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A Review of the Prophetical Books in Chronological Order.
To make the discussion of the prophetic books clearer, we will order it chronologically. We will
talk about the prophets who lived between 9th and 6th centuries B.C.: Joel, Jonah, Amos, Hosea,
Isaiah and Micah. This first period is centered on Isaiah, whose book is to be viewed as the high
blossom of the gift of prophecy. The visions of the prophets of that time were turned to the col-
lapse of the kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C. The first period ended in king Manasseh's persecution
Chronologically, Joel was the first prophet to leave records of his preaching. Joel exercised
his prophetical ministry in Judah, probably under the kings Joash and Amaziah, around 800 years
B.C. He called himself the son of Pethuel. Those were the years of relative peace and well being.
Jerusalem, Zion, the Temple and divine services were always on the prophet's lips. However, the
prophet viewed the disasters that struck Judah . drought and, especially, the awful locusts . as
the beginning of God's judgment over the Jews and all people.
The main vice attacked by Joel is the mechanical, spiritless doing of the rites prescribed by
the law. It was the time when the pious king Joash was trying to restore religion in Judah, but
succeeded mainly in improving its external manifestations. The prophet foresaw even greater in-
crease of pagan superstitions and subsequent God's punishment, and called the Jews to sincere
repentance, saying, “Turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping,
and with mourning: And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your
God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of
Often Joel's single prophetic vision combined events divided by many centuries but similar
from religious perspective. For example, the forthcoming God's judgment over the Jewish people
was combined in Joel's vision with the forthcoming God's judgment over the Universe at the end
of the world:
.Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to
judge all the heathen round about. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you
down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multi-
tudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision. The
sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The LORD
also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth
But the Holy Ghost was to descend, and the people of God were to be renewed in spirit before
the Great Judgment over the world:
.I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your
old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and
upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heav-
ens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness,
and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come
to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered. (Joel 2:28-32).
The Apostle Peter reminded the Jews of this prophecy of Joel when the Holy Ghost descended on
The prophet Joel speaks on the following subjects: locusts (1:2-20), the coming of the Day
of the Lord (2:1-11), call for repentance (2:12-17), God's mercy (2:18-27), spiritual restoration
(2:28-32); prediction of the Judgment over all nations (3:1-17) and subsequent blessing of God
Jonah, the son of Amittai, was born in Gathhepher of Galilee (near future Nazareth). He ex-
ercised the gift of prophecy in the second half of the 8th century before Christ in Nineveh, the
capital of Assyria. He is supposed to be a younger contemporary and follower of the prophet El-
isha. Jonah's tomb can be seen in El-Meshkhad, a village situated at the place of ancient Gath-
The Book of Jonah does not contain the usual preaching addressed to the Jews, but de-
scribes Jonah's embassy to pagan Nineveh. Jonah initially did not want to go and preach to the
Gentiles where God had sent him, and boarded a ship in Joppa to sail to Tarshish (Spain). In or-
der to convince the prophet, the Lord sent a violent storm in the sea, which caused Jonah's ship to
start sinking. Frightened sailors learned that Jonah's disobedience was the cause of the unprece-
dented storm, and threw him into the sea to stop God's anger. Indeed, the storm ceased and Jonah
was swallowed by a giant fish. (This is possible, though the case is very rare. There are whales,
called .Fin-Buck,. that reach 88 feet in length. Their stomachs may have 4 to 6 sections, each
capable of holding a small group of people. Whales inhale air and each has a 686 cubic feet air
chamber in the head. Sometimes animals and people were found alive in the heads of such
whales. Shark whales, reaching the length of 70 feet, also can hold a man without causing in-
jury). Having spent about three days inside the fish, Jonah deeply repented of his disobedience
and started to pray God to forgive him. Then the Lord ordered the fish to get Jonah to the land,
and the prophet found himself on a beach close to Beirut. Convinced by these events, the prophet
obediently proceeded to Nineveh, preaching denouncement and punishment for the city. The
Ninevites believed the prophet, imposed strict fasting on themselves and their cattle, and deeply
repented. The Lord had mercy on Nineveh and averted His punishment. The lives of over a quar-
ter of a million people were saved. As the time passed, Nineveh became a capital of a powerful
The book of Jonah gives a vivid example of God's love to all people, regardless of their na-
tionality. The Lord Jesus Christ reminded the Jews of the miracle of Jonah and reproved them for
not repenting, as the Ninevites had repented after Jonah's preaching, though they had a prophet
greater than Jonah amongst them. The Lord pointed at Jonah's mysterious stay in a whale's belly
for three days and nights as the prototype of His three-day stay in a grave and subsequent resur-
Jonah's prayer in the belly of the whale, cited at the end of the second chapter of his book, is
the model for the heirmos of the sixth ode of the Matins. Jonah's prayer started with the follow-
ing words, .I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and He heard me; out of the
belly of hell cried I, and Thou heardest my voice.”
Amos was of a poor family. He was born in Tekoah, between the Dead Sea and Bethlehem.
This is how he told about his vocation to prophecy, “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet's
son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycomore fruit: And the LORD took me as I followed
the flock, and the LORD said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel” (Amos 7:14-
15). Amos prophesied in Bethel and other towns of the kingdom of Israel under the king Jero-
boam II. He was a contemporary of the prophets Hosea, Micah and Isaiah. Those were the years
of relative peace and prosperity.
The prophet was a shepherd by birth and grieved about the oppression of the poor people,
keeping back laborers' hire, injustice and bribery of judges, depravity of rulers and negligence of
priests. Amos viewed the restoration of justice as the first precondition in averting God's pun-
ishment. He was persecuted for his prophecies, and by the intriguing of Amaziah the priest of Be-
thel, the prophet was even exiled from this town.
At that time the Gentile states and towns had their 'patron gods'. In a like way, some Jews
saw God Jehovah as their local God, comparable with Phoenician god Baal and other deities. The
prophet Amos emphasized that the power of God stretched out beyond His chosen people, to the
entire Universe, and the pagan deities were nothing. All peoples, not the Jews only, were respon-
sible before God for what they had done, and would be punished for their iniquities. Amos'
preaching went far beyond the boundaries of Israel: it was addressed to the Edomites, Ammonites
and Moabites, as well as to the capital cities of Damascus, Gaza and Tyre. Having called the Jew-
ish people to the faith, God manifested His special mercy to them. Therefore the Jews were to
set good examples to the neighboring nations, and more would be required from them than from
others at the Judgment: “Hear this word... the family which I brought up from the land of Egypt.
You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities”
The prophet saw that, due to the wickedness of the people, a spiritual famine was coming
nearer, and that would be worse than physical starvation: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord
GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the LORD: And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even
to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it” (Amos
8:11-12). This prophecy is coming true in front of our eyes in the countries of militant atheism,
where the word of God is sometimes being picked out from quotations of the anti-religious
Summarized content of the book of Amos is as follows: denouncement of the sins of Israel
and neighboring nations (Chapters 1 and 2), renouncement of the mighty and rich people and call
for justice (Chapters 3 through 5), prediction of God's Judgment (5:18-26). The last chapters (6-
9) include five visions of the judgment of God. The conclusion of the book of Amos is a predic-
tion of the spiritual revival of people.
The prophet Hosea, the son of Beeri from the tribe of Issachar, lived and prophesied in the
kingdom of Israel shortly before its collapse. His prophetic ministry began at the end of the reign
of Jeroboam II around 740 B.C. and lasted until the fall of Samaria in 721. It was a period of
spiritual decline of the Israeli people, increase of idolatry and spiritual depravity. Pressure from
the hostile Assyria added to the political instability in Israel and frequent coups d'état.
The prophet Hosea energetically denounced the vices of his contemporaries, and especially
the obscene pagan traditions that the Jews had adopted from the neighboring nations. Hosea also
predicted the forthcoming misfortunes. It is known of his personal life that he married Gomer
who was publicly unfaithful to him and adulterous. The prophet had to divorce her formally, but
he still loved and sympathized with her. His own personal drama was for the prophet a picture of
how sad the spiritual adultery of the Israeli people was for God, Who made a covenant with them
on Sinai . the covenant that the Jews broke and dishonored when they fell in spiritual fornica-
tion. Therefore the Lord predicted through the medium of the prophet that the Jews would be re-
jected, and the Gentiles called to the Kingdom of God: “And I will have mercy upon her that had
not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and
they shall say, Thou art my God” (Hosea 2:18-23).
The prophet also rebuked the priests who reduced the faith in God to callous rites, and ne-
glected to instruct the people in the law of God:
.My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will
also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I
will also forget thy children. As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I
change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their
iniquity. And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and
reward them their doings. (Hosea 4:6-9).
The prophet further addressed those who were still able to hear his preaching, “Come, and let us
return unto the LORD... His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us
as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” That is what God values in the actions
of people: .I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings”
In view of the forthcoming destruction of the kingdom of Israel, Hosea made his best effort
to wake a feeling of repentance in the people. But he also saw what was to come after the disas-
ters, at the end of time, when the people of God would be fully renewed, and when all grieves
and death itself would be eliminated: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem
them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction” (Hosea
13:14). Some phrases from the book of Hosea were often cited by the New Testament writers
(See Hosea 11:1, Matthew 2:15; Hosea 6:6, Matthew 9:13; Hosea 2:23, 1 Peter 2:10; Hosea
13:14, 1 Corinthians 15:55; Hosea 10:8, Luke 23:30 etc.).
The content of the book of the prophet Hosea is as follows: unfaithful wife and whoredom
of Israel (1-2), God's faithfulness (3), reproof of Israel (4-7), God's judgment over Israel (8-10), a
series of brief discussions on the previous topics (11-14). The book closes in the promise of sal-
vation for the righteous (14).
Isaiah, one of the greatest prophets of all time, lived in the first half of the 8th century B.C.
Generously endowed by God with spiritual gifts, Isaiah belonged to the capital's high society and
had free access to the royal house. He had political views of a statesman and an outstanding po-
etic talent. The alliance of these exclusive qualities made his book unique in the ancient litera-
ture. The book of Isaiah is rich in prophecies of the Messiah, His blessed Kingdom and the New
Testament time, therefore the prophet Isaiah is called .the Old Testament Evangelist..
The prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos, was born in Jerusalem around 765 B.C. (The name
Isaiah means .God is saving..) When Isaiah was 20, he was called to prophetic ministry by a
special revelation of God: he saw God Sabaoth, sitting on the throne, surrounded by angels
(Isaiah, Chapter 6). Isaiah prophesied under Azaraias, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, the kings of
Judaea. He is known to have been married with two children. His prophetic ministration ended in
martyrdom in the 8th year of the reign of Manasseh when, according to the tradition, the prophet
was sawn asunder with a wooden saw (Hebrews 11:37). Apart from the book of prophecies, he
wrote chronicles of kings Uzziah and Hezekiah (now lost, though) and put in order the last seven
chapters of the Proverbs of Solomon (Proverbs 25:1).
Under kings Azaraias (Uzziah) and Jotham the Jewish people were infected with idolatry,
which even more increased under Ahaz. This king .made molten images for Baalim... and burnt
his children in the fire. (2 Chronicles 28:1-4). Pekah, the king of Israel and Rezin, the king of
Syria made a ware against him. Ahaz sent rich gifts to the Assyrian king Tiglathpileser and he
vanquished Pekah and Rezin, but imposed a large tribute on Ahaz. The prophet Isaiah encour-
aged the people during the invasion by Pekah and Rezin and gave the king a sign of victory over
them in the prophecy about the Messiah's birth from a Virgin (Isaiah 7:14). Yet the prophet re-
proved Ahaz for asking help from the Assyrian king.
Ahaz's son Hezekiah was pious. However, the morality of the urban inhabitants degraded so
that the prophet likened them to the Gentiles, exterminated by God: .The shew of their countenance
doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto
their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves” (Isaiah 3:9-11).
The prophet especially armed up against judges and the people at the helm of power, whose
responsibility was to protect the innocent and care about justice:
.Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light
for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise
in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! Woe unto them that... justify the wicked
for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!.
.Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they
have prescribed; To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor
of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!. (Isaiah 5:20-
The prophet predicted that for these crying iniquities “the LORD will cut off from Israel head
and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honorable, he is the head; and the
prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail” (Isaiah 9:14-15).
Both the ministers of the Temple and the Temple goers were not flawless, and the prophet
accused them of callousness and hypocrisy: .Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people
draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart
far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men” (Isaiah 29:13).
The prophet grieved over the sins of the people in the following prayer:
.But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags; and we all
do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. And there is none
that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid
thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities. But now, O LORD,
thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy
hand. Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see,
we beseech thee, we are all thy people. (Isaiah 64:6-9).
Yet the prophet believed in the power of repentance, and that there is no sin beyond the mercy of
God:
.Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes;
cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the father-
less, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though
your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But
if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD
hath spoken it. (Isaiah, Chapter 1).
In the 14th year of the reign of Hezekiah, Sennacherib of Assyria attacked Jerusalem. By the
king's and the prophet's prayer, the 185,000 strong Assyrian army was defeated by a God's angel,
and the city was saved (Isaiah, Chapters 36-37). After a while, the king Hezekiah became fatally
sick, but was miraculously cured by the prophet's prayers (Isaiah, Chapters 38-39).
The Syrians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians and Edomites were the neighbors of Israel-
ites. They always threatened to invade Judaea, and the Jews had to either defend themselves or
pay tribute. In the state of permanent clashes, the kings of Judaea needed a reliable guide, and
God sent Isaiah to them in order to warn the kings and the people of dangers, encourage them,
predict the fate of the Jews and their neighbors, and foretell the future salvation by the Messianic
Child. A special theme of Isaiah's prophecy was the Babylonian kingdom, which he identified
with the kingdom of evil of the latter days, and its king with antichrist, anti-Messiah. That's
why many elements of prophecies about Babylon are yet to be fulfilled (see Chapters 14, 21, 46-
47; cf. Chapters 16-17 of Revelation). In Chapters 24-25 Isaiah spoke about the judgment of the
Isaiah's prophecies are characterized by unusual clarity and poetry. Prediction of the Sav-
ior.s suffering (Chapter 53) was written so clearly as though the prophet himself had been present
at the Crucifixion. Isaiah's most remarkable prophecies included: birth of Emmanuel from a Vir-
gin (7:14), many miracles to be done by the Messiah (35:5-6), His humility and meekness (42:1-
4) and His other acts, which are discussed in greater detail in the brochure .The Old Testament
Regarding the Messiah.. Remarkable was the accuracy of Isaiah's prophecy about Cyrus, which
became known to this king 200 years later (44:27-28; 45:1-3, Ezra 1:1-3).
The prophet Isaiah said that the chosen people in its mass would be rejected by God for in-
iquity, and only the .holy remnant. would be saved (Isaiah 6:13). The place of the rejected Jews
in the Kingdom of the Messiah would be taken by the converted Gentiles (Isaiah 11:1-10, 49:6,
Isaiah's description of God's glory and power, His wisdom, goodness and omnipotence are
of remarkable depth and poetry; against the background of the Creator's perfection, the pagan
deities are trifling and despicable.
.For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and
my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven,
and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it
may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth
out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I
please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:8-11).
More than once the prophet testified about God's grace to the repentant and the humble.
.Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the
house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to
him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. (Isaiah 66:1-2). .He giveth
power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall
faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall
renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary;
and they shall walk, and not faint. (Isaiah 40:29-31).
.Therefore shall the strong people glorify thee, the city of the terrible nations shall fear thee. For
thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the
storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.
Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; even the heat with the
shadow of a cloud: the branch of the terrible ones shall be brought low. And in this mountain
shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees...
And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail
that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe
away tears from off all faces. (Isaiah 25:3-9).
The last 27 Chapters of the book of the prophet Isaiah (40-66) contain many consolatory predic-
tions regarding the New Testament times and the renovation of the world after the general judg-
ment. This is the vision of the New Jerusalem (the Church) on the holy hill:
.Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders;
but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy
light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the LORD shall
be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no more go down;
neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the LORD shall be thine everlasting light, and the
days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall in-
herit the land for ever. (Isaiah 60:18-21).
The themes discussed in the Chapters of the book of Isaiah are as follows: rebuking the sins of
Judah (1), God's judgment over the world and the advent of the Kingdom of God (2-3); salvation
of the remnant of the people and the Messiah (4), song about the vineyard (5), vision of the Lord
of Hosts (6), conflict with Syria and the birth of Emmanuel (7), the wonderful Child (8-9),
speech about Assyria (10), the Messiah and His Kingdom (11), song of praise to God (12),
prophecies about Gentile kingdoms, Babylon and antichrist (13-14), Moab (15), Samaria and
Damascus (17), speech about Ethiopia and Egypt (18-20), prediction of the fall of Babylon (21),
prediction of the invasion in Judaea (22), Tyre (23); Judgment over the universe and the renova-
tion of the world (24-25), raising of the dead (26), song about the vineyard continued (27),
speech about Samaria and Jerusalem (28-29), Egypt (30-31), the New Testament times (32), pre-
diction about Assyria (33), judgment over nations and God's grace (34-35), historic records (36-
39), prediction about the end of the Babylonian captivity and about John the Baptist (40, 48),
prediction about king Cyrus (41 and 45), Servant of the Lord (42), consolation of the captives in
Babylon (43-44), fall of Babylon (46-47), the Messiah (49-50), restoration of Zion (51-52), the
suffering Messiah (53), the Gentiles called to the Messianic Kingdom (54-55), the New Testa-
ment times (56-57), reproof of hypocrites (58-59), the glory of the New Jerusalem (60), the Mes-
siah and the new Testament times (61-63), the prophet's prayer for his people (62), the Gentiles
called to the faith (65), triumphant Church and the final judgment of the renegades (66). In spite
of its antiquity, the book of Isaiah reads as if it were written yesterday. It is so rich in contents,
consolatory and poetic that each Christian should always have it at hand.
Prophet Micah descended from the tribe of Judah and was Morasthite by the place of birth, a
small settlement south of Jerusalem. He was a younger contemporary of Isaiah and prophesied
for fifty years about the fate of Samaria and Jerusalem during the reign of king Hezekiah and the
first half of the reign of impious Manasseh. Micah is mentioned in the book of Jeremiah (26:18).
When some wanted to kill Jeremiah for his prophecy about the destruction of Jerusalem, certain
elders defended him, saying, that in the days of king Hezekiah Micah predicted the same, and no
one persecuted him for the prophecy. Abrupt discourse of the book of Micah is the evidence that
only a portion of his prophecies has survived, while the other part, probably, perished during
Manasseh's persecution of prophets.
The principal idea of the book of Micah was that the Lord remained faithful to His covenant
with the chosen people and, after having them cleansed with disasters and repentance, would lead
them (and through them the Gentiles) to the Kingdom of the Messiah. The book of Micah con-
tains a prediction about the destruction of Samaria and devastation of Jerusalem; promise of the
salvation of Israel through the Elder from Bethlehem; it pointed out the ways to salvation. Micah
came forward to support the poor and the destitute of his people, and to denounce the heartless
and arrogant rich. “The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among
men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. That they may do
evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the
great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up. The best of them is as a brier:
the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge” (Micah 7:2-4).
This is what the Lord expects from a man: “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and
what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with
thy God” (Micah 6:8). The prophet closed the book by addressing God in these words: “Who is a
God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of
his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn
again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all
their sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18-19).
The content of the book of Micah: destruction of Jerusalem and Samaria (1-2), sins of the
inhabitants of Judaea (3), the Kingdom of Messiah (4), the birth of Christ in Bethlehem (5),
judgment over nations (6), mercy to the faithful (7).
The key events of the second prophetic period, which started after Manasseh (6th through 4th
centuries B.C.), were the religious reform of the king Josiah (639-608 B.C.), development of the
Babylonian kingdom, destruction of Jerusalem (586 B.C.), Babylonian captivity of the Jews; re-
pentance of the Jews and their return to their land (536 B.C.), restoration of the Jerusalem Tem-
ple (475 B.C.). After that, the Messianic expectations were becoming increasingly tense until the
The result of the long reign of wicked Manasseh (696-641 B.C). was that almost all God's
prophets in Judaea were murdered or went underground. Saint Zephaniah probably was the first
prophet to raise his voice after the half-century silence of God's messengers. Zephaniah preached
under the pious Judean king Josiah about 20 years before the devastation of Jerusalem (639-608
B.C.). Enumeration of Zephaniah's forefathers to the 4th generation indicates his noble origin.
King Josiah's religious reform is supposed to have been encouraged by the prophet Zephaniah.
However, the reform could bring but little fruit: it was too hard to restore the religious principles
of the people, undermined by Manasseh. In distress Zephania watched the people running spiritu-
ally wild and getting captivated by pagan superstitions.
However, the prophet severely denounced those responsible for guiding the people and giv-
ing them good example . Judaic princes, judges and priests:
.Woe to her that is filthy and polluted, to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice;
she received not correction; she trusted not in the LORD; she drew not near to her God.
Her princes within her are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves; they gnaw not the
bones till the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons: her priests have
polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. The just LORD is in the midst
thereof; he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he
faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame. (Zephaniah 3:1-5).
The goal of this severe reproof of course was to avert the forthcoming disasters from the Jews.
Zephaniah as well predicted God's punishment to the neighboring nations . Moabites and Am-
monites in the east, Assyrians in the north, Ethiopians in the south. These punishments were not
needed to exterminate the people, but to make them listen to reason and lead them to the true
faith. Zephaniah closed his book by describing the Messianic times and the spiritual revival of
the world: “For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the
name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent” (3:9).
The content of the book of Zephaniah is as follows: God's Judgment over Jerusalem (1-2:3),
judgment over the neighboring nations (2:4-15), judgment over Jerusalem again (3:1-8), the
Messiah and salvation of the world (3:9-20).
The prophet Nahum was called the Elkoshite (.elgoshi. in Hebrew), which probably was
the reference to his father's name. According to tradition, Nahum's family was from the village
which was later named after him. It is mentioned in the Gospel as Capernaum (i.e. the village of
Nahum) on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. After the devastation of the kingdom of Is-
rael by the Assyrians in 722 B.C., Nahum's ancestors moved to Judaea, where Nahum exercised
his prophetic ministration in early 7th century B.C.
In his three-chapter book, Nahum mostly spoke about the punishment of Nineveh, the capi-
tal of the Assyrian kingdom. In the past Nineveh was the weapon in the arms of God, used to
punish and convict the Jewish people; that was why Isaiah called Assyria “the rod of the anger of
God and the staff in His hand” (Is 10:5-15). Nahum depicted the punishment of the Jews by the
Assyrians in the following images: “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will
not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the
clouds are the dust of his feet... Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the
fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him”
200 years before this, in the days of the prophet Jonah, God forgave Nineveh, the capital of
Assyria, for the sake of the repentance of her inhabitants. After that, Assyria started to grow and
strengthen rapidly. Encouraged by their victories, the Assyrians became very arrogant and cruel
to the conquered nations. In his book Nahum very accurately described the moral condition of
contemporary Nineveh, the city of blood and treachery. Nahum saw the forthcoming punishment
of Nineveh as a just retaliation to this city for the innocently shed blood. Indeed, the previously
invincible Nineveh was soon conquered by Nabopolassar of Babylon in 612 B.C. Herodotus,
Dioscorus of Sicily, Xenophon and other Greek authors, colorfully portrayed its devastation and
subsequent collapse of the entire mighty Assyrian Empire.
As foretold by the prophet Nahum, after its devastation Nineveh completely disappeared
from the face of the earth: “Where is the dwelling of the lions, . asked the prophet in surprise,
. The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled
his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin. Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts,
and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will
cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard” (2:11-
13). Over two thousand years, the very location of Nineveh had been forgotten and only in the
19th century the place was found during the excavations by Rawlinson and others. These ar-
chaeological findings confirmed the truth and remarkable accuracy of Nahum's prophecies even
more.
Habakkuk was a Levi (Levi's descendants were priests, acolytes and singers in the Temple
in Jerusalem). He lived shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem and was a contemporary of
the Prophet Jeremiah. His book is distinguished for its clear, exalted and poetic language. Ex-
perts in the Holy Scripture praise this book for its simplicity, brevity and depth of depiction.
The prophet Habakkuk taught that the wicked and lawless would perish, and the righteous
would be saved by their faith. This idea was first revealed in the form of a conversation between
God and the prophet about the judgment and condemnation of the wicked people, and later on as
the prophet's hymn, depicting God's judgment, which would result in destruction of the wicked
and salvation of the righteous. “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in
the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be
cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I
will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like
hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places” (Habakkuk 3:17-19).
The prophet Habakkuk foretold justification by grace through faith in the Kingdom of the
Messiah: .Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his
faith” (Habakkuk 2:4, cf. Galatians 3:11 and Hebrews 10:38).
The second and third chapters of the book of Habakkuk serve as the model for the heirmos
of the 4th ode of the canon of Matins. Some expressions of these chapters are literally repeated in
certain heirmoses, for example, .I will stand upon my watch. in the Canon of Easter, or .I have
heard thy speech, and was afraid. His glory covered the heavens.. and so forth. The Apostolic
Fathers see these phrases of Habakkuk as referring to the Messiah.
The prophet Habakkuk foresaw the distant future when .the earth shall be filled with the
knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). His book
encloses the prophet's bewilderment about the success of the wicked (1:1-4), God's reply (1:5-
11), the prophet's further perplexities (1:12-17) and the Lord's answer (2:1-5), prediction of grief
to the Chaldeans for their depredation (2:6-20), hymn to God (Chapter 3).
The prophet Jeremiah (in Hebrew, .Exalted by God.) was descended from a priest's family;
he was born in Anathoth, four kilometers northwest of Jerusalem. He was called to prophetic
ministry during the reign of Josiah and prophesied under Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin
and Zedekiah. The Lord revealed to Jeremiah that He decided to make him a prophet even before
he was born: .Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of
the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). Ap-
pointing Jeremiah for the ministry of a prophet, the Lord stretched His arm to touch his mouth,
and said: .Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations
and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to
build, and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:9-10).
For about forty years since then Jeremiah had continuously prophesied, teaching people faith
and piety. On behalf of God, Jeremiah said: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither
let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that
glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise
lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the
Under the pious king Josiah Jeremiah taught freely. The public religiosity was predomi-
nantly expressed in rituals, while in spirit people were departing from God further and further:
“My people have committed two evils, . said the Lord through the lips of Jeremiah, . they
have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns,
that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).
With the passage of time, Jeremiah's truthful words started to irritate the listeners and, from
the reign of Jehoiakim, the prophet was always persecuted, even by the members of his family. It
came to the point where Jeremiah had to be hiding because Jehoiakim condemned him to death.
However, Jeremiah dictated his denouncements to his follower Baruch, who announced them to
the king and the people. In order to conceal one of such speeches from the public, Jehoiakim was
burning it, leave after leave, as it was read. Jeremiah knew that it was useless to make war
against the Babylonians and tried to convince Zedekiah, the last Judean king and the successor of
Jehoiakim (who was taken captive to Babylon), to submit to Nebuchadrezzar. For doing this he
was imprisoned as the enemy of the fatherland, and later thrown into a dung pit.
The years preceding the collapse of the kingdom of Judaea were the time of utter spiritual
desperation and blindness of the Jews. That's why Jeremiah's prophetic ministry was one of the
most bitter and hard. At times Jeremiah was so depressed by the grief that he did not even want
to live: “Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention
to the whole earth... For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word
of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily” (Jeremiah 15:10-11, 20:7).
Finally, Jeremiah decided to stop preaching at all: .Then I said, I will not make mention of
him, nor speak any more in his name.” But Jeremiah could not hold back his gift of prophecy for
a long time: .But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was
weary with forbearing, and I could not stay” (Jeremiah 20:8-9).
Compared to other prophetic books, the book of Jeremiah contains many autobiographical
notes, which makes it especially valuable for the understanding of the essence of the gift of
prophecy and relationship between God and His elect.
In view of the forthcoming disaster, Jeremiah increasingly discharged his denouncements
onto the main culprits of the spiritual hardening of the regular people . the rich and those at the
.Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong;
that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work; That saith, I
will build me a wide house and large chambers, and cutteth him out windows; and it is cieled
with cedar, and painted with vermilion. Shalt thou reign, because thou closest thyself in cedar?
did not thy father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice, and then it was well with him? He
judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well with him: was not this to know me?
saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 22:13-16).
However, the spiritual hardening of the upper class was already incurable: “The sin of Judah is
written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their
heart, and upon the horns of your altars. (Jeremiah 17:1). We must say that the spiritual wick-
edness of Jeremiah's contemporaries, as well as the Jews in the seventies A.D., when Jerusalem
was destroyed for the second time, in many respects characterize the spiritual wickedness of the
people of the latter days before the Second Coming of Christ. Therefore, in the lips of the proph-
ets and the Savior, both the first and the second destruction of Jerusalem serve as images of the
end of the world and get combined with it in a single prophetic vision (Matthew Chapter 24).
In the book of Jeremiah we find frequent references to his clashes with false prophets who,
unlike Jeremiah, were appeasing people by saying that there would be no disaster and everything
would go well. These persuasions lulled the conscience of the people and actually sped up the
spiritual decay. It is appropriate to note that, according to the Savior's prediction, coming of
many false prophets will also be a sign of the nearing end of the world: “Take heed that no man
deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many”
(Matthew 24:5, 11). Thus, Jeremiah's denouncements apply even today.
Under king Zedekiah in 586 B.C., the prophecies of Jeremiah and other prophets finally
came true: the hordes of Nebuchadrezzar surrounded Jerusalem, took it and destroyed the city
and the Temple. The survivors were led to captivity which had to last 70 years, in accordance
with the prophecy of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 25:11). During the seizure of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was
bound and led away together with other captives, but Nebuchadrezzar commanded to free him on
the way. Soon after that fugitives from Jerusalem captured Jeremiah and led him to Egypt, where
he continued his prophetic ministration for several years. In the Second Book of the Maccabees
(2 Maccabees 2:4-5) it is recorded that, when the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, Jeremiah
hid the tabernacle and the ark with the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments, and the altar of
incense in a cave in mount Nebo. The attempts to find these things later did not succeed. The tra-
dition has it that Jeremiah was stoned at Daphne for the prediction of invasion of Nebuchadrez-
zar into Egypt. Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C). made an honorable funeral for the relics of
the prophet Jeremiah and buried them in a precious tomb in Alexandria.
The main idea of the book of Jeremiah was that God, through the Babylonians, would en-
force the judgment on the Jews and Gentiles in order to clean off their idolatry and pagan iniq-
uity. After the captivity, the Jews would return to their land and the Lord in the person of the
Messiah, King the Shepherd, would restore the throne of David (in the spiritual sense) and make
the New Covenant. Jeremiah's inherent lyrical disposition, perceivable in his speech, made his
book a remarkable monument of the ancient poetry.
In brief, the Book of Jeremiah tells about the vocation of Jeremiah (1), contains his
prophecies during the reigns of Josiah (2-6) and Jehoiakim (7-20), reproof of kings and false
prophets (21-25:14), prophecies about the neighboring nations (25:15-38; 46-51), devastation,
restoration (25-33) and the last days of Jerusalem (34-45), plus a historical summary (52).
The book of Jeremiah is followed in the Bible by the book of the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, which was written soon after the devastation of Jerusalem. It contains five chapters,
which colorfully depict the misery of the destroyed Temple and the city, and the grief of the
Jews. The original text of this book was an acrostic with the first letters of each line set in the or-
der of the Hebrew alphabet, like in Psalms 37 and 119. Jeremiah addressed all passers-by on be-
half of Jerusalem, wishing that they escaped such a fate, explained the reasons of what had hap-
pened and asked for sympathy. The book of Lamentations was closed with a prayer: “Turn thou
us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (Lamentations 5:21).
Another book, adjoining the books of Jeremiah, is the Book of Baruch, written by Baruch
the son of Neriah. Enumeration of the five generations of his ancestors shows the nobility of his
descent. Indeed, his brother Seraiah was the chief of tax collectors and went with Zedekiah the
king of Judah into Babylon to Nebuchadrezzar (Jeremiah 51:59). The prophet Baruch was a fol-
lower and assistant to the prophet Jeremiah. Together with his teacher Baruch bore the persecu-
tion and oppression of the contemporaries (Jeremiah 36:19-26; 43:3; 45:2-3). After the destruc-
tion of Jerusalem Baruch relocated to Egypt with Jeremiah, and stayed there until the death of his
teacher. After that Baruch moved to Babylon where, as the tradition has it, he died in the twelfth
year after the destruction of Jerusalem.
The book of Baruch was written out of the desire of the Jews from Babylon to encourage
their compatriots, who had stayed in the devastated Judaea, with donations and an accompanying
letter. The letter on behalf of the captives was compiled by Baruch. First he read this letter to the
captured king Jehoiachin with the Jews that lived in Babylon, and then sent it to Joakim the high
In his letter Baruch explained to the Jews that the disasters that befell them did not mean fi-
nal rejection, but were only a temporary punishment for the sins. Therefore the people had to
grieve over their sins, not the captivity. In due time the Lord would free His people from the cap-
tivity, and the glorious days of Jerusalem would come, when the Person of the Wisdom of God
would become incarnate. (The Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, is called Wis-
dom in the Book of Proverbs: Proverbs 8:22-30, Baruch 3:36-4:4). The book of Baruch showed
how beneficial were the disasters for the Jews: many admitted their share of the guilt, repented
and became more humble and obedient to God.
The Book of Obadiah is the shortest work in the Old Testament, containing only 21 verses.
It is based on the vision of Edom, a country southwest of Judaea; the Edomites that inhabited it
were related by blood to the Jews. Nothing is said about the prophet Obadiah neither in his book,
nor in the rest of the Biblical writings. The book of Obadiah was written soon after Nebu-
chadrezzar destroyed Jerusalem, when the Edomites encouraged and gloated over the devastation
of the city, instead of providing help or at least showing sympathy to their blood brothers. The
grief of the Jews over this behavior of the Edomites was expressed in the following words from
Psalm 137: “Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase
it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.” In his prophetic vision Obadiah saw the punishment of
the Edomites for their cruelty. The prophet also foretold the return of the Jews from the captivity.
The prophet Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, was born in Judaea. Together with king Je-
hoiachin and 10,000 Jews he was led captive to Babylon in 597 B.C. and settled in Mesopotamia
at the river of Chebar, a tributary of the River Tigris.
Ezekiel was called to the ministry of a prophet at the age of thirty by the vision of the .ap-
pearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.. It was in the fifth year of the reign of Jehoia-
chin, and since then he prophesied to the settlers of the Mesopotamian Tel Aviv for 22 years,
from 592 till 570 B.C. The description of his vision of the four living creatures with the faces of
a man, a lion, an ox and an eagle was later used for the symbols of the Four Evangelists (Ezekiel
1:10). Ezekiel preached not only to the captive Jews, but also to the .rebellious house of Israel.
. the Israelites who had been led here after the devastation of their kingdom by the Assyrians in
722 B.C. These Israelites had no spiritual leaders in the land of captivity and fully degraded spiri-
Calling Ezekiel to prophetic ministry, the Lord said to him:
.And he said unto me, Son of man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious na-
tion that hath rebelled against me... they are impudent children and stiffhearted. I do send
thee unto them; and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD. And they,
whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear... yet shall know that there hath been
a prophet among them. And thou, son of man, be not afraid of them... Behold, I have
made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads.
As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dis-
mayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house. (Ezekiel 2:3-7, 3:8-9).
The Lord further revealed to Ezekiel what was his mission and responsibility as a prophet:
.Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the
word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou
shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from
his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his
blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his
wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered
thy soul. Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit in-
iquity, and I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given
him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be
remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless if thou warn the
righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because
he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul. (Ezekiel 3:17-21).
Obeying God, the prophet Ezekiel severely denounced the inclination of the Israelites to pagan
traditions, their hypocrisy and disobedience. However, Ezekiel predicted the end of the captivity
and restoration of the Temple and Jerusalem, so that they would not lose their hearts.
Ezekiel lived far away from Judaea, yet in his prophetic spirit he flew to Jerusalem (8:1-3)
and from Mesopotamia he saw every detail of the siege of Jerusalem (4:1-17), capturing of king
Zedekiah, destruction of the city and the Temple. The prophet passed on his visions to the Israel-
ites who cared for the fate of their native land. The prophet had a wife who died in the fourth year
of his prophetic ministration as a prophetic symbol of the grief of the Jews, and her death was
made known to Ezekiel the day before (24:15-24).
The tradition says that Ezekiel was a .judge. of the captives, that is their spiritual leader.
Once he rescued a group of captives from robbers, and multiplied food by his prayer when the
crop was poor. The prophet Ezekiel was martyred for the exposure of the idolatry of the elders of
The language and the narrative of the book of Ezekiel are characterized by a few symbolic
visions, parables and allegories. By this, the book of Ezekiel can only be compared to the Revela-
tion of St. John the Theologian. The vision of the glory of the Lord, described in the first three
chapters of the book, was extraordinary and even hard to picture. In general, the imagery and
symbolism of the prophet's speech made the understanding of the book difficult, and experts in
the Bible and the Hebrew language, such as the blessed Jerome, complained about it. Even the
naming in the book of Ezekiel is special: God is Adonai Sabaoth, i.e. .the Lord of Hosts,. Shad-
dai, or .Almighty,. the people are Israel, which means .the one struggling with God.. The
prophet often called himself .son of man,. which implied his humble and humiliated position of
a prophet in the captive nation.
Remarkable is Ezekiel's vision when an Angel of God set a mark upon the foreheads of the
men in Jerusalem .that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst
thereof.. The people marked by the Angel were saved from the fate of the other inhabitants of Je-
rusalem who were slain when the enemy took the city. According to the vision, the punishment
of the wicked had to start with the ancient men at the sanctuary (Ezekiel 9:1-7). This vision of
Ezekiel is very similar to the vision of the Apostle John the Theologian (Revelation 7:1-4) and
tells us that the grace of God, like a seal, distinguishes those who love God and protects them
from the common fate of the wicked.
As foretold by Ezekiel, the faithful of the forthcoming Kingdom of Messiah would not only
formally fulfill the commandments of God, as the best of the Old Testament Jews did, but they
would be absolutely different people by their spiritual content: “And I will give them one heart,
and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will
give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do
them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezekiel 11:19-20, 36:26-27).
To sum up, the contents of the book of Ezekiel is as follows: vision of the appearance of the
glory of God and Ezekiel's vocation to the ministry of a prophet (1-3), thirteen reproving
speeches against the Jews and the symbolic acts mimicking the fall of Jerusalem (4-24), de-
nouncement of Gentiles: the neighbors of the Jews (25), people of Tyre (26-28). Verses 13-19 in
Chapter 28 refer to the devil, personified by the king of Tyre (see a similar speech about anti-
christ in Isaiah 14:5-20). Prophecies about the Egyptians (29-32), the prophet's new mission after
the fall of Jerusalem: console and encourage (33), the Lord is the shepherd of revived Israel (34),
punishment of Edom (35), revival of Israel (36), raising of dead bones as the prophecy about res-
urrection of the dead (37), apocalyptic prophecies about the enemies of the Church and the defeat
of the hordes of Gog (38-39) (Cf. Revelation 20:7 about Gog and Magog), new eternal Kingdom
of God and the new Temple (40-48, see Revelation, Chapter 21). Prophecies of the last 14 Chap-
ters of Ezekiel, referring to the last times, have many common features with the mysterious vi-
sions of Daniel and the Apocalypse of the Apostle John the Theologian. These prophecies are yet
to be fulfilled, and their interpretation should be tentative, with account to their heavy load of
The prophet Daniel was of a noble, maybe even of royal descent. In the fourth year of the
reign of Jehoiakim, during the first conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar (in 606 B.C.),
young Daniel was taken captive to Babylon. Together with other noble youths, Daniel was sent to
a school to be trained for service at the royal court. Daniel was then between 14 and 17 years old.
Three friends of Daniel went to school together with him: Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael.
They had to learn the local language and various Chaldean disciplines for several years. When
the Jewish boys were admitted to the school, they were renamed into Belteshazzar, Shadrach,
Meshach and Abednego. Having adopted these Gentile names, the boys did not change the faith
of their fathers, though. They feared the abomination of the pagan meals from the king's table,
sprinkled with the idol-offered blood, and asked their Gentile instructor to give them plain vege-
table food instead. The instructor conditionally agreed to give vegetable food to the boys for ten
days. At the end of the try period these youths turned up to be healthier than the others who ate
from the king's table. After that they were permitted to continue eating vegetarian food. The lord
rewarded the pious boys with success in studies, and at the examination the Babylonian king
found them to be wiser than his Babylonian magicians.
After the completion of the course of studies, Daniel with his three friends was to serve at
the royal court, and remained at the court as a man of high rank during the entire reign of Nebu-
chadrezzar and his five successors. After the conquest of Babylon he became counselor to kings
Darius of Media and Cyrus of Persia (Daniel 6:28).
God gave Daniel the ability to understand visions and dreams; Daniel demonstrated it by in-
terpreting two dreams to Nebuchadrezzar (Chapters 2 and 4). In the first dream, Nebuchadrezzar
saw a tremendously huge and terrific image, which was broken with a stone that rolled from a
mountain. Daniel explained it to the king, that the image symbolized the four Gentile kingdoms,
which had to supplant one another, starting with Babylon and ending with Rome. The stone that
broke the image symbolized the Messiah, and the mountain . His everlasting Kingdom. This is
how Daniel finished his interpretation of the dream:
.Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands (the Savior was born without a
corporal father), which smote the image... and brake them to pieces... and became like the chaff
of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for
them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth...
And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be
destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and con-
sume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:31-45).
This dream proved to be a prophecy about the Church. Indeed, the Christian faith that first ap-
peared in the Roman Empire, has filled the whole world and will continue to exist until the end
of the world, while there is no trace now from the formerly mighty pagan empires.
The third chapter of the book of Daniel tells about the feat of his three friends who refused
to bow to the gold idol of Marduk and for this were thrown into a furnace of fire, but an angel of
God saved them from any harm from fire. The grateful .Prayer of the three holy children. serves
as the model for the 8th and 9th odes of the Canon of Matins.
Nothing is known about the acts of the prophet Daniel during the seven years of the reign of
the three successors of Nebuchadrezzar: Evilmerodach, Neriglissar and Labashi-Marduk). Nab-
onidus, the assassin of Labashi-Marduk, made his son Belshazzar his co-ruler. In the first year of
Belshazzar Daniel had the vision about the four kingdoms, which transformed into the vision of
the heaven and God as the Ancient of days and the .Son of Man,. i.e. the Son of God Who was
to become incarnate (Daniel, Chapter 7). As we know from the Gospels, Our Savior often called
Himself the Son of Man to remind the Jews about this prophecy of Daniel. Before the council,
when the high priest asked Christ whether He was the promised Messiah, the Lord directly
pointed out this vision of Daniel and reminded about the heavenly glory of the Son of Man
(Daniel, Chapter 7; Matthew 26:64). In its main part the vision of Daniel referred to the time be-
fore the end of the world and the Last Judgment, though some of its features gave the indication
about the persecutions by Antiochus Epiphanes in the third century before Christ and the perse-
cution of the Church in the times of antichrist.
The next vision . about two monarchies represented by the images of a goat and a ram, put
down in the third year of the reign of Belshazzar, . also referred to the end of the world. This
vision had some features in common with the visions of the Apostle John the Theologian, re-
corded in his book of Revelation (Daniel, Chapters 7-8, Revelation, Chapters 11-12 and 17).
Babylon was taken by Darius the king of Media in the 17th year of the reign of Belshazzar
(539 B.C.). Belshazzar was killed during the battle for the city, as it was predicted to him by the
mysterious hand writing .MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. on the wall (thou art found
wanting, thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians, Daniel 5:25). The prophet
Daniel interpreted these words to Belshazzar. As we have already mentioned, the fall of Babylon
had been predicted by the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah (Isaiah, Chapters 13-14 and 21, Jeremiah,
Chapters 50-51). In the book of Revelation Babylon signifies the kingdom of the evil of the
world (Revelation 16-19).
Under Darius of Media Daniel was one of the three top officials of the Median kingdom.
The pagan officials slandered Daniel before Darius out of envy and cunningly achieved that
Daniel was thrown to lions. But God kept His prophet unhurt (Chapter 6). Later on, Daniel re-
ceived the revelation of the Seventy Weeks (70*7 = 490 years), which indicated the time of the
Messiah's advent (Daniel, Chapter 9; see explanation of this vision in the second part of the bro-
chure .The Old Testament Regarding the Messiah.).
During the reign of Darius, Daniel retained his rank at the court. It was not without his care
that in 536 B.C. Cyrus ruled to free the Jews from the captivity. The tradition has it, that the
prophet Daniel showed Cyrus the prophecy of Isaiah (Is. 44:28-45:13). Surprised by this proph-
ecy about himself, the king recognized the power of Jehovah and commanded the Jews to build a
Temple in Jerusalem in His honor (1 Esdras, Chapter 1). Under the same king Daniel was for the
second time miraculously saved from the lions when he was thrown to them for having killed the
dragon worshipped by the pagans (Chapter 14). In the third year of the reign of Cyrus in Babylon,
Daniel was honored to receive a revelation about the future fate of the people of God in connec-
tion with the history of the Gentile kingdoms (Chapters 10-12). The prediction of the persecu-
tions for the faith refers to the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes and antichrist at the same
time.
Cited below are two apocalyptic prophecies of Daniel:
.And at that time shall Michael stand up (Archangel Michael, Revelation 20:11), the
great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble,
such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people
shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book (The Book of Life, meaning
God's awareness of all good works of a man, see Revelation 13:8, 20:12). And many of them that
sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and ever-
lasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they
that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever. (Daniel 12:1-3, cf. Matthew
13:43). .The words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end. Many shall be purified, and
made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall under-
stand; but the wise shall understand. (Daniel 12:9-10).
Some interpret the three and a half years of intensified persecution of the faithful as the term of
the reign of antichrist (Daniel 12:9-13); by the way, Jesus Christ also preached for three and a
half years. However, the apocalyptic timeframe may be merely symbolic.
Little is known about the subsequent life of the prophet Daniel. He died at a very old age,
about 90 years old, probably in Susa (Ectabanes). The book of Daniel consists of 14 Chapters.
The first six chapters of the book make up its historical part. They tell how the glory of God pro-
liferated among the Jews and the Gentiles during the captivity. Chapters 7-12 are prophetic and
contain visions about the future of the Gentile nations that surrounded the Jews, and about the fu-
ture Kingdom God, the Church. Some modern Biblical critics question the authenticity of the
Book of Daniel. Yet the Lord Jesus Christ twice referred to the prophecies contained there, and
for us faithful it is a sufficient witness of the book's authenticity. It is remarkable how accurately
Daniel predicted the time of the coming of Christ and the beginning of the New Testament. This
prophecy of the .Weeks. is unpleasant to those Jews who reject Christ and continue waiting for a
The prophet Haggai prophesied in Judaea during the reign of king Darius I (Persian, Hys-
taspes, 522-486 B.C.). That was the time when many Jews, led by Zerubbabel, returned to Judaea
from the Babylonian captivity. One named Joshua was the high priest at the time. In the second
year after the return from the captivity the Jews started the construction of the Temple in Jerusa-
lem, at the site of the destroyed Temple of Solomon. But due to the intrigues of the Samaritans
and other ill-wishers, the construction was postponed by 15 years, until king Darius commanded
to resume it.
The people were poor. However, they believed that the grandeur of the second temple
should not be less than that of the Temple of Solomon, destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar. That's why
some said that the time for the construction of the new Temple had not yet come. This cooled
down the zeal of the builders. So, in order to encourage the people for the completion of con-
struction of the second Temple, God sent Haggai. His prophetic ministry continued for about one
year.
The prophet Haggai used the following words to convince the Jews to carry on the building
of the Temple:
.Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye
are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth
wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Go up
to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be
glorified, saith the LORD. Ye looked for much, and, lo it came to little; and when ye brought it
home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste,
and ye run every man unto his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and
the earth is stayed from her fruit. (Haggai 1:6-10).
In the brochure .The Old Testament Regarding the Messiah. we cited Haggai's promise that the
Messiah would come into this new Temple, and His coming would bring it the glory much
greater than that of the richly decorated first Temple (Haggai 2:5-9). The book of Haggai has two
chapters, which contain four speeches of Haggai, dedicated to the construction of the Temple.
The prophet Zechariah is also called the sickle-seer, for he saw a flying roll bent in the shape
of a sickle (5:1-4). Zechariah, son of Berechiah and grand son of Iddo, was a descendant of a
family of priests. He was called for the prophetic ministry at a young age and, being a contempo-
rary of Haggai, started to prophesy in the second year of the reign of Darius I (520 B.C.). Like
Haggai, Zechariah encouraged people to complete the construction of the Temple. He did not fin-
ish his prophetic book until after the consecration of the Temple in 516 B.C.
The book of Zechariah, like that of Ezekiel, is characterized by the numerous symbolic vi-
sions, and also by detailed predictions about the last days of the Savior.s life; it has the peculiari-
ties that cannot be found in the writings of any other prophet: that the Lord would enter Jerusa-
lem riding upon a donkey, that He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of silver, that He would be
pierced on the Cross, and that the Apostles would run away from Gethsemane. God called the
Jews to genuine piety, saying through the lips of Zechariah:
.Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of
hosts. (Zechariah 1:3). .These are the things that ye shall do; Speak ye every man the
truth to his neighbour; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates: And let
none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour; and love no false oath: for
all these are things that I hate, saith the LORD. (Zechariah 8:16-17).
The contents of the book of Zechariah is as follows: call for repentance (1:1-6), vision of an an-
gel among the myrtle trees (evergreen southern plant with big fragrant flowers) (1:7-17), vision
of the four riders (1:18-21), vision of an angel with a measuring line (2), vision of the high priest
Joshua and the Messiah (3), vision of a gold candlestick (4), vision of a flying roll and ephah
(measure for bulk granular materials) (5), vision of four chariots and the Messiah as the High
Priest (6), Zechariah's prophetic speeches about the New Testament times (7-8), Messianic pre-
dictions (9-11), prophecies about the gifts of grace that are given to the faithful (12), prophecies
about the Messiah and the redemption of Jerusalem (13-14).
Prophet Malachi (.messenger. in Hebrew) was a younger co-laborer to Ezra and Nehemiah;
he descended from the tribe of Zebulun. As he was the last of the Old Testament prophets, he is
called the Seal of Prophets. He exercised the gift of prophecy 475 years before the Advent of
From the Book of Malachi it is apparent that in the prophet's lifetime the Temple had al-
ready been restored and divine services were held, though often without due reverence. The
prophet denounced the negligence of priests, telling them on behalf of God, “A son honoureth his
father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master,
where is my fear?” (Malachi 1:6). In the New Testament era, the Judaic priests would be re-
placed by people that fear God, .For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the
same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered
unto my name, and a pure offering” (Malachi 1:6-11).
The prophet further denounced the Jews for mixed marriages, irregular tithing, offering
animals with blemish for sacrifices, superficial callous rites, murmuring against God for sup-
posed delay in the fulfillment of the promise of the coming of Messiah. Malachi does not rebuke
the Jews for the sin of idol worship, because after the disasters, related to the Babylonian captiv-
ity, they were totally cured of this superstition.
Malachi said prophecies about John the Baptist, the prophet and forerunner, who would
come to get the people ready to receive Christ: “Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall
prepare the way before me: and the LORD, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple,
even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD
of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for
he is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap” (Malachi 3:1-2, see Mark 1:1 and Matthew
11:14, 17:12). Malachi's following prophecy, similar to the previous one, is also about Christ's
forerunner, but is obviously related to His Second Coming: .Behold, I will send you Elijah the
prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD: And he shall turn the
heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and
smite the earth with a curse” (Malachi 4:5, Cf. Revelation 11:3-6).
The content of the Book of Malachi is as follows: lack of pious reverence in people (1:6-14)
and priests (2:1-9), cruelty and turning away from God (2:10-16), disregard of God's promises
and commandments (2:17-3:6), non-tithing of tithes (3:7-12), God's Judgment (3:13-4:3), the last
call for repentance (4:4-6).
All prophetic predictions, excluding those which are regarding the last times, have been fulfilled,
and often with impressive precision. We especially treasure the predictions about the Savior of
the World, the Church and God's grace given to the faithful. The books of prophecies also give
comfort because, no matter how much evil seems to triumph, it will be exterminated by God, and
the truth will triumph; eternal life and bliss are awaiting the faithful.