{"id":64389,"date":"2019-10-16T09:50:33","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T06:50:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64389"},"modified":"2023-05-10T08:14:53","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T05:14:53","slug":"from-good-father-to-bad-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/from-good-father-to-bad-son\/","title":{"rendered":"From (Good) Father To (Bad) Son"},"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":[564,898,835,428],"acf":{"old_id":"64389","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":40788,"related_cahpter":"330","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"But was Hezekiah a good king, but perhaps a terrible father?","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hezekiah easily goes down in the books as one of the most lauded Kings of Judah. He was known for his strong allegiance to God and successfully reversing the fortune of the Kingdom of Judah by staving off its destruction through his complete abolition of all idolatrous practices. The text tells us: \u201cThere was none like him among all the Kings of Judah, either after him or before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As good and God-fearing as King Hezekiah was, his son Manasseh was equally bad. Manasseh takes over at the age of 21 after the death of his father and rules for 57 years. Not only does he bring back all of the idols that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and urge the people to return to their idolatrous ways, he also shed much innocent blood, \u201cfrom one end of Judah to the other.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The juxtaposition of the two could not be more stark. The text goes out of its way to highlight the contrast between father and son. While Hezekiah\u2019s righteousness is described as unparalleled among the Kings of Judah, Manasseh is described as committing abominations \u201cmore wicked than the Amorites,\u201d a nation of notoriously idolatrous people who according to the Torah are never to be allowed among the people of Israel. Furthermore, in describing Manasseh\u2019s efforts to bring back idolatry to Judah and its people, the text describes him specifically as rebuilding the altars that \u201chis father had destroyed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Freud would have had a heyday with this father-son duo. But, is it fair to see Manasseh simply as a rebellious 21 year-old who is trying to work out his \u201cdaddy issues?\u201d How might we understand this chasm between Hezekiah, the greatest King of Judah, the righteous father who brings the people back from near exile and works to return them to God, and his son Manasseh, who is determined to undo everything his father had accomplished and ultimately brings them back to the brink of destruction at the hand of God?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is hard to make sense of this. Some will claim that this is a good example of the charismatic leader who sacrifices his home life in his preoccupation with the nation. Others might suggest that while Hezekiah forcefully imposed a new way of life on the people, in the 29 years that he ruled he was not able to successfully shift the deeply-rooted culture within Judah, more broadly and in specific, within his son. Both (and more) may be the case. We are left wondering how might Jewish history been different if this one father had been successful in inculcating his deeply held values within his own son?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":64404,"id":64404,"title":"2kings21-father sone","filename":"2kings21-father-sone.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/2kings21-father-sone.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/from-good-father-to-bad-son\/2kings21-father-sone\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"2kings21-father-sone","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":64389,"date":"2019-10-16 06:51:38","modified":"2023-08-14 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