ngs.
These constitute, indeed, the great bulk of the prophetical writings
that have come down to us. The subject of the interpretation of prophecy
may be conveniently considered under the following heads: prophecies
relating to the near future; prophecies relating to the last days; the
question of double sense; the question of literal and figurative
meaning.

I. PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE NEAR FUTURE.

2. The Bible contains many prophecies relating to the comparatively near
future. These are all _specific_ in their character, and have a _single_
exhaustive fulfilment. Examples are: the prediction to Noah of the
approaching deluge, and to Abraham of the bondage of his posterity in a
strange land; the disclosure through Pharaoh's dreams of the coming
famine in Egypt; Joseph's announcement of the future deliverance of
Israel from Egypt; the token given to Moses that God had sent him: "When
thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon
this mountain" (Exod. 3:12); God's threatened judgments upon the house
of Eli with the accompanying sign (1 Sam. 2:34); the warning that David
received by Urim and Thummim of Saul's approach to destroy him (1 Sam.
23:9-12); the prediction that Josiah should defile Jeroboam's altar at
Bethel with men's bones (1 Kings 13:2); etc. Minute events, in
themselves unimportant, sometimes come within the sphere of prophetic
revelation, but always in connection with and subserviency to important
transactions affecting the interests of God's people. Thus when Samuel
anointed Saul as the future king of Israel, he foretold to him the
incidents of his journey homeward (1 Sam. 10:2-7). But this was in order
that Saul might be assured of Samuel's prophetic office, and
consequently of the divine sanction to the transaction. An event in the
immediate future is frequently predicted as a pledge that some prophecy
of more distant fulfilment shall be accomplished. Thus the death of
Eli's two sons in one day was to be a token of the fulfilment of all the
evils threatened against his house. The same end may be accomplished by
a miraculous sign. 1 Kings 13:3; 2 Kings 20:9, 11. Prophecies of the
kind now under consideration are in general very plain and simple, and
their recorded fulfilment is to us a sufficient interpreter of their
meaning.

II. PROPHECIES RELATING TO THE LAST DAYS.

3. In Old Testament usage, "the last days," or "the latter days" ("in
the latter years," Ezek. 38:8)