087. Preface

PREFACE The three centuries and a half, which began with the division of the Hebrew empire and extended to the Babylonian exile, were in many ways the most important period in Israel’s history. It was during this epoch that the Israelites ceased to be a provincial people, limited in their outlook to the narrow horizon of Palestine. Events over which they had little control brought them into close contact with the great world powers of the day, thereby vastly broadening their faith, as well as their vision of history and of their relation to the human race. It was a period marked by supreme political, social and religious crises, which fundamentally transformed Israel’s religion and institutions. These crises called forth the great ethical prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries B.C.; and their work and teachings made Israel’s experience during these trying years one of the most significant chapters in human history.

These prophets were the conscience of their nation, its guides in the hour of peril, and the heralds of those great ethical and social principles which are the eternal foundations of law and society. The social evils with which they dealt were in many ways startlingly similar to those which still survive in our modern Christian civilization. Interpreted into the language of the twentieth century, their messages anticipate the conclusions and teachings of our keenest and most progressive social teachers. In pointing out popular errors in the existing social system, and in placing the responsibility for the prevailing evils squarely on the shoulders of the rich and powerful, who were using their authority and influence, not in behalf of the common welfare, but rather for their own personal advantage or for that of their class, they spoke to the present as well as to their own age. In their character and life-work, as well as in their words, they embodied the noblest ideals of intelligent, unselfish and effective patriotism. They were men who not only saw the truth but were equally able and effective in proclaiming it by word and deed. When once their aims and real character are understood, these peerless patriots of ancient Israel will inspire anew the live men and women of today, to devote themselves patiently, unselfishly, and persistently to eliminating the civic and social evils which disgrace our modern civilization, and to realizing in city and state the eternal ideals of justice and common service. The Hebrew prophets did not work for a new social order, but they did demand that each individual and each class should contribute their part to the common good. They also closely blended religion and ethics, and declared that a faith which did not find expression in justice and mercy was mere hypocrisy. Thus they both ethicized and socialized religion, adjusting it squarely to the universal needs of society and the individual. In the experience of the prophets and of their nation during these trying years, it is also possible to trace more clearly than in any other period of human history the process by which the Divine Father revealed and still reveals his character and will to men. That revelation was neither abstract nor mechanical, but rather a gradual opening of the mental and spiritual vision of certain men who were ready to learn and to act. They correspond in the realm of morals and religion to the world’s great scientists and inventors. The Hebrew prophets were men who, like the shepherd Amos, had been taught by occupation and experience to be ever on the watch, to interpret each significant sign, to see facts as they were; and then, when conviction deepened into certainty, to act courageously yet tactfully, and with a supreme unconcern for their personal interests. To such men God revealed his laws and purposes, sometimes through the great crises which overtook their nation, sometimes through the personal experience of the men who were thus called to be prophets—the spokesmen and interpreters of Jehovah to his race. The wealth of historical and contemporary biblical literature has made the process of selection difficult; and yet the aim has been to leave out no really vital and significant passages. The larger literature and the reasons for the selections which have been made will be found in the corresponding volumes of the author’s Student’s Old Testament. There the student may also trace the textual basis for the renderings which have been adopted. In endeavoring to reproduce in an alien language the powerful literary figures and immortal messages of the Hebrew prophets, every translator must be deeply impressed by the inadequacy of his results. Often later scribes also failed to catch the meaning of the original or to transcribe it accurately, so that any translation based simply on the present Hebrew text does not in many cases convey the thought of the ancient writers. In these cases, the evidence of the context and the testimony of the early translations, such as the Greek, Syriac and the Latin, are of the greatest value.

Later Hebrew scribes have also paid their tribute to the importance of the original writings of the prophets by amplifying them at many points. This is especially true, for example, in the book of Jeremiah, where the total Hebrew text is one-eighth longer than that of the older version represented by the Greek translation. In such cases, the shorter Greek version, which contains all the essential facts without the obscuring repetitions found in the Hebrew, has in general been followed, with a corresponding gain not only in clearness and literary beauty but also in economy of space and fidelity to the original. The endeavor has been made to correct a fundamental defect in the current translations by indicating the poetic character of the prophetic addresses. With the exception of the priest-prophet Ezekiel, the pre-exilic prophets apparently always spoke in the language of poetry. The poetic form added vastly not only to the beauty and effectiveness, but also to the clear understanding of their addresses; for, in keeping with the fundamental characteristics of Hebrew poetry, the second line of each couplet repeats the same thought in similar or opposite terms, or else develops still further the idea presented in the first line. Hence, if the meaning of one line is obscure, it is illustrated or interpreted by that of the corresponding member of the couplet. In addition to this parallelism or rhythm of ideas, Hebrew, like English poetry, is characterized by symmetry in the number of beats or accented syllables in each succeeding line. The three-beat measure is the one most commonly used. Sometimes, to express great excitement, as when the approach of an enemy is announced, the quick two-beat measure is employed. In appealing to the reason, or in more deliberative passages, the calmer, more formal four-beat measure is used. To express deep emotion, whether that of sorrow, as of the mourners lamenting over the bier of the dead, or great joy and elation, the five-beat measure is introduced. This consists ordinarily of a sentence of three beats followed by a clause of two beats, suggesting the catching of the breath or an exclamation under the influence of overwhelming feeling. That the reader may distinguish at a glance these different metres, lines of the five-beat measure have been printed so as to begin at the extreme left of the page, those of the four-beat measure have been indented the equivalent of two or three letters, the three-beat a space equivalent to four or five letters, and the two-beat to seven or eight letters. In the present volume the biblical passages are taken from so many different books that references have been introduced in connection with the side-headings, to aid the student in readily identifying these quotations. As in the preceding volumes, detailed verses can be distinguished by referring to the Student’s Old Testament to which references are given under each chapter heading in the Table of Contents. The attention of the teachers is also called to the general questions and to the subjects for special research in the Appendix, where suggestions and directions are given for additional and more technical study.

It is impossible to indicate in detail my indebtedness to the scores of Old Testament scholars, whose work has revealed the true character and messages of the Hebrew prophets. The names of the more important English and American contributors are found in connection with the list of books for reference in the Appendix. I owe a more personal debt to Professor Irving F. Wood, of Smith College, and Professor J. F. Genung, of Amherst College, who have generously read the proof of the present volume and offered many practical suggestions.

C. F. K.

YALE UNIVERSITY,

April, 1909.