conscious are the prophets of their mission that they ordinarily use the first person when they speak in God's name, but they never lose their sense of the distinction between their own thoughts or impulses and the revealed word of Jehovah'. Secondly, the Hebrew prophet stands alone in the character of the message delivered. What was it that distinguished the true prophets from the heathen soothsayers or from the false prophets 'who gave out the dreams of their own heart as God's word'? It was the profoundly moral purport of their message that made the prophets unique. Truly I am full of power by the spirit of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might,—so cries Micah, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin 2. Prediction, indeed, is an element of comparatively secondary importance in prophecy. The main work of the prophet is to turn men from their sins and to proclaim the sovereignty of Jehovah. Where prediction constitutes the dominant element, prophecy loses its distinctive character and is better described as apocalypse. The book of Daniel, for instance, is an apocalyptic book rather than a prophecy. The predictions of the prophets are the outcome of their unshaken belief in the moral government of the universe, and in the impending fulfilment of the divine purposes; they are the result of inspired insight into under which God spoke in them, the nature and operation of the initial impulse which brought them to the consciousness of Divine truth may belong to those secrets of Man's inner life which God has reserved to Himself; but by whatever means this consciousness was aroused, the Divine element which it contained was assimilated by the prophet, and thus appears blended with the elements that were the expression of his own character and genius.' Cp. Riehm, op. cit. pp. 212 foll.; Kittel, op. cit. p. 317.

1

Cp. Oettli, op. cit. p. 19: 'Nach ihrem sonnenklaren Zeugniss die Quellen ihrer Religion, wie ihrer besondern Erleuchtung, nicht in ihrem eignen Geiste, sondern in einer wunderbar ihnen erschlossenen transcendenten Welt von göttlicher Realität lagen.'

2 Mic. iii. 8. Cp. Just. M. Dial. c. Tryph. vii eyÉVOVTÓ TIVES ... . . . μακάριοι καὶ δίκαιοι καὶ θεοφιλεῖς θείῳ πνεύματι λαλήσαντες καὶ τὰ μέλλοντα θεσπίσαντες ἃ δὴ νῦν γίνεται. προφήτας δὲ αὐτοὺς καλοῦσιν. οὗτοι μόνοι τὸ ἀληθὲς καὶ εἶδον καὶ ἐξεῖπον ἀνθρώποις, μήτ ̓ εὐλαβηθέντες μήτε δυσωπηθέντες τινά, μὴ ἡττωμένοι δόξης ἀλλὰ μόνα ταῦτα εἰπόντες ἃ ἤκουσαν καὶ ἃ εἶδον ἁγίῳ πληρωθέντες πνεύματι.

the inevitable tendencies and consequences of human action, and of national or personal wrongdoing1. Not that the power of prophecy is any mere apotheosis of human reason2: it implies, however, not the supersession or suspension of ordinary human faculties, but the elevation of them to the highest point of intensity. The prophets claim to utter a message from Jehovah, and they know that He who bids them speak enables them by His Spirit, and is with them to strengthen, and if need be to deliver them 3.

2. Such then were the characteristics of prophetic inspiration. It is natural in the next place to consider the sphere in which it was exercised, and the conditions, social and moral, with which it was appointed to deal. From the days of Samuel onwards we find the prophets standing in the closest relation to the political circumstances of their times. They have been called 'watchmen of the theocracy,' and undoubtedly they believed it to be their mission to intervene from time to time in politics, with the view of keeping alive in the minds of their fellow-countrymen just and true conceptions of the theocratic state. They made it their business to watch the course of national affairs in general, and specially to control and judge the conduct of the reigning monarch and his counsellors. They steadfastly believed in the fact of Israel's election, and in the spiritual mission with which it was charged. The exalted destiny to which the chosen people had been called

1 Cp. Riehm, p. 206; Bruce, Apologetics, p. 242; Chief End of Revelation, p. 217. The following striking remarks of M. Darmesteter illustrate the same point: Le Prophète ne prédit jamais. Il voit les grandes lignes de l'avenir, parce que, s'étant fait une doctrine et une philosophie du monde, il se fait une idée nette et précise de la destinée qui attend son peuple, suivant la voie où il s'engage: le grand mouvement des choses et des idées, avec leurs conséquences lointaines et nécessaires, est la seule chose qui l'intéresse : le détail, le fait concret, le petit hasard de l'actualité lui échappe; il l'ignore, il l'abandonne aux charlatans de la prophétie' (Les Prophètes d'Israël, pp. 137, 138).

2 Darmesteter, p. 246: Le Dieu des prophètes n'est que la raison humaine projetée au ciel.'

3 Jer. i. 8, 19.

4

Cp. Mic. vii. 4; Jer. vi. 17; Ezek. iii. 17; xxxiii. 7. See Oehler, Theology of the O. T. § 162 and Ewald, op. cit. pp. 28, 29.

could only be fulfilled by continual faithfulness to the great religious ideas which underlay Israel's vocation'. Accordingly it was the chief aim of the prophets to keep Israel faithful to Jehovah as He had revealed Himself at Sinai, as a God in whose eyes pure worship, social righteousness, and fraternal charity were of supreme value. Further, they fulfilled their mission not only by their preaching, but by their own lives. As individual men of God' they represented typically the realization of that living fellowship with God towards which the theocracy ever tended as its ultimate goal. And in their unbroken moral converse with God, in their pureness of heart, and in the simplicity of their faith and dependence on Jehovah, lay the secret of their influence 2. It has been said that by producing the prophets Israel realized her vocation. Certainly as the servant of Jehovah' the prophet bore a title which was ideally applicable to Israel as a people, and which expressed the actual calling of each individual Israelite. For the ideal of the Old Testament was a dispensation in which all should be prophets: Would God, exclaimed Moses when Joshua envied for his sake,-Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them. The prophets then were examples of the illuminative power of holiness and single-hearted devotion to the will of God. Moreover, their fate was in most cases typical. Their position might vary from time to time according to the disposition of the reigning monarch. Prophets were held in honour by kings like David, Hezekiah, and Josiah, who understood the necessity of maintaining a close connexion between the national life of Israel and the spirit of religious faith; but sooner or later their

1 Cp. Isa. ii. 5.

2 Cp. Amos iii. 7; Wisd. of Sol. vii. 27. Riehm, ATI. Theologie, p. 204, observes, 'Die höheren Stufen prophetischer Begeisterung werden auf eine Gottverwandtschaft der Seele zurückgeführt.'

3 Bruce, op. cit. p. 195; cp. Robertson Smith, O. T. in J. C. p. 291. Prof. Cheyne remarks that this idea is characteristic of the postexilic period (Aids to the Devout Study, &c., p. 151; cp. p. 203).

fearless denunciations of vice could scarcely fail to bring them into collision with royal self-will or with popular prejudice and fanaticism. One and all, in greater or less degree, they were called to suffer for their faith; for their boldness in rebuking sin, or for their devotion to the revealed will of Jehovah. Thus in their isolation from the world, in the intimacy of their relation to God, and in the sorrows which they were called to endure, they typically embodied the ideal vocation of the righteous nation 2 viewed in its entirety.

The prophets then were the accredited guardians of the fundamental ideas upon which the theocratic state was based. Their testimony accompanied, so to speak, the historical realization of the divine purpose for Israel, the word of Jehovah constituting a kind of continuous commentary on His acts. Accordingly we find that a considerable element in the prophetic function consists in the elucidation or interpretation of past history and of contemporary events. The prophets trace and proclaim the ruling principles of divine action and governance and specially it is their work to bring out the moral significance of the Mosaic Law-a task the fulfilment of which necessarily brought them into relation to the priests, who were the official guardians of the law. But while the priests were the permanent teachers of Torah, the prophets were occasional messengers of Jehovah. Through the priest the covenant people exercised its privilege of drawing near to God. Through the prophet God drew near to His people. Naturally the priests submitted themselves to the prophets as to extraordinary and direct agents of Jehovah 3; but there were elements of antagonism in the two orders which were frequently in danger of coming into

1 Cp. Schultz, O. T. Theology, vol. i. pp. 248 foll.

2 Isa. xxvi. 2; cp. Deut. xxxii. 15 (Jeshurun). Aug. c. Faust. Man. iv. 2 says: 'Illorum hominum non tantum lingua sed et vita prophetica fuit.'

3

Cp. König, Religious History of Israel, p. 160. Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 81 foll., discusses the teaching office of the priests, and the prophetic complaints of their shortcomings.

collision. The history of Israel shows how strong was the tendency of the priesthood to exaggerate the value of ritual, and to change into hard and fast law what originally might be a matter of variable custom. It was obviously the interest of the priesthood to exalt the laws of ceremonial purity; they would be apt to lay stress on details, and to lose sight of principles. But the prophets were more concerned to insist on Jehovah's moral requirement as a whole; and in putting morality on a higher level than ritual, they undoubtedly continue and develope the teaching of Moses himself. They reassert the claims of justice and mercy which the ancient legislation of the Decalogue and the Book of the Covenant had placed in the forefront. Their well-known polemic against sacrifice does not indeed amount to a rejection of the institution, as has been sometimes asserted; but they unquestionably do insist that punctiliousness in sacrifice is no equivalent for civil and social well-doing. What they abhor is 'religion divorced from right conduct,' ritual, however costly and elaborate, combined with neglect of moral obligations2. On the whole the attitude of the prophets towards sacrifice is negative. They content themselves with 'condemning such elements in the popular worship as are inconsistent with the spiritual attributes of Jehovah .' From an early period, then, in the history of prophecy we find a tendency towards antagonism between prophets and priests, the former reminding the latter that all true

1

Cp. Driver, Sermons on the O. T. pp. 113 foll. See also some good remarks in Oettli, Der gegenwärtige Kampf um das A. T. p. 9.

2 See Amos v. 24; Hos. vi. 6; Isa. i. 16 foll.; Mic. vi. 8; Jer. vii. 21 foll. This last passage does not imply that ritual laws formed no part of the Mosaic legislation, but it may fairly be used as testimony (1) that in Mosaism the most important element was ethical, (2) that the elaborate levitical code was unknown to Jeremiah. See a note in Riehm, ATI. Theologie, pp. 246, 247; cp. Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 58. Even König (Religious History of Israel, p. 168) allows that 'religion and morality were from the beginning the basis of Israel's favour with God.'

3 Robertson Smith, O. T. in J. C. p. 305. Cp. Hos. iv. 6; Zeph. iii. 4.