The Bible’s Sense of Humor

Comedy, much of it subtle, is frequently employed by both the Jewish and Christian Bibles, argues Robin Gallaher Branch. She describes one of her first awakenings to biblical humor:

I remember one day resolving to do arduous work on 2Chronicles. Studiously plowing through the reigns of Solomon through Jehoshaphat, I came to 2Chronicles 21:20. . . . The text reads, “Jehoram was thirty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years. He passed away, to no one’s regret, and was buried in the City of David, but not in the tombs of the kings” (emphasis added). . . . Evidently Jehoram was not well liked. The editorial statement provides a light touch . . . to the Chronicler’s usually routine kingship formula. . . .

What’s more, argues Branch, the Bible seems to have something of a theology of humor:

Let’s start with [the most important] verse, Ecclesiastes 3:4: “A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” . . . [Next] let’s look at God’s laughter, for instance, in Psalms 37:12-13: “The wicked plot against the righteous, and gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for He sees that their day is coming.” Laughter here shows the impotence of the wicked and the futility of their plots and gnashings against the righteous. Why? Because, as the psalm answers, those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land and the Lord knows the wicked face a reckoning.

God directs the same kind of laughter toward earthly hotshots who think their power exceeds His. Psalm 2:2-4 declares that when “the kings of the earth take their stand,” marshalling themselves “against the Lord . . . and against His anointed one,” then “the One enthroned in heaven laughs.”

Read more at Bible History Daily

More about: Hebrew Bible, Jewish humor, New Testament, Religion & Holidays

What a Strategic Victory in Gaza Can and Can’t Achieve

On Tuesday, the Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant met in Washington with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Gallant says that he told the former that only “a decisive victory will bring this war to an end.” Shay Shabtai tries to outline what exactly this would entail, arguing that the IDF can and must attain a “strategic” victory, as opposed to merely a tactical or operational one. Yet even after a such a victory Israelis can’t expect to start beating their rifles into plowshares:

Strategic victory is the removal of the enemy’s ability to pose a military threat in the operational arena for many years to come. . . . This means the Israeli military will continue to fight guerrilla and terrorist operatives in the Strip alongside extensive activity by a local civilian government with an effective police force and international and regional economic and civil backing. This should lead in the coming years to the stabilization of the Gaza Strip without Hamas control over it.

In such a scenario, it will be possible to ensure relative quiet for a decade or more. However, it will not be possible to ensure quiet beyond that, since the absence of a fundamental change in the situation on the ground is likely to lead to a long-term erosion of security quiet and the re-creation of challenges to Israel. This is what happened in the West Bank after a decade of relative quiet, and in relatively stable Iraq after the withdrawal of the United States at the end of 2011.

Read more at BESA Center

More about: Gaza War 2023, Hamas, IDF