A Bit-Part King ∙ The Elisha Chronicles: Bitter Water, Two Bears, and a Widow’s Oil ∙ The Shunemmite Episodes ∙ Seven Years of Famine: Yellow Gourds, A Miraculous Feeding, and a Lost Axe Head ∙ The ‘Leprous’ Aramean General ∙ The ‘Blinding’ of the Arameans ∙ Jerusalem Under Siege ∙ Like Father, Like Son: Revisiting Ramoth-Gilead ∙ A Tale of Two Anointings
Jehoram (a.k.a. Joram) succeeded his brother Ahaziah and became king of Israel in the eighteenth year of the reign of Jehoshaphat of Judah. He would reign for twelve years, though the biblical narrative makes it seem longer; this is because most of the prophet Elisha’s recorded actions take place during Jehoram’s reign and because Aram was particularly active against Israel at this time (though Aram and Israel had been in conflict since the days of King Baasha, the Bible records more material on their conflict during Jehoram’s reign than it does with the reigns of all the other Israelite kings combined).
Jehoram did what was evil in Yahweh’s sight, but the text emphasizes that he wasn’t of the same evil vein as his father and mother. The Queen Mother didn’t have the same hold over him as she’d had over Ahaziah, and Jehoram tore down the sacred pillar of Baal that his father had erected. It’s likely that while he wasn’t opposed to his mother’s Phoenician religion, he didn’t want the Baal-Melqart cult to be the ‘state religion’ – that honor was to be reserved for the Golden Calves erected by Jeroboam. Nevertheless, Jehoram wasn’t set against Baalism, as is indicated by three lines of evidence: first, Elisha barred Jehoram from seeking help from the prophets of his mother and father (prophets of Baal), implying that it was Jehoram’s normal practice to do so; second, his successor Jehu was forced to slay the Baal prophets in the land when he became king, which implies that they were present and numerous; and third, the Queen Mother Jezebel was alive, and if Jehoram had initiated a program of reform against Baalism, she would’ve caused a stink (and the Bible records no such domestic disturbances).
The story of Jehoram’s reign is really the story of Elisha; though the king shows up now and again, he plays a bit part compared to the prophet of God. The narrative of Jehoram’s reign can be approached as a chiasm:
A) War (with Moab)
B) The Elisha Chronicles
C) War (with Aram)
The bulk of Jehoram’s reign is occupied by a hodgepodge of events from Elisha’s ministry, and Elisha has key roles to play in the war with Moab (which was addressed in the earlier chapter on Jehoshaphat of Judah) and Aram.
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| the prophet Elisha |
The prophet Elisha was Elijah's successor, and the Bible puts him on the same level as his master: both prophets crossed the Jordan River on dry land (echoing both Moses’ crossing of the Red Sea and Joshua’s crossing of the Jordan), both miraculously provided for hard-pressed widows, and both raised dead boys back to life. This isn’t to say, however, that they were one and the same, as their dissimilarities are more poignant than their similarities. Elijah chose a semi-ascetic, nomadic lifestyle whereas Elisha spent much of his time in the cities, rubbing shoulders with kings and politicians; Elijah came from a backwater frontier town whereas Elisha came from a wealthy family with commercial interests; Elijah was moody and over-the-top whereas Elisha was self-controlled and even-tempered. Historian Cyrus H. Gordan notes, “If we strip the narratives about Elisha of their anecdotes, he appears as an important historic personage: a maker of kings and a man who intervened boldly, at psychological moments, in international affairs.” Elisha’s ministry began in Jehoram’s early years after Elijah was translated into heaven on the divine chariot of Yahweh. His ministry continued through the reigns of Jehu and Jehoahaz, and he died sometime while Joash ruled in Judah. His half-century ministry stretched from around 850 to 800 BC.
The Bible records eighteen separate episodes involving Elisha whereas Elijah’s ministry can be found mainly in three chapters (1 Kings 17-19); most of the ‘Elisha Chronicles’ are presented as vignettes, or short episodes that stand on their own without fitting into larger contexts (they can be viewed as ‘snapshots’ of his ministry). Elijah spearheaded the growth of prophetic schools in northern Israel, particularly in the towns of Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho, and Elisha took over after his departure. Elisha paid extreme attention to these prophetic schools as if they were a clutch of his own children; he expanded the schools and is frequently seen in the company of his students (called ‘sons of the prophets’). Though Elijah’s ministry had been filled with dramatic contests between Yahweh and Baal, Elisha’s ministry was geared towards reformation from the inside out: these prophetic schools, and the prophets they produced, would be instrumental in changing the social and religious fabric of apostatized Israel. Elisha knew firsthand that no matter how dramatic the demonstrations of God’s power, it would take a movement that struck at peoples’ spirits to turn the country around. Prophets of Yahweh who could show Israel the error of her ways and lead her into truth were desperately required in a land gripped in the fierce talons of the Baal-Melqart cult.
Shortly after Elijah's translation into heaven, Elisha prepared to leave Jericho to visit the major prophetic schools Elijah had sponsored to break the news: the old prophet was gone and a new one was in town. Before he could depart, however, Jericho’s town leaders put him to the test: a bitter spring of water near Jericho gushed its acrid waters across the plain to the Jordan River, and any ground the water touched was made infertile. Even worse, any cattle that drank the bitter water couldn’t carry calves to term. Recent hydrological surveys have shown certain springs in the vicinity of Jericho to be radioactive, and laboratory tests have shown that such waters can cause sterility. Some scholars speculate that the spring referred to here is the so-called Spring of the Sultan near Jericho’s ancient ruins. Elisha ordered the town’s leaders to bring him a new bowl with salt in it; they did, and he went to the bitter spring, threw the salt into it, and proclaimed that Yahweh had purified the water; it would no longer cause death or infertility (the biblical author adds that the water has remained pure ever since). Skeptics can find no scientific reason the salt would purify bitter water, and that’s the point: this was proof that Elisha was the new Elijah.
Elisha left Jericho and began the twelve mile trip to Bethel to alert the school of prophets there of the new change in operations. Word of Elijah’s translation to heaven traveled ahead of him, and a group of at least fifty ‘boys’ from the town met him en route. Mocking him with hoots and jeers, they shouted, ‘Go up, baldy! Go up!’ Some English translations have erroneously identified these mockers as children or young boys; the Hebrew word used, however, can refer to ‘young adults’ as we understand them (in the late teens) or to immature men (in 1 Kings 3.7 the term is used for Solomon, who was inexperienced; and Joshua’s spies – whom we would consider adults – were identified by the same term). It’s probable that the text isn’t showcasing their age as much as it’s highlighting their immaturity; it’s best to picture these ruffians as hot-blooded young men, enraptured by Baalism or the Golden Calf worship of their hometown, contemptuous of God, spitting derogatory terms at Elisha, and mocking God’s representative on earth. They encouraged him to ‘go up’ to join Elijah in heaven; the people of Bethel wanted no part of him! After enduring the abuse for a while, Elisha turned and glowered at them, and he cursed them in the name of Yahweh (under Mosaic Law, God’s ministers were required to ‘curse’ the disobedient; he may have said something like, ‘May evil and calamity befall you!’). At those words two bears came out of the woods and ‘mauled’ forty-two of them. Bears still lived in the forested regions of Israel, typically in the hilly wooded regions of the central hill country, and the route from Jericho to Bethel passed through wooded areas where such bears lived. Some people believe that the bears killed the ruffians; however, the Bible simply states that the bears injured them, and it doesn’t state the extent of these injuries. The main point is that Yahweh taught these rogues a lesson and vindicated his prophet. The bloodied mockers ran panic-stricken back to Bethel with a terrifying story that would serve as an unforgettable lesson to a new generation being raised in one of the centers of Israel’s Golden Calf worship. One can only imagine the reception Elisha received when he strode through Bethel’s city gate!
The prophet’s itinerary took him next to Mount Carmel seventy-five miles away. It may be that a prophetic school had been established on the mountain’s slopes (a fitting place, given what occurred there), or perhaps Elisha meant to commemorate Yahweh’s victory over Baal. After Mount Carmel he traveled forty miles to Samaria, the capital of Israel. It was at this point that he snuck into the baggage train of Jehoram’s army and accompanied Israel’s armed forces on their Moabite Campaign. Some time after returning to Samaria, a widow of a member of the city’s group of prophets approached Elisha and said that her husband had feared Yahweh but had died. Her husband had been in debt, and a creditor had knocked on her door and threatened to take her two sons as slaves if she couldn’t fork up the money to pay off the debt (Mosaic Law allowed a creditor to place a debtor and his children into slavery to work off a debt [Exodus 21.2-4; Lev 25.10]; since the debtor was dead, the creditor would satisfy himself with enslaving his sons). Elisha asked her what she had in her house; she said she had a flask of oil. He instructed her to borrow as many empty jars as she could from friends and neighbors and to go into her house with her sons and shut the door behind her. She was to pour olive oil from her flask into the jars, setting each one aside when it was filled. She followed his instructions to the letter, and soon every container was filled to the brim! She was able to sell the oil to pay her debts, and enough was left over to provide for her and her sons. This episode echoes Elijah’s dealings with the widow of Zerapheth; just as God provided for the Phoenician widow, so he provided for the Israelite widow. This story highlights not only Yahweh’s power but the connection between Elijah and Elisha.
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