On the contrary, the priesthood in the kingdom of Israel had no divine sanction, no promise; it was corrupt in its very source; to reform itself would have been to dissolve itself ; the priests there were the mercenary servants of the king, and had a brand upon their own consciences. Hence in the kingdom of Israel the prophets were the regular ministers of God; with their office all stood or fell, and hence they were required to do many things besides what the original conception of the office of a prophet implied.
In their labors, as respected their own times, the prophets were strictly bound to the Mosaic law, and not allowed to add to it or to diminish aught from it; what was said in this respect to the whole people (Deut. iv:2; xiii :1) applied also to them. We find, therefore, prophecy always takes its ground on the Mosaic law, to which it refers, from which it derives its sanction, and with which it is fully impressed and saturated. There is no chapter in the prophets in which there are not several references to the law. The business of the prophets was to explain it, to lay it to the hearts of the people, to evidence its divine sanction, and to preserve vital its spirit. It was, indeed, also their duty to point to future re forms, when the ever-living spirit of the law would break its hitherto imperfect form, and make for itself another: thus Jeremiah (iii :16) foretells days when the ark of the covenant shall be no more, and (ch. xxxi:3t) days when a new cove nant will be made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. But for their own times they never once dreamed of altering any, even the minutest and least essential precept, even as to its form; how much less as to its spirit, which even the Lord himself declares (Matt. v:18) to be im mutable and eternal.
As to prophecy in its circumscribed sense, or the foretelling of future events by the prophets, some expositors would explain all predictions of special events; while others assert that no predic tion contains anything but general promises or threatenings, and that the prophets knew nothing of the particular manner in which their predictions might be realized. Both these classes deviate from the correct view of prophecy; the former re sort often to the most arbitrary interpretations, and the latter are opposed by a mass of facts against which they are unable successfully to con tend; c. g., when Ezekiel foretells (xii :12) that Zedekiah would try to break through the walls of the city and to escape, hut that he would be seized, blinded, and taken to Babylon. (See also the fore going table showing instances of fulfillment of prophecy in history.) Some interpreters misunderstanding passages like Jer. xviii :8 ; xxvi :13, have asserted with Dr. Koster (p. 226, sq.) that all prophecies were con
ditional; and have even maintained that their revocability distinguished the true predictions from soothsaying. But beyond all doubt when the prophet pronounces the divine judgments he proceeds on the assumption that the people will not repent, an assumption which he knows from God to be true. Were the people to repent the prediction would fail ; but because they will not, it is uttered absolutely. It does not follow, how ever, that the prophet's warnings and exhorta tions are useless. These serve 'for a witness against them ;' and besides, amid the ruin of the mass, individuals might he saved. Viewing proph ecies as conditional predictions nullifies them. The sphere of action of the prophets was abso lutely limited to Israel.
2. Duration of Prophetic Office. Although we meet with cases of prophesying as early as the age of the patriarchs, still the roots of prophetism among the Israelites are properly fixed in the Mosaic economy. Moses instilled into the congre gation of Israel those truths which form the foundation of prophecy, and thus prepared the ground from which it could spring up. In the time of Moses himself we find prophesying grow ing out of those things which through him were conveyed to the minds of the people. The main business of Moses was not that of a prophet ; but sometimes he was in the state of prophetic eleva tion. In such a state originated his celebrated song (Deut. xxxii), which Eichhorn justly calls the Magna Charta of prophecy; and his blessings (Deut. xxxiii). Miriam, the sister of Aaron, is called a prophetess (Exact. xv :2o; comp. Num. xii :2, 6), when she took a timbrel and sang to the Lord, who had overthrown the enemy of the chil dren of Israel. The seventy elders are expressly stated to have been impelled by the spirit of God to prophesy. In the age of the Judges, prophecy, though existing only in scattered instances, ex erted a powerful influence. Those who would deny this, in spite of the plain evidence of his tory, do not consider that the influential operation of prophets, flourishing in later times, requires preparatory steps. 'Now only,' says Ewald justly, 'we are able to perceive how full of strength and life was the ground in which prophecy, to attain such an eminence, must have sprung up.' The more conspicuous prophetic agency begins with Samuel, and the prophets' schools which he founded. From this time to the Babylonian Ex ile, there happened hardly any important event in which the prophets did not appear as performing the leading part. About a hundred years after the return from the Babylonian Exile, the pro phetic profession ceased. The Jewish tradition uniformly states that Haggai, Zechariah, and Mal achi were the last prophets.