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)
