Reference: Prophecy, Prophets
Hastings
Hebrew prophecy represents a religious movement of national and worldwide importance, not paralleled elsewhere in history. Most significant in itself, it has acquired deeper and wider import through its connexion with Christianity and the philosophy of religion generally. The present article will deal in brief outline with (1) the history, (2) the inspiration, and (3) the functions and specific teaching, of the prophets of the OT; also (4) with the special topic of Messianic prophecy and its fulfilment in the NT.
1. History and prophecy.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
So now, give the man back his wife, for he is a prophet, and let him say a prayer for you, so your life may be safe: but if you do not give her back, be certain that death will come to you and all your house.
And Moses said, I will go and see this strange thing, why the tree is not burned up,
And the Lord said to Moses, See I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother will be your prophet. Say whatever I give you orders to say: and Aaron your brother will give word to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go out of his land. read more. And I will make Pharaoh's heart hard, and my signs and wonders will be increased in the land of Egypt.
The Lord is King for ever and ever.
But Moses made prayer to God, saying, Lord, why is your wrath burning against your people whom you took out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with the strength of your hand?
But now, if you will give them forgiveness--but if not, let my name be taken out of your book.
Then the Lord came down in the cloud and had talk with him, and put on the seventy men some of the spirit which was on him: now when the spirit came to rest on them, they were like prophets, but only at that time. But two men were still in the tent-circle one of them named Eldad and the other Medad: and the spirit came to rest on them; they were among those who had been sent for, but they had not gone out to the Tent: and the prophet's power came on them in the tent-circle. read more. And a young man went running to Moses and said, Eldad and Medad are acting as prophets in the tent-circle. Then Joshua, the son of Nun, who had been Moses' servant from the time when he was a child, said, My lord Moses, let them be stopped. And Moses said to him, Are you moved by envy on my account? If only all the Lord's people were prophets, and the Lord might put his spirit on them!
And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, taking his place at the door of the Tent, and made Aaron and Miriam come before him. And he said, Now give ear to my words: if there is a prophet among you I will give him knowledge of myself in a vision and will let my words come to him in a dream.
And he said, Now give ear to my words: if there is a prophet among you I will give him knowledge of myself in a vision and will let my words come to him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so; he is true to me in all my house: read more. With him I will have talk mouth to mouth, openly and not in dark sayings; and with his eyes he will see the form of the Lord: why then had you no fear of saying evil against my servant Moses?
If ever you have among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder,
If ever you have among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams and he gives you a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you, and give them worship;
And the sign or the wonder takes place, and he says to you, Let us go after other gods, which are strange to you, and give them worship;
Let there not be seen among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter go through the fire, or anyone using secret arts, or a maker of strange sounds, or a reader of signs, or any wonder-worker, Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions. read more. For all who do such things are disgusting to the Lord; and because of these disgusting things the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You are to be upright in heart before the Lord your God. For these nations, whose land you are taking, give attention to readers of signs and to those using secret arts: but the Lord your God will not let you do so. The Lord your God will give you a prophet from among your people, like me; you will give ear to him;
And if you say in your hearts, How are we to be certain that the word does not come from the Lord?
Now Deborah, a woman prophet, the wife of Lapidoth, was judge of Israel at that time.
The Lord sent a prophet to the children of Israel, who said to them, The Lord the God of Israel, has said, I took you up from Egypt, out of the prison-house;
But the spirit of the Lord came on Gideon; and at the sound of his horn all Abiezer came together after him.
Now the young Samuel was the servant of the Lord before Eli. In those days the Lord kept his word secret from men; there was no open vision.
(In the past in Israel, when a man went to get directions from God, he said, Come let us go to the Seer, for he who now is named Prophet was in those days given the name of Seer.)
After that you will come to Gibeah, the hill of God, where an armed force of the Philistines is stationed: and when you come to the town, you will see a band of prophets coming down from the high place with instruments of music before them; and they will be acting like prophets: And the spirit of the Lord will come on you with power, and you will be acting like a prophet with them, and will be changed into another man.
And when they came to Gibeah, a band of prophets came face to face with him; and the spirit of God came on him with power and he took his place among them as a prophet.
And when they came to Gibeah, a band of prophets came face to face with him; and the spirit of God came on him with power and he took his place among them as a prophet.
And when they came to Gibeah, a band of prophets came face to face with him; and the spirit of God came on him with power and he took his place among them as a prophet. Now when Saul's old friends saw him among the band of prophets, the people said to one another, What has come to Saul, the son of Kish? Is even Saul among the prophets? read more. And one of the people of that place said in answer, And who is their father? So it became a common saying, Is even Saul among the prophets? Then going away from the prophets, he came to the house.
So David went in flight and got away and came to Ramah, to Samuel, and gave him an account of all Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and were living in Naioth.
The spirit of the Lord had voice through me, his word was on my tongue.
And David got up in the morning; now the word of the Lord had come to the prophet Gad, David's seer, saying,
Has my lord not had word of what I did when Jezebel was putting the Lord's prophets to death? how I kept a hundred of them in a secret hole in the rock, fifty at a time, and gave them bread and water?
And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he made himself strong, and went running before Ahab till they came to Jezreel.
So the king of Israel got all the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, Am I to go to Ramoth-gilead to make war or not? And they said, Go up: for the Lord will give it into the hands of the king.
And the Lord said, How? And he said, I will go out and be a spirit of deceit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Your trick will have its effect on him: go out and do so.
Now all the acts of David, first and last, are recorded in the words of Samuel the seer, and the words of Nathan the prophet, and the words of Gad the seer;
And he made the most holy place; it was twenty cubits long, and twenty cubits wide, like the greater house, and was plated all over with the best gold; six hundred talents were used for it.
Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not recorded in the history of Nathan the prophet, and in the words of Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh, and in the visions of Iddo the seer about Jeroboam, the son of Nebat?
But the high places were not taken away out of Israel; but still the heart of Asa was true to the Lord all his life.
If evil comes on us, the sword, or punishment, or disease, or need of food, we will come to this house and to you, (for your name is in this house,) crying to you in our trouble, and you will give us salvation in answer to our cry.
Then he put the Levites in their places in the house of the Lord, with brass and corded instruments of music as ordered by David and Gad, the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet: for the order was the Lord's, given by his prophets.
Of God, why have you put us away from you for ever? why is the fire of your wrath smoking against the sheep who are your care?
We do not see our signs: there is no longer any prophet, or anyone among us to say how long.
Saying, Put not your hand on those who have been marked with my holy oil, and do my prophets no wrong.
Then they said, Come, let us make a design against Jeremiah; for teaching will never be cut off from the priest, or wisdom from the wise, or the word from the prophet. Come, let us make use of his words for an attack on him, and let us give attention with care to what he says.
See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will give to David a true Branch, and he will be ruling as king, acting wisely, doing what is right, and judging uprightly in the land.
This is what the Lord of armies has said: Do not give ear to the words which the prophets say to you: they give you teaching of no value: it is from themselves that their vision comes, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.
It may be that their prayer for grace will go up to the Lord, and that every man will be turned from his evil ways: for great is the wrath and the passion made clear by the Lord against this people.
The word of the Lord came to me, Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldaeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was on me there.
So I will let the wall, which you were covering with whitewash, be broken down; I will have it levelled to the earth so that its base is uncovered: it will come down, and destruction will come on you with it; and it will be clear to you that I am the Lord.
And it came about that when I, Daniel, had seen this vision, I had a desire for the sense of it to be unfolded; and I saw one before me in the form of a man.
The days of punishment, the days of reward are come; Israel will be put to shame; the prophet is foolish, the man who has the spirit is off his head, because of your great sin.
And some of your sons I made prophets, and some of your young men I made separate for myself. Is it not even so, O children of Israel? says the Lord.
Certainly the Lord will do nothing without making clear his secret to his servants, the prophets.
This is what the Lord has said about the prophets by whom my people have been turned from the right way; who, biting with their teeth, say, Peace; and if anyone puts nothing in their mouths they make ready for war against him.
Her prophets are good-for-nothing persons, full of deceit: her priests have made the holy place unclean and have gone violently against the law.
And it will come about in that day that the prophets will be shamed, every man on account of his vision, when he is talking as a prophet; and they will not put on a robe of hair for purposes of deceit:
But being a prophet, and having in mind the oath which God had given to him, that of the fruit of his body one would take his place as a king,
And all the prophets from Samuel and those who came after, every one of them, gave word of these days.
For the prophets who gave the news of the grace which would come to you, made search with all care for knowledge of this salvation;