Christine Hayes continues Yale's Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) course with a lecture in two parts. She first wraps up the discussion of the Deuteronomistic historian's argument that idolatry and covenant violation bring divine wrath and national calamity. The bulk of the lecture then turns to Israelite prophecy as a social and religious phenomenon, covering ecstatic prophecy, prophetic guilds, and the non-literary prophets found in the historical books. Hayes distinguishes true prophets from court flatterers, or yes-men, and lays out the varied roles prophets played: zealots for God, kingmakers and king-breakers, miracle workers, and above all the conscience of the king, checking royal power in the name of covenant law. The lecture draws on figures like Elijah and Elisha to show prophecy functioning as a political and moral institution within ancient Israel, distinct from the later literary prophets covered elsewhere in the course.