Epiphany: 3/1/09

Bible Handout, Week of 7 April 2009

The Book of Daniel

The book of Daniel includes famous and well-loved stories. Among Christians it is popular because of its Messianic promise of a "son of man" in Chapter 7, a title that probably influenced the title Jesus used of himself in the Gospels. It is also popular because of the first clear statement of resurrection in the Bible. For these reasons, Christians include Daniel among "Five Major Prophets" (including Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Lamentations), while Jews place Daniel among the Writings because of its late date and faulty history.

Chapter 1

1: In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and attacked it.
2: And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the vessels of the house of God.
The Book of Daniel is supposed to have been written in the sixth century; but most scholars date it to the second century (BCE) on the rule that if predictions come true they must be "after the fact," (in this case the facts go into the second century BCE, so the book could only have been written at that time). Besides, Jehoiachim was not king when Judah fell, but his son (Jehoiachin) was king-in-exile. If the writer had lived in the sixth century, he would have known that; but if he lived three hundred years later (as scholars now believe), it's easy to see why he got his history confused.
3: Then the king commanded Ashpenaz, his eunuch, to bring some of the people of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility,
4: youths without fault, handsome and skilful in wisdom, with knowledge, understanding learning, and able to serve in the king's palace, and to teach them the language of the Babylonians.
Like the Joseph and Esther stories, these texts teach survival in a foreign land, based on wisdom or practical knowledge. For this reason, Jews place this text among the Writings.
6: Among these were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah of the tribe of Judah.
Note the word "God" in the endings of these Hebrew names, in the form of "iah" (=Yah=Jehovah) and "el" (=God, as in "Elohim," plural of God).
7: The chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar, Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.
8: Daniel decided he would not defile himself with the king's food or wine.
Perhaps the food included pork or was part of a pagan religious rite.
17: As for these four youths, God gave them wisdom; and Daniel had understanding in visions and dreams.
Daniel remains one of the great Bible heroes for refusing to keep the ways of the world in obedience to God's laws, even in a foreign country. The book became a model for later Christians who refused to keep the ways of the world.

Chapter 2

1: In the second year of his reign, dreams troubled Nebuchadnezzar.
26: The king said to Daniel, "Can you explain my dream?"
27: Daniel answered the king, "No magicians can do this,
28: but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known what will happen in the future.
31: "You saw a great image.
32: The head was gold, its breast and arms silver, its belly and thighs bronze,
33: its legs iron, its feet iron and clay.
34: As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand and broke the feet in pieces;
35: then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like chaff; and the wind carried them away, so not a trace could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
36: "Now here's the interpretation.
37: You, O king, are the head of gold.
39: After you shall arise another kingdom inferior to you, and a third kingdom of bronze shall rule the earth.
40: And then a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, because iron breaks to pieces and shatters all things; it shall break and crush all these.
41: The feet and toes of clay and iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but some of the firmness of iron shall be in it, just as you saw iron mixed with the clay.
42: And as the toes of the feet were partly iron and partly clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and weak.
44: And God will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed. It shall break in pieces these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever;
45: just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall come."
The gold is Babylon; the silver is perhaps the Medes; the bronze is perhaps the Persian empire, while the bronze mixed with clay is Alexander's empire, which divided after his death (333 BCE). The rock is read by Christians as Jesus. V. 47 makes clear the Jewish God is the only God:
48: Then the king made Daniel ruler over the province of Babylon.

1: King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold.
4: And the herald proclaimed, "You are ordered,
5: to worship the golden image;
6: whoever does not worship shall be cast into a burning furnace."
This is similar to Haman's plot against the Jews in Esther:
8: At that time certain Chaldeans [Babylonians] accused the Jews.
12: "Jews do not serve your gods."
16: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said,
17: "God whom we serve can deliver us from the furnace.
19: Nebuchadnezzar was full of fury. He ordered the furnace heated seven times more than usual.
21: Then these men were cast into the burning fiery furnace.
22: Because the furnace was very hot, it slew the men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
24: But King Nebuchadnezzar was amazed. "Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?
25: "But I see four men walking in the midst of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods."
The fourth man is thought to be Jesus by Christians.
27: The king's advisers saw the fire had not had any power over the bodies of the men.
A lesson to those who refuse to keep the ways of the world:
28: Nebuchadnezzar said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set at nothing the king's command, and risked their bodies rather than serve any god except their own.

4: I, Nebuchadnezzar was at home in my palace. I had a dream that made me afraid.
9: "O Belteshazzar [Daniel],
10: I saw a tall tree.
12: Its leaves were fair and its fruit abundant; in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the air lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.
13: "I saw a holy one came down from heaven.
14: He said, `Chop down the tree and cut off its branches, strip its leaves and scatter its fruit; let the beasts flee from under it and the birds from its branches.
15: But leave the stump of its roots in the earth, bound with a band of iron and bronze, amid the tender grass of the field. Let him be wet with the dew of heaven; let his lot be with the beasts in the grass of the earth;
16: let his mind be changed from a man's, and let a beast's mind be given to him; and let seven times pass over him.
17: So the living know the Most High rules the kingdom of men, and gives it to whom he will, and sets over it the lowliest of men.'
19: Then Daniel said,
20: The tree you saw,
22: is you, O king, who have grown and become strong.
23: And since the king saw a watcher, a holy one, coming down from heaven,
24: I'll explain this: It is an order of the Most High,
25: that you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts.
27: Therefore, O king, break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and showing mercy to the oppressed."
33: Then Nebuchadnezzar was driven from among men, and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles' feathers, and his nails were like birds' claws.
34: At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives for ever; for his kingdom is everlasting;
35: all the inhabitants of the earth count as nothing.

Chapter 5

1: King Belshazzar made a great feast.
2: He ordered vessels of gold and silver taken out of the temple in Jerusalem, so the king and his lords might drink from them.
5: Immediately the fingers of a man's hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.
6: The king's color changed and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.
13: Then Daniel was brought before the king.
17: Daniel answered,
23: You have offended the Lord of heaven.
25: And this is the writing: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN.
26: MENE, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end;
27: TEKEL, you have been weighed in the balance and found wanting;
28: PERES, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians."
30: That night the king was slain.
31: And Darius the Mede became king.
There was no such Darius the Mede.

Daniel in the lions' den is another of the famous stories from this book.

4: Daniel's enemies tried to find fault with him, though there was none.
5: They said, "We shall not find cause for complaint against Daniel except in the law of his God."
13: They said to the king, "Daniel, an exile from Judah, prays three times a day."
16: So Daniel was thrown to the lions. The king said to Daniel, "May your God deliver you!"
20: When he came near to the den where Daniel was, the king cried out in anguish and said to Daniel, "O Daniel, has your God, whom you serve, delivered you from the lions?"
21: Then Daniel said, "O king, live for ever!
22: God sent his angel and shut the lions' mouths, because I was blameless."
"Saved from the lion's mouth" became a common phrase, and Paul uses it in the New Testament.
23: The king was glad, and commanded that Daniel be taken out of the den.
This story may have influenced the Gospel story of Pontius Pilate, who is forced to condemn Jesus against his conscience.

Images of beasts (often "four") are commonly used in later Bible texts, usually allegories of different kingdoms. These (in this vision) may represent the Babylonian, Persian, Greek, and Roman kingdoms.

1: In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions.
3: And four beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another.
The sea is always the source of evil in the Bible. In Revelation, there is no sea.
4: The first was like a lion and had eagles' wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand upon two feet like a man; and the mind of a man was given to it.
5: And another beast, a second one, like a bear was raised up on one side; and it was told, `Arise, devour much flesh.'
6: Another was like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back; the beast had four heads; and power was given to it.
7: A fourth beast was terrible and strong; it had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces. It was different from all the beasts before it and had ten horns.
Below, the "ancient of days" is an image of God. Note the borrowed idea (from Ezekiel) of the "throne-chariot (on wheels)." This image of God as an ancient father has become part of Western culture.
9: As I looked, thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days took his seat; his clothes were white as snow, and the hair of his head like wool; his throne was flames, its wheels burning fire.
10: A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened.
Note the reference, above, to the "books"; the idea that names were written in these books go back at least to Moses ("blot me from the book of life").
11: As I looked, the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.
12: As for the other beasts, their power was taken away, but their lives lasted for a time.
The following is a Messianic vision, making the book of Daniel especially loved among Christians. The phrase, "clouds of heaven," is used by Jesus himself.
13: And then with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.
14: And to him was given power and glory, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his kingdom is everlasting.
The phrase in 14 has become part of the Christian doxology (praise) at the end of some versions of the Lord's Prayer: "the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever, Amen."
21: As I looked, the fourth beast made war with the saints, and prevailed over them,
22: until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints received the kingdom.
The idea is that the suffering Jews are the "saints" (holy ones) and they will soon reclaim their land.

Cyrus (not Darius) led the Persian conquest of Babylonia.

1: In the first year of Darius
2: I, Daniel, saw in the books the number of years which, according to the word of the LORD to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the desolations of Jerusalem, namely, seventy years.
21: While I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel
22: said, "O Daniel, I have come to give you wisdom and understanding.
This is the first named angel in the Bible. Below, the "seventy years" of Jeremiah's prophecy is understood as 70 WEEKS of years ("70 X 7") (7=week); so the time period is 490 years! This is the first example of a revised vision in the Bible:
24: "Seventy weeks of years are decreed concerning your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.

1: "There shall be a time of trouble, such as never before; then your people shall be delivered, those whose name is written in the book.
2: And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame.
Apart from Isaiah (26:19), this is the first undisputed reference to ressurection in the Old Testament.
13: "But go your way till the end; and you shall rest, and shall stand in your given place at the end of the days."

THE 12 MINOR PROPHETS

The 12 minor prophets are one book in the Hebrew Bible but 12 books in the Christian Bible. "Minor" means shorter, not lesser. Their style is equal to the Three Major Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel).

Hosea

This is the first of the minor (shorter) prophets, with one of the most famous symbolic actions in the Bible: To show God's willingness to forgive his adulterous people, Hosea marries a prostitute (whore), like God, who will remarry his people, though they are whores (that is, worshipping other gods). Hosea is the only book prophet from the North (others include the "former prophets," Elijah and Elisha, but they don't have books named after them).

1: Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
2: So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver.
3: And I said unto her, You will abide for me many days; you will not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
5: Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

4: O Ephraim [the north: Israel], what shall I do unto you? O Judah [the south], what shall I do unto you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it disappears.
These are common themes amaong the prophets.
6: I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

5: Thy calf, O Samaria [Israel], has cast you off; my anger is kindled against them.
See 1 Kings 12:28: "the king made two golden calves."
One of the more famous lines in the Bible; cf. Blowing in the Wind by Bob Dylan:
7: For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.

This metaphor was later used literally by gospel writers of the Nativity story, where the infant Jesus is called out of Egypt after being hidden there by Mary and Joseph:

1: When Israel was a child, I loved him and called my son [Israel] out of Egypt.

2b: It is said of these people, "They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf-idols."

3: Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

Memorable metaphor: "the calves of our lips"; in other words, don't sacrifice animals, but use your lips (prayer) as a real sacrifice; let your lips be your cows/sacrifices. This metaphor, however, does not survive many translations.

2: Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: so will we render the calves of our lips.

Joel
2

The "Day of the Lord" appears most famously in Joel and Zephaniah. This became part of the Christian mass known as "Dies Irae" ("Day of Wrath"). (English words: diet, irate.) The "Dies Irae" is one of the most famous Gregorian chants, often quoted in classical music and movies. The court prophets used the "Day of the Lord" to warn Israel's enemies; but these prophets use it against Israel herself:

1: Blow the trumpet in Zion, for the day of the LORD comes;
2: A day of darkness and gloom, of clouds and darkness.
9: They shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief.
10: The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble: the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining:
Below is a great revival text (religious revival), referred to in Luke's book of Acts. This preaches total equality of men and women, young and old, and all classes, an ideal that remains the basis of all democracies. Note another reference to the "remnant," which Christians think of as themselves, as the "true Israel," a point made by Jesus to the Jews in the Gospels: "[Y]ou do not believe because you are not my sheep" (JOHN 10:26).
13: Tear your heart, not your clothes;
28: it shall come to pass afterward, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:
29: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit.
31: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
32: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.

Note the ironic reversal of the famous text in Isaiah; now instruments of peace are used for war. V. 13 influenced Revelation. The verses promise Israel's redemption.
10: Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
11: Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen.
12: Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
13: Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.
14: Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
20: But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.

Amos

If Hosea is beloved for its metaphor of Israel as Bride, Amos is beloved for its strong stand on social justice. Martin Luther King quoted from Amos in his famous speeches.

6: Thus saith the LORD; For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes;

3
A reminder that Israel is special to God but in conflict with him:

2: You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.
3: Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

As usual, people don't like to be told their faults. Amos came from the south, but preached in the north, and was finally forced to return to the south! The "gate" refers to the public place where rulings were made:

10: They hate him that rebukes people in the gate, and abhor him who speaks justly.
11: Because you step on the poor, and take from him wheat: you have built houses of carved stone, but you shall not live in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink wine of them.
12: For I know your many sins: they afflict the just, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right.
Judgment was made near the gate of the city. Amos mocks the Day of the Lord, which people think will save them. Amos says it will punish them instead!
18: Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, not light.
Some famous verses repeating the idea that social justice is more important than mere forms of worship:
21: I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.
23: Take away from me the noise of your songs.
Martin Luther King quotes the following text at least twice:
24: But let judgment run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.

1: Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!
This contradicts the Psalms of Zion: Zion is the place of doom, not safety, because people have forgotten God. Famous images (such as "at ease in Zion"), with neat irony: you pretend evil is far away, but you're bringing it near by your conduct.
3: You that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;
The theme of the evil shepherd, as in Ezekiel 34 and John 10:
4: That lie upon beds of ivory, and stretch themselves upon their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall. . . .

Another symbolic action. The Lord will not "pass by" (meaning "ignore") Israel's sins any more (with possible pun of "passover": God's Angel of Death passed over the homes of the Israelites in Egypt, but this time will not pass over them.
8: And the LORD said unto me, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A plumbline [measuring ruler]. Then said the Lord, Behold, I will set a plumbline in the midst of my people Israel: I will not again pass by them any more:

Another symbolic action. The sins of the people have produced bitter "fruit":
2: And the Lord said, Amos, what do you see? And I said, A basket of summer fruit. Then said the LORD, The end is come upon my people of Israel.
Like today, all people care about is buying and selling:
4: Hear this, who swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail,
5: Saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah [unit of weight] small, and the shekel [unit of weight] great, and falsifying the balances by deceit?
6: That we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes?
11: Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
12: And they shall seek the word of the LORD and shall not find it.

Obadiah
1
Remember the battle of the siblings Jacob and Esau (Genesis), which continued in history. Here Edom (Esau) took pleasure in the defeat of Israel so is punished by God. Edom can be a metaphor for anyone who enjoys the suffering of another ("Roman holiday"; in German: "Schadenfreude").

1: The vision of Obadiah. Thus says the Lord GOD of Edom;
3: Your pride has fooled you.
4: Though you raise yourself as the eagle, and nest among the stars, I will bring you down, saith the LORD.
10: For your violence against your brother Jacob [that is, Judah] shame shall cover you.
12: You should not have rejoiced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction.
21: Saviours shall come up on mount Zion to judge the mount of Esau; and the kingdom shall be the LORD's.

Jonah
1

An odd book of prophecy, more like a fable; in fact one of the most famous tales in the Bible. It is also the clearest book of universalism in the Bible. God tells the Hebrew prophet to help a non-Hebrew people, and an evil power at that! Jonah selfishly refuses. God shows love for all mankind. The comedy is obvious: Jews don't listen to their prophets, but non-Jews (even animals) promptly obey!

1: The word of the LORD came to Jonah, saying,
2: Go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is great.
3: But Jonah hid from the LORD on a ship.
4: But the LORD sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was almost lost.
5: Then the mariners were afraid and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it. But Jonah was fast asleep.
6: So the shipmaster came to him, and said, What do you mean, sleeper? arise, call your God that we don't die."
There's great humor here. First, the sinner sleeps well. Second, the non-Jews have more faith in God than the Jew!
12: And he said, "Throw me into the sea; so shall the sea be calm for you: for I know that for my sake this storm is upon you.
15: So they threw Jonah into the sea: and the sea ceased raging.
17: Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Jesus refers to the "sign of Jonah": as Jonah was in the belly of the fish for 3 days, so will Jesus be in the belly of the earth for 3 days.

1: Then Jonah prayed to the LORD out of the fish's belly,
10: And the LORD spoke to the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

1: And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2: Go and preach to Nineveh what I ask you to.
4: And Jonah preached, "In forty days Nineveh shall be overthrown."
5: So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
6: For word came unto the king of Nineveh.
7: And he caused it to be proclaimed through Nineveh saying,
8: let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry unto God: let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands.
10: And God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

1: But Jonah was angry.
5: So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city.
6: And the LORD God prepared a gourd [plant], and made it to come up over Jonah, as a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was glad.
7: But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it died.
8: And it came to pass, when the sun rose, that God prepared a strong east wind; and the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted and wished to die.
9: And God said to Jonah, Is it well to be angry for the gourd?
10: You had pity on the gourd, which you did not make grow; which came up in a night, and perished in a night:
11: And should I not spare Nineveh, that great city, with more than 120,000 thousand people that do not know between their right hand and their left hand?

Micah

2
There was no Heaven for the Jews; Heaven had to be made on earth, through social justice. Note the reference to "rest": "this is not your rest." "Rest" must follow social justice, the meaning of the Sabbath. Micah mocks royal prophets too who prophesy what people want to hear:

1: Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds!
2: And they covet [desire] fields, and take them by violence; and houses, and take them away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.
9: The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses; from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever.
10: Arise ye, and depart; for this is not your rest: because it [the land] is polluted, it shall destroy you.

1: But in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.
Verse 1 (above) is another message of universalism. Below, also in Isaiah 2:2-4:
3: And the LORD shall judge among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
4: But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree; and none shall make them afraid.

Messianic prophecy, popular with Christians: The King born in Bethlehem:

2: Bethlehem, though small in Judah, out of you shall come a ruler in Israel; whose goings have been from everlasting.
3: Then the remnant shall return to Israel.
4: And he shall be great to the ends of the earth.

One of the most quoted texts in the Bible:
8: He has showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Nahum
An attack on Ninevah (capital of Assyria), soon to fall to the Babylonians; the city Jonah is asked to reform. Study the strong images.
1

1: The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

1: Woe to the bloody city, full of lies and robbery;
2: The noise of a whip and rattling wheels and horses and chariots.
3: The horseman lifts up the bright sword and the shining spear: there are many corpses:
12: Your strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs: if shaken, they'll fall into the mouth of the eater.
17: Your crowned are like the locusts, and your captains great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun arises, they flee and their place is not known.
The following may refer to the Trust Psalm, 121: "He who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep" (121:4).
18: Your shepherds sleep, O king of Assyria: your nobles shall dwell in the dust.

Habakkuk
1

Similar to Job, and Jeremiah's question, "Why do the wicked prosper?"

2: O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you not hear?
3: Why do you make me see wrongs and look upon trouble?
4: So the law is slacked and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous, so justice goes forth perverted.
13: Why do you look on faithless men, and are silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?
14: For you make men like the fish of the sea, like crawling things with no ruler.
15: He drags them out with his net; so he rejoices.
16: And he sacrifices to his net and burns incense to it; by them he lives in luxury, and his food is rich.
17: Is he then to empty his net, and cruelly slay nations forever?
Should the evil benefit from their crimes?

2: And the LORD said: "Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it.
3: For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end -- it will not lie. If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay.
Because of Romans 1:17, the following has become a key verse in the Bible: "the righteous shall live by faith." This is the text that inspired Martin Luther, which started the Reformation, splitting the church.
4: Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
An unusual biblical argument by "prudence" (foresight) rather than "morals": that is, one should act because of the feared consequences, not because it is wrong in itself. It applies even today: neglected social groups cause social problems (crime, drugs, etc.):
7: Will not your debtors suddenly arise, and those awake who will make you tremble? Then you will be booty for them.
8: Because you have plundered many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall plunder you.
9: Woe to him who gets evil gain for his house, to set his nest on high, to be safe from the reach of harm!
A common saying, which is probably independent of the Bible: "What goes around comes around":
16: The cup in the LORD's right hand will come around to you, and shame will come upon your glory!

I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.
This is one of the clearest statements of faith in the Bible:
17: Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls,
18: yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

Zephaniah
1

14: The great day of the LORD is near.
The following is the source of the Dies Irae ("Day of Wrath" or "Day of Anger") of the Requiem Mass (the mass for the dead). It's a theodicy too, since it says that Judah's fall is punishment by God for social wrongs:
15: A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
16: a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
18: Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD.

Haggai
1

The house refers to the temple, after the Jews returned from the Babylonian Captivity (539 BCE). The temple was finished in 515.

1: In the second year of Darius the king, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the high priest.
9: "You have looked for much, and it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? Because of my house that lies in ruins, while you busy yourselves each with his own house."
12: Then Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest, with the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the LORD their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet.
14: and they came and worked on the house of the LORD.

20: The word of the LORD came a second time to Haggai,
The Jews hope for a change in the world's powers, so they can be at peace again.
21: "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying, I am about to shake the heavens and the earth,
22: and to overthrow the kingdoms.
23: On that day, says the LORD, I will make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you, says the LORD."

Zechariah
1

Both Haggai and Zechariah are dated about 520, and are concerned with rebuilding the (Second) Temple (completed 515 BCE). Zechariah is commonly divided into two parts (1-8, 9-12) with the last part seemingly from another prophet (Zechariah's name is not mentioned after chapter 8, among other clues). Note that an angel comes between ("mediates") the prophet's vision, whereas before prophets had first-hand experience of their message. This is the beginning of "angelology," as in Daniel, which (for the first time) mentions names of angels (Michael and Gabriel; Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary 500 years later).

7: The word of the LORD came to Zechariah the prophet; Zechariah said,
18: And I lifted my eyes and saw four horns!
The four horns represent four countries, as in Daniel:
19: And the angel said, "These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem."
20: Then the LORD showed me four smiths.
21: And I said, "What are these coming to do?" He answered, "These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man raised his head; and these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it."
The smiths suggest God's power to change the "horns" by his hands; the "4" continues the symbolism of the 4 horses and horns.

The "Branch" (below) refers to Jeremiah's "messianic" prophecy: "The days are coming when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch" (23:5). The "stone" refers to the building stone of the Second Temple. For the reference to the "fig tree," see Micah, 4:4: "Every man will sit under his own vine and under his own fig tree and no one will make him afraid."
8: Hear now, O Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, for they are men of good omen: I will bring my servant the Branch.
9: For behold, upon the stone which I have set before Joshua, upon a single stone with seven sides, I will write on it, says the LORD, and remove the guilt of this land.
10: In that day, says the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor under his vine and under his fig tree."

8: And the word of the LORD came to Zechariah, saying,
The call for social justice that is common in the prophets:
9: "Thus says the LORD of hosts, Give true judgments, show kindness and mercy,
10: do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the alien, or the poor; don't devise evil against your brother in your heart."
"Let the punishment fit the crime":
13: "As I called, and they would not hear, so they called, and I would not hear," says the LORD of hosts,
14: "and I scattered them among nations they had not known."

This second part, to the end, seems to have been written by another prophet. The following verse is one of the most famous and is fulfilled when Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey (symbol of peace, instead of a horse). Therefore this verse (9) is a messianic prophecy:

9: Rejoice, daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, daughter of Jerusalem! Your king comes to you; victorious, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass.
10: I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.

A symbolic action. The prophet will play the role of the good and evil shepherd. Note how people thank God for their unjust profits!

4: Thus said the LORD my God: "Become shepherd of the flock doomed to slaughter.
5: Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished; and those who sell them say, `Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich'; and their own shepherds have no pity on them.
6: For I will no longer have pity on the people of this land, says the LORD. I will cause men to fall each into the hand of his shepherd, and each into the hand of his king."
7: So I became the shepherd of the flock doomed to be slain for those who trafficked in the sheep. And I took two staffs; one I named Grace, the other I named Union. And I tended the sheep.
8: But I became impatient with them, and they detested me.
10: And I took my staff Grace, and I broke it, annulling the covenant which I had made with all the peoples.
11: So it was annulled on that day, and the traffickers in the sheep, who were watching me, knew it was the word of the LORD.
12: Then I said to them, "If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them." And they weighed out as my wages thirty shekels of silver.
The shepherd gets so little respect, they pay him slave wages (see Exodus 21:32): "If a bull gores a slave, the owner must pay 30 shekels." Compare Judas' betrayal of Jesus for 30 coins: "'What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?' So they counted out 30 coins" (Matthew 25:14).
14: Then I broke my second staff Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel.
In another symbolic action, the prophet plays the part of a bad shepherd:
15: Then the LORD said to me, "Take the tools of a worthless shepherd.
16: For I am raising up a shepherd who does not care for the dying, or seek the wandering, or heal the maimed, or feed the healthy.
17: Woe to my worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock!"

The reference to "whom they have pierced" is probably the Good Shepherd, whom the prophet played (11:7) but Christians use it to refer to Jesus:.
10: "And I will pour out on the house of David and the people of Jerusalem a spirit of compassion and supplication, so that, when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall weep bitterly over him.

The following verse is believed to be misplaced, and should follow the action of the false shepherd (11:17: "Woe to the worthless shepherd who deserts the flock! May the sword strike his arm and his right eye!" The next verse should follow:
7: "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me," says the LORD of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered."
Though this is supposed to be the false shepherd, Jesus quotes it from his own point of view as the good shepherd:
"Jesus said, 'Tonight you will fall away because of me, as written: "I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter"'" (Matthew 26:31).

Note this is close to Jesus' cleansing of the temple, a symbolic action in the Gospels.
21: And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

Malachi
1

Malachi ends the Christian Old Testament, but 2 Chronicles ends the Hebrew Bible. For the Jews, the temple is the main focus of God; and 2 Chronicles ends on restoring the temple. But Christians put Malachi last (before the New Testament) because of the reference to Elijah returning, an idea repeated by John the Baptist and Jesus. Note, Malachi ends on the word "curse," ideal for Christians; if the Old Testament ends on a curse, there is no cure but someone like Jesus. The following verses suggest worship will no longer be in the tmeple but anyplace, even among gentiles ("the nations"). Also interesting is the reference to "the rising to the setting of the sun," suggesting that the Jewish reckoning of days from evening has changed to the pagan reckoning from sunrise:

10: "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar!
11: My name will be great among the nations, from the rising to the setting of the sun. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to my name, because my name will be great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty.

The following text refers to the practice of the Hebrew men divorcing their old wives for younger women, especially aliens.
13: You cover the LORD's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand.
14: You ask, "Why does he not?" Because the LORD was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant.
15: Has not the one God made and sustained for us the spirit of life? And what does he desire? Godly offspring. [That is, Jewish offspring, not mixed children of Jews and pagans.] So take heed to yourselves, and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth.

3
Part of a Messianic prophecy, sometimes applied to Jesus:

1: "Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming.
2: But who can endure his coming?
3: he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the LORD.
5: "Then I will draw near to you for judgment; I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the worker in his wages, the widow and the orphan, against those who push aside the alien, and do not fear me.
Compare, James' reference to "the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows" (JAMES 1:17). Note too the constant question why the evil prosper:
6: "For I the LORD do not change.
7: Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of hosts.
14: You have said, `It is vain to serve God.
15: evildoers not only prosper but when they put God to the test they escape.'"
Another reference to the Book of the Lord ("book of remembrance"):
16: Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another; the LORD heeded and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before him of those who feared the LORD and thought on his name.
17: "They shall be mine, and I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.
18: Then once more you shall distinguish between the righteous and the wicked.

1: "For the day comes, burning like an oven, when evildoers will be stubble; the day shall burn them up.
The following is one of the reasons for choosing 25 December for Jesus' birthday (25 December is the birth of the sun; here reference is made to "the sun of righteousness"):
2: But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall.
5: "I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes.
The following might refer to Micah 7:6: "For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother." Note the Christian OT ends in a "curse," which makes Jesus' coming more necessary.
6: And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse."