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LATE ISRAELITE PROPHECY SOCIETY O F BIBILICAL L I T E R A T U R E MONOGRAPH SERIES edited by Leander E . Keck Associate Editor James L . Crenshaw Number 23 LATE ISRAELITE PROPHECY: Studies in Deutero-Prophetic Literature and in Chronicles by David L . Petersen SCHOLARS PRESS Missoula, Montana LATE ISRAELITE PROPHECY: Studies in Deutero-Prophetic Literature and in Chronicles by David L . Petersen Published by SCHOLARS PRESS for The Society of Biblical Literature Distributed by SCHOLARS PRESS Missoula, Montana 59806 LATE ISRAELITE PROPHECY: Studies in Deutero-Prophetic Literature and in Chronicles by David L . Petersen Copyright ® 1977 by The Society of Biblical Literature Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Petersen, David L Late Israelite prophecy. (Monograph series—Society of Biblical Literature ; no. 23) Based on the author's thesis, Yale, 1972. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Bible. O.T. Prophets—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 2. Bible. O.T. Chronicles—Criticism, interpretation, etc. 1. Title. I I . Series: Society of Biblical Literature. Monograph series ; no. 23. BS1505.2.P47 1976 224'.06 76-26014 ISBN 0-89130-076-7 Printed in the United States of America Edwards Brothers. Inc. Ann Arbor. Michigan 48104 Preface This study is based upon a 1972 Yale Ph.D. dissertation from which it differs in both detail and theory. Several chapters of that earlier work have been excised for the sake of both economy and coherence. 1 am indebted to the University of Illinois for providing clerical and financial assistance, particularly Faculty Summer Fellowships in 1973 and 1974. Thanks are also due to W. R. Schoedel for wise prodding, B. S. Childs for helpful criticism, Charlann Winking for careful manuscript preparation, and especially to S. Dean Mc Bride for valuable assistance at numerous stages of this work. To the editors of the S B L Monograph, Leander Keck and James Crenshaw, I am also grateful for guidance. September 1975 Urbana, Illinois v Table of Contents Chapter I II Preface v Introduction 1 The Deutero-Prophetic Literature A. IV 13 C. Deutero-Prophetic Literature: Attempts at Definition Revision of the Prophetic Task— The Deutero-lsaianic Corpus An Anti-Prophetic Polemic 19 27 D. Prophecy in the Future 38 B. III Page 13 Chronicles and Levitical Prophets 55 A. B. CD. E. F. 55 64 68 77 85 86 Chronicles and Levitical Singers Heman, the King's Seer Levitical Prophets and Holy War Hezekiah's Temple Cleansing and the Levites Prophets to Levites Josiah's Passover and Levitical Singers Conclusions 97 vii Chapter I Introduction The study of Israelite prophecy has always been an important component of Old Testament scholarship and of ancient intellectual history. Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel have provoked comparisons with the ancient Greeks and the Sages of the East. These prophets were Israel's claim to a place in Jasper's axial age, a period of a few centuries in which a basic transforma tion of man's self-understanding took place. And yet many explanations and theories have developed about Israel's prophets in contrast with attempts to understand the other formative figures of this axial age. We know Plato to have been a peripatetic philosopher and Gautama Buddha, a mendicant sage; but the prophets have been labelled everything from unbalanced mantics to sober prophets of doom. One of the most puzzling features of Israelite prophecy is what numerous scholars have designated late Israelite prophecy