2 Chronicles

Foundation of the Temple

3

3:1 Now Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD^a had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan^b the Jebusite. ² And he began to build on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.

³ This is the foundation which Solomon laid for building the house of God: The length was sixty cubits (by cubits according to the former measure) and the width twenty cubits. ⁴ And the vestibule that was in front of the sanctuary^a was twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the height was one hundred and^b twenty. He overlaid the inside with pure gold. ⁵ The larger room^a he paneled with cypress which he overlaid with fine gold, and he carved palm trees and chainwork on it. ⁶ And he decorated the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was gold from Parvaim. ⁷ He also overlaid the house—the beams and doorposts, its walls and doors—with gold; and he carved cherubim on the walls.

⁸ And he made the Most Holy Place. Its length was according to the width of the house, twenty cubits, and its width twenty cubits. He overlaid it with six hundred talents of fine gold. ⁹ The weight of the nails was fifty shekels of gold; and he overlaid the upper area with gold. ¹⁰ In the Most Holy Place he made two cherubim, fashioned by carving, and overlaid them with gold. ¹¹ The wings of the cherubim were twenty cubits in overall length: one wing of the one cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub; ¹² one wing of the other cherub was five cubits, touching the wall of the room, and the other wing also was five cubits, touching the wing of the other cherub. ¹³ The wings of these cherubim spanned twenty cubits overall. They stood on their feet, and they faced inward. ¹⁴ And he made the veil of blue, purple, crimson, and fine linen, and wove cherubim into it.

¹⁵ Also he made in front of the temple^a two pillars thirty-five^b cubits high, and the capital that was on the top of each of them was five cubits. ¹⁶ He made wreaths of chainwork, as in the inner sanctuary, and put them on top of the pillars; and he made one hundred pomegranates, and put them on the wreaths of chainwork. ¹⁷ Then he set up the pillars before the temple, one on the right hand and the other on the left; he called the name of the one on the right hand Jachin, and the name of the one on the left Boaz.

Architecture & Building

The pillars erected by Solomon were freestanding and made of bronze, probably about 27 feet high (2 Chr. 3:17). Pillars were commonly used in this way to mark the entrance to ancient temples. Since pillars are sometimes decorated like plants, the pillars could have represented trees. Their names seem to make them symbolic of God’s presence in His strength.

Solomon the Builder

Solomon is reported to have laid the foundation of the temple in the 4th year of his reign (1 Kin. 6:1). It took 7 years to build the temple (1 Kin. 6:37, 38) and an additional 13 years to build the king’s palace (1 Kin. 7:1). In all, Solomon spent 20 years in two great building projects (1 Kin. 9:10; 2 Chr. 8:1). These chronological figures are possibly symbolic, rather than actual, but they do stress the architectural accomplishments of one of Israel’s great leaders.

Year • Event

970 • Solomon becomes king (1 Kin. 1:32–40; 1 Chr. 29:22)

966 • Solomon begins to build the temple (1 Kin. 6:1; 2 Chr. 3:1)

959 • Solomon completes construction of the temple (1 Kin. 6:37, 38; 2 Chr. 5:1)

946 • Solomon completes construction of the royal palace (1 Kin. 7:1; 2 Chr. 8:1)

930 • Solomon dies and is succeeded by his son Rehoboam (1 Kin. 11:43; 2 Chr. 9:31)

Furnishings of the Temple

4

4:1 Moreover he made a bronze altar: twenty cubits was its length, twenty cubits its width, and ten cubits its height.

² Then he made the Sea of cast bronze, ten cubits from one brim to the other; it was completely round. Its height was five cubits, and a line of thirty cubits measured its circumference. ³ And under it was the likeness of oxen encircling it all around, ten to a cubit, all the way around the Sea. The oxen were cast in two rows, when it was cast. ⁴ It stood on twelve oxen: three looking toward the north, three looking toward the west, three looking toward the south, and three looking toward the east; the Sea was set upon them, and all their back parts pointed inward. ⁵ It was a handbreadth thick; and its brim was shaped like the brim of a cup, like a lily blossom. It contained three thousand^a baths.

⁶ He also made ten lavers, and put five on the right side and five on the left, to wash in them; such things as they offered for the burnt offering they would wash in them, but the Sea was for the priests to wash in. ⁷ And he made ten lampstands of gold according to their design, and set them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. ⁸ He also made ten tables, and placed them in the temple, five on the right side and five on the left. And he made one hundred bowls of gold.

TIME CAPSULE 945 to 930 B.C.

945–924 • Shishak, pharaoh of Egypt (Shoshenq I or Sheshonk)

945 • The term “Pharaoh” is added to the Egyptian king’s official title

934–612 • Neo-Assyrian period

934 • Ashur-dan, king of Assyria, fortifies city of Asshur

930 • Solomon dies and is succeeded by his son Rehoboam (1 Kin. 11:43)

⁹ Furthermore he made the court of the priests, and the great court and doors for the court; and he overlaid these doors with bronze. ¹⁰ He set the Sea on the right side, toward the southeast.

¹¹ Then Huram made the pots and the shovels and the bowls. So Huram finished doing the work that he was to do for King Solomon for the house of God: ¹² the two pillars and the bowl-shaped capitals that were on top of the two pillars; the two networks covering the two bowl-shaped capitals which were on top of the pillars; ¹³ four hundred pomegranates for the two networks (two rows of pomegranates for each network, to cover the two bowl-shaped capitals that were on the pillars); ¹⁴ he also made carts and the lavers on the carts; ¹⁵ one Sea and twelve oxen under it; ¹⁶ also the pots, the shovels, the forks—and all their articles Huram his master^a craftsman made of burnished bronze for King Solomon for the house of the LORD.

¹⁷ In the plain of Jordan the king had them cast in clay molds, between Succoth and Zeredah.^{a 18} And Solomon had all these articles made in such great abundance that the weight of the bronze was not determined.

¹⁹ Thus Solomon had all the furnishings made for the house of God: the altar of gold and the tables on which was the showbread; ²⁰ the lampstands with their lamps of pure gold, to burn in the prescribed manner in front of the inner sanctuary, ²¹ with the flowers and the lamps and the wick-trimmers of gold, of purest gold; ²² the trimmers, the bowls, the ladles, and the censers of pure gold. As for the entry of the sanctuary, its inner doors to the Most Holy Place, and the doors of the main hall of the temple, were gold.

Transition

The Ceremony of the Ark

Construction of the temple took 7 years to complete, lasting from 966 to 959 B.C.1 Kin. 6:37, 38). The Chronicler associates the temple site with Mount Moriah on which Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac (2 Chr. 3:1; Gen. 22:2). Since this mound was north of the ancient City of David, upon completion of the temple the city limits were extended to include the temple area. It was then necessary to bring the ark up from its former resting place (2 Chr. 1:4; 5:2).

• 2 Chronicles 5:1–7:22

2 Chronicles

5

5:1 So all the work that Solomon had done for the house of the LORD was finished; and Solomon brought in the things which his father David had dedicated: the silver and the gold and all the furnishings. And he put them in the treasuries of the house of God.

The Ark Brought Into the Temple

² Now Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the chief fathers of the children of Israel, in Jerusalem, that they might bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD up from the City of David, which is Zion. ³ Therefore all the men of Israel assembled with the king at the feast, which was in the seventh month. ⁴ So all the elders of Israel came, and the Levites took up the ark. ⁵ Then they brought up the ark, the tabernacle of meeting, and all the holy furnishings that were in the tabernacle. The priests and the Levites brought them up. ⁶ Also King Solomon, and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him before the ark, were sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. ⁷ Then the priests brought in the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, into the inner sanctuary of the temple,^a to the Most Holy Place, under the wings of the cherubim. ⁸ For the cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles. ⁹ The poles extended so that the ends of the poles of the ark could be seen from the holy place, in front of the inner sanctuary; but they could not be seen from outside. And they are there to this day. ¹⁰ Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put there at Horeb, when the LORD made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they had come out of Egypt.

¹¹ And it came to pass when the priests came out of the Most Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had sanctified themselves, without keeping to their divisions), ¹² and the Levites who were the singers, all those of Asaph and Heman and Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, stood at the east end of the altar, clothed in white linen, having cymbals, stringed instruments and harps, and with them one hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets— ¹³ indeed it came to pass, when the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD, and when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying:

“For He is good,

For His mercy endures forever,”^a

that the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, ¹⁴ so that the priests could not continue ministering because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.

6

6:1 Then Solomon spoke:

“The LORD said He would dwell in the dark cloud.

² I have surely built You an exalted house,

And a place for You to dwell in forever.”

Solomon’s Speech Upon Completion of the Work

³ Then the king turned around and blessed the whole assembly of Israel, while all the assembly of Israel was standing. ⁴ And he said: “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, who has fulfilled with His hands what He spoke with His mouth to my father David, saying, ⁵ ‘Since the day that I brought My people out of the land of Egypt, I have chosen no city from any tribe of Israel in which to build a house, that My name might be there, nor did I choose any man to be a ruler over My people Israel. ⁶ Yet I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel.’ ⁷ Now it was in the heart of my father David to build a temple^a for the name of the LORD God of Israel. ⁸ But the LORD said to my father David, ‘Whereas it was in your heart to build a temple for My name, you did well in that it was in your heart. ⁹ Nevertheless you shall not build the temple, but your son who will come from your body, he shall build the temple for My name.’ ¹⁰ So the LORD has fulfilled His word which He spoke, and I have filled the position of my father David, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised; and I have built the temple for the name of the LORD God of Israel. ¹¹ And there I have put the ark, in which is the covenant of the LORD which He made with the children of Israel.”

Solomon’s Prayer of Dedication

¹² Then Solomon^a stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands ¹³ (for Solomon had made a bronze platform five cubits long, five cubits wide, and three cubits high, and had set it in the midst of the court; and he stood on it, knelt down on his knees before all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands toward heaven); ¹⁴ and he said: “LORD God of Israel, there is no God in heaven or on earth like You, who keep Your covenant and mercy with Your servants who walk before You with all their hearts. ¹⁵ You have kept what You promised Your servant David my father; You have both spoken with Your mouth and fulfilled it with Your hand, as it is this day. ¹⁶ Therefore, LORD God of Israel, now keep what You promised Your servant David my father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man sit before Me on the throne of Israel, only if your sons take heed to their way, that they walk in My law as you have walked before Me.’ ¹⁷ And now, O LORD God of Israel, let Your word come true, which You have spoken to Your servant David.

¹⁸ “But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You. How much less this temple^a which I have built! ¹⁹ Yet regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O LORD my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You: ²⁰ that Your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. ²¹ And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.

²² “If anyone sins against his neighbor, and is forced to take an oath, and comes and takes an oath before Your altar in this temple, ²³ then hear from heaven, and act, and judge Your servants, bringing retribution on the wicked by bringing his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous by giving him according to his righteousness.

²⁴ “Or if Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy because they have sinned against You, and return and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication before You in this temple, ²⁵ then hear from heaven and forgive the sin of Your people Israel, and bring them back to the land which You gave to them and their fathers.

²⁶ “When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain because they have sinned against You, when they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and turn from their sin because You afflict them, ²⁷ then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of Your servants, Your people Israel, that You may teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on Your land which You have given to Your people as an inheritance.

²⁸ “When there is famine in the land, pestilence or blight or mildew, locusts or grasshoppers; when their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities; whatever plague or whatever sickness there is; ²⁹ whatever prayer, whatever supplication is made by anyone, or by all Your people Israel, when each one knows his own burden and his own grief, and spreads out his hands to this temple: ³⁰ then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and forgive, and give to everyone according to all his ways, whose heart You know (for You alone know the hearts of the sons of men), ³¹ that they may fear You, to walk in Your ways as long as they live in the land which You gave to our fathers.

The Spread of Solomon’s Fame

Solomon’s influence in economic and political affairs was enhanced by the transportation and trade routes that intersected his kingdom. That Solomon acquired much through trade is suggested by the response of the queen of Sheba on her visit to Solomon, and by the mention of traders and merchants (2 Chr. 9:14) in the account of his wealth.

³² “Moreover, concerning a foreigner, who is not of Your people Israel, but has come from a far country for the sake of Your great name and Your mighty hand and Your outstretched arm, when they come and pray in this temple; ³³ then hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to You, that all peoples of the earth may know Your name and fear You, as do Your people Israel, and that they may know that this temple which I have built is called by Your name.

³⁴ “When Your people go out to battle against their enemies, wherever You send them, and when they pray to You toward this city which You have chosen and the temple which I have built for Your name, ³⁵ then hear from heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause.

³⁶ “When they sin against You (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them and deliver them to the enemy, and they take them captive to a land far or near; ³⁷ yet when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness’; ³⁸ and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captive, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name: ³⁹ then hear from heaven Your dwelling place their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You. ⁴⁰ Now, my God, I pray, let Your eyes be open and let Your ears be attentive to the prayer made in this place.

⁴¹ “Now therefore,

Arise, O LORD God, to Your resting place,

You and the ark of Your strength.

Let Your priests, O LORD God, be clothed with salvation,

And let Your saints rejoice in goodness.

⁴² “O LORD God, do not turn away the face of Your Anointed;

Remember the mercies of Your servant David.”^a

Solomon Dedicates the Temple

7

7:1 When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the LORD filled the temple.^{a 2} And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD had filled the LORD’s house. ³ When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the LORD on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped and praised the LORD, saying:

“For He is good,

For His mercy endures forever.”^a

⁴ Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the LORD. ⁵ King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty-two thousand bulls and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. ⁶ And the priests attended to their services; the Levites also with instruments of the music of the LORD, which King David had made to praise the LORD, saying, “For His mercy endures forever,”^a whenever David offered praise by their ministry. The priests sounded trumpets opposite them, while all Israel stood.

⁷ Furthermore Solomon consecrated the middle of the court that was in front of the house of the LORD; for there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings, the grain offerings, and the fat.

⁸ At that time Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great assembly from the entrance of Hamath to the Brook of Egypt.^{a 9} And on the eighth day they held a sacred assembly, for they observed the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. ¹⁰ On the twenty-third day of the seventh month he sent the people away to their tents, joyful and glad of heart for the good that the LORD had done for David, for Solomon, and for His people Israel. ¹¹ Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the LORD and in his own house.

God’s Second Appearance To Solomon

¹² Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. ¹³ When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, ¹⁴ if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. ¹⁵ Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. ¹⁶ For now I have chosen and sanctified this house, that My name may be there forever; and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. ¹⁷ As for you, if you walk before Me as your father David walked, and do according to all that I have commanded you, and if you keep My statutes and My judgments, ¹⁸ then I will establish the throne of your kingdom, as I covenanted with David your father, saying, ‘You shall not fail to have a man as ruler in Israel.’

* Chariots and Chariot Cities (2 Chr. 8:5, 6)

The first chariots were apparently four-wheeled wagons or carts used to transport soldiers into battle. Pictures of such vehicles have been found from as early as 3100 B.C. The Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Romans all used chariots in war. They were symbols of mobility and power.

In its classic form, the chariot is a two-wheeled, horse-drawn vehicle from which a soldier rides and fights. Through the centuries, most chariots carried two passengers, a driver and a fighter, and were drawn by two horses. The best chariots were made in Egypt starting about 1500 B.C., before the Hebrews’ Egyptian service. Several complete Egyptian chariots from this time were recovered in A.D. 1922 from the tomb of Tutankhamun, one of the pharaohs whose goods were buried with him.

Tutankhamun’s chariots are made of carefully shaped wood, glued and tied together with rawhide. The platform carried two riders side by side; it was a wooden frame with woven straps of leather for the floor. All this made the chariot light in weight, very strong, and as springy as engineering would allow. The “chariots of iron” driven by Israel’s enemies (Josh. 17:16, 18; Judg. 1:19; 4:3, 13) were probably wood with iron tires or metal reinforcement at certain points.

Chariot forces became a crucial part of an adequate defense in the ancient Near East. King David confiscated chariots from his conquered enemies (2 Sam. 8:3, 4). But it was his son Solomon who realized the military potential of the chariot. He not only imported Egyptian chariots, but also established “chariot cities” (2 Chr. 8:6). Archaeological excavations at Hazor, one of the cities fortified by Solomon (1 Kin. 9:15, 17–19), shows the remains of chariot enclosures dating to Solomon’s time.

¹⁹ “But if you turn away and forsake My statutes and My commandments which I have set before you, and go and serve other gods, and worship them, ²⁰ then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

²¹ “And as for this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and this house?’ ²² Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”

Transition

Building the Royal Palaces

The period of 20 years from 966 to 946 B.C. included 7 years of temple construction and an additional 13 years for the king’s palace (1 Kin. 6:37–7:1). Besides these two major projects, other buildings were erected (see “Building the King’s Palace” at 1 Kin. 7:1).

One particular house was built for Solo mon’s wife from Egypt, the daughter of Pharaoh. While both the historian of Kings (1 Kin. 9:24) and the Chronicler (2 Chr. 8:11) record this event, Chronicles emphasizes that the pagan princess must not dwell in the sacred places near the ark. As usual, the priestly history shows great concern for the ritual holiness of the temple of Israel’s God.

• 2 Chronicles 8:1–9:31

2 Chronicles

Solomon’s Additional Achievements

8

8:1 It came to pass at the end of twenty years, when Solomon had built the house of the LORD and his own house, ² that the cities which Hiram^a had given to Solomon, Solomon built them; and he settled the children of Israel there. ³ And Solomon went to Hamath Zobah and seized it. ⁴ He also built Tadmor in the wilderness, and all the storage cities which he built in Hamath. ⁵ He built Upper Beth Horon and Lower Beth Horon, fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars, ⁶ also Baalath and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and all the chariot cities and the cities of the cavalry, and all that Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion.

* Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (2 Chr. 9:1–9)

The queen of Sheba who visited Solomon at Jerusalem (2 Chr. 9:1) is otherwise unnamed in Scripture. Presumably, Sheba was a land in the southwestern Arabian peninsula, and was known in native sources as Saba. The kingdom of Saba was a complex society by the end of the 1st millennium B.C.

The term “Saba,” referring to the people called Sabeans, is mentioned in the inscriptions of two Assyrian kings: Tiglath-Pileser III (744–727 B.C.) and Sargon II (721–705 B.C.). Although these Sabeans were in northern Arabia, it is possible that they had originated in south Arabia (in Sheba) and later expanded along important northern trade routes.

Sabean civilization appears to have been sophisticated, having large urban centers, irrigation systems, and a myriad of trade connections throughout the Near East and southern Asia. Sabean merchants (or “merchants from Sheba”) were well known for their trade items (Is. 60:6; Ezek. 27:22, 23).

It is possible that the queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem, not only to visit socially with Solomon, but also to strengthen trade relations with him. Solomon had just built a cargo fleet that traversed the Gulf of Aqaba (1 Kin. 9:26–28), and the queen’s abundant gifts to him (1 Chr. 9:9) may have been in exchange for trade concessions.

⁷ All the people who were left of the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not of Israel— ⁸ that is, their descendants who were left in the land after them, whom the children of Israel did not destroy—from these Solomon raised forced labor, as it is to this day. ⁹ But Solomon did not make the children of Israel servants for his work. Some were men of war, captains of his officers, captains of his chariots, and his cavalry. ¹⁰ And others were chiefs of the officials of King Solomon: two hundred and fifty, who ruled over the people.

¹¹ Now Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh up from the City of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife shall not dwell in the house of David king of Israel, because the places to which the ark of the LORD has come are holy.”

¹² Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the altar of the LORD which he had built before the vestibule, ¹³ according to the daily rate, offering according to the commandment of Moses, for the Sabbaths, the New Moons, and the three appointed yearly feasts—the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks, and the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁴ And, according to the order of David his father, he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, the Levites for their duties (to praise and serve before the priests) as the duty of each day required, and the gatekeepers by their divisions at each gate; for so David the man of God had commanded. ¹⁵ They did not depart from the command of the king to the priests and Levites concerning any matter or concerning the treasuries.

¹⁶ Now all the work of Solomon was well-ordered from^a the day of the foundation of the house of the LORD until it was finished. So the house of the LORD was completed.

¹⁷ Then Solomon went to Ezion Geber and Elath^a on the seacoast, in the land of Edom. ¹⁸ And Hiram sent him ships by the hand of his servants, and servants who knew the sea. They went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and acquired four hundred and fifty talents of gold from there, and brought it to King Solomon.

The Queen of Sheba’s Praise of Solomon

9

9:1 Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with hard questions, having a very great retinue, camels that bore spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. ² So Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing so difficult for Solomon that he could not explain it to her. ³ And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, ⁴ the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers and their apparel, and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the LORD, there was no more spirit in her.

⁵ Then she said to the king: “It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. ⁶ However I did not believe their words until I came and saw with my own eyes; and indeed the half of the greatness of your wisdom was not told me. You exceed the fame of which I heard. ⁷ Happy are your men and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom! ⁸ Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you, setting you on His throne to be king for the LORD your God! Because your God has loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.”

Geography & Environment

Ophir is the name of a remote source of gold (2 Chr. 8:18), probably in the direction of Yemen and across the Indian Ocean to the east. Apart from this, it is not possible to identify its location. There was some ancient gold production in the biblical Cush, roughly corresponding to Upper Egypt and the Sudan. As is still true, remoteness of origin adds glamor to luxury products.

⁹ And she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great abundance, and precious stones; there never were any spices such as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰ Also, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum^a wood and precious stones. ¹¹ And the king made walkways of the algum^a wood for the house of the LORD and for the king’s house, also harps and stringed instruments for singers; and there were none such as these seen before in the land of Judah.

¹² Now King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, much more than she had brought to the king. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.

Architecture & Building

Public display of wealth is a driving force in the human psychology, and gold has often been the choice of kings to draw attention to their power. There is evidence of gold shields being used as ceremonial display in temples elsewhere in the Middle East, from about 200 years after Solomon’s time. The total weight of Solomon’s shields was about 5,000 pounds (2 Chr. 9:16).

Solomon’s Great Wealth

¹³ The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, ¹⁴ besides what the traveling merchants and traders brought. And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon. ¹⁵ And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of hammered gold went into each shield. ¹⁶ He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold; three hundred shekels^a of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷ Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold. ¹⁸ The throne had six steps, with a footstool of gold, which were fastened to the throne; there were armrests on either side of the place of the seat, and two lions stood beside the armrests. ¹⁹ Twelve lions stood there, one on each side of the six steps; nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.

²⁰ All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon. ²¹ For the king’s ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Hiram.^a Once every three years the merchant ships^b came, bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.^c

²² So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. ²³ And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. ²⁴ Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year.

²⁵ Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.

²⁶ So he reigned over all the kings from the River^a to the land of the Philistines, as far as the border of Egypt. ²⁷ The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland. ²⁸ And they brought horses to Solomon from Egypt and from all lands.

Death of Solomon

²⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat? ³⁰ Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel forty years. ³¹ Then Solomon rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

EPOCH FIVE

THE FALL OF TWO NATIONS

The positive accomplishments of the united monarchy slowly began to unravel, and Solomon’s kingdom eventually divided into Israel and Judah.

(930–586 B.C.)

The brokenness of God’s people led to brokenness in the world. Solomon’s empire broke apart partly because Solomon and Rehoboam failed to be instruments of justice for their people. The many positive accomplishments of the united monarchy now slowly began to unravel, eventually resulting in the division of Solomon’s kingdom into Israel (north) and Judah (south).

The story of the divided monarchy is one of gradual decay, with only brie interludes of hope. The two little nations of Israel and Judah spent most of their existence as vassal states, serving first the Neo-Assyrian Empire (934–612 B.C.) and then the Neo-Baby lonian Empire (626–539 B.C.). Israel was destroyed by the Neo-Assyrians; Judah by the Neo-Babylonians.

Archaeology and the Past

The Iron Age (1200–600 B.C.) spans the united and divided monarchies, and remains and records of this age often relate to the Bible. For example, Pharaoh Shi shak I left inscriptions listing the cities and towns that he conquered in Palestine after the division of the kingdoms. While Egypt was not a strong force in the region, the records of other empires, especially those of Assyria, provide more details to supplement the biblical accounts.

Israelite kings built a new capital for the northern kingdom at Samaria. Excavations there have revealed great city walls on bedrock, dating from this period. Large numbers of ivory inlays from furniture were also found, reminding us that the ruling classes in Israel were incredibly wealthy. The prophets criticized the upper classes because their “houses of ivory” (Amos 3:15) were built by exploiting the poor.

King Ahab rebuilt the stables at Megiddo, and made it once again a great city. He also built a palace at Hazor as part of the renovation of that city. His economic power made him an international force. According to an inscription of Shalmaneser III of Assyria, “Ahab the Israelite” brought 2,000 chariots and 10,000 infantry to the battle of Qarqar (853 B.C.). Ahab apparently had picked up on Solomon’s trade in horses and chariots. Certainly he was a force in halting Assyria’s advance toward Palestine.

Israel appears in other important inscriptions of the period. The famous Moabite Stone tells how King Mesha of Moab rebelled successfully against Israel in the 9th century B.C. The Black Obelisk ofShalmaneser III (841 B.C.) shows, in a series ofcarvings, conquered kings paying tribute to the Neo-Assyrian emperor. In the irst “picture” of an Israelite king, Jehu of Israel is shown kissing the feet of Shalmaneser.

Records and annals of Assyrian kings reveal contact between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. King Azariah (Uzziah) of Judah is listed in the records of Tiglath-Pileser III as leading a revolt against Assyria. Both Assyrian inscriptions and excavated cities in Israel record that Tiglath-Pileser overran Israel (about 732 B.C.), laying waste cities, making Galilee an Assyrian province, and deporting the population to other parts of his empire.

Ironically, one of the more important archaeological finds related to the fall of Israel is found to the south, in Jerusalem. The “Broad Wall” of Judah’s king Hezekiah was a city wall built on the western hills of Jerusalem. It tells us that, at this time, Jerusalem was greatly enlarged, partly to handle the flood of refugees from Israel.

Judah herself experienced Assyrian power through Assyria’s king Senna cherib. Hezekiah undertook a massive water project to carry water from the Gihon spring, outside the city walls, through a tunnel into the city. The tunnel was dug to ensure the water supply at the time of Sennacherib’s invasion in 701 B.C. Sennacherib also left a long document describing his siege of Jerusalem. The carvings on Senna cherib’s palace walls included large pictures of the siege and destruction of Lachish, an important Judahite fortress. The carvings show both the siege process, the storming of the city, and the surrender of the citizens.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire fell around 612 B.C., but in its place arose the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which would ultimately destroy Jerusalem and carry the kings of Judah into exile. From the period of the Babylonian invasions are the Lachish Letters. These messages are written on pieces of broken pottery to the military com mander at Lachish (which had been rebuilt). In them, an officer describes how he can no longer see the signals from other outposts, a sign of the advance of the Babylonian army.

In Jerusalem itself, recent excavations in the City of David have uncovered what is called the House of Ahiel, a 6th-century house that was destroyed by the Babylonians in their attacks on the city. The house had been burned, and there were Babylonian arrowheads in the ruins.

On a more peaceful note are the many seals and seal impressions from this period found in Jerusalem. One seal belongs to Gedaliah, the governor, who may have been the governor put in place by the Babylonians after they destroyed Jeru salem. Another fascinating seal impression bears the name of Baruch, son of Neriah, the name of the prophet Jeremiah’s friend and scribe.

The Peoples and Groups

The Assyrians were one of the great superpowers of the ancient world, with an empire centered on the Tigris River. One of the keys to Assyrian power was a large, permanent army, with soldiers trained in every specialty needed for war. Artists were important in Assyria, and literature and architecture flourished. The most spectacular work was stone carving, and Assyrian palaces and monuments are filled with carvings, showing the nation at war, at work, and in the daily round of life. On the other side of their character, the Assyrians were unspeakably cruel and tortured prisoners as a regular practice. The Assyrian Empire was overthrown by the Medes and Babylonians in the years between 612 and 609 B.C.

The other superpower in the East was Babylon. One of their greatest kings was Nebuchadnezzar, whose armies destroyed Jerusalem in 586 B.C. In addition to his military and political ambitions, Nebuchadnezzar rebuilt Babylon to make it one ofthe most beautiul cities in the world. The Ishtar Gate was a double gate, faced with enameled bricks, in patterns of flowers, animals, and dragons. The palace was also built of enameled bricks, and contained one room decorated with bricks of gold and blue. The “hanging gardens,” a set of gardens built on terraces that thrust up into the air, is one of the wonders of the ancient world. Babylon was taken by the Persians in 539 B.C.

The Biblical Literature

Biblical books that relate this period come from three groups, the first consisting of portions from Kings and Chronicles. The history of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel shows their alternation between faithfulness and faithlessness in their relationships with Yahweh.

A second group relates to the Neo-Assyrian period and includes the prophetic writings of Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah, Jonah, and Zephaniah. Amos and Hosea preached in Israel, with an emphasis on social and economic justice. They warned of the coming punishment of Yahweh because of Israel’s failure to keep the covenant. Isaiah was a counselor to the kings of Judah. He worked through two major international crises, which he saw as signs of God’s rule over the nations, and of God’s displeasure over Judah’s failure to bring about social justice. Micah was a rural contemporary of Isaiah who also preached against injustice, but lifted up a vision of a day of peace and salvation. Zephaniah began preaching sometime after 640 B.C., condemning idolatry and injustice. All these prophets were conscious of God’s concern for justice and the failure of their nation to bring justice to the people.

The third group relates to the Neo-Babylonian period. Parts of the Book of Daniel tell the story of a Jewish youth exiled to Babylon, while the Book of Lamentations mourns the destruction of Jeru salem. Also included are prophecies from Jere miah, Habakkuk, Nahum, Ezekiel, and Obadiah. Jeremiah lived through the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. He continued to call for social justice and loyalty to Yahweh, but also introduced the vision of a new covenant and of hope. Habakkuk records the pain of seeing the Baby lonians on the march and wonders where God is in these events. Nahum rejoices over the defeat of Assyria. Ezekiel was the first prophet to write from exile in Babylon. He first preached a message of doom and judgment but, after the destruction of Jerusalem, began to preach hope. Obadiah is a song of anger against the people of Edom for their part in the destruction of Jerusalem.

The Divided Monarchy in Israel

Israel was more united under the monarchy than ever before, but the old tribal loyalties remained, at least under the surface. Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, had surrounded himself with other Benjamites (1 Sam. 22:7), as had David with members of his own tribe of Judah. These two tribes remained rivals throughout the united monarchy. While resentment over the forced labor imposed by Solomon precipitated the division of Israel into different parts (1 Kin. 12:1–17), the divisions were there already.

The division of Israel into two kingdoms led to some resentment and even the threat of war, but war was averted and before long the two new nations were diplomatic allies. However, the glory years of Solomon’s united monarchy were ended, replaced by a divided monarchy—a northern kingdom, which from this time on assumed the old name “Israel,” and a southern kingdom of Judah.

The division of the kingdom left David’s empire in shambles. Not only was Israel split, but the other nations that David had conquered soon achieved independence. The continuing weakness of the Egyptian and Assyrian empires allowed the weakened land of Israel to survive, but Aram-Damascus (Syria), just to the northeast was a growing threat.

Transition

Prophetic Account: The Kingdom Divides

The books of Kings are an anonymous writer’s reflections on the history of the Israelite monarchy from the accession of Solomon to the end. The story of the uneasy coexistence of Israel and Judah continues from 1 Kin. 12:1 until the fall of the northern kingdom (2 Kin. 17:41). The unity between North (Israel) and South (Judah) under Saul, David, and Solomon had been held together by the charisma and strength of its leaders. Now the tribes went separate ways, following separate leaders: Jeroboam I for the northern tribes and Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, for the southern tribes of Judah and Simeon.

• 1 Kings 12:1–24

1 Kings

The Revolt Against Rehoboam

12

12:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. ² So it happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard it (he was still in Egypt, for he had fled from the presence of King Solomon and had been dwelling in Egypt), ³ that they sent and called him. Then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴ “Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵ So he said to them, “Depart for three days, then come back to me.” And the people departed.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, and he said, “How do you advise me to answer these people?”

⁷ And they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”

⁸ But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. ⁹ And he said to them, “What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?”

¹⁰ Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us’—thus you shall say to them: ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹ And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!’ ”^a

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had directed, saying, “Come back to me the third day.” ¹³ Then the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the advice which the elders had given him; ¹⁴ and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!”^{a 15} So the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from the LORD, that He might fulfill His word, which the LORD had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶ Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying:

“What share have we in David?

We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.

To your tents, O Israel!

Now, see to your own house, O David!”

So Israel departed to their tents. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of the revenue; but all Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

²⁰ Now it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.

²¹ And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. ²² But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, ²³ “Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, ²⁴ ‘Thus says the LORD: “You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from Me.” ’ ” Therefore they obeyed the word of the LORD, and turned back, according to the word of the LORD.

Transition

First Dynasty of the Northern Kingdom

Israel in the north was much larger and stronger than the southern Judah. But Israel was also less unified than Judah. Not only did it include more tribes, but it had neither a central shrine, like the temple in Jerusalem, nor the ark of the covenant. To remedy this lack, Israel’s first king, Jeroboam I, built replacement shrines at Dan and Bethel. These were probably dedicated to Israel’s one God, but the golden calves Jeroboam set there were soon regarded as idols (1 Kin. 12:25–33).

The visit of the “man of God” to Bethel reflects the interest in prophecy by the historian of Kings. This man of God is presented as a true prophet who makes a distant prophecy (1 Kin. 13:1, 2). He prophesies events to occur during the reign of Josiah (640–609 B.C.), 300 years after the time of Jeroboam (930–909 B.C.). But Jeroboam rejected the warnings from this prophet, and became the stereotype of the sinful king (13:33, 34).

• 1 Kings 12:25–14:20

1 Kings

Jeroboam’s Gold Calves

12

12:25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel. ²⁶ And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: ²⁷ If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

²⁸ Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” ²⁹ And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰ Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. ³¹ He made shrines^a on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

³² Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. ³³ So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had devised in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.

The Message of the Man of God

13

13:1 And behold, a man of God went from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense. ² Then he cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar! Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, a child, Josiah by name, shall be born to the house of David; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.’ ” ³ And he gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign which the LORD has spoken: Surely the altar shall split apart, and the ashes on it shall be poured out.”

⁴ So it came to pass when King Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, who cried out against the altar in Bethel, that he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Arrest him!” Then his hand, which he stretched out toward him, withered, so that he could not pull it back to himself. ⁵ The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. ⁶ Then the king answered and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me.”

* Holy Cows (1 Kin. 12:28)

The act of Jeroboam in crafting images of cows for worship was not unique. Not only did he repeat the actions of Aaron by creating a golden calf, but he quoted the words of Aaron, “Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt” (Ex. 32:4; 1 Kin. 12:28).

Exactly which god was represented by the calves is not known. The Hebrew word for “calves” in 1 Kin. 12:28 suggests that the animal was a young bull, as was used for sacrifices (Mic. 6:6). A number of small bull images have been found by archaeologists, testifying to the common worship of such images. Calf worship was still prominent among the Israelites of the northern kingdom when Hosea prophesied (Hos. 8:5; 10:5, 6), during the reign of Jeroboam II (793–753 B.C.).

Jeroboam I placed his two idol calves in the two geographical extremes of his empire (1 Kin. 12:29). Bethel, just a few miles north of Jerusalem, means “house of god” and had been a traditional place of worship since the days of the patriarchs (Gen. 31:13). Dan lies in the most northerly extreme of Israel. In so doing Jeroboam made sure that one of his worship centers was closer to the Israelites than was Jerusalem.

To completely separate the Israelites from the worship of God in Jerusalem, Jeroboam even began a new priesthood. In Israel’s covenant the Levites were assigned as priests for the nation’s worship (Num. 3:5–10), but Jeroboam appointed non-Levitical priests, causing the Levites to flee to Judah (1 Kin. 12:31; 2 Chr. 11:14, 15). He even inaugurated separate feasts (1 Kin. 12:32). By encouraging the worship of the golden bull Jeroboam hoped to keep the hearts of his people from returning to King Rehoboam, the grandson of David (12:26, 27).

So the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as before. ⁷ Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”

⁸ But the man of God said to the king, “If you were to give me half your house, I would not go in with you; nor would I eat bread nor drink water in this place. ⁹ For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’ ” ¹⁰ So he went another way and did not return by the way he came to Bethel.

Death of the Man of God

¹¹ Now an old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; they also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. ¹² And their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen^a which way the man of God went who came from Judah. ¹³ Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it, ¹⁴ and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. Then he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

And he said, “I am.”

¹⁵ Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”

¹⁶ And he said, “I cannot return with you nor go in with you; neither can I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷ For I have been told by the word of the LORD, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water there, nor return by going the way you came.’ ”

¹⁸ He said to him, “I too am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” (He was lying to him.)

¹⁹ So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

²⁰ Now it happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back; ²¹ and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, ²² but you came back, ate bread, and drank water in the place of which the LORD said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’ ”

²³ So it was, after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ When he was gone, a lion met him on the road and killed him. And his corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the corpse. ²⁵ And there, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown on the road, and the lion standing by the corpse. Then they went and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

Rehoboam and Jeroboam Divide the Kingdom

²⁶ Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard it, he said, “It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the LORD. Therefore the LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him.” ²⁷ And he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled it. ²⁸ Then he went and found his corpse thrown on the road, and the donkey and the lion standing by the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse nor torn the donkey. ²⁹ And the prophet took up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. So the old prophet came to the city to mourn, and to bury him. ³⁰ Then he laid the corpse in his own tomb; and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” ³¹ So it was, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, “When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. ³² For the saying which he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines^a on the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely come to pass.”

TIME CAPSULE 930 to 925 B.C.

930 • Rehoboam succeeds Solomon as king of Israel

930 • The kingdom of Israel splits into northern Israel and southern Judah

930 • Jeroboam I becomes king in northern Israel

930–1722 • The northern kingdom of Israel

930–1586 • The southern kingdom of Judah

925 • Pharaoh Shishak captures Arad during a raid of Palestine

925 • Shishak sacks the temple in Jerusalem

³³ After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. ³⁴ And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.

Judgment On the House of Jeroboam

14

14:1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. ² And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Indeed, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that I would be king over this people. ³ Also take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will become of the child.” ⁴ And Jeroboam’s wife did so; she arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were glazed by reason of his age.

⁵ Now the LORD had said to Ahijah, “Here is the wife of Jeroboam, coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman.”

⁶ And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have been sent to you with bad news. ⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, ⁸ and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; ⁹ but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back— ¹⁰ therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. ¹¹ The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the LORD has spoken!” ’ ¹² Arise therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³ And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

¹⁴ “Moreover the LORD will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; this is the day. What? Even now! ¹⁵ For the LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River,^a because they have made their wooden images,^b provoking the LORD to anger. ¹⁶ And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and who made Israel sin.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah. When she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸ And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰ The period that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. So he rested with his fathers. Then Nadab his son reigned in his place.

Transition

The Davidic Dynasty in Judah

The descendants of David continued to rule in Judah during the divided monarchy, represented first by Solomon’s son Rehoboam. During Rehoboam’s reign (930–913 B.C.), the Egyptian pharaoh Shishak (or Sheshonk) marched against Judah and Jerusalem, taking tribute from the temple and palace (1 Kin. 14:25, 26). Shishak’s own records report a devastating attack on Israel as well. Ruling Egypt’s 22nd Dynasty from 945 to 924 B.C., Shishak led his campaign into Palestine during Rehoboam’s 5th year (c. 925 B.C.).

In the first account of Judah during the divided kingdom, the historian of Kings presents three kings: Rehoboam, Abijam (or Abijah, 913–910 B.C.), and Asa (910–869 B.C.). He dates each king by synchronizing his accession year with the reign of the monarch in the other kingdom (see 1 Kin. 15:1, 9).

Because Kings alternates between accounts of Israel and Judah, some unusual historical sequences result. For example, the border wars between Asa and Israel’s Baasha (15:16–21) are discussed before Baasha is formally introduced (15:27–30). During the 9th century B.C. Damascus (Syria) allied itself with various Aramean kingdoms and became a serious threat to Israel’s northeast. Asa enticed Ben-Hadad I of Aram-Damascus to invade Israel, hoping to relieve Israel’s military pressure on Jerusalem.

• 1 Kings 14:21–15:24

1 Kings

Rehoboam Reigns in Judah

14

14:21 And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. ²² Now Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³ For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ And there were also perverted persons^a in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

TIME CAPSULE 924 to 900 B.C.

924–889 • Osorkon I, pharaoh of Egypt, provides wealth for the temple of Thebes

913 • Abijah becomes king in Judah

910 • Asa becomes king in Judah

909 • Nadab becomes king in Israel

908 • Baasha assassinates Nadab and becomes king in Israel

900 • Phoenicians establish trading colonies as far away as Spain

²⁵ It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. ²⁶ And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made. ²⁷ Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. ²⁸ And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guards carried them, then brought them back into the guardroom.

²⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ³⁰ And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ³¹ So Rehoboam rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Then Abijam^a his son reigned in his place.

Abijam Reigns in Judah

15

15:1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. ² He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom. ³ And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. ⁴ Nevertheless for David’s sake the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by setting up his son after him and by establishing Jerusalem; ⁵ because David did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. ⁶ And there was war between Rehoboam^a and Jeroboam all the days of his life. ⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

⁸ So Abijam rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place.

Asa Reigns in Judah

⁹ In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. ¹⁰ And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom. ¹¹ Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did his father David. ¹² And he banished the perverted persons^a from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. ¹³ Also he removed Maachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah.^a And Asa cut down her obscene image and burned it by the Brook Kidron. ¹⁴ But the high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was loyal to the LORD all his days. ¹⁵ He also brought into the house of the LORD the things which his father had dedicated, and the things which he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils.

¹⁶ Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. ¹⁷ And Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and gold that was left in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the treasuries of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, ¹⁹ “Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you a present of silver and gold. Come and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

²⁰ So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. He attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maachah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali. ²¹ Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah, and remained in Tirzah.

²² Then King Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted. And they took away the stones and timber of Ramah, which Baasha had used for building; and with them King Asa built Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.

²³ The rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. ²⁴ So Asa rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David his father. Then Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

Transition

Unrest in Israel

Instability characterized the northern kingdom. Despite Jeroboam’s long reign (930–909 B.C.), his dynasty would continue to rule Israel or only two more years under his son Nadab (909–908 B.C.) before being cut of by Baasha. The new dynasty would also last for only two rulers: Baasha himself (908–886 B.C.) and his son Elah (886–885 B.C.). One of Elah’s military commanders, Zimri, assassinated the king and assumed the throne himself. But Zimri’s conspiracy lasted only 7 days (1 Kin. 16:15–30), and Israel sank into civil war.

• 1 Kings 15:25–16:20

1 Kings

Nadab Reigns in Israel

15

15:25 Now Nadab the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. ²⁶ And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin.

²⁷ Then Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him. And Baasha killed him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. ²⁸ Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place. ²⁹ And it was so, when he became king, that he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, ³⁰ because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he had sinned and by which he had made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he had provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.

³¹ Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ³² And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

Kings of the Divided Monarchy

Baasha Reigns in Israel

³³ In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah became king over all Israel in Tirzah, and reigned twenty-four years. ³⁴ He did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin.

16

16:1 Then the word of the LORD came to Jehu the son of Hanani, against Baasha, saying: ² “Inasmuch as I lifted you out of the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have made My people Israel sin, to provoke Me to anger with their sins, ³ surely I will take away the posterity of Baasha and the posterity of his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. ⁴ The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Baasha and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the fields.”

⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, what he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ⁶ So Baasha rested with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. Then Elah his son reigned in his place.

⁷ And also the word of the LORD came by the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the LORD in provoking Him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and because he killed them.

Elah Reigns in Israel

⁸ In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel, and reigned two years in Tirzah. ⁹ Now his servant Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him as he was in Tirzah drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his house in Tirzah. ¹⁰ And Zimri went in and struck him and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.

¹¹ Then it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he was seated on his throne, that he killed all the household of Baasha; he did not leave him one male, neither of his relatives nor of his friends. ¹² Thus Zimri destroyed all the household of Baasha, according to the word of the LORD, which He spoke against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, ¹³ for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, by which they had sinned and by which they had made Israel sin, in provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols.

¹⁴ Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Zimri Reigns in Israel

¹⁵ In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri had reigned in Tirzah seven days. And the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. ¹⁶ Now the people who were encamped heard it said, “Zimri has conspired and also has killed the king.” So all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. ¹⁷ Then Omri and all Israel with him went up from Gibbethon, and they besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸ And it happened, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the citadel of the king’s house and burned the king’s house down upon himself with fire, and died, ¹⁹ because of the sins which he had committed in doing evil in the sight of the LORD, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he had committed to make Israel sin.

²⁰ Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the treason he committed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Transition

Priestly Account: The Kingdom Divides

Whereas the prophetic history in the books of Kings deals with both Israel and Judah, at least until Israel’s destruction, the priestly history is interested primarily in Judah. Only the barest outline of the northern kingdom’s history can be gleaned from Chronicles, while much more detail is given about Judah’s kings. This is especially true when this detail concerns the temple. The books of Kings, for instance, say nothing about Asa’s temple reforms, which are so prominent in the Chronicler’s account (2 Chr. 15).

• 2 Chronicles 10:1–11:23

2 Chronicles

The Revolt Against Rehoboam

10

10:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. ² So it happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard it (he was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon), that Jeroboam returned from Egypt. ³ Then they sent for him and called him. And Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴ “Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵ So he said to them, “Come back to me after three days.” And the people departed.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, saying, “How do you advise me to answer these people?”

⁷ And they spoke to him, saying, “If you are kind to these people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸ But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. ⁹ And he said to them, “What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?”

¹⁰ Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you should speak to the people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us’—thus you shall say to them: ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹ And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!’ ”^a

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had directed, saying, “Come back to me the third day.” ¹³ Then the king answered them roughly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders, ¹⁴ and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father^a made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!”^{b 15} So the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from God, that the LORD might fulfill His word, which He had spoken by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶ Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying:

“What share have we in David?

We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.

Every man to your tents, O Israel!

Now see to your own house, O David!”

So all Israel departed to their tents. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of revenue; but the children of Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

11

11:1 Now when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled from the house of Judah and Benjamin one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against Israel, that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.

² But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, ³ “Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying, ⁴ ‘Thus says the LORD: “You shall not go up or fight against your brethren! Let every man return to his house, for this thing is from Me.” ’ ” Therefore they obeyed the words of the LORD, and turned back from attacking Jeroboam.

Rehoboam Fortifies the Cities

⁵ So Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defense in Judah. ⁶ And he built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth Zur, Sochoh, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and Benjamin, fortified cities. ¹¹ And he fortified the strongholds, and put captains in them, and stores of food, oil, and wine. ¹² Also in every city he put shields and spears, and made them very strong, having Judah and Benjamin on his side.

* Shishak Campaigns Against Solomon’s Son (2 Chr. 12:2, 9)

Shishak (also spelled Sheshonk or Shoshenq) was the founder of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt. He claimed descent from a series of Libyan chiefs who had migrated generations earlier to the Delta region of Egypt. From Egyptian sources, Shishak is first known as the commander in chief of the Egyptian army under Psusennes II (959–945 B.C.), the last pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty. One of Shishak’s sons had married a daughter of the pharaoh, which possibly allowed Shishak to claim Egypt’s throne when Pharaoh Psusennes died.

A statue of Shishak has been found at Byblos, a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean Sea. The statue indicates possible Egyptian dominance on the Phoenician coast, and Shishak’s activity so close to Israel may explain why political dissidents under Solomon’s rule, such as Jeroboam, fled to Egypt (1 Kin. 11:40). Egypt’s acceptance of these dissidents may imply an antagonistic relationship between Egypt and Israel late in Solomon’s reign.

After Solomon’s death, in the 5th year of his son Rehoboam’s reign (925 B.C.), Shishak invaded Palestine (2 Chr. 12:2, 9). Archaeologists have uncovered evidence of that invasion at settlements in both Israel and Judah, which show signs of tremendous destruction. An inscription in the temple of Amon at Karnak tersely describes the campaign, listing over 150 towns which are said to have been destroyed. Not on the list is Jerusalem, having been spared because Rehoboam apparently paid Shishak with treasures from the temple and palace (1 Kin. 14:26; 2 Chr. 12:7–9).

Shishak’s reign (945–924 B.C.) was the beginning of over two centuries of Libyan rule in Egypt. He erected a victory stele at Megiddo, thus reasserting Egyptian domination in Palestine.

Priests and Levites Move To Judah

¹³ And from all their territories the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel took their stand with him. ¹⁴ For the Levites left their common-lands and their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priests to the LORD. ¹⁵ Then he appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the demons, and the calf idols which he had made. ¹⁶ And after the Levites left,^a those from all the tribes of Israel, such as set their heart to seek the LORD God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD God of their fathers. ¹⁷ So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong for three years, because they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.

The Family of Rehoboam

¹⁸ Then Rehoboam took for himself as wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of Eliah the son of Jesse. ¹⁹ And she bore him children: Jeush, Shamariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ After her he took Maachah the granddaughter^a of Absalom; and she bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ Now Rehoboam loved Maachah the granddaughter of Absalom more than all his wives and his concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and begot twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. ²² And Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maachah as chief, to be leader among his brothers; for he intended to make him king. ²³ He dealt wisely, and dispersed some of his sons throughout all the territories of Judah and Benjamin, to every fortified city; and he gave them provisions in abundance. He also sought many wives for them.

Transition

Rehoboam’s Apostasy

As the Chronicler traces the kings of Judah starting with Rehoboam (930–913 B.C.) and Abijah (913–910 B.C.), he emphasizes the consequences of disobedience. While both Kings and Chronicles mention Shishak’s invasion ofJudah in 925 B.C., the Chronicler offers an explanation for the attack that is not found in the parallel account of 1 Kin. 14:25, 26. In Chronicles the underlying cause of this in vasion was Rehoboam’s and Judah’s sin (12:5–8).

Chronicles also notes Jeroboam’s disobedience. In a sermon, Judah’s king Abijah challenged the legitimacy of Jeroboam’s reign (2 Chr. 13:5, 6) and the validity of his religious innovations (13:8, 9). Jeroboam had led Israel to abandon Yahweh, the God of their fathers (13:12).

• 2 Chronicles 12:1–13:22

2 Chronicles

Egypt Attacks Judah

12

12:1 Now it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, that he forsook the law of the LORD, and all Israel along with him. ² And it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD, ³ with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and people without number who came with him out of Egypt—the Lubim and the Sukkiim and the Ethiopians. ⁴ And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came to Jerusalem.

⁵ Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah, who were gathered together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus says the LORD: ‘You have forsaken Me, and therefore I also have left you in the hand of Shishak.’ ”

⁶ So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, “The LORD is righteous.”

⁷ Now when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. ⁸ Nevertheless they will be his servants, that they may distinguish My service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations.”

⁹ So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also carried away the gold shields which Solomon had made. ¹⁰ Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. ¹¹ And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guard would go and bring them out; then they would take them back into the guardroom. ¹² When he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and things also went well in Judah.

TIME CAPSULE 900 to 885 B.C.

900 • Earliest example of laminated steel

895 • Asa leads covenant renewal celebration in Judah (2 Chr. 15:10–15)

895 • Osorkon I of Egypt invades Palestine

887 • Ethbaal I, priest of Astarte, seizes throne of Tyre

886 • Elah becomes king in Israel

885 • Zimri murders Elah and becomes king in Israel

885 • Zimri commits suicide after 7 days as king

Israel’s Kings Meet Shalmaneser III of Assyria

The End of Rehoboam’s Reign

¹³ Thus King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Now Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king; and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. ¹⁴ And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the LORD.

¹⁵ The acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ¹⁶ So Rehoboam rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David. Then Abijah^a his son reigned in his place.

Abijah Reigns in Judah

13

13:1 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah. ² He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Michaiah^a the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.

And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³ Abijah set the battle in order with an army of valiant warriors, four hundred thousand choice men. Jeroboam also drew up in battle formation against him with eight hundred thousand choice men, mighty men of valor.

⁴ Then Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, and said, “Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel: ⁵ Should you not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the dominion over Israel to David forever, to him and his sons, by a covenant of salt? ⁶ Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord. ⁷ Then worthless rogues gathered to him, and strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and inexperienced and could not withstand them. ⁸ And now you think to withstand the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the hand of the sons of David; and you are a great multitude, and with you are the gold calves which Jeroboam made for you as gods. ⁹ Have you not cast out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests, like the peoples of other lands, so that whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may be a priest of things that are not gods? ¹⁰ But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken Him; and the priests who minister to the LORD are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites attend to their duties. ¹¹ And they burn to the LORD every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense; they also set the showbread in order on the pure gold table, and the lampstand of gold with its lamps to burn every evening; for we keep the command of the LORD our God, but you have forsaken Him. ¹² Now look, God Himself is with us as our head, and His priests with sounding trumpets to sound the alarm against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the LORD God of your fathers, for you shall not prosper!”

Asa and Baasha Fight Over Ramah

¹³ But Jeroboam caused an ambush to go around behind them; so they were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them. ¹⁴ And when Judah looked around, to their surprise the battle line was at both front and rear; and they cried out to the LORD, and the priests sounded the trumpets. ¹⁵ Then the men of Judah gave a shout; and as the men of Judah shouted, it happened that God struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. ¹⁶ And the children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand. ¹⁷ Then Abijah and his people struck them with a great slaughter; so five hundred thousand choice men of Israel fell slain. ¹⁸ Thus the children of Israel were subdued at that time; and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the LORD God of their fathers.

¹⁹ And Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took cities from him: Bethel with its villages, Jeshanah with its villages, and Ephrain^a with its villages. ²⁰ So Jeroboam did not recover strength again in the days of Abijah; and the LORD struck him, and he died.

²¹ But Abijah grew mighty, married fourteen wives, and begot twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. ²² Now the rest of the acts of Abijah, his ways, and his sayings are written in the annals of the prophet Iddo.

Marriage & Family

Cases of polygamy, a man having more than one wife, were usually a sign that a person was rich and powerful, such as King Abijah (2 Chr. 13:21). Polygamy may have been practiced only by the upper class. The Greeks were monogamous, and the Romans regarded polygamy as degenerate or barbarian. The Jews by the New Testament period were generally monogamous.

Transition

Asa’s Revival

According to the Chronicler, the beginning of Asa’s reign (910–869 B.C.) was peaceful (2 Chr. 14:1). It was a time of religious reform in which Asa removed the shrines of the Canaanite nature religions (2 Chr. 14:3, 5). The Chronicler provides a more detailed account of the reform in 2 Chr. 15. The covenant renewal celebration (15:10–15) was held in Asa’s 15th year (895 B.C.). Despite these successful reforms, Asa was unable to rid the land completely of the pagan high places (15:17).

• 2 Chronicles 14:1–16:14

Omri Begins a New Dynasty

2 Chronicles

14

14:1 So Abijah rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.

Asa Reigns in Judah

² Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the LORD his God, ³ for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images. ⁴ He commanded Judah to seek the LORD God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. ⁵ He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him. ⁶ And he built fortified cities in Judah, for the land had rest; he had no war in those years, because the LORD had given him rest. ⁷ Therefore he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities and make walls around them, and towers, gates, and bars, while the land is yet before us, because we have sought the LORD our God; we have sought Him, and He has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered. ⁸ And Asa had an army of three hundred thousand from Judah who carried shields and spears, and from Benjamin two hundred and eighty thousand men who carried shields and drew bows; all these were mighty men of valor.

⁹ Then Zerah the Ethiopian came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots, and he came to Mareshah. ¹⁰ So Asa went out against him, and they set the troops in battle array in the Valley of Zephathah at Mareshah. ¹¹ And Asa cried out to the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, it is nothing for You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power; help us, O LORD our God, for we rest on You, and in Your name we go against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; do not let man prevail against You!”

¹² So the LORD struck the Ethiopians before Asa and Judah, and the Ethiopians fled. ¹³ And Asa and the people who were with him pursued them to Gerar. So the Ethiopians were overthrown, and they could not recover, for they were broken before the LORD and His army. And they carried away very much spoil. ¹⁴ Then they defeated all the cities around Gerar, for the fear of the LORD came upon them; and they plundered all the cities, for there was exceedingly much spoil in them. ¹⁵ They also attacked the livestock enclosures, and carried off sheep and camels in abundance, and returned to Jerusalem.

* Asherah, Queen Mother of the Gods (2 Chr. 15:16)

King Asa of Judah removed his mother Maachah from her position as queen mother of Judah because she made sacred objects for the goddess Asherah (2 Chr. 15:16). The worship of any deity beside Yahweh was forbidden, so Asa was fulfilling the cultic laws by removing even the work of his mother from the royal precinct. It was urgent then to replace Maachah as queen mother since any such high position should be held by one true to Yahweh.

Asherah was a widely worshiped goddess throughout Syria-Palestine and even into Egypt. In the myths recovered from Ugarit, she is the spouse of El, head of the pantheon, and thus the queen mother of the gods. She chose which deities were to be established in what positions of authority in the cosmos. In the chain of authority she was the final resort for petitions to El. She is portrayed as fairly well in control of herself and the world which she owns with her spouse. Unquestionably, Asherah was the most politically powerful goddess in the Canaanite pantheon.

It appears that at times Judahites worshiped Asherah as the spouse ofYahweh, who was also called El (Gen. 33:20; 35:7). Inscriptions dating rom the time of the divided monarchy (after 930 B.C.) name Yahweh and reer to “His Asherah.” These inscriptions were ound in northeast Sinai at Kuntillet ‘Ajrud and within Judah’s borders at Khirbet el-Qom. The goddess clearly was popular in the land among populace and royalty alike, who continued worshiping her even down to the reign of Josiah (640–609 B.C.; 2 Kin. 23:4).

A human queen mother was the queen who, among other duties, advised the king, helped appoint princes and princesses to official positions, and helped choose the heir apparent to the throne. It was a position of considerable power and prestige. That King Asa’s mother, Maachah, worshiped Asherah, and dedicated some cultic object to her, possibly shows that this queen mother of Judah acknowledged her role as a representative of the goddess, the queen mother of heaven.

The Reforms of Asa

15

15:1 Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded. ² And he went out to meet Asa, and said to him: “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you. ³ For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law; ⁴ but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them. ⁵ And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands. ⁶ So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity. ⁷ But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!”

⁸ And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded^a the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the LORD that was before the vestibule of the LORD. ⁹ Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.

¹⁰ So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa. ¹¹ And they offered to the LORD at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought. ¹² Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; ¹³ and whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. ¹⁴ Then they took an oath before the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams’ horns. ¹⁵ And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around.

* Ahab the Religious Compromiser (1 Kin. 16:28–33)

Ahab was the second king of a dynasty founded by his father Omri in the northern kingdom of Israel. He ruled from 874 to 853 B.C. and is possibly alluded to in an inscription rom c. 850 B.C. The royal inscription, called the Moabite Stone, does not mention Ahab by name. However, the Moabite king Mesha does claim to have freed the Moabites from Israelite domination during the reign of the “son of Omri.”

The writer of the books of Kings gives a very negative evaluation of Ahab. His sin was that of religious compromise: he allowed Baal worship to continue in Israel.

Religious compromise was the consequence of a political move. Much of Ahab’s reign saw tension between Israel and the Aramean kingdom of Damascus to the northeast. Con tinuing his father’s policies of thwarting the Aramean presence in Israel, Ahab sought a series of alliances with neighboring Judah to the south and with Phoenicia on the coast.

Ahab’s alliances were strengthened by political marriages. His daughter Athaliah was married in 867 B.C. to Jehoram, the son of Judah’s King Jehoshaphat (2 Kin. 8:16–18; 2 Chr. 21:5, 6). The marriage helped to end hostile relations between Israel and Judah. The historian Josephus records that Ahab himself married Jezebel, whose father Ethbaal ruled the Phoenician kingdom including Tyre and Sidon (1 Kin. 16:31, 32).

Ahab thus solidified peace with Phoenicia through his marriage to the infamous Phoenician princess Jezebel. This foreign queen remained true to her foreign background: Josephus reports that her father was a priest in the Phoenician cult of Baal; his name “Ethbaal” means “with Baal.” The writer of Israel’s history strongly condemned Ahab for supporting Jezebel’s worship of the Phoenician and Canaanite god and compromising the Israelite worship of Yahweh (1 Kin. 16:30–33).

¹⁶ Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah;^a and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron. ¹⁷ But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.

¹⁸ He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils. ¹⁹ And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.

Asa’s Treaty With Syria

16

16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, Baasha king of Israel came up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. ² Then Asa brought silver and gold from the treasuries of the house of the LORD and of the king’s house, and sent to Ben-Hadad king of Syria, who dwelt in Damascus, saying, ³ “Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you silver and gold; come, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

⁴ So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. They attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel Maim, and all the storage cities of Naphtali. ⁵ Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah and ceased his work. ⁶ Then King Asa took all Judah, and they carried away the stones and timber of Ramah, which Baasha had used for building; and with them he built Geba and Mizpah.

Hanani’s Message To Asa

⁷ And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said to him: “Because you have relied on the king of Syria, and have not relied on the LORD your God, therefore the army of the king of Syria has escaped from your hand. ⁸ Were the Ethiopians and the Lubim not a huge army with very many chariots and horsemen? Yet, because you relied on the LORD, He delivered them into your hand. ⁹ For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. In this you have done foolishly; therefore from now on you shall have wars.” ¹⁰ Then Asa was angry with the seer, and put him in prison, for he was enraged at him because of this. And Asa oppressed some of the people at that time.

Illness and Death of Asa

¹¹ Note that the acts of Asa, first and last, are indeed written in the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not seek the LORD, but the physicians.

¹³ So Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign. ¹⁴ They buried him in his own tomb, which he had made for himself in the City of David; and they laid him in the bed which was filled with spices and various ingredients prepared in a mixture of ointments. They made a very great burning for him.

Transition

Prophetic Account: Ahab and Jehoshaphat

Zimri’s assassination of King Elah (see “Unrest in Israel” at 1 Kin. 15:25) resulted in a few chaotic years for Israel. The chariot commander Zimri had little support, but merely took advantage of the king’s drunken stupor (1 Kin. 16:9). Another military commander, Omri, assuming kingship himsel, ended Zimri’s conspiracy ater only 7 days (16:15, 16). However, civil war broke out for about five years (885–880 B.C.), with Omri and a rival named Tibni competing or the throne (16:21). Omri eventually won.

The turbulent history of the northern kingdom stabilized somewhat under the rule of Omri (885–874 B.C.). Although the Bible says little about this king beyond his ounding ofthe capital city of Samaria, he was very successful in material terms. He expanded Israel’s borders and established a reputation for himself. Even after Omri’s dynasty had disappeared, Assyria would refer to the nation of Israel as “the house of Omri.” Certainly, he was successful enough to establish a dynasty: his son Ahab reigned in his place.

The historian of Kings is much more concerned with Ahab, primarily because of his wife, Jezebel. Jezebel was from the merchant city of Tyre and brought with her an evangelistic zeal for her god, Baal (1 Kin. 16:31). She established her own shrines, priests, and prophets, and ruthlessly persecuted those who remained faithful to Yahweh, the God of Israel. Foremost among these faithful was a rough and austere prophet named Elijah.

Israel and Judah had often warred against each other during the first years following the monarchy’s division in 930 B.C. Their political relations calmed somewhat when Ahab of Israel and Jehoshaphat of Judah formed an alliance. Eventually, the two kingdoms even joined themselves militarily in battle against Aram (Syria; 1 Kin. 22).

• 1 Kings 16:21–34

1 Kings

Omri Reigns in Israel

16:21 Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. ²² But the people who followed Omri prevailed over the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri reigned. ²³ In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri became king over Israel, and reigned twelve years. Six years he reigned in Tirzah. ²⁴ And he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver; then he built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, Samaria, after the name of Shemer, owner of the hill. ²⁵ Omri did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and did worse than all who were before him. ²⁶ For he walked in all the ways of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sin by which he had made Israel sin, provoking the LORD God of Israel to anger with their idols.

²⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

²⁸ So Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. Then Ahab his son reigned in his place.

Ahab Reigns in Israel

²⁹ In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri became king over Israel; and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. ³⁰ Now Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD, more than all who were before him. ³¹ And it came to pass, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Sidonians; and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. ³² Then he set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. ³³ And Ahab made a wooden image.^a Ahab did more to provoke the LORD God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him. ³⁴ In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho. He laid its foundation with Abiram his firstborn, and with his youngest son Segub he set up its gates, according to the word of the LORD, which He had spoken through Joshua the son of Nun.^a

Transition

Elijah in Israel

Kings expands the brief summary of Ahab’s reign (1 Kin. 16:29–34) with stories about the prophet Elijah. During Ahab’s rule (874–853 B.C.), the struggle of Hebrew faith with Baalism inaugurates a new era of prophetic revelation. Elijah’s struggle against, and eventual victory over, Baalism (1 Kin. 17; 18) leads to Jezebel’s threat on Elijah’s life and his depressive reaction (1 Kin. 19).

Scripture:1 Kings 17:1–19:21

A bastion from the days of Ahab at Hatzor in the upper Galilee, Israel.

Jehoshaphat and Ahab Form an Alliance

1 Kings

Elijah Proclaims a Drought

17

17:1 And Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except at my word.”

² Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ³ “Get away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. ⁴ And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”

⁵ So he went and did according to the word of the LORD, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. ⁶ The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook. ⁷ And it happened after a while that the brook dried up, because there had been no rain in the land.

Elijah and the Widow

⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to him, saying, ⁹ “Arise, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. See, I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.” ¹⁰ So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, indeed a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, “Please bring me a little water in a cup, that I may drink.” ¹¹ And as she was going to get it, he called to her and said, “Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand.”

¹² So she said, “As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see, I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

¹³ And Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. ¹⁴ For thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.’ ”

¹⁵ So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. ¹⁶ The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah.

Elijah Revives the Widow’s Son

¹⁷ Now it happened after these things that the son of the woman who owned the house became sick. And his sickness was so serious that there was no breath left in him. ¹⁸ So she said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, O man of God? Have you come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to kill my son?”

¹⁹ And he said to her, “Give me your son.” So he took him out of her arms and carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed. ²⁰ Then he cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, have You also brought tragedy on the widow with whom I lodge, by killing her son?” ²¹ And he stretched himself out on the child three times, and cried out to the LORD and said, “O LORD my God, I pray, let this child’s soul come back to him.” ²² Then the LORD heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came back to him, and he revived.

²³ And Elijah took the child and brought him down from the upper room into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Elijah said, “See, your son lives!”

²⁴ Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth.”

Geography & Environment

Gathering sticks for a fire was common when the only fuel available for heating was wood (1 Kin. 17:10). The climate of Pale stine is mild enough that heating is not absolutely necessary in winter. However, fuel is required year-round for cooking. In modern times there is often danger of deforestation, but when the population was smaller, wood was a renewable supply.

Elijah’s Message To Ahab

18

18:1 And it came to pass after many days that the word of the LORD came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.”

² So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab; and there was a severe famine in Samaria. ³ And Ahab had called Obadiah, who was in charge of his house. (Now Obadiah feared the LORD greatly. ⁴ For so it was, while Jezebel massacred the prophets of the LORD, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.) ⁵ And Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go into the land to all the springs of water and to all the brooks; perhaps we may find grass to keep the horses and mules alive, so that we will not have to kill any livestock.” ⁶ So they divided the land between them to explore it; Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself.

⁷ Now as Obadiah was on his way, suddenly Elijah met him; and he recognized him, and fell on his face, and said, “Is that you, my lord Elijah?”

⁸ And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your master, ‘Elijah is here.’ ”

⁹ So he said, “How have I sinned, that you are delivering your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? ¹⁰ As the LORD your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to hunt for you; and when they said, ‘He is not here,’ he took an oath from the kingdom or nation that they could not find you. ¹¹ And now you say, ‘Go, tell your master, “Elijah is here” ’! ¹² And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from you, that the Spirit of the LORD will carry you to a place I do not know; so when I go and tell Ahab, and he cannot find you, he will kill me. But I your servant have feared the LORD from my youth. ¹³ Was it not reported to my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the LORD, how I hid one hundred men of the LORD’s prophets, fifty to a cave, and fed them with bread and water? ¹⁴ And now you say, ‘Go, tell your master, “Elijah is here.” ’ He will kill me!”

¹⁵ Then Elijah said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely present myself to him today.”

¹⁶ So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah.

¹⁷ Then it happened, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”

¹⁸ And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you and your father’s house have, in that you have forsaken the commandments of the LORD and have followed the Baals. ¹⁹ Now therefore, send and gather all Israel to me on Mount Carmel, the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, and the four hundred prophets of Asherah,^a who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

TIME CAPSULE 885 to 879 B.C.

885–880 • Civil war between Omri and Tibni, competing for Israel’s throne

883–859 • Ashurnasirpal II of Assyria campaigns every year of his reign

883 • Ashurnasirpal rebuilds Calah as his capital in Assyria

880 • Omri becomes sole king in Israel

880 • Assyrian troops fight on horseback in pairs

879 • Omri builds city of Samaria and makes it Israel’s new capital city

* Mocking Canaanite Religious Ritual (1 Kin. 18:17–29)

The confrontation between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kin. 18) demonstrates the power of Israel’s God Yahweh over against the weakness, even unreality, of the god Baal. After King Ahab of Israel married Jezebel, the princess of Sidon, the foreign queen promoted the worship of her Sidonian god, Baal (1 Kin. 16:31, 32). The goddess Asherah, symbolized by trees or wooden images (16:33), was also part of this cult, being represented by 400 prophets of her own (18:19).

The prophets of Baal and Asherah are said to “eat at Jezebel’s table” (18:19), meaning they were on the government payroll. Professional prophets were standard personnel in many courts, though the number, 850, in Jezebel’s court suggests either a rich kingdom or extravagance on her part.

Elijah chose a ritual for the contest that was common to the opposing prophets. An animal sacrifice (18:23) was a central cultic ritual used to honor deities, and bull sacrifices are well known from the clay tablets found at Ugarit. Both Yahweh and Baal were worshiped by the proper sacrifice of bulls.

Elijah’s request that each deity light the fire for its own sacrifice (18:24) may reflect the staging of “miracles” in Phoenician temples. The 2nd-century A.D. writer Lucian rom Samosata records in De Dea Syria how Phoenician priests would rig idols with hidden ropes. Pulling on the ropes would make the idols appear to move and thus amaze worshipers. On the mountain, at a new altar, there would be no chance to fool people with a staged “miraculous” divine intervention.

The prophets of Baal cried aloud and cut themselves in a frenzy (18:28). Self-laceration and mutilation, considered a sign of submission to the deity, appears in a number of religious cult activities. Lucian of Samosata reports worshipers of the goddess at Hierapolis falling into a frenzy and cutting off parts of their own flesh in honor of the deity. On Mount Carmel such actions failed to elicit any divine response (18:29).

Elijah’s Mount Carmel Victory

²⁰ So Ahab sent for all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together on Mount Carmel. ²¹ And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word. ²² Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. ²³ Therefore let them give us two bulls; and let them choose one bull for themselves, cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it; and I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. ²⁴ Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD; and the God who answers by fire, He is God.”

So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”

²⁵ Now Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, for you are many; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.”

²⁶ So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made.

²⁷ And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” ²⁸ So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. ²⁹ And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. ³¹ And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the LORD had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.”^{a 32} Then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD; and he made a trench around the altar large enough to hold two seahs of seed. ³³ And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, “Fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood.” ³⁴ Then he said, “Do it a second time,” and they did it a second time; and he said, “Do it a third time,” and they did it a third time. ³⁵ So the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water.

³⁶ And it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, “LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word. ³⁷ Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again.”

³⁸ Then the fire of the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. ³⁹ Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, “The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!”

⁴⁰ And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there.

The Drought Ends

⁴¹ Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” ⁴² So Ahab went up to eat and drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; then he bowed down on the ground, and put his face between his knees, ⁴³ and said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.”

So he went up and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” And seven times he said, “Go again.”

⁴⁴ Then it came to pass the seventh time, that he said, “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” So he said, “Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’ ”

⁴⁵ Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel. ⁴⁶ Then the hand of the LORD came upon Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Elijah Escapes From Jezebel

19

19:1 And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, also how he had executed all the prophets with the sword. ² Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” ³ And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.

⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, LORD, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

⁵ Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel^a touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” ⁶ Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. ⁷ And the angel^a of the LORD came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” ⁸ So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

* The Uptown Girl (1 Kin. 19:2, 3)

The marriage between Israel’s king Ahab and Sidon’s princess Jezebel was politically motivated. Unfortunately, the union had an ill effect on Israel’s worship of Yahweh. Even today, the name “Jezebel” is associated with all that is evil.

Jezebel, it should be remembered, killed the prophets of Yahweh (1 Kin. 18:13). She was also the one who frightened Yahweh’s prophet Elijah so much that he fled for safety (1 Kin. 19:2, 3). She also caused the man Naboth to be killed so her husband could possess Naboth’s field (1 Kin. 21:8–13). Her evil deeds led Elijah to predict that Jezebel would be eaten by dogs after her death (1 Kin. 21:23; 2 Kin. 9:35–37). Since Jezebel was so evil, how could she have had so much power?

That her influence came from being the wife of Ahab, making her the queen, is true but not the whole story. She was also the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of Sidon (1 Kin. 16:31). During Ahab’s time Sidon was one of the most powerful and certainly richest areas in and around Israel. The material culture of the Sidonians is one of the highest of those found in ancient Canaan. Their ceramic dishes are artistically beautiful, making the typical pots of the Israelites look clumsy and backwoodish.

As a princess from Sidon, Jezebel might have been the original “uptown” girl. She came from the richest and most advanced culture, as the daughter of a king, to Israel, a simple hill-country kingdom. Her aristocratic presence overwhelmed those around her; all eyes and hearts turned in her direction. They swooned in following her god Baal and deserted Yahweh, God of Israel. Not surprisingly, this original “uptown” girl also influenced her husband Ahab’s worship of Baal (1 Kin. 16:31).

⁹ And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the LORD came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁰ So he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

God’s Revelation To Elijah

¹¹ Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; ¹² and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.

¹³ So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

¹⁴ And he said, “I have been very zealous for the LORD God of hosts; because the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”

¹⁵ Then the LORD said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. ¹⁶ Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. ¹⁷ It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. ¹⁸ Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”

Elisha Follows Elijah

¹⁹ So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. ²⁰ And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.”

And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?”

²¹ So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

Transition

Ahab Wars with Damascus

Towards the end of Ahab’s reign, one of Israel’s primary threats was the state of Aram (or Syria), with its center in Damascus. In 853 B.C. Damascus led a coalition of Syro-Palestinian states (including Ahab and Israel) which was able to resist an advancing Assyr-ian army at the town of Qarqar. Ahab and Da-mascus were allies in that encounter with Assyria, but they became enemies soon afterward. The wars that Ahab fought against Aram-Damascus are recounted in 1 Kin. 20; 22.

The identity of King Ben-Hadad who led the Aramean (Syrian) forces against Israel (1 Kin. 20:1) is uncertain. Since the Ara-means ’ main deity was Hadad, god of rain, several of Aram’s kings were named “Ben-Hadad,” meaning “son of Hadad.” Some think that Ahab’s opponent was the same Ben-Hadad who aided Judah’s King Asa (1 Kin. 15:18), or possibly the King Hadad-ezer of Damascus who led the coalition at Qarqar. Others even suggest that the name “Ben-Hadad” reflects the Aramean king of 2 Kin. 13:24, 25. Thus the actual events surrounding Ahab’s death in 853 B.C. remain unidentified.

• 1 Kings 20:1–22:40

1 Kings

Ahab Defeats the Syrians

20

20:1 Now Ben-Hadad the king of Syria gathered all his forces together; thirty-two kings were with him, with horses and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria, and made war against it. ² Then he sent messengers into the city to Ahab king of Israel, and said to him, “Thus says Ben-Hadad: ³ ‘Your silver and your gold are mine; your loveliest wives and children are mine.’ ”

⁴ And the king of Israel answered and said, “My lord, O king, just as you say, I and all that I have are yours.”

⁵ Then the messengers came back and said, “Thus speaks Ben-Hadad, saying, ‘Indeed I have sent to you, saying, “You shall deliver to me your silver and your gold, your wives and your children”; ⁶ but I will send my servants to you tomorrow about this time, and they shall search your house and the houses of your servants. And it shall be, that whatever is pleasant in your eyes, they will put it in their hands and take it.’ ”

⁷ So the king of Israel called all the elders of the land, and said, “Notice, please, and see how this man seeks trouble, for he sent to me for my wives, my children, my silver, and my gold; and I did not deny him.”

⁸ And all the elders and all the people said to him, “Do not listen or consent.”

⁹ Therefore he said to the messengers of Ben-Hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you sent for to your servant the first time I will do, but this thing I cannot do.’ ”

And the messengers departed and brought back word to him.

¹⁰ Then Ben-Hadad sent to him and said, “The gods do so to me, and more also, if enough dust is left of Samaria for a handful for each of the people who follow me.”

¹¹ So the king of Israel answered and said, “Tell him, ‘Let not the one who puts on his armor boast like the one who takes it off.’ ”

¹² And it happened when Ben-Hadad heard this message, as he and the kings were drinking at the command post, that he said to his servants, “Get ready.” And they got ready to attack the city.

¹³ Suddenly a prophet approached Ahab king of Israel, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand today, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’ ”

¹⁴ So Ahab said, “By whom?”

And he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘By the young leaders of the provinces.’ ”

Then he said, “Who will set the battle in order?”

And he answered, “You.”

¹⁵ Then he mustered the young leaders of the provinces, and there were two hundred and thirty-two; and after them he mustered all the people, all the children of Israel—seven thousand.

¹⁶ So they went out at noon. Meanwhile Ben-Hadad and the thirty-two kings helping him were getting drunk at the command post. ¹⁷ The young leaders of the provinces went out first. And Ben-Hadad sent out a patrol, and they told him, saying, “Men are coming out of Samaria!” ¹⁸ So he said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive; and if they have come out for war, take them alive.”

¹⁹ Then these young leaders of the provinces went out of the city with the army which followed them. ²⁰ And each one killed his man; so the Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them; and Ben-Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with the cavalry. ²¹ Then the king of Israel went out and attacked the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter.

²² And the prophet came to the king of Israel and said to him, “Go, strengthen yourself; take note, and see what you should do, for in the spring of the year the king of Syria will come up against you.”

The Syrians Again Defeated

²³ Then the servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills. Therefore they were stronger than we; but if we fight against them in the plain, surely we will be stronger than they. ²⁴ So do this thing: Dismiss the kings, each from his position, and put captains in their places; ²⁵ and you shall muster an army like the army that you have lost, horse for horse and chariot for chariot. Then we will fight against them in the plain; surely we will be stronger than they.”

And he listened to their voice and did so.

²⁶ So it was, in the spring of the year, that Ben-Hadad mustered the Syrians and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. ²⁷ And the children of Israel were mustered and given provisions, and they went against them. Now the children of Israel encamped before them like two little flocks of goats, while the Syrians filled the countryside.

²⁸ Then a man of God came and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because the Syrians have said, “The LORD is God of the hills, but He is not God of the valleys,” therefore I will deliver all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the LORD.’ ” ²⁹ And they encamped opposite each other for seven days. So it was that on the seventh day the battle was joined; and the children of Israel killed one hundred thousand foot soldiers of the Syrians in one day. ³⁰ But the rest fled to Aphek, into the city; then a wall fell on twenty-seven thousand of the men who were left.

And Ben-Hadad fled and went into the city, into an inner chamber.

Ahab’s Treaty With Ben-Hadad

³¹ Then his servants said to him, “Look now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings. Please, let us put sackcloth around our waists and ropes around our heads, and go out to the king of Israel; perhaps he will spare your life.” ³² So they wore sackcloth around their waists and put ropes around their heads, and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad says, ‘Please let me live.’ ”

Religion & Worship

The prophets occasionally performed “pro phetic actions” of some sort, dramatizing an aspect of their message. Such actions might include “striking” (1 Kin. 20:35), symbolic items, such as Zedekiah’s “horns of iron” (1 Kin. 22:11), as well as more elaborate activity like Ezekiel’s actions (Ezek. 4; 5). There is at least one example of prophetic action in the New Testament (Acts 21:11).

And he said, “Is he still alive? He is my brother.”

³³ Now the men were watching closely to see whether any sign of mercy would come from him; and they quickly grasped at this word and said, “Your brother Ben-Hadad.”

So he said, “Go, bring him.” Then Ben-Hadad came out to him; and he had him come up into the chariot.

³⁴ So Ben-Hadad said to him, “The cities which my father took from your father I will restore; and you may set up marketplaces for yourself in Damascus, as my father did in Samaria.”

Then Ahab said, “I will send you away with this treaty.” So he made a treaty with him and sent him away.

Ahab Condemned

³⁵ Now a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbor by the word of the LORD, “Strike me, please.” And the man refused to strike him. ³⁶ Then he said to him, “Because you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, surely, as soon as you depart from me, a lion shall kill you.” And as soon as he left him, a lion found him and killed him.

³⁷ And he found another man, and said, “Strike me, please.” So the man struck him, inflicting a wound. ³⁸ Then the prophet departed and waited for the king by the road, and disguised himself with a bandage over his eyes. ³⁹ Now as the king passed by, he cried out to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the midst of the battle; and there, a man came over and brought a man to me, and said, ‘Guard this man; if by any means he is missing, your life shall be for his life, or else you shall pay a talent of silver.’ ⁴⁰ While your servant was busy here and there, he was gone.”

Then the king of Israel said to him, “So shall your judgment be; you yourself have decided it.”

⁴¹ And he hastened to take the bandage away from his eyes; and the king of Israel recognized him as one of the prophets. ⁴² Then he said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have let slip out of your hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.’ ”

TIME CAPSULE 874 to 867 B.C.

874–850 • Osorkon II of Egypt completes extensive temple construction at Tanis

874 • Ahab becomes king in Israel

872 • Jehoshaphat serves as coregent with Asa in Judah

869 • Jehoshaphat becomes sole king in Judah

867 • Israel’s King Ahab marries daughter Athaliah to Jehoram, the son of Judah’s King Jehoshaphat

⁴³ So the king of Israel went to his house sullen and displeased, and came to Samaria.

Naboth Is Murdered for His Vineyard

21

21:1 And it came to pass after these things that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard which was in Jezreel, next to the palace of Ahab king of Samaria. ² So Ahab spoke to Naboth, saying, “Give me your vineyard, that I may have it for a vegetable garden, because it is near, next to my house; and for it I will give you a vineyard better than it. Or, if it seems good to you, I will give you its worth in money.”

³ But Naboth said to Ahab, “The LORD forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to you!”

⁴ So Ahab went into his house sullen and displeased because of the word which Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and would eat no food. ⁵ But Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, “Why is your spirit so sullen that you eat no food?”

⁶ He said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite, and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money; or else, if it pleases you, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’ ”

⁷ Then Jezebel his wife said to him, “You now exercise authority over Israel! Arise, eat food, and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

⁸ And she wrote letters in Ahab’s name, sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in the city with Naboth. ⁹ She wrote in the letters, saying,

Proclaim a fast, and seat Naboth with high honor among the people; ¹⁰ and seat two men, scoundrels, before him to bear witness against him, saying, “You have blasphemed God and the king.” Then take him out, and stone him, that he may die.

¹¹ So the men of his city, the elders and nobles who were inhabitants of his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letters which she had sent to them. ¹² They proclaimed a fast, and seated Naboth with high honor among the people. ¹³ And two men, scoundrels, came in and sat before him; and the scoundrels witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth has blasphemed God and the king!” Then they took him outside the city and stoned him with stones, so that he died. ¹⁴ Then they sent to Jezebel, saying, “Naboth has been stoned and is dead.”

¹⁵ And it came to pass, when Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned and was dead, that Jezebel said to Ahab, “Arise, take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, which he refused to give you for money; for Naboth is not alive, but dead.” ¹⁶ So it was, when Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, that Ahab got up and went down to take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.

The LORD Condemns Ahab

¹⁷ Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ¹⁸ “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who lives in Samaria. There he is, in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. ¹⁹ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Have you murdered and also taken possession?” ’ And you shall speak to him, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs shall lick your blood, even yours.” ’ ”

²⁰ So Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, O my enemy?”

And he answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do evil in the sight of the LORD: ²¹ ‘Behold, I will bring calamity on you. I will take away your posterity, and will cut off from Ahab every male in Israel, both bond and free. ²² I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, because of the provocation with which you have provoked Me to anger, and made Israel sin.’ ²³ And concerning Jezebel the LORD also spoke, saying, ‘The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall^a of Jezreel.’ ²⁴ The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Ahab and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field.”

²⁵ But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up. ²⁶ And he behaved very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites had done, whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.

²⁷ So it was, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted and lay in sackcloth, and went about mourning.

²⁸ And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, ²⁹ “See how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the calamity in his days. In the days of his son I will bring the calamity on his house.”

Micaiah Warns Ahab

22

22:1 Now three years passed without war between Syria and Israel. ² Then it came to pass, in the third year, that Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went down to visit the king of Israel.

³ And the king of Israel said to his servants, “Do you know that Ramoth in Gilead is ours, but we hesitate to take it out of the hand of the king of Syria?” ⁴ So he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight at Ramoth Gilead?”

Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” ⁵ Also Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire for the word of the LORD today.”

⁶ Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall I go against Ramoth Gilead to fight, or shall I refrain?”

So they said, “Go up, for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king.”

⁷ And Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of Him?”^a

⁸ So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man, Micaiah the son of Imlah, by whom we may inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he does not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.”

And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say such things!”

⁹ Then the king of Israel called an officer and said, “Bring Micaiah the son of Imlah quickly!”

¹⁰ The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, having put on their robes, sat each on his throne, at a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. ¹¹ Now Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah had made horns of iron for himself; and he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘With these you shall gore the Syrians until they are destroyed.’ ” ¹² And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, “Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the king’s hand.”

¹³ Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, “Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encourage the king. Please, let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak encouragement.”

¹⁴ And Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, whatever the LORD says to me, that I will speak.”

¹⁵ Then he came to the king; and the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall we refrain?”

And he answered him, “Go and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king!”

¹⁶ So the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”

¹⁷ Then he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These have no master. Let each return to his house in peace.’ ”

¹⁸ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”

Beliefs & Ideas

In several visions of God described by the prophets, God is enthroned and surrounded by a court consisting of His servants. Among those attending the court are spirits prepared to perform works, such as deceiving King Ahab (1 Kin. 22:19–23). In one case, even Satan, the Adversary, attends God’s court, obtaining permission to afflict Job with misfortune and sickness (Job 1:6–12).

¹⁹ Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left. ²⁰ And the LORD said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. ²¹ Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ ²² The LORD said to him, ‘In what way?’ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the LORD said, ‘You shall persuade him, and also prevail. Go out and do so.’ ²³ Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.”

²⁴ Now Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go from me to speak to you?”

²⁵ And Micaiah said, “Indeed, you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide!”

²⁶ So the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son; ²⁷ and say, ‘Thus says the king: “Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I come in peace.” ’ ”

²⁸ But Micaiah said, “If you ever return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Take heed, all you people!”

Ahab Dies in Battle

²⁹ So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. ³⁰ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle; but you put on your robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.

³¹ Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty-two captains of his chariots, saying, “Fight with no one small or great, but only with the king of Israel.” ³² So it was, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, “Surely it is the king of Israel!” Therefore they turned aside to fight against him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. ³³ And it happened, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. ³⁴ Now a certain man drew a bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, for I am wounded.”

* The Ivory House (1 Kin. 22:39)

The city of Samaria holds two distinctions. First, it was the only city that the Israelites are specifically credited with building from the ground up (1 Kin. 16:24); all others they took from some other people. Samaria’s second claim to fame is the amazingly large number of ivories that were found in the rubble of King Ahab’s palace (1 Kin. 22:39).

The ivories have been found in destruction layers that had been Ahab’s house, but exactly how they were used is not certain. Among the pieces found were a large number of plaques, suggesting that they were hung on walls. Some of these plaques were themselves decorated with gold, colored glass, and jewels. Other pieces of ivory were used as inlays for furniture, which recalls the “beds of ivory” mentioned by the prophet Amos (Amos 6:4).

The motifs of these ivory pieces included animals like lions and goats; foreign gods like the Egyptian gods Horus and Re; Hebrew letters; and winged creatures. No doubt such unusual and expensive decoration spread the fame of Ahab, who ruled from 874 to 853 B.C. Ivory houses also characterized the prosperity that the prophet Amos decried during the later reign ofJeroboam II (793–753 B.C.). The kings of Israel had a summer palace in Jezreel and a winter palace at Samaria, both being examples of luxury and extravagance (Amos 3:15).

³⁵ The battle increased that day; and the king was propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians, and died at evening. The blood ran out from the wound onto the floor of the chariot. ³⁶ Then, as the sun was going down, a shout went throughout the army, saying, “Every man to his city, and every man to his own country!”

³⁷ So the king died, and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king in Samaria. ³⁸ Then someone washed the chariot at a pool in Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood while the harlots bathed,^a according to the word of the LORD which He had spoken.

³⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Ahab, and all that he did, the ivory house which he built and all the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ⁴⁰ So Ahab rested with his fathers. Then Ahaziah his son reigned in his place.

Transition

The Alliance of Judah and Israel

In a summary of Jehoshaphat’s reign (872–848 B.C.), the author ofKings comments that Jehoshaphat “made peace with the king ofIsrael” (1 Kin. 22:44). This alliance resulted in both a joint military campaign with Israel’s Ahab and later a commercial enterprise with Ahab’s son Ahaziah—neither of which was successful. The campaign against the Arameans at Ramoth Gilead was aborted after Ahab was killed (1 Kin. 22:35, 36), and the trading venture with Ahaziah ended in shipwreck (1 Kin. 22:48; 2 Chr. 20:35–37). After two such failures, Jehoshaphat was understandably reluctant to continue working with Israel (1 Kin. 22:49).

• 1 Kings 22:41–50

1 Kings

Jehoshaphat Reigns in Judah

22

22:41 Jehoshaphat the son of Asa had become king over Judah in the fourth year of Ahab king of Israel. ⁴² Jehoshaphat was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. ⁴³ And he walked in all the ways of his father Asa. He did not turn aside from them, doing what was right in the eyes of the LORD. Nevertheless the high places were not taken away, for the people offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places. ⁴⁴ Also Jehoshaphat made peace with the king of Israel.

⁴⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, the might that he showed, and how he made war, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? ⁴⁶ And the rest of the perverted persons,^a who remained in the days of his father Asa, he banished from the land. ⁴⁷ There was then no king in Edom, only a deputy of the king.

⁴⁸ Jehoshaphat made merchant ships^a to go to Ophir for gold; but they never sailed, for the ships were wrecked at Ezion Geber. ⁴⁹ Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships.” But Jehoshaphat would not.

⁵⁰ And Jehoshaphat rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David his father. Then Jehoram his son reigned in his place.

Transition

Priestly Account: Ahab and Jehoshaphat

The historian of Kings offered a short summary of Jehoshaphat’s reign (1 Kin. 22:41–50), while covering Ahab’s reign in the northern kingdom much more thoroughly. The Chron icler reverses that emphasis, con cen trating on Judah’s king Jehoshaphat (872–848 B.C.), and mentioning Ahab only at the campaign against Ramoth Gilead (2 Chr. 18).

Chronicles relates the battle of Ramoth Gilead almost word for word from Kings, but adds comments that present Jehoshaphat in a good light. The feast hosted by Ahab (2 Chr. 18:2) is not mentioned in 1 Kin. 22:2; perhaps the Chronicler wanted to show that Ahab was primarily responsible for the military defeat. While Jeho shaphat is rebuked for his alliance with “the wicked,” meaning Ahab, he is praised for his religious reforms (2 Chr. 19:1–3).

• 2 Chronicles 17:1–19:11

2 Chronicles

Jehoshaphat Reigns in Judah

17

17:1 Then Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his place, and strengthened himself against Israel. ² And he placed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah, and set garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim which Asa his father had taken. ³ Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the former ways of his father David; he did not seek the Baals, ⁴ but sought the God^a of his father, and walked in His commandments and not according to the acts of Israel. ⁵ Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah gave presents to Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor in abundance. ⁶ And his heart took delight in the ways of the LORD; moreover he removed the high places and wooden images from Judah.

⁷ Also in the third year of his reign he sent his leaders, Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Michaiah, to teach in the cities of Judah. ⁸ And with them he sent Levites: Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah—the Levites; and with them Elishama and Jehoram, the priests. ⁹ So they taught in Judah, and had the Book of the Law of the LORD with them; they went throughout all the cities of Judah and taught the people.

¹⁰ And the fear of the LORD fell on all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah, so that they did not make war against Jehoshaphat. ¹¹ Also some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat presents and silver as tribute; and the Arabians brought him flocks, seven thousand seven hundred rams and seven thousand seven hundred male goats.

¹² So Jehoshaphat became increasingly powerful, and he built fortresses and storage cities in Judah. ¹³ He had much property in the cities of Judah; and the men of war, mighty men of valor, were in Jerusalem.

¹⁴ These are their numbers, according to their fathers’ houses. Of Judah, the captains of thousands: Adnah the captain, and with him three hundred thousand mighty men of valor; ¹⁵ and next to him was Jehohanan the captain, and with him two hundred and eighty thousand; ¹⁶ and next to him was Amasiah the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself to the LORD, and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valor. ¹⁷ Of Benjamin: Eliada a mighty man of valor, and with him two hundred thousand men armed with bow and shield; ¹⁸ and next to him was Jehozabad, and with him one hundred and eighty thousand prepared for war. ¹⁹ These served the king, besides those the king put in the fortified cities throughout all Judah.

Micaiah Warns Ahab

18

18:1 Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance; and by marriage he allied himself with Ahab. ² After some years he went down to visit Ahab in Samaria; and Ahab killed sheep and oxen in abundance for him and the people who were with him, and persuaded him to go up with him to Ramoth Gilead. ³ So Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, “Will you go with me against Ramoth Gilead?”

And he answered him, “I am as you are, and my people as your people; we will be with you in the war.”

⁴ Also Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire for the word of the LORD today.”

⁵ Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, four hundred men, and said to them, “Shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?”

So they said, “Go up, for God will deliver it into the king’s hand.”

⁶ But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there not still a prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of Him?”^a

⁷ So the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “There is still one man by whom we may inquire of the LORD; but I hate him, because he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil. He is Micaiah the son of Imla.”

And Jehoshaphat said, “Let not the king say such things!”

Brothers, In-Laws, Uncles, and Nephews

⁸ Then the king of Israel called one of his officers and said, “Bring Micaiah the son of Imla quickly!”

⁹ The king of Israel and Jehoshaphat king of Judah, clothed in their robes, sat each on his throne; and they sat at a threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets prophesied before them. ¹⁰ Now Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah had made horns of iron for himself; and he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘With these you shall gore the Syrians until they are destroyed.’ ”

¹¹ And all the prophets prophesied so, saying, “Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the king’s hand.”

¹² Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah spoke to him, saying, “Now listen, the words of the prophets with one accord encourage the king. Therefore please let your word be like the word of one of them, and speak encouragement.”

¹³ And Micaiah said, “As the LORD lives, whatever my God says, that I will speak.”

¹⁴ Then he came to the king; and the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we go to war against Ramoth Gilead, or shall I refrain?”

And he said, “Go and prosper, and they shall be delivered into your hand!”

¹⁵ So the king said to him, “How many times shall I make you swear that you tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the LORD?”

¹⁶ Then he said, “I saw all Israel scattered on the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And the LORD said, ‘These have no master. Let each return to his house in peace.’ ”

¹⁷ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Did I not tell you he would not prophesy good concerning me, but evil?”

¹⁸ Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and His left. ¹⁹ And the LORD said, ‘Who will persuade Ahab king of Israel to go up, that he may fall at Ramoth Gilead?’ So one spoke in this manner, and another spoke in that manner. ²⁰ Then a spirit came forward and stood before the LORD, and said, ‘I will persuade him.’ The LORD said to him, ‘In what way?’ ²¹ So he said, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ And the LORD said, ‘You shall persuade him and also prevail; go out and do so.’ ²² Therefore look! The LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouth of these prophets of yours, and the LORD has declared disaster against you.”

Beliefs & Ideas

Zedekiah’s horns of iron (2 Chr. 18:10) were part of a public display of prophets before the royal court of Israel. The symbolic action makes the prophetic word visible and unforgettable. The royal court itself resembles the heavenly court described by Micaiah (2 Chr. 18:18) in one respect: the agents before the throne are not unanimous, but include differing opinions.

²³ Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah went near and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and said, “Which way did the spirit from the LORD go from me to speak to you?”

²⁴ And Micaiah said, “Indeed you shall see on that day when you go into an inner chamber to hide!”

* Heaven Plans an Assassination (2 Chr. 18:18–22)

Ahab, king of Israel (874–853 B.C.), asked Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to join him in an attack on Syria (2 Chr. 18:3). The two kings then consulted the professional court prophets, inquiring about the will of the deity in the matter. This was normal practice throughout the ancient Near East, especially during military campaigns, and kings kept staffs of professional prophets in their courts just for this purpose.

The 400 professional prophets who answered Ahab spoke with one voice (18:5). Prophets usually determined the will of the deity by means of set observations which were written down in manuals. This kept individual interpretation to a minimum. However, one prophet, Micaiah, spoke independently for Yahweh, claiming to have seen and heard the heavenly court procedure.

Usually the divine council was made up of gods. In Canaanite religion, El, the head of the pantheon, would be in charge of such a council, but the deities in attendance were the ones who debated the course of action. Once a plan was determined, these lesser deities were also the ones to carry out the action in the world. In Micaiah’s vision Yahweh is the head of the council (18:18), and the members are called spirits. The spirit who devised the plan to lead the king of Israel into a battle where he would die was also the one assigned to carry out the plan (18:21).

Neo-Assyrian texts show that court prophets continued to be consulted by the Assyrian kings Esarhaddon (680–669 B.C.) and Ashurbanipal (668–627 B.C.). The prophets, who are called “proclaimers,” reported oracles to the king from such Assyrian deities as Asshur, Ishtar, and Ninlil. The oracles themselves were preserved in the official royal annals.

²⁵ Then the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah, and return him to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son; ²⁶ and say, ‘Thus says the king: “Put this fellow in prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and water of affliction, until I return in peace.” ’ ”

²⁷ But Micaiah said, “If you ever return in peace, the LORD has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Take heed, all you people!”

Ahab Dies in Battle

²⁸ So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth Gilead. ²⁹ And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “I will disguise myself and go into battle; but you put on your robes.” So the king of Israel disguised himself, and they went into battle.

³⁰ Now the king of Syria had commanded the captains of the chariots who were with him, saying, “Fight with no one small or great, but only with the king of Israel.”

³¹ So it was, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, “It is the king of Israel!” Therefore they surrounded him to attack; but Jehoshaphat cried out, and the LORD helped him, and God diverted them from him. ³² For so it was, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. ³³ Now a certain man drew a bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor. So he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn around and take me out of the battle, for I am wounded.” ³⁴ The battle increased that day, and the king of Israel propped himself up in his chariot facing the Syrians until evening; and about the time of sunset he died.

19

19:1 Then Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned safely to his house in Jerusalem. ² And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to King Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the LORD? Therefore the wrath of the LORD is upon you. ³ Nevertheless good things are found in you, in that you have removed the wooden images from the land, and have prepared your heart to seek God.”

The Reforms of Jehoshaphat

⁴ So Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the mountains of Ephraim, and brought them back to the LORD God of their fathers. ⁵ Then he set judges in the land throughout all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city, ⁶ and said to the judges, “Take heed to what you are doing, for you do not judge for man but for the LORD, who is with you in the judgment. ⁷ Now therefore, let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take care and do it, for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, no partiality, nor taking of bribes.”

⁸ Moreover in Jerusalem, for the judgment of the LORD and for controversies, Jehoshaphat appointed some of the Levites and priests, and some of the chief fathers of Israel, when they returned to Jerusalem.^{a 9} And he commanded them, saying, “Thus you shall act in the fear of the LORD, faithfully and with a loyal heart: ¹⁰ Whatever case comes to you from your brethren who dwell in their cities, whether of bloodshed or offenses against law or commandment, against statutes or ordinances, you shall warn them, lest they trespass against the LORD and wrath come upon you and your brethren. Do this, and you will not be guilty. ¹¹ And take notice: Amariah the chief priest is over you in all matters of the LORD; and Zebadiah the son of Ishmael, the ruler of the house of Judah, for all the king’s matters; also the Levites will be officials before you. Behave courageously, and the LORD will be with the good.”

Transition

Holy War Against the Transjordan Coalition

Elijah, in many ways the hero of the Book of 1 Kings, appears only once in Chronicles (2 Chr. 21:12). This is partly because Elijah prophesied in the northern kingdom, whereas the Chronicler writes mostly about Judah. Another reason, though, is that the Chronicler simply is not as interested in prophets—even Elijah—as he is in priests and the temple. For instance, Jehoshaphat’s battle against a coalition of Transjordanian forces, including Moab, Ammon, and Edom, is not recorded in Kings. The account in Chronicles relates a royal speech in the temple court (2 Chr. 20:5, 14–17), and describes the battle as fought not by warriors but by, of all people, the temple musicians (20:21–23, 27–29).

• 2 Chronicles 20:1–37

2 Chronicles

Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir Defeated

20

20:1 It happened after this that the people of Moab with the people of Ammon, and others with them besides the Ammonites,^a came to battle against Jehoshaphat. ² Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea, from Syria;^a and they are in Hazazon Tamar” (which is En Gedi). ³ And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. ⁴ So Judah gathered together to ask help from the LORD; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD.

⁵ Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the LORD, before the new court, ⁶ and said: “O LORD God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven, and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations, and in Your hand is there not power and might, so that no one is able to withstand You? ⁷ Are You not our God, who drove out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel, and gave it to the descendants of Abraham Your friend forever? ⁸ And they dwell in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your name, saying, ⁹ ‘If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’ ¹⁰ And now, here are the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir—whom You would not let Israel invade when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them and did not destroy them— ¹¹ here they are, rewarding us by coming to throw us out of Your possession which You have given us to inherit. ¹² O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

¹³ Now all Judah, with their little ones, their wives, and their children, stood before the LORD.

¹⁴ Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, in the midst of the assembly. ¹⁵ And he said, “Listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat! Thus says the LORD to you: ‘Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s. ¹⁶ Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the Ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the Wilderness of Jeruel. ¹⁷ You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!’ Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you.”

¹⁸ And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bowed before the LORD, worshiping the LORD. ¹⁹ Then the Levites of the children of the Kohathites and of the children of the Korahites stood up to praise the LORD God of Israel with voices loud and high.

²⁰ So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.” ²¹ And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the LORD, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying:

TIME CAPSULE 858 to 853 B.C.

858–824 • Shalmaneser III of Assyria campaigns against Urartu and Damascus

858 • Assyrian Empire reaches to the Mediterranean

856 • Shalmaneser captures many cities of Urartu

853–845 • Urhilina, king of Hamath, is part of coalition that stops Assyrian advances to the west

853 • Anti-Assyrian coalition fights against Assyria’s Shalmaneser at the battle of Qarqar

* Seir Is Edom (2 Chr. 20:23)

Seir was a geographic region within the territory of the Edomites (Gen. 36:21). The central and southern highlands of Transjordan were, in biblical times, divided among three peoples, the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, with the Edomites living in the southern-most region.

The association between Edom and Seir was so close that, at times, the name of Seir was used as an alternative name for Edom (Num. 24:18). Sometimes Seir is referred to as Mount Seir, suggesting that its territory was mountainous.

Exactly where this region is located is unknown. The name “Seir” means “hairy,” which provides no geographical clues. On the other hand, “Edom” means “red,” which has caused some scholars to speculate that Edom itself was in the area of the reddish sandstone mountains around Petra, with Seir being one of those mountains. This location is unlikely, however, since Seir seems to be connected with a major passageway up to the Transjordanian plateau (Josh. 12:7).

The Chronicler apparently uses “Mount Seir” to represent Edom (2 Chr. 20:23). The Ammonites and Moabites joined forces to destroy the Edomites, before turning on each other.

“Praise the LORD,

For His mercy endures forever.”^a

²² Now when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. ²³ For the people of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.

²⁴ So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude; and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth. No one had escaped.

²⁵ When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on the dead bodies,^a and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away; and they were three days gathering the spoil because there was so much. ²⁶ And on the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berachah, for there they blessed the LORD; therefore the name of that place was called The Valley of Berachah^a until this day. ²⁷ Then they returned, every man of Judah and Jerusalem, with Jehoshaphat in front of them, to go back to Jerusalem with joy, for the LORD had made them rejoice over their enemies. ²⁸ So they came to Jerusalem, with stringed instruments and harps and trumpets, to the house of the LORD. ²⁹ And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. ³⁰ Then the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around.

Culture & Society

Clothing is used universally to indicate the status and function of persons in society. The prophet’s calling is shown by unsophisticated garments, including a leather belt (2 Kin. 1:8; Mark 1:6). Among other things, this clothing proves that the prophet is not on the king’s payroll, but owes allegiance only to God (Luke 7:25).

The End of Jehoshaphat’s Reign

³¹ So Jehoshaphat was king over Judah. He was thirty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Azubah the daughter of Shilhi. ³² And he walked in the way of his father Asa, and did not turn aside from it, doing what was right in the sight of the LORD. ³³ Nevertheless the high places were not taken away, for as yet the people had not directed their hearts to the God of their fathers.

³⁴ Now the rest of the acts of Jehoshaphat, first and last, indeed they are written in the book of Jehu the son of Hanani, which is mentioned in the book of the kings of Israel.

³⁵ After this Jehoshaphat king of Judah allied himself with Ahaziah king of Israel, who acted very wickedly. ³⁶ And he allied himself with him to make ships to go to Tarshish, and they made the ships in Ezion Geber. ³⁷ But Eliezer the son of Dodavah of Mareshah prophesied against Jehoshaphat, saying, “Because you have allied yourself with Ahaziah, the LORD has destroyed your works.” Then the ships were wrecked, so that they were not able to go to Tarshish.

Transition

Prophetic Account: Fall of Omri’s Dynasty

The Omride dynasty lasted almost 50 years through the reigns of four Israelite kings. Omri and his son Ahab were followed on the throne by Ahaziah (853–852 B.C.) and Jehoram (or Joram; 852–841 B.C.). Both Ahaziah and Jehor am were sons of Ahab; since Ahaziah was childless, he was succeeded as king by his brother (2 Kin. 1:17).

The historian of Kings introduces Ahaziah’s reign in 1 Kin. 22:51–53 with criticism of the king’s religious policies. Ahaziah was guilty of perpetuating both the Canaanite fertility religion of his parents, Ahab and Jezebel, and the idolatrous calf worship of Jeroboam. The story of Ahaziah’s involvement with Canaanite religion continues in the Book of 2 Kings, recounting the king’s encounter with the prophet Elijah (2 Kin. 1).

• 1 Kings 22:51–53
• 2 Kings 1:1–18

1 Kings 22:51–53

Ahaziah Reigns in Israel

22

22:51 Ahaziah the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned two years over Israel. ⁵² He did evil in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin; ⁵³ for he served Baal and worshiped him, and provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger, according to all that his father had done.

2 Kings 1:1–18

God Judges Ahaziah

1

1:1 Moab rebelled against Israel after the death of Ahab.

² Now Ahaziah fell through the lattice of his upper room in Samaria, and was injured; so he sent messengers and said to them, “Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether I shall recover from this injury.” ³ But the angel^a of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, “Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are going to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ ⁴ Now therefore, thus says the LORD: ‘You shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” So Elijah departed.

⁵ And when the messengers returned to him, he said to them, “Why have you come back?”

⁶ So they said to him, “A man came up to meet us, and said to us, ‘Go, return to the king who sent you, and say to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel that you are sending to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ” ’ ”

⁷ Then he said to them, “What kind of man was it who came up to meet you and told you these words?”

⁸ So they answered him, “A hairy man wearing a leather belt around his waist.”

And he said, “It is Elijah the Tishbite.”

⁹ Then the king sent to him a captain of fifty with his fifty men. So he went up to him; and there he was, sitting on the top of a hill. And he spoke to him: “Man of God, the king has said, ‘Come down!’ ”

¹⁰ So Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty. ¹¹ Then he sent to him another captain of fifty with his fifty men.

And he answered and said to him: “Man of God, thus has the king said, ‘Come down quickly!’ ”

¹² So Elijah answered and said to them, “If I am a man of God, let fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And the fire of God came down from heaven and consumed him and his fifty.

¹³ Again, he sent a third captain of fifty with his fifty men. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and pleaded with him, and said to him: “Man of God, please let my life and the life of these fifty servants of yours be precious in your sight. ¹⁴ Look, fire has come down from heaven and burned up the first two captains of fifties with their fifties. But let my life now be precious in your sight.”

¹⁵ And the angel^a of the LORD said to Elijah, “Go down with him; do not be afraid of him.” So he arose and went down with him to the king. ¹⁶ Then he said to him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Because you have sent messengers to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, is it because there is no God in Israel to inquire of His word? Therefore you shall not come down from the bed to which you have gone up, but you shall surely die.’ ”

¹⁷ So Ahaziah died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. Because he had no son, Jehoram^a became king in his place, in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.

¹⁸ Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

* The Lord of the Flies (2 Kin. 1:2–16)

Baal-Zebub, a Philistine deity at Ekron, is unknown outside of 2 Kin. 1:2–16. The deity is often confused with Beelzebub (or Beelzebul) mentioned in the New Testament (Matt. 12:24). The name “Baal-Zebub” means “lord of the flies,” and a deity by this name likely was worshiped in the Philistine city of Ekron.

Ahaziah, due to an accidental injury (2 Kin. 1:2), did not rule long as king of Israel (853–852 B.C.). Having been wounded, he sent messengers to the deity Baal-Zebub, seeking information about his chances of recovery. One method by which professional prophets determined the will of the gods was to watch the ways in which flies swarmed. So probably Baal-Zebub was a god from whom knowledge of future events was sought by means of the flight of insects. Ahaziah sought divine knowledge from Ekron, just as people from all over the ancient world visited the Greek shrine at Delphi to inquire of the oracle there.

Elijah, the prophet of Yahweh, stopped the messengers (and a few armies) from consulting Baal-Zebub and then confronted Ahaziah with his lack of faithfulness. This was a dem onstration that Yahweh is all Israel needs; there is no need for foreign gods (1:6). That the king did not trust the God of Israel enough to inquire of Him was enough to cause the king to die. The ancients believed that rulers were given their kingdoms by their patron gods. When a king abandoned his patron god, he risked being abandoned by the god.

Transition

Elisha in Israel

Elijah’s role in 1 Kings is assumed in 2 Kings by his disciple and successor Elisha. The two prophets are presented quite differently, however. Elijah is always a messenger, pronouncing God’s words, whereas Elisha speaks briefly or not at all. Instead, Elisha performs miracles, and his ministry is marked more with actions than words.

The Elisha narratives are often indifferent to political powers. For instance, the story in 2 Kin. 6:8–23 speaks of the kings of Israel and Syria but never bothers to identify which ones. Elisha himself was very involved in politics, however. Indeed, he personally inaugurated two new royal dynasties: that of Hazael, king of Syria (2 Kin. 8:7–15), and that of Jehu, king of Israel (2 Kin. 9:1–13).

The last king of the Omride dynasty, Jehoram, also called Joram (852–841 B.C.), came to the throne during the period of Elisha’s ministry (2 Kin. 1:17; 3:1). Jehoram removed a cultic pillar of Baal that was set up by his father, Ahab (3:2). However, he did not rid Israel of Baal worship; the temple of Baal continued to stand through Jehoram’s reign until destroyed by Jehu (2 Kin. 10:25–28).

• 2 Kings 2:1–8:15

2 Kings

Elijah Ascends To Heaven

2

2:1 And it came to pass, when the LORD was about to take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal. ² Then Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, please, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel.”

But Elisha said, “As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!” So they went down to Bethel.

³ Now the sons of the prophets who were at Bethel came out to Elisha, and said to him, “Do you know that the LORD will take away your master from over you today?”

And he said, “Yes, I know; keep silent!”

⁴ Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, please, for the LORD has sent me on to Jericho.”

But he said, “As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!” So they came to Jericho.

⁵ Now the sons of the prophets who were at Jericho came to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the LORD will take away your master from over you today?”

So he answered, “Yes, I know; keep silent!”

⁶ Then Elijah said to him, “Stay here, please, for the LORD has sent me on to the Jordan.”

But he said, “As the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you!” So the two of them went on. ⁷ And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went and stood facing them at a distance, while the two of them stood by the Jordan. ⁸ Now Elijah took his mantle, rolled it up, and struck the water; and it was divided this way and that, so that the two of them crossed over on dry ground.

⁹ And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?”

Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.”

¹⁰ So he said, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.” ¹¹ Then it happened, as they continued on and talked, that suddenly a chariot of fire appeared with horses of fire, and separated the two of them; and Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.

¹² And Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and its horsemen!” So he saw him no more. And he took hold of his own clothes and tore them into two pieces. ¹³ He also took up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and went back and stood by the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴ Then he took the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him, and struck the water, and said, “Where is the LORD God of Elijah?” And when he also had struck the water, it was divided this way and that; and Elisha crossed over.

* Life from a Spring (2 Kin. 2:19–22)

The men of Jericho approached the prophet Elisha concerning their city’s spring, remarking “the water is bad” (2 Kin. 2:19). The spring referred to in this story is today commonly known as “Elisha’s spring.” It lies across the modern road from the ancient ruin of Jericho, called by archaeologists Tell es-Sultan. The more formal name of the spring is thus En es-Sultan (En being the Arabic word for spring).

This spring is vitally important to the region, partly because Jericho has the lowest elevation of any city on earth (about 840 feet below sea level). Such a low elevation, combined with the naturally arid climate of Israel, makes the area very hot in summer and pleasantly warm in winter. Its geographical location on the east side of the Judean hills and wilderness means that what moisture is blown in from the Mediterranean Sea is emptied well before it reaches the Jordan valley.

Settlers in the Jericho area were attracted by this spring, which still gushes forth at about 1,000 gallons of water per minute. It waters the Jericho region by an ingenious and complex system of gravity-flow irrigation channels. En es-Sultan thus provides a year-round source of water that has been used for agriculture for thousands of years. Archaeological evidence suggests that Jericho is the oldest city in the world, thanks to En es-Sultan.

If the waters of En es-Sultan were to go bad or stop, all ancient settlement in this area would have ceased, since the spring was the major source of water. One can then understand the desperation of the city elders who pled with Elisha for help. With the waters of En es-Sultan turning bad, the very existence of Jericho was at stake. Elisha “healed” the waters (2 Kin. 2:21), and the city was saved.

¹⁵ Now when the sons of the prophets who were from Jericho saw him, they said, “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha.” And they came to meet him, and bowed to the ground before him. ¹⁶ Then they said to him, “Look now, there are fifty strong men with your servants. Please let them go and search for your master, lest perhaps the Spirit of the LORD has taken him up and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.”

And he said, “You shall not send anyone.”

¹⁷ But when they urged him till he was ashamed, he said, “Send them!” Therefore they sent fifty men, and they searched for three days but did not find him. ¹⁸ And when they came back to him, for he had stayed in Jericho, he said to them, “Did I not say to you, ‘Do not go’?”

Elisha Performs Miracles

¹⁹ Then the men of the city said to Elisha, “Please notice, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad, and the ground barren.”

²⁰ And he said, “Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it.” So they brought it to him. ²¹ Then he went out to the source of the water, and cast in the salt there, and said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘I have healed this water; from it there shall be no more death or barrenness.’ ” ²² So the water remains healed to this day, according to the word of Elisha which he spoke.

²³ Then he went up from there to Bethel; and as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!”

²⁴ So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the LORD. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths.

²⁵ Then he went from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria.

Moab Rebels Against Israel

3

3:1 Now Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel at Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and reigned twelve years. ² And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but not like his father and mother; for he put away the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had made. ³ Nevertheless he persisted in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin; he did not depart from them.

⁴ Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheepbreeder, and he regularly paid the king of Israel one hundred thousand lambs and the wool of one hundred thousand rams. ⁵ But it happened, when Ahab died, that the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.

⁶ So King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. ⁷ Then he went and sent to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, saying, “The king of Moab has rebelled against me. Will you go with me to fight against Moab?”And he said, “I will go up; I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.” ⁸ Then he said, “Which way shall we go up?”

Culture & Society

Society’s convictions about what sort of behavior is appropriate for persons of different ages varies for good and bad reasons. Frequently, the age at which young men became warriors in ancient societies was younger than in modern Western armies. The “youths” of 2 Kin. 2:23, like the “young man” of Gen. 4:23, could have been armed and dangerous.

And he answered, “By way of the Wilderness of Edom.”

⁹ So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom, and they marched on that roundabout route seven days; and there was no water for the army, nor for the animals that followed them. ¹⁰ And the king of Israel said, “Alas! For the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

¹¹ But Jehoshaphat said, “Is there no prophet of the LORD here, that we may inquire of the LORD by him?”

So one of the servants of the king of Israel answered and said, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.”

¹² And Jehoshaphat said, “The word of the LORD is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

¹³ Then Elisha said to the king of Israel, “What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and the prophets of your mother.”

But the king of Israel said to him, “No, for the LORD has called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab.”

¹⁴ And Elisha said, “As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, I would not look at you, nor see you. ¹⁵ But now bring me a musician.”

Then it happened, when the musician played, that the hand of the LORD came upon him. ¹⁶ And he said, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Make this valley full of ditches.’ ¹⁷ For thus says the LORD: ‘You shall not see wind, nor shall you see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water, so that you, your cattle, and your animals may drink.’ ¹⁸ And this is a simple matter in the sight of the LORD; He will also deliver the Moabites into your hand. ¹⁹ Also you shall attack every fortified city and every choice city, and shall cut down every good tree, and stop up every spring of water, and ruin every good piece of land with stones.”

²⁰ Now it happened in the morning, when the grain offering was offered, that suddenly water came by way of Edom, and the land was filled with water.

²¹ And when all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to bear arms and older were gathered; and they stood at the border. ²² Then they rose up early in the morning, and the sun was shining on the water; and the Moabites saw the water on the other side as red as blood. ²³ And they said, “This is blood; the kings have surely struck swords and have killed one another; now therefore, Moab, to the spoil!”

²⁴ So when they came to the camp of Israel, Israel rose up and attacked the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they entered their land, killing the Moabites. ²⁵ Then they destroyed the cities, and each man threw a stone on every good piece of land and filled it; and they stopped up all the springs of water and cut down all the good trees. But they left the stones of Kir Haraseth intact. However the slingers surrounded and attacked it.

²⁶ And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred men who drew swords, to break through to the king of Edom, but they could not. ²⁷ Then he took his eldest son who would have reigned in his place, and offered him as a burnt offering upon the wall; and there was great indignation against Israel. So they departed from him and returned to their own land.

Elisha and the Widow’s Oil

4

4:1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves.”

* A Human Sacrifice for a Hopeless War (2 Kin. 3:21–27)

When Mesha, king of Moab, waged a war of liberation against Israelite overlordship, he found himself fighting three armies: the Israelites and their allies Judah and Edom. The author of Kings uses a series of statements in 2 Kin. 3:21–27 to convey the increasingly hopeless situation of the Moabite forces.

The military undertaking was over before it began. The Moabites mistook the red reflection of the sunrise in the river to be blood from the three armies. Moab moved upon the Israelite encampment as scavengers rather than as military personnel and were themselves taken by surprise and routed (vv. 21–24).

Israel’s army devastated the entire land of Moab, forcing the Moabite survivors to retreat into Kir Haraseth, their only city left standing. In a last military tactic, a Moabite force of 700 hand-to-hand combat soldiers were led out of the walled city to confront the Edomite army. It was a futile effort (vv. 25, 26).

All military strategy having failed, the King of Moab sacrificed his heir-apparent on the city wall in view of the attacking coalition (v. 27). The amazing result of this maneuver was “great indignation against Israel,” and the attacking armies departed to their homes, leaving the Moabite army victorious on the field of battle. In the face of overwhelming odds, the King of Moab had won the war.

This passage may not seem so weird when compared to an incantation text from Ugarit, a Mediterranean Sea coastal city destroyed in the 12th century B.C. The text explains what needed to be done if the city was besieged and the battle was hopeless. Baal, the patron deity of Ugarit, is addressed, and a horse and a human son are sacrificed to the deity along with a libation poured out in the deity’s honor. Upon hearing the shout of the city’s people, Baal would respond by “throwing” the besiegers away from the city gates and saving the day.

Certainly this was a ritual to be used only when it was clear to the defenders that the war was lost. It effectively removed Moab’s next generation of political rule, the king’s firstborn son. Sacrificing the child to Chemosh, Moab’s deity, demonstrated how serious the sacrificers were.

The result was exactly what Mesha’s religious tradition told him would happen: the supposedly victorious armies fled. Their flight may have been influenced by the absolute condemnation of human sacrifice in the divine law of Judah and Israel (Ex. 34:20; Deut. 18:10). Child sacrifice was so appalling and detestable that they fled what was to them a place of absolute apostasy.

² So Elisha said to her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?” And she said, “Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil.”

³ Then he said, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbors—empty vessels; do not gather just a few. ⁴ And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones.”

⁵ So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured it out. ⁶ Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.”

And he said to her, “There is not another vessel.” So the oil ceased. ⁷ Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.”

Elisha Raises the Shunammite’s Son

⁸ Now it happened one day that Elisha went to Shunem, where there was a notable woman, and she persuaded him to eat some food. So it was, as often as he passed by, he would turn in there to eat some food. ⁹ And she said to her husband, “Look now, I know that this is a holy man of God, who passes by us regularly. ¹⁰ Please, let us make a small upper room on the wall; and let us put a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; so it will be, whenever he comes to us, he can turn in there.”

¹¹ And it happened one day that he came there, and he turned in to the upper room and lay down there. ¹² Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood before him. ¹³ And he said to him, “Say now to her, ‘Look, you have been concerned for us with all this care. What can I do for you? Do you want me to speak on your behalf to the king or to the commander of the army?’ ”

She answered, “I dwell among my own people.”

¹⁴ So he said, “What then is to be done for her?”

And Gehazi answered, “Actually, she has no son, and her husband is old.”

¹⁵ So he said, “Call her.” When he had called her, she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶ Then he said, “About this time next year you shall embrace a son.”

And she said, “No, my lord. Man of God, do not lie to your maidservant!”

¹⁷ But the woman conceived, and bore a son when the appointed time had come, of which Elisha had told her.

¹⁸ And the child grew. Now it happened one day that he went out to his father, to the reapers. ¹⁹ And he said to his father, “My head, my head!”So he said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰ When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. ²¹ And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door upon him, and went out. ²² Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the young men and one of the donkeys, that I may run to the man of God and come back.”

²³ So he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither the New Moon nor the Sabbath.”And she said, “It is well.” ²⁴ Then she saddled a donkey, and said to her servant, “Drive, and go forward; do not slacken the pace for me unless I tell you.” ²⁵ And so she departed, and went to the man of God at Mount Carmel.So it was, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to his servant Gehazi, “Look, the Shunammite woman! ²⁶ Please run now to meet her, and say to her, ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the child?’ ”And she answered, “It is well.” ²⁷ Now when she came to the man of God at the hill, she caught him by the feet, but Gehazi came near to push her away. But the man of God said, “Let her alone; for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me, and has not told me.”

²⁸ So she said, “Did I ask a son of my lord? Did I not say, ‘Do not deceive me’?”