Using a canonical-agrarian approach, Stulac demonstrates the rhetorical and theological contribution of the Elijah narratives to the Book of Kings.

In this book, Daniel J. D. Stulac brings a canonical-agrarian approach to the Elijah narratives and demonstrates the rhetorical and theological contribution of these texts to the Book of Kings. This unique perspective yields insights into Elijah's iconographical character (1 Kings 17-19), which is contrasted sharply against the Omride dynasty (1 Kings 20-2 Kings 1). It also serves as a template for Elisha's activities in chapters to follow (2 Kings 2-8). Under circumstances that foreshadow the removal of both monarchy and temple, the book's middle third (1 Kings 17-2 Kings 8) proclaims Yhwh's enduring care for Israel's land and people through various portraits of resurrection, even in a world where Israel's sacred institutions have been stripped away. Elijah emerges as the archetypal ancestor of a royal-prophetic remnant with which the reader is encouraged to identify.

This commentary on 1 and 2 Kings demonstrates the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible for today's church.

"A masterpiece of contemporary Bible translation and commentary."—Los Angeles Times Book Review, Best Books of 1999 Acclaimed for its masterful new translation and insightful commentary, The David Story is a fresh, vivid rendition of one of the great works in Western literature. Robert Alter's brilliant translation gives us David, the beautiful, musical hero who slays Goliath and, through his struggles with Saul, advances to the kingship of Israel. But this David is also fully human: an ambitious, calculating man who navigates his life's course with a flawed moral vision. The consequences for him, his family, and his nation are tragic and bloody. Historical personage and full-blooded imagining, David is the creation of a literary artist comparable to the Shakespeare of the history plays.

This book is an examination of characters in the books of Kings; showing how understanding and interpretation of key characters affects readings of the story. The volume begins with more general pieces addressing how the study of characters can shed light on the composition history of Kings and on how characters and characterization can be considered with respect to ethics, particularly with respect to the moral complexity of biblical characters. Contributors then consider key characters within the Kings narrative in depth, such as Nathan, Bathsheba, Solomon and Jezebel. The contributors use their own specific expertise to analyze these characters and more, drawing on insights from literary theory and considering such approaches as questioning our view of a particular character with based on the character within the text with whom we identify. Contributors also assess whether or not characters as portrayed in the biblical text necessarily match up to their possible counterparts in history.

These Old Testament study guides, part of a 16-volume set from noted Bible scholar John MacArthur, take readers on a journey through biblical texts to discover what lies beneath the surface, focusing on meaning and context with probing questions, and then reflecting on the explored passage or concept.

Follow the words with an expert Building on a lifetime of research and writing, A. Graeme Auld examines passages in Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Isaiah that recount the same stories or contain similar vocabulary. He advances his argument that Samuel and Kings were organic developments from a deftly crafted, prophetically interpreted, shared narrative he calls the Book of Two Houses—a work focused on the house of David and the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem. At the end of the study he reconstructs the synoptic material within Kings in Hebrew with an English translation. Features aAcritique of the dominant approach to the narrative books in the Hebrew Bible A solid challenge to the widely accepted relationship between Deuteronomy, cultic centralization, and King Josiah’s reform Key evidence in the heated contemporary debate over the historical development of Biblical Hebrew

1 and 2 Kings offer a unique vantage point for understanding the last days of the united kingdom under David to the eventual fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. Donald Wiseman brings to this commentary his lifelong study of archaeology, history, languages and documents of the ancient Near East.

Invoking YHWH in 1 Kings 1-2 argues that invocations of YHWH have a number of functions in 1 Kings 1-2, dependent on the identities of the characters speaking, their relationships, and the narrative contexts in which they participate. This book adopts narrative criticism to undertake a close reading of 1 Kings 1-2 that pays particular attention to how the characters and the narrator use invocations of YHWH and the events in the plot that prompt or result from this language. Invoking YHWH in 1 Kings 1-2 highlights the exegetical importance of invocations of YHWH, which have yet to be engaged thoroughly in the field. Aimed at students and those with an interest in the academic study of the Bible, this book's focus on invocations of YHWH raises new interpretations of 1 Kings 1-2. This study seeks to encourage scholarly attention toward invocations of YHWH that appear outside of these chapters, with the hope that such research will generate new ways of understanding the function of this language in the Bible.

David T. Lamb examines not only the dynasty of Jehu within the narrative of 2 Kings, but also the broader context of the dynasties of Israel and Judah in the books of Kings and Samuel. Lamb discusses religious aspects of kingship (such as anointing, divine election, and prayer) in both the Old Testament and in the literature of the ancient Near East. He concludes that the Deuteronomistic editor, because of a deep concern that leaders be divinely chosen and obedient to Yahweh, soughtto subvert the monarchical status quo by shaping the Jehuite narrative to emphasize that dynastic succession disastrously fails to produce righteous leaders.