11.  You have studied texts of many different periods and genres.  Compose a classical Jewish text (one paragraph) of any time period and genre.  Explain what “time period” (e.g., medieval) it is from, what genre (e.g., legal code) it represents, then explicate and explain that text.

The words of Benjamin the son of Joshua of the priests who served in Jerusalem.  To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah in the second year of his reign.

Repent O, Israel.  The anger of the Lord is kindled against his people because of their errant ways.  Thus saith the Lord, As they have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers, they shall be broken as a people because they refuse to see and hear. As an olive tree, with the noise of a great affliction he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it shall be broken.  Listen to the voice of the Lord!  A voice from the temple!  For the Lord said unto me: Do not pray for the welfare of this people.  Although they will fast, I will not hear their cry, and although they will seek me through burnt offering, I will not accept them; but by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence I shall consume them because they have forgotten me.  For these people honor me with their mouths, while their hearts are far from me.  They speak evil and their hearts are set upon Baal.  Listen, O Israel.  For your high places, pestilence, famine and sword shall be your punishment.  You shall offer burnt offerings, but in the day of your peace you did not obey nor incline your ears.  You shall fast, but I will not regard your cry, for you did walk in your own counsels.  You did not ponder continually upon the things of the Lord.  You did not praise the Holy One of Israel by night and by day.  Because you did not inquire of the Lord, he will bring fear upon you and scatter you to the ends of the earth.  Yet, if you will remember the covenant which the Lord made with your fathers and serve him only, his arm is stretched out still to gather you.  No longer provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, with your wickedness.  Turn again to the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart, might, and mind.

The above fabricated text contains many elements indicative of the latter prophetic period[76] in Ancient Israel, including literary style and content.  The text is attributed to the fictional prophet Benjamin, who began his ministry during the reign of Jehoiakim in 607 B.C.E.  It is composed in a Chiasmus[77] format.  Welch noted:  “Chiasmus remained a common literary form in the Hebrews world until the first century after Christ, when it and most Jewish institutions were destroyed.”[78]  Sometimes the Chiasmus contains very close word phrasings, but generally only the concepts follow the pattern.  The Chiasmus matrix in Benjamin’s text is as follows:

A)  Repent O, Israel.

B)  The anger of the Lord is kindled against his people because of their errant ways.

C)  Thus saith the Lord, As they have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers,

D) They shall be broken as a people because they refuse to see and hear. As an olive tree, with the noise of a great affliction he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it shall be broken.

E) Listen to the voice of the Lord!  A voice from the temple!

F) For the Lord said unto me: Do not pray for the welfare of this people.  Although they will fast, I will not hear their cry, and although they will seek me through burnt offering, I will not accept them; but by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence I shall consume them because they have forgotten me. 

G) For these people honor me with their mouths, while their hearts are far from me.

G)  They speak evil and their hearts are set upon Baal.

F) Listen, O Israel.  For your high places, pestilence, famine and sword shall be your punishment.  You shall offer burnt offerings, but in the day of your peace you did not obey nor incline your ears.  You shall fast, but I will not regard your cry, for you did walk in your own counsels.

E) You did not ponder continually upon the things of the Lord.  You did not praise the Holy One of Israel by night and by day.

D) Because you did not inquire of the Lord, he will bring fear upon you and scatter you to the ends of the earth.

C) Yet, if you will remember the covenant which the Lord made with your fathers and serve him only, his arm is stretched out still to gather you.

B)  No longer provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, with your wickedness.

A)  Turn again to the Lord your God and serve him with all your heart, might, and mind.

The text contains a number of themes indicative of the “unified ‘message’”[79] of the latter prophets.  In this period, prophecy included “such things as prediction, emotional preaching, social protest, and, within the sociological community, millenarian movements and their founders.”[80]  Prophecy itself was “founded on the basic premise that God makes his will known to chosen individuals in successive generations.”[81]  The Hebrew Bible says:  “Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets.”[82] The Bible delineates “no standard prerequisite for a person to become a prophet in Israel.”[83]  While some prophets were of priestly lineage,[84] many were not.  The boundaries between priestly and prophetic “roles were fluid—not an unusual situation in role performance.”[85]  Eventually “in postexilic Judaism the term ‘prophet’ came to be used eventually of any inspired person.”[86]  Our fictional prophet Benjamin was of the priestly lineage.

The overall theme of the text is the condemnation of Israel and a call to repentance, which was a common one among the prophets.    Since the animus of the prophets was “directed primarily against the ruling elite…,”[87] Benjamin—like Jeremiah and other contemporary prophets—probably opposed Jehoiakim because under his rule “the reform instituted by Josiah lapsed.”[88]  The prophets were the focal point of “a tradition of dissident intellectualism and social criticism.”[89]  Their experiences were ones “of confrontation.”[90]  Usually, their opposition centered on the “upper classes, whose social and economic behavior it subjects to a biting criticism.”[91]  For example, the conflict between “Elijah and the royal house of Israel over syncretistic worship”[92] is the most frequent theme of the stories of the prophet.[93] The Biblical text and other supporting evidence suggest “a multiplicity of sacred sites and high places in the land…”[94]  In another example, Jeremiah experienced conflict with the “priestly kin at Anathoth,”[95] most likely over his support for making Jerusalem the central worship place. [96]  Yet as Nibley noted:  “Criticism of the world  is always implicit in a prophet’s message of repentance, but he is not sent for the purpose of criticizing the world.”[97]  Most people already know that the world is evil.  The prophet’s main purpose is to serve as a witness that there is an alternative available to man in the teachings of Torah.

While some prophets dared to directly challenge the ruling monarch by name, such as Elijah, many prophets—such as the fictional Benjamin—condemned Israel as a community instead.  In so doing, they condemned her leaders by proxy since the King was the living embodiment of the state.  In many cultures with an absolute monarch, the King and the nation are acquainted as one. [98]  For example, in Shakespeare’s The Life of Henry the Fifth,  the French Dolphin says:

“…for I desire Nothing but odds with England.  To that end, As matching his youth and vanity, I did present him with the Paris balls.”[99]

In the Dolphin’s mind, the country and the monarch are synonymous.  This theme of kingship is associated with Ancient Israel as well:

“For the head of Syria [is] Damascus, and the head of Damascus [is] Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people. And the head of Ephraim [is] Samaria, and the head of Samaria [is] Remaliah's son. If ye will not believe, surely ye shall not be established.”[100] 

By attacking the state, you were—in effect—attacking the King as well.  It was undoubtedly safer for a prophet to pursue this method instead of directly challenging the King by name, though it is likely that everyone understood who and what was being condemned.  In this case, the people would likely have understood that Benjamin’s attack against Israel was an attack against Jehoiakim and the institutions he led.

Benjamin’s text refers to the most important covenant in the Bible, the one “between God and Israel.”[101]  Cohon said:  “The underlying idea of the Bible is that God has chosen Israel from among all the nations and revealed Himself and His commandments to it as part of His plan for universal salvation.”[102] The particulars of the covenant “are the abiding constants of the essence of Judaism.”[103]  “According to the terms of the covenant, the Jews are obligated to be loyal to God and to love him…”[104]  Some people have suggested that this devotion to God is a call to seek “spiritual perfection.”[105]   In return for fulfilling their portion of the covenant, “God is to reward the love and obedience of the Jews with continued existence through [numerous] progeny[106]…ownership of the land of Israel, material well-being, ….and a special relationship to God.”[107] 

The prophets, including our fictional Benjamin, continually reminded Israel that some parts of the covenant have “have conditions attached.”[108]  If they violate those conditions and refuse to repent, then the chastisement they receive is only just.  This punishment was deserved even if it meant “dissolution of the covenant and the accompanying demise of the community.”[109] In fact, the Torah reports that Israel agreed to these punishments if she violated the covenant.[110] Many of the latter prophets reminded Israel of her covenantal obligations and warned her of the consequences of transgression, including: 

a) Isaiah. “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.”[111]

b) Jeremiah.  “They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.”[112]

c)  Ezekiel. “Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.”[113]

d)  Daniel.  “And I prayed unto the LORD my God, and made my confession, and said, O Lord, the great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him, and to them that keep his commandments”[114]

e) Hosea.  “But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.”[115]

The prophets, including the fictional Benjamin, claimed to be able to explain God’s view of the destruction and ultimate restoration of Israel.[116]    Blenkinsopp noted: “A theme recurring often in prophetic discourse is that social injustice and political disaster are related as cause and effect.”[117]  The idea of chastisement was an especially “notable feature of the piety”[118] of the latter prophetic period.  Under this doctrine, there is “an association between specific offenses and corresponding penalties…”[119]  If Israel suffers, it is because she has sinned against her holy and pure God.[120]  She has stepped out of the “clear hierarchy of holiness”[121] in which God placed her.  Her afflictions are simply the just punishment she receives for her transgressions.   Yahweh “was conceived not only as a God who rewards His people with felicity, but who also punishes them for their evil doing.”[122]  These chastisements are not given without adequate warning.  These warnings are calls to repentance.  Kohler suggested:  “The burning fire of the divine holiness aims to awaken the dormant seeds of morality in the human soul and to ripen them into full growth.”[123]

Turning from sin and back to God is a common theme among the prophets of this period as well:

a)  Isaiah.  “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil”[124]  “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”[125]

b) Jeremiah.  “I have sent also unto you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending [them], saying, Return ye now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and go not after other gods to serve them, and ye shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but ye have not inclined your ear, nor hearkened unto me.”[126]

The prophets demand both individual and “collective repentance...”[127] 

In the case of the above fabricated text of Benjamin, Israel’s transgressions centered around worshipping Baal.[128]  Evidence of Baal worship is noted throughout the Hebrew Bible.  In the early prophetic period, the worship of Baal is noted within two generations of the death of Joshua[129] from about 1200-1150 B.C.E.[130]:  “And they forsook the LORD, and served Baal and Ashtaroth.”[131]  Even as late as the time of Josiah in 640–609 b.c.e., the worship of Baal continued:

“I will also stretch out mine hand upon Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, [and] the name of the Chemarims with the priests”[132]

The Anchor Bible Dictionary states:

“Reading the OT, it becomes clear that it was the Baal cult that provided the greatest and most enduring threat to the development of exclusive Yahweh worship within ancient Israel. The fact that the Israelites were settled among the Canaanites, for whom the worship of Baal was so important, and that Palestine is a land utterly dependent for its fertility upon the rain, which was held to be Baal’s special realm of influence, accounts for the tempting nature of this cult as well as the strength of the OT polemic against it.”[133]

It is likely that the worship of Baal was nurtured by the continual presence of Mesopotamian traders in the area.  For example, Caananite merchants established a temple of Baal in Memphis which stood for at least one thousand years.[134]  During the time of David[135], it would not be surprising to find many Mesopotamians living within Israel.  At this time, there were no major conflicts between Mesopotamia and Israel.[136]  Since the land of Palestine “formed a bridge between the two ends of the fertile crescent,”[137] it is very likely that Israel hosted a major trade route between Egypt on the south and Syria and Mesopotamia in the north. Therefore, there were probably many traders among the “resident foreigners, the gerim.”[138]  These traders are likely responsible for the continuing influx of Baal worship throughout Ancient Israel.

There can be little doubt that the Israelites were influenced by the culture of their trading partners, much to the chagrin of the official institutional powers.  Even today, many countries (e.g., China, Fundamentalist Islam) try to enjoy the economic prosperity of trade with Western countries without absorbing Western culture, which they deem harmful to their traditional values.  They are often unsuccessful in preventing these foreign influences from affecting their traditional lifestyles.  With trade comes cultural dilution.  It is this way today and it was this way in Ancient Israel as well.

The scattering and destruction of Israel “was to be a punishment” [139] for worshipping Baal and Israel’s ready acceptance of the condemned foreign culture. While this theme is found throughout the Hebrew Bible, it is especially pervasive in texts dated from after the start of the latter prophetic period:

a) Deuteronomy.  “And the LORD shall scatter you among the nations, and ye shall be left few in number among the heathen, whither the LORD shall lead you.”[140]

b)  First Kings.  “For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger.”[141]

c) Nehemiah.  “Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, [If] ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations:”[142]

d) Psalms.  “Thou hast given us like sheep [appointed] for meat; and hast scattered us among the heathen.”[143]

e) Jeremiah.  “I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.”[144]

f) Ezekiel.  “Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of thee, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments in thee, and the whole remnant of thee will I scatter into all the winds.”[145]

g)  Zechariah.  “But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not. Thus the land was desolate after them, that no man passed through nor returned: for they laid the pleasant land desolate.”[146]

This theme was likely so prevalent because of the increase of foreign influence during this time period.  In the fabricated text, Benjamin compared the destruction of Israel to an olive tree.  Jeremiah and other prophets also used this allegory:

“The LORD called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, [and] of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken. For the LORD of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.”[147]

This comparison was popular among the prophets due to the “premier”[148] place of the olive tree in Ancient Israel.  Ricks noted: “The olive, so vital a part of the economy of ancient Israel, maintains its place on the physical, economic, and religious landscape of Israel in the Second Temple period and beyond.”[149] 

            Following the pattern set by other prophets, Benjamin’s promise of destruction and scattering would not be complete without offering Israel the hope of eventual restoration:

a)  Deuteronomy.  “That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.”[150]

b) Psalms.  “And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.”[151]

c)  Isaiah.  “And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:”[152]

d)  Jeremiah.  “At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.”[153]

e)  Ezekiel.  “Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.”[154]

f)  Hosea.  “Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great [shall be] the day of Jezreel.”[155]

g)  Zechariah.  “I will hiss for them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as they have increased.”[156]

Even today, Jews pray for the restoration of their ancient glory: 

“And to Jerusalem, Your city, may You return in compassion, and may You rest within it, as You have spoken; may You rebuild it soon in our days as an eternal structure, and the throne of David may You speedily establish within it.  Blessed are You, Hashem, the Builder of Jerusalem.”[157]

The text picks up other themes as well.  The prophets encouraged Israel to seek further knowledge of the ways of the Lord though “lively and dialogic”[158] scriptural study and prayer:

“The heart of the righteous studieth to answer: but the mouth of the wicked poureth out evil things.”[159]

“Learn to do well…”[160]

The prophetic ethics were preserved by the Talmudic Rabbis who believed the world “rests on three pillars—study, worship, and good deeds. And which of these is the greatest?  Study—since from study the others can be deduced.”[161]  According to the text, Israel was to be afflicted because she had not kept the commandments of the Lord.  To keep the commandments, one first had to know them.  To know them, a person must study them.  Since prophets were “teachers of the Torah,”[162] it was Benjamin’s responsibility to remind people that searching the scriptures was “an integral part of Jewish piety.”[163]  The text also brings out the importance of prayer.  Moore noted:  “The public and private prayers of the Jews thus show not only what they esteemed the best and most satisfying goods, but their beliefs about the character of God and his relation to them, and their responsive feelings toward him.”[164] 

The text of Benjamin is a good example of the latter prophetic period.  It contains many elements which were common to Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the other latter prophets.  These themes included a condemnation of worshipping Baal and a call to Israel to repentance.  Benjamin wanted Israel to remember the Sinai covenant and return to worshipping the one God, lest they be scattered to the ends of the earth.