Early Prophecy. 

        In the historical books we are introduced to prophetic activity of a strange nature, e.g. ISam. 10:10-13; 19:20-24. It is reasonable to attribute this partly to the baleful influence of Canaanite religion during the period of the Judges. How­ever that may be, there is little, if any, trace of it in the written prophets. The wild men had degenerated into professional prophets, with their ecstasies and dreams (Jer. 23:25), and are repeatedly condemned by the written prophets. Their last pitiful state is described in Zech. 13:2-6.  Amos indignantly refuses to be called a prophet, if it involves his being classed with them: “I am no prophet, neither am I one of the sons of the prophets” (Amos 7:14, R.V. mg.).

        In contradistinction to these false prophets, the written prophets seem to have obtained most of their messages verbally — we cannot go further in our explanation than this — though we do meet with visions from time to time. As the prophets never really explain how the message came to them, it would be unwise for us to speculate too far on the subject.