(4) Ewald, i. p. 84. "Nowhere else in the prophets do we meet with images from country life in such pure originality and liveliness, and in such inexhaustible fulness." See the collection of these images in Baur, p. 122 ff.

(5) For instance, P'y for P'Y?, ii. 13; Dia for Dpia, v. 11; an

for yp, viii. 8; also the spelling 7, vi. 5, ix. 11 (like Hos. iii. 5). [Bleek, p. 534, note, is inclined to think in, iv. 3, means "towards Hermon," in which case there would be another peculiar spelling, with for n. But since these peculiarities are all in orthography, p. 536, he thinks that even the guarded criticism of Jerome, procm. in Amos, is in want of further limitation, "imperitum sermone, sed non scientia." And in this view of the language he follows De Wette, § 234, Anm. b, and Ewald, Proph. i. p. 84.] Against onesided judgments, which rest more upon the previous condition of Amos than upon his book as it lies before us, Lowth, de poesi sacr., ed. Michael., p. 433, remarks, "Evolvat modo scripta ejus æquus judex, de re, non de homine quæsiturus; censebit, credo, potius pastorem nostrum, μηδὲν ὑστερηκέναι τῶν ὑπερλίαν προφητῶν, ut sensuum elatione et magnificentia spiritus-prope summis parem, ita etiam dictionis splendore et compositionis elegantia vix quoquam inferiorem." Comp. also Baur, p. 119 ff.

§ 87. The Book of Amos.

The prophecies of Amos, directed principally against the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, are combined in his book into a beautifully arranged and carefully rounded whole, according to a well-digested plan (1); the first part, ch. i.-vi., containing simple prophetical discourses, and the second, ch. vii.-ix., containing visions, and a symbolical announcement. He begins with an introduction, depicting the judgment which goes forth from Zion: it not only lights upon all the surrounding kingdoms, on account of their sinning against the theocracy, it also touches Judah, and it remains hanging over Israel (i. 2-ii. 16). Then in three connected discourses, with ever increasing force and precision, the prophet foretells to all Israel (iii. 1, vi. 1), but in particular to the secure and hardened sinners of Samaria (iii. 12, iv. 1, v. 1), the judgment of the destruction of the kingdom, and the captivity (iv.-vi.) [or iii.-vi. ?]. Then he sets this punishment before the eyes of the people in several visions, which assume

ever a more and more threatening appearance, in respect both of their form and of their subject-matter (vii. 1-ix. 10); so that only at the conclusion, in a few powerful words, he announces the glorification of the theocracy, which is to be introduced after the judgment (ix. 11-15) (2).

(1) Wholly erroneous are the attempts of Harenberg, Dahl, and others, to divide the individual discourses and portions of the book, according to the time at which they were uttered. Against this, comp. Hengstb. Christol. i. p. 408 ff., Häv. p. 310 ff., De Wette, § 233, Baur, p. 110 ff.-Also Knobel's assumption (der Prophetismus, ii. p. 150) is untenable, that ch. iii-vi. contain the discourses delivered by Amos at Bethel, and that ch. vii. 10-17 does not stand in its right place, but belongs to the end of ch. vi. So also is the opinion of Ewald (i. p. 87), and of Baur (p. 111 ff.), that the prophet's original utterances lie before us in the visions, vii.-ix. 10; the reasons for which he laid down, and brought into connection with the whole of the theological view of the world, in the wider amplification contained in ch. iii.-vi., after his return to Judah at a later time. For the three visions, vii. 1-9, torn loose from the connection in which they stand with the first part, want a suitable motive to explain them; consequently they cannot have been uttered without the preceding rebukes and threatenings which we read in ch. iii.-vi. Comp. Hür. p. 312.

(2) That ch. i. 2-ii. 16 should be regarded, not as the first principal part, but as the introduction, is shown by its contents. Proceeding from Joel iv. 16, Amos announces the judgment on the nations, not for some offences selected by way of example (Jahn, Einl. ii. p. 404), but for peculiar offences committed against the theocracy; and his aim is to show to Israel, that when the very heathen must meet with punishment for their sin against the living God, the covenant people themselves had incurred a judgment all the more severe on account of their continued ungodliness. Comp. Hengstb. p. 410 ff. The following discourses and visions are only the further amplification of the judgment denounced against Israel in this introduction. And therefore we ought to understand the relation of ch. i.-vi. to ch. vii.-ix. in this way: that the first part already presents the sum or essence of the prophet's active labours in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes, while the second part repeats them more according to their gradual unfolding; and thus we have the explanation of the insertion of the historical notice about the hostile treatment which he met' with at Bethel (vii. 10 ff.), in the middle of the otherwise closely con

in separating

nected series of visions.-Ewald, p. 111 f., is also wrong the last section, from ch. viii. 4 onwards, as if the circle of the viii. 3, and what follows was not Judah, by way of explanation.

visions at Bethel was finished at annexed till after his return to Against this, comp. Häv. p. 313 f.

Now, since the writings of Amos form a closely connected whole, well proportioned and adjusted in all its parts, undoubtedly the prophet himself composed it after the execution of his mission in Bethel, in order to transmit to posterity the essential contents of his prophecies. And the chronological remark in the superscription, "two years before the earthquake," is particularly in favour of this view (3).

(3) [See above, § 86, Note 2, for some observations on these words.] That this statement has not merely a chronological significance, but that the earthquake in Uzziah's reign was to the prophet a forerunner of the impending judgment, and at the same time, along with this, the occasion of his setting his prophecies down in writing, has been correctly acknowledged by Häv. p. 314 f.

IV. OBADIAH (77) [OR, AS IN THE TITLE, ¡7319].

Commentaries:-Obadias Ebr. et Chald. etc. auct. Jo. Leusden; see above in § 86. Aug. Pfeiffer, Comm. in Obad.... exh. vers. Lat. et examen commentarii Is. Abarbanel, etc., Viteberga 1666, 2d ed. 1670, 4to. Der Prophet Obadias aus der bibl. u. weltl. Historie erläutert u. mit theol. Anmerkk. vers. von J. G. Schröer, Breslau 1766. Chr. Fr. Schnurrer, Dissertat. philol. in Obadiam, Tubingæ 1787, 4to, in his Dissertatt. phil. critt., Gothæ 1790, p. 383. J. T. G. Holzapfel, Obadiah neu übersetzt u. erläutert, Rint. 1798. II. Venema, Lectt. in Obad., with additions by Verschuir and Lotze, in Verschuiri Opusc. ed. Lotze, Ultrajecti 1810. C. L. Hendewerk, Obadia Proph. oraculum in Idumæos, Regiomonte 1836. Der. Proph. Obadja ausgelegt, v. C. P. Caspari, Leipzig 1842.

For Introduction :-G. F. Jäger, üb. d. Zeitalter Obadja's, Tübingen 1837, 4to. Fr. Delitzsch, wann weissagte Obadja? In Rudelbach und Guericke's Zeitschrift, 1851, p. 91 ff.

§ 88. Contents and Date of his Prophecy.

We are entirely destitute of historical information as to the person of Obadiah (1). That he was a Jew is shown by his prophecy, which treats of the relations of Edom to the theocracy. There are three connected topics in it, as he announces the certainty of Edom's overthrow (vers. 1-9); the cause of this overthrow, the guilt of Edom in consequence of its bitter enmity to the theocracy (vers. 10-16); and the glorification of the theocracy, and its victory over Edom.

(1) Traditional legends about him, entirely unauthenticated, may be seen in Carpzov, pp. 338 sqq., Caspari, p. 2 ff., and Delitzsch, de Habacuci proph. vita, etc., p. 60 sq. [Bleek, p. 536, rightly rejects the fancy of Augusti that Obadiah ought not to be considered a proper name, but should be translated "the prophecy of a certain godly person." He notices that in the Vatican codex of the Septuagint, and elsewhere, the name is written 'Oẞdías, but in the Alexandrian codex, and by the Alexandrian Fathers, it is written 'Aßdías, which form appears in the Latin Bible. In the title of the Hebrew Bible, though not in the superscription, ver. 1, it is spelt ny.]

The time at which he lived is much disputed (2). We infer from a comparison of vers. 1-9 with Jer. xlix. 7-22, that he prophesied before the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldees (3). If we also take into account the absence of any allusion to the destruction and burning of Jerusalem, and to the Babylonian exile, the mention of the entire

captivity of this host of the children of Israel" among [?] "the Canaanites unto Zarephath," and "the captivity of Jerusalem which is in Sepharad" (ver. 20) (4), and the unmistakeable way in which Joel leans upon him (5); then the rebuke of the wickedness of Edom (ver. 10 ff.) cannot be referred to utterances of malicious joy openly expressed by Edom against the people of their brother Judah during the Chaldean catastrophe; but the whole description of the misfortune which overtook Judah and Jerusalem (vers. 11-14) must refer only to the taking and plundering of Jerusalem in the reign of Joramı, when a great part of the people were carried away into slavery among the Canaanites and the Greeks (2 Chron. xxi. 16-17; comp. with Joel iv. 3-6, Am. i. 6, 9) (6). It follows from this, that Obadiah prophesied before Joel, while Joram was still reigning, that is, about

B.C. 889-881: and "there is nothing whatever against this in the circumstance that he himself composed his prophecy in writing; while in favour of it there is this, that till then, in the history of prophecy, materials had not been forthcoming for such a thing, and for working it up in the form of a threatening address to the nation hostile to Israel" (7).

(2) Comp. Caspari, pp. 4, 5.—Jäger, p. 50 f., Hengstb. Bileam, p. 253 ff., and Christol. i. pp. 458-9, Caspari, p. 35 ff., Häv. p. 321, and others, place him in the reign of Uzziah; Vitringa (typ. doctr. proph. p. 35 sq.), Carpzov, p. 342, Küper (Jerem. pp. 104 sq.), in that of Ahaz; Aben Ezra, Luther, Calov, J. H. Machaelis, Schnurrer, and many recent writers, are of opinion that he prophesied immediately after the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. [Bleek, p. 537, holds this opinion; and he pronounces the predictive view of Häv., Caspari, and Hengstb., on the one side, to be as perverted as that of Hitzig on the other.] Hitzig holds him to be an Egyptian Jew, who wrote shortly after B.C. 312; a similar opinion with reference to vers. 17-21 having been already maintained by Eichhorn, Einl. iv. p. 323 ff. On the contrary, Hofmann (Weissagung u. Erfullung, i. p. 201) and Delitzsch, ibid., hold that he prophesied under Joram; and the latter conjectures that he may have been the prince under Jehoshaphat who is mentioned in 2 Chron. xvii. 7.

(3) There is no controversy as to the affinity of the two passages. And Obadiah is not dependent on Jeremiah, as Bertholdt, p. 1631, v. Cölln (Allg. Lit. Zeitung, 1828, Erg. Bl. xvi. 122, and bibl. Theol. p. 55), Credner (Joel, p. 87), Hitzig, p. 141, and others, suppose, [including Bleek, pp. 537-8, owing to his opinion that Obadiah prophesied after the destruction of Jerusalem; and because he speaks so much of the hostility of Edom towards Israel and Judah, of which there is nothing in Jeremiah]; but is original, and has been used by Jeremiah. This is the opinion of Eichhorn, Schnurrer, Rosenmüller, Jäger, Hendewerk, Maurer, Hengstb. ibid., Küper, p. 100 sqq., Caspari, p. 5 ff., and in Rudelbach u. Guericke's Zeitschrift, 1843, ii. pp. 11, 12, Häv. pp. 320-1, and Delitzsch, p. 94. Decisive reasons may be given for it. (a.) That in almost all his prophecies against the nations, Jeremiah has blended older prophecies now approaching their nearer and more complete fulfilment. (b.) That there is not found in Obadiah a single one of all Jeremiah's peculiar and characteristic expressions, such as occur in his prophecy against Edom (for instance, comp. Jer. xlix. 13 with xxii. 5, xxiv. 9, xxv. 9, etc.); while, on the contrary, nothing appears elsewhere in Jeremiah of all that he has in common with