{"id":72107,"date":"2020-03-21T09:54:41","date_gmt":"2020-03-21T07:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=72107"},"modified":"2020-03-21T09:54:41","modified_gmt":"2020-03-21T07:54:41","slug":"ishmael-settles-age-old-accounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/ishmael-settles-age-old-accounts\/","title":{"rendered":"Ishmael Settles Age-Old Accounts"},"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":[],"acf":{"old_id":"72107","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":38552,"related_cahpter":"441","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"He fills the pit dug by his ancestor - with corpses\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Verses 7-9 describe the most sickening, bloodthirsty, and murderous act in all of Scripture. Nevertheless, as distasteful as it is, there seems to have been a &#8220;rational&#8221; motive for this massacre, based on Ishmael&#8217;s presentation as a royal figure: &#8220;The pit into which Ishmael threw all the bodies of the men he had killed along with Gedaliah was the one King Asa had made as part of his defense against King Baasha of Israel \u2014 Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with corpses.&#8221; This expository note takes us back to the wars between the kingdoms of Judah, led by the Davidic line, and Israel, descendants of the House of Saul. King Asa reigned in Judah soon after the split into two kingdoms and during the first of the wars between them. I Kings, Chapter 15 describes the war between Asa and Baasha, which set off the centuries-long war between Ephraim and Judah.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In Judah&#8217;s national memory, King Baasha of Israel built Ramah \u2014 a fortification against Judah. After securing the political backing of Aram, Asa strengthened his borders by fortifying Geba and Mizpah. Mizpah thus symbolized the Judan attempt to prevent the Israelite kingdom from encroaching on its territory. From then on, there was almost complete acrimony between the Davidic line and the inhabitants of Samaria. When Josiah wished to gather Israel&#8217;s scattered remains, the exiles of Samaria, and reunite the kingdoms, he first had to convince his own royal family. The royals were divided over this issue \u2014 half dreamt of a kingdom reunited, while the other half advocated an isolationist and exclusivist Davidic dynasty. Josiah managed to win the people over to his side and sent word to Ephraim. The men of Ephraim accepted this message of reconciliation, gave up their temples in Bethel and Dan, and returned to Jerusalem. But Jerusalem never fully welcomed them. For some, the exclusivist impulse had become too entrenched. Moreover, a century and a half earlier, King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria had resettled the depopulated region of Samaria with peoples from Mesopotamia. Many of the remaining Israelites intermarried with these new groups, who had accepted the Israelite religion. Exclusivist elements within Judah would not countenance a renewed alliance with the assimilationist Samaritans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The first massacre is born out of vengeance and the drive to defend David&#8217;s honor. The second massacre springs from the resentment boiling in the veins of this Davidic scion when he sees the people of Samaria, of Ephraim, coming to mourn Jerusalem. Ishmael son of Nethaniah has been raised on tales of strife between Judah and Israel. He vividly recalls the stories of Ephraim&#8217;s attempts to conquer Judah, and the coalition formed by Israel and Aram to wage war against it. The time has come to settle accounts. Ishmael fills the pit dug by his distant forebear Asa with the bodies of the descendants of Baasha, who tried to eradicate the line of David; the tribe of Judah has the last laugh.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lau, Binyamin. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeremiah: The Fate of a Prophet<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Maggid Books, 2013. \u201cA Second Murder and Its Motive\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":69252,"id":69252,"title":"jer-lau2","filename":"jer-lau2.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/running-a-gauntlet-of-pain\/jer-lau2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jer-lau2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":69251,"date":"2020-01-27 21:59:05","modified":"2020-01-27 21:59:20","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":884,"height":635,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-300x215.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":215,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-768x552.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":552,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","large-width":884,"large-height":635,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","1536x1536-width":884,"1536x1536-height":635,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","2048x2048-width":884,"2048x2048-height":635,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2.jpg","post_full_size-width":884,"post_full_size-height":635,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/jer-lau2-585x420.jpg","home_baner-width":585,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Ishmael Settles Age-Old Accounts","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"He fills the pit dug by his ancestor - 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