i8 7 o] PROPHECY IN CRITICAL SCHOOLS 171 



and which was guided by principles so remarkable as to 

 possess an undying interest for the student of history. 

 This party to borrow the language of Kuenen 



&quot; was as averse to alliance with the stranger as to sub 

 jection under his yoke. A citizen of the kingdom of 

 Ephraim, Hosea the son of Beeri, condemns the league 

 both with Asshur and with Egypt. Ephraim and Judah, 

 he writes, were sick ; the former had sought help from 

 Assyria, but they cannot cure you, and cannot heal your 

 wound/ To call now on Assyria, now on Egypt, is folly. 

 Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding/ 

 To make a league with Assyria, to send balsam to Egypt 

 is to herd the wind, to pursue the east wind ; it is of 

 one piece with the fact that they multiply lies and 

 violence all day long/ The time is coming when the nation 

 itself shall confess, Asshur cannot save us, we will not 

 ride upon war-horses, the time when bow and sword 

 shall be broken and war cease from the earth/ . . . 

 Strange as this policy may seem to us, at first sight/ 

 adds Kuenen, it is quite explicable when we view it in 

 connection with the religious convictions of which it is 

 the counterpart. When the men whose words we have 

 quoted condemn alliance with the stranger, reliance on 

 chariots and horses in one word, trust in man, and in 

 man s strength, it is because they wish Israel to rely on 

 Jahveh, and on him alone.&quot; l 



In truth, the political attitude of Hosea and his 

 fellow-prophets, however remarkable, is not the side from 

 which their characteristic standpoint may be best compre 

 hended. Their policy, if such a word is applicable, was 

 mainly negative. At an earlier time, we know, there had 

 been prophets in Israel who habitually directed great 

 affairs of state who had more than once made and 

 unmade kings. The prophets of the eighth century had 

 no such ambition. In the northern kingdom their political 

 influence was almost inappreciable ; for, in these days of 

 violence, a political party could exist only by the sword. 

 But, even had they been able to influence the heads of the 

 people, it is certain that they had no policy to propose. 



1 Godsdienst, p. 40. 



