CHAPTER XVI FORMS OF PROPHETIC LITERATURE Prophecy as a department of literature WE commence in this chapter another of the grand departments of Biblical literature; and our first difficulty is its name Prophecy. By one of those silent changes in the signification of words, which are brought about by the wear and tear of ordinary speech, this word 'Prophecy' has narrowed itself, in common parlance, to the sense of 'prediction'; and there are many readers of the Bible to whom the term suggests nothing more than the foretelling of the future. It is, of course, true that the Hebrew prophets dealt with the future, as they dealt with the present and the past. But the reference to the future time is not the sole, nor even the chief, function of the literature we are about to survey. The pro- in prophecy is not the pro- that means 'before' but rather the prothat means forth': Prophecy is a forth-pouring or out-pouring of discourse. That such out-pouring of discourse belongs, not only to the thing described, but also to the signification of the English word, is powerfully illustrated by the fact that a father of the Anglican Church and great master of English prose, writing in the seventeenth century a work in which he was to plead for the freedom of the English pulpit, gave to it the title: Liberty of Prophesying.' The true distinction of this department of Biblical literature lies in its presenting itself as the channel of an immediate Divine message: "Thus saith the Lord" is con- Forms of Protained explicitly or implicitly in every utterance of phetic Literature the prophets. The 'prophet' is thus an interpreter' for God: such is the sense of the Greek word which has given us the English word prophet; and that such is the force of the Hebrew word it translates is powerfully suggested by such a passage as Exodus vii. 1: "See I have made thee [Moses] a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron shall be thy prophet." From this it follows that the essential distinction of Prophecy belongs to its spirit and matter: what more of description is needed will be given by distinguishing the various forms in which the prophetic matter can be conveyed. The simplest form of Prophecy, and the form of most frequent occurrence, is the Prophetic Discourse. If we call this the counThe Prophetic terpart of the modern Sermon, we must remember Discourse at the same time that, in a theocracy, the distinction of religion and politics vanishes, the sermon and the political harangue become one and the same. The Divine message essential to Prophecy is not to be understood as the Discourse itself, but rather, in theory at least, as the subject or text of the Discourse, which all the rest is to explain or enforce. In this connection it is important to note a word which even in the Bible itself seems to be used as a technical term :- - the word translated 'Burden,' in the titles to chapters of Prophecy, and in the text itself. It would appear that this was understood of the actual Divine message, though the term was abused by false prophets as a name under which to clothe their own imaginings. (The word 'Burden ') Jeremiah Behold, I am against them that prophesy lying dreams, saith the xxiii. 32 LORD, and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I sent them not, nor commanded them; neither shall they profit this people at all, saith the LORD. And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the LORD? then shalt thou say unto them, What burden! I will cast you off, saith the LORD. And as for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, that shall say, The bur 1 The word substituted by R.V. (in titles, but not in the text) is 'Oracles': this explains the usage by a parallel term in secular literatures. den of the LORD, I will even punish that man and his house. Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What hath the LORD answered? and, What hath the LORD spoken? And the burden of the LORD shall ye mention no more: for every man's own word is his burden, and ye pervert the words of the living God, of the LORD of hosts our God. - In the Prophetic Discourses as they have reached us, however, the text and recommendatory matter seem fused together without distinction. Such merging of a Divine message in the exhortations enforcing it may be illustrated from that which is the prototype of all Prophetic Discourses, the Ten Commandments. The versions of the Ten Commandments in Exodus and in Deuteronomy, though each is introduced with the formula, “The Lord spake... saying," yet differ, not verbally only, but in substance; in particular, the reason assigned for the observance of the Sabbath is entirely different in the two books. The natural explanation of this is to understand that the actual commandment inscribed on tables of stone would be limited to the imperative clause, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image," "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy"; in the simple commandments directed against murder or theft nothing more would be needed, but in the more spiritual commandments comment would be added by Moses, based on his general intercourse with God, and not upon the Divine words of any particular occasion. A similar intermingling of message and exhortation extends throughout the whole literature of Prophecy. And a passage in Ezekiel shows us that, even in the times of the prophets themselves, the rhetorical element in their discourses was coming to be regarded as a separate interest. Ezekiel xxxiii. 30 Son of man, the children of thy people talk of thee by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that cometh forth from the LORD. ... And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not. Isaiah i When the discourses of Prophecy are analysed as pieces of literature, we find, as we should expect, that they do not as a rule exhibit any clear structural plan, but rather contain warning, description, reflection, intermingling in a fervour of appeal. A typical discourse is that which makes the opening chapter of Isaiah; where the idea of children rebelling against a Divine parent, of the abject condition of the people leading them to fresh sin, of their intentness on sacrifices and neglect of righteousness, the golden hopes held out to them, the picture of universal corruption with the threat of terrible purging that shall leave no more than a small remnant, - all combine in a rush of passionate thought that has no need of logical arrangement. : There are, however, some discourses which have structural as well as other interest. The elaborate manifesto of Isaiah which follows the opening chapter commences with an Isaiah ii-iv ideal picture of the mountain of the Lord's house established at the head of the mountains, and all nations flowing to it to learn His ways, beating their swords into ploughshares for an era of universal peace. In the light of such a picture the prophet invites the house of Jacob to walk and so plunges into denunciatory portrayal of corruption and idolatry, against which he places in contrast the terror of the majesty of the Lord. The general upsetting of natural relations he makes the beginning of judgment on oppression; the luxury of women he scornfully details, and threatens the nemesis that is coming upon it. From such ideas of judgment the prophet passes, by the image of a young shoot from an old tree, to the remnant of Israel that shall be again beautiful, cleansed from pollution, and blest again with the nightly fire and daily cloud of Divine guidance. So to frame a denunciation between pictures of a golden age at the beginning and end, gives an individuality of plan to this deliverance of Isaiah. A discourse of Ezekiel, again, has distinctiveness of form given Ezekiel XXXİV to it by its being cast wholly in the mould of |