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THE EXPOSITOR'S BIBLE. Edited by Rev.

W. R. Nicoll, D.D., Editor of London Expositor.

1st Series in 6 Vols.

MACLAREN, Rev. Alex.—COLOSSIANS—PHILEMON.
DODS, Rev. Marcus.—GENESIS.
CHADWICK, Rev. Dean.—ST. MARK.
BLAIKIE, Rev. W. G.—SAMUEL, 2 Vols.
EDWARDS, Rev. T. C.—HEBREWS.

2d Series in 6 Vols.

SMITH, Rev. G. A.—ISAIAH, Vol. I.
ALEXANDER, Bishop.—EPISTLES OF ST. JOHN.
PLUMMER, Rev. A.—PASTORAL EPISTLES.
FINDLAY, Rev. G. G.—GALATIANS.
MILLIGAN, Rev. W.—REVELATION.
DODS, Rev. Marcus.—1st CORINTHIANS.

3d Series in 6 Vols.

SMITH, Rev. G. A.—ISAIAH, Vol. II.
GIBSON, Rev. J. M.—ST. MATTHEW.
WATSON, Rev. R. A.—JUDGES—RUTH.
BALL, Rev. C. J.—JEREMIAH. Chap. I-XX.
CHADWICK, Rev. Dean.—EXODUS.
BURTON, Rev. H.—ST. LUKE.

4th Series in 6 Vols.

KELLOGG, Rev. S. H.—LEVITICUS.
STOKES, Rev. G. T.—ACTS, Vol. I.
HORTON, Rev. R. F.—PROVERBS.
DODS, Rev. Marcus.—GOSPEL ST. JOHN, Vol. I.
PLUMMER, Rev. A.—JAMES—JUDE.
COX, Rev. S.—ECCLESIASTES.

5th Series in 6 Vols.

DENNEY, Rev. J.—THESSALONIANS.
WATSON, Rev. R. A.—JOB.
MACLAREN, Rev. A.—PSALMS, Vol. I.
STOKES, Rev. G. T.—ACTS, Vol. II.
DODS, Rev. Marcus.—GOSPEL ST. JOHN, Vol. II.
FINDLAY, Rev. C. G.—EPHESIANS.

6th Series in 6 Vols.

RAINY, Rev. R.—PHILIPPIANS.
FARRAR, Archdeacon F. W.—1st KINGS.
BLAIKIE, Rev. W. G.—JOSHUA.
MACLAREN, Rev. A.—PSALMS, Vol. II.
LUMBY, Rev, J. R.—EPISTLES OF ST. PETER.
ADENEY, Rev. W. F.—EZRA—NEHEMIAH—ESTHER.

7th Series in 6 Vols.

MOULE, Rev. H. C. G.—ROMANS.
FARRAR, Archdeacon F. W.—2d KINGS.
BENNETT, Rev. W. H.—1st and 2d CHRONICLES.
MACLAREN, Rev. A.—PSALMS, Vol. III.
DENNEY, Rev. James.—2d CORINTHIANS.
WATSON Rev. R. A.—NUMBERS.

8th and Final Series in 7 Vols.

FARRAR, Archdeacon F. W.—DANIEL.
SKINNER, Rev. John.—EZEKIEL.
BENNETT, Rev. W. H.—JEREMIAH.
HARPER, Rev. Prof.—DEUTERONOMY.
ADENEY, Rev. W. F.—SOLOMON AND LAMENTATIONS.
SMITH, Rev. G. A.—THE MINOR PROPHETS, 2 Vols.

About 400 pages in each Volume. Price for either series, six volumes $6.06. (Orders for 2 or more series at same rate will be sent by Express. prepaid.) (Separate vols. $1.50 postpaid. Descriptive circular sent on application.)

THE BOOK

OF

THE TWELVE PROPHETS

COMMONLY CALLED THE MINOR

BY

GEORGE ADAM SMITH, D.D., LL.D.

PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS
FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW

IN TWO VOLUMES

VOL. I.—AMOS, HOSEA AND MICAH

WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND A SKETCH OF PROPHECY IN EARLY ISRAEL

NEW YORK

A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON

3 and 5 West Eighteenth Street
London: Hodder and Stoughton
1906

TO

HENRY DRUMMOND

PREFACE

The Prophets, to whom this and a following volume are dedicated, have, to our loss, been haunted for centuries by a peddling and an ambiguous title. Their Twelve Books are in size smaller than those of the great Three which precede them, and doubtless none of their chapters soar so high as the brilliant summits to which we are swept by Isaiah and the Prophet of the Exile. But in every other respect they are undeserving of the niggardly name of "Minor." Two of them, Amos and Hosea, were the first of all prophecy—rising cliff-like, with a sheer and magnificent originality, to a height and a mass sufficient to set after them the trend and slope of the whole prophetic range. The Twelve together cover the extent of that range, and illustrate the development of prophecy at almost every stage from the eighth century to the fourth. Yet even more than in the case of Isaiah or Jeremiah, the Church has been content to use a passage here and a passage there, leaving the rest of the books to absolute neglect or the almost equal oblivion of routine-reading. Among the causes of this disuse have been the more than usually corrupt state of the text; the consequent disorder and in parts unintelligibleness of all the versions; the ignorance of the various historical circumstances out of which the books arose; the absence of successful efforts to determine the periods and strophes, the dramatic dialogues (with the names of the speakers), the lyric effusions and the passages of argument, of all of which the books are composed.

The following exposition is an attempt to assist the bettering of all this. As the Twelve Prophets illustrate among them the whole history of written prophecy, I have thought it useful to prefix a historical sketch of the Prophet in early Israel, or as far as the appearance of Amos. The Twelve are then taken in chronological order. Under each of them a chapter is given of historical and critical introduction to his book; then some account of the prophet himself as a man and a seer; then a complete translation of the various prophecies handed down under his name, with textual footnotes, and an exposition and application to the present day in harmony with the aim of the series to which these volumes belong; finally, a discussion of the main doctrines the prophet has taught, if it has not been found possible to deal with these in the course of the exposition.

An exact critical study of the Twelve Prophets is rendered necessary by the state of the entire text. The present volume is based on a thorough examination of this in the light of the ancient versions and of modern criticism. The emendations which I have proposed are few and insignificant, but I have examined and discussed in footnotes all that have been suggested, and in many cases my translation will be found to differ widely from that of the Revised Version. To questions of integrity and authenticity more space is devoted than may seem to many to be necessary. But it is certain that the criticism of the prophetic books has now entered on a period of the same analysis and discrimination which is almost exhausted in the case of the Pentateuch. Some hints were given of this in a previous volume on Isaiah, chapters xl.-lxvi., which are evidently a composite work. Among the books now before us, the same fact has long been clear in the case of Obadiah and Zechariah, and

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also since Ewald's time with regard to Micah. But Duhm's Theology of the Prophets, which appeared in 1875, suggested interpolations in Amos. Wellhausen (in 1873) and Stade (from 1883 onwards) carried the discussion further both on those, and others, of the Twelve; while a recent work by Andrée on Haggai proves that many similar questions may still be raised and have to be debated. The general fact must be admitted that hardly one book has escaped later additions—additions of an entirely justifiable nature, which supplement the point of view of a single prophet with the richer experience or the riper hopes of a later day, and thus afford to ourselves a more catholic presentment of the doctrines of prophecy and the Divine purposes for mankind. This general fact, I say, must be admitted. But the questions of detail are still in process of solution. It is obvious that settled results can be reached (as to some extent they have been already reached in the criticism of the Pentateuch) only after years of research and debate by all schools of critics. Meantime it is the duty of each of us to offer his own conclusions, with regard to every separate passage, on the understanding that, however final they may at present seem to him, the end is not yet. In previous criticism the defects, of which work in the same field has made me aware, are four: 1. A too rigid belief in the exact parallelism and symmetry of the prophetic style, which I feel has led, for instance, Wellhausen, to whom we otherwise owe so much on the Twelve Prophets, into many unnecessary emendations of the text, or, where some amendment is necessary, to absolutely unprovable changes. 2. In passages between which no connection exists, the forgetfulness of the principle that this fact may often be explained as justly by the hypothesis of the omission of some words, as by the favourite theory of the later intrusion of portions of the extant text. 3. Forgetfulness of the possibility, which in some cases amounts almost to certainty, of the incorporation, among the authentic words of a prophet, of passages of earlier as well as of later date. And, 4. depreciation of the spiritual insight and foresight of pre-exilic writers. These, I am persuaded, are defects in previous criticism of the prophets. Probably my own criticism will reveal many more. In the beginnings of such analysis as we are engaged on, we must be prepared for not a little arbitrariness and want of proportion; these are often necessary for insight and fresh points of view, but they are as easily eliminated by the progress of discussion.

All criticism, however, is preliminary to the real work which the immortal prophets demand from scholars and preachers in our age. In a review of a previous volume, I was blamed for applying a prophecy of Isaiah to a problem of our own day. This was called "prostituting prophecy." The prostitution of the prophets is their confinement to academic uses. One cannot conceive an ending, at once more pathetic and more ridiculous, to those great streams of living water, than to allow them to run out in the sands of criticism and exegesis, however golden these sands may be. The prophets spoke for a practical purpose; they aimed at the hearts of men; and everything that scholarship can do for their writings has surely for its final aim the illustration of their witness to the ways of God with men, and its application to living questions and duties and hopes. Besides, therefore, seeking to tell the story of that wonderful stage in the history of the human spirit—surely next in wonder to the story of Christ Himself—I have not feared at every suitable point to apply its truths to our lives to-day. The civilisation in which prophecy flourished was in its essentials marvellously like our own. To mark only one point, the rise of prophecy in Israel came fast upon the passage of the nation from an agricultural to a commercial basis of society, and upon the appearance of the very thing which gives its name to civilisation—city-life, with its unchanging sins, problems and ideals.

A recent Dutch critic, whose exact scholarship is known to all readers of Stade's Journal of Old Testament Science, has said of Amos and Hosea: "These prophecies have a word of God, as for all times, so also especially for our own. Before all it is relevant to 'the social question' of our day, to the relation of religion and morality.... Often it has been hard for me to refrain from expressly pointing out the agreement between Then and To-day."[1] This feeling will be shared by all students of prophecy whose minds and consciences are quick; and I welcome the liberal plan of the series in which this volume appears, because, while giving room for the adequate discussion of critical and historical questions, its chief design is to show the eternal validity of the Books of the Bible as the Word of God, and their meaning for ourselves to-day.

Previous works on the Minor Prophets are almost innumerable. Those to which I owe most will be found indicated in the footnotes. The translation has been executed upon the purpose, not to sacrifice the literal meaning or exact emphasis of the original to the frequent possibility of greater elegance. It reproduces every word, with the occasional exception of a copula. With some hesitation I have retained the traditional spelling of the Divine Name, Jehovah, instead of the more correct Jahve or Yahweh; but where the rhythm of certain familiar passages was disturbed by it, I have followed the English versions and written Lord. The reader will keep in mind that a line may be destroyed by substituting our pronunciation of proper names for the more musical accents of the original. Thus, for instance, we obliterate the music of "Isra'el" by making it two syllables and putting the accent on the first: it has three syllables with the accent on the last. We crush Yerushalayîḿ into Jerúsalem; we shred off Asshûr into Assyria, and dub Miṣraîḿ Egypt. Hebrew has too few of the combinations which sound most musical to our ears, to afford the suppression of any one of them.

[Pg xiv]
[Pg xv]

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.

page Preface vii Chronological Table 1 INTRODUCTION chap. I. THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE 3 II. THE PROPHET IN EARLY ISRAEL

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href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@43847@[email protected]#Page_11" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">11 1. From the Earliest Times till Samuel. 2. From Samuel to Elisha. III. THE EIGHTH CENTURY IN ISRAEL 31 IV. THE INFLUENCE OF ASSYRIA UPON PROPHECY 44 AMOS V. THE BOOK OF AMOS 61 VI. THE MAN AND THE PROPHET 73 1. The Man and His Discipline (i. 1; iii. 3-8; vii. 14, 15). 2. The Word and its Origins (i. 2; iii. 3-8; and passim). 3. The Prophet and His Ministry (vii.; viii. 1-4). VII. ATROCITIES AND ATROCITIES 121 Amos i. 3-ii. VIII. CIVILISATION AND JUDGMENT 141 Amos iii.-iv. 3. IX. THE FALSE PEACE OF RITUAL 156 Amos iv. 4-vi. 1. For Worship, Chastisement (iv. 4-13). 2. For Worship, Justice (v.). 3. "At Ease in Zion" (vi.). 4. A Fragment from the Plague (vi. 9, 10). X. DOOM OR DISCIPLINE? 181 Amos viii. 4-ix. 1. Earthquake, Eclipse and Famine (viii. 4-14). 2. Nemesis (ix. 1-6). 3. The Voices of Another Dawn (ix. 7-15). XI. COMMON-SENSE AND THE REIGN OF LAW 196 Amos iii. 3-8; iv. 6-13; v. 8, 9; vi. 12; viii. 8; ix. 5, 6. HOSEA XII. THE BOOK OF HOSEA 211 XIII. THE PROBLEM THAT AMOS LEFT 227 XIV. THE STORY OF THE PRODIGAL WIFE 232 Hosea i.-iii. XV. THE THICK NIGHT OF ISRAEL 253 Hosea iv.-xiv. XVI. A PEOPLE IN DECAY: I. MORALLY 255 Hosea iv.-vii. 7. 1. The Lord's quarrel with Israel (iv.). 2. Priests and Princes Fail (v. 1-14).

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class="c4"> 3. Repentance Fails (v. 15-vii. 2). 4. Wickedness in High Places (vii. 3-7). XVII. A PEOPLE IN DECAY: II. POLITICALLY 269 Hosea vii. 8-x. 1. The Confusion of the nation (vii. 8-viii. 3). 2. Artificial Kings and Artificial Gods (viii. 4-13). 3. The Effects of Exile (ix. 1-9). 4. "The Corruption that is through Lust" (ix. 10-17). 5. Once More: Puppet-Kings and Puppet-Gods (x.). XVIII. THE FATHERHOOD AND HUMANITY OF GOD 290 Hosea xi. XIX. THE FINAL ARGUMENT 299 Hosea xii.-xiv. 1. 1. The People and Their Father Jacob (xii.). 2. The Last Judgment (xiii.-xiv. 1). XX. "I WILL BE AS THE DEW" 308 Hosea xiv. 2-10. XXI. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD 318 Hosea passim. XXII. REPENTANCE 333 Hosea passim. XXIII. THE SIN AGAINST LOVE 346 Hosea i.-iii.; iv. 11 ff.; ix. 10 ff.; xi. 8 f. MICAH XXIV. THE BOOK OF MICAH 357 XXV. MICAH THE MORASTHITE 375 Micah i. XXVI. THE PROPHET OF THE POOR 386 Micah ii., iii. XXVII. ON TIME'S HORIZON 400 Micah iv. 1-7. XXVIII. THE KING TO COME 408 Micah iv. 8-v. XXIX. THE REASONABLENESS OF TRUE RELIGION 419 Micah vi. 1-8. XXX. THE SIN OF THE SCANT MEASURE 426 Micah vi. 9-vii. 6. XXXI. OUR MOTHER OF SORROWS 435

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Micah vii. 7-20. Index of Passages and Texts 439

CHRONOLOGY OF THE DOUBLE KINGDOM OF ISRAEL, c. 940-639 b.c.

*** c. = circa: it refers only to the accession of the kings of Judah and Israel; the years are exact so far as they concern the Assyrian data. A date opposite the mere name of a king signifies the year of his accession.

JUDAH. ISRAEL. THE PROPHETS. SYRIA, ETC. ASSYRIA. 940 c. Disruption of the Kingdom. Rehoboam. Jeroboam I. Establishment of calf images in N. Israel. 923 c. Abijam. 920 c. Asa. 918 c. ... Nadab. 915 c. ... Baasha. 891 c. ... Elah. 888 c. ... Zimri. Omri. 876 c. ... Ahab. Revolt of Mesha of Moab: the Moabite Stone (circa 860). 874 c. Jehoshaphat. ... Elijah. 854 ... First contact of Israel . . . and Syria with Assyria at the Battle of Ḳarḳar. 854 853 c. ... Ahaziah.

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class="center br"> 852 c. ... Joram. Invades Moab with Judah and Edom. 850 ... ... ... Campaigns in all these 3 yrs by Shalmaneser II. of Assyria against Dadidri or Hadadezer of Damascus. 850 849 c. Jehoram. ... ... 849 846 ... ... ... Revolt of Edom from Judah (2 Kings viii. 20 ff.). 846 844 c. Ahaziah. 842 c. Athaliah. Jehu. Elisha. ... Tribute from Jehu. 842 ... ... ... ... War of Hazael with Assyria. ... 839 ... ... ... War of Hazael with Assyria. 839 836 c. Joash. ... ... Hazael subdues Gilead (Amos i. 3); attacks Gath, but is bought off from Jerusalem. ... 836 814 c. ... Jehoahaz. ... ... 814 812 ... ... ... ... Accession of Ramman-Nirari. 812 806 ... ... ... Arpad, campaign against, by Assyria. 806 803 ... ... ... Damascus, under Meri, besieged and taken by Assyria.
A year of pestilence. 803 798 c. ... Joash. 797 c. Amaziah.

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class="brace"> 783 c. ... Jeroboam II. ... ... Shalmaneser III. 783 778 c. Uzziah (Azariah). 775 ... Jeroboam re-conquers Moab, Gilead, and part of Aram. ... ... Expedition to Cedar Country. 775 773 ... ... Damascus, campaign against, by Assyria. 773 772 ... ... Hadrach, campaign against, by Assyria. 772 765 ... ... A pestilence. Accession of Assur-dan-il. 765 763 Total eclipse of the sun on June 15th visible in Syria and at Nineveh. 763 759 ... ... ... A pestilence in Western Asia. ... 759 755 ... ... ... Hadrach suffers attack from Assyria. 755 754 ... ... Amos. Arpad suffers attack from Assyria. 754 753 ... ... ... ... Accession of Assur-Nirari. 753 745 ... ... ... ... Accession of Tiglath-Pileser III. 745 743 ... Zechariah, son of Jeroboam (6 mo.).
Shallum (1 mo.).
Menahem. ... Arpad besieged, and after two or three years taken by Assyria. 743 742 ... ... ... 742 741 ... ... Hosea. 741 740 736? "The year King Uzziah died."
Jotham sole ruler. ...

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class="brace"> 738 ... Menahem is . . . mentioned as tributary to Assyria. 738 737 c. ... Pekahiah. 736 c. Ahaz. Pekah, the Gileadite. 735 Ahaz is attacked both by Pekah and . . . by Rezin of Damascus (Isa. vii.). ... 735 734 ... Captivity of Gilead, Galilee, etc., . . . . . . by Assyria (Isa. viii., ix.). 734 733 ... ... ... Damascus besieged and taken by Assyria. 733 732 Ahaz pays homage . . . . . . at Damascus to the King of Assyria. 732 731 ... ... ... ... Tiglath-Pileser becomes King of Babylon under the name of Pul. 731 730 c. ... Hoshea. 727 c. Hezekiah. ... Isaiah. ... Shalmaneser IV. 727 725 ... Siege of Samaria begins. 722 or 1 ... Fall of Samaria. ... ... Sargon takes Samaria. 722 or 1 720 or 19 ... ... ... Gaza overthrown by Sargon as he marches past Judah and defeats Egypt at Raphia. 720 or 19 715 ... Samaria peopled . . . . . . by subjugated tribes deported from Assyria. 715 711 ... ... ...

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Ashdod taken by . . . Sargon. 711 709 ... ... ... ... Sargon takes Babylon from Merodach-Baladan. 709 705 ... ... Micah. ... Death of Sargon. 705 704 ... ... ... ... War with Merodach-Baladan. 704 701 Invasion of Judah . . .
Deliverance of Jerusalem. . . . and of all Syria . . .
Siege of Ekron. Battle of Eltekeh. by Sennacherib. 701 695 c.[2] Manasseh. ... Asarhaddon succeeds. 681 ... ... ... ... Sennacherib murdered. 681 678 ... ... ... Phœnicia subdued by Asarhaddon. 678 676 Manasseh tributary to . . . . . . . . . Assyria. 676 671 ... ... ... Tyre taken by . . . Asarhaddon on his march to Egypt and conquest of Memphis. 671 668 ... ... ... ... Assurbanipal. 668 666 Manasseh and the . . . other Syrian kings . . . tributary to Assyria. 666 641 c. Amon. ... ... Tyre assists . . .
the Phœnician Arvad. Assurbanipal against 641 639 c. Josiah.