{"id":2852,"date":"2024-08-18T19:12:16","date_gmt":"2024-08-18T23:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/?p=2852"},"modified":"2026-02-02T12:51:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T16:51:14","slug":"prophets-of-the-old-testament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/08\/18\/prophets-of-the-old-testament\/","title":{"rendered":"Prophets of the Old Testament"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you ask someone today what biblical prophets did, he or she will likely tell you that they divinely foretold of future events. While this was often the case, most prophets in the Bible focused as much on “forthtelling” God’s messages as they did on “foretelling” the future. That is, their primary role was to simply “forthtell” divinely acquired messages to leaders and groups of people, and at times that included foretelling of coming judgment, blessing, rescue, etc. Also, though plenty of prophets (sometimes called “seers” in Scripture) often spoke in confrontational or eccentric language that put them at odds with kings and religious leaders, the biblical writers also applied the term prophet<\/em> to people who communicated God’s messages in ways that many readers today might not think of as prophecy, such as worship leaders appointed by David to “prophesy with lyres, harps, and cymbals” (1 Chronicles 25:1). Similarly, the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings are typically categorized as history by Christians, but in the Hebrew canon they belong to the category of Former Prophets. The Lord raised up prophets throughout all of biblical history, from the giving of the law under Moses to the revelation of the last days by the apostle John, and the kings of Israel and Judah often recognized and supported specific people as official prophets of the royal court and consulted them to find out God’s perspective about official matters. Following is a list of nearly everyone designated as prophet<\/em> or seer<\/em> in the Old Testament and the primary area of their ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prophets before 800 B.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Deborah (1216 B.C.) [Judges 4:4] => Baal-tamar?
\u2022 Samuel (1070 B.C.) [1 Samuel 3:20; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 35:18] => Ramah
\u2022 Gad (1018 B.C.) [2 Samuel 24:11; 1 Chronicles 21:9; 29:29; 2 Chronicles 29:25] => Masada?
\u2022 Nathan (1000 B.C.) [2 Samuel 12:1; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 29:25] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Asaph (1000 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 29:30] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Ahijah (935 B.C.) [1 Kings 11:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Shemaiah (930 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 12:2-15] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Iddo (913 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 9:29; 12:15; 13:22] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Jehu son of Hanani (890 B.C.) [1 Kings 16:1-7; 2 Chronicles 19:2] => Samaria?
\u2022 Azariah (890 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 15:1-8] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Elijah (860 B.C.) [1 Kings 18:36] => Samaria
\u2022 Micaiah (853 B.C.) [1 Kings 22:8-23; 2 Chronicles 18:7-22] => Samaria
\u2022 Jahaziel (853 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 20:14] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Eliezer (853 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 20:37] => Mareshah
\u2022 Elisha (850 B.C.) [1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 2:15] => Samaria
\u2022 Joel (835 B.C.) [Joel 1:1] => Jerusalem<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2913 download hi-res file<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prophets after 800 B.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2022 Zechariah (796 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 24:20] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Jonah (780 B.C.) [2 Kings 14:25; Jonah 1:1] => Gath-hepher, Nineveh
\u2022 Hosea (770 B.C.) [Hosea 1:1] => Samaria?
\u2022 Amos (760 B.C.) [Amos 1:1] => Bethel
\u2022 Oded (733 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 28:6-15] => Samaria
\u2022 Isaiah (730 B.C.) [2 Kings 19:2; 20:1; 2 Chronicles 26:22; 32:20, 32; Isaiah 1:1] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Micah (730 B.C.) [Jeremiah 26:18; Micah 1:1] => Moresheth
\u2022 Nahum (650 B.C.) [Nahum 1:1] => Elkosh (Capernaum?)
\u2022 Zephaniah (630 B.C.) [Zephaniah 1:1] => Jerusalem?
\u2022 Huldah (630 B.C.) [2 Kings 22:14] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Habakkuk (600 B.C.) [Habakkuk 1:1; 3:1] => Jerusalem?
\u2022 Ezekiel (592 B.C.) [Ezekiel 1:3] => Babylonia\/Chebar River
\u2022 Uriah (600 B.C.) [Jeremiah 26:20] => Kiriath-jearim
\u2022 Jeremiah (587 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 36:12; Jeremiah 1:1; 19:14] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Obadiah (586 B.C.) [Obadiah 1:1] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Daniel (560 B.C.) [Daniel 7:1; Matthew 24:15] => Babylon
\u2022 Haggai (520 B.C.) [Ezra 5:1; Haggai 1:1] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Zechariah (520 B.C.) [Ezra 5:1; Zechariah 1:1] => Jerusalem
\u2022 Malachi (432 B.C.) [Malachi 1:1] => Jerusalem?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u2913 download hi-res file<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you ask someone today what biblical prophets did, he or she will likely tell you that they divinely foretold of future events. While this was often the case, most prophets in the Bible focused as much on “forthtelling” God’s messages as they did on “foretelling” the future. That is, their primary role was to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21,13,9,15,17,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assyrianperiod","category-babylonianperiod","category-dividedmonarchyperiod","category-judgesperiod","category-oldtestament","category-persianperiod","category-unitedmonarchyperiod","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbsXLW-K0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2852"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4006,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2852\/revisions\/4006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblemapper.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}