The Word "Prophet"

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Extra Biblical Parallels

• Continuities with the Mari Prophets
• 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

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Differences in Mari fromBiblical Prophets

• 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

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Other Extra Biblical Parallels

• 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

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Titles for Prophets

• 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

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Prophet

• Amos? Hosea The prophet is a fool (97)
  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)

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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

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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

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Major Prophetic Genres

• 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 cousins land Hosea
  3)
• Prayers (Laments--Jeremiahs confessions
  hymns--Amos 413 58 95-6)

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Prophetic Genres Continued

• Speeches
• Reasons for judgment (prophets 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)

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Prophetic judgment speech

• Hear this, you rulers of the house of Jacobwho
  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 39-12)

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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.
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The Prophet Amos

• 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

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The Form of the Visions

• This is what Lord Yahweh showed me
• Behold
• I said, Lord Yahweh, forgive/stop
• Yahweh relents (visions 1-2)
• What happens to the prophets speech in visions 3
  and 4?
• What happens to the whole form in vision 5?

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Thought Progression in Visions

• Locusts after kings mowing 71-3
• Rain of fire 74-6
• Plumb line? Tin (for bronze)? 77-9 Followed by
  Amos-Amaziah incident in 710-17
• Qayis yq (summer fruit)/Qes q (end) 81-2
• Judgment on Bethel 91-4 (followed by hymn 95-6
  doxology of judgment)

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Amos 1-2 Oracles against the Nations

• Damascus
• Gaza
• Tyre
• Edom
• Ammonites
• Moab
• Judah (deuteronomistic?)
• Israel (7 1)

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Outline of Oracles against Foreign Nations
13-216

• A. Messenger Formula Thus says Yahweh
• B. For 3 rebellions and for 4I 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

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Amos 24-5

• 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.

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Crimes in Oracles against Foreign Nations

• In Nations
• cruelty in war (13, 11, 13 ripped open pregnant
  women)
• slavery issues (stealing people for slave trade
  15, 9 )
• violation of the dead (21 burned to lime the
  bones of the king of Edom)
• In Israel
• The crimes are committed against their own
  citizens injustice in court, violation of
  pledges, sexual sins? exploitation and
  enslavement of poor

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Amos 26-8

• 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.

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Amos 28 Exod 2226 Deut 2417
Yabneh .jpg
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The Yavneh Yam Ostracon

• Hoshayahu came and took your servants garment.
  All my companions will vouch for methat truly I
  am guiltless of any infraction.
• Please return my garment. If the official does
  not consider it an obligation to return your
  servants garment, then have pity on him and
  return your servants garment from that
  motivation. You must not remain silent when your
  servant is without his garment.

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Madaba Map 6th c. CE
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Madaba Map 6th c CE Spent will be the
sprawlers spree yxwrs xzrm (Am
67) Betomarsea (House of the Marzeah or
Maioumas) Site of Baal Peor (Num 251-9)
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The Inevitability of Judgment--Chapter 3 (III. C.
1)

• 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 Yahwehs deeds preceded by revelation to his
  servants the prophets
• v 8 Causes followed by events
• Lion--fear
• Word of Yahweh--compulsion to prophesy

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Amos 51-3--An Elegy (theme of death)

• 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
• v. 3 Yahweh City will have 90 casualties

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Amos 54-6 (theme of life)

• 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\ 5bß
• Gilgal home of the traditions about the
  conquest or Saul hlgy hlg lglgh 5ba
• Beersheba--Isaac (cf. 716 814)
• v. 6 Prophet Coming judgment is conditional.
  Seek Yahweh and live

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Amos 57-13 (injustice-hymn-injustice)

• v. 7 Complaint justice and righteousness are
  turned on their head
• vv. 8-9 Doxology of judgment Praise of God who
  brings both death and life.
• 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

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Amos 514-15 (theme of life)

• 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 armiesYahweh
  will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph

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The Remnant

• 515 Only the remnant of Joseph will be
  saved--and it only perhaps
• 214-16 no one escapes--not even the strong
• 312 remnant (two legs or piece of an ear)
  proof of destruction
• 518-20 people flee to their death on day of
  Yahweh

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Amos 516-17--Mourning (theme of death)

• 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

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Turning the old traditions on their head

• 518-20 The Day of Yahweh will be darkness not
  light (III. E.)
• 31-2 Election therefore, I will punish you
  (III. I.)
• 97 Everybodys had an Exodus--Philistines and
  Syrians, too

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Amos and the Sacrificial System (III. F.)

• Come to Bethel (Jacob) and transgress, to Gilgal
  (conquest) and multiply transgression (44a)
• Bring a thankoffering and freewill offerings for
  so you love to do (44b-5)
• Seek me do not seek Bethel, enter Gilgal, or
  cross over to Beer-sheba (54-5)
• I hate, I despise your festivals.But let justice
  roll down like waters (524)

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Sacrificial System (continued)

• Did you bring me sacrificesthe forty years in
  the wilderness when faith was not overwhelmed by
  the cult of Baal? Genuine fellowship with God
  desired as in the wilderness (525)
• You shall carry off Sakkuth (Sikkuth) and Kaiwan
  (Kiyyun)into exile! (526-27) beyond Damascus (2
  Kgs 1428). Now beyond Damascus is not in
  victory but in exile

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Refusal to return 46-13

• 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.

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Jeremias Reconstruction

• Original book Five oracles against the foreign
  nations (1-2) and five vision reports (7-9)
  provide a framework for 3-6
• 31 vs. the people of God 51 vs. the state
  51-17 organized in a concentric pattern
• Woe/lament for the dead 518-27 and 61-14
• Accusations against upper classes in Samaria
  (39-43 61-14)

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Growth of Amos according to Jeremias

• Subsequent redactions
• JosianicIsrael listens more to the state than to
  the prophetic word
• Deuteronomistic materialguilt juxtaposed with
  saving acts of God 210 31b prophetic word can
  be lost 811-12 (famine for hearing the word of
  Yahweh)
• Postexilic 97-15 (ties to Joel and Obadiah)
  hymns 12 413 58-9 95-6
• Ch 5 original 2-3 4-5 7, 11-12, 16-17 later
  5ab, 6, 8-9, 13

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Jeremias

• Life of luxury derives from violence against the
  weak 39-43 61-11
• Justice perverted by bribery 57, 10-12, 14-15,
  24 612
• Misguided trust in pilgrimages and elaborate
  worship services 44-5 54-5, 21-24

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Jeremias Links

• Oracles vs nations and visions 84-7 26-7
  (selling the need for a pair of sandals)
• 44 (Bethel) and 814 (Dan) echoed in Hos 415
  (Gilgal, Beth-aven)
• Hos 814 (I will send a fire upon its cities)
  sounds like judgment in oracles vs. nations in
  Amos
• Dependence on Hosea in Amos 26-8 32 (Hos
  221) 525 (Hos 214-15 811-13 910 101-2)
  68 (Hos 55 710 127-8 136) 79 (Hos
  44ff)

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Jeremias and the XII

• 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

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The Word Prophet

• 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 roeh)