An Atheist Explores the Bible Part 81: You reinstate the Temple, sacrifice a load of animals, and the Assyrians still conquer you. Tough life (2 Chronicles 31-26)

2 Chronicles 31-36
You reinstate the Temple, sacrifice a load of animals, and the Assyrians still conquer you. Tough life.

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 31

“And Hezekiah appointed the courses of the priests and the Levites after their courses, every man according to his service, the priests and Levites for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, to minister, and to give thanks, and to praise in the gates of the tents of the LORD.”

This chapter continues Hezekiah’s restoration of orthodox worship, and mainly concerns itself with him appointing officers to the temple from amongst the Levites. The people bring so many offerings in tithe that it takes several months to collect (and I’m happy to see the word “oblation” used here – it’s one of those religious terms that I just love the sound of). The chapter seems to imply that the Levites had stopped passing on religious offices via their sons, and that under Hezekiah everyone is restored to his proper role. I suppose if the Yahweh worship has slipped then there wouldn’t have been as much need for the Levites as before, so this makes sense. The only other thing of note is that one of the main priests is Azariah (of the house of Zadok), a name that has also been used for kings of Israel and Judah, just to add to confusion.

2 Chronicles 32

“After these things, and the establishment thereof, Sennacherib king of Assyria came, and entered into Judah, and encamped against the fenced cities, and thought to win them for himself.”

The Assyrians come to make war on Jerusalem, but Hezekiah builds up his forces and “stops the waters of the fountains” so that the Assyrians have no water. By “fountains” perhaps we can read wells or springs – certainly he dams a brook. Anyway the envoys of Sennacherib try to demoralise the Israelites by calling out that the gods of all the other people that the Assyrians have conquered didn’t save them, and the God of Israel will be no different.

However, they are wrong and get their comeuppance, although what actually happens is a little vague. An angel “cuts off” the mighty men of valour of the Assyrians (kills them, I suppose), and then “he” (Sennacherib?) returns home shame-faced where he is slain with a sword by “they that came forth of his own bowels”, so his children? I would assume that they came from his “loins”, not his “bowels”, in KJV language. Maybe a subtle insult to the Assyrian princes, implying that they are all little turds? The verse is quote oblique in its use of language, but the end result is clear – the Assyrians lose without even entering battle.

The rest of the chapter continues to the end of Hezekiah’s life. He gets tribute, builds an aqueduct (another innovation, it would seem) and generally does quite well, although once again the vagueness of the writing in this particular chapter gets in the way of clarity – Hezekiah becomes ill and prays to God to help him. God does, but then Hezekiah is sufficiently grateful so God is angry with him but then not that angry as Hezekiah is humble. Or something like that – net result, not a lot of change and it barely seems worth including.

2 Chronicles 33

“And he caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times, and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, and dealt with a familiar spirit, and with wizards: he wrought much evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.”

Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, takes the throne at the age of twelve but he returns to idol worship and various magical practices given in the quote above, including setting up idols to other gods within the temple itself. He is captured by the Assyrians, whereupon he repents. After gaining his freedom he restores the temples of God to their proper status, but his people continue Baal worship (I very much suspect it never went away entirely under Hezekiah). When he dies, his son Amon becomes king but he unashamedly worships Baal and is killed by his servants, who themselves are killed by loyal subjects who then put Amon’s son Josiah on the throne.

2 Chronicles 34

“For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father: and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, and the groves, and the carved images, and the molten images.”

Josiah is another restoration king, who first destroys all the idols and groves associated with the Baalim, before setting the Levites to rebuilding the temple. What makes this slightly different from similar reigns in previous chapters is that Hilkiah the priest finds an old book of Mosaic law, and Josiah realises that all the evils that have happened to Israel and Judah are because they have not kept the laws properly.

Huldah the prophetess confirms this, but also states that because Josiah is repentant for this his reign will be peaceful and he will be spared the punishment due to the people.

2 Chronicles 35

“Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.”

Largely this chapter concerns itself with the Passover celebration ordered by Josiah, and it is mainly a description of the sacrifices made (presumably to reinforce the correct methodology) and the music made. The chapter ends with king Necho of Egypt passing through with his army to fight “Carchemish” – a person or city is not clear, but it must be Assyrian or Babylonian as he or it is given as being by the Euphrates. Josiah goes out to meet him but Necho tells him to stand aside of a private quarrel. Josiah doesn’t, mixes it up with the Egyptians and gets killed by an arrow for his troubles. Probably should have left them to it, Josiah.

2 Chronicles 36

“And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia:”

Things go rapidly downhill for the people of Judah after this. Josiah’s son, Jehoahaz, is king for three months before Necho carries him off as hostage and sets up Jehoiakim as a puppet king. Jehoiakim performs “abominations” and manages to be king for eleven years before Nabuchednezzar of Babylon carries him away, leaving Jehoiachin to rule. He only manages three months before Nabuchadnezzar takes him as well. Jehoiachin “does evil” before God, but he’s only eight years old, how culpable can he be?

Anyway, Zedekiah is set up as a puppet of Babylon, but he not only doesn’t listen to Jeremiah the prophet about correct worship, but also turns against his master, the Babylonians. Prophets try to warn the people but they are ignored. The Babylonians (Chaldeeans) invade, kill all manner of people and plunder and burn Jerusalem and the temple. The Hebrews remain captives of Babylon until the time of Cyrus of Persia (which might be after 70 years, it’s not entirely clear here). Cyrus, for some reason, decides he’s going to build a temple for God in Jerusalem and calls for people to send forth. Why a presumably Zoroastrian Persian would be doing something for a Hebrew God, I don’t know, perhaps more will be explained in coming chapters, as the book ends at this turning point.

And that’s Second Chronicles. It was better, I think, than First Chronicles but still got bogged down in dense language sometimes. However, it was a rollicking ride of power struggles and the battle between rival religious ideologies – it’d be interesting how things would have turned out if Baal rather than Yahweh worship had prevailed.