A blog of the bible reading from Genesis to Revelation that analyzes the text as a piece of literature written in history by living people separated by time, language, and geography.
Hosea prophesied in the Northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of King Jeroboam II (ca. 786-746 BCE), after whose death the kingdom begins to decline before its defeat by the Assyrians in 722 BCE. According to the preface in the Harper Collins Study Bible, its core message can be gleaned in a declaration toward the end of the book, a restatement of the first commandment: "I have been the Lord your god ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior." (Hosea 13.4). The text vacillates between Israel's sin and salvation.
Unlike the prophets of the exile period [who we have recently read], Hosea does not deride Israel's enemies. Hosea is a prophet who seeks to reform Israel from the inside, so that it is a more just society. As the community is not in exile, the focus is entirely on the reform of the nation.
Hosea and Ezekiel
We can see interesting parallels between the prophets Hosea and Ezekiel, two of the great prophets of the Jewish people. Hosea is from the north, and anticipates Israel's demise. Ezekiel, who appears years later and witnessed the fall of Judah, is concerned mainly with the southern kingdom. However, their function as sign reveals an interesting typology. Like Hosea, Ezekiel acts as a sign to God's people through his relationship with his wife.
In Ezekiel's case, the prophet's wife dies and Ezekiel is forbidden from mourning, in anticipation of the coming exile, which will happen so quickly that it will not be mourned. In this sign, Ezekiel represents the Israelites and his wife represents Israel.
Hosea, on the other hand, is instructed to marry an unfaithful woman:
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord."
The sign here is Gomer's (his wife's) promiscuity with men, which reflects Israel's insatiable turning to other gods and fertility cults. In this sign, Gomer represents Israel, and the jealous husband Hosea represents God.
God is not angry with the false gods that the Israelites pray to, but rather the Israelites themselves, who have turned away from him after establishing a binding covenant not unlike marriage. Though an exclusive contractual agreement, this is not the western marriage of equality that we enjoy today, but one in which the female party is explicitly the property of the male. To imagine Hosea's distress and anger is to imagine (though clearly not to understand) God's reaction toward his people Israel.
A rose by any other name
Hosea's children all have symbolic names, which point to important parts of Hosea's prophecy.
The current order is hopelessly corrupt, and can only be saved by radical change. This is made apparent in the naming of Hosea's only legitimate child, Jezreel, is named after the plane where Jehu slaughtered the house of Ahab. The implication is that the same fate that Jehu brought upon the old order (which itself was rife with apostasy) will be dealt to the current monarchy, which has decayed through its own apostasy. The preceding dynasty of Ahab was no better than the current on. The prophet that anoints Jehu king of Israel tells him,
"Thus says the Lord the God of Israel...You shall strike down the house of your master Ahab, so that I may avenge on Jezebel the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord. For the Whole house of Ahab shall perish; I will cut off from Ahab every male, bond or free, in Israel."
(2 Kings 9.6-8)
But whereas in the past the Lord was content with simply wiping out the old order, presently a more radical change is needed. Israel will be harshly punished for its actions, and kings will never again reign in Israel or Judah.
Hosea's other two children are illegitimate, the product of Gomer's whoring. They serve as symbols of God's opinion of his people: Lo-ruhamah ("not pitied") and Lo-ammi ("I am not yours"). The signs stand for themselves.
Hosea's See-Saw
It is remarkable how quickly messages of rejection turn to messages of acceptance in Hosea. No sooner does God give the name for these children, than the tone completely shifts to one of deliverance. The effect is almost dizzying:
...Then the Lord said, "Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people and I am not your God." yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, [in fulfillment of the Genesis covenant] which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, "You are not my people," it shall be said to them, "Children of the living God."
Remarkably, the image of Jezreel is upended here into a positive symbol, a common theme throughout Hosea. Frequently throughout its fourteen chapters we find that negative images are later expressed in a positive light:
"...and they shall take possession of the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel."
(Hosea 1.11)
In this new world order, the Lord addresses the two children with their names minus the negative "Lo": Ammi and Ruhamah, meaning "my people" and "pitied." But as soon as their new names are uttered, the mother is rejected, and Israel's wrongdoing is again revealed.
Reaping and Sowing
An unfaithful wife is not the only image used to express Israel's unfaithfulness toward God. Images of agriculture are also used. Some are negative, and others positive, so that the positive images correct the negative:
For they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind
(Hosea 8.7)
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground;
(Hosea 10.12)
You have plowed wickedness,
you have reaped injustice,
you have eaten the fruit of lies.
(Hosea 10.13)
The text ends on a positive note, a plea for repentance followed by an assurance of forgiveness:
I will heal their disloyalty;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
(Hosea 14.4)
O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.
I am like an evergreen cypress;
your faithfulness comes from me.
Those who are wise understand these things;
those who are discerning know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.
(Hosea 14.8-9)
Last week we explored the prophet Ezekiel's mystical encounter with God. As I noted, description of mystical encounters are not to be taken as piece-for-piece parables or allegories. Rather, we may interpret certain images within them to arrive at a sense of what the encounter signifies.
Today we encounter a different form of revelatory experience: allegories or parables given directly from God to the prophet. These have a few different functions, such as the revelation of history through a riddle to trick the reader into accepting the Lord's propositions. Others indict directly. No matter how these stories are used, however, the symbolism is understandable and direct, corresponding to true historical events. Below are five examples of this sort of meaning making.
God's Faithless Bride
One of the most compelling accounts of Israel's shameful history comes in Ezekiel 16, titled in the New Revised Standard Version, "God's Faithless Bride." Here "the Lord God of Jerusalem" recounts the history in a highly stylized, metaphorical style.
Jerusalem was born "in the land of the Canaanites," (Ezekiel 16.3) phrasing that precludes ownership. Israel is a stranger here, the child of an Amorite father and Hittite mother. These, of course, were the people that preceded the Israelites in Canaan, the promised land.
Jerusalem is born an abandoned in an open field, receiving no birth rituals; her umbilical cord even remains uncut. No one pities the bloody flailing child but God, who happens upon her and commands her to, "Live! and grow up like a plant of the field." (Ezekiel 16.6-7) Jerusalem sprouts into full womanhood, though is still naked and bloody when God encounters her a second time:
I passed by you again and looked on you; you were at the age for love. I spread the edge of my cloak over you, and covered your nakedness: I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord God, and you became mine.
(Ezekiel 16.8)
God washes the blood from Jerusalem's body and clothes her. He adorns her in fine clothing and jewelry, and gives her the finest food. Jerusalem becomes renowned for her beauty among the nations. Rising up from an ignoble beginning, Jerusalem is at its best.
Then things go awry. Jerusalem begins to whore herself to other me - that is, she turns to other gods. (This imagery is very common in biblical literature, and Ezekiel uses the unfaithful wife motif extensively.) Jerusalem even sacrifices her children - the most tangible sign of the covenant with her husband God - to the false gods.
In succession, Jerusalem is rebuked for whoring herself to the Egyptians, the Philistines, Assyria, and Chaldea (Babylon). The list parallels the troubled history of God's people: slavery in Egypt, conflict with Philistia, and a tumultuous relationship with Assyria and Babylon that alternated between submission and trade and armed conflict.
God notes that Israel's "whoring" is unique for its subversion of the sex-marriage economy. Generally prostitutes receive payment for their services. Jerusalem, however, renders services and makes payments to her clients. We can easily see why God would be angry with her behavior. Not only is his wife unfaithful, but she is giving to her lovers the very gifts that he gave to her.
For this God promises wrath. She will be delivered into the hands of her enemies - those who were once her lovers:
Because you have not remember the days of you youth, but have enraged me with all these things; therefore, I have returned your deeds upon your head, says the Lord God.
(Ezekiel 16.43)
While it might be easy to understand the need for retribution, the line that precedes this verse seems to speak with the voice of an abusive husband when read in a modern light:
So I will satisfy my fury on you, and my jealousy shall turn away from you; I will be calm, and will be angry no longer.
(Ezekiel 16.42)
God must expend all his anger before he will again accept his bride. This is not the portrait of domestic abuse popularized by Eminem - though one can see the parallels in a broken contract and a propensity to do harm.
This is on a completely different level, the breaking of a contract between God and an entire people. God offers the easy yoke to those that are faithful, but too many are reluctant to take that bear their faith entirely in God.
God returns in his excoriation to the image of family: Jerusalem as daughter of a Hittite and Amorite. The idea is expanded into a complete family of sinners. Samaria, the northern kingdom of Israel, is Jerusalem's elder sister, while the notoriously sinful city of Sodom is Jerusalem's younger sibling. Not even these cities are as sinful as Jerusalem, claims the Lord, though Sodom was destroyed long ago and Samaria has already been conquered. Indeed, the sisters will be restored even as Jerusalem languishes. Thus the city will feel shame for its sins.
In classical prophetic style, however, Jerusalem is promised salvation:
Yes, thus says the Lord God: I will deal with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath, breaking the covenant; yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant.
(Ezekiel 16.59-60)
Though it has been noted by others that negative prophecies are most frequently correct, this one does come true in part with the ascension of King Cyrus.
The Useless Vine
Ezekiel 15 offers a sophisticated riddle that is meant to reveal the truth about Jerusalem through a clever reveal. The riddle works by introducing a situation and convincing the reader of a truth about it, before revealing that actually the situation is representative of something that directly affects the reader. In this way, riddle solvers indict themselves. This particular riddle goes as follows:
O mortal, how does the wood of the vine surpass all other wood -
the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest?
Is wood taken from it to make anything?
Does one take a peg from it on which to hang any object?
(Ezekiel 15.2-3)
Well, no, the reader replies. People do not use vine wood for pegs. Vines do not surpass any wood at all - all they are good for is burning.
The vine, of course, is Jerusalem. Indeed, says the Lord, this useless city will be burned. It will be consumed and made desolate because it has not positive use for God. It does not give back to the Lord in any way, so why should he not destroy it to create the more useful fire?
The Two Eagles and the Vine
The next reference to the vine of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 17) is highly allegorical, a riddle whose question is phrased in poetry and answer revealed in prose.
A great eagle, representing the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, removes the top of a Lebanon cedar, representing King Jehoiachin, and takes it away to a "city of merchants," representing exile. The eagle then takes a seed - the offspring of Jehoiachin, Zedekiah - who is initially loyal to the eagle and therefore prospers.
Soon another eagle appears, representing the pharaoh Psammetichus. The vine is drawn to its brilliant plumage and great wings, and its allegiance transfers. This is a fatal move, as Egypt is not able to protect Jerusalem against the angry Babylonian monarchy. There will be great struggle and destruction.
But eventually God will intervene, taking "a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar." (Ezekiel 17.22) It will be planted on the mountain height of Israel to proper. In fact, the sprig will grow to become the greatest of the nations: "Under it every kind of bird [certainly even great eagles!] will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind." (Ezekiel 17.23)
Not only will Israel be recognized, but God as well. All nations will finally bow before him:
All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree,
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and make the dry tree flourish.
I the Lord have spoken;
I will accomplish it.
(Ezekiel 17.24)
Judah the Lion
[Fun fact: Ariel means "Lion of God" in Hebrew]
Judah is frequently identified with a lion for Jacob's blessing of the tribal patriarch in Genesis:
Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He crouches down, he stretches out like a lion, like a lioness—who dares rouse him up?
(Genesis 49.9)
Ezekiel picks up on this theme in chapter 19, a lamentation for fallen Judah, who was the great lioness. Here cubs were reared to be great lions, to catch prey and devour humans, but nations raise the alarm and capture them, afraid of the power that they wield. Here the lioness is the nation of Judah and the cubs it kings. Jehoahaz is deported to Egypt and both Jehoiachin and Zedekiah are exiled to Babylon. Though the lioness mother Judah attempts to raise strong offspring, here enemies are stronger than they.
The Vine Again
The lament abruptly transitions to an image of mother Judah as a vine of great mass and height in a vineyard. The vine is destroyed by various means: plucked up and cast down (armed conflict), dried by an eastern wind (siege warfare and famine), stripped of fruit (death, attrition), consumed by fire (conquered), and transplanted (exiled).
And the fire has gone out from its stem,
has consumed its branches and fruit,
so that there remains in it no strong stem,
no scepter for ruling.
(Ezekiel 19.14)
These verses have a remarkable resonance with Jacob's blessing of Judah in Genesis (mentioned above):
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and the obedience of the peoples is his. Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garments in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes; his eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth whiter than milk.
(Genesis 49.10-12)
Oholah and Oholibah
Finally we come to Ezekiel 23, another parable of Judah's sin and God's retribution. "Born" in Egypt, the sisters Oholah (Samaria) and Oholibah (Judah) both become brides of the Lord and bear children. For the time being, at least, God overlooks the fact that they are "damaged goods" - that in Egypt they have already been dealt with sexually.
Oholah soon whores herself to the Assyrians, and is killed - not by God - but clearly in retribution for her unfaithfulness. Oholibah also lusts after the Assyrians, but soon turns to the Babylonians, then Egypt. The last of these is portrayed as a return to an old lover:
Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians fondled your bosom and caressed your breasts.
(Ezekiel 23.21)
Jerusalem, which has not yet suffered exile (the "death" of Oholah) is therefore warned of impending fury that God will unleash, dealt through the armies of the vary nations Oholibah once loved. She will suffer the same fate as her sister. Says the Lord:
For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands; with their idols the have committed adultery; and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me.
(Ezekiel 23.37)
Judah will indeed be punished. But the beauty of God's relationship with his people is that there is always room for reconciliation.
The Boiling Pot
One final allegory comes in Ezekiel 24, a boiling pot to cook an animal. The imagery is complex, but it seems that the pot is rusted on the inside, making worthless the food cooked within. Furthermore, the blood that Jerusalem has shed is symbolically inside the pot, an image that God uses to incriminate the city. The Lord will also take a rusted pot, symbolic of Jerusalem, and heat it, so that the filth and rust within it is consumed. In this way, the pot will be cleansed. But the cleansing of Jerusalem clearly will have dire consequences for its people.
Thus concludes today's post.
As for me, this reading really brought out the feminist in me. The language of the bible is remarkable here in its portrayal of women and violence. Could it have been put another way and understood as poignantly? What do you think? Let me know in the comments!
One of the primary themes of the Hebrew Bible is persecution and suffering, a theme that was given extensive treatment from Job onwards, through Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiates, and especially through the prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah. During the time of the divided monarchy, the Israelites suffer perpetual persecution. In this time, people turn to prophets, who offer an alternative (though politically well-informed) worldview. The Israelites, say the prophets, are persecuted by God for their apostasy. How is this situation rectified? Laments give us a view into this process. This traditional form of writing - like a dirge or a sonnet, is comprised of a few different elements that express suffering and call on God to intervene. Elements include:
Invocation (call to God)
Complaint
Plea for help
Condemnation of enemies
Affirmation of confidence in the Lord
Confession of sin
Acknowledgement of divine response
Praise for God
The enemies are generally an outside force, such as the Babylonians, but the doubly-oppressed Jeremiah sees persecution at the hands of others as well. These people say to one another:
Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
let us cut him off from the land of the living
so that his name will no longer be remembered!
(Jeremiah 11.19)
Jeremiah's enemies seek to destroy the prophet (tree) along with his children (fruit). To eliminate the offspring would essentially wipe Jeremiah from history by removing all traces of him form the collective memory. This is significant because memory - either passed down through stories or expressed physically through offspring - was the only sort of afterlife an Israelite could hope to enjoy. Hence the promise of land and progeny to the patriarchs.
Jeremiah begs the Lord to intercede from these oppressors:
But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
(Jeremiah 11.20)
Who are these mysterious oppressors who wish to kill Jeremiah? His own family! "The people of Anathoth were friends and relatives of Jeremiah in his home town (Jeremiah 11.21, 12.1). Not only does Israel stand on the brink of destruction, but Jeremiah's own family want to suppress his message.
Yet the righteous Jeremiah continues to prophesy, and his persecutors in fact will face a penalty for the evil they plot against the man. The very evil they wished upon him will be inflicted on them:
Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: I am going to punish them; the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine; and not even a remnant shall be left of them.
(Jeremiah 11.22-23)
"Why does the way of the guilty prosper?" Jeremiah asks God.
You plant them, and they take root;
they grow and bring forth fruit;
you are near in their mouths
yet far from their hearts.
(Jeremiah 12.1-2)
Jeremiah here uses the language of his oppressors against them As they seek to destroy good and righteous trees along with their fruit, Jeremiah asks the fundamental question of why these people are allowed to exert their malicious wills. The Lord acknowledges the problem, and commiserates with Jeremiah, revealing a striking parallel between Jeremiah's situation and his own. The Lord's own "family" of Israel has turned against him and forced him to make some difficult decisions:
I have forsaken my house,
I have abandoned my heritage;
I have given the beloved of my heart
into the hands of her enemies
(Jeremiah 12.7)
God has come to this decision because idol worship has wrought such havoc on the faithful:
Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard,
they have trampled down my portion,
they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
They have made it a desolation;
desolate, it mourns to me.
(Jeremiah 12.10-11)
Thus we transition into the larger problem of Israel's inevitable exile at the hands of their oppressors. God's people will face dispersion for their apostasy, and the righteous Jeremiah will be show oppressed in two ways, first as a prophet and secondly as an Israelite. He is righteous in both capacities, and therefore is something of an anomaly. His parallel stories, however, help illustrate Israel as it collapses simultaneously from outside and internal pressures. Both of these are expressed though the same prism of God's wrath. The Lord's people must be punished for their sins.
Retribution comes first in the form of a drought, which is relayed by the people of the land in the form of a lament in Jeremiah 14.1-10.
Although our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name's sake;
our apostasies are indeed many,
and we have sinned against you.
(Jeremiah 14.7)
The lament continues in Jeremiah 14.19-22:
Have you completely rejected Judah?
Does your heart loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us down
so that there is no healing for us?
We look for peace, but find no good;
for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
the iniquity of our ancestors,
for we have sinned against you.
Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake;
do not dishonor your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.
Can any idols of the nations bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on you,
for it is you who do all this.
(Jeremiah 14.19-22)
We see the elements of lament here: complaint, confession of sins, and a plea for help. In this way the lament moves from accusation to confession to supplication. This parallels part of the cycle of dialectical tensions following a severe blow to the Israelite people, the subsequent recognition that this harm was in fact the result of apostasy.
The Lord offers a harsh response to the Israelites through Jeremiah, suggesting that not even the great leaders of Moses and Samuel would be able to turn God's heart toward his people. Sin has reached a tipping point, and now punishment is inevitable. Jeremiah will survive, but the people will hate him for his true words against them. The prophet's agony is so great that in one lament he wishes he had never been born. Yet he plays an integral role in the history of Jerusalem, and as we will see, forecasts the future of God's people.
Along the way, though, Jeremiah continues his laments, as he balances the persecution of himself and his family with that of the people of Israel.
Jeremiah was a prophet who was first commissioned by God in the year 627 BCE. As a prophet, Jeremiah takes issue with the status quo. One of his primary causes is the belief that temple worship is not as important as strict obedience to the Lord's law. He has other causes as well, such as the great guilt of Judah and the general unfaithfulness of the people. But all these coalesce in the issue of temple worship. For Jeremiah, temple sacrifice has nothing to do with obedience to God. The prophet channels the Lord:
I did not speak to them or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this commandment I gave them, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk only in the way that I command you, so that it may be well with you.
(Jeremiah 7.22-23)
Jeremiah here perhaps is attempting to censor history: Deuteronomy 16 explicitly calls for a Passover sacrifice. Numbers calls for sacrifices and offerings in many places. But Jeremiah's rebellion is not a simple matter of textual analysis. Rather, he may be arguing against an institution that supports the temple monarchy. Jeremiah is a descendant of Abiathar, a Levitical priest who was removed from power by Solomon for political reasons. Jeremiah therefore may be rebelling against the institution in general, and the sacrifice - which sustains the rival non-Levitical priests - in particular. Jeremiah goes so far as to reject the very centerpiece of the temple, the ark of the covenant:
I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, they shall no longer say, "The ark of the covenant of the Lord." It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; nor shall another one remain.
(Jeremiah 3.15-16)
Jeremiah has other reasons to hate the Davidic monarchy, centered in Jerusalem. A resident of Benjamin, he identifies with the plight of Israel, rather than that of Judah. Unlike Isaiah (1-39, 40-55, 56-66), who was from the southern kingdom, Jeremiah favors the northern kingdom for salvation.
This belief puts him in a difficult position. Israel fell first to invading armies, which by Isaiah's logic indicates that the kingdom was less faithful, or at least lost faith in the Lord sooner than the South:
She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce; yet her false sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
(Jeremiah 3.8)
Both Israel and Judah are in the wrong, and both are punished, but for some reason not explained, Judah is more in guilt:
Then the Lord said to me: Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah.
(Jeremiah 3.11)
This is set against a backdrop of general unfaithfulness, revealing in yet another biblical book the dialectical tensions that inform the entire corpus of the bible:
Has a nation changed its gods,
even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
for something that does not profit.
(Jeremiah 2.11)
Other peoples do not change their gods, but Israel, whose God is the one true God, does not remain faithful to its own God. Israel's unfaithfulness is examined in graphic terms: an ox that breaks it yoke, a whore, a choice vine that becomes wild, and a stain that cannot be washed out. God's people follow a winding path, and act like a wild donkey in heat, a notorious lover of strangers.
This is expressed in poetry through the imagery of husband and wife. In typical patriarchal fashion, God is the husband and his people the wife. Israel suffers "divorce" when it falls into apostasy, which means oppression or defeat. God poses the question to his people:
If a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man's wife,
will he return to her?
Would not such a land be greatly polluted?
You have played the whore with many lovers;
and would you return to me?
says the Lord.
(Jeremiah 3.1)
And yet, in the Lord's mystery, he does accept the people that return to him. God takes back his whore of a wife, under the assumption that she will again become faithful.
There will be punishment for the loss of faith. Jeremiah in the end of chapter 10 warns that the exile is imminent:
I am going to sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time,
and I will bring distress on them,
so that they shall feel it.
(Jeremiah 10.18)
The doomed nation, having been conquered, is expressed in a return to the primordial chaos:
I look on the earth, and lo, it was a waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light.
I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro.
I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
and all the birds of the air had fled.
I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.
Because of this the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above grow black;
for I have spoken, I have purposed;
I have not relented nor will I turn back.
(Jeremiah 4.23-28)
Like the world before creation, the earth is "waste and void," the heavens shining no light upon it. There are no humans, no birds, and no plants. The imagery suggests strongly (and uses the language of) the first story of creation to express how the great building up of the Israelite people will be utterly undone.
But within chapter 10 we can also find a message of redemption. retribution will come to the persecuting nations after Israel has been conquered.
Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not know you,
and on the peoples that do not call on your name;
for they have devoured Jacob;
they have devoured him and consumed him,
and have laid waste his habitation.
(Jeremiah 10.25)
As we have seen in Isaiah, this is exactly what happens. Israel will one day be vindicated.
With Easter fast approaching, this week's post will explore Psalm 22 as a source text for the gospels, particularly Jesus' Passion. Psalm 22 was not originally written with this intention; the themes and words or the text were adapted by later authors in order to build a story with historical resonances. The original purpose of Psalm 22 was as a spiritual text to describe an encounter with God. For more on the genres of Psalms, see last week's post: Psalms 1: Parallelism and Mixed Metaphors.
Psalm 22 is actually comprised of two parts: a prayer for divine aid (lament) in verses 1-21a, and a song of thanksgiving in verses 22-31. The psalm hinges on verse 21b, in which the Lord responds to the petitioner's lament:
21a Save me from the mouth of the lion! 21bFrom the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me. 22 I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters.
The transition in the psalm is abrupt, shifting the entire viewpoint of the poem in a mere verse. The rapid progression that can be seen above shows the two most important topics in the poem - petition and deliverance - as hinging on the action they both refer to - deliverance.
The opening words of the psalm, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" are among the most famous recorded in the bible, whether in Hebrew or Christian scriptures. These are similar to the words of Job, who questioned God's sense of justice as well as God's involvement (or lack thereof) in human affairs:
I cry to you and you do not answer me;
I stand, and you merely look at me.
In fact, the God of Job actually acts against his people, in contrast to the God of Psalms. Says Job:
You have turned cruel to me;
with the might of your hand you persecute me.
(Job 30.21-21)
These words reflect an understanding of the covenantal relationship between God and Israel: obedience to God's law results in protection for God's people. But as was revealed in Job, protection does not necessarily work out by a method or timescale that humans are able to understand. Humans like Job and the psalmist wonder why they are still oppressed, even when they perceive they have upheld their end of the covenantal relationship with God.
The covenantal framework through which the Israelites perceive justice is informed by historical events. Whether thee events are scientifically historical, historicized fiction, or fictionalized history does not matter, as all of these function within the understanding of truth of the biblical authors. Indeed, the psalmist may have been reading these events as literal, not understanding the other modes of truth at all. In any case, what we know to be true from the psalmist's perspective is that God historically upheld the terms of the covenant:
In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
(Psalms 22.45)
What now? asks the psalmist. Why do we no longer seem to be protected? This question is answered, however inadequately, in the thanksgiving portion of the psalm, which will be discussed later. First we turn to the nature of the torment that the psalmist suffers.
Anyone who reads both the gospels and Psalms will be able to identify the huge influence of Psalm 22 on the tale of Christ's crucifixion. Mark, the first gospel to be written, has Jesus utter before his death, "Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani." (Mark 15.34) This is in Aramaic, the language Jesus would have spoken. Matthew, the second gospel to be written, has Jesus utter a similar phrase in Hebrew, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani." (Matthew 27.46) [In another Psalms connection, Luke has Jesus say, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit," which appears in Psalm 31.5. (Luke 23.46)] Mark's and Matthew's phrases both translate to the first line of Psalm 22. The words suit the tone of those gospel stories well.
Another closely-related connection: In Mark and Matthew, God works signs to indicate that in fact Jesus was the son of God. Likewise, God reveals in the latter part of Psalm 22 that in fact he is present, and that the psalmist has not been abandoned after all. Actually, this should be stated in reverse. The idea of God revealing himself was taken up by the psalmist long before the gospel writers.
A more obvious example of Psalm 22's influence on the gospels is the scorn and mocking suffered by the psalmist:
All who see me mock at me;
they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
"Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver -
let him rescue the one in whom he delights!"
(Psalms 22.7-8)
This theme appears throughout the four accounts of Jesus' passion, particularly in Matthew, who has the bandit taunt Jesus:
"He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, 'I am God's son.'"
(Matthew 27.43)
The psalmist, like Jesus, is thirsty, and downtrodden. His enemies take his property, a scene which John reads literally (John 19.24):
They divide my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
(Psalms 22.18)
But Psalm 22 was not written to describe Jesus' crucifixion; it was merely adapted much later for this purpose. The psalmist simply describes how he or people like him are oppressed, tormented verbally, and abused physically and/or psychologically. Unlike the story of Jesus, Psalm 22 has the protagonist delivered immediately.
The deliverance in in the manner of Job, and therefore may seem unsatisfying to modern readers. It happens in one verse, without explanation. For the psalmist, it would have needed no explanation. God's protection operates like a light switch: on or off. There is no dimmer by which he might dispense partial favor. Likewise, the psalmist operates on the light switch model of accepting God's protection. The change from cry of help to promise of praise is immediate. There is no doubt or hesitancy on the part of the psalmist - and why should there be? The covenantal model has demonstrated its effectiveness yet again!
When the psalmist discovers that Israel is under God's protection after all, he promises to spread God's praise:
I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.
(Psalms 22.22)
All questions of God's devotion are furthermore forgotten:
For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
but heard when I cried to him.
(Psalms 22.24)
The "forsaken" part is forgotten, its ejection left unexplained. This contributes to the sense we derived from Job that God's protection is constant; humans are simply unable to express it.
God's love, the psalmist declares, is universal in location, extensive in chronology. God rules over all nations, and his praises will be sung to generations yet unborn. Whether the first of these is true or not, the second has remained true for thousands of years:
Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
sying that he has done it.
(Psalms 22.30-31)
The Book of Psalms is comprised of prayers and songs dating from Israel's early history to after the exile. Like most of the literature of the bible, individual psalms were composed over many years and edited into a final form as it appears in the bible.
The introduction to Psalms in the Harper Collins Study Bible lists the following types of psalms:
Prayers for Help (Laments)
Songs of Thanksgiving
Hymns (like Songs of Thanksgiving though not necessarily offered with an explicit reason)
Royal Psalms
Other
The variety of poetry in Psalms is vast, though undeniably God-centric. In total, there are 150 psalms, many of them repeating themes and images of others, though all unique aspects of praise, lament, or worship. These are divided into five collections, or "books," each separated by closing verses.
The first of these books is comprised of Psalms 1-41. I would highly recommend reading them; they are fascinating and beautiful works of poetry. In this time and space, I only have room to look at two in-depth.
Warning: I will analyze poetry as part of this post. For a rough sketch of terms and methods of biblical poetry, check out my primer on biblical poetry.
Parallelism in Psalm 19
One of the distinguishing characteristics of ancient Israelite poetry is the form of synonymous parallelism. The "synonymous" part of this is a function of style. Biblical poetry is filled with parallel cola that say the same thing, only in different ways. Modern writers tend to avoid repetition as a matter of style, favoring stylistic features like rhyme scheme instead. Ancient Israelite poets favored synonymous phrases.
The "parallelism" part of "synonymous parallelism" connotes structure. Biblical poetry is structured on parallel lines of poetry, much as poetry today is structured by meter and/or line length.
Below I have broken down Psalm 19.7-9, one of the longest and most intricate examples of synonymous parallelism in Psalms.
The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the decrees of the Lord are sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is clear,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is pure,
enduring forever;
the ordinances of the Lord are true
and righteous all together.
(Psalm 19.7-9)
In the left column appear the perfect will of God. Laws, decrees, precepts, commandments, and ordinances are all synonyms, and fear is a near-synonymous term, meaning obedience to the Law of God. Taken together, these all refer to the covenant between God and his people. To adapt a term from Taoism, this is the Tao, meaning "way." the Laws/precepts are of the same substance as following them. The Israelite path to peace and goodness is through this "way," a path that is sure, right, clear, pure, and true.
The results for adhering to the will of God are given in the right column. The lone exception is the final entry, which serves instead as a synonym for the perfection of the Lord's law. The law has a revitalizing effect on adherents.
Synonymous parallelism has a reinforcing effect, and when taken as a whole, is not a far cry from the method of some mystics. In certain mystical understandings of God, it is wrong to say that God is something. It is more accurate to say that God is "like" something because it is impossible to know exactly what God is. We dance around meaning, and understand the idea in our mind and heart - an inexpressible reality that is reached through, but not described through, synonym.
Psalm 23: The Lord is My Shepherd
Psalm 23 is one of the most popular psalms, with two metaphors that are part of the lexicon today: the Lord as shepherd and the “valley of the shadow of death.” Psalms is not the only place in the bible that equates God with a shepherd, which indicates that this was not an uncommon understanding of God’s relationship with his people. The “valley of the shadow of death” appears in either this form or one similar, such as in the New Revised Standard Version: “darkest valley.” The difference comes from conflicting divisions of Hebrew consonants. In any case, this metaphorical valley is a place of evil and shade, a place where the walker requires the protection of God.
The extended metaphor that comprises the poem – the imagined shepherd leading the sheep – is confused as the poem at times lapses into the interaction between the Lord and his people. Of course, the shepherd leading the sheep is meant to demonstrate the Lord as shepherd and the people as sheep. However, the poem does not stick to either view consistently, resulting in ambiguity that actually enhances the poem through its double meaning. Below is the text of Psalm 23 as it appears in the New Revised Standard Version. I have marked where the imagery corresponds to sheep or humans, or has a double connotation
The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. [sheep; double]
He makes me lie down in green pastures; [sheep]
he leads me beside still waters; [sheep]
he restores my soul. [human]
He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake. [double]
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; [double]
for you are with me; your rod and your staff - they comfort me. [double; sheep]
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; [human]
you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. [human; human]
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, [human]
and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD my whole life long. [human]
(Psalms 23)
The poem has a notable movement to it that plays out in the balance of images. The poem opens with a sheep and then a double meaning and continues with sheep images before introducing a human image. It then switches to three images with double meaning, and invokes the sheep one final time before delivering five images of a human relationship with God. The poem therefore moves from an understanding of the Lord as shepherd to images of the Lord as a God who should be obeyed. The psalm is instructional, starting off with an easy image separate from direct experience and expanding on the image to explain the direct experience shared by God and those who follow him.
That will do it for today. Stay tuned for more psalms next week!
My spiel for blogging the bible thus far has been "dialectical tensions," the disconnect that exists between God's will and human action. In this model, humans are punished when they stray from God and rewarded when they are faithful. The book of Job challenges dialectical tensions with the tale of a pious man who is punished - without justification that we can understand in human terms.
Job is a work of "Wisdom Literature," which refers to three books of the Hebrew Scriptures: Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. This poetic, ideologic literature uses as a source similar wisdom literature of the ancient Near East, such as works from Egypt and Sumeria. We find parallels to Job in texts such as "The Babylonian Theodicy," and the anachronistically-named "Sumerian Job." These text deal with heavy issues that we still grapple with today, such as, What is the cause of suffering? Why is there evil in the universe? Why do good things happen to good people?
In The Bible as Literature, John B. Gabel et al. conclude, "It is clear, then, that wisdom writing in the Bible incorporates a tradition much older than its actual date of composition and that just like biblical narrational, legal, poetic, and historical writing, it can best be appreciated when seen in the broader context of the Ancient Near East" (57).
Gabel notes that for those reading the bible cover-to-cover, wisdom literature represents a departure from the norm. The book of Job does not drive the narrative forward. Thus far every book of the bible has either specified events that move the Israelites forward, or explained the origin of something within a specific context (such as Esther). Job instead is a philosophical text, one meant to explain why something is the way it is. The time period of the tale does not matter at all. However, it is worth noting that the text was composed during the exile, and deals at least tangentially with the fear that suffering is caused to people that don't seem to deserve it. The dialectical tension model is actively being called into question in the tale of Job. In fact, the book can be seen as making an alternative explanation for suffering and exile. And as we will see, to the modern day reader, the text leaves us with an uneasy feeling about God and his justice.
The Tale of Job
Job is a man living in the days between Noah and Abraham, and like these men he "was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil." (Job 1.1) God considers Job his faithful "servant,"and essentially makes a bet with an angel called "the satan" that the eternally-faithful Job will not turn away from God even if he loses everything. In quick succession, Job loses his children, livestock, and servants. Yet he still remains faithful to God.
God is pleased at this, and the satan (meaning "adversary") challenges God that Job will not maintain his faith if his health is taken away. God again takes the bet, and Job becomes leprous. Job does not curse God, but he is rather perplexed.
What follows is many verses of argumentation between Job and three friends or "comforters." These men tell Job that people are punished because they are sinful, Job maintains that he is not sinful, and the friends contend that nobody on earth is without sin. (We can probably believe Job, though, that he is without blame in God's eyes.)
A fourth man rebukes Job, followed by God, who delivers a coup de gras rebuke. Job repents in words for questioning (though he never turned in his heart form God), he is rewarded twofold, and the story ends happily.
The above is a brief explanation, which I urge you to read on your own time. The book is a beautiful and poetic work - in fact, the majority is poetry. A quick framework of the narration is given below:
Job's goodness and punishment 1.1-2.10
Argumentation between Job and the four men 2.11-37
God's response 38-40.2
Job's response 40.3-5
God's challenge to Job 40.6-41
Job humbled 42.1-6
Job's friends rebuked 42.7-9
Job's fortunes restored 42.10-17
Note that most of this book is argument about the nature of God. The true nature of god is explained by the deity himself in a few chapters, and Job's repentance, which makes up for his entire complaint, takes a mere six verses.
Humble Job
Job's full answer to the Lord reads thus:
I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
"Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?"
Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
"Hear, and I will speak;
I will question you, and you declare to me."
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear,
but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.
(Job 42.2-6)
God is fully convinced of Job's devotion at this point, despite the time Job spent complaining of God's injustice. Perhaps Job's word is good; he was portrayed as a just man before, and the only incorrect move he makes is to question God; he does not commit apostasy. Job only argues that there is no correlation between the good one does and God's rewarding of these actions in this lifetime.
The quick scene of Job's humbling is followed closely by a similarly short passage in which Job's "comforters" are "humiliated." God speaks to Job's three friends:
My wrath is kindled against you [Eliphaz] and against your two friends [Bildad and Zophar], for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." (Job 42.7)
Job speaks right not in his complaint, but in his submission to God. And indeed, the arguments of Job's "comforters" miss the mark just as much as Job's. Even as the main maintained his innocence, his friends asserted again and again that no one on earth could be innocent. God's argument responds to the friends as well as Job:
Enough with the quibbling! There is no way you can understand me! And to misunderstand me is not only incorrect, but merits punishment.
These men do not have an arm like God, and their voice does not thunder like his. (Job 40.9) The point should not be guilt or innocence. The true message that God wishes to extend to Job is that God should not, indeed cannot be questioned because God is on an entirely different level.
Accepting God
This is not an acceptable answer for someone that reads the bible as a piece of literature. What God says is ineffability is acually a bit of clever staging: some dramatic irony. This irony is set up at the beginning of the story when God tests Job by proxy of the satan simply to see whether Job will remain faithful. The modern reader that reads the book as a piece of literature should easily recognize this fallacy. God's excuse does not hold up; the narrator gave us his reason!
The tale of Job, then, still leaves an existential aftertaste (a bitter taste, as I imagine it). Job seems to exist at the will of a capricious God, a petty God, even. The Lord does not provide a straight answer to Job. Instead, the deity unloads verse after verse of rebuke, while his true intention remains unknown to the seeker. It is a grand dramatic irony, and empathy on the part of the reader is understandable. The book of Job does not really comfort, not really answer the question of the will of God. Despite the happy ending of Job's fortunes being restored twofold, the story ends on an uneasy note. It ended well for Joseph, but God has revealed his capricious nature. The reader has glimpsed God, and been left with an unsettling afterimage of his presence.
What are your thoughts on Job? Let me know in the comments below!
The Israelites are back in Jerusalem after their exile in Babylon. Reconstruction of the wall around the city has been completed, and for a time the Israelites do not have to worry about external threats from governors in the area such as Sanballat and Tobiah. With God and a physical wall for protection, the Jews no longer have to expend energy worrying about attacks. This energy is instead expended on reforming life within the city walls. The Israelites have forgotten some of the practices and laws of their ancestors, and now must return to God.
Inside
I am not trying to impose this idea of external to internal on the text; the biblical author, in fact, is the one that cleverly keeps the externally-focused and internally-focused sections of Nehemiah separated by the completion of the wall. Starting with Nehemiah 7, we are held within the wall, as the Israelites rediscover the proper worship of God from within.
Nehemiah 7 is comprised mainly of a genealogy of the people living in Jerusalem. Note that once the narrative shifts its focus to the people of Israel, the major characters are now listed.
In Nehemiah 8, Ezra reestablishes regular worship of the Lord through his reading of the book of the law of Moses. [Read more about outside sources and sources of shame that inform the book that bears Ezra's name] Interestingly, Levites move among the people while the book is being read, in order that the people may better understand the text. Whether this is translation or interpretation, the author does not specify. However, it is clear that correct understanding of and therefore adherence to the Law of Moses is of the utmost importance, even for the laity. The Jewish faith is to be one based on the rules God establishes: an orthopraxic faith instead of an orthodox one (i.e. a faith based on proper practice, as Islam is, rather than proper belief, as Christianity is). The detail also helps to establish the active role of the Levites as intermediaries between the divine and mundane realms.
The return to old sources continues the next day, as the heads of the ancestral households join the priests, Levites, and Ezra to study the law. In this way, the festival of booths is rediscovered and reestablished.
Nehemiah 9 features the national confession of the Israelite religion, and emphasizes the holiness (meaning "separateness") of Israelite religion. This separation of Israel from the rest of the world is clear in certain practices in Judaism, such as kosher laws. Actions of separation serve to emphasize that the Jews are "a people apart."
This is further emphasized in Nehemiah 13, when it is found in the book of Moses that "no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God" (Nehemiah 13.1), based on Balaam's historic curse against the Israelites. In fact, the people interpret this prohibition to include all foreigners, further removing Israel from the other people of the land.
Nehemiah 9 also contains the history of the Israelites, as read by Ezra. Throughout, the dialectical tensions are apparent: this is the cyclical framework on which the Bible is written. The oration ends with a clear statement of the present situation:
Now therefore, our God—the great and mighty and awesome God, keeping covenant and steadfast love—do not treat lightly all the hardship that has come upon us, upon our kings, our officials, our priests, our prophets, our ancestors, and all your people, since the time of the kings of Assyria until today. You have been just in all that has come upon us, for you have dealt faithfully and we have acted wickedly; our kings, our officials, our priests, and our ancestors have not kept your law or heeded the commandments and the warnings that you gave them. Even in their own kingdom, and in the great goodness you bestowed on them, and in the large and rich land that you set before them, they did not serve you and did not turn from their wicked works. Here we are, slaves to this day—slaves in the land that you gave to our ancestors to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts. Its rich yield goes to the kings whom you have set over us because of our sins; they have power also over our bodies and over our livestock at their pleasure, and we are in great distress.
Nehemiah 9.32-37
Even in their present condition, the Israelites are still in debt to God for the actions of their ancestors. God's steadfast love has always been accessible, but it has been rejected time and time again. This is the beauty of the bible, and comprises the biblical narrative itself. The constant back-and-forth between God and his people is based on humankind's disposition to disobey God, and God's promise of steadfast love. It is a story we can even read into today, if we wish. [Well, maybe not today. It's getting late.]
A new covenant is signed in Nehemiah 10, reaffirming the law of Moses, as well as putting a contemporary spin on some of the laws in order to suit the time period. The law evidently must change over time as society and the Israelites' situation evolves.
Even by the end of the chapter, the dialectical tensions express themselves in full force as the people of Jerusalem revert to abhorrent practices. The once-reviled governor Tobiah has been given a room in the house of God, and the Levites have not received their just portions.
As a final measure of reform and expression of separateness, Nehemiah reemphasizes the Sabbath and forbids mixed marriage. The Israelites have been separated from outsiders, and must remain separate.
The chapter ends with a fitting request from Nehemiah, who has done so much as governor to reestablish a just Israelite society:
This post is part of a two-post series. The second portion will be posted Thursday, March 24 under the title, "Nehemiah II: Internal Threats in the Quest for a Jewish Identity."
The tales of Ezra and Nehemiah mark the beginning of the postexilic period, in which the Israelites attempt to reestablish themselves in Judah under the auspices of King Cyrus of Persia. After dispersal, the Israelites (or Jews, as they are referred to by outsiders) rally around two major building projects: the temple and the wall. The story of the rebuilding of the Temple is told in Ezra. The rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem is told in Nehemiah.
The Jews were again dispersed in 70 C.E., this time by the Romans. Had it not been for events well over half-a-century ago, this story of redemption in Ezra and Nehemiah could have been timeless, without parallel in the modern world. But it's a story that played itself out again not so long ago, with the creation of the modern state of Israel in 1948. That nation likewise faced and faces the hostility of its neighbors.
One of the formulas of biblical literature is the repetition of events as a way of showing that the undercurrents of our lives are timeless. Apostasy and repentance, destruction and renewal are constant cycles. Even after the codification of the bible, the themes within the tale continue to repeat themselves. This will be partially apparent in today's post, but really come to light Thursday. Today we will focus on the struggles of reestablishing the center of Israelite worship: the house of God or temple.
The story up to this point:
Israel and Jerusalem were ruled for years by kings, some wicked and some good. The wicked ones would destroy the work of the good ones through their apostasy, and the good ones would reconstruct the great society that was destroyed by the wicked kings. First the northern kingdom of Israel is taken, then the southern kingdom of Judah. The residents of Judah are overtaken by the Chaldeans and taken to Babylon. They are granted liberty by King Cyrus of Persia some 50 years later (historically; the bible indicates 70 as a more perfect symbolic number). And so the difficult task of rebuilding society may begin.
This is not to say that previous books do not point toward a Jewish/Israelite identity. They do. I chose the book of Nehemiah to feature this point because there is so much condensed evidence to support the idea, coming at a time when Jewish community was of supreme importance as it re-forms itself in the postexilic period.
Setting the Stage
The book of Nehemiah opens with news of the destruction and shame of Jerusalem:
The survivors there in the province who escaped captivity are in great trouble and shame; the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been destroyed by fire.
(Nehemiah 1.3)
This is followed by the first of many prayers to appear in the book of Nehemiah. Appearing in Nehemiah 1.5-11, the prayer first invokes the covenant and God's steadfast love that accompanies it. This is followed by an acknowledgement of sin, and a reminder of God's covenant with Moses:
"If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples; but if you return to me and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts are under the farthest skies, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place at which I have chosen to establish my name."
(Nehemiah 1.8-9)
The prayer closes with an entreaty that God hear and act on the prayer.
This prayer effectively explains the back story of this narrative and explicates the themes that will appear throughout: the dialectical tension between God and humankind, God's everlasting love, and pity on marginalized groups.
Politics
Nehemiah is cup bearer to King Artaxerxes - which is actually an important office with a degree of political clout in the Persian court. He therefore stands to actually have some impact in his words to the king. In fact, Artaxerxes gives Nehemiah permission to rebuild the city of his ancestors, and provides the him with letters granting safe passage and access to timber for the rebuilding of the city. Nehemiah and the other exiles are accompanied to Jerusalem by officers from the army and cavalry.
Nehemiah 5.14-19 marks a peculiar section in which Nehemiah records the food and drink served at his table, with a strong emphasis that this is all provided without taking advantage of the king's assistance - an allowance of food that Artaxerxes provides to governors. Nehemiah remains as independent from the king as possible while still maintaining good political ties that will benefit Israel. In any case, Nehemiah rejects the allowance in favor of food produced by his own people. This section ends in one of his many prayers, this one a bit self-serving, as though the man is trying to memorialize himself for humans as well as God:
Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.
(Nehemiah 5.19)
Threats
Local governors voice their opposition to the rebuilding from the very beginning. Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite threaten great grief for the Israelites. These characters will show up to threaten the well-being of the Israelites, after which Nehemiah consistently petitions God for justice or protection. Examples:
Nehemiah 4.4-5
A prayer to God asking for retribution for the insults the Israelites suffer.
Nehemiah 4.9
Mention of a prayer for protection. This is supplemented by a guard protecting Jerusalem. Nehemiah places troops around the wall to defend against impending attack, and construction continues with an air of readiness for battle. The people are told:
“The work is great and widely spread out, and we are separated far from one another on the wall. Rally to us wherever you hear the sound of the trumpet. Our God will fight for us.”
(Nehemiah 4.19-20)
This statement of faith in God confirms the historic precedent that God will indeed fight on behalf of Israel.
Nehemiah 6.9
A short prayer, asking God to "strengthen my hands" as Nehemiah continues construction of the wall in the face of threats from Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshom the Arab. Nehemiah 6.14
A petition to God for retribution on Tobiah, Sanballat, and the conspiring false prophets, for their roles in an assassination plot against Nehemiah.
The Wall
Nehemiah guides the people in the construction of the wall around Jerusalem, which serves to protect Israel from external threats. The rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem is a collaborative effort between the Israelites. Nehemiah 3 is comprised of a survey of all those who participated, and how and where they helped out.
When the wall is completed, it is said that,
All the nations around us were afraid and fell greatly in their own esteem; for they perceived that this work had been accomplished with the help of our God.
(Nehemiah 6.16)
After the completion of the wall, Jerusalem no longer needs to fear the external threat so greatly. It now has God and a physical barrier for protection. However, interior life must be reformed as well if the Jews are to maintain their protected status under God...
Today's post takes another look at the book of Ezra, focusing on the shame that Ezra feels for the Israelites as they try to shed the past in order to establish a new future.
Ezra's Shame
Ezra is a particularly devout priest and scribe who is charged by King Artaxerxes with reestablishing the Israelites in Jerusalem. As a devout man, he is very conscious of the sins of Israel. He lives in a time when Israel stands able to reestablish itself as a legitimate nation as well as the legitimate people of God. However, there is a lot of work to do in order to reestablish both temple worship and a proper two-way dialog with God.
Ezra leaves Babylonia with a group of Israelites and plenty of provisions to reestablish the temple, and stops along the river Ahava, sending back for Levites to accompany the party to Jerusalem. There Ezra commands a fast in order to ask for God's protection:
Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might deny ourselves before our God, to seek from him a safe journey for ourselves, our children, and all our possessions. For I was ashamed to ask the king for a band of soldiers and cavalry to protect us against the enemy on our way, since we had told the king that the hand of our God is gracious to all who seek him, but his power and his wrath are against all who forsake him. So we fasted and petitioned our God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.
(Ezra 8.21-23)
The relationship between God and humanity has been put under immense strain, and Ezra's wording makes apparent and incomplete faith in the Lord on the part of the Israelites. Generally, God offers protection in matters without people having to ask for it. Instances of theophany (i.e. divine revelation) have God grant protection to a character. In the days after the exile, however, God's relationship with his people is strained. Ezra must actively ask for protection.
Ezra also reveals the historical mindset, which seems to be emerging from less-than-complete devotion to the Lord. Before the Babylonian exile, a leader would not be "ashamed" of asking a band of foreign soldiers for protection because such soldiers would be considered superfluous, even insulting to God. Before the Babylonian exile, this group would be rejected outright in favor of God's protection. Ezra, however, at least considers the two options, indicating an incomplete trust in God. His decision is a matter of pride, as though Ezra has to prove that his God is capable of destroying the enemy. For someone who has lived in captivity without centralized worship, this view is not surprising. The community and leadership that instilled faith in God has disappeared. Now faith must be found again.
There is a bit of housekeeping to do in order to resubmit to God. During their time in Babylon, and probably even before this, a number of men took foreign wives. This is a forbidden practice known as exogamy (meaning marriage outside of a clan or group). The bible maintains that exogamy is proven path to the greatest sin: apostasy (meaning the abandonment of God). Maintaining strict worship of God only is the first commandment listed in the Decalogue (Ten Commandments; see Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5). The texbook case of exogamy leading to apostasy occurs in the story of Solomon's apostasy, in which Solomon's lust for foreign women leads to the worship of foreign gods, which breaks the covenant between God and David and leads to the divided monarchy, which eventually devolves into the whole mess the descendants of Israel find themselves in from the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar until Ezra's time.
Shame is the acutest emotion Ezra feels in the book that bears his name, with two explicit descriptions of the emotion and events that lead to it. The first is described above. The second comes upon learning of the people of Israel's exogamy. Ezra reacts to the information with traditional displays of mourning: tearing his garment and pulling out his hair. Then he prays to the Lord with words that convey his deep sense of shame:
"Oh my God, I am too ashamed and embarrassed to lift my face to you, my God, for our iniquities have risen higher than our heads, and our guilt has mounted up to the heavens."
(Ezra 9.6)
Ezra continues to express his shame on behalf of the people, recounting their iniquities. At least some of this shame is a result of God's kindness. Ezra notes that Israel could be worse off, were God less devoted to his people. Perhaps he is fearful that further sin will push God "over the edge" as it were:
"After all that has come upon us for our evil deeds and for our great guilt, seeing that you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserved and have given us such a remnant as this, shall we break your commandments again and intermarry with the peoples who practice these abominations? Would you not be angry with us until you destroy us without remnant or survivor? O Lord, God of Israel, you are just, but we have escaped as a remnant, as is now the case. Here we are before you in our guilt, though no one can face you because of this."
(Ezra 9.13-15)
The group takes action. The men who return to Jerusalem with foreign wives are ultimately swayed to send them away (and with them, possibly, the children). But it is important to note that the author of Ezra does not have God act directly. Throughout all of the shame and alienation, Ezra is not a man who receives the word of God. His conversation seems to be one-way.
A Remote God
The author of Ezra's tone fits in perfectly with the historical reality of the time. Ezra is always supplicating God, never knowing if God appreciates the actions. Ezra does credit God with causing king Artaxerxes to let God's people return to Jerusalem. However, in the rest of the book action towards God is never reciprocated. God is praised but does not take direct action. God is remote. There is a wall between God and Israel - of Israel's own construction - that must be breached. Israel must work hard in order to reestablish a relationship with God, so that God will once again be an active player in Israelite life.
The final Chronicles post! After this it's onto Ezra and Nehemiah! If you haven't been following the Chronicles blogs, you might be interested in checking out previous posts, linked below.
As today's post is rather long and deals with a diverse range of topics, I have divided it into sections:
Truth in Chronicles Bubble Kings Kings Uzziah and Jotham Ahaz the Wicked King Hezekiah the Faithful King Intermediary Kings The Mostly Faithful King Josiah The Final Kings of Chronicles The Fall of Jerusalem and Aftermath
Truth in Chronicles
Truth in the Bible can be a tricky thing to define. It can be said that there are different levels or types of truth in biblical literature. Truth does not always necessarily mean fact. In the bible, it takes on a more literary form than what we know today, something like a "universal truth." Below are a few terms that are useful in describing Biblical "truth."
Historicized Fiction Functions like the genre of storytelling we know today as historical fiction. Fictional events occur and fictional characters interact against the backdrop of a historical time period. The tale of Abraham serves as one example. Besides the biblical text (and noncanonical biblical texts), there is no evidence that Abraham was a historical person; he is very likely a fictional person - an archetype of a righteous man, the patriarch of a people. The intention of the biblical author is to tell a certain story. If we run with this idea, Abraham must be a fictional character set in historical times.
Fictionalized History presents historically verifiable figures whose actions, circumstances, possessions, etc. may have been fictionalized in order to make a point. In fact, a fair amount of the information found in the Chronicler's description of the kings of Judah is attested to by nonbiblical works. It is fairly certain, however, that some of these historical events have been exaggerated or otherwise fictionalized, often in an attempt to prove God's greatness.
Throughout the Book of Kings and Chronicles, the authors emphasize God's ability to shape history, based on the actions of the kings and people of Judah. When God's people is faithful, kings literally clean up the Temple and figuratively clean up worship practices. They win their battles with God's assistance. When God's people is unfaithful, and wicked kings defile the Temple with devotion to idols, the king and people alike are punished with invasions from foreign lands.
The above example is in fact a form of fictionalized history. This is not to say that God is ficitonal. Rather, the biblical author ascribes action to a character/force beyond human comprehension, The captivity in Babylon is a historical reality. The biblical author fictionalizes the reality by attributing it to some outside influence that cannot be proven by physical means.
The biblical author would probably not understand or care for the difference between historicized fiction and fictionalized history. For him, the stories would have simply been true. They are true by virtue of the author's meaning of truth, one that differs from our modern definition of scientific, factual truth.
The truth of the bible is true in the same way as the stories in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried. What matters not is the historical reality, but the universal message behind the story.
Dialectical Tensions overlap with Fictionalized History. The constant differential between God's will and human action: These are the pressures that give shape and structure to the biblical narrative.
Bubble Kings
For anyone that follows the economy, or are really sore about it, it might help to take a look at the cycle of kings presented in the Books of Kings and Chronicles in terms of bubbles (and while you're at it, read anything and everything by Matt Taibbi). Market bubbles, dialectical tension bubbles...Whatever. The point is that there is imbalance until the bubble pops.
Strict regulation [adherence to God's word] means things go pretty well, though there isn't much room to - you know - stretch out and test the limits. As regulations are chiseled away [i.e. kings fall from God's will] by human nature manifested by greed [and apostasy], things go well for a while, or at least people think they do. In reality, a bubble is forming, a pressure differential that arises from what is promised and what in reality exists [In the case of the economic crisis, money. In the case of the bible, adherence to God's word]. Just as in nature, the bubble cannot sustain itself, and it bursts. The bank goes under. Judah is invaded.
Here's where the metaphor gets really sick and twisted. For some reason these bubbles continue. For some reason they are allowed to happen. In the Bible, God allows for a certain degree of human freedom before he himself teaches his own people a lesson. Old generations are replaced, and the cycle generally finds a good king to lead again. In case of the financial crisis, the U.S. government allows for a certain degree of freedom before the whole thing comes crashing down on its own accord. And then it bails out the people who perpetrated the crime.
Allow me to take my metaphor too far: the state of safety is adherence to God. [And you can draw your own conclusions about the parallel metaphor.]
But I progress.
Kings Uzziah and Jotham
Uzziah
As long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.
(2 Chronicles 26.5)
So the Chronicler says of King Uzziah. He is supported by God and therefore victorious in war. he build cities, but like Rehoboam before him, he grows proud once he becomes strong, ultimately to his own destruction. He attempts to offer incense to the Lord without the priests, and for this he suffers leprosy. But the kingdom of Uzziah is never directly punished for the king's pride.
Jotham
Jotham likewise is a righteous king - more righteous even than his father. He builds cities and succeeds in war.
Ahaz the Wicked King
Ahaz is so wicked - walking in the ways of the kings of Israel (whom the Chronicler believes to be unified against the Lord), casting idols, having his sons pass through fire - that the apostasy bubble bursts and Judah collapses beneath him under attacks by Aram, then Israel, then the Edomites. These attacks are all divinely sanctioned - and deadly. The attack by Israel results in the death of 120,000 valiant warriors of Judah.
Hezekiah the Faithful King
Hezekiah brings goodness, back to Judah, and so the dialectical tensions pull Judah back to God. Hezekiah delivers Judah from its evil ways and initiates sweeping reforms to clean up Judah literally and figuratively. Such action is only possible by a good leader; wicked leaders are not associated with building and cleaning projects. Under him the Temple is cleansed, pagan shrines are destroyed, worship of God is restored, and the roles of priests and Levites are reestablished.
All this is celebrated with a great passover that lasts seven days and includes the sacrifice of over 2,000 bulls and 17,000 sheep. Writes the Chronicler:
There was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon son of King David of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.
(2 Chronicles 30.26)
And, furthermore, we find a statement affirming the reward/punishment cycle of dialectical tensions:
And every work that he undertook in the service of the house of God, and in accordance with the law and the commandments, to seek his God, he did with all his heart; and he prospered.
(2 Chronicles 31.21)
The true test of piety comes when King Sennacherib of Assyria invades Judah. Previously this is where kings (e.g. King Rehoboam) have turned their backs on God and put their faith in human works instead. But Hezekiah remains pious. The Lord in turns protects Judah from the invasion.
The king’s pride results in only one instance of wrath. In a strange scene, Hezekiah becomes sick to the point of death, prays to the Lord, and refuses to accept the Lord’s sign. In the bible’s laconic style, little information about the sign or the illness is given. All we know is that Hezekiah refuses the Lord’s sign out of pride. However, he humbles himself, and all of Jerusalem with him, and the wrath of the Lord does not fall upon Judah.
Intermediary Kings
Manasseh is a wicked king of Judah, though he repents in his latter days. After he misleads Judah and pays no heed to the Lord, he is taken away by the King of Assyria in manacles and fetters. But, as per the flexible dialectical tensions, he is restored to his kingship at Jerusalem when he prays and repents:
Then Manasseh knew that the Lord was indeed God.
(2 Chronicles 33.13)
Unfortunately, the people of Judah still sacrifice at the high places to the Lord. Worship is conducted in an improper place...
The Mostly Faithful King Josiah
King Josiah finds the correct outlet for worship of the Lord. His reign begins at the tender age of eight, and despite this he is one of the greatest kings. Josiah demolishes all signifiers of apostasy and centers worship again in Jerusalem. He even purges the house of the Lord, during which time the book of the law of Moses is discovered.
The message is dire, as delivered by the prophet Huldah. However, Josiah experiences a quasi-Davidic moment as he discovers that he personally will not be punished for the sins of Israel:
Thus says the Lord: I will indeed bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the curses that are written in the book that was read before the king of Judah. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, so that they have provoked me to anger with all the works of their hands, my wrath will be poured out on this place and will not be quenched. But as to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, thus shall you say to him: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself before God when you heard his words against this place and its inhabitants, and you have humbled yourself before me, and have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, says the Lord. I will gather you to your ancestors and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace; your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring on this place and its inhabitants.
(2 Chronicles 34.2-28)
Afterward, adherence to the covenant of the Lord is resumed under King Josiah:
All his days they did not turn away from following the Lord the god of their ancestors
(2 Chronicles 34.33)
Josiah, in fact, celebrates a passover even greater than that of King Hezekiah:
No passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of the prophet Samuel; none of the kings of Israel had kept such a passover as was kept by Josiah, by the priests and the Levites, by all Judah and Israel who were present, and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
(2 Chronicles 35.18)
But even the righteous Josiah is undone with a test to his devotion to the Lord. King Josiah enters battle with Pharaoh Neco of Egypt, who warns him, through the words of the Lord:
“What have I to do with you, king of Judah? I am not coming against you today, but against the house with which I am at war; and God has commanded me to hurry. Cease opposing God, who is with me, so that he will not destroy you.”
(2 Chronicles 35.21)
Josiah is ultimately killed by the Egyptian army. But even in his prideful death, he is mourned by his followers.
The Final Kings of Chronicles
2 Chronicles ends with a string of kings:
Jehoahaz - About whom we learn nothing of greatness or evil. He is deposed by the Egyptian king, and his brother Eliakim is made king; his name is changed to Jehoiakim.
Jehoiakim - Who is evil, and who is carried off to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar.
Jehoiachin - Who is evil. He is deposed by Nebuchadnezzar and taken to Babylon.
Zedekiah - Who is evil. He, the people, and the priests are all unfaithful, and pollute the house of the Lord. He is the last King of Judah.
The Fall of Jerusalem and Aftermath
Ultimately, God decides to cleanse the land of ungrateful people. The Lord raises the king of the Chaldeans against God's people, and there is no mercy in the slaughter of men and women of Judah and destruction of Jerusalem. Survivors are deported to Babylon. The land gets a rest from God's people for a while:
All the days that it lay desolate it kept sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.
(2 Chronicles 36.21)
Chronicles ends with a glimmer of hope, however, as King Cyrus of Persia allows the exiles to return to Judah and rebuild the temple. In fact, this is the edict of God, according to Cyrus (according to the Chronicler!):
The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him! Let him go up.
(2 Chronicles 36.23)
So ends Chronicles. And so begins a new chapter in the history of God's chosen people.
Last week's post covered 2 Chronicles' account of first three kings of Judah. Today we extend our analysis up to the reign of Hezekiah. As with the last post, this entry will take a look at the dialectical tensions within the Chronicler's narrative and how the Chronicler uses those tensions to emphasize the importance of proper obedience to God.
Jehoshaphat
Asa's son Jehoshaphat succeeds him to the throne and begins a series of building and fortification initiatives, as well as the removal of the non-Israelite sacred poles and high places, both signs of a good king. Indeed, the Chronicler writes:
The Lord was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the earlier ways of his father; he did not seek the Baals, but sought the God of his father and walked in his commandments, and not according to the ways of Israel. Therefore the Lord established the kingdom in his hand.
(2 Chronicles 17.3-5)
A few important things to take away from this:
The Lord "is with" and rewards those that follow in God's ways and reject outside deities.
Kings are compared to their fathers, who might be good or wicked.
Kings are compared to Israel, a people that consistently stands contrary to God's will by not following the line of David.
Kings have a habit of following the Lord for a time, but ultimately losing their way, as Jehoshaphat's father did.
Jehoshaphat is so reverent as to send officials, Levites, and priests throughout Judah to teach from the "book of the law." He is loved by those he rules over, and feared by those around his territory, having a great army and great cities. But his success does not last.
In a story lifted nearly verbatim from 1 Kings 22, Jehoshaphat makes a marriage alliance with King Ahab of Israel, who tries to convince Jehoshaphat to attack Ramoth-gilead. All the prophets of King Ahab that are present say it's a good idea, but Jehoshaphat presses to see if there are any others. Ahab sends for Micaiah, who prophecies doom, saying the Lord has contracted a spirit to cause all the other prophets to lie. For this Micaiah is imprisoned.
Micaiah's dissenting voice turns out to be accurate, and Ahab is killed in battle while Jehoshaphat is saved by God. But the Chronicler has Jehoshaphat punished for his support of Ahab: Jehu son of Hanani prophecies that the wrath of the Lord is upon Jehoshaphat. Nevertheless, the king did some good in his life, which is not forgotten. This portion does not appear in the Kings narrative, and seems to show that the Chronicler is very particular about following in the ways of the Lord. He has to acknowledge the king's wrongdoing, even if the king is not punished for it.
Indeed, Jehoshaphat goes on to appoint righteous judges in the land. He defeats the Moabites and Ammonites after praying to the Lord and trusting in God to intercede on behalf of Judah. The Lord as divine warrior is feared by all the kingdoms.
The last we are told of Jehoshaphat's life is that he joins the wicked King Ahaziah of Israel in shipbuilding for vessels bound for Tarshish. Jehoshaphat is not directly punished for this, though the ships are all wrecked.
Overall, Jehoshaphat has a very righteous reign. The Chronicler does include a line from Kings (2 Chronicles 20.33; 1 Kings 22.43) that the ruler did not in fact destroy all the high places, but this contradicts with what the Chronicler previously wrote (2 Chronicles 17.6) and seems to represent a textual error.
Jehoram
Jehoram is the first King of Judah that the Chronicler explicitly renders entirely unfavorable.
This character undoes the work of his father (biologically) by killing his brothers as well as some officials, and (physically) by installing new high places, which lead the people of Judah into unfaithfulness. He also marries the daughter of the wicked King Ahab of Israel. Jehoram is labeled as walking in the ways of the kings of Israel, a negative reference to his apostasy. "Out with the old and in with the new" is a common theme throughout the succession of kings, which either brings Judah into apostasy or saves it from apostasy.
And yet, we are told, the Lord is still champion of Judah, even though the king and his people are not walking in the ways of the Lord:
Yet the Lord would not destroy the house of David because of the covenant that he had made with David, and since he had promised to give a lamp to him and to his descendants forever.
(2 Chronicles 21.7)
But God's patience with Jehoram eventually reaches a turning point. Jehoram is directly punished with invasions by the Philistines and Arabs, direct repercussions for the king's evil ways. All the possessions of the house and all of Jehoram's wives and sons are taken, with the exception of Jehoahaz, the king's youngest son. After this Jehoram falls ill with an incurable disease of the bowels. He dies in great agony and "departed with no one's regret." (2 Chronicles 21.20) His death is not commemorated, and he is buried in Jerusalem, though in the ultimate sleight it is not in the tombs of the kings.
Ahaziah
The opening of Ahaziah's description informs us that a symmetrical sort of divine justice is exacted upon Jehoram before his death. The Arab invaders killed all of Jehoram's sons except for Ahaziah. This seems to be divine retribution for Jehoram's murder of his brothers. That is, Jehoram's murder of his father's sons ensures that his progeny will be killed as well - all except for one, representing symmetrical outcomes.
Ahaziah is as wicked as his father (and Ahab) and counseled by his mother. "But," the Chronicler reveals, "it was ordained by God that the downfall of Ahaziah should come about through his going to visit Joram. (2 Chronicles 22.7) This verse does not appear in Kings; the Chronicler instead inserts it to articulate his idea of divine retribution.
The righteous Jehu, who has been busy cleansing the house of Ahab, turns his attention to Azariah, killing his officials and nephews, as well as Ahaziah himself. This leaves a power vacuum, which is filled by none other than Ahaziah's mother.
Athaliah
In a rage over her dead son, Athaliah sets out to destroy the entire royal family (evil is clearly a familial trait; her mother was Jezebel). Only one son of Ahaziah survives: Joash is saved by his sister Jehoshabeath. For seven years he hides out in the house of God, until the priest Jehoiada (who is Jehoshabeath's husband) pushes to make Joash king under the protection of priests and Levites.
Joash
Joash is proclaimed king, and at the behest of Jehoiada the captains of Judah kill Athaliah. Thus begins a new cycle of benevolence. But as we will see, Joash is only faithful to God when Johoiada is alive.
Joash is a "popular" king that makes a covenant between himself and the people that they should be the Lord's people. Thus influenced, the people destroy the altar of Baal and the priest there. Jehoiada, for his part, reorganizes the staff of the house of the Lord. In appreciation of his efforts, all the people of Israel, including military and political leaders, march him into the king's house and set him on the throne. Indeed, people actually rejoice at being taxed in order to fix the house of the Lord. And the house is finally restored to its proper condition.
But we know that Joash is only faithful to the Lord because he is so influennced by Jehoiada. In a departure from the normal introductory regnal formula, it is written:
Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of the priest Jehoiada.
(2 Chronicles 24.2)
Other kings do what is right or wrong on their own account, but Joash is dependent on the priest that brought him into power. Once Jehoiada dies, the king of Judah abandons the Lord, along with the rest of Israel. God sends prophets to turn the people, but they do not listen. Zechariah son of Jehoiada is even stoned for speaking the truth against Joash.
For his apostasy, Joash is defeated by the Army of Aram. When the army withdraws, Joash's servants remember the blood of Zechariah, and murder Joash on his bed. Joash is buried in Jerusalem, though separate from the other kings. Though King Joash was apparently faithful during Jehoiada's lifetime, it seems that it was truly the priest who was responsible for Judah's peace and prosperity.
Amaziah
Amaziah takes a semi-pious approach to "cleansing" after becoming king. He kills the servants who murdered his (ultimately not pious) father, though does not punish their children, in deference to Mosaic Law. (Deuteronomy 24.16) For this it is said:
He did what was right in the sight of the Lord, yet not with a true heart.
(2 Chronicles 25.2)
Amaziah's righteousness is apparent in his attack on the Edomites. He initially plans to attack with his men, alongside 100,000 Israelite warrior hired for 100 talents of silver. But a man of God advises the king to leave the Israelites out of battle, for the Lord is not with Israel. Amaziah obeys, but after the slaughter of the Amonites resorts to worship of the gods of Seir. For this he is punished through defeat at the hands of the Israelites, an act the Chronicler tells us is divinely ordained.
So the Chronicler continues to bring to light dialectical tensions, and we continue to discover them.
Good night. Stay tuned for an account of the final kings of Judah next week - their pride, their sins, and their good works alike!
