In this 6th post in the series of “Bible Basics”, we continue coverage of the books of the Old Testament and their groupings. The following is a summary of what has been covered previously:
The Bible has 2 testaments: The Old Testament and the New Testament.
The Old Testament has 39 books divided into 5 sections: The Law, The History, The Poetry & Wisdom, The Major Prophets and The Minor Prophets.
The Law consists of: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
The History consists of: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther.
The Books of Poetry and Wisdom consist of: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.
The Major Prophets consist of: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel.
The final grouping of books in the Old Testament is the Minor Prophets which includes:
- Hosea (Story of a prophet whom the LORD commands to marry an unfaithful prostitute presenting a picture of the unfaithful nation of Israel.)
- Joel (The prophet warns Judah of the coming day of the LORD and uses a recent locust infestation to draw the attention of the people to God’s coming judgment.)
- Amos (The prophet pronounces judgment on the surrounding countries and then Israel whom he calls to repent for their sins.)
- Obadiah (The prophet speaks of the judgment on Edom.)
- Jonah (The prophet refuses to go where he was sent to prophesy by the LORD, and as a result, he ends up in the belly of a great fish and then repents. He later delivers the word of the LORD to Ninevah, and a great revival follows.)
- Micah (The prophet speaks of coming judgment against Israel and Judah for their corruption but promises fulfillment of God’s promise through a Messiah.)
- Nahum (The prophet pronounces judgment on Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire.)
- Habakkuk (The prophet tells the people that the just shall live by faith and God is in control and the wicked will not prosper forever.)
- Zephaniah (The prophet tries to motivate the nation of Judah to repent with prophecies of the coming Day of the LORD.)
- Haggai (The prophet tries to convince the people to make God a priority and finish building the temple.)
- Zechariah (The prophet also encourages the nation to complete the temple and speaks of the coming Messiah.)
- Malachi (Last word from the LORD for 400 years. The prophet encourages the people to stop compromising and return to God with sincerity, so they can receive the blessing.)
Rooted and Grounded 
Mary, you’ve done an excellent job of dividing a very complex section of the Bible into managable bites. I’d just like to add that in addition to the prophets speaking of judgement, they also reveal glimpses of an incredibly loving Heavenly Father who longs for relationship with His people and who is committed to their welfare even when they reject Him. Judgement is only part of the story. Restoration and reconciliation follows the judgement.
Yes. That is a good point. That seems to be an underlying point in most, if not all, of the prophets.