A Little Bible Handbook
Online Version
The Latter Prophets
Latter Prophets, “Major,” and “Minor”
In addition to the ancient distinction between the “Former” and the “Latter” prophets, Bible students also make a further grouping of the latter prophets into “Major” and “Minor.” This distinction recognises that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel are not only the longest books of Prophetic writing, but that their influence on both Judaism and Christianity has been the most far-reaching. Hence they are thought of as “The Major Prophets.” All the other short prophetic works collected in the Bible, between Hosea and Malachi, are called “The Twelve Minor Prophets.”| Isaiah The book “Isaiah” appears to be the work of at least three contributors, ranging from 740 B.C., the year King Uzziah died (see Isaiah 6:1), to sometime after Israel had been partially re-built (about 520 B.C.). |
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| 1st Isaiah - 740 B.C. to approximately 710 B.C. | |
| Isaiah 6 | God calls the prophet -- who answers, “Here I am, send me.” |
| Isaiah 7:10-20 | A “messianic” prophecy. The word “messiah” means “anointed one” - a kingly person chosen by God to save the people. Isaiah's speech seems to advise King Ahaz that in a short time those who threaten him would be replaced by something worse, but the words of verse 14 were seen by later generations to point far ahead to a newborn infant saviour. |
| Isaiah 9 | A messianic prophecy (see above): “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light.” |
| Isaiah 10:5-16 | Enemy kings are seen as being under God's control. |
| 2nd Isaiah - 586 B.C. to approximately 520 B.C. | |
| Isaiah 40 | “Comfort, my people,” and “Make a straight path in the desert for our God.” |
| Isaiah 44:9-30 | Isaiah ridicules the worship of things made out of wood and clay. |
| Isaiah 55 | “Come everyone who is thirsty.” |
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The Servant Songs Probably the most influential prophetic lines of the Old Testament. Although they are thought to be the work of Second Isaiah, they stand alone in their poetic style and their ideas. |
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| Isaiah 42:1-4 | “Behold my servant, whom I uphold...” |
| Isaiah 49:1-6 | “Before I was born, the Lord chose me...” |
| Isaiah 50:4-11 | “I bared my back to those who beat me...” |
| Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12 | “All of us were like sheep that were lost... but the Lord made the punishment [we all deserved] fall on him...” |
| 3rd Isaiah - flourished some time after Jews began returning to Jerusalem around 538 B.C. | |
| Isaiah 60 | “Arise, shine, for your light is come.” Isaiah’s poem of God’s redemption |
| Isaiah 65:17 | Isaiah’s vision of the New Creation. |
| Jeremiah Jeremiah's career peaked during the fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., and his work reflects that traumatic time. The book which bears his name contains prophetic utterances in poetic form, and some narrative - possibly by a contemporary of Jeremiah's - describing events in the prophet's life, and the terrible times in Jerusalem just before 586 B.C. The book “Lamentations” is attributed to Jeremiah, and is a lament for the destruction of Jerusalem. |
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| Jeremiah 1: 4-10 | Jeremiah's call from God. |
| Jeremiah 4:19-31 | A typical Jeremiah prophecy. The people are not faithful, disaster is coming, and it is breaking the prophet's heart. |
| Jeremiah 17:5-8 | A metaphor for right living: a tree planted beside a stream. This image is also found in Psalm 1. |
| Jeremiah 20:7-18 | Jeremiah's complaint (see also Jeremiah 15:10-12). |
| Jeremiah 36 | Jeremiah, banned from entering the Temple because of his pessimistic prophecies, dictates one to his secretary, and has him read it in the temple. |
| Jeremiah 37-38 | Jeremiah is jailed, then put down in the bottom of a cistern. |
| Lamentations 1 | A forlorn song, mourning for destroyed Jerusalem. |
| Ezekiel Ezekiel seems to have lived in Babylon throughout his career, but his book deals with events in both Jerusalem and Babylon. |
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| Ezekiel 1 | The vision of the wheels. |
| Ezekiel 18 | Individual vs. collective responsibility for sin. |
| Ezekiel 33 | The responsibility of the watchman. |
| Ezekiel 37 | The valley of dry bones. |
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