exilic prophets in the bible

Three major factors contributed. First, the policy of deportation carried out by the Babylonians meant that the Jews in Babylon were the top of Judahs intellectual, political, and ecclesiastical leadership. And all your songs into lamentation (Amos 8:10a). The king confessed his belief that Daniels God could save him (see Daniel 6:16). As Latter-day Saints we understand that the passage referred to the Book of Mormon and the Bible. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity. This form is allegorical, though not all woes are; cf. She was but a stranger in a strange land, a sojourner in a foreign country from which she would eventually be released. To see the prophets as primarily predictors of future events is to miss their primary function, which was, in fact, to speak for God to their contemporaries. Promised Land. Well talk more about oracles later, but I think you get the point. Among other things, he symbolized the coming fate of Jerusalem by drawing a picture of the city on a brick and then, while eating rationed foods, simulating a siege against it (see Ezekiel 4:115). The evil agent, He warned, already gathering to the north, was ready to move against this vile and sinful nation. Some were hired as mercenaries and developed a colony at Elephantine, near the first cataract of the Nile. [2] Such has been done by Charles C. Torrey, The Chroniclers History of Israel (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1954). Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are the prophets of this restoration period. To the north, the Jewish communities experienced little disruption of life compared to their southern neighbors. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969), 49192. We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; they were not called by thy name (Isaiah 63:1719). It came in a vision of four heavenly cherubim, who appeared in a wind from the north, a cloud, and flashing fire (lightning? Moses as a Model Moses was the mediator of Gods Law when he first announced it, and thus is a paradigm (or model) for the prophets. Trying to rebuild the temple and populate it with the Priests/ re-established the priesthood and the will be in charge of the torah obedience. as forty-six hundred (see Jeremiah 52:2830). Exilic Prophets - Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel Post-exilic Prophets - Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi The dating of the prophets Jonah, Joel, and Obadiah are more questionable than the other prophets. [42] Jehovahs doleful words promised Babylon a tragic end: I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it. He recounted a vision in which he saw the Lords Spirit lift from the sanctuary, hover over the temple for a moment, and then depart to the east (see Ezekiel 9:8; 10:18; 11:23). It was in Babylon, in a land far away from Judah, that the desire for return actually burned. The possibility is underscored by the fact that a number of Jewish communities that took root outside Palestine eventually lost their Jewish character and eroded into the cultures of the area. These saw the nation presided over by the Zadokite priesthood with the restored Davidic monarchy playing the reduced role of protector of the state and the religion[43] (see Ezekiel 4345; especially 43:17; 44:431). Many of the people of the land had The exile was a major turning point in the history of Israel. Never again would all, or even most, of her sons and daughters reside in Palestine. Ezekiels famous vision of the dry bones testified to not only the eventual resurrection of Israel but also the more immediate restoration of Judah: Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. He gave his people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with his inheritance. What they did is described in far greater length than what they said -- and when we are told what they said, it is placed very specifically and clearly in the context of the narratives in which they appear. The writing prophets may be divided into four groups: Prophets of Israel Jonah, Amos, and Hosea, Prophets of Judah Obadiah, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Habakkuk, Exilic Prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, Post-exilic Prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. (2) 3:2 implies that Israel has already been exiled. Antithetical parallelism, on the other hand, is where the second or subsequent line contrasts the thought of the first, as in Hosea 7:14: They do not cry out to me from their hearts. This figure most likely represents only adult males, suggesting that the actual number was closer to twenty thousand. Richard D. Draper is associate dean of Religious Education at Brigham Young University. This was an effective way to prevent organized resistance in conquered lands. B. Gabel and C. B. Wheeler, The Bible as Literature, 2nd. To say it another way, Jerusalems destruction, followed by the Babylonian captivity, marks a major break in the course of Jewish history but not its end. Lets look at a few reasons for some of the difficulty we have: The Meaning of Prophecy The primary difficulty for most modern readers of the prophets stems from an inaccurate understanding of the words prophet and prophecy. The word prophet refers to one who tells forth (or proclaims), as well as one who foretells.257 But we often limit the meaning of prophecy to foretelling the future, so many Christians refer to the prophets only for predictions about Christs first coming, or his second coming, and the end times as though prediction of events far distant to their own day was their main concern. Never again would there be a full return before her Messiah came in glory. Those who had put trust in it now found their spiritual lives in peril, much as their ancestors physical lives had been in danger under the Egyptian pharaohs. 4. Once we hear what God said to them, even if our circumstances differ considerably, we will often hear it again in our own settings in a rather direct way, which brings us to the area of application. [6], It is noteworthy that the impetus of the miracle did not come, as one might suppose, from those Jews still living in and around Judea. For the most part, the longer prophetic books are collections of spoken oracles, not always presented in their original chronological sequence, often without any indication as to where one oracle ends and another begins, and often without hints as to their historical setting. Of course, we are too far [24] Ben-Sasson, History of the Jewish People, 16364; Bright, History of Israel, 347. . Statistically speaking, a majority of the prophets announce curse because in the time of their prophecies (generally 800 - 587 BC), the Israelites (north and south) were heading for punishment. al., Introduction to Biblical Interpretation (Word Publishing, 1993), pp. The life of a godly prophet was never an easy one (see Acts 7:52). [28] Isaiah 63:19 reflects the idea that the covenant could be lost, and Ezekiel 33:10; 37:11 shows that some of the Jews were really concerned about it. In certain cases where, for instance, reference is made in a pre-Exilic prophet to Jerusalem as already destroyed and the people of Judah as already in exile, it is legitimate to suggest that such passages are later insertions into the pre-Exilic Prophets. This brings us to the third factor that helped these Jews keep alive the spirit of restoration. [45] Many of these records may have been taken to Babylon by various hostages, especially those of priestly and royal rank, and finally, by the last deportees. The Prophets ( nevi'im ), which is divided into two sections: a. the Former Prophets, Joshua - Kings (not including Ruth) b. the Latter Prophets, Isaiah - Malachi (not including Daniel and Lamentations) 3. As Jeremiah had worked to redirect Israels thinking about the temple, Micah had earlier tried to make a course correction concerning Gods covenant with her princes. The second goal is to unfold the major themes that are developed throughout the different books of the Bible and that tell the . Conditions in Babylon contributed markedly to their success. [4] In the process, she refined, disciplined, and strengthened her faith, giving it a vigor and direction that would carry it into and beyond New Testament times. The fall of Jerusalem did not immediately shatter those beliefs. Approximately one-third of the Old Testament consists of historical documents, including the Pentateuch, or what has often been called the five books of Moses, and the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah. Both Transjordan and Syria received an influx of Jewish refugees. Each prophetic oracle was delivered in a specific historical setting. To their prayer the Lord would respond, I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my mountains: and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell there (Isaiah 65:9). They Spoke in Oracles When we come to the actual study of the prophetic books, the first thing we must learn to do is to think oracles (just as we must learn to think paragraphs in the epistles or narrative sections of the Bible).263 This is not always an easy task, but to know the difficulty and the need to do this is the beginning of some exciting discovery. We shouldnt be embarrassed to admit we have difficulty reading the prophets, for actually we are in good company if we do. Jeremiah did not deny the validity of the Davidic covenant in which so many trusted; however, he pushed it into the future and made its realization contingent on the righteousness of the people (see Jeremiah 23:58). Here the Babylonian priests admit that they could not get in contact with their own local gods on such matters. After the exile, when the people were allowed to return to Jerusalem, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi announced Gods will for the rebuilding of the temple, the rebuilding of the nation, and the reinstitution of orthodoxy. Israel, the people of God in the Old Testament, turned away from God and needed a message of repentance. The oracle announces woe in verse 6. WILLIAM A. IRWIN A NY DISCUSSION of the exilic prophets numbers of prophets and other self-ap- entails at the outset a critical prob- pointed guides who made their bid for the lem, for who were they? Know the primary message of the post-exile prophets. Others were not so willing to give credit to foreign gods. The false dogma proved too intoxicating because of the acute sense of security it offered. Summary and Analysis The Post-Exilic Prophets. Archaeology has shown that the Babylonians razed virtually every fortified town in Judea (see Hugh Nibley, Lehi in the Desert/The World of the Jaredites/There Were Jaredites, ed. Woe oracles contain, either explicitly or implicitly, three elements that uniquely characterize this form: an announcement of distress (the word Woe, for example), the reason for the distress, and a prediction of doom. For nourishment, he was to eat only peasants food cooked over cow dung. The promise seemed sure. (3) We see through the prophets that God is serious about His covenant with Israel. Daniels second point, showing that the Lord governed Babylon, centered on Jehovahs work in convincing its kings that He was the living God. This was prior to the final invasion of Nebuchadnezzar in 588, which lasted until 586 when the city was breached. To understand what I am driving at, let me ask a couple of questions: What was the goal of the prophetic ministry? Or, perhaps more appropriately, What was it the prophets were seeking in their ministry? You might say restoration, i.e., a restored covenant relationship with God. They convey the message of God for this period of time with cumulative clarity since they come at the end of a long age of prophetic indictment against the people. It should be pointed out that less than 2% of Old Testament prophecy is messianic. A knowledge of the date, audience, and situation, therefore, when they are known, contributes a great deal to a readers ability to comprehend an oracle. Note 2 Kings 25:2730, which had to be added to the text by the Babylonian Jews. Now that is a comment to which I can relate. The fire consumed their young men; and their maidens were not given to marriage. [7] Many were able to eke out a living in various parts of Judea. Parallelism is the verse form in which virtually all biblical poetry is written.266 Hopefully, you have some knowledge of poetic parallelism in the Bible, but Ill touch on it just a bit anyway since it is so prevalent in the prophets. Bible timeline of the prophets and kings before the exile of Judah to Babylon, 609- 608 B.C. The pre-Assyrian prophets were Jonah, Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah. 265 J. [31] See, for example, Isaiah 1:2123; 3:13; 5:8, 23; 10:1. Nonetheless, they offered hope in Jehovahs redemptive purpose. [2] Loss of identity threatened the Jewish people more fully than at any other time in their existence with the possible exception of the Egyptian bondage. Because the covenant has been violated, the sorts of punishments listed in the covenant will come upon the people of Israel: disease, destitution, deprivation, and death. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not, asked his God, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? (Jeremiah 7:810). The wealth of source material in the Bible, especially the historical records and writings of the early prophets, suggests that the records were composed in Jerusalem well before 587 B.C. As a result, wholesale abandonment of Jehovah and His word threatened the Jews; the seductive power of Babylon compounded the problem. Until 1925, scholars did not realize the extent of the catastrophe. In Haggai and the early chapters of Zechariah, for example, each prophecy is dated. [3] H. H. Ben-Sasson, A History of the Jewish People (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1976), 160. At best, it smoldered well beneath the surface, unable to produce the energy necessary to renew and rebuild what was lost. In the meantime, the prophets gave her a role to play even in Babylon. Jeremiah castigated the Jews for believing in lying words, that cannot profit. His prophecies were written down throughout his long ministry, beginning under the reign of Josiah (626608 B.C.) Theirs was a kind of modified, somewhat benevolent, internment that allowed them to buy land, open shops, move into civil service, and attend to their many chores. But we know more about these prophets than we do of their actual words. They did this, in part, by reminding her of her unique relation to her God and the mission He had assigned her. Provo, UT 84602 David Noel Freedman (New York: Doubleday, 1992), s.v. People were used to poetry, and they could remember it much better than prose. One of the keys to understanding the Prophets, therefore, is to recognize that for us to see their prophecies fulfilled, we must often look back on times that were still future to them, but for us are past.259. [28] The Jews cried to their God for mercy but seemingly without hope. 259-322. Beard). Many hundreds of Jews continued to exist in Samaria and Galilee. But she would come to repentance, he warned, one way or another. As you see, the writing prophets come on the scene immediately after Elijah and Elisha and continue where their ministries left off. Ezra | Nehemiah | Haggai | Zechariah | MalachiInter-Testament PeriodChapter 12. Here we can see how the Jews came to believe this idea. A Letter to the Exiles. Indeed, Judah, with all her seeming splendor, would fall.[31]. Nebuchadnezzars dream emphasized the last point. . 231-242. His message was both clear and simple: It was not the temple but righteousness that would be Judahs only shield. The previous two lessons discussed the ministry of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, which has given us some insight into the deteriorating situation in Israel, Judah, and the divided kingdom. The first was the belief that Jehovah would never allow His temple to fall. A fragment from Qumran shows that a Jewish tradition existed ascribing his long absence from Babylon to mental illness as a vengeance which came upon him from God (see Joan Oates, Babylon [London: Thames and Hudson, 1979], 133). [20] See Ezra 3:15; 2:59; 8:17; Jeremiah 29:57, for example. For now, he warned Davids heir, Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do not wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. They knew that Jerusalems gates are sunk into the ground; he [God] hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision [of hope] from the Lord (Lamentations 2:9). Nehemiah, governor. Details are unknown of how the Jews proceeded, but the movement was unstoppable once it began. Ezekiel's early oracles (from c. 592) in Jerusalem were pronouncements of violence and destruction; his later statements addressed the hopes of the Israelites exiled in Babylon. Ezra and Nehemiah are its narrators. Some parts of prophetic books provide exceptions. An escapee from the siege of Jerusalem was able to make his way to the captives and testify, The city is smitten (Ezekiel 33:21). Temple. There was no spark, no energy, no attempt at restoration from this source.[10]. Beard.. [24] Yet the role played by the prophets must not be underestimated. These godly souls would have mourned for Zion and wished for her return. If she would not do it on her own, then thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee (Jeremiah 2:19). That is, the words they spoke at various times and places over the years of their ministry have been collected and written down together, without divisions to indicate where one oracle ends and another begins. Draper, Richard D., The Prophets of the Exile: Saviors of a People in Sperry Symposium Classics: The Old Testament, ed. The same is true of those Jews living in lands outside of Palestine. Moreover, even when one can assume by a major change of subject that a new oracle has probably begun, the lack of explanation still leaves one asking, Was this said on the same day to the same audience, or was it said years later -- or earlier -- to a different group under different circumstances? The answer can make a big difference as to ones understanding. And less than 1% concern events still future to us.258 The prophets did indeed announce the future. What had been prophesied repeatedly by the prophets, repeating what Moses had stated in chapters 27 and 28 of Deuteronomy, became a reality. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land. You will remember God told Solomon that upon his death, the Kingdom would become divided (1 Kings 11:9-13), and it did. Chapters 33-48 were prophecies given after. The story really plays upon the latter point. The agent of destruction, the Lord warned, is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say. The commentaries can identify and explain these forms. As you read the prophets, look for these simple patterns: either (1) an identification of Israels sin followed by a prediction of cursing, or (2) an announcement of Gods faithfulness and love for her followed by a prediction of blessing, depending on the circumstance. His captors would have taken him into Babylon about 597 B.C. The Bible has no word for the abstract idea of eschatology. [13] As chapters 42 through 44 of Jeremiah show, Egypt became very attractive for many of these. 30 When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. To add an RSC website shortcut to your home screen, open the website in the Safari browser. They each have their own unique features, their own unique structure, and their own unique contribution to the Old Testament, which are well worth our study. Amos, beginning around 760, and Hosea, beginning around 755, announced the impending destruction. Micah did not stand alone in his testimony. But being an Israelite did not guarantee you were part of that remnant: not all Israel is Israel, (Romans 9:6). [14] The successful Jewish communities in Egypt acted as magnets, and more Jews flowed into that country. 266 Leland Ryken, How to Read the Bible as Literature (Academie Books, Zondervan, 1984), p. 103. After the destruction, they begin to talk more of restoration. Never again would the old social and religious pattern be constructed in exactly the same way. He was to say, I am a sign to you. The goals of these Bible studies are, first, to help you understand the cultural background and the literary structure of the biblical stories and, thus, the purpose and message behind those stories. Deuteronomy 4:25-31 gives a nutshell description of this sequence: 25 When you become the father of children and childrens children and have remained long in the land, and act corruptly, and make an idol in the form of anything, and do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord your God so as to provoke Him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you shall surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. The prophetic books require time and study. [41] He did not leave his audience guessing as to which way affairs were going to change. [27] Their attitude is perfectly reflected in the Book of Mormon, in the insistence of Laman and Lemuel that we know that the people who were in the land of Jerusalem were a righteous people; for they kept the statutes and judgments of the Lord, and all his commandments, according to the law of Moses; wherefore, we know that they are a righteous people (1 Nephi 17:22). A second good example is seen in chapter 12:3-7. But it simply does not work that way most of the time. . [36] Nabonidus may have suffered also from a period of madness. Study by: Book Topic Author Verse Bible study tool. Historical Distance Another matter that complicates our understanding the prophets is the problem of historical distance. Darius took the last step, which occurred when Daniels enemies tricked the king into throwing Daniel into the lions den. 31 For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them. The only other alternative was to perish.[29]. These new prophets continued in the prophetic tradition of Moses. Though the state and the religion of Judah emphasized the worship of Jehovah alone, insisting that all other gods were no gods, Judah was never more than a step away from polytheism. Bible Studies. And we must be willing to devote a little time and prayer to the endeavor. The people confessed their sins and turned to their Lord. Rather, Egyptian wiles seem to have acted more to cool what little heat there was. For those who obey the stipulations of the New Covenant (loving God and loving one's neighbor through Jesus Christ), the final, eternal, result will be blessing, even though the results in this world are not guaranteed to be so encouraging. Walt Kaiser, one of my favorite authors in Old Testament studies, commented on application from the prophets in the following, Preaching from the prophets can have a great contemporary application if we recognize repentance as the condition for experiencing Gods favor. 271, How much are we like Israel, who claimed Gods eternal favor based on His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and then worshipped the things of this world? But other areas of Jewish settlement had all these things as well. There we see that by the time the writing prophets come on the scene, Israel was a nation permanently divided by a long ongoing civil war. 260 For specific examples of the prophets calling Israel back to God, see Amos 5:6, Hosea 14:1, Joel 2:12-13, Isaiah 55:3, and Zephaniah 2:1-3. It took a lot of soul-searching and a profound readjustment in her theological understanding to get things moving. Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not. ed. The second misconception lay in the false belief that God would uphold the Davidic dynasty no matter what. This ritual act he followed with a stern warning. After all, they violate the two great commandments that both the Old Covenant and New Covenant share (Matthew 22:36-40). I have only scratched the surface and talked of some of the features they have in common. Crops, for example, will be so enormous that the harvesters will not be finished by the time the sowers are to start planting again (verse 13). (New York: Doubleday, 1990), 54850. What they lacked was the one thing the Babylonian Jews had uniquely: the prophets. In referring to the prophets, Martin Luther once said the following: They have a queer way of talking, like people who, instead of proceeding in an orderly manner, ramble off from one thing to the next so that you cannot make heads or tails of them or see what they are getting at.256. They continued in the spirit of Elijah. Habakkuk was a prophet who likely lived at the same time as Zephaniah and Jeremiah. After the destruction of both kingdoms, i.e., after 586 BC, the prophets were moved more often to speak of blessings rather than curses because once the punishment of the nation is complete, God resumes His basic plan, which is to show mercy. God announced the enforcement of His Law (both positive and negative) through the prophets. [14] James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, 3rd ed. Though they were much closer to Jerusalem and had influence with local leaders and sufficient resources to reenter the land of Judea and at least lay the foundation for further growth, none are known to have stirred. Micah 2:1-5; Zeph. [39] Because of Ezekiels call while he was in Babylon about 593, some date his captivity to that point; however, the Babylonians took quite a few of the priestly families captive five years earlier. As a result, it requires too much speculation to be of worth for the purposes of this paper. This isnt done with textbooks in our ordinary schooling, and it doesnt really work with the Prophets either. When we speak of parallelism, we are referring to the Hebrew technique of presenting a thought using parallel literary members. Judah, too, was destroyed for its disobedience and carried off into exile. The Jews taken captive to Babylon included not only the socially elite but the spiritually elite as well. Jeremiah even supplied the parameters of her stay, promising Judah that she would serve the king of Babylon seventy years. Nathan, the prophet, had told David that thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever (2 Samuel 7:16). The reason for this is given in verse 3. Because it is so much more regular and stylized than colloquial prose, it too was better remembered. One of those genre is prophetic literature which has its own unique features. 2. Those years were characterized by three things: (1) unprecedented political, military, economic, and social upheaval; (2) an enormous level of religious unfaithfulness and disregard for the original Mosaic covenant; and (3) dramatic shifts in populations and national boundaries. Though this scripture looks to the last days, it had immediate application to Judahs return from captivity. Therefore, Judahs challenge was to make sure that she did not become integrated into the culture of this foreign land or she might forget her true home and temple. The most common types of parallelism are Synonymous, Antithetical, and Synthetic parallelism as illustrated below: Synonymous parallelism is where the second or subsequent line repeats or reinforces the sense of the first line, as in Isaiah 44:22:267. [9] See Ezekiel 33:2429 in light of Isaiah 57:313; 65:1, 11, for example. Since the evidence shows that Israel is clearly guilty, the judgment sentence is announced (verses 17-26). Also see Klein, pp. The Promise (or Salvation) Oracle Another common prophetic literary form is the promise or salvation oracle. Judah could neither ignore nor forget what had happened. (2) Can it not be argued that the sins of Israel are sins in the New Testament too? And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. [34] The Aramaic word designated magicians but would have included all those claiming ability to understand mysteries. He did retain a few strands, which he tied to the hem of his robe (see Ezekiel 5:15). Danville, Il Property Tax Lookup, Articles E