Prophets of the Old Testament
In the Old Testament, the word "prophet" is the translation of the Hebrew "nabi", which in turn comes from a root meaning "bubbling", as the water from a fountain: the prophet discloses a message he received from others. The Prophet of God received the message from God, while the false prophets, also called "diviners", "soothsayers", "sorcerers" lied because their message was not given to them by God (Deuteronomy 13: 1-5, 18:10,).
In this general sense the entire Bible can be called "prophetic", because it was written by men who received the revelation they reported in their books directly from God by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, whatever its content (2 Peter 1:16 -21). The revelation of future events is not the main purpose of the Scriptures.
The word "nabi" in the plural can indicate some who were not God's spokesmen, but companions or followers of a prophet. In the time of Samuel there were men who accompanied and praised God, often singing in order to motivate the people to return to God (1 Samuel 10: 5, 10, 19:20). There were also followers of Elijah and Elisha which are formed into groups for support or to learn from these masters. They were called "sons of the prophets" (1 Kings 20:35).
Abraham was once called a prophet because he was allowed to pass a message from God on to Abimelech (Genesis 20: 7). Aaron was also declared to be a prophet by the Lord, but of his brother Moses (exodus 7: 1). We will not consider these.
We find 42 men and women identified in the Old Testament as "prophets of God", also called "seers" (1 Samuel 9: 9). Of these, sixteen wrote prophecies in books that took their name and were included in the canon inspired by the Holy Spirit, comprising four groups:
- Originating in the northern Kingdom (Israel): Joel, Jonah, Hosea, Amos.
- Originating in southern Kingdom (Judah): Isaiah, Jeremiah, Obadiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah.
- The prophets of captivity: Ezekiel and Daniel:
- The prophets of restoration: Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi
We have tried to classify them all in chronological order by the date on which they would have begun to prophesy, although in many cases there are few indications and we had to infer an approximate date for the content of the message and any other indications. If the date of birth and decease isn't known we have given an estimate only.
So we have compiled the following list, and you may click on the underlined names to get more information on each of these prophets (the rest will appear gradually in due course):
Year BC |
Name |
Reference |
3382/3017 |
Genesis 5:21-24; Jude 1: 14. |
2948/199 |
Genesis 9: 25-27. |
|
1996/1821 |
Genesis 20: 7 |
|
1836/1689 |
Genesis 49: 1 |
|
1571/1451 |
Deuteronomy 18: 18. |
|
1582/1452 |
Exodus 15:20 |
|
1285. |
Judges 4: 4. |
|
1245. |
Judges 6: 8. |
|
1127. |
1 Samuel 2:27. |
|
1136/1056 |
1 Samuel 3:20. |
|
1085/1015 |
Psalm 16: 8-11. Acts 2:25 -31 |
|
1080/1010 |
1 Samuel 22: 5; 1Chronicles 29: 29. |
|
1070/1005 |
2 Samuel 7: 2; 12: 1; 1Kings-1:10. |
|
1060/985 |
2 Samuel 15:27. |
|
1050/975 |
2 Chronicles 35: 15. |
|
1020/955 |
1 Kings 11:29; 12:15; 2 Chronicles 9:29 |
|
1015/950 |
1 Kings 12: 22; 2 Cronicles 11: 2, 7. |
|
1013/975 |
2 Chronicles 9:29, 12:15. |
|
1013/975 |
1 Kings 13. |
|
978/918 |
2 Chronicles 15: 1-7. |
|
1005/930 |
2 Chronicles 16: 7-10. |
|
972/895 |
1 Kings 16: 1-7, 2 Chronicles 19: 2, 20:34. |
|
950/885 |
1 Kings 22: 8-2 |
|
949/896 |
1 Kings 17: 1. |
|
920/830 |
Joel1: 1; Acts 2: 16. |
|
915/839 |
1 Kings 19:16. |
|
848/775 |
2Kings 14:25; Jonah 1: 1; Matthew 12:39- 41: 16:4; Luke 11:29-3 |
|
780/680 |
2 Kings 19,20. 2 Cronicles 26: 22; 32:20-32; Isaiah. 1: 1. |
|
790/690 |
Hosea 1: 1. |
|
800/720 |
Amos 1: 1; 7:14-15. |
|
775/705 |
2 Chronicles 28:9. |
|
775/705 |
Micah 1: 1. |
|
660/600 |
Zephaniah 1: 1. |
|
655/585 |
2 Kings 22:14. |
|
620/540 |
Obadiah 1:1 . |
|
700/630 |
Nahum 1: 1 |
|
645/580 |
Habakkuk 1: 1. |
|
| 659/569 | Jeremiah | 2 Chronicles 36:12,21. Jeremiah 1:1.2. |
| 629/559 | Ezekiel | Ezekiel 1:3. |
| 605/530 | Daniel | Daniel 12:11. Matthew 24:15. |
| 580/510. | Haggai | Ezra 5:1; 6:14. Haggai 1:1. |
| 560/490 | Zechariah | Son of Iddo. Ezra 5:1; Zechariah 1:1 |
| 456/386 | Malachi | Malachi 1:1. |