Thread by @JamesBejon

THREAD: The start of some brief thoughts on 1 Kgs. 16.29-19.21, i.e., the first episode of the reign of Ahab.

As usual, the aim here isn’t to cover/summarise the whole text, but simply to pick out particular (and sometimes overlooked) points of interest.

Things have started to go downhill in Israel (ch. 16).

The kingdom has been divided.

A number of rulers have risen and fallen in quick succession (never a good sign),

the result of which has been the enthronement of Ahab--and along with him his wife, Jezebel.

And long-respected principles of the past (notably, ‘Don’t rebuild Jericho!’) have now been forgotten

...as men have started to fool around with things they shouldn’t fool around with (to the cost of their families: 16.34).

It all has a very contemporary ring about it.

Enter, therefore, a relative outsider--a northerner, a Tishbite, a man named Elijah from the fringes of Israel,

who may have been shielded from some of Israel’s syncretistic tendencies, though will now find himself in the thick of the action.

As usual, names and numbers are important in our text.

The name ‘Jezebel’ (איזבל) is a similar name to Ehud (אהוד),

and most likely has the sense, ‘Where has the authority/dignity gone?’ (cp. Ugar. <<zbl>> = ‘principality’, JAram. <<ZBL>> = ‘to honour’),

which is an apt summary of the problem in Israel.

Meanwhile, the name ‘Elijah’ (אליהו) means ‘My God is YHWH’,

which can truthfully be proclaimed by Elijah,

and would solve the Israelites’ problem overnight if it could truthfully be proclaimed by them as well.

As it happens, however, the Israelites have a decision to make:

to follow Baal or YHWH (18.21).

A battle is on for the unity and identity of Israel.

Appropriately, therefore, the number 12--i.e., the number of tribes in Israel--is central to our text.

The challengers are Baal and Ahab,

hence the word ‘Baal’ occurs 12 times (in the forms בעל | בעלת | בעלים),

and the name ‘Ahab’ (אחאב) occurs 24 times (12 x 2).

(The name ‘Ahab’ also happens to have a gematrial value of 12.)

Meanwhile, the defenders are Elijah and his God.

The title ‘Elijah the Prophet’ (אליהו הנביא) has a gematrial value of 120;

Elijah builds an altar with 12 stones (which are explicitly said to depict the 12 tribes of Israel: 18.31), and douses the altar in 12 pitchers’ worth of water (18.34);

& the word ‘God’ (אלהים) occurs 24 times (12 x 2) in our text.

As such, our text is structured so as to reflect its primary concern.

Elijah doesn’t just want to repair/restore (רפא) Israel’s altar (18.30);

he wants to repair/restore Israel as a nation--Israel’s 12 tribes.

Our text’s structure also hints at the fact YHWH is firmly on Elijah’s side.

The name ‘YHWH’ (יהוה) has a gematrial value of 26,

and occurs 52 times (26 x 2) in our text,

and 52 also happens to be the value of ‘Elijah’ (אליהו),

in whose name YHWH is explicitly embedded.

On, then, to the text itself.

In 17.1, Ahab’s activities in Israel are rudely interrupted.

The abruptness of Elijah’s appearance in Ahab’s presence is reflected by the abruptness of Elijah’s appearance in our text:

We have not heard anything about Elijah before,

and yet in 17.1 we suddenly read, ‘And Elijah said...’.

(The word of YHWH has a habit of rudely interrupting people in the middle of their sinful activities.)

Rain will be withheld from Israel for a number of years (much to the embarrassment of Baal, the alleged ‘god of rain’),

and Elijah is hence told to hide out by a brook named Cherith.

The name ‘Cherith’ is significant (כרית = ‘cut off, remote’ cp. גְּזֵרָה).

While Jezebel ‘destroys’ (כרת) YHWH’s prophets from the land (18.4),

and Ahab tries to prevent his cattle’s ‘destruction’ (כרת),

Elijah will be protected in a cut-off/remote location (כרת).

Elijah will also be fed there.

Each day at dawn and dusk (ערב), he will be fed with meat and bread courtesy of a host/flock/congress/? of ‘ravens’ (ערב),

while Ahab will have to scour the land in search of even a small amount of grass for his multitude of horses (18.3-4).

(Doesn’t Deut. 17.16 say something about kings who multiply horses?)

YHWH’s other faithful prophets will also, it turns out, be fed amply (18.5-6).

God will therefore protect his people from judgment, while Ahab and *his* people suffer,

not only as a result of a famine of bread, but as a result of a famine of God’s word,

since Elijah and the other prophets will be hidden away from them (17.3, 18.4).

But, after a while, Elijah’s brook dries up (17.7).

What, then, should he do?

In 17.8, further instruction comes from YHWH.

(To be continued...)