"I will gather the nations" : the fate of the nations on the day of Yahweh in the Book of the Twelve.

This study explores the correlation between pronouncements of judgment against specific nations on the day of Yahweh and accusations of aggression by those nations toward Israel or Judah in the Book of the Twelve. This dissertation proposes that in the Book of the Twelve only nations that launched attacks against Israel or Judah that were neither sanctioned nor prompted by Yahweh will be recipients of Yahweh’s hostile intervention on the day of Yahweh. Nations Yahweh raised to inflict punishment on Israel and Judah will not be recipients of Yahweh’s hostile intervention on the day of Yahweh. Recent studies on the Twelve demonstrate that it is possible to read the Twelve as a coherent literary compilation. The results of synchronic studies of the Twelve suggest that the tools of contemporary literary criticism yield fresh insights to the Twelve that may otherwise go unnoticed. In light of these analyses, this dissertation aims to read the Twelve synchronically as a coherent literary compilation. It employs principles of contemporary literary criticism in order to produce an understanding of the theme of the fate of the nations on the day of Yahweh in the Book of the Twelve. In so doing it describes the cumulative effect these pronouncements have on the Twelve’s targeted reader’s understanding of the day of Yahweh.by Mario Escobedo II.Ph.D