by
Damien F. Mackey
“They called for the king; and Eliakim son of Hilkiah the palace administrator,
Shebna the secretary, and Joah son of Asaph the recorder went out to them”.
2 Kings 18:18
“In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, to purify the land and the Temple,
he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah and Maaseiah the ruler of the city,
with Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the Temple of the LORD his God”.
2 Chronicles 34:8
Merging, as one, “Joah” of Hezekiah and “Joah” of Josiah
There is an apparent repetition of names between the above two texts, in Shebna-Shaphan and Joah-Joah, which is perfectly understandable in my revised context, according to which Hezekiah, “the king” of 2 Kings 18:18, was the very same person as king Josiah in 2 Chronicles 34:8. On this, see e. g. my article:
Damien F. Mackey’s A Tale of Two Theses
(8) Damien F. Mackey's A Tale of Two Theses
But such a coinciding of names is apparently worrisome to the text book commentators - who would conventionally estimate that the two incidents occurred about 90 years apart - who may be inclined, like Thenis, to ‘pronounce these personages fictitious’, and say that “Joah the recorder [of king Josiah] seems to have been borrowed from [the Joah of king Hezekiah] 2Kings 18:18 ...”:
https://biblehub.com/2_kings/22-3.htm
It is an indication of the correctness of my revision of the later kings of Judah, however, that king Hezekiah, king Josiah, could have officials of (near to) identical names, holding identical positions.
Thus Joah is “the recorder”, ha mazkir (הַמַּזְכִּיר) in both cases, Hezekiah and Josiah. Shebna is “the secretary” ha sopher (הַסֹּפֵר) as his counterpart, Shaphan (סֵפֶר), is found to have been upon further scrutiny (cf. 2 Kings 22:8).
And, elsewhere, I have identified another parallel character in Isaiah (for Hezekiah) and Asaiah (for Josiah): thus, Isaiah = Asaiah.
The “Hilkiah” referred to in 2 Kings 18:18 as the father of “Eliakim” is met again in the era of Josiah as the identically named “Hilkiah” (3 Chronicles 34:9): “They went to Hilkiah the high priest ...”.
Eliakim himself, whom I have identified as high priest in my article:
Hezekiah’s Chief Official Eliakim was High Priest
https://www.academia.edu/31701765/Hezekiahs_Chief_Official_Eliakim_was_High_Priest
does not (I think) appear in any of the accounts of king Josiah.
There may be a good reason for this. He may have replaced Shebna as commandant of the fort of Lachish (= “Ashdod”). In the Book of Judith, in which Eliakim (Douay), var. Joakim, is the high priest, we are specifically told that: (Judith 4:6): “The High Priest Joakim, who was in Jerusalem at that time, wrote to the people in the towns of Bethulia and Betomesthaim, which face Jezreel Valley near Dothan”. This geographical information, “who was in Jerusalem at that time”, could well indicate that Eliakim was sometimes stationed outside Jerusalem, say, for military and defensive purposes.
But Eliakim had by no means died out by the time of king Josiah, for we find him as “the high priest” even as late as Baruch (1:2): “... in the fifth year, on the seventh day of the month, at the time when the Chaldeans took Jerusalem and burned it with fire”.
Eliakim, or Joakim, is there called by the related name of “Jehoiakim”.
On “related names” see e.g.,
https://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Jehoiakim.html#.Xsxq8e0vPnE
and commentators (following an enlarged chronology) do not know who he was (this being especially complicated by the fact that they have failed to realise that the Eliakim of Hezekiah was a high priest).
The Baruch text, which identifies Jehoiakim as “son of Hilkiah”, as we know him (as Eliakim/Joakim) to have been, reads thus (vv. 5-7): “Then they wept, and fasted, and prayed before the Lord; they collected as much money as each could give, and sent it to Jerusalem to the high priest Jehoiakim son of Hilkiah son of Shallum, and to the priests, and to all the people who were present with him in Jerusalem”.
The office of “recorder” was apparently a highly significant one, some placing it as high as vizier to the king.
Thus we read in Bible study tools:
https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/recorder/
“Recorder ...
(Heb. mazkir, i.e., "the mentioner," "rememberancer"), the office first held by Jehoshaphat in the court of David ( 2 Samuel 8:16 ), also in the court of Solomon ( 1 Kings 4:3 ). The next recorder mentioned is Joah, in the reign of Hezekiah ( 2 Kings 18:18 2 Kings 18:37 ; Isaiah 36:3 Isaiah 36:22 ). In the reign of Josiah another [sic] of the name of Joah filled this office (2 Chronicles 34:8 ). The "recorder" was the chancellor or vizier of the kingdom. He brought all weighty matters under the notice of the king, "such as complaints, petitions, and wishes of subjects or foreigners. He also drew up papers for the king's guidance, and prepared drafts of the royal will for the scribes. All treaties came under his oversight; and he had the care of the national archives or records, to which, as royal historiographer, like the same state officer in Assyria and Egypt, he added the current annals of the kingdom”.
[End of quote]
Note that only three supposed individuals are specifically designated as “recorder” in the OT, Jehoshaphat, at the time of kings David and Solomon, and the supposedly two Joah’s - who, though, I think, need to be trimmed down to just one. One would expect, however, that there must have been a continuation of those holding the office of recorder from Joah all the way back to Jehoshaphat, who will soon become of significance with regard to the ancestry of Joah.
The office of recorder may have involved, also, “herald”, or trumpet-blower, shofar (שׁוֹפָר), in the case of an emergency. Joah may have, for instance, overseen or commanded the trumpet-blowing Levites. John Strazicich has written on trumpet-blowing in the Bible, especially with reference to the Book of Joel (to be considered further on), in his book Joel’s Use of Scripture and the Scripture’s Use of Joel (1960, p. 116):
The primary theological OT text for the blowing of trumpets is Num 1:1-10. The trumpets function for gathering the cultic community, for use at time of war, and at the time of sacrifice. According to Milgrom, the blowing of trumpets, whether for religious purposes or for war, serves as instruments of prayer in Num 10:9-10. .... Whether for sacrifice or deliverance at times of war, the use of trumpets for prayer has theological significance in Joel's liturgical context of the [Day of the Lord], as well as for the cultic gathering of the nation. The priestly trumpet blast noted above is an alarm which functions militarily, so that the community is be [sic] remembered before Yahweh. The cultic connection to Joel's use of the trumpets acts in concert with the prayers of all the community to plead for Yahweh's mercy (2:15-17).
[End of quote]
Other “instruments of prayer”, such as cymbals, may also have been part of the recorder's repertoire. Psalm 150:1-6 lists various such instruments: “Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals!”
Joah as the prophet Joel
The Book of Joel opens with the raising of the alarm about a devastating invasion of “locusts” (Joel 1:2-4):
“The word of the Lord that came to Joel son of Phatuel.
‘Hear this, you elders;
listen, all who live in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened in your days
or in the days of your ancestors?
Tell it to your children,
and let your children tell it to their children,
and their children to the next generation.
What the locust swarm has left
the great locusts have eaten;
what the great locusts have left
the young locusts have eaten;
what the young locusts have left
other locusts have eaten’.”
This, I had argued in my post-graduate university thesis (2007) is a symbolical reference - under the form of “locusts” - to the invasion of Israel and Judah by the armies of Sennacherib, king of Assyria. It is a brilliant image of the utter destruction to the land caused by the marauding Assyrians.
These were described as “locusts”, both in history, and in the Bible.
For example, “Assyrian documents link armies and locusts ...”. (Pablo R. Andiñach, “The Locusts in the Message of Joel”, Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 42, Fasc. 4, Oct., 1992). And Judith 2:20 describes the massive invading host of “Holofernes” as: “A huge, irregular force, too many to count, like locusts, like the dust of the earth ...". “
(Cf. Amos 7:1).
Joel then becomes more specific (and less symbolical) when he describes this host as both a “nation” and an “army” (1:6): “A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number ...”. The Douay version of Joel 2:20, referring to "the northern enemy", includes this footnote: “The northern enemy”: Some understand this of Holofernes and his army: others, of the locusts”.
The correct view is, I believe, “Holofernes and his army”.
The name of Joel’s “father”, or ancestor, is given as “Phatuel” (or “Pethuel”), which I now take to be a long-ranging reference back to that earlier recorder, Jehoshaphat, the two names sharing the common element “phat” as well as each having a theophoric.
Joah of Hezekiah's father, ancestor, “Asaph”, may perhaps be seen, then, as part of that name, Jehoshaphat - both names sharing the “shap[h]” element.
Joah of Josiah's ancestor, “Joahaz”, is not so apparent.
If, as I am saying, he is to be merged with the Joah of Hezekiah, then, possibly, “Joahaz” is another reference to Jehoshaphat.
