Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ISRAEL

(Heb. yiśrāʾēl)

Detail of Merenptah (“Israel”) stela containing the name Israel (ca. 1210-1207 b.c.e.) (Service de Musées, Cairo)

Name

The name “Israel” occurs first in Gen. 32:28[MT 29]. The patriarch Jacob engages in a nocturnal wrestling match with a mysterious adversary whom Jacob first takes to be a man, but ultimately declares to have been God (Gen. 32:24, 30[25, 31]). The adversary finally asks to be released from Jacob’s hold, but Jacob will only comply if his opponent first blesses him. The adversary renames Jacob and blesses him, explaining that he is now Israel (yiśrāʾēl), because he has striven (śārîṯā) with God and with men and has prevailed. Because the verb śārâ appears only here and when this event is recalled in Hos. 12:3-4(4-5), its meaning must be derived from the context. While most scholars render the verb “strive,” “struggle,” or “fight,” some believe the root to be śrr, “to have dominion,” and translate “prove himself ruler.” One tradition divides the consonants and vocalizes śār ʾaṯā, rendering “you are a prince (śar) [with God]” (Gen. Rab. 78:3). While Hebrew usage would dictate that “Israel” means “God fights,” the story in Gen. 32 takes Jacob as the subject, and understands the meaning to be “He who fights with God.” Jacob’s “fighting with men” began with his intrauterine clashes with his twin Esau (Gen. 25:22), and his appropriation of Esau’s birthright and blessing, actions which showed the aptness of his name Jacob (“heel-grabber,” “supplanter,” “deceiver”; 27:35-36; cf. 25:26). When Hosea recalls the wrestling match long after Israel has become a nation, it is to condemn Jacob/Israel’s history of disobedience and fighting with God (cf. Jer. 9:4-6[3-5]). This idea of a God bestowing such a contentious name on a nation is unprecedented.

While Israel is initially a personal name, its future as the name of a people, a nation, and a monarchy is announced immediately after God reiterates the name change. In Gen. 35:11 God tells Jacob that a nation, a company of nations (tribes?), and kings will come from him, recalling his earlier promises to Abraham and Sarah when their names were changed (17:5-6, 16; cf. 12:2). In later books Israel can denote the people (sometimes as “the children of Israel” or the “house of Israel”), the nation under the United Monarchy, the northern kingdom of Israel during the Divided Monarchy, and, in the postmonarchic period, the exiles in Babylon and the purified community of Yahweh’s followers. Israel can also refer to the southern kingdom of Judah before the fall of the northern kingdom (e.g., Isa. 1:3; Mic. 1:14, 15), or even to both kingdoms (“the two houses of Israel”; Isa. 8:14). Finally, Israel is a territorial name, as in the “land of Israel” (1 Sam. 13:19) and the “soil of Israel” (Ezek. 7:2).

Biblical Concept

Ironically, Israel is first called a people by the pharaoh who is oppressing them. The Egyptian king does so precisely because the 70 descendants of Jacob/Israel have miraculously grown into a people who “are too many and too mighty for us” (Exod. 1:9; cf. vv. 5-6). God tells Moses that his task is to bring “my people, the Israelites” out of Egypt (Exod. 3:10). From the time Yahweh delivers his people, he stresses that the identity and role of Israel will be unique and distinctive. Because of the oath he swore to the patriarchs and his love for the people, God has chosen Israel to be his treasured possession (Exod. 19:5; Deut. 7:6-8) and his inheritance (Exod. 34:9; Deut. 4:20; 1 Kgs. 8:53). Israel is to become a “priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Exod. 19:6) and a people holy to the Lord (Deut. 7:6). The intimacy of God’s relationship with Israel is signaled by the fact that Israel is at times referred to as God’s firstborn son (Exod. 4:22), a baby whom God nurtured and raised (Deut. 32:8-14; Ezek. 16:3-7), and God’s bride (Jer. 2:2; 31:32; cf. Hos. 2:14-15[16-17]).

With Israel’s special status comes the obligation to obey the stipulations of the covenant Yahweh makes with Israel at Sinai (Exod. 19–23; Deut. 5–26). While no other great nation has a god so near to them, or a set of laws as righteous as those which God gave to Israel, those laws must be obeyed if Israel is not to perish from the land and be scattered among the peoples (Deut. 4:7-9, 23-40). When the Israelites of the northern kingdom disobey, the Lord tells them that they are not distinctive or special. They are like the Ethiopians to God; moreover, God has brought the Philistines and Arameans up from other lands, just as he led Israel from Egypt (Amos 9:7). When God is angry with his promiscuous “wife” Israel (Hos. 1:2; cf. Ezek. 16), he tells Hosea to marry a promiscuous woman, and then instructs him to name their third child “Not my people” (Hos. 1:2, 8-9). Nevertheless, Hosea immediately predicts a time when the people will no longer be told “You are not my people,” and be told instead “You are the children of the living God” (Hos. 1:10-11[2:1-2]).

After Israel and Judah cease to exist as monarchical states, “Israel” has several different meanings. When Ezekiel addresses the “children of Israel” (Ezek. 2:3) or, more often, “the house of Israel” (3:1), he has in mind the Judean exiles in Babylon and the people in Jerusalem — all the people whose fathers were chosen by Yahweh and brought out of Egypt (20:4-10) — even though the prophet’s immediate audience is the exiles in Babylon. While Deutero-Isaiah also refers to the people’s past (e.g., Isa. 43:1, 21, 27), his audience is primarily the community in exile (e.g., 42:24; 43:28). Deutero-Isaiah also points to a purified concept of Israel, as when he quotes Yahweh telling the servant that he is being designated the “Israel in whom I will be glorified” (Isa. 49:3), the Israel which will be given as “a light unto the nations” (v. 6).

Late historical books also show that “Israel” can be used in a more or less inclusive sense. When Chronicles retells the history of the people, the patriarch Jacob is consistently called Israel (e.g., 1 Chr. 1:34). While the members of the northern kingdom are portrayed as having forsaken the Lord (e.g., 2 Chr. 13:11), they remain “children of Israel” and Yahweh is still the God of their fathers (v. 12). They need only to repent and accept the Jerusalem cult and the Davidic dynasty, if they want to be part of the faith community of Israel (e.g., 2 Chr. 7:14). In Ezra-Nehemiah, however, the focus is on that community which is deemed the only legitimate representative of Yahweh’s Israel (Ezra 1:5; 9:1-2; 10:1-8). The distinctiveness which had been Israel’s defining trait continues even into the Persian setting of the book of Esther, when Haman’s hatred of his Benjaminite rival Mordecai leads him to denounce the Jews as that people “whose laws are different from those of every other people” (Esth. 3:8).

After Deutero-Isaiah and Ezra, many attempts were made to define the true Israel. Paul speaks of Christians as the true “Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16). According to 1 Pet. 2:9-10, Christians are now “God’s own people,” the chosen race, royal priesthood, and holy nation (cf. Exod. 19:5-6). The process of identifying Israel continues in postbiblical times, as when the Puritans saw themselves as latter-day Israelites fleeing Pharaoh George III of England for “God’s American Israel.”

Biblical Account of History

Wilderness to United Monarchy

After the people of Israel are delivered from slavery in Egypt and commit themselves to Yahweh’s covenant and the prospect of becoming a holy nation, they balk at the prospect of confronting the gigantic Canaanites, preferring to return to Egypt (Num. 14:2-4). As punishment for putting the Lord “to the test these ten times” (14:22), they are sentenced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years, until the first generation of ex-slaves is killed off. When most of the old generation has died off, the Israelites are challenged by Canaanite and Amorite forces. In both cases, it is Israel, not Moses, who is said to respond to the crisis and to defeat the enemy (Num. 21:1-3, 21-31); in fact, when Israel is victorious over the Amorite Sihon, no action is said to be taken by either Moses or God (21:21, 24, 25).

The Israelites finally conquer Canaan under Joshua, after Moses’ death. Some of the targeted indigenous peoples are allowed to remain in order to punish the Israelites for breaking the covenant with God (Judg. 2:2-3; cf. vv. 20-21) or to “test Israel” (2:22-23; 3:1-4). Repeatedly, a nation oppresses Israel, and God responds to the people’s distress by sending them a “judge” as a deliverer. However, whenever a judge died, the people would go back to worshipping other gods and the cycle would begin again (Judg. 2:15-19). Only to avenge the outrage committed against the Levite’s concubine do all the tribes of Israel act together “as one man” (Judg. 20:1, 8, 11). Ironically, their united action is not against a foreign nation, but their brother tribe of Benjamin, which is almost wiped out in the ensuing (and grotesque) civil war.

The period of the judges comes to an end after Saul is appointed by the prophet/judge Samuel as the first king of Israel and ruler over Yahweh’s “inheritance” (1 Sam. 10:1; 13:13-15; cf. 9:16-17). In spite of his military victories over the other nations (1 Sam. 14:47-48), Saul is quickly rejected by Samuel and then by Yahweh. Nevertheless, he remains on the throne even after David has been anointed as the next king. After Saul’s death, David becomes king, initially reigning over Judah, with his capital in Hebron. Then all the tribes of Israel come to David and anoint him king over Israel. From his new capital of Jerusalem, David rules over both Israel and Judah for 33 years (2 Sam. 5:1-5). Nevertheless, the northern and southern tribes are never totally united, a fact which becomes evident during and after the civil war between David and his son Absalom (2 Sam. 15:6-12; 19:8-15, 41-43; 20:1-22). After much court intrigue in David’s last years, his son Solomon emerges as his successor (1 Kgs. 1–2). The narrative claims that Solomon not only rules over “all Israel” (1 Kgs. 4:1), but over “all the kingdoms from the river [the Euphrates] to the land of the Philistines and the border of Egypt” (4:21[5:1]; cf. 4:24[5:4]; 8:65), the same territory which God had promised to Abraham (Gen. 15:18). The other kingdoms enrich Solomon’s empire with great gifts and tribute. Although Solomon is depicted as a typical ancient Near Eastern monarch, blessed by his God with incredible wealth, prestige, and vast territory, there are also indications that his regime has overtaxed the people, depleted the treasury, and made “all Israel” participate in forced labor (1 Kgs. 5:13-17[27–31]; cf. 9:10-14). However, Judah may enjoy a special status, for when “all Israel” (1 Kgs. 4:7) is divided into 12 administrative tax districts, Judah is not explicitly included (cf. v. 19 MT).

Kingdom of Israel

After Solomon’s death and the ascension of his son Rehoboam to the throne, the northern tribes rebel against excessive taxation and oppression, with the rallying cry “To your tents, O Israel” (1 Kgs. 12:16; cf. 2 Sam. 20:1). It is at this point that Yahweh transforms united Israel into a divided monarchy composed of the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. He does so not because of Solomon’s tyrannical policies, but because Solomon introduced the worship of other gods into the kingdom through his many marriages with foreign women (presumably as part of international treaty-making; 1 Kgs. 11:1-13). God chooses Jeroboam to rule over the 10 northern tribes, leaving Judah and parts of Benjamin in the hands of the Davidic kings with whom Yahweh had made a covenant (1 Kgs. 11:13, 23-36; 12:21-23; cf. 2 Sam. 7:12-16). Jeroboam is also the choice of the northern tribes. However, because he fears that his people will switch their allegiance to Rehoboam when they go to offer sacrifices in the Jerusalem temple, and then return to assassinate him (1 Kgs. 12:26-27), Jeroboam challenges Jerusalem’s claim to be the only place where Yahweh can be legitimately worshipped (Deut. 12:13-27). He fabricates two golden calf images with which he inaugurates his new cult centers in Bethel and Dan, echoing the words of the idolatrous Israelites at Sinai (1 Kgs. 12:28; Exod. 32:4). For this, and for his other alterations in the cult, Jeroboam is condemned by Yahweh and the prophet Ahijah.

After the death of Jeroboam and his sons, the government of the kingdom of Israel becomes highly unstable. Seven kings are assassinated. Nevertheless, the northern kingdom is superior to Judah in several respects: size, strategic location along international trade and communication routes, and military strength (cf. 1 Kgs. 22:4; 2 Kgs. 14:12). The two kingdoms often engaged in hostilities with one another (1 Kgs. 14:30; 15:16-22; 2 Kgs. 14:8-14; 16:5-9), sometimes forming alliances with foreign powers to gain the advantage over the other.

Of all the kings of Israel, only two built dynasties of any duration or significance. The first is the house of Omri. The Bible says relatively little about this powerful king, who built Samaria as his new capital (“Samaria” is also another name for the northern kingdom; 1 Kgs. 13:32; 2 Kgs. 17:24). Much more is said about Omri’s son Ahab and his Sidonian wife Jezebel, who probably became Ahab’s wife as part of a treaty. Hostilities between Israel and Judah temporarily cease when the two kingdoms are linked by the marriage of Ahab’s daughter (or sister) Athaliah and the Judean king Jehoram (2 Kgs. 8:18, 26). Omride rule comes to an end after ca. 40 years (ca. 885-843) when God anoints Jehu as king and commissions him to eradicate the entire “house of Ahab” (2 Kgs. 9:6-10). The five kings of the Jehu dynasty rule for approximately a century (ca. 843-745). While God allows the Arameans to “cut off” Israelite territory during Jehu’s reign (2 Kgs. 10:32), Jeroboam II, Jehu’s most powerful descendant, restores the territory of Israel to the boundaries established by Solomon (14:25).

After Jeroboam’s son Zechariah is assassinated after only six months on the throne, the Jehu dynasty ends. The kingship again becomes unstable and Israel goes into rapid decline. In addition, Israel has to cope with the powerful Aramean king Rezin, and the greater threat posed by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III. To remain on the throne, King Menahem voluntarily pays tribute to Tiglath-pileser (“Pul”; 2 Kgs. 15:19-20). Later, during Pekah’s reign, Tiglath-pileser captures a number of Israelite cities, and deports the people to Assyria (2 Kgs. 15:29). Pekah then joins Rezin of Aram against Assyria, using military power to force Judah to join their coalition. The Judean king Ahaz successfully resists the attack, with Tiglath-pileser’s help (2 Kgs. 16:5-9). Tiglath-pileser kills Rezin, while Pekah is assassinated by Hoshea, the last king of the rump state of Israel (16:9; 15:30). The new Assyrian king Shalmaneser V marches against Hoshea, who at first submits and becomes an Assyrian vassal, but later rebels and refuses to pay, vainly appealing for help from Egypt (2 Kgs. 17:3-4). Samaria is then besieged for three years, and falls in 722, shortly before (or after) the death of Shalmaneser and the ascension of Sargon II (17:5; 18:9-10). “Israel” is deported to Assyria (17:6) and replaced by people brought to the new Assyrian province of Samaria from Babylon and other locations (v. 24).

Ironically, while Israel had always defined itself in terms of its distinctiveness as a people and nation, the kingdom of Israel falls to a power whose resettlement policy is designed to weaken the distinctive ethnic and political identities of conquered nations. While almost all the northern kings had been condemned for failing to turn from the sins of Jeroboam, the narrator of 2 Kgs. 17:7-23 finds the primary cause of Israel’s fall to be the sinfulness and idolatry of the “children of Israel” (v. 20), although Davidic kings remain on the Judahite throne for another century and a half, when Judah falls to the Babylonians (587/586).

Extrabiblical Evidence and Theories

The earliest extant reference to Israel outside the Bible is in the stela of Pharaoh Merneptah’s fifth year, ca. 1210-1207. In l. 27 we are told that “Israel is laid waste; his seed is not.” A sign identifies “Israel” as a people, not a territory, and the context suggests that this people is located in Palestine. Little more can be gleaned from this tantalizing inscription, which, at present, is the only extrabiblical reference to Israel prior to the mid-9th century. Israel’s demise is also announced in one of the earliest 9th-century texts, the inscription of the Moabite king Mesha (ca. 840), in which he declares that “Israel has perished forever.” Mesha concedes that Moab had been humbled by “Omri, king of Israel,” but insists that he triumphed during the reign of Omri’s son. Ahab “the Israelite” ([mat] Sir-ʾi-la-ai) is also mentioned in the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III’s monolith inscription, as a participant in the battle of Qarqar (853). Elsewhere, Shalmaneser III refers to Jehu as “son of Omri,” even though it was Jehu who put an end to the Omride dynasty, according to 2 Kgs. 9-10. Later, Adad-nirari III uses “house of Omri” (mat ³-um-ri) to refer to Israel. From this point on, extrabiblical references to the kings of Israel and Judah become more frequent and extensive.

Archaeologists have not yet located any direct extrabiblical references to the patriarchs, Moses, the Exodus and Conquest, the judges, or any king of Israel prior to Omri, with the possible exception of David. Some (but not all) scholars read the name David in the Mesha inscription (l. 12 and/or a reconstructed l. 31), and “the house of David” in a fragmentary Aramaic inscription from Tel Dan (9th or 8th century).

While the Bible stresses the distinctiveness of the Israelites, many archaeologists have concluded that nothing distinctively “Israelite” has so far been found in the material culture of the groups who settled in the highlands of Palestine during the Iron I period (1200-1000). Many argue that archaeological evidence does not support the claim that the Israelites entered and occupied Canaan by means of military conquest. Instead, some historians have suggested that the Israelite settlement occurred through a process of peaceful infiltration or an internal peasant revolt. Others contend that the existing evidence does not support these theories either. A recent tendency has been to understand the collapse of Late Bronze Age urban culture in Palestine, and increased village settlement in the hill country during Iron I, as part of a larger process of upheaval throughout the Eastern Mediterranean during the Late Bronze Age (1550-1200/1150). This process, which may have been triggered by environmental, economic, and political factors (including drought and famine), led to social and political realignments and a great increase in migration throughout the area. According to this model, the Iron I population of Canaan included pastoral groups and uprooted local groups, as well as recent arrivals to the region. Proponents of this view conclude that one cannot distinguish ethnic affiliations and national identities in Canaan until the late 11th century, when Israel became a political entity.

Bibliography. G. W. Ahlström, Who Were the Israelites? (Winona Lake, 1986); P. R. Davies, In Search of “Ancient Israel.” JSOTSup 148 (Sheffield, 1992); W. G. Dever, Recent Archaeological Discoveries and Biblical Research (Seattle, 1990); I. Finkelstein and N. Naʾaman, eds., From Nomadism to Monarchy: Archaeological and Historical Aspects of Early Israel (Washington, 1994); J. M. Miller and J. H. Hayes, A History of Ancient Israel and Judah (Philadelphia, 1986); K. W. Whitelam, “The Identity of Early Israel,” JSOT 63 (1994): 57-87.

Stuart Lasine

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

ISRAEL

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)