The future has always been a subject of immense fascionation. This fascination expresses itself in many forms, from the reports of mystics who claim they have actually seen that inaccessible realm, to the projections concerning the year 2000 made by the Club of Rome; from the medieval acquisition of indulgences to ease the way through purgatory, to the Soviet Union's five year plans for economic growth. This is the only modern comprehensive introduction to eschatology in the Old Testament, unfolding the hopes expressed in the Old Testament and what became of those hopes, and determining what the Old Testament has contributed to the expetations for a better future which have moved and sustained generations of people who have espoused them.