How to Read the Old Testament Prophets: Setting, Oracles and Where to Start

Why the prophets are hard

The prophets make up nearly a quarter of the Old Testament, and they are where many reading plans die. Three things make them difficult. They are mostly poetry, not narrative, so there is no story line to follow. They are collections of speeches, not books written in one go, so the subject can change mid-chapter. And they assume you know the history they are speaking into — history that is actually told in 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles.

Fix the third problem and the other two become manageable.

Major and minor prophets

"Major" and "minor" refer to length, not importance. The major prophets are the five long books (counting Lamentations with Jeremiah). The twelve minor prophets were copied onto a single scroll in ancient Judaism, called the Book of the Twelve. Amos, with nine chapters, is minor; it is also one of the most quoted in the New Testament and in speeches about justice.

The three historical settings

After Solomon, the kingdom split into Israel in the north and Judah in the south. Nearly every prophet speaks into one of three crises. Knowing which one turns an obscure chapter into a speech with an audience.

How to read an oracle

An oracle is a single prophetic speech, often beginning "Thus says Yahweh" and running from a few verses to a chapter. Most chapters contain several. Reading them well comes down to a few habits.

• Find the unit. Look for the formulas "Hear this word", "Thus says Yahweh" or "Woe to..." — each usually starts a new oracle. Read one unit at a time.
• Name the kind. Most oracles are judgement (an accusation followed by a sentence) or salvation (a promise of restoration). Some are laments or visions.
• Ask who is addressed: Israel, Judah, a foreign nation, a king, the priests.
• Name the charge. The complaints are strikingly consistent: idolatry, injustice to the poor, and empty worship. "But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amos 5:24, WEB).
• Read the poetry as poetry. Images like mountains melting are pictures of God's power, not weather reports.
• Look for the "yet". Almost every prophet who announces judgement also announces a restoration beyond it.

Prediction is only part of it

Prophets are often thought of as predictors, but most of what they say is addressed to their own generation: a call to return to God and act justly. Micah summed it up: "What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?" (Micah 6:8, WEB). Predictions are there too — about the exile, the return, and the coming of a Messiah that the New Testament sees fulfilled in Jesus. Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, in How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth, estimate that less than 2% of the prophetic material is messianic and less than 1% concerns events still future to us.

So read for the prophet's first message before you look for a later fulfilment. When the New Testament quotes a prophet — Isaiah 53 in Acts 8, Micah 5:2 in Matthew 2 — read the whole chapter it came from; you will see much more than a single proof text.

A suggested starting order

Don't read the prophets in Bible order on your first pass. Start short and concrete, then build up to the long books.

• Jonah (4 chapters) — a narrative, not oracles; an easy way in, and a prophet who doesn't want God to be merciful.
• Amos (9 chapters) — a farmer from Judah preaching to prosperous Israel about injustice. Clear, direct oracles.
• Habakkuk (3 chapters) — a prophet arguing with God about why evil wins, ending in trust.
• Haggai (2 chapters) — a dated, practical message to returned exiles: rebuild the temple.
• Isaiah 40-55 — the great chapters of comfort to the exiles, beginning "Comfort, comfort my people" (Isaiah 40:1, WEB).
• Then Jeremiah, Isaiah 1-39, Ezekiel and the rest, with 2 Kings 17-25 read alongside for the history.