{"id":75679,"date":"2020-06-08T13:51:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T10:51:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=75679"},"modified":"2020-06-08T13:51:36","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T10:51:36","slug":"the-divine-wrongs-of-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-divine-wrongs-of-kings\/","title":{"rendered":"The Divine Wrongs Of Kings"},"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":"75679","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64460,"related_cahpter":"498","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Regal privilege bows before the Torah\u2019s egalitarian ideal\u00a0\r\n\r\n","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Hebrew Bible is notoriously ambivalent about monarchy. The idea of a sacral kingship tied to the line of David coexists with a deep skepticism about rule by any power other than God and a practical cynicism about the tendencies of kings. Deuteronomy imagines a king who seems largely subordinate to the priests and whose ability to engage in politics is curtailed. Ezekiel 46 represents a continuation of this tendency. Here the text no longer even speaks of a king, but of a <\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">nasi<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> or \u201cprince.\u201d While a number of the prince\u2019s positive obligations are detailed, these are mostly of a cultic nature \u2014 he is to make special offerings on the Sabbath, the day of the new moon, and the festivals. Ezekiel attends to the political role of the prince largely in order to say what he <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">cannot<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> do. One very telling moment occurs at verse 18: \u201cBut the prince shall not take property away from any of the people and rob them of their holdings. Only out of his own holdings shall he endow his sons, in order that My people may not be dispossessed of their holdings.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Torah\u2019s system of land ownership is perhaps its most daring and creative foray into political thought. The land is divided into tribal territories, and each family is given an allotment within their tribe. This allotment can never be sold, but only leased for a period of up to 50 years, when the Jubilee restores all land to its original owner. The message at the core of this system is that the land belongs in the first place to God; insofar as the Israelites are permitted to use it, each person has an equal and inalienable stake in the land. In the book of Ezekiel, this idea is underscored further by redrawing the tribal boundaries in a way which is much more equal than the configuration to be found in the Book of Joshua.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In earlier books of the Bible we find a frequent anxiety that the king will disrupt this system and treat the land as personal property for his own enrichment. In Samuel\u2019s warning to the people about the practical reality of the monarchy they demand, he declares that a king \u201cwill seize your choice fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his courtiers\u201d (1 Samuel 8:14). The downfall of King Ahab comes when he and Jezebel seize the vineyard of Naboth. Though the king at first offers to buy the land, Naboth declares \u201cThe LORD forbid that I should give up to you what I have inherited from my fathers!\u201d (1 Kings 21:3), for he understands that according to the Torah\u2019s system, the land is sacred and cannot be treated as mere private property.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By forbidding the prince to acquire land from the people, Ezekiel emphasizes, once again, the egalitarian ideal which is at the heart of the Torah\u2019s system of land ownership.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","image":{"ID":73253,"id":73253,"title":"ez6-justice","filename":"ez6-justice.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez6-justice.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/joy-and-pain-the-joy-of-pain\/ez6-justice\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"ez6-justice","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":73252,"date":"2020-04-13 07:31:18","modified":"2023-09-15 13:22:48","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":927,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez6-justice-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez6-justice-300x145.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":145,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez6-justice-768x371.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":371,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez6-justice-1024x494.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":494,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez6-justice.jpg","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":742,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez6-justice.jpg","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":927,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez6-justice-1200x579.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":579,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/ez6-justice-870x420.jpg","home_baner-width":870,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"The 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