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Prophecy During the Time of the Divided Kingdoms
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Readings for Daily Masses During Ordinary Time Year II, Weeks 10 - 20
Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire (2 Kings 2:11) - Giovanni Battista
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A Roadmap for Our Summer Lectionary
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We spend the summer with 13 books of the Old Testament—a combination of historical, wisdom, and prophetic books—to learn about 10 of the prophets who flourished c. 865 - 570 BC. [NOTE: On the day of a Mass, the link to the readings text is on our Mass Broadcasts page at “Today’s Readings.”]
Please use the links below to jump ahead to information about each of the prophets:-
Elijah & Elisha (Monday of Week 10 - Thursday of Week 11)
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Survey of history c. 840 - 586 BC (Friday of Week 11 - Saturday of Week 12)
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Amos (Week 13)
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Hosea (Monday - Friday of Week 14)
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Isaiah (Saturday of Week 14 - Friday of Week 15)
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Micah (Saturday of Week 15 - Tuesday of Week 16)
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Jeremiah (Wednesday of Week 16 - Thursday of Week 18)
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Nahum (Friday of Week 18)
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Habakkuk (Saturday of Week 18)
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Ezekiel (Weeks 19 & 20)
The time of the divided kingdoms is among the most confusing periods in the history of the Israelite people. Throughout these 11 weeks, we will encounter a dizzying array of proper names: many kings, several kingdoms, and a few battles. It is among the most heavily documented periods, too. Not only are the names available to us through the biblical record, but many of them are also in the archaeological record.
Our main focus will be on the actions and writings of the prophets themselves. In our summer lectionary, we will hear relatively few readings about the political events that influenced the prophets. The readings about the events are mostly concentrated in Weeks 11 & 12, taken primarily from 1 & 2 Kings, but supplemented by one selection each from Sirach, Lamentations & 2 Chronicles. -
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Elijah confronts Jezebel and Ahab of Israel (reigned 868 - 854), considered the worst of the "bad" kings - Frederic Leighton
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1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings was intended to be one large document, but had to be split among four scrolls because of its length. We believe its main author was the Deuteronomist, who was also the main author of Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Judges. All these books are concerned with categorizing leaders as good or evil, and linking the political fate of the people to the faithfulness of their leaders. 1 & 2 Kings repeatedly employs the following formula: "In the [number]th year of [name of king] of [name of kingdom (either Judah or Israel)], [name of another king] began his [another number]-year reign of [name of other kingdom (Israel or Judah)]. He did [what was pleasing / evil ] in the sight of the LORD." See 2 Kings 13:1 - 2, for example. This bears a strong resemblance to a formula we find throughout the Book of Judges, such as in Judges 3:7 - 11.
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The archaeological record cannot confirm the characterization of each king in 1 & 2 Kings as good or evil, but it verifies many of the names, reigns, and battles reported there, while also raising additional questions. For consistency, we will use the dates and theories proposed by J. Maxwell Miller and John H. Hayes in A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (2nd edition, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2006).
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Hezekiah of Judah (reigned 727 - 699), considered the greatest of the "good" kings - artist unknown (17th century)
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Review: The End of the "Golden Era" of Ancient Israel
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We discuss the building up of the unified nation of Israel through Samuel, Saul, David, and Solomon on this other page. Although God was greatly displeased with Solomon building temples to foreign gods near the end of his life, 1 Kings 11 - 13 reports that God did not exact punishment on the nation until after Solomon's death. Then Jeroboam, one of Solomon's servants, with the support of Egypt, leads a rebellion against Rehoboam, Solomon's son (David's grandson) and successor. Jeroboam and 10 of the tribes form a northern kingdom called Israel, Samaria, or Ephraim. Its capital city is Samaria. Without a king designated by God, assassinations in the northern kingdom are frequent as various military leaders vie to start their own dynasties.
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Map of the Levant c. 900 BC - Jewish Virtual Library
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Jeroboam Offering Sacrifice for the Idol -
Jean-Honoré Fragonard -
From the tribe of Judah, "the faithful remnant," Rehoboam and his descendants reign over a much smaller southern kingdom called Judah, with its capital remaining in Jerusalem. To keep the people in the northern kingdom from going to the Jerusalem temple in Judah, Jeroboam creates "high places" of worship to a golden calf in the cities of Bethel and Dan, with priests presiding at the rituals who are not from the tribe of Levi.
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All the kings who rule in the 200-year history of the northern kingdom are characterized as evil by 1 & 2 Kings. These same books characterize some of the kings in the 350-year history of the southern kingdom as good and others as evil. All the rulers of the southern kingdom are direct descendants of David, with one exception.
It is worth noting that this history is compiled during the exilic and post-exilic periods (after 586 BC) by people from the southern kingdom. Even in the time of Jesus, the division between Jews and Samaritans was based on the emnity first reported after Solomon's death (but possibly implied 80 years previously in 2 Samuel 2 - 4).* Jesus' choosing 12 apostles represents his mission to reconstitute the 12 tribes of all Israel, not just the tribe of Judah.
*For more on two theories about how the Samaritans may be related to the 10 lost tribes, refer to the section at the bottom of this page.
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Elijah Confronts Ahab in Naboth's Vineyard - public domain
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What the Lectionary Omits (1 Kings 14 - 16)
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Before Week 10 picks up the story c. 868 BC with Elijah in 1 Kings 17, it may help to relate what happens in the intervening 3 chapters and 50+ years.
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c. 927 - c. 879: Hostilities Between the Two Kingdoms
The Death of Zimri - Matthäus Merian I (King James Bible DIctionary, colorized)
The northern kingdom is initially led by Jeroboam (927 - 906), followed by his son Nadab (905 - 904), Baasha (an army captain who assassinates Nadab's entire family, then rules 903 - 882), Baasha's son Elah (881 - 880), and Zimri (a chariot commander who assassinates Elah, then rules 7 days). The southern kingdom is initially led by Rehoboam (926 - 910), followed by Rehoboam's son Abijam/Abijah (909 - 907), and Abijam/Abijah's son Asa (906 - 878).
In the first 40+ years of the two fledgling kingdoms, they spend almost all of their resources fighting one another as the 22nd Egyptian Dynasty extends its reach into the region.
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c. 879 - c. 869: Beginning of the Omride Era; Alliance Between the Two Kingdoms
The Israelite army rejects Zimri's claim to the throne and instead elects the army commander Omri, who rules the northern kingdom of Israel 879 - 869. Three of Omri's descendants follow him in succession, leading to the greatest period of stability and international standing in the northern kingdom's 200-year history. The Bible claims that Omri's son Ahab (868 - 854) is the most wicked of all the Israelite kings, because his wife Jezebel turns him and most of the Israelites to the worship of the pagan god Baal. Jezebel is the daughter of the king of Sidon, providing a connection between Israel and the influential Phoenicians.
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The archeological dig at Tel Megiddo. Megiddo has been built and destroyed 25 times, with its final—and perhaps most grand—construction reaching its peak in the Omride Era.
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In the southern kingdom, Asa's son Jehoshaphat (877 - 853) becomes king. The archaelogical record reveals that Judah, especially in the time of Jehoshaphat, is a weak ally to the stronger northern kingdom of Israel.
It is during the reign of Ahab in the northern kingdom that the era of prophecy begins.
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The Judeo-Christian Concept of Prophecy
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While many of us might automatically associate "prophets" with future-telling and special acts of power, this does not represent the primary role of prophets in the Jewish and Christian traditions. Rather, a prophet is simply one who speaks God's truth on God's behalf. Jews traditionally recognize 55 prophets in the Old Testament, starting with Abraham and Sarah. While Christians do not typically categorize all 55 of these figures as prophets, we recognize some of them—even those who lived before the time of the divided kingdoms, including Moses, Samuel, and Nathan—as prophets.
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Samuel Anoints Saul as King (1 Samuel 10:1) - artist unknown
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Prophets often speak of the future, but the intention of such speech is to motivate the listeners to change their behaviors in the present. Otherwise, such future-telling feels irrelevant to the prophet's audience. This can be a challenging nuance for Christians studying the Jewish prophets.
Many of Christianity's most beloved prophetic texts from the Old Testament do not literally speak of a messianic fulfillment in Christ. Nevertheless, when we read these prophecies as Christian scripture, rather than as the sacred texts of the Jewish tradition, the Holy Spirit prompts us to interpret them as pointing ultimately to a fulfillment through Christ. We see this type of re-interpretation throughout the New Testament, and in the commentaries, homilies, and other works of early Church theologians.
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Sculpture of the Prophet Joel -
Yad Hashmona Hotel, Jerusalem
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The age of prominent prophecy starts with Elijah, c. 865. It continues through the Babylonian Exile (586 - 538) into the First Persian Empire, coming to an end around the time of Joel, c. 400. With the exceptions Elijah and Elisha, whose acts are recorded in 1 & 2 Kings, most Judeo-Christian prophets do not perform special works of power. Prophets speak God's truths. Sometimes these truths are obvious, and usually the truths put the prophet's life at risk. Prophets traditionally challenge the rich and powerful, especially political and religious leaders, on behalf of the poor and defenseless.
Weeks 13 - 20 in Year II in Ordinary Time survey the writings and actions of 8 prophets who flourished between 788 and 538 BC. On this page, we will briefly discuss three additional books from this era that the Bible categorizes as prophetic: Lamentations, Zephaniah, and Obadiah.
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Elijah & Elisha (Monday of Week 10 - Thursday of Week 11)
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Elijah Fed By Ravens (1 Kings 17:6) -
Guercino (National Gallery, London)
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Elijah Announces the Drought
With no previous introduction, the prophet Elijah simply shows up and declares to Ahab that God will impose a long famine on Israel in response to the kingdom's depravity. At first, God provides food and water for Elijah on a tributary of the Jordan River, but then God sends Elijah to the foreign land of Sidon to wait out the rest of the drought with the Widow of Zarephath and her son. Through a miracle of God, she is able to feed her son, herself, and Elijah for a year on a tiny amount of flour and oil. When her son unexpectedly dies, Elijah successfully petitions God to revive the boy.
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Elijah Defeats Jezebel's Priests
Three and a half years into the drought, Elijah comes back to Israel and challenges Jezebel's priests to a dramatic "Whose God is the Greatest?" contest. As a large crowd of Israelites watch, Elijah wins the contest in spectacular fashion and orders the slaughter of the 450 priests of Baal. The Israelites enthusiastically return to the worship of God and soon after, a mighty rain begins to fall.
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Elijah Contends against the Priests of Baal
(1 Kings 18:17 - 39) - artist unknown
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Jezabel and Ahab Meeting Elijah in Naboth's Vineyard
(1 Kings 21:17 - 26) - Francis Dicksee
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Continued Conflicts with Ahab, Jezebel & Their Descendants
Jezebel threatens to kill Elijah for murdering her priests. To escape, Elijah journeys 40 days and 40 nights across Israel, through Judah, to Mt. Horeb, where he encounters God as the "tiny whispering sound." God instructs Elijah to return to Israel; he will be safe. Elijah anoints Elisha as his successor. Elijah confronts Ahab again when Jezebel arranges a murder to acquire Naboth's vineyard. Ahab is succeeded by his son Ahaziah (853 - 852) and then by another son, Jehoram (851 - 840). Near the end of the Omride Era, the Assyrian Empire begins to expand westward towards Israel.
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Elijah's Ascent & Elisha's Continuation of the Mission
At the Jordan River, aware that Elijah is about to depart from the world, Elisha asks Elijah for a double portion of his spirit. With Elisha and 50 guild prophets looking on, Elijah is taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, a sign that Elisha's request has been granted. Elisha goes on to perform many actions, with Sirach 48:1 - 14 declaring that Elisha worked twice as many mighty deeds as Elijah.
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Elijah Taken Up in a Chariot of Fire (2 Kings 2:11) - Giovanni Battista
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History from Jehu to Nebuchadnezzar, c. 840 - 586 (Friday of Week 11 - Saturday of Week 12)
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Weeks 13 - 20 explore eight prophets whose words and deeds are recorded in the prophetic books of the Bible. Before we explore those prophets, the lectionary relates key episodes from the rest of the history of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah until they are each destroyed. Below, we explain the context of those readings, plus we fill in the gaps between readings.
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A Marriage Between the Houses of Omri & David
The southern kingdom of Judah is led by Jehoshaphat (877 - 853), followed by his son Jehoram (852 - 841), and Jehoram's son Ahaziah (840). Ahab's daughter, Athalia, marries Jehoram of Judah, making her a close relative to two rulers in both kingdoms, each kingdom having a king named Jehoram and another named Ahaziah. In Israel, Athalia is the sister of Ahaziah and Jehoram. In Judah, she is the wife of Jehoram and mother of Ahaziah.
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Queen Jezebel Punished by Jehu - Andrea Celesti
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Regicide (the Assassinations of Kings) in Both Kingdoms
When Jehoram of Israel is wounded in the Battle of Ramoth-Gilead, God instructs Elisha to anoint Jehu as the new king of Israel. Jehu then goes on a killing rampage to eliminate any challengers in either kingdom. In Israel, he assassinates Jehoram and Jezebel. In Judah, he assassinates Ahaziah.
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Friday of Week 11 (2 Kings 11:1 - 4, 9 - 18, 20). After Jehu assassinates Ahaziah in Judah in 840, Athalia declares herself queen and orders the execution of all other claimants to the throne, including her own relatives. As the only ruler of Judah who is not a descendant of David, Athalia rules as a usurper 840 - 836, establishing the worship of Baal in Judah. In 836, the priest Jehoiada reveals that one claimant has survived and has been raised in secret: Ahaziah's son (and Athalia's own grandson) Jehoash/Joash, still a small child. Athalia tries to stop the people from rebelling, but she is executed.
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Athalia Expelled from the Temple - Antoine Coypel
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Aftermath of Jehu's & Athalia's Purges
After the slaughter in both royal houses, both kingdoms are weak. While Assyria is temporarily weakened by attacks from the kingdom of Urartu, the kingdom of Aram expands into territory in both Israel and Judah. The 25th Dynasty (Cushite) is powerful in Egypt.
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A Prophet of God Denounces the Idolatry of Jeroboam - William Blassey Hole
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In the northern kingdom, Jehu reigns 839 - 822. He is succeeded by his son Jehoahaz (821 - 805), Jehoahaz's son Joash (804 - 789), Joash's son Jeroboam II (788 - 748), and Jeroboam II's son Zechariah (six months). During the reign of Jeroboam II, Israel begins to recover economically. The prophet Amos challenges Jeroboam II as well as the entire Israelite priesthood and aristocracy. Hosea begins his career of prophecy near the end of the reign of Jeroboam II as well, continuing through the final six rulers of the northern kingdom.
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Saturday of Week 11 (2 Chronicles 24:17 - 25). In the southern kingdom, Jehoash/Joash takes the throne at age 7 and reigns 836 - 796. After the death of the priest Jehoiada, he encourages the worship of idols. After ordering the stoning of Jehoiada's son Zechariah, Jehoash/Joash is assassinated by his servants.
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Jehoash/Joash's son Amaziah (795 - 786) then ascends the throne, followed by Amaziah's son Uzziah/Azahiah (785 - 760). Under Uzziah/Azariah, roughly contemporary with Jeroboam II in the north, Judah also prospers. Isaiah begins prophesying in the final years of Uzziah/Azariah's reign and continues to advise and challenge the next three kings: Uzziah/Azahiah's son Jotham (759 - 744), Jotham's son Jehoahaz/Ahaz I (743 - 728), and Jehoahaz/Ahaz I's son Hezekiah (727 - 699). The prophet Micah is also active during the reigns of these last three kings.
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Hezekiah In Old Age - artist unknown
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The Rise of Assyria & the End of the Northern Kingdom
The Assyrian Empire reaches peak strength during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III (744 - 727). During this period, Assyria dominates all other powers in the Middle East, including Egypt.
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The kingdom of Israel suffers four assassinations in less than 20 years. Zechariah is assassinated by Shallum (1 month), a captain in his army. Shallum in turn is killed by Menahem (746 - 737), another captain in the army. Menahem is succeeded by his son Pekahiah (736 - 735), who is assassinated by Pekah (734 - 731), yet another military leader.
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Wall relief depicting the Assyrian Army c. 730 BC (British Museum)
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Tiglath-Pileser III leads regular military campaigns throughout the region to expand his territory. The small kingdoms in the region take different courses of action to avoid annihilation. Despite the protestations of Isaiah (Isaiah 7:1 - 9), Jehoahaz/Ahaz I of Judah chooses to ally himself with Assyria. Pekah of Israel allies himself with Rezim of Aram-Damascus, hoping to persuade Jehoahaz/Ahaz I to change alliances. Instead, Pekah is assassinated by his army captain Hoshea (730 - 722), whom Tilgath-Pileser III appoints as the final king of Israel.
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Monday of Week 12 (2 Kings 17:5 - 8, 15 - 17a, 18). Eight years later, Assyria conquers the northern kingdom. Consistent with the empire's standard practices, Assyria spreads the conquered people throughout the empire, causing the 10 tribes of Israel to lose their national, religious, and ethnic identity, never to be heard from again.*
*For questions on how there were people in this same region named "Samaritans" at the time of Jesus, please see the section at the bottom of this page.
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Hezekiah Displays His Wealth to Babylonian Envoys -
Vicente Lopez Portana
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Resistance to Assyria in the Southern Kingdom
Hezekiah ascends the throne of Judah c. 727, an extremely precarious time. Tiglath-Pileser has conquered Aram-Damascus and will soon destroy Israel. Following Isaiah's counsel, Hezekiah breaks away from the alliance with Assyria and chooses to trust in God alone. He implements a thorough religious reform, eradicating all the pagan practices that had been introduced into the kingdom over the past two centuries. The archaeological record shows what the Bible attests: Hezekiah is the most successful of all the Judean kings. He expands Jerusalem into a major city, far beyond what it was in the time of David or even Solomon. While Isaiah clearly places his hopes in Hezekiah—foretelling his birth by calling him "Emmanuel" (Isaiah 7:10 - 25)—and is often pleased with Hezekiah's reform efforts, Hezekiah sometimes succumbs to the temptations of palace intrigue, like his ancestor David 300 years before him.
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Tuesday of Week 12 (2 Kings 19:9b - 11, 14 - 21, 31 - 35a, 36). With the counsel of Isaiah, Hezekiah leads the people of Jerusalem in surviving the seige of Sennacherib of Assyria in 701.
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The Sins of Manasseh & the Reforms of Josiah
Hezekiah is succeeded by his son Manasseh (699 - 643). In his many years on the throne—the longest reign in the history of Judah—Manasseh reverses Hezekiah's reforms and reinstitutes pagan practices. Egypt enters into an alliance with Assyria, gradually assuming more authority over Judah. Manasseh is followed by the short reign of his son Amon (643 - 641), ended by Judahite officials assassinating him so that his son Josiah (640 - 609) could take the throne.
Wednesday of Week 12 (2 Kgs 22:8 - 13; 23:1 - 3). Josiah presides over a final burst of relative peace and prosperity. The Bible interprets this as a direct consequence of Josiah's implementation of the great Deuteronomic Reform, with the assistance of the prophet Jeremiah. The reform leads the country towards the exclusive worship of God as the one and only God. The importance of the Deuteronomic Reform—which leads to the bedrock of beliefs in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—cannot be overemphasized. We discuss it at length in the below in the section on Jeremiah.
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Death of King Josiah -
Francesco Conti
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The Rise of Babylon & the End of Judah
With the death of King Ashurbanipal in 627, Assyria rapidly declines. The Babylonians and Medes together conquer the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in 612, and completely defeat the Assyrian Empire in 605. Egypt, under the leadership of Necho II, is also very strong. Josiah dies at Megiddo at the hands of Necho II.
Josiah is succeeded by a series of weak and evil kings. His son Jehoahaz II (three months) is taken away to Egypt by Neco II. Neco II places another one of Josiah's sons, Eliakim/Jehoiakim (608 - 598) on the throne. Under Eliakim/Jehoiakim, Judah becomes a vassal state to Babylon.
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Thursday of Week 12 (2 Kings 24:8 - 17). During the brief reign of Jehoiakim's son Jehoiachin (three months in 597), Nebuchadnezzar lays seige to Jerusalem and takes thousands of aristocrats and priests into captivity, including the priest Ezekiel. Another of Josiah's sons, Mattaniah/Zedekiah (597 - 586) becomes the final king of Judah.
Friday of Week 12 (2 Kings 25:1 - 12). Near the end of Mattaniah/Zedekiah's reign in 586, Nebuchadnezzar destroys Jerusalem and its temple, executing many religious and political leaders, and exiling others.
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The Flight of the Prisoners - James Tissot
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Cry of the Prophet Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem - Ilya Repin
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Saturday of Week 12 (Lamentations 2:2, 10 - 14, 18 - 19). We turn to the poetic writings of a person left behind in the ruined city of Jerusalem, traditionally considered to be Jeremiah.
Even in this bleakest moment in Jewish salvation history, brought on by the people's turning their backs on God, the only choice is to pray to God: "Pour out your heart like water before the Lord; / Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children" (2:19).
Now that we have covered the history from Elijah's ascent to the beginning of the Babylonian exile, the lectionary invites us to go back and study the writings and actions of eight prophets from this era.
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AMOS (Week 13)
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Amos - James Tissot
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During the reign of Jeroboam II in the northern kingdom, the prophet Amos arrives to challenge him. Born in the southern kingdom of Judah, Amos was originally a shepherd and a dresser of sycamores before God called him to travel north to prophesy.
The Book of Amos may be the oldest book of stand-alone prophecy in the Bible, but in many respects, it is not much different from the books which precede it. While using analogies drawn from his former agricultural work, Amos hearkens back to the themes of the Torah, urging the people to return to the commandments of God. Amos condemns the Israelite leaders for enjoying prosperity while the poor starve and suffer. Religious practice without civil justice, says Amos, is an abomination in the sight of God. Israel can expect God's judgment, and that judgment will bring the destruction of the kingdom.
Amos is banished by the high priest in the court of Bethel, but not before Amos prophesies the deaths of Jeroboam and the high priest. After much gloom and doom, Amos prophesies the restoration of the Davidic line: "I will plant them upon their own ground; never again shall they be plucked from the land I have given them—the LORD, your God, has spoken" (Amos 9:15).
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HOSEA (Monday - Friday of Week 14)
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Hosea prophesied in the northern kingdom of Israel (often called "Ephraim" or "Jacob" by Hosea) for several decades. He started near the end of the reign of Jeroboam II (788 - 748) and continued through the severe instability of multiple assassinations of kings and the encroachment of Egypt and Assyria, perhaps stopping a few years before 722, when the kingdom was destroyed.
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Hosea and Gomer - artist unknown
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In a short prose introduction (1:2 - 8), we're told that God commanded Hosea to marry the prostitute Gomer. Together, Gomer and Hosea have three children whom God names for them: a son "Jezreel," a daughter "Not-Pitied," and another son "Not-My-People." It is not clear if this is a work of fiction by Hosea or a factual telling of his life story. Throughout the poetry of the rest of the book, Hosea uses his relationship with Gomer as an analogy to God's relationship with Israel. He equates the love he and Gomer have for one another to the people receiving the covenant at Mt. Sinai during the Exodus. When Gomer returns to prostitution, Hosea says that that is similar to the Israelites relying on military strength, treaties with foreign powers, and pagan gods.
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The Prophet Hosea -
Duccio di Buoninsegna
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Some Comments on the Misogyny in Certain Prophetic Passages
As is common in the literature of many cultures from a variety of time periods, groups of people—be they inhabitants of a city, citizens of a nation, or members of a religious group—are personified as a woman. While this convention may seem harmless or even poetic, we run into a problem when this analogy is applied by the prophets living in a patriarchal culture where wives had few, if any, rights. As Hosea makes clear, just as he thinks that a husband has the right to punish his wife before accepting her back, he predicts that God will treat his wayward people the same way. This is the dominant image in the Book of Hosea, but it is also used in shorter passages by several other prophets, including Jeremiah 3:1, Ezekiel 16:23, and Isaiah 50:1.
Today, when many cultures in the world recognize the inherent dignity of every individual person, this analogy has turned rancid. We must acknowledge that it is disturbing to hear the prophets say that God is a jealous spouse who will take his unfaithful wife back, after he disciplines her harshly!
We reiterate the understanding of biblical inspiration that most Jews, Catholics, Orthodox, and mainline Protestants hold: The Bible is the Word of God, expressed in human words. We believe that prophets such as Hosea were inspired by God, and then expressed that experience through the culture in which they lived. When Hosea says that God punishes Israel like a husband punishes an unfaithful spouse, this is not God's endorsement of spousal abuse! Rather, it is Hosea's blindness to the evils of domestic violence.
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ISAIAH (Saturday of Week 14 - Friday of Week 15)
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Isaiah's vision of the Seraphim
(Isaiah 6:1-8) - Viktor Vasnetsov,
St. Volodymyr Cathedral, Kyiv
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The Historical Isaiah of the 8th century BC
Isaiah of Jerusalem was a prophet who advised and challenged the Judahite kings Uzziah/Azariah, Jotham, Jehoahaz/Ahaz I, and Hezekiah, c. 760 - 700. However, the Book of Isaiah clearly incorporates many ideas that were written in response to historical events that occurred much later. We have high confidence that chapters 1 - 12, 15 - 23, 28 - 33 & 36 - 39 were written by Isaiah and his contemporaries. For information about the authorship of chapters 40 - 55 & 56 - 66, please refer to our guide for the Daily Readings in Advent.
The historical Isaiah of Jerusalem counseled the kings of Judah at a critical moment. The kingdom was weak, being pressured to make alliances with its enemies, especially when it witnessed that Israel was destroyed by those same enemy empires. Isaiah was able to counsel several of the kings of Judah to stay the course of fidelity.
While Christians are most familiar with the Book of Isaiah's many messages of hope that we hear in Advent and with the "Suffering Servant" songs we hear in Holy Week, Isaiah also includes many passages condemning Judah and other nations for not obeying God's commands. We spend 6 days this summer with a mix of Isaian passages, including Isaiah's vocational call, a condemnation of Judah, Isaiah's plea to King Ahaz I not to make a treaty with Assyria, a condemnation of Assyria, a promise of redemption for Judah, and the story of God extending Hezekiah's life during the conflict with Sennacherib.
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The Character of God: Isaiah's Connections with the Yahwist & the Elohist?
As we have noted elsewhere, scholars have conjectured that there are four major authors and several influential editors who formed the Pentateuch. Scholars suggest that it was shortly after the destruction of Israel that the writings of the first two authors, the Yahwist and the Elohist, were combined.
Could it be that Isaiah was influenced by these authors, or that the editing was influenced by Isaiah? The Yahwist, perhaps a courtier of Solomon c. 950 writing down the ancient oral traditions, presented a very intimate God who spoke directly with the patriarchs. The Elohist, probably writing less than a century later in the northern kingdom of Israel, presents a slightly more distant God.
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The Prophet Isaiah -
Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier
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MICAH (Saturday of Week 15 - Tuesday of Week 16)
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Illuminated manuscript of the first page of the Book of Micah, Frankenthal Bible
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Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah. Unlike Isaiah, he was not from Jerusalem, but from the town of Moresheth in the Judean foothills. From the reference to him by the Judean princes in Jeremiah 26:17 - 19, it seems clear that Micah was regarded as an outsider with a challenging message for Hezekiah, but Hezekiah chose to change his own ways rather than to punish Micah for his boldness.
The book of Micah is organized into two sections, each beginning with messages of punishment (1:2 - 3:12 and 6:1 - 7:6), followed by oracles of salvation (4:1 - 5:14 and 7:7 - 20). There are two well-known passages in Micah:
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We hear 5:1 - 4a on the 4th Sunday of Advent Year C, foretelling that a great leader will come from Bethlehem to rule Israel and "take his place as a shepherd."
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We hear most of 6:8 on the Monday of Week 16 in Ordinary Time, Year II: "You have been told, O mortal, what is good, and what the LORD requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God." Many Christian social justice organizations take this verse as their mission statement.
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JEREMIAH (Wednesday of Week 16 - Thursday of Week 18)
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Jeremiah - Marc Chagall (Jean Louis Mazieres)
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Jeremiah, Witness to Calamity
Jeremiah is the longest book in the Bible. It is an extremely important book, but when the author of this webpage attempted to read the Bible from cover to cover, he got bogged down in Jeremiah and had to put his Bible aside for a year and a half before completing the project!
Jeremiah is known as "the weeping prophet" for good reason. Prophets tell God's truth, and that truth was bleak in the time of Jeremiah: the nation of Judah would not survive much longer. This was not some special God-given insight: Egypt, Assyria, and later Babylon were clearly not going to stop their aggressions until the weak kingdom was destroyed.
The editors of the Book of Jeremiah explicitly present the prophet as a new Moses — he teaches with authority, for 40 years. Many times, like Moses, Jeremiah complains that he does not want to carry out the leadership role that God has given him... and yet he finds that he cannot help but continue his prophetic ministry.
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Perhaps the harsh truth of Jeremiah's prophecy is best illustrated in his conflict with the false prophet Hananiah in chapter 28. During the reign of Zedekiah (597 - 586), after Nebuchadnezzar has already plundered the Jerusalem temple and taken many of the Judahite aristocrats and priests into exile, Hananiah claims that God will restore Judah within two years. The people would rather listen to Hananiah, but Jeremiah speaks the truth: Nebuchadnezzar's reign will grow stronger and more destructive yet.
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Jeremiah wearing the yoke - "Dwelling In the Word" blog
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Jeremiah, Prophet in the Greatest Time of Transition
It is hard for us to realize it more than 2600 years later, but Jeremiah sits at the moment of greatest transition between the beginning of the proto-Israelite people c. 1800 and the forming of a united Jewish identity c. 500. The religion we call "Judaism" has its distant origin in the proto-Israelite faith, but contemporary Judaism has its distinctive roots planted in the return from the Babylonian exile, about 50 years after the end Jeremiah's career.
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Before Jeremiah, the story of Israel was one of 12 tribes growing in identity and unity as a nation. Jeremiah lives in a new era, when 10 of the tribes no longer exist.
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In the time of Jeremiah, the people around him still want to believe that the "Golden Era" of ancient Israel in the time of David and Solomon can still be restored. Jeremiah speaks the blunt truth: this will not happen.
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Judaism is clearly a monotheistic religion, but the proto-Israelite faith had its origin in polytheism. Think about it: the measure of the good kings and the bad kings is whether they worshipped other gods. It is partially due to the great success of Jeremiah's work that Jews, Christians, and Muslims, more than 2600 years later, think of monotheism as the "normal" way to perceive of God.
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A New Covenant, Revealed to Jeremiah
After a lot of prophesying about destruction, gloom, and doom, there is a marked turn in the book of Jeremiah in chapter 30 to oracles of restoration. One of the most important passages in the Bible is about the new covenant:
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See, days are coming—oracle of the LORD—when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.... I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.... Everyone, from least to greatest, shall know me—oracle of the LORD—for I will forgive their iniquity and no longer remember their sin. (Jeremiah 31:31 - 34) -
People can know the Law directly, God says through Jeremiah. There is no need to think that only the king or the high priest can connect with God. If only we could all internalize this belief!
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National Identity: Jeremiah's Connection with the Deuteronomist
The connection between Jeremiah and the third main author of the Pentateuch, the Deuteronomist, is quite explicit. Jeremiah is advising Josiah at a time that "a book of the Law" is discovered in the stores of the Temple (2 Kings 22:1 - 23:3). This book is believed to be a form of the Book of Deuteronomy. Although set nearly 600 years in the past, Deuteronomy's sweeping prose — much more compelling than that in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, or Numbers—interprets the Torah in terms of the crisis Judah found itself in the 620s BC. Both the Deuteronomist and Jeremiah believe that the leadership of a king is explicitly tied to how well the king follows God's Law. Such an intertwining is explicit in Deuteronomy, in Joshua, in Judges, in 1 & 2 Samuel and, as this page clearly demonstrates, by the designation of good and bad kings, in 1 & 2 Kings.
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Shaphan the scribe reads the newly-discovered "Book of the Law"
to King Josiah (2 Kings 22:8 - 11) - artist unknown
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Four Other Pre-Exilic & Exilic Prophets
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Nahum Tells of Nineveh's Destruction - 12th-century manuscript illumination
(National Library of Portugal)
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NAHUM (Friday of Week 18)
Writing from Judah shortly before the fall of the Assyrian capital Nineveh in 612, Nahum gleefully foretells the city's destruction. Before we evaluate the appropriateness of this sentiment, let us consider three facts:
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For three centuries, even in a time and a place of much violence, the Assyrians were known for their extreme brutality in torturing and killing their enemies.
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The kingdom of Israel had been destroyed by Assyria in 722.
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The kingdom of Judah was within a hair's breadth of extinction during Sennacherib of Assyria's seige of Jerusalem in 701.
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HABAKKUK (Saturday of Week 18)
Second in audacity only to the character of Job, the prophet Habakkuk puts God on trial. Writing some time between 605 and 587 BC, the situation in Judah is desperate. Why does God not answer Habakkuk's cries for help? Why does God let the evildoers go unpunished? God promises Habakkuk that events have been set in motion in Babylon to answer his prayer. God also assures Habakkuk that a vision will come, and it will arrive in time.
Habakkuk ends with a hymn in chapter 3. It is unclear if this is a song of praise or the vision promised by God:For though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit appears on the vine,
Though the yield of the olive fails
and the terraces produce no nourishment,
Though the flocks disappear from the fold
and there is no herd in the stalls,
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD
and exalt in my saving God.
God, my Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet swift as those of deer
and enables me to tread upon the heights. (Habakkuk 3:17-19)
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Habakkuk - Donatello
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Icon of Zephaniah -
17th century, North Russia
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What About ZEPHANIAH?
We know that Zephaniah prophesied some time during the reign of Josiah (640 - 609). Considering the darkness of the tone and the similarity to the early chapters of Jeremiah, it seems more likely to have been written during the early part of Josiah's reign, before he implemented the reforms that eliminated the worship of Assyrian gods in Judah.
Of the various prophecies, Zephaniah's is among the darkest, foretelling that God's day of judgment will bring death and destruction. Perhaps the organizers of the lectionary decided in a season when we hear so many dark passages, there was no need to add another prophet in the summer.
But even in Zephaniah, there is the promise of redemption. Perhaps the best-known passage by Christians is 3:14 - 18a, used on the 3rd Sunday of Advent in Year C: "Shout for joy, daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, Israel!"
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What About OBADIAH?
The tiny book of Obadiah is only 21 verses long. It is a prophecy against the neighboring nation of Edom. Considering that Judah's resentment of Edom mostly stemmed from its citizens' occupation of parts of Judah and Jerusalem during the Babylonian exile, it was most likely written after 586 BC. Verses 1 - 5 are quite similar to Jeremiah 49:9, 14 - 16, perhaps indicating that such language was publicly proclaimed often.
Obadiah - James Tissot
As with several of the other short prophecies, the condemnation gives way in the last few verses to an oracle of restoration. In the future, says Obadiah in 19 - 21, the people of Judah will once again take possession of many parts of the Holy Land.
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EZEKIEL (Weeks 19 & 20)
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The Technicolor™ Prophet of the Babylonian Exile
Ezekiel was a Levitical priest who was taken away captive to Babylon during the seige of Jerusalem in 597. It is only 5 years after arriving in Babylon, but well before the final destruction of Jerusalem in 586, that he receives the gift of prophecy.
There is nothing bland about Ezekiel! He takes two trends in the evolving prophetic tradition to new heights:
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1. Prophetic actions. Earlier prophets had occasionally engaged in attention-grabbing actions to illustrate a metaphor. For example, perhaps Hosea really did marry a prostitute (1:2 - 3). Isaiah walked naked through the streets of Jerusalem to illustrate that Egypt's and Ethiopia's protection of Judah from Assyria was no protection whatsoever (20:1 - 6). Likewise, Jeremiah demonstrated analogies regarding a loincloth (13:1 - 11), a wineflask (13:12 - 14), a potter's vessel (18:1 - 12), and a yoke (28:1 - 17). God directs Ezekiel to eat a disgusting combination of food in plain sight of everyone for 390 days in a row, while lying on his left side, to represent the people's 390 years of sin (4:1 - 17). God orders Ezekiel to shave off his beard and the hair off his head (5:1 - 17), to pack a bag and leave his house every day as if he were going into exile (12:1 - 20), and to take the choicest pieces of meals that he cooks and drop them on the ground (24:1 - 14). It seems as if Ezekiel may have been subject to fainting spells, which he interprets as symbolizing the fall of the city of Jerusalem (21:11 - 12).
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Ezekiel lying on his side for 390 days - artist unknown
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Vision of the Prophet Ezekiel - Quentin Matsys the Younger
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2. Colorful visions. Ezekiel sees all kinds of dramatic visions, many of them extraordinary, some violent, a few bordering on pornographic. One of the most vivid is in chapter 37, when the spirit of the LORD leads Ezekiel onto a battlefield covered with the bones of long-dead Israelite corpses. The spirit instructs Ezekiel to call out to the bones. When he does so, they rattle and rise as sinews appear and bind the bones together. Flesh then covers the bones, and then skin covers the flesh. The spirit then instructs Ezekiel to call upon the four winds. The winds breathe the spirit of the LORD into the revived corpses. Finally, the spirit declares, "O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them. O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it."
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Ezekiel's Dominant Image: The Glory of God
One vision occurs repeatedly throughout the book of Ezekiel: the glory (Hebrew: kavod, meaning "heaviness") of God.
Ezekiel receives his call to prophecy in chapter 1 while sitting at the banks of the River Chebar. He sees four fantastic cherubim—each having four faces (those of an eagle, an ox, a lion, and a person), each having four wings, each traveling on wheels covered with eyes. After envisioning people committing profane acts in the Jerusalem temple in chapter 9, Ezekiel sees God's glory—in the form of a cloud—carried off in chapter 10 by the same four cherubim from chapter 1 and taken eastward towards Babylon. Then, in chapter 43, as Ezekiel foretells the renewal of the nation, he envisions the cherubim carrying the glory of God back to Jerusalem.
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Ezekiel's Vision - Raphael
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The Structure of the Book of Ezekiel
After a 3-chapter prologue detailing Ezekiel's call by God to be a prophet, the rest of Ezekiel can be divided into two major parts, each with two subsections:
I. Sin, Destruction, and Punishment. Chapters 4 - 24 chronicle Ezekiel's ritual actions and visions that vivdly illustrate the extent of the sinfulness of the Israelite people in the centuries before the rise of Babylon. It was this prolonged sinfulness, says Ezekiel, that led God to arrange for the final destruction of the nation and the temple. Chapters 25 - 32 are oracles against the foreign nations who have opposed Israel.
II. Restoration and Salvation. Chapters 33 - 39 reveal God's plans to restore Israel to greater peace and prosperity than it has ever experienced before. Chapters 40 - 48 envision the magnificence of the new temple and its surrounding grounds, plus the devoted worship that the people will give to God. It is not clear how much of these promising visions will be realized in this world or in God's eternal kingdom at the end of time.
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The Second Jewish Temple - Alex Levin
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Worship & Ritual: Ezekiel's Connection to the Priestly Author
Just as Isaiah is associated with the Yahwist and the Elohist authors of the Pentateuch and Jeremiah is associated with the Deuteronomist, Ezekiel is associated with the Priestly author, as well as with the scribe Ezra. Ezekiel is a Levitical priest himself, and he is obsessed with ritual symbols. In the final extended vision of the new temple that will be built in Jerusalem, Ezekiel displays an attention to detail quite similar to some portions of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers that we commonly attribute to the Priestly author.
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In Ezekiel's visions in chapters 40 - 48, we find many details in the temple and its surroundings that resonate with our worship as Christians. For example, during the baptismal sprinkling rite of the Easter season, we often sing a portion of chapter 47 about the stream that flows from the right side of the temple. In the Jewish tradition, this stream will originate from the very rock on which Abraham attempted to sacrifice Isaac and on which Solomon placed the holy of holies in the original Jerusalem temple. Ezekiel sees the stream gain depth and breadth as it cascades down the Kidron valley, finally reaching the Dead Sea 20 miles away and making it fresh.
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And What About 1 & 2 CHRONICLES and LAMENTATIONS?
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1 & 2 Chronicles
Books of substantial length, 1 & 2 Chronicles cover many of the same events as 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings, but they cover them from a different perspective. These are the final books in the Jewish Bible, rather than following immediately after 1 & 2 Kings as they do in the Christian Old Testament. 1 & 2 Chronicles were likely written long after the vassal state of Judah was re-established and the Jerusalem Temple had been rebuilt, leading Old Testament scholar Pete Enns to suggest that the author—often called the Chronicler—intended to present a messianic/hopeful future to the Judahites after the Babylonian exile.
Even more than the Priestly author, the Chronicler emphasizes the centrality of worship and ritual at the Jerusalem Temple. The Chronicler presents David and Solomon in the best of all possible lights, without human flaws. For this reason, 1 & 2 Chronicles rarely appear in the lectionary (once in the Sunday lectionary, once as a first reading in the daily lectionary, and twice as the response in the daily lectionary). They are used only when addressing material not covered in 2 Samuel or 1 & 2 Kings.
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King David Playing the Harp
- Gerard van Horthorst
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The Lamentations of Jeremiah - Marc Chagall
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Lamentations
The Book of Lamentations is categorized by the Bible as a book of prophecy, but it is actually an extended song composed in response to the destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem. It is primarily a song of grief, but it also broaches the topics of the humiliation of the nation, recognition that the nation deserves its chastisement, and, despite the devastation, a continued hope in God's love and God's ability to restore the nation.
Highly structured, Lamentations is arranged as five poems, the first four of which are acrostics, with a verse for each of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Tradition has often attributed its authorship to Jeremiah, as we know he was left behind at the time of the Babylonian exile, and the book seems to have been written by an eyewitness of the destruction in 587 BC.
The Book of Lamentations appears only once in the lectionary (Saturday of Week 12, Year II), but it shows up in other prayers of the Church in times of grief, such as during the Tenebrae services held during the Paschal Triduum.
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What Is the Relationship Between the Samaritans and "The Ten Lost Tribes" of Israel?
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In the time of the divided kingdoms, the capital city of the northern kingdom (c. 930 - 722 BC) was called Samaria, and the entire kingdom sometimes was called by that same name. The Bible tells us that Jeroboam, the first king of these ten break-away tribes, set up a rival religious cult so that the people would not travel to worship at the Jerusalem temple. The few details of this cult are oddly similar to what is reported in Exodus 32 (c. 1250 BC). The Bible reports that when the Assyrians conquer the northern kingdom, they disperse the Israelites throughout their Empire, so that they lose their ethnic, cultural, and religious identity. This is consistent with what we know about how the Assyrians dealt with the people of other lands that they conquered.
Yet in the time of Jesus more than 7 centuries later (c. 30 AD), there is a community of as many as 1 million people called "Samaritans" living in this same region. In fact, there are still about 750 Samaritans living there today! The Jews of Jesus' time—descendants of the tribe that was not destroyed by Assyria—considered the Samaritans to be apostates, because they only upheld parts of the Torah. (Refer to Jesus' interactions with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.) So, how are the Samaritans of Jesus' time related to the people of the northern kingdom of Israel before 722 BC?
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Map of Israel (or Samaria) and Judah - Jewish Virtual Library
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The Good Samaritan - Jacob Jordaens
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The fact is, we don't know. There are two possible explanations:
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The Assyrians did not move all the Israelites out of the northern kingdom. Perhaps they killed or dispersed the leaders of the community, but allowed others to remain behind, who kept on the religious practices of their ancestors.
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A separate group of people came to the region after the obliteration of Israel in 722. They eventually began practicing an older version of the Israelite faith, that did not include the changes and innovations that created Judaism during and after the Babylonian exile.
Biblical archaeology may eventually yield a better answer. Several finds in the past several decades—including a 4-inch bull statue found in the ancient city of Ashkelon—have revealed tantalizing clues.
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The response to the first reading during these weeks is usually from the Book of Psalms, with occasional selections from Deuteronomy, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. The gospel reading is taken from the Gospel of Matthew, chapters 5 - 23.
This concludes page 9 of 40 in our Lectionary Guide. For a comprehensive reading of the entire guide, we suggest going next to After the Babylonian Exile.
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