respecting the character of prophecy, we add a few rules for its
feature is more common in the later than in the earlier prophets. Cf. Jer. 31:31–34; Mal. 1:11.
h. Sometimes the prophets revealed the word of the Lord in prophetical actions. Isaiah walked bare-footed through the streets of Jerusalem; Jeremiah hastened to the Euphrates to hide his girdle; Ezekiel lay 390 days on his left, and 40 days on his right side, bearing the iniquity of the people; and Hosea married a wife of whoredoms. Some interpreters proceed on the assumption that these actions were not real, but took place in a vision.
2. INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY. To the preceding remarks respecting the character of prophecy, we add a few rules for its interpretation.
a. The words of the prophets should be taken in their usual literal sense, unless the context or the manner in which they are fulfilled clearly indicate that they have a symbolical meaning. This rule is disregarded by Hengstenberg and Henderson, when they assume that Joel, in speaking of locusts, refers to a heathen people.
b. In studying the figurative descriptions that are found in the prophets, the interpreter should make it his aim to discover the fundamental idea expressed. When Isaiah pictures wild and domesticated animals as dwelling together in peace and led by a little child, he gives a poetic description of the peace that will prevail on earth in the future.
c. In the interpretation of the symbolical actions of the prophets, the interpreter must proceed on the assumption of their reality, i.e., of their occurrence in actual life, unless the connection clearly proves the contrary. Some commentators have too hastily inferred from a supposed moral or physical impossibility, that they merely occur in a vision. Such a procedure does violence to the plain sense of the Bible.
d. The fulfilment of some of the most important prophecies is germinant, i.e., they are fulfilled by instalments, each fulfilment
being a pledge of that which is to follow. Hence while it is a mistake to speak of a double or treble sense of prophecy, it is perfectly correct to speak of a two or threefold fulfilment. It is quite evident, e.g., that Joel's prophecy in 2:28–32 was not completely fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. Notice also the predictions respecting the coming of the Son of Man in Matt. 24.
e. Prophecies should be read in the light of their fulfilment, for this will often reveal depths that would otherwise have escaped the attention. The interpreter should bear in mind, however, that many of them do not refer to specific historical events, but enunciate some general principle that may be realized in a variety of ways. If he should simply ask, in such cases, to what event the prophet refers, he would be in danger of narrowing the scope of the prediction in an unwarranted manner. Moreover, he should not proceed on the assumption that prophecies are always fulfilled in the exact form in which they were uttered. The presumption is that, if they are fulfilled in a later dispensation, the dispensational form will be disregard in the fulfillment.
LITERATURE: Fairbairn, On Prophecy; Elliott, Old Testament Prophecy; Gloag, Messianic Prophecy; Riehm, Messianic Prophecy; Edersheim, Prophecy and History in Relation to the Messiah; Davidson, Old Testament Prophecy; Girdlestone, The Grammar of Prophecy; Kirkpatrick, The Doctrine of the Prophets; Aalders, De Profeten des Ouden Verbonds; Terry, Biblical Hermeneutics, pp. 313–337.
F. The Interpretation of the Psalms
The Psalms, the sacred songs of Israel, also form a part of the Word of God. They comprise both lyric and didactic poetry. In the didactic psalms, God gives instruction through the poet and addresses himself to the understanding; in the lyric, He reveals himself through the emotions and spiritual experiences of the sacred poets, and directs himself to the heart. The present discussion concerns itself