The Minor Prophets (in alphabetical order) are Amos, Habakkuk, Haggai, Hosea, Joel, Jonah, Malachi, Micah, Nahum, Obadiah, Zechariah, and Zephaniah.
Timeline of Minor Prophets
The Decline of the Neo-Assyrian Empire by BAR
The 12 Minor Prophets by Brittannica
Who Were the Minor Prophets?
The Book of Malachi – Paragraphs below are from Britannica.com
The book consists of six distinct sections, each in the form of a question-and-answer discussion. With the aid of this unusual discussion technique, the prophet defends the justice of God to a community that had begun to doubt that justice because its eschatological (end of the world) expectations were still unfulfilled. The author calls for fidelity to Yahweh’s covenant. He emphasizes the necessity of proper worship, condemns divorce, and announces that the day of judgment is imminent. Faithfulness to these ritual and moral responsibilities will be rewarded; unfaithfulness will bring a curse.
The book belongs to the first half of the 5th century bce, for it clearly presupposes the reconstructed Temple (dedicated in 516 bce) but does not reflect the reconstitution of the religious community that took place under Nehemiah and Ezra about 450 bce.
Amos; Reading the Book of Amos in Context by John Ahn. At BAR October 08, 2024.
In the midst of national and international affairs, Amos, a local rancher (Amos 1:1) and/or farmer (7:14) from Tekoa in Judah is commissioned to the influential north, Israel. Amos 1:1 describes Amos as one who deals with sheep. Although Amos’s occupation is simply translated as a “shepherd,” the preferred technical translation is “one who owns or tends sheep or cattle.” In other words, Amos could be a simple shepherd or, conversely, a wealthy rancher owning or tending a plethora of sheep or cattle. In Amos 7:14, a qualification is added: Amos is also “one who gathers or tends figs or sycamore-figs,” a day laborer working the fields like a migrant worker or the owner of a large plantation or orchards of sycamore-fig trees. The way in which an interpreter reads Amos’s occupation as either a poor shepherd/day laborer or a very wealthy influential trader of sheep and/or figs—the two major sectors of Judah’s economy—has diverging implications, but the message that Amos preaches does not change. Amos’s commission to go to the powerful northern kingdom of Israel to speak inflammatory words against the elites is bold prophetic activism.
Hosea related links
How Hosea Transformed the Lord of the Realm into a Temperamental Spouse at BAR
Hosea summary at BibleHub
Outline of the Chapters of Hosea by Liberty University
Notes on Hosea 2023 Edition by Dr. Thomas L. Constable – Extensive commentary
The Prophet Hosea by Mark Perkins, Pastor, Front Range Bible Church, Denver, Colorado
What can we learn from the tribe of Ephraim? Throughout the Old Testament, the name Ephraim often refers to the ten tribes comprising Israel’s Northern Kingdom, not just the single tribe named after Joseph’s son (Ezekiel 37:16; Hosea 5:3). The Northern Kingdom, also referred to as “Israel,” was taken into captivity by the Assyrians in 722 BC (Jeremiah 7). The Southern Kingdom, also known as Judah, was conquered by the Babylonians nearly 140 years later (586 BC).
Zephaniah: Prophet of His Time—Not the End Time!
By Marvin A. Sweeney. Published at BAR. Extracted paragraphs are below.
The book of Zephaniah is easily overlooked and—I contend—misunderstood. It is only three chapters long, buried in a few pages of the so-called Minor (!) Prophets. many portions of the Prophets are read in the synagogue on Sabbath and festivals, but not Zephaniah. The book begins, prophetically enough, with a notice of Zephaniah’s prophetic identity:
The word of the Lord that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi son of Gedaliah son of Amariah son of Hezekiah, in the days of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah. (Zephaniah 1:1)
This is the only instance in prophetic literature in which someone’s ancestry is traced back four generations. This might be because he is a possible descendant of King Hezekiah of Judah (727–697 B.C.E.). The book tells us that Zephaniah received his call as a prophet during the time of King Josiah (640–609 B.C.E.).
