Society and Daily Life in the Old Testament

Society and Daily Life in the Old Testament

The books of Kings complete the history of Israel's monarchy begun in i and 2 Samuel by extending the account from the death of David and the accession of Solomon (970 B.C.), under whose rule the united kingdom reached its political and economic apex, to the freeing of King Jehoiachin by the Babylonians (561/60), when the first divided and then conquered and exiled nation existed only as the Diaspora.

The Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint) first separated Samuel and Kings into two volumes each and called the resulting set the "Books of the Kingdoms." 1 and 2 Kings also bring to an end the Deuteronomistic History (Joshua through Kings). Chronicles offers another version of the history recounted in Samuel and Kings (see "The Two Histories" 229-301)

1 Kings

1 Kings begins with the transfer of power from David to Solomon. Solomon's building enterprises, including erection of a lavish temple and an elaborate palace complex, evidence the unprecedented success of his kingdom. The intensification of the king's forced labor policy for such projects, however, spawns a popular rebellion after his death (ca. 930), and the kingdom splits between Judah (including subsumed Simeon) in the south and the remaining io tribes ("Israel") in the north. The Davidic dynasty continues in Judah, but a series of often rapid and always bloody dynastic changes characterizes the northern monarchy.

The book demonstrates that the monarchy failed to ensure the covenantal requirement of national, sacrificial worship of God alone at one central sanctuary - despite the presence of Solomon's temple! Even Solomon worships

pagan gods. When Jeroboam ascends the northern throne after Solomon's death, he sets up sanctuaries to rival the Jerusalem temple and sets in motion a pattern of religious failure that will reach new lows with Ahab, whose death marks the end of i Kings. Even Elijah's dramatic demonstrations of God's power in challenging the prophets of Baal, introduced by Queen Jezebel, fail to bring lasting repentance by this wicked king.

2 Kings

2 Kings opens with the last acts of Elijah, his ascension to heaven in a whirlwind accompanied by a fiery, horse-drawn chariot, and the succession of Elisha to Elijah as prophet. Accounts of miracles performed by Elisha - several of which parallel miracles performed by Elijah - establish the former apprentice's authenticity and authority.

During Elisha's prophetic tenure, the northern kingdom begins to reap the punishment for its covenantal disobedience. Israel's trouble starts with the Syrians, who attempt an unsuccessful siege of the capital, Samaria. "Jehu's purge," which leads to the fall of the Omride dynasty and for the time rids Israel of Baal worship, fails to bring lasting covenantal obedience, and Samaria's fall to the Assyrians in 722/21 marks the end of the northern kingdom.

The Davidic dynasty of Judah includes a number of "good" kings - most notably Hezekiah, who at the advice of the prophet Isaiah withstands an Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, and Josiah, whose thorough religious reforms based on the "book of the law" (probably Deuteronomy) discovered in the temple represent Judah's last resurgence of covenantal fidelity. Even these kings' sincere attempts to reestablish right worship of God alone cannot reverse the Lord's determination to punish the southern kingdom, however, and Jerusalem's destruction by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar in 587/86 sounds the final death knell for Judah - as the prophet Jeremiah had repeatedly warned.

Kings blames both Israel's and Judah's unfaithful rulers for the eventual fall of their kingdoms and demonstrates the failure of human kingship to secure the people's desired position among the nations. God's ultimate rule throughout the history of the monarchy shows him both as longsuffering by delaying punishment and also demanding justice by staying his punitive course even through periods in which obedience prevails.

Composition

Most scholars believe that the books of Kings originated in the late 7th century, the time of Judah's reformer, Josiah, and were revised in the mid-6th century during the Babylonian exile. Much of the source material used in their composition, however, dates closer to the events recorded. The books themselves mention three works: the Book of the Acts of Solomon, the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, and the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. Another literary tradition reflected in the text contains the books' prophetic material - especially that concerning Elijah and Elisha.

1 Kings

1 Solomon's Inauguration

With David's health waning, his eldest surviving son and natural successor, Adonijah (2 Sam. 3:4), tries to enlist the support of David's army commander, Joab, and one of the chief priests, Abiathar, for a sacrificial ceremony to establish his claim to kingship. Adonijah invites all of his brothers, save Solomon, plus local Judeans, but he keeps his plans secret from the dying David. Nor does David's special guard of "mighty men" attend the occasion held on the Judah-Benjamin border at En-rogel.

The prophet Nathan learns of the surreptitious celebration, however, and he plots with Bathsheba to have the king name Solomon as successor. That nowhere else does the text mention an earlier promise suggests that Nathan is manipulating the now senile David. At David's instructions and with the king's Philistine mercenaries on hand, Nathan, the other chief priest Zadok, and Benaiah, who commands the mercenaries, quickly conduct a rival ceremony in which Zadok anoints Solomon as king. Solo mon then sits on his father's throne as co-regent with David.

On hearing this news, the shocked Adonijah immediately relents, and his supporters swiftly disperse. Fearing for his life, he clings to the horns of the altar until Solomon vows not to slay him. Though in his preparations for a takeover Adonijah follows in Absalom's footsteps, he nevertheless lacks his older brother's boldness to finish what he has begun (v 5; cf. 2 Sam. 15:1). Though the youngest of David's sons, Solomon nevertheless knows enough to watch out for further mischief by his rival elder brother (vv. 51-53).

2:1-12 David's Death

David's parting words to Solomon urge the new king to honor the Mosaic law and so ensure that he succeed and the Davidic dynasty continue. Fulfillment of the Davidic covenant depends on the royal descendants' sincere devotion to God (cf. Deut. 10:12). Solomon need not uphold his father's vows of nonviolence toward Joab and Shimei. In fact, David appears bent on their eventual execution. By contrast, the king never forgot Barzillai's friendship in his time of great need (cf. 2 Sam. 17:27-29; 19:31-39).

2:13-46 Solomon Punishes the Opposition

Accepting Solomon's ascension to the throne, Adonijah convinces the queen mother, Bathsheba, to request that David's deathbed nurse become Adonijah's wife. But seeing this as a claim on David's harem and so another bid for the throne, Solomon wastes no time in doing away with his last rival (cf. 2 Sam. 3:6-11; 16:20-23).

Solomon then dismisses Abiathar from the priesthood for having supported Adonijah in his previous bid for kingship (cf. 1 Sam. 2:27-36 for the curse on Eli's house).

On hearing the news concerning Adonijah and Abiathar, Joab claims asylum by fleeing to the sanctuary and grasping the horns of the altar. Solomon, however, orders Joab slain on the spot, not because of his support for Adonijah but in response to David's deathbed charge (vv. 32-33). Benaiah, Joab's reluctant executioner, replaces his victim as army commander.

For three years, Shimei fares well under house arrest in Jerusalem, which limits contact with any possible opponents among Saul's remaining relatives. Shimei's innocent journey to retrieve his servants from Philistine territory violates Solomon's restrictions, and again Benaiah wields the fatal sword.

3 Solomon Asks for Wisdom

Cf. 2 Chr. 1:3-12.

His reign secured, Solomon begins creating foreign alliances (here with weakened, 21stDynasty Egypt) and strengthens Jerusalem's fortifications. He also shows concern to honor God. The Lord rewards Solomon's abundant sacrifices at the nation's main shrine in Gibeon by offering to grant any royal request. Solomon's utmost desire for personal wisdom to govern God's people justly pleases the Lord and prompts him to grant unmatched material wealth and respect, as well as long life, if the king remains faithful. Solomon's shrewd means of judging between two prostitute mothers who

claim the same infant provides immediate proof of God's gift.

Israelite rituals, conducted at shrines, or "high places" such as at Gibeon, often incorporated pagan rites. This made the need for centralizing worship urgent. Later prophets condemn the high places (cf. V. 3), though Mosaic law provided for limited use of local shrines (cf. Deut. 12:15-28). In verse 15, Solomon gives additional offerings at the tent shrine in Jerusalem.

Kings of Judah and Israel

United Monarchy

Saul (1030-1010)

David (1010-970)

Solomon (970-931)

Divided Monarchy

The Two Histories

The Old Testament preserves two parallel histories of Israel and Judah, the first found in the books of Joshua-2 Kings and the second in 1-2 Chronicles. They were written at different times and for different purposes.

The first history chronicles the entry of Israel into the longpromised land of Canaan (Joshua), life in the land during a decentralized, chaotic period (Judges), and the establishment of the monarchy in fulfillment of God's promises to the patriarchs (Gen. 17:6,16; 35:11; 49:10; cf. Deut. 17:14-20). It details the life of Israel's greatest king, David (1-2 Samuel), and then chronicles the ebb and flow in fortunes of the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah, ending with

Israel extinct and Judah in exile (1-2 Kings). It echoes many of the

themes in Deuteronomy, leading many scholars to propose a hypothetical "Deuteronomistic History" that included Deuteronomy as well, although this involves discounting many significant connections between Moses and Deuteronomy

This history was completed during the exile of Judah, and it shows why God's people had suffered this fate: it was because of their sins (2 Kgs. 17:7-23; 24:3-4). But it was also intended to give them hope for the future, if only they would listen to God's spokespersons, the prophets, and repent. It shows that God was a

gracious God, after all. It ends on a forward-looking note, keeping alive the promises that God had made to David (2 Kgs. 25:27-30; cf. 2 Samuel 7).

The history in 1-2 Chronicles was written at a later time, and it is at once more ambitious and more limited in scope. Starting with Adam, its focus is a grand, messianic one, showing how God worked in spite of his people's waywardness and pointing to his constancy in history from the very beginning. This history focuses only on the kingdom of Judah (not

Israel), and on God's promises to David and his descendants. It has its own story to tell, paralleling the earlier history in many spots, but leaving out much material and also adding much not found in the earlier history. Its vision is one of a God who rewarded faithfulness and punished rebellion, who especially blessed the Davidic line, and who valued worship properly expressed in the temple through prayer and proper sacrifices.

DAVID M. HOWARD, JR

High place at Dan where Jeroboam I installed a golden calf intending to rival the Jerusalem sanctuary; Iron 11,10th century B.C. (Phoenix Data Systems, Neal and Joel Bierling)

Sources for the Historical Books

4 Solomon's Divinely Granted Success

Solomon greatly expanded Israel's government, as evident from the list of his cabinet and administrators (contrast David's staff, 2 Sam. 8:16-18; 20:23-26). God indeed fulfilled his promise of wealth and fame, as seen in the list of Solomon's tributary and territorial holdings (vv. 21, 24); resources for daily provisions to support the royal family (11:3) and his bureaucracy (vv. 1-6; cf. vv. 22-23, 2728); numerous military reserves (v. 26); and international reputation for knowledge and wisdom surpassing that of his contemporaries (vv. 29-34).

Solomon's accumulation of a vast harem and thousands of war horses (v 26; probably 4000; cf. 2 Chr. 9:25) directly violates God's restrictions on a monarch (Deut. 17:14-20), as does the amassing of "silver and gold." Solomon's wives and the material requirements of his bureaucracy eventually lead to the religious and political split of the kingdom after his death. The burden for supporting the government falls entirely on the non-Judahite tribes, whose territories Solomon evidently redistricted for purposes of taxation. David's census in 2 Samuel 24 may have provided the basis for the redistricting.

During Solomon's reign, nevertheless, Israel enjoyed abundant prosperity and uninterrupted peace with lands as far-flung as north western Mesopotamia and Egypt (vv. 20-21, 25). Biblical history would remember Solomon as the source of many enlightened proverbs, songs, and sayings (e.g., Psalms 72, 127; Prov. 10:1-22:16) and the inspiration for Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon.

5 Temple Preparations

Cf. 2 Chronicles 2.

As a result of David's conquests, Solomon's kingdom enjoyed "rest on every side" N. 4; cf. Deut. 12:9-10). With the ark of the covenant already in Jerusalem, the task now falls to Solomon to build the temple his father envisioned N. 5; cf. 2 Samuel 7). David's good relationship with the Phoenician king Hiram has enabled Solomon to exchange annual supplies of grain and olive oil for cedarwood from the mountains of Lebanon (cf. 2 Sam. 5:11).

The treaty arrangements for this exchange of goods and services further cements relations between the two kingdoms, but Solomon's conscription of thousands of forced laborers plants seeds of discontent in his own nation that will lead to crisis for his successor, Rehoboam (ch. 12; cf. God's warning in 1 Sam. 8:10-18). Hiram also supplied laborers and skilled craftsmen for the project from the Phoenician seaports of Sidon and Gebal (= Byblos).

The Temple

Physical Design

Although the temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem was built as a permanent structure, ironically we actually know less about it than we do about the tabernacle, which by design was a temporary structure. Many of the temple's features mirrored those of the tabernacle, though on a much grander scale. The differences were determined largely by the fact that the tabernacle was a portable residence, while the latter served as Yahweh's permanent dwelling place on Zion. The temple compound seems to have consisted of three courtyards: a "great court" to the south of and below the Temple Mount, encompassing the royal buildings (1 Kgs. 7:12); a "middle court," which included Solomon's palace south of the Temple Mount (2 Kgs. 20:4); and a paved "inner court" surrounding the temple itself (1 Kgs. 6:36; 2 Kgs. 16:17; 2 Chr. 7:3). Unlike the later temple built by Herod, the original temple did not restrict Gentiles or women to separate courts.

The temple resembled the tabernacle in its orientation on an east-west axis, with the entrance to the east side and the holy of holies to the west, its proportioned rectangular shape, and its two-room design. But its signature feature involved two apparently free-standing columns at the front, each 18 cubits high and identified by name as Jachin and

Boaz (1 Kgs. 7:15-21). These seem either to have represented the pillars upon which the world was thought to rest or served as alternatives to the fearsome bovine or leonide figures often stationed at the entrance of ancient temples to ward off hostile forces. One entered the temple through a rectangular vestibule (`ulam), 20 cubits wide by 1o cubits deep. Beyond this was the great hall ("holy place"), measuring 20 cubits wide by 40 cubits deep. At the very back was the inner sanctum (debir, "holy of holies"). Although the building itself was 30 cubits high (1 Kgs. 6:2), the inner sanctum was a perfect cube, 20 cubits wide by 20 cubits deep by 20 cubits high (v. 20). The differential in height suggests either that the holy of holies was a selfcontained box within the temple structure or that it was raised 10 cubits off the ground. In the center of the room stood the ark of the covenant, housing the original written copies of the Decalogue; but two gigantic cherubim, to cubits high and having wingspans of 1o cubits, dominated this room. They were made of olive wood and plated with gold (1 Kgs. 6:23-28). The south, west, and north walls of the main structure were buttressed on the outside by three-story structures, apparently designed to house temple personnel and to store temple furniture and utensils (1 Kgs. 6:5-10).

Construction

Although the temple in Jerusalem is commonly referred to as Solomon's temple, this designation is misleading, if not false, because it overlooks the roles of both Yahweh and David in its construction.

The Role of God Just as human kings determine the locations and designs of their palaces, so in the ancient world temples were built according to the will of the deity. Accordingly, the book of Exodus presents the tabernacle entirely as a divine product: Yahweh designed it, prescribed the materials, inspired those who contributed materials, chose the persons who should build it, endowed craftsmen with special gifts to create it, determined the date of its erection, and with the entrance of his glory put his imprimatur on the result (Exodus 25-31, 35-40). The same can be said of the temple on Zion. (1) Yahweh chose the place where (Deut. 12:5, etc.; cf. Pss. 78:6869; 132:13-18) and the time when it would be built (Deut. 12:10; Cf. 2 Sam. 7:1,13).(2) Yahweh determined its functions: to be a place where one could seek him (Deut. 12:5), see his face (31:11; cf. 16:16), rejoice before him (12:12, 18; 14:26; 16:11-12,14; 26:11), hear the Torah read publicly (31:11), learn to fear him (14:23; 31:9-13), eat before him (12:7,18;14:23, 26, 29; 15:20; 18:6-8), present sacrifices and offerings to him (12:11, 26-27; 14:22-27), celebrate the annual pilgrimage festivals, Passover, Weeks, Booths (16:1-17; 31:9-13), recall his saving grace (26:1-11), and settle legal disputes before his representatives, the Levitical priest or the judge (17:8-13). (3) Yahweh determined the personnel, authorizing Levites to serve in his name (18:6-8). (4) Yahweh designed it and its furnishings, revealing the details to David in the form of a written blueprint directly from his hand (1 Chr. 28:9-19). (5) Yahweh created the conditions for its construction (2 Sam. 7:1; 1 Kgs. 5:3). (6) Yahweh chose the one who should actually build it (2 Sam. 7:13; 1 Kgs. 5:5)• (7) Yahweh endowed the builder with special wisdom (1 Kgs. 5:12). (8) Yahweh gave his stamp of approval to the building when it was completed (1 Kgs. 8:9-11; cf. Exod. 40:33-38). (9) Yahweh claimed it as his own temple/ house (e.g., Isa. 56:7; Jer. 12:7; Ezek. 23:39; Hag. 1:9; Zech. 9:8), and others recognized it as the house of Yahweh" (bet YHWH). In short, it was the place where he established his name (1 Kgs. 5:5; 8:16-19, 29; 9:3, 7; 11:36; Jer. 7:1014; 32:34; 34:15).

The Role of David If any credit for the construction of the temple is given to a human being, it must go to David, for several reasons: (1) David brought the ark of the covenant, perceived as the throne of Yahweh and called by the Name," to Jerusalem (2 Sam. 6:1-23), the place chosen by Yahweh for his eternal dwelling place (cf. 1 Chr. 21:18-22:1; Pss. 48; 78:67-72; 87:1-3; 132:13-18). (2) Through David Yahweh gave Israel rest from all her enemies (2 Sam.

7:1), in fulfillment of the requirement declared by Moses in Deut. 12:10. (3) As the divinely chosen king of Israel, David recognized his obligation as patron of the cult and proposed to Nathan that he build a temple for Yahweh in Jerusalem (2 Sam. 7:2-6). (4) As the initiator of the project, David charged Solomon to build the temple, declaring explicitly that he was Yahweh's chosen instrument for the project (1 Chr. 22:6-13). (5) David gathered a major portion of the resources needed to build the temple (1 Chr. 22:14). (6) David assembled the craftsmen to do the work, commissioned them, and blessed them (1 Chr. 22:15-16) and charged all the leaders of Israel to support Solomon in the project (vv. 17-19).(7) David organized the temple personnel, including the supervisors, gatekeepers, musicians, the priesthood, and the temple treasurers (2 Chronicles 23-26). (8) In anticipation of

the constructed temple, David dedicated the temple furniture and vessels to Yahweh (1 Kgs. 7:51).(9) David received the written blueprint of the temple directly from

the hand of God (1 Chr. 28:9-19). In short, David's role in relation to the building of the temple parallels that of Moses in connection with the tabernacle.

A depiction of Solomon's Temple; engraving by Jacob Judah Leon, 1665 (Wikimedia Commons)

The Role of Solomon If David was to the temple what Moses was to the tabernacle, then Solomon, his son, fulfilled the role of Bezalel. Like Bezalel (Exod. 31:1-6; 35:30-35) he was specifically chosen by Yahweh to execute the plan revealed to David (2 Sam. 7:13 = 1 Chr. 17:12; 28:5-10) and was specially gifted with wisdom for the task (1 Kgs. 5:12). For the project Solomon received great assistance from Hiram, king of Tyre (1 Kgs. 5:1-12), and a master craftsman also named Hiram, whose father was Tyrian but whose mother was an Israelite from the tribe of Naphtali (1 Kgs. 7:13-50). He also involved thousands of others, including conscripts from within Israel (1 Kgs. 5:13-18);

whether these were Israelites or Canaanites living in Israel is not clear (cf. 1 Kgs. 9:15-23). When it was completed, Yahweh confirmed the work of Solomon and his aids by taking up residence in the temple. Solomon's prayer of dedication in 1 Kings 8 is one of the most important passages for determining the significance of the temple.

Significance Like all ancient Near Eastern temples, the temple on Zion served first and foremost as Yahweh's residence. As such it was the object of his special affection (Ps. 132:13-18) and the reflection of his transcendent glory (1 Kgs. 8:12-13). Solomon rightly recognized that in a literal sense the earth itself is inadequate to house God (1 Kgs. 8:27), but this place functioned as a glorious symbol of his presence on earth. From his temple on Zion Yahweh would administer justice not only in Israel but also to all the earth (Isa. 2:3-4; Mic. 4:2-5). To Zion his people would come to present their petitions and seek his aid,

with the assurance that when they sought him with undivided heart he would hear them, even if they prayed from distant lands (1 Kgs. 8:28-30).

In its design and function the temple represented an earthly microcosm of the heavenly residence of Yahweh. This cosmic significance is suggested by several features. (1) It took seven years to build (1 Kgs. 6:37-38), corresponding to the seven days of creation. (2) The pillars Jachin and Boaz seemed to symbolize the pillars on which the earth was founded (Job 26:5-14; Ps. 75:3).(3) The decorative carvings of cherubim, palm trees, and open flowers recalled the garden of Eden (1 Kgs. 6:29, 32, 35).(4) The io massive lavers each holding more than 240 gallons and set on elaborate stands (1 Kgs. 7:27-39) may have represented the primordial waters of tehom, the great deep."

In practical terms, however, for the Israelites the temple was a place of revelation, where Yahweh would speak to his people and reveal glory and grace. At God's gracious initiative it provided a place and a means of maintaining open communication with their God. Through the sacrifices and the intermediary work of the priests, their sins could be removed; and through their festivals they could express their gratitude in praise to God. According to the book of Hebrews, as the successor to the tabernacle the temple expressed in replica form the heavenly residence of God, where Jesus, the messianic son of David, offered himself and once for all for the sins of his people, and where he intercedes perpetually as the Davidic high priest on their behalf before God the Father.

DANIEL I. BLOCK

6 Solomon Builds the Temple

Cf. 2 Chronicles 3.

Solomon begins building the temple in 966, four years after ascending the throne. Verse 1 designates this year as the 48oth following the exodus, thus prompting some scholars to establish an "early date" of 1446 for that event. Others view the 48o years as a generalized designation representing 12 generations (for Israel's 12 tribes) of 40 years, rather than a precise number. Archaeological evidence supports a "conquest" date in the mid-to-late 13th century and so a later date for the exodus than a literal interpretation of this verse would imply.

Over the course of the seven-year project, workers complete an elaborately decorated, two-section building and a large outdoor porch similar to the basic floor plan of the tabernacle, though not its extravagance. The temple itself measures 9o x 30 x 45 feet - sufficient for the required priestly service but not to accommodate large gatherings of worshippers. The porch measures 15 x 30 feet and is flanked by storerooms. As in other ancient Near Eastern records, the king receives personal credit for erecting the edifice and for fashioning the elaborately carved decorations and gleaming, gold-overlayed furnishings.

During the exodus and wilderness wanderings, the Israelites needed a portable shrine in which God could dwell among them. Now that God has firmly established them in the promised land, he intends to establish a permanent home in their midst. His personal presence among his chosen people requires covenantal obedience (vv 12-13).

7:1-12 The Palace Complex

Collectively known as "his house" and "the House of the Forest of Lebanon," the costly buildings that made up Solomon's palace complex included royal residential buildings, the Hall of Pillars, and the Hall of the Throne (where Solomon rendered judicial decisions). The complex dwarfed the temple in size (cf. 6:2) and took almost twice as long to complete.

7:13-51 Hiram's Bronze Work

Solomon appears to exercise free rein in organizing this massive project. He brings a second Hiram from Tyre - not the king of ch. 5 but a skilled craftsman and son of a Naphtalite woman from Israel's far north - to oversee the casting of bronze objects for the temple. Hiram's principal contributions include two freestanding, highly decorated pillars placed outside the temple entrance (vv. 15-22; cf. 2 Chr. 3:15-17); an enormous bowl, "the sea," capable of containing almost io thousand gallons of water for ritual cleansing (vv 23-26; cf. 2 Chr. 4:2-6); and io large water basins with wheeled stands (vv. 27-39). The combined weight of these items is so great that it cannot be measured (vv. 40-47; cf. 2 Chr. 4:11-18).

8 Solomon Dedicates the Temple

Cf. 2 Chr. 5:2-7:10.

The dedication of the temple represents a significant landmark in Israel's history. The temple makes possible the centrally regulated worship that Israel so urgently needs to maintain religious fidelity. It also provides a dwelling place for God's "name," rather than a material representation of him, as would contemporary pagan shrines.

The dedication ceremony shows significant parallels to the consecration of the priesthood and the tabernacle. Myriad sacrifices contribute to the sanctification of the temple precinct (v 5). God demonstrates his approval by indwelling the temple in a thick cloud after Solomon installs the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies (vv io-11; cf. Exod. 40:34-38). Solomon's speech incorporates many of the themes in Moses' final public address, including a reminder of God's past faithfulness (v 56) and the threat of banishment from the promised land for covenantal disobedience (vv. 46-53; cf. Deuteronomy 29-30). A weeklong feast possibly followed by the Feast of Tabernacles concludes the ceremony (vv. 6566; cf. 2 Chr. 7:8-10).

Solomon also introduces new themes to reflect new times. The king calls on God to honor his promise of an everlasting Davidic dynasty (vv 25-26; cf. 2 Sam. 7:12-13). He recognizes that neither earth nor the temple can confine God's presence (v 27). Yet he invokes God's focus on the temple as the central sanctuary where God's people will direct their prayers in worship (vv 28-53).

9:1-9 A Warning Repeated

Cf. 2 Chr. 7:11-22.

In a second vision (cf. 3:5-14), God confirms that he has granted Solomon's plea to focus on the temple (v. 3). Then, at the peak of Solomon's reign and the nation's outward success, God reminds the king that covenantal disobedience will completely reverse Israel's fortunes, including exile and destruction of the temple. Though Solomon abandons the faith (cf. 11:1-3), God remains true to his promise of a Davidic dynasty.

9:10-14 Solomon Mortgages Property

Solomon gives the king of Tyre 20 cities on the northern border of Israel and Phoenicia as security against a loan, suggesting he could no longer fund his extensive building projects solely through taxation (but cf. 2 Chr. 8:1-2). Hiram recognizes that his newly acquired property is no prize (Cabul, "good for nothing"; v. 13).

9:15-28 Other Activities

Cf. 2 Chronicles 8.

In addition to strengthening Jerusalem's defenses and the steeply sloped, terraced area of the City of David (= "Millo," v. i5), Solomon fortifies Hazor in the far north, Megiddo west of the Jezreel Valley, and Gezer, the northernmost Philistine city. All three cities guarded important north-south, international trade routes that connected Egypt and Syria-Mesopotamia through Canaan. The labor for Solomon's ambitious projects comes from native Canaanites, now Israelite slaves, and Israelite conscripts to forced labor.

The king also creates a merchant navy and joins the seafaring Phoenicians in conducting trade to the south via the Red Sea. Ophir (v 28) probably lay in South Arabia or East Africa.

According to verse 25, Solomon performed priestly duties for the Feast of Unleavened Bread at Passover, the Feast of Weeks at the harvest of firstfruits, and the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of the harvest season (cf. 2 Chr. 8:13).

10 Fame and Wealth

Cf. 2 Chronicles 9.

Chapter 1o underscores God's fulfilling the promises of wisdom, fame, and wealth made to Solomon in 3:12-13. Having heard of the king's reputation in far-off Saba (modern Yemen, the southwestern Arabian peninsula), the Queen of Sheba travels to confirm the reports in person. After testing Solomon's wisdom and enjoying his lavish hospitality, she comes away with an even greater opinion of him than she expected.

Canaan's strategic geographical location positioned Solomon to take advantage of trade (vv. 15, 22, 28-29). Major north-south trade routes along the Mediterranean coast, through the hill country, and along the Transjordanian plateau - all west of the formidable Arabian Desert - were the most viable land connection between Arabia/Egypt/Africa and Mesopotamia/Asia. Solomon's navy probably gained access to Asia Minor via the Mediterranean Sea and the Asian continent via the Red Sea and Arabian Sea. Peaceful borders allowed flourishing trade and tourism to boost Israel's economy to an unprecedented level (cf. V. 27).

Solomon's military might also prospered from the economic boom, and he stationed war horses, chariots, and horsemen in Jerusalem, as well as in the fortified cities of Gezer, Megiddo, and Hazor (v. 26; cf. 4:26). Yet his import of horses from Egypt (vv 28-29) directly violates God's prohibition in Deut. 17:16.

11 Solomon's Spiritual Downfall

So far,1 Kings presents Solomon as a tremendous success story. Yet several cracks in the foundation of that success have already begun

to appear (cf. Deut. 17:14-20). Solomon's wealth leads to excess, and his amassing of war horses is an abuse of power. Now intermarriage with foreign wives irreparably widens the breach. By cementing his nation's political security through numerous marriage alliances, Solomon opens the door to his wives' foreign gods and ultimately falls prey to spiritual decay. Through infidelity to God's covenant with David, Solomon jeopardizes not only the promised dynasty but also his people's place in the promised land itself (v 33; cf 9:4-9).

Though David displayed obvious moral faults, he never forsook God for foreign deities. By contrast, Solomon pursues foreign gods (vv. 5-7), worship of which included child sacrifice (cf. 2 Kgs. 23:10), cult prostitution, and other covenantally forbidden fertility rites. The king who built the temple of the one true God now builds shrines for pagan pretenders. Because of Solomon's spiritual straying, God plans to hand the northern tribes over to a lesser figure ("servant"; cf. V. 26). For David's sake, however, God will exact the punishment not on Solomon but on his successor, Jeroboam.

City of David, with houses and the Millo terrace. (Phoenix Data Systems, Neal and Joel Bierling)

Toward this end, God raises up adversaries to Solomon - Hadad in southern Transjordan, whose close friendship with the Egyptian pharaoh sounds an ominous alarm; Rezon to the northwest in Syria, whose grassroots military activities parallel David's early career; and Jeroboam. The king had made Jeroboam overseer of forced labor drafted from the "house of Joseph" (his native tribe of Ephraim plus Manasseh). Now, however, Solomon copies Saul by seeking to put to death his prophetically appointed rival. Ahijah assumes a role similar to Samuel's in designating a new king for Israel (vv. 29-38; cf. 1 Samuel 9-10,15-16). The prophet's words in verse 38 recall the dynastic language and covenantal conditions God uses with David and Solomon in 2:3-4; 9:4-5.

Jeroboam escapes to Egypt for the duration of Solomon's reign. His host, Pharaoh Shishak (v. 40), founder of Egypt's 22nd Dynasty, later sends troops against Jerusalem (14:25-26). 2 Chronicles 9:29-31 parallels W. 41-43 here. The otherwise unknown Book of the Acts of Solomon (v 41) may have contained Solomon's court records.

12 The Kingdom Splits

Cf. 2 Chr. 10:1-11:4.

Rehoboam's succession to kingship in Judah meets with no apparent challenge from his undoubtedly numerous brothers (cf. Solomon's 1000 wives, 11:3). Rehoboam's northern subjects, however, waste no time in dispatching Jeroboam - a former overseer of forced labor (11:28) - to champion their cause of reduced government service as a condition for their allegiance. God causes Rehoboam to reject the wise counsel of his seasoned elders to honor the people's request, and the king vows instead to make his countrymen's lives harder (v. 11; cf. Exod. 5:7-14).

In their determined refusal to acknowledge Rehoboam as king, the northern tribes echo the defiant words of the Benjamite rebel Sheba to David (v. 16; cf. 2 Sam. 20:1). They add an exclamation point to their declaration of open rebellion by stoning to death the forced labor bureau chief, Adoram (= Adoniram, 4:6; 5:14). A prophetic oracle stops Rehoboam from initiating a civil war, and in accord with God's plan Jeroboam begins his reign from Shechem while Rehoboam rules Judah from Jerusalem.

As did David, Jeroboam recognizes the importance of religion to consolidating his nation. To discourage his subjects from making pilgrimages to the temple in the rival capital, Jeroboam fashions golden calves reminiscent of Aaron's idol and declares them Israel's god(s). He sets them up at Bethel in the south and Dan in the north and elsewhere establishes additional, lesser shrines (= "high places"). He inaugurates a feast day (probably to rival the Feast of Tabernacles; W. 32-33; Lev 23:34-43), and appoints non-Levitical priests. In trying to tighten his grip on political power, however, Jeroboam seals his own doom, for he forgets the conditions of his appointment to kingship, namely, covenantal fidelity (cf. 11:38). Israelite history would ultimately point to Jeroboam as the model of the unfaithful king by measuring later rulers against the standard of "the sins of Jeroboam" (14:9-10).

13 Jeroboam Warned

A Judahite prophet confronts Jeroboam with the announcement of a future Davidic king who would defile the unlawful Bethelite altar. Josiah, who instituted the nation's most thoroughgoing religious reforms (2 Kings 23), would not appear for over 300 years, but two signs immediately confirm the authenticity of the prophecy: the altar splits apart on the spot, and the incensed Jeroboam's hand withers instantly when the king gives orders against the "man of God."

Through trickery, a second, northern prophet undermines the first prophet's initial steadfast obedience to God's directives. The Judahite prophet's giving in to seemingly harmless temptation ensures his own imminent death at the jaws of a lion (ironically, the symbol of Judah's tribal strength).

The incident demonstrates the consequence Jeroboam can expect for covenantal disobedience. Though initially awakened to the now perilous future of his political position, Jeroboam nonetheless persists in rejecting the faith and boldly defying the Law, most notably by canceling all requirements for ordination to his already illegitimate priesthood and himself acting as priest.

14:1-20 Ahijah's Prophetic Condemnation

Jeroboam's desperate scheme to gain information from the prophet who announced his kingship demonstrates the depth of his delusion concerning the power of God. The essentially blind Ahijah minces no words in informing Jeroboam's disguised wife that the king's own sinfulness has guaranteed the death of their ailing son Abijah, the eventual death and humiliating exposure of the rest of his doomed male relatives, and the ultimate collapse of his promised dynasty. The only mercy God will show Jeroboam's house is his son's honorable burial (v. 13). Furthermore, the northern kingdom will suffer exile in Mesopotamia because of the Israelites' following in Jeroboam's footsteps (vv. 15-16).

The immediate death of Abijah on the queen's return home to Tirzah and the national mourning of the deceased prince as foretold by the prophet confirm the future fulfillment of the rest of his words. Baasha will soon slay Jeroboam's entire household (15.25-29), and the Assyrians will eventually conquer Israel and deport its population.

The summary notes on Jeroboam's reign and death follow the typically brief format begun with Solomon in 11:41-43 and continued throughout the books of Kings. The lost Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel (v. 19) likely preserved a more complete account of Israel's history than the theologically oriented 1 and 2 Chronicles.

14:21-15:24 Rehoboam, Abijam, and Asa of Judah

Cf. 2 Chr. 11:5-16:14.

From this point on, Kings presents chronologically parallel information about the northern and southern rulers. Judah's kings Rehoboam, Abijam (Abijah in Chronicles), and Asa ruled during the 22 years of Jeroboam's reign in the north, and accounts of their activities appear next in the text. (Asa's rule continued after Jeroboam's death.)

Marked by high places, Asherim, and cult prostitution, Judah's religious pursuits during Rehoboam's reign appear just as wayward as her sister kingdom's to the north. Jeroboam's former Egyptian host, Shishak, plunders the Jerusalem palace and temple but does not conquer the city. That Rehoboam could replace the stolen golden shields only with bronze copies testifies to Judah's economic recession following Solomon's reign (cf. 10:16-17). A persistent state of civil war between Judah and Israel compounds the threats to the southern kingdom.

As with the other Judahite and Israelite kings, the text measures Abijam against the spiritual standard set by David, whose devotion offset his flawed personal behavior. Abijam comes up short, but his son Asa (the "lamp;" 15:4) will reform religious matters.

Asa does away with male cult prostitution and idols and even deposes his idolatrous mother (or possibly grandmother), Maacah, though he fails to eliminate Judah's high places. Baasha ascended the northern throne just two years after Asa's succession in Judah, and the conflict between the kingdoms continued during their reigns. When Baasha attempts to isolate Judah from the north, Asa offers a bribe of the royal and temple treasuries to steal from his rival king an alliance with Syria's Ben-hadad. Baasha withdraws to stave off Syrian incursions on Israel's northern border, and Asa regains unhindered passage to and from the capital. He dismantles Baashas abandoned fortifications at Ramah (a few miles north of Jerusalem) and uses the materials to strengthen defenses in the neighboring Benjamite cities of Geba and Mizpah to guard against a repeated blockade. That the elderly Asa has "diseased feet" (v 23) probably means he has venereal disease.

15:25-16:14 Nadab, Baasha, Elah, and Zimri of Israel

The account turns to Asa's contemporaries in Israel. The brief reign of Nadab, who succeeds his father, Jeroboam, is characterized with a similarly brief evaluation: like father, like son. Nadab's siege of Gibbethon reveals that Israel has lost political ground to the Philistines, whom David had silenced. Ahijah's prophecy of doom for Jeroboam's dynasty (14:14) falls on Nadab through Baasha, whose conflicts with Asa are recorded earlier in ch. 15. Baasha in turn furthers the "sin of Jeroboam" during his 24-year reign, and the account continues to paint the following northern kings in this same negative light.

The pattern of succession, covenantal disobe

dience, assassination, and usurpation continues with Baashas drunken son Elah, whose chariot commander Zimri murders him and seizes the throne.

16:15-34 Omri's Dynasty Begins in Israel

Zimri lasts a week on the throne at Tirzah. When challenged militarily by Elah's popularly acclaimed commander, Omri, he commits suicide. Omri must defeat a rival for the kingship before assuming full power. After six years, he moves the northern capital from Tirzah to the "hill of Samaria," where he builds the city that will remain Israel's capital until the fall of the northern kingdom to Assyria (722/21). During that whole period (ca. 150 years), Assyrian records refer to Israel as "the land of Omri" and thus testify to this king's political power and international reputation despite his relatively unremarkable mention in the biblical text. An inscription of Moab's contemporary King Mesha remembers Omri as having conquered central Transjordan's Medeba plateau (cf. 2 Kgs. 3:4-5)

Omri's accession spawns a stable but religiously despicable dynasty, whose degenerate character intensifies with his son and successor, Ahab. Ahab's politically and economically advantageous marriage to the Baal-worshipping, Phoenician princess Jezebel leads to the official introduction in Samaria of Baal cult practices, in which Ahab participates (v 31; "Baal" here is the Phoenician storm- and fertility-god, Melqart).

The tragedies that befall Hiel when he rebuilds Jericho N. 34) fulfill the prophecy in josh. 6:26.

17 Elijah Appears

Ahab's blatant paganism sets the stage for a prophetic conflict. After a brief mention of Elijah's ("my God is Yahweh") prophecy concerning an extended drought that pits Yahweh's power over nature against Baal's, the text leaves Ahab behind to concentrate on establishing Elijah's authenticity as a prophet of God.

God works through nature to provide food for Elijah. Elijah's prediction of drought comes true and forces him at God's directive to travel northwest from his native territory in Transjor dan (Gilead) in search of greener pastures on the Phoenician coast. A second prophecy is fulfilled when his Sidonian hostess's meager remains of flour and oil miraculously replenish themselves and supply enough bread to feed her family and guest "for many days." The deathly illness of the widow's son occasions an opportunity for Elijah to petition God to revitalize the boy. The divine granting of Elijah's request turns the mother's bitterness to belief, as evidenced in her confession of Elijah's prophetic authenticity (v 24; cf. 2 Kgs. 4:18-37).

Elijah appears the model of obedience to God's commands and thus contrasts with the devious and deceived prophets of ch. 13.

18 The Contest at Carmel

The contest between Elijah and the prophets of Baal showcases God's absolute power in the face of the pagan deity's utter impotence. The setting is the Carmel mountain range, which extends southeast from the modern coastal city of Haifa. After three years of drought, Elijah returns to a naturally devastated and spiritually deprived northern kingdom. Only loo true prophets of God survive Jezebel's purge (v 4), but they remain in hiding. Ahab's godly servant Obadiah secretly provides for them at his own personal risk.

Elijah turns Ahab's accusation, "troubler of Israel," back on the king (vv. 17-18), recalling Deut. 11:17, where the promised curse for serving other gods, as Ahab has done, is drought and infertility of the land. He chides the Israelites for waffling between "two different opinions," trying to serve both God and Baal.

Displaying unflinching faith in God, Elijah suggests a contest that puts him at a great human disadvantage but the outcome of which will establish once and for all the one, true God. By himself, Elijah takes on 450 prophets of Baal at Carmel, thought to be a traditional site for Baal worship. Elijah allows his opponents the entire day to call down fire from heaven to consume their sacrifice. Despite the prophets' ritual leaping, crying out, and self-mutilation, however, the sacrifice lies rotting on the pagan altar. Elijah mocks their carrying on, suggesting that Baal's failure to respond might be the result of his need

for private time to answer nature's call (= "gone aside," V. 27).

When Elijah's turn comes, he builds a proper Hebrew altar with 12 stones to represent the 12 tribes. He puts himself at further disadvantage by drenching his sacrifice and everything around it with 12 pitchers' worth of scarce and precious water. A simple prayer for God to perform a sign that will display his glory results in the spontaneous and complete consumption by fire of everything Elijah has prepared, and the people can do nothing but acknowledge God's lordship (cf. 2 Kgs. 1:12).

Elijah counters Jezebel's attempted extermination of God's prophets by ordering the slaughter of the prophets of Baal. God's "word" brings about the end of the drought through a heavy rainstorm (cf. 17:1; 18:1, 41), and the "hand" of the Lord empowers Elijah to outrun Ahab's chariot over the 17-mile stretch to the king's summer palace at Jezreel.

19 Elijah Flees to Horeb

Jezebel's murderous threat to Elijah on discovering the fate of her prophets causes him to flee deep into Judahite territory. Aided by God's angel, the prophet finds strength to travel further to Mount Horeb, site of Moses' encounters with God (cf. Exod. 3:1-2; 19:16-24). Elijah's 4o-day fast and journey into the wilderness recall Israel's wilderness wanderings and Moses' fasting at Sinai. Indeed, Kings portrays the prophet as the "new Moses" (compare v. 8 with Exod. 24:18; vv. 9-11 with Exod. 33:17-23; V. 21b with Exod. 24:13; also 18:31-32 with Exod. 24:4; 2 Kgs. 2:8 with Exod. 14:21-22; cf. also Matt. 17:3).

In a "sound of sheer silence" totally opposite his dramatic, mountaintop utterance at Carmel, God challenges Elijah's flight from Jezebel and instructs him to return to enemy territory. The next prophetic tasks will be anointing new kings over Syria and Israel in addition to a successor for Elijah. The three leaders will accomplish a divinely orchestrated purge of Israel's idolaters. The number given for the God-fearing Israelites who will survive (7000) is symbolic, based on seven ("perfection").

Elijah "anoints" Elisha ("God is salvation") by throwing his cloak over the industrious field laborer (cf. 2 Kgs. 2:8, 13-14) and then grants Elisha's request to bid his family farewell. The anointing of the new kings will fall to the new prophet (2 Kings 8-9).

Mount Carmel, where Elijah challenged the 450 prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18). (Richard Cleave, Pictorial Archive)

20 The Syrians Besiege Samaria

Elijah disappears as quickly as he appeared in ch. 17. Ahab seems more open to God's leading through the prophets in this account of Syria's siege of Samaria. While at first willing to hand over his family and wealth to the 33-king alliance headed by Ben-hadad, Ahab balks when the enemies' terms of surrender go too far. A prophet of God appears to Ahab and lays out the divine strategy for a preemptive strike against the enemy coalition. The troops Ahab musters from outlying provinces soundly rout the Syrians, but the anonymous prophet predicts a second attempt.

Surmising that Israel's God must rule over the mountains, the Syrians draw out to the plains the comparatively tiny army of Israel. Determined to defend his reputation in the face of the Syrians' denial of his omnipotence (v 28), God delivers the adversaries into the Israelites' hands. This second battle turns the tables on Ben-hadad, who must now surrender to Ahab and beg for his life. But Ahab fails to carry out God's directive to destroy even the Syrian king, and another prophet foretells Ahab's death as punishment for sparing Ben-hadad's life N. 36; cf. 13:11-32). Rather than repent, Ahab simply goes home and sulks. Assyrian records reveal that Ahab joined forces with Damascus in battling Shalmaneser III at Qarqar in northern Syria (853).

In portraying God as fighting for the northern kingdom, which Kings generally characterizes as thoroughly wicked, this chapter demonstrates God's continued care for his chosen, though mostly unfaithful, people. The Greek Septuagint places ch. 20 after the Hebrew Bible's ch. 21 and thus reverses the order of events.

21 Judgment on Ahab and Jezebel

Ahab's coveting a subject's vineyard violates the Tenth Commandment (Exod. 20:17). Even worse, Hebrew law forbade the permanent sale of property outside one's family and tribe, and Ahab surely knew this (cf. Lev 25:25-28; Num. 36:7). His father Omri had managed to purchase land, however, and thus set the precedent for Ahab's effort here (cf. 16:24).

Jezebel thinks it ridiculous that the Israelite monarch should be denied what he wants, and the pouting Ahab turns a blind eye to his wife's murderous scheme that targets the landowner, Naboth. The Phoenician princess shows good knowledge of Israelite law in rounding up the required minimum of two witnesses to deliver against Naboth trumped-up charges of blasphemy, a violation punishable by death (cf. Lev. 24:10-16, 23). She uses Israelite law to commit an illegal transaction.

Ahab shows no remorse when he learns of Naboth's stoning. Instead, he proceeds to take possession of the coveted vineyard - an act that constitutes stealing from Naboth's rightful heirs (cf. God's warning in 1 Sam. 8:11-17). Elijah reenters the narrative to pronounce divine judgment first on Ahab, whom God holds ultimately responsible for Naboth's murder, and then on the wicked queen, whom the account blames for inciting her husband to evil (v 25). Their mutual responsibility for each other's wicked actions ushers in their individual death sentences (intensified for Ahab from 20:42) as well as the promised end of Ahab's dynasty (vv 21-24; cf. 14:10-11).

Ahab's contrition wins him a stay of punishment, but his sin of "selling himself" to the pursuit of Canaanite gods tips the scales against his dynasty's future (vv. 25-29; cf. 2 Sam. 12:1-13).

22:1-40 Ahab Meets His Death

Cf. 2 Chronicles i8.

Asa's son Jehoshaphat, king of Judah (15:24), makes peace with the northern kingdom N. 44; contrast 15:16). 2 Kings 8:18, 26 reveals that a marriage alliance between Jehoshaphat's son Joram and Ahab's daughter Athaliah sealed this peace, but it also occasioned the opportunity for Ahab to break his treaty with Ben-hadad (cf. 20:34). The southern king's going "down" to the northern king means that he descended from Jerusalem, Judah's mountaintop capital in the hill country (v. 2).

Ahab, who remains unnamed until verse 20, convinces Jehoshaphat to help retake the important Transjordanian outpost of Ramothgilead from the Syrians (cf. 4:13). The king of Judah, however, wants divine approval of the plan. Four hundred prophets tell Ahab what he wants to hear, but Jehoshaphat appears suspicious of the origin of their prophecies. Under pressure, Ahab summons Micaiah, whom he hates because of the prophet's consistently negative words against him. Admonished to be straightforward, Micaiah reveals that a divine ruse has been in play, and he predicts disaster on Ahab in the battle. The circumstances of Micaiah's vision verify the authenticity of his prophecy (vv. 19-23; cf. Jer. 23:16-17).

Micaiah's words are lost on Ahab, however, and he casts his lot with the prophet Zedekiah and company. With Micaiah imprisoned in Samaria, Jehoshaphat dressed as a decoy, and Ahab traveling under cover as though he could restrict God's power or thwart his plans, the kings challenge Ramoth-gilead. That the godly Jehoshaphat participates despite the doom-saying oracle, which Ahab obtained only at Jehoshaphat's insistence, seems surprising.

The Syrians of Ramoth-gilead abandon their targeted engagement with Jehoshaphat when they discover his true identity, while a randomly shot arrow finds its mark in a chink in the disguised Ahab's armor. Micaiah's prophecy comes true when the Hebrews abandon the battle and Ahab bleeds to death from his wound. Elijah's words are fulfilled when the dogs of Samaria lick the king's blood from the pool used in washing off his chariot N. 38; cf. 21:19).

The archaeological discovery of the elaborately carved Samaria ivories sheds light on the reference to Ahab's "ivory house" N. 39).

22:41-2 Kgs. 1:1 Jehoshaphat of Judah

Cf. 2 Chronicles 17-20.

Jehoshaphat emulates his father, the "good" king Asa. Though he also fails to dismantle the "high places," he continues to expel male cult prostitutes from Judah. Jehoshaphat attempts to revive Solomon's international trade ventures via the Red Sea - and Ahab's son and successor, Ahaziah, even tries unsuccessfully to become involved - but the effort fails due to a wounded fleet. Jehoram (Joram) succeeds Jehoshaphat on the Davidic throne.

Israel's Ahaziah also follows in his father's footsteps, but for evil, not good. During Ahaziah's brief reign, Moab gains independence from Israelite control.

2 Kings

1:2-18 Ahaziah of Israel

Ahaziah's attempt to learn his fate from the storm-god Baal displays the influence of Canaanite deities introduced by his father Ahab and brings a divine death sentence foretold by Elijah. Baal-zebub ("lord of the flies") is probably a derogatory twist on the Canaanite "Baal-zebul" ("Prince Baal").

In a repeat of his role in summoning God's power on Mount Carmel, Elijah twice calls down fire from heaven to consume the messengers from the king. Not until the commander of the third company of soldiers shows respect for God does the "man of God" agree to accompany them. Once in Samaria, Elijah delivers the prophetic threat to Ahaziah personally. The death of the sonless Ahaziah does not bring about the anticipated end of the Omride dynasty (prophesied in 1 Kgs. 21:29) but instead occasions the accession of Jehoram/Joram (Ahaziah's brother or son, not the contemporary Judahite king Jehoram; cf. 3:1) to the northern throne. To distinguish the northern and southern kings here, we refer to the northern king as "Joram" and the southern as "Jehoram."

2 Elisha Succeeds Elijah

Elisha refuses to allow Elijah to face his final time on earth alone. The two descend from the hill country into the Jordan Valley, where Elijah uses his mantle (also used in "anointing" Elisha) to part the waters of the Jordan River in an act that recalls Moses' parting of the Red Sea. Once in Transjordan near the site of Moses' death, Elisha asks to become Elijah's prophetic heir by receiving a spiritual inheritance equal to that of an eldest son, a "double portion."

That Elisha sees his master taken up to heaven in a whirlwind indicates that God has granted his request. The fiery horses and

chariot signify God's presence at Elijah's assumption (cf. Exod. 3:2; 13:21).

The remainder of the chapter offers public confirmation of Elisha's succession to Elijah's prophetic office. He uses Elijah's mantle to re-part the Jordan (and he crosses back to Canaan proper, as did Moses' successor, Joshua; Josh. 3:14-17). His implication that Elijah has permanently departed reaches the prophets of Jericho, who witness the Transjordanian events. Using salt symbolically, he miraculously purifies Jericho's waters. Skeptical lads at Bethel demanding proofs of Elisha's authenticity meet their doom as a result of his curse on them.

Elijah ascends to heaven in a fiery chariot as Elisha receives his mantle; Stella Maris monastery, Mount Carmel. (Erich Lessing /Art Resource, NY)

3 Joram's Moabite Campaign

Verse 1 conflicts with 1:17 on the year of Joram's accession (cf. 1:17). The text is comparatively kind to this northern king by likening his reign to those of the "merely" degenerate Jeroboam (1 Kings 12-14), not the thoroughly faithless Ahab (1 Kgs. 16:29-33; 18-22).

According to the Moabite Stone (or Mesha Stela; late 9th century B.C.), Moab had become Israel's vassal during the reign of Omri. The region rebelled during Ahaziah's brief reign (1:1), and now Joram follows Ahab's strategy in teaming up with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, in an attempt to regain control of this Transjordanian territory east of the Dead Sea (cf. 1 Kings 22). That Jehoshaphat appears to have appointed a non-native deputy to rule in Edom explains that region's willing participation in the coalition (cf. 1 Kgs. 22:47).

The allied army's march through the and south leaves them short of water and makes Joram think his mission might be ill fated. Jehoshaphat again insists on seeking divine confirmation and this time finds Elisha, who had served as Elijah's assistant or apprentice (v. 11; cf. 1 Kgs. 22:7). Elisha's sarcastic greeting of Joram recalls Ahaziah's bypassing God (through Elijah) in seeking counsel from the Canaanite god Baal-zebub (1:2-3). Only the favored southern King Jehoshaphat's presence persuades Elisha to cooperate.

Like the ecstatic prophets, Elisha summons music to prepare him for communicating God's prophetic word (cf. 1 Sam. 10:5). As with Elijah on his footrace to Jezreel (1 Kgs. 18:46), the "hand of the Lord" empowers Elisha for the task. After foretelling God's miraculous provision of abundant water and victory over the Moabites, Elisha disappears from the account. Notably, Elisha's prophecy commands an attack against Moab's cities, its land, and even its trees, but it does not require the obliteration of its human population, for Moab lay not in Canaan proper but in Transjordan (vv. 16-18; cf. Deut. 20:10-15).

The water both sustains the coalition forces and confuses the enemy. The Moabites lose the battle, but Mesha's public sacrifice of his crown prince on top of the city wall so bolsters the remaining Moabites and so repulses the Israelites that they fail to finish the job by taking the capital itself. Their return home leaves the ultimate results of the campaign in limbo. While the Moabite Stone claims a successful rebellion against Israel, it does not specifically address Joram's effort to reclaim the region.

4 Elisha Performs More Miracles

In relating four more of Elisha's miracles, this chapter interrupts the account of Israel's and Judah's kings. It remains unclear where the episodes fit chronologically. Elisha's works on behalf of common Israelites flesh out the Deuteronomic concern for society's least powerful individuals (cf. Deut. 24:10-22).

The first miracle parallels Elijah's increasing the widow of Zarephath's flour and oil (1 Kgs. 17:13-16). Here the widow of a member of the prophetic community faces the subjection of her two sons to slavery to work off the family debt (cf. Lev 25:39-41). Elisha's miracle supplies her with a marketable commodity to use in paying off her debt, leaves enough to support her family, and enables her sons to remain with her to work the land.

The account of the Shunammite woman and her son also parallels Elijah's dealings with the widow of Zarephath. Here practical kindness of a sonless Shunammite woman toward Elisha issues in his promising her a baby boy. Elisha's offer to speak to the king on her behalf suggests that he exercised influence in the Israelite royal court, in contrast to Elijah's tense relationship with Ahab. The advanced age of the woman's husband and her own unbelieving response to Elisha's prophecy recall the situation with Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 18:10-12).

The woman does bear a son, but as a young boy he apparently suffers sunstroke and dies. Determined to reach Elisha at Mount Carmel, the desperate mother brushes aside her husband's protests that the day is neither a Sabbath nor a new moon, favorable days for consulting a prophet. On encountering Elisha, the woman regrets his blessing-turned-curse and uses Elisha's own words to Elijah in vowing not to leave him (v. 30; cf. 2:2, 4, 6). Elisha travels home with her and employs Elijah's methods in enlivening the boy, whose corpse lies stretched out on his own bed (vv 21, 34-35; cf. 1 Kgs. 17:19, 21). Elisha's dealings with the woman continue in ch. 8.

Society and Daily Life in the Old Testament

In the world of the ancient Near East, the central issue facing every person was coping with environmental conditions. In Egypt and Mesopotamia, this meant adapting to the limits posed by the predictable yearly inundations of the Nile River in Egypt and the unpredictable flooding of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Mesopotamia. The land bridge of Syria-Palestine also had to cope with water problems, but these were based more on average annual rainfall amounts than on irrigation. Necessarily, the civilizations that developed in these lands based their calendar, their workday, their religious festivals and theology, and even their warring on the manifestations of the weather, the change of seasons, and the topography of their lands.

The panhandle of SyriaPalestine makes up less than 6o miles of landmass, west to east, between the 34th and 36th meridians of longitude and 350 miles, north to south, between the 31st and 33rd meridians of latitude. Nonetheless, there are four clearly defined geographical and climatic zones. Moving from west to east, the first zone is a coastal plain along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. The plains are separated by foothills (Shephelah) from the hills west of the Jordan River, making up the second zone in which the Israelites settled. The third zone is the valley created by the Jordan River and the Dead Sea (Arabah), and the fourth is the hills or plateaus east of the Jordan River. To the south, this panhandle is separated from the Sinai desert by the Negev, which provides perennial springs or wells large enough to support a few permanent settlements.

The region enjoys only two seasons, wet and dry, although snow does occur in the hill country near Jerusalem and in the Mount Hermon range north of the Galilee. Moist winds blowing west to east create the wet season, hot dry winds blowing from east to west create the dry. The plains cause temperature changes in the winds blowing off the Mediterranean Sea, thus creating the rain.

With the withdrawal of the Egyptians and the Hittites from Syria-Palestine, its population dropped dramatically at the end of the Late Bronze Age. Cities and towns collapsed. By 1250 B.C. perhaps as much as 6o percent of the population had died from starvation due to crop failures that followed subtle changes in climate, regional wars, and the exhaustion of natural resources. These disasters were not isolated, but ongoing. Such tragedies and hardships afflicting the slave or surplus economies of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Syria-Palestine gave rise to free peasant or subsistence economies such as that in early Israel.

Drawing water at the well, an essential factor in the establishment and survival of settlements and a focal point of community life. (Richard Cleave, Pictorial Archive)

Some of Egypt's and Hatti's former villagers and slaves in SyriaPalestine took advantage of their newfound freedom and tried to ensure their households against an uncertain future by migrating into the hills, where they re-established abandoned villages or founded new ones of their own. The writing, language, material culture, and religious traditions of the Israelite tribes who resettled or founded these villages link them to the Canaanite culture found throughout Syria-Palestine. More than likely, these early villagers were social survivors who fled the famine, plague, and war that brought the Late Bronze Age to an end.

The economy in these Hebrew villages was a subsistence economy, not a surplus or slave economy like that common throughout the city-states of Syria-Palestine. In this subsistence economy, there was no monarch; therefore, there were no taxes and no army, and there were no slaves. The challenge facing early Israel was not so much a military conquest, as portrayed in Joshua and Judges, but rather farming a difficult and demanding land. The late loth-century Gezer Almanac shows that planting and harvesting governed their lives.

Almanac from Gezer, an agricultural calendar or manual outlining the planting, harvesting, and care of crops; 10th century B.C. (www. HolyLandPhotos.org)

A standard harvest in these hills produced 10 to 15 percent more grain than was needed to plant it. While positive changes in the quality of the land, the number of farmers available, and the way in which they worked could increase the standard harvest, there was always the greater risk of negative changes that could destroy the economy of the village and its households altogether. Fields that produced as little as a io to 15 percent harvest in good years failed altogether in three years out of ten.

To get the most from the human labor available in the village, farmers used a variety of techniques. They managed their time, pooled their labor, with both men and women working the fields, and had as many children as possible. Farmers in early Israel staggered sowing by planting a single crop in several stages over a period of time. Although it would be impossible to care for a single large crop at one time, the number of farmers available could handle the same-sized crop one section at a time. Farmers also planted a variety of vine, tree, and field crops, mixing a variety of cereals with fruit and nut crops.

By living together in pillared, low-roofed houses, farmers pooled their labor. Together, farmers cleared land, terraced fields, planted, cultivated, and harvested crops. The basic plan of the pillared house was a simple rectangle divided into three areas by a row of four roof-supporting pillars and a solid inside wall. Some houses had an additional room across the back of the basic rectangle entered through a door off the main section of the house.

The inhabitants wore a loincloth and a tunic. Everyone had a cloak that doubled as a blanket. In areas where water was precious, few bathed or regularly washed their clothes (Gen. 27:27). Health care was based on herbal remedies (Gen. 30:14), basic first aid for cuts and fractures, and rituals and prayers (Ps. 38:1-5).

There was no furniture in their homes. People sat cross-legged on the packed clay and stone floor or on a stone ledge along the base of the inside wall of the house. Flat stones were used for stools. Everyone slept on the floor. Several households shared a common outdoor courtyard kitchen. Bread was baked on a pottery bowl inverted over the coals (Hos. 7:8) or in a domed mud and plaster oven.

Most village farmers also maintained at least a small herd of sheep and goats as an economic hedge against famine. Herding was often carried out by youngsters and therefore did not deprive the village of needed field labor (i Samuel 16). The villagers also raided passing caravans transporting goods between Syria and Egypt, or occasionally served as transit agents, taxing goods that passed through their territory. In some cases, farmers served as trading partners, especially in metals that were acquired as imports and shaped into tools. By combining farming with herding, raiding, trading, and manufacturing, they distributed their labor more evenly throughout the season and ensured themselves against facing the dry season without having produced any food at all.

Eventually, in their attempt to compete with other Canaanite and Philistine cultures, the early Israelite villages had to transform their strictly rural culture into a society centered on an urban-based monarchy. This required new social accommodations and meant the establishment of social boundaries and the recognition of power groups outside normal kinship relationships. At this point, more than in the village culture, social stratification determined task differentiation, leadership responsibilities, and relative levels of power. The new social landscape was defined by domination of others and accomplished by various means - including physical force, social or psychological control, and economic coercion.

In ancient Israel there existed a patrilineal, segmentary lineage system in which each of its households (bet 'abot) belonged to a lineage (mishpaha). These lineages, in which membership and inheritance were based on the father, made up a clan. The clans formed several larger units called phratries, and the phratries comprised the tribe. Its lineages were also, once the Israelites entered Canaan, described as localized, having their own designated territories (Joshua 13-19). These social groupings are not necessarily evolutionary. They all continued to exist and served as the basis of personal identity, even after the monarchy was established, and there was no linear progression that required each to exist in turn for the monarchy to be established.

Social Custom and Law

Social custom and law, as it developed in the village and was

transmitted and transformed in the urban setting, was defined by the people's sense of honor and shame. These two concepts revolve around both a sense of self and recognition of behavior by others, and they provide the basis for social reward and social control. Those who obeyed the covenant with Yahweh, upheld the rights and obligations of their households, and set an example of hard work and devotion to family were designated as honorable and looked to for advice. Shame resulted from antisocial behavior, violations of the religious code, and physical deformity or illness. The gate court and later the royal court system provided the legal basis for dealing with shameful and antisocial behavior.

Marriage Marriage customs fit under the category of "honor and shame" since they also involve "proper" behavior. In ancient Syria-Palestine, as in the modern Mediterranean region, they encompass an emphasis on female chastity and the desirability of premarital virginity.

Within the ancestral narrative, the one criterion that surfaces most often is endogamy, marriage within a specific group. Authority for this position, which establishes a preferential pool of eligible marriage partners, is presented in the ancestral narratives, where solemn oaths are taken to insure this practice (Gen. 24:2-6; Abraham and his servant). Family tensions are created when the principle is violated (Gen. 26:34-35; Esau's wives).

These episodes may reflect attitudes or customs that actually date to the postexilic period's emphasis on "in-marrying," which

formed a part of the Jewish Identity Movement of that era (cf. Ezra g-bo; Neh. 13:23-27). They may even be based on a postexilic interpretation of the Deuteronomist's accusations regarding Solomon's marriages (1 Kings 11; Neh. 13:26) and the need to insure a pattern of "correct" marriages in the genealogical narratives that form the roots of the nation.

No such restrictions are evident when one examines the marriage practices of the royal family in general, however. It is possible that the higher levels of society may have felt that they were, or may actually have been, above the restrictive traditions adhered to by the peasant and/or middle classes, or they may have had a different set of restrictions placed on them all together. The political realities of a king's position that required a show of "dominance" through political marriage alliance may have also mitigated adherence to previous custom.

Marriage is often thought of as an event, while in some societies it is a long-drawn-out process, with several stages. In the biblical text, certain procedures were to be followed that would establish the alliance between families and spell out the contract in exact terms. Contained within the legal action of betrothal was the final choice of partners, usually made by the male heads of household of the two families, and the agreement on bride-price and dowry (Gen. 24:52-54). There are some exceptions to this rule, in which a socially unattached male arranges his own marriage with the bride's family (see Jacob in Genesis 29), but these are rare.

Considerations regarding a prospective marriage alliance had their economic side, of course, and many times a marriage was made on strictly economic grounds, with the intent of further enriching both families or strengthening the manpower of the group (Gen. 34:21; Exod. 2:21). Other considerations included kinship obligations (Gen. 24:3-4), political advancement (David's marriages to Michal in 1 Sam. 18:17-28 and Ahinoam in 1 Sam. 25:43), and, occasionally, personal desire (Judg. 14:3; 2 Sam. 11:27).

Artist's reconstruction of the Israelite "four-room house." (Giselle S. Hasel)

The concept of inheritance is also an integral part of the system of marriage customs, especially with regard to the ability of the male to transmit his goods and property to a son and the ability of the female to produce an heir for her husband. This sometimes required legal side steps: adoption (Gen. 15:2), the law of levirate obligation (Deut. 25:5-10), or the compromise involving the daughters of Zelophehad (Num. 36:2-12; Josh. 17:3-6). The precedent for inheritance rights is set in the ancestral narratives with the promise made to Abraham that he and his descendants would receive

Canaan as their special domain. Since there eventually developed several collateral lineages claiming Abraham as their common ancestor, some distinction had to be developed that would designate those who had the right to live in and exploit the promised land. Two basic criteria emerged: the blessing associated with the covenant and physical presence within Canaan.

Hospitality Another social custom that demonstrates "right behavior" in ancient Syria-Palestine is hospitality. The following protocol emerges from the biblical narrative.

(1) There is a sphere of hospitality that comprises a zone of obligation, for both the individual and the village or town, within which they have the responsibility to offer hospitality to strangers. The size of the zone is of course smaller for the individual than for the urban center. The basis for this obligation is reciprocity. In the ancient Near East reciprocal gifting of water, food, and shelter meant

the traveler had a greater chance of survival on the road. It also lessened the instances of theft, raiding, and murder that might have occurred in an inhospitable land where every person's hand was turned against another.

Thus it becomes the responsibility of each person to offer hospitality to strangers, defined as persons not of their kinship or communal group, who enter the sphere he owns or controls. This is to be done: (a) to give back to God a portion of what has been given to them (Deut. 16:17); (b) to set up attendant obligations on others that they be properly treated should they ever play the role of guest themselves (Deut. 23:24-25), and to protect the reputation of the host or the village as a place where hospitality is freely given; and (c) to protect themselves from possible violence and the threat of loss of property by transforming the stranger into a guest.

(2) The stranger must be transformed from potential threat to an ally by the offer of hospitality. No society can tolerate a hostile presence within it for long. When a stranger approaches a village or dwelling place, by definition this person is a threat to inhabitants of that place. One reason for this is that a stranger has no status; there are no rules that apply to him since he is a person without a place in society. To avert hostility, the stranger must be neutralized by temporary adoption into the community.

(3) Only the male head of household or a male citizen of a town or village can make the offer of hospitality. Within this maledominated legal framework it is his right and responsibility, therefore, to serve as host. His wife and daughter(s) may serve the guest as well, but only at the behest of their husband or father (Gen. 18:6). Independent action on their part, such as Sarah's questioning of the guests' statement, would be a breach of custom N. 13).

(4) The invitation can include a statement of the time span for the period of hospitality, but this can then be extended, if agreeable to both parties, on the renewed invitation of the host.

(5) The stranger has the right of refusal, but this could be considered an affront to the honor of the host and could be a cause for immediate hostilities or conflict if proper respect is not shown to the host. While the stranger is generally at the mercy of his host or host city, the visitor may refuse hospitality, based perhaps on a desire to continue one's journey (Judg. 19:9-10) or, as in the case of the angels' visit to Sodom (Gen. 19:2), on the legal inappropriateness of the one making the invitation.

(6) Once the invitation is accepted, the roles of the host and the guest are set by the rules of custom. The guest must not ask for anything, but it is his/ her obligation to accept what is offered. It is typical for the host to make a modest offer to the guest (usually water, food, shelter, and a foot washing). This does not rule out more being given to the guest, but it does protect the host who

may find himself in the dishonored position of offering more than he can deliver. The guest is expected to reciprocate with news, predictions of good fortune, or gracious responses based on what he has been given. Just as it is inappropriate for the guest to ask for something from the host, it is totally inappropriate for the potential or actual host to ask questions of his guest. The guest can only volunteer these matters.

(7) The guest remains under the protection of the host until he/ she has left the zone of obligation of the host. The sphere or zone of obligation that the guest enters and leaves has its limits. There will be spaces between these zones that were uninhabited in the sparsely populated area of ancient Palestine. In those areas travelers were truly on their own and were subject to the dangers of the road - brigands, wild animals, hostile climate, and uncertain terrain. This then magnifies the importance of the hospitality ritual when a traveler enters the zone of obligation of an individual household or population center.

In summary, the village-based culture of ancient Israel required strict attention to the land and to the social obligations inherent to small, relatively isolated populations. The intensive labor necessary to maintain the food supply and, when possible, to produce a

surplus blurred the work roles of the sexes, although females were still strictly monitored with marriage and sexual taboos dominating their social choices. Inheritance patterns also contributed to the development and the rigidity of the social order, though the growth of urban centers did modify these customs somewhat. Finally, the concept of reciprocity, found in the hospitality code as well as in much of the legal formulations, further defined "insider'/"outsider" roles and established a sense of honor and shame that dominated most social actions and reactions.

For Further Reading

Borowski, Oded. Agriculture in Iron Age Israel. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 1987.

Hopkins, David C. The Highlands of Canaan. Sheffield: Almond, 1985.

VICTOR H. MATTHEWS

The next two miracles involve Elisha's provision of food for the hungry. The famine of verse 38 may represent that in 8:1. Elisha uses flour symbolically when he purifies a stew unknowingly made from poisonous gourds for the prophetic community (cf. his similar use of salt to purify the waters of Jericho in 2:19-22). Then at least ioo men (the same community of prophets?) get their fill of flat bread and corn from a modest offering of firstfruits to Elisha.

5 Elisha Cures a Syrian General

Although Israel and Syria (= Aram) often engaged in military confrontations (cf. 6:8, 24; 10:32-33; 1 Kings 20), two kingdoms are on friendly enough terms for the Syrian king to send his chief military officer, Naaman, to the Israelite king to seek healing from a serious skin disease (probably not the leprosy of modern Hansen's disease; cf. Leviticus 13-14). The panicked Israelite king mistakenly interprets the impossible request as Syria's move to pick another fight, but Elisha comes to his king's rescue.

Naaman takes offense at Elisha's impersonal communication of a too-simple prescription that he wash himself seven times in the Jordan River. Naaman's servants convince their master to try the potential cure, however, and the successful results lead to Naaman's religious conversion. He requests enough Israelite dirt to accommodate an altar to God back in Syria so he can worship Yahweh on "holy ground," perhaps believing he could worship God only on Israelite soil (cf. Psalm 137). Elisha refuses any payment-in-kind for his role in the miracle, but his servant Gehazi pursues the departing Naaman determined to take some of the reward meant for his master. Gehazi's deceptive tactics work with Naaman but not with the prophet, and as punishment for his greed the servant contracts the same skin ailment as Naaman.

While the account shows God's unbounded mercy toward a non-Israelite (and his punishment of one of his chosen people), the primary purpose of the episode is to demonstrate God's

unique and cosmic sovereignty (cf. v. 15). Indeed, the miracle has a profound effect on Naaman, who takes his newfound dedication to God to his homeland, but there the pressure to continue worshipping his native national god will require him to act out old religious practices (v. 18).

6:1-7 Elisha Heads the Prophets

Under Elisha's leadership the prophetic community outgrows its living space. He joins them as they move to the Jordan Valley, where abundant trees provide building materials for new accommodations. The Israelites had edged in on the Philistines' iron-working monopoly, as evident from the sunken iron ax head. Elisha helps a prophetic underling by causing the borrowed implement to float, thereby allowing its recovery.

6:8-23 Elisha Deflects a Syrian Raid

Elisha ruins the Syrians' attempt to mount a surprise attack when he advises the king of Israel (presumably Joram) on the enemy's position. The Syrian king suspects one of his own men of betrayal, but his servant blames Elisha, whom the king determines to capture to prevent future interference with his plans.

Elisha remains calm when the Syrian army surrounds his refuge in Dothan, which guarded access to the hill country io miles north of Samaria. God's protective "horses and chariots of fire" N. 17) recall Elijah's assumption into heaven (cf. 2:11). Elishas prayer that God "blind" the enemy petitions their lack of insight - a quality the "man of God" possesses in abundance. Elisha leads his would-be captors into their own potential captivity at the Israelite capital, where God finally lifts their confusion. The king of Israel follows Elisha's instruction not only to show mercy by sparing their lives but further to treat them hospitably. The disarming goodwill staves off the Syrian raid, at least for the time.

6:24-7:20 Samaria under Siege

The Syrians' siege of Samaria leaves the Israelite king at a loss to help his starving people, and the resulting famine reduces mothers to cannibalize their own children (cf. Lam. 4:1o concerning Jerusalem). Even a relatively meatless head of an unclean animal and one half cup (= one-fourth kab) of similarly worthless commodity sell for exorbitant prices. The mothers' shocking atrocity jolts the already grieving king into rebellion against Elisha's counsel to hold out against the attacking army (6:33). The royal officer vainly sent to behead the prophet (who in these dire straits has attracted the company of the city's elders) meets instead with Elisha's prediction of the coming reversal of Samaria's fortunes, but his disbelief at the prospect earns him a prophetic curse. That the king "leaned" on the officer's "hand" means that the military man was his chief adviser (7:2). The "windows in heaven" refer to rain (7:2, 19).

Meanwhile, four "lepers" plot to seek asylum at the Syrian camp, only to discover it abandoned and so plunder the tents. Their consciences stirred, they report the news to the Israelite king, who immediately suspects Syrian trickery. Nevertheless, the lepers' story checks out. In the Syrians' panicked flight from an imagined mighty force of Israelite allies, they leave a trail of hastily shed equipment all the way to the Jordan River. Elisha's prophecy concerning Samaria's restored economy comes true, thanks largely to the spoils the Syrians left behind, and his would-be assassin dies as predicted in the mass Samarian charge to possess the treasures.

8:1-6 The Shunammite Woman Rewarded

Elisha further rewards the Shunammite woman who provided him with regular hospitality (4:8-41) by warning her of a coming seven-year famine. When she returns home after spending years in apparently unaffected Philistine territory, Elisha's servant Gehazi introduces her to the Israelite king, who restores all of her land and its fruits.

8:7-15 Hazael Becomes King of Syria

Elisha journeys to Damascus, where he fulfills God's charge to his prophetic predecessor to anoint Hazael king over Syria (1 Kgs. 19:15). The reigning Syrian king's question to Elisha parallels Ahaziah's query concerning the future of his health (1:2), but ironically, while the Israelite king sought counsel from a pagan god, here the pagan king seeks an oracle from the prophet of Yahweh.

Elisha knows that Ben-hadad's illness will not kill him, and therefore the prophet tells Hazael to deliver a hopeful message of recovery. Elisha also knows that Hazael will murder his master, so in the next breath he foretells Ben-hadad's death. Back at the palace Hazael turns Elisha's announcement of his future kingship into a self-anointing by force.

8:16-27 Jehoram and Ahaziah of Judah

After an extended interruption by the Elisha accounts, the narrative returns the focus to Israel and Judah's kings. A southern Jehoram first reigns with and then succeeds his father, Jehoshaphat, on the Judahite throne (v. 16). Jehoram's marriage to the northern King Ahab's daughter Athaliah (cf. ch. ii) leads him astray in religious matters (vv. 25-26). Edom, a region across the Jordan to the southeast, and Libnah, a city on Judah's southwest border with the Philistines, mount successful revolts during Jehoram's reign. Jehoram's and Athaliah's son, Ahaziah, next ascends Judah's throne.

8:28-9:37 The Omride Dynasty Ends

Cf. 2 Chronicles 22.

As had his grandfather Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah joins his northern royal counterpart in a military confrontation against the Syrians at Ramoth-gilead, this time to defend it (cf. 1 Kings 22). Hazael surfaces as the Syrian king trying to reconquer the trade outpost (cf. 8:15). That both Israel's King Joram and Judah's King Ahaziah have withdrawn 40 miles from the battle scene at Jezreel, where Joram is recovering from a wound, sets the stage for the inauguration of Jehu, whom God will use to fulfill Elijah's prophecy against the wicked house of Ahab (1 Kgs. 21:17-24).

Elisha sends a young prophet to Ramothgilead to anoint the military captain Jehu as king over Israel in fulfillment of God's final commission to Elijah (1 Kgs. 19:16). Joram's servants enthusiastically embrace the idea of a coup. The prophet's accompanying message that commissions Jehu to "avenge the blood of all the servants of the Lord" emboldens the military man to embark on a furious ride to Jezreel. Met by Ahaziah and the apparently recovered Joram in the vineyard of Naboth (cf. 1 Kgs. 21:1-16), Jehu's fatal arrow slays the northern king, and the dynasty of Omri comes to an end as prophesied (9:26; 1 Kgs. 21:19). That Jehu's servants also shoot the fleeing allied southern monarch, Ahaziah, may find reason in his blood link to the Omride dynasty through his mother Athaliah, Omri's granddaughter (8:26).

Royal seal and jewelry attributed to Queen Jezebel of Israel. (Richard Cleave, Pictorial Archive)

Meanwhile, Jehu continues toward the northern capital. Jezebel greets Jehu with knowing sarcasm by calling him Zimri, the name of the usurping servant of Israel's King Elah (1 Kgs. 16:8-10). Jezebel has adorned herself for a royal audience (9:30). Jehu has no trouble inspiring several officials to throw the wicked queen mother out the window, and his chariot team tramples her body. Jehu then feasts in celebration while wild dogs devour her corpse - again in fulfillment of Elijah's prophecy (1 Kgs. 21:23).

10 Jehu's Purge

Back in Jezreel, Jehu develops strategies to eliminate the rest of Ahab's descendants and supporters. He manipulates the intimidated overseers of the royal children into slaying them all ("70 sons" may represent the entire family). His political pathway cleared, Jehu proceeds toward Samaria to pursue a religious purge. On the way, he chances upon a sizeable company of the slain southern King Ahaziah's relatives and orders them killed as well.

Jehu then encounters one sympathetic to the coming religious purge - a Rechabite, a member of an austere Yahwistic sect (cf. Jeremiah 35)• Once in Samaria, Jehu pretends intense devotion to Baal and summons all Israel's Baalworshippers for a great sacrificial ceremony. After packing the unsuspecting victims into the pagan shrine, he looses his military on the lot and thus completes the bloodbath. The destruction and desecration of the shrine pave the way for religious reform in Israel.

Panel of Shalmaneser III's Black Obelisk depicting Israel's King Jehu offering tribute to the Assyrian monarch; Nimrud, 841 B.C. (British Museum)

Unfortunately, Jehu's zeal for the Lord does not extend beyond purging his kingdom of baalism. He pursues the "sins of Jeroboam" by allowing worship at Jeroboam's sanctuaries in Bethel and Dan (cf. 1 Kgs. 12:25-33). Jehu's faithful execution of his commission to wipe out Ahab's household earns the new king a divine promise of a dynasty, but his overzealous violence in accomplishing the task limits it to four generations.

The political fallout of Jehu's religious shortcomings is Israel's loss of Transjordanian territory to Syria's King Hazael (cf. 8:12). The Black Obelisk records the Assyrian king Shalmanezer III's 841 defeat of Hazael and the collection of tribute from Jehu. Thus Jehu's 28-year reign receives mixed reviews, and his son Jehoahaz succeeds him.

11 Athaliah of Judah

Cf. 2 Chr. 22:10-23:15.

Back in Judah, Queen Mother Athaliah (Omri's granddaughter through Ahab and Jezebel) sees her son Ahaziah's death as an opportunity to seize power. She orders all the rival royal sons slain and thus jeopardizes continuation of the promised Davidic dynasty. But the princess Jehosheba rescues the baby Jehoash/Joash from the slaughter, and he lives in the temple undetected by the queen and protected by Jehosheba's husband, the priest Jehoiada (2 Chr. 22:11). To distinguish the southern Jehoash from the northern king of the same name, we refer to the Judahite by the shortened form of the name, "Joash." After six years, Jehoiada brings the young Davidic heir before the royal guard and Carite mercenaries, and gains their support for a military coup. Overhearing the celebration at the anointing of the seven-year-old Joash, Athaliah rushes to the temple shouting, "Treason." The illegitimate queen's swift execution (outside the temple, to preserve its sanctity) brings joyful relief to Judah, and Jehoiada leads the people in confirming their covenant with God, thus formalizing the relationship between the people and their new king, and destroying the temple of Baal, apparently introduced by Athaliah, Jezebel's daughter.

12 Joash Repairs the Temple

Cf. 2 Chronicles 24.

Kings remembers Joash as one of Judah's most faithful rulers (but cf. 2 Chr. 24:17-22). During his earlier years, Joash orders repairs to the temple - presumably the precincts "broken into" and taken over for Baal worship during his grandmother Athaiah's reign (cf. 2 Chr. 24:7).

The priests, delegated to carry out the temple renovation, pocket the money designated for the project and do nothing to further the work (vv. 7-8). As a consequence, Jehoiada creates a lockbox for collecting freewill offerings, and project administrators pay a variety of craftsmen to execute the extensive repairs. Dedicated offerings continue to support the priests (v. 16).

The economic decline in Judah suggested by Joash's fund-raising challenges also produces a decrease in military strength. Joash has to assume the posture of a vassal by buying off Syria's King Hazael (with tribute taken from the temple treasury) rather than fighting to defend Jerusalem. That Hazael's army could penetrate as far south as Jerusalem shows the even greater weakness of the northern kingdom, which Jehu's son Jehoahaz now rules (13:1-7).

Though the author does not comment on the motive for Joash's assassination by his servants, it may be their discontent with the slumping fortunes of the kingdom. 2 Chronicles 24:17-22 reports it as retribution for the king's murder of Jehoiada's son.

13:1-9 Jehoahaz of Israel

Finding his kingdom under constant oppression by Hazael and his successor (a different Ben-hadad from the one Ahab defeated in 1 Kings 20) as divine punishment for Israel's covenantal unfaithfulness, Jehu's sinful son and successor Jehoahaz calls on God for help in troubled times. Though God grants the northern kingdom relief through an unidentified deliverer, his mercy does not bring spiritual change. The Asherah" (v. 6) were carved, wooden poles representing the Canaanite fertility-goddess. The meager military force left to Jehoahaz contrasts sharply with Ahab's ability to field 2000 chariots alone at the battle of Qarqar.

13:10-25 Jehoash of Israel

These verses alternately refer to the Israelite king Jehoahaz's successor as Jehoash and Joash.

After a brief summary of Jehoash's typically sinful reign, the text records Elisha's last, deathbed prophecy: Israel's success in regaining territory lost to the Syrians under Jehoahaz. Even the prophet's remains retain the power to restore life (cf. ch. 4).

14:1-22 Amaziah of Judah

Cf. 2 Chronicles 25.

When Amaziah secures his succession to the Judahite throne, his first act is to slay his father Joash's assassins. Citing Deut. 24:16, he spares the murderers' sons (v. 6).

Amaziah's victory over Edom in an area south of the Dead Sea goes to his head, and he challenges his northern counterpart, Jehoash, to a military face-off. Amaziah's persistence forces Jehoash's hand, and Judah suffers a decided defeat: Jehoash captures Amaziah, and the Israelite army proceeds to Jerusalem, where they badly damage the city's northwestern walls before raiding what was left of the temple and palace treasuries (cf.12:18) and taking hostages back home to Samaria.

Amaziah's foolhardiness catches up with him 15 years later, when he meets a fate similar to his father's: murder at the hands of his fellow Judahites. His teenaged son, Azariah (also called Uzziah; ch. 15), succeeds him, while a second Jeroboam rules in Israel. Elath, whose recovery from the Edomites and rebuilding by Azariah was undoubtedly aided by Amaziah's victory in Edom, lay near Solomon's naval base, Ezion-geber, at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba (1 Kgs. 9:26).

14:23-29 A Second Jeroboam of Israel

Jeroboam II builds on his father Jehoash's renewed success over the Syrians (13:25) by reclaiming territory from southern Syria (the northern extent of Solomon's kingdom) to the Dead Sea (= Sea of the Arabah). The wording of verse 28 regarding the recovery of Damascus and Hamath remains difficult to interpret. Verse 25 contains the sole Old Testament reference to the prophet Jonah outside the book that bears his name. Amos and Hosea speak to the social corruption and religious decay of Israel's 41-year resurgence on the international political scene under Jeroboam II. These omens bode disaster for the northern kingdom on the nottoo-distant horizon.

15:1-7 Azariah/Uzziah of Judah

Cf. 2 Chronicles 26.

The account of Azariah's 52-year reign receives expanded attention in Chronicles, which relates his victories over the Philistines and Arabs, his reduction of Transjordanian Ammon to vassalage, and his prideful presumption in performing priestly duties - an act that results in God's permanently punishing him with a skin disease, which made him ritually impure for worship at the temple. The ailment forces Azariah to live in isolation while his son Jotham carries out the duties of king. Uzziah/Uzziahu (vv. 13, 30, 32, 34) and Uzza (21:18) refer to Azariah, the year of whose death marks the divine call of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6).

15:8-31 Israel's Mid-Eighth Century Kings in Bloody Succession

Zechariah represents the promised fourth generation of successors to Jehu's dynasty (10:30). After six months, Shallum assassinates and replaces him. Shallum lasts only one month before he is killed and replaced by Menahem (from Tirzah, former capital of the northern kingdom). The horrendous fate of Tiphsah/ Tappuah, a town of uncertain location, served as a warning to any others that might refuse to acknowledge Menahem as king.

Menahem establishes a 12-year, two-gener ation dynasty but reduces Israel to vassalage under the powerful Assyrian kingdom, ruled by Tiglath-pileser III (= Pul, v. 19). Menahem's son Pekahiah rules for only two years before his military captain Pekah's murderous takeover, aided by the Gileadites, who formerly supported Saul.

During Pekah's 20-year reign, Assyria conquers significant territory in northern Israel and pursues its policy of population deportation, probably as a response to Pekah's attempts to cast off Assyrian domination. Pekah's failures end in Hoshea's taking his turn at royal assassination and seizing the throne.

15:32-38 Jotham of Judah

Cf. 2 Chronicles 27.

Azariah/Uzziah's son Jotham makes the religious sphere a significant priority by rebuilding the "upper gate" of the temple, but his reign sees the beginnings of prolonged military struggles against his fellow Hebrews in Israel and the Syrian king Rezin. God's determination to punish not only the openly wicked northern kingdom but also the generally righteous southern kingdom begins to become apparent.

16 Ahaz of Judah

Cf. 2 Chronicles 28 and Isaiah 7.

One of the few kings of Judah condemned by the author, Ahaz makes human sacrifices of his own sons N. 3; cf. 17:31; Lev. 18:21). During his reign, Judah loses control of Elath, and the Edomites and Philistines plague his kingdom (2 Chr. 28:17-18).

Military pressure from the allied kings Pekah of Israel and Rezin of Damascus - probably intended to force Ahaz to join their anti-Assyrian league in resisting the rapidly rising Mesopotamian superpower - eventually prompts Ahaz to do the opposite - appeal to Assyria for help. In doing so, Ahaz rejects the counsel of the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 7). The Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III responds by conquering Damascus and executing Rezin (732), but Judah has paid heavy tribute for the favor and also lost a good measure of independence. After meeting Tiglath-pileser in Damascus, Ahaz installs a foreign-style altar in the Jerusalem temple and eventually turns to worshipping Syrian gods (cf. 2 Chr. 28:23).

17 Hoshea and the Fall of Israel

Assyrian records reveal that Tiglath-pileser III appointed (or confirmed) Hoshea to the Israelite throne. Hoshea makes a catastrophic mistake in trying to defy the new Assyrian king, Tiglath-pileser's son Shalmaneser V, by withholding the annual tribute and appealing to the now relatively powerless Egypt for help in freeing his kingdom from Assyrian domination. Israel pays dearly. Under Shalmaneser and his successor, his brother Sargon II, the Assyrians invade the entire northern kingdom, conquer its capital after a three-year siege (722), depose and imprison Hoshea, deport a large part of Israel's population to far-off northern and eastern parts of the Assyrian empire, and repopulate Samaria and significant areas of the new Assyrian district with conquered foreigners from Mesopotamia. By creating dependency on Assyria, this consistent wartime strategy of population reorganization reduced the likelihood of revolt.

The text makes clear that Israel itself bears the responsibility for its misfortune. As a nation, the northern kingdom has repeatedly and flagrantly disobeyed the covenant with Yahweh, consistently disregarded God's warnings through his prophets, and forsaken its mighty deliverer from Egypt for all manner of foreign gods (cf. Lev. 18:3, 24-28, which forewarn exile). The high places, made illegitimate by the Jerusalem temple, have continued in use, and the worship of the Canaanite fertility gods Baal and Asherah has flourished. The Israelites have even practiced child sacrifice N. 17; cf. v. 31).

Verses 21-22 blame the first northern king, Jeroboam, for starting Israel down the path of disobedience (cf. 1 Kings 12-14, esp. 14:15-16). Significantly, however, God does not destroy his people but instead merely "remove [s] them out of his sight" (v. 18) and denies them participation in the landed inheritance promised to Abraham and his descendants. That Judah has followed in Israel's footsteps serves as an omen of disaster to come for the remaining southern kingdom (v. 19).

God sends lions to attack Israel's new inhabitants, thus prompting the Assyrian king to bring back one Israelite priest to instruct the people in proper worship. Still, God becomes just one of many gods served by Judah's new neighbors (vv. 35-39).

18 Hezekiah Faces Assyrian Invasion

Cf. 2 Chronicles 29-32; Isaiah 36; Mic. 1:10-16.

Hezekiah restores pure Yahwistic worship and in so doing at least partially and temporarily reverses Judah's political fortunes. Thus far the only king who measures up to David's standards, Hezekiah rids Judah of Canaanite worship, destroys Moses' bronze serpent that had come to be revered as an idol (cf. Num. 21:8-9), regains Philistine territory conquered by the Assyrians, and otherwise defies Assyria. (Verses 9-12 summarize Israel's fate for the same failed attempt; contrast Ahaz's actions in ch. 16.)

Hezekiah's rebellion brings an unwanted but probably not unexpected contest with Sennacherib, successor to Sargon II, who finished off the northern kingdom. When in 701 the new Assyrian king captures Judah's outlying fortified cities, Hezekiah loses his nerve. (Stone-carved reliefs, found in the ruins of Sennacherib's palace at Nineveh, depict the siege and conquest of Lachish, 30 mi. southwest of Jerusalem.) The Judean king hopes to divert the Assyrian army away from Jerusalem by stripping the temple and palace of their gold and silver as an offering of tribute to Sennacherib, but this strategy fails. Sennacherib sends his three top army officials to intimidate the king and inhabitants.

The chief Assyrian field commander, Rabshakeh (a military title), uses the common Hebrew dialect, rather than the international diplomatic language of Aramaic, to make sarcastic fun of Judah's own military (v. 23). He belittles her only hope for an ally (Egypt; cf. Is a. 3o:1-5; 31:1-3); asserts Assyrias divine warrant to conquer the southern kingdom (v 25); warns of the starvation that will result from a siege of Jerusalem (v. 27); seeks to undermine Hezekiah's reliability (vv. 29-32); promises the good life in exchange for surrender N. 32); and boasts of Assyrias past

military success (vv. 33-35). The Rabshakeh's discrediting of Judean hope for help from God, however, goes too far, and the Assyrian army will pay for overstepping divine bounds.

Some scholars believe that vv. 13-16 deal with Sennacherib's 701 Judean campaign, while the confrontation at Jerusalem refers to a later military effort. The Assyrian Taylor Prism records Sennacherib's boast that he shut up Hezekiah in Jerusalem "like a bird in a cage," but it makes no mention of the Assyrian disaster recorded at the end of ch. 19.

19 Disaster for the Assyrians

Cf. 2 Chr. 32:9-23; Isaiah 36-39.

Hezekiah reacts to the report of the Rabshakeh's message in the same way as his representatives - in an outward display of mourning. The prophet Isaiah now appears. (Isaiah 1:1 indicates that he had been a prophet since the reign of Azariah/Uzziah.) He delivers a message of hope for deliverance without military engagement.

God causes the blasphemous Sennacherib, now attacking Libnah 1o miles north of Lachish, to respond to reports of a pressing military threat by the Nubian Tirhakah (later pharaoh of Egypt; cf. v. 9). Before departing from Judah, Sennacherib warns that he will return, but Isaiah prophesies the king's violent death in his own land.

Hezekiah's prayer concerning Sennacherib's threat wins for Judah a divine promise of deliverance. The Judahite king acknowledges God's enthronement above the cherubim, guardians of holy places whose wings overstretched the mercy seat on the ark of the covenant (v. 15; cf. Exod. 25:17-22). Verse 28 pictures God humiliating the prideful Assyrians as they themselves did conquered kings, that is, by treating them as beasts through whose noses they would drive a ring as a lead. God determines to accomplish the victory for the sake of his own reputation and for the righteous King David, to whom he promised an enduring dynasty N. 34).

The angel of the Lord miraculously causes the Assyrian army to die off overnight (cf. Exod. 12:29; 2 Sam. 24:15-17). Sennacherib returns home in disgrace and meets with death by the sword (2 Chr. 32:21; Isa. 37:36-38). Two of his own children figure as the assassins, and they escape to Ararat (modern Armenia).

20:1-11 Hezekiah Wards Off Death

Cf. Isaiah 38.

God's promise to deliver Judah from Assyria (v. 6) indicates that Hezekiah's fatal ailment occurs at least before the events at the end of chapter 19. Through earnest prayer, Hezekiah wins divine healing through a fig poultice - the standard ancient folk treatment for skin ulcers - that Isaiah applies to Hezekiah's infected boil. The miraculous directional reverse of a shadow cast on a stairway offers the sign of Hezekiah's restored ritual cleanliness so that he may resume worship in the temple.

20:12-21 Hezekiah Entertains Babylonian Well-Wishers

Cf. Isaiah 39.

No doubt in hopes of gaining an ally in Judah, the king of Babylon sends his envoys to the ailing Hezekiah from his fledgling kingdom south of Assyria. That Merodach-baladan ruled in Babylon prior to Sennacherib's assault on Jerusalem also places this account before events recorded at the end of chapter 19. Isaiah's anxiety over how much of Jerusalem's treasures Hezekiah has shown to his Babylonian guests suggests that the extent of their viewing will affect the degree to which Babylon will eventually conquer the southern kingdom. The guests have seen it all, and the disapproving Isaiah thus prophesies Judah's complete conquest by the rising Mesopotamian power. Hezekiah responds that at least his hospitality will bring peace with Babylon during his own reign. The prospect of his own sons' deportation and the end of the Davidic dynasty seems not to bother him.

Verse 20 refers to Hezekiah's (Siloam) tunnel, an underground conduit that supplied ancient Jerusalem with water (cf. 2 Chr. 32:30).

21 Manasseh and Amon of Judah

Cf. 2 Chronicles 33.

If Hezekiah's reign represented Judah's next

to last gasp of national righteousness, his longreigning son Manasseh revives and intensifies Judean disobedience. Later chapters will focus the blame for the Babylonian exile on this king (23:26-27; 24:3).

Manasseh - likened to the wicked Israelite king Ahab in contrast to Hezekiah, who measured favorably against the standard of David - embodies the sum of all the individual evils attributed to Judah's kings. He rebuilds forbidden sacrificial sites in the countryside; reestablishes Baal worship; sets up an idol of Baal's wife, Asherah, in the temple; erects altars to a host of foreign gods in the temple courts; practices child sacrifice, witchcraft, and divination; and pursues unwarranted, widespread violence (v. 16). Manasseh's subjects follow his religious example and so become more wicked than the Amorites (= Canaanites), whom God helped them displace.

This renewed disobedience ensures the southern kingdom's eventual realization of the covenantal curses, despite Manasseh's belated change of heart recorded in 2 Chr. 33:10-17. Verse 13 uses architectural imagery in comparing Judah's apostasy to the standard of wickedness set by the already punished northern kingdom.

Manasseh's son Amon follows in his father's footsteps. His servants assassinate him after he reigns only two years, but those Judeans dedicated to preserving the Davidic dynasty avenge his death and place his eight-year-old son Josiah on the throne. Both Manasseh and Amon are buried in the "garden of Uzza" (vv. 18, 26), probably an extension of Azariah/Uzziah's royal burial ground.

22 Josiah Discovers the Law

Cf. 2 Chronicles 34.

Josiah figures as the second of Judah's kings to rise to David's standard of covenant obedience. His order that the high priest Hilkiah use the money from the temple collection box to pay workers to repair the Lord's house (perhaps from damage done by Manasseh and Amon; cf. ch. 21) leads to the discovery of the "book of the law" (probably Deuteronomy). Josiah seems unaware of the religious regulations spelled out in the document and shows genuine remorse for Judah's departure from the covenant.

The prophetess Huldah confirms the inevitability of the covenantal curses. Her home in Jerusalem's "Second Quarter" probably lay north of the old City of David near the temple and palace complex. The Lord rewards Josiah's sincere contrition with a promise not to carry out the ultimate punishment on Judah during his reign.

23:1-30 Josiah's Reforms

Cf. 2 Chronicles 34-35.

Knowing God's determination to punish Judah does not stop Josiah from pursuing thoroughgoing religious reforms. The public reading of the book of the law fulfills the command in Deut. 31:10-13 and spawns a renewal of the Mosaic covenant that, at least for Josiah, accords with the heartfelt sincerity required by God. Josiah stands in the traditional location for the anointing of kings ("by the pillar," v. 3) to lead his people in the ceremony.

On orders from Josiah, Hilkiah coordinates the cleansing of the temple from the trappings of Baal/Asherah-worship. The king also does away with worship of the sun and moon; pagan priests (even those left in Samaria; v. 20); cult prostitution; and child sacrifice to the Ammonite god Molech. The "place of burning," or "Topheth" shrine of verse io, lay in the Hinnom Valley on Jerusalem's south side. Josiah defiles the high places, including those Solomon built under the influence of his foreign wives (v. 13; cf. 1 Kgs. 11:1-8), and altars both within Jerusalem and outside Judah as far away as Samaria, capital of the fallen northern kingdom. That 2 Chr. 34:6 extends Josiah's reforms even farther north into the former territory of Naphtali reveals the declining strength of Assyria. Josiah's desecration and destruction of the altar at Bethel fulfill the prophecy during the reign of the first northern king, Jeroboam (vv. 17-18; 1 Kgs. 13:2).

As the climax to his reforms, Josiah commands a kingdom-wide celebration of the Passover on a scale unparalleled since the days of the judges some 450 years earlier. In 609 this uniquely righteous king meets his death at the

hands of the Egyptian pharaoh Neco, while en route to reinforce the Assyrian army, which had lost its capital of Nineveh to the rising Babylonian power (cf. 2 Chr. 35:20).

23:31-34 Jehoahaz/Joahaz of Judah

Cf. 2 Chr. 36:1-4.

Josiah's attempt to stop the Egyptians from aiding a resurgence of Assyrian power may have bought Babylon the time it needed to deliver the final blow to Assyria at Haran. Abandoning his now obsolete mission to the north, Neco follows up his killing of Josiah by taking prisoner the Judahite king's successor, Jehoahaz, who lasts only three months on the throne. That Neco imposes a fine on Judah, appoints the region's new king, and takes the liberty of changing the king's name all signify that Judah has become an Egyptian vassal. After initially imprisoning Jehoahaz in southern Syria, Neco removes him to Egypt. 2 Kings characterizes Jehoahaz and all succeeding Judean rulers as religiously unfaithful.

23:35-24:7 Eliakim/Jehoiakim of Judah

Cf. 2 Chr. 36:5-8.

Jehoiakim dutifully pays Judah's tribute to Pharaoh Neco but eventually finds his kingdom subservient to the current superpower, Babylon, which has conquered all Egyptian territorial holdings from southern Canaan (including Transjordan) north and east around the Fertile Crescent. The deciding battle took place in 605 at the northern Syrian city of Carchemish, where the Egyptians established an outpost in 609. After three years of Babylonian (= Chaldean) domination under Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiakim attempts to defect back to Egypt despite the prophet Jeremiah's warnings of the futility of such an effort (Jer. 22:13-19).

24:817 Jehoiachin of Judah

During the reign of the next Judahite king, Jehoiachin, the Babylonian army responds to the rebellion by besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah pronounces divine judgment on Jehoiachin (Jer. 22:24-27), and the king surrenders (in 597, according to the Babylonian Chronicle). The resulting deportation of all but the poorest Judahites to Babylon, the land of Abraham's ancestors, brings history full circle for all but a remnant of God's chosen people.

24:18-20 Mattaniah/Zedekiah of Judah

Though depleted of its treasures, Jerusalem continues to serve the Babylonian empire under the puppet-king Mattaniah (Jehoiachin's uncle and the former king Jehoahaz's brother), whom Nebuchadnezzar renames Zedekiah to signify his subjection to Babylon. Zedekiah's persistence in evil ensures the fulfillment of the covenantal curses earned by Judah over the previous four centuries (vv 19-20). Disaster will result from Zedekiah's anti-Babylonian rebellion, also instigated by Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon and warned against by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer. 27:1-15).

25 The Babylonians Destroy Jerusalem

Cf. 2 Chr. 36:11-21; Jeremiah 37-39.

Again Nebuchadnezzar responds to Judahite rebellion by besieging Jerusalem (589/88). Severe famine sets in after four months of the i8-month siege. When the Babylonian army succeeds in breaking into the city, the Judahite king and soldiers flee out of the back gate and take the road to Jericho, probably hoping to find refuge among fellow Transjordanian rebels. Captured and deserted by his army before reaching the Jordan River, Zedekiah receives a typically harsh sentence from Nebuchadnezzar at Babylonian headquarters in Riblah, Assyria's

former southern Syrian base on the Orontes River. Zedekiah must watch the slaughter of his sons before being blinded, bound in chains, and deported to Babylon.

A second deportation follows the destruction of Jerusalem by fire and the breaking down of its fortification walls (587/86). The poorest of the poor are left to work the land and supply the Babylonian king with its surplus of fruits and crops. Nebuchadnezzar's army carries away to Babylon all remaining temple treasures. Nebuchadnezzar makes an example of a dozen political and religious leaders and 6o Judahite citizens by executing them at Riblah.

The Babylonian king appoints Gedaliah - probably a member of the Jerusalem establishment whom Babylon could trust - to oversee Judah from Mizpah. Judah's surviving military leaders meet with Gedaliah, who counsels their peaceful subjection to Babylon (cf. Jer. 27:12). Within seven months, however, Gedaliah meets his end at the hands of a Davidic relative in a plot hatched by the king of Ammon (cf. Jer. 40:14). The assassination prompts the surviving Hebrew remnant (including Jeremiah; Jeremiah 43) to flee to Egypt for fear of Babylonian retaliation. The statement in verse 21 summarizing Judah's exile echoes the language concerning Israel's deportation in 17:23.

As for Jehoiachin, he regains not only relative freedom but also a good measure of honor by decree of Nebuchadnezzar's successor, Evil-merodach (Amel-Marduk). After a 37-year imprisonment, the Davidic descendant finds himself enthroned as a symbolic king in Babylon - a turn of events that may foreshadow the restoration.

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