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Misquoting Moses with Joel Baden

Misquoting Moses with Joel Baden

Prophecy in the Hebrew Bible

Oct 2, 2026 · 47m

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For three years, the prophet Isaiah wandered naked around Jerusalem. Ezekiel lay on his left side for three hundred and ninety days, then flipped over, and lay on his right for another forty. After this stunt was over, he went on a new diet of barley cakes - cooked over cook manure. Hosea marries a prostitute and names their child "unloved". Elijah calls down fire from heaven, and Elisha makes an axe head float. We often think of prophets as predicting the future, but this picture is of something much stranger. Today, we're investigating the role of prophecy in the Hebrew Bible, and above all, why it's so weird.