FROM JUDGMENT TO HOPE

A Study on the Prophets

WALTER BRUEGGEMANN

Preface and introduction © 2019 Westminster John Knox Press

All other material © 2019 Walter Brueggemann

Portions of this book were previously published as downloaded studies titled “Introduction to the Prophets” (December 4, 2013); “The Three Major Prophets” (April 24, 2013); “Isaiah” (November 21, 2012); “The Twelve Minor Prophets” (October 23, 2013); “Hosea, Amos, and Micah” (June 26, 2013); and “Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi” (July 24, 2013); The Thoughtful Christian, www.TheThoughtfulChristian.com.

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

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Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible are copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. and are used by permission.

Book design by Drew Stevens

Cover design by Eric Walljasper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brueggemann, Walter, author.

Title: From judgment to hope : a study on the prophets / Walter Brueggemann.

Description: Louisville, KY : Westminster John Knox Press, [2019]

Identifiers: LCCN 2019018110 (print) | ISBN 9780664265519 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: LCSH: Bible. Prophets—Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Classification: LCC BS1505.52 .B78 2019 (print) | LCC BS1505.52 (ebook) | DDC 224/.06—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019018110

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019981200

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CONTENTS

Preface

Introduction to the Prophets by Patricia K. Tull

1. Three Major Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel

2. First Isaiah (Chapters 1–39)

3. Second and Third Isaiah (Chapters 40–55, 56–65)

4. The Twelve Minor Prophets

5. Three Important Minor Prophets: Hosea, Amos, and Micah

6. Three Prophets from the Persian Period: Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi

A Brief Summary of the Prophetic Books of the Bible

An Approximate Time Line of the Prophets

Well-Known Quotations from Isaiah

Glossary of Terms

PREFACE

The expositions of prophetic texts that follow here constitute an invitation to readers to engage Israel’s prophetic tradition in serious and specific ways. Such an engagement is not easy or obvious, because the prophetic literature is cast in a language that is strange to us. For the most part the prophetic literature ...