The earlier part of the period from the Exodus to the fall of the house of Omri was a time oi warfare with external enemies till J" gave His people rest under David ; and it has been thought that the name '■/" of Busts,' or fully, 'J", God "J Hosts ' (mxjs ■nS.x '•), may have arisen durins; this time of conllict^th^ ' hosts ' being those of Israel. It is strange that tfle name is not found in the Hex., appearing in Samuel, and particularly in the prophets. It is possible that the title had some concrete origin such as is suggested, ami that it did not originally refer to the hosts of heaven, whether stars or angels, nor to the general cosmic forces of the universe. In the prophets, however, there is certainly no reference to the hosts of Israel. Between the time of the battle-cry, ' the sword of the Lord and of Gideon ' (Jg 7^), and the words of Isaiah, 'In returning and rest shall ye be saved ' (Is 3u"), a world hail passed away and a new one arisen. The ancient name 'J" of Hosts' wa.s used as the loftie>t name for J", suggesting His royal majesty and inlinite power ; but in all likelihood the prophets used the name as a single title without analyzing it, and never a-sking themselves wbal the 'hosts' were. J" of Hosts means God of the universe.* ■ (3) The Prophetic period. — J' was pre-eminently the God of human history, and it wits in thuii history that the peoi)le learned to know Hiin. The stages through which the history ran led tin- people's thoughts ever mor<» from the external to the inward in J". First, the victories He gave tlieni at the Exodus, at the entrance into Camuin, and in David's days, revealed the might of J'. Then, their defeats in after days, and the dis,solution of the state, gave them a sight into His inward being. No prophet or writer ever attributed Israel's disasters to the might of the nations or their gods ; they wore due to J' their God Himself. They were cliiu*ti.sements, revealing His mural being. And Hnally, in the depression that lay on them from the Exile, never uplifted, they learneil I" tran.scend both history and external condition^, and to know J" as a spiritual fellowship. Tln-y were ever with Him (Ps 73"). They were satislicd with His likeness (I's 17"); J' was God of the spirits of all llcsh (Nu Ui--' '27"). His alflictions had already enabled Jeremiah to reach this stage, in whom we see prophecy liansligiircd into piety.
Under Solomon, Israel entered into the circle ot civilized nations. His father David was a fervent Jehovist ; fervour was scarcely characteristic ol himself in any direction. As lie built liousea foi
• 8«r Kuutnch, ZA W. 183« ; PRIf a. ' ZoImoUi ■ : Boichf rt, SK. ismi
the ^'oils of the neighbouring peoples among whom ho found his wives, he cannot have been a U>gical liionollieist. Neither was Aliab this even a buiuired jears hiter, though there is no evi- dence, but the reverse, tliat lie abandoned the worship of J". The century after Solomon wit- nessed the complete absorption of the native popu- lation ; but if Israel subdued the Canaanites, it was in turn conquered by them. It inherited t'luir civilization, but the lieritage included a legacy of debased moral conceptions and practices. J' took possession of the native shrines, and so became God of the land ; but as He was wor- shipped where the liaals had been before, to many He might seem not unlike them. The confusion was increased by the fact that the name baal, i.e. 'lord,' was applied to J".* Processes had been going on for long of which we have no clear acc<iunt. It was in a way a fortunate thing that Ahab introduced the worship of the Tyvian Baal. It brought matters to a pass, and awoke men to see what was at stake. The persecution of the J" party was no doubt caused by their oiiposition, for Ahal) was no propagandist. Thougli Elijah was the spokesman of the party, he had a wide move- ment behind him. Obadiah, the chamberlain, hid 100 prophets of J" in caves (1 K I8<). The dis- aH'ection had invaded the army. When the people ' linii)ed between two opinions' (18'-'), it was a struggle between their own convictions and the influence of the court. Some Indeed, like the Ivechaliites, were more radical, seeing in the Baal worship only a feature of the Canaanite civiliza- tion accepted by Israel, which they would have swept away, returning to the ancient ideal of a nomadic life. And Hosea appears to express a similar sentiment when he says that J" shall allure Israel into the wilderness and give her her vineyards from there (2"-"). At last the spirit of revolt embodied itself in Jehu, and swept away the house of Oniri and Baal together. J" stood with no rival. It was a great though only an external victory. The scene of conflict now changes to the nature of J" Himself, and the conflict is waged by the canonical prophets.
The projiliets taught nothing new about J",t though, with history as their lesson-book, they taught many things more clearly. And to many who had been blind to J'"s operations in the past, what they taught may have seemed strange ami even incredible. Each prophet has some special truth about J" to declare, and the truth is per- haps a reflection of his own kind of mind. But as the separate colours combine to form the pure light, all their separate truths unite to reveal the full nature of J", for it takes many human minds to make up the divine mind. The prophets, like their predecessors, are, first of all, seers ; their function is to foresee and predict ; their teaching about the nature of J" only sustains their pre- dictions. The simultaneous rise of four men such as Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Micah, each inde- pendent of all tlie others, is a mystery. Amos says, 'The Lord God doeth nothing without r>!vealing his counsel to his servants the pro- phets' (3"). But the revelation was probably in some way me<liated. Did the prophet's ear catch distant sounds of movements among the nations, unheard by other ears ? or was it their thought of J", ever becoming more powerful and engrossing, that led them to project the calamitous future ? Probably it was both combined. It is usually argiied that the prophets reached their mono- theism along the line of the ethical conception