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The work is to be 5 pages with three to five sources, with in-text citations and a reference page

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The work is to be 5 pages with three to five sources, with in-text citations and a reference page. In particular, the prophets spoke about historical and moral crises. If there were no crises, there would have been little need for the prophets. The history of the Old Testament and Israel from the eighth to the fifth centuries can be told, even if it is roughly, in the works of the literary prophets. Three historical centers can be pointed out according to Merrill (15). The prophets received their inspiration from God as noted by Metzger (45). In addition, the prophets were viewed as messengers sent to deliver God’s messages to the world.

The first category of prophetic books falls under the neo-Assyrian period. The attention of these books is centered on the circumstances leading to and the conditions following the fall of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) in 722 B.C. The group of prophets engaged in the assessment of moral and theological reasons that led to the fall of Israel includes Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah. These prophets saw the end of Israel and the event’s implications for Judah. Even though their insights varied, they expressed their insights in a sympathetic manner (Merrill 16).

The critical nature of the Neo-Assyrian period involved the preservation of the prophetic oracles as sacred literature. Although Jonah was not preoccupied with the preservation of oracles as sacred literature, it can be said that the judgment he reluctantly saw submerged in Yahweh’s compassionate nature reemerged in the era of the Neo-Assyrian prophets (Merrill 13).

The second group of prophetic books in the Old Testament can be referred to as the Neo-Babylonian prophetic books. These prophets and their books focused on the circumstances and events succeeding in the fall of the Southern Kingdom (Judah) in 586 B.C. The prophets spoke and criticized the rise of the Chaldean-inspired Babylonian empire. The Neo-Babylonian prophets include Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Nahum, and Obadiah (Bullock 14). These prophets contributed their distinctive insights to their contemporaries and delivered their message from the Lord to Judah (Bullock 14).