{"id":63128,"date":"2019-09-18T16:54:31","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T13:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63128"},"modified":"2023-04-11T16:17:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T13:17:15","slug":"a-hairy-man-with-a-leather-belt-tied-around-his-waist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-hairy-man-with-a-leather-belt-tied-around-his-waist\/","title":{"rendered":"A Hairy Man With A Leather Belt Tied Around His Waist"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[576,366,858],"acf":{"old_id":"63128","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"310","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Why did the emissaries not recognize this distinctive figure?","content":"

In yet another of a number of encounters between prophets and people who seek prognoses of their illnesses (see, inter alia, 1 Kings 17 and 2 Kings 8), Elijah intercepted the emissaries of King Ahaziah and diverted them from their intended destination: Baal-Zebub, the deity of the Philistine city of Ekron, literally \u201cLord of the Flies\u201d (as in the William Golding novel) but\u2014in Aramaic\u2014a common noun meaning enemy. In response to the king\u2019s interrogation, they identify their interlocutor as \u201ca hairy man\u2026 with a leather belt tied around his waist,\u201d whom Ahaziah immediately identified as \u201cElijah the Tishbite\u201d (8).<\/span><\/p>\n

Was the giveaway the hair or the belt, and was Elijah the only man in Israel who matched that description? And if he, indeed, was so distinctive as to be immediately recognizable, why did the emissaries not recognize him? In answering these questions, Radak manages to connect several of the dots that have led us here since we were first introduced to Elijah in 1 Kings 17. He wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n

[The king] recognized [Elijah\u2019s] habit of wearing a leather belt, and [also] knew that he was hairy. It is curious that the emissaries of the king of Israel did not recognize him when he was accustomed to spending time with Ahab in Samaria. It is possible that these men whom the king of Israel dispatched were not present in Samaria at the time that Elijah was regularly there. It was also quite some time since he had been there because Jezebel had ordered his death (1 Kings 19:2). Indeed, during the war against Ben Hadad (1 Kings 20) we did not see him there, nor during the war of Ramot Gilead when Micaiah ben Yimla served as God\u2019s [true] prophet in Samaria (1 Kings 22).<\/span><\/p>\n

A particularly poignant note was struck here by Yosef Ibn Kaspi (Provence, 14<\/span>th<\/span> century), who identified the leather belt as one that was worn above all of one\u2019s other clothes. He had actually visited the Holy Land and interpolated some of its realia into his commentaries. He wrote: \u201cIt is the custom of that land to this very day to wear a belt over all their clothes,\u201d which, possibly, were robes rather than separate shirts and pants.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Le Proph\u00e8te \u00c9lie by Marc Arcis, c. 1690 \/ wikipedia<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63130,"id":63130,"title":"2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis","filename":"2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-hairy-man-with-a-leather-belt-tied-around-his-waist\/2kings1-le_prophete_elie_by_marc_arcis\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2kings1-le_prophete_elie_by_marc_arcis","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63128,"date":"2019-09-18 13:54:01","modified":"2019-09-18 13:54:11","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":1017,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis-768x976.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":976,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":1017,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":1017,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":1017,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1017,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis-330x420.jpg","home_baner-width":330,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"A Hairy Man With A Leather Belt Tied Around His Waist","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Why did the emissaries not recognize this distinctive figure?","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":63130,"id":63130,"title":"2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis","filename":"2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/a-hairy-man-with-a-leather-belt-tied-around-his-waist\/2kings1-le_prophete_elie_by_marc_arcis\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2kings1-le_prophete_elie_by_marc_arcis","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63128,"date":"2019-09-18 13:54:01","modified":"2019-09-18 13:54:11","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":800,"height":1017,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis-236x300.jpg","medium-width":236,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis-768x976.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":976,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","large-width":800,"large-height":1017,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","1536x1536-width":800,"1536x1536-height":1017,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","2048x2048-width":800,"2048x2048-height":1017,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis.jpg","post_full_size-width":800,"post_full_size-height":1017,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2kings1-Le_Proph\u00e8te_\u00c9lie_by_Marc_Arcis-330x420.jpg","home_baner-width":330,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false,"send_noty":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63128"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63128"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114100,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63128\/revisions\/114100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}