Timeline of the Old Testament Prophets

The books of prophecy at the end of the Old Testament are not arranged in chronological order. This chart places the prophets in order by date they prophesied. In some cases, the books attributed to them may have been written, edited, or compiled long after they lived. Some prophets can be dated based on references in their books to external events; those with question marks are not known with certainty. Habakkuk Micah Jonah Amos Hosea 1st Isaiah Zephaniah Nahum Ezekiel Obadiah? Daniel 16? Zechariah Haggai 3rd Isaiah? Malachi? Joel? Daniel 712? ~167 B.C.

Jeremiah 2nd Isaiah?

800 B.C.

700 B.C.

600 B.C.

500 B.C.

400 B.C.

300 B.C.

922 B.C.: Judah/Israel split into two kingdoms

722 B.C.: Fall of Israel to Assyria

586 B.C.: Fall of Judah to Babylon & First Temple destroyed; beginning of Jewish exile in Babylon

539 B.C.: Persians conquer Babylonians; return of Jews to Jerusalem from exile in Babylon 516 B.C.: Completion of the rebuilt Second Temple

331 B.C.: Greeks conquer Persians

Isaiah: Scholars overwhelmingly reject the idea that Isaiah was written by one person. The prevailing view is that chapters 139 were written by Isaiah, son of Amoz, who prophesied from about 740 to 700 B.C. Chapters 4055 (Second Isaiah) are believed to have been written sometime between 559 and 530 B.C., but quotations from this section in the Book of Mormon must mean the book was at least partially written before 600 B.C. Chapters 5666 (Third Isaiah) are thought to have been written between 538 and 515 B.C., after the return of the Jews from captivity in Babylon; since the Book of Mormon has no quotations from this section, there is no problem accepting this portion of the theory. Jeremiah began prophesying as early as 627 B.C. until his death in 586 B.C. Ezekiel prophesied 593 B.C. to at least 571 B.C. Daniel: The dating problems of this book are numerous and well-known. The character of Daniel was taken from Jerusalem to Babylon in 605 B.C., but the message and language of the prophetic parts of the book leads many to believe that it was written in the 2nd century B.C.; the stories in the first half of the book possibly date to just after the Babylonian exile. Hosea: This prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel prophesied between 750 and 720 B.C. Joel has traditionally been considered one of the earliest prophets (late 9th or early 8th century), but current scholarship places him at the end of the line of Old Testament prophets, somewhere between 400 and 350 B.C.

Amos prophesied following a great earthquake around 760 B.C., continuing perhaps as late as 740
B.C.

Obadiah: The shortest book in the Old Testament concerns itself with events of the Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem, so its dated sometime shortly after 586 B.C. Jonah is mentioned in 2 Kings 14:25, which places his ministry between 788 and 747 B.C. Micahs prophetic career spanned the reigns of three kings from 759 to 687 B.C. Nahum: Sometime between 625 and 612 B.C. Habakkuk: A contemporary of Lehi; 609 to 597 B.C. Zephaniah: A little earlier than Habakkuk; 630 to 620 B.C. Haggai: Definitely a post-exile prophet, his ministry can be dated to a three-month period in 520
B.C.

Zechariah: A contemporary of Haggai; 520 to 518 B.C. Malachi: The date of his prophesies is unknown, but most scholars place him in the first half of the 5th century B.C. This chart puts him at 480 B.C.