An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 78: Beware! The Cliffs of Ziz!! (2 Chronicles 16-20)

2 Chronicles 16-20
Beware! The Cliffs of Ziz!!

Welcome to another instalment of An Atheist Explores Sacred Texts (Bible version).

In this series I work my way chapter-by-chapter through the King James Bible, commenting on it from the point of view of the text as literature and mythology.
For more detail, see the introductory post http://bit.ly/2F8f9JT
For the online KJV I use, see here http://bit.ly/2m0zVUP

And now:

2 Chronicles 16

“And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah, and said unto him, Because thou hast relied on the king of Syria, and not relied on the LORD thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria escaped out of thine hand.”

While Asa is king of Judah, Baasha is king of Israel. Baasha begins to build fortifications at Ramah, to fence Asa in. Asa pays king Benhadad of Syria to attack Baasha, and between them the Syrians and Judah put Israel to flight and prevent the building of Ramah. However, Hanani the seer tells Asa that he should have relied on God to help him, and not the Syrians. Asa has Hanani put in jail, as well as oppressing “some of the people”, and then later gets some unspecified sickness of his feet (gout?) and dies. The text implies that this is partly because he asks physicians for help and not God, although doesn’t outright state it.

2 Chronicles 17

“Therefore the LORD stablished the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat presents; and he had riches and honour in abundance.”

Asa is succeeded by his son Jehoshaphat, who fortifies Judah, and also reinstates proper Yahweh worship, sending Levites out to the various cities in his realm to help with this. Thus (apparently) his reign is peaceful, with even the Philistines offering tribute, as well as the Arabians (first mention of them as a specific people). The rest of the chapter lists the captains of his armies.

2 Chronicles 18

“Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honour in abundance, and joined affinity with Ahab.”

This chapter is very similar to 1 Kings 22, even down to a lot of the phrasing. However, going back to compare them, it seems that Chronicles is told more from the point of view of Judah whereas Kings was more from the point of view of the Israelite kings. (And thus 1 Kings 22 is told from Ahab’s POV whereas this is from Jehoshaphat’s POV).

So Jehoshaphat and Ahab decide to ally against Syria, but they seek the approval of prophets before they do so. All prophets say yes, except for one, Micaiah. Ahab doesn’t want to hear from Micaiah because of old animosities, but the two kings hear him anyway. Micaiah says that the other prophets are driven by a lying spirit sent by God to persuade the two kings into a venture that will be disastrous for them (why God would do this is less clear in this chapter, especially as Jehoshaphat has gone out of his way to promote Yahweh worship).

Predictably, they listen to the advice that they want to hear, and go to war. Jehoshaphat is mistaken at first for Ahab, but escapes. Ahab, meanwhile, has sent out decoys but is killed by a stray arrow anyway.

2 Chronicles 19

“And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD.”

Okay, this short chapter does, kind of, address my question from the last chapter – why would God want to trick Jehoshaphat into a war that will go badly for him when the king has generally been a godly man. The suggestion from Jehu given above is because he allied with Ahab, who is not a godly man (although we get more on Ahab’s character in Kings than here in Chronicles). The rest of this chapter covers ground already gone – that Jehoshaphat sends out Levites to oversee correct worship.

2 Chronicles 20

“It came to pass after this also, that the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.”

A vast army of invaders marches on Judah. Jehoshaphat prays to God for help, who tells the king via the prophet Jahaziel to go out and watch whilst He destroys the invaders.

What actually happens in unclear. The people of Judah go out singing songs of praise. The invaders come via the wonderfully-named Cliffs of Ziz, where God “sets an ambushment” against them. The next verse suggests that the three different armies in the alliance end up fighting each other, to their complete mutual extermination. Jehoshaphat gains a lot of spoils, peace in his realm and after this display of power lots of orthodox worship (although shrines to Baalim still remain).

The chapter ends with a little flip, to show how God can grant failure as well as victory. Jehoshaphat allies with Ahaziah of Israel (presumably Ahab’s successor) who is a not seen as a worthy man. The two kings try to invade Tarshish by ship, but God wrecks their fleet.