{"id":63503,"date":"2019-09-25T14:43:26","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T11:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63503"},"modified":"2023-04-24T18:46:53","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T15:46:53","slug":"the-lord-began-to-reduce-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-lord-began-to-reduce-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lord Began To Reduce Israel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The ambivalence of the chapter\u2019s attitude towards Jehu is highlighted in the closing lines of the chapters dedicated to Jehu. On the one hand, the Tanakh testifies about him:\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

The Lord said to Jehu, \u2018Because you have acted well and done what is right in My eyes…to the house of Ahab, your descendants will sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation. (10:30).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On the other hand, Jehu is flawed in his service of God: Jehu was not careful to follow wholeheartedly the teaching [Torah] of the Lord, God of Israel; he failed to abandon the sins of Jeroboam who led Israel astray\u201d (10:31).<\/span><\/p>\n

Jehu\u2019s heart was not “whole” with God, not fully committed to God. Of course, this is problematic. If Jehu is to enact a bloody purge of idolatry, his religious integrity should be flawless.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The biblical narrative has focused upon Jehu’s rise to power, but what of Jehu’s twenty-eight-year rule? The closing lines of II Kings 10 offer only a scant but representative glimpse of Jehu’s era, a period of national decline: \u201cIn those days, the Lord began to reduce Israel. And Hazael smote them throughout the territory of Israel east of the Jordan, all the land of the Gilead\u2026\u201d (II Kings 10:32-33).<\/span><\/p>\n

What we witness here is a total capitulation on Israel’s eastern front, in which Hazael’s forces dominate the Israelite tribes on the east side of the Jordan. “The Lord began to reduce Israel” sounds very much like divine displeasure with Jehu. The waning of Israel’s power may have political underpinnings. Jehu’s assassination of Jezebel and his removal of Baal engendered a rupture of ties with Phoenicia; his execution of the royals of Judah left him without a southern ally. This situation damaged the kingdom military and economically, leaving Jehu vulnerable and weak. And yet it is not without some irony that Jehu, the swashbuckling military captain, proved inept at defending his people, unable to succeed on the battlefield where his predecessor failed.<\/span><\/p>\n

In these final lines of the chapter, Jehu is not a success story. We leave this dramatic episode with a complex understanding of Jehu: on the one hand a zealot for God, but on the other hand a man who failed to adopt for himself the high standards that he demanded from others. As shall be seen, his is the longest-ruling dynasty of the northern kingdom, and yet he presides over the beginning of a period in which Israel will suffer greatly from Aramean dominance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Alex Israel, II Kings: In a Whirlwind, Maggid Books, 2019, Jehu\u2019s Revolt\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63310,"id":63310,"title":"Alex Israel - 2_kings_cover","filename":"Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-hairy-prophet\/alex-israel-2_kings_cover\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"alex-israel-2_kings_cover","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63117,"date":"2019-09-23 13:43:41","modified":"2019-09-23 13:53:01","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1711,"height":1821,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-282x300.jpg","medium-width":282,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-768x817.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":817,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-962x1024.jpg","large-width":962,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","1536x1536-width":1443,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover.jpg","2048x2048-width":1711,"2048x2048-height":1821,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-1128x1200.jpg","post_full_size-width":1128,"post_full_size-height":1200,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Alex-Israel-2_kings_cover-395x420.jpg","home_baner-width":395,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Excerpts from: II Kings - 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