Nahum and Abacuc

Concerning the life and death of the prophets. Epiphanius: On the prophets, whence they were and where they were completed.

He was a son of Jair, from Bethlehem, of the tribe of Issachar, and having died, he was buried in his own land in peace. He gave a sign that the Lord would come upon the earth: if they say the oak in Shiloh be divided into twelve from itself and twelve oaks become.

Amos was from Tekoa, and he was taken up by the son Amaziah, striking him with a sword at the temple. And still breathing, he came into his own land, and having finished after three days, he was buried there.

Micaiah, son of Jeramoth the Morathite, was from the tribe of Ephraim, and having done many things to Ahab, he was taken up on a cliff by Jeroboam his son, because he rebuked him concerning the impieties of his fathers, and he was buried in his own land.

Joel, son of Bathuel, was from the tribe of Reuben from the field of Tabor, and having died in peace, he was buried there.

Abdon was from the land of Shechem, who was also the third fifty-man whom Elijah appointed; and he went down to Obadiah. After these things, leaving the service of the king, he retired, and having died, he was buried with his fathers.

Jonah, son of Amittai, was from the land of Keriatharim near the city of Azotus by the sea; and having been cast out from the whale and having gone to Nineveh, and having returned, he did not remain in his own land, but and he lived in the land of Sur, among the foreign tribes. For he was saying: 'Thus I will remove my reproach, that I lied prophesying against the city of Nineveh.' And Elias was then rebuking Ahab, and having called for famine upon the land, he fled. And having come, he found the widow with her son; for he was not able to remain among non-Jews. And he blessed her, and having died, her son Jonah again from the dead God through Elias was raised. For He wished to show him that one cannot flee from God. And after the famine, having come to the land of Judah in Saar, and having died, he was buried there. And he gave a sign upon the Temple...

The Psalm says: when they see a stone crying out pitifully, the end approaches; and when they see all the nations in Jerusalem, then the city shall be established.

7. Nahum was the son of Elkese, from the tribe of Simeon, of Jesbeh. And after Jonah, he gave a sign to Nineveh, that it would be destroyed by waters and by subterranean fire. And so it happened; for the lake surrounding it collapsed in an earthquake, and fire came out from the desert and burned its highest part. And having died, he was buried in his own land.

8. Abacuc was from the village of Bidzuchar, of the tribe of Simeon. And he saw before the captivity concerning the fall of Jerusalem, and he grieved greatly; and when Nebuchadnezzar came to Jerusalem, he fled to Ostrakine, and was a resident alien in the land of Ishmael. And when the Chaldeans returned, and the survivors who were in Jerusalem went down to Egypt, this man was residing in his own land and serving with the reapers of his people. And when he took the food to bring to the workers, he spoke encouragingly to his own, saying: I am going to a distant land, and I will come back quickly. If I am delayed, bring the best of their food to the reapers. And having arrived in Babylon and having given the best to Daniel, he went to the reapers who were eating, and he said nothing of what had happened. But from this, he understood that the people would return quickly from Babylon. And two years before the return, having died, he was buried there in a field. And he gave a sign to those in Judah, that they would see light in the temple, and thus see the glory of the temple. And concerning the destruction of the temple, he foretold that it would come by a western nation, and then the expanse of David, he says, will be broken into small pieces, and the tops of the two pillars will be removed, and no one will know where they will be; but these things will be carried away into the desert by an angel, where the tent of the testimony was originally set up, and the Lord will be known to those at the end.

9. Sophonias, son of Hush, was from the village of Sabaratha, of the tribe of Simeon.