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1 results

  • 2 - Royal Illness in the Story Cycles of Elijah and Elisha

  • from Part I - The Failure of Kingship and the Demise of the Nation
  • Isabel Cranz, University of Pennsylvania
  • Book:
    Royal Illness and Kingship Ideology in the Hebrew Bible
    Published online:
    19 November 2020
    Print publication:
    22 October 2020, pp 60-83

  • Summary

    This chapter shows how the story-cycles of Elijah and Elisha use royal illness to provide a Yahwistic perspective for the political and cultic crises of the ninth century. In 1 Kgs 22:52–2 Kgs 1, Elijah uses Ahaziah’s illness as an opportunity to emphasize the superiority of Yahweh as the national god of Israel. In a similar vein, we witness in 2 Kgs 8:7–15, how Elisha uses the illness and death of Ben-Hadad to anticipate the disastrous effects of Hazael’s reign, which leads to a temporary period of hardship for the Israelites and can be interpreted as a punishment for Baal-worship. In both instances the oracles associate the king’s illness and premature death with the cultic misconduct of dynasties and people.