There is in Jonah's

objects of convicting and converting grace. flight and sulkiness an indication of a clear, prophetic view of the future, for he sees that in God's acceptance of the heathen Israel loses his sonship. After Jesus, who was Jonah's antitype, by means of his burial in the grave for three days, had passed through the heart of the earth, he really turned from Israel to the heathen, and the times of the gentiles (xatpol dvov Luc. XXI, 24) began.

Remark. Whether one believes the miracle of Jonah's preservation in the belly of the fish or not, he must admit, that this book with respect to the age, in which it arose is itself a miracle of the Divine Spirit and that the historical miracle, which is therein related, does not lack the chief criterion of credibility, which consists in its connection with an important end in the history of redemption.

$ 32.

The comforting Conclusion of Amos.

The prophet Jonah still stands in the midst of the second epoch at a time when the Assyrians had to suffer a threatening crisis. The book of Amos conducts us from the second epoch to the third (from the contemporaneous reigns of Uzziah and Jeroboam II until the destruction of Israel in the sixth year of Hezekiah) at a time, when the northern kingdom, after it had become great and mighty through Jeroboam II, was already beginning to sink while Assyria was attaining a new elevation, and Judah was still in a state of decay, into which under Amaziah it had been brought by Jehoash (compare Amos VI, 11; IX, 11 with 2 Kings XIV, 13). The book of this prophet consists of seven parts: the round of judgments upon the nations (I-II), and two trilogies of castigatory and minatory discourses (III, IV, V-VI; VII, VIII, IX). The final discourse, which goes out from the vision of the destruction of Bethel is distinguished in this from all the preceding that it ends in a promise, so that the threatening book closes with reconciliation. The eschatological prophecy is even here as in Obadiah and Joel not yet properly Messianic, for nothing is said about the person of the Messiah. It is prophesied (IX, 11), that the tabernacle of David. which is fallen shall be raised up from its ruins. This in its primary signification merely indicates the re-elevation of the decaying dynasty of David, which indeed finds its ultimate fulfilment in Messiah, the son of David. The prediction is applied in this sense by James (Acts XV, 16 etc.), who follows the LXX; and also the old Syna

gogue (Sanhedrin 76b) gave the Messiah from this prophecy the emblematical name

(Bar-Nafli).

Remark. The indirect Messianic passage of the book (IX, 11) is as follows: "In that day I will raise up the tabernacle of David which is fallen and wall up its breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and build it as in the days of old." The house of David is here called no, not or 3 (Is. XVI, 5), because it no longer had the glory of a king's house, and this hut is fallen (bi), that is, is in a ruinous condition. Between Amaziah's victory over Edom and Uzziah's elevation to the throne falls the disgraceful chastisement, which Amaziah received through Jehoash king of Israel (2 Kings XIV, 11–14), and in which the threatening parable was fulfilled: "And there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon and trode down the thistle." Jehoash marched with the defeated king in triumph into Jerusalem, and, after he had broken down a part of city wall, plundered the town (2 Kings XIV; 2 Chron. XXV). The prophet beholds in the future the re-elevation of the house of David, and what he prophesies is fulfilled by Uzziah but receives its final fulfilment in Christ, after the house of David had sunk still deeper than through Jehoash.

§ 33.

Progress of Messianic Prophecy in Hosea.

The three prophets of the kingdom of Israel, Jonah, Amos and Hosea belong to the beginning, the middle, and the end of the reign of Jeroboam II. Hosea appeared during, the last years of this king and through his prophetic preaching accompanied the kingdom of Israel not only with funereal music, but also with the promise of a resurection. He attaches himself in the arrangement and contents of his book to Amos, whom he quotes (VII, 12 compare Amos IX, 2) and twice undeniably copies (VIII, 14 compare Amos II, 5; IV, 15 compare Amos V, 5); but in the prophecy of the future. salvation he goes far beyond him. It is through him that the prospect of Israel's restoration receives from his time the stereotyped form of the hope of another David, that is of a king who is the descendant and Antitype of David. The interpretation of the second marriage into which the prophet is commanded to enter is as follows (III, 4):

"For many days shall the children of Israel dwell without king and prince, and without sacrifice and statue (x), and without ephod and teraphim. Afterwards shall the children of Israel convert [1] and seek Jehovah, their God, and David their king and shall turn with fear to the Lord and to His

.[בְּאַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים] "goodness in the last days

"The many days" is the long period of the exile, the condition in which the Jewish people is even now. It is still a people, but not a state with a king; it is still a worshipping congregation but without sacrifices; it is so radically estranged from polytheism, that it regards itself, with even too much self-appreciation, as the pillar of monotheism. Thus living in exile it shall at length be seized with a repentant desire for Jehovah, and David its king, that is, as the Targum translates, for the Messiah the son of David, for the king David of the final period is the future Christ (Jer. XXX, 9; Ezek. XXXIV, 23—31; XXXVII, 24—28). Hosea is in this designation of the Messiah the predecessor of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Jehovah and the second David stand side by side as the heavenly and the historical king, in whom the heavenly king reveals Himself. The entire Old Testament can exhibit no brighter prophecy respecting the conversion of Israel than this companion-piece to Rom XI, 25, but it must be admitted that it receives its full and spiritual signification first in the light of the New. The return of the children of Israel to their king David implies in its primary meaning only the political return which is connected with the religious. That which makes Israel inwardly blessed comes from Jehovah, and that which renders it outwardly happy comes from the second David. The Christ is not yet Jesus, that is, he is not yet the one who saves his people from their sins.

Remark. All the prophets recognize that the northern kingdom exists lawfully (jure divino) they see in the division of the kingdom a punitive decree of God respecting the house of David, although not one that is to last forever. Yet Hosea is indeed the first, who gives definite expression to the hope that the Israel of the final period will be one people. But Duhm errs, Theologie der Propheten, Bonn 1875, p. 128, when he says, that Hosea is the first, who declares that the existence of a royal house in Israel is illegal or rather sinful and who categorically demands the relinquishement of independency and the return to David. He does not demand it as duty of the present, but he foretells it as a fact which is to be divinely realized in the future.

$ 34.

The typical Prophecies of Hosea.

Hosea also prophesies typically, but this is only recognizable from the standpoint of the history of fulfilment. The typical meaning, which Matt. II, 15 finds in Hos. XI, I lies beyond the consciousness of the prophet. The truth of this typical meaning has its justification

in this, that in the history of Christ the history of Israel is recapitulated in its main features; hence VI, 1. 2 is on the same principle as XI, I a typical prediction. The prophet hears during the punishement of Israel repentant cries. Israel recognizes in its deathlike condition the divine decree, and musters courage to return to the One who is not less gracious than just:

"Come and let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn and he will heal us: he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise as up, and we shall live before him.

The three days mentioned here are just as typical as the three days of Jonah in the belly of the fish. The difference between the act of "making alive” (Swoñoiyois) and that of the "resurrection" (eyepois) is here distinguished in the same way as when Christ burst the bars of death; but the prophecy as such refers to the people, after the second day of whose death a resurrection day follows (Rom. XI, 15). The two days of their death are, in the history of fulfilment, the Assyrian and Babylonian exile and the Roman, in which the Jewish people still is.

Rem. 1. The Lord truly died and therefore entered into the condition of Hades. But his resurrection was preceded by his liberation from this condition, for as proindɛis he manifested himself to the spirits in prison as a victor 1 Peter III, 18. 19.

Rem. 2. In XIII, 14 it is said that Ephraim must descend to death and to the realm of departed spirits before punitive wrath is transformed into redemptive love. In order to punish Ephraim in accordance with his deserts, and as far as possible for his salvation, Jehovah summons Death and Hades to serve Him with their fatal powers, and to rush upon Ephraim:

"From the hand of Sheol will I free them, from death will I ransom them. Where are thy plagues, Death, where is thy pestilence, Sheol? Pity shall hide itself before my eyes!"

Paul quotes this remark in 1 Cor. XV, 55, but the application which he makes of the double to (in the Hebrew, is dialectically equivalent to ) corresponds neither to the original text nor to the LXX, for in both the words are not an exultant cry over death and Sheol, but a judicial summons to both as executioners of the divine sentence. The apostle however requires no justification through a violent alteration of the meaning of Hosea's words, since he does not mean when he says (1 Cor. XV, 54), "then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written” (τότε γενήσεται ὁ λόγος ὁ γεγραμμένος), that the expression που cou dávate xtλ. will then be fulfilled as a predictive word, but that then that will occur, which these words of the Old Testament, understood as a paean, express.

$35.

The pre-Assyrian Period of Isaiah.

Uzziah reigned contemporaneously with Jeroboam II whom he survived about twenty years. In the year that Uzziah died (758 B. C., or perhaps rather later) Isaiah was called, with whom Micah, his slightly younger contemporary, goes hand in hand. The book of Micah is a complete unity, which was written at one sitting, while the Isaianic collection of prophecies leaves the single predictions which have arisen at different periods independent of each other. In I-V we have the summary of the proclamation which was delivered to Isaiah in chapter VI. The world-power, which becomes the instrument of divine punishment, appears at first (V, 26–30) to his prophetic eye only as a shadowy form, without a definite outline. (compare Deut. XXVIII, 49). The judicial punishment of the exile is first indicated in as general expressions as possible (VI, 12, compare V, 13). The salvation, for which judgment breaks the way, does not in the first chapter go begond the moderate limit of a restoration (añoxatástasis) of the better past. The remnant, which later is called (XXXVII, 32; XLVI, 3), and and which finds in the name of Isaiah's son, (VII, 3), a living emblem, appears here (VI, 13) first only in the enigmatical image of the sprouting stump, and the Messianic prediction in IV, 2 is so sketchy, that the question whether is intended as indicating a person or a thing remains all the while doubtful (IV, 2): "In that day shall the branch of Jehovah become an ornament and a glory, and the fruit of the land shall become a pride and a boast for the escaped of Israel."

(XXXVII, 32),

The superlative expression of the antithesis to the prostrate, false glory and to the worldly pride indicates the right interpretation clearly enough. The branch of Jehovah () is neither the new and better generation of the people, which itself is the remnant (b), nor the blessing of the fields which is never indicated with this solemn name,, although indeed sometimes occurs in a collective signification. Therefore we must understand that the Messiah is intended. He alone like Jehovah (XXVIII, 5) can be called the glory and the pride of the future Israel. We have here the first Isaianic outlines of the Messiah's image as the continuation of the prophecies shows (Jer. XXIII, 5; XXXIII, 15;