The Twelve Prophets תרי עשר
Twelve short prophetic books joined in a single scroll so that the smallest would not be lost.
Hoshea, Yoel, Amos, Ovadia, Yona, Micha, Nachum, Chavakuk, Tzefania, Chaggai, Zecharia and Malachi—twelve prophets whose books are so short (Ovadia has twenty-one verses) that the sages joined them into a single scroll lest they be lost.
They span nearly four centuries. Amos, a herdsman from Tekoa, denounces the north for "selling the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of sandals". Hoshea speaks of the nation's unfaithfulness in the language of marriage. Yona refuses to go to Nineveh and is swallowed by a fish; his book is read on Yom Kippur. Micha reduces the whole Torah to one line: "do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God".
The last three return from Babylon, urging on the Second Temple. With Malachi prophecy ends.
On the timeline
Related
Sources
Tanakh
- Michah 6:8 — “what does the Lord require of you” — the summit of these books
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bava Batra 14b–15a — the order of the twelve books and how they were written down
- Yoma 38b — “the righteous is the foundation of the world” (Mishlei) in the discussion of the prophets
- Sanhedrin 11a — Chaggai, Zechariah and Malachi — the last of the prophets
Basis: tradition.