Trickster God

Yahweh is the trickster God of 1-2 Kings. He tricks the Moabites into thinking that the three kings have slaughtered each other (2 Kings 3), and Israel rises from their camp and slaughters them. He tricks the Arameans in the opposite way: chasing them away from their camp so that Israel can plunder them (2 Kings 6-7). The two chapters are chiastically linked, and are neatly inverted: In one, an army leaves a city expecting to find an empty camp and is surprised to find an army; in the second, lepers leave a city expecting to find a full camp and are surprised to find an empty camp. In both stories, too, Elisha’s word concerning a miraculous provision of water (2 Kings 3) and food (2 Kings 7) is crucial.