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Words of the Prophets Words of the Prophets This article was written by Stephen Butterfass for Religious Living on the Web. The prophets whose words of fire will be presented here are the "literary prophets". Their oracles were preserved in written form and collected in the books bearing their names, i.e., Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, etc. In Hebrew, the word for prophet is navi, "one who has been called" to receive and speak God's message to the people. As God tells Jeremiah, "you shall be as My mouth" (Jeremiah 15:19).The original model of the spokesman for God is Moses at Sinai, when he tells the frightened Israelites: "I stood between Adonai and you at that time, to declare to you God's word, for you were afraid of the fire and did not go up the mountain"(Deuteronomy5:5). Prophesy was based on the premise that the will of God was made known to selected individuals in each generation. Believing themselves chosen by God, the prophets were compelled to become the passionate bearers of divine messages, the purpose of which were to castigate and warn that the shape of the future would depend on how the people acted in the present. They teach the primacy of the moral law and that ethical sins, much more than any ritual omissions, may doom even a nation that believes they are God's chosen. The following selections from the prophets feature an uncompromising demand for an ethical society, based on righteousness, justice and compassionate regard for the weak, the unprotected. The product of righteousness shall be peace and the spirit of God's love and favor pouring over a parched and arid landscape. I Adonai have called you in righteousness, and have taken hold of your hand and tended you, making you a covenant people, as a light to humanity. Ch. 42:6 Don't bring any more vain meal offerings, it is abhorrent incense to me; New Moon and Sabbath, the holding of sacred gatherings, I cannot endure iniquity and festive assembly...Wash, purify yourself, remove your evil deeds from my sight, cease to do evil. Learn to do good; seek justice, set right the oppressed, provide justice for the orphan and plead the cause of the widow. Ch. 1:13,16,17 Adonai will judge the elders of the people and the princes: 'It is you who have consumed the vineyard; the stolen goods of the poor are in your houses; What do you mean by crushing my people to pieces, and grinding the faces of the poor?' Says Adonai. Ch.3:14-15 For the vineyard of the God of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah the plant of God's delight; God looked for justice, but behold, oppression; for righteousness, but see, a cry. Woe to them that join house to house, that lay field to field until there is no place and you have to dwell alone, in the midst of the earth...Adonai, the God of Hosts is exalted through justice, and God, the Holy One is sanctified through righteousness. Ch.5:7,8,16 Justice shall dwell (even) in the wilderness, and righteousness shall abide in the fruitful field. The product of righteousness shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and tranquillity for ever. Ch.32:16-17 All flesh is grass, and all its grace is as the flower of the field; the grass withers, the flower fades, as the breath of the Eternal blows upon it. Surely the people are grass; the grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God shall endure for ever...Yet now hear, Jacob, My servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen; Thus says Adonai, who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you; Have no fear, Jacob My servant, and you, Jeshrun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon the thirsty land and flowing water upon the dry ground; I will pour My spirit upon your seed and My blessing upon your children. They shall spring up among the grass, as willows by the river. Chs.40:6-8;44:1-4 Thus says Adonai, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am Adonai your God, who teaches you for your benefit, who leads you by the way that you should go. If only you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would be like a river and your righteousness as the waves of the sea; your seed would be as the sand and your children as its grains...Though the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, My love will not depart from you, nor My covenant of peace be removed...All your children shall be taught about the Eternal, and great shall be the peace of your children. Chs.48:17-19;54:10,13 All who are thirsty, come for water, and anyone who has no money, come, buy, and eat; come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend money on what is not bread? and your labor for what does not satisfy you?...Listen, and come to Me; hear and your soul shall live; and I will make eternal covenant with you...Let the wicked abandon their ways, and the unrighteous their thoughts; return to God, who will have compassion, Our God, who will abundantly pardon. Ch.55:1,2,3,7 Everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it and takes hold of My covenant, I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer...For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people...This is My covenant with them, says the Eternal; My spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your seed, nor your seed's seed, says Adonai, from now and forever. Chs.56:6,7;59:21 Is this not the fast that I have chosen? to loose the chains of evil, to untie the bonds of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and that you bring the homeless poor in to your house? when you see the naked, that you cover him, and that you do not hide from your own flesh? Then shall your light break through, like the morning, your healing shall quickly spring forth, your righteousness will go in front of you, and the glory of the Eternal shall be your rear guard. Then you will, and Adonai will answer; you shall cry and God shall say, 'Here I am'. If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking iniquity; And if you extend yourself for the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul; then your light shall rise in darkness, and your gloom be as the noonday; and God will always guide you, and satisfy your soul in drought...And you shall be like a well watered garden, like a spring whose waters do not dry up. Ch.58:6-11 JEREMIAH Thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: Mend your ways and your deeds and I shall allow you to dwell in this place. Do not trust in lying words... If you truly mend your ways and your deeds, if you truly do justice between a person and her neighbor, if you do not oppress the stranger, the orphan and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your detriment; then I will allow you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Ch.7:3-7 HOSEA And I will break the bow and the sword and battle out of the land...And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness and in compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you shall know Adonai. Ch.2:20-22 Come, and let us return to Adonai...Let us know, seek to know God. Certain as the morning is God's approach, and God shall come to us as the rain, as the spring rain that waters the earth...For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. Ch.6:1,3,6 Return, O Israel, to Adonai your God; for you have stumbled in your iniquity. Take words with you and turn to Adonai, saying "forgive all iniquity and take that which is good"; and we shall offer the words of our lips instead of calves...Neither will we say again to the work of our hands, "you are our gods"; for in you the orphaned find mercy...I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall flower like the lily and send forth his roots as Lebanon. Her tender branches shall spread, her beauty shall be like the olive tree and her fragrance as Lebanon. Ch.14:2-7 And it shall come to pass, that I will pour out My spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and daughters shall prophesize, your old ones shall dream dreams, your young shall see visions. Ch.3:1 Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; so Adonai will be with you, as you have said. Hate evil and love what is good, and establish justice in the gate...I hate, I abhor your feasts, and I will not smell the sacrifices of your festive assemblies. Though you send me burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; nor shall I look at the peace offerings of your fattened calves. Take away the noise of your songs, for I will not listen to the melodies of your lutes. But let justice well up as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream. Ch.5:14,15,21-24 Hear this, you who would trample the needy, and put an end to the poor, saying: "When will the New Moon end, that we may sell grain? and the Sabbath, so we may begin to sell wheat, diminishing the ephah, increasing the price, perverting the scales of deceit; So we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the grain"...Will not the land tremble because of this? Ch.8:4-6,8 MICAH Woe to those who devise iniquity and plan evil on their beds! by the dawn's light they do it, because it is in the power of their hand. they covet fields and steal them by force, and seize houses; so they oppress a man and his household, and even a man and his inheritance...But everyone shall sit under his (own) vine and fig tree and none shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Eternal has spoken. Chs. 2:1-2;4:4 With what shall I meet the Eternal, bowed before God on high? Shall I come before God with burnt-offerings, with yearling calves? Will Adonai be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my first born for my transgression, the fruit of my womb for my soul's sins? It has been told to you what is good, and what Adonai requires of you: Except, to act justly, to love compassion and to walk modestly with your God. Ch.6:6-8 ZECHARIAH This is the word of the Eternal...Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit...Ch.4:6 And the word of the Eternal came upon Zechariah, saying...Execute true judgment, and everyone shall show love and compassion for his brother; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the stranger, nor the poor; and let none of you plan evil against your brother in your heart...Speak truth, everyone to his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates; none of you must plan evil in your hearts against your neighbor and do not love swearing falsely, for all these are things that I hate...You shall love truth and peace. Chs.7:8-10;8:17,18 MALACHI Have we not all one parent? Has not one God created us? Why does a person betray his brother, profaning the convenant of our fathers? Ch.2:10 Yet you say, Why? Does not the son bear the father's iniquity? When the child has done that which is just and right, has kept all my statutes and done them, she shall surely live. The soul that sins shall die; the child shall not bear the iniquity of the parent, neither shall the parent be responsible for the wrongful acts of the child. The righteousness of the just shall be upon him and the evil of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked turn from all sins they have committed, and keep all my statutes, doing what is just and right, they shall surely live and not die. All transgressions committed shall not be remembered, for their righteous acts they shall live. Have I any pleasure in the wicked dying, says Adonai? Rather that they turn from their ways and live?...Therefore, I will judge you, O House of Israel, everyone according to their ways...Return and turn yourselves away from all your transgressions. Ch.18:19-21,30
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