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b-hebrew - [b-hebrew] Re: Rabshakeh vs. Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:19-22)

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  • From: Joe Baker <joebaker AT cygnus.uwa.edu.au>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Re: Rabshakeh vs. Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:19-22)
  • Date: Sun, 29 Aug 2004 14:24:57 +0800

Hi Walter

Yes the author does have the rab-shaqeh say to the Yudaheans that Hezeqiah has removed all the high places and altars and has made in compulsory to worship Yahweh in Jerusalem. But no the author does not have the rab-shaqeh saying that Hezeqiah has affronted Yahweh. Indeed the whole thrust of the story is in the opposite direction.

This passage is pure deuteronomic. This whole section (2 Kings 18:19 - 19:8 + wy$m` in verse 9 + 19:36-37) is a deuteronomic story written by the author of Kings in about 625 BC. (Note that the intervening story 2 Kings 19:9-35 + 20:1-19 is a post-exilic addition to the book of Kings). This deuteronomic composition is based heavily on the concept given in 2 Kings 18:5-6, "He TRUSTED in Yahweh the god of Israel and among all the kings of Yudah there was no one like him either after him or before him. And he held fast to Yahweh, and he did not turn away from him, and he kept the commands that Yahweh had given to Mosheh". The whole concept of this story is to show that Hezeqiah TRUSTED in Yahweh and as a result Jerusalem was spared.

The speech of the rab-shaqeh is not that of an Assyrian official. It was fully composed by a deuteronomist for it is full of deuteronomic phrases and concepts, ideas that were utterly alien to any Assyrian official. What the deuteronomist puts into the rab-shaqeh's mouth is sarcastic, a tilt at foreigners, who can not see or understand the relationship between Yahweh and his people. Firstly when the author makes the rab-shaqeh say how misplaced is the Yudahean's TRUST in Egypt, a nation who can not save them - it is sarcasm for the author knows this and is illustrating to his readers the ignorance of the Assyrians. And he follows this up by having the rab-shaqeh say how misplaced is the Yuhdahean's TRUST in Yahweh, a god who allows Hezeqiah to close his places of worship. Again sarcasm for the author's whole philosophy is that Hezeqiah TRUSTS in Yahweh and has instituted the correct way to worship Yahweh, as Yahweh had commanded to Mosheh.

There is no concept of Hezeqiah having "AFFRONTED Yahweh-Elohim". The rab-shaqeh is made to say several things which are wrong - and the account of the narrative serves to illustrate this. When the rab-shaqeh says that Yahweh has told the Assyrians to march against Yudah and destroy it - he is wrong. The deuteronmist knows that Yahweh is on the side of Hezeqiah, Hezeqiah serves Yahweh not Assyria. When the rab-shaqeh is made to imply that Hezeqiah's cultic reforms are against Yahweh - he is wrong. The deuteronomist knows that Hezeqiah is following the instructions of Yahweh as given to Mosheh (ie. the Book of Deuteronomy). Hezeqiah TRUST in Yahweh and so is saved - unlike Israel who had failed to listen to, or carry out, all the commands that Yahweh had given to Mosheh (2 Kings 18:12).

Regards
Joe Baker ===========\
Perth |
Western Australia ===/





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