Prophets
תְּרֵי עָשָׂר
The Twelve
Twelve short books on one scroll, spanning centuries and every mood available.
Twelve short books counted and copied as one: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.
Read it
Open chapter 1Obadiah
What is in it
They are counted as one book because they were written on one scroll. They range from Amos, who is unrelenting about economic exploitation, to Jonah, which is a comedy about a prophet furious that his warning worked.
Read together they are the clearest evidence that prophecy in the Hebrew Bible is argument about the present, not prediction of the distant future.
If you read one chapter
Jonah
Four chapters, and the only prophetic book whose joke is on the prophet.
Passages worth knowing
- Amos 5:21 to 24Let judgment run down as waters.
- Hosea 11:1 to 9God as a parent who cannot follow through on the threat.
- Jonah 4The prophet angry that the city was spared.
- Micah 6:8Do justly, love mercy, walk humbly.
- Habakkuk 1:1 to 4How long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear.
Questions to sit with
- 01
Amos and Micah both attack worship that coexists with exploitation. Why is that the recurring target?
- 02
Jonah is the only one where the warning succeeds. Why is the prophet furious about it?