{"id":63610,"date":"2019-09-28T21:49:14","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T18:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=63610"},"modified":"2023-04-24T09:12:26","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T06:12:26","slug":"was-the-king-assassinated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/was-the-king-assassinated\/","title":{"rendered":"Was The King Assassinated?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/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":[931,506,930],"acf":{"old_id":"63610","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"317","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Or was it a negligent suicide? In trying to resolve the ambiguity, textual and contextual clues point in different directions","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A sizable portion of this chapter is devoted to the incident in which Elisha revealed to Hazael, an Aramean officer, that his king, Ben Hadad, would die of his current illness and that he, Hazael, would succeed him. He cautioned Hazael, however, to engage in a subterfuge and to tell Ben Hadad that he would recuperate. (Although he prophesied that Hazael will do \u201charm\u201d to the Israelite people, one gets the sense that the prophet\u2019s candor was intended to offset that as much as possible.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Hazael returned home and the king asked him \u201cWhat did Elisha say to you?\u201d he replied \u201cHe told me, \u2018You shall surely live\u2019\u201d (14). Then Scripture narrates, \u201cThe next day, he took a piece of netting, dipped it in water, and spread it over his face. So [Ben-hadad] died, and Hazael succeeded him as king\u201d (15). The ambiguity is: Who spread the wet netting over Ben Hadad\u2019s face?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Methodologically speaking, there are two principal ways to resolve ambiguities, which I shall call the textual and the contextual. The textual approach adheres closely to the accepted rules of grammar and syntax, which, in this case, dictate that the subject of \u201che took a piece of netting\u201d is one and the same with<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the previous verb \u201che told me,\u201d namely Hazael, so it was he who smothered the king by placing a wet cloth on his face. Contextually, however, since Hazael trusted Elisha\u2019s forecast\u2014why would he put himself at risk by precipitating Ben Hadad\u2019s death?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The more reasonable explanation is that Ben Hadad, believing that he would recover, imprudently placed a wet cloth on his own face and died as a result, thereby confirming Elisha\u2019s prognosis and leaving the way clear for Hazael to assume the throne without raising any doubts about his loyalty and without endangering his succession.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>image: Barbara Griffiths, &#8220;The Unwise Prophecy&#8221;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":63624,"id":63624,"title":"2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad","filename":"2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/was-the-king-assassinated\/2kings8-hazael-benhadad\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2kings8-hazael-benhadad","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63610,"date":"2019-09-28 18:50:24","modified":"2019-09-28 18:50:34","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":465,"height":317,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad-300x205.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":205,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","medium_large-width":465,"medium_large-height":317,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","large-width":465,"large-height":317,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","1536x1536-width":465,"1536x1536-height":317,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","2048x2048-width":465,"2048x2048-height":317,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","post_full_size-width":465,"post_full_size-height":317,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","home_baner-width":465,"home_baner-height":317}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Was The King Assassinated?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"Or was it a negligent suicide? In trying to resolve the ambiguity, textual and contextual clues point in different directions","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":63624,"id":63624,"title":"2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad","filename":"2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/was-the-king-assassinated\/2kings8-hazael-benhadad\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2kings8-hazael-benhadad","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":63610,"date":"2019-09-28 18:50:24","modified":"2019-09-28 18:50:34","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":465,"height":317,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad-300x205.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":205,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","medium_large-width":465,"medium_large-height":317,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","large-width":465,"large-height":317,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","1536x1536-width":465,"1536x1536-height":317,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","2048x2048-width":465,"2048x2048-height":317,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","post_full_size-width":465,"post_full_size-height":317,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/2Kings8-Hazael-benhadad.jpg","home_baner-width":465,"home_baner-height":317}},"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\/63610"}],"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=63610"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63649,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63610\/revisions\/63649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}