ABSTRACT
Social ideals hold a large place in the teaching of the Prophets. Ethical principles must inform the social order and ethical duties be fulfilled by society. A society is more than the sum of the lives of its individuals, just as a circle is more than the sum of the points in its circumference. The Prophets’ conception of society developed the idea of group solidarity which had come down from the early stages in human history. A nation must constitute itself a society ordered according to the moral law. It was an element in the Prophets’ thought, and has remained a distinctive doctrine of Judaism that human society as well as human personality is the object of divine concern. The dichotomy, individual and society, is dissolved under the dominion of the law of God. The inference that the Prophets in their social teaching attacked the social system is borne out by their positive demands for social reforms.
