Chapter 8 summary

DH sources on the independent northern kingdom of Israel and parallel rulers of Judah

are composed of sparse annalistic political-historical documentation and more liberal miscellaneous literary traditions, mostly stories about prophets. Other sources from this period include the Elohist (E) and Amos and Hosea. While the northern kingdom was formed in rebellion against Solomon’s oppressive economic and political policies, it soon developed similar policies, especially under the Omri dynasty. Despite Jehu’s supposed purge of this kingdom, Israel continued to concentrate wealth and land in the hands of a privileged class to the detriment of a peasant majority and the old protective tribal structures. In a more exposed and difficult geopolitical context than Judah was, the northern kingdom was finally destroyed by the Assyrians. Most likely emerging in either the Omri or Jehu dynasties, E, more than the Yahwist, retains premonarchic and egalitatarian traditions that reflect the origins of Yahwism in the north. Elijah and Elisha stories seem also to have been borne by Yahwists opposed to Baal as well as to oppressive monarchic structures. Amos probably lived in a milieu shaped by old tribal mores and socioethical laws and knew the oppression of the poor, all of which was ignited by God’s call to vivid, dire prophetic speech in the capital of the northern kingdom. Hosea also spoke out in the northern kingdom, prophesying against Yahwism- become-Baalism and socioeconomic wrongs but also drawing on traditions of the exodus and wilderness wandering for modestly hopeful thinking about the future of Israel.