the kingdom; moreover, for the most part, their addresses no longer exist in their original form, but in the free reproductions of the authors of the books of Kings and Chronicles. These prophets are in all respects the spiritual prototypes and predecessors of the later prophets, but the Messianic idea receives through them a mediate confirmation only so far as they recognize the heirship of the Davidic throne, while in the northern kingdom sovereigns are elevated and deposed, and one dynasty is exchanged for another.

CHAPTER XI.

Messianic Prophecy in the Second Royal Period.

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The division of the kingdom formed an epoch in the first period. At the very beginning of the second period, which extends from the contemporaneous reigns of Jehoshaphat and Ahab to the contemporaneous reigns of Amaziah and Jeroboam II. (914–811 B. C.), stand the new spiritual flight of Judah in the time of Jehoshaphat, and the Phoenician heathenism of Israel under Ahab. Here also the historical sources make us acquainted with the prophets of both kingdoms only so far as they interfere by promises and threatenings in the history of their own age. Most prominent among these were Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, and Micaiah, the son of Imlah, whose prophetic words (1 Kings XXII, 17. 19-23) belong to those prophecies which have been preserved in their original form. That even then the range of view was not confined to the present, is indicated by the psalms, which sprang from the wonderful victory, without a battle, which Jahaziel, the Asaphite, announces (2 Chron. XX, 14-17). The Korahitic psalms XLVI-XLVIII look forth upon the conversion of the heathen world and a kingdom of everlasting peace. And that even then ideal Messianic hopes were connected with the kingdom is evident from the forty-fifth psalm, which appears to have been originally an epithalamium upon the marriage. of Joram and Athaliah.

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The Multitude of Prophets in the Northern Kingdom.

Under the house of Ahab there were in Israel two camps of the false prophets. The first was of those at Dan and Bethel who prophesied in the name of Jehovah, while they worshipped Him

in the form of a steer, whom Ahab gathered together to the number of about four hundred, when he enquired of the Lord whether he should go up against Ramoth-gilead (1 Kings XXII). The second was that of the prophets who were addicted to the Phoenician worship of Baal and Astarte, which was introduced by Jezebel; according to Elijah's enumeration there were four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred of Astarte (1 Kings XVIII, 19). Bút even the true prophets were much more numerous than in the kingdom of Judah. Obadiah concealed one hundred of them by fifties in two caves (1 Kings XVIII, 4). Most of them were probably sons of the prophets ( ), for in the Ephraimitic country was the seat of the prophetic schools. Prophecy was there the only institution which kept the kingdom from an entire rupture with the God of revelation; and in accordance with a law of redemptive history, the gifts (xapíopara) of the Spirit were multiplied in like degree as the power of the father of lies was developed. The activity of the prophets was mostly confined to practical preaching, for the difference between the prophet and preacher consists only in the immediateness of the impulse from the Holy Ghost. Not all the prophets were elevated, like Elijah and Elisha, to a height which since Moses and Samuel had remained unattainable. Nevertheless Elijah and Elisha had no integral position in the history of the announcement of salvation. They were however instrumental in enabling the kingdom of the twelve tribes still to live on through a long period, which was rich in noble spiritual fruits. In Elijah the prophetic schools secured a second Samuel as their head, and entered again into the foreground of the history. The prophetic activity which was here instituted and tended, was not only an oratorical but also historiographical.

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The Rudimentary Character of Obadiah's Prophecy.

The literature of the proper prophetic writings began in this second period with Obadiah's brief prediction against Edom. This prophecy of Obadiah is distinguished from that of Ahijah and others, in its having to do, not with one person but with an entire people. However through the external, sensuous character of that which is beheld as future it appears as only the rudimentary commencement of prophecy. The Israel of the two houses (Jacob and Joseph)

becomes a much greater people than ever before, since a holy remnant () which survives the judgment on the nations is strengthened by the return of the captives (ver. 21):

"And saviours [] shall go up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau and the kingdom [7] shall be Jehovah's." These saviours are men, who like the heroes of the time of the Judges, take vengeance on the enemies of their people, and the kingdom of Jehovah breaks its way by means of victorious conquest and subjugation. The religious side of the calling of Israel, as well as the spiritual character of the kingdom of God, remains unexpressed, and the concentration of the national hope upon one person, the Messiah, is not yet accomplished.

Remark. According to Graf, Der Prophet Jeremia, Leipzig 1862, p. 558 etc., the prophecy of Obadiah is divided into two parts: (1) an older portion (vs. 1-9), which, as Caspari, Der Prophet Obadia, Leipzig 1842, has proved, Jeremiah (XLIX, 7 etc.) reproduces; (2) a later portion (vs. 10-21) which arose at the time of the exile, as an enlargement of the original part. We are convinced that even the second part may be explained by the circumstances and consequences of the catastrophe of Jerusalem, which is described in 2 Chron. XXI, 19—17, and to which Joel IV, 1-8 and Amos I, 6-10 refer.

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Joram, under whom Obadiah prophesied, was followed by Ahaziah, and then by the dreadful sway of Athaliah. Only Joash the son of Ahaziah escaped the assassins which had been hired by his grandmother. Jehoiada the high priest brought up the prince in the temple and raised him at the age of seven years to the throne. In the first thirty years of Joash's reign, during which, under the leadership of Jehoiada, he served the God of Israel, and cultivated the true worship of Jehovah, Joel appeared. The organism of the book excludes the allegorical interpretation of the locusts, for a quaternion of promises, introduced by the intermediate remark II, 18—19a, corresponds to the plague of the locusts I, 2-II, 17. The promise of the destruction of the locusts (II, 191—20) forms the antithesis to the devastation caused by them, and the promise of the early and late rain (II, 21-27) forms the antithesis to the drought. But the prophet raises himself from these promises, with the prophecy "And it shall come to pass afterward" (III, 1

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), to higher predictions in the realm of the more remote

future.

The outpouring of the Spirit III, 1 etc. forms the antitype to the outpouring of rain, and the destruction of the hostile nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat (III, 3-IV, 21) the antitype to the destruction of the locusts. In response to its humiliation the people receive these great promises through the prophet, whom God had sent to them as an instructor in righteousness (pS i II, 23) that is, in accordance with the way of salvation (like 2 Chron. VI, 27). But the highest which Joel's prophetic gift accomplished was in his prophecy respecting the outpouring of the Divine Spirit upon all flesh. That the phrase cannot be limited to the Israelites, although they are immediately referred to in the expression "your sons" () and that which follows, appears from III, 5, where he cites Obadiah (ver. 17) and at the same time supplements him by extending the divine call (xλjos) to a of remnant the heathen world. From Obadiah to Joel there is a perceptible progress in the spiritualizing of the expected salvation, but we miss in Joel as well as in Obadiah the concentration of the work of salvation in one human mediator.

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The Missionary Book of Jonah.

If we now turn to the kingdom of Israel, which Obadiah mentions only once and Joel not at all, we meet with Jonah, who according to a not improbablę tradition, was one of the sons of the prophets belonging to Elisha's school. The book of Jonah also contains no Messianic prophecy, but it is both actually as well as didactically a prelude to the New Testament in the midst of the Old. What Jonah is required to proclaim to Nineveh is no irreversible oracle (), but a preaching designed to produce repentance (R, Kýpurμa), hence the prophet flees and is sulky when his preaching has wrought upon the people. It is precisely the same narrow spirit which was active among the Jews of Pisidian Antioch (Acts XIII, 45-48), and from which even Peter had to be freed by a heavenly vision (Acts X). The book of Jonah is a divine anticipation of the breaking down of the barriers in the announcement of salvation. It is a foreign missionary book in the midst of the Old Testament. All parts of the book are animated and shaped by the idea that the heathen are included in the divine decree of salvation and are the