[/B]. (2Kings 3:1-27)
I would like to hone in on the bolded: Mesha saw that the battle was going against him, and in a act of seeming desperation, entreated the Moabite deity Chemosh with a burnt offering of his first born son. After performing this sacrifice, "great wrath came upon Israel causing them to withdraw from the battlefield to their own land".
My question: What is the source of this "great wrath" that came upon Israel? Various interpretations that I looked at seem unsatisfactory, such as:
1) The Israelites were repulsed by the act of child sacrifice and left on their own volition. This doesn't cut mustard in my view as the Israelite's were a tribal people accustomed to war, and such a horrific act before their eyes would motivate the Israelite's all the more to extinguish such evil. This also fails to explain the "great wrath" that came upon the Israelite's. The text doesn't give any indication that the Israelite's left on their own volition because they were horrified and disgusted.
2) The Moabites were emboldened by Mesha's sacrifice to Chemosh. This caused the Moabite army to exert wrath upon Israel, routing the Israelite's out of Moabite territory. I disagree with this interpretation as well because it seems to fly in the face of Elisha's promise. This interpretation basically says that the Moabites were delivered into the Israelite's hands just as Elisha said...but in the end they lost the battle. I don't think so.
3) The Israelite's succumbed to superstitious fear after witnessing the sacrifice. This interpretation is plausible but fails to account for what the text actually says -- "great wrath came upon Israel". The text doesn't say: "great dread came upon them" (although I am not all that familiar with the semantic range of the Hebrew here).
OK, so with that said, the only viable interpretation I can think of is in relation to verses 2-3. I actually think this is Yahweh's wrath against Israel due to their sin and idolatry. The pagan sacrifice kindled Yahweh's anger against his own people because they too were engaged in idolatrous acts, so despite letting the Israelite's win the battle, they were reminded that they cannot win their rebellious war against their God Yahweh. The only other option seems to be of the critical persuasion that sees this great wrath as the wrath of Chemosh -- a very real god exerting very real wrath -- implicitly acknowledged by the monolatrous narrator of 2Kings.
How do you see this?
I would like to hone in on the bolded: Mesha saw that the battle was going against him, and in a act of seeming desperation, entreated the Moabite deity Chemosh with a burnt offering of his first born son. After performing this sacrifice, "great wrath came upon Israel causing them to withdraw from the battlefield to their own land".
My question: What is the source of this "great wrath" that came upon Israel? Various interpretations that I looked at seem unsatisfactory, such as:
1) The Israelites were repulsed by the act of child sacrifice and left on their own volition. This doesn't cut mustard in my view as the Israelite's were a tribal people accustomed to war, and such a horrific act before their eyes would motivate the Israelite's all the more to extinguish such evil. This also fails to explain the "great wrath" that came upon the Israelite's. The text doesn't give any indication that the Israelite's left on their own volition because they were horrified and disgusted.
2) The Moabites were emboldened by Mesha's sacrifice to Chemosh. This caused the Moabite army to exert wrath upon Israel, routing the Israelite's out of Moabite territory. I disagree with this interpretation as well because it seems to fly in the face of Elisha's promise. This interpretation basically says that the Moabites were delivered into the Israelite's hands just as Elisha said...but in the end they lost the battle. I don't think so.
3) The Israelite's succumbed to superstitious fear after witnessing the sacrifice. This interpretation is plausible but fails to account for what the text actually says -- "great wrath came upon Israel". The text doesn't say: "great dread came upon them" (although I am not all that familiar with the semantic range of the Hebrew here).
OK, so with that said, the only viable interpretation I can think of is in relation to verses 2-3. I actually think this is Yahweh's wrath against Israel due to their sin and idolatry. The pagan sacrifice kindled Yahweh's anger against his own people because they too were engaged in idolatrous acts, so despite letting the Israelite's win the battle, they were reminded that they cannot win their rebellious war against their God Yahweh. The only other option seems to be of the critical persuasion that sees this great wrath as the wrath of Chemosh -- a very real god exerting very real wrath -- implicitly acknowledged by the monolatrous narrator of 2Kings.
How do you see this?
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