Minor Prophets

The prophets of the eighth and seventh centuries were social critics and also poets of great power who responded to internal social pressures and external military threats. Amos, Micah, and Hosea convict Israel and Judah of sin through carefully structured oracles and metaphors that fit the contours of particular social situations—and may be misunderstood by readers who do not know the prophet’s social context. Amos pioneers the language of exile. Micah exposes the corruption of Jerusalem’s elite, who stripped peasant farmers of their land, although he also finds hope for the city in YHWH’s vision of faithfulness in Zion. Hosea is the first to use the language of extreme intimacy—sexuality and marriage—to characterize the covenant between God and Israel. The books of Nahum and Jonah take opposing perspectives on the threatened destruction of Nineveh (Assyria); together they attest to the prophetic task of discovering a public voice for reckoning honestly with the hatred of national enemies.