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eschatology
kingship of Judah, as they knew it, in high esteem, they must
have been aware of the constant tradition based on Nathan’s
oracle concerning the perpetual endurance of the Davidic dynasty
(II Sam. 7:12–16; Ps. 89:20–38; see *Messiah).
Like Hosea 2:20, 23–25, Isaiah describes the peace of the
Messianic age as a return to the happiness of the Garden of
Eden, where all creatures, wild beasts as well as men, would
live in tranquil harmony; “for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (11:6–9).
MICAH. Contemporaneous with Isaiah, *Micah, a native of
Moresheth in Judah, apparently had a much shorter prophetic
ministry. Like Isaiah, he looked forward, in a broader eschatological
sense, to an ideal ruler (the basis of Royal Messianism)
who would be of the Davidic dynasty, coming from David’s
native town of Beth-Lehem (5:1–3).
The theme of Mount Zion’s eventually becoming the religious
center of all mankind, which is further developed in
later Jewish eschatology, is first enunciated in a prophecy that
is given, in almost identical words, in both Micah 4:1–4 and
Isaiah 2:2–4. Some scholars hold that this prophecy is not original
in either Micah or Isaiah, but that it was inserted in both
books from some common source by a later editor. Yet there
is no solid reason for assigning a post-Exilic date to it. Interestingly
enough, in the post-Exilic book of Joel, where there
is a description of the eschatological war that will be waged
between the Lord and His pagan enemies, the classical words
of the earlier oracle describing universal peace are turned into
the directly opposite sense: “Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning-hooks into spears” (Joel 4:10).
ZEPHANIAH. The prophet *Zephaniah probably uttered his
oracles at about 640–603 B.C.E., in the first decade of the reign
of King Josiah of Judah, a turbulent period when the idolatry
and general wickedness of the people of Judah, combined
with the political folly of Jerusalem’s leaders in favoring the
declining power of Assyria, led him to believe that “the great
day of the Lord is near” (Zeph. 1:14). The bold imagery he used
in describing this terrible “day” had much influence on later
Jewish eschatological writings. After depicting the destruction
of all the wicked on this day of doom (1:2–14), he cries out: “A
day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of
ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of
clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle
cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
I will bring distress on men, so that they shall walk like the
blind, because they have sinned against the Lord; their blood
shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung. Neither
their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the
day of the wrath of the Lord. In the fire of his jealous wrath,
all the earth shall be consumed; for a full, yea, sudden end he
will make of all the inhabitants of the earth” (1:15–18).
In genuine prophetic tradition, Zephaniah ascribes to
the Lord phrases such as “the remnant of My people” and “the
survivors of My nation” (2:9), adding “For I will leave in the
midst of you a people humble and lowly. They shall take ref-
uge in the name of the Lord, those who are left in Israel; they
shall do no wrong and utter no lies, nor shall there be found in
their mouth a deceitful tongue. For they shall pasture and lie
down, and none shall make them afraid” (3:12–13). However,
the final verses of the book (3:14–20) were probably added to
it in the Exile or in the post-Exilic period since they speak of
the gathering in of the scattered exiles of Zion.
NAHUM. Although the short Book of *Nahum, as such, consists
essentially of a hymn of victory over the fall of Nineveh
(612 B.C.E.), this hymn is introduced by an incomplete “alphabetic”
psalm (Nah. 1:2–8), in which God’s wrath is portrayed
in the vivid colors that are later employed in describing the
cosmic disturbances accompanying the great and terrible Day
of the Lord.
JEREMIAH. In the broad sense of eschatology as the “end”
of a given historical period that would be followed by a very
different one, the Book of *Jeremiah, despite its seemingly
disturbed sequence of poetic oracles and prose narratives
combined with later scribal accretions, can be considered as
practically eschatological throughout. Jeremiah clearly foresaw
that the kingdom of Judah was doomed, because most of
its people refused to give up their evil ways and their political
leaders resisted the Babylonians whom God had sent to punish
His people. One can almost speak of “realized eschatology”
in Jeremiah, since for the prophet the doom was so imminent
as to be felt as already present. Sixteen of his oracles
begin with the expression hinneh yamim baʾim (“Behold, the
days are coming when…”; 7:32; 9:24; 16:14; 19:6; et al.), which
for Jeremiah is almost the equivalent of the eschatological
term “at the end of days,” when the imminent and actual invasion
of the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar (cf. 15:1–4;
34:8–22; 37:3–10; et al.) will take place.
Yet even when the situation looked utterly hopeless for
Judah, the prophet still believed that in God’s mercy a remnant
would survive the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem
(32:1–15), just as he had expected a reprieve for the remnant
left in the Northern Kingdom (3:11–18) and a restoration of
Judah’s exiles taken to Babylonia in the first deportation of 597
b.c.e. (24:1–10). Like Isaiah and Micah a century before his
time, Jeremiah looked forward to the continuity of the Davidic
dynasty in an ideal king of the future (23:5–6). (In the
symbolic name that the prophet gives to the new, ideal king,
YHWH ẓidekenu (ẓideqenu) (Heb. ּונקֵ דְ ִצ הוהי), there is most
likely an intentional allusion – with obvious inversion – to
the name of the last, wicked king of Judah, Zedekiah (Heb.
ּוהָ ּיִ קְ דִצ).) Moreover, Jeremiah, obviously inspired by Hosea
2:21–22, foresaw that Israel’s reestablishment would entail a
renewal of the ancient Sinaitic covenant in such a way that
it would bring about a true change of heart, a new, interior
spirituality (31:31–34).
Exilic and Post-Exilic Prophets
During the Babylonian exile and in the centuries that followed
the gradual return of the Jewish exiles to the land of
492 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6