01_Dubovský_321_346 28/10/14 10:32 Pagina 322 322 PETER DUBOVSKÝ 2 Kings 15 was composed after the events had taken place, and therefore it contains a post-event reflection heavily marked by the interpretative patterns of later redactors and editors. Moreover, this reflection is disguised in the literary cloak of that time. Therefore the goal of the following study is to get behind the rhetoric of 2 Kings 15 and to summarize the elements which I believe caused the downfall of the Northern Kingdom. Lastly I will contextualize these results comparing them with some examples taken from the ancient Near East. I. Coups d’état in 2 Kings 15 The following paragraphs focus on a fixed formula the final redactors employed to describe coups d’état that ravaged the North- ern Kingdom. Analyzing this formula and other dynasty changes in the Northern Kingdom we can point to the first reason indicated in 2 Kings 15 for the fall of the Northern Kingdom — its political instability. The literary motif that permeates 2 Kings 15 is coup d’état: Shallum organized a conspiracy against Zechariah (15,10), Mena- hem organized a revolt against Shallum (15,14), then Pekah con- spired against Pekahiah (15,25), and finally Hosea conspired against Pekah (15,30). It may be noticed that scribes repeated a stereotyped formula, i.e. the sequence of verbs hkn, twm, and $lm, in order to describe the coups d’état. In three cases the formula is preceded by variants of the verb rvq, whereas in the case of Mena- hem the formula is preceded by the verbs hl[ followed by awb3. The investigation into this “fixed” formula 4 shows that the formula, and Decline of the Empire of Jeroboam ben Joash”, VT 17 (1967) 266-297; J. TINO “Nelegitimná náboženská prax biblického Izraela versus inšpirácia”, Izraelský monoteizmus v kontexte dejín Starovekého blízkeho východu (eds. M. KARDIS – D. SLIVKA) (Prešov 2008) 84-85. 3 For the meaning of this change and the discussion of the formula see P. DUBOVSKÝ, “Menahem’s Reign before the Assyrian Invasion (2 Kings 15:14- 16)”, Literature as Politics, Politics as Literature (eds. D.S. VANDERHOOFT – A. WINITZER) (Winona Lake, IN 2013) 29-45. 4 G.M. TUCKER, Form Criticism of the Old Testament (Philadelphia, PA 1971) 14.