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TheNevi'im (/nəviˈiːm,nəˈviːɪm/;[1]Hebrew:נְבִיאִיםNəvīʾīm,Tiberian:Năḇīʾīm 'Prophets',lit. 'spokespersons')[2] is the second major division of theHebrew Bible (theTanakh), lying between theTorah (lit. 'instruction') andKetuvim (lit. 'writings'). The Nevi'im are divided into two groups. TheFormer Prophets (Hebrew:נביאים ראשוניםNevi'im Rishonim) consists of the narrative books ofJoshua,Judges,Samuel andKings; while theLatter Prophets (Hebrew:נביאים אחרוניםNevi'im Akharonim) include the books ofIsaiah,Jeremiah,Ezekiel, and theTwelve Minor Prophets.
The Jewish tradition counts eight books inNevi'im out of twenty-four books in theHebrew Bible. There are four books of the Former Prophets, including Joshua and Judges, and the collectedBooks of Samuel andBooks of Kings are each counted as one book. Among the four books of the Latter Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel account for three books, followed by the "Twelve" (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic:תְּרֵי־עֲשַׂר,romanized: təreˁsar:[3] Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi), which is counted as a single book.
Thedevelopment of the Hebrew Bible canon placed theBook of Daniel as part of the "Writings," orKetuvim, rather thanNevi'im,[a] in distinction to the later approach of the various Christian Bibles for Protestants, Roman Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox, in which Daniel is found among the Prophets, due to its prophetic nature according to common Christian theology.[b]
In theJewish liturgy, a series of selections from the Nevi'im is publicly read or sung aloud inside thesynagogue as part of Jewish religious practice. Thehaftara follows theTorah reading onShabbat and onJewish holidays andfast days. The haftara readings do not contain the whole text of the Nevi‘im; they are selections.
The Former Prophets are the books Joshua, Judges, 1st & 2nd Samuel, and 1st & 2nd Kings. They contain historical narratives that begin immediately after the death of Moses with the divine appointment of Joshua as his successor, who then leads the people of Israel into the Promised Land, and end with the release from imprisonment of the last king of Judah. Treating Samuel and Kings as single books, they cover:
The reference to the "former prophets" or "earlier prophets" inZechariah 1:4 probably includes "the whole body of prophets" prior to the post-exilic period whenHaggai andZechariah were active.[8]
TheBook of Joshua (Yehoshua יהושע) contains a history of theIsraelites from the death ofMoses to that ofJoshua. After Moses' death, Joshua, by virtue of his previous appointment as Moses' successor, receives from God the command to cross the Jordan. In execution of this order Joshua issues the requisite instructions to the stewards of the people for the crossing of the Jordan; and he reminds the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half of Manasseh of their pledge given to Moses to help their brethren. He also performs miracles, or magic, such as stopping the sun and moon, and stopping the Jordan river.
The book essentially consists of three parts:
TheBook of Judges (Shoftim שופטים) consists of three distinct parts:
TheBooks of Samuel (Shmu'el שמואל) consists of five parts:
A conclusion of sorts appears at1 Kings 1–2, concerningSolomon enacting a final revenge on those who did what David perceived as wrongdoing, and having a similar narrative style. While the subject matter in the Book(s) of Samuel is also covered by the narrative inChronicles, it is noticeable that the section (2 Sam. 11:2–12:29) containing an account of the matter ofBathsheba is omitted in the corresponding passage in 1 Chr. 20.
TheBooks of Kings (Melakhimמלכים) contain accounts of the kings of the ancientKingdom of Israel and theKingdom of Judah, and theannals of the Jewish commonwealth from the accession of Solomon until the subjugation of the kingdom byNebuchadnezzar II and theNeo-Babylonian Empire.
The Latter Prophets are divided into two groups: themajor prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel) and theTwelve Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi) collected into a single book. Again, although Daniel is considered a major prophet, his book is not in the category of the Nevi'im.
The 66 chapters of theBook of Isaiah consist primarily of prophecies of the judgments awaiting nations that are persecutingJudah. These nations includeBabylon,Neo-Assyrian Empire,Philistia,Moab,Syria,The Northern Kingdom of Israel,Ethiopia,Egypt,Arabia, andPhoenicia. The prophecies concerning them can be summarized as saying thatGod is the God of the whole earth and that nations which think of themselves as secure in their power might well be conquered by other nations, at God's command.
Chapter 6 describes Isaiah's call to be a prophet of God. Chapters 36–39 provide historical material about KingHezekiah and his triumph of faith in God. Chapters 24–35, while too complex to characterize in brief, are primarily concerned with prophecies of aMessiah, a person anointed or given power by God, and of the Messiah's kingdom, where justice and righteousness will reign. Jews see this section as describing an actual king, a descendant of their great king, David, who will make Judah a great kingdom andJerusalem a genuinely holy city.
The prophecy continues with what some scholars[9][10] have called "The Book of Comfort", which begins in chapter 40 and completes the writing. In the first eight chapters of this book of comfort, Isaiah prophesies the deliverance of theJews from the hands of the Babylonians and the restoration of Israel as a unified nation in the land God promised them. Isaiah reaffirms that the Jews are indeed the chosen people of God in chapter 44 and thatYahweh is the only God for the Jews, as he will show his power over the gods of Babylon in due time in chapter 46. In chapter 45:1, the Persian rulerCyrus the Great is named as the Messiah who will overthrow theNeo-Babylonian Empire and allow the return of Israel to their original land. The remaining chapters of the book contain prophecies of the future glory ofZion under the rule of a righteous servant (52 and 54). Chapter 53 includes a very poetic prophecy about this servant, which is generally considered byChristians to refer to thecrucifixion ofJesus. However, Jews typically interpret it as a reference to God's people. Although there is still the mention of judgment of false worshippers and idolaters (65 and 66), the book ends with a message of hope of a righteous ruler who extends salvation to his righteous subjects living in the Lord's kingdom on earth.
TheBook of Jeremiah can be divided into twenty-three chapters, which are organized into five sub-sections or books:
In Egypt, after an interval, Jeremiah is supposed to have added three sections, viz., ch. 37–39; 40–43; and 44. The main Messianic prophecies are in 23:1–8; 31:31–40; and 33:14–26.
Jeremiah's prophecies are noted for the frequent repetitions of the exact words, phrases, and imagery found in them. They cover about 30 years. They are not in chronological order. Modern scholars do not believe they have reliable theories about when, where, and how the text was edited into its present form.
TheBook of Ezekiel contains three distinct sections:
The Twelve are:
TheHaftarah is a text selected from the books ofNevi'im that is read publicly in the synagogue after the reading of the Torah on eachShabbat, as well as on Jewish festivals and fast days.
There is a specialcantillation melody for the haftarah, distinct from that of the Torah portion. In some earlier authorities there are references to a tune for the "prophets" generally, distinct from that for the haftarah: this may have been a simplified melody for learning purposes.[c]
Certain cantillation marks and combinations appear in Nevi'im but not within any of the Haftarah selections, and most communities therefore do not have a musical tradition for those marks. J.L. Neeman suggested that "those who recite Nevi'im privately with the cantillation melody may read the words accented by those rare notes by using a "metaphor" based on the melody of those notes in the five books of the Torah, while adhering to themusical scale of the melody for Nevi'im." Neeman includes a reconstruction of the musical scale for the lost melodies of the rare cantillation notes.[11] In the Ashkenazi tradition, the resemblance between the Torah and Haftarah melodies is obvious and it is easy to transpose motifs between the two as suggested by Neeman. In the Sephardi traditions the haftarah melody is considerably more florid than the Torah melody, and usually in a different musical mode, and there are only isolated points of contact between the two.
In some Near andMiddle Eastern Jewish traditions, the whole of Nevi'im (as well as the rest of the Tanakh and the Mishnah) is read each year on a weekly rota, usually on Shabbat afternoons. These reading sessions often take place in the synagogue courtyard but are not considered to be synagogue services.
Atargum is anAramaictranslation of the Hebrew Scriptures that was compiled or written in theLand of Israel or inBabylonia from theSecond Temple period until the earlyMiddle Ages (late first millennium). According to theTalmud, the targum on Nevi'im was composed byJonathan ben Uzziel. LikeTargum Onkelos on the Torah,Targum Jonathan is an eastern (Babylonian) targum with early origins in the west (Land of Israel).
Like the targum to the Torah,Targum Jonathan to Nevi'im served a formal liturgical purpose: it was read alternately, verse by verse, or in blocks of up to three verses, in the public reading of the Haftarah and in the study of Nevi'im.Yemenite Jews continue the above tradition to this day and have thus preserved a living tradition of the Babylonian vocalization for the Targum to Nevi'im.
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