AN I N T R O D U C T I O N TO

THE BI BLE
Sacred Texts and Im perial Contexts

David M. C arr and C olleen M. C onway

(fiWILEY-BLACKWELL
A Jo h n W iley & S o n s, Ltd., Publication
 C h a p te r O u tlin e
C h ap ter O verview 86
Setting th e Stage: T h e Rise o f th e N o rth ern K ingd om o f Israel and
Its Texts 87
A n cient N ear E astern P rop h ecy 96
A m os, a So u th e rn P rophet P reach in g Ju stice and D o o m to th e N o rth 97
H osea, the N o rth ern P rop h et, C alling fo r Israel’sD ev o tio n to
Yahweh A lone 100
M icah , a S o u th ern P ro p h et, P red ictin g Ju d gm en t fo r Judah and Jeru salem 106
Isaiah’s V isio n o f H ope fo r Jerusalem /Z ion E m bed d ed in th e B o o k
o f Isaiah 110
T h e Use and Reuse o f B ib lical T rad itio n s as N ot L im ited by T h e ir
O rig in al Settin g 115
C h ap ter F o u r Review 116
R esources fo r F u rth e r Study 116
A ppendix: C o m p a riso n o f a Z io n Psalm (P salm 4 6 ) w ith M icah 3 :9 - 1 2
and Isa 1 :2 1 - 6 117
 C H A P T E R O V E R V IE W

h a p te r 3 tra c e d e c h o e s o f p a st e m p ire s in th e H e b re w B ib le , w h ile

th is o n e fo cu se s o n th e re v e rb e ra tio n s o f a n im p e ria l o n sla u g h t.

T h e tim e to b e review ed h e re is th e n in th a n d e ig h th c e n tu rie s b c e

(8 0 0 s a n d 7 0 0 s ). T h e a tta c k in g e m p ire w as Assyria, a M e s o p o ta m ia n

sta te b a se d in w h a t is n o w n o r th e r n Ira q . B y th is p o in t th e re w as n o

lo n g e r a “k in g d o m o f Isra e l a n d lu d a h ” b a se d in Je ru sa le m . In ste a d ,
th e re w ere tw o k in g d o m s. A n e w k in g d o m o f Isra e l h a d risen u p in th e

n o r th , w h ile a s o u th e rn k in g d o m o f Ju d a h w as still ru le d b y d e sce n d ­

a n ts o f D a v id in Je ru sa le m . In itia lly , th is n o r th e r n k in g d o m (Isra e l)

b e c a m e stro n g e r th a n its s o u th e rn c o u n te rp a rt, w h ile d ev elo p in g its

ow n c o rp u s o f te x ts th a t w ere larg ely d is tin c t fr o m th o s e u sed in th e

s o u th . Yet u ltim a te ly th e n o r th e r n k in g d o m w as d estro y ed b y A ssy ria,
a n d th e s o u th e rn k in g d o m b a re ly su rv iv ed th e d eca d es it s p e n t u n d e r

A ssy ria n d o m in a tio n .

T h e H e b re w B ib le re flects th is in itia l im p e ria l e n c o u n te r in a t lea st

tw o m a in ways. F irst, a lth o u g h th e H e b re w B ib le is a c o lle c tio n o f Ju d ean

te x ts, it p reserv es s o m e re m n a n ts o f te x ts fr o m th e d estro y ed n o r th e rn

k in g d o m , te x ts th a t have b e e n a p p ro p ria te d a n d a d a p te d b y Ju d ea n
scrib e s. S e c o n d , th e B ib le ’s first p ro p h e tic b o o k s ca m e fro m th is tim e

o f im p e ria l e n c o u n te r. T h e b o o k s o f A m o s, H o se a , M ic a h , a n d Isa ia h
all c o n ta in e a rly p ro p h e c ie s th a t re fle c t th e crises fa ce d b y Ju d a h a n d
Isra e l lea d in g u p to a n d d u rin g th e A ssy rian o n s la u g h t. K n o w in g m o re

a b o u t th e o rig in s o f th e se texts - w h e th e r n o r th e rn texts n o w em b e d d ed

in th e H e b re w B ib le (e .g . a n e a rly Ja c o b sto ry ) o r p ro p h e tic w ritin g s

fo rm e d in th e c ru c ib le o f im p e ria l crisis - c a n h e lp us u n d e rsta n d th e m

in n ew w ays.
 Setting the Stage: The Rise of the Northern
Kingdom of Israel and Its Texts

READING
1 Kings 12; 2 Kgs 1 4 :2 3 -9 ;
1 5 :1 7 -3 1 ; 1 7 :1 -6 (from
Jeroboam o f Israel to the fall o f
the n orth). Review Genesis
2 5 -3 5 and Exodus 2 - 1 4 .
EXERCISE
Com pare 1 Kgs 1 1 :2 6 -8 , 40, and 12 with Exodus 2 and 4 - 5 .
W hat parallels do you see between how 1 Kings 1 1 -1 2
describe Jeroboam ’s story and how Exodus 2 and 4 - 5 describe
the story o f Moses?

O ur journey toward greater understanding o f these texts starts with the story o f the
emergence o f a m onarchy in the Israelite north. This monarchy was the ultim ate ou t­
growth o f a long process o f tribal rebellion. Groups in Israel had tried in the past to
gain liberty from the Davidic monarchy, bu t they did not succeed in breaking free until
Solom on’s death, around 927 b c e .

According to the description o f this event in 1 Kings 12 {111 Chronicles 10), Solom on’s
son, Rehoboam , went to the ancient tribal center o f Shechem to be anointed by the
elders o f northern Israel. Instead, they ended up having a confrontation. T he elders
asked if Rehoboam ’s “yoke,” that is his d om ination o f them , would be as heavy as that
o f his father. Against the advice o f his older advisors, Rehoboam is reported to have
said: “I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline
you with scorpions” (1 Kgs 1 2 :1 1//2 Chr 10:14). As one m ight expect, this did not get
a good response. The elders called for withdrawal o f support o f the Davidic monarchy
in Jerusalem, saying “To your tents, oh Israel. Look to your own house, David” (1 Kgs
12:16; cf. 2 Sam 20:1). W hen Rehoboam sent his ch ief o f forced labor to bring the
northerners back in line, they stoned him to death (1 Kgs 12:18).
The elders o f Israel, however, appear to have started a new m onarchy rather than
trying to return to the tribal life they had before kingship. In place o f Rehoboam , they
anointed one o f their own countrym en as king, Jeroboam , who was a m an from the
tribe o f Ephraim . Earlier he had worked for Solom on as ch ief o f forced labor, but
rebelled and fled to Egypt when Solom on tried to kill him (1 Kgs 1 1 :2 6 -7 ). As a new
king o f Israel, Jeroboam first established Shechem as his capital, then moved to Penuel,
and he established royal sanctuaries at the towns o f Bethel (toward the south o f Israel)
and Dan (in the north; see Map 4.1 ). He installed statues o f calves at each sanctuary and
proclaim ed “Here are your gods, Oh Israel, who led you ou t o f Egypt” (1 Kgs 12:28).
This narrative in 1 Kings 12 represents a perspective by later southern scribes on
how awful it was that Israel in the north broke away from Judah. Nevertheless, even
this unsym pathetic narrative preserves a m em ory that this Israelite n orthern m onarchy
was different from the Davidic m onarchy in the south. Having gained liberty, Jeroboam
88 N arrative and P rophecy

Sidon •
f ~1 Kingdom of Israel • Damascus

I 1 Kingdom of Judah
I I Periodically subjected
to Kingdom o f Israel
I I Periodically subjected
to Kingdom o f Judah
KINGDOM OF
2 0 m iles
ARAM-DAMASCUS
(SYRIA)
10 2 0 km

• M egiddo

Jezrael • Ram oth-gilead

B e th -sh a n *
Mediterranean Sea
(Great Sea)
Sam aria® • T irz a h

• Shechem # Penuel
KINGDOM
* Succoth
KINGDOM OF AMMON
Qasile OF
Joppa
ISRAEL

Bethel • J e r ic h o iR abbath-am m on

©Jerusalem Heshbon •
Ashdod •

KINGDOM
Ashkelon
.. OF
\
Gaza «
PHILISTIA / • Lachish JUDAH
H ebron • En-G ed i« I
/
• Arad
MOAB
• Beersheba

ARABIA

EDOM

>Kadesh-barnea

M ap 4.1 The divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Redrawn from Norman Gottwald,
The Hebrew Bible: A Socio-Literary Introduction. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1985, page 291.
 N arrative and P rophecy 89

invoked exodus traditions in setting up royal sanctuaries in Bethel and D an ( “Here are
your gods . . . who led you out o f Egypt”). He picked ancient northern cities as capitals
for his new kingdom , cities such as Shechem and then Penuel. And though Jeroboam ’s
“calves” are viewed negatively in these chapters o f the Bible, archaeological finds o f
ancient statues o f bulls in Israelite sites suggest that they were one o f the m ost ancient
symbols o f divinity known in early Israel.
There is one other way in w hich Jeroboam and other northerners forged a new path
in founding the northern m onarchy: they a p p e a r to h a v e d ev elo p ed th eir ow n corpus o f
written texts. This corpus could be a “counter-curriculum ” to replace many o f the Davidic
and Zion texts that had been taught in the n orth during David and Solom on’s rule.
Those texts rem ained im portant in Judah, and m any are preserved in the Bible. The
sp lit-off kingdom o f “Israel,” however, created its own distinctive texts, featuring n orth ­
ern them es, places, and heroes.
Indeed, som e chapters in the Bible probably were w ritten in the north as part o f this
distinctive counter-curriculum . A good example is the story o f Jacob found in Genesis
(Genesis 2 5 -3 5 ) , a story built on the trickster traditions about Jacob discussed in Chap­
ter 2. It features Jeroboam ’s royal sanctuary city o f Bethel and early northern capitals
such as Penuel (where Jacob wrestles G od - Gen 3 2 :2 2 -3 2 ). Indeed, the story o f Jacob
in Genesis counters the claims o f the older m onarchy in Jerusalem. W here Jerusalem Zion
traditions claimed that Yahweh dwelled at M ount Z ion (Pss 9:11; 135:21), the Jacob

basics Jacob Story

Design: A Encounter Jacob/Esau (2 5 :2 1 -3 4 ; 2 7 :1 -4 5 )

the Jacob B D ivine encounter, departure (2 8 *)
story d tiasm C Wives acquisition (2 9 :1 - 3 0 )
D Fertility: children (2 9 :3 1 -3 0 :2 4 )
D' Fertility: flocks ( 3 0 :2 5 - 4 3 )
C 'W iv es extrication (3 1 :1 -3 2 :1 )
B ' Divine encounter, return (3 2 :2 2 -3 2 )
A' Encounter Jacob/Esau (3 3 :1 - 1 7 )

Defining A chiasm is a circular literary form that moves through a set o f them es to the cen­
“chiasm ” ter (e.g. A, B, C, D ) and then goes through sim ilar them es in reverse order after the
center (e.g. D ', C ', B', A '). M ajor emphasis is often put on the texts that occur at the
center o f a chiasm.

M ajor them es o f The center o f this early Jacob story is the fertility o f Jacob’s fam ily and flocks (Gen
the Jacob sto ry 2 9 :3 1 -3 0 :4 3 ). This is a m ajor them e o f the story, alongside emphasis on his (and
his w om en’s) resourcefulness am idst conflict and danger.
90 N arrative and P rophecy

story embedded in Genesis has God (quoted by Jacob) say, “I am the God who dwells in
Bethel” (G en 31:13). These clues suggest that the bulk o f the Jacob story now in Genesis
was written in the n orth as a counterpoint to the writings o f the Davidic m onarchy in
the south. To be sure, as we saw in Chapter 2, the Genesis Jacob story builds on more
ancient trickster and other oral traditions about Jacob and his family. Nevertheless,
most o f the written story o f Jacob probably originates from the time o f the early northern
m onarchy as part o f Jeroboam ’s counter-curriculum . It even seems as if the northern
prophet, Hosea, studied this story and could refer specifically to it (Hosea 1 2 :3 -4 , 12).

M ore on M e t h o d : T he Joseph Story and

Literary A pproaches

The Joseph story as a potential early northern text

The Joseph story (m inus probable later additions such as chapters 38, 46, and 4 8 - 9 ) is another good
candidate for being an early n orthern text. These chapters tell a tale that starts with a pair o f dreams
that Joseph has. In one, the sheaves o f grain belonging to Joseph’s brothers bow down in obedience
to Joseph’s sheaf. In the other dream, 11 stars and the sun and m oon bow down to Joseph. His (11)
brothers interpret these dreams as claims by Joseph that he will dom inate them , and their murderous
resentm ent about these claims results in Joseph being taken into slavery in Egypt (Genesis 37). There
he rises to prom inence, is able to provide food for his family when they flee a fam ine in Israel, and is
reconciled to his brothers (Genesis 45 and 50).
Especially since Joseph was an ancestor o f Jeroboam , tribal groups o f the north could have seen this
narrative as an allegory o f power. It may have been designed to help them recognize Jeroboam ’s
ultim ate destiny to rule and provide for them the way Joseph, Jeroboam ’s ancestor, was destined to
rule and provide for his brothers. As such, an early form o f the Joseph narrative now in Genesis may
have been part o f the early northern literary corpus.

Literary approaches and Joseph

Meanwhile, the Joseph story has been a m ajor focus o f literary study o f the Bible. No m atter when
one dates the Joseph story (and there is debate), there is m uch room for analysis o f its characterization
o f Joseph and his brothers, the contrast between what the storyteller says happened at points and what
different brothers report about what happened, and the move o f the plot from brotherly resentm ent
to reconciliation. Literary study o f biblical narrative draws on the study o f m odern literature to reach
insights about texts like the Joseph story that are n ot related to particular theories about dating or
social context.
Such literary approaches to biblical narrative have grown ever m ore varied as study o f literature in
the hum anities itself has evolved. For m ore on diverse literary approaches to narrative, see David
Gunn, “Narrative Criticism ,” pp. 2 0 1 -2 9 in S. M cKenzie and S. Haynes (eds.), To E ach Its O w n M ean in g
(Louisville, KY: W estm inster John Knox Press, 1999).
 N arrative and P rophecy 91

It is difficult to know exactly what other biblical texts were com posed in the north,
but there are many other chapters o f the Old Testam ent that show strong northern
connections. Chapter 2 o f this textbook discussed one o f those chapters, D eborah’s
victory song in Judges 5, which focuses exclusively on northern tribes. This early song
probably was written down in the northern kingdom started by Jeroboam . Som e form
o f the b ook o f D euteronom y may have started in the n orth as well. It includes a scene
o f covenant making on northern m ountains (D eut 2 7 :1 -1 3 ) that alm ost certainly would
n ot have been com posed by later Judean scribes.
We may even have hints o f fragm ents o f an early northern exodus story in the b ook
o f Exodus. As you may have seen in the exercise com paring 1 Kings 1 1 -1 2 and Exodus
2, 4 - 5 , the story in Exodus is w ritten in a way that makes M oses’s liberation o f Israel
from Egypt sound a lot like Jeroboam ’s liberation o f Israel from Rehoboam . Both
grow up in privileged households, identify with the people being oppressed, flee from
the oppressive ruler, return when that ruler dies, appeal to the new ruler to lighten the
oppression, and eventually lead their people ou t from under oppression when the new
ruler refuses. It is possible that Jeroboam ’s liberation o f the north ju st happened to
parallel M oses’s liberation o f Israel. It is m ore likely, however, that these parallels in
stories came about because scribes working for Jeroboam in the early northern kingdom
shaped the ancient exodus traditions o f the north in light o f the recent “exodus” they had
experienced under Jeroboam from oppression by Solom on and his son, Rehoboam .
Does this m ean that the ancient northern scribes ju st “made up” stories about Jacob
or exodus in the process o f writing their counter-curriculum ? Not really. There is
a contem porary analogy to this process o f shaping ancient stories in light o f recent
experience. In the 1950s and 1960s, many fighting for civil rights would cite the biblical
story o f the exodus as a warrant for their struggle for freedom. In doing so, they selec­
tively drew on the parts o f the story that m ost m atched their current experience. An
example was M artin Luther King Jr.’s fam ous final speech in M em phis, ju st before he
died, about standing, like Moses, on the m ountain, looking over into a prom ised land
that he would n ot get to see himself. T he parallels between the biblical stories o f Moses
and Jeroboam probably were caused by a sim ilar process o f linking past to present:
northern scribes who were writing down ancient oral traditions about the exodus retold
the story so that it celebrated a “M oses” who now looked m uch like Jeroboam , their
new king. The w ritten results o f their work, an early n orthern “exodus story,” are pre­
served - very fragm entarily - in parts o f Exodus 2, 4 - 5 .
It should be no surprise that there are many traces o f northern texts in the Bible, in
Genesis, Exodus, and many other books o f the Old Testament. There is m uch archaeo­
logical evidence that the kingdom o f Israel, during its two centuries o f existence, was
m ore powerful and prom inent than the kingdom o f Judah to the south. In particular,
the northern kingdom reached a zenith o f power during the tim e o f king O m ri and
his son, Ahab (see Figure 4.1 ). O m ri established a massive new capital in Samaria, made
a m ajor m arriage alliance w ith Phoenicia (Ahab’s wife Jezebel was from Sidon), and
dominated the smaller, southern kingdom o f Judah, which was still ruled by descendants
o f David. Though the O m ride dynasty was eventually brought down through a coup
d’etat led by a general Jehu (841 b c e ), years afterward, M esopotam ian kings would still
refer to the whole area as “the house o f O m ri.” The northern kingdom o f Israel could
Figure 4.1 One of the ivory carvings
found in Samaria, the site o f Ahab’s
famous “ivory palace” (1 Kgs 22:39).
Originally covered in gold, these
objects illustrate the kind of wealth
and power possessed by the northern
kingdom, particularly under Omri
and Ahab.

achieve such prom inence during this tim e partly because it had m ore land and popu­
lation than the kingdom o f Judah and controlled m ore central trade routes. Judging
from this, many scholars believe that the n orthern kingdom o f Israel had a m ore active
literary tradition during this tim e than Judah did. The kingdom o f Israel becam e the
central place for w riting and developing written traditions com m on to north and south,
while Judah played a m ore peripheral role until the late eighth century.
Im perial clouds, however, were on the horizon. In the second h alf o f the eighth
century, the Assyrian em pire under King Tiglath-Pileser III began extending its reach
westward to secure access to resources and trade routes in the area o f Israel. The Assyrians
had long been a m ajor trading power in the Near East, bu t by this tim e they also had
assembled an extrem ely efficient arm y that was the terror o f their neighbors. Figure 4.2
shows an Assyrian depiction o f an attack on a Judean city in 701. O ther parts o f the
same set o f reliefs show Judean resisters being im paled and inhabitants o f the town
being led away in chains. Through such attacks, and reports and depictions o f them ,
the Assyrians terrorized the area and enforced their dom ination. One Assyrian king
brags, “M any o f the cap tiv es. . . I to ok alive; from som e o f these I cut o ff their hands
to the wrist, from others I cut o ff their noses, ears, and fingers; I put out the eyes o f
m any o f the soldiers.” A nother reports, “I fixed up a pile o f corpses in front o f the gate.
I flayed the nobles, as m any as had rebelled and spread their skins out on the piles o f
corpses.” It was in the face o f threats like these that central parts o f the biblical tradition
were formed.
Facing the prospect o f possible Assyrian invasion, m any countries voluntarily sub­
m itted to Assyria and prom ised to send regular tribute to the Assyrian king. This
 N arrative a n d P rophecy

Figure 4.2 Detail from a wall-sized panorama, in the palace of the Assyrian king
Sennacherib, of the defeat of the town of Lachish in Judah. The Assyrians are pushing a
siege engine up a ramp to break a hole in the wall o f Lachish while the Judean defenders
attempt to set the engine on fire by throwing torches down from the wall.
94 N arrative a n d P rophecy

Figure 4 .3 Panel from the Black Obelisk of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, depicting the
Israelite king Jehu offering tribute to and kissing the ground before the Assyrian king. It
documents the brief subservience of the northern kingdom to Assyria about a hundred years
before Assyria dominated and eventually destroyed the kingdom of Israel in the late eighth
century.

happened first in the north, perhaps already in the ninth century with Jehu (as in
Figure 4 .3 ), but first in an ongoing way when king M enahem o f Israel started paying
substantial tribute to Assyria around 738 bce. But M enahem died, and the kingship
was soon taken over around 735 b ce by Pekah, who aimed to jo in Syria and other
nations in rebelling from Assyria and stopping payment o f the onerous tribute. In what
is called the S yro-Ephraim ite w ar (7 3 5 -7 3 4 b ce) this new anti-Assyrian coalition even
laid siege to Jerusalem in the south in an attem pt to force sim ilar anti-Assyrian policies
on Ahaz, who was king o f Judah at the time. Ahaz escaped the Israelite and Syrian
forces by appealing for Assyrian help, thus defeating those besieging him , but also fall­
ing under Assyrian dom ination himself. Thus began a process where the northern
kingdom was gradually reduced in size and eventually totally destroyed in 722, while
Judah barely survived its period o f Assyrian rule.
A few years later Hezekiah, king o f Judah, also rebelled. In retaliation, the Assyrians
destroyed virtually all the towns o f Judah and were poised to destroy Jerusalem as well.
Nevertheless, they pulled back - for unknown reasons. The account o f his attack and
withdrawal is found in both an Assyrian version and m ultiple biblical versions (see
the M iscellaneous Box on “A View from the Assyrian Im perial Court: The Annals o f
Sennacherib”). T he kingdom o f Judah barely survived, and Hezekiah and, later, his son
Manasseh ruled for decades as vassals o f Assyria over a m uch reduced kingdom o f
Judah. Zion theology was apparently affirmed, but Judah was forever wounded.
 N arrative and P rophecy 95

A View from the Assyrian Im perial C ourt: The Annals o f Sennacherib

ramps and battering ram s. These siege engines

were supported by infantry who tunneled under
the walls. I took 200,150 prisoners o f war, young
and old, male and female, from these places.
I also plundered m ore horses, mules, donkeys,
camels, large and small cattle than we could
count. I im prisoned Hezekiah in Jerusalem like
a bird in a cage. I erected siege works to prevent
anyone escaping through the city gates.
The cities in Judah which I captured I gave
to M itinti, King o f Ashdod, and to Padi, King
o f Ekron, and to Sillibel, King o f Gaza. Thus I
reduced the land o f Hezekiah in this campaign,
and I also increased Hezekiah’s annual tribute
payments.
Hezekiah, who was overwhelmed by my
terror-inspiring splendor, was deserted by his
elite troops, which he had brought into Jerusalem.
He was forced to send me 420 pounds [Akkadian
30 talents] o f gold . . . and all kinds o f valuable
treasures, his daughters, wives, and male and
female musicians. He sent his personal m essen­
ger to deliver this tribute and bow down to me.
(Translation: O T P arallels 1 9 1 -2 )

Figure 4.4 The Sennacherib prism.

Exercise

Because Hezekiah o f Judah did not submit to my How does this description com pare with Isaiah
yoke, I laid siege to forty-six o f his fortified cities, 3 6 -7 (parallel to 2 Kgs 1 8 :1 3 ,1 7 -1 9 :3 7 )? How does
and walled forts, and to the countless villages in it com pare to 2 Kgs 1 8 :1 4 -1 6 (m aterial n ot found
their vicinity. I conquered them using earthen in Isaiah)?

This whole process decisively affected the form ation o f the Hebrew Bible. W hatever
texts we now have from the northern kingdom were preserved - in tatters and fragments
- in the texts o f the kingdom o f Judah. M oreover, this dram a o f Assyrian invasions,
anti-Assyrian coalitions, and switching between pro-Assyrian and anti-Assyrian kings
forms the backdrop for m uch o f Israel’s earliest written prophecy. The prophecies o f
96 N arrative and P rophecy

Hosea, M icah, and Isaiah, in particular, are difficult to understand w ithout a sense o f
the political turm oil their countries were facing. Even the harsh prophecy o f Amos,
which was delivered p rior to the Assyrian onslaught, probably becam e as im portant as
it did as an explanation o f the Assyrian destruction o f the north.
In sum, m uch o f the Hebrew Bible was form ed in the shadow o f Assyria’s imperial
dom ination o f Israel and Judah. T he rich literature o f the north was destroyed as such,
only to be preserved in fragm ents strewn across Judah’s later Bible. In addition, this
Assyrian crisis was the starting point for the development o f written prophecy in ancient
Israel and Judah. Prophets such as Hosea and Am os, M icah and Isaiah, may n ot have
gotten m uch o f a hearing in their own day. Nevertheless, the writings attributed to
them becam e very im portant to later generations o f Judeans who had to endure yet
m ore catastrophes like the eighth-century Assyrian onslaught. We turn now to look at
the phenom enon o f such w ritten prophecy.

Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy

Prophecy was a widespread phenom enon in the Near East. Egypt, Phoenicia, Syria, and
the kingdom s o f M esopotam ia all knew people, som e amateurs and some professionals,
who pronounced oracles from the gods. This was part o f a broader system by which
kings and others tried to divine the future. M uch as som e people learn to read scrolls,
these scholars aimed to learn to “read” clues in the cosm os to the gods’ intentions, clues
encoded in dreams, om ens, parts o f special animals sacrificed to divine the future, and
other means. Life was unpredictable, and the people o f the Near East marshaled every
resource they could to understand m ore about what the gods were doing and what they
wished. Verbal prophecies from hum an m edium s were a m ajor way o f gaining such
inform ation.
M ost such prophecies were oral, bu t som etim es they were written down. The archives
at M ari, a Syrian city that becam e very powerful in the second m illennium b c e , contain
hundreds o f records o f prophecies given there, ju st in case such prophecies m ight be
useful in future. Later M esopotam ian archives likewise contain careful records o f pro­
phetic oracles and even a few small collections o f oracles. Perhaps one o f the m ost
interesting w ritten prophecies, however, is an early eighth-century wall inscription
dating from ju st a few decades before the tim e o f the biblical prophets and found in
the Transjordan, ju st across from Israel, in a crossroads village now know n as D eir Alla.
This inscription, dated a few decades before those o f the biblical prophets to be discussed
here, gives the contents o f a scroll describing how “Balaam , son o f B eor” (a figure known
as a seer in N um bers 2 2 - 4 ) received a vision o f judgm ent m uch like the Hebrew
prophets to be discussed below. Together, the DeirAlla text and early prophetic collec­
tions in the Hebrew Bible show peoples in the neighborhood o f Israel collecting and
studying prophetic words o f judgm ent, n ot ju st hearing those words preached. Let us
turn now for a closer look at the earliest o f the prophetic teachings preserved in the
Hebrew Bible.
 N a rrativ e and Prophecy 97

Overview o f the Fou r Eigh th -C en tu ry Prophets

Prophecy addressed to Israel Prophecy addressed to Judah

(the northern kingdom) (the southern kingdom)

Prediction of doom Amos Micah

Prediction o f hope Hosea Isaiah

on other side of
painful judgment

Amos, a Southern Prophet Preaching Justice

and Doom to the North

The prophet Amos may be best know n right now - insofar as he is

known at all - as a prophet o f social justice. No other prophet packs
so much social critique in so little space. The b ook starts and finishes
with sim ilar divine critiques o f elites o f northern Israel taking advan­
*0
R E A D IN G
tage o f their power to exploit the poor:
Am os 1 -2 and 7 - 9 .

For the three crim es o f Israel and for four,

I will not turn back the punishm ent.
Because they sell those who act rightly for silver
And the p oor for a pair o f sandals.
They tram ple the head o f the p oor into the dust o f the earth
And push the oppressed out o f their way. (A m os 2 :6 - 7 ; also 8 :4 - 6 )

Later, Amos proclaims disaster on the women o f the capital city o f Samaria, who “oppress
the poor and crush the needy” (4 :1 ). He announces disaster against those “who turn
justice into wormwood and bring down social solidarity” (5 :7 ). In a passage later echoed
by M artin Luther King and others, he calls for “justice [to] roll down like waters and
righteousness like an everflowing stream” (5 :2 4 ).
This prophecy by Amos does n ot seem to have been received positively in his own
time. To start with, he was an outsider in northern Israel. The Bible records that he
came from Judah, having been a shepherd near the small town o f Tekoa (Amos 1:1;
7:14). Moreover, m ost o f his prophecies to the north were uncom prom isingly harsh,
often undermining the ancient traditions m ost dear to his audience. The Israelites m ight
have thought they were safe because the G od o f the exodus was on their side, bu t Amos
suggested that this exodus was nothing special:
98 N arrative and P rophecy

Are you not like the Ethiopians to me, Oh Israel?

Did I not bring Israel out o f Egypt
And the Philistines from Caphtor
And the Aram eans from Kir? (Amos 9:7)

T he Israelites m ight have thought that G od’s choosing o f them would protect them
(“election theology” ), bu t the b ook o f Am os quotes God giving an interesting twist on
such northern election theology:

You only have I known am ong all the nations o f the earth,
Therefore, I will hold you accountable for all your crim es. (Amos 3:2)

A later story about Am os in Am os 7 :1 0 -1 7 gives a vivid picture o f one response to

his message. It starts by telling how Amos went to the royal sanctuary at Bethel, and
announced that the king o f Israel at the tim e, Jeroboam II, would die by the sword,
while his people would go into exile. The high priest at Bethel, Amaziah, sent a message
about this to the king and then said to Amos:

Go away, seer, flee to Judah, eat bread there and prophesy, but don’t ever
again prophesy at Bethel because it is the king’s sanctuary and the temple
o f the kingdom. (7 :1 2 -1 3 )

Amos in this story responds that he is - or was - n ot a professional prophet ju st trying

to prophesy anywhere. Instead, God called him from his farm work in Tekoa to go
prophesy to “G od’s people, Israel” (Amos 7 :1 4 -1 5 ). But now that Amaziah has told him
to stop prophesying in Israel, Am os adds to his form er prophesy that the priest’s wife
will becom e a city prostitute, his sons will die in battle, and he, a priest, will die “in an
unclean land” (7:17).
There is no hint in this and many other prophecies that Am os aim ed to change the
ways o f his Israelite audience. To be sure, there are som e isolated calls for the people
to change in chapter 5 (Amos 5:4, 6, and 14) and som e predictions o f hope for Judah
added to the end o f the b ook (Amos 9:8b, 1 1 -1 5 ). These fragm ents, however, hardly
outweigh the b ook ’s general tone o f doom . It starts with a set o f prophecies where God
proclaim s that “for three crim es and for four” God will n ot tu rn back the punishm ent
(Amos 1 - 2 ) . It ends with a series o f four visions: in the first two Amos turns back
G od’s punishm ent through his pleas on Israel’s beh alf (Amos 7 :1 - 6 ) , but in the “third”
and “fourth” visions God will n ot turn back the punishm ent ( 7 :7 - 9 ; 8 :1 - 8 ) . Instead,
God has a “plum bline o f ju stice” by which God has measured Israel ( 7 :7 - 9 ) , and it will
be struck by a horrible earthquake (8:8; see also 2:1 3 ).
As it turns out, Israel actually was hit by an earthquake around the tim e o f Amos.
This has been confirm ed by a com bination o f archaeological and geological data. This
fulfillm ent o f Am os’s prophecy was never forgotten (Amos 1:1). Yet his prophecies o f
disaster proved to be correct in a broader way as well. As Am os had predicted (Amos
2 :1 3 -1 6 ; 3 :1 1 -1 5 ; 6 :1 - 7 ) , the northern kingdom was com pletely destroyed, though not
 N arrative and P rophecy 99

basics Book of Amos

Outline: Judean I Sayings against the nations: setting the judgm ent o f
prophetic Israel in context 1 :1 -2 :1 6
judgm ent II Elaboration o f judgm ent: the inversion o f Israel’s election 3 :l - 9 :8 a
on Israel III Final qualification: future for “Israel” in a revived
Davidic kingdom 9 :8 b -1 5

How Amos was M ost specialists in Am os agree that the b ook o f Amos contains num erous additions
adapted for that adapted his prophecy to the n orth so that it could speak to the south as well.
the south For example, the oracle o f judgm ent against Judah in Am os 2 :4 - 5 stands ou t from
the other oracles in 1 :3 -1 6 and is probably an addition designed to include Judah
among the nations judged by Amos. Likewise, the concluding promise that the “booth
o f David” will be rebuilt (Amos 9 :1 1 -1 5 , also introduced by 8b) was probably added
to provide a word o f hope for Judah (and “Israel” in the wider sense) in contrast to
the word o f judgm ent throughout the rest o f the b ook on the northern kingdom o f
Israel.

M ore The middle o f the b ook is punctuated by three similar praises o f Yahweh: 4:13; 5 :8 - 9 ;
inform ation: 9 :5 - 6 . Read them and see the sim ilarities. These late elem ents o f Amos challenge
Amos and praise? the reader to praise the awesome God who brings such judgm ent on Israel and set
that judgm ent in the context o f G od’s creation.

in a way he envisioned. Amos prophesied in a tim e before the Assyrians’ dom inance
and does not m ention them , but in 722 they invaded, destroyed Israel’s sanctuaries and
palaces, and carried into exile its surviving leaders.
By this tim e Amos had returned to Judah, and his w ritten prophecy was a form o f
prophetic “teaching” that Judeans could reinterpret - now in relation to the threat (and
later reality) o f Assyrian dom ination. Like teachings seen in Proverbs, these sayings by
Amos followed a form at o f “3 and 4 ” (Prov 3 0 :1 5 -3 1 ; cf. Amos 1 -2 ; 7 :1 - 9 and 8 :1 - 8 ) ,
rhetorical questions (Amos 3 :4 - 6 ) , and riddles (Amos 3:12; 6 :1 2 ). Yet this written
prophetic teaching o f Amos consists o f quotations o f God, not a sage like Solom on.
And the focus o f the teaching is on social acts and their national consequences, not the
smaller scale “m oral act-consequence” o f an individual student emphasized in Proverbs
(see Chapter 3 on m oral act-consequence). In the end, this written form o f Am os’s
prophecy had a m ore lasting effect than any oral words that he delivered. Though told
to go hom e by the northern high priest Amaziah, Am os’s words are still being read
m ore than two and a h alf thousand years after they were written.
100 N arrative and P rophecy

Hosea, the Northern Prophet, Calling for

Israel’s Devotion to Yahweh Alone

The b ook o f Hosea was also addressed to the kingdom o f Israel

around this tim e, but it is quite different from the prophecy o f
Am os. W here Am os emphasized judgm ent for Israel’s injustice,
Hosea pleaded for his own people to change, to “sow social soli­
READING
darity” (10:12) and “protect justice” (12:6). W here Amos announced
H osea 1 - 2 and 1 1 -1 2 .
irreversible disaster, Hosea predicted restoration on the other side
o f G od ’s punishm ent. And where Amos inverted and critiqued
his audience’s deep b elief in their chosenness (ancient “election
theology”), Hosea found new ways o f describing that chosenness, ways that emphasized
G od’s love for Israel and G od ’s wish for Israel’s devotion to God. For Hosea, Israel’s
m ain failing was a lack o f devotion to God and a love o f false gods instead.
This is m ost vividly illustrated at the outset o f the b ook with Hosea’s image o f God’s
broken m arriage to Israel. T he b ook starts with the story o f a rather remarkable and
personal act o f sym bolic prophecy - yet one that we will see also has disturbing over­
tones. Hosea is called by God to m arry and have children by a prom iscuous woman,
giving these children Hebrew sentence-nam es that symbolize what God plans to do
with Israel, such as “n o t pitied” and “n ot my people” (H os 1 :2 -9 ). Then, after the b rief
insertion o f a yet later text reversing this prophecy o f judgm ent (Hos 1 :1 0 -2 :1 ), we
encounter one o f the m ost powerful passages o f the whole book: G od’s agonized speech
to Israel in the wake o f Israel’s spiritual prom iscuity (H os 2 :2 -1 5 ) . In this speech God,
n ot Hosea, is the husband, and the nation o f Israel is the wife. G od starts with an
address to the children o f this “Israel,” telling them - in effect - that God has divorced
their m other:

Protest to your m other, protest,

For she is not my wife
And I am n ot her husband. (Hos 2:2a)

Yet God in Hosea 2 is not as done with this relationship as first appears. G od’s speech
im m ediately turns toward a plea for the children to get their “m other,” their nation, to
end her adulterous ways, lest she be subject to the sort o f stripping and shaming that
wives suspected o f adultery had to endure at the hands o f their husbands:

[Tell her to] put away her promiscuity,

and remove her adultery from between her breasts.
Lest I strip her naked,
And display her like the day she was born,
Make her bare as the desert,
and make her dry like parched earth,
And let her die o f thirst. (Hos 2 :2 b -3 )
 N arrative a n d P rophecy 101

This Israel, this wife o f God, is facing the prospect o f drought and fam ine (the
“stripping”) because she has gone after “other lovers” in search o f love gifts. Yet Yahweh
in Hosea’s speech insists that she was m istaken about who was providing for her. In
actuality, it was really Yahweh, her husband, who was giving her the things a m an was
to give to his wife: food, clothing, and oil (Hos 2:5, 8).
This list o f gifts suggests that Hosea sees Yahweh as betrayed by Israel’s worship o f
other gods, such as Baal (Hos 2:1 3 ). According to Hosea, the problem is that Israel
sought grain and other benefits from these other gods rather than relying on Yahweh
alone. Such worship o f m ultiple gods, o f course, was quite com m on in ancient cultures,
and we even see signs (discussed in Chapter 2) that people in earliest Israel worshipped
other gods alongside Yahweh. Nevertheless, Hosea proclaim s to his people that Yahweh
is as offended by such worship o f other gods as a husband would be by his wife’s adul­
tery. Like a good husband, he provided his wife with good things, and she underm ined
his m anhood by giving her love to others w hom she thought could provide better.
In response, Yahweh says that he will b lock Israel’s way to her lovers so that - like
the wom an o f the Song o f Songs - she will “seek” her lovers and not “find” them (Hos
2 :6 - 7 ) . M uch o f the rest o f the speech elaborates how Yahweh will devastate the land
o f Israel for its unfaithfulness. Nevertheless, it concludes n ot w ith judgm ent, but with
hope - in this case Yahweh’s plan to seduce Israel and bring back the early tim es when
Israel was in the wilderness and fully in love with God:

Therefore, look, I will seduce her,

and I will lead her in the desert,
And speak tenderly to her.
I will give her vineyards from there,
and the valley o f Achor as a gate o f hope.
She will respond there as in her youthful days,
As when she cam e ou t o f the land o f Egypt. (H os 2 :1 4 -1 5 )

In this way, Hosea’s image o f m arriage betw een Yahweh and Israel is m eant to depict
n ot ju st Yahweh’s pain at what Hosea saw as Israel’s betrayal, n ot ju st Yahweh’s intent
to bring consequences, bu t also Yahweh’s enduring love, a love which means that God
cannot bear to let Israel go for good and aims to bring her back into relationship with
him . As if this were n ot enough, the b o o k further underscores this point through
having Hosea him self describe another act o f sym bolic prophecy. As a sym bol o f G od’s
intent to take back Israel despite what “she” has done, God tells Hosea to pay a price
to hire a woman known for prom iscuity and then specify that she n ot seek any lovers
- not even be w ith Hosea - for a long tim e (H os 3 :1 - 5 ) .
The narratives o f sym bolic prophecy in Hosea 1 and 3 have led many readers to
psychologize Hosea’s message, believing that his bold new vision o f G od was prom pted
by problem s in his personal life, perhaps a propensity to end up w ith the wrong kinds
o f women. There are clues elsewhere in the book, however, that suggest a m ore im p ort­
ant background: the power politics surrounding Assyrian d om ination o f Israel going
all the way back to the tim e o f king Jehu. In Hos 5 :8 —6:6 we see Hosea’s critique o f
102 N arrative and P rophecy

basics Book of Hosea

Outline: I Introduction o f judgm ent and hope by way o f fam ily imagery 1 -3
prophecy o f II Elaboration o f prophecy o f judgm ent and hope by way
judgm ent o f other images 4 -1 4
and hope

How Hosea Hosea him self may have spoken about Judah in the south (one example is 5 :8 -1 5 ) ,
was adapted for b u t there are signs that later Judean authors adapted Hosea’s sayings so that they
the south included Judah in Hosea’s judgm ent (exam ples are 5:5; 6:4, 11). Still other additions
resemble the conclusion to Amos (Amos 9 :1 1 -1 5 ). Like that conclusion, they see
future hope for destroyed “Israel” being located in a broader “Israel” that is centered
in Judah and its Davidic m onarchy (1:11; 3:5; 11:12).

Hosea’s This adaptation o f Hosea was b u t the first step in having the b ook’s images speak
prophecy for to new com m unities which Hosea had not addressed. W hatever personal or cultic
the ages background there once was to Hosea’s m arriage and other imagery, it gained a
sym bolic life o f its own. W ithin the present form o f the book, the m arriage imagery
o f Hosea 1 -3 introduces Hosea’s prophecy m ore generally and then fades into the
background. Later, Hosea quotes Yahweh as saying that “by the hand o f the prophets
I gave analogies” (H os 12:10; probably mistranslated in the N R SV ). These analogies
in Hosea - marriage, parent, covenant - have been applied and reapplied by centuries
o f later readers.

Israel and Judah’s lack o f steadfast “love” for Yahweh (6:4 ). Hosea sees this lovelessness
proven when Israel (called “Ephraim ” here) pursued “futile” plans (5:11) and even sent
away to Assyria to save itself (5 :1 3 ). In Hos 7 :3 - 7 Hosea condem ns as “adultery” (7:4)
the constant shifting o f kings in Israel, largely in response to the Assyrian threat. In
H os 8 :7 - 1 0 Hosea likens the kingdom ’s tribute payments to a case where a prostitute
is actually paying her clients (“Ephraim hires its lovers,” 8:9 ). Finally, Hos 9 :1 - 6 mixes
images o f agricultural plenty and international politics. The prophet tells the people at
a harvest festival not to rejoice, because they are like a prom iscuous woman who has
loved her wages for sex at threshing floor and winepress ( 9 :1 - 2 ), and who will soon
go into exile in Assyria and Egypt (9 :3 - 6 ) . In these passages, Hosea critiques the m ulti­
tude o f ways that Israel (and Judah) tried to manipulate or buy their way ou t o f
oppression by Assyria. According to Hosea, they should have been devoted to and trusted
in Yahweh instead o f pursuing such power politics.
There may be some critique o f Israel’s cult practices as well, especially given the frequent
references to “Baal” throughout Hosea. The people o f Israel had worshipped various
 N arrative and P rophecy 103

Figure 4.5 Drawing and inscription found at a desert trading post called Kuntillet Adjrud
used by eighth-century Israelites. Interpretation of the drawings is disputed, but note the
figure playing a lyre on the upper right. The inscription toward the top is understood by
many to refer to “Yahweh and his Asherah.”

gods alongside Yahweh, long before Hosea’s tim e, and apparently continued to do so.
Indeed, scholars have not been able to reconstruct an early period when the tribes o f
Israel did not worship other gods. Ancient tribal and later sites have yielded female
statues that many interpret to be goddess figurines. Early Israelites appear to have born
names formed from the names o f various deities, including “Baal” and “El.” And a couple
o f early inscriptions from around the time o f Hosea feature blessings “by Yahweh and his
asherah [or Asherah]” (see Figure 4 .5 ). Though there is debate about how to interpret
these blessings, many understand them to imply that Yahweh had taken over Asherah,
form erly El’s wife, as his own. In all these ways, Hosea faced a m uch m ore diverse
religious landscape than we often picture for early Israel (see Figure 4 .6 ). W hat was
new was that he argued that this religious diversity, this lack o f pure worship o f Yahweh,
was one reason for Israel’s ills. He believed that the religious diversity o f his tim e was
a falling away from Israel’s past pure devotion to Yahweh in the wilderness. That is how
m ost contem porary readers o f the present Bible perceive the matter. Yet his audience
probably perceived his calls for pure worship o f Yahweh alone as som ething new.
Overall, Hosea’s m ain point seems to be that his people is displaying a massive
unfaithfulness - whether in international policy or in religious practice. Such unfaith­
fulness, for Hosea, is like a wife’s unfaithfulness to her husband. Yahweh’s response is
a m ix o f em otions typical o f wronged husbands: agony and jealous w rath at his wife’s
104 N arrative a nd P rophecy

Figure 4 .6 Pillar figurines of a sort common in archaeological remains of the eighth century.
They indicate to many scholars that some kind of goddess worship continued to prevail in the
time o f Hosea and Amos.

betrayal com bined w ith a wish to have her back again. In this way Hosea suggests to
his fellow Israelites oppressed by Assyria that Yahweh did n ot fail or abandon Israel;
rather Israel abandoned Yahweh first.
Readers over the years have responded differently to Hosea’s picture o f God and
Israel. For many, the b ook stands as a powerful picture o f G od’s longing for steadfast
love and his willingness to go to any length to bring the people back. Yet others are
disturbed by om inous parallels between G od’s behavior in Hosea’s prophecy and the
cycle o f spousal abuse: a husband’s anger at his wife and/or jealous accusations o f
adultery, physical beating and/or sexual hum iliation o f the wife, and wooing o f the wife
back. Hosea used the image metaphorically, believing that Israel had actually been
spiritually prom iscuous and that God was fully in the right to punish her before bring­
ing her back. M any now would reject this image o f God as a husband stripping and
beating his sinful, hum an wife (before taking her back again).
There are, however, other images in Hosea that offer alternative ways o f envisioning
G od’s agony and passion for reconciliation. Consider, for example, the picture in Hosea
11, where G od now is Israel’s parent, agonizing over his son’s disobedience after G od’s
tender care for him . The chapter starts w ith G od’s description o f having tenderly cared
for Israel as for a child, and Israel’s response to such care by sacrificing to other gods and
 N arrative a n d P rophecy 1 05

H osea and the “Book o f the Twelve Prophets”

The book of the Twelve Prophets Hosea 14:9 and prophetic teaching

Hosea is the first in the book o f the Twelve P ro ­
phets, a collection o f 12 shorter prophetic books
that is usually placed in bibles after Ezekiel or
(Ezekiel and) Daniel. The books are attributed
to so-called “m in or prop hets” - Hosea through
M alachi. The word “m in o r” is applied to these
prophets n ot because they are thought to be unim ­
portant, b u t because the books attributed to them
are relatively short. Each o f these short books has
its own character, bu t they also show signs o f being
edited into a larger whole by later scribes.
O ne possible sign o f such editing is the last verse
o f Hosea, Hos 14:9. It stresses that the “wise” will
understand the words o f Hosea, and it praises
the ways o f Yahweh as “right.” Such m ention o f
the “wise” is otherwise typical o f books such as
Proverbs. This verse marks the b ook o f Hosea as
a form o f prophetic “teaching,” much like Solom on’s
teaching in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.
At the same tim e, since Hosea is the first book
o f the 12 m in or prophets, this fram ing o f Hosea’s
book as a teaching has implications for understand­
ing the 11 books that follow. W ith this conclusion
to Hosea in Hos 14:9, they too stand as prophetic
teaching to be understood by the “wise.”

going their own way (Hos 1 1 :1 -4 ). At first God responds by announcing the destruc­
tion o f Israel ( 1 1 :5 - 6 ), bu t then God starts to relent:

How can I give you up, oh Ephraim?

How can I surrender you, oh Isra e l?. . .
I have changed my mind.
My com passion is warm and tender.
I will n ot act on my wrath,
I will n ot again attack Ephraim .
For I am God, n ot a man.
I am the holy one in your midst.
I will n ot com e in anger. (Hos 1 1 :8 -9 )

Here Hosea draws on the m etaphorical power o f the parental relationship, yet clearly
distinguishes this picture o f God from that o f a hum an “m an.” God here is deeply hurt
by the faithlessness o f G od’s people. Yet God cannot bear to destroy G od’s own child,
Israel. Even if a father could bear to destroy his son, God here is “n ot a m an” (11:9).
For Hosea, G od’s infinite com passion can be imaged, bu t only partially so, by the
powerful com passion a parent feels for his or her child.
106 N arrative a nd P rophecy

Hosea’s prophecy proved particularly influential in later biblical writings. We will see
elem ents o f his picture o f d ivine-hu m an marriage appear in several other prophets.
Moreover, his call for exclusive devotion to Yahweh was foundational for later Israelites.
Although the present Bible contains m uch later narratives that project this call for
devotion back into earlier periods o f Israel’s history (such as Exod 2 0 :1 -3 ) , the
book o f Hosea is ou r earliest datable witness to this idea, and it probably was n ot well
received at first. Nevertheless, this b elief in G od’s exclusive claims on G od’s people
grew in im portance, particularly as Israel and Judah had to grapple w ith Assyrian and
Babylonian oppression, destruction, and exile. T he people suffering through these
experiences asked themselves what they could learn from them . They looked back to
traditions such as Hosea, spoken out o f the crucible o f im perial oppression, and con ­
cluded that they needed to learn to be m ore faithful to Yahweh and Yahweh alone.
They believed they m ust reject any other lord (hum an or divine) and choose Yahweh’s
boundless love instead.

Micah, a Southern Prophet, Predicting

Judgment for Judah and Jerusalem

We turn now for a b rie f look at one o f the earliest books contain­
ing prophecy from the south, the b ook o f M icah. Here we find,
at least in the b ook’s earliest materials, the words o f a southern
prophet like Am os. Just as Am os spoke to Israel as an outsider
READING
from Judah, so M icah spoke to Jerusalem as a Judean refugee
M icah 1 -3 and 5 - 6 .
com ing from an area decim ated by Assyria (the town M oresheth).
Moreover, b oth prophets spoke words o f judgm ent to their audi­
ences, attem pting to pierce their false sense o f security. Yet the
differences between these prophets are striking as well, and they
point once again to the different traditions held dear by their different audiences. W here
Am os underm ined northern Israelite ideas o f election, M icah attacks southern trust in
Zion theology, particularly the idea that Zion/Jerusalem was invulnerable to all attacks,
a b elief m anifest in biblical texts such as Psalm 46: “God is in the midst o f the city, it
shall not be moved” (Ps 46:5 N R SV ).
The book o f M icah starts w ith judgm ent, as M icah proclaim s to the people o f Judah
that they are n ot im m une from the Assyrian disaster that has hit the north. T he first
oracle describes an awesome theophany (divine appearance) o f Yahweh com ing from
the Temple (M icah 1:2), yet it quickly becom es clear that this is no cuddly God:

Yahweh is treading on the sanctuaries o f the earth,

Then the m ountains will m elt under him ,
And the valleys will burst open
Like wax on a fire.
Like waters cascading down a slope.
 N arrative and P rophecy 107

All this, M icah says, is happening because o f the “crim e o f Jacob and the sins o f the
house o f Israel” (1:5). The reader may ask, “W hat is this crim e?” and the text soon
answers that it is the capital cities o f Sam aria and Jerusalem. In a section that sounds
much like Hosea, M icah announces that God is about to destroy Samaria, the capital
o f the northern kingdom , because o f its “idols,” which he sees as “wages o f a prostitute”
(1 :6 - 7 ). But, lest his country-people think they are im m une from this disaster, M icah
concludes by saying that Judah will be hit by the same destructive power, with the
“wound” even reaching the gate o f Jerusalem (1 :8 - 9 ) . T he next saying, 1 :1 0 -1 2 makes
a sim ilar point - tracing the path o f the invading Assyrian army as it moves from Gath,
town by town, to the gate o f Jerusalem.
Obviously M icah, like Hosea, is speaking in the context o f Assyrian invasion, but he
insists that the im pending destruction at Assyrian hands is actually caused by G od’s
judgm ent o f the inner ills o f the people o f Judah. In a social critique rem iniscent o f
Amos, he pronounces a lam ent over those who:

plan evil and acts o f evil on their beds,

W hen m orning com es, they do it,
Because they have the power to do so,
They covet fields, and seize them
Houses, and they take them away.
They defraud others o f their hom es
And people o f their land. (2 :1 - 2 )

Such critiques continue, as in M icah’s attack on those who make wom en and children
homeless (2:9) or in his quote o f G od’s vivid judgm ent on the leaders who “devour
my people’s flesh, flay the skin o ff them , the flesh o ff their bones, and . . . breaking
their bones to bits, chop them up like soup m eat in a pot, like flesh in a caldron”
(3 :2 - 3 ).
Apparently, the powers that be in M icah’s tim e did n ot like this message. He quotes
others as telling him “stop preaching . . . that’s n o way to preach, shame will n ot over­
take us! Is the house o f Jacob really condemned? Is G od’s patience really so short?”
( 2 :6 - 7 ). Apparently there were others proclaim ing m ore hopeful messages, and Micah
proclaim s Yahweh’s judgm ent on those who “cry ‘peace’ when they have food in their
m ouths, but launch war on the one who takes food from them ” (3 :5 ). In a clim actic
message, M icah announces an end to all o f the leaders who “build Z ion with blood and
Jerusalem with malice” (3:10):

[Jerusalem ’s] leaders adm inister justice for bribes,

Her priests give rulings for a fee,
And her prophets predict the future for pay.
And then they rely on Yahweh, saying,
“Isn’t Yahweh in our midst?
No disaster will com e on us!” (3:11)
108 N arrative and P rophecy

For M icah, these leaders and their trust in ancient Z ion theology are bringing about
the very disaster they consider unthinkable:

Therefore, because o f you,

Zion shall be plowed as a field
Jerusalem will becom e heaps o f ruins,
And the m ountain o f the house o f Yahweh will be a wooded height. (3:12)

Up to this point, M icah sounds a lot like Am os. He m aintains that Jerusalem’s corrup­
tion is so deep that Yahweh will let the Assyrians destroy it. The b ook so far explains
Judah’s oppression by Assyria as a result o f its deep-seated iniquity.
Nevertheless, m uch o f the rest o f the book, including som e o f its m ost fam ous pas­
sages, sounds a m uch m ore hopeful note. M icah 4 starts with a famous prophecy (4 :1 -3 ),
also seen in Isaiah 2 :2 - 4 , that God will make Zion/Jerusalem the center o f world justice,
so that - in a reversal o f the usual transform ation o f farm ers into fighters (see Joel
3 : 1 0 ) - nations will “ham m er swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks” (4:3).

basics Book of Micah

Outline: cycles I D estruction up to the gates o f Jerusalem (1 :1 - 2 :1 1 ) and prediction o f the

o f judgm ent and in-gathering o f exiles (2 :1 2 -1 3 )
salvation - Judah II D estruction o f Z ion ( 3 :1 - 1 2 ) and its restoration along with the Judean m o n ­
archy and people (4 :1 - 5 :1 5 )
III Judgm ent o f Israel (6 :1 —7:7) and prophetic prayer for restoration (7 :8 -2 0 )

Them e W hereas the original prophet, M icah, stressed G od’s im pending judgm ent on Zion,
the book now emphasizes salvation on the other side o f such judgment. It was addressed
to m uch later Judeans who had experienced many o f the disasters that M icah described.
The book encouraged them and later com munities to have hope for the future. Though
God m ight destroy everything they held dear, G od also could restore them .

M ore M icah’s words o f judgm ent were not forgotten. A story in the b ook o f Jeremiah,
inform ation Jerem iah 26, describes how the later, seventh-century prophet Jerem iah was almost
executed for proclaim ing the destruction o f the temple. At this point, the elders
reminded the people o f M icah’s proclam ation o f Zion’s destruction, a prophecy given
a century before the tim e o f Jerem iah (M icah 3:12). In addition, they tell a story -
not found elsewhere in the Bible - o f King Hezekiah listening to M icah’s prophecy
and repenting (Jer 2 6 :1 9 ). Jerem iah’s life was spared.
 N arrative and P rophecy 109

The rest o f M icah 4 - 5 contains prophecies o f how Yahweh will redeem “daughter Zion,”
who has endured pain like a wom an in labor, bringing her exiles back to her ( 4 :6 - 7 ,
8 - 1 0 ) . The b ook goes on to say that when “ [Zion] who is in labor has brought forth”
(5:3), a powerful ruler will arise from tiny Bethlehem o f Ephratah to reign in glory from
Jerusalem (5 :2 - 4 ). This prophecy, often understood by Christians to be a prophecy o f
Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem , is part o f a series o f prophecies about how Zion will trium ph
over the Assyrians and other enem ies who dom inated her (4 :1 1 -5 :1 5 ).
These words o f hope for exiles and prom ise o f victory in M icah 4 - 5 contrast sharply
with the proclam ation o f absolute doom on Zion in M icah 1 -3 . Chapters 4 and 5 hardly
sound like the words o f the prophet who announced that “Z ion shall be plowed as a
field, and Jerusalem will be heaps o f ruins” (3 :1 2 ). Because o f this, m ost scholars believe
that much o f M icah 4 - 5 , and possibly 6 - 7 as well, were added by later - anonym ous
- prophets to the b ook o f M icah. As discussed in Chapter 3, to copy and expand an
earlier work was an ancient way o f recognizing its ongoing im portance and applying
its message to later times. In this case, these prophets had seen M icah’s earlier pro­
phecies o f destruction com e true, had com e to treasure his prophecies, and yet addressed
an audience in Babylonian exile who needed new words o f com fort to balance M icah’s
words o f judgm ent. These later prophets declared to their exilic (o r post-exilic)
audience that Yahweh had a grand future for Zion/Jerusalem and for them . These
visionary words o f hope - both o f a glorious ruler (5 :2 - 4 ) and o f a world where
people would not “study war any m ore” ( 4 :1 - 3 ) - have been as im portant or m ore
im portant to later com m unities as the earlier words o f ju d gm ent to which they are
now attached.
The rest o f the b ook o f M icah, however, is n ot all words o f hope. M icah 6 :9 -1 6
accuses Jerusalem o f succum bing to the same social ills as its northern neighbor: “You
have kept the statutes o f O m ri and the works o f the house o f Ahab” (6 :1 6 ). This may
be another saying from the same eighth-century prophet (M icah) who proclaim ed that
the wound o f Israel was com ing to the gate o f Jerusalem (1:9, 12). M ost fam ous o f all
is the speech in M icah 6 :1 - 8 , which responds to people’s com plaints that God has
burdened them (6:3) by saying that G od’s requirem ents are simple: “to do justice, love
kindness, and walk wisely with your G od” (6 :8 ). Soon afterward, the b ook insists that
“it is true wisdom to fear your [G od’s] nam e” (6 :9 ), reflecting the fact that the book
o f M icah, like Amos and Hosea, is prophetic teach in g or w isd om . It is n ot clear that
M icah 6 :2 - 8 came from the same eighth-century prophet who spoke m ost o f M icah
1 -3 , bu t it is quite clear that this saying has served for many as a powerful distillation
o f the long-term significance o f the message o f the prophets. T he saying in 6 :2 - 8 well
exemplifies the way the b ook o f M icah has been enriched over tim e by m ultiple voices
that could be considered “inspired.” As a result, the b ook o f M icah now is a powerful
m ix o f M icah’s eighth-century words o f judgm ent and m uch later prophetic teachings
about hope and G od’s true wishes for G od’s people.
110 N arrative and P rophecy

Isaiah’s Vision of Hope for Jerusalem/Zion

Embedded in the Book of Isaiah

READING EXERCISE
Isaiah 1 -1 1 Using the Appendix to this chapter, com pare and contrast Psalm 46
and 2 8 -3 2 . (a Zion psalm ) with two prophecies about Jerusalem/Zion - Isaiah
1 :2 1 -6 and M icah 3 :9 -1 2 . W hich is closer to Psalm 46?

The book o f Isaiah was one o f the first places where scholars recognized this kind o f
m ix o f earlier prophecy and later expansion. Isaiah starts with a superscription that
identifies what follows as “the vision o f Isaiah, son o f Amoz, which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem during the tim e o f Uzziah, Jotham , Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings
o f Judah” (1:1; see also 2:1) - that is, as the revelation given to Isaiah about the south­
ern m onarchy during the last few decades o f the eighth century. Nevertheless, scholars
have found many signs that the b ook was w ritten over centuries. As early as nine
hundred years ago, the Jewish scholar Abraham Ibn Ezra noted that the reference to
the Persian king Cyrus in Isa 41:25 seems to indicate that its author not only knew
o f this king ruling two hundred years after the tim e o f Isaiah (which would be an
inspired prophecy), but could describe him to a contem porary audience as one “foretold
from the start.” Over the last two hundred years, scholars have used these and other
observations to distinguish between the words o f the eighth-century prophet Isaiah
in the b ook o f Isaiah and layer upon layer o f prophecies by later writers now in the
b ook as well.
This research has helped scholars see both the com plexity and the grandeur o f the
b ook o f Isaiah. O n the one hand, scholars now believe that m ost sayings actually from
“Isaiah ben Am oz” can be found in p arts o f Isaiah 1 -1 1 and 2 8 -3 2 , with m ost o f the
rest o f the b ook (and all o f Isaiah 3 6 - 6 6 ) com ing from later authors. O n the other
hand, scholars also have an ever increasing appreciation o f the insight and artistry o f
the entire 6 6 -chapter book, later portions included. Certainly later com m unities o f faith
have found inspiration in Isaiah as a whole. Virtually all o f the later prophecy in Isaiah
4 0 - 6 6 appears in the cycle o f readings used in Jewish synagogues, and the same visions
o f com fort and restoration have been central to C hristianity from the outset. There will
be occasion to return to both the design and interpretation o f these portions o f the
b ook o f Isaiah in Chapters 6 and 7 o f this In trodu ction .
For now we must emphasize that this is another place where m odern presuppositions
about authorship and “inspiration” can mislead us in reading the Bible. Often m odern
 N arrative and P rophecy 111

interpreters assume that the real inspiration can only lie with an original author, a
prophet in this case, while all later m aterials m ust be corruptions o f the original, pure
message. W hat emerges, however, from a look at the book o f Isaiah and its history o f
interpretation, is that Isaiah - the eighth-century prophet - provided a dynam ic and
com plex vision that was only the start o f a m uch bigger process. Ultimately, the power
o f his vision in creased as later authors, addressing quite different tim es, expanded on
and adapted it so that it would speak to those times. T he result was a grand b ook o f
66 chapters, the first o f the three books o f the “m ajo r p rop hets” (Isaiah, Jerem iah, and
Ezekiel).
Let us turn now to take a closer look at the early vision o f Isaiah ben Amoz. Much
o f this vision is focused on Yahweh’s message am idst threats related to the Assyrian
onslaught. The first such m ajor threat was the attem pt by Syria and Israel in 735 to
force Ahaz o f Judah into jo in in g an anti-Assyrian alliance by laying siege to Jerusalem
(the Syro-Ephraim ite war). The b ook o f Kings describes Ahaz as responding to the siege
by asking for help from Assyria (2 Kgs 1 6 :5 -9 ). As we can see in Isaiah 7 - 8 , Isaiah saw
this request by King Ahaz as a fatal failure to trust in Yahweh’s protection o f Zion. In
Isa 7 :1 - 9 Isaiah assures Ahaz that the coalition against Judah will n ot stand and that
Ahaz should “not be afraid.” Ahaz in 7 :1 0 -1 7 rejects Isaiah’s offer o f a sign from Yahweh,
and Isaiah announces that the result o f this rejection will be an im m inent attack by the
king o f Assyria. Finally, Isa 8 :1 - 8 continues these them es, proclaim ing disaster on the
attackers from Israel and Syria (8 :1 - 4 ) , but also on the people o f Judah for refusing to
trust in G od’s protection o f Zion (= “the flowing waters o f [Jerusalem’s spring] Shiloah,”
8:6). Each o f these stories features a child with a Hebrew nam e that signifies the core
o f Isaiah’s message: “a rem nant shall return” (7 :3 ), “God with us” (7 :1 4 ), and “speedy
comes the booty” (8:1). In light o f the rejection o f his message, Isaiah tells in 8 :1 0 -1 8
o f Yahweh’s com m and to “seal” his prophetic “teaching” in his “students” (8 :1 6 ), so that
these students can serve as a sign for future generations o f “Yahweh who dwells in Z ion”
(8:18). Perhaps som e o f these students were Isaiah’s own, strangely named children,
since literate fathers often taught their own children. In this case, Isaiah is passing on
to his children a “teaching” and a “witness” that his own generation would not hear.
We probably have this process to thank for the initial preservation o f Isaiah’s words
and the beginnings o f the book.
The story o f Isaiah’s com m ission in Isaiah 6 reflects his experience o f rejection
during the tim e o f Ahaz. Many readers are well fam iliar with the beginning o f this
text, where Isaiah actually sees Yahweh’s terrifying presence in the Jerusalem temple,
surrounded by “seraphim” (see Figure 4.7 for m ore on these) - an Egyptian symbol.
Awed by the spectacle, he proclaim s a lam ent, “woe upon me, for I am a m an o f unclean
lips in a people o f unclean lips, looking onto the king o f kings, Yahweh o f arm ies!”
(6:5). O ne o f the winged cobras then burns his lips with a fiery coal, saying that
this has removed the prophet’s sin and bloodguilt (6 :6 - 7 ) . T he rest o f the passage
then describes how Isaiah’s people are about to be subjected to a sim ilar burning
process, starting with the prophet’s com m ission to deliver a message that will n ot be
heard:
 Figure 4 .7 Judean seals from the time of Isaiah and Micah, showing strong Egyptian
influence. Note especially the winged cobras, which probably were the referent for the
“seraphim” mentioned in Isaiah 6.
Isaiah 6 and the “Call N arrative”
M any scholars would call Isaiah 6 a “p rophetic call
narrative.” Such a narrative is a story, told in the
first person by the prophet (“I,” “m e”), where he
tells o f how he was authorized by G od to be a
prophet and deliver G od’s message. O ther examples
are Jer 1 :4 -1 0 and Ezekiel 1 -3 .
Here are the typical parts o f a prophetic call
narrative, w ith illustrations from Isaiah 6:
1 A divine appearance 1 -4
2 An introductory word by God 5 -7
3 The call o f the prophet (o r leader) 8 -1 0
4 An objection from the prophet 11a
5 A divine reassurance/answer 1lb -1 3
6 A sign reinforcing the answer [not
present]
These prophetic call narratives stand toward the
outset o f a prophetic b ook (Jerem iah and Ezekiel)
or collection in a prophetic b ook (the Isaiah m em ­
oir in Isaiah 6 - 8 ) and emphasize G od’s authoriza­
tion o f the message in that book. They are as
different as the books that they authorize, and some
scholars dispute the application o f the term “call
narrative” to som e o f these texts (particularly since
the word “call” has its hom e in later Christian
theology). Som etim es they lack one or another part
o f the typical form . Nevertheless, they share with
each other the idea that the prophet’s message
arose n ot with him , b u t with God. The prophet
was bu t a messenger, as signified by the Hebrew
word for prophet, n abi.
Isaiah 6 probably was w ritten as an introduction
to his m em oir, insisting on G od’s role in authoriz­
ing his prophecy during the Syro-Ephraim ite war
even though it was rejected. As this text becam e
part o f the larger b ook o f Isaiah, it cam e to auth­
orize the b ook as a whole.
Other call narratives: an exercise
Judg 6 :1 1 -2 4 and Exod 3 :1 -4 :1 7 are call narratives
for other figures, Gideon and Moses. Compare these
texts with Isa 6 :1 -1 3 . W hat is sim ilar and what
is different about the form o f these texts? W hat is
sim ilar or different about the role they play in the
biblical books where they occur?
 N arrative a n d P rophecy 113

Go and say to this people:

“Keep listening, but do n ot com prehend.
Keep looking, but do not understand.”
Make the mind o f this people senseless,
And stop up their ears,
And shut their eyes,
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear w ith their ears,
And understand with their mind
And change their ways and be healed. (6 :9 - 1 0 )

Isaiah is understandably upset at receiving this com m ission and asks “how long?” The
answer is that Judah is about to be laid waste - again a probable reference to Assyrian
attacks. O nly after successive invasions is there any sign o f hope. It is a “stump,” which
Isaiah is told is a “holy seed” (6:13).
We see this image o f the “stum p” used elsewhere in Isaiah to com m unicate that
there is hope on the other side o f apparent absolute destruction: for an apparently dead
stump can have a shoot spring forth from it (see Job 1 4 :8 -9 ). At the end o f Isaiah 10,
Isaiah describes Yahweh as com ing through the whole area, cutting down the tallest
trees and chopping o ff their branches (Isa 1 0 :3 3 -4 ). Since “trees” were an image for
royal dynasties, many understand this to be Isaiah’s prediction that Yahweh is about
to send the Assyrian army through the area, “cutting o ff” all o f the royal dynasties
and thus term inating the m onarchies o f Judah, Israel, and their neighbors. Yet Isaiah
sees a future on the other side o f this awful event. Though the Davidic dynasty in
Jerusalem m ight seem like a com pletely dead stump, Isaiah proclaim s that a “shoot shall
spring forth from the stump o f Jesse [David’s fath er]” (Isa 11:1). This “shoot” will be
an ideal king:

W ith social solidarity he will judge the poor,

And he will rule the oppressed fairly.
He will strike the earth w ith the rod o f his m outh,
And he will kill the wicked w ith the breath o f his lips. (Isa 11:4)

Although many later interpreters, particularly Christians, now see this text as relating
to Jesus, it originally stood as an ancient prophecy that a new king would arise over
Judah who would fulfill all the prom ises o f royal theology: a king who judges justly
and successfully defends his people. The passage then turns to a grand vision o f peace
centered in Zion:

The w olf will sojourn with the lamb,

The leopard will lie down with the c a l f . . .
They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy m ountain,
For the earth shall be as full o f the knowledge o f Yahweh
As waters cover the sea. (Isa 11:6a and 9)
114 N arrative and P rophecy

This whole com plex o f texts (Isa 1 0 :3 3 -1 1 :9 ) beautifully displays Isaiah’s affirm ation
o f the royal and Zion theology that was so im portant to Judah, even as he proclaims
an awesome, forest-felling destruction o f its current leadership. His words, both in
Isaiah 6 and in Isa 1 0 :3 3 -1 1 :9 , helped explain why Judah had undergone such suffering,
even as they also offered images o f hope that Yahweh eventually would restore Zion
and its kingship.
The uniqueness o f Isaiah’s message is nicely illustrated through com paring Isaiah’s
words about Zion in Isa 1 :2 1 -6 w ith M icah’s proclam ation that Z ion will be “plowed
as a field” (M icah 3 :9 -1 2 ; see the Appendix to this chapter for a side-by side com ­
parison with Isa 1 :2 1 -6 ). W here M icah presents God as utterly rejecting Zion (/Jerusalem)
as having been built “w ith b loo d ” (3 :1 0 ), Isaiah’s God sounds m ore like Hosea’s, in
agony over how his city - envisioned as female - has been corrupted by violent, corrupt
leaders:

How she has becom e a prom iscuous woman,

The city that once was faithful!
She that was full o f justice,
Social solidarity m ade its hom e in her,
And now murderers! (Isa 1:21)

To be sure, Isaiah does resem ble M icah in his understanding o f Jerusalem’s ills. He, like
M icah, criticizes a loss o f “ju stice” (Isa 1:21; see M ic 3:9) caused by its leaders’ robbery
(1 :2 3 , “com panions o f thieves”; see M ic 2 :2 ), taking o f bribes, and perversion o f due
process due to the m ost vulnerable people (Isa 1:23; see M ic 3:11). Yet Isaiah does not
proclaim a final end to Jerusalem as a result o f these misdeeds by its leaders. Instead,
in an echo o f Isaiah’s own burning purification process (Isa 6 :6 - 7 ) , Isaiah announces
that God is about to purify Jerusalem as m etal alloy is purified in a hot forge (Isa 1:25).
O nce again, this image o f a refining fire is Isaiah’s way o f announcing grand hope for
Zion on the other side o f painful judgm ent:

I will restore your judges as at the first,

And your counselors as at the beginning.
Then you will be called “city o f social solidarity”
“The faithful settlem ent.” (Isa 1:26)

Again, Isaiah contrasts here with M icah. W here Isaiah affirms that Yahweh dwells in
Zion and will defend and restore it (Isa 8 :1 8 ), M icah directly attacks its leadership for
saying “Isn’t Yahweh in ou r midst? No disaster will com e on us!” (M icah 3:1 1 ). It is
even possible that M icah had prophets such as Isaiah in m ind when he blamed Jerusalem’s
future destruction on those who would affirm Zion theology in this way (M icah
3:12).
Apparently Isaiah’s message evolved decades later when he prophesied during the
tim e o f King Hezekiah, son o f Ahaz. This was the tim e, described in 2 Kings 18-20//
Isaiah 3 6 - 9 (and 2 Chronicles 2 9 -3 2 ) , when Hezekiah join ed an anti-Assyrian coalition
 N arrative a n d P rophecy 1 15

and barely escaped destruction when the Assyrian arm y o f Sennacherib laid siege to
Jerusalem (only to withdraw). The narratives about this event found in Kings and Isaiah
depict Hezekiah as a positive contrast to his father Ahaz and Isaiah as m ore affirm ing
o f this later king. W here Ahaz refused the sign offered by Isaiah and failed to trust in
Yahweh’s care for Zion (Isaiah 7 - 8 ) , Hezekiah actually consulted with Isaiah, and - as
a result - the city was rescued (2 Kgs 18—19//Isaiah 3 6 - 7 ; com pare with 2 Chronicles
32). The oracles found in Isaiah 2 8 - 3 1 , however, show that Isaiah was m ore critical in
this tim e than these narratives indicate. He repeatedly announces judgm ent on leaders
like Hezekiah who go to Egypt to form anti-Assyrian alliances (3 0 :1 - 5 ; also 2 8 :1 4 -2 2 )
and rely on m ilitary strength for salvation (3 0 :1 6 ). Yet again, Isaiah seems to have
experienced rejection, with people telling him to shut up or preach m ore com fortable
words (3 0 :1 0 -1 1 ). This is why, he says, G od com m anded him to write these prophecies
down, preserving them in scroll form as a witness against the people o f Hezekiah’s tim e
(30:8).

The Use and Reuse of Biblical Traditions as

Not Limited by Their Original Setting

AH this suggests that one m ajor impetus for the initial w ritin g o f prophecies such as
those o f Isaiah was the experience o f rejection. N one o f the prophets discussed in this
chapter seems to have been a m ajor success in his own tim e. Yet their words were pre­
served for a later tim e by their closest students and/or associates. Moreover, as the words
o f Isaiah and other prophets (e.g. Hosea, Am os, M icah) appeared to com e true over
tim e, the significance o f their written prophecies grew. For example, what started as
Isaiah’s counter-wisdom to the false wisdom o f Jerusalem’s leaders (see Isa 29:14; 3 1 :1 -2 )
was treasured by later Judeans and expanded in subsequent centuries. Eventually,
the smaller groups o f sayings seen in Isaiah 1—11, 2 8 -3 2 , and elsewhere grew into the
6 6 -chapter book we now have.
This highlights the multi-layered quality o f interpretation o f such biblical texts. If
the significance o f these writings had been exhausted in the tim e o f Am os and Isaiah,
we probably would not be reading them now. We have these books because later com ­
munities found their sayings so helpful that they copied and expanded them . Moreover,
this process o f rereading and creative reworking continued in Jewish and Christian
com m unities even after the texts o f these prophetic books were fixed. For example, later
readers reinterpreted predictions o f the im m inent arrival o f a ju st Judean m onarch (e.g.
M icah 5 :2 - 4 ; Isa 11:1—5) as predictions o f a royal messiah who would overcome Rom e
or some successive oppressive empire. These and other prophecies have retained a last­
ing significance because problem s o f injustice and im perial rule did not cease after the
Assyrian onslaught in the eighth century.
 CHAPTER FOUR REVIEW

1. Know the meaning and significance of the following 4. Which chapters in the books of Isaiah and Micah
terms discussed in this chapter: have the largest amounts of material from the eighth-
■ Assyria century prophets, and which parts of each book are made
■ book of the Twelve Prophets up virtually exclusively of texts added by later authors?
■ chiasm
■ major prophets 5. What differences do you see between the views of
■ minor prophets these two eighth-century Judean prophets on what is
■ prophetic call narrative wrong with Jerusalem? What are the main differences
■ Syro-Ephraimite war in their views of Jerusalem’s future? Is either of these
identical with Zion theology as seen in Psalm 46?
2. What are the different sorts o f indicators o f northern
origins in the Jacob story of Genesis on the one hand 6. Do you think the eighth-century prophet Isaiah might
and in the Moses story on the other? have been one o f the “prophets” whom Micah criticized
for “leaning on Yahweh and saying ‘Surely Yahweh is with
3. How did Amos and Hosea relate in different ways to us, nothing will happen to us’” (Micah 3:11)? Why or
the ancient Israelite idea o f election? why not?

RESOURCES FOR FU RT HE R STUDY

G en eral w orks on p ro p h ecy a n d a ll o f th e p rop h ets A m os

Heschel, Abraham. The Prophets. 2 volumes. New York:
Harper & Row, 1962.
Koch, Klaus. The Prophets. 2 volumes. Philadelphia:
Fortress, 1983.
Lindblum, J. Prophecy in Ancient Israel. Philadelphia:
Muhlenberg, 1962.
C om m en taries on a ll o f the 12 m in or p rop h ets
Limburg, James. Hosea - Micah. Interpretation. Atlanta:
John Knox Press, 1988.
Sweeney, Marvin. The Twelve Prophets, vols. 1 and 2. Berit
Olam. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2000-1.
Mays, James Luther. Amos: A Commentary. Old Testament
Library. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969.
Is a ia h 1 - 3 9
Blenkinsopp, Joseph. Isaiah: A New Translation and
Commentary, parts 1-3. Anchor Bible. New York:
Doubleday, 2000-3.
Childs, Brevard. The Book o f Isaiah: A Commentary. Old
Testament Library. Louisville, KY: Westminster Press,
2001 .
Clements, R. E. Isaiah 1-39. New Century Bible
Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1980.

H osea T h e history o f in terpretation o f th e (w h ole) bo ok

Mays, James Luther. Hosea: A Commentary. Old Testament
Library. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969.
o f Isaia h
Childs, Brevard. The Struggle to Understand Isaiah as
Christian Scripture. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004.
This forms somewhat of a response to Sawyer (next
entry).
Sawyer, John. The Fifth Gospel: Isaiah in the History o f
Christianity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1996.
Stern, Elsie. “Beyond Nahamu: Strategies of Consolation
in the Jewish Lectionary Cycle for the 9th of Av Season.”
Pp. 180-204 in SBL Seminar Papers 1998. Atlanta:
Scholars Press, 1998. If you can find a copy of it, this
article provides useful coverage of Jewish interpretation
o f the book of Isaiah, particularly Isaiah 40 -5 5 .

A P P E N D I X : C O MP A RI S O N OF A ZI ON PSALM
( P S A L M 4 6 ) W I T H M I C A H 3 : 9 - 1 2 A N D ISA 1 : 2 1 - 6

Psalm 46:1-7 (a Zion Psalm)

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear though the earth should
change, though the mountains shake in the heart o f the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains
tremble with its tumult.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst
of her, she shall not be moved; God will help her right early. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter; God utters God’s
voice, the earth melts. Yahweh of armies is with us; the god of Jacob is our refuge [refrain repeated in verse 11],

Micah 3:9-12 Isaiah 1:21-6

Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob The faithful city,
and rulers of the house o f Israel, What a harlot she has become!
Zion once full of fair judgment,
who abhor justice Where saving justice used to
and pervert all equity dwell,
who build Zion with blood but now assassins!
and Jerusalem with wrong. Your silver has turned to dross,
Its heads give judgment for a bribe, Your wine is watered.
its priests teach for hire, Your princes are rebels,
its prophets divine for money; Accomplices o f brigands.
All of them greedy for presents
yet they lean upon the Lord and say, and eager for bribes,
“Is not the Lord in the midst of us? They show no justice to the
No evil shall come upon us.” orphan,
and the widows’ cause never reaches them.

Hence the Lord Yahweh of armies,

Therefore, because of you
Zion shall be plowed as a field
Jerusalem shall become a heap o f ruins
and the mountain o f the house,
a wooded height.
the Mighty One of Israel, says this,
“I shall get satisfaction from my enemies,
I shall avenge myself on my foes.
I shall turn my hand against you,
I shall purge your dross as though with potash,
I shall remove your alloy.
And I shall restore your judges as at first,
Your counselors as in bygone days,

After which you will be called ‘City o f Saving Justice’

‘Faithful City’.”