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By Root 1273 0

for the sake of the people but actually bears their sins, a description of the central belief of Christianity in which Christ dies for the sins of man. Jewish readers prefer to view this as either a reference to Isaiah himself, the prophet who suffers because his words are unpopular, or to the people of Israel, who soon suffer for the nation’s sins through a catastrophic defeat by a foreign invader.

• Micah

He has told you, O mortal, what

is good;

and what does the Lord require

of you

but to do justice, and to love

kindness,

and to walk humbly with

your God? (Mic. 6:9)

Micah began to prophesy before the fall of the northern capital of Samaria in 721 BCE and his prophecies tell of impending doom for both the northern and southern kingdoms. Most scholars now agree that it is a composite work, and only the first three chapters are believed to have come directly from Micah.

Like Amos and other prophets, Micah warns of God’s coming punishment upon Israel and Judah because of the oppression of the poor by the rich, the corruption of the priests and prophets, and the irresponsibility and immorality of the political leaders. As a consequence of these evils, Micah predicts that Jerusalem and the Temple will both be destroyed, an event that came in 586 BCE.

Some of the later chapters of Micah, which were probably written after the Babylonian Exile, contain prophecies of a new age of universal peace when Israel will once again be ruled by a descendant of King David. This “shepherd king” will be born, as King David was, in Bethlehem, and Micah’s prophecy has been interpreted by Christians as a prediction of the birth of Jesus.

Micah’s “three requirements”—to love justice, do good deeds, and walk humbly with God—sum up the essence of a godly person.

• Nahum

Very little is known about Nahum, except that he is really more of a poet than a prophet. And a very good poet at that. The first part of Nahum is an incomplete acrostic poem, each line of the poem beginning with a different letter of the Hebrew alphabet. His literary effort constituted a prediction of the imminent defeat of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, which fell to Chaldean invaders in 612 BCE. Comparing this evil city to a prostitute, Nahum spoke of the city’s impending destruction in vivid imagery, although his message can still be read as a much broader attack on evil, corruption, and immorality.

BIBLICAL VOICES

Ah! City of bloodshed,

utterly deceitful, full of booty—

no end to plunder!

The crack of whip and rumble

of wheel,

galloping horse and bounding

chariot!

Horsemen charging,

flashing sword and glittering

spear,

piles of dead,

heaps of corpses,

dead bodies without end—

they stumble over the bodies!

Because of the countless

debaucheries of

the prostitute,

gracefully alluring, mistress

of sorcery,

who enslaves nations through her

debaucheries,

and people through her

sorcery,

I am against you,

says the Lord of hosts,

and will lift up your skirts over

your face;

and I will let nations look on your nakedness

and kingdoms on your shame.

I will throw filth at you

and treat you with contempt,

and make you a spectacle. (Nah. 3:1-6)

Nahum also provides an excellent example of the problems inherent in various translations of the Bible. Here are four versions of a single line from Nahum 2:11:

The faces of them all gather blackness. (KJV)

The faces of them all are as the blackness of a kettle. (Douay)

All faces grow pale. (NRSV)

All faces turn ashen. (JPS)

• Zephaniah

I will bring distress on the people,

And they shall walk like blind men,

Because they sinned against the LORD;

Their blood shall be spilled like dust,

And their fat like dung.

Moreover, their silver and gold

Shall not avail to save them.

On the day of the LORD’s wrath,

In the fire of His passion,

The whole land shall be consumed;

For HE will make a terrible end

Of all who dwell in the land. (1:17-18 JPS)

Traditionally attributed to a prophet who was said to be a descendant of the good King Hezekiah (the boy whose birth was predicted by