A Summary of Old Testament Books

How well do you know your Old Testament? Here is a review of Old Testament  books.

Genesis -- Beginnings of the human race: 4 events (creation, fall, flood, nations), 1-11; Beginning of the Hebrew race: 4 people (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph), 12-50

Exodus -- Moses; plagues in Egypt; departure; Red Sea; Sinai; the Ten Commandments; the Tabernacle; and the Law

Leviticus -- Priests' handbook. Sacrifice, tabernacle worship, ritual purity, feast days

Numbers -- census of fighting men; departure from Sinai; the guiding cloud; murmuring; the spies; wandering 40 years in the wilderness

Deuteronomy -- the "second" giving of the Law; follows the Hittite suzerainty treaty "pat-tern Moses' last words

Joshua -- Conquest and partition of the land of promise

Judges -- Dark ages of Israelite history; continuous cycles of sin, servitude, supplication, and salvation; "Judges" were deliverers; "In those days there was no king..."

Ruth -- love story of a foreign ancestor of David (and Jesus); focus in Bethlehem

I Samuel -- transition between Judges and United Monarchy - king Saul, rise of David

II Samuel -- reign of David: the good, bad and ugly

I Kings - - prominence of Solomon; beginnings of a Divided Kingdom

II Kings - - Divided kingdom; captivity for both north and south

I Chronicles -- post-captivity history and genealogy of Israel; focus on Davidic institutions

II Chronicles -- history of the United and Divided kingdoms from post-captivity Judahite perspective

Ezra -- rebuilding respect for the Law after the return from exile 

Nehemiah -- rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem

Esther -- staving off extermination; lesson of divine providence

Job -- problem of human suffering

Psalms -- national hymnbook of Israel

Proverbs -- wisdom for life (especially valuable for teenagers)

Ecclesiastes -- meaning and purpose of life

Song of Songs -- romantic love (possibly among newlyweds)

Isaiah -- Judahite crisis at the end of the 8th century B.C.; projections of comfort after the coming Babylonian captivity; glimpses of Messianic glory

Jeremiah -- downfall of Jerusalem and spiritual commentary

Lamentations -- funeral dirge for a fallen people

Ezekiel -- apocalyptic message for a people facing a long captivity

Daniel -- a picture of captivity from inside the royal courts; a peek at the distant future for God's people

Hosea -- Northern Israel an unfaithful adulteress and God's punishment: Assyrian captivity

Joel -- Locust plague and its apocalyptic dimensions

Amos -- Judgment pronounced on Israel; much like Hosea, but from the mouth of a "southern" herdsman

Obadiah -- Woe to Edom, an unfaithful "brother"

Jonah -- running away from God (ch. 1); to God (2); with God (3); and ahead of God (4)

Micah -- contemporary of Isaiah, with much the same emphasis

Nahum -- Judgment pronounced against Nineveh of Assyria, historic enemy of God's people

Habakkuk -- focuses on God's judgment, using Babylonian power, against Judah; questions God's justice

Zephaniah -- parallel to Jeremiah; fall of Jerusalem and apocalyptic dimensions of future restoration

Haggai -- catalyst to rebuilding the Temple

Zechariah -- exhortations after the return from exile, and the apocalyptic/messianic dimensions

Malachi -- cleaning up abuses in the Temple; prediction of a new era with the coming of  "Elijah"

Focus Magazine, April 2001