Penchansky, David. What Rough Beast? Images of God in the Hebrew Bible. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999. 123 pp.

In this short and very readable volume, David Penchansky turns his always-sharp attention to selected characterizations of God in the Hebrew Bible. Penchansky does not simply follow well-worn theological paths, however. Rather, Penchansky here elects to focus on six less familiar--some might even say obscure--biblical narratives that portray a bizarre and frightening God. Penchansky's treatments include "YHWH the Monster: The Insecure God (Genesis 3)," "Uzzah, YHWH's Friend: The Irrational God (2 Samuel 6)," "The Fatal Census: The Vindictive God (2 Samuel 24)," "Nadab and Abihu, Martyrs: The Dangerous God (Leviticus 10)," "The Bloody Bridegroom: The Malevolent God (Exodus 4:24-26)," and "The Mad Prophet and the Abusive God (2 Kings 2:23-25)."

The chapter treating 2 Samuel 24 may be the best of the bunch. Penchansky carefully, though briefly, considers the ambiguities that bedevil this text: Why is God angry with Israel? Why is a census sinful? But even better than Penchansky's literary acumen is his frank handling of the theological dimensions of the text. In his treatment of 2 Samuel 24, Penchansky confronts head-on the frightening portrayal of God that this chapter presents. The God depicted in 2 Samuel 24 is a God so angry with Israel as to be willing to command Israel's king to sin in order to provide a pretext for punishment. David is caught on the horns of a dilemma: if he obeys God, he sins by taking the census; if he disobeys God, he sins by not taking the census. Penchansky notes the Chronicler's attempt to evade this difficulty in the parallel passage by assigning responsibility to Satan, but 2 Samuel 24 itself resists any such rewriting. Nor can the events of 2 Samuel 24 be construed as a test in any way that is scrupulously faithful to the letter of the text. This chapter of Israel's story leaves its readers with a dark and frightening image of God, one that Penchansky helpfully unpacks in this essay.

The other chapters run along similar lines, facing up squarely to the scary God who occasionally appears in the pages of the Hebrew Bible. No doubt some readers will consider Penchansky's treatment to be overly negative. Such a reaction should be tempered, however, by a reminder of Penchansky's purpose. Penchansky does not offer this volume as a comprehensive account of the portrayal of God in the Hebrew Bible. In that sense, the subtitle of the book is slightly misleading. Rather, this volume purports only to examine certain neglected, darker aspects of that portrayal. Readers who wish to understand the Hebrew Bible well, whether for critical or confessional reasons (or both), cannot afford to neglect such texts. Penchansky provides an admirable treatment, such that What Rough Beast deserves a place on the bookshelf alongside such now-classic studies as James Crenshaw's Whirlpool of Torment and Phyllis Trible's Texts of Terror.

Reviewer:

Christopher Heard, Assistant Professor of Bible, Milligan College.  Dr. Heard is the author of Dynamics of Diselection (Society of Biblical Literature, 2001).