back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of which the LORD did say to thee Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers."*

The punishment was speedily inflicted. After partaking of the meal, the prophet of Judah mounted his ass and set out on his return. "And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase. And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase: and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt."

"And when the prophet that brought him back from the way, heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD."

He then went and found the body of the prophet as was described: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor had he torn the ass, which was standing unhurt by the side of the lion. The old prophet took up the body, and laid it upon his ass, and brought it back and buried it in the city of Bethel; and being awfully impressed

According to Josephus, who gives a much more detailed account of the transaction, the announcement was made to the disobedient prophet of Judah, being a secret intimation of his punishment whilst in the act of transgressing, which agrees better with the rest of the circumstances.

with the truth of the prophet's mission and prediction, he commanded his sons to bury him when he died in the same grave, that when the time should come that the idolatry of the land should be punished, his bones and those of the prophet of Judah might not be distinguished from each other.*

According to Josephus, the prophet of Bethel persuaded Jeroboam to disregard the miracle he had witnessed, and made use of the death of the disobedient prophet to throw suspicion on the authority of his message. He represented the rending of the altar as purely the effect of accident, in consequence of its being newly constructed, and urged the king to pay no regard to the denunciations of a man whose death, he said, was no doubt in consequence of his sins; so true is the description which the prophets give of this disobedient people, that "Seeing, they should see and not believe, and hearing they should hear and not understand." Whether the evil counsel of the prophet of Bethel, or Jeroboam's own sinful and worldly character was the cause, it is certain he was not deterred from his idolatry, but continued the worship of the Calves, and even forcibly withheld his people from going up to the Temple at Jerusalem; he placed guards along the frontiers, and strictly forbad all

*In anticipation of the savage and degrading atrocities frequently practised on the remains of enemies: when the dead bodies were often disinterred and treated with every barbarous indignity.

intercourse with Judah. Those who remained faithful to their God removed into the dominions of Rehoboam, as did all the Levites; to supply whose place Jeroboam raised to the priesthood the lowest of the people, and thus the course of the two kingdoms became marked by the opposite virtues and vices of their kings.

For some years no event is recorded in the history of Jeroboam; he pursued his wicked career apparently unchecked, but at length was overtaken by affliction; his son Abijah was seized with a dangerous illness, which baffled all remedies: when thus suffering the common lot of humanity, and a prey to anxiety and grief, Jeroboam felt the worthlessness of his idol deities, and to know the truth, had recourse to a prophet of Jehovah. Fearing however to consult him in his own person, he desired his wife to disguise herself, and go to Shiloh, where Ahijah the prophet dwelt, and in a feigned character ask him if their child would live? According to the manner of the east, she was to take a present in her hand, and the prophet being blind from age, it was hoped he would not discover the rank of the queen, and thus be deceived into giving a favourable answer: so inconsistent is the conduct of the wicked! Jeroboam believed that Ahijah was a true prophet, able to foretel the fate of his sick child, and yet that he could be cheated and deceived like a common impostor.

"And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah.

But Ahijah could not see her; for his eyes were set by reason of his age."

"And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son, for he is sick; thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman. And it was so; when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam, why feignest thou to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings." The tidings were the heaviest that could befal a father and a prince. After reproaching Jeroboam with the evil he had done above all that were before him in making molten images, and this when he knew he had been expressly raised to the throne to punish that very sin in Solomon, the prophet declared that for this transgression evil should come upon his house, and his children should not inherit the throne of Israel, but should be destroyed, and cut off by a shameful and fearful death: “Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat." The child who then lay sick would also die, but die in peace, and be mourned over, and buried in the sepulchre of his fathers, "because in him there was found some good things towards the LORD God of Israel." According to Jewish tradition this young prince had disapproved of the worship of the Calves, and had persuaded

his father to withdraw the guards stationed on the frontiers, to prevent the faithful Israelites from attending the Feasts of Jerusalem; and because of this fidelity to Jehovah in the midst of an evil house, he was saved by an early and honored death from the miseries which awaited his family.

"And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah, and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died; And they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet."

This afflictive chastisement failed to bring Jeroboam to repentance, and his next act was to attack Abijam, the young king of Judah, who had succeeded his father Rehoboam. He assembled the whole of his numerous forces, hoping to crush his inexperienced foe: but the attempt to destroy Abijam recoiled upon himself. Notwithstanding his well-disciplined army, and his skill as a commander, which he exerted so as to lay an ambush and completely surround his enemy, notwithstanding these apparent means of success, he was entirely defeated with an immense slaughter, as we have related under the reign of Abijam. The victory was so decisive, and the loss of Jeroboam so great, that it equalized the strength of the two kingdoms, and no further attempt was made by the Ten Tribes to subdue the smaller kingdom of Judah. After this disastrous defeat, the remaining years of Jeroboam