Saturday, March 26, 2022

The Jerome Biblical Commentary (2022) on Deuteronomy 6:4 and 2 Kings 3

  

YHWH Alone (6:4-25)

 

YHWH is the most powerful—not the only—member of the divine assembly in the world of the Bible (4:1-40). Originally, the Hebrews venerate both El, who created the cosmos and is the divine patron of their ancestors, and YHWH, who delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Eventually, they merge these theologies to honor YHWH as their only divine patron.

 

Jews use the invocation: You shall love the LORD, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength (6:5) as a profession of faith. Christians preserve it as a saying of Jesus: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (Matt 22:37). Muslims use ‘Allah is greater than [anything] (Arabic: ‘Allahu Akbar)—although not in the Qur’an—as a call to worship.

 

The Bible uses emotional language to describe relationships between unmarried women and men (Song 8:1-4), between fathers and mothers (Gen 24:67) and between fathers and their secondary wives (Exod 21:7-11). Here, however, to love is better understood as to fulfil covenant responsibilities to YHWH. (Don C. Benjamin, “Deuteronomy,” in The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century, ed. John J. Collins, Gina Hens-Piazza, Barbara Reid, and Donald Senior [3d ed.; London: T&T Clark, 2022], 343, emphasis in original)

 

Jehoram’s Battle against Moab

 

[2] Kings 3 shifts the attention of the reader to Moab. The biblical narrative was last set in Moab when David south refuge for his parents with the king of Moab as he returned to Judah after his time as a guerrilla with the Philistines. Now we see Moab in its more traditional role as an enemy of Israel (Num 22:3; Josh 24:9; Judg 3:30). Strong historical evidence exists for a dispute between Moab and Israel during this period as seen from the Moabite perspective on the Mesha Stele currently housed at the Louvre in paris. The Mesha Stele describes Mesha, the king of Moab, fighting a war against Omri (1 Kgs 16:25), king of Israel, to recapture cities conquered by Omri.

 

The OT sets conflict with Mesha in a later period. Omri is generally believed to have reigned around 880, whereas his grandson Jehoram reigned around 850. This conflict also involves allies of Israel, Judah, and Edom, uniting to fight Moab. Aram comes up at the very end of the chapter in some texts. More importantly, the biblical narrator places this war within the life of Elisha, he emerges as the hero of the story, and this legend serves to demonstrate the powerful role certain prophets play in validating and destroy kingdoms, which we have already seen in Elijah’s dethroning of Ahab and both Nathan’s validation of David (2 Sam 12:7) and Ahijah’s validation of Jeroboam I (1 Kgs 11:31).

 

We find a number of both familiar and disconcerting elements within this chapter. Water continues to be an important element within the story of Elisha as it was within the story of Elijah. Elijah demonstrates his power over water in 1 Kings 18 in his competition with the prophets of Baal and Asherah. The lack of water leads to a crisis for the three kings, which Elisha successfully resolves (3;14-16, 20). Just as Elijah offered a successful grain offering in 1 Kings 18:36, Elisha is responsible for a successful grain offering here in 2 Kings 3:20. Both offerings resolve water crises. This nature miracle serves not only to nourish the armies of the three kings, but it foils the armies of the three kings, but it foils the army of the Moabites who mistake the water for blood and cavalierly go on the offensive.

 

We have seen prophets depicted in a number of ways in the OT, but the depiction of Elisha here has some unusual elements. Elisha shares some of the ecstatic elements that we see with the prophets who opposed Micaiah ben-Imlah in 1 Kings 22. Music seems to help and soothe Elijah (3:15) in a manner not unlike Saul in his interactions with a young David (1 Sam 16:16). Although there is no sign of an evil spirit afflicting Elisha here, a number of ominous elements pervade this chapter and strike discordant notes.

 

The end of the 2 Kings 3 reveals very troubling elements. The specter of child sacrifice with Jephthah in Judges 11. The only place in the ancient Mediterranean that we have definitive evidence for it is among the possibly Phoenician/Canaanite influenced peoples of Carthage. Here the Moabite king successfully employs child sacrifice to summon the power of the gods. We clearly see Israel as monolatrous rather than monotheistic here, worshipping Yahweh but also believing in the power of other gods. This unsettling denouement to 2 Kings 3 highlights the many elements of the OT that are foreign to a contemporary audience. (Garrett Galvin, “2 Kings,” in ibid., 480, emphasis added)

 

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