Belief in prophecy - the claim that God decided to reveal himself to his chosen ones and convey to them, and through them to man in general and the people of Israel in particular, his will in every matter and matter - is the most important theological characteristic of the Bible. This claim is not only fundamental to the biblical prophetic literature but also stands as the center of the Torah, and without it the story, the law, the historiography and even the psalm literature cannot be properly understood. However, the prophecy was not an abstract idea but a living faith, whose themes and expressions in Israeli society were the prophets. The book investigates the phenomenon of prophecy from a phenomenological-historical point of view in an attempt to understand who the classic Israeli prophet was: what were his experiences and what was his public mission. This study is a continuation of the author's previous book Early Prophecy in Israel , and it points to the turn that took place in the prophetic activity after the time of Elijah and Elisha: turning their backs on militancy, non-involvement in the affairs of the state and copying the activity to the masses of the people from an educational trend guided by a moral social vision. Using the philological-historical method, the book examines parables centered on the prophetic phenomenon or the mission that the prophets undertook as advocates of their people before God.

This expanded translation of the Hebrew original is a penetrating study of early Hebrew prophecy as portrayed in the Old Testament. Professor Uffenheimer discusses the historical, theological and social aspects of this unique phenomenon, from its beginning to the emergence of classical prophecy in the 8th century BCE – a period stretching from the prophetic leadership of Moses and the charismatic savior-judges, through the court prophets of the United Monarchy, to the militant prophets of the Northern Kingdom, culminating in the internal crisis under Jehu that led to the evolution of classical prophecy. The author draws, on the one hand, upon extra-biblical, Near Eastern material (the Mari documents, Hittie vassal treaties, etc.); on the other, he relies upon inner literary analysis of the biblical sources themselves. Among other things, he contests some of the innovative theories that have been proposed to account biblical prophecy.