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AnonymousBible: Old Testament: English Standard Version
Nonfiction | Scripture | Adult | Published in 1611A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Minor Prophets Part 2 (Nahum-Malachi)Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Nahum Summary
Nahum, a short text of just three chapters, predicts God’s wrath breaking against Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, with no hope for reprieve. The historical context of Nahum falls in the seventh century BCE, between the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians and the destruction of Nineveh at the hands of the Babylonians (612 BCE). The identity of Nahum himself is uncertain, and he may have been a resident of the former northern kingdom, either still living there or in Assyrian exile. Nahum roots the coming destruction of Nineveh in the unchanging character of God, who, while “slow to anger,” is also unchangingly just: “[…] the LORD will by no means clear the guilty” (Nahum 1:3). In contrast to most of the other prophetic books, Nahum offers no space for anything other than the fiercest judgments, and the only positive aspect is a sense of satisfied vengeance on the part of the book’s Israelite audience, now seeing the decimation of their vicious foe. The book closes with these caustic words against the Assyrians: “There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?” (Nahum 3:19).
Habakkuk Summary
In three chapters, Habakkuk offers a short lament that is partly structured as a dialogue between the prophet and God. Internal clues provide a possible historical context for the piece, as Habakkuk 1:6 references the rise of “the Chaldeans”—the Babylonians—who began their ascent near the end of the seventh century BCE. The book of Habakkuk thus appears to record a prophecy from somewhere around the year 600 BCE, making him a contemporary of Jeremiah. The book contains two sections of Habakkuk’s complaints and questions to God (1:2-4 and 1:12-2:1), along with God’s two responses (1:4-1:11 and 2:2-5), following which are a recitation of woes on the greedy, violent, and selfish (2:6-20) and a closing prayer by Habakkuk (3:1-19). Habakkuk recognizes that the rise of the Babylonians is a judgment coming against Judah for its sin, but he continues to place his hope in God despite the suffering to come: “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food […] yet will I rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17-18).
Zephaniah Summary
The ascription of the book of Zephaniah appears to show that it is the work of a prophet from the royal household, a descendant of Hezekiah, and that Zephaniah serves during the reign of King Josiah (late seventh century BCE). The three chapters offer a warning of judgments that will fall both on Judah and surrounding nations, including Moab, Assyria, and the cities of the Philistine coast. This judgment is couched in traditional prophetic language: “The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast […]. A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation […]” (Zephaniah 1:14-15, emphasis added). As is also common, Zephaniah changes the tenor of his text near the end, looking beyond the devastation on the horizon to the dawning of a great age of restoration:
On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, ‘Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing (Zephaniah 3:16-17).
Haggai Summary
Haggai was a post-exilic prophet of the late sixth century BCE, a contemporary of the prophet Zechariah, and a well-known figure among the returned exiles in the early period described by Ezra (see Ezra 5:1, 6:14). His book is two chapters long. Haggai is unique in including an exact dating of his prophecies, all of which occur in a four-month span in the year 520 BCE (see Haggai 1:1; 2:1, 10, 20). Much of Haggai’s prophetic work relates to the scenes played out in Ezra regarding the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. God’s messages are directed primarily at two men, Zerubbabel (the administrative leader of the Jewish people) and Joshua (the high priest), who also loom large in the prophecies of Zechariah:
Yet now be strong, O Zerubbabel, declares the LORD. Be strong, O Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land, declares the LORD. Work, for I am with you […] (Haggai 2:4).
These encouragements appear to have been instrumental in providing an impetus for the work of building the temple. Of particular importance to the Christian tradition is the closing prophecy, directed at Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel is in the Davidic line and an ancestor of Jesus Christ. Haggai reminds him of his chosen status and the instrumental role his line will play in regard to a future act of God that will “shake the heavens and the earth” (Haggai 2:21).
Zechariah Summary
Zechariah, at 14 chapters, is the longest book of the minor prophets. Zechariah shares the same context as Haggai, serving the post-exilic community of Jews in Jerusalem in the late sixth century BCE and encouraging the Jewish leaders—primarily Zerubbabel and Joshua—in their work of re-establishing the worship of the temple (see Ezra 5:1; 6:14). Chapters 1-8, relate a series of detailed visions that explore some of the issues troubling the post-exilic Jewish community; Chapters 9 to 14 provide oracles of a more future-oriented and apocalyptic nature. Because of its shared context with Haggai and Ezra, centered on the reconstruction of a temple in Jerusalem, temple-oriented themes predominate the text. Zechariah also includes lines which are taken by Christians to refer to the events of Jesus’s arrest before his crucifixion: the price paid by Judas to betray him, and the scattering of his other disciples (Zechariah 11:12-13; 13:7). In their immediate contexts, these passages relate more directly to God’s relationship with Judah. Like many of the other minor prophets, Zechariah includes sections which promise a coming age of restoration (Zechariah 10), as well as warnings about the judgment to come on the “day of the Lord” (Zechariah 14).
Malachi Summary
Malachi is the final book of the Old Testament prophets, both in their canonical ordering and in their historical settings. While other Old Testament texts may have been composed later than Malachi (as some scholars argue is the case, for example, with Daniel), the direct setting which Malachi addresses, in the middle of the fifth century BCE, is the latest of all the prophets. Malachi describes a situation in post-exilic Judah which bears great similarity to the conditions described in the later sections of Ezra and in Nehemiah, in which a temple again stands in Jerusalem, but the people themselves have fallen into halfhearted and syncretistic customs. The identity of the prophet known as Malachi is elusive, and since the name itself might simply be a title given by God (malachi means “my messenger”), some scholars argue that the book is anonymous.
Malachi employs a question-and-answer disputation to relay God’s messages: “‘I have loved you,’ says the LORD. But you say, ‘How have you loved us?’” (Malachi 1:2). Most of these disputations regard the ways in which the post-exilic community has failed to keep God’s laws, pointing out their laxness in tithing (giving 10% of their income to God) and their willingness to accept intermarriages and a corrupt priesthood. In the Christian tradition, Malachi contains one of the most important messianic prophecies:
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts (Malachi 3:1; cf. 4:5-6).
Christian tradition identifies the figures mentioned in this prophecy as John the Baptist, who fills the role of the one who prepares the way, and Jesus, denoted here as “the Lord whom you seek.” The end of Malachi thematically transitions directly into the New Testament, which immediately follows it in most Christian Bibles.
Minor Prophets Part 2 (Nahum-Malachi) Analysis
The last six of the minor prophets come from contexts which range from the end of Judah’s monarchy (seventh century BCE) to the post-exilic period (fifth century BCE), and so constitute the final word of the prophetic tradition both in canonical order and in chronology. These six books tend to be easier to assign to a relatively secure historical context than do the previous six minor prophets, so there is less debate about their setting and authorship. Similarly to the other minor prophets, however, there is scant personal information available about these prophets, with Haggai and Zechariah’s connections to the early portions of Ezra being the main exception. Like most of the Old Testament’s prophetic works, they contain sections of poetry and prose, with broad usage of both oracles and visions.
The first three of these texts—Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah—appear to come from the late seventh and early sixth centuries BCE, as Judah faces its final dissolution under the oncoming Babylonian advance, and so they share much in common with the other prophets who ministered during those decades. The final three, however—Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi—share a different historical context and a different set of concerns. All three are post-exilic prophets whose ministry is focused on the restoration and purification of Jewish worship in Jerusalem. Their focus tends to be on the temple and the actions of the priesthood, with Haggai and Zechariah hitting a generally optimistic note as they encourage the Jewish leaders to rebuild the temple, while Malachi, coming significantly later, hits a much more pessimistic note as he views the half-heartedness of temple worship in his day.
This last set of minor prophets is important in understanding the overall Christian interpretation of the narrative arc of the Old Testament. The Old Testament has depicted God’s intentional relationship of love toward his covenant-people, but it has also introduced themes which are left unresolved by the end of the canon. The Problem of Sin is partially addressed under the sacrificial system of the Mosaic law, but God’s people have shown themselves to be incapable of faithfully following that law, even after the grueling experience of conquest and exile. Thus the minor prophets leave the narrative arc of the Old Testament unresolved, portraying an ongoing problem without a final resolution. Nevertheless, they consistently portray a coming age of restoration, in which God’s covenant will be fully established in a new way and in which his steadfast love will offer an ultimate solution to the problem of his people’s sin and faithlessness. These unresolved notes and as-yet-unfulfilled expectations lead the reader directly into the opening of the New Testament, which Christian tradition sees as the fulfillment of them all.
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