The Twelve Minor Prophets Figures

Meet the Cast

God

Yahweh is back, and this time it’s not personal. Instead, the God of the Minor Prophets is in the business of building a nation, even if he has to destroy it first.God makes his priorities clear...

The Twelve Prophets

The twelve Minor Prophets are the Seven Dwarves of the Hebrew Bible. Sure, they don’t match the size of their prophetic counterparts and they’re far less well known to the world at large, but t...

Hosea

What do you call the man who has a thing for women who openly cheat on him? Well, lots of things, actually, but the one that’s suitable for biblical Shmoop is none other than “the prophet Hosea...

Joel

The prophet Joel is ancient Israel’s number one writer of socially conscious science fiction. Grubs and grasshoppers that invade homes. Ravaging locusts that transform into armies and destroy the...

Amos

Many scholars believe that Amos was the earliest of all of the biblical prophets to have his words put in writing—minor, major or somewhere in-between. Although Hosea is believed to have arrived...

Obadiah

Obadiah is the Minor Prophets’ one-chapter wonder, taking all of twenty-one verses to declare Yahweh’s coming judgment on yet another country that has done God’s people wrong.Total destructio...

Jonah

Jonah is God’s man on the run. The Assyrians have invaded Israel, making life miserable for everyone concerned (everyone, that is, except the Assyrians), yet God tells Jonah to give the Assyrians...

Micah

Put Hosea, Joel and Amos in a blender et voila, it’s the prophet Micah. A lowly country bumpkin taking on the professional prophets from the big city? Check.Covenant lawsuits? Affirmative.God cha...

Nahum

So there you are, an ancient Assyrian, and Yahweh uses you as a holy weapon of judgment on his disobedient people. You do your job, sack their homes, carry them off to who knows where, and what doe...

Habakkuk

“Are we there yet?” “Why is the sky blue?”“Why did God let my puppy die?”These and other questions from the apocryphal Baby Book of Habakkuk explain a lot about the Habakkuk that made i...

Zephaniah

Zephaniah’s classy ancestry is laid out right at the start: he’s descended from the Judean king Hezekiah. He lived during Jeremiah’s time, and was a fan of the reformist King Josiah. His lang...

Haggai

The Jewish people are coming home to Jerusalem after seventy years of Babylonian exile, so what’s the first thing a responsible prophet of God should do?That’s right—hit ‘em up for donation...

Zechariah

As the son of a priest, Iddo, Zechariah’s interested in the restoration of the high priests and the holy Temple in Jerusalem. But Zechariah is two, count ‘em, two Minor Prophets in one.In the f...

Malachi

Malachi is the last of the Hebrew prophets until the time when Yahweh is going to judge the world, and he’s not particularly happy about it. Sure, the temple’s back in operation, but God’s pe...

Politicians and Priests

The Minor Prophets have a lot to say about religious and government leaders. Seldom is heard an encouraging word when it comes to having positive things to say about them, but there are at least a...

Gomer and Her Family

Hosea monologues in the name of God for 14 chapters, but no other creature is stirring, not even his spouse. This blush-free bride is a silent but sexual free spirit named Gomer, who may or may not...