August 17, 2014
The Baalist Bible, 2 Kings 19
The story of Hezekiah son of
Ahaz as told by a priest of Baal continues. So far, I don’t see anything
controversial in it, except perhaps the priest’s characterization of the God of
Israel (and Judah), the One God, as a God of war. Then, there is the recurring
refrain that by contrast the gods of the lands around, including (especially) Baal, “have nothing to do with war. They don’t sow
seeds of discord; they plant farms. What these gods want is that their people
be fed, that they have grain and wine, olives and figs, milk and honey, fresh
flowing water. Let their stomachs never rumble and their heads swim always
sweetly.”
But I haven’t looked at the last two “chapters”
of the story (based on 2 Kings 20 and 21); so there may be more stuff of controversy in those.
In the meantime, a
brief summary of “the story so far”:
At the end of Part One of the story of Hezekiah the son of
Ahaz, Hezekiah’s legates to Sennacherib’s officer, the Rabshakeh,
Eliakim the son of Hilkiah (the one that ran the king’s household), Shebna the
scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, another scribe, come back to the king with
all they have heard, and their garments rent. They are in mourning because
Senacherib appears to be more powerful than Jerusalem, even if it contains
Yahweh’s temple.
To pick it up from the beginning,
click here. To plunge right in, click below:
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