218 THE PROPHET AND THE POOR. 



he burnt with fire ; a third part he strewed about with 

 a knife ; and a third part he scattered to the wind. 

 This was also intended to illustrate the calamities 

 which would befal the Jews. Moreover, he wore a 

 rotten girdle as a sign that their city would decay, and 

 buttered his bread in a manner we would rather not 

 describe, as a sign that they would eat defiled bread 

 among the Gentiles. Jeremiah wore a wooden yoke 

 as a sign that they should be taken into captivity. 

 As a sign that the Jews were guilty of wantonness 

 in worshipping idols, Hosea cohabited three years 

 with a woman of the town ; and as a sign that 

 they committed adultery in turning from the Lord 

 their God, he went and lived with another man's 

 wife. 



Such is the ludicrous side of Jewish prophecy ; yet 

 it has also its serious and noble side. The prophets 

 were always the tribunes of the people ; the protec- 

 tors of the poor. As the tyrant revelled in his palace 

 on the taxes extorted from industrious peasants, a 

 strange figure would descend from the mountains, and, 

 stalking to the throne, would stretch forth a lean and 

 swarthy arm, and denounce him in the name of 

 Jehovah, and bid him repent, or the Lord's wrath 

 should fall upon him, and dogs should drink his blood. 

 In the first period of the Jewish life, the prophets 

 exercised these functions of censor and of tribune, and 

 preached loyalty to the god who had brought them up 

 out of Egypt with a strong hand. They were also 

 intensely fanatical, and published Jehovah's wrath not 

 only against the king who was guilty of idolatry and 

 vice, but also against the king who took a census, or 

 imported horses, or made treaties of friendship with 

 his neighbours. In the second period the prophets 



