A lengthy work that details the Prophets special relationship to the divine by presenting a unique view of God’s care for man, refuting ideas that the “God of the Old Testament” is wrathful, presenting and refuting modern explanations for the prophets behaviour and what makes the prophets of Israel so unique

I wish I could spilt this book into two parts. I enjoyed the portions of the book which focused on the biblical and theological analysis of the prophets, which was 3/4 of the book. I didn’t understand why Heschel included the other portions, which focused on history, psychology, or other fields of study outside of Jewish thought and and biblical analysis. I felt that those inclusions were very forced and at times lacked cohesiveness and relations to the main subject matter. For that reason, my views are split between giving 4 stars to the portions I liked, and 2 stars to the parts I found hard to read through. So, average that out to a 3 star read.

Focusing on the positive, I found Heschel’s interpretation of the Old Testament prophets and their messages very insightful. While explaining the meaning of the prophets’ words as they pertained to a particular point in the history of Israel, Heschel also extracted and applied the messages as they could be understood in a universal mode. I especially admired how beautifully he described the relationship between God, the prophet, and the people as a personable relationship. The main theme being concern: the concern God had for his people and justice, and the concern the prophets had for their contemporaries to change their ways towards justice and repenting from their sins to God.

This book was a text for a course, "Interpreting the Hebrew Bible II." I honestly wasn't looking forward to spending a lot of time with the prophets. They seemed so depressing, judgemental, and vindictive. Between the wonderful professor and this book, I came to see a whole other side of these books. Herschel comes across as knowing these somewhat difficult to approach figures as old, beloved friends. He helps see the human side and context the prophets lived in. He shows how there is a lot of positive mixed with the judgement and condemnations that gets drowned out without careful attention. There is a lot to see that takes a lot of work. Many of the prophets advocated social justice and much of what they say still resonates today. It is easy to let the doomsaying drown out the positive but Heschel brings out the more positive and human side of the prophets in a powerful way.

Heschel was brilliant.