246 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1870- 



authorship before the exile. Of these we have enumer 

 ated only some of the more pointed which indicate in 

 general a date before the exile. But if we gather the 

 various details up into one, we get (always assuming at 

 present the literal interpretation) a much more definite 

 result. Asshur has already entered, but has not left the 

 stage of history. Nay, the judgment on Syria is still 

 future (ix. i). Jerusalem has probably not yet suffered 

 from Assyria at all, else that power would appear in 

 ch. ix. 1-6. The threats of captivity (ch. x.) to be 

 followed by deliverance agree with and probably pre 

 suppose Amos. The references to teraphim suit the age 

 of Hosea (ch. iii.). Once more, the returning captives 

 in ch. x. 10 occupy not the whole land but Gilead and 

 Lebanon, of which the former was greatly desolated so 

 early as the Syrian wars and the latter never occupied 

 fully. Parallel is Micah vii. 14, where the prophet prays 

 that the flock dwelling solitary in the wood of Carmel 

 may repossess Bashan and Gilead. According to all this, 

 the prophet would be later than Amos, and a younger 

 contemporary of Hosea, an older contemporary of Isaiah. 

 But as the bright side of his prophecy lies in the future, 

 the dark side which is present is most instructive here. 

 Now, if in ch. ix. the prophet appears as specially 

 interested in the Southern Kingdom, of which indeed he 

 may be supposed a citizen (from the general tone, the 

 personal IDVF^N ix. 7, and the fact that retiring from 

 his office he goes to the temple), yet in ch. xi. he is 

 chiefly concerned with Ephraim. This is shown by the 

 introductory verses which threaten ruin to Lebanon, 

 Jordan, and Bashan. In Ephraim, then, are sought the 

 slaughter-sheep. Here it is that the prophet ministers 

 with so little acceptance amidst evil rulers, anarchy, 

 civil war, then attacks from without, and finally broken 

 friendship between Israel and Judah. All this is found 

 in the period following Jeroboam s death, and exactly 

 in the order here mentioned first internal tumult, then 



