The Hebrew Prophets after the Shoah

The Shoah is without question the defining moment in modern history, and it has transformed the manner in which the Bible is read and how God is understood. Questions that hitherto were rarely posed publicly must now be posed, and the human drama born out of exile, bondage, and genocide must be reckoned with in a new light.

These are issues that are predicated on a faithful God to whom challenging and even unanswerable questions must be voiced. So, how might the Hebrew prophets address such contemporary issues as imperial militarism, eminent domain, trust and trauma, hunger and power, memory and shame, blame and self-critique, madness and exceptionalism?

The daring words of the Hebrew prophets must have voices of testimony and witness in our time. This book speaks to that challenge.


Hemchand Gossai has gathered key emphases from the prophetic corpus with remarkable clarity and enabled a sharp and thoughtful connection to contemporary issues. The prophets live again in this insightful book!
--Terence Fretheim, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN

The voice of the Hebrew prophets advocating justice and equality for all humans in rebuke of the beneficiaries of exploitative economics and retaliatory force comes to piercing clarity in Gossai's book. His hermeneutic of engagement draws the ancestral pioneers of Scripture and their modern heirs into a rigorous theopolitical discourse eschewing definitive solutions while denying the other popular alternative of dismissing ancient texts as expired and irrelevant.
--Paul D. Hanson, Harvard Divinity School, Cambridge, MA

With wonderful lucidity, Gossai takes the concerns of Israel's ancient prophets to the global marketplace today. He underscores the self-destructive, violent nature of the 'empire' then and now, and challenges readers to connect with the prophetic word so as to act prophetically, imaginatively, and responsibly in the face of pervasive inequities. Gossai has blared a wake-up call to us all, especially to those engaged in self-serving personal, political, social, religious, or intellectual efforts.
--Carol J. Dempsey, University of Portland, Portland, OR


Hemchand Gossai is Associate Dean of Liberal Arts at Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale. He is the author of several books including Social Critique by Israel's Eighth-Century Prophets, Barrenness and Blessing, and Power and Marginality in the Abraham Narratives. He speaks widely on civic engagement and social justice issues.