The Prophets and Writings

Reading the Prophets and some of the writings in the Old Testament can be very difficult without a bird’s eye view to remind you of the context. This page serves as a loose guide to do that.

Pre-Assyrian Captivity

• After Solomon was king, the nation of Israel was divided into two kingdoms. There was the northern Kingdom and the southern Kingdom. The northern Kingdom was called Israel, and was made up of ten of the twelve tribes. The southern Kingdom was called Judah, and was made up of only two tribes (and contained Jerusalem).
• Israel and Judah each had a bunch of kings.
• Both kingdoms exhibited a lack of social justice and struggled with idolatry. Amos and Hosea warned Israel of impending doom. The prophet Micah and the first portion of Isaiah warned Judah.

Assyrian Captivity

• Israel did not turn from its ways, and was destroyed by the Assyrians and exiled. Israel never had a king again. Jonah explains why God sometimes withholds His justice, and Nahum explains how God executes His justice by prophesying the end of the Assyrian empire.
• Judah turns from its evil ways - for now. Judah continues to have kings. Zephaniah and the second portion of Isaiah warn Judah to turn back to God, or end up exiles like Israel

Babylonian Conquest

• Judah again turned back to evil. The nation of Babylon is taking over Assyria, and is taking the southern Kingdom of Judah with it.
• There is now much less of a separation between Israel/Judah because they’re all in the same boat. They are scattered and no longer a nation.
• Jeremiah, Lamentations, Habakkuk, Obadiah, and Joel offer many different themes - lamenting, explanation for the destruction, and rays of hope while Babylon is destroying everything.

Babylonian Captivity

• Ezekiel, Daniel, and the third portion of Isaiah give hope for a better future while God’s people are under Babylonian rule. God reminds His people that He is still present and loves them.

Persian Rule

• Babylon is taken over by Persia.
• Jews are allowed to return to Jerusalem. Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the fourth section of Isaiah record how some of the Jews returned in waves. They rebuild the temple and the walls of Jerusalem, but they are still under the jurisdiction of the Persians.
• Esther shows the strength and glory of God for the Jews even under Persian rule, and Malachi is a Q&A style book that gives some explanations for the Jews’ current status.

All of these works build into a larger narrative about how the people of God were worried more about building an empire rather than taking care of the oppressed. God intended them to be set apart, but they continually lusted over being like the other nations. Through this narrative, God points forward to a hope of restoration - a Messiah, and a new eternal Jerusalem. The Jews thought the Messiah would be a great king that would rescue them from captivity, but Jesus came with an offering greater than conquest and empire.

Bold = written to Israel, Italics = written to Judah