/In Outline for the Study OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY WISDOM and WORSHIP \NK SEAY 1 1 Class Book Copyrights COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. AN OUTLINE FOR THE STUDY OP OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY, WISDOM, AND WORSHIP FRANK SEAY Professor in the School of Theology of Southern Methodist University Nashville, Tenn. Dallas, Tex. ; Richmond, Va. Publishing House of the M. E. Church, South Smith & Lamar, Agents 1919 Copyright, 1919 BY Smith & Lamar DtC lb 1919 >CI.A536959 cr- i 2 This Book Is Dedicated to Those for Whom It Is Especially Written— THE YOUNG PREACHERS OF SOUTHERN METHODISM PREFACE The present study is not a treatise about the Bible, but a guide to the study of the Bible itself. It pre- supposes a desire to know not merely certain passages and proof texts, but the Old Testament as a whole — its contents and its purpose and message in its final form. It is believed that a thorough mastery of these should precede detailed criticism of particular books or sources and questions of authorship and date. The subject matter usually covered under the title of "Introduction to the Old Testament" should be, in this view, not introductory, but a systematic in- quiry of a more advanced kind. Such matters are therefore avoided, and the attempt is made to get a view of the Old Testament that will hold, whatever may be one's present or later position on questions of authorship and the like. The outline here given aims, moreover, to be a stimulus to further study and a preparation therefor. The amount of time devoted to the mastery of the present outline might well be devoted to a single book of the Bible. Especially should the preacher's chief study be his Bible; and unless he is stirred to a more definite and detailed systematic study of par- ticular books and phases of the Old Testament, the present work will have failed in one of its central purposes. This book is written at the request of the College of Bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church, (5) G An Outline of Old Testament South, for use in the course of study for itinerant and local preachers; but it is hoped that it may be found useful as well for courses in the Old Testament in schools and colleges, for advanced classes in Sun- day schools and other organizations, and also to individuals who in private study wish a general survey of the Old Testament by a first-hand study of the Old Testament material itself. The above is adapted from the Preface to the author's "Outline for the Study of Old Testament History," to which the present work is a companion volume. The two together cover the entire Old Testament, but each is a unity in itself. Gradually it is being felt by scholars that the proper place for beginning the study of the Old Testament is not with the Old Testament history, but with the prophets. It is suggested, therefore, that in college courses and the like the present volume be studied first. The title, "An Outline for the Study of Old Tes- tament Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship," is not all- inclusive, but as a longer statement would be some- what cumbersome, and as these are the phases of central interest, this title is considered best. The author has in places followed his "Story of the Old Testament," and frequent repetitions from the "Outline for the Study of Old Testament His- tory" and from earlier sections of the present volume are to be found. Such repetition may mar the literary unity of the work; but it is demanded by the most scientific pedagogy, and the author's pur- pose is, of course, a pedagogical one. This purpose, Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 7 indeed, has fashioned many things in the book that to the advanced student may seem illogical and un- scientific. Acknowledgments are hereby made not only to the works quoted and referred to in the footnotes, but to all Old Testament scholars whose works the author has read. Especial thanks are due to Bishop Edwin D. Mouzon and Mrs. Frank Seay for careful reading of the manuscript and valuable suggestions, and to Mr. King Vivion for aid in the verification of references. Frank Seay. Dallas, Tex., May 24, 1919. SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS AND STUDENTS The present outline is not for easy reading, but for study. In fact, one can hardly master any literature of a different age and clime from one's own without more than a casual reading. Bible stories are serviceable for immature minds, but the maturer student should aim to know the fundamen- tal messages of the Bible itself; critical discussions about the Bible are in order for those who have mastered its contents, but these should be preceded by a familiarity with the Bible text itself, and to that end an outline of some kind is a valuable aid. Therefore: 1. For the best work every one should use a wide- margin Revised Version of the Bible. The American Standard rendition is, in spite of some objections frequently made to it, the most accurate English translation of the Old Testament and is therefore recommended. 2. Mark your Bibles (a) by writing in the margins a title for the various paragraphs. It is well to print the main heads and write the subheads. Use either the paragraph headings suggested in the textbook or your own headings, (b) By underscoring pas- sages to which, for any reason, you wish to call at- tention for later thought, (c) By writing at the bottom or top of the pages other notes or questions for later study. (»/ 10 An Outline of Old Testament 3. The chapters, sections, and paragraphs are arranged according to the requirements of the sub- ject matter. The chapters are not used for refer- ences; for convenience of reference the sections are made continuous throughout the book. The section numbers and headings are in black-faced type, and the pararaphs are marked with the paragraph sign (If). Individual classes and students have different needs and abilities, and the lessons should be ar- ranged to suit each case. The Biblical material is so large as to furnish al- most too much ground for a single course for less advanced students. In such cases, it is suggested that the book might be divided into two shorter courses, one on the prophets and the other on the re- mainder of the Biblical material used in the book. A judicious instructor may find it wise to shorten his course by omitting certain portions of the study or by sketching some of the material more cursorily. This is especially so with the detail priestly pre- scriptions. The author has made no suggestions in this regard, because the original purpose of the study as contemplated by the course of study for young Methodist preachers involved a reading of the whole Bible, and because, further, the needs of classes vary so widely that the amount and character of such omissions should be left to the individual in- structor. 4. In every Bible passage the student should aim first of all to get the contents. The outline should be taken as a guide to that end. It is not intended to summarize the Bible text, but to lead to a mastery Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 11 of the text itself. One should aim at a general view, leaving more detailed questions for later study. If, however, these questions persist in the mind, the commentaries may be consulted. Do not follow the outline slavishly. Look for other viewpoints in the Bible passages and learn to get the peculiar message of each to your own mind. 5. Wherever the textbook says "Read" or "Com- pare," read carefully the passage referred to. It is easy to get into the habit of omitting some because the reference seems familiar or for other reasons. By such omission the student loses much. The rereading of a familiar passage may give one a new point of view, and often the passage is not as familiar as was thought. 6. The book for convenience contains three kinds of footnotes: (a) Stars (*), which are used simply to give references to the books and pages from which passages are quoted; (b) superior figures, which are used for notes of general or pedagogical interest; and (c) letters, to indicate notes of a more advanced or technical kind. This scheme of footnotes enables each reader to pass over such as may not be of im- mediate interest, and thus obviates the tendency of frequent footnotes to break into the continuity of a passage. 7. Attention is called to the Bibliography in the back of the book for those wishing further study. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I Page Amos, the Harbinger of a New Era and the Preacher of a God of International and Social Justice 15 Chapter II Hosea, the Prophet of a Forlorn Love 27 Chapter III Micah of Moresheth in Judah 36 Chapter IV Isaiah 42 Chapter V Jeremiah - 69 Chapter VI Ezekiel 85 Chapter VII Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi 102 Chapter VIII The Prophets of the Overthrow of Heathen Nations and the Vindication of Israel 113 Chapter IX Jonah, the High Water Mark of the Old Testament's Wider Outlook 125 Chapter X Daniel and the New Divine World Order 133 (13). 14 An Outline of the Old Testament Chapter XI Page The Legal and Priestly Enactments and Ideals 146 Chapter XII The Prophetic and Priestly Narratives of the Old Testa- ment 172 Chapter XIII Types of Literature in the Old Testament 185 Chapter XIV The Wisdom Books: Proverbs 197 Chapter XV The Wisdom Books: Ecclesiastes and Job 216 Chapter XVI The Lamentations and the Song of Songs 235 Chapter XVII The Book of Psalms, the Climax of Old Testament Reli- gious Devotion 246 Appendix Bibliography 267 AN OUTLINE FOR THE STUDY OF OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY, WIS- DOM, AND WORSHIP CHAPTER I AMOS, THE HARBINGER OF A NEW ERA AND THE PREACHER OF A GOD OF INTERNATIONAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE § 1. The God of History and of the Nations of Earth. Amos 1 and 2. Ifl. Who was Amos and when did he prophesy? Read Amos 1:1. There is a local as well as a national dating. Com- pare the phrase "two years before the earthquake" with "before the war/' "since the storm/' and the like modern provincial datings. The exact dates are not known. It is sufficient for the present pur- pose that Amos lived and prophesied during the earlier or the middle period of the eighth century. Takoa was a wilderness country about twelve miles south of Jerusalem. While, therefore, Amos proph- esied in Israel, his home was in Judah. If 2. Amos's arraignment of Israel. (1) The higher forms of speech and writing come from humble beginnings. The Greek drama grew out of the orgies and festivals of Dionysus, the god of wine and vegetation, and even the plays of Shake- speare are a development from this same source mediated by the dull didactic miracle plays of the (15) 16 An Outline of Old Testament [§ 1 Middle Ages. The modern novel seems, strange to say, hardly more a development from the older romance and poem-story than from the habit of letter-writing. The prophecies of Amos do not form themselves on the same basis as the early Church homily and its descendant, the modern sermon, but on the basis of the ancient oracle -poem. The preaching of Amos would have been an anachronism cast in the mold of the modern sermon. The people were familiar with the primitive priestly and prophetic oracles, and this was the natural form for the message of Amos to take. Picture him at a memorable Israelite feast uttering a series of short oracles against the nations of the ancient world. Note his diplomatic skill. He begins by condemn- ing those his hearers wished most strongly to see punished — Israel's determined foes: Damascus, the capital of Syria; Gaza of Philistia; Tyre; Edom; Ammon; Moab. After a vague, much -debated reference to Judah, which might make a few wise heads discern the direction of his discourse, the prophet comes home with a stroke as sudden and as telling as Nathan's "Thou art the man." (2 Sam. 12:7.) With these points in mind read Amos 1:2 to 2:8. (2) Was the sin of the foreign nations the worship of idols? or cruelty and the violations of principles of social justice? Note that in the case of Ammon not only the cruelty but the motive of the warfare seems to be condemned. What was that motive? Is there in this any especial message for the present world situation? Note that in the case of Moab, J[2] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 17 at least, a nation is condemned for a crime committed not against Israel but against another foreign people. In view of these facts, is Jehovah to Amos a God of the Hebrews only or of other nations also? Are his dealings with men based upon considerations of favoritism and ritual, or of morality and social justice? (3) Does the same standard of social justice that applies to the nations apply to Israel as well? What was Israel's sin? Elijah had condemned a king for the murder of a subject and the wanton confiscation of his estate; but Amos goes far beyond this. Burn into your memory the last half of Amos 2:6. The same things that foreign nations had done to Israel and to one another, the richer and more powerful group in Israel had done to the weaker. "God con- demns as much the one course as the other," is the prophet's announcement. Some recent scholars, accentuating the social interest, have tried to make the Old Testament prophets the fathers of democracy. This is only partly the case. The Hebrew prophets seem to have acted upon a theory of the divine right of kings, just as they assume a regime of slavery and just as Abraham and Jacob practiced polygamy. They deemed the king the anointed of Jehovah. The fathers of the theoretical principles of democ- racy are the Greeks, not the Hebrews. Yet the heart of democracy is sympathy and pity for the poor and oppressed. This, not the Greeks, but the Hebrews championed. Democracy's heart is, perhaps, more important than its head; and Amos's 2 18 An Outline of Old Testament [§2 cry for social justice and pity is the heart of de- mocracy, and is, not less than the writings of Plato, the forerunner of the utterances of Woodrow Wilson in 1917-18. 1f3. Why was Israel's sin especially heinous? Read Amos 2:9-12. The basis of Israel's religion in Amos's view is not merely in the fact that Jehovah is the national God, but is in requirements of gratitude for especial acts of national deliverance. This emphasis is pre- eminently characteristic of the prophetic viewpoint. 114. What will be the outcome of Israel's sin? Read Amos 2:13-16. Note the vigorous, terse phrases. Amos always expresses himself like a master. 1} 5. Some scholars think these two chapters were never spoken, but were a written prophetic message; others think they are a collection of short oracles spoken at different times, or contain inserts of ora- cles composed at different times. In any case, in the form in which they now appear, they constitute an adroit and masterly presentation of a powerful and epoch-making message. Read the two chapters through again in the light of your study. § 2. The Philosophy and Rationale of the Coming Pun- ishment of Israel; The "Hear This Word" Oracles. Amos 3 to 6. fl. The setting of the prophecy. (1) Note that, while at recurring intervals in chapters 1 and 2 the phrase "Thus saith Jehovah" jfl] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 19 occurs, in this section the phrase "Hear this word" introduces the several divisions. Read 3:la ? 4:1a, 5:1a. (2) An economic revolution had just caused the passing of the older independence of the peasantry with their small holdings and the concentration of wealth into the hands of the few with its consequent luxury. Read Amos 3:12b and 15, and 5:11. (3) The popular doctrine is that Israel is Jehovah's people : he has blessed her with prosperity and wealth. Read 2 Kings 14 : 23 and 25. "Israel only hath Jehovah known of all the fam- ilies of the earth," they thought, "and Jehovah will soon crown his present blessings with a coming glorious day." To this popular doctrine Amos opposes a startling message: what is it? Read Amos 3:2; read also 5:18. Evidently Amos and the people followed IsraeFs unique relation to Jehovah with different "there- fores," and they expected different kinds of days of Jehovah. This contrast explains how startling and revolutionary was his message in chapters 1 and 2. (4) "If Jehovah is angry with Israel [as, according to the Moabite stone, Chemosh was* with Moab], *Quoted in the "Outline for the Study of Old Testa- ment History," page 147, from Mercer's "Extra Biblical Sources for Hebrew and Jewish History," page 148. For a key to the different kinds of footnote designations in this volume see the Suggestions to Teachers and Stu- dents on pages 9 to 11, paragraph 6. If you have not read these Suggestions carefully, do so now. Indeed, it 20 An Outline of Old Testament [§2 surely gladsome sacrificial feasts and many offerings would win him over," thought the people; but Amos has no such view. Read Amos 4:4, 5 and 5:4-6. Bethel, Gilgal, and Beersheba were sacred shrines of Israelitish worship. Tf2. The oracles. Noting that the three main counts in Amos's indictment of Israel are (a) violence and oppression, (b) dependence on ritual and sacrifices rather than on justice and right as a means of winning God's favor, and (c) luxury and wantonness, Read Amos 3 to 6. Consider particularly (a) the prophet's stirring call to righteousness and religion (Amos 5:4-9 and 14, 15), (6) his pronouncement of judgment (3:11-15, 4:6 to 5:3, 5:16-20 and 27), (c) his terse quotable sentences and vivid imagery (3: 2-6 and 12, 5:19, 20). Note also 4:1, of which George Adam Smith* says, "It is a cowherd's rough picture of women: a troop of kine — heavy, heedless animals, trampling in their anxiety for food upon every frail and lowly object in the way. But there is a prophet's insight into character. Not of Jezebels, or Messalinas, or Lady Macbeths is it spoken, but of the ordinary matrons of Samaria. Thoughtlessness and luxury are able to make brutes out of women of gentle nurture, with homes and a religion." is well to read them frequently in the course of your study. *The Expositor's Bible, "The Twelve Prophets," Vol. 1, page 148. ft 3] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 21 § 3. The Visions and the Controversy. Amos 7 to 9. %1, The first two sections of Amos, as has been seen, contain a series of oracles introduced by the phrases 'Thus saith Jehovah' ' and "Hear this word," respectively. Harper* calls the second section "The sermons." By this term he rightly indicates that they are a further departure than chapters 1 and 2 from the primitive poem-oracle in the direc- tion of the sermon. The third section is a series of visions, and as such become the forerunner of another type of prophetic literature to be met later in more developed form in the Apocalypses. Read Amos 7: la, 4a, and 7a, 8: la; and 9: la, whose different phraseology indicates even more clearly its vision-character, the vision itself being, indeed, of a more developed sort. The vision may be the oldest form of the oracle. Compare 1 Kings 22:17 and 19-23; Numbers 23:9, 24:3-5 and 15-17. 1f 2. What are the contents of the first two visions? What is the third vision and its message? And how does it differ from the other two? Read Amos 7:1-9. If 3. The controversy with Amaziah, a great mo- ment in history; compared by George Adam Smith to Luther at the Diet of Worms.** Read Amos 7:10-17. *The International Critical Commentary, "Amos and Hosea," page cxxxii. **Book previously cited, page 108. 22 An Outline of Old Testament [§3 (1) What is Amaziah's charge? Recall that Ahijah had incited a conspiracy against Rehoboam (1 Kings 11:26-31); and that Jehu was urged on by (Elijah), Elisha, and the Rechabites in a conspiracy against Ahab. Amos, however, despite Amaziah's fears, seems to be of a different sort. He is rather an in- terpreter of what God is doing in history than a fomenter of plots. He calls the nation to repentance and appeals to moral forces. (2) Who was Amos? What was the nature of his call? And how does he meet Amaziah's charge? Amos, of course, does not mean that his father was not a prophet, but refers to the fact that he was not a member of a prophetic band or guild called "the sons of the prophets." Compare, for an example of the free use of the word "son" in Hebrew, Deuter- onomy 34:7, where the original reads: "Moses was the son of a hundred and twenty years when he died." *} t 4. The fourth vision. Read Amos 8:1-14. What is the vision and its interpretation? What again are the sins Amos sees in the Israelitish people? And what (note especially verse 11) are the notable features of the doom here pronounced? If 5. The fifth vision. Read Amos 9:1-6. (1) Compare especially the visions of Micaiah ben-Imlah (1 Kings 22:19) and of Isaiah (Isa. 6:1-4). Note that even Amos, who attacks the popular worship so strenuously, sees Jehovah "standing by the altar." Ifl] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship, 23 (2) The significant passage in the chapter, and indeed in the whole book of Amos, is verse ?• The Israelites are surfeited with the idea of the favorit- ism of Jehovah, the God of great deliverances, such as at the Red Sea and in the victory over Sisera. Against this idea Amos propounds severally these doctrines: (a) God will punish other nations, not for par- tisan but for moral reasons; (b) God will expect more of Israel, because she has been especially favored (Amos 3:2); (c) And here (in this climax of Amos's wider out- look) God leads and cares for other peoples as well as for Israel. Read Amos 9:7. Keep this passage in mind in your further study. ^ 6. The far-flung hope. Read Amos 9:8-15. Beyond the prophetic arraignments and the judg- ments predicted there arises and grows in the history of prophecy a hope for a divine event toward which history moves. The presence of this hope, as of the broader outlook referred to in the preceding para- graph, will be observed from time to time. These two aspects of prophetic thought, along with the moral emphasis previously noted, make the develop- ment of Israel's religion of prime importance in the history of humanity. § 4. Amos and His Times. If 1. The place of Amos in the history of prophecy in Israel. The revolt that founded the kingdom of Israel 24 An Outline of Old Testament [§4 was instigated, according to 1 Kings 11:26-40, by the prophet Ahijah on the ground that foreign wor- ships from Sidon, Moab, and Amnion had corrupted the religion of Judah under Solomon's rule. The socio-political question of taxation and oppression Ahijah does not seen to touch, unless Jeroboam's plea to Rehohoam reflects his ideas also. Made in a far larger mold than Ahijah was Elijah. His message to Ahab was, like that of Ahijah, a protest against foreign worships, against which he thrust the slogan "Jehovah is the God." Elijah, not less significantly championing the ancestral re- ligion, rebukes a ruthless king for the murder and dispossession of his subject, Naboth. The movement begun by Elijah resulted in a revolution under Elisha and Jehu and in the over- throw of the foreign Baalism. Perhaps a landmark in prophetic development is marked by a contemporary of Elijah who never caught the imagination of Israel, but who was nev- ertheless a great, bold spirit, Micaiah ben-Imlah.* Standing over against the prophetic guilds, he boldly predicts Ahab's defeat before a non-Israelitish foe. He sees Jehovah as enthroned and as bemoaning the shepherdlessness of his people. Compare Mark 6:34. *"Ben" in Hebrew corresponds to the Scottish "Mac" and means "the son of." The English custom places the word "son" at the end instead of the beginning. It is better to transliterate rather than to translate the term, as it really forms a part of the surname; as, ben-Imlah, McKnight, Mclntyre, Robertson, Williamson, etc. ffl] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 25 Of a rather opposite point of view, it would seem, was Jonah ben-Amittai, the ardent nationalist who predicted the success of the wars of Jeroboam II., and who, like Elisha, may have seemed in his day "the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof/' Read 2 Kings 14:25. The same narrower nationalistic viewpoint is attributed to him in the book of Jonah. This question will be considered in connection with the study of that book. Amos, according to Amos 1:1 also a prophet of Jeroboam's reign, may have represented a reaction from the Jonah group of prophets/ and also a further projection of the ideals of Micaiah ben-Imlah and of Elijah. He sees Jehovah as exalted above the nations and as working out his will by punishing Israel and them, and by caring in some sense for them as he does for Israel. Amos attacks not merely a tyrannical ruler, as Elijah and ben-Imlah had done, but the whole social order. He condemns the entire people as rotten to the core. The grounds of the overhanging judgment he locates in moral conditions of the broadest social kind. One's estimate of Amos will depend, of course, on one's view of previous Israelite and Oriental history; but under any theory, perhaps, the estimate a The book of Jonah may well be considered as an ac- count of how the narrower prophet Was through a tragic experience converted to the viewpoint of Amos. Compare §3, f[5 (2). The character of the book of Jonah, how- ever, must be postponed until the book of Jonah is con- sidered. 26 r An Outline of the Old Testament [§4 of Cornill* is not far wrong. "Amos is one of the most marvelous figures in the history of the human mind." He travels a path that all later piophecy follows. 1J2. One of the constant questions amongst stu- dents of the prophets is, "Why did Amos of Judah prophesy in Israel?" Some have answered by de- nying that Amos was from Judah and have tried to locate the Tekoa referred to in the northern kingdom. The facts, however, seem all against this most inherently probable assumption a priori, and favor the view that Amos of Judah, by a prophetic activity in the sister nation of Israel, builded out from the work of Ahijah, Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah ben-Imlah, and Jonah ben-Amittai, and became the founder of the new prophetism. ♦"The Prophets of Israel," Corkran's Translation, page 46. CHAPTER II HOSE A, THE PROPHET OF A FORLORN LOVE § 5. The Status of Opinion upon the Interpretation of Kosea. Ifl. The problem of interpreting the book of Hosea, and especially the first three chapters, is so intricate that it will be well to consider it before reading any part of the Bible text itself. These first three chapters present the story of a, tragic married life — of a wife who was guilty of adultery and harlotry. But here interpreters differ. Some take the story as an allegory or parable or prophetic vision of something that did not happen in fact, but is told by the prophet to picture the true course of Israel's conduct toward Jehovah. Most modern scholars, however, believe that these chapters recount real happenings; but here again differences arise. Some hold that Hosea married a pure young woman, who afterwards went astray and, it is usually added, broke the prophet's heart. Then, just as Jeremiah and Paul see in their re- spective "calls" the fulfillment of what God had in mind before their births, so Hosea sees the hand of God in his life from the beginning and feels that Jehovah was enacting in his experience a parable of Israel's apostasy to teach by a prophet's love for a wayward wife how Jehovah loves the wayward and sinful Israel. Others think that just as Isaiah went barefoot (27X 28 An Outline of Old Testament [§5 to call attention in a striking way to the coming Captivity, and just as Jeremiah wore a yoke as a symbol of subjection to the hated foreigner, so Hosea feels God's call to marry a woman who is already a notorious harlot in order by so unusual a course to call attention to Israel's conduct more forcibly than could be done even by the most vivid imagery in utterance or writing. Strong arguments can be urged for any of these views, and one should not put any of them perma- nently aside without a careful consideration of the arguments. As, however, in such a network of possibilities the first requisite is to get some consist- ent view, the following one is presented. It is not in any way offered as a final solution of the prob- lems involved, but as one that will serve until the student can by further study reach his own conclu- sions.* %2. It is customary to divide the book of Hosea more or less roughly into two sections: First, chapters 1-3, the story of the prophet's married life; and, secondly, chapters 4-14, the prophetic sermons. This is hardly adequate. The book seems to center roughly around not one but two figures — it is an ellipse, not a circle. Chapters 1-10 are dominated by the figure of a wayward wife; chapters 11-14 (or 11-13, if chapter 14 be a conclusion applicable *For other interpretations see the pertinent passage in J. M. P. Smith's "The Prophet and His Problems," and the Commentaries of Harper, Pusey, and George Adam Smith. fll] Prophecy, Wisdom , and Worship 29 to both sections) are dominated by a sort of parable of a prodigal son. The first section is in two divisions, the story (1-3) and the sermons (4-10). If 3. It is worth noting in passing that the first section of Hosea presents a new literary form. a It is not a series of oracles, like the first chapters of Amos; nor a series of visions, like the last chapters; nor yet an independent discourse or discourses, like the middle section of that book. It is rather a story (be it parable or fact) and a series of sermons and applications based thereon. This form needs to be kept in mind, as it will be of interest in com- parison with other books to be studied later. § 6. The Book and Its Message. «[ 1. The first division of the first section of Hosea. (1) Since Hosea 1:2 is in the third person and 3:1 is in the first, it is not impossible that they refer to the same event and that the editorial super- scription of the book b is not merely verse 1, but verses 1 and 2. The superscription tells, then, not only, as in the case of Amos, the date of the proph- ecies, but also the central fact of the author's pro- phetic activity. Read Hosea 1:1, 2. a This new literary form grows very naturally, of course, out of the prophetic oracle-vision. The prophet or seer sees a vision and then gives his interpretation. Compare Amos 7 to 9. bDetails cannot be given here because of the limits and character of the present work. Suffice it to say that there are difficulties under any theory. 30 An Outline of Old Testament [§6 (2) Next comes the story of Hosea's marriage to Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and of the birth of their three children. Read Hosea 1:3-9. Some interpreters think that by the time of the birth of the second child Hosea suspects the virtue of Gomer and that he names the child "Unpitied" — that is, "without a father's pity/' in view of that suspicion. This seems unnecessary here or even after he has named the third child "No-kin-of- mine," since the prophet names his children to en- force his prophetic messages, as is shown in the naming of the first child "Jezreel." "No-kin-of- mine" would therefore merely convey the message that Jehovah renounces kinship with Israel. Without making the situation too modern and without in any way justifying Gomer, it is not at all impossible that the beginning of the misunder- standing between Gomer and Hosea may have been when the prophet's serious mind thus named his child. One might compare the prosaic, matter-of- fact way John Wesley courted, by asking his class- meetings whether they thought the married or the single life preferable for him, while another man walks off with his sweetheart, or even how oblivious he was, after his marriage, to what some one calls "the little things that go to make up the chain of a woman's happiness." Prophets, in other words, do not always make the best husbands. At any rate, Hosea took the whole process of rearing a family as a means of presenting his message to the nation. fl3] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 31 (3) After his wife's fall to the very depths of shame, Hosea receives a command from Jehovah to go love her again and take her home for protec- tion and reformation. Read Hosea 3:1-5. Note the first person, "Jehovah said unto me." H" 2. The first application. Read Hosea 1:10 to 2:23. Ahijah and Elijah had fought the introduction of foreign Baals into Jehovah's land. They were horrified at such a bold intrusion. Hosea attacks the more insidious local Baalim, 1 perhaps the gods of the land in Canaanitish days, who were thought by the local inhabitants to give the land its fertility. Hosea asserts that the grain and wine and oil come not from the agricultural deities but from Jehovah, and he dubs the worship of these deities- adultery and even harlotry. If 3. The first homily or exhortation based upon the marital experience of the prophet. Read chapter 4. The people collectively play the harlot by wor- shiping the Baalim and the individuals play the harlot because such practice is a part of the debased ritual of the Baal religion. They have rejected the knowledge of Jehovah, they are joined to idols. Is it possible that Corner's fall may have been associat- ed with these Baal cults and the religious prostitu- tion connected with them? If so, the wrong of the Baal worship came very close home to the prophet. Baalim is simply the Hebrew plural of Baal. 32 An Outline of Old Testament [§6 IF 4. The second homily-oracle (or group of oracles). Read Hosea 5:1 to 9:9. (1) Note that this oracle, or at least the first part of it, seems directed especially at the priests and rulers, whereas the first oracle was a "contro- versy' ' with the inhabitants of the land. (2) The same strain as in chapter 4 recurs in 5:3a, 6:10, 8:96-14, 9:1. (3) Observe that the emphasis is not on tender affection, but on the instinctive jealousy of the hus- band: 5:14, 7:12, 8:13. (4) The attack made on idols: 8:4-6. (5) The great text: 6:6. Compare Amos 2:65. "What other points impress you? The whole book will repay careful study. Where does Israel seek help (5:13, 7:11 and 16, 8:9a)? If 5. Here follows a passage or passages built largely around the figures of grapes and the vine, and of sowing and reaping. Perhaps this might be considered a separate section of the book; but its figures are so much less significant than the figures of the wife and the son that, whether quite logical or not, the passage had better be taken as a division of one of the other sections, either as closing the first section or as beginning the second section, where the main theme is not contemporary con- ditions merely but the entire history of Israel. Read Hosea 9:10 to 10:15. ^6. So far the message of Hosea is not very differ- ent from that of Amos. Amos pictures the diso- bedience and rebelliousness of Israel in literal terms as a rebellion of a people against God; Hosea, under ft6] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 33 a figure, as a rebellion of a wife against her obligation to her husband. The wife is due loyalty and "leal- love." These Gomer and Israel fail to render. It is not impossible that the figure Amos used in 5:2 may have helped Hosea to his conception. The usual view that Hosea represents Jehovah's tender affection toward Israel under the figure of a husband's love for a wife seems to read modern ideals into ancient life. It is true there were some romances in primitive times like that of Jacob and Rachel, and even some romance in marriages like that of Isaac and Eebekah; there was always the play of the higher sexual and family instinct, and modern Christians are all too prone to underestimate the ties of affection and consideration that bind modern heathen or ancient patriarchal families together. Yet, after all has been said, the lifelong companionship of the modern man and woman as a companionship of equals is foreign to the ancient social order. Compare the lordship of the man in Abraham's sending away of Hagar; the place of the wife in the tenth commandment in Exodus and even in Deuteronomy; ::: the story of Alcestis among the Greeks. Nor is the crime of adultery the same sort of crime in the ancient as in the modern family: it is strongly condemned, but is of a different tone and type. When Jehovah says to Hosea "Go, love again," he does not mean "Go, have a deep, broken-heart- ed affection." There is a deep sadness, of course, *$ee§33, tf 4. 34 An Outline of Old Testament [§6 in Hosea's life, and he loves his wayward wife; but he does not profess a broken heart of the modern type, nor does he here represent Jehovah as the broken-hearted God and Husband of Israel. Rather is he like the deeply wronged man whose jealousy is stirred and whose rights are ignored. This is primary; the deeper affection is secondary in the prophet's thought. The purpose of the command to take Gomer back is not that she may be "loved/' but that she may be disciplined. Read Hosea 3:3. Under the figure of the marriage relation Hosea presents the only aspect of God's character con- sonant with the social ideals of the time, the rightful jealousy that demands "leal-love." Compare the second commandment, "a jealous God" (Ex. 20:5). Under this figure Hosea is the prophet of a forlorn "leal-love." If 7. But Hosea is also the prophet of the great affectionate heart of God. If the lifelong companion- ship of love between man and wife did not exist in the ancient world, the lifelong companion-love of father and son did. Compare the relation of Abra- ham to Sarai with that of Abraham to Isaac; or of Jacob to Rachel even with that of Jacob and Jos- eph; or David's impulsive, instinctive love for Abi- gail or Bathsheba with his affection for Absalom. (Recall also how the David-Jonathan and Ruth- Naomi friendships surpass any friendship related between husband and wife.) Hosea knew the depths of a father's love; so when, by a change of figure, God becomes not husband but father the great ft8] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 3o broken heart of God pours itself forth. Noting particularly verses 1, 3, and 8 in chapter 11, Read Hosea 11 to 13. Does the father's heart turn back here from the faithless Gomer to the poorJezreel,Lo-ruhamah,and Lo-ammi, whose names were, in the time of his un- broken home, a parable to Israel; but who themselves got hold of the father's heartstrings so strongly? In this representation Hosea goes beyond Amos; or, perhaps better, he rehabilitates the older Israel- itish religion of Jehovah's especial love and care for Israel, in the new moralized and internationalized setting into which the stern moral demands of Amos had thrust it. It is significant that throughout Hebrew literature the most tender passages on God's love hang not around the figure of husband and wife, but around that of parent and child. Compare the Old Testament figure of an adulterous wife cul- minating in the New Testament representation of the Church as the bride of Christ, where the thought is less of Christ's love than of his husband-like requirement of perfect purity and beauty in his bride, with the figures in the prophets of the Divine love like a parent's to a child,* culminating inJesus's story of the prodigal son and his bereft father. If 8. The hope for the future: a beautiful call to repentance with a promise of restoration to Divine love and care. Read Hosea 14. *In addition to Hosea, note preeminently Isaiah 49:15. CHAPTER III MICAH OF MORESHETH IN JUDAH § 7. Micah. Ifl. Although Isaiah is an older contemporary, Micah is taken first in this study for two reasons: (a) He works more completely in the spirit of Amos and Hosea than does Isaiah; and, like them, he represents the viewpoint not of the city-dweller or of one under the shadow of the Jerusalem Temple but that of the mass of country folk; and (b) The treatment of the book of Isaiah at this stage would take the student so far beyond the cycle of Micah's ideas as to make a return to him decidedly like an eddy in the stream of prophetic development. It is not the purpose of the present study to enter into critical questions of date and authorship, yet it has been thought best not to ignore entirely the chronological order where there is no material dis- pute and where that order makes clear and vivid the main line of prophetic development. An effort is made to make no comment in the text violently in conflict with any widely accepted viewpoint. On these principles Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Jere- miah, Ezekiel, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are treated first. The other prophetic books are treated in large degree topically and with little reference to chronological sequence. This course is followed with- out intending to deny, for example, the early date (36) If 2] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 37 of the books of Joel and Jonah or to assert the unity of Isaiah or Micah. These are merely questions be- yond the scope of the present outline. If 2. The spirit of Israel works in Judah also, and the spirit of Israelitish prophecy finds a voice in a prophet of Judah. (1) Prior to the time of Isaiah and Micah, as has been seen, prophecy had its home chiefly in Northern Israel. In Micah a prophet of Judah ar- raigns the same social conditions in Judah that Amos found in Israel. The prosperity Israel attained under Jeroboam II. is now shared by Judah with the same results in the oppression of the poor by the rich. Read Micah 1:1 and 9, and 2:1, 2. This last is almost a modern anti-trust message. The wickedness they think on in their beds is not individual vices, but social oppressions. (2) Amos had stressed, in addition to general oppression, the luxury and wantonness of the women and the ceaseless round of meaningless worship: Micah arraigns especially the unmanly mercenary prophets, priests, rulers, and judges. Read Micah 3:1-3, 5 and 9-11. (3) What threats does Micah make? Read Micah 1:6,7, 3:12, and especially 3:6, 7. The condition predicted in the last passage is to the prophets a constant horror: compare Amos 8:11. (4) Now with these points in mind, and taking 1:8-16 as a dirge over the devastations of a con- quering army, and getting the spirit and power of the prophet's message, Read the first section of Micah, chapters 1-3. 38 An Outline of Old Testament [§7 If 3. It is sometimes said that Micah presents no new idea and marks no theological advance, but is a powerful preacher of the messages of earlier proph- ets. What amounts to a contrary view is offered by J. M. P. Smith:* "Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah could contemplate the fall of Samaria with some degree of equanimity, for Judah remained as the representa- tive of Yahweh. 1 . . . Micah with unshrinking faith proclaimed Yahweh as superior to and independent of his city, his temple, and his people. It was a faith that stopped at nothing.' ' What do you think of Smith's view? If 4. The larger future: the passing of war and the coming of international peace. The next passage is found in slightly varying form in both Isaiah and Micah, a fact that has given rise to the question as to which quotes the other; or if neither, as to whether both use an older oracle or an editor has inserted the passage in both places. These problems pale before the wonderful beauty of the passage, the forerunner of many similar ideals, expressing the ever-recurring hope for international peace. At no period of the world's history is this message of more interest than to-day. It is one of the noblest of prophetic oracles. *"The Prophet and His Problems," page 216. 1 When the Hebrew name for God became in later Judaism too sacred to utter, the rabbis pronounced the consonants of that name with the vowels of the Hebrew word for Lord, Adhonai; which combination is rendered in English "Jehovah." The usual modern reconstruc- tion of the ancient name is "Yahweh." fl7] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 39 Read Micah 4:1-5 and Isaiah 2:2-4. If 5. The next passage is a more nationalistic ex- pression of Israel's hope of redemption. Read Micah 4:6 to 5:1. If 6. The prophet then turns to the coming king and the religious reformation. Read Micah 5:2-9 and 10-15. The expectation of a coming son of David becomes one of the corner stones of the hope for a Messiah, tying the national and the religious ideals together. The ability to look back to an ideal lovable king gave Judah an immense religious as well as political advantage over Israel and did much to give her hopes a "local habitation and a name." The char- acter of David was, therefore, not only Judah's greatest political asset,* but one of her greatest re- ligious assets as well. What are the features of the reformation described in verses 10-15? If 7. The great summary of religion: a high- water mark of Old Testament prophecy. Read Micah 6:1-8. What Micah 4:1-4 (with its parallel, Isaiah 2:2-4) has been as a guidepost to international idealism, this passage has been as an exposition of spiritual religion. A legalistic or ritualistic view (verse 2) makes religion a wearisome affair. Rightly viewed, however, God is not primarily one who demands but one who gives — a God of redemption (verses 4, 5) ; ^Compare the "Outline for the Study of Old Testa- ment History," page 167. 40 An Outline of Old Testament [§7 and as for his demands, what are they? The ques- tion of verse lb is not merely rhetorical, as the widespread practice of human sacrifice testifies. It seemed hard for the Israelites to get away from the ancient idea that the greatest sacrifice of all — that of a first-born son — would please or appease God. Compare Judges 11:29-40, Psalm 106:35-39, 2 Kings 3:2, and Genesis 22:1-19, which seems to teach "that while Jehovah requires such devotion as would give up an only son for his sake, human sacrifice is to be banished from Israel."* Furthermore, a priestly ritualism elaborated the ceremonial and stressed the number of offerings. The great answer to verse 3, as well as to verses 6 and 7, is that weary ritualistic (and legalistic) prescriptions are man-made and unnecessary. What does God require? Read again the magnificent statement, verse 8. Compare the summary of religion given by the New Testament practical wis- dom, James 1:27. ^[8. Driver** notes that "it is no longer the lead- ers only, as in chapters 1 to 3, whose misconduct the prophet denounces; the people as a whole are ad- dressed, and the entire nation is represented as cor- rupt." Scant and deceitful weights, violence, lies, and un- trustworthiness abound. Read Micah 6:9 to 7:6. *Seay, "The Story of the Old Testament," page 71. ♦♦"Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testa- ment," page 330. fl9] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 41 1[9. But the prophet looks beyond the present. Read Micah 7:7-20. What features are particularly worthy of note here, and what tone predominates? § 8. Exercise and Review. (1) Read Amos at a sitting and write out a sum- mary of his message and an estimate of his character. (2) Do the same with Hosea and Micah respec- tively. (3) Wherein do these three differ from one anoth- er in message and form? Write out a statement. (4) Choose several of the greatest passages in each book and master and memorize them. (5) Write out a sketch of ancient prophetism as so far studied. CHAPTER IV ISAIAH § 9. "The Great Arraignment." Isaiah 1. f 1. The title of the section, suggested by Ewald, has become the most popular name for the first chapter of Isaiah. The chapter has also been de- scribed as a kind of summary of Isaiah's message placed in its present position (the story of the prophet's call is in chapter 6) to serve as a sort of preface to the book. Tf 2. After the title verse, there comes Jehovah's incomparable appeal to the heavens and the earth. Read Isaiah 1:1-3. Two aspects of sin are presented; in verse 2 sin is rebellion, a violation of the principles of obliga- tion and gratitude. In verse 3 sin is held up as amazing stupidity. The former, as will be increas- ingly apparent, is more characteristic of the pro- phetic point of view. Compare verse 2 with Hosea 11:1-3 and verse 3 with Hosea 4 :1c and 6. Compare also Isaiah 5:13. II 3. Jehovah's direct appeal to the people and leaders of Israel. Read Isaiah 1:4-20. (1) First the prophet places the desolateness of the land over against the sin of the people as effect and cause, and then he denounces the effort to ap- pease God by ritual and offerings instead of by a reformed life. (42) fl4] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 43 Compare Isaiah 1:11-17 with Amos 5:4-7, and Hosea 6:6, (2) The prophets frequently represent Jehovah as entering into some sort of controversy with his people; his communications are not mere fulmi- nations, but pleadings and reasonings. Compare Hosea 4:1, Micah 1:2, 6:2, Isaiah 1:2 with Isaiah 1:18a, but do not place too much stress on the mere word "reason" in the English versions. (3) Some scholars think the latter part of verse 18 is ironical. The people were saying, 'Though our sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow/' probably by reason of the multitude of sacrifices. Jehovah says, in fine scorn: "Though your sins be as scarlet, shall they be as white as snow? No; but if ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat of the good of the land." The usual interpretation, of course, makes the verse a promise of forgiveness and cleansing. Either view furnishes a great message; but even if the former view be the correct rendering of the Hebrew text, the latter certainly reflects the ideal of the New Testament and of some pas- sages in the Psalms and the prophets. The question is, therefore, not whether the ordinary interpre- tation be a doctrine of the Bible, but whether it be the sense of this particular passage. If 4. Jehovah's exclamation of wonder. Read Isaiah 1:21-23. Compare Jesus in Mat- thew 8:10 and Mark 6:6. The comparison seems to be suggested by Hosea's message. It, like Amos 5:2, accords well with the view that Gomer was a chaste woman before her 44 An Outline of Old Testament [§10 marriage, and the whole passage harmonizes with the idea that the figure of the faithless woman rep- resents not so much the idea of breaking a husband's heart as that of rebellion against obligation to a husband. Tf5. The new figure. (1) Amos speaks of God as a ruler or judge re- quiring his people to act justly; Hosea, as a husband demanding loyalty and as a father disappointed in his child. Isaiah, after using these figures in verses 10, 21, and 2, respectively, pictures the people of Israel in a sorrier plight as enemies of her God. Read Isaiah 1:24. (2) But this figure is followed only for a moment: the prophet turns to the purpose of Jehovah and the future of Israel. Read Isaiah 1:25-31. What aspects of the Israel that is to be are here dwelt upon? If 6. Because of its typicalness as well as its im- port much time has been spent in this chapter. Now, after reviewing the comments of the text, read the entire chapter consecutively, getting its turns of thought, its vivid figures, and its great message. § 10. The Word That Isaiah the Son of Amoz Saw Con- cerning Judah and Jerusalem. Isaiah 2 to 12. f 1. Read Isaiah 2:1. Compare Isaiah 13:1, which indicates that the title of 2:1 does not extend to the thirteenth chapter. Isaiah 2:2-4 has been studied under §7, If 4, which see. ft 3] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 45 If 2. The sin of Judah and the day of Jehovah. (1) In the popular mind the day of Jehovah was the time when Jehovah would, without especial re- gard to moral considerations, visit deliverance or blessing upon his people and seemingly complete destruction upon their enemies. The canonical prophets have a different conception. Compare Amos 5:18-20 and Isaiah 2:12. Noting the three sins dwelt upon in verses 6, 7, and 8 (foreign influence, trust in armies and ma- terial things rather than in Jehovah, and idolatry), Read Isaiah 2:5-22. (2) An ordinary soothsayer among any people might see in famine or pestilence or defeat in war the hand of an offended God. Isaiah predicts as punishment to come more than a famine — a topsy- turvy social order. Read Isaiah 3:1 to 4:1. What two classes are singled out? Compare Isaiah 3:13 to 4:1 with Amos 2:6-8, 4:1-3, and 3:126 and 15. God, however, has an ultimate purpose to which the forces of history tend. Read Isaiah 4:2-6. Compare §9, f 5 (2). 1f3. The song of the vineyard and the woes. (1) One of the literary gems of prophetic litera- ture is the parable-song of the vineyard. Along with Jotham's fable (Judges 9:7-15) and Nathan's parable (2 Sam. 12:1-7), it stands perhaps more nearly as the forerunner in literary form of the par- ables of Jesus than any other Old Testament pas- sages. 46 'An Outline of Old Testament [§10 Read Isaiah 5:1-7. (2) To what several classes of people are the woes uttered? Read Isaiah 5:8-23. Compare the first woe with Micah 2:1, 2 and the second (identical with the first half of the last woe, verse 22) with Proverbs 20:1, 23:29-35, 31:4, 5. Consider the want of any real moral sense condemned in verse 20. (3) What is the specific punishment that the chapter expects to see visited upon the people? Read Isaiah 5:13 and 24-30. (4) Note that when Jesus in Matthew 21:33- 43 uses a parable seemingly modeled after Isaiah's parable of the vineyard, he looks beyond mere pun- ishment for Israel to the choosing of another people. If 4. Isaiah's call. (1) The chapter evidently presents the prophet as looking back over the years to a sacred expe- rience of earlier days. "In the year that King Uzziah died" — it begins. George Adam Smith* suggests that it was the sinking of the glorious majes- ty of King Uzziah** behind the cloud of leprosy that by contrast impressed Isaiah with the more lasting majesty of a greater king. Read Isaiah 6:1-7. This is one of the most epochal experiences in human history, comparable almost to that of Saul *"Isaiah," in the Expositor's Bible, Vol. I., page 59. **See "Outline for the Study of Old Testament His- tory," §72, lffl-3. ff4] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 47 of Tarsus on the road to Damascus. The vision of Paul, in the open country of a non-Israelitish land, meant the freeing of early Christianity from the hands of the current religious institutions and tra- ditions; that of Isaiah, occurring in the Jerusalem Temple, meant the tying of Hebrew prophetism to the religious institutions of his day. In this respect they seem to represent opposite tendencies. Yet each perhaps represented the supreme need of spiritual religion in its own age. Amos and Hosea stand totally outside of Is- raelitish ecclesiasticism, and when the nation fell there was nothing for their messages to tie to. While Isaiah, like Micah, caught up the message of Amos and Hosea and put the emphasis where they did (compare Isa. 1:11-20), he nevertheless ties prophetism to the Temple. Many modern scholars regard this as unfortunate, because the Jewish ecclesiasticism in later times engulfed and subverted prophetism. But that ecclesiasticism preserved it, none the less; and had it not been for this accomplish- ment of Isaiah's, the prophecies of even Amos and Hosea might not have been preserved or made effective at all. Compare how deeply Paul felt it necessary to tie to the primitive Church in Jerusalem (Gal. 2:2), and how ineffective the Renaissance spirit was in the popular mind until Luther tied it to the Church. Perhaps it should be said that there was in Judah an ecclesiasticism that lent itself more to Isaiah's task than Amos and Hosea had at hand in the northern kingdom. 48 An Outline of Old Testament [§10 (2) Not less influential and far more significant spiritually is Isaiah's personal feeling of uncleanness in the presence of Jehovah and his personal expe- rience of forgiven sin. Out of this feeling flows Isaiah's emphasis on the holiness of God, comparable to that of Amos on the justice of God and of Hosea on God's demand for personal loyalty and on God's love. Compare Isaiah's new name for God: 1:4, 5:24, 10:17, 29:19 and 23. Out of this experience enters also into prophetism another ethical viewpoint. In 1:2, as has been seen, sin is looked upon as rebellion; in 1:3 as foolishness, a viewpoint characteristic, as will appear, of the wisdom element of the Old Testament: here sin is uncleanness. This is the priestly emphasis, to which righteousness is spotlessness. It preaches the religion of a clean record.* (3) The mission and message. Read Isaiah 6:8-13 and compare Mark 4:11, 12, Matthew 13:14, 15. Compare also Exodus 10:1. One must seek the commentaries and books on theology for the discussions of this difficult and seemingly harsh passage. But the main facts are clear. (a) The bulk of the people seem hopeless (com- pare Hos. 4:17): but (6) A remnant shall be saved (compare 6:13 and a With these three one might compare the most char- acteristic Greek view of sin as ugliness and of righteous- ness as beauty and harmony. These are the four touch- stones of practical ethics. See § 2. If 5] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 49 1:9). Out of this remnant-doctrine comes the prog- ress of prophecy toward the appreciation of the individual and of purely spiritual and non-nation- alistic values, (4) Now read the chapter entire — one of the great passages — and get its full message. 1f5. A prophet in action. (1) A not infrequent prophetic method seems to have been that of naming children so as to embody messages to the nation. This Hosea did, as has been seen. Isaiah adopts the same plan. One of his ideas was that of "The remnant" (See \4 (3) (6), above) ; this idea, as well as another, he embodied in the name of a son. Read Isaiah 7:3, 8:1-4 and 6-18. The margin of the Revised Version gives the translation of the names as "A remnant shall return" and "The spoil speedeth, the prey hasteth." (2) The passage under consideration (Isaiah 7:1 to 9:7) is more like 1 Kings 17:1 to 2 Kings 2:12.* It is the story of a prophet's activity, not a se- ries of oracles or sermons. Syria and Israel attack Judah presumably because Judah will not join them against Assyria. Ahaz turns to Assyria for help. Isaiah tells him he should turn to Jehovah for help. The prophet thus becomes a kind of Old Testament Paul with a doctrine of salvation by faith. Read Isaiah 7:95, 8:11-13. (3) Following the method referred to in (1) above, *See the "Outline for the Study of Old Testament History," § 65. 4 50 An Outline of Old Testament [§10 thesweeping prophetic faith is embodied in the name of a child to be born. Read Isaiah 7:14-16 and 9:6,7. (4) Now, with these points in mind and getting the full significance especially of the last verse, Read Isaiah 7:1 to 9:7. If 6. God's warnings and ultimatum. Read again Amos 4:6-13 and then read Isaiah 9:8 to 10:4, following it with a rereading of Isaiah 5:25-30, which some scholars think is the dislocated close of the sermon. Such dislocation seems some- times to have happened in ancient manuscripts. Note the recurrence of the formula in 9:12, 17, and 21, 10:4, and in 5:25. The hand "stretched out" is, of course, not in mercy, but in readiness for another blow. This last (5:25-30), if the rearrangement is correct, is the ultimatum, like Amos 4:12, 13. What are the sins of the people that so arouse Jehovah's anger? The ethical emphasis is significant of the prophetic viewpoint. If 7. A philosophy of history. It is usually said that the Hebrews were not philosophers; that, for example, they assume the existence of God and do not try to prove it; and that one must go rather to the Greeks for philosophy. If philosophy be defined as metaphysics, of course the statement is true; but if a broader definition of philosophy be taken, the statement is at best one- sided. It is true that the Greeks elaborated their philosophy more formally and technically, just as did Kant and his successors in Germany as over j[7] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 51 against Locke, Berkeley, and Hume in England, and that the^Greek philosophy is a less communal and more individual product; but it is a mistake to think of the Greeks as theorizers for theory's sake. Man is a pragmatic animal, and theory is born of a prac- tical motive. The Greeks started with the idea of the world, and therefore had to think through, as their most pressing practical problems, the grounds for believing in God and even for believing the truth of the reports of the senses. To the older Greek mind history was no problem. It just happened to be what it was. The Hebrews started from the idea of God, and that guaranteed the validity of the senses, for God would not deceive mankinds Given God. however, as a starting point, the facts of history raised a problem. Thus while the Greeks developed an epistemology and a theism, the Hebrews developed a philosophy of history and a theodicy. b Isaiah's philosophy of history is that in history God is working out his own moral ends, that national sin brings on national disaster (compare Amos 1 and 2), and that Assyria is to be God's instrument of punishment. This, however, brings forward another problem — "Is Assyria better than Judah?" "No," says the aFor the working of the Greek problem upon a mind imbued with the Hebrew point of view one has but to turn to the philosophy of Descartes, who proves the va- lidity of the senses by first proving the existence of God. bThe later Stoic philosophy of history and theodicy grew out of the previous philosophical conclusion as to the existence of a supreme God — that is, out of the same premise as the Hebrew theodicy and philosophy of his- tory. 52 An Outline of Old Testament [§11 prophet: God uses her now; later he will punish her wantonness. Read Isaiah 10:5-34. What is Assyria's view and what the prophet's view of her power (verses 10, 13, and 15)? What will be the ultimate fates of Assyria and Israel re- spectively (verses 12, 20, and 21)? <[8. Beyond the present there looms the outcome of the forces of history and of the purpose of God. Read chapters 11 and 12. Dwell upon the wonderful picture of the kindly character and equitable administration of the king and judge, and upon the universal peace in the world of animals and men. Says George Adam Smith: "We, who live in countries from which wild beasts have been exter- minated, cannot understand the insecurity and terror that they cause in regions where they abound." But, unlike Hercules and Theseus and Arthur, the Hebrew prophet in his kindly heart "would not have the wild beasts exterminated, but tamed."* Note the strain of universalism in 11 : 10. Compare Amos 9:7 and §3, 1f5 (2). § 11. Oracles upon the Nations. Isaiah 13 to 23. f 1. The burden of Babylon. Read Isaiah 13 and 14, noting the following points: (a) The carrying out of the idea of the Divine work- ing in history. Compare especially God's use of the *The Expositor's Bible, "Isaiah," Vol. I., pages 18 9 and 190. fl5] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 53 Medes. (6) The picture of the destruction, like a Chopin funeral-march (13:19-22). (c) The taunt- song of the restored Israel. (d) Two addenda on Assyria and Philistia. \2. The burden of Moab. Read Isaiah 15 and 16. Note that an older oracle is quoted (16:13, 14) and its speedy fulfillment announced. If 3. The burden of Damascus. Remembering that, according to chapter seven, Israel (here, as not infrequently, referred to by the name of its leading tribe as Ephraim; compare Hosea) was confederate with Syria against Judah. Read Isaiah 17. If 4. The burden of Ethiopia and Egypt. The prophet turns from the more petty enemies and rivals — Philistia, Moab, Syria, Ephraim — to another of the world empires which, like Assyria and Babylon, made Israel and Judah its football. Read chapters 18 to 20. Note (a) the strange object lesson of 20:2-4. Compare the Greek philosopher Diogenes with his lantern in daytime "looking for a man." (b) The magnificent universalism of 19:21-25. The prophet looks beyond the bounds of a narrow nationalism to a world highway and foresees the conversion of the empires that had devastated Israel. Refer again to Amos 9:7; also to §10, If 8, above, especially comparing the taming as versus the extermination of animals with the conversion as versus the extermi- nation of the people. Which is the greater conquest? If 5. A somewhat miscellaneous group of oracles 54 An Outline of Old Testament [§11 against (1) several peoples, (2) the homeland, and (3) a faithless individual. Read Isaiah 21 and 22. Parts of 21:9, 11, 12, and of 22:22, 23 become catch phrases in later writers. In passing from foreign peoples to the homefolk, there seems to be no such oratorical climax as in Amos 1 and 2 (§ 1) . Yet the message is to the point. Compare 22:11, 13, and 14. Says George Buchanan Gray: Clear and insistent in this section is the contrast between the prophet's dark vision of destruction and the light-heart- edness and recklessness of the people, who give themselves up to revelry, either because they do not perceive the issue of things, and see in a temper of alleviation a permanent re- lief, or because, feeling the insecurity of the present, they are determined to drown their cares in wine and feasting.* Tf6. The burden of Tyre. From the petty nations of Western Asia and the powerful military empires, attention is turned to the "mart of the nations," in the terse phrase of the English translation. Considering verses 1-14 as a description of present ruin and the remainder as prophecy, Read Isaiah 23. Whitehouse remarks: "Intercourse with foreign nations was designated 'harlotry' by the prophet Hosea and those who followed him (especially Na- hum and Ezekiel)."** The figure is a strange one to *The International Critical Commentary, "Isaiah," Vol. I., page 363. **The New Century Bible, "Isaiah," Vol. I., page 266. ffl] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 55 modern ears; it seems to mean that the proceeds of Tyre's revived merchandise shall enrich Israel. § 12. The Isaianic Apocalypse. Isaiah 24 to 27. If 1. In these chapters attention passes from inter- mediate judgments on particular nations to an ulti- mate world- judgment upon all and a final consum- mation of the processes of history. This fact brings to mind the point of view of Daniel and Revelation, rather than that of Amos and Hosea, and has made scholars denominate it an "apocalypse." Keep this name and classification in mind: it will be stud- ied more in detail later. Read Isaiah 24:1 and 3. If 2. The divine events and consummation pur- posed by God will bring an end to sin and sorrow. Read Isaiah 24:16a and 25:6, 8, and 9. Observe the note of universalism. If 3. Read Isaiah 26:14-19. This is one of the most explicit references in the Old Testament to the resurrection. 1f4. Notice especially the beautiful song opening chapter 26, with its message of faith, peace, and righteousness. Read Isaiah 26:1-7. 1f 5. Now, with these considerations in mind, Read Isaiah 24 to 27. § 13. The Citadel of Faith. Isaiah 28 to 35. Ifl. One of the strongest indictments in the prophets is Isaiah's philippic against the drunkards 56 An Outline of Old Testament [§13 of Israel, evidently written before the fall of Samaria and the captivity of the North Israelites. Noting especially the climax in verse 7, Read Isaiah 28:1-13. What is their heedless drunken taunt (verses 9, 10)? and how does the prophet turn their words against them? Compare Isaiah 30:10 and Amos 7:12, 13 and 2:12. If 2. God's judgments are coming, but there is a way (verse 16) of escape. Read Isaiah 28:14-29. If 3. There are several difficulties in chapter 29, which, as frequently in these studies, must either be reserved for later investigation or else ferreted out with the aid of the commentaries. In any case, puzzling over details should not get in the way of the main purpose, the getting of the main outlines and the understanding of the fundamental and im- portant messages of Old Testament religion. A foolish thoroughness may be, to adapt Emerson's words on consistency, the hobgoblin of prosaic and legalistic minds. The security of faith here is in marked contrast with the security of drunken heedlessness in the pre- ceding chapter. Noting especially verses 4, 8, and 19, Read Isaiah 29. Two passages in this chapter are pressed into important service in the New Testament: (a) Verse 13, which is quoted by Jesus as applicable to the people of his own as well as of Isaiah's day; and (b) verse 16 (compare also 30:14), which becomes a f[5] Prophecy, Wisdom, mid Worship 57 classic figure in the Old Testament and the Apocry- pha and is used strikingly by Paul in Romans 9. 1f 4. Should Israel rely on Egypt or Jehovah? (1) The politicians would avert the present dis- aster by an alliance with Egypt; Isaiah suggests another way, reliance upon Jehovah. Noting espe- cially 30:15-18 and 31:6-8, Read Isaiah 30:1 to 31:9. Get and read Byron's "Destruction of Sen- nacherib," a modern poet's interpretation of the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. Was Isaiah's mind, when he made his prediction, possibly dwelling upon the deliverances at the Red Sea and in the battle against Sisera (Judges 4 and 5) ? In any case Jehovah was to the religious leaders of Israel fundamentally a God of Great Deliverances. He was not a mere national deity, but the God of Salvation and of a covenant based upon the salvation and protection he brought. This element is not less, but more, fundamental to prophetism than the ethical emphasis of Amos, and it is not less of an asset to religion and progress. (2) The prophet hopes for a reconstructed social order following the divine deliverance — a righteous ruler, men of prominence who protect rather than oppress, and a public opinion that rightly dis- criminates in its commendations and condemnations. How modern a ring it all has in these days of the Peace Conference in Paris! Read Isaiah 32:1-8. 1(5. The heedless security of the women is doomed to a rude shock, but there is a road to a real and 58 An Outline of Old Testament [§13 permanent security. Noting especially verses 15a and 17, Read Isaiah 32:9-20. If 6. The lowest ebb is the turn of the tide. The destroyer is now devastating, but Jehovah is ready to save. Read Isaiah 33. It must be remembered that this deliverance is not prompted by the mere favoritism of a national God. Jehovah is a God of righteousness, of ever- lasting burnings toward wickedness: he is in Fosdick's recent fine phrase, "An earnest God" — who can stand before him? Compare verses 14-16. An especially beautiful and pathetic touch in the larger hope for a distressed and burdened world is in verse 24. If 7. The coming day of vengeance on Edom, Israel's traditional foe. Read Isaiah 34. If 8. The coming age foreseen by the larger sweep of faith. Read Isaiah 35. Note especially ransomed nature, vegetable (verses 1, 2) and animal (verse 9), redeemed man (verses 5-8), and restored Israel (verse 10). Sickness and sin, the great enemies of the human peace, shall be banished. Joy, singing, peace, and holiness shall take their place. 1f9. Isaiah first of all reflects and repeats the messages of Amos and Hosea; but he goes beyond them, notably (1) in his emphasis on the holiness of God and on the demand for moral cleanness in <[2] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 59 man, in which emphasis and demand he represents the incorporation of a priestly ideal into prophetic preaching; (2) in his tying his message to the temple and the organized religion of his day, though con- demning that religion and its round of meaningless sacrifices even more strenuously than did Amos; (3) in his ideal of personal forgiven sin; (4) in advanc- ing the Israelitish philosophy of history a step beyond Amos; (5) in his insistence upon the remnant idea; but, most important of all, (6) in his emphasis on faith and trust — not a blind, heedless, unmoral faith, such as Amos arraigns in the people, but a moral and moralized faith based on an idea of God as both just and loving, as Amos and Hosea had conceived of him; and as holy, too, according to Isaiah's own vision of him. Although Isaiah's union of prophetism with some of these more priestly ele- ments is developed by Ezekiel and goes to seed in Pharisaism, Isaiah's emphasis on faith and trust passes through Ezekiel and the apocalyptic writers into the Christianity of Jesus and Paul. § 14. The Prophet in Action Again. Isaiah 36 to 39. Tfl. The passage treated in the present section is parallel with 2 Kings 18:13 to 20:19, the historical aspects of which passage are treated in the companion volume to the present one, "An Outline for the Study of Old Testament History," § 73. Sketch this passage in Kings and compare with Isaiah 36 to 39. Compare §10, If 5, especially (2). IT 2. The arguments of the Rabshakeh, or chief officer of Sennacherib, turns on three points: (a) 60 An Outline of Old Testament [§14 He has the same estimate of Egypt as Isaiah has. (6) He evidently knew of the shrines Hezekiah had surpressed in his effort to concentrate the worship in Jerusalem. Perhaps the Assyrians had found some priests and people in the already conquered territory who felt that Hezekiah had 'insulted and enangered Jehovah by this reform, and some proph- ets who hailed them as agents of Jehovah to avenge this insult; or perhaps Isaiah's prophecies of judg- ment upon Judah through Assyria had come to the Rabshakeh's ears, (c) But the Rabshakeh's more popular and strenuous appeal was to Assyria's demonstrated might and the futility of Judah's trust in her God when the gods of the other nations had proved powerless. Read Isaiah 36:1-20 and 37:8-13. H3. The people in obedience to the king's orders are silent; King Hezekiah goes to prayer; Isaiah comes forward with a message of faith. Read Isaiah 36:21 to 37:7 and 37:14-38. Isaiah's words are in line with the messages already studied. Endeavor at this point to get a clear view of the dramatic situation and the calm faith and the quiet, dominating personality of the prophet, 1f4. The prophet and an individual king. Read Isaiah 38:1-8. (1) One gets here a different side of prophetic activity. Compare the careers of Elijah and Elisha, especially 2 Kings 1:1-4, 4:18-25; and for an older and more primitive parallel compare Samuel 9:5-10. If 2] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 61 (2) Noting the hopelessness with reference to a future life, Read Hezekiah's song in Isaiah 38:9-22. If 5. A foreign embassy. Read Isaiah 39. § 15. "The Servant of Jehovah" — A Pinnacle of Old Tes- tament Prophecy. Isaiah 40 to 53. Ifl. Note that the section is called "a" pinnacle, not "the" pinnacle of Old Testament prophecy. The latter designation would be in many ways justifiable, but when one thinks of Micah 6:1-6 or of Jeremiah's new-covenant religion of the heart, for example, one is rather impressed that each is greatest in its own sphere. One might just as well discuss whether Kant's "Critique of Pure Reason" or Shakespeare's "King Lear" be the greater as to debate the relative greatness of these passages. In any event no loftier heights are reached in the Old Testament than the section under consideration. ^J2. The greatness of God and the coming salva- tion. (1) Two facts face the prophet: (a) Israel feels that, though she has sinned, her punishment far outweighs her sin. Read Isaiah 40:2, last clause. (6) A new conqueror is arising in the East, Cyrus the Persian. Read Isaiah 41:2. A Creek might consider his coming as a mere chance turn of the wheel of fortune or the natural superiority of a new and vigorous race over a decaying one. To an Oriental it might mean that Cyrus is fostered by a 62 An Outline of Old Testament [§15 god more powerful than the gods of Babylon. Of an entirely different sort is (2) The prophet's solution to the problem. To him, Jehovah is supreme; nations and princes are as naught to him; his people have not been forgotten; their salvation is at hand. Noting (a) the tenderness and beauty of 41:1-11, with its message of comfort and its picture of Jehovah as a loving shepherd, and (b) the sublimity of the picture of the greatness of God as over against human forces and heathen idols, Read Isaiah 40:1 to 41:7. Isaiah's plea is for faith in God's workings in history, 40:31 to 41:2. If 3. The servant of Jehovah and his mission. (1) Israel, called first of all in Abraham and Jacob, is Jehovah's servant and need not fear. Other gods neither know the future nor control the forces of history. Jehovah is the powerful one who has raised up a new conqueror, spoken of mysteriously first as from the East, then as from the North (41:2 and 25), either because he is considered as from the Northeast or as arising in the East and coming upon Babylon from the North. Read Isaiah 41:8-29. (2) But Israel is not chosen to be a pampered puppet of Jehovah — the servant must serve. What is his great mission? Read Isaiah 42:1-13. Compare §3, f 5 (2). Jehovah's religion is for the world, but that it is not made world-wide as an enforced Kultur the ffG] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 63 character of the servant guarantees. Note especially verse 3. If 4 But alas! Jehovah's servant is himself far from fit for such a task. (1) He is blind, unappreciative of Jehovah, and sinful. Read Isaiah 42:18-20, 43:8 and 22-28. (2) The nation will be forgiven and redeemed. Read Isaiah 43:25 and 44:21-23. (3) Israel must read carefully, too, the signs of the times. Read Isaiah 43:10, 11, 18, and 19. (4) Now considering these three points and noting the fresh description of the greatness of Jehovah and the nothingness of the idols, Read Isaiah 42:14 to 44:23. If 5. Hints have already been given concerning Cyrus, the future conqueror of Babylon and founder of the Persian world -empire, though his name has not been mentioned. The name and mission of the new conqueror are now given. Noting especially Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1 and 4-6, Read Isaiah 44:24 to 45:25. Prophecy has moved a long way from the popular religion of the days of Amos. It would have seemed very strange perhaps even to Amos that Jehovah not only punishes Israel through a foreign power, but restores and redeems her through a heathen prince. This deliverance of Israel is moreover only a stage in the world dominion and redemption of Jehovah. If 6. Babylon, whose temporary rule was an ex- pression not of human might but of God's over- 64 An Outline of Old Testament [§15 ruling purpose, shall fall. Nothing could be more timely at the present moment than this ancient interpretation of the meaning of the rise and fall of world empires. Noting especially Isaiah 47: 6, 7, and comparing Isaiah 10:5-14, Read chapters 46 and 47. If 7. Israel, the blind and sinful, is refined and purified in the furnace of affliction. Read Isaiah 48. II 8. The mission referred to in chapter 42 is the mission of this new and refined Israel, or remnant of Israel destined from the beginning to be the servant of Jehovah. Read Isaiah 49:1-6. Compare If 3 (2) and the reference there given: God's ultimate purpose is the salvation of the whole world. %9. Israel has felt forsaken, but Jehovah's love is undying and incomparable, and redemption is coming. Read Isaiah 49:7 to 50:3. If 10. Israel's fate has been such that despair has set in, as seen in 49 :14 and 40 : 27. She seems to have received double for all her sins (40:2), and Babylon in showing no mercy has gone too far (47:6). But vindication is coming, and triumph and restora- tion. Read Isaiah 50:4 to 52:12. <[11. Sometimes suffering is punishment for sin; sometimes it is a refiner's fire that purges the dross: but is this all? The prophet sees further. Some- times it is vicarious: Israel's suffering is for the world. If 12] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 65 The prophet announces the doctrine that the stripes of one sufferer more righteous than the others may be the means of the healing of the many. Read Isaiah 52:13 to 53:12, the climax of the servant passages and one of the pinnacles of the world's literature and of Divine Revelation. The passage stands forth in its own simple grandeur; open your soul to its fascination and depth of mean- ing. f 12. Isaiah 53 comes out of the experience of the nation, and especially of the faithful ones in the nation who become the true Israel of God. Compare the career of Joseph, whom a radical commentary de- scribes as the favorite of Yahweh; 1 "but while Jacob's favoritism gave him a special coat (compare Gen. 37:3, R. V. margin), Jehovah's favoritism brings him through slavery and prison to save many people alive."* Read Genesis 50:20; or, better, if time allows, read the whole story of Joseph in the light of your study of Isaiah 40 to 53, considering both as expressions of the Bible doctrine of election, then Read at a sitting Isaiah 40 to 53. Now, considering the relative failure of even the purified remnant of Israel to fulfill the ideal of Isaiah 53, contemplate the New Testament application of the passage to Jesus in the early chapters of Acts, culminating in Acts 8. a See footnote, page 38, *"Outline for the Study of Old Testament History," §14, IF 8. 5 66 An Outline of Old Testament [§16 § 16. The Remaining Prophecies of the Book of Isaiah. Isaiah 54 to 66. Ifl. These chapters, Isaiah 54 to 66, are vari- ously grouped and subdivided. Chapter 54 is prob- ably a part of the preceding section, and was not considered there largely because the true climax of the "Servant of Jehovah" passages is in chapter 53. It will be well to treat these chapters topically and then to review them in the order in which they ap- pear. The principal themes discussed are: Israel's sin as a cause of her calamities, the need of repent- ance and reform, and the glorious future of the people of God. 1(2. The present calamities and their cause. (1) The shepherds "shepherd themselves," to use Jude's fine phrase; they are "blind watchmen" and shepherd dogs that cannot bark and give the alarm; they do not care for the sheep. Read Isaiah 56:9 to 57:2. (2) Foreign worship and idolatries are set forth under the well-known figure of adultery, and with a realism natural to ancient Orientals. Read Isaiah 57:3-13. (3) Violations of the Sabbath prescriptions and of the ritual law are mentioned as another element of the national sinfulness. Read Isaiah 58:13, 14 and 65:1-7. (4) But the prophet stresses the socially immoral sins of oppression and falsification — these, and not the inability or unwillingness of Jehovah to save, are the causes of the national abasement. Read Isaiah 59:l-15a. ft 5] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 67 Here as often mark and meditate upon the more striking passages. (5) A meditation and a prayer. Read Isaiah 63:7 to 64:12. Note the use of the term "Father," though not in the sense of father love; rather in the sense of originator and owner. God's past deliverance, the present desolation (63:18, 19, 64:12), and the pro- phetic call for patience and hope are finely expressed. 113. A wonderfully beautiful call to repentance and promise of pardon and restoration to Divine favor occurs in chapter 55. Read the chapter; one might almost say, mem- orize it. Consider the tenderness of the nature of God as there set forth. Read also Isaiah 57:14-21. What is the name for God here used? Compare Isaiah 55:5 and §10, If 4 (2). If 4. The formal and false versus the human and true way to win God's favor, and the most character- istic mark of his Spirit's presence. Read Isaiah 58:1-12 and 61:1-3. These passages reflect the universal human mes- sage reenforced so characteristically by Jesus. The latter he quotes, in part, as his Messianic program. The former reflects the essence of much of his con- tention against the scribes of his day. 1f5. The coming deliverance and transformation. (1) The happy restoration and future immunity. Read Isaiah 54. The reverse aspect of the figure used in 57:3-13 68 An Outline of the Old Testament [§16 (Tf2 (2), above) is here introduced. Note also the comparison with the promise to Noah and the almost rabbinical ideal of being "taught of Jehovah' ' (verse 13). (2) The Sabbath and the ritual violations re- ferred to in If 2 (3) shall cease. Read Isaiah 66. Note especially verses 17 and 23. (3) Vengeance upon an ancient foe is one aspect of oppressed Israel's hope. Heathen peoples that have oppressed Israel shall see her glory and shall atone by aiding in the restoration. Read Isaiah 63:1-6, 59:156 to 60:16, and 61:4 to 62:12. (4) Eunuchs and foreigners shall share the sal- vation of Jehovah. Read Isaiah 56:1-8. Note especially the ideal of the last part of verse 7, quoted by Jesus as one the Jews of his day had trampled upon (Mark 11:17). (5) The whole nation by virtue merely of Abra- hamic descent shall not inherit the glorious fu- ture, but whom? Read Isaiah 65:8-16. (6) Peace and righteousness shall dominate the coming time. Read Isaiah 65:17-25 and 60:17-22. Note especially 65: 25 and 60:21, and consider the moral and spiritual quality of the prophetic hope. 1f 6. Now, in the light of your studies by topics, Read the entire section, Isaiah 54 to 66, at a sitting, in the order given in the Bible. CHAPTER V JEREMIAH § 17. A New Crisis and a New Prophet. Jeremiah 1 to 6. If 1. The age of Jeremiah. Read Jeremiah 1 : 1-3. Two facts are worthy of remark: Jeremiah's ministry begins near the time of the Great Refor- mation under Josiah; it covers the earlier period of Judah's national disaster and captivity. If 2. The prophet's call and mission. Read Jeremiah 1:4-19. Compare Amos 7:14, 15 and Isaiah 6. Wherein does Jeremiah's call differ from the other two calls? Paul, like Jeremiah, felt himself set apart from birth (Gal. 1:15). Paul also felt himself commissioned to a larger world than Israel. Compare Jeremiah 1:10 and Galatians 1:16. What is the form of Jehovah's message? Com- pare Amos 7:7, 8:1, Isaiah 6. See §3, ^[1. Whence does the threatened invasion come? What is Israel's chief sin (verse 16) in Jeremiah's view? Is this viewpoint more like that of Amos or of Hosea? If3. The national sin. Read Jeremiah 2:1-13. Note especially the terse, pertinent question of verse 11 and the strong and pathetic figure of verse 13. Could anything be more expressive? (69) 70 An Outline of Old Testament [§17 1 4. Jeremiah takes up Hosea's figure and carries it to the limit in a terribly realistic picture of na- tional apostasy. Read Jeremiah 2:14-28. 1f5. Persistence in sin in spite of the Divine warn- ing. Read Jeremiah 2:29 to 3:9. What two forms did the warnings take (3:3 and 8)? What is the result of the warnings (2:30)? Compare Amos 4:6-12. 1f6. God's plaintive call to repentance. Read Jeremiah 3:10 to 4:4. Compare Hosea 14. The passage is noteworthy for its signal spiritualization of religion. Not only stocks and stones (2:27), but the sacred ark itself is declared unnecessary to mediate between man and God (3:16); and the national rite of circumcision is discounted by the spiritual ideal of 4:4 in a way that may well have formed the basis of Paul's great emancipation of Christianity from the bonds of legalism and ceremony. Tf7. The Lion of the North and the forthcoming destruction. Read Jeremiah 4:5-26 and 6:1-12 and 22-30. If 8. Jehovah's purpose, however, is not destruc- tion, but chastisement: he will not utterly destroy Israel. Read Jeremiah 4:27 to 5:18. Note particularly 4:27, and 5:10 and 18. This doctrine runs through a large part of Hebrew thought. Compare Isaiah's doctrine of the remnant. What fll] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 71 remarkable doctrine appears in 5: 1? Compare Gen- esis 18:32 and Isaiah 53. 1f 9. What are the several aspects of Israel's sin? Read Jeremiah 5:19-31 and 6:13-21. In 5:20 sin is foolishness; in 4:14 the priestly ideal of sin as uncleanness appeared ; but more germane to the prophetic character is 5:23, sin as rebellious- ness. Note especially: (a) 5:26 (last phrase), 5:28-31,6:13. (b) "Unshockability" as a horrible state of mind (6:15). "Alas," said a distinguished Frenchman, "for our times; there is no more hypocrisy among us." There is one thing worse than hypocrisy: shamelessness — such a brazen disregard of virtue as to take away any motive for hypocrisy. (c) 6:14, with its classic and oft-quoted words, made familiar to Americans particularly by Patrick Henry's famous speech. (d) Jeremiah's emphasis, like Hosea's, on religious loyalty to Jehovah (5:24). This, in fact, is the burden of the whole arraignment in chapters 1 to 6. Tf 10. Now with what you have studied in mind, at a single sitting, Read Jeremiah 1-6. § 18. Some Great Prophetic Messages to Judah. Jeremiah 7 to 45, in part. 1f 1. No suggested division of the book of Jeremiah has found general acceptance. The book seems a collection of incidents and prophecies without strict 72 An Outline of Old Testament [§18 logical or chronological order. One thing is obvious: while Amos or Hosea, like John the Baptist, seems a voice rather than a personality, and while Isaiah seems only slightly less so, Jeremiah is a human being with flesh and bones moving up and down the land. The various aspects of his personal life and career are as clear as the life and career of Jesus. It will be convenient to discuss first the more general prophecies of the book, and then to consider those portions bearing more directly upon the personal career and character of the prophet. This method may seem arbitrary. The answer is: So must, in the study of the book of Jeremiah, any other method or division be. If 2. The temple worship versus righteousness and loyalty to Jehovah. (1) The people of Judah were putting their trust in the sacredness of the temple — a trust perhaps increased greatly by Isaiah's prediction of the de- liverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian armies. ''Bethel might fall, where Jeroboam's bull images of Jehovah were, but not the holy hill of Zion," thought they. Jeremiah, himself a descendant of the old priesthood of Shiloh, 1 cites the destruction of Shiloh, the ancient shrine of the ark of the cove- nant, and as such Jerusalem's real predecessor. Comparing §17, <[6, Read Jeremiah 7:12-16. 1 Abiathar, scion of the house of Eli, having sided with Adonijah, was supplanted in the priesthood by Zadok, who sided with Solomon, and was banished to Anathoth. (1 Kings 1, especially verse 7, and 1 Kings 2:26, 27.) fl5] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 73 (2) What was the sin of the people? and what will result therefrom? Read Jeremiah 7:8-11, 17-20, and 7:29 to 8:17. Note that there is a moral and a specifically re- ligious aspect of their sin and that several special moral sins are mentioned. What are they? Com- pare Jeremiah 7:11 and Isaiah 56:7b, and Jesus's combination of the two passages in Mark 11:17. What is Jeremiah's estimate of the prophetism and priesthood of his day? 8:10, 11; compare 6:13, 14 and 5:30, 31. Read also Jeremiah 13:12-17. (3) The human sacrifices versus the demand for a righteous life. Read Jeremiah 7:21-28 and 7:1-7. Compare the messages of Amos, Hosea, and Micah, especially Micah 6:1-8. IT 3. A plea for the Old Covenant. Read Jeremiah 9:3-22 and 11:1-17. <[4. The greatness of God. Read Jeremiah 10:1-22. Tf5. What is the prophet's view of man in relation to God? Read Jeremiah 9:23, 24, 10:23-25, and 17:5-11. Consider, according to your time and inclination, the new points of view reflected in these passages. Do the same with future ones. A good commentary will help in such a study. Too much detail in the present text would lead far beyond the scope of the work; and the student should take care not to let such detailed study becloud his general view of Old Testament prophetism. 74 An Outline of Old Testament [§18 If 6. Sin as habit rather than a series of single acts. Noting especially the oft-quoted verse 23, Read Jeremiah 13:20-27. If 7. Distress ahead, but beyond it deliverance. Read Jeremiah 12:7-17, 16:10 to 17:4,"and 12-27. If 8. The new shepherds and the righteous branch of David. Read Jeremiah 23:1-8 and 33:14-26. Compare Isaiah 11:1-5. If 9. God will not make a full end: Judah and Israel both shall be restored. Note particularly the re- currence of Hosea's idea of God's fatherly love in 31:3, 9, and 20, and of Amos's phrase, "The virgin of Israel." Observe also that Jeremiah, in chapter 30 as elsewhere, seems to delight in figures relating to medicine and healing. Compare Luke- Acts in the New Testament. Read Jeremiah 30:4 to 31:28. If 10. The higher individualism in the new era. Read Jeremiah 31:29,30. Tfll. The heart and the climax of the book of Jeremiah. There is no more revolutionary step in the history of the Old Testament religion than the announce- ment of a covenant written not upon tables of stone but upon the heart, with its concomitant contrast between circumcision of the flesh and circumcision of the heart. Here the Hebrew prophet prepares the way for Jesus and Paul. This spiritualization of religion is to be reckoned alongside of Isaiah 53 as a pinnacle of Old Testament prophecy. Read Jeremiah 31:31-40 and 9:25, 26; 31:31-34 flC] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 75 might well be memorized. Futher comment is unnec- essary. Drink in the greatness of this teaching. § 19. The Oracles Concerning the Nations. Jeremiah 46 to 51. Ifl. Amos (1:1 to 2:3) had used the coming judg- ment upon the nations as an introduction to his message on the judgment about to befall Israel; and a large section of Isaiah is given to "The burden" of the nations (13 to 23). Jeremiah's activity is in the larger world, and according to 1:10 he is in an especial sense set as a prophet over the nations. These oracles predicting the destruction of neigh- boring nations and empires do not seem very vital to moderns; but to the ancient Hebrew it was as if a prophet should, speaking as the mouthpiece of God, have foretold the downfall of Germany to Belgium or France during the anxious months from August, 1914, to August, 1918. Read these oracles with this analogy in mind. 1f2. Ever on the horizon of Israel was the power- ful empire of Egypt. Read Jeremiah 46. The chapter contains two oracles, the second beginning with verse 13. Compare Isaiah's oracles concerning Egypt (Isaiah 18 to 20) : What was the burden of them? f3. Philistiawas a nation of non-Semitic people especially despised by the Hebrews as "uncircum- cised." The sword of Jehovah has a charge against it. Read Jeremiah 47. 76 An Outline of Old Testament [§19 If 4. Moab, Ammon, and Edom are closer kinsmen. Read Jeremiah 48:1 to 49:22. Note that a restoration of these peoples is pre- dicted in 48:47, 49:6 and 11. Consider also the terse description of the Edomite mountaineers in 49:16. What is mentioned as Moab's sin in 48:26 and 42? If 5. In earlier days Syria, with Damascus as its capital, was a determined rival and foe; and still earlier Arab tribes were a frequent menace and scourge. It is not altogether clear why a special oracle concerning Elam should find a place here: restoration is predicted of her as of Moab and Am- mon. Read Jeremiah 49:23-39. Note particularly the prophet's view of tribal life in verse 31. Tf6. In the days of Amos the Israelites looked for Jehovah's wrath upon the nations, but deemed themselves, as his chosen people, immune therefrom. Amos preached a different view, and used his oracles concerning the nations as an introduction to his in- sistence that the leaders and grandees of Israel have been guilty of the same sort of oppression and cruelty toward the poor of their own people as the neighboring nations had been guilty of toward foreign peoples. God, who acts from moral, not from partisan, motives, would punish both Israel and the nations equally. The situation changes somewhat in later times. Israel feels only too well the chastening hand of Jehovah. A series of oracles concerning the neighboring nations would, therefore, find its climax, not as with Amos in judgment upon Israel, fl2] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 77 but in the anticipated destruction of the arch- . despoiler, Babylon. Noting especially 51:7-9,37, and 58, Read Jeremiah 50:1 to 51:64. Note: (a) The pitiable fate of Israel (50:17). Why did the people go astray (50:6)? (6) The majesty of Israel's God, supreme over the nations, carrying out his own purpose in the ongoing of history. Read in succession the fol- lowing: 50:18 and 23,51:11 and 15, 16. The sequence of world empires is subordinate to God's will. As frequently the typical example of Jehovah's judgment is cited in 50:40. (c) The redemption to come, 50:5, 34, 45. § 20. Prophecies Interwoven with the Biographical Woof Showing the Personal Career, Fortunes, and Method of the Prophet. Jeremiah, a permanent possession of the Jewish folk? Jere- fl2] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 101 miah, it is true, represents a higher phenomenon, a priest who became a prophet; and after Ezekiel, priestly and scribal tendencies overlay the moral and spiritual power of prophecy; but within the priestly and scribal sphere the prophetic spirit was preserved by such as Ezekiel to rise to loftier mountain heights than ever in John the Baptist, Jesus, and Paul. Compare §10, f 4 (1). 1|2. The books of Isaiah and Jeremiah being ex- tended collections of Isaianic and Jeremianic oracles, without more unity of theme than most modern books of sermons, a reading of either of them at a sitting is not so necessary a task. As the book of Ezekiel is not a mere collection of his sermons, but a real book, now Read the book of Ezekiel continuously at one or two sittings, striving to get its total message. CHAPTER VII HAGGAI, ZECHARIAH, AND MALACHI § 25. Haggai and the Rebuilding of the Temple. The book of Haggai. Ifl. The interest in the temple and the priestly that is so pervasive in Ezekiel persists in post- exilic prophecy. The prophets studied in this chap- ter are often discounted on account of this fact. This discounting, however, demands analysis. If it means that Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi never rose to such heights as did Isaiah and Jeremiah, and do not stand for an original revolutionary prophetic idea, then the point is well taken; but one must not undervalue stars of the second magnitude. The value of a star in the human firmament is not in its ability to outshine another star, but in its ability to light the pathway. These men applied the prophetic message and spirit to the matters in hand. When the temple was standing or when the people were very ardent worshipers at well-established shrines, one might well attack the formal religious rounds of ceremony; but when the people had no church home, just as it was a great feat for Ezekiel to dream the temple back to life, so it was a worthy task for Haggai and Zechariah to champion its rebuilding and for Malachi to rebuke laxness in habits of religious worship and devotion. (102) fl4] Prophecy, Wisdom , and Worship 103 H 2. What was Haggai's explanation of the poverty of the restored postexilic Jewish community and what was his plea and argument? Read Haggai 1:1-11. Compare Amos 4:6-12. H 3. What was the result of his plea? Read Haggai 1:12-15. If 4. The popular disappointment and the prophecy ©f the coming glory. (1) Compare the dates of 1:1, 2:1, 2:10, and 2:20. (2) Two obstacles are met: (a) The foundations of the new temple seem paltry to those who remember the old — perhaps also to some who recall the mag- nificent temples of Babylon; and (6) the better conditions are not immediately forthcoming after the work of rebuilding the temple is begun. For Haggai's answer to the first, Read Haggai 2:8 and 9. As regards the second, he preaches the doctrine that "it is disease, not health, that is contagious," arguing that ceremonial pollution, not holiness, spreads; and he assures the people that "from this day forward" the blessing will come. Read verse 19c. (3) More significant, however, is the larger hope that Jehovah is going to set history aright and establish the social order that he has had in mind all along. Noting in particular verses 6, 7 and 21,22, Read Haggai 2:1-23. Who was Zerubbabel and what was his relation 101 An Outline of Old Testament [§26 to the movement? See a commentary or Bible dictionary on Zerubbabel if time and opportunity allow. § 26. Zechariah. Tfl. Zechariah's interpretation of the course of history as a vindication of the word spoken by Je- hovah through former prophets. Read Zechariah 1:1-6. 1f2. The visions. Zechariah 1:7 to 6:15. (1) The first vision and the great question brought forward by the continued calamities befalling Je- hovah's people — "How long?" Noting especially verse 12, Read Zechariah 1:7-17. What is the answer to the question? and what in your own words is the doctrine of verse 15? (2) The second vision and the coming venge- ance. Read Zechariah 1:18-21. (3) The third vision and the coming glory. Read Zechariah 2. Compare for the form of the vision Amos 7: 7 and 8. Compare Zechariah 2 : 9 with Haggai's prophecies. In the vision an angel of great authority rebukes the smallness of the hopes of the one who would measure the future Jerusalem by the dimensions of the old : the new city will overflow the walls. As in the Spartan story her citizens were the walls of Sparta, so what jis to be the wall of Jerusalem (verse 5)? Compare Isaiah 26:1. Note particularly the missionary outlook of verse ff2] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 105 11. More and more the broader spirits realize that Israel's religion is for the world. (4) The fourth vision, the cleansed nation and the purged iniquity. Read Zechariah 3. Keep this chapter in mind as you pass to the next. (5) The fifth vision and the new leader. Com- paring Haggai and noting especially verses 7-9, Read Zechariah 4. Compare verses 6 and 7 with Jesus's word on the faith that removes mountains. Increasingly the de- mand of the Hebrew religion is for the removal of guilt and sin, and for faith. The extreme devotion to the law itself is an expression of the faith that not by power and might but by doing God's will, and leaving the rest to him, is the triumph of righteous- ness and of God's people to come. It was Paul's great contribution that he built the Christian philosophy of religion upon a faith and a justifica- tion that did away with the legalism of the law, but in so doing Paul was interpreting the deeper spirit of the postexilic religion. (6) The sixth vision and the winnowing out of wicked individuals. Read Zechariah 5:1-4. • "The gist of the teaching of the vision, therefore/' says Mitchell, concluding his comment on the pas- sage, "is that Yahweh will not again punish the Jews as a people by any such universal calamity as the exile, but will henceforth inflict upon each individual sinner the penalty for his personal offenses. In 106 An Outline of Old Testament [§26 other words, it is an announcement, so far as the Jews are concerned, of an era of individualism."* Compare §21, If 5 (8). (7) The seventh vision and the exile of the prin- ciple of wickedness. Read Zechariah 5:5-11. (8) The eighth vision and the permanent pro- tection of the restored community. Read Zechariah 6. The chief enemies of the Israelites were the Empire of Egypt to the south and the Empires of Babylonia and Assyria to the northward. Hence the chief protection is to be in these directions. The last chariot is for the other enemies. Observe the re- appearance of the missionary note and of the idea of the Davidic branch. 1f3. The inquiry, now that the temple is no longer in ruins, concerning fasting: what is the prophetic answer? Read Zechariah 7 and 8. Zechariah thinks that the established fast was not in the first place "unto Jehovah": it was, the prophet seems to maintain, sorrow over calamity rather than regret for sin; but in any case he shows a more excellent way. Note 7:8-12 and 8:14-17. Zechariah reasserts the strong moral emphasis of Amos, and in this respect seems, as far as the record goes, much broader and deeper than Haggai. Com- *The International Critical Commentary, "Haggai and Zechariah, " pages 170 and 171. fl4] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 107 pare the answer of Jesus to the Pharisees concerning fasting (Mark 2:18-22). I Two other points are especially significant in the passage under surveillance: (a) The missionary note of 8:22, 23; and (6) the second is best expressed perhaps in the picture of the situation given by George Adam Smith: For ourselves the chief profit of these beautiful oracles is their lesson that the remedy for the sordid tempers and cruel hatreds, engendered by the fierce struggle for ex- istence, is found in civic and religious hopes, in a noble ideal for the national life, and in the assurance that God's love is at the back of all, with nothing impossible to it. Amid these glories, however, the heart will proba- bly thank Zechariah most for his immortal picture of the streets of the new Jerusalem: old men and wom-m sit- ting in the sun, boys said girls playing in all the open places. The motive of it, as we have seen, was found in the circumstances of his own day. Like many another emigration, for religion's sake, from the heart of civ- ilization to a barren coast, the poor colony of Jerusalem consisted chiefly of men, young and in middle life. The barren years gave no encouragement to marriage. The constant warfare with neighboring tribes allowed few to reach gray hairs. It was a rough and hard society, un- blessed by the two great benedictions of life, childhood and old age. But this should all be changed, and Jerusa- lem filled with placid old men and women and with joy- ous boys and girls.* f 4. The coming kingdom. Read Zechariah 9:1 to 11:3. As frequently in the prophets, the passage in- *The Expositor's Bible, "The Twelve Prophets," Vol. II., pages 324 and 325. 108 An Outline of Old Testament [§26 eludes oracles of punishment upon foreign nations; but two points are of paramount importance: (a) The remnant for Jehovah to be taken from these foreign nations, and (b) the picture of a king riding, not upon a war horse, but making his triumphal entry upon the beast of peaceful toil, the ass (9:7-10; compare Matt. 21:1-11). If 5. The allegory of the good and the bad shepherd. Read Zechariah 11:4-17; and for the future of the bad shepherd Read 13:7-9, which some scholars think has been dislocated in the manuscripts from its proper place after 11:17. An interesting interpretation of this passage also is given by George Adam Smith: The spiritual principles which underlie this allegory are obvious. God's own sheep, persecuted and helpless though they be, are yet obstinate, and their obstinacy not only renders God's good will to them futile, but causes the death of the one man who could have done them good. The guilty sacrifice the innocent, but in this execute their own doom. That is a summary of the history of Israel.* If 6. More and more the mind of later prophetism turns to the final contest with evil and the final wind-up of history, when the scores of earth shall be made even and when the perfect rule of Jehovah shall ensue. The hopelessness of complete obedience to law demands a fountain for sin and uncleanness (13:1); the foreigner is included (14:16); Jehovah shall be king over all the earth (14:9); and there ♦Book cited, page 475. Ifl] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 109 shall be no more curse (14:11). The horse is not merely displaced by the ass (as in 9:9), but is himself transformed from an instrument of war into a pro- claimer of the holiness of Jehovah (14:20). With these points in mind, Read Zechariah 12 to 14. §27. Malachi. Tfl. So long as the Israelites looked upon Jehovah as a purely national God, his love and constant pro- tection to the very limit of his power was assured. The shortcoming of this attitude was that it made no higher moral demands. It was the merit of Amos and his successors that Israel was made to see how unworthy a notion of God such a conception was. Jehovah, the prophets taught, could not be on Israel's side right or wrong. He was against the cruelty and oppression of the neighboring nations: he must likewise stand against cruelty and oppression within Israel. But now the situation has changed. The thinking people of Israel have learned to think of Jehovah, not as a mere national God, but as the world's God. Then there arises the new question, "Does Jehovah care for Israel?" Read Malachi 1:1-5. Malachi does not go back to Jehovah's ancient deliverances of his people, whose very ancientness might raise new questions; he cites a current in- stance of the utter destruction of a neighboring peo- ple in contrast with the chastening of Israel. This doctrine of the destruction of others as over against 110 An Outline of Old Testament [§27 the chastening of the chosen people becomes a settled doctrine of later Jewish writers (Wisd. of Sol. 16 : 5, 18 : 20, 19:1; and 2 Mace. 6:12). Compare Romans 9 to 11 — the destruction of Israel is only seeming and temporary. Compare in particular Malachi's comparison of Jacob and Esau with Paul's in Romans 9:10-13. 1f 2. What other aspects of current doubt are found later in the book? Read Malachi 2 : 17, 3 : 13-15. Compare Zechariah 1:12. T[3. The faithless priesthood and the polluted ritual. Read Malachi 1:6 to 2:9. There has been much variation of opinion in the interpretation of Malachi 1:11. Pusey says: "The form of words does not express whether this declara- tion relates to the present or the future. It is a vivid present, such as is often used to describe the future. But the things spoken of show it to be the future."* Note the words "shall be" in the English version are in italics, indicating that they are supplied by the translators in order to make the translation explicit and to give the translator's interpretation of the Hebrew. Some interpreters think the verse refers to the way Persian governors, for instance, had shown respect for Jehovah; or to heathen sacri- fices, which are regarded as blundering efforts to reach out after the true God. Others think it means to compare the devotion of the Hebrews of the dis- ♦"Minor Prophets," Vol. II, page 471. fl5] Prophecy, Wisdom, and Worship 111 persion with the polluted offerings of those having the advantage of the Jerusalem Temple. Note that in 2:7 the priest, rather than the proph- et, is the current regular spokesman of Jehovah in this period of the decline of prophecy.