238. Ecclesiastes. If Job reads like a play, and Psalms like poetry, and Proverbs like a book of maxims, Ecclesiastes reads like an essay, or the thoughts of an old man thinking out loud. Its subject is the vanity of life. The book approaches Job's question, but from the opposite side: If this universe is governed by a moral God, why doesn't everything make sense? The conclusion of the book's search is that regardless of any apparent vanity, fearing God and keeping His commandments is the wisest course of action.
239. Song of Solomon. Plain and simple, this book is an erotic love poem. The writing resembles Egyptian love poetry and Arabic wedding songs that praise charm and beauty of the bride. The traditional interpretation, both in Judaism and Christianity, is that these love poems represent Yahweh's love for Israel while also establishing God's high regard for male-female love and sexuality.
240. Isaiah opens by dating himself according to the reign of a particular king in Israel's history and then describing his visions in the form of poetry. Throughout his book, Isaiah made key references to historical markers, which keep his writings in context with the historical books. The other prophets often followed this form. Isaiah's ministry spread over the reigns of four of Judah's kings. Isaiah is quoted in the New Testament more often than any other book of prophecy.
241. Jeremiah was another firebrand of the declining years of Judah. Jeremiah, whose name meant "God hurled," was born in a tiny village northeast of Jerusalem, and before long, perhaps while he was still in his teens, he was thrown into the midst of his nation's most terrifying crisis. He was a faithful prophet to God but unpopular among the people. The young Jeremiah declared that the Babylonians would destroy the nation because the children of Israel had forgotten God.
242. Lamentations is a brief book of sorrowful poems, some in the form of alphabetic acrostics, which recall the grim fate of Jerusalem following its destruction by the Babylonians in 587/6 B.C. The title is derived from the Hebrew word qinoth ("dirges" or "laments"). In Christian Old Testaments, the book is placed after Jeremiah, but it is found in the third part of the Hebrew Canon Writings. The poems are bitterly sad elegies for the "dead" city, but they express hope that God will restore a humbled and repentant Israel.
243. Ezekiel is one of the hardest books to read in the Bible. It is long, with a somber tone like Jeremiah. Its images are complex and hard to understand. Babylon besieged Israel before the capital, Jerusalem, finally fell. During those years of siege, captives were taken from the land and shipped to Babylon. Ezekiel was one of the captives. Ezekiel dealt first with the problems that caused Israel to lose her land. Second, he wanted his people to maintain hope for the future.
244. Daniel. Like Ezekiel, the Book of Daniel has some complicated images. These images add to the glorious picture of the future of Israel. The central figure in that future was the Messiah, the Jews' image of hope. The first half of the book is straightforward narrative and is the source of some of the Bible's most loved stories: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace; Daniel in the lion's den; and the story that gave rise to the saying, "You could see the handwriting on the wall."
245. Hosea is a prophet of love. Hosea's own experiences with his wayward wife, Gomer, are used as a symbol to illustrate God's pain in dealing with Israel. Like Gomer's sin, Israel's sin would be punished before there could be restoration. In the Book of Hosea, the sins of Israel are spelled out, and she is described as a "harlot." God is portrayed as a faithful and loving husband and Israel as an adulterous wife.
246. Joel's theme is "This is the day of the Lord." The day of the Lord shows up in other prophetic books as well and means a day of reckoning-a day of judgment. It refers to a time when God brings down the wicked and haughty and lifts up the humble. The day of the Lord meant destruction for some and deliverance for others. Joel spoke of a day approaching for Israel by describing a ravaging plague of locusts.
