Scorpion Whips + Golden Calves

Kings 1 12:14

^{The March of Folly, the important and popular book by American Pulitzer winning historian Barbara W.Tuchman begins with the story of Solomon’s son - the king who lost the kingdom.  Here’s how she unpacks the breathless dramas of today’s chapter:} 

^{“Rehoboam, King of Israel, son of King Solomon, succeeded his father at the age of 41 in approximately 930 B.C. Without loss of time, the new King committed the act of folly that was to divide his nation and lose forever its ten northern tribes, collectively called Israel. Among them were many who were disaffected by heavy taxation in the form of forced labor imposed under King Solomon, and had already in his reign made an effort to secede. They had gathered around one of Solomon’s generals, Jeroboam, “a mighty man of valor,” who undertook to lead them into revolt upon a prophecy that he would inherit rule of the ten tribes afterward. The Lord, speaking through the voice of a certain Ahijah the Shilonite, played a part in this affair, but his role then and later is obscure and seems to have been inserted by narrators who felt the Almighty’s hand had to be present. Acknowledged King without question by the two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin, Rehoboam, clearly aware of unrest in Israel, traveled at once to Shechem, center of the north, to obtain the people’s allegiance. He was met instead by a delegation of Israel’s representatives who demanded that he lighten the heavy yoke of labor put upon them by his father and said that if he did so they would serve him as loyal subjects. Among the delegates was Jeroboam who had hurriedly been sent from his forced exile in Egypt as soon as King Solomon died, and whose presence must certainly have warned Rehoboam that he faced a critical situation. Temporizing, Rehoboam asked the delegation to depart and return after three days for his reply. Meanwhile he consulted with the old men of his father’s council, who advised him to accede to the people’s demand, and told him that if he would act graciously and “speak good words to them they will be thy servants forever.” With the first sensation of sovereignty heating his blood, Rehoboam found this advice too tame and turned to the “young men that were grown up with him.” They knew his disposition and, like counselors of any time who wish to consolidate their position in the “Oval Office,” gave advice they knew would be palatable. He should make no concessions but tell the people outright that his rule would be not lighter but heavier than his father’s. They composed for him the famous words that could be any despot’s slogan:} 

^{וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר אֲלֵיהֶ֗ם כַּעֲצַ֤ת הַיְלָדִים֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר אָבִי֙ הִכְבִּ֣יד אֶֽת־עֻלְּכֶ֔ם וַאֲנִ֖י אֹסִ֣יף עַֽל־עֻלְּכֶ֑ם אָבִ֗י יִסַּ֤ר אֶתְכֶם֙ בַּשּׁוֹטִ֔ים וַאֲנִ֕י אֲיַסֵּ֥ר אֶתְכֶ֖ם בָּעַקְרַבִּֽים׃}

^{He spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the children, and said, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I will flog you with scorpions.”}

^{Kings 1 12:14}

^{”Delighted with this ferocious formula, Rehoboam faced the delegation when it returned on the third day and addressed them “roughly,” word for word as the young men had suggested. That his subjects might not be prepared to accept this reply meekly seems not to have occurred to Rehoboam beforehand. Not without reason he earned in Hebrew history the designation “ample in folly.” Instantly—so instantly as to suggest that they had previously decided upon their course of action in case of a negative reply—the men of Israel announced their secession from the House of David with the battle cry “To your tents, O Israel! See to your own house, David!”} 

^{Rehoboam took the most provocative action possible in the circumstances. Calling upon the very man who represented the hated yoke, Adoram, the commander or overseer of the forced labor tribute, he ordered him, apparently without providing supporting forces, to establish his authority. The people stoned Adoram to death, upon which the rash and foolish King speedily summoned his chariot and fled to Jerusalem, where he summoned all the warriors of Judah and Benjamin for war to reunite the nation. At the same time, the people of Israel appointed Jeroboam their King.} 

^{He reigned for twenty-two years and Rehoboam for seventeen, “and there was war between them all their days.” The protracted struggle weakened both states, encouraged the vassal lands conquered by David east of the Jordan—Moab, Edom, Ammon and others—to regain their independence and opened the way to invasion by Egypt.} 

^{The twelve tribes were never reunited. Torn by their conflict, the two states could not maintain the proud empire established by David and Solomon, which had extended from northern Syria to the borders of Egypt with dominion over the international caravan routes and access to foreign trade through the Red Sea. Reduced and divided, they were less able to withstand aggression by their neighbors... The alternative course that Rehoboam might have taken, advised by the elders and so lightly rejected, exacted a long revenge that has left its mark for 2800 years.”}

^{Tuchman’s focus on this tragic moment in the history of the tribes of Israel echoes loudly as Israel once again is on the brink of civil war.  There are similar tensions.}

^{This story, and this chapter, is clearly told from the perspective of the Southern states that favored the House of David - even as its latest king exhibits wild hubris and folly on an extraordinary scale. It’s as much as about the tax and unequal burden as it is about religious differences, linked to power and territorial claims.} 

^{The rest of the chapter focuses on the religious reforms - created by Jeroboam, the new king of the north. He builds new altars in the old ritual sites of the North, nominates a priestly sect that is not from the tribe of Levi, erects two golden calves - one in the sacred shrine at the southern border of his new kingdom and one in the northern temple, and announces a new holiday: The full moon of Harvest on the Eighth Month of the year.  That’s quite a lot of transformation. But he’s actually restoring the old, long denied, sacred space and times of ancient Israel - the northern tribes. What the Bible claims are evil sins may actually be ritual return to the old days - before David and the tribe of Judah took over and the Jerusalem temple was the only legitimate religious center. The new harvest holiday is the same as the one celebrated in Judah on the full moon of the seventh month - and both are about the fall harvest. But it makes sense for the northern tribes, with their different climate and produce to celebrate its harvest a month later than the more arid south. As for the calves -- they may have been the origin for the Golden Calf story later inserted into the Torah. Or vice versa - by naming them for the ‘god that let us from Egypt’ Jeroboam’s reclaiming of Israelite religion is in clear defiance of Jerusalem.}

^{While the King of the South is guilty of folly, clueless as to handling conflict and relying on bad advice, it may be that the King of the North proposed radical changes that were too soon and went a bit too far?} 

^{The Bible has its own opinion, and we should look at it with careful eyes.} 

^{Either way, the war continues. We don’t know if the King of the South managed to use scorpions and other forms of totalitarian threats, but the damage was already done.} 

^{The tribes and their territories will never again be one.  If they ever even were.} 

Image: 1650 Bible, Germany: The Two Golden Calves of Israel

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