CHAPTER 15
[Year 3087 from creation; 913 B.C.E.]
1. Now in the eighteenth year of King Yarav’am the son of N’vat, Aviyam became king over Yehudah.
Aviyam: 2 Chronicles 13 calls him Aviyah.
2. He reigned for three years in Yerushalayim, and his mother’s name was Maakhah the daughter of Avishalom,
Maakhah was also the name of the mother of Avshalom and one of the parents of Akhish, king of Gath in David’s time. The name means “oppression”. 2 Chronicles calls her Mikhayah, which means “Who is like YHWH?” It is more likely that this is her real name, and that this scribe changed her name to reflect her actions, or it may have been a name by which many called her during her lifetime. She indeed was most likely the one pressuring her son to act the way he did.
3. and he walked in all the errors which his father committed before him, and his heart was not completely with YHWH his Elohim, as the heart of his ancestor David [was],
His father Rehav’am had passed on to him things that kept him from being fully dedicated to YHWH. His heart did seem to be partly for YHWH, because, according to 2 Chron., he castigated the Northern Kingdom for doing away with the Levitical priests and at least called on YHWH when cornered in a battle with Israel (see v. 7), and YHWH did save him and struck down Yarav’am. But he tried to get the Northern Kingdom to reject Yarav’am, when YHWH had said the division was His idea.
4. though for David’s sake YHWH his Elohim gave him a candle in Yerushalayim, to establish his son after him and to allow Yerushalayim to endure,
Candle: or simply, lamp or light. The dynasty was allowed to continue on the merit of David alone and because YHWH had chosen this place. This warns us that if we are allowed to remain in a position, it does not necessarily mean YHWH likes the way we are doing things.
5. as David had done what was straight in the eyes of YHWH, and did not turn aside from anything that He ordered all the days of his life, [except] only in the matter of Uriyah the Hittite.
The story of the latter is found in 2 Shmu’el 11. He does not gloss over this without comment, though David is held up throughout the chapter as the standard of character, seemingly the best that can be expected from a human being. One wonders why he did not also mention the matter of the failure to take up the half-sheqel Temple tax when taking his census; it may be that because Israel procured the Temple Mount from Gentiles due to this error, YHWH did not regard it with as much disapproval as his having killed Bath-sheva’s husband.
6. And war kept breaking out between Rehav’am and Yarav’am all the days of his life.
This must mean “between the dynasties of Rehav’am and Yarav’am”, as Rehav’am was already dead. All the days: not literally every day, but for his whole lifetime.
7. And the rest of the words of Aviyam, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Yehudah? Then a war started between Aviyam and Yarav’am,
There is also more about Aviyam in the records of the prophet Iddo (2 Chron. 13:22), which we no longer have. The chronicles listed here do not appear to be the same as the books we have that are called “First and Second Chronicles” (Divrey ha-Yamim), for the latter follows much the same pattern as Kings, alternating between the two kingdoms in a more-or-less chronological order, rather than dividing the records between the two kingdoms.
8. then Aviyam lay down with his ancestors, and they buried him in the City of David, and his son Asa became king in his place.
It appears to be saying that he died in the battle with Yarav’am, possibly even killed by Yarav’am himself. But 2 Chronicles describes a very different outcome.
[Year 3089/3090 from creation; 911/910 B.C.E.]
9. Now Asa became king over Yehudah in the twentieth year Yarav’am was king of Israel,
Asa’s name seems to mean “healer”, based on a word for regaining strength. In any case, this is definitely what his reign meant for Yehudah. Asa was one of 22 sons, and had 16 sisters, for his father had 14 wives. The twentieth year: This only seems to be two years into Aviyam’s reign (v. 1), but the record does not tell us how many months into his third year Aviyam died, and Aviyam probably did not become king on the very first day of Yarav’am’s eighteenth year.
10. and reigned forty-one years in Yerushalayim. Though his mother’s name was Maakhah the daughter of Avishalom,
He reigned a year longer than either David or Shlomoh, possibly because the reforms listed below took his first year, and YHWH rewarded him with a full forty years after that. Maakhah: He is said to have the same mother his father had; it is possible that “mother” here means his paternal grandmother, though she may have been the one who actually raised him. If she was this old, her political influence was all the more entrenched.
11. Asa did what was straight in the eyes of YHWH, like David his ancestor.
YHWH does not seem to expect that anyone could do a better job than David, but being grouped with him was enough of a reward. We see periodic repentance among the kings of Yehudah, but very rarely in Israel.
12. And he made the male temple prostitutes cross over out of the Land, and abolished all the rolling-images that his ancestors had made.
He banished the cult prostitutes rather than killing them, probably because, rather than being from the Kanaanites, which the Israelites were instructed to destroy, they were from the Ammonite people (across the Yarden River; see chapter 14), and had probably been invited into the Land by Asa’s own father, so they were essentially guests; he could hardly kill them. It may also be saying he banned the practice.
13. And he even deposed his mother Maakhah from being the ruling woman, as she had made a shocking thing for the Asherah. Asa also cut down her shocking thing and burned it in the Qidron Valley.
Shocking: or horrifying, from a word meaning “to shudder”. For a Jewish man to do this to his mother was a real act of chutzpah! Deposing her must have come as a shock to her, for her idolatrous actions must have seemed just a matter of course for her, but he held up YHWH’s standard against it, and found it very crooked. But he was actually honoring his mother better by doing the right thing than by doing what she would have preferred. For the Asherah: or possibly, to serve as the Asherah, but Asherah was considered a consort of the god Ba’al, so it was most likely one of the phallic symbols pagans in the region often set up “for the sake of” their goddesses. After these things were gotten rid of, the Land was undisturbed for ten years. (2 Chron. 14:1) He therefore showed his gratitude to YHWH for this respite by fortifying the cities so that what YHWH had given would be even better guarded. In his fifteenth year, a million-strong army from Kush (possibly Ethiopia) attacked, far outnumbering Yehudah, and in his distress, Asa called on YHWH for help, and the enemy was not only routed, but left him with much plunder. After this there was again peace for 20 years.
14. But the cultic platforms were not removed; nonetheless, Asa’s heart was completely with YHWH all of his days.
Cultic platforms: 2 Chronicles 14:5 tells us more detail: he DID remove them from the cities of Yehudah; it was Israel (the Northern Kingdom) from which he did not succeed in removing them. (2 Chronicles 15:17) That was where the influence had come from for these evils he had to remove. He rid his own Land of the problems, but did not destroy their source. Some attempt to do so may have been why he was at war with Israel (v. 16).
15. And he brought the things his father had dedicated and the things he [himself] had dedicated into the House of YHWH—silver and gold and utensils.
Utensils: or containers, implements, vessels, or even weapons.
16. But there was war between Asa and Baasha the king of Israel all of their days.
Asa managed to capture some cities in the mountains of Efrayim. Many from Israel people also defected to Yehudah when they saw that YHWH was with them. (2 Chron. 15:8-9)
17. That is, Baasha, king of Israel, went up against Yehudah and started rebuilding Ramah to prevent Asa, king of Yehudah from having a way out or a way in.
Ramah (the prophet Shmu’el’s hometown and burial place, per 1 Shmu’el 25:1) is in the mountains of Binyamin between Beyth-El and Yerushalayim, right along the border with Efrayim. It literally says “the Ramah”, so it might refer simply to a generic place with high altitude rather than the particular town by that name. Rebuilt: or fortified; possibly even blocked off with a wall—“the great wall of Israel”. Baasha means “a stench”.
18. So Asa took all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the House of YHWH, and [he took] the treasures of the king’s palace, and entrusted them into the hand of his servants, and King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad the son of Tavrimon, the son of Khezion, the king of Aram, who lived at Damaseq, saying,
Ben-Hadad: literally, son of Hadad, but he was the son of Tavrimon (“Rimmon—the great pomegranate—is beneficent”), so “son” in the former case is figurative, for Hadad was not only the name of a former king, but of the “mighty one” the Syrians worshipped. His name simply means “mighty”!
19. “[Let there be] a treaty between you and me, between my father and your father! Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold; go, nullify your treaty with Baasha, king of Israel, so he will get up from [being] on top of me!”
He felt so desperate that he thought he had to scrape for resources wherever he could, and apparently he never fully regarded his donation (v. 15) as a gift, but continued to think he had the right to use it for purposes other than YHWH’s. If YHWH had not provided him with other resources, it meant YHWH did not intend for the battle to be won by greater military strength, but in the same way he had won the battle 20 years before.
20. And Ben-Hadad listened to the king, Asa, and sent the captains of the armies that he had against the cities of Israel, and attacked Iyon and Dan and Avel Beyth-Maakhah, and all of Kinneroth in addition to all of Nafthali.
Iyon was right at the northern border of Israel where the trade route enters from the mountain pass through Levanon. Dan is the next town, and Avel Beyth-Maakhah (called Tel Abil today) was just across the river from it. Kinneroth would be the area around the “Sea of Galilee”, or the northernmost town on it at that time, not far from where Ginnosar is today. The whole area between them is Nafthali’s territory—from the Huleh Valley west up the mountains which are partly in Levanon today.
21. And it turned out that when Baasha heard, he did stop rebuilding Ramah and stayed at Tirtzah.
Stop: The term means to leave unfinished, not just pause like a “Sabbath”.
22. So the king, Asa, summoned all of Yehudah (no one was exempted), and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timbers, with which Baasha had built, and with them King Asa reinforced Geva of Binyamin and Mitzpah.
Notice that it was Yehudah who took the initiative in breaking down the wall between the two kingdoms which the House of Yoseyf had started building. Geva and Mitzpah flank Ramah, each only a mile or two away, but on his side of the border, so he would not have very far to bring them, but now it would be Israel that would be inhibited from crossing over rather than Yehudah.
23. Now the rest of the words of Asa and all his heroism and all that he accomplished, as well as the cities that he built, aren’t they inscribed on the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Yehudah? Except [that] toward the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.
Built: or, fortified. Diseased: or, weakened. This may be idiomatic for his falling slack in his observance of the feasts of YHWH, which are called “feet” in Exodus 23:14. In any case, he did become weaker in his trust in YHWH, because YHWH held him accountable for not having done what he did when the Kushites attacked, and sent a prophet to rebuke him. If he was hesitant to ask YHWH to back him against his own brothers, he should have at least inquired. Instead of repenting, he put the prophet in prison, and began to oppress others of the people. (2 Chron. 16:7ff) His diseased feet seem to be YHWH’s answer to this, but even then he sought relief from physicians rather than asking what YHWH was trying to tell him through this. Was he too used to being in power? The higher one ascends, the more delicate the balance, and while we may outgrow some temptations, they are replaced by stronger ones. If a priest had diseased feet, he would no longer be able to serve as a priest, and this seems to have symbolized the fact that Asa had outlived his usefulness.
[Year 3130 from creation; 870 B.C.E.]
24. Then Asa lay down with his fathers and was buried in the City of David, his ancestor, and his son Y’hoshafat became king in his place.
Y’hoshafat had three years of co-regency with Asa before the latter died, probably beginning his reign when Asa became infirm. That is, like Shlomoh, he was probably crowned king while his father was still living. This type of practice explains why the recorded lengths of the kings’ reigns could not seem to fit with the number of years allowed by both Scriptural statements as to total time lapse between events and the secular historical record. It is also unlikely that many kings began or ended their reigns on the first or last day of the year, but a portion of a year is counted as “his third year”, for example.
[Year 3090/3091 from creation; 910/909 B.C.E.]
25. Now Nadav, the son of Yarav’am had become king over Israel in year two of Asa, the king of Yehudah, and he reigned over Israel for two years.
This is a flashback to events prior to those described in verses 16-22.
26. And he did what was wrong in the eyes of YHWH, and walked in the way of his father and in his sin by which he caused Israel to miss the target.
[Year 3092 from creation; 908 B.C.E.]
27. Then Baasha the son of Akhiyah, who belonged to the House of Yissakhar, conspired against him, and Baasha attacked him at Gibthon, which belonged to the Filistines, when Nadav and all of Israel were laying siege to Gibthon.
Josephus says it was all the more reprehensible because Baasha had been Nadav’s friend. His father is not the same Akhiyah who was the prophet in the time of Yarav’am (who appears again in v. 29 below), who was from Shiloh, making him most likely an Efrayimite. There are nine different people by the name Akhiyah in Scripture. The name means “YHWH is my kinsman.” Gibthon means “highest hill”. Laying siege: literally, cramping.
28. And Baasha killed him in year three of Asa, king of Yehudah, and became king in his place.
29. And what took place as he became king [was that] he struck down the whole house of Yarav’am; he did not spare anyone [who was] breathing who belonged to Yarav’am until he had exterminated him, in accordance with the word of YHWH, which He had spoken by the hand of His servant Akhiyah the Shilonite
30. in regard to the sins of Yara’vam that he perpetrated when he caused Israel to sin in the vexation to which he provoked YHWH, the Elohim of Israel.
Josephus says the dogs and birds indeed ate them, as had been prophesied.
31. And the rest of the words of Nadav and all that he accomplished—aren’t they written in the book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
32. And there was war between Asa and Baasha the king of Israel all of their days.
This is an exact repetition of verse 16 in the verse that is its double.
33. [Beginning] in year three of Asa, the king of Yehudah, Baasha the son of Akhiyah reigned over all of Israel at Tirtzah for twenty-four years.
34. But he did what was wrong in YHWH’s eyes, and walked in the way of Yarav’am and in his sin by which he caused Israel to miss the target.
This simple refrain is repeated, and no matter what great physical accomplishments Baasha might have had, this was the bottom line from YHWH’s standpoint, and he counted for nothing.
CHAPTER 16
1. Then the word of YHWH came to Yehu the son of Khanani about Baasha, to say,
Yehu means “He is YHWH”. Khanani is the seer who was sent to rebuke Asa when he trusted in a foreign army rather than in YHWH. (2 Chron. 16; see 15:23 above.)
2. “Since I raised you out of the dust and allowed you [to be] ruler over My people Israel, but you have been walking in the way of Yarav’am and making the people of Israel miss the target, provoking Me to anger with their errors,
Out of the dust: i.e., from being obscure or unknown. But this also reminds us of Adam, who was literally raised up from the dust, and also only given a simple rule to follow, yet also did not follow it, and also lost headship over the dominion YHWH had put under him.
3. “watch Me burn away behind Baasha and behind his household, and I will make your house like the house of Yarav’am the son of N’vat.
Behind Baasha: has a chronological sense in Hebrew as well, hence probably signifying his posterity.
4. “[Of those] belonging to Baasha, whoever dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and whoever of his dies in the field, the fowls of the skies will eat.”
Baasha’s name means “to stink”, yet though his stench was strong to YHWH, Baasha himself got used to it, so YHWH had to send someone to point out him how bad he smelled. But if it was not already too late, according to Josephus, Baasha did not care what the prophet said, and made no effort at all to change his ways, and it almost seemed as if it was his goal to become worse and worse. (Antiquities of the Jews 8:12:3)
5. Now the rest of the words of Baasha, as well as what he accomplished and his heroism, aren’t they recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
Though he admits Baasha was heroic in some sense and had some noteworthy deeds, it seems that recalling what they were would only bring sadness to the hearer once they know how he turned out in the end, so the scribe seems to be trying to get his own account of Baasha over with as quickly as possible, referring the reader elsewhere if he is really interested. He was a loser in YHWH’s eyes, no matter what else he may have accomplished, so it was tiresome to prolong the account.
6. When Baasha lay down with his ancestors, he was buried in Tirtzah, and his son Elah became king in his place.
7. And also by the hand of Yehu the son of Khanani the prophet, the word of YHWH had come to Baasha and to his whole household and in regard to all the evil that he did in the eyes of YHWH, to provoke Him to anger by the deeds of his hands, to [make him] become like the household of Yarav’am and also on account of [the fact that] he had struck it down.
Yehu did what YHWH sent him to do. (v. 1) Struck it down: that is, by killing Nadav and the other sons of Yarav’am. But didn’t YHWH want this done anyway? In verse 2, YHWH took credit for raising Baasha to his throne, possibly because he had fulfilled the prophecy about what would become of Yarav’am’s household. So why was YHWH angered by the fact that he did so? He may have simply been taking advantage of a convenient prophecy (if he knew about it at all) to do what he wanted to do. He did what David would not dare to do: he lfted a hand against one YHWH had anointed. Just because YHWH said it would occur does not mean he had a right to do it! And though he carried out YHWH’s wish of cutting off Yarav’am’s posterity, this new management” made no improvement at all in Israel’s condition. He turned out to be propagating Yarav’am’s ways even though he was from a different lineage, so to YHWH, promoting him was nothing but a waste. If he had not continued in the same sin and if he had remembered and given credit to the One who put him in his position, striking down Yarav’am’s line might not have been held against him. But while there are many who complain about those in power, there are few who really do anything to remedy the situation. So the moral here may be, “Do not complain about the errors of those YHWH has chosen unless you are willing to fix the problem and do better.”
[c. the year 3114 from creation; 886 B.C.E.]
8. In the twenty-sixth year of the years of Asa, king of Yehudah, Elah the son of Baasha became king over Israel in Tirtzah, [reigning] two years.
9. Then his servant Zimri, captain of half of the chariots, conspired against him while he was in Tirtzah drinking [himself] drunk in the home of Artza, who was over the house in Tirtzah.
King Shlomoh had written, “It is not for kings to drink [much] wine or…strong drink, lest they…forget the decree [that has been enacted] and pervert justice…” (Prov. 31:4-5) Here we see another reason a king should not become so dissipated: it gives an easy occasion to anyone who wants to overthrow them!
10. That is, Zimri came inside and struck him down and killed him in the twenty-seventh year of Asa, the king of Yehudah, and became king in his place.
Zimri means “my music”—a temptation in itself, for music is an other-worldly thing that is nonetheless found in this world, and people are often tempted to worship and serve it rather than using it as a means to worship YHWH. Even as we use it, we must hold it at arm’s length, lest it use us in return. But his name could also be read as “singing my own praise”, which he was doing by grabbing the throne rather than being given it. Note how the dynasties keep being cut off barely into the second generation and the rule transferred to another bloodline completely.
11. Now what took place was that upon his accession, as he sat on his throne, he struck down the whole house of Baasha; he did not leave to him one who urinates against a wall, either kinsman or companion.
Kinsman: the same word used for the kinsman-redeemer; thus, no one could come back and avenge Baasha. Companion: or friend; literally, one who eats from the same pasture.
12. That is, Zimri exterminated the whole household of Baasha, according to the word that He had spoken to Baasha by the hand of the prophet Yehu
13. to [address] all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, in which they missed the target and in which they caused Israel to miss the target, provoking YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, to anger with their empty [actions].
Elah means “an oak” or “Terebinth”, i.e., a huge, mighty tree. It seems that in his father’s eyes, he was slated to become a great leader. But these high hopes were dashed. We are not told what Elah’s particular sins were, but the worst part was that his bad example made the rest of the people think they had a license to be slack about the Torah as well. Are our actions leading others astray?
14. And the rest of the words of Elah, as well as what he accomplished, aren’t they recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
In his case “heroism” is not mentioned as it was for his father. He did not even have that redeeming factor.
15. In the twenty-seventh year of the years of Asa, king of Yehudah, Zimri reigned for seven days at Tirtzah while the people were camped against Gibthon, which belonged to the Filistines.
Contrast the many years of Asa’s reign with the few days or years of all these kings in the North. In all, six Israelite kings died during the reign of this one king of Yehudah. Even the time frames are calculated based on Yehudah, the kingdom that was at least sometimes righteous (though the scribes who wrote this book were probably from Yehudah as well). In Proverbs 28:2, Shlomoh had written, “For the transgression of the Land, many are the princes thereof, but by a man of understanding and knowledge, stability will be prolonged.” This is exactly what took place here. Gibthon: They were still besieging this city as they had been doing when Baasha killed Nadav 24 years earlier. Or they may have left it off at that time and resumed the attempt now. In any case, though the two kingdoms of Israel were at war with one another, at times they were still doing what they were supposed to in ridding the Land of foreign powers—but they still perpetuated their paganism, so what was the difference in the outcome?
16. When the people who were encamped heard it said, “Zimri has made a conspiracy and has even struck down the king!”, all of Israel made Omri the captain of the army king over Israel that [very] day in the camp.
Either they missed the part about Zimri taking the throne for himself, or they knew there was a gap to be filled but did not like the idea of Zimri being king. They may have even liked Baasha enough to resent his assassin. In any case, this “democracy” in the people making the choice was anarchy to Israel, like the children who now think they should have as much authority in schools as their teachers.
17. So Omri, and all of Israel with him, went up from Gibthon, and laid siege to Tirtzah.
Again, their siege of Gibthon was interrupted. Would they ever capture that city? Omri means “My binding together (as in sheaves)”, and is related to the omer of manna and what is counted from the Feast of Unleavened Bread through Shavuoth, as well as the name of the city of ‘Amorrah (Gomorrah). Which would he turn out to be like? Interestingly, we are not told the name of Omri’s father here or anywhere else in Scripture, though there are two other men named Omri, whose father’s names we do know. This may mean his father was so evil that YHWH wrote him out of the record—possibly for no other reason than the way his son turned out.
18. And what took place when Zimri saw that the city had been captured, he went into the elevated fortress of the king’s house, and burned the palace down with fire over himself, and died
He of all people knew how strong his army was, and he saw no way out. He did not seem to even have the will to fight or reason with the people, so he may have either thought his guilt was too severe to be remedied or simply expected no justice from a “lynch mob”. Such an elevated palace, as far inside the city as possible and additionally fortified, has been found at Lakhish.
19. on account of his sins by which he missed the target in order to do what was evil in the eyes of YHWH, to walk in the ways of Yarav’am, causing Israel to err.
Very little is recorded about him, but this one major act of his clearly displeased YHWH as well, taking away Israel’s respect for law and order.
20. Now the rest of the matters of Zimri as well as the conspiracy that he pulled together, aren’t they recorded in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
21. At that time the people of Israel were being divided into two factions: half of the people were [following] after Thivni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and [the other] half [followed] after Omri.
Thivni means “my intelligence”; Ginath means “protection”. There is still more division in the camp. The “democracy” is carried a step further, to majority rule:
22. But the people who went after Omri had a firmer grip than the people who [went] after Thivni the son of Ginath, so Thivni died, and Omri became king.
Thivni died: Such a matter-of-fact way of stating the fact that no one who challenged the winner would be allowed to remain a threat! There was no mere conceding of the victory to the stronger; he would not be allowed to regroup and try a second time. It was all or nothing; someone had to be very committed to make such a bid for power.
[c. year 3120 from creation; 880 B.C.E.]
23. [Beginning] in year thirty-one of the years of Asa, king of Yehudah, Omri reigned over Israel for twelve years. He reigned six years in Tirtzah,
Up to five of these years (beginning around 885 B.C.E.) may have been consumed by the struggle between Thivni and Omri. (Compare verse 29.) No details at all about Thivni are given in 2 Chronicles either.
24. then he bought the mountain of Shomron from Shemer with two kikkars of silver, and fortified the mountain and called the name of the city that he had built [based] on the name of Shemer, proprietor of the hill: Shomron.
Shomron means “the most guarded” or “great watchman”, and Shemer, based on the same root, means “preserved” or “kept” (related to the word for the dregs at the bottom of a wine bottle). This city (known as Samaria in English) was about 6 miles due west of Tirtzah, and just across Mt. Eval from Sh’khem, which is 5 miles to its southeast. Recall that Mt. Eval was the mountain of cursing in Y’hoshua’s day (Deut. 11:29; Y’hoshua 8). He picked the wrong side on which to build his capital, and the rest is history. A kikkar is 3,000 sheqels, and a sheqel of silver is the equivalent of about 10 grams. So this would have been 60 kg., or 125 lbs., of silver. At today’s prices, this would be almost $30,000.
25. But Omri did what was evil in the eyes of YHWH more than all who [came] before him,
26. and he walked completely in the way of Yarav’am the son of N’vat and in his own sin by which he caused Israel to sin to [the point of] provoking YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, to anger with their empty [actions].
Empty actions: or, vain imaginations, possibly an indirect reference to idols (which offer a vain hope).
27. Now the rest of the matters of Omri that he perpetrated, as well as his heroic [deed] that he accomplished, aren’t they recorded on the Scroll of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?
28. When Omri lay down with his ancestors, he was buried at Shomron, and his son Akh’av began to reign in his place.
Akh’av means “father’s brother”.
29. Now Akh’av the son of Omri became king of Israel in year thirty-eight of the years of Asa, the king of Yehudah, and Akh’av the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Shomron twenty-two years.
This is now the fourth dynasty within a mere 51 years, but this one would last longer than its predecessors, possibly only because YHWH was beginning to give His people over to the ways they had chosen over and over and were not listening to any of His warnings or rebukes. As the southern kingdom was known to most as “the House of David”, so the northern kingdom came to be known as “the House of Omri”. This is a major “footprint” that enables us to trace the wanderings of the northern tribes in later years. According to Steve Collins, the Assyrian name for Omri (which begins with the guttural consonant ‘ayin in Hebrew) was Khumri, and in their writings this designated the Israelites, excluding the Jews. Aylett Sammes, a 17th-century historian, wrote that the ancient British people called themselves “Kumero”, “Cymro”, and “Kumeri”, and their Celtic language derived mainly from the Phoenician. The Welsh still call themselves Kymry, and their land was for some time called Cambria, which later came to be called Cumberland. Dell Griffin also points out that the migrating Israelites who called themselves by the name of Omri found it easy to mingle with the Gomeri tribe in what is now Turkey because of the similarity of their name. This may be why YHWH had Hoshea marry a prostitute whose name also was Gomer, as He was speaking to the unfaithfulness of the “House of Omri”. This is a bad name, any connection with which we must overcome.
30. And Akh’av did what was wrong in the eyes of YHWH more than all who had been before him.
It just keeps getting worse and worse. None of this would have been necessary if Israel had not insisted on having a king like the other nations had. (1 Shmu’el 8:5) The people sometimes kept asking YHWH for help, yet were looking to other things besides Him for their satisfaction. This is the root of the problem even now.
31. Now, [as if it] was a [mere] trifle that he walked in the sins of Yarav’am the son of N’vat, what he did was take a wife—Izevel the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Tzidonians, and served the Baal and bowed himself to it.
Walked in the sins: i.e., continued to use the idolatrous altars that he had set up and continued to celebrate the festival he had created. In the same way, whoever counts and observes Sunday as a day of worship is walking in the sins of Constantine. They did not have to come up with any new ideas of how to sin—though we will see that Akhav did that as well. (Josephus wrote that he “contrived other absurd objects of worship”.) Now we have moved from a twisted form of the worship of YHWH—in a way He did not ask for—to actually serving a different elohim. There is a play on Akh’av’s father-in-law’s name (Ethbaal) in the phrase that follows it: in Hebrew it reads, v’yaavad eth-haBaal… The king’s name means “with Baal”, and Izevel means “exalted island” or “exalted coast”. She was probably named in proud celebration of her home city, Tzidon, one of the two great coastal cities of what came to be called “Phoenicia” (now in Lebanon), not literally raised in elevation, but made extremely wealthy and powerful by their superior oceangoing vessels and their monopoly on trade beyond the Strait of Gibraltar. Its twin city, Tzor, was actually built on an island. In Hebrew it could also read, “Ey-zevel” (“Where is the exaltation?”), and which way it was to be taken would depend on the choices she would make. Their two names are both related to the more familiar name, Beel-zevul (“Baal/the owner is exalted”), often identified with haSatan. It is often confused with Beel-zebub, a Filistine deity, “master of the flies”, worshipped because it ostensibly kept the population of flies in check. An Israelite king would later consult it when he was ill. (2 Kings 1:2)
32. And he raised up an altar to Baal in the temple of Baal, which he built in Shomron.
Now he was also walking in the sins of Shlomoh, who built temples to foreign deities alongside YHWH’s. Shomron later became an idiom for the Northern Kingdom, being its capital, though it represented the height of evil and rivalry with Yerushalayim.
33. Then Akh’av made the Asherah, and continued to do more [and more] to provoke YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, to anger than all of the kings of Israel who were before him.
34. In his days, Khi’El the Beyth-Elite rebuilt Y’rikho. With Aviram his firstborn, he laid its foundation, and with S’guv, his youngest, he stood its doors up, according to the word of YHWH, which He had spoken by the hand of Y’hoshua the son of Nun.
This is an allusion back to Y’hoshua 6:26, when Y’hoshua made the people swear, “Cursed before YHWH is [any] man who may raise up and rebuilt this city, Y’rikho. May he lay the foundation with his firstborn, and with his youngest may he stand its gates up!” Aviram means “my father is the exalted one”. S’guv means “inaccessibly high”—as if both were out of reach of this curse. One might wonder whether great stones literally fell on his sons, burying them in the very walls or gates of the city. The word for “rebuilt” has its root in the word for “son”, so he sacrificed the “building blocks” of his own household in order to fulfill whatever advantage this rebuilding seemed to hold for him. For centuries no one else dared to do it, but now, because of a general atmosphere of doing what is right in one’s own eyes and being connected with whatever we wanted, the nation has deteriorated to the point that Y’hoshua’s prophetic word is considered just some old superstition, part of the “old ways” from which this people that sought “modernity” wanted to distance itself—a great warning to us again today.
CHAPTER 17
1. Then Eliyahu the Thishbite, from among the sojourners of Gil’ad, told Akh’av, “[As surely as] YHWH, the Elohim of Israel, before whom I have been standing, is alive, if there will be [any] dew or rain these years, [it will only be] if [it is] by the mouth of my word!”
When it seems things can hardly get worse for the Northern Kingdom, finally there is a change in the air! But it will not be pleasant at first; the kingship’s cup is full (16:33), and it is time for chastisement to begin. Thishbite (Heb., Thishbi) may refer to someone from a town east of the Yarden. But Thishbi appears to be related to the word “sojourners” (thoshvey). Without the vowel points, there is no difference in spelling, so it may be intended simply to read, “Eliyahu of the sojourners”. Gil’ad was not actually part of Israel proper, though it was given to Gad because it was requested as a pastureland. So Eliyahu came to Akh’av as somewhat of an outsider; the king had probably not seen him before. At any rate, he came from outside the mainstream of the culture by this time, like his antitype Yochanan the Immerser (Mat. 11:14), who came out of the wilderness identifying people as sinners in need of repentance. The events of 16:34 took place immediately before Eliyahu came on the public scene. Seeing this prophecy fulfilled may have even been a catalyst that helped him find the confidence to go ahead and dare to prophesy the message he had been given. His message was in the structural form of an oath in Hebrew. Dew was part of the blessings given by both Yitzhaq and Moshe, to Yaaqov and Yoseyf in particular. (Gen. 27:28; Deut. 33:13) Rain is compared to teaching from YHWH. (Deut. 32:2) These blessings were being suspended as YHWH had said they would be if Israel refused to obey His commandments. (Deut. 28:15, 24)
2. Then the word of YHWH came to him to say,
3. “Go away from this [place] and turn yourself eastward, and hide yourself in the Wadi Krith, which faces the Yarden.
Wadi Krith: or possibly simply, “cut-off river bed”, hinting that it was a place already conducive to concealment. It is in Eliyahu’s home territory of Gil’ad, very close to the ruins of the city of Pella (now in Jordan), which is where the followers of Yaaqov, Y’shua’s brother, also found refuge during the rebellion against Rome which resulted in the destruction of the Temple—another time of YHWH’s severe correction on His people. Gil’ad was a place of great sustenance (Num. 32), and thus the famine took longer to affect this area.
4. “And [this is how it] will be: you can drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to sustain you there.”
5. So he went and did what YHWH had said; he went and stayed in the Wadi Krith, which faces the Yarden,
6. with the ravens bringing him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he would drink from the brook.
There is a problem here. What ravens brought would almost certainly have been torn meat (which is not kosher). This would have been plentiful as animals were dying from the famine. The rabbis say that it is more important to preserve life than to keep every detail of Torah if straits are so dire. And the only consequence is that he would be ritually impure if he did so (Lev. 17:15), and would have to bathe himself and his clothing each time he did so. He had the running brook there for that, but he would have been constantly getting back into a state of uncleanness. Of course, he could not go to the Temple at this time anyway. But unless this was meant to be a commentary on the condition Israel was in, YHWH’s prophet would most likely refuse to eat torn meat (Ex. 22:31; Lev. 7:24), especially since he was also given bread. Ravens are also very intelligent, as birds go, and if they know someone is obtaining food they have sequestered, they will change their patterns rather than repeating the same mistakes. The word for raven means “dark” or “dusky”. But with different vowel pointing, it is the same word as that for “Arabs”, who are also dark but not black. That term means “mixed”. At this very same site Arabs do serve kosher meat and delicious puffed flatbread today, and the fact that they came twice per day suggests strongly that these were not ravens at all, but Bedouin herdsmen coming to water their flocks, and paying the man they perceived as guarding their water source. Interestingly, from Pella, the Yezre’el Valley, which Hoshea linked with Elohim’s scattering and sowing of the Northern Kingdom, can be seen across the Yarden. Since the spirit of Eliyahu is that of the restoration of all things (compare Mal. 4:5 and Mat. 17:11-12 with Luqa 1:17), and the area of Gil’ad will not be overtaken by the King of the North, who will take the Holy Land (Dani’el 11:13-17, 41). This may be prophetic of the harboring of those who leave the Land to be protected elsewhere when the same scenario is repeated. (Mat. 24:15-16)
7. But eventually the brook finally dried up, because no rain came on the land.
Even this spring dried up, because the aquifer was not being replenished. It was at this time that the later-mighty city of Carthage grew rapidly, as it was a colony founded by the Phoenicians, which included both the kingdom of Tzor and Tzidon and Israel. Thousands of Israelites left the Land at this time and emigrated there permanently. The original name of the city was Kiryath-Khadashah (“new town”) in Hebrew. (Steve Collins) they decided that survival was more important than staying in the place YHWH had given them and trying to discern the reason YHWH was not sending rain, since He told us it would be plentiful when we were pleasing to Him. (Lev. 26:4) There was no desire to repent. They thought this was nothing but a natural phenomenon, but Gershon Ferency, a descendant of Aharon, points out that the rain in Israel is not so regular as the flooding patterns in Egypt, and therefore is more directly tied to Israel’s prayers. The Torah also ties it directly to our obedience, so when it ceases, it is no mere accident. It is the same even in our exile. When trouble comes, it means YHWH wants our attention on something particular, and we need to find out what it is and respond accordingly. But their foreheads were stubborn like brass (compare Yeshayahu/Isa. 48:4), so YHWH made the skies brass and turned the rain into dust in response. (Deut. 28:23-24)
8. Then the word of YHWH came to him to say,
9. “Get up [and] go to Tzarfath, which belongs to Tzidon, and stay there; indeed, I have ordered a woman there—a widow—to sustain you.”
Tzarfath was a port city between Tzidon and Tzor, and thus expected to be a place of greater supply, but the famine had hit here too. But YHWH was concerned for widows and orphans, as always, and He chose a roundabout way to provide for them. In modern Hebrew Tzarfath is the name for France, which was also colonized by the Tzidonians and some Israelites with them. There may be some prophetic significance to this as well, considering Ovadyah 20.
10. So he got up and went to Tzarfath, and as he came to the entrance of the city, sure enough, there was a woman, a widow, feverishly gathering sticks. So he called to her and said, “Please get me a little water in the container so that I can drink!”
He could tell she was a widow because widows wore some sort of distinctive clothing. (Gen. 38:14; 2 Shmu’el 14:2-5) He was using the same test Avraham’s servant did when seeking a wife for Yitzhaq, trying to make sure this was the right widow. Y’shua also used the same request to get the attention of a woman in Samaria. (Yochanan 4) This woman did not hesitate, but neither did she voluntarily go the extra mile as Rivqah had, so she had to be taught the fullness of what hospitality is. But this is a prophetic parallel as well:
11. As she went to bring it, he called to her and said to “please bring me a piece of bread in your hand!”
Piece of bread: the same word as what Avraham promised to his esteemed guests, but actually brought them much more. (Gen. 18:5) It is therefore clear that he is trying to determine if she is a daughter of Avraham. Y’shua also told his students not to take provisions when traveling with his message, because those who were worthy to host them would prove it by their willingness to feed them. (Mat. 10:10-13)
12. But she said, “[As surely as] YHWH your Elohim lives, if I have a cake [at all], it is only a handful of meal in a jar and a little oil in a jug, and as you see, I am gathering a couple of sticks so I can go and prepare it for myself and for my son, so that we can eat it and die!”
She somehow recognized that he was a servant of YHWH. Was it simply because she knew he was Israelite by his appearance, or was she told by YHWH that a prophet would be coming to her? She was quite possibly an Israelitess herself, for already there was much intermingling between Israel and the Tzidonians, and a Tzidonian husband might have moved her up there to get married. This seems to be borne out in verse 18. A handful of flour and the same amount of oil is what belongs to YHWH when Israelites bring a contribution to the priests. (Lev. 2:1-3) But one part of the term for “handful” is melo, which is what Efrayim and Menashe are called—the “fullness of the Gentiles” (Gen. 48:19). Two sticks: also a clear symbol of the two houses of Israel (Y’hezq’El 37:16-17) She is therefore a clear picture of us, who were also unaccustomed to the hospitality our ancestors were known for because we were in the wrong place. Her flour was not the refined kind, because until Eliyahu came to her, she was out of the context of a community in which her potential to be made into bread worthy of YHWH could not be realized. But when the spirit of Eliyahu comes upon the Northern Kingdom, the bread of remembrance can appear again. (Lev. 2:2) This is the spirit of the restoration of all things that is YHWH’s great move in our time.
13. But Eliyah said to her, “Do not be afraid. Go, do as you said. But just make me a little cake from there first, and bring it out to me, then prepare [some] for yourself and your son afterwards,
Eliyah: The spelling is diminished here to follow the Hebrew original. The reason is unclear.
14. “because this is what YHWH, Elohim of Israel, says: ‘The jar of meal will not run out, nor will the jug of oil diminish until [the] day YHWH provides rain upon the face of the ground.’”
This would be like the manna, which YHWH kept bringing until there was a natural supply available. (Y’hoshua 5:12)
15. So she went and did according to the word of Eliyahu, and she ate—along with him and her household [for] days!
Once she stopped making excuses and walked in the promise while there was still no bread to the natural eye, the provision came. She had to give up her security to sustain YHWH’s servant first, just as ideally our firstfruits are to sustain the officiators in His sanctuary before we partake of our increase. There was no Temple accessible to her, as it is not available to us either, but like this YHWH offers us parallel occasions to seek first His Kingdom instead of seeking what we will eat, as the Gentiles do—and when we do, He provides for us as He promised. (Mat. 6:33) Especially while we are in exile, getting the Kingdom back up and running is first priority.
16. And the jar of meal did not run out, nor did the jug of oil diminish, just as YHWH had said by the hand of Eliyahu.
Now her oil was increased (cf. Deut. 7:11-13), and every meal could be a “grain offering” by giving some to the prophet first. But his oil was also being increased as he saw YHWH’s miraculous works, for he had bigger tests to come which would require all the confidence in YHWH that he could muster.
17. But what took place after these things was that the son of the woman, the mistress of the household, became ill, and his sickness held on very tightly, to the point that there was no breath left in him.
18. So she said to Eliyahu, “What do I have to do with you, O man of Elohim? You have come to bring my crookedness to remembrance, and to kill my son!”
What do I have to do with you: literally, “What is for me and for you?” My crookedness: possibly the very act of marrying a Tzidonian man. (11:1-2) The dying son had been the fruit of that sin.
19. So he told her, “Give me your son.” And he took him from her bosom and brought him up into the rooftop chamber where he was staying, and laid him on his own bed.
Rooftop chamber: or, upper room, loft. But this was a common way to house guests, or simply a place for the family to stay cooler when sleeping in the hotter months. Since the lower level of the house is where some animals were kept and would be much hotter from the cooking that went on there, the rooftop chamber would be the best room in the house. So very quickly she has caught on to the hospitality that Eliyahu had to initially coax out of her. She thus proved to be a true Israelite. With a dead boy on it, his bed would be defiled and he and everything in his room would be ritually unclean for seven days. (Numbers 19:13-14) But YHWH would even take care of this problem.
20. And he called out to YHWH and said, “O YHWH my Elohim! Have you even brought trouble on the widow with whom I am finding hospitality, to let her son die?”
Even: He expected trouble for himself in such a climate, but he knew the principle that Y’shua put into words, that whoever shows hospitality to a prophet should receive a prophet’s reward. (Mat. 10:41) So like Y’shua, he asked that this “cup might pass from him”. Like Y’shua, he prayed three times:
21. Then he stretched himself out over the boy three times, then called out to YHWH and said, “O YHWH my Elohim, please let the boy’s life come back into him!”
His life: literally, his inhaling. The three prayers (like those Dani’el practiced daily) represent a cycle like the three major pilgrimage festivals of the year. The woman was right in recognizing that judgment was coming upon her because she had started walking in the spirit of Eliyahu. When we take on the restoration of all things YHWH has established as eternal, the people we are related to begin to “die off”. The only way to revive them is to teach them this cycle, because if they truly begin to walk in them, they will be unable to miss YHWH’s primary truths.
22. And YHWH listened to the voice of Eliyahu, and the boy’s life came back into him, and he survived.
Like a man Y’shua healed, this boy’s sickness was chiefly for the purpose of showing YHWH’s power. (Yochanan 11:4) As we who are restoring the ancient practices to our part of Israel intercede and obey fully, we can have this hope that YHWH will again listen to us and revive the sons of the Northern Kingdom.
23. So Eliyahu picked the boy up and brought him down from the rooftop chamber into the house, and gave him to his mother. And Eliyahu said, “Look, your son is alive!”
Alive: or thriving. Again, Eliyahu’s own confidence in YHWH received a large boost.
24. And the woman said to Eliyahu, “Now I have come to be sure of this, that you are a man of Elohim, and that the word of YHWH in your mouth is true!”
She apparently still had some doubts after the flour and oil kept flowing. Maybe she thought he was secretly replacing it for her between uses. (Consider the wording of v. 16, if a comma were added before “by”, though the last phrase is a common idiom.) It may be that everyone was just suspicious of everyone at that time, thinking they were just trying to find ways to persuade others to give them a meal, since everyone was starving. Or, because of the many different things being worshipped in that day, much confusion had resulted she needed to be sure of who was really the one providing for her. But this second miracle was one he could not fake! Y’shua’s resurrection after three days was also the evidence the Northern Kingdom needed to be persuaded to return to the measure of restoration that was available in his day. But note that Y’shua was not the first to raise a widow’s son from the dead. He was not the first to take a little bread and multiply it greatly. But we do not see this woman worshipping Eliyahu as if he were YHWH. Her response is the proper one—to recognize that he is a representative of YHWH and needs to be heeded as such. And despite what Christians have done with the New Testament in the meantime, that is exactly the same response we see people giving to Y’shua therein. (Mat. 9:8; 15:31; Luqa 23:47)
CHAPTER 18
1. And it came about after many days that the word of YHWH came to Eliyahu in the third year, to say, “Go, present yourself to Akh’av, so that I can provide rain upon the face of the ground.”
YHWH already had the solution ready, but there had to be a certain level of response from the representative of the nation first.
2. So Eliyahu went to present himself to Akh’av. Now the famine had a firm grip in Shomron,
Shomron might have held out longer because it normally receives plentiful rain, being on the side of the mountains that received the precipitation when the clouds passed over the ridge. But now things were becoming desperate, but YHWH often receives a better response from His people when they are hungry than when they are sated.
3. and Akh’av had summoned Ovadyahu, who was over the household. (Now Ovadyahu had come to fear YHWH very much,
Ovadyahu means “servant of YHWH”. This is probably not the same as the prophet Ovadyah(u). (See introduction to Ovadyah.) There are 13 different men with this name in Scripture.
4. and what had taken place when Izevel had cut off the prophets of YHWH, was that Ovadyahu had taken a hundred prophets, and had them withdraw, fifty men [in each group], into the cave, and sustained them with bread and water.)
The Midrash says he divided them into two groups in case on group was found, so that at least one group could survive. He would have gotten this idea from Yaaqov’s dividing his family into two groups when he felt threatened by Esau. (Gen. 32) It is amazing that someone of Ovadyahu’s caliber would be working for a king like Akh’av, if he had a choice, but, like Esther, he was put in this position to keep these prophets alive. He may have even worshipped YHWH secretly, considering his location. He may have put them in caves because it was common for pagan worship to take place in caves, and so this might be the last place one would expect to find the prophets of YHWH. But although he saved these prophets, many others, and many common people who were faithful to YHWH, had died because Akh’av had not put limits on his wife, insisting that Ba’al was not to be worshipped in Israel. As she herself had said in another context, he was the king, after all. But instead he let Izevel remain her princess self. This was a politically-motivated marriage, stemming all the way back to an alliance David had made with Hiram King of Tzur. Shlomo carried it a step further and made many compromises by allowing his foreign wives to retain their pagan worship, and this is not permissible according to Torah. When given an inch, she essentially took her husband’s place as king, and everything was out of kilter, so it was time to restore the proper order.
5. And Akh’av said to Ovadyahu, “Go throughout the Land to all the springs of waters and all the wadis; maybe we can find [enough] grass to keep horse and mule alive, and not [have to] cut off any of the livestock.”
Wadis: The Arabic name commonly used in the Land today for usually-dry riverbeds that have seasonal streams run through them, and which therefore might have some remaining water beneath them. The horse was a symbol of power and the mule a picture of sovereignty, and this symbolized the fact that he was placing both of these before the flocks (symbolic of the people he governed). Horses were the military might of the day, and he did not want to reduce their numbers. Cut off: possibly slaughter them for food, and this seems to even suggest that they would feed the horses and mules with the meat from the flocks; or it may simply mean they would have to reduce their numbers by turning some of them loose, so that the little remaining vegetation might be able to keep the rest of them alive. But notice that by this last-ditch effort Akh’av is still trying to “cheat” YHWH by finding his own way out of his troubles rather than admitting he was wrong and needed to repent and find out what YHWH’s solution would be.
6. So they divided up the Land for themselves, to go through it; Akh’av went one way by himself, and Ovadyahu went [another] way by himself.
Divided: in the sense of apportioning out shares. Akh’av may have gone himself because he did not trust anyone else to do it, but assumed they would use any resources they found for their own sakes and never report back to him.
7. But what took place as Ovadyahu was on the way was that here came Eliyahu to meet him. When he recognized him, he fell on his face and said, “Is that you, my master Eliyahu?”
8. And he said to him, “I [myself]! Go and tell your master, ‘Look! Eliyahu is there!’”
9. But he said, “What have I done wrong? Because you are handing your servant over to Akh’av to get me killed!
10. “[As surely as] YHWH your Elohim is alive, if there is [any] nation or dominion where my master has not sent to search for you! And when they said, ‘He is not [here]’, he made the kingdom or the nation swear that it had not found you.
Eliyahu had told Akh’av that it would not rain again until he said so, so apparently before he came up with this latest plan, he had been trying hard to find Eliyahu in hopes that he might pronounce the end of the plague.
11. “And now you are saying, ‘Go and tell your master, “Look! Here’s Eliyahu”?’
12. “And what will occur is that when I leave your side, the spirit of YHWH will carry you I don’t know where, and when I come and report [it] to Akh’av, he won’t find you, and he will murder me. Now your servant has feared YHWH since my youth.
Spirit: or simply, wind. Has feared YHWH: i.e., What have I done to deserve this certain death sentence?
13. “Wasn’t my master told what I did when Izevel murdered the prophets of YHWH—how I hid some of the prophets of YHWH—a hundred men—in a cave, fifty each, in a cave, and fed them bread and water?
There is a play on words here. The Hebrew for “I hid” (akhava’) has all the same letters as “Akh’av” in a slightly different order, and therefore has the same numeric value as his name. (12) This may symbolically cancel out Akh’av’s actions. But they only broke even, so it was a stalemate and the famine could not end.
14. “And now you are saying, ‘Go and tell your master, “Look! Here’s Eliyahu”?’ Then he will murder me!”
15. So Eliyahu said, “[As surely as] YHWH [Commander] of Armies, before Whom I stand, is alive, [do so], because I will appear to him today.”
16. So Ovadyahu went to meet Akh’av, and reported [it] to him, so Akh’av went to meet Eliyahu.
17. And it turned out that as Akh’av looked at Eliyahu, he said, “Are you the one who is the troubler of Israel?!”
How different a greeting than Ovadyahu had given Eliyahu! But apparently he did not look as intimidating as he expected! (Compare Yeshayahu/Isa. 14:16.) Troubler: or, the one who stirs up, the disturber.
18. But he said to him, “I have not troubled Israel, but [rather] you and your father’s household [have], when you abandoned the orders of YHWH, and walked after the Baals!
19. “So now send and gather all of Israel to me at Mount Karmel, along with the 450 prophets of the Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Izevel’s table.”
Mount Karmel is a range that runs transverse across the country from the main central range to the Mediterranean just south of the Yezre’el Valley about 17 miles north of Shomron. At its end is the modern port of Haifa. At Izevel’s table: i.e., she supported them all. They were part of Akh’av’s household (v. 18), whereas Israel was supposed to support the Levitical priesthood, not a foreign pagan one.
20. So Akh’av sent [word] among all the descendants of Israel, and gathered the prophets to Mount Karmel.
Now that he has lost all other hope of survival, Akh’av does not have any argument against Eliyahu.
21. So Eliyahu approached all the people and said, “How long will you be limping on two amputated limbs? If YHWH is the Elohim, go after Him, but if the Baal, go after him!” But the people did not answer him a word.
How long: literally, until when? Limping on: or tripping over, skipping over—the same term used for “Passover”. Two amputated limbs: or lopped-off boughs--an idiom for ambivalence or divided opinion: neither of the two is complete, but both end up being shorter than they should be and only get in the way. The Baal: more of a title—“the husband/ owner” wit the nuance of being an overlord—than a name as such.
22. Then Eliyahu said to the people, “I alone remain a prophet of YHWH, but the prophets of the Baal [number] 450 men.
Since he was a prophet, his word would be taken as truth. But Eliyahu wisely does not mention the other 100 prophets, about whom he now knows, so that when the word gets back to Izevel, she will either think her soldiers did succeed in killing them, or assume he does not know about the existence of his remaining allies. Wicked, malicious people do not need to know all of the facts. The other prophets were inactive anyway.
23. “So let them provide us with two bulls, and they can choose the one bull for themselves, and divide it up and lay [the pieces] on the wood, but don’t set [it on] fire, and I will prepare the [other] bull and lay it on the wood, and won’t set [a] fire.
Since they outnumbered him so overwhelmingly, surely they could afford to supply the bulls! So he put the burden on them. He also had them furnish the bulls in order to put all the odds in their favor, to prove that he was not in any way using sleight of hand. (If he brought his own bull, they might think he had “rigged” something in advance.) Mount Karmel was a major pagan worship site, so he was essentially giving them the “home court advantage”. But also he brought the imagery of two bulls being slaughtered. Not only had Yarav’am set up two calves for worship; there was also a close association between Baal and bulls.
24. “Then when you have called on the name of your elohim, I will call on the name of YHWH, and the way it will be is that the elohim that answers by fire, that [will prove] the [real] Elohim!” And the people responded and said, “[This] word is fair.”
Your elohim: Notice that he does not even mention the other deity’s name any more often than he absolutely had to for the sake of clarity. Babylonians were afraid to speak the name of their own elohim lest it pay them too much attention; Israel is forbidden to pronounce the names of anyone else’s. (Ex. 23:13)
25. So Eliyahu told the prophets of Baal, “Pick the one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, since you are the majority, and call on the name of your elohim, but set no fire.”
He remains in control, but gives them a fair advantage.
26. So they took the bull that [someone] provided for them, and called on the name of the Baal from the morning all the way up till noon, saying, “O Baal! Answer us!” But there was no sound and no response, though they were leaping over the altar that had been made.
Leaping over: or, in the imagery of verse 21, which uses the same Hebrew word, possibly skipping from one foot to another or bouncing back and forth from one foot to the other on top of the altar, so as to attract Baal’s attention. The wording also makes one wonder whether they had somehow physically maimed themselves so that they would limp, as part of their worship of Baal. They apparently did not really expect an answer, because they were right in the line of fire as they did this strange “dance” right on top of the altar.
27. So what Eliyahu did at noon was to start mocking them and saying, “Call with a loud voice, because he is an elohim; because [either] he is meditating or has turned aside, or he has [taken] a journey, or is asleep and is just waking up!”
He is an elohim: i.e., might therefore be away on business with someone far more important than they. Turned aside: from a word for moving or removing dross, so it may have even been an idiom for defecating! How that would have insulted them, but they were too concerned with getting “his” attention.
28. So they called out with a loud voice, and cut into themselves according to their custom with swords and spears until blood poured out on them.
In Persia the same was done in worship of Mithra, which later became the religion of the Roman army, and thereby many aspects of it carried over into Christianity, such as the self-flagellation of some Catholics. Blood figured very strongly in that religion, to the point of even their baptism ritual being performed in a vat of blood rather than water. The red theme at Christmas (which none-too-coincidentally falls on Mithra’s birthday) may derive partly from this.
29. But still, though noonday had passed by and they prophesied [among themselves] until [it was time] to bring the offering up, there was [still] no sound, no response, and no one paying attention.
By noon, Baal should have been “out of bed”!
30. So Eliyahu said to all the people, “Come close to me!” So all the people came close to him, and he began to repair the altar of YHWH that had been torn down.
Come close: The Jewish historian Josephus says that this was to have them witness the fact that he was not hiding any fire among the wood. Altar of YHWH: Sha’ul had set up a monument to himself here (1 Shmu’el 15:12), and David’s wife Avigayil had come from Karmel; there would later be a school of the prophets here, but there is no Scriptural record of an altar here prior to this. It might not have even been a literal altar here at all, but rather, what the text is saying may simply be that he was re-establishing a place to draw near to YHWH.
31. And Eliyahu took twelve stones, to correspond with the number of the tribes of the sons of Yaaqov, to whom the word of YHWH came to say, “Israel will be your name.”
He was subtly reminding the onlookers of who they really were and of the fact that though they were a broken-down people, they could be repaired. Twelve stones was a theme Moshe had utilized at Mt. Sinai (Ex. 24:4), and Y’hoshua had made two piles of twelve stones for the express purpose of reminding YHWH’s people of what He had done and what their responsibility to Him is.
32. Then with the stones he built an altar in the Name of YHWH, and he made a trench all around the altar the size of two seahs of seed.
Trench: the Hebrew word actually stems from a word meaning “to rise or ascend”, so the emphasis must have been on the outer walls that blocked the water from flowing further. This way there would not only be an ascending (fully burnt) offering atop the altar, but ascension from the base as well. Two seahs would equal two thirds of an eyfah, or about 14.6 liters. It was a small altar, with only twelve stones, so this would have been large enough.
33. Then he set the pieces of wood in order, and divided the bull into pieces, and put [them] on the wood, and said, “Fill four [large] jars with water, and pour it onto the ascending [offering] and onto the [pieces of] wood!”
He took his time and made sure everything was ordered the way it was supposed to be, probably according to the pattern used at the Temple. It is not likely that Eliyahu had ever seen the prescribed altar in Yerushalayim, since it had been at least 60 years since Yarav’am had seceded from Yehudah (or, more likely, Rehav’am had seceded from Israel), and Eliyahu does not yet seem to have been very old (especially in light of verse 46).
34. Then he said, “Do it again!” So they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third [time]!” So they did it a third [time].
Thus they had drenched what was to be burned with twelve large jars’ worth of water. If he were starting the fire himself, this would have effectively prevented the fire from starting, but Eliyahu was confident in the strength of YHWH and the fire He would bring! So he became overly dramatic so they would not forget what he was proving.
35. And the water ran all around the altar, and even filled the trench [with] water.
36. And it turned out that at [the time for] making the offering ascend, Eliyahu the prophet approached and said, “O YHWH, Elohim of Avraham, Yitzhaq, and Israel, today make it known that You are Elohim in Israel, and [that] I am Your servant, and [that] by Your words I have done all these things!
He waited until the time of the evening oblation (which could begin as early as about 3:00 p.m.) so that everything about his prayer and offering would be up to the highest ideal possible outside of Yerushalayim, just as Dani’el continued to pray at the three times of corporate prayer in the Temple, though he was in exile. Or it may even be that the people had retained YHWH’s times of prayer but were using them for the other elohim, but even YHWH was not paying attention to them because their religion had become so empty.
37. “Answer me, O YHWH! Answer me, so that this people will know that You, O YHWH, are the Elohim, when You have turned their hearts back [around]!”
They might not understand fully at this point, but in retrospect they would have something definite to look back on as an anchor for their trust in YHWH. Eliyahu acted in great confidence, but did not fail to also ask YHWH to act, for the one who said, “Eliyahu was a man like us, but he prayed…” (Yaaqov/James) also said, “You do not have because you do not ask.”
38. Then the fire of YHWH [began to] fall, and consumed the ascending [offering], the wood, the stones, and the dust, and licked right up the water that was in the trench!
The dust: Anything outside the trench would be extremely parched after three and a half years with no rain (according to Yaaqov/James 5:17). Comparing with verse 1 here, we might surmise that it took six months for all of the events in this chapter to take place. The six-month interval also suggests that the famine started right before Passover, when the latter rains would be expected, and ended just after Sukkoth, when the rains are intended to begin to prepare for the next year’s crop.
39. When all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “YHWH is the one [who is] Elohim! YHWH is the one [who is] Elohim!”
Though this may have been a thunderbolt from the planet Mars, which was often associated with Baal, the fire (strong enough to lick up so much water as well) did not fall when Baal was called on, but only when YHWH was, so YHWH rightly received the credit for being in control even of "Baal".
40. And Eliyahu told them, “Arrest the prophets of Baal! Don’t let a man of them [be allowed to] escape!” So they caught them, and Eliyahu brought them down to the Qishon [River] Valley and slaughtered them there.
Slaughtered: the word is the same used for slitting the throats of animals being offered to YHWH. Though YHWH does not ask for human sacrifice, one could say he “butchered” them for YHWH’s sake, to remove their influence from His Land. If they were Israelites, they were adulterers as well, for they (or at least the people they were teaching their lies to) were very overtly going after a different “husband” than the One they were “married to”, and therefore YHWH had commanded such to be put to death. (Deut. 13). Prophets of Baal: It seems the prophets of Asherah had already fled. Asherah was a female deity considered the consort of Baal, and her worship continued on throughout history in the form of Ishtar, Astarte, Diana, and the “Virgin Mary”. If only Eliyahu had been able to slaughter her prophets as well, the world would have been spared much confusion. The prophets of Baal partook in death by cutting their veins in worship to their elohim, and they were thus weakened, making it easier for Eliyahu to kill them off completely. (v. 28) The Qishon is one of the few rivers in Israel that keeps flowing year-round.
41. Then Eliyahu told Akh’av, “Go up, eat and drink, because [there is] a sound of abundant rain!”
Eliyahu saw Akh’av’s obedience as a sign of repentance, so, with the false prophets also done away with, he declared that now everything would be all right. Abundant: or clamorous, confusing, as in a noisy crowd. Josephus takes this as meaning Akh’av could enjoy his meal without fear, because of the promise of better times that this would bring. But such a rain on such dry ground would also cause flooding, which could bring disaster first—though, like Noakh’s deluge, it could wash the Land clean as with a ritual miqveh.
42. So Akh’av went up to eat and drink, while Eliyahu went up to the top of Karmel, and he crouched down on the ground and put his face between his knees.
Akh’av was willing to comply with YHWH’s prophet as long as the overbearing influence of his wife was not around. He was a man too easily misled.
43. Then he said to his servant, “Please go up. Look intently in the direction of the sea.” So he went up and looked, but said, “There isn’t anything.” But he said, “Go back!” seven times.
When did this servant appear? It may be that someone in the audience committed himself fully to Eliyahu when he saw YHWH prove Himself. He spoke more respectfully to his servant than to his king, probably because the king was not worthy of much respect except for his position. Direction of the sea: or, westward. Eliyahu did not give up after the first prayer, but kept praying.
44. And sure enough, on the seventh [time], he said, “Look! A small cloud-mass the size of [the palm of] a man’s hand is coming up out of the west!” So he said, “Go up, tell Akh’av, ‘Harness up and go down, so the rain won’t prevent you!’”
Though it was still far-off, the rumblings—or simply his confidence in YHWH—told him that it was headed this way quickly. He saw YHWH doing what He said He would do, so he knew that though this was only a beginning, it held the potential of completion. A cloud had often been the sign of YHWH’s presence in Israel’s history. Palm of hand: Heb., kaf; Josephus takes it as a foot, which is just as valid a translation, and does not change much. Prevent you: Most people traveled on dry riverbeds when it was not a rainy season, so, as Pharaoh had found out the hard way, chariot wheels would get bogged down once the rain began.
45. And it turned out exactly that way, to the point that the skies grew dark [with] cloud-masses and wind, and there was a hard rain. When Akh’av had mounted [his chariot] and went to Yizre’el,
Exactly that way: or, until the same—i.e., until Akh’av did what he said; in the meantime. Yizre’el was a town of Yissakhar on the northern edge of Mt. Gilboa. But Yizre’el means “Elohim will scatter seed”, a word-play which Hoshea would pick up on about a century later specifically in regard to the Northern Kingdom. Now that the rain was coming, however, this could have a positive meaning. If the people did not stick with the Elohim who had answered by fire, however, the nation would be scattered.
46. YHWH’s hand was toward Eliyahu, and he tied up [his loose-flowing garments around] his hips and ran ahead of Akh’av as far as [where] you enter Yizre’el!
From the top of Mt. Karmel (just above modern Haifa) to Yizre’el was at least 22 miles! Why did he run there? Being a prophet, he probably assumed that, since Akh’av had obeyed his authority, he would now be restored to his rightful place as advisor to the king so he could oversee the restoration of the whole nation to the worship of YHWH. But he quite literally got ahead of the horse! He celebrated a little too soon, though he certainly should have been joyful at YHWH’s triumph and full of hope in regard to what Israel could again become. As so often occurs, however, it would not stick, as we will see in the following chapters. Many fickle people choosing to follow YHWH one day did not mean there were not still additional powers that had a stronghold over the nation, and there were many more battles to fight. Eliyahu was absolutely obedient, but still had much to learn about restraining his enthusiasm and going beyond what YHWH said to do.
CHAPTER 19
1. When Akh’av told Izevel all that Eliyahu had done and all [about] how he had killed all the prophets with the sword,
2. Izevel sent a messenger to Eliyahu, saying, “May the gods do the same [to me] and more so, if tomorrow at [this] same time I have not made your life like the life of one of them!”
It seems she was still somewhat afraid to touch YHWH’s anointed, especially after the sign she had just been given, or she would not have given him such ample warning rather than killing him right away by the hand of the messenger. She may have been "more bark than bite". The gods: Heb., elohim. She undoubtedly meant it in the pagan sense, but YHWH, the true Elohim, would remember her words and take her up on the offer. Your life: or, your soul.
3. And he became afraid, so he got up and ran for his life, and made it to Be’er-sheva’, which belongs to Yehudah, and left his young [servant] there.
Became afraid: or possibly, saw. It is ambiguous in Hebrew, since the two verbs take the same form in this instance. If we read it as “saw”, this emphasizes the idea that he allowed what he noticed to enter his gates and strike fear in him as the 850 pagan priests had not been able to do. Ran for his life: literally, walked toward his soul, or, by extension, his appetite, desire, emotion. Left: or, let him rest. Be’er-sheva’ is where Avraham first explicitly called on YHWH’s name (Gen. 21:33) He may have been trying to re-connect to that aspect of his ancestor’s faith, besides the fact that Yehudah was outside Izevel’s area of jurisdiction.
4. Then he himself walked a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a [single] broom-plant, and he asked his soul to die, and said, “[It’s] too much now, O YHWH; take my life, because I am no better than my ancestors!”
Wilderness: literally, place of the word, for he needed to hear from YHWH. Broom-tree: Heb., rethem, from a root meaning “to bind” or “attach”. Its Hebrew name has also carried over into the Latin nomenclature as retama. It is a medium-sized bush that grows mainly in very dry places, and in perfect conditions it can reach the size of a tree. It is wide on top and narrow at the bottom, providing welcome shade but allowing breezes to blow under it in the daytime. (Nogah HaReuveni of Neot Kedumim Biblical Landscape Museum) The fact that it emphasizes “one broom plant” suggests that it was the only shade around for miles. When Avraham sat under a tree (Gen. 18:8), he was offering himself in hospitality. When D’vorah sat under a tree (Judges 4:5), she was making rulings as a judge. In both cases they were serving Israel. But the root word from which it comes is ratham, which means “to hook together, yoke, harness, or bind”, and if Eliyahu thought about the name, he might have been thinking, “To serve, I have to be yoked to someone else with the same goals, and there is no one left with whom I can form a bond. (v. 10) How can I be hospitable like Avraham when there is no one left who is worthy? I might as well just die!”
5. Then he lay down and slept under [the] single broom-plant, but look at this! A messenger touched him and said to him, “Get up! Eat!”
Even prophets need help at times. Touched: or reached out to.
6. When he looked around, lo and behold, at the place [where he had lain] his head, there was a cake [as if it had been cooked on] hot coals and a jug of water. So he started eating and drinking, but turned and lay back down.
Like the jug of oil that kept being refilled (chapter 17), this was a precious gift from El Shaddai that sustained him. The only other place in Scripture that this term is used is of the water jug David took from King Sha’ul when he could have killed him instead. (1 Shmu’el 26:11-16) It speaks of YHWH giving Sha’ul’s provision to David instead. Interestingly, this had also been by the place Sha’ul had lain his head. Psalm 120:4 likens slanderous tongues to broom-plant embers shot on arrows, and the Jerusalem Talmud explains that though its embers are extinguished on the outside, the inside continues to burn even for months at a time and all the way through the rainy season. This would allow archers to handle the embers and fire them into thatched roofs, where they could smolder and catch fire later. Midrash Rabbah explains that this is because slander does damage from far away and keep burning inside even after they seem to have gone out. One who has been the brunt of slander and seems to have been appeased can go on seething internally. Its embers are hotter than others and can keep water or food heated before the Sabbath warm through the day. (Rabbi Yochanan in Shabbat 37b) With a few inches of sand over them, they make a self-heating mattress on cold desert nights. This may relate to the coals mentioned here.
7. Then the messenger of YHWH came back a second time and said, “Get up, eat! Because the journey is too much for you!”
Apparently he needed the food more than the sleep at this stage of his exhaustion, which was probably dehydration, after all his excited running, then his panicked flight. If he had slept before eating, he might not have awakened again.
8. So he got up and continued to eat and drink, then he went on the strength of that meal forty days and forty nights, as far as the mountain of Elohim [at] Khorev.
Khorev: Mount Sinai in Midyan, just east of the eastern fork of the Reed Sea, southeast of Etzion-Gever and Eilath at the southern tip of what was then and is now Yehudah’s territory. Since Yaaqov had once used a stone for a pillow (Gen. 28:11—the same term used for the place Eliyahu had lain his head in v. 6), and this bread had appeared upon the place Eliyahu had just been resting his head, undoubtedly haSatan was alluding to this when, after a similar forty-day fast, he told Y’shua to “turn the stones into bread”, as the messenger here appeared to have done. Moshe also spent forty days and forty nights “in” that very same mountain—probably in the cave that we will see in this chapter. (Ex. 24:18) Apparently he felt that he could reconnect to YHWH here, where Moshe had spent such an intimate time with Him and where the covenant he was trying to uphold had first been established.
9. When he came to the cave there, he passed the night there. But then the word of YHWH came to him and said to him, “What is there for you here, Eliyahu?”
I.e., “What are you doing here? Did I summon you here to My presence?” Khorev was not a place Israelites visited every day. It is very isolated still today, far from any major settlement, in the Saudi Arabian desert. The root word for “cave” means “bareness”; it was as if he was going back to the very basics, or even back into the womb to be “born again”.
10. So he said, “I have been intensely zealous to be jealous for YHWH, Elohim of Armies, because the descendants of Israel have abandoned Your covenant! They have torn down Your altars and murdered Your prophets with the sword, and I myself—I alone—remain, and now they have started seeking to take my life [too]!”
Zealous…jealous: the same word in Hebrew, used in two different tenses here in a sentence structure that implies great intensity. The scenario he describes here sounds very much like today, though on the surface it is not so obviously pagan unless one compares it with the standard. The rebukers are by and large gone, and Scripture is badly twisted. Eliyahu is alluding to Deut. 29 and showing that the worst case described there has come to pass, and must have wondered why YHWH needed to be reminded of how he had acted. He seems to have started to believe the lie he had told the prophets of Baal—that he was the only prophet of YHWH left, though he knew there were 100 more somewhere. Did he think the worship of YHWH would die if he, too, was killed? It seems he was bent on self-pity, because he had begun fearing someone other than YHWH. YHWH gently reminds him that he is called to be a prophet to Israel, and where he is there is no one to prophesy to, so he is not doing his job.
11. So He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in YHWH’s presence, and watch YHWH passing by!” Then an intense, strong wind [started] tearing the mountains to pieces and violently shattering the cliffs before YHWH. [But] YHWH was not in the wind. Then after the wind, an earthquake, [but] YHWH was not in the earthquake.
YHWH does not feed into his fear, but “changes the subject” somewhat. It seems the events on that Shavuoth after the first Passover were being repeated in the same location. Tradition says the burning bush that Moshe saw was in this same cave, and like it, Eliyahu was being consumed but not destroyed as he did YHWH’s will. But these magnificent displays of strength were not necessarily what one should expect YHWH’s preferred means of self-revelation, though He certainly proved Himself capable of accomplishing them, even by Eliyahu’s own hand. The word for wind (ruakh) is a feminine one, and the adjective “intense” is properly feminine as well, but the adjective “strong” (khazaq) is masculine here, though it does have a feminine form used elsewhere as expected. This may relate to the fact that Eliyahu was not afraid of these very dangerous things that were going on, and had trusted YHWH in a religious context, but he was afraid of the confrontation with one woman who was acting like a strong man.
12. Then after the earthquake [came] a fire; YHWH was not in the fire. Then after the fire, a voice—a tiny, calm whispering.
Tiny: from a word meaning to beat or crush into fine dust. Apparently, on this occasion, YHWH was in this. Eliyahu had seen the magnificent displays of YHWH’s power, and had even demonstrated it himself. But he needed to come to know this side of YHWH better. He was attuned to hearing the grand words of YHWH on behalf of the multitude, but was not used to YHWH’s instruction to him as an individual. Apparently the voice was calling his name:
13. And what took place was that when Eliyahu heard [it], he wrapped his face in his [camel’s hair] garment and went out and stood at the opening of the cave, and indeed a voice came to him, and it said, “What is there for you here, Eliyahu?”
14. So he said, “I have been intensely zealous to be jealous for YHWH, Elohim of Armies, because the descendants of Israel have abandoned Your covenant! They have torn down Your altars and murdered Your prophets with the sword, and I myself—I alone—remain, and now they have started seeking to take my life [too]!”
His perspective remained the same. Eliyahu is a loner who prefers to be out of sight except when making grand announcements about YHWH. YHWH is showing him that he is actually afraid of people. Yet strangely, though he insists on being alone, he complains about being the only one!
15. But YHWH told him, “Go, turn back to your journey [through] the wilderness of Damaseq, and when you get there, anoint Khaza’El to be king over Aram.
Khaza’El means “one who has a vision of Elohim”. Like the Assyrians, whom YHWH called His servants, he was given a particular job by YHWH, though he was not by any means in constant touch with Him. This also reminds us of Alexander the Great, who, when he saw Yehudah’s high priest when he came to Yerushalayim, recognized him as a man from a dream he had had, and told his armies to leave the Jews alone to live as they wished. It was not until Jews later adopted Alexander’s culture and invited his successor to rule over them that the troubles from the Greeks as described in the book of Maccabees began.
16. “Then you must anoint Yehu the son of Nimshi to be king over Israel, then you must anoint Elisha the son of Shafath of Avel-M’kholah as prophet in your place.
Nimshi means “rescued”. Avel-M’kholah was in the Yarden Valley about ten miles south of Beyth-She’an (compare 4:12), and east-northeast from Tirtzah and Shomron. Its name means “meadow of dancing”. Elisha means “Elohim saves”. His father’s name, Shafath, means “he has judged”. YHWH is sending Eliyahu to do jobs that will show him that he himself is in the position to make people kings. This is within his power, so why is he afraid of a queen? He is giving her far too much credit. In your place: Rather than seeing this as YHWH taking him up on his rash words in verse 4, Eliyahu probably thought this would offer him the occasion to "retire" from public life and let the confrontation with Izevel be Elisha’s problem instead!
17. “Thus [anyone who] is allowed to escape from the sword of Khaza’El, Yehu will kill, and whoever escapes from the sword of Yehu, Elisha will kill.
Though this is not usually how we think of a prophet, Eliyahu’s experience and this word show that one of the jobs of a prophet is to kill the unrepentant, at least if it comes to that point. While Elisha would put foreign armies in a position to be destroyed several times, he actually brought some Israelites back to life. But after the Land received a major cleansing from idolatry, this was part of the refining or fine tuning—when those who had escaped the first two rounds were still not showing a prophet the respect he deserved, so stricter standards had to be established. If the larger sins of the nation had not been cleared out of the way first, these children would have no basis to know their place, but after the worship of YHWH was re-established, they should have known better.
18. “By the way, I have 7,000 left in Israel all whose knees have not bent to the Baal, and all of whose mouths have not kissed him.”
7,000: symbolic of a sufficiently large number to completely fulfill some purpose of YHWH, most likely to spare Israel as He had not done for S’dom and Ghamorrah. He let Eliyahu know in no uncertain terms that he was far from the only one left who worshipped YHWH.
19. So he left there and found Elisha the son of Shafath while he was plowing [with] twelve [yoked] teams [of oxen] in front of him, and he was at the twelfth. So Eliyahu went over to him, and threw his garment to him.
This is where the term “passing the mantle” came from as an idiom for succession. (v. 16) Eliyahu was tired of being a leader, with its many frustrations, and was very ready to give up the job to someone else!
20. And he left the oxen and ran after Eliyahu and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I can walk after you.” But he said, “Go on back, because what have I done to you?”
He was insulted by the fact that Elisha did not just come after him and leave everything behind, though Elisha was only thinking of honoring his parents and probably telling them where he was going. Why? Because Eliyahu had just been confronted with the urgency of finishing the job he had been given to do by Heaven, and that he should not be doing something else when his work was not done. They teaching is fresh in his mind, yet now Elisha is doing the same thing in his eyes. He has learned that it is fruitless to do anything other than what YHWH has assigned him to do, and now the man who is to take his place does not even seem to recognize this. Shouldn’t the man who is to follow him be a step above him? Yet he has not even learned the lessons Eliyahu has learned! No wonder he is frustrated. Y’shua said the same about those who follow him: if they want to be worthy of this teacher, we must not look back once we have “put our hand to the plow” (Luqa 9:62; compare Mat. 12:46-50)—not so much to use it to plow with, but to do as Elisha did with them.
21. So he returned from following him, but he took the [yoked] team of oxen and slaughtered them, and cooked their meat with the apparatus of the oxen and provided for the people, and they ate. Then he got up and followed Eliyahu and waited on him [as a personal attendant].
Yoked team: probably only the twelfth team, which he had been with, but possibly all 12 teams. This was his father’s ox team, so he is giving up his own inheritance for the sake of YHWH’s will. To show his repentance, he destroys every other yoke that binds him and binds himself to Eliyahu, bringing the latter relief from feeling so alone (v. 10, see note on v. 4). But the twelve teams also call to mind the twelve tribes of Israel, and Eliyahu’s message has been the reunification of the whole nation that would have been better than the downward trend the northern kingdom was taking. He had made his altar to represent all twelve tribes rather than merely ten (18:31), since the arrogant Israelite kings he has addressed, much like the exiled Israelites in the Church, have not wanted to portray Yehudah as their brothers. Elisha’s hometown of Avel-M’kholah is in Menashe’s territory, so he was most likely from that tribe. Does this last team that he slaughtered somehow relate to his tribe in addition to his own doubling of the required offering that both speaks of the seriousness of his commitment and foreshadows the double portion of Eliyahu’s spirit that he was to receive because he had slain his own wishes? “The people” mentioned here would certainly have been capable of going back and telling his parents where he was going, so he had no need to. The slaughtered bulls are not burned up but eaten, in the form of a thanksgiving or peace offering. He is expressing thanks for YHWH’s calling on his life. The people eating with him had to listen to his testimony.
CHAPTER 20
1. Then Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, gathered together his whole army—32 kings [who were] with him, as well as horses and chariots—and he came up and laid siege to Shomron, and fought against it.
Aram: now Syria, northeast of Israel. Yaaqov’s uncle Lavan lived in this region. The historian Josephus says the 32 kings were from beyond the Ferath (Euphrates) River, and that Akh’av had the gates of all the cities in Israel shut at this time, while he himself remained in the best-fortified.
2. And he sent messengers to King Akh’av, the king of Israel, in the city, and said to him, “This is what Ben-Hadad says:
3. “‘Your silver and your gold, it belongs to me. And your wives and your children—those that are of any value—they are mine [now].’”
This was a common way to offer terms of peace so a weaker king could avoid being decimated by a stronger. The Aramaic language there is very similar to Hebrew, so they could have understood each other fairly easily, much like a Spanish speaker hearing Italian spoken today.
4. And the king of Israel responded to him by saying, “According to your word, my master the king, I and all that belong to me are yours.”
Akh’av thought less of the value of the Land of Israel or its possessions than of the 33 armies that were threatening him. One would not blame him if he did not mind giving up Izevel! But when we see how small a fighting force he had left (v. 15), he was only “counting the cost” as Y’shua said a king should. (Luqa 14:28-33) Aram might not have been as severely affected by the famine; in any case they took advantage of the fact that Israel had.
5. But the messengers came back and said, “This is what Ben-Hadad says: ‘Since I sent word to you [that] you must give me your silver, your gold, your wives, and your children,
6. “‘therefore at about the [same] time tomorrow I will send my servants to you, and when they have searched through your house and the houses of your servants, what will take place [is that] anything that is desirable in your eyes, they will put in their hand and take away.’”
Houses of your servants: This is the difference in the second request. Now it was not just the palace he could pillage, but he would have permission to enter and rob any house in any city under Akh’av’s jurisdiction! In your eyes: It does not say, “in our eyes”; it was anything the owners especially treasured. Of course, they could lie and claim that their least-valued possessions were really of more sentimental value to them!
7. So the king of Israel summoned all the elders of the Land and said, “Please recognize and pay attention, because of the trouble this one is looking for, because he sent to me for my silver and my gold, my wives and my children, and I did not withhold [anything] from him.”
8. So all the elders of the Land and all the people said to him, “Do not obey and do not yield.”
9. So he said to the messengers of Ben-Hadad, “Tell my master the king, everything that you sent to your servant the first [time], I will do, but this thing I am not able to do.” So the messengers went and took word back to him.
The first response was a formality to declare his subjection to Ben-Hadad as a vassal, but this was taking it too far and overstepping the bounds of common courtesy, which prevented an honorable king from taking full advantage of having the upper hand.
10. Then Ben-Hadad sent [word] to him and said, “May the gods do the same to me, and add more, if there will be so much as a handful of the dust of Shomron left for all the people that are at my feet!”
I.e., if the people who were “at his heels” would leave anything recognizable as this city by the time they got done with it.
11. So the king of Israel responded by saying, “Tell him, ‘Don’t let the one who is putting on [his armor] brag like the one who is taking it off!’”
I.e., “Don’t count your chickens before they have hatched! Don’t talk about what you can do; prove it!” This is may be the best answer Akh’av ever gave in his entire life.
12. And it turned out that when he heard this word, he and the kings [with him] were drinking in the temporary shelters, and he told his servants, “Get in position.” So they got in position against the city.
Temporary shelters: Heb., sukkoth. They were not celebrating the feast YHWH had commanded for Israel; they were in tents or pavilions of war, still close enough to relay messages quickly, unless it was, for example, the time of grape or cucumber harvest, when Israelites had built these booths to be able to stay near the crops until the harvest was finished (Yeshayahu 1:8), and he just used them during the siege.
13. But just then a certain prophet approached Akh’av, the king of Israel, and said, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Have you noticed this big, noisy crowd? Watch Me deliver it into your hand today, so that you will acknowledge that I am YHWH.’”
Have you noticed: He speaks of it as if it is a trifle, and to YHWH it is. Though the king never even sought His input, YHWH was still concerned for His people. Akh’av deserved to have a foreign nation overtake him (Deut. 28:15, 25, 32, 36) But YHWH still offers him an open door to repent, though it would put him even more deeply in debt to YHWH, who had already bailed him out once, with little return on His “investment”. YHWH is still doing His accounting, and if he did not repent after this second big favor, he can only expect things to get worse for him.
14. But Akh’av said, “By whom?” And he said, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Through the young [servants] of the rulers of the districts.” So he said, “Who should begin the battle?” And he said, “You.”
Districts: or provinces. These were probably not professional soldiers at all, but men with less experience than even the sons of the rulers would have been. It probably looked like a sick joke to Akh’av.
15. So he mustered the young [servants] of the rulers of the districts, and they [numbered] 232, and after them he mustered all the people of the sons of Israel: 7,000!
232: The word “May He [YHWH] multiply you” has this numeric value in Hebrew (Gen. 28:3), so for those with eyes to see, this might have been enough to give them courage to go ahead and fight, since YHWH could multiply the strength of so few and make it adequate by assisting them by other means. (v. 30) He was setting up another Gid’on-like victory by the few to show His power. Might these 7,000 correlate with the 7,000 whom YHWH told Eliyahu had not bowed the knee to Baal—the only ones who trusted YHWH enough to believe their fighting could actually be fruitful? Otherwise, Akh’av simply had a very small pool from which to draw an army, because so many Israelites had migrated out of the country during the famine, that this was the number of men of fighting age (20 to 50) who were left, or who were still strong enough after the nation had nearly starved.
16. And they went out at noon, when Ben-Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the temporary shelters, along with the 32 kings who were helping him.
Ben-Hadad clearly did not expect the Israelites to begin the attack, so the key strategy here was surprise. Like Belshazzar (Dani’El 5), he thought he had room to relax.
17. So the young [servants] of the rulers of the districts went out first, and Ben-Hadad sent [spies], and they told him, “Men have come out from Shomron!”
18. So he said, “If they have come out for peace, take them alive, and if they have come out to fight, take them alive!”
He probably exercised this mercy because there was no honor in slaughtering such a tiny army so far from being in the same league as he. They were essentially like children to him, and it would have been an insult to him simply to take up the challenge. Or he may have intended to use them for ransom.
19. Now these had gone out of the city: the young [servants] of the rulers of the districts as well as the army that followed them.
Josephus says the second group remained in the city longer, until Ben-Hadad was already distracted by dealing with the first group.
20. When each struck down his man, Aram started to run away, so Israel pursued them, and Ben-Hadad, the king of Aram, escaped on a horse with the war-horses.
I.e., not one of the 232 was killed by the person he first targeted, and every one of those struck by the 232 was killed. This 100% success rate made Ben-Hadad think these young lads were more experienced than they appeared.
21. Then the king of Israel went out and struck down the horse and the chariot, and struck down the Arameans with a great defeat.
22. Then the prophet approached the king of Israel and said to him, “Go and make yourself strong, and be skillful and watch what you are doing, because when the [same time of] year comes back around, the king of Aram is coming up against you.”
They may have had to wait until the weather conditions were favorable again, or simply needed time to gather reinforcements again. In any case, YHWH was saying, “I have bought you time to get ready; use it well.”
23. And the king of Aram’s servants said to him, “Their elohim is an elohim of the mountains; that’s why they had firmer grip than we. However, let’s engage them in battle on the flat land, [and see] if our grip won’t be made firmer than theirs.
On the plain, there would be fewer places to hide or regroup. And it would be an easier battlefield, where their sheer numbers would give them the advantage. The Maccabees later proved that Israel was indeed more familiar with the mountainous terrain. But YHWH wanted to show His power again by letting Israel win though it was not logical to expect them to.
24. “But do this thing: remove each of the kings from his position, and put deputies in their place.
He knew the kings would be the prime targets, and did not want to sacrifice them in the battle.
25. “And number for yourself an army like the army from which you fell [short], both horse for horse and chariot for chariot, and let’s engage them in battle on the flat land, [and see] if our grip won’t be made firmer than theirs.” So he listened to their voice and did just that.
26. And so it was [that] when the [same time of] year came back around, Ben-Hadad called up the Arameans, and went up to Afeq to fight with Israel.
Afeq is indeed on the plain of Sharon, about 10 miles from the coast, and about 15 miles southwest of Shomron.
27. So the sons of Israel were called up and provided [with supplies], and went to meet them. And the sons of Israel encamped opposite them like two flocks of shorn goats, while the Arameans filled the Land.
Provided with supplies: or, fed, nourished. Shorn goats: from a word meaning “bare minimum” or “stripped down”. While the Syrians had a vast number, YHWH had again pared Israel down to only the best, with no superfluous people, none who were fearful or distracted or preoccupied with other concerns. (Judges 7:3ff).
28. Then a man of Elohim approached and spoke to the king of Israel, and said, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Because the Arameans have said, “YHWH is an elohim of the mountains and He is not an elohim of the valleys”, I will give this whole huge, noisy crowd into your hand, so that you will acknowledge that I am YHWH.’”
They issued Him a challenge by under-defining Him. YHWH is with Israel even in the low places, if we are with Him.
29. So they encamped, these right in front of those, [for] seven days. Then on the seventh day, it turned out that they drew near for battle, and the sons of Israel defeated Aram—100,000 footmen in one day!
30. And those who remained at Afeq fled into the city, and the wall fell down on top of 27,000 men from those who were left, and Ben-Hadad escaped and made it into the city, into a room within a room.
Wall fell: It seems there were larger forces at work here, employed by YHWH, than simply what the armyu could accomplish. He may have sent an earthquake at just this moment. Room within a room: i.e., an inner chamber without outside walls, where it would be harder to monitor his movements.
31. And his servants told him, “Please look here! We have heard that the kings of the House of Israel—that they are merciful kings. Please let us put burlap on our hips and cords on our heads and go out to the king of Israel. Maybe he will allow your soul to survive.”
Burlap: putting such itchy clothing on was an expression of sorrow and mourning, but in this case, of humbling themselves in surrender. Cords on our heads: probably not on the forehead like t’fillin (phylacteries), but as in Assyrian and Egyptian reliefs that depict slaves being transported this way, roped together at the necks. In other words, he was saying, “We are your slaves”, at least in a symbolic sense.
32. So they tied burlap onto their hips and cords on their heads and came to the king of Israel and said, “Your servant Ben-Hadad has said, ‘Please allow my soul to survive.’” And he said, “Is he still alive?! He is my brother!”
Like King Sha’ul, he had respect for someone who was his counterpart and whose strength he admired, despite his recent threats against him.
33. So the men started divining and hurried and caught him and said, “Your brother Ben-Hadad!” So he said, “Come! Bring him!” So Ben-Hadad came out to him, and he had him come up onto the chariot.
34. And he said, “The cities that my father took from your father, I am returning, and you can make streets for yourself in Damaseq, as my father made in Shomron. Then I promise I will let you go.” So he cut a covenant with him and sent him away.
Streets…in Damaseq: probably a free trade zone of sorts.
35. Now a certain man of the sons of the prophets said to his fellow, “By the word of YHWH, hit me!” But the man refused to hit him.
Sons of the prophets: Their students, probably in training to be prophets as well. He may have even been Eliyahu’s student. The second man was probably afraid to “touch YHWH’s anointed”. Or, it might have seemed he was just playing games foolishly because he was privileged with the right to speak for YHWH. But, being someone with whom he was familiar (probably even another prophet-in-training himself), he should have expected him to ask unusual things. There is no violation of Torah in striking someone if it does not cause permanent injury.
36. So he said to him, “Because you have not listened to YHWH’s voice, indeed, when you depart from me, a lion will attack you!” When he departed from him, he encountered the lion, and it killed him.
There is a play on words here: the word for “attack” and “killed” are the same Hebrew word as “hit” in verse 35. This also vouches for the likelihood of his also having been a prophet, as we saw a lion kill another disobedient prophet in chapter 13. And this proved that the first man was not a false prophet. (Deut. 18:22)
37. When he found another man, he said, “Please hit me!” And the man did hit him [with] a blow that wounded him.
38. Then the prophet went and waited for the king by the road, while disguising himself with bandages over his eyes.
Bandages: or, dust—possibly to blacken his eyes so that the king would pay more attention to his wounds than his face, and not recognize him. This is why he needed to be hit and wounded—so there would be real blood on the bandages and his ruse would not be entirely a falsehood.
39. Then what took place is that when the king was passing by, he called out to the king and said, “Your servant went out into the middle of the battle, and lo and behold, a man turned aside and brought a man to me and said, ‘Guard this man! If he is at all missing, it will be your life for his life, or you must weigh out a kikkar of silver.’
Weigh out: i.e., pay an amount on who has exacted a particular amount from him. A kikkar is 3,000 sanctuary sheqels (Ex. 38:25)—a large amount. It was weighed out on scales to be sure the right amount was being paid. Silver is often a picture of blood and redemption, and most prophets would speak in the form of symbolism.
40. “And it turned out that, while your servant was doing [something] here or there, and he wasn’t there!” And the king of Israel said to him, “Just like your own verdict; you have determined [it].”
Thus is similar to the way Nathan spotlighted David’s guilt. This may have been a style of confrontation taught in the schools of the prophets.
41. Then he hurried and took the bandages off of his eyes, and the king of Israel recognized that he was from [among] the prophets.
42. So he told him, “This is what YHWH says: ‘Because you have let go from your hand the man I had designated as to be completely [destroyed], it will be your life for his life, and your people in the place of his people!’”
This was not a season for mercy, so Akh’av had no right to show it. Because he spared Ben-Hadad, he or his descendant was likely to come back and kill Israelites, like Agag whom Sha’ul spared, whose descendant Haman caused so much trouble for the Jews.
43. So the king of Israel went on top of his house, resentful and out of humor, when he arrived at Shomron.
The king: His name is only mentioned three times in this chapter. Does this picture his name being in the process of being taken out of the Book of Life? Out of humor: or vexed, angry, raging, confused. Josephus says he also imprisoned the prophet.
CHAPTER 21
1. Now it came about after these things that a vineyard that was in Yizre’el, close to the [large] structure [belonging to] Akh’av, the king of Shomron, came into the possession of Navoth the Yizre’elite
Shomron is here used as an idiom for all of Israel. Yizre’el
is on the western end of Mt. Gilboa at the southern edge of the very fertile Yizre’el Valley, about 17 miles north of Shomron and eight miles east of Megiddo. There are again vineyards in the vicinity, for the soil is just right for vinticulture, whereas a little to the west it is better for olive orchards. Navoth means “fruits”, from a word for “germination” and “flourishing”. This is an auspicious name for a vintner, and indeed (according to Norma Franklin, Jennie Ebeling, Philippe Guillaume, and Deborah Appler), a large-scale wine-production facility that seems to date to about this time has been found near the Via Maris in the valley below the city near a large spring (a location suggested in 2 Kings 9:21, 25). If this was Navoth’s, it would indicate that he was a very prosperous one. Yizre’el was “a military center and probably the main mustering station for Akh’av’s chariot force”, according to the archaeologists cited above. The structure mentioned here was probably a military compound headquarters. There would therefore be a great demand for wine to provide the troops with their rations, so Akh’av’s request in verse 2 seems strange; it may have been an excuse to get him to sell at a lower price:
2. So Akh’av spoke to Navoth to say, “Give me your vineyard so it can become my vegetable garden, since it is in close proximity to my house, and I will give you a vineyard better than it in its place. If it is appropriate in your eyes, I will give you the value of this [one] in silver.”
Vegetable garden: or simply, garden of herbs or greens. He already had vineyards, but “the grass was greener on the other side of the wall”. His offer sounds fair enough on the surface to modern ears, but there was a factor more important to Navoth:
3. But Navoth told Akh’av, “It would be a violation of YHWH’s [honor] for me to give you the inherited property of my ancestors!”
Violation: or desecration, profaning, defiling, polluting; literally, poking holes in [something] from YHWH. This is because the Torah forbids the moving of property line markers (Deut. 19:14; 27:17). The city of Yezre’el, to which Akh’av appears to have moved from Shomron, belongs to the tribe of Yissakhar (Y’hoshua 19:18), by the command of Y’hoshua. No other tribe is to receive the inheritance of another permanently. (Num. 27:1-11; 36:6-7) The land can be sold, but not beyond reclaim (Lev. 25:23) but always at a rate that takes into account the fact that it must revert to its original owner during the Yovel year, however near that may be. He seems to be moving his throne from one tribe’s land to another’s, as if this could then be considered federal land. But only the Temple Mount is such; in Y’hezq’el 46:16-18 YHWH lays out clear restrictions on what land a king will be able to possess in the Messianic Kingdom, and how he may dispose of it, for the express purpose that His people will not be scattered from their inheritance. This is probably in direct response to what went on here. We can see a parallel here with the two servants of Pharaoh who were imprisoned with Yoseyf in Egypt. (Genesis 40) Navoth correlates with the cupbearer, who found the vine an open door to service, while Akh’av is like the baker, who saw his job as a burden to himself. In Yeshayahu (Isaiah) 5 and 27, as well as in Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 12:10, Israel is called YHWH’s vineyard. What we inherit from our ancestors is the Torah. The vintner is concerned with protecting his heritage, while the “baker” is waiting for someone else to take care of his job. Christianity has tried to possess Israel’s inheritance, and promises an easier life with fewer rules—and even heaven too—in its place. But Navoth’s vineyard would provide for Temple libations, give the poor something to glean (Deut. 24:21), and provide for both the poor and visiting guests as well as animals on the seventh year (Ex. 23:11). If it became a garden, it would not be legally bound to be tithed or left fallow, and widows and orphans in Israel would no longer benefit from its bounty.
4. So Akh’av came into his house resentful and out of humor over the word which Navoth the Yizre’elite had spoken to him, when he said, “I will not give you the inherited possession of my ancestors.” And he lay down on his bed and turned away his face, and would not eat bread.
He was sulking like a child whose parent has told him his limits. Bread is a picture of the community of Israel, and Akh’av was not partaking of that, but wanted to do things his own way.
5. And his wife Izevel came in to him and said to him, “What’s this sullen spirit, that you’re eating no food?”
Came in to him: She clearly “wore the pants” in this family, as we will see, and treated him as the “poor baby” he was acting like as he pouted. Sullen: or implacable, rebellious, resentful.
6. And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Navoth the Yizre’elite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or if you prefer, I will give you a vineyard in its place.’ But he told me, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’”
Yizre’elite: Akh’av lives in Yizre’el as well, but speaks just like the colonialists, describing the locals as “natives” whom he somehow has to enlighten with his more progressive ideas. He thinks them recalcitrant for insisting on preserving their heritage, and is trying to push them beyond their own religion to see “all men as brothers” and all vineyards as just as valuable as any other. The Romans and Greeks later saw it as arrogant to worship only one elohim, and he probably has the same sentiment. I will not give you: He conveniently left out the reason, making it sound as if it stemmed from Navoth’s private unconcern for his king’s pleasure.
7. And his wife Izevel said to him, “You carry out the kingly office over Israel now! Get up and eat food and let your heart be glad; I will deliver the vineyard of Navoth the Yizre’elite to you!”
I.e., “Don’t you have the power to do whatever you want? What is the value of being a king otherwise? Don’t you know you are above the law?” But he seemed to subconsciously know that he had no right to insist on his way.
8. So she wrote letters in Akh’av’s name and sealed them with his signet, then sent the letters to the elders and to the nobles who were in his city--the ones living with Navoth.
The chief opponent of the spirit of the restoration of all things (Eliyahu, per Mark 9:12) impersonates or claims to speak for the king of Israel. Izevel represents the enemy of YHWH’s prophets who herself does not appear evil, but rather quite impressive—a strong leader who takes charge and gets things done. But what she wanted done cost a righteous man his life. She opposes the spirit in which we are called to operate. She is the one who sings, “born is the king of Israel” while all the while trying to remove Israel’s Hebrew heritage. She wants them to be like all the other peoples—the very opposite of the definition of Israel. (Num. 23:9) And she succeeded in getting Israel to mix with the nations, for that is an accusation YHWH later brings against her. (Hoshea 7:8) Navoth represented the grass-roots people obeying Torah. The Kingdom does not start from the top and come down, but with a small group of people here and another there, caring for one another and then finding others who are like-minded. From this we will form the nation again. Interestingly, when YHWH dwells among us again, we are only told there will be a prince, not a king as such. (Y’hezq’el 44-48) YHWH is our king. Izevel opposes this, because she wants to be in charge. She needs a figurehead king for legitimacy, but she pulls the strings behind the scenes. Izevel especially hates Eliyahu. And it is not only women in whom the spirit of Izevel operates, though it is especially harmful when it does. Many men also try to steal YHWH’s vineyard. We must expect this spirit to come against any place there is a vineyard, especially in the Northern Kingdom, because the Jews have had their wagons circled for a long time already. We are just sprouting again and are therefore much more vulnerable. We should not be surprised that this is a large part of our warfare. Nobles: freeborn, literally “glowing” like a metal that is being fired. The fact that they lived with Navoth should mean they knew him well enough to be suspicious of an accusation against him.
9. And she had written the letters to say, “Call a fast, and seat Navoth at the head of the people,
Call a fast: possibly to make the people lightheaded so they would be more concerned with their hunger and not notice all that was going on, possibly because it was a fast for one of the pagan deities they worshipped and Navoth would not participate, and therefore they might have a reason to accuse him, as was done with Dani’el.
10. “and seat two men, sons of worthlessness, across from him to testify against him, saying, ‘You have renounced Elohim and the king!’ Then when they take him out, stone him so that he will die.”
Worthlessness: or, what does not profit or ascend. At least she still remembered that there had to be two witnesses to validate something in Israel. But this is where the rest of Israel must be vigilant. In this case, since the witnesses were unreliable, there should have been three. She had the jury “rigged”, nor did they seem to admit Navoth’s own testimony. The people should have known enough about the queen’s character to be suspicious. But no one seemed to speak up for him. Was this due to fear or just unconcern, or simply because they themselves no longer knew the Torah? Renounced: or blasphemed, cursed; an intense form of the word for bless, which actually means to bend the knee, but in a deeper root form, to break down (as a knee can make the leg fold), which must be where this connotation came from. (Thus when we say, “bless YHWH”, we are really saying, “My will breaks for YHWH’s.” But he was accused of “breaking down” some elohim—possibly the king’s elohim rather than his own, since it is left vague so it can be misconstrued in any way they wish, much as when Polycarp, an early martyr for Y’shua, was called an atheist because he was not a polytheist. On the other hand, he might have specifically made light of Baal, which would have been an even greater offense to them than simply going against the king’s wishes.
11. So the men of his city, the elders and the nobles who were dwelling in his city, did according to what Izevel had sent to them, just as it had been written in the letters that she had sent to them:
12. They called a fast, and seated Navoth at the head of the people,
Was it at the breaking of the fast that he was seated in a place of honor? The focus seems rather to be on being in the “hot seat”, the position of being judged where everyone could see him.
13. and two men, sons of worthlessness, came and sat across from him, and the sons of worthlessness accused him with Navoth in front of the people, saying, “Navoth has renounced Elohim and the king!” So they took him outside the city and pelted him with stones so that he died.
14. So they sent [word] to Izevel to say, “Navoth has been stoned, and is dead.”
15. And what took place when Izevel heard that Navoth had been stoned and was dead, [was] that she said to Akh’av, “Get up! Seize possession of Navoth the Yizre’elite’s vineyard, which he refused to give you for silver, because there is no Navoth alive, because he has died!”
Get up: Akh’av does seem to have needed constant prodding! Navoth must not have had any next of kin to whom the property would naturally fall if he died—or who could avenge his blood. How convenient for Izevel.
16. So it was that when Akh’av heard that Navoth was dead, Akh’av got up to go down to take possession of Navoth the Yizre’elite’s vineyard.
17. But the word of YHWH came to Eliyahu of the sojourners to say,
18. “Arise! Go down to meet Akh’av the king of Israel, who is in Shomron. There he is in Navoth’s vineyard, to which he has gone down to seize possession of it.”
Both of them are told to rise up so that they can descend! Even Eliyahu had to come a few rungs back down the ladder to help someone else climb higher. This is not ideal, and we need to make sure we keep ascending so that we do not get stuck back on the lower level if we do, but it is an inevitable part of being YHWH’s messenger. Akh’av probably thought he had not allowed this mistrial to leak out to anyone else, but YHWH made his sin known.
19. “And you must address him, saying, ‘This is what YHWH says: “Have you both murdered and also seized possession [of his inheritance]?”’ Then speak to him, saying, ‘This is what YHWH says: “At the spot where the dogs lapped up the blood of Navoth, the dogs will lick up your blood. Yes, [I mean] you!”’
You must: YHWH knew exactly which accusation would go directly to his heart. A king may think he has the right to kill whomever opposes him, but YHWH called it murder.
20. So Akh’av said to Eliyahu, “Have you discovered me, my enemy?” And he said, “I have discovered you, because you have sold yourself to do what is wrong in the eyes of YHWH!
Discovered: includes finding as well as exposing and catching or securing. This is a reversal of roles from when Izevel was seeking his life; now he is the one doing the hunting.
21. “Watch as I bring you trouble and it burns away those who come after you and I cut off [anyone] in Israel who belongs to Akh’av who urinates against a wall, both those shut away and those out in the open!
I.e., even if you try to hide them away, this curse will still catch up with them. If one has no surviving male descendants, his name is counted as having been cut off from Israel.
22. “And I will hand over your household (like the households of Yarav’am the son of N’vat and the household of Baasha the son of Akhiyah) to the wrath to which you have provoked [Me] when you induced Israel to sin!
The background for this statement is in chapters 14 and 16.
23. “And YHWH has also spoken to Izevel to say, ‘The dogs will eat Izevel by the bulwark of Yizre’el.’
Bulwark: in Hebrew, a strong wall or even a ditch that thwarts an attack on the city. As Navoth had not had the dignity of a burial, neither would she. We do not hear about dogs as a normal aspect of Israel until this era. Dogs were revered and even worshipped in many pagan religions, and the fact that they were here (and possibly even being kept as pets already, since they are found in the cities here) was probably another reflection of Izevel’s influence. In Israel they had always been seen as something disgusting, much like a snake, and we can see this in the idiomatic euphemism for Gentiles that even Y’shua used. The taste of blood only gives dogs an appetite for more. But it would be better to be burned than to become part of the lowest of animals.
24. “Of those belonging to Akh’av, whoever dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and whoever dies in the [open] field, the fowls of the sky will eat.
25. “Only, there has been no one like Akh’av, who has sold himself to do what is wrong in the eyes of YHWH, as Izevel his wife incited him.
26. “And he has done extremely abhorrent [things] to go after [rolling] idols, just like all that the Emorites did, whom YHWH disinherited from before the face of the sons of Israel.”
Rolling idols: made from rounded blocks or logs (consider the Yule log); a term of derision. But in trying out every novelty that the nations offered, Akh’av had apparently dug up practices more ancient than the idolatry of his own time, much as the Christian West, having exhausted its own potential, is now fascinated with eastern religions. Whom YHWH disinherited: This may have been the point at which Akh’av realized that if he continued down the same path, he would lose his kingdom altogether. He has seen the miracles already, and now the same voice is telling him that YHWH’s wrath will be aimed at him as well. And the king actually does repent:
27. Now it turned out that when Akh’av heard these words, he tore his garments and put burlap on his flesh, and fasted while lying down in [the] burlap, and walked gently.
The term used here for garments is the one that also refers to treachery or deceit. (The closest English term that covers both of these concepts as well is “cloak”.) This therefore pictures the fact that some of the treachery of Akh’av was indeed being put off. Burlap (“sackcloth”) is very itchy, showing that one was willing to irritate his own flesh in order to express remorse and humble oneself before YHWH. Walked gently: He was more careful about how he walked, rather than continuing to rush about like a bull in a china shop, doing whatever he felt like doing.
28. And the word of YHWH came to Eliyahu of the sojourners to say,
29. “Have you seen how Akh’av has been brought into subjection due to My presence? Because he has been humbled before Me, I will not cause the trouble to come in his days; I will bring the trouble on his house in the days of his son.”
It was too late to avoid these consequences, but YHWH was pleased enough with his response that He delayed the inevitable to honor what he had done. But he who had dispossessed Navoth of his inheritance for the sake of a garden would have to lose his more valuable possession, his own son. This simple progression could have been stopped at any of several points, but it was allowed to escalate to this point. Now someone had to pay for Navoth’s blood, and now it would fall not to the one who had committed the crime, so even his repentance ends up with a selfish twist. This would be a worse punishment for anyone with a conscience. In YHWH’s typical pattern, though, his son would be given occasion to prove he was as evil as his father before the punishment would fall on him.
CHAPTER 22
1. Now [things] had settled down; for three years there was no war between Aram and Israel.
Chapter 21 was a parenthesis in the story that resumes here.
2. But in the third year, what took place is that Y’hoshafat, king of Yehudah, came down to [visit] the king of Israel,
There was now peace between the two kingdoms (v. 44), possibly because of Akh’av’s partial repentance. The news about his steps toward repentance apparently traveled fast. He is apparently back in favor with YHWH to some degree, and receiving some blessing from Him. 2 Chronicles 18:1 tells us that Y’hoshafat had his daughter married to Akh’av’s son, or possibly vice versa, probably to encourage Akh’av to continue on this path or to place a better influence right in his household. This was not technically against Torah, since this alliance was with another part of Israel—sort of. He may have even had the reunification of the kingdom in mind, as a son born to such a marriage could have the right to both thrones. But he may have become too excited too quickly, for the sad truth is that most people simply do not respond as they should, and even fewer stay on the right track for very long. (Mat. 7:13) note that again Akh’av’s name is being left out of the account except where absolutely necessary for clarity. That his title is generic also leaves room for this story to be a prophecy applicable in other ages as well.
3. and the king of Israel said to his servants, “You realize that Ramoth-Gil’ad belongs to us, but we have been inactive about taking it from the hand of the king of Aram!”
Inactive: quiet, still, or even lazy. Apparently this did not even enter his mind until he had someone else to fight his battles. It will become obvious that it was not YHWH’s idea, but his own.
4. And he said to Y’hoshafat, “Will you come to make war with me [at] Ramoth-Gil’ad?” And Y’hoshafat said to the king of Israel, “As I am, so are you. Your people are the same as my people; my horses are your horses.”
There was some unity in Israel expressed here, but it was on the northern kingdom’s terms, not on the terms of the king who had remained closer to YHWH in Yehudah. It is much the same with many Messianic Jews who feel they have to cater to Christian sympathies to unite with their brothers rather than having the upper hand and insisting on the greater degree of truth they have inherited more directly.
5. But Y’hoshafat said to the king of Israel, “Please seek the word of YHWH as to the day.”
I.e., ask YHWH when the best time to attack would be. He was probably also insinuating that they should ask YHWH if they should go at all.
6. So the king of Israel assembled the prophets—about 400 men—and said to them, “Should I go against Ramoth-Gil’ad to fight, or should I hold off?” And they said, “Go up, and YHWH will give it into the hand of the king.”
There is a parallel in Yaaqov meeting Esau with his 400 men. The Jews have long seen Edom (Esau’s descendants) as connected with Rome, at least symbolically if not literally, and this “king of Israel” who operates very differently from the King of the Jews seems to represent the counterfeit Messiah, the figurehead who calls himself the “vicar of Christ” while participating in paganism.
7. But Y’hoshafat said, “Isn’t there a prophet of YHWH here anymore, of whom we can enquire?”
This seemed to be only an afterthought to Akh’av, but was prominent in Y’hoshafat’s mind. He still had a suspicion that although Akh’av’s 400 prophets claimed to be speaking for YHWH, they may have simply been catering to whatever political wind was in the air, changing loyalties overnight like the pagan priests whom Constantine turned into Christian leaders despite their having had no history of knowing the Torah. They are most likely the same 400 prophets of Asherah who escaped the death Eliyahu brought onto the prophets of Baal, possibly because they fled before that, or possibly because Eliyahu did not perceive them as being the same degree of threat. Or YHWH might have left them alive so that Akh’av could have the privilege of doing part of the job of ridding the Land of them. That He spared them did not mean He approved of them. They may very well be the cult that made inscriptions and offering-bowls found by archaeologists at Khirbet el Kom and Kuntillet ‘Ajrud, which read, “Belonging to YHWH and His Asherah”—i.e., His consort! They probably thought that since YHWH had obviously defeated Baal, He would also take Baal’s “woman” as conquering kings did to those they defeated. They may think that just because they have experience in channeling one elohim, they can channel for any other, though in this case they were just catering to the king’s political whim. Or they might not have thought they could speak directly to YHWH, but thought they could gain His favor by going through His “wife”—much as the Virgin Mary has been perceived as a mediator between men and “Jesus”. Y’hoshafat insisted that the specifics be correct! The Urim and Thummim were the means by which such inquiries were made (e.g., 1 Shmu’el 23:2-4; 30:8; 2 Shm. 5:19, 23), but Y’hoshafat did not have access to the high priest here, so he asked for what was available.
8. So the king of Israel said to Y’hoshafat, “There is still one man by whom to enquire of YHWH—Mikhayahu the son of Yimlah--but I hate him, because he doesn’t prophesy prosperity in regard to me, but rather trouble.” But Y’hoshafat said, “The king of Israel should not talk like that.”
Mikhayahu means “Who is like YHWH?” Yimlah means “He will be satisfied” or “filled up”. Y’hoshafat was right in perceiving that something was missing! He may have been the only one who could rebuke the king like this and still be respected, being at least his equal in his eyes. But “one man” begs the question: “Where were Eliyahu and Elisha?” He probably did not even mention them, because certainly Y’hoshafat would have heard of Eliyahu, and Akh’av would not dare put him in prison in the current political climate, though he expected he would not be supportive. Mikhayahu seemed the least of the three “evils”.
9. So the king of Israel summoned one court official and told him, “Bring Mikhayahu the son of Yimlah quickly!”
He was in a hurry to get out to the battle.
10. While the king of Israel and Y’hoshafat, king of Yehudah, were sitting, each on his throne, fully clothed in their [royal] garments, on a threshing floor at the opening of the gate of Shomron.
Royal garments: The term “royal” is not in the text, but the word for garments means “outer clothing” on which any marks of rank or identity would be worn (such as tzitziyoth, Num. 15:38). Threshing floor: or possibly just a place where grain would be sold in the marketplace, being near the entrance to the city. Notice that Akh’av has gone back to his former dwelling place, possibly having left the palace at Yizre’el completely to his wife. The Temple Mount had been a threshing floor before David purchased it, so they may have been trying to imitate this setting. A threshing floor would be a windy place, and not only more comfortable in hot weather, but also a place that already embodied the symbolism of judgment, for the wind is allowed to carry away what is of no consequence, while what is heavy (important) is made more obvious. It was an appropriate place to make a decision.
11. And Tzidqiyah the son of K’naanah made horns of iron, and said, “This is what YHWH says, ‘With these you will gore Aram until you have finished them off.’”
Tzidqiyahu means “YHWH is my righteousness.” K’naanah means “humiliated” or “trader/trafficker” and is related to the name Kanaan, the cursed son of Noakh. This in itself should have been a red flag. Gore: or make thrusts at. He waxes dramatic in his predictions! But he was probably basing his confidence on Moshe’s prophecy that the horns of Efrayim and Menashe would “push the people …to the ends of the earth”. (Deut. 33:17) Moshe had a far different context in mind, but they thought they could walk in YHWH’s blessings without living by His Torah.
12. And all of the prophets were prophesying in the same way, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-Gil’ad and be successful, because YHWH has delivered it into your hand!”
13. Now the messenger who had gone to summon Mikhayahu spoke to him, saying, “Please look here. The words of the prophets, [with] one mouth, are favorable toward the king. Please let your word be like the word of one of them and speak favorably.”
14. But Mikhayahu said, “[As surely as] YHWH is alive, whatever YHWH tells me, that is what I will speak.”
The truth will ultimately set one free, but the king wanted his ears tickled with instant gratification. They did not want a hung jury, but he was not a people-pleaser. He speaks with the resolve of Bilaam the somewhat righteous Edomite prophet of Moshe’s day, who also frustrated a king who hired him. In the context of the note on verse 6, Mikhayahu is probably therefore from the northern kingdom rather than the southern.
15. When he approached the king, the king said to him, “Mikhayahu, should we go to Ramoth-Gil’ad to make war, or should we hold off?” And he said, “Go up, and be successful, and YHWH will deliver it into the king’s hand!”
Notice how vague they are: they do not define what success is, nor do they say which king will be victorious. They almost sound like a well-wishing greeting card!
16. But the king said to him, “How many times have I had you swear not to tell me anything but the truth in the name of YHWH?”
I.e., “Okay, you’ve told me what you know I want to hear; now give me the real story.” He apparently spoke with the mannerism of sarcastic mockery of the other prophets’ sycophancy, being fed up with the whole scenario of an Israel full of pagans. Anything but the truth: This is the source for the modern oath in court.
17. So he said, “I have seen all of Israel scattered toward the mountains like sheep for which there is no shepherd. And YHWH said, ‘These have no masters; they will each return to his house in safety.’”
But the shepherd would not. This “Israel” apparently did not include Yehudah. It does not seem Y’hoshafat had an army with him, but was simply Akh’av’s guest and went out along with him by himself. But this may also be an observation of the fact that Israel was already without a shepherd, for their king was not leading them to green pastures. Moshe prayed that this situation would never come about because of Israel having a righteous shepherd. (Num. 27:16-17)
18. And the king of Israel said to Y’hoshafat, “Didn’t I tell you he would not prophesy about me favorably, but rather of trouble?”
19. Then he said, “Therefore, listen to the word of YHWH: I saw YHWH sitting on His throne, and the whole army of the heavens was standing by Him on His right hand and on His left.
20. “And YHWH said, ‘Who will entice Akh’av so that he will go up and fall in Ramoth-Gil’ad?’ And this one said such-and-such, and that one said such-and-such.
Entice: from the word for “wide open”, on which the name Yafeth (Noakh’s son) is based. It means to persuade one who is gullible or naïve because he is too open-minded.
21. “Then the wind came forth and stopped in front of YHWH’s face, and said, “I will entice him.” And YHWH said, ‘By what [means]?’
22. “And he said, ‘I will go out and become a fraudulent spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets.’ And He said, ‘You may entice him, and you will also be able to accomplish it, so go and do just that.’
23. “So now, indeed, YHWH has allowed a fraudulent spirit in the mouth of all of these your prophets, and YHWH has decreed trouble concerning you!”
Decreed: or promised, threatened, warned of.
24. Then Tsidqiyahu the son of K’naanah came close and hit Mikhayahu on the cheek and said, “Which spirit of YHWH crossed over from [being] with me to warn you?!”
Hit on the cheek: or, struck on the jaw. But often the former is a gesture of strong rebuke rather than intended injury. Under normal circumstances, a younger prophet would never hit an older one, but many things were out of order at this time, so we cannot be sure that he had a right to hit Mikhayahu. But he was probably genuinely puzzled, assuming with full conviction that YHWH was indeed speaking through him. Most false prophets do not realize that is what they are. He cannot believe it is not obvious to everyone else that what he is saying is from YHWH! How could all 400 of them be wrong? His intention is not to deceive, but that is still the result. A king is supposed to weigh every word, and sometimes only one word will be what proves it is not from YHWH. One must know Torah well, or the falsehood will go right past you, especially if the speaker is completely sincere.
25. And Mikhayahu said, “Watch. You will see on that day, when you go into a chamber within a chamber to hide yourself.”
Mikhayahu assumed Israel would obey the command in Deut. 18:20 to put one who proves to be a false prophet to death, in which case all of these 400 would go intro hiding if they wanted to spare their lives.
26. So the king of Israel said, “Take Mikhayahu and return him to Amon the ruler of the city and to Yo’ash the son of the king,
27. “and say, ‘This is what the king says: “Put this one in the house of restriction and feed him bread of oppression and water of oppression until I come in peace.”’”
Oppression: or, squeezing as in a fast; i.e., rationed food, just enough to keep him alive. Mikhayahu probably realized this would be the result, but he spoke the truth regardless.
28. But Mikhayahu said, “If you ever return in peace, then YHWH has not spoken through me.” And he said, “Take heed, O peoples, all of them!”
29. But the king of Israel went up to Ramoth-Gil’ad with Y’hoshafat the king of Yehudah,
Apparently Y’hoshafat did not believe Mikhayahu either.
30. and the king of Israel said to Y’hoshafat [that he would] disguise himself and enter into the battle. “But you wear your [royal] garments.” So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into battle.
This is a betrayal. Having asked for his help, he now sends him out to be “cannon fodder”. He probably got the idea when he saw Y’hoshafat dressed in his royal garments on the threshing floor, and realized he could let his counterpart fall in battle instead of himself. This is one reason YHWH was ready to have Akh’av taken out of the way. The king of Yehudah is always the Davidic Messiah. Prophetically, it appears that the king of Israel—the counterfeit Messiah who usurps the place David is meant to have over all the tribes—does not expect to be able to survive if his identity is too obvious, so he prefers to let the real king take the flak. In recent decades “Jesus” has been portrayed as “down among the people”, and it is possibly for this very reason—so that they can let those who do what the real Y’shua said receive the brunt of persecution that must inevitably come to those who, like Mikhayahu, do not go along with the majority’s error.
31. Now the king of Aram had given orders to the commanders of the 32 chariots that belonged to him, saying, “You are not to fight with either small or great, but only with the king of Israel.”
He was the only one they were really interested in getting rid of. It seems from this and verse 3 that he had been making a big fuss about Aram’s occupying this city, and the Arameans only considered him a pest, not a threat. He had nothing against the rest of them. Akh’av had had a covenant with this king, Ben-Hadad, and Ben-Hadad had promised to give back to Akh’av all the cities his father had taken from Israel. Apparently he had either withheld or taken this one back, but since he had opened up free trade between the two nations (20:34), he would certainly not want to kill any more Israelites than he realized he had to. Another reason was that his father, for no king concerned for his economy will readily destroy his trading partners. This is the very reason the United States is fighting a ground war in the Middle East when it could have quickly won the war by other means. All Ben-Hadad wants to do is “topple a corrupt regime” in modern terms. Nothing has changed in nearly 3,000 years. This is why Y’shua harped so much about the love of money; it obstructs true justice.
32. And indeed, when the commanders of the chariots saw Y’hoshafat, they said, “Ah! He [must be] the king of Israel!” So they started turning aside to fight against him. But Y’hoshafat started calling out for help.
33. And when the commanders of the chariots realized that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from [chasing] after him.
Ben-Hadad had more respect for him. When Y’shua is recognized as Jewish and is seen to be different from “Jesus”, many who had been opposed to him no longer see him as someone to attack.
34. But a man innocently drew a bow and hit the king of Israel between the open, riveted joints and the loose chain mail, so he said to his charioteer, “Change [the course of] your hand, and take me out from the camp, because I am [badly] wounded!
Innocently: with integrity or simplicity; often taken to mean randomly, i.e., just doing his job, not knowing in particular whom he was aiming at. But the word also means “in his perfection” or “maturity”, which suggests YHWH’s hand behind his, or even that he actually had figured out who he was and made a perfect shot. Chain mail: heavy, plated chest armor with scales or thin overlapping plates. The Jewish Publication Society translates this as “between the lower armor and the breastplate”. But, according to the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, it covered the back as well as the chest, so was actually a corslet. Many of these were made of flax of wool woven very thick, of ox-hide, of brass, or of iron. A metallic corslet, which was probably used in this case, consisted not of solid piece, but of scales, hooks, or rings, connected like the links of a chain, so the warrior could move about with greater ease.
35. But on that day the battle escalated, so that it turned out that the king was held up right in front of Aram, and he died in the evening. Now the blood poured out from the wound into the hollow part [at the bottom] of the chariot.
Held up: literally, caused to stand [still], delayed, causing him to bleed to death before he could be brought any assistance. They may have even deliberately kept him from getting off the battlefield for this reason. Chariots are actually foreign to Israel. (Deut. 20:1) YHWH condemns those who rely on them. (Psalm 20:7) Akh’av died on a foreign platform because he had lived of life enamored with things foreign. He was supposed to have killed this king’s predecessor, and because he did not, he died at the hands of the same nation. (20:34-42)
36. And around sunset a call rang out across the camp to say, “[Each] man to his city, and [each] man to his land!”
I.e., they gave up the battle; now that the king was dead, there was no reason to keep fighting. Aram still possessed Ramoth-Gil’ad.
37. The king being dead on arrival at Shomron, they buried the king at Shomron.
38. But when they rinsed out the chariot above the pool of Shomron, the dogs started licking up his blood, as well as when they washed the [pieces of his] armor, according to the word that YHWH had spoken.
Pool: or, pond; not the kind used for ritual immersions. As well as…armor: or, “and they washed away the fornication [of idolatry]”, as this is how this word for armor is always used otherwise; some read it as “where the whores bathed”, and this would fit because Akh’av had gone “whoring” after other elohim in the parlance YHWH so often uses. Though Akh’av’s death was not as gory as his wife’s would be, YHWH found a way both for the prophecy to come true that the dogs would lick up his blood (21:19) and for him to receive an honorable burial because he had repented to some extent.
39. Now the rest of Akh’av’s words, and all that he accomplished, and the palace of ivory that he built, and all the cities that he built, aren’t they recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?
40. When Akh’av lay down with his ancestors, his son Akhazyah became king in his place.
Akhazyah means “YHWH holds tightly” or “YHWH takes possession”.
41. Now Y’hoshafat the son of Asa had become king over Yehudah in year four of Akh’av the king of Israel,
42. and Y’hoshafat was 35 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned 25 years in Yerushalayim, and his mother’s name was ‘Azuvah the daughter of Shilkhi.
‘Azuvah means “forsaken” or “abandoned”, and Shilkhi means “armed with a weapon” or “my projectile”.
43. And he walked on the whole path of his father to do what was right in YHWH’s eyes; he did not turn aside from it.
44. The only exception was that they did not take away the cultic platforms; the people were still making slaughters and burning incense at the cultic platforms.
This is really a commendation of his father more than of himself personally. His father had done the hard part in blazing the trail for him (chapter 15), but he recognized the benefits of remaining consistent with his father’s way of life, and imitated it. YHWH had no complaints about any of his positive actions; He was only dissatisfied with this one area of neglect. Still, it was significant enough to YHWH to mention it two generations in a row. (15:14)
45. Y’hoshafat also made peace with the king of Israel.
Evidence of this was seen in verses 2-4. But now he was in a better position to do what his father could not do—remove the cultic platforms not just from Yehudah but from Israel as well. (2 Chronicles 15:17) Though they had originally been used for the worship of YHWH before the Temple was built, their use was now illicit. It may be that he failed to do this because he thought the peace between the two kingdoms was too precarious to risk going so far as to risk Izevel’s ire. He also seems to have been very friendly—a people-pleaser who readily went along with others’ ideas, and he may have taken away as much as he felt he could remove without angering too many people, though his heart was toward YHWH. Y’shua, his descendant, did not do half a job, but offended everyone he had to, thus making reparation for this sin of omission by his ancestor. He was not deliberately rude, but truth was always his first consideration. If he struck a nerve, it was the fault of those whom “the shoe fit”, not his.
46. Now the rest of Y’hoshafat’s words, and the brave acts that he accomplished and how he fought battles, aren’t they recorded in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Yehudah?
47. He even burned away from the Land the rest of the male temple prostitutes who were left in the days of his father.
This may be literal, or it may simply mean he removed them, especially if they were guests from another nation who had originally been invited in to teach Israel their ways.
48. And there was no king in Edom; a deputy was reigning.
Deputy: literally, stand-in.
49. Y’hoshafat had ten ships of Tharshish [made] to go to Ofir for gold, but they could not go, because the ships were wrecked at ‘Etzion-Gever.
Edom had always been a major political player in the region, but at the moment they were not powerful, giving Y’hoshafat confidence that he could get away with a raid on the gold that they would normally stand in the way of, Ofir being in Arabia. ‘Etzion-Gever (“backbone of a strong man”) was where Elath is today, at the northern tip of the Gulf of Aqaba, the eastern branch of the reed sea. This is where the ships were made (2 Chron. 19-20), and it was specifically because Y’hoshafat had aligned himself with the wicked Akhazyah that the ships were wrecked by YHWH. (20:35-37) They may have been wrecked in a storm while they sat in the harbor or while starting out to sea.
50. At that time Akhazyah the son of Akh’av had said to Y’hoshafat, “Let my servants go with your servants in the ships,” but Y’hoshafat was not willing.
He may have realized that Akhazyah had something “up his sleeve”. He apparently took the lesson well even before the ships were wrecked, and it may be that Akhazyah was the catalyst for their destruction because of his refusal, but it was better that the ships be ruined than the whole kingdom.
51. When Y’hoshafat lay down with his fathers, he was buried with his ancestors in the city of his ancestor David, and his son Y’horam reigned in his place.
Y’horam means “YHWH is high and lifted up”. Y’hoshafat was in part responsible for this being a true statement.
52. Akhazyah the son of Akh’av began to reign over Israel at Shomron in the seventeenth year
of Y’hoshafat the king of Yehudah, and he reigned over Israel two years,
53. and he did what was evil in YHWH’s eyes and walked in the way of his father and in the way of his mother, as well as in the way of Yarav’am the son of N’vat, who had caused Israel to miss the target--
He did not stop with the ways of his father, but followed his even more evil mother. Thus he quickly filled up the cup that had already started out nearly full because of the promise YHWH had made to visit Akh’av’s sins on his son. (21:29) YHWH therefore had little patience once this young man started proving to have no inclination to turn away from his parents’ sins. So He did not “beat around the bush”, but got the vengeance over with early in his reign.
54. that is, he served the Baal and bowed himself down to it, thus provoking YHWH the Elohim of Israel to anger, just like all that his father had done.
INTRODUCTION:
This book begins in the 10th century B.C.E. at the end of King David’s life, thus overlapping chrono-logically with the second book of Shmu’el. It covers the division of the Kingdom and continues through the end of Y’hoshafat’s reign in Yehudah and the parallel reign of Akhazyah in Israel.
THE FIRST BOOK
OF THE
Kings
Mt. Karmel meets the Mediterranean
18:1-39 is a haftarah (companion passage) to Torah Portion Ki-Thisa'.
