MINOR PROPHETS

The “Twelve Minor Prophets” is the eighth and last “book” in the second section of the Hebrew
Bible, the Nevi’im, or Prophets. It is, as its name implies, not a unified whole but a collection of
12 independent books, by (at least) 12 different prophets.

“Minor” refers not to their importance but to their length: All were considered important enough
to enter the Hebrew Bible, but none was long enough to form an independent book. Despite the
"minor" title , the The Minor Prophets are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum,
Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The Minor Prophets are also
sometimes called The Twelve.

-Hosea minor prophet

The Book of Hosea is one of the most unconventional texts in the Bible. The main theme is the
loss of love of the people of Israel towards God during the 8th century BC.

For this purpose, the Lord uses a very crude metaphor and instructs Hosea to marry a woman
and have children in sin. Similarly, the people of Israel were being unfaithful to God by
worshipping false gods.

For all these reasons, Hosea is considered the prophet of love. Prophet of love, but also of
poverty and frugality, since for him the reason for which the people of Israel turn away from God
is the comfort brought by all that is material.

-Joel minor prophet

After the Book of Hosea comes the Book of Joel. This sacred text is considered a manual of
repentance and penance and penance, since it places these two actions as the main axis to
obtain God’s forgiveness.

The book begins as a historical account of a plague of locusts. Plague of locusts in Israel. There
is no consensus on the period in which it was written, although it is not very relevant to
understand its meaning.

The Lord promises to restore order in Israel if believers will devote themselves to penance and
prayer. Penance and prayer. On the other hand, the text ends with several half-apocalyptic
prophecies, such as the restoration of Eden and a kind of Final Judgment:

-Amos minor prophet

The Book of Amos was written during the eighth century B.C., although slightly earlier than
Hosea. His prophecy is intended to teach his contemporaries that the Lord rules the universe
above any law imposed by human beings.
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God has the power to create catastrophes and to bring goodness to starving people. This is
used as a threat to Israel, although it can also be viewed as the opportunity for redemption.
Amos 5:4 makes clear the message that the Lord wants to transmit through him:

“But thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live” (Amos 5:4).

The solution to all the world’s problems is to seek God and pray regularly. Only a life close to the
Lord will be far from evil.

-Obadiah minor prophet

With the Book of Obadiah we come to the shortest text of the Old Testament with only 21 verses
compacted into one chapter. At present, there is discussion about the date when the book was
written, since being so short, there is little information about it.

Like the other prophetic books we have seen above, Obadiah also speaks about the apocalyptic
“Day of Yahweh”. According to him, his people will be judged for the sins committed.

In this book, we highlight the appearance of a toponym that you may not have known: Sefarad.
This is the name that the Jews gave to the Iberian Peninsula, and it is in Obadiah that it appears
for the first time in the Bible.

-Jonah minor prophet

Unlike the other minor prophetic books, Jonah has a different style. Different style, since it
narrates in a more biographical way the mission that God entrusted to the prophet of the same
name.

Although Jonah was reluctant to accept this mission, the Lord caused him to be thrown into the
water and swallowed by a fish. Swallowed by a fish for a few days. In there, Jonah prayed
deeply and decided to accept the mission God was entrusting to him.

This consisted of going to the city of Nineveh and prophesying times of judgment for them,
which caused the whole city to repent. The whole city to repent and take the right path.

-Micah minor prophet

The book of Micah is once again a common book of prophecies of punishment for punishment
of his people after the bad behavior of the previous years.

Historically, Micah is dated to the end of the 8th century B.C., a time of war for the kingdom of
Judah that Micah attributes to this punishment from God. Furthermore, Micah explains that this
punishment has no other purpose than to renew the people of Israel, the summit of this process
being the arrival of the Messiah.
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-The prophet Nahum

Nahum’s prophecy is again dedicated to the city of Nineveh. City of Nineveh although some 150
years later than the one made by Jonah.

In the previous case, the city had a happy ending and repented for the sins committed. In
Nahum, the ending is certainly different. This prophet has visions about the destruction of the
city which means the abolition of the slave regime that existed there.

-Habakkuk minor prophet

The Book of Habakkuk was one of the most influential texts for Christianity from among all the
minor prophets. It was written at the end of the 7th century BC.

The main theme of the book is the salvation of the salvation of the righteous through faith and
prayer, something that Jesus affirmed many years later in his passage through the world.

-Zephaniah minor prophet

There are indications to believe that Zephaniah lived at the same time as Jeremiah, because
the mission of both of them was to convince King Josiah of the imminent invasion of his people
by the Babylonians.

There is not much to say about this book, since it consists only of the prophecy of the Day of
Yahweh. The day of Yahweh in which the whole kingdom of Judah will be judged for all its sins
committed.

-Haggai minor prophet

Haggai prophesied in the world together with Zechariah, of whom we will speak in the next
section because their two books are found in a row in the Bible.

Both inhabited Judah after the Babylonian invasion, that is, around 500 BC. Thus, Haggai’s
message is one of reconstruction of his people on the basis of faith and prayer, as had already
been predicted by the previous prophets.

-Zechariah minor prophet

As we have already told you, Zechariah lived at the same time as Haggai after the destruction of
Judah. His book is more complete than the previous one and consists of two distinct parts.

In the first, Zechariah narrates the eight visions the Lord gave him about the revival of
Jerusalem. Revival of Jerusalem from the ashes of war. As Jeremiah did in his time, Zechariah
also predicts the future condemnation of Babylon for its invasion of Judah.
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The second part is made up of two oracles in which a prophecy is possibly made about the
messiah. Prophecy about the messiah. In the first, Zechariah speaks of a king arriving in the city
on a donkey, just as Jesus did on his arrival in Jerusalem.

-The prophet Malachi

The last of the 12 minor prophets is the prophet Malachi. His work is the least concrete of them
all, being difficult to situate temporally and giving very little information about the author.

Malaki in Hebrew means “my angel”, so it is difficult to think that its author really had this name.

There is no one central theme that is addressed in the Book of Malachi, but rather there are
several themes that are already extensively discussed in the other prophetic books.

A good summary of the book is that it consists of disputes between the inhabitants of Israel and
God. The law of Moses, trying to make all of them follow the law of Moses. The same process is
followed as in the other books, in the end the righteous will be saved, and the sinners will be
condemned.