Nevi'im ^* or Prophets is the second of the three major sections in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), following Torah and preceding Ketuvim.

Contents

---

Nevi'im is traditionally divided into two parts:

• Former Prophets or Nevi'im Rishonim ראשונים which contains the narrative books of Joshua through Kings.
• Latter Prophets or Nevi'im Aharonim אחרונים, mostly contains prophecies in the form of biblical poetry.

In the Jewish tradition, both Samuel and Kings are counted as one book each (not two). In addition, twelve relatively short prophetic books are counted as one in a single collection called Trei Asar or "The Twelve Minor Prophets" ("minor" refers to the length of the books, not the importance of the prophets themselves). The Jewish tradition thus counts a total of eight books in Nevi'im (out of a total of 24 books in the entire Tanakh):

Former Prophets

• I. Joshua or Yehoshua ^*
• II. Judges or Shoftim ^*
• III. Samuel or Shmu'el ^*
• IV. Kings or Melakhim ^*

Latter Prophets

• V. Isaiah or Yeshayahu ^*
• VI. Jeremiah or Yirmiyahu ^*
• VII. Ezekiel or Yehezq'el ^*
• VIII. Trei Asar (The Twelve Minor Prophets) תרי עשר
  1. Hosea or Hoshea ^*
  2. Joel or Yo'el ^*
  3. Amos ^*
  4. Obadiah or Ovadyah ^*
  5. Jonah or Yonah ^*
  6. Micah or Mikhah ^*
  7. Nahum or Nachum ^*
  8. Habakkuk or Habaquq ^*
  9. Zephaniah or Tsefania ^*
  10. Haggai or Haggai ^*
  11. Zechariah Zekharia ^*
  12. Malachi or Malakhi ^*

Liturgical Use: The Haftarah

---

The Haftarah is a text selected from the books of Nevi'im which is read publicly in the synagogue after the reading of the Torah on each Sabbath, as well as on Jewish festivals and fast days. See the main article on Haftarah.

Certain cantillation marks appear in Nevi'im but not within any of the Haftarah selections, and most communities therefore do not have a musical tradition for those marks. J.L. Neeman (The Tunes of the Bible - Musical Principles of the Biblical Accentuation, Tel Aviv, 1955 ^*) suggested that "those who recite Nevi'im privately with the cantillation melody may read the words accented by those rare notes by using a "metaphor" based on the melody of those notes in the five books of the Torah, while adhering to the musical scale of the melody for Nevi'im." Neeman includes a reconstruction of the musical scale for the lost melodies of the rare cantillation notes (vol. 1, pp. 136, 188-189).

The Targum to Nevi'im

---

According to the Talmud, the Targum on Nevi'im was composed by Jonathan ben Uzziel. Like Targum Onkelos on the Torah, Targum Jonathan is an eastern (Babylonian) Targum with early origins in the west (Land of Israel).

Like the Targum to the Torah, Targum Jonathan to Nevi'im served a formal liturgical purpose: it was read alternately, verse by verse, in the public reading of the Haftarah and in the study of Nevi'im.

Yemenite Jews continue the above tradition to this day, and have thus preserved a living tradition of the Babylonian vocalization for the Targum to Nevi'im.

See also

---

Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, Ketuvim, Haftarah, cantillation.

Nevi'im | Prophecy | Hebrew words

Nevi'im | Nevi'im | Nevi'im | Prophètes | Nevi'im | Neviìm | נביאים | Nevi'im | 先知书