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337 and national inequities and transgressions. As though hark- ening back to the days before the Deluge, when the Lord expressed his dissatisfaction with the way Mankind had turned out and sought to wipe it off the face of the Earth on the occasion of the Deluge, so was the Divine Dissatisfaction great once again, the remedy being the demise of all king- doms—of Israel and Judaea included, the destruction of all temples—that in Jerusalem included, the end of all false wor- ship that is expressed in sacrifices to cover up constant injus- tices, and the rise, after such a global catharsis, of a "New Jerusalem" that shall be a "Light unto all the nations." It was, as J.A. Heschel designated it in The Prophets, "the Age of Wrath." Its fifteen Literary Prophets (as scholars des- ignate them because their words were retained as _ separate biblical books) span almost three centuries, from circa 750 B.C. when Amos (in Judaea) and Hosea (in Samaria) began to prophesy through Malachi circa 430 B.C.; they include the two great Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah who, in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., foresaw and saw the demise of the two Hebrew kingdoms, and the great Prophet Ezekiel, who was among the exiles in Babylonia, saw the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 587, and_ prophesied about the New Jerusalem. On the individual level, the great Prophets spoke out harshly against empty piety—rituals that papered over injus- tices. "I hate, I despise your feasts, I take no delight in your solemn assemblies," the Lord said through Amos; instead, "let justice well up as waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream" (5:21-24). "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices?" Isaiah said in behalf of Yahweh; "bring no more vain oblations . .. When ye spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; when ye make many prayers, I will not hear"; rather than all that, "seek justice, undo op- pression, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow" (Isaiah 1:17, Jeremiah 22:3). It was a call to return to the essence of the Ten Commandments, to the righteousness and justice of ancient Sumer. On the national level, the Prophets saw futility and foresaw doom in the making and unmaking of alliances with neigh- boring kings in efforts to withstand the attacks and domina- Prophets of an Unseen God