272 



PROPHETS. 



the mat peculiar phraseology that we found in 

 "and sliut thmi not up IiLs survivors in a day of dis- 

 tress." Hut the phrase, olisotire in Amos, is here in 

 tolligible. being interpreted by ttn> parallel line. "And 

 stand thoti nut ai the fork cif tin- road to cut off his 

 caning ones." In Auiun Kdom is associated with 



1'liilftia and Phoenicia, and the name is true, though 

 fas distinctly, in Obadiah. st-o veix- I'.i. and " Canaan- 

 ites a.- phath," verso 20. From Obad. 7 it 



appears tliat Kdom's allies used him for their own ad- 

 vantage, pot him out to the border. daOMTM him, 

 mdHU Erwd a snare to him that is. pdUy ?tim- 

 ulated liiiu to acts of violence by furnishing him a 

 market for spoils and captives; of. verse 20. The im- 

 plication is that they did not stand l>y liim after they 

 had thus got him into trouble. With this agrees the 

 f.i'-t that, a few years later, when Amaziah took ven- 

 geance on the Kdomites in Scla (2 Kings xiv. 7 ; 2 

 riir-.n. xxv. 11, 12; cf. Obad. 3), they seem to have 

 stood alone. 



It follows that we have no need to pull the text of 

 Obadiah to pieces, and no need to put forced explana- 

 tions on the fact that Obadiah speaks as if Kphr.iim. 

 Samaria, the house of Joseph (verses 18, 19), existed 

 in his time side by side with Judah, in order to reckon- 

 cile the phenomena of the book with its supposed ref- 

 erence to the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. 

 The reference is not to the Bab\ Ionian monarch, but to 

 Jlazacl. The Book of Obadiah gives us the following 

 particulars connected with llazael's invasion, in addi- 

 ti"n to those stated or alluded to in the historical 

 IxHjks and Amos : There was a_ scene of drunken 

 revelry and gambling in the vicinity of Jerusalem, 

 verses 16o, lie; bands of captives were sold into ex- 

 ile by way of the Phoenician coasts, or sent to Se- 

 nhanid (Sardis, perhaps), verses 14. JU ; Kdom claimed, 

 iiy way of justification, some right of retaliation for 

 some previous injury, verse 15. 



These considerations seem to fix the date of the 

 prophecy a.s after Ainaziah's revenge upon Kdom, and 

 at a time when there was cordial feeling between 

 Judah and Israel ; that is. cither just before Joash of 

 Israel beat Amaziah and broke down the walls of Je- 

 rusalem (2 Kings xiv. 8-14), or some years later tliun 

 that event, probably the former. 



T/ie Book of Jnd. This book, like Obadiah and 

 unlike Amos, is distinctly Judaite, being even more so 

 than Obadiah. It consists of a single discourse, and 

 therefore belongs to a single date. Probably no one 

 would dispute that its affiliations witli Obadiah are 

 such as to prove the two books to be of about the same 



date. 



The careful reader will observe that the argument 

 mainly depended upon, in the article in the ENCYCLO- 

 PEDIA BKITANMC \. to prove that .loel is post exilie 

 is drawn from the fact that Joel evidently presupposes 

 the priestly legislation of the Pentateuch, and must, 

 therefore, nave been written later than that legislation. 

 To one who is already convinced that the priestly leg- 

 islation is post-exilic the argument is decisive ; but 

 really it is bad reasoning first to argue that the priestly 

 .tion is post-exilic, Inreause it is only mentioned in 

 \ilic books, like Joel, and then to infer that 

 these books are post-exilic from the fact of their men- 

 tioning the priestly legislation. 



The historical situation recognizable in Joel is mainly 

 that of a related group of recent calamitous events. 

 Verbally, the calamities mentioned are three a 

 drouth, i. 10-13, 15^20; a locust plague, i. 4-9; ii. 

 1-11, and a subjugation to enemies. In this Joel is 

 pantile! with Amos iv. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Whether we re- 

 .r ul (lie drouth and the locust plague as separate facts 

 or as figurative modes of expression for the inv . 

 enemies, in any event the invasion is the most promi- 

 nent fact contemplated in the des-Tiptions. the threat -. 

 and the promises ,,(' the Iniok. The situation is pecu- 

 liar. i> pretty distinctly outlined. HJII o>- liar 

 ticulirc with the situation of the invasion of Hague!, a* 



presented in the historical books, and in Amos and 

 Joel, and us in no particular inconsistent with thai 



situation. 



It was a time when strangers were passing through 



Jerusalem, iv. 17 (iii. 17): when .Jehovah's inheri- 

 tance was being dominated to ita reproach by the na- 

 tions, ii. 17-1'J ; when they had apportioned Jehovah s 

 inheritance, scattered Israel among the nation i 



diieed the ]Mipiilation of Jerusalem to an escaping 

 remnant, iv. 2 (iii. 2); iii. 5 (ii. 32) ; cf. Obad. 17. 

 Joel nowhere uses any word of the stem jll, and, 

 properly understood, nowhere speaks of t he nation as 



ing in exile; but he speaks of a condition of cap- 

 tivity, either past, present or future, from which 

 Judah needed restoration, iv. 1 (iii. 1). Like ( Miadiah, 

 he speaks of a scene of revelry, when Jewish ON 

 boys and girls, had been sold cheap to satisfy the de- 

 mands of drink and lust, or had been gambled for, iv. 

 3 (iii. 3); cf. Obad. 11. In these injuries Kdom and 

 perhaps Egypt had participated, doing violence, to the 

 suns of Jud.ih, and shedding innocent blood in their 

 land (perhaps the blood of Jewish fugitives shed in 

 Kdom). iv. Ill (iii. Ill); cf. Obad. 10. Tyre, Sidon, 

 and I'hilistia, under pretence of retaliating upon Jeho- 

 vah for something (say for the fate of Jezebel and 

 Athaliah). had taken their part in the affair, iv. 4 

 (iii. 4). Perhaps in the way of trade for spoils they had 

 brought in Jehovah's silver and gold and delightful 

 things into their palaces, iv. 5 (iii. 5); they had sold 

 Jewish captives as slaves to the Greeks long distances 

 away. iv. G (iii. 0) ; cf. Obad. I'd. 



Joel describes the principal agent of subjugation as 

 " the northerner," ii. 20. His occupation of the 

 country is not permanent, but he is driven out into a 

 dry and desolate country, and his stench uoanda 

 His going is with his fice to the eastern sea, and his 

 rear "toward the hinder sea ; that is, perhaps, from the 

 vicinity of Jerusalem, out of the country in an BMtaHy 

 direction. At first thought this might seem incon- 

 sistent with the referring of the passage to Hazael, 

 since the account in Kings seems to represent him as 

 leaving the country in triumph, bearing with him the 

 nple, which had been given him to 

 bribe him to leave. But why did Hazael content 

 himself with thus receiving a part? Now that Jeru- 

 salem was at his mercy, why did he not take the 

 whole? Combine the suffirestion in these_ questions 

 with the possibility that the interference of Rimman- 

 nirari occurred at this point of time, and with the i'aet 

 that the power of Syria so soon afterward went down 

 before that of lsrael,'and we sec that this part.of.ln, T.s 

 description may very probably be true of the invasion 

 by Ha/ael. 



If the reference is to this event, it. fixes the dale 

 of the Book of Joel. It belongs within the lifetime 

 of the men who had witnessed the event, i. 2, while 

 some of the captives then taken were yet living, with 

 the pi-omisi- of returning to their native country, iv. 7 

 (iii. 7), cf. Obad. 20. 



Joel elaborates a doctrine of the day of Jehovah, in 

 which Jehovah will judge the nations ; Obadiah and 

 Amos cite this doctrine as something already known, 

 e. g., Obad. 15 ; Amos v. is. From this and other 

 circumstances, it is to be inferred that Joel was first 

 published, then Obadiah, then Amos, and that the 

 citations of one from the other are to be interpreted 

 accordingly. Joel and Obadiah were pro] diets, by 

 whose word concerning Jehovah's day of Judgment 

 for the nations Jeroboam and l'/./.iah were eneo'i 

 in the efforts by which they established their power 

 from HaiiiMth to the sea of the Arabah. and thus 

 became the " saviours " Jehovah promised. Oliad. 21 ; 

 2 Kings xiii. 5 ; while Amos prophesied a few years 

 later, against the sins that were rife, in spite of 

 .Jehovah's meioosneH. 



The Honk of .Imxili According to the statement 

 made in 8 l\i': - xiv. _'">. Jonah prophesied before the 

 victories by which Jeroboam II. restored the gloi 



