'Former' in the Bible

"Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets called out, saying, 'The Lord who rules over all says, "Turn now from your evil wickedness,"' but they would by no means obey me," says the Lord.

Should you not have obeyed the words that the Lord cried out through the former prophets when Jerusalem was peacefully inhabited and her surrounding cities, the Negev, and the Shephelah were also populated?

Indeed, they made their heart as hard as diamond, so that they could not obey the Torah and the other words the Lord who rules over all had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, the Lord who rules over all had poured out great wrath.