Menu
ToES Diary October 2019
By Admin | ToESWriting
NaNoWriMo is upon us again. 50,000 words in 30 days. 1,667 words per day. And it should all make sense. That is the toughest part. In the previous two years I have finished successfully, but only with a ridiculous rush of words in the last few days. I hope to avoid that this time.
The overall length of the story is likely to be greater than 50,000 words, maybe 85,000-100,000 words, but this is unlikely to be completed in November.
I shall, God willing, write on King Jehoshaphat, probably from the point of view of a close lieutenant.
After poking around the available named characters in the Kings and Chronicles records, two possible options appear:
Beh-hail (“son of might; son of strength”) from 2 Chronicles 17:7
Could be a champion. Glories in strength. God/religion is cultural crutch. Rely on people, not God. Willing to be outwardly agreeing with Jehoshaphat. Gradually drag him to into seeing that God must be more than just a convenience. All through the events in Jehoshaphat’s life. Needs to be younger than Jehoshaphat who was 35 when became king. Could include last days of Asa also. Starting as a hero at 17 or so because fighters were needed due to Asa’s unfaithfulness. Ben-hail was sent out as an official in 3rd year of Jehoshaphat’s reign, so have him at least 22 by then. Assume co-regency Asa/Jehoshaphat in last two years of Asa (as start of his 25 year reign). Involvement by Ben-hail in the army in last five years of Asa? Sees telling off by God. Sees suffering, sees war, etc. Gradually forced to admit that God is God. Parents attacked by Asa when he was oppressing some of the people?
Zebadiah was a Levite sent out to teach (2 Chronicles 17:8)
Zebadiah the son of Ishmael was ruler of the house of Judah (2 Kings 19:11). Could they be the same person? A Levite heading the house of Judah? Seems unlikely. Would be a mighty man who became Jehoshaphat’s armour bearer and personal bodyguard so that the knows enough of what is going on to tell the story properly.
A Levite. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was his hero. David 40 years, Solomon 40 years, Rehoboam 17 years, Abijah 3 years, Asa 41 years, possibly with some overlaps. Assume Benaiah died in 25th year of Solomon, that would be about 75 years before. He would have been a great Levite/priest hero. The prophet who told Jehoshaphat to go and see God’s victory over Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites was a Levite of the sons of Asaph: Jehaziel the son of Zechariah the son of Benaiah. Make Zebadiah the son of Ishmael???, the son of Benaiah, so that Jehaziel was his cousin. That gives an association with the name also.
More thoughts about the protagonist…
“Ben-hail” is an easier, more striking, and memorable name than Zebadiah. He was one of the king’s officials, but there is no reason why he shouldn’t also be a Levite and be grafted into the same family tree as mentioned for Zebadiah.
Basic description of Ben-hail’s background for the story:
A Levite. Benaiah the son of Jehoiada is his hero. David reigned 40 years; Solomon, 40 years; Rehoboam, 17 years; Abijah, 3 years; Asa, 41 years – possibly with some overlaps. Assume that Benaiah died in the 25th year of Solomon, about 75 years before as a great Levite/priest hero. The prophet who told Jehoshaphat to go and see God’s victory over Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites was a Levite of the sons of Asaph: Jehaziel the son of Zechariah the son of Benaiah, etc.. Make Ben-hail the son of Attai (invented), the son of Benaiah, so that Jehaziel was his cousin. That gives an association with the name Benaiah also.
A young champion. Mighty man. Glories in strength. Believes God/religion is cultural crutch. Relies on people, not God. Willing to outwardly agree with Jehoshaphat, but the commitment is not in his heart. Gradually drag him to into seeing that God must be more than just a convenience – all through the events in Jehoshaphat’s life, culminating in the defeat by God of the Edomites, Moabites and Ammonites where no mighty men were needed. Much younger than Jehoshaphat who was 35 when became king. More like a son than a friend. Include last days of Asa also. Starting as a hero at 17 or so because fighters were needed due to Asa’s unfaithfulness.
Sent out as an official in 3rd year of Jehoshaphat’s reign, so have him at least 22 by then. Assume co-regency between Asa and Jehoshaphat in the last two years of Asa (counted as the start of Jehoshaphat’s 25 year reign). Involvement by Ben-hail in the army in last 3-5 years of Asa. Sees Asa told off by God and his angry response. Sees suffering, sees war, etc. but considers it a coincidence.
Sees Asa ignoring his God in the real issues of life, relying on doctors to avoid suffering and showing cruelty to his people because he was told off by God. Is convinced that religion is for hypocrites.
Parents attacked by Asa when he was oppressing some of the people. Father was a mighty man too, but died in prison because of an association with Hanani the seer.
Ben-hail hates Asa and considers religion worthless. Willing to go along with it because all of his family does and because he doesn’t care. At the start, hates Jehoshaphat too and wonders if he might have an opportunity to kill him to pay back Asa, but quickly gets to like and admire him instead.
Gradually forced to admit that God is God and that compromise with Israel can’t work.
Becomes Jehoshaphat’s armour bearer and personal bodyguard so that the knows enough of what is going on to tell the story properly.
I need a title to work with. Many possibilities, but most are too long. Want a title that has never been used before and where the wording is not found in current internet searches.
A few of the ideas I went through (there were many others, but they didn’t get written down):
The last one is the title I have selected. Note that Google searches ignore the differences between the Australian spelling “armour” and the US spelling of “armour”.
I can’t find any particularly good pictures yet, but here might be one to work with:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/
Note that an art gallery in England claims copyright over this photograph, but this is ignored in America since it is a photo of an existing 2D artwork, and would probably now be ignored even in English courts. The adequacy of the resolution is borderline.
Jehoshaphat was 35 years old when he became king and he reigned 25 years. This may have included 2 years of co-regency with Asa his father after he became diseased in his feet. This time of co-regency could be counted in Jehoshaphat’s reign in some places, but not in others.
Jehoram his son was 32 years old when he became king after Jehoshaphat and he reigned 8 years. Married Athaliah, daughter of Ahab.
Jehoram’s son Ahaziah was 22 years old when he became king after Jehoram and he reigned 1 year.
If Ahaziah was born one year after the marriage of Jehoram and Athaliah (the daughter of Ahab), then the marriage took place 23 years before the death of Jehoram at 40, when he would have been 17 years old. This would have been in the 2nd-3rd year of Jehoshaphat, probably soon after the death of Asa, but maybe under the influence of a somewhat deranged or bitter Asa.
Hiel of Bethel rebuild Jericho during Ahab’s 22-year reign. Jehoshaphat began to reign in the 4th year of Ahab (). Talk about that event with Ahab. 18 years of overlap with Ahab. Then Ahaziah the son of Ahab began to reign in 17th year of Jehoshaphat and reigned 2 years (1 Kings 22:51). The two of them built ships together, but they were ruined by God (2 Chronicles 20:35-37 cf 1 Kings 22:47-49). That takes it to roughly 18-19th year of Jehoshaphat. Jehoram his brother became king in the 18th year of Jehoshaphat and reigned 12 years (2 Kings 3:1), so he outlived Jehoshaphat by about 5 years.
Elijah and Elisha as prophets? Elisha in time of Jehoram, king of Israel (2 Kings 3:11-14). Mesha, king of Moab rebelled after death of Ahab, so Jehoram’s attack on him was probably early in his reign, maybe in the 18-19th year of Jehoshaphat. That may be beyond the end of this story.
Hanani and Jehu his son as prophets also. Jehu also prophesied in Israel (1 Kings 16:1, 7) quite a few years before and wrote a book of Chronicles which was included in the Book of the Kings of Israel (2 Chronicles 20:34).
Jehu spoke against Baasha who began to reign in the 3rd year of Asa and reigned for 24 years (1 Kings 15:33). His son Elah began to reign in the 26th year of Asa and reigned only two years (2 Kings 16:8). After this, there were Zimri, Tibni and Omri which led to the reign of Ahab starting in the 38th year of Asa (2 Kings 16:29). If Jehu’s prophecy against Baasha was in the last few years of Baasha’s life (say 19-24th years of Baasha (21st – 26th year of Asa)), it would have been 10-15 years before his father spoke to Asa. Jehu also seems to have still been prophesying to Jehoshaphat near to the end of the king’s reign of 25 years. Thus, he must have prophesied over a period of about 40-45 years.
If Jehu started prophesying when he was about 20 years old, and his father Hanani was 20 years old when Jehu was born, then Hanani would have been about 50-55 years old when he spoke to Asa in roughly Asa’s 36th year and was subsequently put in prison.