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Chronicles, the North, and the Samarians
Ralph W. Klein
January 25, 2014
This essay started with my doubts about the historicity of Hezekiah’s Passover, recently
defended in a Yale dissertation, Hezekiah in History and Tradition, by Robb Andrew Young. It
ended up with a confirmation of those doubts, but, more importantly, a renewed understanding of
what happened in the Northern Kingdom after the Assyrian invasion and a renewed empathy
with the varied Judean authors who struggled to understand their northern neighbors, as a nation
and as a religious people. See the 2013 publication Jews and Samaritans by Gary N. Knoppers.
Let’s start with Hezekiah’s centralized Passover in 2 Chr 30:1-27. Scholars have long
puzzled about this event, primarily because the book of Kings says not a word about it, in
contrast with Josiah’s centralized Passover in 2 Kgs 23:21-23, which is included and
considerably expanded in 2 Chr 35:1-19. The text dealing with Josiah’s Passover in Kings
assures us that no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel,
even during all the days of kings of Israel and the kings of Judah (2 Kgs 23:22). Wouldn’t that
rule out a centralized Passover held a century earlier by Hezekiah? And is not this ascription of a
Passover to Hezekiah an attempt to raise the stature of Hezekiah to that of Josiah? In general, the
account of Hezekiah in Chronicles is longer than that of any of the other kings, except for David
and Solomon, the kings of the United Monarchy. In the Chronicler’s view, Ahaz was the worst
of the southern kings and his son Hezekiah was the best.
1
It is unlikely that Hezekiah held a centralized Passover since this is first mandated in
Deut 16:1-8, part of the law code that was discovered and probably written during the reign of
Josiah. Deuteronomy 16 is also the first law that united the observance of Passover and the
observance of Unleavened Bread, another innovation that is attributed anachronistically to
Hezekiah. Chronicles also insists that Hezekiah’s Passover took place in Hezekiah’s first year,
but strangely on the fourteenth day of the second month. That would be impossible if the
Northern Kingdom fell during the sixth year of Hezekiah according to 2 Kgs 18:9-10
Robb Andrew Young attempted to discount the arguments against the historicity of
Hezekiah’s Passover, unpersuasively in my opinion, but his chief argument for historicity is the
claim that the Chronicler in the fourth century had a source about Hezekiah’s Passover that had
taken place four centuries earlier, and that was unknown, or at least unused, by the author of 2
Kings. Even if Hezekiah’s centralized Passover never took place, as I believe, the account of this
Passover tells us much about the Chronicler’s theological agenda and offers an important
window into Judean attitudes toward the people and the religion of those who lived in the area of
the Northern Kingdom after its demise, who came to be known many centuries later as
Samaritans.
The Reign of Hezekiah in Kings and Chronicles1
Introduction 2 Kgs 18:1-3 2 Chr 29:1-2Cultic reforms in Judah 2 Kgs 18:4 ____Incomparability of Hezekiah 2 Kgs 18:5-6 ____Rebellion vs. Assyria 2 Kgs 18:7 ____Defeat of the Philistines 2 Kgs 18:8 ____Samaria falls; Exile of North Israel 2 Kgs 18:9-12 ____Temple repair and purification 2 Chr 29:3-19 Sacrifices at conclusion of temple purification 2 Chr 29:20-36
1 This list of chapters is adapted from Gary N. Knoppers, Jews and Samaritans: The Origins and History of their Early Relations (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2013), 83.
2
Summons to the Passover 2 Chr 30:1-9Mixed response in North and South 2 Chr 30:10-12Cultic reforms in Jerusalem 2 Chr 30:13-14Passover 2 Chr 30:15-20Unleavened Bread 2 Chr 30:21-23Feast extended for a second week 2 Chr 30:24-27Cultic reform in Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh 2 Chr 31:1Priestly and Levitical activities 2 Chr 31:2-21Public buildings 2 Chr 32:1-8Sennacherib’s invasion 2 Kgs 18:13-19:37 2 Chr 32:9-23Hezekiah’s Illness 2 Kgs 20:1-11 2 Chr 32:24Hezekiah humbles himself 2 Chr 32:25-26Hezekiah’s wealth and honor 2 Chr 32:27-30Visit of Babylonian delegation 2 Kgs 20:12-19 2 Chr 32:31Death of Hezekiah 2 Kgs 20:20-21 2 Chr 32:32-33
It can be seen in these eighteen items that Kings and Chronicles go quite separate ways in
recounting the reign of Hezekiah. That is, 2 Kgs 18:4-12 and 2 Chr 29:3-32:8 are completely
divergent. According to 2 Kings 18, the only reforms that Hezekiah undertook were in Judah (v.
4), and the lengthy account of Hezekiah in 2 Chronicles 29-32:8 does not cite a single verse from
Kings and is loaded with vocabulary and themes loved by the Chronicler. In 2 Chr 32:9-23, the
Chronicler condensed the account of Sennacherib’s invasion from 2 Kings 18-19, leaving out
significantly 2 Kgs 18:14-16, which have Hezekiah confessing his sins against the king of
Assyria, who demanded from him three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold.
According to these verses in Kings Hezekiah gave to the king of Assyria all the silver that was
found in the house of Yahweh and stripped the precious metal off the doors of the temple and
gave it to the Assyrian king.
In contrast, according to 2 Chr 29 Hezekiah undertook purification or reform of the
temple in the first year of his reign, indeed on the first day of the first month. By the sixteenth
day of that month the work of purification was complete (2 Chr 29:17). Hezekiah then invited
both north and south to a celebration of Passover that took place in the second month on the
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fourteenth day of the month. (2 Chr 30:2, 15). This unparalleled dating of Passover—everywhere
else it was held in the first month on the fourteenth day of the month—was dictated by the first
sixteen days of the first month of Hezekiah’s reign being occupied by purification efforts. In
addition, the Chronicler adds: “They could not keep it at its proper time because the priests had
not sanctified themselves in sufficient number, nor had the people assembled in Jerusalem” (2
Chr 30:3). The Chronicler may have dared to delay the celebration of Passover because of the so-
called law of the Second Passover allowed by Moses in Num 9:10-11: “10 Speak to the Israelites,
saying: Anyone of you or your descendants who is unclean through touching a corpse, or is away
on a journey, shall still keep the Passover to Yahweh. 11 In the second month on the fourteenth
day, at twilight, they shall keep it; they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.’ It
should be noted that the second Passover in Numbers was for individuals and not the entire
community, and the Passover in Chronicles was not a second Passover but the sole Passover.
The Chronicler idealizes Hezekiah; he is a second David and a second Solomon.
Hezekiah issued a proclamation throughout all Israel, from Beer-sheba to Dan, that the people
should come to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover (v. 5). These geographical limits hark back to the
description of the realm of Solomon in 1 Kgs 4:25. Not only did Hezekiah hold Passover and
Unleavened Bread in Jerusalem, but he extended the observance for an additional week (2 Chr
30:23), just as Solomon had done at the dedication of the temple (2 Chr 7:8-9). Hezekiah issued
a promise of divine mercy to those he invited to the festival in Jerusalem, v. 9, just as Solomon
had done at the dedication of the temple (2 Chr 6:24-25, 36-39). Both Hezekiah and Solomon
prayed for the people and their prayers were answered (2 Chr 6; 7:1-3, 12; 30:18-19, 25). Joy and
praise mark the cultic celebrations of Hezekiah and Solomon (2 Chr 5:11-13; 7:1-3; 30:21-24),
and in both cases an extraordinary number of animals were sacrificed. Hezekiah and his officials
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had generously contributed 19,000 animals (2 Chr 30: 24 check) while Solomon sacrificed
22,000 bulls and 120,000 sheep at the dedication of the temple (2 Chr 7:5). Josiah and his
officials contributed 41,400 animals at his Passover (2 Chr 35:7-9). Hezekiah is indeed a second
Solomon.
In preparation for his Passover, Hezekiah sent runners who went out through all Israel
and Judah and called the people to return to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so
that Yahweh might turn again to the remnant of those who had escaped from the hand of the
kings of Assyria (2 Chr 30:6). The Chronicler presupposes that those who are left as a remnant in
the former northern Kingdom are in fact Israelites, both ethnically and religiously. As
archaeology has shown, by the time the Chronicler was writing in the fourth century, a Yahwistic
temple had already been built on Mt. Gerizim in the fifth century. The Chronicler presupposes
that the northerners would know about the centralization laws in Deuteronomy although he
assumes that the central sanctuary was in Jerusalem and not on Mt. Gerizim. Hezekiah’s
generous invitation was at first met with laughter and mockery in Ephraim, Manasseh, and
Zebulun (2 Chr 30:10) even if the author of Chronicles did not think that the invitation to the
north was inappropriate. In any case, there were a few from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun, who
humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem (2 Chr 30:11). The response from Judah was of
course even better: they were united and exuberant (2 Chr 30:12). The Chronicler presupposes a
similar type of community organization in south and north. He mentions the assembly of Judah
and all the assembly that came from Israel, in addition to those resident aliens who came from
the land of Israel (2 Chr 30:25).
Once the Passover was completed, Hezekiah’s reform efforts continued: “Now when all
this was finished, all Israel who were present went out to the cities of Judah and broke down the
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pillars, hewed down the sacred poles, and pulled down the high places and the altars throughout
all Judah and Benjamin, and in Ephraim and Manasseh, until they had destroyed them all.
Then all the people of Israel returned to their cities, all to their individual properties” (2 Chr
31:1). This reform is led by the people, by all Israel who were present. That reform actions could
take place in the north, after the defeat by the Assyrians, tells us much about what the Chronicler
thought of the ethnic and religious conditions in the north in the late eighth century.
While in the world of the text Hezekiah’s Passover took place in the eighth century, the
historical setting for the author of Chronicles is in the fourth century, at the earliest. The
Chronicler apparently thought that the most unfortunate turn of events, that is, the fall of the
Northern Kingdom, was an opportunity for the people of the north to renew their relationship
with Yahweh. Chronicles’ address privileges native Israelites in the north, but he stresses that
Yahweh may respond to Israel’s repentance by returning their kinfolk to the land: “For when you
return to Yahweh, your kinsmen and your children will find mercy before their captors to return
to his land, for gracious and merciful is Yahweh your God, and he will not turn his face from you
if you return to him” (2 Chr 30:9).
Chronicles does not portray an empty (northern) land, inhabited by foreigners. Gary
Knoppers believes that Chronicles posits a partial, unidirectional deportation, and not a total
bidirectional deportation, in contrast to 2 Kgs 17:24:33a. Knoppers concludes: “The king
[Hezekiah] who espouses the most conciliatory view toward the survivors of the Assyrian
catastrophe is none other than the king who is arguably the most celebrated in Judahite
history….If Judah’s best king went out of his way to unify all elements of his people, he set an
example for others to follow. The constructive Hezekian approach, all the while upholding the
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centrality of Jerusalem’s institutions, sets a positive precedent for Judeans to consider in dealing
with the northern Israelites of their own time.”2
The Chronicler’s Account of Josiah
In his account of Josiah, the Chronicler also portrays positive possibilities for the citizens of the
north, a century after the Assyrian defeat of Samaria. A reader of Kings might be shocked that
Josiah waited until his 18th year to carry out reforms since there was no king like Josiah who
turned to Yahweh with all his heart, with all his soul, and with all his might according to all the
law of Moses (2 Kgs 23:25). In Chronicles, already in Josiah’s eighth year, when he was only
sixteen, he began to seek the God of his ancestor David (2 Chr 34:3). By his twelfth year, when
he was only twenty, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, and
the carved and the cast images (2 Chr 34:3). So he began to act like a reformer six to ten years
earlier in Chronicles than he did in Kings, as soon as he had reached his maturity. In my mind,
the less said about the historicity of these early dates the better. In Chronicles Josiah’s reforms of
the north took place before finding of the book of the law: “6 In the towns of Manasseh, Ephraim,
and Simeon, and as far as Naphtali, in their ruins all around, 7 he broke down the altars, beat the
sacred poles and the images into powder, and demolished all the incense altars throughout all the
land of Israel. Then he returned to Jerusalem. (2Chr 34:6-7). According to Chronicles, the
religion of the north was purifiable as legitimate Yahwism long after the Assyrian takeover, and
therefore presumably purifiable, also in the fourth century. Again, in the words of the Chronicler:
“Josiah took away all the abominations from all the territory that belonged to the people of
Israel, and made all who were in Israel worship Yahweh their God. All his days they did not turn
away from following Yahweh the God of their ancestors” (2Chr 34:33).
2 Knoppers, Jews and Samaritans, 92.
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The Northern Israelites a century after the fall of Samaria were major contributors to the
repair of the Jerusalem temple: “9 They came to the high priest Hilkiah and delivered the money
that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites, the keepers of the threshold, had
collected from Manasseh and Ephraim and from all the remnant of Israel and from all Judah and
Benjamin and from the inhabitants of Jerusalem. (2Chr 34:9). According to 2 Kgs 22:4 the
contributions come generically from “the people.”
According to Chronicles no Passover like Josiah’s had been kept since the days of the
prophet Samuel; none of the kings of Israel had kept such a Passover as was kept by Josiah….by
all Judah and Israel who were present, and by the inhabitants of Jerusalem (2 Chr 35:18). All
Judah and Israel were present. The Chronicler knows of no major influx of imperially sponsored
settlers from other lands into the vacated former northern kingdom. He does not stigmatize the
northern residents as the descendants of foreign settlers or some kind of mongrel race.3 Members
of both Judah and Samaria embraced the principles of one God, one people, and one sanctuary
from Deuteronomy, but differed only about where such unity was to be observed. This debate
over where the central sanctuary should be was an inner-Israelite debate.
If the Israelites remained Israelite during the course of the United Monarchy, the Divided
Monarchy, and over a century when there was only a Judean monarchy at the time of Josiah, it is
unlikely that they had somehow become non-Israelite in the sixth and fifth centuries. Chronicles
was probably more effective in shaping opinions among its support group in Jerusalem than it
was in changing the opinions of the elite in Samaria. The books of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, written
near or after the destruction of Jerusalem in 586, predicted restoration programs in which all the
tribes would be reunified and re-centered in the land. We should also remind ourselves that the
3 Cite page in Knoppers.
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books of Chronicles themselves begin with genealogies of all4 the twelve tribes in 1 Chronicles
1-8. All Israel for the Chronicler meant all Israel.
The Chronicler has Josiah institutionalize the centralized Passover that had begun in his
thinking with Hezekiah. Josiah’s Passover was done on the right day, the fourteenth day of the
first month, and not the fourteenth day of the second month. And it was done in the right way.
Note especially the role of the Levites, which resulted from Josiah’s mandate. No Passover like
this had been held since the days of Samuel the prophet. The Chronicler may be suggesting that
the role of the Levites in sacrificing the Passover lamb goes back to pre monarchical times. What
made Josiah’s Passover the right way was the way the Passover lamb was prepared for eating.
Here the Chronicler faced tension in his sources and attempted to resolve that tension. According
to Exod 12:8-9 the lamb was to be eaten roasted over the fire. None of it was to be eaten raw or
boiled in water. But in Deut 16:7 the Passover was to be eaten “cooked,” or as the Hebrew
would indicate boiled. Richard Nelson, 207, argues that Deuteronomy has the Passover lamb
cooked in a container, a sacrificial boiling, as in 1 Sam 2:13-15, the sacrifices carried out by Eli’s
sons: “When anyone offered sacrifice, the priest's servant would come, while the meat was
boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, 14 and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or
caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself”. (1Sam 2:13-14).
The Chronicler resolved this tension by having it “cooked” or “boiled” in fire (2 Chr 35:13, thus
harmonizing the tradition. Similarly, the LXX in Deut 16:7 says “you shall boil and you shall
roast,” which as Lundbom notes, 510-511 does not make sense.
Chronicles attitude toward the North Contrasted with 2 Kings 17
The first six verses of 2 Kings 17 report the reign of Hoshea, the last king in the Northern
Kingdom, and the end of the Northern Kingdom. Hoshea had revolted, in collusion with an
4 Note exceptions.
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unknown king of Egypt, and his reign ended, presumably several years before the capture of
Samaria itself. After capturing Samaria, the king of Assyria deported the Israelites to various
Mesopotamian cities: Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
This is followed in 2 Kings 17 by a Deuteronomistic sermon on the fall of the North, blaming its
demise on the worship of other gods and various other sins, including high places, standing
stones, and Asherim. The Israelites, according to this indictment, also rejected all the prophetic
admonitions and they followed the cultic innovations of Jeroboam I, with its two golden caves,
etc.
What interests us in this discussion, however, is the ethnic and religious makeup of the
northerners after 722. We begin with 2 Kgs 17:24-34a.
24 The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim,
and placed them in the cities of Samaria in place of the people of Israel; they took possession of
Samaria, and settled in its cities. 25 When they first settled there, they did not fear (reverence,
worship) Yahweh; therefore Yahweh sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So
the king of Assyria was told, "The nations that you have carried away and placed in the cities of
Samaria do not know the religious practices (+p#$m) of the god of the land; therefore he has
sent lions among them; they are killing them, because they do not know the religious practices
(+p#$m) of the god of the land." 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, "Send there one of
the priests whom you carried away from there; let him go and live there, and teach them the
religious practices (+p#$m) of the god of the land." 28 So one of the priests whom they had
carried away from Samaria came and lived in Bethel; he taught them how they should fear
(reverence, worship) Yahweh.
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29 But every nation still made gods of its own and put them in the shrines of the high
places that the people of Samaria had made, every nation in the cities in which they lived;
30 the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the people of Cuth made Nergal, the people of
Hamath made Ashima; 31 the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak; the Sepharvites burned their
children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 They also feared (reverenced, worshiped) Yahweh and appointed from among themselves all
sorts of people as priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high
places.
33 So they feared (reverenced, worshiped) Yahweh but they also served their own gods, after the
religious practices (+p#$mk) of the nations from among whom they had been carried away. 34
To this day they continue to carry out their former religious customs (Myn#$)rh
My+p#$mk).
This paragraph depicts total discontinuity in regard to ethnicity among the inhabitants of
North Israel, but in terms of religious practices substantial continuity. The foreign immigrants
adopted native religious customs. The inhabitants of North Israel have been drawn from various
sectors of the Assyrian empire. The land has been emptied of Israelites and filled with foreigners.
Knoppers notes that many Judahite kings allowed or even sponsored similar religious practices.
When Yahweh sends lions to attack the new inhabitants of Samaria, it shows that Yahweh has
not relinquished his claim to this territory. And an Israelite priest sent by the Assyrian king
teaches the strangers how to fear/reverence/worship Yahweh. Since the priest takes up residence
at Bethel, the religious practices of the immigrants replicate traditional northern Israelite
practices in many details. Jeroboam I associated his golden calves with Yahweh and the Exodus
although Deuteronomistic polemic associates Jeroboam’s cult with idolatry and the worship of
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other gods (1 Kgs 12:28; 14:10; 2 Kgs 10:29). Jeroboam was also charged with appointing
priests who were not descendants of Levi (1 Kgs 12:31). The charge that the immigrants fostered
high places also echoes the cult of Jeroboam. The foreign settlers revive the old-time religion of
northern Israel. Bethel continues as the main sanctuary. This paragraph does not follow the fate
of the Israelites who had been exiled. The immigrants, on the other hand, are non-Israelites
ethnically, but Israel-like religiously. The close comparability of preexilic Israelite religion with
postexilic Samarian religion belies the claim of a complete Israelite dislocation to Assyria.
Many, indeed probably most, of the old North Israelites must have remained. And only after the
foreigners learned to practice native Israelite religion did the attacks of the lions cease.
Syncretistic Yahwistic worship is better than no Yahwistic worship at all.
This leads to a second paragraph from another hand and a second point of view in 2 Kings 17:
34b They do not fear (reverence, worship) Yahweh and they do not follow the statutes or the
ordinances or the law/teaching (hrwt) or the commandment that Yahweh commanded the
children of Jacob, whom he named Israel. 35 Yahweh had made a covenant with them and
commanded them, "You shall not worship other gods or bow yourselves to them or serve them or
sacrifice to them, 36 but you shall worship Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt
with great power and with an outstretched arm; you shall bow yourselves to him, and to him you
shall sacrifice. 37 The statutes and the ordinances and the law and the commandment that he
wrote for you, you shall always be careful to observe. You shall not worship other gods; 38 you
shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You shall not worship other gods, 39 but
you shall fear (reverence, worship) Yahweh your God; he will deliver you out of the hand of all
your enemies." 40 They would not listen, however, but they continued to practice their former
custom.
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This second text5 assumes a connection between the residents of the former Northern
Kingdom and the descendants of Jacob, but disputes what was said in the first text about the
worship of Yahweh. These northerners did not truly worship Yahweh, but the author assumes
that they are responsible for keeping Yahweh’s covenant (vv. 34, 35, 37): you shall not forget the
covenant that I have made with you. You shall not worship other gods, 39 but you shall fear
(reverence, worship) Yahweh your God. This writer does not view the Samarians ethnically as
non-Israelites. Rather, they are descendants of Israel whom Yahweh brought out of Egypt. This
second writer views the ancestors of Samaria’s residents as descendants of Jacob in clear
contradiction to what the first writer said.
A third point of view with regard to the north can be found in the account of Josiah’s
reform in 2 Kings 23:
15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place erected by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who caused
Israel to sin-- he [Josiah] pulled down that altar along with the high place. He burned the high
place, crushing it to dust; he also burned the sacred pole (Asherah). 16 As Josiah turned, he saw
the tombs there on the mount; and he sent and took the bones out of the tombs, and burned them
on the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Yahweh that the man of God proclaimed,
when Jeroboam stood by the altar at the festival; he turned and looked up at the tomb of the man
of God who had predicted these things. 17 Then he said, "What is that monument that I see?" The
people of the city told him, "It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and
predicted these things that you have done against the altar at Bethel." 18 He said, "Let him rest;
let no one move his bones." So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet who came
out of Samaria. 19 Moreover, Josiah removed all the shrines of the high places that were in the
towns of Samaria, which kings of Israel had made, provoking Yahweh to anger; he did to them
5 On this division of the text, see Noth, 1943, 85-86; Nelson, 1981, 64-65.
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just as he had done at Bethel. 20 He slaughtered on the altars all the priests of the high places who
were there, and burned human bones on them. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
The third text addresses the issue of idolatrous and syncretistic worship in Samaria (see 2
Kgs 17:24-34a), but raises new questions about the ethnicity of Samaria’s population. Judah’s
great reformer decisively eradicates Jeroboam’s sins and fulfills the prophecies delivered against
the Bethel altar and the northern high places (1 Kgs 13:1-3, 32-34). The story of Josiah’s reforms
presupposes that he is dealing with his northern kin. The Bethel shrine and altar and the high
places are all Israelite in the 7th century, one hundred years after the fall of the north to Assyria.
He treats the northern priests as if they were rebellious Israelites, advocating the worship of other
gods. This account contradicts the viewpoint of 2 Kgs 17:24-34a that Samaria’s postexilic
residents were outsiders.
Conclusions
The issues of identity, religious practice, and national origins were ongoing issues in
Judahite circles. Despite all their differences, our three accounts admit some form of Yahwism
continued in the north. There was a northern forced migration, yet religious practices remained
relatively stable (2 Kgs 17:24-34a). The northerners were biological descendants of Jacob, but
they did not truly worship Yahweh (2 Kgs 17:34b-40). After 2 Kings 17 the narrative in Kings
follows only the history of Judah, but northern Israel remained an object of divine concern sine
Judah’s greatest reformer Josiah righted northern wrongs. Josiah’s reform in the north in 2 Kings
23 deals with Israelites.
There is considerable diversity of opinion regarding the north in these three passages.
Whatever the precise number of foreign settlers, most of them seem to have been integrated into
native society over the course of the generations. The numbers of northern Israelites remaining in
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the land far outnumbered the population of the resident Assyrians and Assyrian-sponsored
immigrants. A substantial number of Israelites gradually absorbed a minor foreign presence.
The religious conditions described in 2 Kgs 17:24-34a resemble the older form of
Israelite state religion observed for centuries before any foreigners arrived. This challenges the
blanket statements of dislocation in 2 Kgs 17:6, 18, 20, 23:
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria captured Samaria; he carried the Israelites away
to Assyria. He placed them in Halah, on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the
Medes.
18 Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight; none was
left but the tribe of Judah alone.
20 Yahweh rejected all the descendants of Israel; he punished them and gave them into the hand
of plunderers, until he had banished them from his presence.
23 until Yahweh removed Israel out of his sight, as he had foretold through all his servants the
prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day.
The quick adoption of Jeroboam-like worship practices in 2 Kgs 17:24-34a shows that a
substantial portion of the inhabitants of the former Northern Kingdom remained. The second
account in 2 Kgs 17:34b-40 is far more critical of the religious practices, but readily concedes
that the people in the north of his day were ethnically Israelite. The writer who describes Josiah’s
reform in the north in 2 Kgs 23:15-20 presupposes that he was dealing with Israelites. His reform
is an inner-Israelite struggle.
How did books like Hosea make it into the Judahite canon? If the north was totally exiled, why
does the Judahite canon include the stories of Elijah and Elisha? Did all these writings come
south at the end of the eighth century? Or did the Bethel sanctuary serve for some time as a
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conduit of northern traditions to the south? (See Blenkinsopp 2003, 93-107 Judah and the
Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Period). Communications between north and south continued
because Judahites and Israelites shared much in common. The transmission of literary traditions
from Samaria to Judah did not happen all at one time, but was an ongoing dynamic in the history
of relations between the two communities.
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