When a fatal disease spreads over Bajor, threatening the entire planet with extinction, Captain Sisko must accept aid from an unexpected source: Ro Laren, Starfleet officer turned Maquis renegade. Major Kira and Ro reluctantly join forces to track the alien plague to its source -- even as the disease claims new victims on Deep Space Nine itself. Dr. Bashir struggles to find a cure, but the secret of the virulent invader may hide deep in the shadows of Dax's past.

The writings of the prophets make up over a quarter of the Old Testament. But perhaps no other portion of the Old Testament is more misunderstood by readers today. For some, prophecy conjures up knotted enigmas, opaque oracles and terrifying visions of the future. For others it raises expectations of a plotted-out future to be reconstructed from disparate texts. And yet the prophets have imprinted the language of faith and imagination with some of its most sublime visions of the future - nations streaming to Zion, a lion lying with a lamb, and endlessly fruiting trees on the banks of a flowing river. We might view the prophets as stage directors for Israel's unfolding drama of redemption. Drawing inspiration from past acts in that drama and invoking fresh words from its divine author, these prophets speak a language of sinewed poetry, their words and images arresting the ear and detonating in the mind. For when Yahweh roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem, the pastures of the shepherds dry up, the crest of Carmel withers, and the prophetic word buffets those selling the needy for a pair of sandals. The Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets is the only reference book of its kind. Not only does it focus exclusively on the prophetic books; it also plumbs their imagery of mountains and wilderness, flora and fauna, temple and Zion. It maps and guides us through topics such as covenant and law, exile and deliverance, forgiveness and repentance, and the Day of the Lord. Here the nature of prophecy is searched out in its social, historical, literary and psychological dimensions as well as its synchronic spread of textual links and associations. And the formation of the prophetic books into their canonical collection, including the Book of the Twelve, is explored and weighed for its significance. Then too, contemporary approaches such as canonical criticism, conversation analysis, editorial/redaction criticism, feminist interpretation, literary approaches and rhetorical criticism are summed up and assayed. Even the afterlife of these great texts is explored in articles on the history of interpretation as well as on their impact in the New Testament.

Continuing the Deep Space Nine saga—an original novel from New York Times bestselling author Judith Reeves-Stevens! Now begins the final battle of the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths within the nightmarish realm of nonlinear time—as the greatest epic adventure in the saga of Deep Space 9tm—reaches its staggering conclusion... As predicted in ancient Bajoran texts, the Celestial Temple has been restored, ending normal space-time existence for all except Captain Benjamin Sisko and those trapped on the Starship Defiant and the Klingon warship Boreth. But as apocalyptic war rages between the Prophets and the Pah-wraiths, one last chance for survival beckons—a return to Deep Space 9. Yet, in the realm of nonlinear time, it appears that there are two possible times at which Sisko and his allies can turn to the station: on the day of the Cardassian Withdrawal, or on the day six years later when DS9 Was destroyed. But which choice will lead to the triumph of the Prophets? And which to eternal victory for the Pah-wraiths? With time literally running out and the fate of the universe in his hands, Sisko now must confront his own personal inferno-in order to change the past and restore the present, he must be ready to make the ultimate sacrifice...his future...

The Prophets is widely recognized as a masterpiece of biblical scholarship. Heschel attempts to understand the thoughts, feelings, and impressions of each of the prophets, presenting the reader with a sense of their very being. He effectively achieves a balance between the objective supernatural and the subjective human situation, and presents a unique discussion of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah, and Habakkuk and their particular challenges and journeys. In the second part of the book, Heschel addresses such subjects as pathos, wrath, sympathy, ecstasy, psychosis, and prophetic and poetic inspiration, and in so doing offers a new contribution to the philosophy of religion. The Prophets is both scholarly and devotional, an indispensable part of an in-depth understanding of the Hebrew Bible.

The book offers an up-to-date and readable introduction to the manifold literary and historical problems of biblical prophecy. Reinhard Gregor Kratz provides the reader with a clear analysis of the development of the institution of prophecy in ancient Israel and Second Temple Judaism. Through a close reading of the prophetic corpus he demonstrates that in biblical tradition we have to distinguish between the historical and the literary prophet. The historical prophet is a representative of ancient Israelite religion while the literary prophet – as presented in the biblical books—is part of the tradition of emerging Judaism. This development from historical representative to literary figure guides the analysis and it becomes clear that the special character of biblical prophecy as encountered in the books of the Bible is the result of a long process of tradition during which older material is reworked, restructured, and applied to new situations. The book takes the distinction between the historical and the literary phenomenon of prophecy seriously and, therefore, will focus primarily on the literary tradition. This tradition will be recognized as such and should not be confused with the historical prophet and his words. After an overview of various models of interpretation of biblical prophecy, Kratz will consider first the broader historical background and the phenomenology of prophecy in the ancient Near East and ancient Israel. Then he moves on to the literary evidence of prophecy in biblical tradition and its historical context, including the earliest commentaries on prophetic books, the Pesharim from Qumran. The study concludes with an appendix that will introduce the reader to the scholarship on the prophets and provide some suggestions for further reading.

Designed for use in upper-level college courses and seminary courses on the prophets