 
 imagery of the story of Jonah ; the meaning of the story, if it is 
 interpreted as a parable ; earlier prophetic hopes for the Gentiles 
 reinterpreted to the narrow age of legalism ; different anticipa- 
 tions for the Gentiles current in Judah ; the contrast drawn in the 
 story between the Gentiles and Jonah-Israel, between Jehovah 
 and Jonah-Israel; gospel truth found in the book of Jonah; is 
 this truth in the narrative, whether it be interpreted as literal 
 history or parable ? reasons why this glorious truth in the book 
 has so often been lost sight of; do we Christians ever fall into any- 
 thing of the spirit against which the book of Jonah protests ? 
 
DANIEL 1 39 
 
 LESSON XXIV 
 DANIEL 1-6 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Probable date of writing Jonah ; the 
 nature of the narrative ; sins of Israel against which the book is 
 directed ; the great truths of the book. 
 
 I. THE APOCALYPSE OF DANIEL 
 In the Hebrew Bible, the book of Daniel is not grouped 
 with the prophetic books but is placed in the third col- 
 lection of writings that make up the canon. This is 
 probably due to the fact that Daniel was written after the 
 collection of prophetic writings was completed. Yet the 
 book does differ very much from the earlier books of 
 prophecy, even though it is, in many characteristics, the 
 natural culmination of tendencies that we have seen de- 
 veloping in prophecy. These tendencies concern both 
 form and substance. In literary form, Daniel is the full 
 realization of the trend toward symbolic vision which 
 was so prominent in Ezekiel and Zechariah, and which 
 had appeared in germ as early as Amos, himself. In 
 thought, the book is the culmination of the fondness for 
 picturing a great day of Jehovah's sudden judgment 
 upon the nations gathered against his people. Ezekiel's 
 prophecy against the mysterious Gog stands as the great 
 prototype of this kind of vision, while there are con- 
 spicuous examples in Zechariah 9-14 and Joel. The 
 germ of this tendency, too, may be found in pre-exilic 
 prophecy. 
 
I4O PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 The Greek name apocalypse (meaning disclosure, or 
 revelation), is commonly applied to the type of writing 
 represented by Daniel. The type* became extremely 
 popular in the days of later Judaism dnd was even 
 adopted by the early Christians, as the Book of Revela- 
 tion in the New Testament indicates. One characteristic 
 of the fully developed apocalypse, which distinguishes it 
 from the earlier prophetic writings with apocalyptic tend- 
 encies, is the custom of putting the words into the mouth 
 of some ancient worthy, who is represented as describing 
 events of history under symbolic forms, and as though in 
 a vision of the future. Thus, a whole apocalyptic liter- 
 ature attached itself to the name of Enoch, " the seventh 
 from Adam." The course of history is usually followed 
 down to the time of the writer, sometimes with much de- 
 tail, and then the vision goes on to the anticipated day 
 of Jehovah's judgment upon the nations. 
 
 II. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 Many lines of evidence lead to the conclusion that the 
 Book of Daniel was written long after the period to which 
 Daniel's life is ascribed. The writer prob- 
 ably wrote in the second century B. c. and 
 attached his apocalypse to an ancient worthy, Daniel, 
 who is mentioned in Ezekiel, along with Noah and Job, 
 as a type of a righteous man and, in another passage, as 
 a wise man (Ezek. 14 : 14, 20; 28 : 3). 
 
 With Alexander's conquest of the Persian empire, the 
 Jews fell under Greek rule, after two centuries of subjec- 
 
DANIEL 141 
 
 tion to Persia. After Alexander's death 
 The Times 
 
 and the breaking up of his kingdom, when 
 
 matters at length became somewhat settled, Judaea found 
 itself a dependency of the Ptolemies of Egypt, and en- 
 joyed an era of prosperity such as had not been experi- 
 enced in many long years. A century later, Antiochus 
 the Great transferred Palestine to the Seleucid Kingdom, 
 the capital of which was Antioch, in northern Syria. 
 Contact with Greek civilization was rapidly Hellenizing 
 the Judaean community. All the walls of separation that 
 Nehemiah and Ezra had built were now needed to keep 
 the community from absorption by the cultured heathen 
 life about it. Still the Jewish life was not assimilated 
 rapidly enough to suit Antiochus Epiphanes, who as- 
 cended the throne in 176 B. c. He undertook to destroy 
 all vestiges of distinctive Jewish life and thus to Hellenize 
 the whole people by force. The temple was plundered, 
 all copies of the law that could be found were destroyed, 
 observance of the Sabbath, the sacred feasts, and the 
 right of circumcision were forbidden on penalty of death. 
 All were compelled to take part in heathen sacrifice, the 
 temple was polluted with the blood of unclean animals, 
 and an altar of Zeus, " the abomination of desolation," 
 was set up on the site of the great altar of Jehovah. It 
 was near the close of 168 B. c. that the worship of Je- 
 hovah ceased in the temple. The book of Daniel was, 
 in all probability, written between this time and the 
 death of Antiochus in 164. 
 
 The first six chapters consist of a series of narratives 
 concerning the experiences of Daniel as an exile in Bab- 
 
142 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 ylonia. They tell of the steadfastness of 
 The essage ^ y Oung j ew i s h captive and his three 
 
 friends, in keeping themselves from Defilement with food 
 that might have been consecrated to heathen deities. 
 They narrate the marvelous deliverance of the three 
 friends, who refuse to worship the golden image set up by 
 Nebuchadnezzar ; and of Daniel when he is cast into the 
 lions 1 den for praying to his God. All of these narra- 
 tives have the most evident bearing upon the circum- 
 stances of the time when the book was written. They 
 are designed to lead the readers to a like steadfast refusal 
 to abandon Jewish rites and customs and recognize 
 heathen deities. Mingled with these stories of faithful- 
 ness are accounts of Daniel's God-given wisdom in the 
 interpretation of vision and dream. Of these latter, the 
 most interesting is that recorded in the second chapter, 
 Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the great image. Consider- 
 ing this vision by itself alone, it is not possible to de- 
 termine just what nations are intended, but, when it is 
 studied in connection with chapters 7-12, it becomes 
 highly probable that the succession is Babylonia, Media, 
 Persia, and Macedonia, the last being divided into the 
 kingdoms of the Ptolemies and Seleucids. Whether or not 
 this is the correct interpretation of the kingdoms, there 
 can be no question that the stone which destroys the 
 image is the kingdom of God. This chapter forms the 
 only strictly apocalyptic section in the first half of Daniel. 
 Brief as it is, it has the characteristics of apocalypse in 
 its obscure and difficult symbolism, recording the course 
 of history and terminating with Jehovah's judgment upon 
 
DANIEL 143 
 
 the world powers. The remaining narratives of chapters 
 1-6, Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the tree and the hand- 
 writing on the wall, seem designed to enforce the truth 
 of God's rule over the kingdoms of the earth. All 
 three of the accounts concerning dream and vision show 
 much the same purpose as those first considered, namely, 
 to comfort and strengthen those who are enduring terri- 
 ble persecution when the power of the heathen oppressor 
 seems resistless. 
 
 III. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 Refusal of the King's Food. 1. 
 
 The Dream of the Image. 2. 
 
 Refusal to Worship the Golden Image. 3. 
 
 The Dream of the Tree. 4. 
 
 The Handwriting on the Wall. 5. 
 
 Faithfulness in Prayer to God. 6. 
 
 Home Readings. The entire section may easily be read during 
 the week, or the following selections may be made : (i) 1 : 8-21 ; 
 (2) 2:31-45; (3) 3:i-i2; (4) 3:13-27; (5)4:19-27; (6) 
 5: 17-28; (7) 6:10-23. 
 
 IV. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 A reading of the selections indicated under " Home Readings " 
 will suffice to make intelligible the points treated under II. 
 
 V. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 Place of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible ; two apocalyptic tenden- 
 cies seen in prophetic books that antedate Daniel ; a characteristic 
 of apocalypse, not seen in strictly prophetic books ; time of writing 
 Daniel in relation to time when Daniel's life is placed ; outline 
 history of Greek rule over Judah ; effect of Greek civilization on 
 
144 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 Judaism ; the attempt of Antiochus Epiphanes; the means he em- 
 ployed ; exact time to which writing of Daniel should be ascribed ; 
 the three narratives of steadfastness in Daniel 1-6 ; their appro- 
 priateness in the time of the writing ; me dream of the image and 
 its interpretation ; apocalyptic character of this narrative ; signifi- 
 cance of narratives of the dream of the tree and of the writing on 
 the wall ; relation of the narratives of the dreams and the writing 
 on the wall to the circumstances of the Jews under Antiochus ; 
 what religious truths important for all ages are conveyed by the 
 stories of Daniel 1-6. 
 
DANIEL 145 
 
 LESSON XXV 
 DANIEL 7-12 
 
 Suggestions for Review. Three or four characteristics of apoca- 
 lyptic literature ; probable date of writing Daniel ; circumstances 
 of the time ; purpose of chapters 1-6 in relation to these circum- 
 stances. 
 
 I. THE PROPHET AND His WORK 
 
 In the last lesson the author of Daniel was seen seek- 
 ing to bring comfort to his countrymen in the time of 
 their deepest distress, and to strengthen 
 them to remain loyal to their religion. 
 The self-restraint of one who could write under such 
 monstrous persecution and show so little of bitter hatred 
 is most notable. In the more purely apocalyptic sections 
 that constitute the latter half of the book, the same 
 moderation is manifest. Even when the writer has been 
 recounting the persecution and blasphemy of Antiochus 
 and comes to predict the end of this "contemptible 
 person," there is no reveling in the blood of enemies. 
 The grandly simple statement is, "He shall come to his 
 end, and none shall help him. 7 ' With this, and nothing 
 more, he passes on to the reward of those who have been 
 faithful. The lofty soul of this writer seems to turn, 
 far more readily, to thoughts of the noble ones who en- 
 dure persecution, than to anticipations of vengeance on 
 his nation's enemies. 
 
 The present section of the book carries us into the de- 
 
146 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 tails of the long struggle for the possession of Palestine, 
 
 between the Seleucids and Ptolemies 
 The Times 
 
 (kings of the north and south) and the 
 
 final Seleucid rule, down to the breaking out of the 
 Maccabaean revolt in 167 B. c. The point at which the 
 history breaks off makes it extremely probable that the 
 book was written before the successes of Judas Macca- 
 baeus had made possible the reinstitution of Jehovah 
 worship in the temple. This was actually accomplished 
 a little more than three years after the setting up of 
 "the abomination of desolation." The death of An- 
 tiochus, which is anticipated in Daniel, occurred in the 
 following year. 
 
 In the detailed interpretation of the apocalyptic visions 
 of Daniel 2 and 7-12 great difference of opinion has pre- 
 vailed from early times. In the light of 
 The Message . ' . 5 r 
 
 subsequent history, the last kingdom of 
 
 chapters 2 and 7 has often been identified with the 
 Roman Empire. Some have thought that the visions 
 contained an outline of history extending on to the 
 papacy or even to times still future. Among modern 
 scholars, the view already suggested in connection with 
 chapter 2, that the last Gentile kingdom in the writer's 
 mind is the Greek, is very generally adopted. It is per- 
 fectly clear in the vision of chapter 8 (the ram, goat, and 
 horns) that the little horn which casts down the sanc- 
 tuary is Antiochus Epiphanes. The little horn of 
 chapter 7 is, in all probability, the same, and if such is 
 the case the succession of beasts represents Babylonia, 
 Media, Persia, and Greece. The ten horns are then the 
 
DANIEL 147 
 
 Seleucid rulers and the claimants for the Seleucid throne 
 whom Antiochus displaces. 
 
 Probably the most baffling prophecy of all is that of 
 the seventy weeks. Even in the early centuries of the 
 Church, scholarship was sadly perplexed by the problem. 
 St. Jerome, who knew of nine different interpretations, did 
 not attempt to decide between them. Every explanation 
 meets with difficulties, but the one most commonly held 
 by scholars, to-day, seems the least improbable. Accord- 
 ing to this, the entire seventy weeks is the period between 
 Jeremiah's predictions that the city would be rebuilt and 
 the end of the persecution of Antiochus. This inter- 
 pretation accepts the usual view that the " weeks " are 
 weeks of years and identifies the division of the seventy 
 into 7 -(-62 -|- 1 as follows : (i) from Jeremiah's prophecy 
 to the edict of Cyrus permitting the rebuilding, (2) re- 
 building to the murder of the high priest Onias III, the 
 "anointed" in 171 B. c., (3) the period of persecution, 
 in the midst of which comes the desecration of the 
 temple. The vision of chapters 10-12 evidently ter- 
 minates with the death of Antiochus and the blessings to 
 follow. 
 
 If these interpretations are right, the vision is one, in 
 all the apocalyptic portions of the book, and is in closest 
 harmony with the narrative portions. Its meaning is, 
 then, primarily for the afflicted sufferers under the per- 
 secutions of Antiochus. The prophet tells them, in effect, 
 that God has permitted the succession of great powers to 
 rule over his people from Nebuchadnezzar to Antiochus, 
 but now this subjection is about to end and the rule of 
 
148 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 God's saints to be established. The image is to be 
 shattered, the last beast destroyed, the little horn broken 
 without hand, the king of the northjto come to his end. 
 The determined time approaches when the last half of 
 the week of persecution shall end. 
 
 Those who have followed a historical study of the 
 development of prophecy and have seen how the proph- 
 ets ever addressed themselves to the needs of the genera- 
 tion in which they lived, will find this the natural view 
 to take of the primary aim of the book of Daniel. The 
 message of the book is, however, far from exhausted in 
 this primary application. The book speaks to every age 
 the eternal truths of prophecy. When the temple is 
 desolate and an altar to Zeus stands where sacrifice had 
 been offered to Jehovah, when every outward vestige of 
 Jehovah worship is being consumed, and every Jew who 
 refuses to offer heathen sacrifice is cut down, the author 
 of Daniel utters, without any bitterness of malice toward 
 the persecutor, the sublime faith of Israel's prophets, that 
 Jehovah rules through all the centuries and directs the 
 course of empire; that he will deliver his people in 
 his own determined time ; and that they who have 
 known him through every peril shall shine as the bright- 
 ness of the firmament, they who turn many to righteous- 
 ness as the stars forever and ever. 
 
 Whatever may be the true interpretation of the puzzling 
 details of Daniel's visions, the spiritual message of the 
 book is clear. If the prophet was inspired to map out 
 for man's interested gaze the course of future history, 
 then the difficulties of interpreting Daniel's visions may 
 
DANIEL 149 
 
 well leave us perplexed and in doubt. If, on the other 
 hand, prophetic inspiration was such insight into the 
 nature of God as reveals his constant loving purposes and 
 his will for man, then the book of Daniel stands one of 
 the most inspiring monuments of prophetic inspiration. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 The Four Beasts. 7. 
 The Ram, Goat, and Horns 8. 
 The Seventy Weeks. 9. 
 The Man in Linen. 10-12. 
 
 Colloquy with the Angel. 10 : 1-11 : I. 
 
 History from Darius to Antiochus. 11 : 2-45. 
 
 The future age. 12. 
 
 Home Readings. The entire section may be read during the 
 week or the following passages may be selected for daily reading : 
 (i) 7: 1-14; (2)8:1-14; (3) 9 -.20-27; '(4) 11: 2-7, 20-27; (5) H : 
 28-39; (6) 11:40-12:4; (7) 12:5-12. 
 
 III. POINTS TO BE NOTED IN PREPARATION 
 
 A careful reading of the selected passages under " Home Read- 
 ings " will enable one to follow the discussion under " The Prophet 
 and His Work." In addition a detailed comparison of the visions 
 in chapters 2, 7, and 8 will prove especially profitable. 
 
 IV. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 A notable feature of the author's spirit ; exact date of the book ; 
 time of death of Antiochus Epiphanes ; most probable view as to 
 the identity of last Gentile kingdom in visions of chapters 2 and 7; 
 certainty as to the historical termination of the vision in chapter 8 ; 
 probable identification of the three periods included in the seventy 
 
I5O PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 weeks ; terminal point in the symbolic account of Gentile history 
 in chapters 10-12 ; possible unity in the entire message of the 
 book ; summary statement of its message fir the writer's day ; its 
 message for every age ; the force added to the - message by a 
 knowledge of the circumstances under which it was uttered ; dan- 
 ger of losing sight of the deep moral and spiritual truth of a book 
 like Daniel in the discussion of the details of its symbolism ; the 
 true revelation of prophecy a detailed knowledge of what is to 
 happen in future years, or a knowledge of God and his will for 
 man? 
 
REVIEW 151 
 
 LESSON XXVI 
 REVIEW 
 
 I. THE PROPHETS AND THEIR WORK 
 
 The twelve lessons now completed have dealt with ten 
 different prophets whose work is distributed over a period 
 
 of four and a quarter centuries. This 
 The Men . ... . 
 
 group of prophets is sharply distinguished 
 
 from those studied in the previous quarter by the changed 
 conditions under which they lived. In large measure, 
 the work of the prophets has ceased to be that of states- 
 men seeking to mould the national policy of their people, 
 since their people no longer form a nation free to enter 
 into alliance or war with other nations. The prophets 
 now look forward, it is true, to a restored national life 
 and picture it ideally, but the vision tarries, and they ad- 
 dress themselves chiefly to building up a religious organi- 
 zation which may preserve the integrity of Jehovah's peo- 
 ple while the political organization can be merely that of 
 a little province in a great heathen empire. In the task 
 of developing a compact religious organization, the 
 prophets and priests are united, whereas in the pre-exilic 
 days, conditions required the prophets to minimize or 
 even deny the necessity of priestly ritual. The statesman 
 spirit was not extinct, however, in Israel's prophets, who 
 now manifested it by shaping their teaching to the new 
 needs of the new age. 
 
 As preachers, the personality and doctrine of the dif- 
 
152 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 ferent men is hardly less striking than in the case of those 
 of the earlier centuries. Ezekiel stands forth alone as 
 the dominating force in shaping thejideals and hopes of 
 Israel to meet the new conditions. He was capable of 
 seeing the spiritual truths that were needed to enable the 
 men of his day to receive aright the discipline that they 
 were experiencing, and also of recognizing the necessity 
 for an impressive religious organization in the days to 
 come. The world has rarely seen a religious teacher 
 combining so fully emphasis upon both elements of re- 
 ligion, its visible body and its inner spirit. Obadiah has 
 left hardly a sufficient record to make his personality 
 distinct, but the author of Isaiah 40-55, in spite of his 
 absorption in his message or because of it, is felt as a 
 personality of the greatest strength and beauty. Haggai 
 stands alone among all the prophets as the type of the 
 plain, practical man who sees the immediate need and 
 meets it; Zechariah labors together with him and, by 
 deep moral and spiritual insight, offsets the dangers 
 of temporary zeal and superficiality that attend the influ- 
 ence of such a man as Haggai. Malachi appears as the 
 opponent of sham and hypocrisy in religion. He lays 
 intense stress upon Judah's preserving her own formal 
 worship with all carefulness, but prefers a whole-hearted 
 heathen to a half-hearted Jew. The section Isaiah 56-66 
 leaves no very clear impression of one personality behind 
 its many-sided message. If these chapters are, however, 
 the words of one prophet, they show him, by the rich- 
 ness and variety of their spiritual lessons one who is nota- 
 ble in all the company of Israel's prophets. Joel is a. 
 
REVIEW I 5 3 
 
 polished student of prophetic letters who has absorbed 
 the figures and expressions of his predecessors, but in 
 spirit shares too much the limitations of his age to attain 
 unto the first rank. Still, he is capable of glorious vision. 
 The author of Jonah rises out of the narrowness and bit- 
 terness of his age almost to the full gospel vision of the 
 infinite mercy of Jehovah ; with what condescension and 
 tact does the writer embody his lofty thought in a homely 
 story that must have impressed his message upon the men 
 of his age ! The writer of Daniel, in the midst of perse- 
 cution, thinks only of his harassed countrymen and with 
 supreme faith holds them loyal to their God. His is a 
 nature deep, and strong, and gentle withal. 
 
 The period of history covered by the work of these ten 
 has been divided broadly into two parts. The one, ex- 
 tending from the early years of exile to 
 the reforms of Nehemiah and Ezra, about 
 150 years, we style the age of exile and restoration ; the 
 other, opening with the drastic reforms of Nehemiah and 
 Ezra and including more than two and a half centuries, 
 we denominate the age of legalism. We have seen, how- 
 ever, that both portions of the four centuries under con- 
 sideration are legalistic in contrast to the spirit of the pre- 
 exilic age. 
 
 During the centuries included in the present quarter's 
 study, Israel was successively subject to three great and 
 widely different empires. The first was that of a Semitic 
 people, their own race. The second and third empires 
 were of the Aryan race, wherein Israel formed an alien 
 element. Each different civilization left its deep impres- 
 
154 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 sion on the thought and modes of expression of the little 
 subject people which yet, adhering to its own religious 
 faith and practices, retained its identity and national 
 characteristics. The prophetic thought became enriched 
 from many sources, but its vital principle was the same 
 from Elijah and Amos to the authors of Jonah and 
 Daniel. 
 
 We have already recalled the general fact that the 
 
 prophets of the exile and restoration laid stress upon rit- 
 
 ual, in striking contrast to their predeces- 
 
 Hie mCSSagCS - 
 
 sors of the eighth and seventh centuries. 
 Ezekiel largely shaped the Levitical tendency of Judaism ; 
 Haggai and Zechariah labored for the rebuilding of the 
 temple where the ritual of worship might be perfectly ob- 
 served. Malachi and, in part, Isaiah 56-66 seem to 
 have aided the Nehemiah-Ezra reforms which made 
 Judaism separate and uncontaminated. Joel emphasized 
 formal worship as the one thing needful in his day. On 
 the other hand, the great body of moral and spiritual 
 truth that we owe to the prophets received great enrich- 
 ment in this period. Ezekiel saw the individual respon- 
 sibility of every man, whether prophet or hearer, as no 
 one before him had understood it; the author of the 
 "servant passages" first introduced into this world of 
 struggle for dominance, the thought that the highest 
 achievement is to be found in sacrifice for others. It was 
 in this age that the idea was first expressed of Israel's 
 mission as a light to the Gentiles. The earlier prophets 
 had recognized Jehovah as God of nations, ruling all 
 with even-handed justice, while loving his own people 
 
REVIEW 155 
 
 with an unquenchable love. Malachi declared that sin- 
 cere Gentiles are acceptable to God and the author of 
 Jonah taught that the God whose just rule extended over 
 the nations looked upon the crudest of them all in com- 
 passion and in readiness to spare them at the first cry of 
 penitence. Out of Hosea' skitter suffering came the first 
 clear message_tQ Israe] that the God of j ustice loved Jus 
 own ' uncKangeably . Out of the bitter experiences of an 
 oppressed nation whose hope of deliverance was delayed 
 through centuries came the first clear message that the 
 God of Israel looked with compassion upon the heathen. 
 When Israel was independent and indifferent to her 
 God, the message of prophecy was largely one of threat- 
 ened judgment. When she was cast down in utter de- 
 spair, no longer a nation among the nations of earth, the 
 note of hope, never wholly wanting in the prophet's song, 
 became dominant as prophet after prophet caught up the 
 strain through the long night of subjection to foreign 
 domination. Israel's prophets hoped when all others 
 despaired because there had been given to them a vision 
 of the God of Israel as a God of justice, and of compas- 
 sion upon all mankind. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS OF LESSON 
 
 III. Prophets of the Exile and Restoration. 
 
 1. Ezekiel, the priest prophet. 
 
 2. Obadiah, the voice of Israel against an enemy. 
 
 3. Isaiah 40-55, the prophet of deliverance. 
 
 4. Haggai, the prophet of practical accomplishment. 
 
 5. Zechariah, the prophet of spiritual preparation for the 
 
 temple. 
 
156 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 6. Malachi, the prophet of whole-hearted worship. 
 
 7. Isaiah 56-66, the prophet of Jerusalem's future. 
 IV. Prophets of the Age of Legalism. j 
 
 1. Joel, the prophet of the day of Jehovah. 
 
 2. Jonah, the prophet of God's compassion. 
 
 3. Daniel, the prophet of comfort in persecution. 
 
 Home Readings. The following selections are suggested for the 
 daily reading of Scripture, during the week of review: (I) Eze- 
 kiel 18: 1-24; (2) Isaiah 52: 13-53: 12; (3) ZechariahS; (4) Mal- 
 achi 3: 1-12; (5) Isaiah 59; (6) Jonah 4; (7) Daniel 12. 
 
 III. POINTS FOR REVIEW IN CLASS 
 
 NOTE. A selection may be made from the following questions, 
 or, if time permits, two weeks may profitably be devoted to this 
 final review, some of the topics, suggested below, and other topics, 
 that have arisen, being assigned to individuals for written discus- 
 sion. 
 
 Names of the prophets of exile and restoration, of age of legal- 
 ism ; length of period from Ezekiel to Daniel ; sharp change in 
 work of prophets brought about by the exile, and the reason for it ; 
 the prophets who especially labored for Israel's formal religion ; 
 indication of Ezekiel's breadth of nature ; the function of Obadiah ; 
 personality of the author of Isaiah 40-55 ; the supplementary per- 
 sonalities of Haggai and Zechariah (compare the way in which 
 Amos and Hosea supplemented each other) ; the attractive ele- 
 ment in Malachi's nature ; the personality behind Isaiah 56-66 ; 
 Joel and the age of Jewish exclusiveness ; the spirit of the author of 
 Jonah ; the personality of the author of Daniel ; external influences 
 upon Israel from time of Ezekiel to writing of Daniel ; work of the 
 prophets in shaping Levitical tendencies of Judaism ; the advance 
 in moral and spiritual teaching that is due to Ezekiel ; the supreme 
 thought given to the world by the servant passages ; the breadth 
 of thought in Malachi ; the gospel message of Jonah ; the domi- 
 
REVIEW 157 
 
 nant note of prophecy in times of darkness ; the firm foundation 
 on which the prophetic hopes ever rested ; what is the fundamental 
 element in all the moral and spiritual teaching of the prophets ? 
 is Christ's fulfilment of prophecy to be found chiefly by searching 
 for agreements between detailed predictions and events in his 
 outer life or by recognizing his perfect realization of all that the 
 prophets had taught as to the nature of God and the duty and 
 destiny of man ? if we adopt the latter view, is prophecy more or 
 less helpful to faith in Christ than it was on the former view ? 
 
I$8 PROPHETS OF THE AGE OF LEGALISM 
 
 APPENDIX 
 BOOKS OF REFERENCE 
 
 The standard Biblical introductions and dictionary 
 articles furnish concise discussions of the historical and 
 literary questions that may arise in connection with each 
 book. For a general introduction to the entire Bible 
 that of Bennett and Adeney (Thomas Whittaker, New 
 York), will be found the most convenient. Driver's In- 
 troduction to the Old Testament (Scribner's, New York), 
 discusses problems of Old Testament criticism much 
 more thoroughly than the foregoing, and is -a work of 
 remarkably judicial temper. In Kautzsch's Literature 
 of the Old Testament (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New 
 York), and Bennett's Primer of the Bible (Henry Holt 
 & Co., New York), attractive discussions of the growth 
 of Old Testament literature will be found. The articles 
 on the several prophets in Hastings' Bible Dictionary 
 are usually very satisfactory. This work must largely 
 replace the once excellent Smith's Bible Dictionary. 
 The articles on the prophets in the ninth edition of the 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica are still very helpful. 
 
 Vivid presentations of the prophets in connection with 
 the history of their times will be found in The Prophets 
 of Israel, by C. H. Cornill (Open Court Publishing Co., 
 Chicago); The Prophets of Israel, by W. Robertson 
 Smith (D. Appleton & Co., New York), (eighth century 
 prophets only), and in the Men of the Bible series, vol- 
 umes on Isaiah, by S. R. Driver ; Jeremiah, by T. K. 
 
BOOKS OF REFERENCE 159 
 
 Cheyne ; Minor Prophets, by F. W. Farrar ; Haggai, 
 Zechariah and Malachi, by Marcus Dods (A. D. F. Ran- 
 dolph, New York). 
 
 For the interpretation of individual passages, reference 
 should be made to the modern commentaries. Of these 
 the following may be mentioned as helpful : Expositor's 
 Bible (A. C. Armstrong & Son, New York) Isaiah 
 (2 vols.), The Book of the Twelve (2 vols.), by George 
 Adam Smith, Jeremiah, by W. H. Bennett, Ezekiel, by 
 John Skinner ; Cambridge Bible for Schools and Col- 
 leges Isaiah (2 vols.), by John Skinner, Hosea, Micah, 
 by T. K. Cheyne, Ezekiel, by A. B. Davidson, Nahum, 
 Habakkuk, and Zephaniah, by A. B. Davidson, Daniel, 
 Joel, Amos, by S. R. Driver. In the Messages of the 
 Bible series, by Sanders and Kent (Scribner's, New 
 York), the volumes on the Earlier Prophets and the Later 
 Prophets, furnish a popular introduction and interpreta- 
 tion that will often be found most illuminating. 
 
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