Perek Yomi - II Kings 1-12 for May 4, 2023

Map of the Kingdoms of the Levant (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kingdoms_of_the_Levant_Map_830.png on 5/3/2023)

General notes:

• In preparation, I used
  • Robert Alter's Ancient Israel The Former Prophets: Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings A Translation and Commentary (2011)
    • I have quoted him without credit
  • Louis Ginzberg's The Legends of the Jews Volume IV: Bible Times and Characters from Joshua to Esther (JPS, 1913) Chapters VI - IX
  • Encyclopaedia Judaica Volume 9 (1972) articles about kings beginning with J-Jer
  • Sepharia.org for the English and Hebrew quotes and definitions of Hebrew words
• What seems to be important to the author
  • I read somewhere in an introduction to a Jewish translation of the Bible, that the Bible is the love song between God and the Jewish people
    • therefore a Biblical history is going to emphasis our relationship with God, not economics, political alliances, social hierarchy and structure, everyday life, arts and science, fashion, or history
      • the book of Kings seems to be mostly about kings in their relationship to prophets
  • on the other hand, Chronicles recounts a similar history with a lot more detail
  • a king is wicked if he worships other gods
    • or if allows worship at the sites Jeroboam set up at Dan and Bethel
  • stories about prophets/men of God, namely Elijah and his successor, Elisha, are featured
  • battles, especially if God is somehow involved, and sometimes alliances are important
  • the death of the king and how he died matter
• What is of interest to me
  • I like Midrash and I like finding connections between things.
    • Because Sefaria.com makes it so easy, and because I like reading texts, there are a lot of quotes from other parts of the Tanach and other writings
  • If Kings can get away with saying that if you want to know anything else about a king you should consult some other book, I can concentrate on what interests me and not talk a lot about historical background and archeological findings
• Parts of II Kings 1-12 are Haftarot connected to Torah readings. This means they are read in public once a year and so may be more significant and certainly more memorable. (Or they were picked because they relate to the Torah portion.):
  • II Kings 4.1-37 (or 23) = Gen. 18.1-22.24 = Vayera (Sarah is told she will give birth)
    • The obvious connection is a promise that a woman (the Shunammite woman/Sarah) will have a son next season even though her husband is old. But in both cases the son very nearly dies.
  • II Kings 4.42-5.19 = Lev. 12.1-13.59 = Tazria (leprosy)
    • Naaman is cured of leprosy and converts
    • but the haftarah also starts with the miracle of a small amount of food feeding many
  • II Kings 7.3-20 = Lev. 14.1-15.33 = Metzora (leprosy)
    • Four lepers tell the Israelites that the Aramean army has fled
  • Shabbat Shekalim: II Kings 12.1-17 (or 11.17-12.17) = Ex. 30.11-16 from Ki Tissa =
    • Money brought to the temple for its upkeep connects to an additional reading from Ki Tissa about all men over 20 giving a half shekel for the service of the tent of meeting
    • Shabbat Shekalim is one of four named Shabbats before Passover
• Elijah and Elisha stories, even if not related to royal history (In fact, frequently the reigning king is not mentioned)
  • these stories are like folktales (not original with me)
    • incidents occurring three times
    • miraculous (magical) objects
  • lots of Midrash about them
    • Elisha did twice as many miraculous things as Elijah but ...
  • Elijah becomes much more significant in Jewish tradition
    • his cup at the Seder; his chair at a Brit; so many Elijah stories; in Kabbalah; sung about during Havdalah at the end of Shabbat
• Basic structure of this sheet
  • Chapter number and header
  • rulers of Israel and Judah and their data and how they appeared in the eyes of the Lord
    • Note: The spelling of some kings' names varies in the text. I have used Alter's spelling.
    • Note: Some names seem to be popular. More than one king has the same name, sometimes living at the same time.
    • The names of parents and times of reigning are not always consistent
  • Summary
  • Comments
    • this frequently includes quotes from other Jewish texts that relate to words or themes in the chapter
      • I have highlighted relevant words or text in English and Hebrew
      • be warned, my knowledge of Hebrew comes from a few years of college-Hebrew courses from about 40 years ago
    • some comments are more detailed than others

Chapter 1: Ahaziah vs. Elijah

• King of Judah: Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat (his 2nd year)
• King of Israel: Ahaziah, son of Ahab and Jezebel, (and then his brother, Jehoram)

Summary: (verse 1) Moab rebels against Israel after Ahab dies. (Nothing in this chapter relates to this, but see Chapter 3.)

Ahaziah is based in Samaria. He dies without an heir and his brother becomes king.

The details of his interaction with Elijah as he is dying take up most of the chapter, perhaps because Elijah, and therefore God, features prominently in this.

Elijah is hairy and wears a leather belt.

If you want to know more, check out the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

Comments:

• We know from the end of I Kings that Ahaziah reigned for two years and worshiped Baal.
• Ahaziah falls through a lattice and sends messengers to see if he will live, not to a doctor, but to Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron. Elijah learns of this from an angel of the Lord and is miffed. He tells the messengers that the Lord says Ahaziah will die because he (Ahaziah) didn't seek out the God of Israel. Elijah sends the messengers back to Ahaziah. Ahaziah is surprised by their quick return and asks for a description of the man they talked to. When told that the man is hairy and has a leather belt, he knows it's Elijah. Ahaziah then sends fifty soldiers and their captain to bring Elijah to him; he does this three times. The first two times, Elijah zaps them; the third time the captain treats Elijah with respect and Elijah goes with him and tells Ahaziah in person what he has already said. Ahaziah dies.
• There seems to be only one mention of the appearance of Elijah. The word seir means hair or a garment made of hair. In Kings it seems to refer to Elijah's hair. But when Esau is born, he is described as having a hairy mantle, aderet seir. Aderet means a mantle or cloak of fine fur or a prophet's garment. This is interesting because Elijah's mantle is an aderet; see I Kings 19:13 and 19 (when he throws his cloak over Elisha to make him his attendant) and Chapter 2 here.
  • All the following quotes quotes are here because when I saw "hairy man" I thought of the skit with a sermon starting "And Esau was a hairy man ....". I thought it was by Jonathan Miller on Monty Python, but apparently it's from Alan Bennett in Beyond the Fringe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0qOD9rtOEE).

• Zechariah links Esau's hairy mantle with false prophets.

Rashi's explanation about false prophets pretending to be righteous seems to translate mantles as tallitim, a plural of tallit (which nowadays is a feminine noun).

• Elijah's leather belt is very special in the Midrash.

Chapter 2: Elijah and his successor, Elisha

• no kings are mentioned

Summary: Elijah goes up to heaven in a whirlwind in a chariot of fire with horses of fire. Elisha asks for and gets a double portion of Elijah's spirit.

Elisha decontaminates water to make a town livable, gets teased for being bald by some kids and curses them so that they are ripped apart by two she-bears who come out of forest.

Comments:

• The King James Version and Alter use the term "chariot of fire." Sefaria has "fiery chariot."
• Elijah and Elisha go from Gilgal to Bethel to Jericho to the Jordan River. Each time, Elijah tells Elisha to stay and Elisha replies that he will not.

• The journeys that Elijah takes with Elisha, leading to a dramatic encounter with the Almighty, reminds me of the repetition in the Akedah, where Abraham and Isaac have another dramatic encounter. Both stories have "... and the two of them walked on."

• Elijah's trying to turn Elisha away, reminds me of Naomi telling Ruth to go back. Ruth's response is echoed later in Chapter 3.

• At Bethel and Jericho, acolyte priests tell Elisha that the Lord is going to take his master away; Elisha says he knows and they should be quiet. They later unsuccessfully look for Elijah's body, even though Elisha tells them not to bother.
• Elijah and Elisha cross the Jordan, which parts like the Sea of Reeds when Elijah strikes the water with his rolled up mantle. After Elijah goes up to heaven, Elisha picks up Elijah's cloak and strikes the water with it.
• Elisha asks Elijah for a double portion of his spirit. He gets to do 16 miracles, while Elijah only does 8.

• Elisha, in contrast to hairy Elijah, is bald, and he gets teased about it; he gets angry! Alter says that the rabbis said that the story about Elisha cursing the youths never happened: "'neither bears nor forest' became idiomatic in Hebrew for a cock-and-bull story." [p. 739] But the texts I found seem to treat the bears and forest as miraculous, not fantastic.
  

• The Midrash says that the kids were in fact men who sold wholesome water when the town's water was bad and resented Elisha taking away their livelihood. And that they were evil men.
  

• But Elisha was was punished for losing his temper.

Chapter 3: Israel vs. Moab

• Jehoram, son of Ahab, is king of Israel for 12 years.
• Jehoram becomes king in the 11th year of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.
• Jehoram is wicked, but not as bad as his parents. He gets rid of their idol, but keeps the ones that Jeroboam made.

Summary: When Ahab died, Mesha, the king of Moab, stopped providing tribute and rebelled against Jehoram, the king of Israel. (See 1:1 above.) Jehoram invites King Jehoshaphat of Judah to fight with him against Moab. The king of Edom joins them. But they can't find any water. When Jehoshaphat asks if there is a prophet of the Lord around, one of Jehoram's servants mentions Elisha, who has no interest in helping Jehoram (he can go ask his parents' prophets!), but, for the sake of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, he helps the three kings bring destruction upon Moab---the towns, trees, water, fields, and presumably a lot of people. The king of Moab then sacrifices his firstborn son and the Israelites leave him and the land of Moab.

Comments:

• Notice the similarity between Jehoshaphat's response and what Ruth tells Naomi as they leave Moab. (Ruth is an ancestor of King David.)

• Usually destroying trees and fields is frowned up. An exception is made for Moab.

The Moabites are tricked by water looking like blood, just as loud noises make the Arameans in chapter 7 flee. Both are miracles.

Chapter 4: Elisha stories

• the king of Israel is not named

Summary: A widow, whose husband was an acolyte priest, asks for Elisha's help to pay her debts to redeem her two children. He tells her to pour the oil from her one remaining jar of oil into many containers and she is able to regain her children and live on the proceeds of selling the oil.

A Shunammite woman, realizing Elisha is a holy man, offers him food and a place to stay whenever he is in town. In gratitude, he tells her that she will have a child. A few years later, the child dies, but Elisha is able to bring him back to life.

Elisha goes back to Gilgal, where acolyte priests are sitting before him. There is famine. Elisha tells his lad to make a big stew from nearby plants. But the stew is deadly poisonous until Elisha throws flour into the pot.

The chapter ends with a miracle similar to the one that began it---a small amount of food feeding many: When a man from Baal-Shalishah brings Elisha, the man of God, 20 loaves of barley bread and fresh grain to feed 100 people, his attendant doubts that it will be enough food, but it is.

Comments:

• Not original with me, but the Chanukkah miracle of one day's worth of oil lasting eight days is similar to two of the miracles in this chapter. There are many folktales with a magician who can produce a never-ending supply of something. (Frequently a helper learns how to start the process, but not how to stop it and the magician has to rescue him and the community; e.g., "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and Tommie dePaola's original story, Strega Nona.)
• Twice, a small amount becomes abundant---for the widow at the beginning and for the men at the end of the chapter. Elijah does something similar in I Kings, but only once.

• Elisha asks Gehazi what he can do to thank the Shunammite woman. Why doesn't he talk to her directly. Is it possible that she speaks another language or dialect? Is one of them too modest or shy or intimidating? He offers to intercede on her behalf with the king or head of the army. (Implying that Elisha and the king get along!) Gehazi suggests that she might like a baby.

This sounds very familiar:

• Twice, Elisha brings someone back from the dead---the Shunammite woman's son and later Naaman, because leprosy is like death. Elijah did something similar for the woman that he helped with an ongoing supply flour and oil during a famine.

Twice Elisha gets rid of the poison in something---in the water near the town in chapter 2 and in the stew here.

Chapter 5: Elisha cures Naaman of leprosy

• the king of Israel is not named

Summary: Naaman, head of the Aramean army, is cured of leprosy and converts, but not before a lot of miscommunications. Gehazi gets greedy and is punished.

Comments:

• The Arameans sometimes attack the kingdom of Judah---Naaman's wife has an Israelite slave. But the slave thinks well enough of her situation that she suggests a way to help him. And while the king of Israel is worried that the request for a cure is a ploy to destroy him, Naaman is welcome.
• When Naaman learns that there is a prophet who can cure his leprosy, he tells his king, who writes a letter to the Israelite king asking for his help. and thereby creates unnecessary unease. All the misunderstandings would be farcical if the king's fears were not reasonable. It also might have helped if Naaman had been told the name of the prophet.
• It turns out the cure is quite simple---just bath in the Jordan River. Alas, it is so simple that Naaman feels slighted. He wanted to meet Elisha and have some ceremony worthy of his rank; he probably already takes baths. He misses the fact that the important part of the cure is the location of the bathing. His servants convince him to try the cure anyway and it works! There is no doubt an important lesson about the importance of seemingly simple actions.
• Naaman is so delighted that he asks for some Israelite dirt so that he can convert and pray only to the Israelite God, except for when he needs to accompany his king when he sacrifices to his pagan god. Naaman needs the earth because, I've been told, ancient people believed that a nation's god was tied to that nation's soil. Elisha understands his commitment to his king and accepts it.
• Elisha doesn't want any of the valuable stuff that Naaman brought, but Gehazi is not so noble and asks for just some of what Naaman has brought. Elisha is not happy about this and Gehazi gets leprosy on the spot. There is Midrash that points out that Gehazi failed to revive the Shunammite woman's son; i.e., he's always been less than perfect.
• Unlike Gehazi, Elisha prefers to impress Naaman with the greatness of the Lord. This reminds me of a story about Shimon ben Shetach.

Chapter 6: Aram vs. Israel

• the king of Israel is not named

Summary: Elisha and acolyte priests move to someplace more spacious near the Jordan River. When a borrowed iron blade falls into the water, Elisha is able to make it rise to the surface by throwing a stick into the river.

Meanwhile, the king of Aram, who wants to fight against Israel, is frustrated that his location keeps being discovered. When he learns that this is Elisha's doing, he tries to go after Elisha, who blinds his army and leads them to Samaria, the capital of Israel. At Elisha's suggestion, the king of Israel provides the Arameans with a feast and they stop sending raiding parties to Israel.

But then it turns awful. Ben-Hadad, king of Aram (a new king?) besieges Samaria and there is such a famine that two women agree to kill and eat their sons. The king of Israel is horrified, blames Elisha and wants his head.

Comments:

• Horses and chariots of fire show up again, this time to defend Elisha. But only if your eyes have been opened to see them.
• I'm reminded of Obi-Wan saying, "These aren't the droids you're looking for" in Star Wars. (May the 4th be with you!)

• I like the idea that the king of Israel shouldn't kill this army that has miraculously appeared in his capital because he didn't capture them in battle.
• The king of Israel is confronted with a much more tragic case of two mothers and a dead child than Solomon was. There is no good solution. Tearing his clothes is the right reaction. And the fact that he has sackcloth hidden beneath his outer garments shows that he is already grieving. His anger at Elisha makes sense: if Elisha can bring an army peacefully into Samaria, then why can't he end the famine. Still, killing Elisha isn't going to make anything better. Here is the quote from Solomon's reign:
  

Chapter 7: Aram vs. Israel

• the king of Israel is not named

Summary: Elisha predicts that food will be cheap in a day. Four lepers tell the Israelites that the Aramean army has fled.

Comments:

• Chapter 6 ended with the king of Israel wanting to kill Elisha because of the famine. This chapter starts with Elisha's prediction that the famine will soon be over.
• The Lord is an important player in the battle: The Arameans flee in haste because the Lord makes them hear the noise of chariots, horses and a great host and they think that the Hittites and Egyptians have been hired by the king of Israel to attack them.
• Elisha's prediction that the captain who doubted him would not survive comes true; in case we forgot what the captain doubted, the beginning of the chapter is repeated nearly verbatim at the end.
• Rashi says that the lepers are Gehazi and his three sons.

Chapter 8: Aram vs. Israel

• this is the fifth year in which Jehoram son of Ahab is king of Israel
• Jehoram son of Jehoshaphat succeeds his father to become king of Judah
  • he is 32 and rules for eight years
  • he marries Ahab's daughter and therefore does evil in the eyes of the Lord
  • he dies attacking rebellious Edomites and is buried in the City of David
• Ahaziah, Jehoram's son, succeeds his father in the 12th year of Jehoram son of Ahab's reign in Israel
  • Ahaziah is 22 and rules for one year
  • his mother, Athaliah, is the daughter of Omri, king of Israel
    • Larry's chart says she is the daughter of Ahab
    • the Encyclopaedia Judaica says she is the sister of Ahab and the daughter of Omri
  • he also does evil in the eyes of the Lord because he married into Ahab's family

Summary: The Shunammite woman from Chapter 4 was warned by Elisha that she should leave the country during the coming the seven years of famine. When she returns, she asks the king to help her get her property back. Gehazi just so happens to be discussing with the king her son's resurrection as one of the great things that Elisha has done when she appears.

Elisha goes to Damascus. Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, is ill and asks Hazael to bring tribute to Elisha and ask him if he (the kin) will survive. Elisha says he will survive the illness, but then is silent and then weeps and explains to Hazael that although the king will survive the illness, he will not live much longer and Hazael will do terrible things to the Israelites. Hazael kills Ben-Hadad and becomes king.

Edom rebels against Judah. As does Libneh. Jehoram, king of Judah, is killed when he attacks the Edomites, and his son, Ahaziah, becomes king.

Everything else that Jehoram, king of Judah, did is written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Judah.

Jehoram, son of Ahab and king of Israel, is wounded in battle by Hazael king of Aram and goes to Jezreel to recover. Ahaziah visits him.

Comments:

• Elisha's pronouncements about the serious illnesses of kings are interesting. The kings don't ask for a cure, just a prediction. And surviving an illness obviously doesn't mean living a long life; Ben-Hadad should have asked a better question.
• Hazael's suffocating Ben-Hadad makes it look like the king died of natural causes.
• What is Elisha's obligation? Did he have a choice about telling Hazael what the future held?
• Saying that if you want more information about a king you should see the official documents is a convenient way of avoiding talking about what doesn't interest you.

Chapter 9: Jehu vs the House of Ahab

• Jehoram, son of Ahab, is king of Israel at the beginning of the chapter
  • he is the last king of the House of Ahab
• Ahaziah is king of Judah at the beginning of the chapter
  • he became king in the 11th year of Jehoram son of Ahab's reign as king of Israel
• Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi, is recognized as a king of Israel by his comrades and Elisha

Summary: Elisha sends one of his acolyte prophets to secretly anoint Jehu at Ramoth-Gilead so that Jehu will kill of the entire house of Ahab to avenge the prophets and servants of the Lord. Jehu's comrades quickly find out and support him.

Meanwhile, Jehoram, king of Israel, is in Jezreel recovering from his wounds. Ahaziah, king of Judah, has joined him there.

Jehu kills Jehoram with an arrow through the heart and has the king thrown into the field of Naboth the Jezreelite.

Ahaziah flees toward Beth-Gan, but he is struck down in his chariot on the Ascent of Gur near Jibleam and dies in Megiddo. He is carried back to Jerusalem and buried in the City of David.

Jehu goes to Jezebel in Jezreel and asks her servants to push her out of a window. He wants her buried because she is the daughter of a king, but she has been trampled by horses and all that is left of her are her skull, legs and the palms of her hands.

Comments:

• Samuel secretly anointed David while Saul was still king. David did not assume this meant he needed to immediately get rid of Saul.
• When Jehu and his men show up in Jezreel, Jehoram thinks they may come in peace. He sends two messengers and then goes with Ahaziah to meet Jehu in person. (One of many instances where things happen three times.) They meet in the field of Naboth. This is an fraught location. Chapter 21 of I Kings explains how Jezebel caused Naboth's death so that her husband Ahab could take his field. Elijah disapproved:

Since Ahab seems to repent, the Lord postpones his family's disaster until after he dies.

The words of Elijah in Chapter 21 of I Kings also say what will happen to Jezebel.

Jehu talks about Jezebel's harlotries.

I think that particular accusation may be unfair. I don't think she was unfaithful to her husband. I think she was not faithful to the Lord and encouraged Ahab to also be unfaithful to Him.

Chapter 10: Jehu vs. the House of Ahab continued

• Jehu, son of Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi, is king of Israel
  • he reigns for 28 years in Samaria
• Jehoahaz, his son, succeeds him

Summary: Jehu has all 70 of Ahab's sons in Samaria killed. He says he is fulfilling Elijah's prophecy.

When Jehu meets up with kinsmen of Ahaziah, he has all 42 them killed as well.

He calls all servants of Baal together and they are slaughtered and the pillars smashed and the house of Baal turned into latrines.

But he does not get rid of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. So the Lord began to reduce the size of Israel.

The Lord promises that because of Jehu's good work with the House of Ahab, four generations of his sons will rule. (Based on Larry's wonderful, most helpful chart, this happens.)

Everything else Jehu did is in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Israel.

Comments:

• No one is left behind to threaten Jehu's kingship. Athaliah in the next chapter isn't so successful.
• Hazael, king of Aram, may be committing the offenses that Elisha cried about.
• The Semitic Museum of Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, has a copy of the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser which shows Jehu or his messenger bowing before an Assyrian king. There seems to be no direct mention of this in Kings, beyond the Lord's trimming away of Israel. [see Alter, p. 782]

• This picture below shows the entire obelisk.

The picture below shows the illustrated part of the obelisk.

And here is the panel with Jehu or his representative.

Chapter 11: Athaliah vs her sons

• Athaliah, mother of Ahaziah, is queen of Judah
  • she is either the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel or the daughter of Omri (according to the EJ)
• Joash, brother of Ahaziah and son of Athaliah, becomes king of Judah

Summary: Athaliah kills "all the royal seed." [Alter, p. 783] Or so she thinks.

Jehosheba, her sister and the daughter of King Jehoram, sneaks Joash, Ahaziah's son, and his nurse away and hides him in the house of the Lord for six years.

In the seventh year, Jehoiada, Jehosheba's husband and a high? priest, provides guards for Joash and has him anointed king to great rejoicing.

Athaliah hears this and goes to see what is happening. She is marched out of the house of the Lord and killed in the king's house.

All the people destroy the house of Baal and killed Mattan, the priest of Baal.

And the king sat on the royal throne.

Comments:

• In the time of the judges, someone kills of all of his possible rivals; only he misses one of them to his dismay and destruction:

• The queen thinking her family is dead is reminiscent of the wicked queen thinking that the huntsman has killed Snow White. Or King Laius, who hoped to thwart a prophecy, thinking Oedipus has died on a hillside.
• We don't know what kind of a ruler Athaliah is. She lasted at least six years, but the people seemed happy to see her go.
  
• The Encyclopaedia Judaica mentions that Jean Racine wrote a tragedy about Athaliah (1691) and that Christian art her murders are likened to Herod's massacre around the time of Jesus's birth.
  
• The EJ says she also was an idolator.
  

Chapter 12: Joash is king

• Joash is king of Judah
  • he is seven years old when his reign begins
  • he rules in Jerusalem for 40 years.
• Jehu is the king of Israel
  • Joash becomes king of Judah in Jehu's seventh year
• Joash did right in the eyes of the Lord, but people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places
• Amaziah, son of Joash, becomes king of Judah when Joash is killed

Summary: Joash becomes king.

He tells the priests that all the silver that people bring (as gifts?) to the house of the Lord should be used for its upkeep.

In the 23rd year, he discovers this isn't happening. So he gets a chest, bores a hole in it, sets it up by the altar, and has everyone put silver into it instead of handing it to the priests. When the box got heavy enough, money is given to contractors to do repairs; they are honest. The priests still got silver for guilt-offerings and offense-offerings.

Hazael, king of Aram, prepares to attack Jerusalem. Joash gives him all the consecrated things and the king's treasures to make him go away.

Everything else that Joash did is written in the Book of the Acts of the Kings of Judah.

Joash's servants kill him in Beth-Millo going down to Silla and he is buried with his fathers in the City of David.

Comments:

• All we know about Joash is how he interacts with the priests.
  
• The chest seems the forerunner to the modern pushka, a container where you privately put money that will go for Tzedakah to help people at a later time.
  
• Why did Joash's servants rise up against him?