These postexilic prophets affirm the many traditions of the people of Judah and Israel, who are still reeling from exile, offering them hope and direction. They promise that Gods justice will include punishment of their enemies and a full restoration of Gods people. They speak with immediacy and power to the generation that was responsible for writing down and organizing the Hebrew Scriptures and founding Judaism as a religion, not just an ethnic identity.

John J. Collins is Holmes Professor of Old Testament at Yale Divinity School. A native of Ireland, he has a doctorate from Harvard University, and earlier taught at the University of Chicago, and the University of Notre Dame. He has published widely on the subjects of apocalypticism, wisdom, Hellenistic Judaism, and the Dead Sea Scrolls and served as president of both the Catholic Biblical Association and the Society of Biblical Literature.