The Major Prophets

In English Bibles, the books that belong to the Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. This grouping stems from the Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which became the Scriptures most often used by the early church. Unlike the first three books, however, Daniel is a work of apocalyptic literature (like the New Testament book of Revelation). While apocalypses resemble prophecy, these genres have significant differences; for this reason both Daniel and Revelation are discussed in the article “Apocalyptic Literature.” This article focuses on Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.

Historical and Social Contexts

The books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel span Israel’s all-important historical hinge: the exiles of Judah to Babylon (597 and 586 bc) and the people’s subsequent returns to their homeland (beginning in 538 bc). Each book sounds God’s warning of impending judgment while foreseeing the hope of restoration. The decimation of Israel’s temple, the deposing of their king and loss of nationhood, and their deportation to a foreign land would spell the end of most peoples and their religion, but the messages of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel made clear that Yahweh’s purposes will prevail, and that through these events He will demonstrate His justice and mercy.

Isaiah

The scope of Isaiah is enormous, both in length and time period. The subject matter of the book spans the pre-exilic (Isa 1–39), exilic (Isa 40–55), and postexilic (Isa 56–66) periods. Isaiah’s ministry takes place in late eighth-century Jerusalem before the exile, and begins by focusing on King David and Mount Zion, the sacred mountain of God’s temple.

In the chapter closing this first section, Isaiah warns King Hezekiah that “all that is in your house … shall be carried off to Babylon” (Isa 39:6). The next chapter leaps about 150 years forward, addressing God’s people in Babylonian exile (see Isa 48:20) and offering comfort to Jerusalem by announcing that its term of punishment has come to an end (Isa 40:1–2). Thus, Isaiah 1–39 predicts the exile, and Isaiah 40–55 predicts Israel’s return. Signaling another shift in audience, Isaiah 56 refers to Yahweh’s altar and temple on Mount Zion, which points to the Second Temple period after the exiles have returned from Babylon.

Jeremiah

Jeremiah appears roughly two generations after Isaiah (ca. 627 bc). While his hometown, Anathoth, was within walking distance of Jerusalem, it lay within the territory of Benjamin in a world more at home with the traditions inherited from northern Israel. Jeremiah’s ministry began in the waning years of the Assyrian Empire, when Judah enjoyed a brief generation of independence. The discovery of “the book of the law” (likely an early version of the book of Deuteronomy) within the temple archives led to the reforms of King Josiah: the centralization of the nation’s worship at the Jerusalem temple, the elimination of idols, and the promotion of the worship of Yahweh alone (2 Kgs 22–23). Many of Jeremiah’s oracles echo these themes.

After Josiah’s death, Jeremiah delivered his well-known temple sermon (Jer 7:1–15; 26:1–6), indicting the people for falling away from Yahweh’s law and threatening both the temple’s destruction and the people’s exile from the land. A few years later Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians became the new superpower in the Fertile Crescent, and Jeremiah warned Judah that God would use Babylon to enact His judgment on the nation’s faithlessness. Because Jeremiah advocated surrender, Judah’s political and military authorities accused him of treachery. Even after the Babylonian invasion vindicated his message, he was forced to flee to Egypt.

Ezekiel

Given his occupation as a priest (Ezek 1:3), Ezekiel’s social and religious world centers on Israel’s priestly traditions. The word of Yahweh first came to him while he was exiled in Babylon. Part of the first group to be deported from Jerusalem in 597 bc (2 Kgs 24:10–16), Ezekiel decried the idolatry practiced in the Jerusalem temple and predicted Jerusalem’s captivity. On hearing that the city had fallen to the Babylonians (Ezek 33:21), his message turned to one of hope and restoration.

Theological Perspectives in the Prophets

The Character of Yahweh

Each book presents a distinctive perspective on Yahweh’s character. For Isaiah, Yahweh is, above all, “the Holy One of Israel,” a title that prevails throughout the book. In his powerful vision (Isa 6), he hears the seraphim singing, “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts!” Thereafter, he sees life and its crises from a different perspective than that of his contemporaries (Isa 8:13). This divine title reflects the tension conveyed in his prophecies, namely that Yahweh is the Almighty Creator who is free and sovereign, yet He has chosen to bind Himself to Israel with a covenant. Israel shows itself to be untrusting and faithless to the covenant, and thus deserving of Yahweh’s anger.

In Isaiah 40–55, the section addressed to the exiles in Babylon, there is a remarkable development in Israel’s understanding of Yahweh: the monotheism (belief in only one God) implicit in Israel’s religion now takes center stage. Given the hopeless situation of the Jewish exiles living in the shadow of a world superpower, they could have never imagined that another foreign conqueror would “shepherd” them back to their homeland and underwrite the rebuilding of their temple. Yahweh’s use of Cyrus the Great, king of Persia, indicates His sovereignty over all nations (Isa 44:24–45:7). As argued in the trial speeches against the nations in Isaiah, the rise of Cyrus was unforeseen by the royal counselors and diviners of the Babylonian court, thus rendering their so-called gods speechless, useless nothings (e.g., Isa 41:21–29; 44:6–8; 45:18–25).

More so than the other Major Prophets, Jeremiah entwines his theology with his own life story. From the moment of his call he understands himself to be a prophetic ambassador—even if sent with an unpopular message (Jer 1:1–11). While other “prophets” had messages the people wanted to hear, Jeremiah was uniquely privy to Yahweh’s council (Jer 23:9–22). This situation bred conflict, including opposition from kings, prophets, and the people—and especially struggles with Yahweh Himself. Adopting the lament form (as in the Psalms), Jeremiah expresses his disappointment in no uncertain terms. While he discovers Yahweh to be true, he also learns that being His servant—especially in the troubling times of Babylonian invasion—is difficult (see Jer 12:1–6; 15:10–21). In his message for the people Jeremiah presents Yahweh as their liberator, as the exodus shows, but by their repeated faithlessness they forfeit His protection and incur His judgment (Jer 2:4–19). Nevertheless, he later declares Yahweh’s ultimate intention: “ ‘For I know the plans that I am planning concerning you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘plans for prosperity and not for harm, to give you a future and a hope’ ” (Jer 29:11).

As a priest, Ezekiel’s theology centers on God’s presence in sacred space. While Jeremiah, along with the book of Deuteronomy, speaks of the temple as the place where Yahweh’s “name” dwells (Jer 7:10–14), Ezekiel prefers to speak of the temple as the place where Yahweh’s “glory” manifests itself. As Isaiah’s vision of Yahweh’s heavenly court defined his theology (Isa 6), so Ezekiel’s opening vision of the “appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh” (Ezek 1:28) defines his theology and ministry. Foregrounded in this vision is the good news that Yahweh, unlike other ancient Near Eastern deities, is transcendent and not obliged to a particular place. The ominous news is that He is free to move away from rebellious Jerusalem.

Israel’s Sin and Yahweh’s Judgment

The Major Prophets regularly address the sin of God’s people and the nature of His judgment. Early in his ministry, Isaiah denounced social abuses, but his vision of the Holy One of Israel in His heavenly court (Isa 6) reveals a strange commission to harden the hearts of the people until the time of the exile. The meaning of this saying unfolds within a literary unit known as “Isaiah’s Memoirs” (Isa 6:1–8:18, dating to around 742–733 bc). Isaiah begins to execute this commission by offering an oracle of salvation conditional on trusting in Yahweh. King Ahaz, who simply feigns piety, chooses rather to trust in a political means of “salvation”: He calls on Assyria to rescue him from the two kings threatening to invade and depose him (see also 2 Kgs 16). As a result, the kingdom of Judah becomes a vassal to the Assyrian Empire.

For Isaiah, however, once a person has “seen” the Lord of Hosts and the Holy One of Israel, all other fears pale in comparison to the fear of God (Isa 8:12–13). Thus, by offering a promise of salvation that the house of David rejects, “the heart of this people” is hardened to the prophetic word (Isa 6:10). He then seals his memoirs as “testimony” and a “sign” (Isa 8:16–18). The remainder of his ministry focuses on the issue of trust: He promotes patiently trusting in the God whose temple resides on Mount Zion over against the leadership’s anxious trust in political and military alliances formed against the Assyrian Empire (e.g., Isa 8:18).

Roughly 20 years later, the next phase of Isaiah’s ministry (713–711 bc) addresses the possibility of Jerusalem joining a coalition with Ashdod and Egypt in order to rebel against the Assyrian Empire. Once again, Isaiah urges the Jerusalem leadership to resist this political means of deliverance and instead trust that the God of Zion will protect Jerusalem (e.g., Isa 14:28–32; 18:1–7; 20:1–6).

The final phase of Isaiah’s ministry focuses on trying to dissuade the Jerusalem leadership from joining yet another rebel alliance against Assyria after the death of their king, Sargon II, in 705 bc (e.g., Isa 30:1–17; 31:1–9). King Hezekiah evidently rejects Isaiah’s counsel and champions the rebellion. After King Sennacherib retaliates in 701 bc with an invasion of Judah and threatens to overtake Jerusalem, Isaiah steps forth and offers Yahweh’s 11th-hour oracle of rescue that Jerusalem will be spared (Isa 37:21–35). In the end, however, Hezekiah’s courting of Babylonian ambassadors during this Assyrian crisis results in Yahweh’s subsequent judgment of exile to Babylon (Isa 39:1–8).

Being more at home with traditions popular among the northern tribes, Jeremiah addresses the sin of God’s people differently than Isaiah. He interprets events through the lens of Yahweh’s providence during the exodus and wilderness periods (e.g., Jer 2:1–8) and Yahweh’s revelation of the law (e.g., Jer 7:8–10). Jeremiah indicts Judah for their faithlessness to “the fountain of living waters,” (Yahweh) and their defection to “cracked cisterns” (other gods and their idols; Jer 2:13). While Isaiah charged his generation with their failure to trust God in the face of Assyrian imperialism, Jeremiah charges his generation living on the eve of Babylonian rule with misplaced trust in the temple of Yahweh on Mount Zion, presuming that it should guarantee refuge from foreign invasion (Jer 7:1–11). Mount Zion cannot provide refuge if the people continue to disregard the laws given by Yahweh on Mount Sinai, including the Ten Commandments and others found in the book of Deuteronomy. While Jeremiah endorses the Davidic covenant, he clearly understands it to be conditional and for the purpose of ensuring social justice, especially for “the immigrant, the orphan, and the widow” (Jer 22:1–5). His “report card” on the recent Davidic kings is particularly scathing—with the exception of Josiah—and signals the end of the Davidic dynasty (Jer 22:11–30). Because Jeremiah understands Babylon to be Yahweh’s agent of judgment on Judah, he advocates surrender, rather than resistance, and so is labeled a traitor (Jer 27:1–15).

While Ezekiel indicts the people of Judah for social injustices, he particularly focuses on their “profaning” what is holy, as he assesses them from his priestly perspective. Idolatry stands center stage as the sin of Judah, found even at the temple itself (e.g., Ezek 6; 8–9; 14; 20; 23). In addition, there is profanation of Sabbath observance (e.g., Ezek 20:12–24; 22:8, 26; 23:38). Yahweh’s judgment, therefore, takes the form of the departure of His glory from the temple (Ezek 10:1–22).

Israel’s Future Hope

A remaining concern of the Major Prophets is Israel’s future hope. Isaiah’s vision for Israel’s future in Isaiah 1–39 foresees an exalted Mount Zion, to which all nations make pilgrimage (Isa 2:1–5), and a new David, who will actually uphold the kingdom “with justice and righteousness” (Isa 9:6–7; see 11:1–5). In Isa 40–55, the promises originally given to David are transferred to the people of Zion (Isa 55:3–5; 52:1–2), and Yahweh’s designated “messiah” (or “anointed one”) and “shepherd” is Cyrus, a Persian king (Isa 44:28–45:1). While Cyrus is Yahweh’s agent for the restoration of Jerusalem and its temple, His agent for the spiritual restoration of Israel is a figure named “my Servant,” as described in the Servant Songs (Isa 42:1–9; 49:1–12; 50:4–11; 52:13–53:12). Unlike Cyrus who will “come on officials … as the potter treads clay” (Isa 41:25), this Servant will not even crush “a broken reed” (Isa 42:3). He will even suffer rejection and abuse, and bear “the sin of many” (Isa 53:12). Moreover, his mission is not only to bring Israel back to Yahweh; Yahweh promises, “I will give you as a light to the nations, to be my salvation to the end of the earth” (Isa 49:6).

The New Testament applies these Servant passages to both Jesus (Matt 8:17; 12:18–21; Luke 22:37; John 12:38; Acts 8:32–33; 1 Pet 2:22–25) and the Church (Acts 13:47; Rom 8:33–34). The audience of Isaiah 40–55 must have wondered how they could ever return to their homeland while captives in the land of Babylon. And so the prophet appeals to the precedent of the exodus: As Yahweh delivered the Hebrew slaves from the superpower of their time, so He will do again in a glorious second exodus. In the third section of the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 56–66, the prophet envisions a new identity for the people of God, defined not by ethnicity but by keeping Sabbath and Yahweh’s covenant (Isa 56:1–8). As a result, Yahweh declares that His “house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples,” thus including Gentiles. The prophet also relativizes the centrality of the temple by noting that Yahweh specially dwells with those who are humble and contrite of spirit (Isa 56:7; 57:15; see 66:1–2).

Like Isaiah, Jeremiah foresees a new David as a key agent bringing Israel’s restoration (Jer 23:1–8). But as the Sinai covenant was his principal criterion for assessing the people’s sin, so a new covenant is central to his vision of the future (Jer 31:31–34). Yahweh takes the initiative to remedy the catch-22 of the human condition: Although the human “heart is deceitful more than anything else” (Jer 17:9) and the people of God have broken Yahweh’s covenant (Jer 11:10), Yahweh freely decrees a new covenant (Jer 31:31–34). What is distinctly new is not its contents but its medium: “I will put my law in their inward parts and on their hearts I will write it” (Jer 31:33). Here is the clearest statement in the Hebrew Bible that God’s instruction can be interiorized by God Himself, resulting in true inner transformation.

A new temple occupies the center stage of Ezekiel’s vision for restoration (Ezek 40–48), just as might be expected based on his priestly background. Unlike Isaiah 56, however, Ezekiel’s vision excludes “foreigners who are uncircumcised of heart and … of flesh” (Ezek 44:6–9). Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel foresees a new David in Israel’s restoration (Ezek 34:20–24; 37:24–28). While he does call this ruler “king,” his preferred titles reflect subordination: “servant,” “shepherd,” and “prince.” Similar to Jeremiah, Ezekiel also promises a new covenant, though his articulation uses priestly images (“I will sprinkle on you pure water,” Ezek 36:24–29). Not only will Yahweh put His law on His people’s heart, He will replace the heart of stone with a heart of flesh and His spirit within will ensure that they walk in His statutes, thus making them truly human.

Anticipation of a New and Better Covenant

In anticipation of the destruction of Jerusalem, the Major Prophets deconstruct the ancient Near Eastern cultural assumption that the patron deity of Israel is in any way beholden to His people or subject to their fate. Yahweh is free, yet He has chosen to pledge Himself to His people in a covenant relationship. Yahweh expects a just society of authentic worshipers—a nation that expresses worship through obedience to Yahweh’s moral and spiritual instruction, not through mere ritual observance. Even though His people violate these agreements, Yahweh freely decrees comfort and restoration. And this restoration does not merely reinstate the original promises and conditions—it heightens them. He promises a new and better “David,” a Servant who will suffer and bear the sin of many, a new and better covenant, and divine presence that dwells immediately with those who have contrite and renewed hearts. The Prophets also clarify that Yahweh is not simply the God of Israel but the only true God and thus the God of all peoples. In turn, “the people of God” are redefined to include any—including Gentiles—who would embrace Yahweh’s gracious covenant promises.

Craig C. Broyles

Further Reading

Isaiah, Book of CLBD

Jeremiah, Book of CLBD

Ezekiel, Book of CLBD

Jeremiah the Prophet CLBD

How to Study the Bible

The Formation of the Old Testament

Biblical Theology

The Minor Prophets

Apocalyptic Literature