another connexion we shall have to speak of how He causes it to triumph over wrong and sin, even if this involves the giving up and destruction of His own people. Here it may suffice to refer to one other illustration of how widely the genuine Prophetical judgment of things differs from that of the mass of the people of Israel. Jehu’s extir- pation of Baal worship in Israel was carried out with terrible bloodshed. The early narrative of 2K 9. 10 evidently saw in this a i aadable ‘zeal for Jahweh’ (1015), and the Deuteronom. redactor, who on this point represents the general opinion of Israel in the supposed interest of the Jahweh religion, makes Jahweh Himself declare to Jehu (v.*°) that he has done what is well-pleasing in His eyes, and has treated the house of Ahab entirely after His mind. Quite different is the judgment of Hosea (1*). To him it appears impossible that blood-guiltiness should not be called blood-guilti- ness simply because it assumes the title of zeal for Jahweh. And so the prophet threatens that the blood-guiltiness of Jezreel shall be avenged on the house of Jehu, by the destruction of the kingdom of Israel and the shattering of her military power in the Plain of Jezreel.
(8) As was remarked above (p. 681°), the con- viction of the prophets regarding other attributes of God presents itself, not in express definitions, but rather (apart from certain Divine names) * in casual utterances about His activity and the occurrences which He brings about. Thus we have His absolute omnipotence (which is already, if only in a general way, presupposed in such early passages as Gn 18!4, Nu 11%, 1S 14°), which shows itself in His unconditioned supremacy over all, even the mightiest, peoples of earth (see above, p- 6814), but no less also in such remarkable pas- sages as Is 72. The whole context of this last passage permits of no other view than that Isaiah holds with unshaken confidence, that whatever Ahaz may demand from Jahweh as a confirmatory sign, be 1t as great a wonder as it may, Jahweh will bring it to pass. So firm a belief is with diffi- culty conceivable by us, because our judgment is influenced by all the dogmatic considerations about the possibility and the limits of miracles as a ‘violation of the laws of nature’—laws which, however, are imposed by God Himself. Such con- siderations, it is plain, never crossed the prophets’ minds. Of ‘miracles’ in the sense familiar to us they know nothing. They are acquainted with extraordinary occurrences and actions (nix?53) which transcend the ordinary course of things, but to them nothing is so extraordinary as to be beyond the sphere of Jahweh’s power (Jer 32”). This conviction is a self-evident result of their notion of God; the idea of the Divine omnipotence is a postulate of their faith long before language had coined a special term for this attribute. Such a term could be dispensed with all the more readily, seeing that allusions to the Divine omnipotence served not scholastic speculations, but prominent religious interests; they brought consolation to the godly, who could now unreservedly trust to the help of their God; they were meant to instil
further, Kautzsch, Ueber die Derivate des Stammes zadaq im alttest. Sprachgebrauch, Tiibingen, 1881; G. Martin, La notin de la justice de Dieu dans Pancien Testament, Montauban, 1892; G. Dalman, Die richterliche Gerechtigheit im AT’, Berlin, 1897; Bouwman, Het begrip gerechtigheid in het Oude Testa- ment, Kampen, 1899. :
* On the title Jahweh Zébd’sth as used by the prophets in allusion to the supramundane power and glory of Jahweh, cf. above, pp. 637> and 680». Of., further, the designation of Jahweh as bean Vax ‘the strong One of Israel’ (Is 174); and as 738 ‘rock’ (Is 1710 3029 ; elsewhere in the later passages, 264 448, Dt 324. 15. 18. 30. 31. 37, 18 22, 28 223.82. 47 233, and 14 times in the Psalms; cf. Wiegand, ‘Der Gottesname zér,’ etc. in ZATW x. [1890] 86 ff.; and art. Rock in vol. iv. of the present work).
684 RELIGION OF ISRAEL
RELIGION OF ISRAEL
terror into the hearts of sinners, whom nothing could deliver from this God’s mighty arm.
(y, 6) Precisely similar remarks apply to the occasional allusions to the omnipresence and omniscience of God. That the first named of these could be regarded only with reference to the Divine activity (7.e. God’s cognition and Provi- dential care) and not of the Divine substance, has been already remarked ; and for the OT conception of God this 1s self-evident, in sofar as any approach to pantheistic notions would destroy, or at least greatly endanger, the idea of the living Personality, which forms the inmost kernel of the conception in question. But this does not prevent His care from always following His people, or, on the other hand, His eye from penetrating all darkness, so that there is no secret corner where the workers of iniquity can remain unseen by Jahweh (Jer 234), If in this last statement the idea of omni- presence already touches that of omniscience, still more is this the case with the declarations about Jahweh as One who can see into the most hidden depths of the human heart. He penetrates the secret plans of the Judeeans with reference to an alliance with Egypt, however carefully they may seek in their folly to conceal these from Him (Is 29%) ; He it is that searches the heart, tries the reins, to recompense every man according to his works, according to the fruit of his deeds (Jer 17°), And this applies not only to Israel, but He alone knows the heart of al? men. But the strongest evidence of the firmness of the belief in the omnipresence and omniscience of God, and at the same time the most significant fruit of this faith, is the conviction (already felt in the pre- ‘ceding period) that Jahweh hears, and for the most part also answers, the prayers of His people.* This conviction meets us everywhere in the Pro- phets, most markedly perhaps in Jeremiah’s mani- fold communion in prayer with his God, but in every case aS a conviction that is a matter of course. All the more on that account may it be reckoned among the evidences that the religion of Israel, at an early date and in quite a special way through the influence of the pre-exilic prophets, was filled with an imperious desire to burst the barriers of a merely national religion, and to pave the way to a worship of God in spirit and in truth, such as should satisfy the deepest longings of every individual soul that drew near to this God.