books of prophecy and the books now under discussion is very closely connected with the historical development of a theocracy, which showed itself in general in this, that the action of the older prophets was specially directed to the present, and to vivâ voce speaking, while that of those of a later time was more turned towards the future, and the consummation of the kingdom of God by the Messiah (cf. Küper, das Prophetenthum des A. Bundes, 1870, S. 93ff.). This signification of the word דּברי is, in the present case, placed beyond all doubt by the fact that the writings of other prophets which are mentioned along with these are called נבוּאה, חזות, and חזון, - words which never denote historical writings, but always only prophecies and visions of the prophets. In accordance with this, the חזון of Isaiah (12) is clearly distinguished from the writings of the same prophet concerning Uzziah, for which כּתב is used; while in the reign of Manasseh, the speeches of Hozai are named along with the events, i.e., the history of the kings of Israel (2Ch 33:18-19), and a more exact account of what was related about Manasseh in each of these two books is given. From this we learn that the historical book of Kings contained the words which prophets had spoken against Manasseh; while in the writing of the prophet Hozai, of whom we know nothing further, information as to the places where his idolatry was practised, and the images which were the objects of it, was to be found. After all these facts, which speak decidedly against the identification of the prophetic writings cited in the book of Kings with that book itself, the enigmatic להתיחשׂ, after the formula of quotation, “They are written in the words (speeches) of the prophet Shemaiah and of the seer Iddo” (2Ch 12:15), can naturally not be looked upon as a proof that here prophetic writings are denominated parts of a larger historical work. 3. Nor can we consider it, with Bertheau, decisive, “that for the whole history of David (והאחרנים הראשׁנים המּלך דויד דּברי), Solomon, Rehoboam, and Jehoshaphat, prophetic writings are referred to; while for the whole history of Asa, Amaziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Josiah, the references are to the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.” From this fact no further conclusion can be drawn than that, in reference to the reigns of some kings the prophetic writings, and in reference to those of others the history of the kingdom, contained all that was important, and that the history of the kingdom contained also information as to the work of the prophets in
