in general, a person who foretells future events; but it is particularly applied to such inspired persons amongst the Jews as were commissioned by God to declare his will and purposes to that people. Amongst the canonical books of the Old Testament we have the writings of sixteen prophets, four of whom are denominated the greater prophets, viz. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, being so called from the length and extent of their writings, which exceed those of the others, viz. Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, who are called the lesser prophets, from the shortness of their writings. The Jews do not place Daniel amongst the prophets, because, they say, he lived the life of a courtier rather than that of a prophet.