ed by the universal worship of Jehovah. In consequence of their
outward condition, the prophets of the exile were usually writers, like
Ezekiel, not public speakers; and their announcement of glad tidings could
only be transmitted privately from person to person. This explains in part
the oblivion into which their names fell; so that the author or redactor
of Jeremiah l., li.; the author of chapters xiii.-xiv. 23, xxi. 1-10,
xxiv.-xxvii., xxxiv., xxxv., inserted in Isaiah; and, above all, the
Babylonian Isaiah, whom Hitzig improbably identifies with the high-priest
Joshua, are unknown. After the return from Babylon the literary spirit
manifested itself in the prophets of the restoration--Haggai, Zechariah,
and Malachi--who wrote to recall their countrymen to a sense of religious
duties; though their ideas were borrowed in part from older prophets of
more original genius. The book of Esther appeared, to make the observance
of the purim feast, which was of Persian origin, more general in
Palestine. The large historical work comprising the books of Ezra,
Nehemiah, and Chronicles, was compiled partly out of materials written by
Ezra and Nehemiah, partly out of older historical records which formed a
portion of the national literature. Several temple-psalms were also
composed; a part of the present book of Proverbs; Ecclesiastes, whose tone
and language betray its late origin; and Jonah, whose diction puts its
date after the Babylonian captivity. The Maccabean age called forth the
book of Daniel and various psalms. In addition to new productions there
was an inclination to collect former documents. To Zechariah's authentic
prophecies were added the earlier ones contained in chapters ix.-xiv.; and
the Psalms were gradually brought together, being made up into divisions
at different times; the first and second divisions proceeding from one
redactor, the third from another, the fourth and fifth from a still later.
Various writings besides their own were grouped around the names of
earlier prophets, as was the case with Isaiah and Jeremiah.

The literature is more indebted for its best constituents to the prophetic
than to the priestly order, because the prophets were preachers of
repentance and righteousness whose great aim was to make Israel a
Jehovah-worshipping nation to the exclusion of other gods. Their
utterances were essentially ethical and religious; their pictures of the
future subjective and ideal. There was silently el