d is a righteous ruler, and that the service he desires is
righteousness. The early prophets--such as Micah, Hosea, Amos--speak
with scorn of the worship by sacrifices,--whether the fruits of the
earth, or slaughtered beasts, or the ghastly offering of human life.
Hosea cries: "I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of
God more than burnt offerings." So Micah speaks: "Shall I come before
him with burnt offerings, with yearling calves? Will the Lord be pleased
with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I
give my first-born for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin
of my soul? He hath 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?"

Further, the prophets assumed to know and declare Yahveh's will on public
affairs, especially on the government of the nation. They tried to
dictate the attitude of Judea toward other kingdoms--an attitude
generally of proud defiance. Often their counsel ignored the
actualities, and helped to precipitate Judah and Israel into hopeless
conflicts with their mighty neighbors. When in these conflicts they were
worsted, the prophets laid the disaster to the idolatry or other
wickedness of the people. Finally came utter defeat and dispersal, and
an exile for generations in a foreign land. Then the prophets rose to an
intenser faith,--purer, tenderer, more spiritual. Some time and somehow
the Lord would surely be gracious to his people!

But when the captives, or a part of them, were restored to their own
land,--with lowered fortunes and humbled pride, half dependent still on a
foreign master,--the prophetic enthusiasm no longer availed to give a
fresh message from the Lord. Instead, the leaders and founders of the
restoration--Ezra, Nehemiah, and their associates and followers--built up
a well-organized, well-enforced system of discipline. They reshaped the
old traditions, enlarged and codified them; they shaped the Pentateuch
and book of Joshua, as we know them now; they purified and beautified the
Temple service; they instituted synagogues in every town, where religious
teaching should be regular and constant; they developed a class of
"Scribes," or expositors of the Law; they multiplied ceremonial
observances; they rewrote the national history, and invested their laws
with the sacredness of divine oracles, under the august name of Moses