“First”, “Only”, “One of a Few”, and “No One Else” 69 Ps 35,10 Yahweh, who is like you? Ps 89,9 O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord? Exod 15,11 Who is like you among the gods, Yahweh, who is like you (26)? No one, of course, because God is unique in what God does. A later study of incomparability focused on the praise accorded select monarchs who found favor in the eyes of the writer (27). Of Solomon, it says: “I give you also what you have not asked. … so that no other king shall compare with you” (1 Kgs 3,13; 10,23). Of Hezekiah we read: “He trusted in the Lord the God of Israel, so that there were none like him among the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him” (2 Kgs 18,5; see Josiah in 2 Kgs 23,25). The uniqueness expressed in this formula claims that these monarchs are the best of David’s line. They are not praiseworthy because they were the “first” or “only” ones, but because they are “one of a few”. Labuschagne and Knoppers provide clear examples of what uniqueness looks like in the Hebrew bible, namely, “incomparability”. Yet Morton Smith argued long ago that there was a “common theology” in the ancient near east, which applies to God in Israel’s literature. He noted that “prayer and praise are usually directed to one god at a time” (28), with the result that the god is made unique, at least for the moment. He labels this as “flattery”: Though he [a god] may occupy a minor position in the preserved mythological works, yet in worship addressed to him he is regularly represented as greater than all other gods. It is often said that he not only created the world, but also the other gods. He is the only true god (29). Smith argued that Israel’s religious language was itself not unique, but belonged to a larger cultural area which can be said to have a “common” theology. Smith’s study took no note of divine “incomparability”, a lacuna which Labuschagne filled in with his (26) See also Pss 71,19 and 113,5; see LABUSCHAGNE, Incomparability of Yahweh, 16-22. (27) G.N. KNOPPERS, “‘There Was None Like Him’: Incomparability in the Books of Kings”, CBQ 54 (1992) 411-431. (28) M. SMITH, “The Common Theology of the Ancient Near East”, JBL 71 (1952) 137. (29) SMITH, “Common Theology”, 139. The truth of the predication of uniqueness is not the point, but rather the rhetorical manner in which it is expressed.