Extra Biblical Parallels
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Continuities with the Mari Prophets
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Oracles against a foe and in favor of the king
Concern for justice (relatively rare at Mari)
Dreams played an important role
Messenger is called or sent
Boldness of the prophet toward the king
The god Adad bases his demands on his
gracious acts of kindness to the king
Differences in Mari from
Biblical Prophets
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Issues primarily cultic (but Haggai, Gad,
and Nathan dealt with cult) and of local
significance
Prophets in Israel to whole nation and not
just king (but Nathan, Gad, Ahijah)
Biblical prophets created written tradition-Mari prophets mentioned only in royal
correspondence.
Promises conditional upon royal grants
Other Extra Biblical
Parallels
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Wen Amon--An ecstatic tells
the king of Byblos to listen to
Wen Amon and to the god
Amon 11 c
“prophets” of Baal and Asherah
at time of Ahab and Jezebel 9c
Oracles of salvation to king
Zakir: “I will stand by you and
deliver you” 8c
Oracles to Esarhaddon and
Ashurbanipal from the deities
Assur or Ishtar; primarily
reassuring, some critical 7c
Titles for Prophets
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Seer hzx Reports and sees visions
Diviner har Cf. Samuel (able to
communicate with sacred world)
Man of God – Holy Man (dangerous,
powerful, deserves respect; e.g. Elisha)
Prophet aybn. Some, but not all, prophets
were priests. Etymologically = “a person
called”
“Prophet”
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Amos?; Hosea: The prophet is a fool (9:7);
Isaiah (his wife is prophetess); with
Jeremiah and later the term prophet is
common
They make and break kings; agents of Holy
War; oppose idolatry; criticize social
injustice
Female prophets: Miriam, Deborah,
Huldah, Ms. Isaiah, Noadiah (post-exile)
Prophets in Israel Before
the Eighth Century
– Pre Entry into the land: Abraham, Aaron,
Balaam, Eldad and Medad, Moses
– Pre Monarchical period: Deborah, Samuel--the
Samuel compromise: a. war fought by king; b.
authorization by prophet
– Monarchical period: Gad, Nathan, Ahijah,
Shemaiah, Man of God 10c
– Elijah, Elisha, Micaiah 9c
Prophets in Israel Eighth
Century and Later
– Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah 8c
– Huldah, Hananiah, Jeremiah, Zephaniah,
Nahum, Habakkuk 7c
– Ezekiel, Obadiah, Second Isaiah and Third
Isaiah, Haggai, Zechariah 6c
– Malachi, Noadiah 5c; Joel, Jonah 4c
Major Prophetic Genres
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Accounts: 3rd person narratives (Hosea 1;
Jer 26-28; 36-45; Elijah, Elisha) or 1st
person narratives (Jer 13 [symbolic actions],
24 [baskets of figs], 32 [buys cousin’s land];
Hosea 3)
Prayers (Laments--Jeremiah’s confessions;
hymns--Amos 4:13; 5:8; 9:5-6)
Prophetic Genres Continued
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Speeches
– Reasons for judgment (prophet’s own words);
announcement of judgment (oracle of Yahweh)
– messenger formula: Thus says Yahweh
– Trial speeches vs gods or nations (Second Isaiah)
– Woe oracles (Amos)
– Oracles against the nations (Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel)
– Oracles of salvation (Second Isaiah)
Prophetic judgment speech
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Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacob…who
abhor justice and pervert all equity, who build
Zion with blood. They lean on Yahweh and say:
Surely the LORD is with us. (= reasons for
judgment)
Therefore !kl, because of you, Zion shall be plowed
as a field; Jerusalem shall become a heap of ruins
(announcement of judgment)
(Micah 3:912)
The words of Amos
who was among the
shepherds of Tekoa,
which he saw concerning
Israel in the days of
King Uzziah of Judah
and in the days of
King Jeroboam son of
Joash of Israel,
two years before the
earthquake.
The Prophet Amos
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From Tekoa, south of Bethlehem
“Shepherd” dqn
Herdsman/cattle breeder rqb
Dresser of sycamore figs (several crops in a
summer)
Two years before the earthquake--760
A seer? hzx
A prophet? aybn
The Form of the Visions
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This is what Lord Yahweh showed me
Behold
I said, Lord Yahweh, forgive/stop
– Yahweh relents (visions 1-2)
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What happens to the prophet’s speech in
visions 3 and 4?
What happens to the whole form in vision
5?
Thought Progression in
Visions
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Locusts after king’s mowing 7:1-3
Rain of fire 7:4-6
Plumb line? Tin (for bronze)? 7:7-9
[Followed by Amos-Amaziah incident in
7:10-17]
Qayis #yq (summer fruit)/Qes #q (end) 8:1-2
Judgment on Bethel 9:1-4 (followed by
hymn 9:5-6 [doxology of judgment])
Amos 1-2 Oracles against the
Nations
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Damascus
Gaza
Tyre
Edom
Ammonites
Moab
Judah (deuteronomistic?)
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Israel (7 + 1)
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Outline of Oracles against
Foreign Nations 1:3-2:16
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A. Messenger Formula: Thus says Yahweh
B. For 3 rebellions and for 4…I will not turn it back
because… (indictment)
– Expanded indictment with normative expression (Tyre,
Edom, Judah)
C. Announcement of judgment
– Additional announcement of judgments (not in Tyre,
Edom, Judah)
D. Concluding Messenger Formula (not in Tyre, Edom,
Judah) says Yahweh
Note how form explodes in Israel oracle
Amos 2:4-5
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Thus says the LORD: For three rebellions of
Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the
punishment; because they have rejected the
law of Yahweh, and have not kept his
statutes, but they have been led astray by
the same lies after which their ancestors
walked.
So I will send a fire on Judah, and it shall
devour the strongholds of Jerusalem.
Crimes in Oracles against
Foreign Nations
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In Nations
– cruelty in war (1:3, 11, 13 [ripped open pregnant
women])
– slavery issues (stealing people for slave trade 1:5, 9; )
– violation of the dead (2:1 burned to lime the bones of
the king of Edom)
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In Israel
– The crimes are committed against their own citizens:
injustice in court, violation of pledges, sexual sins?
exploitation and enslavement of poor
Amos 2:6-8
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Thus says the LORD: For three transgressions of
Israel, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment;
because they sell the righteous for silver, and the
needy for a pair of sandals (or: for hidden gain)-they who trample the head of the poor into the dust of
the earth, and push the afflicted out of the way; father
and son go in to the same girl, so that my holy name
is profaned; they lay themselves down beside every
altar on garments taken in pledge; and in the house
of their God they drink wine bought with fines they
imposed.
Amos 2:8
Exod 22:26
Deut 24:17
Yabneh
.jpg
The Yavneh Yam Ostracon
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Hoshayahu came and took your servant’s garment.
All my companions will vouch for me…that truly
I am guiltless of any infraction.
Please return my garment. If the official does not
consider it an obligation to return your servant’s
garment, then have pity on him and return your
servant’s garment from that motivation. You must
not remain silent when your servant is without his
garment.
Madaba Map
6th c. CE
Madaba Map 6th c CE
Spent will be the “sprawlers’ spree”
~yxwrs xzrm (Am 6:7)
Betomarsea (House of the Marzeah
or Maioumas)
Site of Baal Peor (Num 25:1-9)
The Inevitability of
Judgment--Chapter 3 (III. C. 1)
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Vv 3-5 Event followed by its cause
V 6a Cause followed by event--trumpet/fear
v 6b Event followed by its cause
v 7 Yahweh’s deeds preceded by revelation
to his servants the prophets
v 8 Causes followed by events:
– Lion--fear
– Word of Yahweh--compulsion to prophesy
Amos 5:1-3--An Elegy
(theme of death)
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vv. 1-2 Prophet: Maiden Israel is fallen
– genre for an individual applied to nation
– fallen? In battle?
– Hopelessness of the situation--listeners treated
as dead people
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v. 3 Yahweh: City will have 90% casualties
Amos 5:4-6 (theme of life)
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vv. 4-5 Yahweh: Seek me, directly or through prophet, and
live; life, not death
Do not seek Bethel or Gilgal or Beersheba
– Bethel: house of God becomes house of nothingness;
royal sanctuary la tyb or !wa {[tyb\] 5bβ
– Gilgal = home of the traditions about the conquest or
Saul; hlgy hlg lglgh 5bα
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– Beersheba--Isaac (cf. 7:16; 8:14)
v. 6 Prophet: Coming judgment is conditional. Seek
Yahweh and live
Amos 5:7-13 (injusticehymn-injustice)
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v. 7 Complaint: justice and
righteousness are turned on their head
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vv. 8-9 Doxology of judgment: Praise
of God who brings both death and life.
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vv. 10-13 Complaint about injustice
(they hate the person who offers
reproof in the gate) and oppression;
followed by frustration oracle--build
houses and not live in them. The
“gate” is the place where justice should
reign
Amos 5:14-15 (theme of life)
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v. 14 seek good (the moral life)--then the God of
the heavenly armies will be with you
v. 15 Hate evil (i.e. do not hate the one who
reproves in the gate)
“Perhaps”--it all depends on the sovereign
freedom of the God of the heavenly armies—
Yahweh will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph
The Remnant
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5:15 Only the “remnant” of Joseph will be
saved--and it only “perhaps”
2:14-16 no one escapes--not even the strong
3:12 “remnant” (two legs or piece of an
ear)= proof of destruction
5:18-20 people flee to their death on day of
Yahweh
Amos 5:16-17--Mourning
(theme of death)
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Announcement of judgment via an oracle of
Yahweh. Thus says Yahweh: In all the
squares there will be wailing
Vineyards, usually places of joy, will be
places for wailing
Turning the old traditions on
their head
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5:18-20 The Day of Yahweh will be
darkness not light (III. E.)
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3:1-2 Election; therefore, I will punish you
(III. I.)
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9:7 Everybody’s had an Exodus--Philistines
and Syrians, too
Amos and the Sacrificial
System (III. F.)
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Come to Bethel (Jacob) and transgress, to
Gilgal (conquest) and multiply
transgression (4:4a)
Bring a thankoffering and freewill offerings
for so you love to do (4:4b-5)
Seek me; do not seek Bethel, enter Gilgal,
or cross over to Beer-sheba (5:4-5)
I hate, I despise your festivals….But let
justice roll down like waters (5:24)
Sacrificial System
(continued)
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Did you bring me sacrifices…the forty years in
the wilderness [when faith was not
overwhelmed by the cult of Baal]? Genuine
fellowship with God desired as in the
wilderness (5:25)
You shall carry off Sakkuth (Sikkuth) and
Kaiwan (Kiyyun)…into exile! (5:26-27)
beyond Damascus (2 Kgs 14:28). Now beyond
Damascus is not in victory but in exile
Refusal to return 4:6-13
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Famine, no rain, blight and mildew,
pestilence, destruction as at Sodom and
Gomorrah (destruction of Jerusalem?)
yet you did not return to me (6, 8, 9, 10, 11)
Therefore, thus I am about to do to you
Prepare to meet your God, O Israel: All
former judgments ineffectual, Israel must
now confront God in person.
Jeremias’ Reconstruction
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Original book: Five oracles against the foreign
nations (1-2) and five vision reports (7-9) provide
a framework for 3-6
3:1 vs. the people of God; 5:1 vs. the state; 5:1-17
organized in a concentric pattern
Woe/lament for the dead 5:18-27 and 6:1-14
Accusations against upper classes in Samaria (3:94:3; 6:1-14)
Growth of Amos according to
Jeremias
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Subsequent redactions—
Josianic—Israel listens more to the state than to the
prophetic word
Deuteronomistic material—guilt juxtaposed with saving
acts of God 2:10; 3:1b; prophetic word can be lost 8:11-12
(famine for hearing the word of Yahweh)
Postexilic 9:7-15 (ties to Joel and Obadiah); hymns: 1:2;
4:13; 5:8-9; 9:5-6
Ch 5: original 2-3; 4-5; 7, 11-12, 16-17; later 5ab, 6, 8-9,
13
Jeremias
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Life of luxury derives from violence against
the weak 3:9-4:3; 6:1-11
Justice perverted by bribery 5:7, 10-12, 1415, 24; 6:12
Misguided trust in pilgrimages and
elaborate worship services 4:4-5; 5:4-5, 2124
Jeremias’ Links
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Oracles vs nations and visions: 8:4-7; 2:6-7
(selling the need for a pair of sandals)
4:4 (Bethel) and 8:14 (Dan) echoed in Hos 4:15
(Gilgal, Beth-aven)
Hos 8:14 (I will send a fire upon its cities) sounds
like judgment in oracles vs. nations in Amos
Dependence on Hosea in Amos 2:6-8; 3:2 (Hos
2:21); 5:25 (Hos 2:14-15; 8:11-13; 9:10; 10:1-2);
6:8 (Hos 5:5; 7:10; 12:7-8; 13:6); 7:9 (Hos 4:4ff)
Jeremias and the XII
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1st edition of Hosea predates that of Amos;
hence placed first
Multiple links between Amos and Hosea
show that Minor Prophets never thought of
solely as separate books
The Word “Prophet”
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Individuals anachronistically
• Abraham, Moses, Miriam, Aaron, Deborah
Ecstatics (Eldad and Medad; Saul in 1 Samuel 10
and 19)
Court officials (Gad, Nathan, 400 with Ahab)
“Sons of prophets”--Elisha = guild
Other terms: “man of God”; seer (hozeh and
ro’eh)