Joel, Obadiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi

These books, from what are often called the twelve prophets, continue to recount the story of the return from Babylonian exile. 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.

Haggai demonstrates how not to be a prophet, as his wildly optimistic and date-...