Tag Archives: Judah

2 Kings 16 King Ahaz and the Syro-Ephraimite War

Charles-Antoine Bridan, Relief on the Wall of Notre Dame Cathedral in Chartres (1786-1789) Isaiah speaking to King Ahaz

2 Kings 16

¹ In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, King Ahaz son of Jotham of Judah began to reign. ² Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign; he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He did not do what was right in the sight of the LORD his God, as his ancestor David had done, ³ but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD had driven out before the people of Israel. ⁴ He sacrificed and made offerings on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.
⁵ Then King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel came up to wage war on Jerusalem; they besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. ⁶ At that time King Rezin of Aram recovered Elath for Edom and drove the Judeans from Elath, and the Edomites came to Elath, where they live to this day. ⁷ Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me from the hand of the king of Aram and from the hand of the king of Israel, who are attacking me.” ⁸ Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the Lord and in the treasures of the king’s house and sent a present to the king of Assyria. ⁹ The king of Assyria listened to him; the king of Assyria marched up against Damascus and took it, carrying its people captive to Kir; then he killed Rezin.
¹⁰ When King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria, he saw the altar that was at Damascus. King Ahaz sent to the priest Uriah a model of the altar and its pattern exact in all its details. ¹¹ The priest Uriah built the altar; in accordance with all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus, so did the priest Uriah build it, before King Ahaz arrived from Damascus. ¹² When the king came from Damascus, the king viewed the altar. Then the king drew near to the altar, went up on it, ¹³ and offered his burnt offering and his grain offering, poured his drink offering, and dashed the blood of his offerings of well-being against the altar. ¹⁴ The bronze altar that was before the LORD he removed from the front of the house, from the place between his altar and the house of the LORD, and put it on the north side of his altar. ¹⁵ King Ahaz commanded the priest Uriah, saying, “Upon the great altar offer the morning burnt offering and the evening grain offering and the king’s burnt offering and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offering; then dash against it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice, but the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” ¹⁶ The priest Uriah did everything that King Ahaz commanded.
¹⁷ Then King Ahaz cut off the frames of the stands and removed the laver from them; he removed the sea from the bronze oxen that were under it and put it on a pediment of stone. ¹⁸ The covered portal for use on the Sabbath that had been built inside the palace and the outer entrance for the king he removed from the house of the Lord. He did this because of the king of Assyria. ¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰ Ahaz slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David; his son Hezekiah succeeded him.

King Ahaz son of Jotham bears the same name as Jehoahaz son of Josiah (Ahaz is the shortened form of the name) but unlike the recent kings of Judah he receives a judgment by the narrator which is harsher than any other king in Judah or Israel. King Ahaz reigns at a critical juncture in the story of Judah and Israel and the surrounding region and the prophet Isaiah provides an additional witness to this time of conflict known as the Syro-Ephraimite War by historians. 2 Kings 16 and its parallel in 2 Chronicles 28, which is even harsher in its evaluation of Ahaz, point to an unfaithful king who is spared only by God’s continuing faithfulness to the line of David.

The theological judgment of King Ahaz in both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles contrasts with the qualified faithfulness of his ancestors with the idolatrous practices of his reign. The reference to walking in the ways of the kings of Israel may refer to the crafting of new images to worship like the frequently mentioned sins of Jeroboam (1 Kings 12: 25-33) and 2 Chronicles 28:2 indicates that Ahaz cast images of the Baals. Also indicated in both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles is passing his sons through fire, imagery associated with the worship of Molech the god of the Ammonites in the bible. Passing a child through fire (presumably sacrificing the child to a god) is prohibited in Deuteronomy 18:10. Many scholars have hypothesized that “Ahaz sacrificed his first-born during the pressing hours of the siege of Jerusalem by the Syro-Ephraimite armies, as Mesha, king of Moab, had once done under similar circumstances” (Cogan, 1988, p. 186) (see 2 Kings 3:27 for Mesha, king of Moab) but this can only be hypothesized and 2 Chronicles indicates that one of the king’s sons is captured in the conflict. 2 Chronicles also heightens the depravity of Ahaz by indicating that “he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.” (2 Chronicles 28:4) From the theological perspective of both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles King Ahaz has a disastrous impact upon Judah, and Judah’s defeats are directly attributed to his apostacy in 2 Chronicles.

The prophet Isaiah points to the intent of the Syro-Ephraimite war at the beginning of Isaiah 7:

¹ In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem but could not conquer it. ² When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.
³ Then the LORD said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the fuller’s field, ⁴ and say to him: Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. ⁵ Because Aram—with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah—has plotted evil against you, saying, ⁶ ‘Let us go up against Judah and terrify it and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it’ (Isaiah 7:1-6)

Isaiah is sent to King Ahaz to provide him reassurance that God is not going to allow the forces of Aram and Israel to remove him and put another more compliant ruler in his place. This is the background of Isaiah’s famous Immanuel prophecy: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14) Within the original context of this time of King Ahaz the message of hope from Isaiah was that within two years the threat of Israel and Aram would be eliminated, but this section of Isaiah also had an important voice in later Jewish messianic hope and Christianity. Isaiah encourages Ahaz not to fear and to stand firm in faith, ultimately Ahaz chooses a different path that both 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles point to.

The Syro-Ephraimite War (736-732 BCE) was the result of a shifting power dynamic in the region. The Assyrian forces under Tiglath-Pileser III have become a dominant force in the region and Aram and Israel are attempting to build a coalition to resist this rising threat. In this regional struggle for power Judah stands unaligned as Aram, Israel, Philistia, and Edom attempt to both seize power in Judah and promote a regime change that will bring Judah into this alliance against Assyria. 2 Chronicles narrates a catastrophic defeat of Judah. As Alex Israel summarizes:

The battle statistic reinforce the magnitude and severity of the attack: 120,000 casualties in a single day of fighting, 200,000 Judahite women and children captured as prisoners of war, and the king’s son as well as other key governmental officials among the dead. (Israel, 2019, p. 244)

Ahaz is caught between forces coming from multiple directions. Israel and Aram have frequently been against Judah in recent history. Judah loses control of Elath, under Judah’s control since the time of Uzziah/Azariah and is clearly unable to manage conflict on multiple military fronts. Ahaz may have already failed the theological evaluation of 2 Kings, but he makes a fateful choice in his military vulnerability. King Ahaz sends tribute to King Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria.

Although 2 Chronicles states that Assyria refuses to help Judah, 2 Kings gives the impression that Assyria was eager to take advantage of the situation. Alex Israel summarizes again:

One imagines that Assyria is only too happy to accept the offer. They are securing an ally, a foothold, in the sought-after region, and undermining the enemy coalition. (Israel, 2019, p. 245)

While Aram and Israel attack Judah, Assyria attacks and conquers Damascus, the capital of Aram taking Aram out of the fight.

King Ahaz remains in power as a vassal of Assyria and the chapter concludes with Ahaz traveling to Damascus to pay tribute to Tiglath-Pileser III. Abraham Heschel in his work The Prophets indicates that for Assyria, “Political subservience involved acceptance of her religious institutions.” (Heschel, 1962, p. 72) and this may form a part of Ahaz’s adoption of this design for a new altar. Yet, the priest Uriah is assumed to be a supporter of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 8:2) and one would assume faithful to the LORD the God of Israel so his immediate compliance with the king on this altar has led some interpreters to wonder if the new altar was not idolatrous, but merely offensive because it displaced Solomon’s original altar described in 1 Kings 8:64. The stands, lavers, the bronze oxen, and the covered portal may have been removed and melted down as payment to Assyria, but bronze was not a highly valuable metal at the time so that is not certain. 2 Kings indicates these changes were made because of the king of Assyria, but why the king of Assyria desired these changes is uncertain. Interpreters are divided about Ahaz’s intent and the role of Uriah the priest in these changes in the temple, but for the narrator of 2 Kings the time of Ahaz has been a disaster for the faithfulness of the people of Judah and for the welfare of the nation.

2 Kings 15 The Stability of Judah in Contrast to the Instability of Samaria

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The King Uzziah Stricken with Leprosy, by Rembrandt, 1635.

2 Kings 15: 1-7 King Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah

¹ In the twenty-seventh year of King Jeroboam of Israel, King Azariah son of Amaziah of Judah began to reign. ² He was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. ³ He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Amaziah had done. ⁴ Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. ⁵ The Lord struck the king so that he had a defiling skin disease to the day of his death and lived in a separate house. Jotham the king’s son was in charge of the palace, governing the people of the land. ⁶ Now the rest of the acts of Azariah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ⁷ Azariah slept with his ancestors; they buried him with his ancestors in the city of David; his son Jotham succeeded him.

King Azariah, also known as King Uzziah, has a long and successful reign over Judah. Uzziah and Azariah are used interchangeably in scriptures and even in this chapter and Uzziah was likely the name he assumed as king of Judah. His fifty-two-year reign begins in the middle of the forty-one year reign of Jeroboam II and both kings enjoy a period of military success and national resurgence. Azariah’s long and stable reign contrasts with his two predecessors (Joash and Amaziah) who saw the royal and temple treasuries diminished and in their political or military weakness were ultimately assassinated by those who served them. The stability during the time of Azariah in Judah also contrasts sharply with the instability in Samaria after the death of Jeroboam II.

Although 2 Kings does not spend a lot of time on the reign of Azariah/Uzziah his story is greatly expanded in 2 Chronicles 26. According to 2 Chronicles Azariah/Uzziah is a successful military leader who wins victories over Philistia, Ammon and extends Judah’s trade and military influence over the region. 2 Kings 14:22 gives a small window into the king’s success when it notes, “He rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah after King Amaziah slept with his ancestors.” This small note indicates a large accomplishment only shared by Solomon, Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah. This gave Judah a port on the Mediterranean but also required them to control not only the port but the wilderness between. Alex Israel notes that he controls both major highways between Egypt and Mesopotamia, a lucrative trade route and source of income for the nation. (Israel, 2019, p. 227) 2 Chronicles also notes that King Uzziah strengthened the city walls of Jerusalem and increased the agricultural output of the land by his improvements and built up the army.

2 Kings’ brief account of this king who did what was right in the sight of the LORD ends with the jarring note that the LORD struck the king with ‘a defiling skin disease.’ This skin disease was traditionally rendered leprosy in most translations although we now believe that Hanson’s disease (which is what we call leprosy today) did not exist in the Middle East during this time. Yet, this affliction was normally associated with a judgment from God, and 2 Chronicles tells of the king entering the temple to offer incense, the job of the priests, and being struck with ‘leprosy’ as a punishment. Ultimately in 2 Chronicles the king is punished for overstepping his responsibility, attempting to fulfill both the kingly and the priestly role and ends his life separated from the palace and his responsibilities were assumed by his son Jotham until he died.

It is interesting that 2 Kings does not go into the success and fall of Azariah/Uzziah in the same manner as 2 Chronicles. Perhaps the narrator of 2 Kings doesn’t want to focus on the military success of Azariah in contrast to the lack of success by Joash and Amaziah who are both evaluated as kings who did what was right in the site of the LORD and at the same time does not want to focus on the act that leads to the king’s affliction. Despite the short narration of Azariah’s lengthy reign it is a consequential time as Judah remains stable as Northern Israel becomes chaotic and is one generation from collapse. This is also a time of prophetic voices and Isaiah (first Isaiah), Amos, Hosea, and Micah all give voice to this time in Israel and Judah.

2 Kings 15: 8-12 The Brief Reign of Zechariah King of Israel and the End of the Jehu Dynasty

⁸ In the thirty-eighth year of King Azariah of Judah, Zechariah son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months. ⁹ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, as his ancestors had done. He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat that he caused Israel to sin. ¹⁰ Shallum son of Jabesh conspired against him and struck him down in Ibleam and killed him and reigned in place of him. ¹¹ Now the rest of the deeds of Zechariah are written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ¹² This was the promise of the Lord that he gave to Jehu, “Your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” And so it happened.

The message of the LORD to Jehu after the destruction of the Omri dynasty indicated that his line would continue for four generations (2 Kings 10:30) and now after the death of Jeroboam II, the fourth generation, the Jehu dynasty collapses six months later. Jehu’s line ruled in Samaria for ninety-two years and it was enjoying a period of success under Jeroboam II, but the public murder of Zechariah ignites a power for struggle that will be violent and ultimately weaken Northern Israel as the Assyrian empire under Tiglath-Pileser III ascends. Zechariah is the first of a group of inconsequential kings in Samaria whose cumulative impact is very consequential in weakening Israel in a dangerous world.

2 Kings 15: 13-31 A Tumultuous Period in Israel

¹³ Shallum son of Jabesh began to reign in the thirty-ninth year of King Uzziah of Judah; he reigned one month in Samaria. ¹⁴ Then Menahem son of Gadi came up from Tirzah and came to Samaria; he struck down Shallum son of Jabesh in Samaria and killed him; he reigned in place of him. ¹⁵ Now the rest of the deeds of Shallum, including the conspiracy that he made, are written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ¹⁶ At that time Menahem sacked Tiphsah, all who were in it and its territory from Tirzah on; because they did not open it to him, he sacked it. He ripped open all the pregnant women in it.

¹⁷ In the thirty-ninth year of King Azariah of Judah, Menahem son of Gadi began to reign over Israel; he reigned ten years in Samaria. ¹⁸ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart all his days from any of the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat that he caused Israel to sin. ¹⁹ King Pul of Assyria came against the land; Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, so that he might help him confirm his hold on the royal power. ²⁰ Menahem exacted the silver from Israel, that is, from all the wealthy, fifty shekels of silver from each one, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back and did not stay there in the land. ²¹ Now the rest of the deeds of Menahem and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? ²² Menahem slept with his ancestors, and his son Pekahiah succeeded him.

²³ In the fiftieth year of King Azariah of Judah, Pekahiah son of Menahem began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned two years. ²⁴ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not turn away from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat that he caused Israel to sin. ²⁵ Pekah son of Remaliah, his captain, conspired against him with fifty of the Gileadites and attacked him in Samaria, in the citadel of the palace along with Argob and Arieh; he killed him and reigned in place of him. ²⁶ Now the rest of the deeds of Pekahiah and all that he did are written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

²⁷ In the fifty-second year of King Azariah of Judah, Pekah son of Remaliah began to reign over Israel in Samaria; he reigned twenty years. ²⁸ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat that he caused Israel to sin.
²⁹ In the days of King Pekah of Israel, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people captive to Assyria. ³⁰ Then Hoshea son of Elah made a conspiracy against Pekah son of Remaliah, attacked him, and killed him; he reigned in place of him, in the twentieth year of Jotham son of Uzziah. ³¹ Now the rest of the acts of Pekah and all that he did are written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

Shallum son of Jabesh, Menahem son of Gadi, Pekahiah son of Menahem and Peka son of Remaliah all struggle for power during the stable reign of Azariah/Uzziah and (during Pekah’s reign in Samaria) the transition to Azariah’s son Jothan. Shallum reigns only for a month before he is overthrown by Menahem. Menahem assumes power in a violent manner and his description of sacking Tiphsah and tearing open the wombs of pregnant women describes him like the worst oppressors of Israel[1] and it is the violent ones who have ascended to power. Menahem may reign for ten years in Samaria but the large tribute payment[2] to Assyria under Tiglath-Pileser III[3] that he extracts from the gibbor hahayil (NRSVue ‘wealthy’)[4] likely means he is ruling with the political and even possibly military support of Assyria. When he dies his son is only to reign for two years. There are likely factions looking to align the nation with Assyria or Egypt as Hosea states:

Ephraim has become like a dove,
silly and without sense;
they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria. (Hosea 7:11)

This is conjecture, but if Peka son of Remaliah ended the alliance with Assyria it would make sense of Tiglath-Pileser III seizing territory as well as dragging the captured people into exile. Records from Assyria indicate that there was a campaign against Israel in 733-732 BC and they took 13,520 people into exile. (Israel, 2019, p. 238) The Assyrian were known for taking exiles and displacing them to where they are totally dependent on Assyria and forced to blend into the larger Assyrian world. (Cogan, 1988, p. 177) The enemy has been within Samaria with this string of strongmen seizing power but now they face a much larger threat which is penetrating their borders and capturing the people and Israel appears powerless to resist.

2 Kings 15: 32-38 King Jothan of Judah

³² In the second year of King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel, King Jotham son of Uzziah of Judah began to reign. ³³ He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jerusha daughter of Zadok. ³⁴ He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, just as his father Uzziah had done. ³⁵ Nevertheless, the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. He built the upper gate of the house of the Lord. ³⁶ Now the rest of the acts of Jotham and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ³⁷ In those days the Lord began to send King Rezin of Aram and Pekah son of Remaliah against Judah. ³⁸ Jotham slept with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David, his ancestor; his son Ahaz succeeded him.

In contrast to the bloody and dangerous instability of Samaria, Judah continues to function under another king of the Davidic line who does what is right in the sight of the LORD. 2 Chronicles 27 indicates that Jothan continues to build up the walls and defenses of Judah, and the king is likely aware of the growing threat to the north in Assyria. Again, 2 Chronicles portrays Jothan as a militarily successful king and in 2 Kings we have indication of both Aram and Samaria/Northern Israel attacking Judah (possibly as agents of Assyria) yet we do not have any indication that Judah is losing territory. Resin and Pekah may be attempting to raid for resources in their own struggles against the rising might of Assyria, but for the moment the threat to stable Judah is significantly less than it appears to be for Northern Israel.

[1] See for example Elisha’s description of what Hazael will do in 2 Kings 8:12, the accusations against Edom in Amos 1:13, or the judgement oracle of Hosea 13:16.

[2] Roughly seventy five thousand pounds of silver.

[3] King Pul is a nickname in late sources for Tiglath-Pileser III, and the use of this title in 2 Kings indicated the familiarity of the narrator with this leader of Assyria. (Israel, 2019, p. 238)

[4] Gibbor hahayil is often rendered mighty ones and often this was assumed to have military connotations. This term is common in the book of Judges, but it also can refer to landowners like Boaz in the book of Ruth. Wealthy may be the proper translation, but with Menahem being a warrior leader, it may also indicate something like warlords who are maintaining power beneath him.

2 Kings 14 King Amaziah of Judah and King Jehoash and Jeroboam II of Israel

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Stele of Adad-nirari III from Tell al-Rimah, now in the Iraq Museum, mentions the name of Jehoash the Samarian

2 Kings 14: 1-22

¹ In the second year of King Joash son of Joahaz of Israel, King Amaziah son of Joash of Judah began to reign. ² He was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddin of Jerusalem. ³ He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, yet not like his ancestor David; in all things he did as his father Joash had done. ⁴ But the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and made offerings on the high places. ⁵ As soon as the royal power was firmly in his hand, he killed his servants who had murdered his father the king. ⁶ But he did not put to death the children of the murderers, according to what is written in the book of the law of Moses, where the Lord commanded, “The parents shall not be put to death for the children or the children be put to death for the parents, but all shall be put to death for their own sins.”
⁷ He killed ten thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt and took Sela by storm; he called it Jokthe-el, which is its name to this day.
⁸ Then Amaziah sent messengers to King Jehoash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu of Israel, saying, “Come, let us look one another in the face.” ⁹ King Jehoash of Israel sent word to King Amaziah of Judah, “A thornbush on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife,’ but a wild animal of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thornbush. ¹⁰ You have indeed defeated Edom, and your heart has lifted you up. Be content with your glory and stay at home, for why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?”
¹¹ But Amaziah would not listen. So King Jehoash of Israel went up; he and King Amaziah of Judah faced one another in battle at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah. ¹² Judah was defeated by Israel; everyone fled home. ¹³ King Jehoash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah son of Jehoash son of Ahaziah at Beth-shemesh; he came to Jerusalem and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a distance of four hundred cubits. ¹⁴ He seized all the gold and silver and all the vessels that were found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s house, as well as hostages; then he returned to Samaria.
¹⁵ Now the rest of the acts that Jehoash did, his might, and how he fought with King Amaziah of Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? ¹⁶ Jehoash slept with his ancestors and was buried in Samaria with the kings of Israel; then his son Jeroboam succeeded him.
¹⁷ King Amaziah son of Joash of Judah lived fifteen years after the death of King Jehoash son of Jehoahaz of Israel. ¹⁸ Now the rest of the deeds of Amaziah, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ¹⁹ They made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there. ²⁰ They brought him on horses; he was buried in Jerusalem with his ancestors in the city of David. ²¹ All the people of Judah took Azariah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king to succeed his father Amaziah. ²² He rebuilt Elath and restored it to Judah, after King Amaziah slept with his ancestors.

This is a fascinating passage that looks at the paradox of King Amaziah’s twenty-nine-year reign and highlights some of the ways that most biblical scholars struggle with the competing desires of the theological perspective of the text and the expectation of kings in the ancient world. Walter Brueggemann, a well-respected and highly published biblical scholar, highlights this for me when he states, “What strikes one most is that the reign of Amaziah is dominated by acts of violence.” (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 439) The text does highlight three instances of conflict in Amaziah’s almost three decade long reign, and there is an internal conflict within the theological perspective of the narrator of 2 Kings. On the one hand, from the very beginning of Israel having kings, these kings were warriors who led the people in conflict. The Old Testament may want a king to trust primarily in God, and military victories are primarily a sign of the LORD the God of Israel’s deliverance and not the military prowess of the king and their military leaders, and yet it shares a view with the majority of the ancient world that the primary role of a king was to expand their territory and wealth through the exercise of their power. Susan Kay Penman, a historical fiction author, shares some of this idea in writing about her perspective on Richard the Lionheart in the comments at the end of her historical fiction retelling Lionheart:

War was the vocation of kings in the Middle Ages, and, at that, Richard excelled; he was almost invincible in hand-to-hand combat, and military historians consider him one of the best medieval generals. It was in the Holy Land that the Lionheart legend took root, and his bravura exploits won him a permanent place in the pantheon of semimythic heroes, those men whose fame transcended their own time. Even people with little knowledge of history have heard of Caesar, Alexander, Napolean—and Richard Lionheart. This would have pleased Richard greatly, for he was a shrewd manipulator of his public image. (Penman, 2013, p. 582)

Even though there are many differences between the Middle Ages and the late Iron Age where Amaziah reigns, the ancient world expected kings to accumulate wealth primarily through gaining land and resources. There is an important caveat in the narration of the stories of the kings of Israel and Judah in 1&2 Kings which evaluates these kings by their faithfulness to the worship of the LORD the God of Israel.

The evaluation of King Amaziah in the beginning of the text is a positive one with the caveat that the high places were not removed. King Amaziah, like his father Joash in 2 Kings, is faithful to the LORD and we even see him conducting justice in the framework of Deuteronomy. 2 Kings explicitly references Deuteronomy 24:16 to justify the king’s decision not to put to death the family of the men who assassinated his father. From the Deuteronomic theology which forms the perspective of the narrator of 2 Kings Amaziah is a faithful king who worships God and practices judgment according to the law.

From a military perspective King Amaziah starts out well by winning a significant victory over Edom and expanding the territory of Judah by adding the city Sela, which is renamed Jokthe-el. Yet, Amaziah makes a critical error in engaging King Jehoash of Israel in battle. The NIV translates verse eight in a way that indicates the antagonistic intent of Amaziah, “with the challenge: “Come, meet me face to face.” Northern Israel is larger and more populous and has been continually engaged with Aram throughout this time. Amaziah may see his role as recapturing Israel and reuniting the entire kingdom under Davidic rule, but he also misreads the situation. The threat to northern Israel from Aram has diminished with the rise of the Assyrian empire which provides a moment of relative peace for Samaria. Jehoash may understand the broader implications of the struggle for power to his north and his parable indicates that war between the two parties is not wise because there is a third party (perhaps Aram of Assyria) who can trample down Judah the insignificant thornbush next to the cedar of Israel. There is an obvious warning but also condescending tone to Jehoash’s answer to Amaziah and Amaziah marches out but is defeated before he even leaves the boundary of Judah. Even though 2 Kings does not include Amaziah’s defeat in its overall evaluation of his reign the inclusion of this narrative paints the king in a negative light. Amaziah’s ambition not only results in his defeat and capture but also in the destruction of a six-hundred-foot section of Jerusalem’s northern wall, a humiliation for the city and the king. In addition, Samaria seizes the wealth of Judah stored in the king’s household and the temple. The royal and temple treasuries have been emptied in a humiliating manner under consecutive Davidic kings.

It is unclear how long Amaziah remains captive, but he continues to reign fifteen years after the death of Jehoash who captured him. Yet, his reign ends with a coup that causes him to flee to Lachish where he is captured, killed, and returned to Jerusalem to be buried with his ancestors. He may receive the honor of being buried in Jerusalem but his time as the king of Judah ends in disaster. His reign is the sole example of a time when Israel will penetrate the walls of Jerusalem and take a Davidic king captive. Even with the early mention of Amaziah’s faithfulness there is no mention of the LORD throughout the narration of his conflicts and as Brueggemann can correctly indicate, “Amaziah, heir of David, may be a prize example of Nathan’s verdict on the dynasty in 2 Samuel 12:10, “The sword will never depart from your house.” (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 446) Amaziah may have passed the theological perspective of 2 Kings but 2 Kings also narrates the events of an reign that is unsuccessful in conflict and ends with the king running for his life and ultimately killed by his own people.

2 Kings 14: 23-29

²³ In the fifteenth year of King Amaziah son of Joash of Judah, King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel began to reign in Samaria; he reigned forty-one years. ²⁴ He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat that he caused Israel to sin. ²⁵ He restored the border of Israel from Lebo-hamath as far as the Sea of the Arabah, according to the word of the LORD, the God of Israel, which he spoke by his servant Jonah son of Amittai, the prophet who was from Gath-hepher. ²⁶ For the LORD saw that the distress of Israel was very bitter; there was no one left, bond or free, and no one to help Israel. ²⁷ But the LORD had not said that he would blot out the name of Israel from under heaven, so he saved them by the hand of Jeroboam son of Joash.
²⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam and all that he did, and his might, how he fought, and how he recovered for Israel Damascus and Hamath, which had belonged to Judah, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel? ²⁹ Jeroboam slept with his ancestors, the kings of Israel; his son Zechariah succeeded him.

In contrast to Amaziah of Judah, Jeroboam II of Samaria is a king who fails in the theological evaluation of the narrator of 2 Kings but succeeds militarily. Jeroboam II, like his unrelated namesake Jeroboam I (1 Kings 12) maintains the northern shrines in Dan and Bethel (the sin of Jeroboam) but the LORD the God of Israel sends word by the prophet Jonah son of Amittai which allows Jeroboam II to recapture the boundaries of Israel under David and Solomon.

Jeroboam’s military success which allows his recovery of territories lost to Aram takes place within the geopolitical events of the region. As Alex Israel states,

Jeroboam son of Joash of the northern kingdom takes full advantage of a regional power vacuum. Aram, Israel’s prime enemy of the past decades, has waned, while the Assyrian empire has yet to extend its reach westward. Jeroboam restores and expands the norther border beyond Damascus, to Hamath, establishing Israel’s hegemony to the border in place during King Solomon’s heyday. (Israel, 2019, p. 222)

From the theological perspective of 2 Kings, it is the LORD the God of Israel who is behind these movements as testified by the positive words of the prophet Jonah and the tangible success of Jeroboam. The LORD saw the distress of Israel and utilizes Jeroboam II as the means of deliverance in the view of 2 Kings.

It is also worth noting that there is another prophetic voice other than Jonah son of Amittai that speaks of the time of Jeroboam II. As the book of Amos records,

The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake. Amos 1:1

Alex Israel correctly categorizes the witness of Amos when he states it, “depicts a society of wealth, complacency, and security, and yet it bears startling inequalities of income and outrageous exploitation of the poor by the rich.” (Israel, 2019, p. 222) Jeroboam II success may be due to the action of the LORD the God of Israel but that success does not mean that Jeroboam II will govern according to the intent of the law. We are entering the time where we have the words of the prophets written into the scriptures and this gives us a second witness about the time of these kings as the story of the Northern Kingdom nears its conclusion.

2 Kings 12 The Reign of King Jehoash/Joash of Judah

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The coronation of Jehoash of Judah (c.1840), by Francesco Hayez

2 Kings 12: 1-3

¹ In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash began to reign; he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. ² Jehoash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all his days because the priest Jehoiada instructed him. ³ Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places.

Jehoash, or Joash, is one of the kings of Judah regarded positively but there is a qualification to that assessment and when one looks closely at this narrative and the more critical parallel in 2 Chronicles 24 it leaves some questions about the totality of the reign of this king. The NIV renders the judgment of Jehoash’s reign. ”Joash did what was right in the eyes of the LORD all the years Jehoida the priest instructed him.” The NIV appears to harmonize its translation with the narrative of 2 Chronicles (see below) but even within the narrative of 2 Kings there is enough to give pause. Yes, there is a qualification that the high places are not removed but looking closely at the end of 2 King’s description of Jehoash’s reign there are enough things revealed to indicate there may be some trouble below the surface of the narration.

Jehoash’s mother is named as Zibiah of Beer-sheba. Beer-sheba would be on the southern border of Judah and geographically distant from the influence of Northern Israel which had led to the turmoil of the previous chapter. There are numerous examples of queen mothers exercising significant power in both positive and negative manners. The influence of a Jezebel or Athaliah to corrupt both Israel and Judah are matched by a queen mother like Bathsheba who uses her influence to get Solomon in anointed rather than Adonijah.

2 Kings 12: 4-16

⁴ Jehoash said to the priests, “All the silver offered as sacred donations that is brought into the house of the LORD—the census tax, personal redemption payments, and silver from voluntary offerings brought into the house of the LORD ⁵ let the priests receive from each of the donors, and let them repair the house wherever any need of repairs is discovered.” ⁶ But by the twenty-third year of King Jehoash the priests had made no repairs on the house. ⁷ Therefore King Jehoash summoned the priest Jehoiada with the other priests and said to them, “Why are you not repairing the house? Now therefore do not accept any more silver from your donors but hand it over for the repair of the house.” ⁸ So the priests agreed that they would neither accept more silver from the people nor repair the house.
⁹ Then the priest Jehoiada took a chest, made a hole in its lid, and set it beside the altar on the right side as one entered the house of the LORD; the priests who guarded the threshold put in it all the silver that was brought into the house of the LORD. ¹⁰ Whenever they saw that there was a great deal of silver in the chest, the king’s secretary and the high priest went up, cast the silver that was found in the house of the LORD into ingots, and counted it. ¹¹ They gave the silver that was weighed out into the hands of the workers who had the oversight of the house of the LORD; then they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders who worked on the house of the LORD, ¹² to the masons and the stonecutters, as well as to buy timber and quarried stone for making repairs on the house of the LORD, as well as for any outlay for repairs of the house. ¹³ But for the house of the LORD no basins of silver, snuffers, bowls, trumpets, or any vessels of gold or of silver were made from the silver that was brought into the house of the LORD, ¹⁴ for that was given to the workers who were repairing the house of the LORD with it. ¹⁵ They did not ask an accounting from those into whose hand they delivered the silver to pay out to the workers, for they dealt honestly. ¹⁶ The silver from the guilt offerings and the silver from the sin offerings was not brought into the house of the LORD; it belonged to the priests.

King Jehoash was probably involved in a number of important decisions and moments throughout his forty-year reign, but for 2 Kings the central event of his positively assessed reign is the repair of the temple. I’ve noted earlier that much of the book of Kings could have easily been the book of prophets, but it is also worth noting that the narrative of the book of Kings begins with Solomon’s construction of the temple (1 Kings 5-8) and ends with its destruction (2 Kings 25). In the ancient world the construction and maintenance of the temple and the worship in that temple was an expected part of royal piety, and while we can debate the proper balance between proper worship and faithful execution of the law both have been recently missing in Judah. As Alex Israel notes the temple is one hundred and fifty years old (Israel, 2019, p. 184) and 2 Chronicles makes explicit the damage that Athaliah has done:

⁷ For the children of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God and had even used all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD for the Baals. 2 Chronicles 24:7

Between the age of the structure and the misuse of the building it was likely in serious need of repair to be a structure worthy of the name of the LORD.

We do not know when in his reign Jehoash commanded that the taxes, payments, and specific offerings would be utilized for the repair of the temple. Jehoash began to reign at age seven and would have been heavily influenced by the priest Jehoida and others who advised him, but in his twenty-third year of his forty-year reign he is thirty years old and confronts Jehoida and the other priests about the lack of progress. There are multiple theories that have nothing to do with corruption that have plausibly explained the lack of progress: from the expectations of the priests to be the fundraisers for these taxes, payments, and offerings and limiting their appeal to their family groups, to inability of the priests to properly determine the scope of the work and effectively carry out the repairs. 2 Kings does not indicate that corruption was a part of the problem, although this is possible, nor does it indicate that the collected funds are not available. It gives Jehoash and Jehoida credit for creating a workable solution. While it is possible that the NRSVue’s translation which indicates that the process included taking the donated items and smelting them into ingots occurred at this time, the Hebrew only indicates they tied it up. The physical structure is the recipient of the repairs rather than creating the implements for the conduct of worship, and in light of the upcoming note on King Jehoash’s reign it is probably an important note. The text on the repair of the temple ends with a note that the priests still had a source of income from the guilt and sin offerings.

2 Kings 12: 17-18

¹⁷ At that time King Hazael of Aram went up, fought against Gath, and took it. But when Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem, ¹⁸ King Jehoash of Judah took all the votive gifts that Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, his ancestors, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, as well as his own votive gifts, all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and sent these to King Hazael of Aram. Then Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem.

King Hazael, first mentioned in chapter eight, captures Gath, one of the Philistine cities and then orients his forces on Jerusalem. Jehoash decides that he does not have adequate forces to resist Hazael’s force and so sets out with the treasures of Jerusalem to make peace. Military conflict in the ancient world is an economic matter and if a leader can gain a significant tribute, like the one mentioned above, without having to expend the cost and trouble of a military siege they will often take it. King Asa (1 Kings 15:18) utilized the temple resources to buy off the forces of Aram under King Ben-hadad (who Hazael later assassinated and assumed his role) and so it is only the gifts given under Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah that remain in the temple.

King Jehoash’s decision to bribe King Hazael not to attack may have been a wise one, but its narration in 2 Kings is ambiguous. The people of Judah were never a great military power but there is no indication that Jehoash seeks God’s will in this decision or that he trusts in God’s deliverance. This decision also probably brings the repair of the temple to an end, at least for a time. Military conflict and siege warfare create problems not just for the king but the entire population, yet many probably viewed this move as a sign of weakness and this may contribute to King Jehoash’s assassination by his servants in the next section.

2 Kings 12: 19-21

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah? ²⁰ His servants arose, devised a conspiracy, and killed Joash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla. ²¹ It was Jozacar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer, his servants, who struck him down, so that he died. He was buried with his ancestors in the city of David; then his son Amaziah succeeded him.

King Jehoash’s (or Joash) forty-year reign ends with his assassination by two subordinates: Jozacar son of Shimeath and Jehozabad son of Shomer. These men may have been slaves in the household of the king (the word translated servant has the primary meaning of slave) but whether they are servants or slaves it is an indication of a conspiracy[1] in the palace to end the reign of Jehoash. Brueggemann notes that in the 2 Kings narrative it could be a conspiracy by those who were faithful to Baal and the ways of Athaliah (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 423) but the 2 Chronicles 24: 17-22 telling of the end of Jehoash’s reign is very different and leads to the NIV translation noted in the beginning of the chapter:

¹⁷ Now after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and did obeisance to the king; then the king listened to them. ¹⁸ They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and served the sacred poles and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. ¹⁹ Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the Lord; they testified against them, but they would not listen.
²⁰ Then the spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada; he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus says God: Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you.” ²¹ But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. ²² King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him but killed his son. As he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and avenge!” 2 Chronicles 24: 17-22

If 2 Chronicles is accurate in its narration of the end of Jehoah’s reign it could have been out of loyalty to the LORD and the temple that these servants conspired against their king. It is plausible that 2 Kings wanted to narrate the reign of Jehoash in an overall positive manner without delving into the murky ending that 2 Chronicles narrates. If 2 Chronicles narrative is correct then Jehoash becomes a lesser version of Solomon: Solomon builds the temple and Jehoash repairs the temple, Solomon’s reign begins in wisdom, but later Solomon is led astray by his wives and Jehoash is led away by the officials of Judah. Ultimately, we only have the sources of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles to bear witness to this time in the story of Judah, and we can do our best to place the narratives in the world the inhabited but all of our reconstructions involve some level of educated guessing.

[1] The word translated “conspiracy” here is rendered as treason in 11:14. (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 422)

2 Kings 11 The Overthrow of Athaliah in Judah and the Beginning of the Reign of King Joash

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2 Kings 11

¹ Now when Athaliah, Ahaziah’s mother, saw that her son was dead, she set about to destroy all the royal family. ² But Jehosheba, King Joram’s daughter, Ahaziah’s sister, took Joash son of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the king’s children who were about to be killed; she put him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus she hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not killed; ³ he remained with her six years, hidden in the house of the LORD, while Athaliah reigned over the land.

⁴ But in the seventh year Jehoiada summoned the captains of the Carites and of the guards and had them come to him in the house of the LORD. He made a covenant with them and put them under oath in the house of the LORD; then he showed them the king’s son. ⁵ He commanded them, “This is what you are to do: one-third of you, those who go off duty on the Sabbath and guard the king’s house ⁶ (another third being at the gate Sur and a third at the gate behind the guards), shall guard the palace, ⁷ and your two divisions that come on duty in force on the Sabbath and guard the house of the LORD ⁸ shall surround the king, each with weapons in hand, and whoever approaches the ranks is to be killed. Be with the king in his comings and goings.”
⁹ The captains did according to all that the priest Jehoiada commanded; each brought his men who were to go off duty on the Sabbath, with those who were to come on duty on the Sabbath, and came to the priest Jehoiada. ¹⁰ The priest delivered to the captains the spears and shields that had been King David’s, which were in the house of the LORD; ¹¹ the guards stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the south side of the house to the north side of the house, around the altar and the house, to guard the king on every side. ¹² Then he brought out the king’s son, put the crown on him, and gave him the covenant; they proclaimed him king and anointed him; they clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live the king!”

¹³ When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she went into the house of the Lord to the people; ¹⁴ when she looked, there was the king standing by the pillar, according to custom, with the captains and the trumpeters beside the king, and all the people of the land rejoicing and blowing trumpets. Athaliah tore her clothes and cried, “Treason! Treason!” ¹⁵ Then the priest Jehoiada commanded the captains who were set over the army, “Bring her out between the ranks and kill with the sword anyone who follows her.” For the priest said, “Let her not be killed in the house of the Lord.” ¹⁶ So they laid hands on her; she went through the horses’ entrance to the king’s house, and there she was put to death.
¹⁷ Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and people, that they should be the LORD’s people; also between the king and the people. ¹⁸ Then all the people of the land went to the house of Baal and tore it down; his altars and his images they broke in pieces, and they killed Mattan, the priest of Baal, in front of the altars. The priest posted guards over the house of the LORD. ¹⁹ He took the captains, the Carites, the guards, and all the people of the land; then they brought the king down from the house of the LORD, marching through the gate of the guards to the king’s house. He took his seat on the throne of the kings. ²⁰ So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet after Athaliah had been killed with the sword at the king’s house.
²¹ Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

The final remaining figure of the Omri dynasty is not in Israel but in Judah. Jehu’s bloody revolt in Israel has eliminated both the ruling line in Samaria as well as Ahaziah, the king of Judah, who was linked to the line of Ahab by his mother Athaliah. Jehoram, son of king Jehoshaphat, the father of the recently murdered King Ahaziah was married to Athaliah the daughter of Ahab. Athaliah who holds power in Judah for seven years is not listed in the line of Davidic kings because she is not of the Davidic line. Aside from her violent actions the problem with Ahaziah is not primarily that she is a woman but instead that she is of the line of King Ahab and Jezebel and apparently brings the religious and moral practices of Tyre into Jerusalem.

Athaliah seizes power in the aftermath of her sons death attempting to wipe out any other claimants to the throne. As a person with a tenuous grip on power the elimination of potential claimants to the throne is coldly logical in a world where political power is seized in often bloody manners. To use the logic of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones “when you play the game of thrones (power) you either win or you die.” Although Athaliah is not viewed favorably in either 2 Kings or the parallel telling of this story in 2 Chronicles 22, her seizure of power is likely less bloody than Jehu’s in Samaria. Yet, unlike Jehu her seven years on the throne in Jerusalem pull the people further from the worship of the LORD the God of Israel and she ends up being the only woman in the bible, “to be awarded the moniker: “the Wicked”” in 2 Chronicles 24:7. (Israel, 2019, p. 178) And as Choon-Leong Seow states accurately, “Athaliah is to Judah what Jezebel was to Israel…Like the ruthless Jezebel, Athaliah is willing to commit murder in order to have her way.” (NIB III: 228) She is a mother who seizes power by killing the royal family which likely contains her own children and grandchildren.[1]

Yet, Athaliah’s plot to wipe out the line of David is thwarted by her sister Jehosheba who hides young Joash. 2 Chronicles 22: 10-12 states that Jehosheba is the wife of Jehoida the priest that will play a dominant role in the protection of Joash and the elimination of Athaliah. Yet, 2 Kings does not give us Jehosheba’s motive in saving this child, but she like many of the women in Exodus,[2] are responsible for thwarting the murderous intentions of a ruler. Joash will be hidden and raised in the house of the LORD.

The plot to place Joash on the throne begins in the seventh year of Athaliah’s occupying the throne in Jerusalem. The priest Jehoida summons summons the Carites, which may be the Cherethites mentioned elsewhere as body guards and soldiers of David or a different armed group, and the guards to both swear loyalty to the new king and to act as protection for the moment of the revelation of the king to the people. The exact details of the deployment of these troops may be a challenge for translators to render in an exact format but the overall intent is clear. The full complement of soldiers will be armed and ready in key positions on the day when young Joash is anointed publicly and acclaimed as king.

The king is crowned, anointed and either given an insignia or a covenant document. As Walter Brueggemann states of the term that can be rendered emblem/insignia or covenant,

The term here is not very clear. It may refer to insignia of office. Or it might more precisely refer to a scroll, a written charter delineating both the prerogatives and requirements of power, a document that situates royal power in something like a constitutional frame of reference that precludes royal arbitrariness. (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 409)

If it is a covenant, it probably reflects an understanding of the expectations of a king similar to Deuteronomy 17: 14-20.

¹⁴ “When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me, like all the nations that are around me,’ ¹⁵ you may indeed set over you a king whom the Lord your God will choose. One of your own community you may set as king over you; you are not permitted to put a foreigner over you, who is not of your own community. ¹⁶ Even so, he must not acquire many horses for himself or return the people to Egypt in order to acquire more horses, since the Lord has said to you, ‘You must never return that way again.’ ¹⁷ And he must not acquire many wives for himself or else his heart will turn away; also silver and gold he must not acquire in great quantity for himself. ¹⁸ When he has taken the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. ¹⁹ It shall remain with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear the Lord his God, diligently observing all the words of this law and these statutes, ²⁰ neither exalting himself above other members of the community nor turning aside from the commandment, either to the right or to the left, so that he and his descendants may reign long over his kingdom in Israel.

This anointed and crowned king now receives the vocal acclamation from the guards and priests, “Long live the king.”

Athaliah hears the commotion and discovers the plot underway. The young king is standing by the pillar, perhaps the pillars at the front of the temple or in the position where Ezekiel envisions the king supervising the offerings. (Ezekiel 48: 2-8)[3] Athaliah echoes the words of Joram, “Treason! Treason!”[4] but like Joram her realization of the plot afoot is too late to save her life. She is brought out of the temple and killed with the sword. Then the covenant is renewed between the LORD, the king, and the people. The people then destroy the house of Baal, possibly built under Athaliah’s instructions, and Mattan the priest of Baal is also killed. The verbs in 2 Kings on the destruction of the temple of Baal echo the instructions of Deuteronomy 12: 2-3:

² “You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. ³ Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles with fire, and cut down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places.

In contrast to Jehu’s revolution, the coup enacted by the priest Jehoida is much less violent. Only Athaliah and Mattan are killed and then the city was quiet. As Brueggemann notes about the final phrase about the city being quiet,

The assertion that the “city was quiet” is more important than the simple phrasing might suggest (11:20). The term “quiet” (shaqath) is the same term used in the book of Judges in the recurring phrase “the land had rest” (Judg 3:11, 30; 5:31; 8:28) (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 413)

Joash, or Jehoash, begins his long reign at the age of seven. He is under the influence of Jehoida and yet his reign will be one of the times that 2 Kings views favorably. The covenant between God, the king, and the people is restored, the land has rest, and there is a chance for renewal in Judah after the decline of the house of David over the past two kings.

[1] There were probably other children of Jehoram by wives other than Athaliah as well as others in the line of David.

[2] Exodus 1: 15-2:10

[3] Ezekiel’s words come in the time immediately after the time of the kings and the temple, but his visions are likely informed by his familiarity with the temple practices before its destruction.

[4] 2 Kings 9:23.

Introduction to 2 Kings

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Cry Of Prophet Jeremiah on the Ruins of Jerusalem by Ilya Repin 1870

1&2 Kings together form a narrative that runs from the pinnacle of the nation of Israel under Solomon to its nadir at the beginning of the Babylonian exile. First and Second Kings were initially a common book, the book of Kings, which was later divided into two books in the biblical canon.[1] I worked through 1 Kings in 2022-2023, and now it is time to walk through the remainder of this story of the northern kingdom’s destruction by the Assyrian empire in 721 BCE and the Babylonian empire’s conquering of Judah in roughly 587 BCE. 1 Kings ends during of the ministry of Elijah and Elisha the prophets in northern Israel.

In the Jewish division of the Hebrew Scriptures the Deuteronomic History (Joshua, Judges, 1&2 Samuel, and 1&2 Kings) are all grouped with the prophets. They are history viewed through a theological lens and with the intention of looking backwards to understand the situation of the people in exile. There is a tradition of associating these books with Jeremiah, and they do share a common worldview. This association is heightened by the reality that 2 Kings and Jeremiah end with a narration that is almost identical.

2 Kings narrates the collapse of the land of Israel and the monarchy of both Israel (Samaria) and Judah. The kings throughout the book of Kings are evaluated by the theological perspective of Deuteronomy and with a few notable exceptions most of these kings can be summarized by the phrase, “He committed all the sins that his father did before him; his heart was not true to the LORD his God like the heart of his father David.” (1 Kings 15:3 referring to Abijam, son of Rehoboam, son of Solomon but similar language is used for all the ‘bad’ kings).

If you spend much time working in the Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament, the impact of the Babylonian exile is unavoidable. It is a central defining crisis for the people of Judah. The books of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel are all centered around this time-period and 2 Kings’ historical narrative ends at the exile. 2 Kings has some stories that are utilized in the life of the church, but as a book the stories of 2 Kings are probably less familiar than the stories of 1 Kings. My journey through 1 Kings provided me a much fuller appreciation of this portion of the story of God’s people, and I look forward to discovering the conclusion of this portion of the story of Israel in a richer way.

Resources Used For This Journey

Brueggemann, Walter. 1 & 2 Kings. Macon, GA: Smith & Helwys Publishing Incorporated. 2000

Walter Brueggemann is one of the most prolific Christian writers on the Hebrew Scriptures and brings a wide breadth of knowledge on both the collection of scripture as whole. His writing is consistently readable and insightful and tends to explore challenging perspectives. The Smith & Helwys Bible Commentary series is a very attractive resource bringing together commentary and discussion with artwork, maps, and other visual resources. This resource is closer to the blogging format which I write in than many books. More of a thematic commentary which is useful for preaching and teaching. I also utilized this volume during my reflections on 1 Kings.

Cogan, Mordechai and Hayim Takmor, II Kings: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary (The Anchor Bible). New York City: Doubleday & Company, Inc. 1988

The Anchor Bible, Now the Anchor Yale Bible, is a detailed textual commentary. I utilized Mordechai Cogan’s first volume in my work on 1 Kings. This is the longest and most detailed of the works I used for this journey through 2 Kings. This is a volume more directed to the specialist rather than the preacher or teacher and some knowledge of Hebrew is helpful in using this resource.

Israel, Alex. II Kings: In A Whirlwind. (Maggid Studies in the Tanakh). Jerusalem: Maggid Books, 2019.

I utilized Rabbi Alex Israel’s first volume in my reflections on 1 Kings. When looking at a Hebrew Scripture text I like to have a Jewish voice and the Maggid Studies are an approachable resource. Rabbi Israel’s skill as a teacher is on display in this volume as he writes an approachable text which brings 2 Kings into dialogue with the historical context and rabbinic interpretation. A clear and insightful perspective on the people and events of 2 Kings.

Seow, Choon-Leong. “The Books of 1 and 2 Kings.” In New Interpreter’s Bible III: 1-295.12 Vols. Nashville: Abingdon Press. 1999.

The NIB (New Interpreter’s Bible) is a solid resource as a resource for preaching and teaching that covers the entire bible and goes into some textual issues, but it primarily is focused on giving a fuller context to the story. Choon-Leon Seow’s contribution on the 1 and 2 Kings goes into a little more depth on translational issues than some other portions of this commentary set I’ve utilized, and this was a positive since it identified some interesting things to explore in the Hebrew text. This was another solid portion of the NIB and it is a resource worth having on the shelf for a pastor.

[1] The division initially occurred in the translation of the Hebrew Text into Greek (the Septuagint).

Egypt’s Role in the Geopolitics of Israel/Judah During the Time of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

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The Roman Kiosk of Trajan (left) on Agilkia island in the Nile River, near Aswān, Egypt

Egypt’s Role in the Geopolitics of Israel/Judah During the Time of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

Egypt’s connection with the story of Israel goes back to its beginning and is complex. At times the Egyptians have been allies and trading partners and at other times they are antagonists. Egypt was one of the first regional powers to emerge in history, and they would remain independent until they are brought under the Persian Empire in the sixth century BCE (roughly forty years after the siege of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile). Egypt had been a military and economic power for thousands of years at the emergence of the Assyrian and later Babylonian powers to the north and had exercised both political and commercial influence over the region throughout this time.

One of the ways Egypt continued to exercise influence was by encouraging the rulers throughout the region to resist both Assyrian and Babylonian rule. Egypt was often sought for support or protection once these ruling powers were provoked, aid that sometimes materialized and often did not. For example, 2 Kings records Samaria (Northern Israel) attempting to resist Assyria in 724 BCE:

King Shalmaneser of Assyria came up against him; Hoshea (king of Samaria) became his vassal. But the king of Assyria found treachery in Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to King So of Egypt, and offered no tribute to the king of Assyria as he had done year by year; therefore the king of Assyria confined him and imprisoned him. Then the king of Assyria invaded all the land and come to Samaria; for three years he besieged it. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria; he carried the Israelites away into Assyria. 2 Kings 17: 3-6a

Here Egypt is either unable or unwilling to march into Samaria to defend them from the Assyrians. This results in the collapse of Northern Israel (Samaria). Later Assyria would march against the Philistine city of Ekron who also appeals to Egypt for aid. In 701 BCE Egypt does march to the aid of Ekron but its forces are defeated and captured. (NIB VI: 1402) Assyria then turns towards Judah and when Rabshakeh, the commander of the Assyrian forces comes before the walls of Jerusalem he taunts the people:

The Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah. Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: on what do you base this confidence of yours? Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? On whom do you rely, that you have rebelled against me? See, you are relying now on Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. Such is Pharoah king of Egypt to all who rely on him. 1 Kings 18:19-21, Isaiah 36:4-6

Rabshakeh’s siege does not capture Jerusalem when he abruptly turns away to another fight, biblical tradition indicates it is an internal conflict among Assyrian forces, and the threat is resolved.

Eventually Assyria and Egypt would change from opponents into allies at the emergence of the Babylonian empire. This becomes important for Judah’s history for several interconnected reasons. Judah under Josiah was undergoing a time of renewal according to the bible and there was even a hope for Judah to now once again rule over the lands of both Judah and what had formerly been Samaria. A part of this optimism was the alliance with Babylon. In 609 BCE when Pharoah Necho marches his army north to aid Assyria, King Josiah marches the army of Judah out to resist him. Judah’s army is conquered, King Josiah is killed, and Judah comes under Egyptian power with Pharoah Necho appointing Eliakim to rule in Jerusalem as a vassal. In 605 BCE Egyptian forces were defeated by Babylon at the Battle of Carchemish and pursued back to the Egyptian border. Even after Babylon asserted control over Judah and the surrounding region, Egypt continued to attempt to provoke Judah and other regional vassal states to resist Babylon.

When Babylon does react to Jerusalem withholding tribute by besieging the city, Egypt does march to their aid which causes Babylonian forces to briefly lift the siege of Jerusalem to deal with the Egyptian incursion. (Jeremiah 37:5-10) Yet the Egyptian forces quickly return to Egypt and Babylon resumes its siege. Egypt has once again proven to be an unreliable support for Jerusalem in its problems. This history of provocative behavior and unreliability likely informs Ezekiel’s words against Egypt.

1 Kings 12: A Divided Kingdom

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By Hans Holbein the Younger – Christian Müller; Stephan Kemperdick; Maryan Ainsworth; et al, Hans Holbein the Younger: The Basel Years, 1515–1532, Munich: Prestel, 2006, ISBN 9783791335803., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5977456

1 Kings 12: 1-24 A Divided Kingdom

¹ Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. ² When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. ³ And they sent and called him; and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, ⁴ “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵ He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the older men who had attended his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” ⁷ They answered him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” ⁸ But he disregarded the advice that the older men gave him, and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and now attended him. ⁹ He said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” ¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus you should say to this people who spoke to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must lighten it for us’; thus you should say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. ¹¹ Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.'”

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had said, “Come to me again the third day.” ¹³ The king answered the people harshly. He disregarded the advice that the older men had given him ¹⁴ and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” ¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, because it was a turn of affairs brought about by the LORD that he might fulfill his word, which the LORD had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king,

“What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David.”

So Israel went away to their tents. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah. ¹⁸ When King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam then hurriedly mounted his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

²⁰ When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. There was no one who followed the house of David, except the tribe of Judah alone.

²¹ When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand chosen troops to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon. ²² But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: ²³ Say to King Rehoboam of Judah, son of Solomon, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, ²⁴ “Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up or fight against your kindred the people of Israel. Let everyone go home, for this thing is from me.” So they heeded the word of the LORD and went home again, according to the word of the LORD.

At the end of Solomon’s reign, Israel is only three generations removed from a United Israelite kingdom being a collection of loosely affiliated tribal groups and territories. Solomon’s forty year reign put the kingdom on a fast track to becoming a powerful monarchy involved in global trade and with an aggressive set of building projects. Although Solomon attempted to replace the tribal power structures with a regional set of administrators to deliver the taxes and to conscript labor for the state projects there is a growing tension between Solomon’s Jerusalem based monarchy and the population which has borne the burden of these projects through both taxation of their (primarily) agricultural production and the physical labor of construction. The prosperity of Solomon’s reign may have given the illusion of Israel being a modern unified kingdom, but as Alex Israel states, “the seam between Judah and the other tribes is prone to unravelling.” (Israel, 2013, p. 154)

Rehoboam the son of Solomon comes to Shechem, one of the most important cities of the northern tribes of Israel, to be anointed as king. We do not know whether this is, at the behest of his advisors, a strategic political and symbolic move to honor the northern tribes and attempt to provide unity or a move to assert control over these tribes but it leads to the people giving voice to their dissatisfaction with the administration of Rehoboam’s father and their desire for change. There still seems to be a chance for the kingdom to remain united if Rehoboam will make some concessions to the people who have borne the taxation and labor of Solomon’s kingdom building. Additionally, the northern tribes may be concerned about the security situation on their borders with the rise of Rezon in Damascus and the selling off of Cabul to finance Solomon’s construction and acquisition of gold and other precious resources. It is likely that the northern tribes felt that they were being asked to carry a heavy yoke on behalf of the Solomon’s monarchy without sharing in the benefits of their burden. (Cogan, 2001, pp. 351-352) Jerusalem and Judah have grown wealthy and prosperous while northern Israel has lost territory, security, and the fruit of their labor. With their taxation they ask not for representation, but for their monarch to hear their plight and to be a king for all Israel, not merely the king of Judah and Jerusalem.

During the three days intermission in the story, Rehoboam consults two distinct groups of counselors for advice. One group of counselors are his father’s men who may remember a time before Solomon’s forty-year reign or who may have seen the cost the people of the land bore. Their advice of serving the people and giving kind words to them has the potential to ease the tensions which threaten to pull the seam between Judah and the other tribes apart. But the advice of the group derogatorily in Hebrew called ‘boys’ (hayla-dim) (NIB III: 102) only inflames the tensions. Rehoboam identifies with this group saying, “What do you advise that we answer this people.” It is likely that these comrades of Rehoboam have grown up knowing the affluence of Solomon’s court and have been insulated from the burden of the people. They probably have grown up in an environment where they never knew, in Brueggemann’s words,

anything but extravagant privilege and a heavy sense of their own entitlement. They likely take their affluence as normal and have never known anything other than a standard of living supported by heavy taxation. (Brueggemann, 2000, p. 156)

These ‘boys’ counsel their king and companion to display strength in defending their way of life. Solomon may have been a strong king who demanded much of the people, but Rehoboam will be build a stronger kingdom by being more demanding. The childish advice includes a graphic illustration of the potency of the new king by saying that his member[1] is larger than his father’s thigh. Rehoboam does not reiterate this part of the advice at the gathering of the people but he accepts the counsel of those who, like him, have benefited from the policies of his father and attempts to bluster the people into submission.

There is a common misperception among leaders, particularly leaders who are trying to portray themselves in a masculine manner, that misunderstands strength as toughness or cruelty. This occurs even in modern societies like the United States where a political leaders try to show how tough they are on crime or immigration by incredibly cruel policies or who try to assert dominance over their opponents. Often these leaders are not people of distinguished careers in the military or arenas of physical competition, but they create this persona of strength which may attempt to cover their own insecurities. This scene with the attempt by Rehoboam and his counterparts to bluster and dominate the nation with a heavier yoke and scorpions seems to be an attempt to show toughness through cruelty. The ‘scorpions’ mentioned may be a lash with metal edges, but whatever the meaning of this term it is designed to invoke pain greater than a whip.

The response of the people, “What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David.” echoes an earlier incident in the reign of King David. In the aftermath of the rebellion of David’s son Absalom as weakened David is reconsolidating power in Israel when Sheba son of Bichri utters identical words (2 Samuel 19:1). David rallies his forces and his general Joab pursues Sheba and besieges the town of Abel of Beth-maacah until the residents throw the head of Sheba to the general.[2] David, through Joab, decisively deals with this fraying of the seams between the Judah and the other tribes. Yet, here the seam will not hold as the ten pieces of the new robe of the prophet Ahijah[3] separate from the two remaining pieces. We will see that Rehoboam is no David.

Rehoboam’s inability to accurately perceive the situation and his own weakness continues to make itself clear in response to the declaration of the people. Jeroboam may have been at work sowing dissent among the people, or the disillusionment of the people may be so great that it would lead to the rupture without any encouragement by Jeroboam. Rehoboam’s decision to send Adoram who was in charge of forced labor probably intended to continue to show this strength through toughness and cruelty, but it is an inflammatory and politically insensitive response to the people which result in the outbreak of violence and causes the king to flee in his chariot to Jerusalem. The strength and toughness he desired to demonstrate only highlighted his own impotence in the face of the rising rebellion.

In a final attempt to demonstrate strength Rehoboam rallies the forces of Judah and Benjamin. Apparently the Benjaminites remained while the other tribes departed, but the stated 180,000 men rallied to hold the kingdom together by force may be able to strike before the northern tribes and Jeroboam can organize. Yet, Shemaiah the man of God is able to communicate to the king where the other older voices have not been able. In contrast to King David his grandson Rehoboam will not reunite the nation through military action and he has no Joab to demonstrate his strength. But like his grandfather, Rehoboam will be sensitive to hearing the word of God and in this case acts accordingly.[4] The seam that brought the tribes of Israel together has unraveled and throughout the remaining history of the kings we will follow a progression of kings of Israel (the northern tribes) and the kings of Judah. There kingdom is rent asunder and there is no king or prophet who will be able to reunite the tribes.

1 Kings 12: 25-33 The Worship Places at Bethel and Dan

²⁵ Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and resided there; he went out from there and built Penuel. ²⁶ Then Jeroboam said to himself, “Now the kingdom may well revert to the house of David. ²⁷ If this people continues to go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, the heart of this people will turn again to their master, King Rehoboam of Judah; they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.” ²⁸ So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” ²⁹ He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰ And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one at Bethel and before the other as far as Dan. ³¹ He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not Levites. ³² Jeroboam appointed a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the festival that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; so he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made. ³³ He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he alone had devised; he appointed a festival for the people of Israel, and he went up to the altar to offer incense.

Much of Solomon’s reign concentrated the worship of the LORD and the political power, military might, and the wealth of Israel in Jerusalem. Now as Jeroboam and the new kingdom of Israel finds itself adrift from this center of worship, power and wealth he begins to reestablish the nation around new centers and a new identity. Jeroboam’s position is tenuous as long as the central symbols of the people remain outside of the borders of this new territory. His reorganization of political life, religious life, and even the calendar will be judged harshly by the writer of 1 Kings who views these reforms through the perspective of Jerusalem and the temple. In the perspective of 1 Kings these are the ‘sins of Jeroboam’ that will become the reference for the negative evaluation of future kings of Israel.[5]

Jeroboam establishes two places of political and military power: Shechem and Peneul. Shechem is the site where the people rebelled against Rehoboam but it is also the site where Abimelech is the first in Israel to claim the title of king (Judges 9).[6] Yet, Shechem is probably chosen as a site due to its role in the stories of Abram and Jacob. Shechem is where God promises Abraham that his offspring will inherit the land (Genesis 12: 6-7), it is the unfortunate location of the rape of Dinah, the daughter of Jacob and her brothers’ revenge and where the family of Jacob leaves their foreign gods behind (Genesis 34) and where Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers (Genesis 37: 12-36). Penuel also has a connection with the story of Abimelech’s father Gibeon (Judges 8)[7] but it is probably rebuilt for its connection to the story of Jacob. Penuel (or Peniel)[8] is the site where Jacob wrestles with the mysterious stranger and is renamed Israel (Genesis 32: 22-32). Establishing Israel’s new centers of political life around these two cities with associations with Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph gives a new geological and narrative root for this new nation of Israel to orient itself around.

Solomon’s centralization of the worship of the LORD around the temple in Jerusalem also presents a challenge for Jeroboam. He responds to this challenge by centering worship around two existing worship sites with new images. The narrator of 1 Kings wants us to hear in this story an echo of the story of the golden calf in Exodus 32 and places in Jeroboam’s mouth the same words that Aaron utters in that story, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 32:4) The two shrines at Bethel and in Dan become the locations of these new golden calves and for Israel replace the temple in Jerusalem. It is possible that the calves are not to be a replacement for the LORD, just a physical representation of the LORD (or like the bulls under the bronze sea in the temple designs ornamentation of the worship space). Yet, the author of 1 Kings views this innovation through the lens of the Exodus account of the golden calf and view Jeroboam’s reforms as evidence of his unfaithfulness to the LORD the God of Israel.

Additionally, the priests that Jeroboam appoints are not exclusively Levites. The text does not specifically state that no Levites were priests, but there were those from among the general public who became priests. In Exodus 32 the Levites were those who were most resistant to Aaron’s introduction of the golden calf and it is possible that there were Levites who resisted this, but there were Levites in the book of Judges who gladly used ephods and other icons as a part of the worship at shrines like the one in Dan.[9] Even the king functions as a priest, although Solomon also acted in this way in the dedication of the temple, but there is a complete reorganization of the religious life of the people around new shrines with new images and new priests. Finally there is a new calendar to orient the life of the people completely breaking with the ways of Judah.

In Canaan the bull is often associated with the deities of Baal and El[10] (Cogan, 2001, p. 358). 1 Kings tells us the narrative of Jeroboam from the perspective of Torah observance as shaped by the theology of Deuteronomy and Exodus. In light of that theological perspective the innovations of Jeroboam (like the innovations of Aaron) are judged negatively and harshly. The practices that Jeroboam adopts may have deeper roots in the worship history of the northern Israelite tribes that we will never know because their records have been lost to time. What we do have is the evaluation of those practices in the light of the perspective of 1 Kings which view this action as the ‘sin of Jeroboam’ that leads Israel astray.

[1] Can be translated finger but probably refers to his penis.

[2] This story in 2 Samuel 20 is a fascinating but twisted story of the power of David as exercised by Joab which is too complex to do more than point to as a parallel here.

[3] See previous chapter.

[4] In 2 Chronicles 12 Shemiah also confronts Rehoboam when King Shishak of Egypt attacks causing the king and his officers to humble themselves causing God to grant them deliverance. 1 Kings 14: 25-28 will mention the invasion of King Shishak but does not contain Shemiah’s role.

[5] Going forward I will follow 1 Kings’ practice of referring to the northern kingdom as Israel and the southern kingdom as Judah. The spilt is unfamiliar for many readers of scripture and the referral to the united monarchy as Israel along with the northern kingdom post Solomon can cause confusion, but no more than using other common references like Ephraim or even the northern kingdom.

[6] Abimelech never reigned over all Israel, he was a regional strongman whose short, violent domination of the area is the opposite of what judges were supposed to be.

[7] Gideon appeals to Penuel for food to support his pursuit of the kings of Midian but is rebuffed and later tears down their tower.

[8] Genesis uses both spellings in the story of Jacob.

[9] Judges 17-18

[10] El is a general term for god which is often a part of the names used to talk about the LORD the God of Israel, but may also refer to gods of other nations.

Psalm 78 Telling History to Change the Future

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Grigory Mekheev, Exodus (2000) artist shared work under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0

Psalm 78

<A Maskil of Asaph.>
¹Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
² I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old,
³ things that we have heard and known, that our ancestors have told us.
⁴ We will not hide them from their children; we will tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.
⁵ He established a decree in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our ancestors to teach to their children;
⁶ that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and rise up and tell them to their children,
⁷ so that they should set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments;
⁸ and that they should not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.
⁹ The Ephraimites, armed with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
¹⁰ They did not keep God’s covenant, but refused to walk according to his law.
¹¹ They forgot what he had done, and the miracles that he had shown them.
¹² In the sight of their ancestors he worked marvels in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
¹³ He divided the sea and let them pass through it, and made the waters stand like a heap.
¹⁴ In the daytime he led them with a cloud, and all night long with a fiery light.
¹⁵ He split rocks open in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
¹⁶ He made streams come out of the rock, and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
¹⁷ Yet they sinned still more against him, rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
¹⁸ They tested God in their heart by demanding the food they craved.
¹⁹ They spoke against God, saying, “Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
²⁰ Even though he struck the rock so that water gushed out and torrents overflowed, can he also give bread, or provide meat for his people?”
²¹ Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of rage; a fire was kindled against Jacob, his anger mounted against Israel,
²² because they had no faith in God, and did not trust his saving power.
²³ Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven;
²⁴ he rained down on them manna to eat, and gave them the grain of heaven.
²⁵ Mortals ate of the bread of angels; he sent them food in abundance.
²⁶ He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;
²⁷ he rained flesh upon them like dust, winged birds like the sand of the seas;
²⁸ he let them fall within their camp, all around their dwellings.
²⁹ And they ate and were well filled, for he gave them what they craved.
³⁰ But before they had satisfied their craving, while the food was still in their mouths,
³¹ the anger of God rose against them and he killed the strongest of them, and laid low the flower of Israel.
³² In spite of all this they still sinned; they did not believe in his wonders.
³³ So he made their days vanish like a breath, and their years in terror.
³⁴ When he killed them, they sought for him; they repented and sought God earnestly.
³⁵ They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God their redeemer.
³⁶ But they flattered him with their mouths; they lied to him with their tongues.
³⁷ Their heart was not steadfast toward him; they were not true to his covenant.
³⁸ Yet he, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them; often he restrained his anger, and did not stir up all his wrath.
³⁹ He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again.
⁴⁰ How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness and grieved him in the desert!
⁴¹ They tested God again and again, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
⁴² They did not keep in mind his power, or the day when he redeemed them from the foe;
⁴³ when he displayed his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the fields of Zoan.
⁴⁴ He turned their rivers to blood, so that they could not drink of their streams.
⁴⁵ He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
⁴⁶ He gave their crops to the caterpillar, and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
⁴⁷ He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamores with frost.
⁴⁸ He gave over their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
⁴⁹ He let loose on them his fierce anger, wrath, indignation, and distress, a company of destroying angels.
⁵⁰ He made a path for his anger; he did not spare them from death, but gave their lives over to the plague.
⁵¹ He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the first issue of their strength in the tents of Ham.
⁵² Then he led out his people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
⁵³ He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
⁵⁴ And he brought them to his holy hill, to the mountain that his right hand had won.
⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them; he apportioned them for a possession and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
⁵⁶ Yet they tested the Most High God, and rebelled against him. They did not observe his decrees,
⁵⁷ but turned away and were faithless like their ancestors; they twisted like a treacherous bow.
⁵⁸ For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
⁵⁹ When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel.
⁶⁰ He abandoned his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mortals,
⁶¹ and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe.
⁶² He gave his people to the sword, and vented his wrath on his heritage.
⁶³ Fire devoured their young men, and their girls had no marriage song.
⁶⁴ Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
⁶⁵ Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a warrior shouting because of wine.
⁶⁶ He put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting disgrace.
⁶⁷ He rejected the tent of Joseph, he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;
⁶⁸ but he chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion, which he loves.
⁶⁹ He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, like the earth, which he has founded forever.
⁷⁰ He chose his servant David, and took him from the sheepfolds;
⁷¹ from tending the nursing ewes he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel, his inheritance.
⁷² With upright heart he tended them, and guided them with skillful hand.

We narrate the story of our past to attempt to understand our present reality, and yet our narrations of the past are always shaped by our present experiences and questions. Psalm seventy-eight is a long narration of the rebellion of the people in the wilderness and God’s judgment of Egypt to force the release of the people of Israel. Yet, the narration is told not merely to relay historical information but to point to the impact of Israel’s failure to keep the covenant (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 623) Within this historical retelling it focuses on God’s wrath as it is shown towards Israel even after God’s gracious action to deliver them from slavery and to provide food and water in the wilderness. God’s exercise of power for deliverance and provision does not seem to compel the people to obedience and it is only God’s wrath appears that the people change their ways and sought God’s ways. Martin Luther referred to God’s wrath as God’s alien work which reflects the belief that God is fundamentally gracious, but that disobedience provokes this alien expression of punishment or wrath from God. Living much of my life in Texas or the southeastern United States I have always wondered why so many people were drawn to churches that focused on God’s judgment and wrath which articulated clear but rigid definitions of insiders and outsiders having been raised and formed in a tradition that focused heavily on the grace of God, but perhaps for some the God of judgment is more comforting and the rigid boundaries are comfortable. Yet, the God presented by the Bible is both gracious and demanding. God hears the cries of the people and is roused to deliver them, but this same God who is the mighty warrior who delivers refuses to be taken for granted. The narration of the central story of the people of Israel, perhaps in a time where a portion of that people has fallen away, with an emphasis on obedience is to bring about fidelity to God and God’s covenant.

There is no scholarly consensus on the historical background of this psalm, but my suspicion is that it is probably written sometime after the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BCE but prior to the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE. There are several pointed phrases about Ephraim, Shiloh, and Israel which indicate a perspective of the kingdom of Judah and there is an indication of a disaster in the northern kingdom which seems to be one more example of God’s judgment upon the unfaithful ones in the view of the psalmist.[1] Narrating the ancient and perhaps recent past to learn from it is one of the reasons for revisiting the memories of the people. We live in a world where the written scriptures are readily available, but in a world where the written word is painstakingly handed on and typically only available to priests or royalty this psalm may have been an important way of impressing the historical memory on the current and future generations.

The memory of the past is recited to the community to help it learn how to properly relate to its God. As Walter Brueggemann and William Bellinger can memorably state, “In the recital of memory there is hope for the future.” (Brueggemann, 2014, p. 340) The initial eleven verses are a call to listen and sets the expectations for the hearers to, “not be like their ancestors, a stubborn and rebellious generation…they did not keep the covenant, and they refused to walk according to his teaching:” (8,10) Ephraim, synonymous with the northern kingdom of Israel, is highlighted as being turned back in battle and as mentioned above this may suggest a situation after the conquest of Israel by the Assyrians. Recent events may set the backdrop for the hearing of this examination of the disobedience of the people during the Exodus.

There are two major narrations of the past in this psalm. Both share a common pattern of narrating God’s gracious act, a rebellion by the people, God’s response in anger to the disobedience of the people and a summary of the section. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 623) In the first section verses twelve through sixteen narrate God’s action to deliver the people from Egypt, pass them through the sea, lead them in the wilderness, and provide water in the wilderness. Yet, the response of the people in verses seventeen through twenty is to speak against God and to question God’s provision. Their lack of trust or gratitude provokes God and many of the strongest of the people die in this time. Yet, when God responds in judgment they seek him but even this seeking is halfhearted. Their words are deceitful, and their actions do not hold fast to the covenant God placed before them. Yet, God’s compassion restrains God’s wrath even though their actions cause God grief.

The second narration begins in verse forty-three looking back to God’s actions to bring the people out of Egypt. This second narration looks in amazement at all the actions God did in comparison to the continual rebellion of the people. There are some differences between the narration in Exodus 7-11 and the remembrance here, but it is clear they are pointing to a common memory. Yet, in the psalm time begins to compress as the hearers are moved from God’s action to deliver the people from Egypt, lead them through the wilderness and into the promised land seems to move to a more recent judgment beginning in verse fifty-six. The central focus of the judgment seems to be on the northern kingdom of Israel which is rejected with its holy place at Shiloh abandoned by God. God’s arousal from sleep liberates Judah, but Ephraim (northern Israel) is rejected. The psalm ends with Judah being delivered by God and cared for by David (and the Davidic line). Yet, just like Ephraim and the northern kingdom, Judah’s position is due to the gracious provision of God but carries the expectation to live within the covenant. The psalmist encourages the people to choose the way of faithfulness instead of the disobedient and stubborn ways of their ancestors and their brothers in the north.

The bible narrates a theological interpretation of history which focuses on the interaction between God and the people of God. Interpreters of scripture in both Jewish and Christian traditions have seen within the scriptures a witness to a tension within a God who desires to be gracious but whose people only seem to respond to punishment or wrath. In Beth Tanner’s words this psalm,

tells of God’s great passion for humans, even when those humans turn away. It also tells the sad story of human determination to ignore the good gifts of God and to remember God only when the way becomes hard or violent. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 625)

God’s anger and wrath may be, to use Luther’s term, God’s alien work but the God of scripture refuses to be taken for granted. God is jealous for the people’s attention and allegiance and when the people turn away from God’s gifts God responds. I tell my congregation that “God wants to meet you in grace and love and peace, but if you can only hear God in judgment God will meet you there even though it creates a struggle within God.” We still come together and remember these stories to learn from the wisdom and the struggles of our ancestors in faith, to seek God in grace, to live in obedience and faithfulness but also to attempt to interpret our world in light of God’s gifts and God’s discipline. This may be harder in our very secular world but just as we attempt to learn from our more recent history, we listen to the narration of the psalmist to the memory of the people and learn from their life with God under grace and under judgment.

[1] See for example verses 9, 56-64, and 67

Judges 1 The Disposition of the People of Israel

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Cracked pots, Picture taken by Enric from the Monestary of Sanahin, Armenia shared under creative commons 4.0

Joshua 1: 1-21 The Mainly Positive Beginnings of the Southern Tribes

¹After the death of Joshua, the Israelites inquired of the LORD, “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” ² The LORD said, “Judah shall go up. I hereby give the land into his hand.” ³ Judah said to his brother Simeon, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites; then I too will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. ⁴ Then Judah went up and the LORD gave the Canaanites and the Perizzites into their hand; and they defeated ten thousand of them at Bezek. ⁵ They came upon Adoni-bezek at Bezek, and fought against him, and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. ⁶ Adoni-bezek fled; but they pursued him, and caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. ⁷ Adoni-bezek said, “Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off used to pick up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has paid me back.” They brought him to Jerusalem, and he died there. ⁸ Then the people of Judah fought against Jerusalem and took it. They put it to the sword and set the city on fire.

⁹ Afterward the people of Judah went down to fight against the Canaanites who lived in the hill country, in the Negeb, and in the lowland.¹⁰ Judah went against the Canaanites who lived in Hebron (the name of Hebron was formerly Kiriath-arba); and they defeated Sheshai and Ahiman and Talmai.

¹¹ From there they went against the inhabitants of Debir (the name of Debir was formerly Kiriath-sepher). ¹² Then Caleb said, “Whoever attacks Kiriath-sepher and takes it, I will give him my daughter Achsah as wife.” ¹³ And Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; and he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife. ¹⁴ When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. As she dismounted from her donkey, Caleb said to her, “What do you wish?” ¹⁵ She said to him, “Give me a present; since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also Gulloth-mayim.” So Caleb gave her Upper Gulloth and Lower Gulloth.

¹⁶ The descendants of Hobab the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up with the people of Judah from the city of palms into the wilderness of Judah, which lies in the Negeb near Arad. Then they went and settled with the Amalekites.¹⁷ Judah went with his brother Simeon, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath, and devoted it to destruction. So the city was called Hormah. ¹⁸ Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its territory. ¹⁹ The LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain, because they had chariots of iron. ²⁰ Hebron was given to Caleb, as Moses had said; and he drove out from it the three sons of Anak. ²¹ But the Benjaminites did not drive out the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem; so the Jebusites have lived in Jerusalem among the Benjaminites to this day.

The book of Judges comes from a world that would seem alien to a modern reader. It is a time where the tribes and families that make up Israel are no longer united under a charismatic leader like Moses or Joshua and are not a nation in the modern sense. Moses and Joshua may have been able to hold the tribes together through the wilderness and the initial conflict with the Canaanites in the promised land, but with the death of Joshua the tribes and families no longer work together in harmony. The book of Judges narrates a theologically interpreted story of the decline of Israel in this time between the initial occupation of the promised land and the anointing of the first king of Israel.

The book of Judges is a challenging book for many reasons, but one which we encounter immediately is the expectation that the Canaanite people who occupy the promised land will be destroyed. Throughout Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua the have frequently echoed the command to destroy the people in the land so that the people of Israel would not adopt their practices or worship their gods. The violence of the occupation of the promised land can seem difficult to reconcile with the vision of God that many modern Jews and Christians have, and it is often hard to reconcile modern values with the actions of ancient people. The failure of the people to fully remove the populations that existed in the promised land and the failure of these tribes and families to consistently live the values outlined in the law highlights, in the view of the author of Judges, the danger of alternative visions of structuring society and of worshipping other gods to the identity of the people of Israel. As people who live in a secular and pluralistic nation it can be difficult to imagine the ideal of a theocratic and homogenous population living according to the vision of books like Deuteronomy. Apparently this vision was difficult for the people in the time of Judges to adhere to as well.

Judges begins its narration in the time after the death of Joshua. The initial military actions undertaken by Judah and Simeon are viewed in a mainly positive light. Judah and Simeon are both located at the southern end of the territory that the tribes occupy and form a mutual alliance to deal with the significant Canaanite forces still in their region. The numbers throughout Judges are difficult to translate, especially the Hebrew word ‘elep which is frequently translated thousands, but which may refer to a much smaller number in some places.[1] Even if the number of people the tribes of Judah and Simeon defeat at Bezek is less than 10,000, it is still a large battle for tribes with no standing army. The initial defeat of the Canaanites and Perizzites and their actions toward the captured king Adoni-bezek are reminders that the ancient world is a violent place. Adoni-bezek, in the narrative of Judges, views his own loss of thumbs and big toes as divine repayment[2] (although the word for God here is the generic god and not necessarily the God of Israel) for his own action of removing the thumbs and toes from kings he has conquered. The narrative is not always consistent as we see in verse eight and twenty-one, where Jerusalem is taken and burned by Judah but the residents of Jerusalem remain and are not driven out by Benjamin.

The battle in the hill country takes us back into the narrative of Joshua, where the land of Hebron is given to Caleb, the only other survivor of the Exodus journey. Caleb’s family defeats Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai who are descendants of Anak (Joshua, 15:14), the feared Anakim who originally caused the people of Israel to fear occupying the promised land. (Numbers 13: 28) These once feared ‘mighty men’ are now defeated and the final living member of the people who left Egypt finally receives his inheritance. The narrative of Caleb, Othniel, and Achsah highlights that we are dealing with collections of families who are working together rather than an organized nation. Othniel, who will be lifted up as the first judge, takes the city of Kiriath-sepher and wins the promised hand of Achsah, daughter of Caleb. Marriages in the ancient world were primarily economic arrangements that were to be mutually beneficial to both parties. Although Achsah may not have any choice in the marriage, she will show her own initiative in relation to both Caleb and Othniel. As Barry Webb can highlight:

From the moment of her entry (v. 14a), Achsah ceases to be an object acted upon by two men. She seizes the opportunity to get something which neither her father nor her husband has considered. Her father has already given the land of the Negeb as her dowry (v.15c). Achsah greatly enhances its value by negotiating successfully for water rights, something of great importance given the predominantly dry nature of the area. (Webb 2012, 104)

Women in the bible are often more assertive than interpreters give them credit for, and especially in the book of Judges we will see a number of women play large roles. This may also highlight the difference between the relatively positive beginning of Judges where women are able to negotiate on behalf of themselves and their families and the very dark conclusion of Judges where women are often the victims of violent acts which deny them safety and the ability to work for their own futures.

The book of Judges is not universally negative toward people who are not a part of the people of Israel, and this is highlighted by the position of the descendants of Hobab the Kenite. This partnership which goes back to Moses allows both the people of Israel and Kenite to live at peace and benefit from their relationship. The military conquest of Judah and Simeon is viewed in a predominantly positive manner, but they remain unable to expel the inhabitants of the plain who have iron chariots, which would have been the pinnacle of military technology in the early iron age. The clans of Judah and Simeon gain control over the majority of their territory but the Canaanite people and their religion prove incredibly challenging to expel completely from their region. The story gets significantly darker as the focus turns to Benjamin, who was not asked to partner with Judah and Simeon, and their inability to drive out the Jebusites and their cohabitation with the Jebusites in Jerusalem.

Judges 1: 22-34 The Less Positive Beginning of the Northern Tribes

²² The house of Joseph also went up against Bethel; and the LORD was with them. ²³ The house of Joseph sent out spies to Bethel (the name of the city was formerly Luz). ²⁴ When the spies saw a man coming out of the city, they said to him, “Show us the way into the city, and we will deal kindly with you.” ²⁵ So he showed them the way into the city; and they put the city to the sword, but they let the man and all his family go. ²⁶ So the man went to the land of the Hittites and built a city, and named it Luz; that is its name to this day.

²⁷ Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shean and its villages, or Taanach and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages; but the Canaanites continued to live in that land. ²⁸ When Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not in fact drive them out.

²⁹ And Ephraim did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer; but the Canaanites lived among them in Gezer.

³⁰ Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron, or the inhabitants of Nahalol; but the Canaanites lived among them, and became subject to forced labor.

³¹ Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of Acco, or the inhabitants of Sidon, or of Ahlab, or of Achzib, or of Helbah, or of Aphik, or of Rehob; ³² but the Asherites lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; for they did not drive them out.

³³ Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh, or the inhabitants of Beth-anath, but lived among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; nevertheless the inhabitants of Beth-shemesh and of Beth-anath became subject to forced labor for them.

³⁴ The Amorites pressed the Danites back into the hill country; they did not allow them to come down to the plain. ³⁵ The Amorites continued to live in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph rested heavily on them, and they became subject to forced labor. ³⁶ The border of the Amorites ran from the ascent of Akrabbim, from Sela and upward.

The two tribes of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) are the two largest northern tribes and they unite to go against Luz (which will be renamed Bethel). The taking of Bethel shares many commonalities with the taking of Jericho in the book of Joshua (Joshua 2, 6) where a hesed (faithful) agreement is made with a resident of the city which allows the city to be taken. Bethel becomes the northern counterpoint to Jerusalem, and yet the destruction of Luz gives birth to a new city of Luz in the land of the Hittites. After the initial success of the northern tribes we receive a litany of all the Canaanites that are not driven out from the land. The Canaanites prove to be difficult to remove from the land and these remaining tribes either lack the ability or the will to secure their inheritance. In many cases the Canaanites become forced labor for these tribes and families, but in the case of Dan it is the Canaanites who retain control of most of the land forcing the Danites back into the hill country.

The inertia of the time of Joshua comes to a halt. The stage is set for the cyclical pattern of decay among the people which the book of Judges narrates. As Michael Hattin says eloquently:

Leaderless, and no longer certain of their mission, the people of Israel instead settle down, content to farm their fertile plots, raise their flocks and families, and leave the process of possession incomplete. The Canaanites continue to dwell among them, with their religious and moral system intact, and the siren call of their gods soon took effect. (Hattin 2020, 10)

Israel was always intended to be an alternative to Egypt, Canaan, and the other moral and religious visions present in the ancient world. Instead, we find the people at the end of this narrative adopting the enslaving practices they found themselves victims of in Egypt and tolerating the presence of competing visions for society complete with alternative religious systems. There is no Moses or Joshua to rally the people from their lethargy, nor is there a strong sense of unity among the tribes. The book of Judges attempts to make sense of a dark time in the story of Israel and after one chapter we are in a position to encounter the recurring challenge of faithfulness to the vision their God intended for the people. They were unable or unwilling to create a space free of alternative moral and religious visions to attempt this great divine experiment of a people living in a covenant with their God, a people living a life ordered by the law of God. Instead they live out their vocation as a covenant people in a place of competing messages and loyalties and the results do not live up to the hope of the author of Judges.

[1] For a complete discussion of the problem of large numbers in the book of Judges see Barry G. Webb’s note on translation. (Webb 2012, 71-74)

[2] The notion of divine ‘repayment’ will also feature in the stories of Gideon, Abimelech, and Samson.

Sign of the Rose

Searchings: Sacred and Secular

Tag Archives: Judah

2 Kings 16 King Ahaz and the Syro-Ephraimite War

2 Kings 16

2 Kings 15 The Stability of Judah in Contrast to the Instability of Samaria

2 Kings 15: 1-7 King Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah

2 Kings 15: 8-12 The Brief Reign of Zechariah King of Israel and the End of the Jehu Dynasty

2 Kings 15: 13-31 A Tumultuous Period in Israel

2 Kings 15: 32-38 King Jothan of Judah

2 Kings 14 King Amaziah of Judah and King Jehoash and Jeroboam II of Israel

2 Kings 14: 1-22

2 Kings 14: 23-29

2 Kings 12 The Reign of King Jehoash/Joash of Judah

2 Kings 12: 1-3

2 Kings 12: 4-16

2 Kings 12: 17-18

2 Kings 12: 19-21

2 Kings 11 The Overthrow of Athaliah in Judah and the Beginning of the Reign of King Joash

2 Kings 11

Introduction to 2 Kings

Resources Used For This Journey

Egypt’s Role in the Geopolitics of Israel/Judah During the Time of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

Egypt’s Role in the Geopolitics of Israel/Judah During the Time of the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires

1 Kings 12: A Divided Kingdom

1 Kings 12: 1-24 A Divided Kingdom

1 Kings 12: 25-33 The Worship Places at Bethel and Dan

Psalm 78 Telling History to Change the Future

Psalm 78

Judges 1 The Disposition of the People of Israel

Joshua 1: 1-21 The Mainly Positive Beginnings of the Southern Tribes

Judges 1: 22-34 The Less Positive Beginning of the Northern Tribes