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Part of a series of Starlight Book Reviews (SBR) on Old Testament (OT) Books. Click here to see other OT SBR.
* The following post transparently exhibits my Christian faith.
5/5 With this Starlight Book Review (SBR), I wrap up my focus on the Minor Prophets/ Twelve Prophets Books. The last three are Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
Click here to check out the Sacred Texts Journey SRC.
The Minor Prophets or Twelve Prophets (Hebrew: שנים עשר, Shneim Asar; Imperial Aramaic: תרי עשר, Trei Asar, “Twelve”) (Ancient Greek: δωδεκαπρόφητον, “the Twelve Prophets”), occasionally Book of the Twelve, is a collection of prophetic books, written between about the 8th and 4th centuries BCE, which are in both the Jewish Tanakh and Christian Old Testament… In the Christian Old Testament, the collection appears as twelve individual books, one for each of the prophets: the Book of Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Their order, and position in the Old Testament, varies slightly between the Protestant, Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Bibles.
“The Book of Haggai (/ˈhæɡaɪ/; Hebrew: ספר חגי, romanized: Sefer Ḥaggay) is a book of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, and is the third-to-last of the Twelve Minor Prophets. It is a short book, consisting of only two chapters. The historical setting dates around 520 BC before the Temple had been rebuilt. The original text was written in Biblical Hebrew.”
“The Book of Zechariah, attributed to the Hebrew prophet Zechariah, is included in the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Hebrew Bible… Zechariah’s prophecies took place during the reign of Darius the Great and were contemporary with Haggai in a post-exilic world after the fall of Jerusalem in 587/586 BC. Ezekiel and Jeremiah wrote before the fall of Jerusalem while continuing to prophesy in the early exile period. Scholars believe Ezekiel, with his blending of ceremony and vision, heavily influenced the visionary works of Zechariah 1–8. Zechariah is specific about dating his writing (520–518 BC).”
“The Book of Malachi (Hebrew: מַלְאָכִ֔י, Malʾāḵī) is the last book of the Neviim contained in the Tanakh, canonically the last of the Twelve Minor Prophets. In most Christian orderings, the grouping of the prophetic books is the last section of the Old Testament, making Malachi the last book before the New Testament.
Of these three books, Malachi stands out the most to me since it’s the last book of the Old Testament. With this latest read, though, as a Christian in a particular, I developed a strong liking for Zechariah as it prophesied the coming of Jesus. Below are favorite passages from Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.
These verses stood out to me:
9 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.”
Haggai 2:9 NIV
9 Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Zechariah 9:9 NIV
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
Malachi 3:10 NIV
One special resource which helped me in both reading and SBR was “Major and Minor Prophets Infographic” by Jordan Ladikos. Click here to access it.
Select Bibliography (Alphabetical Order by Author’s Surname)
- Coogan, Michael D. “A Brief Introduction to the Old Testament.” Oxford University Press, 2009. o. 346.
- Dempster, Stephen G., Dominion And Dynasty: A Theology Of The Hebrew Bible. Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8308-2615-7
- “Ezra the Scribe by Mendel Adelman, Chabad.org“.
- Grudem, Wayne; Dennis, Lane T.; Packer, J. I.; Collins, C. John; Schreiner, Thomas R.; Taylor, Justin, eds. (2008). ESV Study Bible. Wheaton: Crossway. ISBN 978-1-43350241-5.
- Josephus, Flavius (1958). Vol. VI: Jewish Antiquities, Books IX–XI. Loeb Classical Library. Vol. 326. Translated by Marcus, William. London: William Heinemann. pp. 125–129, XI.xi.2–3.
- Keck, Leander E. 1996. The New Interpreter’s Bible: Volume: VII. Nashville: Abingdon.
- Kent H. Richards, Nahum Introduction: The Harper Collins Study Bible, (New York: Harper Collins, 2006) 1250.
- Metzger, Bruce M., et al. The Oxford Companion to the Bible. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
- Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-8308-9482-6.
Starry Night Elf 