Prophets of the Old Testament

Who are the prophets of God in the Old Testament?

In the Old Testament we find both priests and prophets. Priests inherited their positions. Priests performed the routine rituals at the temple, which required more physical strength more than intelligence. Afterall, they had prescribed rituals, they just had to follow the script. Those not working in the temple were to teach the Israelites the Law of Moses, which was only about 15% of what we have in the Bible now.

Prophets, on the other hand, were called by God. Their mission was not as much teaching but exhorting the people to obey the Law that they already knew. They were also spokesmen for God, providing prophetic messages to the people.

Modern day pastors are expected to be both “priests” and “prophets”. They perform the priestly rituals of baptism, the Lord’s Supper, weddings, and funerals as well as the prophetic duties of preaching (teaching) and exhorting.

You might be surprised as to how many prophets are found in the Old Testament. Some wrote books, others didn’t. Some were identified by name, others were unnamed. Some were men, others were women. Some were “royal” prophets, focusing on the kings, while others worked with the common people.

There is one distinction that I would like to see eliminated. Some are referred to as major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel) while the writers of the shorter books were referred to as minor prophets. This gives the reader the impression that the shorter books are of less importance. Do we do that with the epistles found in the New Testament? Is Romans a major epistle while Jude a minor one? No.

Below is a list of over sixty prophets found in the Old Testament. 

• Noah: Noah was a prophet in that God spoke to him about the future (Gen. 7:1–4; 8:16–17, 21–22; and 9:1–16).
• Abraham: God gave Abraham instructions and glimpses of the future (Gen. 12).
• Jacob: In Gen. 28:10–22, Jacob had his dream of the stairway to heaven and a reiteration of God’s promise to his father Abraham. In Gen. 49, Jacob gave an accurate prophecy of the future of his sons’ descendants.
• Joseph: In Gen. 37:3–11, Joseph related two dreams he’d had—prophecies that he would one day rule over his brothers and parents. He interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker (Gen. 40) and then Pharaoh’s own dream (Gen. 41).
• Moses: Much of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are filled with God’s messages to and through Moses. 
• Aaron: In Ex.7:1–7, Aaron began his career as God’s prophet, rebuking and giving warnings to others.
• Miriam: In Ex. 15:20 Moses’ sister, Miriam, is identified as a prophet. 
• The seventy elders of Israel: The Holy Spirit temporarily endowed them with the ability to prophesy (Num. 11:25).
• Balaam: The king of Moab tried to bribe him to curse Israel. Balaam tried, but his fear of God, his integrity as a prophet, and his stubborn donkey overcame his greed (Num. 22–24). 
• Elihu: Among Job’s friends was Elihu (Job 32–35) who condemned the other three friends, confronted Job about his lack of trust in God, and reminded them all that God is just.
• Joshua: In Joshua 1:1–9, God gave him encouragement for the hard task ahead and a promise of success. He also gave Joshua a warning to obey the law God had given Moses.
• Deborah: Deborah is the only recorded female judge of Israel, and Judges 4:4 indicates she was a prophetess, as well. 
• Gideon: Throughout Judges 6–8, God led Gideon to take a small army and destroy the oppressive Midianites and Amalekites. 
• Samuel: Samuel received his first message from God in 1 Sam. 3:4 when he was a small boy. He spent his life as God’s messenger.
• A procession of prophets: Shortly after Saul’s anointing as king, he met with seventy prophets and joined them (1 Sam. 10:10).
• King Saul: Samuel gave Saul specific instructions right after Samuel anointed him to be king. In the process of heeding Samuel’s directions, Saul met with a group of prophets and prophesied with them (1 Sam. 10:10).
• Gad: While being chased by Saul, David and a group of followers hid in a stronghold. Gad the prophet sent him a word from God as to what he was to do next (1 Sam. 22:5).
• Nathan: In 2 Sam. 7:4–17, Nathan told David that Solomon would build the temple. In 2 Sam.12:1–15, Nathan rebuked David for committing adultery with Bathsheba and killing her husband.
• David: David must have received some kinds of messages from God, as so many of his Psalms prophesy the coming of Jesus (Ps. 8; 22; 110).
• Asaph: Many of the psalms were written either by him or by the guild he inspired. His songs were sung along with David’s at the time of Hezekiah (2 Chron. 29:30).
• Tabernacle musicians: First Chron. 25:1–7 lists the musicians whom David commissioned to perform before the tabernacle and identifies them as prophets. 
• King Solomon: In 1 Kings 3, God asked Solomon in a dream if there was anything Solomon would like from Him. Solomon chose wisdom.
• Agur: Agur is cited as the author of Prov. 30. 
• Ahijah: Ahijah told Jeroboam that he would take command of ten of the tribes of Israel after Solomon died. Several years later, Ahijah told Jeroboam’s wife that, because of Jeroboam’s sin against God, not only would their son die, but Jeroboam’s entire line would be cut off (1 Kings 14:1–18).
• Iddo: Iddo predicted the rise of Jeroboam (2 Chron. 9:29) and wrote a record of Rehoboam (2 Chron. 12:15) and Abijah (2 Chron. 13:17).
• Shemaiah: After the ten northern tribes followed Jeroboam, Rehoboam prepared the southern tribes for battle. God sent Shemaiah to tell them to return home (1 Kings 12:22).
• A man of God from Judah: God sent this unnamed prophet to Bethel to confront the sin of King Jeroboam (1 Kings 13:1–10). 
• An old prophet in Bethel: This unnamed prophet intercepted the man of God on his way home to Judah and deceived him into dining at his house (1 Kings 13:11–32). 
• Azariah: He gave God’s warning to King Asa, encouraging him to rid the nation of Judah of idols (2 Chron. 15:1–7).
• Hanani: Hanani told Asa that God would have destroyed Syria’s king for him if he’d followed the Lord (2 Chron. 16:7–10).
• Jehu: The prophet Jehu lived in the time of King Baasha and was Hanani’s son. Jehu announced God’s judgment against Baasha, saying that, because of his sin, the dogs and birds would eat his family’s bodies (1 Kings 16:1–7).
• Elijah: Elijah was probably the most significant prophet who didn’t write his own book. It was he who ensured a widow was always supplied with oil and flour (1 Kings 17:8–16), raised that same widow's son from the dead (1 Kings 17:17–24), who had a showdown with the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:17–40), and who was strengthened by God’s still voice in his fatigue and depression (2 Kings 2:1–11). At the end of his life, a chariot of fire took him to heaven, and his mantle fell to Elisha as his successor (2 Kings 2:1–12).
• Unnamed Prophet: this prophet assured King Ahab that Israel would triumph with God’s help and prophesied against Ahab for not killing Ben-hadad (1 Kings 20).
• Micaiah: Micaiah revealed that God had sent a lying spirit to the four hundred prophets in order to lure Ahab to his death. Ahab went to battle anyway and was struck and killed by a random arrow (1 Kings 22:13–28).
• Jahaziel: Jahaziel prophesied that Judah would destroy its enemies and even gave counsel on how to accomplish the rout (2 Chron. 20:1–23).
• Eliezer: Eliezer confronted Jehoshaphat, saying that, because he had joined with Ahaziah, God would destroy what he had made. The ships were wrecked before they could reach their destination (2 Chron. 20:35–37).
• Unknown prophets: Various prophets lived during the time of Elijah and Elisha, belonging to the school of prophets (2 Kings 2:3-5). 
• Elisha: He helped wipe out organized Baal worship (2 Kings 10:28), brought a widow’s son back to life (2 Kings 4:18–37), and cured Naaman’s leprosy (2 Kings 5). And when a dead man was thrown into Elisha’s grave, the man sprang back to life (2 Kings 13:2–21).
• Zechariah the priest: Zechariah confronted Joash and the people; the king ordered him to be stoned (2 Chron. 24:20–22).
• Jonah: God sent Jonah to Jeroboam and led him to restore a border against their enemies (2 Kings 14:23–27).
• Joel: After Judah’s crops were obliterated by a swarm of locusts, Joel compared the devastation to what God would do if the people didn’t return to Him. Joel also predicted the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (Joel 2:28; cf. Acts 2:16–21).
• Amos: Amos prophesied against Israel. His warnings were ignored, and Israel was taken into captivity by Assyria.
• Hosea: In order to illustrate the unfaithfulness of the northern kingdom of Israel, God had Hosea marry a prostitute who remained unfaithful after they married. To show how God longed to forgive His people, He told Hosea to take Gomer back. In addition to the message to Israel of God’s faithfulness, Hosea includes a prophecy that Gentiles would one day follow God (Hosea 2:23).
• Isaiah: Isaiah is the most quoted prophet in the New Testament. He was an adviser to King Hezekiah of Judah. His book contains prophecies of Jesus and John the Baptist, and Jesus used Isa. 61:1–2 to begin His ministry in Nazareth. It’s possible that Isaiah was also a priest.
• Micah: Micah served as a prophet during the time of Isaiah. His message mixed condemnation of sin with the promise of the coming Messiah. His book contains the only mention of Bethlehem as the place of the Messiah’s birth.
• Oded: God brought the Syrians to punish Judah. The prophet Oded, on God’s orders, stopped them, telling the invaders they had gone far enough, and they should set the captives free and return the spoils, which they did (2 Chron. 28:1–15).
• Zephaniah: Zephaniah warned Judah about their impending doom and that a remnant would return.
• Nahum: Nahum promised that Assyria’s days were numbered, and that Judah would be delivered from their threat.
• Huldah: Huldah was consulted by King Josiah concerning how he should respond to finding the Book of the Law. 
• Jeremiah: Jeremiah was one of the last prophets of the Kingdom of Judah and gave the people a word of hope that they would return from captivity in 70 years. 
• Uriah: Along with Jeremiah, prophesied against the evil in Judah (Jer. 26:20-23). 
• Habakkuk: The Book of Habakkuk prophesied Assyria’s fall, the Babylonian exile, and the future victory of the Persians. 
• Obadiah: The Book of Obadiah prophesied against Edom, the descendants of Jacob’s brother, Esau. Edom effectively disappeared after their removal from Petra in the fifth century BC.
• Daniel: In the visions and angelic encounters of Dan. 7–12, Daniel revealed more about the end times than any other book besides Revelation.
• Ezekiel made several prophesies about the future, including the coming of Jesus, the New Jerusalem (Ezek. 48:30–35), and the millennial kingdom (Ezek. 44). 
• Haggai: Haggai worked with Zechariah and Zerubbabel to get the Jews who had returned from exile back on track to build the temple (Hag.1).
• Zechariah: The Book of Zechariah gave encouragement to the Jews to finish the temple and gave prophecies concerning the Israelites. 
• Malachi: He was the last prophet to prophecy in Israel until an angel visited Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist.
  

Below is a chronology of the prophetic books. 

Two prophets went to Assyria (Jonah and Nahum). 

Two went to the northern Kingdom of Israel (Amos and Hosea). 

Six were focused on Judah before they were taken into captivity in Babylon (Joel, Micah, Isaiah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah).

Two ministered to the Israelites while in captivity (Daniel and Ezekiel).

Three ministered to the Israelites after they returned from captivity (Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi).