Old Testament: Prophets

Amos

Name meaning: "Burden-bearer"
Approximately 10 references

A shepherd and fig-tree dresser from Tekoa in Judah, Amos was called to prophesy against the northern kingdom around 760 BC. He denounced the exploitation of the poor, hollow religious ritual, and the comfortable indifference of the wealthy—captured in his demand: "Let justice roll down like waters" (Amos 5:24).

Key references: Amos 1:1, Amos 7:8, Amos 7:10, Amos 7:11, Amos 7:12, Amos 7:14, Amos 8:2, Luke 3:25, Matthew 1:10

Balaam

Name meaning: "Devourer of the people" or uncertain
Approximately 63 references

A non-Israelite prophet hired by Balak of Moab to curse Israel, Balaam found himself unable to speak anything but blessing—compelled by God through four oracles (Numbers 22–24). Yet his story ends in shadow: he later advised Balak to seduce Israel into sin through Moabite women (Numbers 31:16), and his talking donkey, which saw the blocking angel before he did, remains one of Scripture's stranger episodes. The New Testament cites him as a warning against those who sell their prophetic gift for gain (2 Peter 2:15, Jude 1:11, Revelation 2:14).

Key references: Deuteronomy 23:5, Deuteronomy 23:6, Joshua 13:22, Joshua 24:9, Joshua 24:10, Micah 6:5, Nehemiah 13:2, Numbers 22:5, Numbers 22:7, Numbers 22:8 (and 49 more)

Daniel

Name meaning: "God is my judge"
Approximately 32 references

A Jewish exile who rose to serve in the courts of Babylon and Persia, Daniel was distinguished by an unyielding faithfulness—seen above all in the lions' den (Daniel 6)—and by a gift for interpreting dreams. His apocalyptic visions (Daniel 7–12) have shaped Jewish and Christian eschatology profoundly, not least the "Son of Man" imagery (Daniel 7:13-14) that Jesus claimed for himself.

Key references: 1 Chronicles 3:1, Daniel 1:6, Daniel 1:7, Daniel 1:8, Daniel 1:9, Daniel 1:10, Daniel 1:11, Daniel 1:17, Daniel 1:19, Daniel 1:21 (and 18 more)

Elijah

Name meaning: "My God is YHWH"
Approximately 100 references

Prophet of the northern kingdom during the reign of Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah stood as Israel's lone voice against Baal worship. He called down fire on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18), was sustained in the wilderness by ravens and an angel, and heard God not in wind or earthquake but in a still, small voice. He did not die but was taken up in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11). Malachi promised his return before the day of the LORD (Malachi 4:5), and Jesus identified John the Baptist as that fulfillment (Matthew 11:14).

Key references: 1 Chronicles 8:27, 1 Kings 17:1, 1 Kings 17:13, 1 Kings 17:15, 1 Kings 17:16, 1 Kings 17:18, 1 Kings 17:22, 1 Kings 17:23, 1 Kings 17:24, 1 Kings 18:1 (and 84 more)

Elisha

Name meaning: "My God is salvation"
Approximately 58 references

Elijah's successor, who inherited a double portion of his master's spirit (2 Kings 2), Elisha's ministry was marked by a wide range of miracles: purifying a poisoned spring, multiplying a widow's oil, raising the Shunammite's son, healing Naaman the Syrian of leprosy, and feeding a hundred men with twenty loaves. Where Elijah was solitary and confrontational, Elisha moved freely among ordinary people—a prophet as much of mercy as of power.

Key references: 1 Kings 19:16, 1 Kings 19:17, 1 Kings 19:19, 2 Kings 2:1, 2 Kings 2:2, 2 Kings 2:3, 2 Kings 2:4, 2 Kings 2:5, 2 Kings 2:9, 2 Kings 2:12 (and 42 more)

Ezekiel

Name meaning: "God strengthens"
Approximately 3 references

A priest who became a prophet among the Jewish exiles in Babylon (593–571 BC), Ezekiel communicated through dramatic symbolic actions and a visionary intensity distinctive in the OT. He witnessed the departure and promised return of God's glory, prophesied over a valley of dry bones where scattered Israel lived again (Ezekiel 37), and received an elaborate vision of a restored temple (Ezekiel 40–48). His message centered on individual responsibility and God's sovereign intention to bring Israel home.

Key references: 1 Chronicles 24:16, Ezekiel 1:3, Ezekiel 24:24

Habakkuk

Name meaning: "Embracer" or "wrestler"
Approximately 2 references

Unlike most prophets who spoke to the people on God's behalf, Habakkuk spoke to God on the people's behalf—demanding to know why the wicked prosper, and why God would use the even more wicked Babylonians as his instrument of judgment. God's answer was austere but foundational: "the righteous shall live by faith" (Habakkuk 2:4). Paul would build his theology of justification on that single verse (Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11).

Key references: Habakkuk 1:1, Habakkuk 3:1

Haggai

Name meaning: "Festive"
Approximately 9 references

A post-exilic prophet who delivered four targeted messages in 520 BC, Haggai had a single concern: the unfinished Temple. The returning community had settled into their own houses while God's house lay in ruins, and Haggai's words stirred them back to work.

Key references: Haggai 1:1, Haggai 1:3, Haggai 1:12, Haggai 1:13, Haggai 2:1, Haggai 2:10, Haggai 2:13, Haggai 2:14, Haggai 2:20

Hosea

Name meaning: "Salvation"
Approximately 16 references

Called to the northern kingdom in the eighth century BC, Hosea lived his message: his marriage to the unfaithful Gomer became a living parable of God's covenant love for wayward Israel. His book moves between raw anguish at Israel's betrayal and soaring promises of restoration, making it one of the more emotionally searching texts in the prophetic canon.

Key references: 1 Chronicles 27:20, 2 Kings 15:30, 2 Kings 17:1, 2 Kings 17:3, 2 Kings 17:4, 2 Kings 17:6, 2 Kings 18:1, 2 Kings 18:9, 2 Kings 18:10, Deuteronomy 32:44 (and 5 more)

Isaiah

Name meaning: "YHWH is salvation"
Approximately 57 references

Isaiah ministered in Judah across four reigns—Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah—from roughly 740 to 700 BC, receiving his call in a throne-room vision (Isaiah 6). His book spans searing judgment and sustained messianic prophecy, from the Immanuel sign (Isaiah 7:14) to the Suffering Servant songs (Isaiah 42, 49, 50, 52–53). He is the OT prophet quoted most often in the New Testament.

Key references: 1 Chronicles 25:3, 1 Chronicles 25:15, 1 Chronicles 26:25, 2 Chronicles 26:22, 2 Chronicles 32:20, 2 Chronicles 32:32, 2 Kings 19:2, 2 Kings 19:5, 2 Kings 19:6, 2 Kings 19:20 (and 47 more)

Jeremiah

Name meaning: "YHWH exalts" or "YHWH throws"
Approximately 150 references

Called before his birth (Jeremiah 1:5) and active from 626 BC until the fall of Jerusalem in 586, Jeremiah spent four decades prophesying Judah's destruction to a people who refused to hear it. He was imprisoned, thrown into a cistern, and consistently rejected, yet he continued. His lasting word was not judgment but promise: a new covenant written on the heart rather than stone (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Tradition credits him with Lamentations.

Key references: 1 Chronicles 5:24, 1 Chronicles 12:5, 1 Chronicles 12:11, 1 Chronicles 12:14, 2 Chronicles 35:25, 2 Chronicles 36:12, 2 Chronicles 36:21, 2 Chronicles 36:22, 2 Kings 23:31, 2 Kings 24:18 (and 126 more)

Joel

Name meaning: "YHWH is God"
Approximately 19 references

Joel's prophecy turns a devastating locust plague into a theological lens: the natural catastrophe becomes a type of the coming Day of the LORD, a summons to urgent repentance. On the other side of judgment he saw a radical outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28-32)—a text Peter invoked at Pentecost to explain what the crowd was witnessing (Acts 2:16-21).

Key references: 1 Chronicles 4:35, 1 Chronicles 5:4, 1 Chronicles 5:8, 1 Chronicles 5:12, 1 Chronicles 6:18, 1 Chronicles 6:21, 1 Chronicles 7:3, 1 Chronicles 11:38, 1 Chronicles 15:7, 1 Chronicles 15:11 (and 9 more)

Jonah

Name meaning: "Dove"
Approximately 28 references

Sent to preach repentance to Nineveh—capital of Israel's most feared enemy—Jonah fled the other direction. After three days in the belly of a great fish, he relented, preached, and the city repented. His story then takes its sharpest turn: Jonah's fury at God's mercy exposed the very prejudice his mission was meant to overcome. Jesus cited "the sign of Jonah" as pointing to his own death and resurrection (Matthew 12:39-41).

Key references: 2 Kings 14:25, Jonah 1:1, Jonah 1:3, Jonah 1:5, Jonah 1:7, Jonah 1:15, Jonah 2:1, Jonah 2:2, Jonah 2:11, Jonah 3:1 (and 14 more)

Malachi

Name meaning: "My messenger"
Approximately 1 reference

The last prophetic voice in the OT (c. 460–430 BC), Malachi addressed a community that had grown spiritually careless: corrupt priests, broken marriages, withheld tithes, a cold entitlement toward God. His book closes the Hebrew canon with a forward look—the promise of Elijah's return before "the great and dreadful day of the LORD" (Malachi 4:5-6)—leaving the reader waiting for what comes next.

Key references: Malachi 1:1

Micah

Name meaning: "Who is like YHWH?"
Approximately 34 references

A contemporary of Isaiah from the village of Moresheth in Judah, Micah brought the prophetic critique of the powerful to the common people of the land. He foretold Bethlehem as the birthplace of Israel's coming ruler (Micah 5:2) and gave the tradition a lasting summary of covenant faithfulness: "to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).

Key references: 1 Chronicles 5:5, 1 Chronicles 8:34, 1 Chronicles 8:35, 1 Chronicles 9:40, 1 Chronicles 9:41, 1 Chronicles 23:20, 1 Chronicles 24:24, 1 Chronicles 24:25, 2 Chronicles 18:8, 2 Chronicles 18:14 (and 21 more)

Miriam

Name meaning: "Rebellion" or "wished-for child"
Approximately 15 references

Elder sister of Moses and Aaron, Miriam is the first woman in Scripture called a prophetess. As a child she watched over her brother in his basket on the Nile, and after the crossing of the Red Sea she led the women in song and dance (Exodus 15:20-21). Her story has a shadow: she joined Aaron in challenging Moses' authority and was struck with leprosy, healed only after Moses prayed for her (Numbers 12).

Key references: 1 Chronicles 4:17, 1 Chronicles 5:29, Deuteronomy 24:9, Exodus 15:20, Exodus 15:21, Micah 6:4, Numbers 12:1, Numbers 12:4, Numbers 12:5, Numbers 12:10 (and 3 more)

Nahum

Name meaning: "Comfort"
Approximately 1 reference

Nahum's single oracle is aimed entirely at one target: Nineveh. Where Jonah had preached and the city repented, roughly a century later Nahum announced its final ruin—which came in 612 BC when Babylon sacked the Assyrian capital. For a Judah long ground down by Assyrian brutality, his relentless poetry of judgment was comfort.

Key references: Nahum 1:1

Nathan

Name meaning: "He gave"
Approximately 42 references

Court prophet through the reign of David, Nathan delivered two pivotal messages in 1-2 Samuel: God's unconditional promise of an eternal dynasty to David (2 Samuel 7), and the parable of the poor man's lamb that exposed David's sin with Bathsheba and broke his self-deception (2 Samuel 12). He later moved swiftly to secure Solomon's succession against Adonijah's coup (1 Kings 1).

Key references: 1 Chronicles 2:36, 1 Chronicles 3:5, 1 Chronicles 11:38, 1 Chronicles 14:4, 1 Chronicles 17:1, 1 Chronicles 17:2, 1 Chronicles 17:3, 1 Chronicles 17:15, 1 Chronicles 29:29, 1 Kings 1:8 (and 29 more)

Obadiah

Name meaning: "Servant of YHWH"
Approximately 20 references

Author of the shortest book in the OT, Obadiah's single chapter pronounces judgment on Edom for standing aside—and even assisting—while Jerusalem fell. Many other men in the OT share the name; the reference count includes them all, most notably Ahab's palace steward who sheltered a hundred prophets from Jezebel at great personal risk (1 Kings 18:3-4).

Key references: 1 Chronicles 3:21, 1 Chronicles 7:3, 1 Chronicles 8:38, 1 Chronicles 9:16, 1 Chronicles 9:44, 1 Chronicles 12:10, 1 Chronicles 27:19, 1 Kings 18:3, 1 Kings 18:4, 1 Kings 18:5 (and 9 more)

Samuel

Name meaning: "Heard by God"
Approximately 143 references

The last of the judges and the first in a line of great prophets after Moses, Samuel was dedicated to God before birth and raised at the tabernacle in Shiloh under the priest Eli. He anointed both Saul and David and presided over Israel's transformation from a league of tribes into a monarchy—a transition he navigated with grief as much as authority (1 Samuel 1–16).

Key references: 1 Chronicles 6:13, 1 Chronicles 6:18, 1 Chronicles 7:2, 1 Chronicles 9:22, 1 Chronicles 11:3, 1 Chronicles 26:28, 1 Chronicles 29:29, 1 Samuel 1:20, 1 Samuel 2:18, 1 Samuel 2:21 (and 113 more)

Zechariah

Name meaning: "YHWH remembers"
Approximately 41 references

A post-exilic prophet who worked alongside Haggai urging the restoration of the Temple, Zechariah communicated through a series of night visions dense with apocalyptic imagery. His later chapters are rich with messianic prophecy: the humble king riding a donkey (Zechariah 9:9), the thirty pieces of silver (Zechariah 11:12-13), and the pierced figure whom Israel will mourn (Zechariah 12:10). Many OT figures share the name; the reference count includes them all.

Key references: 1 Chronicles 5:7, 1 Chronicles 9:21, 1 Chronicles 9:37, 1 Chronicles 15:18, 1 Chronicles 15:20, 1 Chronicles 15:24, 1 Chronicles 16:5, 1 Chronicles 24:25, 1 Chronicles 26:2, 1 Chronicles 26:11 (and 31 more)

Zephaniah

Name meaning: "YHWH has hidden/treasured"
Approximately 10 references

A prophet during the reign of Josiah (c. 640–610 BC) and possibly of royal descent, Zephaniah opened with a sweeping judgment—the Day of the LORD consuming "everything from the face of the earth." His book closes, however, with a tender passage: God himself rejoicing over his restored people with singing (Zephaniah 3:14-17).

Key references: 1 Chronicles 6:21, 2 Kings 25:18, Jeremiah 21:1, Jeremiah 29:25, Jeremiah 29:29, Jeremiah 37:3, Jeremiah 52:24, Zechariah 6:10, Zechariah 6:14, Zephaniah 1:1

22 entries. Reference counts are approximate, based on morphological analysis of the Westminster Leningrad Codex (Hebrew) and Open Greek New Testament.