4. _General Features of Prophecy in the Scriptures._ (_a_) Its large amount—occupying a great portion of the Bible, and extending over many hundred years. (_b_) Its ethical and religious nature—the events of the future being regarded as outgrowths and results of men’s present attitude toward God. (_c_) Its unity in diversity—finding its central point in Christ the true servant of God and deliverer of his people. (_d_) Its actual fulfilment as regards many of its predictions—while seeming non-fulfilments are explicable from its figurative and conditional nature. A. B. Davidson, in Hastings’ Bible Dictionary, 4:125, has suggested reasons for the apparent non-fulfilment of certain predictions. Prophecy is poetical and figurative; its details are not to be pressed; they are only drapery, needed for the expression of the idea. In _Isa. 13:16—_“Their infants shall be dashed in pieces ... and their wives ravished”—the prophet gives an ideal picture of the sack of a city; these things did not actually happen, but Cyrus entered Babylon “in peace.” Yet the essential truth remained that the city fell into the enemy’s hands. The prediction of Ezekiel with regard to Tyre, _Ez. 26:7-14_, is recognized in _Ez. 29:17-20_ as having been fulfilled not in its details but in its essence—the actual event having been the breaking of the power of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar. _Is. 17:1—_“Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap”—must be interpreted as predicting the blotting out of its dominion, since Damascus has probably never ceased to be a city. The conditional nature of prophecy explains other seeming non-fulfilments. Predictions were often threats, which might be revoked upon repentance. _Jer. 26:13—_“amend your ways ... and the Lord will repent him of the evil which he hath pronounced against you.” _Jonah 3:4—_“Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown ...” _10—God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, which he said he would do unto them; and he did it not_; _cf.__ Jer. 18:8_; _26:19_.