by
Damien F. Mackey
“But the anger of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of
Ram burned;
against
Job his anger burned because he justified himself before God”.
Job
32:2
Introduction
Previously in this series we considered some
likenesses between Elihu and the prophet Ezekiel, which others have picked up,
and the question was asked:
…. Can they be the same?
“Ezekiel
[was] the priest, the son of Buzi …” (Ezekiel 1:3).
We
now know that Elihu and Ezekiel were contemporaries.
They
also have in common the rare name, Buzi: “According
to Strong, "Buzi" in Ezekiel 1:3 is the same word as
"Buzite" in Job 32:2. This is a rare name in Scripture. That both
Elihu and Ezekiel have this name mentioned in their ancestry alerts us to look
for other similarities between these two men”.
Ezekiel 1:3: (בּוּזִי)
Job 32:2: (הַבּוּזִי).
They
both refer to Job:
Elihu
says (Job 33:1): ‘But now, Job, listen to my words; pay attention to everything
I say’.
Ezekiel
twice has God proclaim (Ezekiel 14:14, 20): ‘… even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness
…’.
And most strikingly in relation to this situation we
learned that: “The
exact same Hebrew phrase (שְׁלֹשֶׁת הָאֲנָשִׁים
הָאֵלֶּה), “these three men”, is found in both Ezekiel 14:14 and Job
32:1.
Then
… we further learned of a whole variety of parallels and links between Elihu
and Ezekiel, for example: “Comparisons
include whirlwinds; sitting for seven days; not speaking; and rebuking elders
even though they themselves were much younger”.
Nigel
Bernard, who had provided us with some of the best of these likenesses, did,
however, distinguish “Ezekiel … "the priest, the son of Buzi". That
he was both a priest and the son of Buzi provides a link with Elihu. Malachi
wrote that "the priest’s lips should keep knowledge" (2:7)” from
Elihu: “Although not a priest, Elihu sought to live the spirit of these words,
for he said, "my lips shall utter knowledge clearly" (Job 33:3)”.
To
which I had attached this comment: “Whether or not Elihu was a priest has yet,
I think, to be determined”.
The
prophet Ezekiel was most definitely a priest, as is clear from 1:3: “Ezekiel the priest …”. So, in order even to
consider whether or not Elihu and Ezekiel could be the same person, one would
need to be able to show that Elihu’s genealogy (the only one given in the Book
of Job) (32:2): “… son of Barachel the Buzite, of the family of Ram”, was
Levite.
Given
that this is the only reference in the Bible to the name Barachel, the task is
a difficult one.
Moreover,
the phrase “of the family of Ram” (מִמִּשְׁפַּחַת-רָם), has led some to the conclusion that young Elihu was an Aram(=
Ram)ite, i.e., of the Syrian race.
However,
the Hebrew phrase rendered here invariably refers to “family”, rather than to
race.
[End
of quotes]
At this stage I
had to interrupt my pursuit of an understanding of Elihu’s (Ezekiel’s?)
genealogy, to write some articles reconstructing the life of the prophet
Elisha, for instance:
Elisha – Terminator of Baalism in Judah
which I considered to be necessary to fill in
certain ancestral details (e.g. Rechabitism) pertaining to Elihu. The prophet
Elisha was identified here with both Jehonadab
the Rechabite - Jehu’s partner in the destruction of the northern Baalists
- and with Jehoiada, the reforming
priest in Jerusalem. Now, it is in this revised package:
Elisha = Jehonadab = Jehoiada,
that, I think, we can find crucial clues for
putting together in a satisfactory manner those enigmatic biographical details associated
with Elihu:
“… son of Barachel the Buzite, of the
family of Ram”.
Elihu a descendant
of
the prophet Elisha
Barachel
The priest Jehoiada, with whom I am identifying
Elisha, was otherwise known as Barachiah, or Berechiah (Matthew 23:35): ‘… on
you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of
righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Barachiah, whom you murdered
between the temple and the altar’.
Cf. 2 Chronicles 24:22: “King Joash did not
remember the kindness Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had shown him but killed his
son, who said as he lay dying, ‘May the LORD see this and call you to
account’.”
The name Barachiah
was in this case more of a title than a proper name, I suggest, stemming from
(and this is where Jehonadab the Rechabite comes in) the Hebrew ben [bar] Rechab.
He was Jehonadab son of Rechab
וִיהוֹנָדָב בֶּן-רֵכָב
Appropriately, now, Elihu was “son of Barachel”. And,
as we see from the following list from Abarim (http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Barachel.html#.WKTvp000N9A):
Associated Biblical names
♂Jeberechiahוִיהוֹנָדָב
בֶּן-רֵכָב
the
name, Barachel can be associated with
Berechiah.
Barachel
was not, therefore, Elihu’s direct father, but rather his famous priest-ancestor,
Berechiah (= Jehoiada), who I am saying was the prophet Elisha himself.
This
would mean that Elihu of the Book of Job was actually a priest, thereby
strengthening my hopeful equation of Elihu with “Ezekiel the priest …” (Ezekiel 1:3), who was, according to the same verse,
“the son of Buzi”. I take this to be, as in the case of Elihu, a geographical
indicator - that Elisha was from the land of Buz, not that Ezekiel’s father was
called “Buzi”.
Buzite
Was
Elisha (Barachel) geographically a
Buzite?
Unfortunately
it is difficult to be definitive about this because geographical details are, at
this present stage of our knowledge, somewhat uncertain. Whilst we know from I
Kings 19:16, for instance, that “Elisha … [was] from Abel-Meholah ….”, we do
not encounter certainty as to the location of this place.
It
is frequently described as being “unknown”.
Saint
Jerome gave its location as about ten Roman miles south of Beth-Shean: http://bibleatlas.org/abel-meholah.htm
According
to this latest find (https://claudemariottini.com/2013/07/25/have-archaeologists-discovered-elishas-house/):
“… archaeologists have discovered the remains of a house
that probably was the house where the prophet Elisha lived. The Bible says that
the prophet Elisha was the son of Shaphat and lived in the Israelite city of
Abel-meholah (1 Kings 19:16). Elisha was a disciple and the successor of the
prophet Elijah. The building that archaeologists believe was the house where
the prophet Elisha lived was discovered at the site of Tel Rehov, a few miles
from Abel-meholah.
According to the Institute of
Archaeology of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Rehov was “the location of the largest ancient
Canaanite and Israelite site in the Beth-Shean Valley and one of the largest
tels in the Holy Land.” The site was occupied in the 10th-9th centuries B.C.
during the reigns of David and Solomon and during the reigns of Omri and Ahab.
During the
excavations at Tel Rehov, archeologists found a broken piece of pottery with an
inscription written in red ink with the name “Elisha.”
[End of
quote]
Others
place it “east of the Jordan River”: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/abel-meholah
The
matter is further complicated by uncertainty as to the location of the “land of
Buz”. However, it is commonly associated with the land of Uz (Job’s home),
which land we have determined, in:
A Common Sense Geography of the Book of Tobit
to
have been the fertile Hauran valley region of Bashan.
King
Esarhaddon of Assyria mentions both lands, Uz and Buz, his Ḫazû and Bazû, with the
latter being 75 miles further (reckoning from Nineveh), according to F.
Delitzsch. See e.g.: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3156857?seq=3#page_scan_tab_contents
An
“Abel Meholah in Gilead”, bordering on Bashan, would appear to be a suitable
scenario. “The limits of Bashan are very strictly defined. It extended
from the “border of Gilead …”.”
A
location in Gilead would mean that the prophet Elisha hailed from the same land
as did “Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbe in Gilead …” (I Kings
17:1), with whom Elisha was a very close acquaintance – he being Elijah’s
chosen disciple.
Family of Ram
Despite
the difficulties that commentators have had in explaining Elihu’s “family of
Ram” - e.g. does “Ram” stand for Aram (Syrian)? - I think that we can be quite clear
about its meaning now in light of the fact that our Barachel (Jehoiada), great ancestor of Elihu, was married to the
daughter of king Jehoram (Ram) of Judah. She was Jehosheba (2 Kings 11:2):
But
Jehosheba, the daughter of King Jehoram and sister of Ahaziah, took Joash son
of Ahaziah and stole him away from among the royal princes, who were about to
be murdered. She put him and his nurse in a bedroom to hide him from Athaliah;
so he was not killed.
Elihu’s
“Ram”, then, must refer to Jeho-Ram, indicating Elihu’s royal connections
through his ancestor, the priest Jehoiada (var. Barachel/Elisha).
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