Kings and Prophets

• 1 KINGS
• 16.1-28: Chaos. When Israel refuses to follow Solomon's son Rehoboam, Jeroboam, who had earlier rebelled against Solomon becomes king of Israel. But his son Nadab is assasinated by Baasha, who then wipes out the entire house of Jeroboam. None of these kings wins good notices from the history of 1 Kings, if only for patronizing shrines outside of Jerusalem. Jehu, probably a southern prophet, prophesies against Baasha (16.1-4), just as one of his predecessors had prophesied against Jeroboam (15.10-13). Sure enough, Baasha's son is murdered by one of his military chiefs, Zimri, who then wipes out the house of Baasha. Zimri lasts less than a week before he is killed by Omri, the commander of the army, who defeats another contender for the throne and finally establishes some temporary stability. Extra-biblical sources suggest that Omri was a strong ruler, but the Bible records mainly that he built Samaria as his capital and was worse than all his predecessors.
• 16.29-22.53: Ahab vs. Elijah. The main body of the Deuteronymistic history, with its dry summary of the kings of Israel and Judah, is interrupted by two cycles of stories about northern prophets, wonder-workers in the line of Moses as well as spokespersons for strict Yahwism. The southern kingdom, Judah, is only peripherally involved. Rarely as strong as its northern neighbor, it seems to have been dominated by the latter in this period.
  • Jezebel It is a tribute to the reputation that Omri had established for his house that his son Ahab was able to marry Jezebel, the daughter of the priest-king of the rich Phoenician city of Tyre (16.31. According to an ancient but not terribly reliable source (Josephus), she was the great aunt of the Dido who fled Tyre and founded Carthage in North Africa. The same source says her father had been the priest of the sky goddess Astarte, the consort of Baal, so it is possible that family background made her more inclined than usual to interfere in religious matters; in any case, she is portrayed as a strong-minded woman. Blaming foreign wives for the defects of kings was nothing new. We are told earlier of Solomon (11.1-8: 1King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, 2from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the Israelites, ‘You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods;’ Solomon clung to these in love. 3Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. 4For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. 6So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not completely follow the Lord, as his father David had done. 7Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. 8He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.
    --Jezebel seems to have attracted unusual degrees of venom. Elijah prophesies that the dogs will eat her corpse (21.23). She faces her death bravely enough, but the prophecy will eventually come true (2 Kings 9.30-37.
  • The Widow's Son. The name of the prophet Elijah means "Yah is God," and that is his message. Even before he appears on a public stage, he demonstrates that Yahweh is with him and has power over life and death by raising from the dead the widow's son. The widow, who would have been very poor, has fed Elijah and given him water to drink. When her son dies, she believes that Elijah has brought her to the attention of God and led God to remember her sins (17.18). Elijah complains to God and revives the boy.
  • 18.20-40: The Contest With the Prophets of Baal. Although ravens and widows may be feeding Elijah, the land is experiencing a drought and divine intervention is called for. The prophets sing, dance, and cut themselves (as forbidden in the Torah) while Elijah mocks them. God answers Elijah's call with lightning, and even before the coming of rain, has the 800 prophets of Baal kiled.
  • 19: The Still Small Voice. The victorious Elijah runs before the chariot of the king on the way home, only to find that he has incurred the deadly wrath of Jezebel (1-3). Her threats frighten Elijah enough that he flees, tracing back Israel's wilderness journey till he reaches Mount Horeb/Sinai. This time, however, God's theophany is not in storm and fire but in silence. He is told to anoint new kings for Israel and Aram and to anoint Elisha to take his place; he does the last of these, leaving the others for Elisha to carry out later.
  • 20: The Price of Mercy. In his war with the Arameans, Ahab actually receives prophetic support, only to be denounced when he spares the life of Ben-hadad in return for a favorable treaty. The incident recalls the conflict between Samuel and Saul on a similar matter. One can hardly blame Ahab for being displeased.
  • 21: The Vineyard Incident. Ahab pouts some more when denied the vineyard of Naboth, so Jezebel gets it for him. According to 2 Kings 9.26, Naboth's children were also killed, which makes sense, since it leaves him without heirs to take over the vineyard. Elijah is inspired to prophecy doom and disaster. Its failure to take immediate effect is attributed to Ahab having warded it off by humbling himself.
  • 22: Death of Ahab. The end of Ahab is attended with one last prophetic confrontation, not with Elijah but with an otherwise unknown prophet named Micaiah. Ahab badgers the prophet into giving the negative prophecy he knows is coming, then throws him in jail for giving it (22.13-28, but disguises himself on the day of battle in an effort to evade it. One of the serious issues raised in this episode is how to explain false prophecies. Instead of attributing bad faith or evil spirits to the court prophets, Micaiah seems to see them as true prophets deliberating deceived by God so as to persuade Ahab to go to his destruction. Speaking of which, Elijah's prophecy of 21.19 seems only partially fulfilled by 22.38 and even that with a bit of a strain (washing the chariot).

• 2 KINGS
• 1.1-13.21: Elijah and Elisha. The mantle passes from one prophet to another and the work of Elijah is finally accomplished. Elijah was earlier (1 Kings 19.19-21 instructed to seek out Elisha as his successor, but the Elisha cycle of stories may originally have been separate from those told about Elijah.
  • 1: Sons of Ahab. Ahab's death in battle does not prevent his son Ahaziah from succeeding him (1, but checking in with a non-Yahweh shrine leads Elijah to condemn the king to die, after first killing off quite of few of the king's messengers. Some critics see this story as more closely linked to the Elisha cycle than the other stories, partly because of the deadly use of the fire of God. The house of Omri remains strong enough, however, that another son of Ahab Jehoram succeeds him.
  • The Ascent of Elijah. In 2.1-7, as Elijah prepares to die, he is met everywhere on his farewell tour by companies of prophets, though Elijah himself remains (as in 1 King) more of a loner. His apparently direct ascent into heaven led to stories of his eventual return.
  • Elisha Takes the Mantle of Elijah. Both Elijah and Elisha use the mantle to part the waters, a reminder that these are prophets in the line of Moses. Elisha's new powers are quickly demonstrated when he sweetens the springs of Jericho (2.19-22, and (rather repulsively) when she-bears come out of the woods to maul some small boys who have called him names (2.23-24).
  • 3: The War with Moab. There are two oddities in the war with Moab. One is that Elisha works with and for Jehoram, though he says (3.4) that he does so only out of regard for King Jehoshaphat of Judah [a king whose reign gets more detailed treatment in 2 Chronicles 17-20]. The other is that the king of Moab's sacrifice of his first-born son apparently works (3.27).
  • Miracles of Elisha. Even more the Elijah, Elisha is portrayed as a wonder-worker, and we are given a series of stories to illustrate the point. It has been suggested that these have influenced the shape of the miracle stories in the New Testament. The story of the widow's oil in 4.1-7, for example, is reminiscent of the miracle at Cana, and the story of the 20 loaves (4.22-24) anticipates the miracle of the loaves and fishes. The story of the Shunemite's son (4.8-37) takes Elijah's miracle one step further; Jesus will, of course, perform similar miracles. The healing of Naaman (5.1-19) shows that the power of Yahweh can and will save even non-Israelites, at least in Israel itself.
  • Elisha as King-Maker. Elisha takes a side trip to Damascus, just in time to anoint Hazael and encourage him to assasinate Ben-hadad (8.7-15. In 9, Elisha sends one of his disciples--he's much more associated with prophet guilds than Elijah--to anoint Jehu, who accepts the challenge and acts quickly to eliminate his king, Jezebel, and a visiting king of Judah for good measure. In the next chapter Jehu eliminates Ahab's kin and kills off the priests of Baal, winning high praise from the historian. It should be noted, however, that the cost of this turmoil in the northern kingdom was that it lost ground in the region and fell under Syrian domination. Judah is affected as well. The queen-mother Athaliah, a true daughter of Jezebel, grabs power, killing off her own kin as seems necessary, until overthrown in a priest-led coup which puts on the throne a grandchild of hers allegedly kept safe in the temple for seven years.
• 18.1-23.30: Reforming Kings. The destruction of the northern kingdom made Judah the hope of Yahwists and increased that kingdom's sphere of influence. The resurgence of Judah is linked in our sources with the reforming zeal of two kings of Judah, interrupted by the reign of the evil Manessah. Unlike the kings confronted by Elijah and Elisha, these kings listen to Yahweh.
  • Hezekiah is much praised by the historian, but his reign ended by being disastrous for Judah, which lost most of its most fertile land as a consequence of his ill-fated rebellion against Assyria. Because his reforms were undone and because the account of his reign has been shaped by the reforms carried out under Josiah, there is some debate over exactly what reforms should be attributed to Hezekiah. Controversy also surrounds the account of the Assyrian king Sennacherib's campaign(s) against his rebel vassal in Jerusalem. The prophet Isaiah is depicted as having warned Hezekiah against his revolt.
  • Manessah came to power early, so the great wickedness attributed to him probably reflects the policies of his advisers, who understandably reacted against those of his predecessor. Manessah had, in fact, a long reign, during which Judah recovered economically from the devastation of Hezekiah's reign, partly because he proved a loyal and not over-ambitious vassal of Assyria. Making his son pass through fire (21.6) implies that even child sacrifice was revived. The historian would like us to hold Manessah responsible for the eventual disaster of Judah (21.10-13) rather than his devout successor. Later sources elaborated on the villainy of Manessah, who was said to have slain some prophets every day before lunch and to have had Isaiah himself sawed in two.
  • Josiah also comes to power very young, as a result of the the assasination of his father Amon, the son of Manessah. Josiah is the king of the Deuteronymistic reformation and the one in whom its hopes are lodged until his untimely death.
    • 22: The Book of the Law. The scroll Hilkiah finds in the temple (22.8-13 is generally assumed to be all or part of Deuteronymy. In this version it is portrayed as the origin of Josiah's reforms, but the chronology given in 2 Chronicles 34.3-18 suggests that it may simply have reinforced them. It is thought that the prophecy of Huldah in 22.14-20 has at least been edited after the exile, though it does promise Josiah (incorrectly) that he will die peacefully.