Reading for October 23rd

Read 2 Kings 24.18-25.21. In 24.18-25.21: The reign of Zedekiah and the fall of Jerusalem. This section is very similar to Jer 52, and the first part of it to Jer 39.1-10. In 24.20: Here the Exile is blamed mostly on Zedekiah and his generation. In 25.2-3: the city of Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians in 587 or 586 BCE. In verse 4: The Arabah means the Jordan valley north of the Dead Sea. In verse 11: Jeremiah 52.29 gives the number of captives from this deportation as 832. In verses 13-17: On the items taken from the Temple, see 1 Kings 7.15-50: Jer 52.17-23. In verses 18-21: The other leaders of the city who were considered responsible for fostering the rebellion were executed. Comments or Questions..

Reading for October 22nd

Read 2 Kings 24:8-17 In 24.8-17: Jehoiachin and the Babylonian incursion. In verses 8-9: Again, since Jehoiachin reigned only three months,the judgment that he did evil in the sight of the Lord is a sterotypical fomula. In verses 10-12: Jehoiakim died after his rebellion but before the Babylonians reached Jerusalem. That, plus the fact that Jehoiachin surrendered himself, may be the reason the Babylonians did not destroy the city in the invasion of 597. Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah (1 Chr 3.16) and Coniah (Jer 22.24) was the son of Jehoiakim. In verse 14: The statement that all Jerusalem was taken captive is an obivious exaggeration. Evidently, the upper class was exiled. The prophet Ezekiel was also among them (Ezek 1.1). In verse 17: Mattaniah means "gift of Yahweh." Nebuchadneezzar changed it to Zedekiah, "the judgment of Yahweh," perhaps as a reminder that the Lord would bring judgment upon him if he broke his oath of loyalty, sworn by the Lord, to Babylon. Comments or Questions..

Reading for October 21st

Read 2 Kings 23.36-24.7 In 23.36-24.7: The reign of Jehoiakim. In 21.1 The new power at the end of the seventh century BCE was babylon (see v. 7). Judah came under Babylon control around 605 BCE and rebelled three years later. In verse 2: Chaldeans is another name for Babylonians. In verses 3-4: As in 23.6, the exile is blamed on Manasseh. In verse 7: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, had defeated the Egyptians in the battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, so Egypt no longer controlled Judah. Comments or Questions..

Reading for October 20th

Read 2 Kings 23.31-35. In 23.31-35: The reign of Jehoahaz. In verse 32: The judgment that Jehoahaz did what was evil in the sight of the Lord is clearly formulaic, since Jehoahaz reigned on three months. In verse 33: Pharaoh Neco apparently deposed Jehoahaz on his way back to Egypt. Jehoahaz, also known as Sallum (Jer 22.11), had evidently been chosen by the people, but Neco did not believe he would be favorable to Egypt and so replaced him. A talent varied in weight from 45 to 130 pounds. In verse 34; Eliakim was Jehoahaz's older brother. Neco found him more suitable. His name, Jehoiakim, means "Yahweh establishes" and may have been intended by Neco to remind Jehoiakim that he had sworn an oath of loyalty to Egypt by the Lord (Yahweh). Comments or Questions..

Reading for October 19th

Read 2 Kings 23.15-30 In verse 15: On Jeroboam's altar at Bethel, see 1 Kings 12.25-33. In verses 16-18: The story of the man of God from Bethel is found in 1 Kings 13. In vereses 19-20: According to these verses, Josiah's reforms reached as far as Samaria. He may have annexed at least part of the territory of the former northern Kingdom as his own. In verses 21-23: On the passover see ex 12.1-32 and Deut 18.2-8. In verse 24: On mediums and wizards, see 21.6. Teraphim or "household idols" play a role in stories in gen 31.33-35 and 1 sam 19.11-16. In verse 25: Josiah was incomparably obedient (22.2; Deut 6.5) as Moses was an incomparable prophet (Deut 34.10), Solomon incomparably wise (1 Kings 3.12), and Hezekiah incomparably faithful ( 2 Kings 18.5). In verse 26: This staement is curous because 23.4-14 makes it clear that Josiah corrected Manasseh''s apostasies. The writer is apparently struggling to find a theological reason for the exile and ends up blaming it on Manasseh. In verse 27: This verse is a reversal of the doctrine in Deuteronomy of a chosen place. In verse 29: King Josiah's sudden death came as a shock to those who had placed trust in his reforms. Comments or Questions..

Reading for October 18th

Read 2 Kings 23.1-14 In verses 1-3: Huldah's original oracle may not have been so bleak, or at least it may have been conditional, since it motivated Josiah to try to carry out reforms so as to avoid disaster. On the language of v. 3 compare 23.25 and Deut 6.5. In verses 4-5: Josiah's reforms included purging the Temple of the trappings of the worship of other gods. The Kidron was the valley between the city of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. In verse 6: Throwing the dust from the image of Asherah upon the graves woulld defile the image all the more. In verse 7: The word translated male temple prositutes may actually include both male and female prostitues who served in the fertility rituals of worshiping Baal and Asherah. In verse 8: In bringing the priests out of the towns of Judah and destroying the high places Josiah was executing the Deuteronomic ideal of centralization, according to which the Temple in Jerusalem was the only legitimate place to worship the Lord. from geba to Beer-sheba was the extent of the Kingdom of Judah. In verse 9: The priests of the high places, however, refused to go to Jerusalem. Eating unleavened bread accompanied sacrifices (Lev 6.14-18), which apparently continued outside of Jerusalem despite Josiah's efforts. In verse 10: Topheth was a valley that marked Jerusalem's western border. Also known as the valley of (the son of) Hinnom (Heb., "ge'hinnom"), it became Jerusalem's trash dump and was used by jesus as the image for hell (Gehenna, see Mt 10.28). It was dispised because it had served as a place of child sacrifice to the Ammonite god Molech (a distortion of the name Milcom made by barrowing the vowels from the word "Bosheth," meaning abomination). In verse 11: This verse suggests that horses were an important part of the worship of the sun, which was imagined as being drawn daily across the sky in a chariot. In verse 12: Offerings from altars on the roofare mentioned in Jer 32.29. The altars that Manasseh had made are mentioned in 21.5. In verse 13: Mount of Destruction is probably a play on the Hebrew name for the Mount of Olives ("Mount of Anointing") because of the altars to the foreign gods erected there. In verse 14: Pillars and sacred poles were used in the worship of the Canaanite gods. Cover(ing) the sites with human bones would further defile them. Comments or Questions..

Reading for October 17th

Read 2 Kings 22.11-20. In verse 11: Tearing clothes is a sign of repentance and distress. Josiah is worried because of the punishments threatened in the law for disobedience, since the people of Judah have not kept the law. In verse 13: Inquire is a techical term for divining or seeking an oracle from God. In verse 14: The prophetess Huldah is one of the few women in the Bible so designated (Miriam, Ex 15.20; Deborah, Judg 4.4; and Isaiah's wife(?), Isa 8.3). The Second Quarter was apparently an expansion of the city of Jerusalem that had taken place, perhaps during Hezekiah's day, in part to accommodate the influx of refugees from Israel. In verses 15-17: The man who sent you to me is Josiah. This place is Jerusalem. This part of Huldah's oracle anticipates the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian Exile. In verse 20: Most scholars believe at least the second half of Huldah's oracle to be genuine because it seems to be contridicted by history. Josiah did not in fact go to his grave peacefully, if this is what peace means. Rather, he was killed in battle (23.29). Comments or Questions..