• The Hebrew canon divides the Bible (Old Testament) into three parts, the second of these are the nebi'im or "Prophets". This section in turn falls into two parts. Four books concerned with history: Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings (Samuel and Kings are each divided into two parts in the Greek canon but in Hebrew each is one book, making four). Four that contain (mainly) messages delivered by prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the Twelve (Daniel is in the third section "Writings"). Thus Jewish tradition saw the "minor" prophets as one book, not twelve.

• Structured around five cycles of judgment and restoration, the book of Hosea makes clear its repetitious theme: though God will bring judgment on sin, He will always bring His people back to Himself. God’s love for Israel, a nation of people more interested in themselves than in God’s direction for their lives, shines through clearly against the darkness of their idolatry and injustice (Hosea 14:4). Throughout the book, Hosea pictured the people turning away from the Lord and turning toward other gods (4:12–3; 8:5–6). This propensity for idolatry meant that the Israelites lived as if they were not God’s people. And though God told them as much through the birth of Hosea’s third child, Lo-ammi, He also reminded them that He would ultimately restore their relationship with Him, using the intimate and personal language of “sons” to describe His wayward people (1:9–10; 11:1).

• Gomer (go'-mer) was the wife of the prophet Hosea, mentioned in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Hosea. Hosea 1:2 refers to her alternatively as a "promiscuous woman" (NIV), a "harlot" (NASB), and a "whore" (KJV) but Hosea is told to marry her according to Divine appointment. She is also described as the daughter of Diblaim.The relationship between Hosea and Gomer has been posited to be a parallel to the relationship between God and Israel. Even though Gomer runs away from Hosea and sleeps with another man, he loves her anyway and forgives her. Likewise, even though the people of Israel worshiped other gods, God continued to love them and did not abandon his covenant with them.

• Using what was at that time the well-known locust plague in Judah, Joel capitalized on a recent tragedy to dispense the Lord's message of judgment and the hope of repentance. In referring to the terrible locust plague, Joel was able to speak into the lives of his listeners and imprint the message of judgment into their minds, like a brand sears the flesh of an animal. One commentator notes that the day of the Lord, which is a reference not to a single day only but to a period of judgment and restoration, consists of three basic features: The judgment of God's people The judgment of foreign nations The purification and restoration of God's people through intense suffering1 We find each of these elements in the book of Joel, as it offers one of the most complete pictures in Scripture of this ultimately redemptive event (Joel 2:1–11; 2:28–32; 3:1–16).

• With the people of Israel in the north enjoying an almost unparalleled time of success, God decided to call a quiet shepherd and farmer to travel from his home in the less sinful south and carry a message of judgment to the Israelites. The people in the north used Amos’s status as a foreigner as an excuse to ignore his message of judgment for a multiplicity of sins. However, while their outer lives gleamed with the rays of success, their inner lives sank into a pit of moral decay. Rather than seeking out opportunities to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly, they embraced their arrogance, idolatry, self-righteousness, and materialism. Amos communicated God’s utter disdain for the hypocritical lives of His people (Amos 5:21–24). His prophecy concludes with only a brief glimpse of restoration, and even that is directed to Judah, rather than the northern kingdom of Israel (9:11–15).

• Obadiah’s name, meaning “worshipper of Yahweh,” offers an interesting counterpoint to the message of judgment he pronounced on Edom, Judah’s neighbor to the southeast.1 As a worshipper of Yahweh, Obadiah placed himself in a position of humility before the Lord; he embraced his lowly place before the almighty God. That God sent a man named “worshipper of Yahweh” to the people of Edom was no mistake. Edom had been found guilty of pride before the Lord (Obadiah 1:3). They had thought themselves greater than they actually were; great enough to mock, steal from, and even harm God’s chosen people. But the “Lord GOD,” a name Obadiah used to stress God’s sovereign power over the nations, will not stand idly by and let His people suffer forever (1:1). Through Obadiah, God reminded Edom of their poor treatment of His people (1:12–14) and promised redemption, not to the Edomites but to the people of Judah (1:17–18). The nation of Edom, which eventually disappeared into history, remains one of the prime examples of the truth found in Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goes before destruction, / And a haughty spirit before stumbling.”

• He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
      And what does the Lord require of you?
  To act justly and to love mercy
      and to walk humbly^[a] with your God.

• After allowing approximately two hundred years of powerful Assyrian kings and rulers, God announced through Nahum His plans to judge the city of Nineveh. While the book as a whole clearly shows God’s concern over sin, His willingness to punish those guilty of wickedness, and His power to carry out His desire for judgment, it also contains rays of hope shining through the darkness. Most significant, the people of Judah would have immediately taken hope in the idea that Nineveh, their primary oppressor for generations, would soon come under judgment from God. Also, a small but faithful remnant in an increasingly idolatrous Judah would have been comforted by declarations of God’s slowness to anger (Nahum 1:3), His goodness and strength (1:7), and His restorative power (2:2).

• Haggai had an important message for the Jews who had recently returned from exile. They had forgotten their God, choosing instead to focus on their own interests, so it was time for them to “consider [their] ways” (Haggai 1:5, 7). Nothing was more important for the Jews than to show that the Lord was at the center of their thoughts and actions, so Haggai directed them to finish rebuilding God’s temple. However, rather than leaving them alone with the task of rebuilding, Haggai continued to preach to the Jews, encouraging them with the hope of future glory in the temple and a victory to come over the enemies of God’s people (2:7–9, 21–22). According to Haggai’s message, if the people would place God at the center of their lives, they would realize the future blessings that God had in store for His people.

• Meaning “Yahweh remembers,” Zechariah’s name was appropriate to the purpose of his prophecies.2 His book brims over with the hope that God would remember His promises to His people, even after all the time they spent outside the land. The prophet used a simple structure of eight visions (Zechariah 1:1–6:15), four messages (7:1–8:23), and two oracles (9:1–14:21) to anticipate the completion of the temple and, ultimately, the future reign of the Messiah from Jerusalem. Like many of the prophets, Zechariah saw isolated snapshots of the future; therefore, certain events that seem to occur one right after the other in Zechariah’s prophecy actually often have generations or even millennia between them. For a people newly returned from exile, Zechariah provided specific prophecy about their immediate and distant future—no doubt a great encouragement. Their nation would still be judged for sin (5:1–11), but they would also be cleansed and restored (3:1–10), and God would rebuild His people (1:7–17). Zechariah concluded his book by looking into the distant future, first at the rejection of the Messiah by Israel (9:1–11:17), and then at His eventual reign when Israel will finally be delivered (12:1–14:21).

Details about one Minor Prophet:

Jonah

• It concerns a disobedient prophet who rejected his divine commission, was cast overboard in a storm and swallowed by a great fish, rescued in a marvelous manner, and returned to his starting point. Now he obeys and goes to Nineveh, the capital of Israel’s ancient enemy.The Ninevites listen to his message of doom and repent immediately.At this, Jonah complains, angry because the Lord spares them. This fascinating story caricatures a narrow mentality which would see God’s interest extending only to Israel, whereas God is presented as concerned with and merciful to even the inhabitants of Nineveh (4:11), the capital of the Assyrian empire which brought the Northern Kingdom of Israel to an end and devastated Jerusalem in 701. The Lord is free to “repent” and change his mind. Jonah seems to realize this possibility and wants no part in it (4:2; cf. Ex 34:6). But the story also conveys something of the ineluctable character of the prophetic calling.

• The Day of the Lord" is a biblical term and theme used in both the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) and the New Testament. A related expression is the Great Day as in "The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come." which appears in both Old and New Testaments.^[1] In the Hebrew bible, the meaning of the phrases refers to temporal events such as the invasion of a foreign army, the capture of a city and the suffering that befalls the inhabitants. In the New Testament, the "day of the Lord" may also refer to the writer's own times, or it may refer to predicted events in a later age of earth's history including the final judgment^[2] and World to Come. The expression may also have an extended meaning in referring to both the first and second comings of Jesus Christ. This appears much in the first chapter of Isaiah.

• God’s Mission,
• The Role of Israel,
• The Character of God,
• The Nature of Evil,
• The Conditions of Repentance,
• Unfulfilled Prophecy.

The humorous nature of the story of Jonah is evidently apparent to many lay readers of translations. The emphasis on the more outlandish elements in popular retellings of the story, and puns about "whales of a story" or "fishy tales" are clear evidence of this. Technically two different types of humour are dominant in Jonah. The first is satire: Through jarring juxtapositions: God's prophet flees God's presence, but then acknowledges Adonai as maker of sea and dry land (1:9), this happens just before the sailors drop him into the sea. 

• The writings of the Old Testament of the Bible were preserved in three languages - Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and have been passed on to us mainly through the following manuscripts: the Greek Septuagint from Alexandria; the newly discovered Dead Sea Scrolls of the Essenes; the Masoretic Hebrew text of Tiberias, Galilee; and the Targumim, Old Testament Books translated into Aramaic, as well as the Aramaic Peshitta Bible. The differing traditions have led to the disparity found in the Old Testament canons among Christian religions.

• A proverb (from Latin: proverbium) is a simple and concrete saying, popularly known and repeated, that expresses a truth based on common sense or the practical experience of humanity. They are often metaphorical. A proverb that describes a basic rule of conduct may also be known as a maxim.

• Wisdom literature is a genre of literature common in the Ancient Near East. This genre is characterized by sayings of wisdom intended to teach about divinity and about virtue.

. Two Types of Wisdom Literature

1. Proverbial Wisdom (Proverbs): short, pithy sayings which state rules for personal happiness and welfare.

2. Speculative Wisdom (Job and Ecclesiastes): this type of literature may be further subdivided into a) monologues, like Ecclesiastes, and b) dialogues, like Job. These sorts of wisdom books delve into such problems as the meaning of existence and the relationship between God and people. Speculative wisdom literature is practical and empirical, not theoretical in nature. Problems of human existence are discussed in terms of concrete examples, for instance, "There was a man...whose name was Job."

• The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
      but fools^[a] despise wisdom and instruction.

• Ecclesiastes, like much of life, represents a journey from one point to another. Solomon articulated his starting point early in the book: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2), indicating the utter futility and meaninglessness of life as he saw it. Nothing made sense to him because he had already tried any number of remedies—pleasure, work, and intellect—to alleviate his sense of feeling lost in the world. However, even in the writer’s desperate search for meaning and significance in life, God remained present. For instance, we read that God provides food, drink, and work (2:24); both the sinner and the righteous person live in God’s sight (2:26); God’s deeds are eternal (3:14); and God empowers people to enjoy His provision (5:19). Ultimately, the great truth of Ecclesiastes lies in the acknowledgment of God’s ever-present hand on our lives. Even when injustice and uncertainty threaten to overwhelm us, we can trust Him and follow after Him (12:13–14).

• “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
      says the Teacher.
  “Utterly meaningless!
      Everything is meaningless.”

• There is a timefor everything,
      and a season for every activity under the heavens.

• The name Qoheleth in the Bible:

• The name Qoheleth is unique in the English Bible. It is the only Biblical name that always gets translated, and that for no apparent reason. It's the name of a Bible book, named after its protagonist, much like Isaiah, Jonah or Micah. But Qoheleth, or the Book of Qoheleth is always translated either with Preacher or with Ecclesiastes. The latter is a Greek/ Latin translation of Qoheleth. In Ecclesiastes 12:8, our "name" occurs preceded by the definite article — the Qoheleth — which makes some scholars believe that Qoheleth is not a name but rather a title.

• Etymology and meaning of the name Qoheleth: The name Qoheleth is a feminine noun that has to do with the verb קהל, (qahal), meaning to assemble:

• Job is presented as such a good man that God boasts about him in a conversation with Satan. Satan is then given permission to test how faithful Job would be if he had to endure loss, grief, and pain. Job's friends come to bring comfort to Job, but fail miserably. After an extended series of dialogues between Job and four friends, God speaks and Job's good fortunes return. Questions about why good people like Job suffer are left unanswered, but Job's relationship with God is renewed.

• The Book of Job does not tell us many facts concerning the identity of Satan, which is doubtless why it forms such a mystery. Nevertheless we do glean two things from the passages where Satan is mentioned:
• Satan presented himself before God

  Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them. (Job 1:6 RSV)

  Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD. (Job 2:1 RSV)

• Satan is given the authority (by God) to cause calamity to Job

   

  The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” (Job 1:12)

  The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and afflicted Job with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. (Job 2:6-7)