Kings: Solomon’s successors
The divided monarchy
After Solomon died (922 bce), he was succeeded by Rehoboam, who proved to be unfit for the task of reigning. Prior to Solomon’s death, Jeroboam the Ephraimite, a young overseer of the forced labour battalions of the “house of Joseph” in the north, had encountered Ahijah, a prophet from the old shrine of the confederacy at Shiloh, and Ahijah had torn a new garment into 12 pieces, prophesying that 10 pieces (tribes) would be given to Jeroboam and only two pieces (tribal political units) would be retained by the house of David. The dismemberment of the united monarchy was to be brought about by Yahweh because Solomon had “not walked in my ways, doing what is right in my sight and keeping my statutes and my ordinances, as David his father did.” Though Solomon had worshipped the Sidonian goddess Ashtoreth, the Moabite god Chemosh, and the Ammonite god Milcom, his reign over Israel continued. Jeroboam’s initial rebellion proved to be abortive, and he sought political asylum in Egypt under the protection of the pharaoh Sheshonk I (Shishak).
Rehoboam, having been crowned king of the united monarchy in Jerusalem, went north to Shechem, a shrine centre of the 10 northern tribes of the old confederacy, to have his position ratified by the northern units of the kingdom. Using this gathering as an opportune time to present their grievances against Solomon’s oppressive domestic policies, the northerners, under the leadership of the returned political fugitive Jeroboam, asked the king from Jerusalem to lighten their load. Requesting three days to take their grievances under advisement, Rehoboam sought counsel from his advisers. The older counsellors advised moderation, the younger, retaliation. Assenting to the latter, Rehoboam returned to the people with an answer that was to lead to the disintegration of the united monarchy that had lasted for only about a century under three kings: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.” The response of the northerners was the ancient battle cry, “To your tents, O Israel.” Rehoboam, ruling from the cities, sent Adoram, the leader of the forced labour battalions, to Israel (the name to be used henceforth for the northern area); but he was stoned to death. The uncrowned king of the north, unable to quell the rebellion, returned to Jerusalem in rapid flight. Heeding the advice of the prophet Shemaiah, Rehoboam allowed the situation to remain that of a stalemate, thus inaugurating the period of the divided monarchy that lasted in Israel in the north from 922–721 bce and in Judah in the south until 586 bce.
Though the Davidic monarchy continued in Judah until the fall of Jerusalem in 586 bce, the monarchial situation in Israel was one of constant turmoil and confusion, except for the periods of a few dynasties. Jeroboam I of Israel (reigned 922–901 bce) attempted to bring about religious and political reforms. Establishing his capital at Shechem, he set aside two pilgrimage sites (Dan in the north and Bethel in the south) as shrine centres. Though the Deuteronomic historian—with an anti-north prejudice—interpreted Jeroboam’s use of golden bulls in the high place sanctuaries as a sin against Yahweh, Jeroboam’s actions may have merely been an incorporation of religious symbols similar to the cherubim (winged animals) that guarded the empty throne of Yahweh in the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. Jeroboam would not have been so politically and religiously naïve as to introduce polytheistic practices among the conservative-minded tribes of northern Israel. Thus, the golden bulls may have been meant to serve as pedestals for the invisible Yahweh just as the ark (throne) may have been the seat of the invisible Yahweh in the Holy of Holies (inner sanctuary) of the Temple in Jerusalem. Gods (such as the storm god Hadad) of other Syrian and Palestinian religions also were represented as standing on the backs of bulls.
Jeroboam remained true to Yahwistic religion, however, in that the God of the Israelites was not represented iconographically. The first king of the northern kingdom also inaugurated other religious reforms or reinstituted ancient practices that were interpreted as decadent by the Deuteronomic historian of the southern kingdom of Judah. He instituted a harvest thanksgiving festival on the 15th day of the eighth month, a change in the religious calendar that would preclude the journey of many northern Israelites to a similar festival in Jerusalem; he reformed the priesthood by installing non-Levites (the traditional shrine functionaries) to serve Yahweh at the shrines, an action that had been carried out in Jerusalem by David but without the opprobrium inferred by the Deuteronomic historian on a similar action by Jeroboam.
The dynasties of the northern kingdom were shortlived. Jeroboam was succeeded by his son Nadab, who reigned for two years before he was overthrown by Baasha, who decimated the house of Jeroboam. Reigning for 24 years, Baasha (who “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord” like all of the northern kings, according to the interpretation of the Deuteronomists) had to concern himself not only with charismatic leaders who were traditionally powerful in the north but also with the rising power of anti-monarchical prophets, such as Jehu—who prophesied the end of the house of Baasha (chapter 16). Elah, Baasha’s son, ruled only two years before he was assassinated while in a drunken state by Zimri, a chariot commander, who exterminated all of the members of the house of Baasha. Reigning for the brief period of seven days, Zimri was besieged in the citadel at Tirzah by Omri, commander of the army. Zimri burned to death in the king’s house. Much of this political turmoil and confusion in the north occurred during the reign of Asa, king of Judah from about 913 to 873 bce, who inaugurated religious reforms, such as banning male cult prostitutes and the worship of the Canaanite goddess Asherah that had been sponsored by his mother, Maachah, the queen regent.
The significance of Elijah
With the dynasty of Omri (c. 876–842), the prophetic movement begins to assume a position of tremendous importance in Israel and Judah. Omri (reigned c. 876–869) reestablished Israel’s economic and military significance among the Syrian and Palestinian minor kingdoms, so much so that years after his death the Assyrians referred to the northern kingdom as “the land of Omri.” He is mentioned in the Moabite Stone of King Mesha (9th century bce) as a king who “humbled Moab many years.” To strengthen an alliance with the Phoenicians, Omri contracted a marriage between Jezebel, princess of Sidon, and his son Ahab. The marriage proved to be fateful for Israel and was a catalyst that brought the prophetic movement into a course of action and a form that became Israel’s contribution to Near Eastern prophecy.
The reign of Omri’s son Ahab coincided with the activities of the prophet Elijah, as recorded in I Kings, chapter 16, verse 29, to chapter 22, verse 40. Ahab, under the influence of his queen Jezebel, allowed her to foster the worship of the fertility god Baal in Samaria—the capital that Omri had built—and in all Israel, even though he himself remained a worshipper of Yahweh. A temple was built for Baal in Samaria; Jericho was rebuilt (even though the ban against its existence still remained) by Hiel of Bethel, who sacrificed two of his own sons and placed them in the foundation and the gates of the walls of the city. During these apostate activities the great prophet Elijah the Tishbite appeared. A man of erratic behaviour, wearing a garment of hair with a leather belt around his waist, using uncouth language, and preferring the wilderness areas to the towns, Elijah bore many of the outward signs of social rebels. At odds with the court authorities, he began his prophetic career just prior to a retreat in the wilderness during a drought, which he had announced to Ahab, thus pointing out that Yahweh, rather than Baal, is the Lord of nature. In the desert he performed two miracles: he ensured a widow and her son of continuous food for her act of generosity to him and cured her son, apparently dead, who had stopped breathing, by stretching himself on top of the boy three times. Elijah then went to the court of Ahab at Samaria, after having met one of the leading prophets (Obadiah) who had escaped Jezebel’s attempt to destroy the leaders of the cult of Yahweh, and stood before Ahab, accusing the king of being the “troubler of Israel” for having followed the cult of Baal. Elijah hurled a challenge to the Baalists, supported by Jezebel, to meet him in a contest on Mt. Carmel.
The contest between Elijah and the 450 prophets of Baal was dramatic. Elijah first taunted the spectators, “How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” Elijah then laid the ground rules: two bulls were to be sacrificed, one each on an altar, on which firewood was to be laid, but no one was to light the fire—only the God “who answers by fire.” The prophets of Baal had the first opportunity, and they prayed to Baal loudly for a full half day, until noon. During this time, Elijah, in coarse language, taunted them. Eliminating the euphemisms in most English versions of the Bible, Elijah mocked the Baalists by saying that Baal might not be responding because he was out urinating (“gone aside”), on a trip, or sleeping. The Baalists then attempted to use sympathetic magic. By cutting themselves they hoped that as their life blood flowed on the ground Baal would send rain, the life blood of the Earth.
When the Baalists had failed, Elijah rebuilt an old altar of Yahweh, poured water on the wood three times (perhaps a remnant of an ancient rainmaking ceremony?), and prayed to Yahweh to answer his servant; “the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.” Though some authorities explain the action by suggesting that Elijah poured naphtha on the wood, this does not explain the ignition of the wood at that particular time and that particular place even if by a bolt of lightning. The Deuteronomic historian emphasized the miracle wrought by Yahweh. The people, upon witnessing the miracle, cried out, “Yahweh, he is God,” and proceeded to annihilate the prophets of Baal.
Elijah told Ahab to complete the festivities while he went to the top of Mt. Carmel to perform another rainmaking ceremony. When the rains came in a cloudburst, Ahab was riding in his chariot in the Valley of Jezreel. Elijah, in fear of retaliation from Jezebel, fled to the southern wilderness. At Mt. Horeb (Sinai) after a storm, wind, and an earthquake, Yahweh spoke to Elijah through silence and then revealed that he should anoint Hazael to be king of Syria, Jehu to be king of Israel, and Elisha to be his successor as prophet. I Kings, chapter 20, records a war between Ben-hadad, king of Syria, and Ahab. Though Ahab was victorious, he did not kill Ben-hadad according to the provisions of the ḥerem (ban); and a prophet then informed Ahab that he would suffer for his inaction.
Upon Ahab’s return to Samaria Jezebel attempted to coerce the king into confiscating the vineyards of Naboth of Jezreel, which was a Canaanite centre. Naboth asserted that as an Israelite the land was not his own but was a trust from Yahweh and that he could not sell it. Taken to court on trumped-up charges of blasphemy, Naboth was convicted and stoned to death. Ahab, following Jezebel’s advice, then went to Naboth’s vineyard and took possession of it. Upon hearing of Ahab’s unjust act as king, Elijah proclaimed to him, “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.” The prophet also announced, “The dogs shall eat Jezebel within the bounds of Jezreel.”
In I Kings, chapter 22, another prophet, Micaiah, prophesied to Ahab and to King Jehoshaphat of Judah who were preparing for battle against the Syrians that in a vision he saw “all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd.” Micaiah was put in prison to test the validity of his vision. It turned out to be true—Ahab, even though he disguised himself, was mortally wounded by an arrow shot by a Syrian archer. In 850 he was succeeded by his son Ahaziah, who reigned for only two years.