"Then said Jehu to Bidkar, his captain, Take up, and cast him in the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite: for remembrance how that when I and thou rode together after Ahab his father, the LORD laid this burden upon him. Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons, saith the LORD, and I will requite thee in this plot of ground."

Ahaziah, the king of Judah, who had married a daughter of Jezebel, and been led into idolatry by her, shared the same fate: he was pursued by command of Jehu, and slain; but his body was sent to Jerusalem, where it was buried in the sepulchres of the kings.

When Jezebel heard of the death of her son, and the approach of Jehu, she thought to captivate the conqueror, and save herself from his vengeance. She painted her face, and tired her head, and placed herself at a window, and when he entered the city, she looked out and said to him, Had Zimri peace who slew his master? But her arts were unavailing. Jehu lifted up his face to the window, and seeing her attendants behind her, said, Who is on my side? Throw her down. So they threw her down, and he drove on over her body. Not until some hours after, when he had eaten, and refreshed himself, did he think of bestowing the common rites of sepulture on the remains of this once powerful and dreaded queen. "She is a king's daughter," he said, "therefore go and bury her." But the threatenings of the prophet were already ful

Q

filled they found no more of her than her skull, and the feet and the palms of her hands; dogs had devoured Jezebel in the portion of Jezreel.

The rest of the prediction was soon as fearfully accomplished. Jehu sent letters to the rulers of Jezreel, and to the elders and chief men of Samaria who brought up the children of Ahab, insidiously desiring them to select the most worthy, and make him their king and fight for his cause. But the rulers were afraid; two kings, they said, had not been able to stand before Jehu, and how should they? They therefore refused to choose a king, and sent in their submission; on which Jehu commanded them to destroy all of the family of Ahab, and meet him at Jezreel, which they accordingly did, bringing the heads in baskets to the conqueror ; he ordered them to be placed in two heaps on each side the gate of the city; a horrid monument of vengeance, in which the savage barbarity of Jehu displayed itself, but which was in clear opposition to the precepts of the Mosaic law.*

* This barbarous trophy, a pyramid of heads, is even now common in the East. In the wars of Tamerlane, and of Gengis Khan, we read of sacks full of heads being brought to erect these pyramids, which were often commanded to be of a certain size and number, and generally placed at the gates of towns, or in some conspicuous place, as a glorious monument to the fame of the conqueror! Sometimes pillars were built, and inlaid with heads, as a more durable trophy, and one of these was erected within the last half century, near the gates of Bagdad.

The reign of Jehu commences a new dynasty, and will be related in the last period of the history of the kingdom of Israel, before its captivity. Having brought the relation to this point, we shall proceed with the history of the kingdom of Judah, carrying it on to the time of Hezekiah, who is contemporary with Hosea, the last king of Israel: (See the Table prefixed.)

END OF THE FIRST SECTION OF THE HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF ISRAEL.

CHAPTER XIII.

HISTORY OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH RESUMED.

SECOND SECTION.

ATHALIAH DESTROYS THE ROYAL FAMILY, AND REIGNS HERSELF. JOASH SAVED FROM THE MASSACRE; MADE KING BY JEHOIADA; HE MURDERS ZACHARIAH; JOASH SLAIN.

B. C.

II. Chronicles xxii.-xxiii. II. Kings xi.-xii.

WHEN Athaliah, queen of Judah, heard 884. of the death of her son Ahaziah by the hand of Jehu, she showed no natural grief, but she became animated by the most direful and

revengeful passions; and as if the ties of nature were weak in comparison with her hatred to the worshippers of Jehovah, which she inherited from her mother Jezebel, she hesitated not to imbrue her hands in the blood of her own children, in order to extirpate this hated race. She caused to be massacred all the royal family of Judah, even the children of her own son Ahaziah, and then seizing the government, reigned herself sole queen in Jerusalem. But the arm of the LORD was not waxed short, that it should not save, and the crimes of this wicked woman brought but a more fearful punishment upon her own head. One child, an infant with its nurse, was saved amidst the tumult of the massacre by Jehosheba,* sister of king Ahaziah, and wife of the High Priest, Jehoiada. She contrived to secrete him in a bed-chamber of the palace, and thence conveyed him privately into the Temple; here he remained hid for six years, carefully concealed from the eyes of Athaliah, by whom his existence was entirely unsuspected. Meanwhile, this remorseless queen, rejoicing in the success of her atrocious crimes, reigned unresisted, and used her authority to establish the idol worship of Baal. Every where temples to this heathen deity arose in full splendour, priests were appointed, and sacrifices daily offered; but the Levites were faithful to their divine religion, and continued to come up in their courses to perform

*Jehosheba or Jehoshabeath.

the Temple service at Jerusalem, under the High Priest Jehoiada. At the end of six years, this faithful servant of the Most High, deemed the time was come when he might raise the infant Joash to the throne of his fathers; but great caution was requisite, as Athaliah was in secure possession of the regal power. Jehoiada began by confiding the secret of the existence of the young prince to a few of the chief captains, and through them he prepared the rulers and elders of Israel for his designs. He next ordered the courses of Priests and Levites, which usually returned to their homes every Sabbath when they were succeeded by others, to remain in the Temple, by which means their number was doubled, without attracting particular attention. On the morning of the Sabbath, when every thing was prepared and the courts of the Temple were filled with the people, and the Levites armed from the warlike stores kept in the Temple, were ranged around the central court, each man with his weapon in his hand, Jehoiada brought forth the young prince Joash, then seven years old, and placed him on a throne or raised scaffolding, at the king's pillar, by the side of the grand entrance.* Here he was anointed

*

By the king's pillar. It appears to have been an ancient mark of supreme power and dignity to sit or stand by a pillar. When Ulysses, after the death of the Suitors, receives Penelope in his acknowledged character as king, he is seated in this place of regal distinction. "The monarch by a column high enthroned;"-other similar passages occur in Homer.