also,) signifies to spring forth, to gush forth, the Hiphil a being used of speech flowing forth from a full heart.

then means, not, as it is now usually explained, that which is spoken (or more precisely, gushed forth) by the Divine Spirit, but (see Ewald, Ausf. Lehrbuch, § 149 e, 2) the speaker -yet not in an active sense, but, as is shown by the passive form, him who is the speaker as the instrument of another, viz. God. The is the interpreter (comp. Ex. vii. 1: “I have made thee a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy," which is expressed iv. 16: "he shall be to thee for a mouth"); hence the speech of the prophet, as being determined by the spiritual power which fills and incites him, is designated by the passive or reflective forms Niphal and Hithpael 2, N2 (comp. Ewald, id. § 124 a). Among those spiritual gifts by which Jehovah fits men for the different callings which the service of His kingdom requires (comp. § 65), the gift of prophecy is that which institutes a direct personal intercourse between God and man; and prophecy thus becomes, through God's self-witness to the prophet, the type of the teaching of His people by God Himself under the new covenant, Jer. xxxi. 34, John vi. 45. The operation of the Divine Spirit, however, upon the prophet, was not merely intellectual, but one which renewed the whole man. prophet became another man, 1 Sam. x. 6, and received another heart, ver. 9. Thus prophecy was also an anticipation of the Kain Krious of the new covenant,-a circumstance which explains the saying of Moses, Num. xi. 29: "Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!" (4).

The

The first beginnings of prophecy reach back to the times before Samuel (comp. Jer. vii. 25). For Moses, though standing far above all prophets (Num. xii. 6-8, comp. § 66) as mediator of the fundamental revelation and administrator of the entire Divine economy, as well as by reason of that nearer vision of God vouchsafed to him as a special

privilege, was himself a prophet (comp. Deut. xxxiv. 10, Hos. xii. 14), and that not merely in the broader sense in which the word was already applied to the patriarchs (Gen. xx. 7, Ps. cv. 15), because the word of God came to and proceeded from them, but in its proper signification, as partaking of that endowment of the Spirit which constitutes a prophet (Num. xi. 25) (5). As well as Moses, his sister Miriam is also

called, Ex. xv. 20,

?, which must not be explained as singer (or poet), for she expressly claims (Num. xii. 2) the honour that the Lord had spoken by her (6). In the earlier times of the judges, the gift of prophecy appeared but occasionally; in the person of Deborah, who is called (Judg. iv. 4) the prophetess because (vers. 6 and 14) the word of the Lord came. by her, it was united to the office of judge. By the raste, ii. 1, we must probably understand not a human messenger, but the angel of the Lord. On the other hand, it is a prophet who appears, xi. 7, during the Midianite oppression, to remind the Israelites of their deliverance from Egypt, and to reprove them for their idolatry. In like manner does a "man of God" (1 Sam. ii. 27) exercise the office of a rebuker of the high priest Eli and his family, entirely in the manner of the later prophets. There must also, as may be inferred from ix. 9, have been from time to time seers (, as they were usually called, instead of 2), with whom counsel was taken in private affairs, but of whom a more extensive sphere of operation cannot be assumed. It cannot be proved from Amos ii. 11 that the schools of the prophets existed before Samuel, as has been conjectured, e.g. by Vatke (Religion des alten Testaments, p. 285 sqq.); nor from the fact that Samuel was a Nazarite as well as a prophet (7), that prophecy being thus combined with Nazaritism, these schools of the prophets existed in the form of ascetic associations, into which many retired during those troublous times. This absence of proof is increased by the manner in which the period preceding Samuel is characterized, 1 Sam. iii. 1, as one devoid of prophets, by the words:

"The word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision."

(1) See my article Prophetenthum des A. T. in Herzog's Realencyclop. xii. p. 211 sqq. A notice of the literature on the prophetic office in general, is given in Keil's Lehrbuch der historisch-kritischen Einl. ins A. T. sec. ii. p. 192.

(2) The prophet, however, receives, like Moses, the word of the Lord directly, and is therefore not the disciple of Moses, but in (§ 205), the immediate instrument of Jehovah. (3) In both respects, prophecy is one of the highest proofs of favour which God shows to His people, and is placed on a level (Amos ii. 11, Hos. xii. 10 sq.) with their deliverance from Egypt and their subsequent leading through the wilderness.

(4) It is for this very reason that that outpouring of the Spirit which calls into existence the future church of the redeemed, in which all are directly taught of God and bear His law within them as a sanctifying vital power (Jer. xxxi. 34), is represented as a universal bestowal of the gift of prophecy (Joel iii. 1). These general propositions will be further carried out in the subsequent didactic section (§ 205 sqq.).

(5) If the history of the Old Testament revelation advances from theophany to inspiration (comp. § 55), the latter as well as the former is already found in Moses.

(6) Joshua, whom the son of Sirach, xlvi. 1, designates as διάδοχος Μωυσῆ ἐν προφητείαις, is never called '.

(7) This much only can be said, that Nazaritism may have become more widely diffused in the period of the judges by the examples of Samuel and Samson. The commotions of the times may have the more powerfully induced individuals, by undertaking this vow, to present to the people the image of their sacred and priestly destination. The expression, Amos ii. 11, “I raised up," etc., as well as what is said ver. 12, points to the contrast in which such God-devoted persons stood to the mass of the people.

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The so-called Schools of the Prophets. The Prophetic Office of Watchman.

In the times of Samuel, on the contrary, a greater number of prophets appear, in consequence of the powerful spiritual movement by which the nation was affected. These gathered round Samuel, and formed the so-called schools of the prophets. These institutions, concerning which every possible theory has been subsequently held, have been regarded by some as monastic brotherhoods, by others as secret societies, by othersand this view, expressed in their ordinary designation as schools of the prophets, is the most widely spread-as educational establishments (1). They make their appearance at only two periods of Israelite history, viz. in the days of Samuel, and in the kingdom of the ten tribes in the times of Elijah and Elisha (2). The purpose of these schools of the prophets, and apparently their arrangements being very different under Samuel and in the days of Elijah, the two accounts must be considered separately.

We first meet with (1 Sam. x. 5-12) a number (527, properly a band) of prophets coming with instruments of music from the high place (2) of Gibeah in the tribe of Benjamin, and prophesying (3). It is not said that these prophets had also a dwelling at this high place; they seem rather to have been journeying to the place of worship found there (Thenius, in loc., thinks otherwise). We next find, xix. 19 sqq., an assembly (p) of prophets prophesying, with Samuel at their head, at Ramah in (Keri ni), i.e. dwellings, which expres sion denotes a place of residence consisting of several habitations, and consequently a college of prophets (4). There is no reason for supposing a school properly so called. The prophetic gift was not to be engendered by instruction (it was not the product of study and reflection, but the immediate effect of

the Divine Spirit). It must also be noticed that prophets (D) assembled around Samuel are here spoken of, not, as subsequently, sons of the prophets, D-an expression denoting disciples of the prophets (comp. § 174). By this assembly of prophets, then, we understand rather an association of prophets drawn together by the leading of the Spirit, and among whom the prophetic gift was cherished by sacred exercises performed in common. This view of the matter leads us to infer that Samuel desired, in those days when the sanctuary, deprived of the ark, was no longer the central point of the theocracy, to found here a home for the newly kindled religious life of the nation. The extraordinary manifestations in which the prophetic inspiration displayed itself, and the overwhelming and irresistible influence it exercised on all who came within its circle, are common to this first appearance of prophecy, and to the early vigour of kindred spiritual movements (5). There is not a hint that the association of prophets at Ramah consisted chiefly, as some have supposed, of Levites, no privileges of birth being in this respect of any avail,—a circumstance alluded to x. 12 (6). Nor can it be legitimately inferred that the cultivation of vocal and instrumental music was a direct end of this union, musicians being in fact distinguished, ver. 10, from prophets. Music was designed, on the one hand, to prepare the mind for the apprehension of the Divine voice (comp. 2 Kings iii. 15); on the other, to be a vehicle for the utterance of the prophetic inspiration (7). That sacred literature was also cherished in this association at Ramah, may be regarded as certain, for prophetic authorship undoubtedly begins with Samuel,—at first, indeed, in the form of theocratic history (8). (For lack of further information, nothing more can be said concerning the internal arrangements of the schools of the prophets, or, to speak more correctly, of the association of the prophets in Samuel's time, for the existence of any other college than that at Ramah cannot be proved.) The public and powerful agency exercised from this time forward by