Africa and Africans in the Books of Chronicles

Currents in Theology and Mission, August, 2004 by Ralph W. Klein

The Chronicler often divides his story of kings into good periods and bad periods. Late in his reign Asa, for example, did not call upon Yahweh but put Hanani the prophet in the stocks, treated the people cruelly, and sought physicians instead of Yahweh when he was diseased in his feet (gangrene? venereal disease?). His last years were plagued by unwinnable wars (2 Chronicles 16).

Early on, however, Asa did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh and got rid of foreign altars and high places (2 Chr 14:2-3). His seeking Yahweh led to his success in recruiting an army of some 580 thousand men (2 Chr 14:4-8). But then he was invaded by Zerah the Ethiopian/Nubian who brought along a million-man army and three hundred chariots (2 Chr 14:9). The odds were enormously against Asa, but he showed the nature of true strength by relying not on military equipment and number of soldiers but solely on divine aid: "O Yahweh, there is no difference for you between helping the mighty and the weak. Help us, Yahweh our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this multitude. Yahweh, you are our God; let no mortal prevail against you" (2 Chr 14:11). Asa's victory was as easy as it was complete since Yahweh defeated the Ethiopians/Nubians and give Israel much booty from the battle (2 Chr 14:12-13). While the numbers for the armies on both sides are unrealistically large (22) and the identity of Zerah quite uncertain, (23) the point of the story is clear: Reliance on Yahweh prepares one well for every challenge. By this victory Yahweh answered Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple: "If your people go out to battle against their enemies, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to you toward this city that you have chosen and the house that I have built for your name, then hear from heaven their prayer and their plea, and maintain their cause" (2 Chr 6:34-35). However modern scholars might reconstruct the historical circumstances behind this battle, the Chronicler's fourth-century readers would have seen it as another interaction with Africa.

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Neco the king of Egypt makes his appearance during the reign of Josiah. This Neco is known to Egyptologists as Neco II, 610-595 B.C.E., from the twenty-sixth or Saite dynasty. (24) Neco was actually on his way to prop up the tottering Assyrian empire as a buffer against the rising power of Babylon (2 Chr 35:20). His intention was to help Asshuruballit retake Harran from Babylonian troops (ANET 305). (25) This corrects the impression given in 2 Kgs 23:29 that Neco was going up to fight against the Assyrians at the Euphrates. Modern historians conclude that the Chronicler has correctly understood Neco's strategy. In any case, Neco was intercepted by Josiah at Megiddo, leading to Josiah's death (2 Kgs 23:29-30//2 Chr 35:20-25). This death of Josiah is actually extremely problematical for the author of Kings, who had lavishly praised Josiah: "Before him there was no king like him, 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). But if Yahweh rewards the righteous, why did Josiah die at Megiddo when he was only forty?