Besides declaring that the descendants of Ahab would be cut off, the prophet added, "and dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel."

Terrified at this fearful denunciation, Ahab humbled himself this time before the Lord. He rent his clothes, and put on sack-cloth, and fasted, and went softly, and his repentance saved him from the immediate execution of the sentence. He was not deprived of the throne, and had he even then altered his course, he might perhaps have arrested the judgment altogether; but he continued idolatrous, and there was none like Ahab "to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up."

The circumstances which attended the death of Ahab have been already related in the history of Jehoshaphat. After a peace of three years with the king of Syria, Ahab took advantage of the friendly visit of Jehoshaphat to obtain his aid in making war upon Syria, in order to obtain possession of Ramoth-gilead, a town which was a frequent subject of quarrel between him and the kings of Damascus. The prophet Micaiah warned Ahab against the enterprize, and foretold his death in the battle; but Ahab, as on former occasions, resisted the authority of the prophet, and endeavoured by an artifice to avoid the fate predicted. He disguised himself as a common soldier; but a Syrian archer drew a bow at a venture, and pierced him through the joints of his armour. Feeling himself mortally wounded, he commanded the driver of his chariot to carry

him out of the battle; his troops, left without a leader, were routed, and when evening put an end to the engagement, a proclamation commanded the Israelites to disperse, every man to his city, and every man to his own country." Thus were the words of the prophet Micaiah fulfilled, "and Israel was scattered upon the hills as sheep that have no shepherd. These have no master, let them return every man to his house in peace."

Ahab died of his wound the evening after the battle. His chariot was washed at the pool of Samaria, and dogs licked his blood in the spot where they had licked the blood of the murdered Naboth. Thus died Ahab, the worst of the kings of Israel, who resisted during twenty-two years the exhortations of the prophets, and led his people into a degrading idolatry from which they never thoroughly departed, until they were at last carried captive to Nineveh. Ahab was succeeded by his son,

B. C.

AHAZIAH: REIGNS PART OF 22 YEARS.

AHAZIAH followed the same evil courses 897. of sin and idolatry as his father. He made a league with Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, and they endeavoured to renew the traffic of Solomon to Ophir and Tarshish; but their ships were broken, as we have related in the reign of Jehoshaphat, and the attempt failed. Also the Moabites rebelled against him: his short reign was unmarked by any important event, but the

following was the manner of his death. Having fallen through a lattice in his upper chamber, (which probably means from the latticed balcony, so common in Eastern houses, overlooking the inner court,) Ahaziah sent messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron whether he should recover. On their way the messengers were met by Elijah, who commanded them to return to their master with these words; "Is it because there is not a god in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die."

On returning and giving this message of death, the king fiercely demanded who it was that had sent it? and on the messengers saying, "He was an hairy man,* and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins," he instantly exclaimed, "It is Elijah the Tishbite." But knowing that it was the prophet of Jehovah, struck no awe into the hardened mind of this unbelieving prince, and he thought to treat him, as he could the pretended prophets of his idols. He commanded a captain to take fifty men, and bring Elijah to him by force. The captain and his men, equally idolatrous and disbelieving as their master, readily obeyed; and finding the

*An hairy man, i.e., wearing an hairy mantle, the humble dress which the prophets usually wore, and similar to the dress afterwards worn by John the Baptist.-See Note in the Pictorial Bible.

prophet seated on the summit of a hill, called to him in a tone of insolent derision, "Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down." Had Elijah obeyed such a command, the power of God would have seemed as nought in the eyes of the people, and as insufficient to protect his servant from the wrath of their king, therefore was he not permitted to obey. But "Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty."

Yet the king's heart was not affected; he sent another captain with fifty men, who repeated the same command; O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly."

"And Elijah answered and said unto him, If I be a man of God let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty." And fire consumed these, as the former ones.

Even this second proof of the utter nothingness of his power failed to humble the heart of Ahaziah, and a third time he sent a captain with fifty men to bring Elijah by force into his presence. But this captain believed in the power of God; and when he came to the foot of the hill whereon Elijah was, he left his men there and went up alone, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and entreated him to spare his life, and the lives of the men that were with

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him, and consent to go with him to the king. Elijah hereupon was commanded to go down with him; so he descended with the captain and went and stood before Ahaziah; but it was only to repeat the sentence of death which he had before pronounced. "Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron,* is it because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die."

Ahaziah died, and leaving no son, was succeeded by his brother Jehoram.

* Baal-zebub, or Lord of Flies. There is some difficulty in determining the exact nature of this idol, whether like the Hercules Apomyus, or Fly-expelling Hercules of the Romans, and Jupiter Apomyus of the Eleans, he was supposed to protect from these troublesome insects, or whether as an insect-god himself, like the Scarabeus of the Egyptians; perhaps both, the insect being the symbol of the god. A silver coin, having a beetle figured on it, was found in a Phoenician island, and it is certain that the neighbourhood of Ekron was infested with a kind of fire-fly, whose sting caused great pain and inflammation, which renders it probable this idol might be a fly-expelling Baal. Insects in hot countries are no despicable foes to comfort and even life.See Calmet, also Note in Pictorial Bible, &c.