3.2 Metaphors about God in the Old Testament

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3.2 Metaphors about God in the Old Testament
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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 1. Introduction
• 1.1 "All, or almost all of the language used by
  the Bible to refer to God is metaphor." Caird
• "A metaphor draws similarities between different
  entities, but does not equate them." Brettler

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 1. Introduction
• 1.2 A Root Metaphor "The LORD as King is a "root
  metaphor." It generates such metaphors as the
  notion of the temple as God's royal dwelling -
  God's palace the concept that God is an
  enthroned ruler of the Universe and presides over
  a heavenly court of divine armies the there will
  be a great battle, the "Day of LORD."

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 2. Statistics
• 2.1 "The OT speaks of the Lord as King a total of
  85 times (ignoring personal names in which this
  concept is also expressed). These are contexts in
  which such words as king,' throne,' reign,'
  and the like are used of God." Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 2.2 Tabulations
• "King" l,m, used of God 43 times.
• Pent 2X Num 23.21 Deut 33.5
• Sam 1X 1 Sam 12.12
• Prophets 18X Isa 6.5 33.17, 22 41.21 43.15
  44.6 Jer 8.19 10.7, 10 6.18 48.15 51.57
  Micah 2.13 Zeph 3.15 Zech 14.9, 16, 17 Mal
  1.14
• Psalter 21X 5.23 10.16 24.7, 8, 9, 10
  29.10 44.45 47.2, 6, 73, 7, 8 48.23
  68.2425 74.12 84.34 89.1819 95.3 98.6
  99.4 145.1 149.2.
• Daniel 1X Dan 4.37Aram v34

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• "to be king" lm' is used 13 times of God.
• Pent 1X Exod 15.18
• Sam 1X 1 Sam 8.7
• Prophets 6X Isa 24.23 52.7 Eze 20.33 Micah
  4.7
• Psalter 6X 47.89 93.1 96.10 97.1 99.1
  146.10
• Chronicles 1X 1 Chr 16.31 (Ps 96.10)

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• Terms signifying "kingdom" occur 10 times in
  connection with God.
• tWkl.m Ps 103.19 145.11, 12, 13(X2) Dan 4.3
  Aram 3.33 4.34Aram 4.31
• hk'Wlm. Obad 21 Ps 22.2829
• 1 Chr 29.11
• The Lord's sitting on his throne is mentioned 11
  times. not including the expression "he who
  thrones upon the cherubim," 1 Kgs 22.19 Isa
  6.1 66.1 Jer 3.17 17.12 Eze 1.26 Pss 9.4,
  75, 8 47.89 89.1415 93.2 103.19.

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• "to rule, govern" lvm' 8X Judg 8.23 Isa
  63.19 Pss 22.2829 59.1314 66.7 89.910
  1 Chr 29.12 2 Chr 20.6.

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M. Brettler, God is King

• 1. Royal Appellation
• 1.1 "These are lm, 'king', dygn, 'divine
  designee', xyXm, 'anointed one', hwhy ryxb, 'the
  chosen of the LORD', hr, 'shepherd', ayXn,
  'exalted one', Xar, 'head', yhla, 'God', !wda,
  'master', jpX 'judge', rg, 'lamp', wnypa xwr,
  'our life-spirit', !gm 'shield', xmc, 'branch'
  and lXm, 'ruler.'"
• 1.2 Not used of God 'anointed one,' 'divine
  designee,' 'the chosen of Yahweh,' 'exalted one,'
  'head,' 'officer.'
• 1.3 Full-fledged Royal appellations 'king,'
  'master,' and 'shepherd.'

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M. Brettler, God is King

• Special differences
• "A king is a rn, nr, but God is a ryn, nyr. The
  king is addressed ynIda, )ado4n but God is
  addressed yn"da, )adona4y."
• ". . . emphasized through such phrases as rah lk
  wda, 'master of all the earth', br lm, 'great
  king' and qdc jpX, 'righteous judge'."
• "The use of particular royal appellations offers
  general boundaries for understanding God, but
  through morphological, syntactic and contextual
  modifications, the biblical authors clarify that
  God's kingship is qualitatively different from
  human kingship."

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M. Brettler, God is King

• 2. Royal Qualities
• 2.1 "God is not called 'handsome,' although this
  was a common royal attribute" . . . . possession
  gold and silver would undermine omnipotence.
• 2.2 Although statements about kings "living
  forever" are used God is more eternal than
  luminaries. Wealth for God is ka4bod with a
  different meaning.
• 2.3 Kings may be 'strong' but the word 'great' is
  never used of an Israelite king.

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M. Brettler, God is King

• 3. Royal Trappings
• 3.1 A certain lack of textual descriptions about
  royal accouterments.
• 3.2 "God as king has no crown, no royal scepter,
  no bracelet, no platform, no detailed royal
  garb."
• 3.3 Isa 33 a possible exception "royal scepter"
  and in Dan 79, God's clothing is described.
• 3.4 "The throne acts just like God's royal
  qualities - it is a quantitatively superior
  projection of human royal throne onto God."

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M. Brettler, God is King

• 4. The King Domestic Affairs
• 4.1 "The terms used for the royal palace or royal
  officers had a decisive influence on the
  descriptions of the divine realm . . . . the
  structure of the heavenly council. . . ."
• 4.2 "The institutions associated with raising
  money by the king had little influence on the
  Israelite's portrayal of God."

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M. Brettler, God is King

• 4. The King Domestic Affairs
• 4.3 As a judge, God judges with equity.
• 4.4 Royal building projects may be differentiated
  with God's Creation.
• 4.5 The word qeser, 'domestic rebellion' is not
  used of God. "Rather these rebellions against God
  use the terms for 'rebellion against an overload'
  (Xp or drm).

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 2.3 "The root metaphor of the Lord as King
  utilizes two divine designation "the King," and
  "YHWH Sabaoth." The first gives us a glimpse of
  YHWH as the warring deity and the second of YHWH
  as the enthroned reigning deity." N.B. Isaiah
  6.1-5

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3. The LORD as KING The Victorious Warrior
• 3.1 YHWH is King not Baal!
• Problem of identifying YHWH with Baal
• Hos 2.16 2.18 On that day, says the LORD, you
  will call me, My husband, and no longer will
  you call me, My Baal.

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Baal Yahweh

• The Baal epic deals with "Baal's struggle(s) to
  establish his kingship over the universe."
  Parker
• 1. The First Cycle describes Baal's battles with
  Yamm or the Sea.
• ". . . in Canaan as in Mesopotamia and Israel,
  Sea was portrayed as a seven-headed dragon, a
  dragon to be slain in order to establish the rule
  of the warrior-king of the gods." Cross

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Baal Yahweh

• 2. The Second episode deals with Baal's struggle
  to establish his palace.
• "The Ba'l cycle relates the emergence of kingship
  among the gods. The tale of the establishment of
  a dynastic temple and its cultus is a typical
  subtheme of the cosmogony and its ritual and is
  found also in Enuma Elish and . . . in the
  Bible." Cross

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Baal Yahweh

• 3. The Third story deals with Baal's defeat by
  the hands of Mot, "Death."
• "If Yamm represented the unruly powers of the
  universe who threatened chaos, until restricted
  and tamed by Ba'l, then Mot, 'El's dead son,
  represents the dark chthonic powers which bring
  sterility, disease, and death. The drama,
  however, is still a cosmogony, the victory of the
  god of life." Cross

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.1.1 Elimination of Baal in worship ". . .
  characterized by Israel's reaction to the sexual
  athleticism and the dying and rising features of
  the Canaanite deities." Mettinger
• 3.1.2 Integration ". . . the hypothesis that the
  use of the designation "king" in Israel was
  inherited from the Canaanites" Mettinger

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Enthronement Psalms

• 1. Sigmund Mowinckel proposed the idea that
  ancient Israel had a New Years festival that
  utilized the so-called Enthronement Psalms (93,
  96-99) and others texts.
• The festival "re-enacted" Yahweh becoming King.
• The phrase "lm hwhy" "Yahweh is/becomes king"?

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Enthronement Psalms

• 2. Israelite kings coronation ritual
• Anointing (secret)?
• Confirmation by the general populous
• Victory in battle
• 3. Pattern in the Baal Myth (also similar in
  Enuma Elish)
• The god's victory over the forces of chaos
• His acclamation as king
• Construction of his palace/temple

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• 3.1.3 The Battle
• Ps 74.12-14 Yet God my King from of old,
  working salvation in the midst of the earth. You
  divided the sea y" by your might You broke
  the heads of the dragons on the waters. You
  crushed the heads of Leviathan.
• Isa 27.1 In that day the LORD with his hard and
  great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the
  fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent,
  and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.2 The LORD as King The Creation Battle
• Ps 74.15-17 You cut openings for springs and
  torrents and you dried up ever-flowing streams.
  Yours is the day, yours also the night you
  establish the luminaries and the sun. You have
  fixed all the bounds of the earth you made
  summer and winter. Note the connection of the
  chaos battle and the description of creation.

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• Ps 89.9-12 v5-18 God as King gt v1819 should be
  rendered "The Holy One of Israel, he is our
  king" You rule the raging of the sea when its
  waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab
  like a carcass you scattered your enemies with
  your mighty arm. The heavens are yours, the earth
  also is yours the world and all that is in it -
  you have founded them. The north and the south -
  you created them Tabor and Hermon joyously
  praise you name.
• Rebuke gt rg"
• Ps 104.7 "At your rebuke they fled at the sound
  of your thunder they took to flight." Isa 17.3

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• "The concept of the Lord as King is associated
  with the idea of the chaos battle. . . . the
  chaos battle . . . serves as a motif of creation.
  In this context, the creation bears witness of
  God's victory over chaos. This establishes a
  connection between the Lord as King and his
  creation of the world, and this connection is
  attested in other biblical texts (e.g., Jer 10.7,
  12-16) and in other Jewish literature."
  Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• ". . . the council of the gods assembled in the
  mountain of 'El. On the approach of emissaries of
  Ba'l's archfoe, Prince Sea, the gods are cowed
  and fearful, "dropping their heads onto their
  knees, down on their princely thrones" . . . ."
  Cross
• "Lift up, O Gods, your heads!"

• 3.3 The LORD as King The Temple and the Zion
  Battle
• 3.3.1 Ps 24 How the King of Glory enters his
  Temple
• 24.7-10 God's royal progression to his temple.
• 24.1-2 A glimpse of the Creator's battle with
  the powers of chaos

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.3 The LORD as King The Temple and the Zion
  Battle
• 3.3.2 1 Kgs 8.13 The temple as God's royal
  palace "I have built a royal house for you, an
  established place for your throne forever."
• The temple in Jerusalem often called lk'yhe Ps
  27.4 Isa 6.1.

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.3.3 Zion Theology in Ps 46 48 76 Roberts
• The Lord is the great King (Ps 48.2)
• God has chosen Jerusalem (Pss 78.68-69) 132.13)
  the temple on Zion is his royal palace, and God
  is always present in it.

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• The royal presence of the God on Zion has a
  series of consequences
• God's blessing emanates from Zion (Pss 128.5
  134.3) the temple river is a manifestation of
  this (Ps 46.4 Eze 47.1-12).
• In a virtual repetition of the chaos battle, the
  Lord intervenes against the enemies who are
  threatening Zion. God's presence makes Zion
  inviolable God is the guarantor of Zion's
  security (Ps 46.5).
• God's presence entails special demands on the
  inhabitants of Zion, as sinners cannot endure the
  presence of God (Pss 15 24.3-6 Isa 33.13-16).

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.3.4 Three Key texts for the Zion Battle
• Isa 17.12-14 gt The chaos battle here is
  transformed into God's battle with the enemy who
  attack Zion.
• Ps 46.5-6 gt God brings peace by being the
  battling king and intervening against every new
  manifestation of the forces of chaos.
• Ps 76.5-6 gt God intervenes with a royal word and
  defeats the rider and horse.

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.3.5 ". . . the temple to the metaphor of the
  Lord as King. Its architecture and cult symbols
  imply that the structure in question is the
  palace of he great King. . . . It is logical to
  assume that this root metaphor was especially
  cultivated in the milieu of the temple, which
  would help to explain its occurrence in the
  Psalter and related literature." Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.4 The LORD as King The Exodus Battle
• 3.4.1 Passages describing the miracle of the
  exodus as a re-enactment of God's battle with the
  power of chaos
• Ps 114.1-5
• Ps 77.13-10
• Exod 15.1-18
• Isa 51.9-10

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.4 The LORD as King The Exodus Battle
• 3.4.2 ". . . the motif of the chaos battle is
  used in the OT in a variety of ways to show how
  God created this world in an act of royal
  sovereignty and how God acts in new ways on the
  historical plane. In this connection we find the
  'historicization' of the motif in order to
  describe God's saving action in the exodus. Here,
  too, we find God's defense of Zion against the
  attacking enemy peoples. The original
  mythological motif was historicized' in Israel.
  Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.5 The Battle on the Day of the LORD
• 3.5.1 The Day of Yahweh in General
• 3.5.1.1 "'The Day of the Lord' (the Day of
  Yahweh') is a central feature of the prophets'
  message to their contemporaries. This phrase and
  such closely related expressions as the day of
  the anger of Yahweh,' or Yahweh has a day,'
  occur over two dozen times in the prophetic books
  (most frequently in Isaiah, Joel, and Zephaniah),
  and once in Lamentations (2.22)." Heirs

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.5.1.2 "Similar terms, particularly that day,'
  the day of,' and the day when,' appear nearly
  200 times in the prophets, occasionally in
  Lamentations, and twice in Psalms (Pss 110.5
  137.7). The terms often are used interchangeably
  with the fuller expressions or in contexts that
  refer specifically to one or the other of them,
  e.g., Isa 2.12-22 (see vv 12, 17, 20) Jer 46.10
  Ezk 7.5-27 (see vv 7, 10, 12, 19) and Ezk
  30.2-3." Heirs

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.5.1.3 Mettinger's "More Important OT Day of
  the LORD' Texts
• "In the NT, the expression the Day of the Lord'
  refers to the day Jesus arose from the dead -
  Sunday. Alternatively, it sometimes refers to the
  day of the return of Christ. In the OT, the
  phrase often has eschatological connotations.
  There it has to do with the day of God's final
  intervention in world history, the day when he
  will judge the peoples. The day of the Lord' and
  related expressions occur virtually only in the
  prophetic literature." Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• ". . . the more important of the Day of the
  Lord' texts include Isa 2.6-22 13.1-22 22.1-14
  34.1-8 Jer 46.1-12 Ezk 7.1-27 Joel 1.1-20
  2.1-17 2.28-32 3.1-4 3.1-21 4.1-21 Amos
  5.18-20 obad 15-21 Zeph 1.2-18 3.9-20 Zech
  14.1-21. In addition to these texts, the
  following should be considered. They do not
  contain the technical terms of the Day of the
  Lord' texts, but are nevertheless related Isa
  24-27 Jer 4.23-31 50-51 Ezk 38-39." Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.5.1.4 Hoffmann's Two Principles Hoffmann,
  "The Day of the Lord as a Concept and a Term in
  the Prophetic Literature," ZAW 93, pp. 37-50
• The investigation should start with Amos 5.18-20.
• We must not draw conclusions about an earlier
  text from a later one.

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 3.5.2 Major Interpretations
• 3.5.2.1 von Rad von Rad, "The Origin of the
  Concept of the Day of the Yahweh," JSS, 4, pp.
  97-108 Old Testament Theology, Vol II, pp.
  119-125 Holy War in Ancient Israel
• "There is in fact something peculiar about the
  expectation of of the Day of Jahweh, for wherever
  it occurs in prophecy, the statements culminate
  in an allusion to Jahweh's coming in person."
  von Rad

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• ". . . the prophets expect the day of Jahweh to
  bring war in its train. . . . In itself, the
  almost stereotyped connexion of the day of Jahweh
  with intervention in war reminds one of the holy
  wars and all the phenomena which traditionally
  accompanied them. . . . A particularly important
  part is played by the terror caused by God
  himself, a panic confusion and demoralization of
  the enemy, whose effect was to paralyze their
  confidence in their fighting powers and so lead
  them to compass their own destruction." von Rad

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• "The concept connected with the Day of Jahweh are
  therefore in no way eschatological per se, but
  were familiar to the prophets in all their
  details from the old Jahwistic tradition. The
  prophets, however, also believed that Jahweh's
  final uprising against his foe would take the
  same form as it had done in the days of old. It
  is beyond question that the prophetic vision of
  the concept of Jahweh's intervention in war
  became greatly intensified for the war was now
  to affect all nations, even the fixed orders of
  creation, and even Israel herself." von Rad

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• "The event has been expanded into a phenomenon
  of cosmic significance. Thus, under the influence
  of this traditional element the prophetic concept
  of the eschaton was also to some extent
  systematized, that is to say, predictions
  connected with the expectation of the Day of
  Jahweh which began from different traditions were
  to some extent blended." von Rad

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• ". . . von Rad maintains in his theology of the
  OT that the 'Day of the Lord' implied a renewal
  of that intervention which the Lord once
  undertook in connection with the holy war' which
  took place after the exodus from Egypt and in
  conjunction with the conquest of Canaan. Of
  course, we know that the prophets sometimes
  looked to the past when they spoke of that which
  was to come. Thus, for example, it is possible to
  interpret Isa 9.4 in the light of Judges 7, or
  Isa 28.21 on the basis of 2 Sam 5.20. Moreover,
  it is clear that the description of the holy
  wars' of the past contain a number of miraculous
  details (e.g., Ex 14.20 Josh 10.11 1 Sam
  7.10)." Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• "He is convinced that 'the Day of Yahweh
  encompasses a pure event of war, the rise of
  Yahweh against his enemies, his battle and his
  victory' (von Rad 1959 103). He pays particular
  attention to Isaiah 13 and 34, Ezekiel 7, and
  Joel 2, but criticizes those scholars who take
  Amos 5.18 as the starting point for in his view
  this text is not sufficiently unequivocal to be
  used as a suitable starting point for the
  examination (1959 98)." Cathcart

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 2.5.2.2 Mowinckel Mowinckel, He that Cometh
• ". . . S. Mowinckel proposed in 1917 that the
  Israelite New Year Festival was the enthronement
  festival of Yahweh. However, he . . .
  reject(ed)ing the existence of a preprophetic
  eschatology. For him the Day of Yahweh originally
  means the day of Yahweh's manifestation in the
  cult at the New year Festival. Eschatology and
  the eschatological significance of the Day of
  Yahweh have their ultimate source in the autumn
  festival, but strictly they belong to later
  prophecy." Cathcart

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 2.5.2.3 John Gray Gray, "The Day of Yahweh in
  Cultic Experience and Eschatological Prospect,"
  SEA, 39, pp.5-37 The Biblical Doctrine of the
  Reign of God
• ". . . J. Gray, has argued effectively that the
  Day of Yahweh 'signified essentially the moment
  of the epiphany as King, which was the highlight
  of the autumn festival'. . . . Utilizing evidence
  gathered from Canaanite sources, and esp. the
  Baal myth from Ugarit, Gray stresses the
  importance of mispat, i.e., the imposition of
  the effective rule of Yahweh as king, the main
  theme of the liturgy of the autumn festival with
  its ultimate origins in the Canaanite festival at
  the same seasonal crisis'." Cathcart

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• "Furthermore, Gray argues that Yahweh's conflict
  with the enemies of Israel, the
  Volkerkampf-mythus, is the historification in
  Israel of the cosmic conflict to sustain the
  effective Kingship of Yahweh in the liturgy of
  the autumn festival." Cathcart
• Mettinger follows a similar line when he
  emphasizes that, "It is a simple fact that
  certain of the texts that speak of the Day of
  the Lord' or of the Day' also expressly speak of
  the Lord as King. Here I content myself with
  brief reference to Ob 15-21 Micah 4.6-8 Zeph
  3.11-15 and Zech 14.9, 16." Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 4. The LORD of Hosts The Regnant God
• 4.1 The Contexts of twabc hwhy
• 4.1.1 "There are 284 occurrence of the name of
  these, no fewer than 251 (i.e., 88) are in the
  prophetic books. The 82 occurrences in the Book
  of Jeremiah represent a problem. . . . However,
  one should note the frequency of the term in
  Isaiah 1-39 (56 times), Haggai (14 times),
  Zechariah (53 times), and Malachi (24 times).
  These prophets have one notable feature in
  common they represent a tradition closely
  associated with the Jerusalem temple." Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 4.1.2 ". . . the first attestations of the name
  occur in 1 Samuel (1.3, 11 4.4), where it
  appears in the context of ancient traditions
  associated with the Shiloh of he period of the
  judges. . . . Shiloh contained a sanctuary, which
  was in fact the only sanctuary prior to the
  erection of Solomon's temple that was designated
  by the word hekal, temple (1 Sam 1.9 3.3).
  Additionally, in the early materials the ark of
  the covenant is especially connected with the
  Sabaoth name (1 Sam 4.4 2 Sam 6.2), and it soon
  took up its place in the temple of Solomon (1 Kgs
  8.6)." Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 4.1.3 In the Psalter 15X 24.10 46.7, 118,
  12 48.89 59.56 69.67 80.4, 7, 14,
  195, 8, 15, 20 84.1, 3, 8, 122, 4, 9, 13
  and 89.89.

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 4.2 Iconographic Context
• 4.2.1 The Sabaoth name seems to be connected with
  the Temple and especially the Cherubim Throne.
• 1 Sam 4.4 2 Sam 6.2 Isa 37.16 Ps 80.4, 7, 14,
  19.

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• "The Sabaoth name was connected with Jerusalem
  and Zion. It was sometimes complemented by the
  cherubim formula,' so that the combined divine
  name YHWH Sabaoth, who is enthroned above the
  cherubim.' Therefore, we may conclude that the
  Sabaoth name was at homein the milieu of the
  temple. After all, it was in the temple that the
  two cherubim were placed which formed the throne
  of YHWH Sabaoth. It accordingly seems likely that
  the Sabaoth name was the designation used by the
  temple priests for God." Mettinger

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 4.2.2 The Temple Meeting Place of Heaven and
  Earth.
• Ps 11.4 "The Lord is in his holy temple, the
  Lord's throne is in heaven."
• Isa 66.1 "Heaven is my throne and the earth is my
  footstool"

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3.2.1 The LORD is KING

• 4.3 The Meaning of the word "Sabaoth"
• 4.3.1 "Sabaoth's linguistically related the word
  tsaba' which itself designates the heavenly host,
  God's divine council. It is important to
  recognize that these two lines actually converge.
  The Sabaoth name designates God as the heavenly
  King, and the element seba'ot direct our
  attention to the heavenly hosts around the throne
  of God. These heavenly hosts have multiple
  functions they sing the eternal praise of God in
  the heavenly sanctuary they serve as members of
  God's heavenly government and they carry out
  God's assignments on earth." Mettinger

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• 4.4 The Theology of God as YHWH Sabaoth
• 4.4.1 The Present God
• "The cherubim throne in the temple gave tangible
  expression to a concept that must have been
  central to Israelite faith during the entire
  history of the Solomonic temple the concept of
  God as the Deus praesens, the present God, the
  invisible one on the cherubim throne in the
  temple." Mettinger
• Isaiah's theology in chapters 6-12.