JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

eschatology
gin of Israel’s eschatology lay in Israel’s belief in its election by
God as the means by which He would establish His universal
reign over all mankind, combined with His promise to Israel
of its own land, “the Promised Land,” “the land of Canaan,” as
His pledge guaranteeing this promise.
Early Pre-Exilic Prophets
Among all the prophets of Israel, only the recorded oracles of
Amos and Hosea were uttered before the destruction of the
Northern kingdom of Israel (722 b.c.e.).
AMOS. The prophetic activity of *Amos took place in approximately
750 b.c.e., during the brief period of peace and prosperity
that both Israel and Judah enjoyed after Jeroboam II,
king of Israel (786–746), inflicted a decisive defeat (at an
uncertain date) on the Arameans of Damascus (II Kings
14:25–27). This prosperity led to various forms of social injustice,
whereby the relatively small class of rich landowners
and government officials oppressed the poor, as well as to an
indulgence by many of the people of both kingdoms in the
degrading practices of their pagan neighbors. With divinely
inspired foresight, Amos knew that these evils would bring
about a time of crisis when the wrath of God would condemn
to inevitable doom (Amos 1:3, 6, 9; et al.) not only the
pagan nations (1:3–2:3) but also Judah and especially Israel
(2:4–6:14). The prophet based his prediction of Israel’s and
Judah’s punishment on the much older concept of their election
by God as His “Chosen People”: “You only have I known
of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for
all your iniquities” (3:2).
In designating the time of God’s future punishment,
Amos was the first to call it “the *Day of the Lord” (yom
YHWH), a term that was taken up, with further developments
of the concept, by many of the later prophets (Isa. 13:6,
9; Ezek. 13:5; Joel 1:15; 2:1, 11; 3:4; 4:14; Obad. 15; Zeph. 1:7, 14;
Mal. 3:23), with variations such as “the day of the Lord’s fury”
(Zeph. 1:18), “that Day” (ha-yom ha-huʾ, Isa. 2:11; Zeph. 1:15), or
simply “the Day” (ha-yom, Mal. 3:19; cf. Ezek. 7:7). However,
Amos did not invent the term; it is clear from his reference
to it that it was already in popular use. Its origin is obscure,
and at first it may have had a military connotation, “the day
of the Lord’s victory over the enemies of His people” (cf. the
expression “the day of Midian” in Isa. 9:3, where, however, it
refers to Israel’s victory over the Midianites). In any case, at
the time of Amos the common people were using the term to
designate the time when their God would bring them complete
victory over their enemies and thus lead them into the
“light” of lasting peace and prosperity. The prophet turned
this expectation of theirs directly against them: “Woe to you
that desire the day of the Lord! Wherefore would you have the
day of the Lord (YHWH)? It is darkness, not light.… No, the
day of the Lord shall be darkness, not light, gloomy, devoid of
brightness” (5:18, 20). In 8:9–10 Amos enlarges on this theme:
“And on that day, says the Lord God, I will make the sun go
down at noon, and darken the earth in the clear day. And I
will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into
lamentation; I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness
on every head; and I will make it like the mourning for
an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.” While Amos
used the image of a midday eclipse of the sun merely in a figurative
sense, the eschatological oracles of later prophets (e.g.,
Isa. 13:10) developed this image into vast cosmic disturbances,
seemingly to be understood literally, that would accompany
the Day of the Lord.
Although for Amos the event initiating the new historical
era would be primarily one of punishment and destruction,
he includes, because he is aware of God’s fidelity to His
promises, the hope that for those who “seek the Lord” (5:4–6)
“it may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to
the remnant of Joseph” (5:14–15). Here again there occurs the
earliest use of a term, “the remnant” (she’erit; see *Remnant of
Israel), that was reused and at times received a different connotation
in later eschatological writings (Jer. 6:9; 31:7; Ezek.
9:8; et al.; sometimes also in the form sheʾar, Isa. 10:20–21; 11:11,
16; et al.). For Amos it designates those who will survive the
destruction of the Northern Kingdom.
In order that the Book of Amos might end on a more
positive note of hope, the last verses of the book (9:11–15),
concerning the restoration of Israel, were apparently added
by a post-Exilic editor. The later origin of this passage seems
probable because it presupposes that the Davidic dynasty has
come to an end and that the walls of Jerusalem have “breaches”
and the city is in “ruins” (9:11).
HOSEA. It is generally agreed that *Hosea, the only “writing”
prophet who was a native of the Northern Kingdom, was a
contemporary of Amos, although apparently a younger one,
for some of his oracles were probably delivered shortly before
the fall of Samaria, although none after that date (722 B.C.E.).
Like Amos, Hosea inveighed vigorously against the moral evils
in Israel. Yet his vehement threats of terrible punishments
(Hos. 2:3–7, 16–25; 5:14; 10:14–15; 13:7–8; et al.) are mingled
with generous promises of forgiveness and future happiness
(2:16–23; 6:1–3; 11:8–9; 12:6; 14:2–9; et al.); this is done with
such sudden and confusing transitions that some scholars
regard the book as a rather haphazard collection of Hosea’s
short oracles strung together by some later editor in complete
disorder, while others see in this a reflection on the Lord’s part
of the prophet’s own experience with his faithless wife (1:2–9;
3:1–3; cf. McKenzie, in CBQ, 17 (1955), 287–289).
If eschatology is understood in the broad sense of a dramatic
change from one historical period to an entirely different
one in the future, Hosea no doubt shows genuine eschatological
concepts. Some of these, which are original with him,
played an important role in later eschatological writings. Such,
for instance, is Hosea’s concept of renewal of God’s love for and
covenant with Israel as in the days following the Exodus from
Egypt (2:14–15; 11:1). The notable – and seminal – feature of this
new covenant is that it has a built-in guarantee against Israel’s
ever giving cause for its dissolution as it did with the original
covenant. With the covenant, Israel will receive a new nature
490 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6