The Recording
The Summary
Melakhim Bet Chapter 3
Yehoram, son of Ahav, rules over the Kingdom of Israel. He does not follow the path of Torah; however, he is not as wicked as his parents. In fact, he removes the monument to the Baal created by his father, indicating that he did not participate in the worship of foreign gods. Nevertheless, he did not dismantle the illicit sanctuaries erected by Yarovam.
Mesha, King of Moav, had been paying a very large annual tribute of wool to the King of Israel for many years. After the death of Ahav, however, he rebels. Yehoram enlists the support of his ally, Yehoshafat, King of Yehuda, to put down the rebellion. They partner with the king of Edom who joins their military operation. After a seven day journey through the wilderness of Edom, the kings’ water supply is depleted, human beings and animals are weakened, and chances of defeating Moav under these circumstances are bleak.
True to form, Yehoshafat, the righteous king of Israel, inquires whether there is a local prophet who can be consulted immediately. He is advised that Elisha dwells nearby, and the three kings visit with him. Elisha has harsh words for Yehoram whom he condemns as a hypocrite for seeking an audience with a prophet of Hashem. Elisha clarifies that he only consented to meet the kings out of deference to the upstanding Yehoshafat. Elisha summons a musician to play music and this enables him to enter the prophetic trance necessary for him to receive a communication from Hashem.
Elisha informs the kings that Hashem will provide them with an ample supply of water very soon; moreover, he assures them that they will vanquish Moav in the impending war. Elisha commands them to adopt a “slash and burn” approach to the battle, cutting down all trees, filling up all wells, and covering the ground with stones.
As Elisha predicted, the valley becomes filled with water that night (possibly this was due to a flash flood in the mountains that flowed down to them). The Moabites awaken in the morning and see that the liquid that has permeated the area has a reddish hue – possibly because of the sunlight shining on the water or the mud it had dredged up – and they infer from this that the “alliance” of the three kings fell apart and that the armies slaughtered one another.
Assuming that all that remained for them to do was to swoop down and collect the spoils left behind by the armies who had decimated one another, the men of Moav arrive at the Jewish camp unprepared for battle and are handily defeated. The Jewish armies follow the instructions of Elisha in carrying out a harsh and destructive campaign against Moav. Perceiving these setbacks, the King of Moav panics and orders his soldiers to confront and break through the ranks of the King of Edom, but they fail.
Ultimately, in an act of supreme desperation, the King of Moav ascends to the wall of his city and slaughters his first born son as a burnt offering. This unspeakable act spells the end of the conflict; the armies of Yehuda, Israel and Edom return to their respective homelands.
On the surface, there is a basic theological difficulty with this narrative. Yehoram has “repented” for at least some of the sins of his parents. At the very least, he does not worship the Baal. Why is he punished with having to handle the rebellion of Moav – something his parents, who were more wicked, never had to face – and the harsh rebuke of the prophet Elisha?
One possibility, mentioned by some of the modern commentators, is that Yehoram’s move away from idol worship occurred after this encounter with Elisha, not before. In fact, perhaps his experience in this war contributed to his change of heart. Although his removal of the monument to Baal is mentioned at the opening of the chapter, that is the signature form of the Book of Melakhim – briefly summarizing the whole career of each king before providing the details – and need not be interpreted as suggesting that the actions described happened first.
On the other hand, we may suggest that Yehoram had already engaged in some repentance prior to the battle against Moav. There are a couple of pieces of evidence that support this approach. First, we hear no objection from Yehoram when Yehoshafat suggests that Elisha be consulted; were Ahav the King of Israel, we would have expected him to register a protest here as he did when Mikayhu ben Yimla was summoned to the royal court. Second, we find that it is one of Yehoram’s own men who recommends Elisha as a local prophet of Hashem who could be contacted, indicating that Elisha was no stranger to the officers of Yehoram.
Therefore, it seems likely that Yehoram had already begun something of a shift of direction toward service of Hashem prior to the conflict with Moav. The emergence of the rebellion was not a punishment for past transgressions as much as it was an opportunity to deepen Yehoram’s understanding and awareness of Hashem and perhaps inspire him to implement even greater changes in the religious life of his kingdom.
Along these lines, we may speculate that Elisha offers his criticism precisely because he knows that Yehoram may take it to heart and benefit from it. Since Yehoram has been contemplating his relationship with Judaism and Torah, Elisha urges him to fully disengage with the “heritage” of his ancestors and embrace Hashem as his ally, Yehoshaphat, has done.
The miraculous provision of water and military triumph of this chapter are, as we will see in upcoming episodes, typical of the career of Elisha. Unlike the fiery and combative Eliyahu, Elisha is calm, conciliatory and positive. When Elisha is distraught, as when he interacts with Yehoram, he does not persist in that state; rather, he immediately calls for a musician to set his mind and heart at ease. Although the Jewish people during the time of Elisha were still steeped in idolatry and perhaps unworthy of divine intervention for many reasons, Elisha nonetheless predicts blessing and success for their armies so that they will perceive the hand of Hashem in their activities.
In other words, Elisha’s educational philosophy puts more emphasis on the proverbial “carrot” than the “stick”; his preference is for showcasing the kindness and compassion of Hashem to draw the people closer to Him rather than serving as a mouthpiece for God’s judgment, ceaselessly challenging the shallowness and stupidity of their idolatrous and immoral culture like his teacher, Eliyahu, had done.
The concluding verses of the chapter are the subject of much debate. What prompted Mesha’s human sacrifice, and how did this idolatrous action achieve its desired objective of putting an end to the battle? There are numerous approaches to this thorny issue. Some traditional commentators opine that the heinous deed of Mesha was a “reminder” of the corruption of the Jews themselves and an indictment of their own equally wicked practices; therefore, perhaps when they saw the behavior and identified with it, this caused the divine favor to withdraw from Israel.
Another interpretation suggests that Mesha did this to galvanize and raise the morale of his own troops who had been losing their motivation, and that it restored their faith in the cause and enabled them to fend off their enemies. In other words, it was effective for psychological, not theological reasons.
One classic interpretation found in the writings of the Geonim and cited by some of the traditional commentaries is that Mesha did not sacrifice his own son but the son of the king of Edom, who is mentioned in the previous verse. Consider that the act of human sacrifice is described immediately after the account of the failed attempt to break through the ranks of the King of Edom. Apparently, according to this view, the soldiers of Mesha succeeded in kidnapping the crown prince of Edom, and Mesha made a public spectacle of executing him as a sacrifice to the god of Moav.
This interpretation maintains that the consequence for the Jewish people was not the result of the Divine “recollection” of their sins nor the rise in the morale of the Moabite troops; rather, it was because their coalition with Edom fell apart in the wake of this incident. Just as he had hoped, Mesha was able to drive a wedge between Israel and Edom that weakened Israel considerably. The King of Edom was not likely to forgive the kings of Israel and Yehuda for enticing him to participate in a battle in which his first born son was slaughtered.
Looking at the chapter as a whole, we see how significant but complicated a role this Israel-Edom alliance plays. For example, the troops approach the battle by traversing the wilderness of Edom, testifying to the strategic benefit for Israel in this political friendship. The troops of Moav who believed that they saw blood filling the valley immediately assumed that it must have been as a result of the dissolution of the partnership between Edom and the Jews and the bloody civil war that must have ensued. This itself indicates that the agreement between them must have been assumed to be a precarious one.
Even on a literary level, when the text describes the water that fills the valley and appears red like blood, we cannot avoid being reminded of the origin of the name “Edom” as an appellation for Esav who was ruddy (“admoni”) and who desired the “red stuff”, the soup of his brother Yaaqov. Clearly, the text is going to great pains to highlight the remarkable teamwork and partnership between the descendants of Yaaqov and Esav, Israel and Edom; a partnership that is, in the final analysis, a tenuous and temporary one.