Spotlight on the Twelve Minor Prophets

The last book of the prophets contains the prophecies of twelve distinct personalities, and is known in Hebrew as ‘Trei Asar,’ the Aramaic word for twelve. In English the book is referred to as the Twelve Prophets, or the Twelve Minor Prophets, a moniker that only describes their relatively small size and not the importance of their message. From the Dead Sea scrolls and the work of Ben Sirach, we learn that these twelve prophets were already grouped together into one book by the second century BCE. The era of the twelve prophets ranges from the middle of the eighth century BCE to the beginning of the fourth century BCE. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah prophesied during the eighth century BCE, when Assyria terrorized the entire Middle East including the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah lived in the seventh century BCE, when Assyria's even more vicious successor, Babylon, threatened and eventually exiled the tiny kingdom of Judah. The final three prophets, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi lived during the period of the return to Zion, when the Jewish people came back to the land of Israel after seventy years of Babylonian exile. They ranged from the middle of the sixth century to the beginning of the fourth century, and with the final prophecies of Malachi came the end of the age prophecy in general. Despite ranging over five hundred years, these prophets shared several messages relevant to this day: concern for the poor, an emphasis of justice and integrity over uninspired ritual, the enduring bond between God and His people, and the enduring relationship of the Jewish people to the land of Israel.