1.  By the Jewish arrangement, which places together the twelve minor prophets in a single volume, the chronological order of the prophets as a whole is broken up.  The three greater prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, stand in the true order of time.  Daniel began to prophesy before Ezekiel, but continued, many years after him.  The Jewish arrangement of the twelve minor prophets is in a sense chronological; that is, they put the earlier prophets at the beginning, and the later at the end of the collection.  It does not appear, however, that they intended to follow the order of time with exactness.  If they did, then in the judgment of many they committed errors.  The particulars must be discussed as the books come up separately for consideration.

    In regard to the first six, the arrangement of the Septuagint
    differs from the Masoretic, which is followed in our version, as
    follows: 

    MASORETIC TEXT.  SEPTUAGINT VERSION.

1.  Hosea. 1.  Hosea. 2.  Joel. 2.  Amos. 3.  Amos. 3.  Micah. 4.  Obadiah. 4.  Joel. 5.  Jonah. 5.  Obadiah. 6.  Micah. 6.  Jonah.

2.  This precious collection contains the earliest as well as the latest writings of the Hebrew prophets, except such as are embodied in the historical books; for Hosea, Joel, and Amos, at least, are older than Isaiah, and the three prophets of the restoration are younger than Ezekiel and Daniel.  The minor prophets exhibit a great diversity of manner and style—­the rugged and sententious, the full and flowing, the oratorical, and the simple and unadorned.  In them are passages attaining to the sublimity of Isaiah, to the tenderness and pathos of Jeremiah, and to the vehemence of Ezekiel.  Nowhere do we find sin rebuked with more awful severity, the true meaning of the law more clearly expounded, or the future glory of Zion more confidently predicted.  That some of these writings are obscure and of difficult interpretation cannot be denied.  This arises partly from the character of the style, as in the case of Hosea and others; partly from the nature of the themes discussed, as in Zechariah; partly from our ignorance of the times and circumstances of the writers.  Nevertheless the prayerful student will find in them a rich treasury of divine truth, which will abundantly reward the labor bestowed upon it.

I. HOSEA.