"Ἀλλ' ἄρα τόνγε κύνες τε καὶ οἰωνοὶ κατέδαψανΚείμενον ἐν πεδίῳ ἑκὰς ἄστεος, οὐδέ κέ τίς μινΚλαῦσεν Ἀχαιΐάδων· μάλα γὰρ μέγα μήσατο ἔργον."Hom.,Od., iii. 258.Comp. Deut. xxviii. 26; 1 Sam. xvii. 44, 45. And after in Jeremiah (vii. 33, viii. 2, ix. 22, etc.) and Ezekiel (xxix. 5, xxxix. 17, etc.).[500]1 Kings xiv. 14: "That day: but what? even now."[501]It is almost identical with the message of doom pronounced on other kings, like Baasha (1 Kings xvi. 3-5) and Ahab (1 Kings xxi. 19-23).[502]Ewald pronounces them to be clearly an addition of the Deuteronomist.[503]LXX., εἰς γῆν Σαριρά. The additions to the LXX. have the touching incident, "Καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν Σαριρὰ καὶ τὸ παιδάειον ἀπέθανεν, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἡ κραυγὴ εἰς ἀπαντήν."[504]Verg.,Æn., vi. 870.[505]See Job xii. 12; Psalm xxi. 4; Prov. iii. 2-16.[506]Wisdom iv. 8-14.[507]Josh. xix. 44, xxi. 23; 1 Kings xv. 27, xvi. 15.[508]His father therefore could not have been Ahijah the prophet, who was an Ephraimite. He was the only ruler who came from slothful Issachar (Gen. xlix. 14, 15) except the unknown Tola (Judg. x. 1).[509]For any other records of Nadab the writer refers to "the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel."[510]2 Chron. xvi. 7-10.[511]2 Chron. xx. 34.[512]Comp. Hosea vii. 3-7.[513]If Zimri was a descendant of the House of Saul, as is possible from the occurrence of the name in the number of Saul's descendants (1 Chron. viii. 36), we perhaps see an excuse for his ill-considered conspiracy. He acted, says Grotius, upon the principle, "Νήπιος ὃς πατέρα κτείνας υιοὺς καταλείπει."[514]Comp. 2 Kings ix. 7 with Hosea i. 4. Thus Babylon is at once commissioned to punish, and condemned for ruthlessness: Isa. xlvii. 6.[515]According to the LXX. she was a daughter of Hanun, son of Naash, King of Ammon (2 Sam. x. 1).[516]Canon Rawlinson,Kings of Israel and Judah.[517]1 Kings xiv. 21. "A boy and faint-hearted" (2 Chron. xiii. 7). The additions to the LXX. say that he was sixteen, and reigned twelve years.[518]In the LXX. additions it was a little before this occasion (after the revolt) that "Shemaiah the Enlamite" tore his new cloak and gave ten parts to Jeroboam.[519]TheChammanimwere, according to some, pillars to Baal-Hammon. For theAsherim, see Deut. xvi. 21; 2 Kings xxi. 3. They were wooden pillars to Asherah, and were calledAsherimjust as statues of the Virgin are called "Virgins."Asherothseem to be various forms of the Nature-goddess herself (2 Chron. xxxiii. 3). Asherah = Ὀρθία. Like the other kings of Judah, Rehoboam had an exaggerated harem, and provided for the young princes by settling them in separate cities as governors.[520]Jerome compares them to the horribleGalliof the Syrian goddess. LXX., τετελεσμένοι ("initiated"); Aquila, ἐνηλλαγμένοι ("changed"); Theodotion, κεχωρισμένοι ("set apart"); Symmachus, ἑταιρίδες. They were also called "dogs" (comp. Deut. xxiii. 18).[521]According to the chronicler Rehoboam's defection only began in the fourth year of his reign.[522]He was the first king of the twenty-second dynasty of Bubastis or Pibeseth, and succeeded aboutb.c.988 in the fourteenth year of Solomon. The Egyptians (Manetho) called him Shesonk (Sesonsochosis) Sasychis, Herod., ii. 136; LXX., Σουσακίμ; Vulg.,Sesac.[523]He was of alien, perhaps of Assyrian, race. His family had settled at Bubastis, and his grandfather had married the daughter of the Pharaoh. His son Osorkhon also married the Princess Keramat, a daughter of the last Tanite king. Imitating the example of Hir-hor, he combined many offices, and then quietly seized the crown.[524]Brugsch,Geogr. Inschriften altägyptischer Denkmäler, ii. 58; Lepsius,Denkmäler, iii. 252;Story of the Nations: Egypt, pp. 228-307; Stade, i. 354 (who reproduces the sculptures). They are carved on the wall of a Temple of Amon on the southern side of a smaller temple (built by Rameses III.). Shishak is smiting with his club a number of captive Jews, whom he grasps by the hair. The names of the towns and districts are paraded in two long rows, each name being enclosed in a shield. Amon is delivering them all to his beloved son "Shashonq." These smitten people are described as "theAmof a distant land, and the Fenekh" (Phœnicians).[525]Lit., "Judah-king." Brugsch thinks it is the name of a town. It cannot mean, as Champollion thought, "King of Judah."[526]See Shishak inBibl. Dict.It is extremely difficult to believe that these cities were taken by the Egyptian army in order to help Jeroboam.[527]Josephus says that Shishak did all this ἀμαχητὶ (Antt., VIII. x. 2, 3), but he confuses Shishak with Sesostris (Herod., ii. 102, 106).[528]1 Kings x. 17.[529]LXX., 2 Sam. viii. 7; 1 Kings x. 17. A timely humiliation saved Rehoboam from extinction, but he practically became a vassal of Egypt (2 Chron. xii. 5).[530]תָּא (Ezek. xl. 7).[531]Ratzim; comp. "Celeres," Liv., i. 14. We hear no more of Cherethites and Pelethites. The later kings could not afford to keep up these mercenaries.[532]Jewish Church, ii. 385.[533]Renan.[534]2 Chron. xii. 16; comp. Abiel (1 Sam. ix. 1).[535]Abijam seems to mean "father of the sea";vir maritimus, Gesenius.[536]So perhaps, for the same reason, Jehoahaz was shortened into Ahaz. See Canon Rawlinson on 2 Kings xv. 38 (Speaker's Commentary). But Simonis,Onomasticon, regards the finalmas intensive.[537]2 Chron. xi. 18-23. Rehoboam had eighteen wives, sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons, and sixty daughters. A fragment of theStemma Davidismay make things clearer to the reader:—Jesse.|+----------+------------+Eliab. David.| || +------+--------+Abihial. Solomon. Absalom.| |+--+ || |Abihail = Rehoboam = Maachah. Tamar = Uriel.| |Abijah. Maachah.Thus on both sides, as a great-grandson and great-great-grandson, Abijah was descended from David.[538]The lamp (LXX., κατάλειμμα; in xi. 36, θέσις) is the sign of home (1 Kings xi. 36; 2 Kings viii. 19. Comp. Psalm xviii. 28, cxxxii. 17). There was, as the chronicler boldly expressed it, "a covenant of salt" between God and the House of David (2 Chron. xiii. 5; comp. Numb. xviii. 19).[539]Chron. xiii. 22.[540]Zemaraim was in Benjamin near Bethel (Josh. xviii. 22), apparently Kirbetel-Szomerin the Jordan valley, four miles north of Jericho.[541]2 Chron. xiii. 3-19. So that the golden calf and its chapel and its priests must, if the account be true, have fallen into his power. But it does not seem to have made the least difference. It is certain that "the calf" remained undisturbed till the days of the Assyrian invasion.[542]How atrocious these "abominations were" may be seen from the Pentateuch (Lev. xviii. 3-25, xx. 1-23; Deut. xviii. 6-12).[543]1 Kings xv. 15.[544]Ewald, iv. 49.[545]Comp. theMadame Mèrein the French court.[546]The LXX. (Vat.) calls her Ana.[547]That it was not perfectly successful we see from 1 Kings xxii. 46.[548]The word is an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. It is only applied to this grotesque and obscene figure (1 Kings xv. 13; 2 Chron. xv. 16).[549]2 Kings xi. 16, xxiii. 4, 6, 12; 2 Chron. xxix. 16, xxx. 14. Vulg.,in Sacris Priapi. Jerome (ad Hos., i. 4) calls Maachah's "horror" aSimulacrum Priapi(see Selden,De Dis Syris Syntagma, ii. 5).[550]2 Chron. xvi. 8. Zarkh, perhaps Osorkhon I. (O-serek-on, "Ammon's darling"), was the feebler successor of Shesonk, Maspero, p. 362; Ewald, iii. 470. Shishak's army also consisted of Sushim and Lubim (2 Chron. xii. 3).[551]The defeat had important consequences. Egypt did not again attack Palestine till three centuries later, under Pharaoh Nechoh (b.c.609). The defeat weakened the Bubastite dynasty (Rawlinson, p. 36), though it continued to reign for two centuries. The "invasion" may have been a mere raid. The Pharaohs always seem to have degenerated from the founders of their dynasty, both in personal beauty and intellectual force.[552]Josh. xviii. 25, now Er-Ram. No great importance can be attached to the dates, which are often self-contradictory.[553]Ben-Hadad, "son of Hadad," the Sun-god (Macrob.,Saturn, i. 24). Tabrimmon, "Rimmon is good." According to Sayce (Hibbert Lectures, p. 42), Rimmon—an Accadian name, which became, in Semitic, Rammânu, "the exalted"—was identified by the Syrians with the Sun-god Hadad, whom Shahmanaser calledDada. In AssyrianDadu("dear child") is akin to David and to Dido.[554]Ijon is probably Merj Ayion, "the meadow of the House of Maachah"; called also, Abel-maim, "the meadow of the waters"; "a city and a mother in Israel" (2 Sam. xx. 19); now Abil in the Ard-el-Huleh.[555]See Numb. xxxiv. 11; Josh. xiii. 27.[556]Josh. xxi. 17; 2 Kings xxiii. 8.[557]LXX., ἡ σκοπία. Jer. xli. 5-9. Into this well Ishmael flung the corpses of the murdered adherents of Gedaliah.[558]Renan,Hist. du Peuple Israel, ii. 248. Comp. Rephaiah.[559]2 Chron. xv. 1-15.[560]2 Chron. xvi. 9, 10.[561]Following the precedent set by Rehoboam, he established his six younger sons in castles and fenced cities. Athaliah must have found it difficult to exterminate their families if she attempted this.[562]The Nitzab or Præfect of Edom was allowed the barren title of king.[563]2 Chron. xx. 37. His name faintly recalls that of Eleazar, son of Dodo (2 Sam. xxiii. 9). Dodavahu means "friend of God."[564]2 Chron. xx. 36, 37. It would be monstrous to send ships to circumnavigate Africa in order to reach Tartessus. The last resource of the harmonists (e.g., Keil) to save the accuracy of the chronicler is to suppose that Jehoshaphat meant to drag the whole fleet across the Isthmus of Suez, and so to sail from one of the havens of Palestine![565]"Cette version," says Munk (Palestine, p. 314), "a probablement pris naissance dans l'esprit de rigorisme qui animait plus tard les écrivans Juifs." "This," says Dr. Robertson Smith, "is a mere pragmatical inference from the story in Kings." See his further remarks inThe Old Testament in the Jewish Church, chap. ii., p. 146. He regards parts of the Books of Chronicles as being, in fact, a JewishMidrash. "It is not History, butHaggada, moralising romance. And the chronicler himself gives the name ofMidrash(R.V., 'story') to two of the sources from which he drew (2 Chron. xiii. 22, xxiv. 27), so that there is really no mystery as to the nature of the work when it departs from the old canonical histories" (p. 148).[566]We shall have further glimpses of Jehoshaphat in the reigns of Ahab and even of Jehoram.[567]See 1 Chron. xvi. 34; 2 Chron. v. 13, vii. 3, xx. 21; Psalms cvi., cvii., cxviii., etc. The eighty-third Psalm may owe its origin to this deliverance, and Hengstenberg thinks Psalms xlvii. and xlviii. also.[568]The title "valley of Jehoshaphat" is thought also to have derived its origin from these events. Comp. Joel iii. 2.[569]2 Chron. xxi. 2, 3.[570]There is a little exaggeration here.[571]2 Kings ix. 31.[572]R.V., "thecastleof the king's house."[573]Justin,Hist., i. 3; cf. Herod., i. 176, vii. 107; Liv., xxi. 14. Ewald elaborates out of his own consciousness an extraordinary romance about Zimri and the queen-mother.[574]Josephus (Antt., VIII. xii. 5) says that Tibni was assassinated, as does the RabbinicSeder Olam Rabba, chap. xvii. LXX., καὶ ἀπέθανε Θαβνὶ καὶ Ἰωρὰμ ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ.[575]Athaliah is called "the daughter of Omri."[576]The Aramæans have come to be incorrectly called Syrians because the Greeks confused them with the Assyrians.[577]1 Kings xx. 34.[578]2 Kings iii. 4.[579]1 Kings xvi. 25.[580]Micah vi. 16.[581]Isa. xxviii. 1-4.[582]Stanley,Lectures, ii. 242.[583]1 Kings xx. 1; 2 Kings vi. 24.[584]Josephus,Antt., XV. vii. 7. One of the few instances in Palestine where the ancient name has been superseded by a more modern one. The early Assyrians call it Beth-Khumri, "House of Omri"; but the name Sammerin occurs in the monument of Tiglath-Pileser II.[585]About £800 of our money.[586]LXX., Σκοπία; שָׁמַר, "to watch."[587]Meyer,Gesch. d. Alt., 331; Kittel, ii. 221; Schrader,Keilinschr., i. 165.[588]נְבוּרָתֹו (1 Kings xvi. 27).[589]It is needless in each separate case to enter into the chronological minutiæ about which the historian is little solicitous. A table of the chronology so far as it can be ascertained is furnished,infra.[590]1 Kings xx. 5; 2 Kings x. 7.[591]Hitzig thinks that Psalm xlv. was an epithalamium on this occasion, from the mention of "ivory palaces" and "the daughter of Tyre." Had it been composed for the marriage of Solomon, or Jehoram and Athaliah, or any king of Judah, there would surely have been an allusion to Jerusalem. Moreover, the queen is called שֵׁנָל, which is a Chaldee (Dan. v. 2), or perhaps a North Palestine word. The word in Judah was Gebira.[592]Ἰθόβαλος, Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 1;c. Ap., I. 18 (quoting the heathen historian Menander of Ephesus). It may, however, be "Man of Baal," like Saul's son Ishbaal (Ishbosheth). In Tyre the high priest was only second to the king in power (Justin,Hist., xviii. 4), and Ethbaal united both dignities. He died aged sixty-eight. Another Ethbaal was on the throne during the siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar (Josephus,Antt., X. xi. I).[593]Josephus,c. Ap., I. 18. The genealogy is:—+-----------------------+| |Phelles Ethbaal.(a usurper, whom his |brother Ethbaal slew). ||+----------+------+| |Badezon. Jezebel.|Matger (Belus).|+--------+------+| |Pygmalion. Dido.See Canon Rawlinson,Speaker's Commentary, ad loc.[594]Plaut.,Pænul., V. ii. 6, 7. Phœnician names abound in the element "Baal."[595]Ahaziah ("Jehovah supports"), Jehoram ("Jehovah is exalted"), Athaliah (?). The word Baal merely meant "Lord"; and perhaps the fact that at one time it had been freely applied to Jehovah Himself may have helped to confuse the religious perceptions of the people. Saul, certainly no idolater, called his son Eshbaal ("the man of Baal"); and it was only the hatred of the name Baal in later times which led the Jews to alter Baal into Bosheth ("shame"), as in Ishbosheth, Mephibosheth. David himself had a son named Beeliada ("known to Baal"), which was altered into Eliada (1 Chron. xiv. 7, iii. 8; 2 Sam. v. 16; comp. 2 Chron. xvii. 17). We even find the name Bealiah ("Baal is Jah") as one of David's men (1 Chron. xii. 5). Hoshea too records that Baali ("my Lord") was used of Jehovah, but changed into Ishi ("my husband") (Hosea ii. 16, 17). It is used simply for owner ("the baal of an ox") in "the Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi. 28). See Robertson Smith,Rel. of the Semites, 92.[596]Ethbaal is called King of Sidon (1 Kings xvi. 31), and was also King of Tyre (Menanderap.Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 1).[597]1 Kings xvi. 23; 2 Kings iii. 2, x. 27.[598]Asherimseem to be upright wooden stocks of trees in honour of the Nature-goddess Asheroth. The Temple of Baal at Tyre had no image, only twoMatstseboth, one of gold given by Hiram, one of "emerald" (Dius and Menanderap.Josephus,Antt., VIII. v. 3;c. Ap., I. 18; Herod., ii. 66).[599]Döllinger,Judenth. u. Heidenthum(E. T.), i. 425-29.[600]2 Sam. x. 5; Judg. iii. 28.[601]2 Chron. xxviii. 15.[602]Comp. Josh. vi. 26; 2 Sam. x. 5.[603]Rev. ii. 20.[604]1 Kings xxi. 25, 26.[605]Henry Smith,The Trumpet of the Lord sounding to Judgment.[606]Tobit i. 2.[607]Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 2; Vat. (LXX.), Θεσβίτης ὁ ἐκ θεσβῶν. The Alex. LXX. omits Θεσβίτης. An immense amount has been written about Elijah. Among others, see Knobel,Der Prophetismus, ii. 73; Köster,Der Thesbiter; Stanley, ii., lect. xxx.; Maurice,Prophets and Kings, serm. viii.; F. W. Robertson, ii., serm. vi.; Milligan,Elijah(Men of the Bible).[608]See 1 Chron. ii. 55.[609]See Cheyne,The Hallowing of Criticism, p. 9.[610]Zech. xiii. 4.[611]The word also means "sea-mist" (Cheyne, p. 15).[612]Lev. xxvi. 19; Psalm cxxxiv. 1; Heb. x. 11.[613]So too Ecclus. xlviii. 2, "Hebroughta sore famine upon them, and by his zeal he diminished their number"; but the writer adds, "By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens." Deut. xxviii. 12; Amos iv. 7.[614]2 Sam. xxi. 1.[615]2 Sam. xxiv. 13. "Three," not "seven," is probably here the true reading.[616]Not "by," as in the A.V. Cherith means "cut off" (1 Kings xvii. 3). "The Lord hid him" (Jer. xxxvi. 26). "In famine he shall redeem thee from death.... At famine and destruction thou shalt laugh" (Job v. 20-22).[617]Robinson.[618]Benjamin of Tudela.[619]Marinus Sanutus (1321).[620]The ravens were unclean birds (Deut. xiv. 14), and this naturally startled and offended the Rabbis.[621]Prov. xxx. 17.[622]Orbo was a small town near the Jordan and Bethshan.[623]On the other side, Bunsen (Bibelwerk, v. 2, 540) speaks too strongly when he says that "nothing but boundless ignorance, or, where historical criticism has not died out, an hierarchical dilettanti reaction, foolhardy hypocrisy, and weak-hearted fanaticism would wish to demand the faith of a Christian community in the historic truths of these miracles as if they had actually taken place." He regards the whole narrative as a "popular epic—the fruit of an inspiration, which he, as it were some superhuman being, awakened in his disciples."[624]I append the remarks of Professor Milligan, a theologian of unimpeachable orthodoxy. "The miracle," he says, "is so remarkable, so much out of keeping with most of the other miracles of Scripture, that even pious and devout minds may well be perplexed by it, and we can feel no surprise at the attempts made to explain it. Such attempts are not inconsistent with the most devout reverence for the word of God. They are rather, not unfrequently, the result of a just persuasion that the Eastern mind did not express itself in forms similar to those of the West" (Elijah, p. 22). He proceeds to protest against the harsh condemnation of those who thus only try to interpret the real ideas present in the mind of the writer. He regards it as perhaps a highly poetic and figurative representation of the truth that the God of Nature was with Elijah. "The value of the Prophet's experience is neither heightened by a literal, nor diminished by a figurative, interpretation of what passed" (p. 24).[625]1 Kings xvii. 7. Perhaps years (Lev. xxv. 29; 1 Sam. xxvii. 7).[626]Job vi. 17.[627]Menander, quoted by Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 2. He says it lasted for a year.[628]LXX., "My sons"—perhaps with reference to "her house" in verse 15.[629]Perhaps the language of the Hebrew is not actually decisive. Josephus says, τὴν ψυχὴν ἀφεῖναι καὶ δόξαι νεκρόν. In any case his recovery was due to Elijah's prayer.[630]The phrase "man of God" is characteristic of the Book of Kings, in which it occurs fifty-three times. It became a normal description of Elijah and Elisha. "What have I to do with thee?" Comp. 2 Sam. xvi. 10; Luke v. 8. It was a common superstition that death always followed the appearance of superhuman beings.[631]Compare the similar revivals of life wrought by Elisha (2 Kings iv. 34), and by St. Paul (Acts xx. 10).[632]Amos ix. 3: "And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence." The phrase shows the security and seclusion of these caves and thickets, the haunt once of lions and bears, and still of leopards and hyænas.[633]The LXX. adds that he inflicted vengeance because Elijah was not found: "Καὶ ἐνέπρησε τὴν βασιλείαν καὶ τὰς χωρὰς αὐτῆς ὅτι οὐχ εὔρηκέ σε" (1 Kings xviii. 10).[634]Obadiah seems to have believed in miraculous transference of the Prophet from place to place. Comp. Ezek. iii. 12-14 (where "the spirit" may be rendered "a spirit," or "a wind"), viii. 3; 2 Kings ii. 16; Acts viii. 39; and the Ebionite Gospel of St. Matthew. "My mother, the Holy Ghost, took me by a hair of the head, and carried me to Mount Tabor" (Orig.in Joann., ii., § 6; and Jer.in Mic.vii. 6). So in Bel and the Dragon 33-36 (Abarbanel,Comm. in Habakkuk) the prophet Habakkuk is said to have been taken invisibly to supply food to Daniel in the den of lions. "Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown and bare him by the hair of his head, and through the vehemency of his spirit" (Midr. Robshik Rabba, "in the might of the Holy Ghost") "set him in Babylon."[635]1 Kings xviii. 15, LXX., "The Lord God of Israel" has now become to him more prominently "the Lord God of Hosts."[636]The phrase had already been applied to Achan (Josh. vii. 25).[637]I.e., were maintained at Jezebel's expense. The subsequent narration is silent as to the presence of the prophets of the Asherah, and Wellhausen thinks that the words here are an interpolation.[638]Isa. xxxiii. 9, xxxv. 2; Micah vii. 14. Its beauty and fruitfulness are alluded to in Jer. xlvi. 18, l. 19; Amos i. 2, ix. 3; Nahum i. 4; Cant. vii. 5.[639]Sir George Grove, to whose excellent article in Smith'sDict. of Bible(i. 279) I am indebted, quotes Martineau (i. 317), Porter'sHandbook, Van de Velde, etc. See, too, Stanley,Sinai and Palestine, pp. 353-56.[640]On theseLapides judaici, see myLife of Christ, i. 129. Illustrations are given in the illustrated edition.[641]Jambl.,Vit. Pythag., iii.; Suet.,Vesp., 5; Tac.,Hist., ii. 78; Reland,Palest., pp. 327-30.[642]Megiddo lies in the plain below, and this scene of conflict between good and the powers of evil was an anticipated Armageddon.[643]Isa. xlix. 2; Cheyne, p. 16.[644]LXX., 1 Kings xviii. 21, ἕως πότε ὑμεῖς χωλανεῖτε ἐπ' ἀμφοτέραις ταῖς ἰγνύαις. Vulg.,usquequo claudicatis in duas partes?Cheyne renders it: "How long will ye go lame upon tottering knees?" In Psalm cxix. 113, סֵעֲפִים are "the double-minded." In Ezek. xxxi. 6, סְעַפּוֹת, "diverging branches." In Isa. ii. 21, סְעִפֵי, "clefts of rocks" (Bähr).[645]Herodian (Hist., v. 3) describes the dance of Heliogabalus round the altar of the Emesene Sun-god, and Apuleius describes at length the fanatic leapings and gashings of the execrableGalli—the eunuch-mendicant priests of the Syrian goddess. From these sources and from allusions in Seneca, Lucian, Statius, Arnobius, etc., Movers (Phöniz., i. 682) derives his description (quoted by Keil,ad loc., E.T., p. 281): "A discordant howling opens the scene. Now they fly wildly through one another, with the head sunk down to the ground, but turning round in circles, so that the loose flowing hair drags through the mire. Thereupon they first bite themselves on the arm, and at last cut themselves with two-edged swords, which they are wont to carry. Then begins a new scene. One of them who surpasses all the rest in frenzy, begins to prophesy with sighs and groans, openly accuses himself of past sins, which he now wishes to punish by the mortifying of the flesh, takes the knotted whip which the Galli are wont to bear, lashes his back, cuts himself with swords, till the blood trickles down from his mangled body."[646]Verse 27. Others render it "meditating" (De Wette Thenius) or "peevish" (Bähr). Comp. Hom.,Il., i. 423;Od., i. 22, etc.[647]This instance of "grim sarcastic humour" is almost unique in Scripture. It was made more mordant by the paronomasiaכִּי־שִׂיחַ וְכִי־שִׂיג לֹּו(2 Sam. i. 22).[648]Plutarch (De Superstit., p. 170) says: "The priests of Bellona offered their own blood, which was deemed powerful to move their gods." Comp. Herod., ii. 61; Lucian,De Dea Syra, 50; Apul.,Metam., viii. 28.[649]עַד לַעֲלוֹת הַמִּנחָה, "till towards (Numb. xxviii. 4) the offering of the Minchah." LXX., θυσία; Vulg.,sacrificiumandholocaustum. In verse 39 it is omitted in the LXX. "There is a great concurrence of evidence that the evening sacrifice of the first Temple was not a holocaust, but a cereal oblation" (Robertson Smith, p. 143, quoting 1 Kings xviii. 34; 2 Kings xvi. 15; Ezek. ix. 4, Heb).[650]Heb., וַיִתְנַבְּאוּ; LXX., διέτρεχον; Vulg.,transiliebant. Literally, they acted like frantic prophets (1 Sam. xviii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26).[651]LXX., θαλάσσαν, or "sea"—the name given to Solomon's molten laver; but the description, "as great as would contain twoseahsof seed," is curious, for a seah was only the third of an ephah.[652]Blunt (Undesigned Coincidences, II. xxxii.) thinks that as the drought had been so intense the water must have been sea-water. But Josephus says it was drawn ἀπὸ τῆς κρήνης (Antt., VIII. xiii. 5); and the well still exists.[653]Priests, both pagan and mediæval, have been adepts at deception. At the Reformation the mechanism of winking Madonnas, etc., was exposed to the people. At Pompeii may still be seen the secret staircase behind the altar, and the pipes let into the head of Isis from behind, through which the priests spoke her pretended oracles. St. Chrysostom (Orat. in. Petr. et Eliam, which is of uncertain genuineness) tells us that he had himself seen (θεάτης αὐτὸς γενομένος) altars with concealed hollows in the middle, into which the unsuspected operator crept, and blew up a fire which the people were assured was self-kindled (see Keil, p. 282). One legend says that on this occasion a man was suffocated, who had been concealed by the Baal priests inside their altar.[654]1 Kings xviii. 36.[655]Comp. Lev. ix. 24. Analogous stories existed among pagans (Hom.,Il., ii. 305;Od., ii. 143; Verg.,Ecl., viii. 105). Pliny says that annals recorded the eliciting of lightning by prayers and incantations (H. N., ii. 54; Winer,Realwörterb.371).[656]It is after Elijah's time, and probably from his influence, that from this time proper names compounded with Jehovah become almost the rule—as in Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Joash, Pekahiah, etc.[657]1 Kings xix. 1, בְּחָרֶב; LXX., ἐν ῥομφάιᾳ.[658]Renan,Vie de Jésus, 100.[659]Matt. xii. 19, 20; Isa. xlii. 2, 3; Ezek. xxxiv. 16.[660]LXX., ὅτι φωνὴ τῶν ποδῶν τοῦ ὑετοῦ. Perhaps, with reference to this reading, Josephus afterwards describes "the little cloud" as "no bigger than a human footstep" (οὐ πλέον ἴχνους ἀνθρωπίνου).[661]LXX., τῷ παιδαρίῳ αὐτοῦ.[662]LXX., 1 Kings xviii. 45, Καὶ ἔκλαιε καὶ ἐπορεύετο Ἀχαὰβ ἕως Ιεζράελ.[663]Menander of Ephesus (Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 2).[664]Eisenlohr,Das Volk Israel, p. 162.[665]He refers to Gibbon, iv. 232.[666]See Mrs. Gaskell'sLife of Charlotte Brönte.[667]LXX., 1 Kings xix. 2.[668]The touch "which belongeth to Judah" shows that the Elijah-narrative emanated from some prophet in the northern schools. In later days it was much visited by pilgrims from the Northern Kingdom (Amos v. 5, viii. 14).[669]Matt. xxvi. 36.[670]1 Kings xix. 4, 5, רֹתֶם אֵחָת; Vulg.,subter unam juniperum. The plant is theGenista monosperma, with papilionaceous flowers. Not "juniper," as in Luther (Wachholder) and the A.V. LXX., ῥαθμὲν φύτον. See Robinson,Researches, i. 203, 205. It gave its name to the station Rithmah (Numb. xxxiii. 18) and the Wadies Retemît and Retâmah.[671]Comp. Moses (Numb. xi. 15), Jonah (Jonah iv. 3).[672]Pope's epitaph on Mrs. Elizabeth Corbet, in St. Margaret's Westminster.[673]Jer. xx. 1-18.[674]Psalm cii. 6, 8.[675]Psalm xxxviii. 11, 12.[676]Jer. v. 31, xxix. 9.[677]John xvi. 32.[678]Krummacher.[679]Thecoals(reshaphim) for the cake (LXX., ἔγκρυφίας ὀλυρίτης; Vulg.,subcinericius panis) were the dry twigs of the broom plant, still sold for that purpose in the markets of Cairo. Comp. Psalm cxx. 4; "coals of juniper."[680]1 Kings xix. 5. מַלְאָךְ means "a messenger," and in verse 2 is used of the messenger of Jezebel.[681]Exod. xxxiii. 22.[682]Bible Educator, iii. 135.[683]The use of the plural, and the absence of any objections to an uncentralised worship, are proofs of the northern origin of the Elijah-episode.[684]LXX., αὔριον; Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 7; Comp. Exod. xxxiv. 2. It is hardly likely that the stupendous vision would follow instantly and without a moment's preparation.[685]Deut. iv. 12, 15, (comp. v. 4, 22, 23). Of Moses, on the other hand, it is said, "the similitude of the Lord shall he behold" (Numb. xii. 8; Exod. xxxiii. 11; Deut. xxxiv. 10).[686]מָקוֹם, τόπος, "place," was a sort of recognised euphemism for God in Rabbinic and Alexandrian exegesis. Thus, in Exod. xxiv. 10, for "they sawthe God of Israel," the LXX. have εἷδον τὸν τόπον οὗ εἱστήκει ὁ θεός. Philo says, "God Himself is called Place" (De Somn., i. 525). Rabbi Isaac says, "God is not in Makom, but Makom is in God." See my Bampton Lectures onHist. of Interpretation, p. 120;Early Days of Christianity, i. 261.[687]Psalm civ. 4; Heb. i. 7. This intermediacy of angels is prominently alluded to in Acts vii. 53; Gal. iii. 19; Heb. ii. 2, 3; Deut. xxxiii. 2; Psalm lxviii. 17.[688]The anthropomorphism which the Targumists disliked vanishes in the Chaldee: "And before Him was a host of angels of the wind rending the mountains, and breaking the rocks, before the Lord but the Shechinah was not in the hosts of the angels of the wind, and after the hosts of the angels of the wind was the host of the angel of the earthquake, etc."[689]Job xxxviii. 1, xl. 6.[690]Ezek. i. 4.[691]Jer. xxiii. 19, 20, xxv. 32, xxx. 23.[692]Psalms xviii. 10, civ. 3, 5.[693]Nahum i. 3, 5.[694]Psalm xviii. 7, lxxvii. 18, xcvii. 4; Judg. v. 4; 2 Sam. xxii. 8.[695]Hab. iii. 3-16.[696]1 Kings xix. 12; LXX., φωνὴ αὔρας λεπτῆς; Vulg.,Sibilus auræ tenuis; Chaldee, "a voice of angels singing in silence."[697]Jehu was the grandson of Nimshi, and was the son of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings ix. 2).[698]Isa. xi. 4, xlix. 2; comp. Jer. i. 10, xviii. 7.[699]Comp. Rom. xii. 5. Kissing images was a sign of idolatry then as it is now. The foot of the statue of St. Peter in Rome is worn away with kisses. Hosea xiii. 2 tells us of the custom of kissing the calves. Comp. Psalm ii. 12. Cicero tells us that the lovely brazen statue of Hercules at Agrigentum had the mouth and chin partly worn away by the kisses of the devout (inVerr., iv. 43).[700]Herder, who was a devout poet, and therefore a true imaginative interpreter of devout poetry, says: "The vision was to show the fiery zeal of the Prophet that would amend everything by the storm, the mild process of God, and proclaim His longsuffering tender nature as previously the voice did to Moses: hence the scene was so beautifully changed." Long before him the wise Theodoret had said: Διὰ δὲ τούτων ἔδειξεν ὅτι μακροθυμία καὶ φιλανθρωπία μόνη φίλη Θεῷ. Irenæus, still earlier (c. Hær., iv. 27), saw in the vision an emblem of the difference between the law and the gospel; and Grotius, following him, says, "Evangelii figuratio, quod non venit cum vento, terræ motu, et fulminibus ut lex," Exod. xix. 16 (see Keil,ad loc., whose illustrations are often valuable when his exegesis is false and obsolete).[701]Psalm xviii. 7-9; comp. 2 Sam. xxii. 8-11.[702]Isa. xiii. 13.[703]Isa. xxix. 6; comp. Ecclus. xxxix. 28.[704]W. S. Landor.[705]1 Kings iv. 12. It was in the north part of the Jordan valley.[706]1 Kings xix. 19.[707]The Hebrew can hardly bear the meaning that he was finishing the twelfth furrow in his field, ploughed by his single yoke of oxen.[708]For these particulars, and the following translations, see Dr. Ginsburg inRecords of the Past, xi. 163; and Dr. Neubauer,id., New Series, ii. 194;The Moabite Stone, Second Edition (Reeves & Turner), 1871; Dr. Schlottmann,Die Sieggessaüle Mesas, 1870; Nöldeke,Die Inschrift der König Mesa, 1870; Stade, i. 534; Kittel, ii. 198, etc.[709]Chemosh-Gad perhaps came to the throne in the fourth year of Omri, aboutb.c.926, and reigned till the close of Ahaziah's reign (b.c.896).
"Ἀλλ' ἄρα τόνγε κύνες τε καὶ οἰωνοὶ κατέδαψανΚείμενον ἐν πεδίῳ ἑκὰς ἄστεος, οὐδέ κέ τίς μινΚλαῦσεν Ἀχαιΐάδων· μάλα γὰρ μέγα μήσατο ἔργον."Hom.,Od., iii. 258.
"Ἀλλ' ἄρα τόνγε κύνες τε καὶ οἰωνοὶ κατέδαψανΚείμενον ἐν πεδίῳ ἑκὰς ἄστεος, οὐδέ κέ τίς μινΚλαῦσεν Ἀχαιΐάδων· μάλα γὰρ μέγα μήσατο ἔργον."Hom.,Od., iii. 258.
Comp. Deut. xxviii. 26; 1 Sam. xvii. 44, 45. And after in Jeremiah (vii. 33, viii. 2, ix. 22, etc.) and Ezekiel (xxix. 5, xxxix. 17, etc.).
[500]1 Kings xiv. 14: "That day: but what? even now."
[501]It is almost identical with the message of doom pronounced on other kings, like Baasha (1 Kings xvi. 3-5) and Ahab (1 Kings xxi. 19-23).
[502]Ewald pronounces them to be clearly an addition of the Deuteronomist.
[503]LXX., εἰς γῆν Σαριρά. The additions to the LXX. have the touching incident, "Καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν Σαριρὰ καὶ τὸ παιδάειον ἀπέθανεν, καὶ ἐξῆλθεν ἡ κραυγὴ εἰς ἀπαντήν."
[504]Verg.,Æn., vi. 870.
[505]See Job xii. 12; Psalm xxi. 4; Prov. iii. 2-16.
[506]Wisdom iv. 8-14.
[507]Josh. xix. 44, xxi. 23; 1 Kings xv. 27, xvi. 15.
[508]His father therefore could not have been Ahijah the prophet, who was an Ephraimite. He was the only ruler who came from slothful Issachar (Gen. xlix. 14, 15) except the unknown Tola (Judg. x. 1).
[509]For any other records of Nadab the writer refers to "the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel."
[510]2 Chron. xvi. 7-10.
[511]2 Chron. xx. 34.
[512]Comp. Hosea vii. 3-7.
[513]If Zimri was a descendant of the House of Saul, as is possible from the occurrence of the name in the number of Saul's descendants (1 Chron. viii. 36), we perhaps see an excuse for his ill-considered conspiracy. He acted, says Grotius, upon the principle, "Νήπιος ὃς πατέρα κτείνας υιοὺς καταλείπει."
[514]Comp. 2 Kings ix. 7 with Hosea i. 4. Thus Babylon is at once commissioned to punish, and condemned for ruthlessness: Isa. xlvii. 6.
[515]According to the LXX. she was a daughter of Hanun, son of Naash, King of Ammon (2 Sam. x. 1).
[516]Canon Rawlinson,Kings of Israel and Judah.
[517]1 Kings xiv. 21. "A boy and faint-hearted" (2 Chron. xiii. 7). The additions to the LXX. say that he was sixteen, and reigned twelve years.
[518]In the LXX. additions it was a little before this occasion (after the revolt) that "Shemaiah the Enlamite" tore his new cloak and gave ten parts to Jeroboam.
[519]TheChammanimwere, according to some, pillars to Baal-Hammon. For theAsherim, see Deut. xvi. 21; 2 Kings xxi. 3. They were wooden pillars to Asherah, and were calledAsherimjust as statues of the Virgin are called "Virgins."Asherothseem to be various forms of the Nature-goddess herself (2 Chron. xxxiii. 3). Asherah = Ὀρθία. Like the other kings of Judah, Rehoboam had an exaggerated harem, and provided for the young princes by settling them in separate cities as governors.
[520]Jerome compares them to the horribleGalliof the Syrian goddess. LXX., τετελεσμένοι ("initiated"); Aquila, ἐνηλλαγμένοι ("changed"); Theodotion, κεχωρισμένοι ("set apart"); Symmachus, ἑταιρίδες. They were also called "dogs" (comp. Deut. xxiii. 18).
[521]According to the chronicler Rehoboam's defection only began in the fourth year of his reign.
[522]He was the first king of the twenty-second dynasty of Bubastis or Pibeseth, and succeeded aboutb.c.988 in the fourteenth year of Solomon. The Egyptians (Manetho) called him Shesonk (Sesonsochosis) Sasychis, Herod., ii. 136; LXX., Σουσακίμ; Vulg.,Sesac.
[523]He was of alien, perhaps of Assyrian, race. His family had settled at Bubastis, and his grandfather had married the daughter of the Pharaoh. His son Osorkhon also married the Princess Keramat, a daughter of the last Tanite king. Imitating the example of Hir-hor, he combined many offices, and then quietly seized the crown.
[524]Brugsch,Geogr. Inschriften altägyptischer Denkmäler, ii. 58; Lepsius,Denkmäler, iii. 252;Story of the Nations: Egypt, pp. 228-307; Stade, i. 354 (who reproduces the sculptures). They are carved on the wall of a Temple of Amon on the southern side of a smaller temple (built by Rameses III.). Shishak is smiting with his club a number of captive Jews, whom he grasps by the hair. The names of the towns and districts are paraded in two long rows, each name being enclosed in a shield. Amon is delivering them all to his beloved son "Shashonq." These smitten people are described as "theAmof a distant land, and the Fenekh" (Phœnicians).
[525]Lit., "Judah-king." Brugsch thinks it is the name of a town. It cannot mean, as Champollion thought, "King of Judah."
[526]See Shishak inBibl. Dict.It is extremely difficult to believe that these cities were taken by the Egyptian army in order to help Jeroboam.
[527]Josephus says that Shishak did all this ἀμαχητὶ (Antt., VIII. x. 2, 3), but he confuses Shishak with Sesostris (Herod., ii. 102, 106).
[528]1 Kings x. 17.
[529]LXX., 2 Sam. viii. 7; 1 Kings x. 17. A timely humiliation saved Rehoboam from extinction, but he practically became a vassal of Egypt (2 Chron. xii. 5).
[530]תָּא (Ezek. xl. 7).
[531]Ratzim; comp. "Celeres," Liv., i. 14. We hear no more of Cherethites and Pelethites. The later kings could not afford to keep up these mercenaries.
[532]Jewish Church, ii. 385.
[533]Renan.
[534]2 Chron. xii. 16; comp. Abiel (1 Sam. ix. 1).
[535]Abijam seems to mean "father of the sea";vir maritimus, Gesenius.
[536]So perhaps, for the same reason, Jehoahaz was shortened into Ahaz. See Canon Rawlinson on 2 Kings xv. 38 (Speaker's Commentary). But Simonis,Onomasticon, regards the finalmas intensive.
[537]2 Chron. xi. 18-23. Rehoboam had eighteen wives, sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons, and sixty daughters. A fragment of theStemma Davidismay make things clearer to the reader:—
Jesse.|+----------+------------+Eliab. David.| || +------+--------+Abihial. Solomon. Absalom.| |+--+ || |Abihail = Rehoboam = Maachah. Tamar = Uriel.| |Abijah. Maachah.
Thus on both sides, as a great-grandson and great-great-grandson, Abijah was descended from David.
[538]The lamp (LXX., κατάλειμμα; in xi. 36, θέσις) is the sign of home (1 Kings xi. 36; 2 Kings viii. 19. Comp. Psalm xviii. 28, cxxxii. 17). There was, as the chronicler boldly expressed it, "a covenant of salt" between God and the House of David (2 Chron. xiii. 5; comp. Numb. xviii. 19).
[539]Chron. xiii. 22.
[540]Zemaraim was in Benjamin near Bethel (Josh. xviii. 22), apparently Kirbetel-Szomerin the Jordan valley, four miles north of Jericho.
[541]2 Chron. xiii. 3-19. So that the golden calf and its chapel and its priests must, if the account be true, have fallen into his power. But it does not seem to have made the least difference. It is certain that "the calf" remained undisturbed till the days of the Assyrian invasion.
[542]How atrocious these "abominations were" may be seen from the Pentateuch (Lev. xviii. 3-25, xx. 1-23; Deut. xviii. 6-12).
[543]1 Kings xv. 15.
[544]Ewald, iv. 49.
[545]Comp. theMadame Mèrein the French court.
[546]The LXX. (Vat.) calls her Ana.
[547]That it was not perfectly successful we see from 1 Kings xxii. 46.
[548]The word is an ἅπαξ λεγόμενον. It is only applied to this grotesque and obscene figure (1 Kings xv. 13; 2 Chron. xv. 16).
[549]2 Kings xi. 16, xxiii. 4, 6, 12; 2 Chron. xxix. 16, xxx. 14. Vulg.,in Sacris Priapi. Jerome (ad Hos., i. 4) calls Maachah's "horror" aSimulacrum Priapi(see Selden,De Dis Syris Syntagma, ii. 5).
[550]2 Chron. xvi. 8. Zarkh, perhaps Osorkhon I. (O-serek-on, "Ammon's darling"), was the feebler successor of Shesonk, Maspero, p. 362; Ewald, iii. 470. Shishak's army also consisted of Sushim and Lubim (2 Chron. xii. 3).
[551]The defeat had important consequences. Egypt did not again attack Palestine till three centuries later, under Pharaoh Nechoh (b.c.609). The defeat weakened the Bubastite dynasty (Rawlinson, p. 36), though it continued to reign for two centuries. The "invasion" may have been a mere raid. The Pharaohs always seem to have degenerated from the founders of their dynasty, both in personal beauty and intellectual force.
[552]Josh. xviii. 25, now Er-Ram. No great importance can be attached to the dates, which are often self-contradictory.
[553]Ben-Hadad, "son of Hadad," the Sun-god (Macrob.,Saturn, i. 24). Tabrimmon, "Rimmon is good." According to Sayce (Hibbert Lectures, p. 42), Rimmon—an Accadian name, which became, in Semitic, Rammânu, "the exalted"—was identified by the Syrians with the Sun-god Hadad, whom Shahmanaser calledDada. In AssyrianDadu("dear child") is akin to David and to Dido.
[554]Ijon is probably Merj Ayion, "the meadow of the House of Maachah"; called also, Abel-maim, "the meadow of the waters"; "a city and a mother in Israel" (2 Sam. xx. 19); now Abil in the Ard-el-Huleh.
[555]See Numb. xxxiv. 11; Josh. xiii. 27.
[556]Josh. xxi. 17; 2 Kings xxiii. 8.
[557]LXX., ἡ σκοπία. Jer. xli. 5-9. Into this well Ishmael flung the corpses of the murdered adherents of Gedaliah.
[558]Renan,Hist. du Peuple Israel, ii. 248. Comp. Rephaiah.
[559]2 Chron. xv. 1-15.
[560]2 Chron. xvi. 9, 10.
[561]Following the precedent set by Rehoboam, he established his six younger sons in castles and fenced cities. Athaliah must have found it difficult to exterminate their families if she attempted this.
[562]The Nitzab or Præfect of Edom was allowed the barren title of king.
[563]2 Chron. xx. 37. His name faintly recalls that of Eleazar, son of Dodo (2 Sam. xxiii. 9). Dodavahu means "friend of God."
[564]2 Chron. xx. 36, 37. It would be monstrous to send ships to circumnavigate Africa in order to reach Tartessus. The last resource of the harmonists (e.g., Keil) to save the accuracy of the chronicler is to suppose that Jehoshaphat meant to drag the whole fleet across the Isthmus of Suez, and so to sail from one of the havens of Palestine!
[565]"Cette version," says Munk (Palestine, p. 314), "a probablement pris naissance dans l'esprit de rigorisme qui animait plus tard les écrivans Juifs." "This," says Dr. Robertson Smith, "is a mere pragmatical inference from the story in Kings." See his further remarks inThe Old Testament in the Jewish Church, chap. ii., p. 146. He regards parts of the Books of Chronicles as being, in fact, a JewishMidrash. "It is not History, butHaggada, moralising romance. And the chronicler himself gives the name ofMidrash(R.V., 'story') to two of the sources from which he drew (2 Chron. xiii. 22, xxiv. 27), so that there is really no mystery as to the nature of the work when it departs from the old canonical histories" (p. 148).
[566]We shall have further glimpses of Jehoshaphat in the reigns of Ahab and even of Jehoram.
[567]See 1 Chron. xvi. 34; 2 Chron. v. 13, vii. 3, xx. 21; Psalms cvi., cvii., cxviii., etc. The eighty-third Psalm may owe its origin to this deliverance, and Hengstenberg thinks Psalms xlvii. and xlviii. also.
[568]The title "valley of Jehoshaphat" is thought also to have derived its origin from these events. Comp. Joel iii. 2.
[569]2 Chron. xxi. 2, 3.
[570]There is a little exaggeration here.
[571]2 Kings ix. 31.
[572]R.V., "thecastleof the king's house."
[573]Justin,Hist., i. 3; cf. Herod., i. 176, vii. 107; Liv., xxi. 14. Ewald elaborates out of his own consciousness an extraordinary romance about Zimri and the queen-mother.
[574]Josephus (Antt., VIII. xii. 5) says that Tibni was assassinated, as does the RabbinicSeder Olam Rabba, chap. xvii. LXX., καὶ ἀπέθανε Θαβνὶ καὶ Ἰωρὰμ ὁ ἀδελφὸς αὐτοῦ.
[575]Athaliah is called "the daughter of Omri."
[576]The Aramæans have come to be incorrectly called Syrians because the Greeks confused them with the Assyrians.
[577]1 Kings xx. 34.
[578]2 Kings iii. 4.
[579]1 Kings xvi. 25.
[580]Micah vi. 16.
[581]Isa. xxviii. 1-4.
[582]Stanley,Lectures, ii. 242.
[583]1 Kings xx. 1; 2 Kings vi. 24.
[584]Josephus,Antt., XV. vii. 7. One of the few instances in Palestine where the ancient name has been superseded by a more modern one. The early Assyrians call it Beth-Khumri, "House of Omri"; but the name Sammerin occurs in the monument of Tiglath-Pileser II.
[585]About £800 of our money.
[586]LXX., Σκοπία; שָׁמַר, "to watch."
[587]Meyer,Gesch. d. Alt., 331; Kittel, ii. 221; Schrader,Keilinschr., i. 165.
[588]נְבוּרָתֹו (1 Kings xvi. 27).
[589]It is needless in each separate case to enter into the chronological minutiæ about which the historian is little solicitous. A table of the chronology so far as it can be ascertained is furnished,infra.
[590]1 Kings xx. 5; 2 Kings x. 7.
[591]Hitzig thinks that Psalm xlv. was an epithalamium on this occasion, from the mention of "ivory palaces" and "the daughter of Tyre." Had it been composed for the marriage of Solomon, or Jehoram and Athaliah, or any king of Judah, there would surely have been an allusion to Jerusalem. Moreover, the queen is called שֵׁנָל, which is a Chaldee (Dan. v. 2), or perhaps a North Palestine word. The word in Judah was Gebira.
[592]Ἰθόβαλος, Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 1;c. Ap., I. 18 (quoting the heathen historian Menander of Ephesus). It may, however, be "Man of Baal," like Saul's son Ishbaal (Ishbosheth). In Tyre the high priest was only second to the king in power (Justin,Hist., xviii. 4), and Ethbaal united both dignities. He died aged sixty-eight. Another Ethbaal was on the throne during the siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar (Josephus,Antt., X. xi. I).
[593]Josephus,c. Ap., I. 18. The genealogy is:—
+-----------------------+| |Phelles Ethbaal.(a usurper, whom his |brother Ethbaal slew). ||+----------+------+| |Badezon. Jezebel.|Matger (Belus).|+--------+------+| |Pygmalion. Dido.
See Canon Rawlinson,Speaker's Commentary, ad loc.
[594]Plaut.,Pænul., V. ii. 6, 7. Phœnician names abound in the element "Baal."
[595]Ahaziah ("Jehovah supports"), Jehoram ("Jehovah is exalted"), Athaliah (?). The word Baal merely meant "Lord"; and perhaps the fact that at one time it had been freely applied to Jehovah Himself may have helped to confuse the religious perceptions of the people. Saul, certainly no idolater, called his son Eshbaal ("the man of Baal"); and it was only the hatred of the name Baal in later times which led the Jews to alter Baal into Bosheth ("shame"), as in Ishbosheth, Mephibosheth. David himself had a son named Beeliada ("known to Baal"), which was altered into Eliada (1 Chron. xiv. 7, iii. 8; 2 Sam. v. 16; comp. 2 Chron. xvii. 17). We even find the name Bealiah ("Baal is Jah") as one of David's men (1 Chron. xii. 5). Hoshea too records that Baali ("my Lord") was used of Jehovah, but changed into Ishi ("my husband") (Hosea ii. 16, 17). It is used simply for owner ("the baal of an ox") in "the Book of the Covenant" (Exod. xxi. 28). See Robertson Smith,Rel. of the Semites, 92.
[596]Ethbaal is called King of Sidon (1 Kings xvi. 31), and was also King of Tyre (Menanderap.Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 1).
[597]1 Kings xvi. 23; 2 Kings iii. 2, x. 27.
[598]Asherimseem to be upright wooden stocks of trees in honour of the Nature-goddess Asheroth. The Temple of Baal at Tyre had no image, only twoMatstseboth, one of gold given by Hiram, one of "emerald" (Dius and Menanderap.Josephus,Antt., VIII. v. 3;c. Ap., I. 18; Herod., ii. 66).
[599]Döllinger,Judenth. u. Heidenthum(E. T.), i. 425-29.
[600]2 Sam. x. 5; Judg. iii. 28.
[601]2 Chron. xxviii. 15.
[602]Comp. Josh. vi. 26; 2 Sam. x. 5.
[603]Rev. ii. 20.
[604]1 Kings xxi. 25, 26.
[605]Henry Smith,The Trumpet of the Lord sounding to Judgment.
[606]Tobit i. 2.
[607]Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 2; Vat. (LXX.), Θεσβίτης ὁ ἐκ θεσβῶν. The Alex. LXX. omits Θεσβίτης. An immense amount has been written about Elijah. Among others, see Knobel,Der Prophetismus, ii. 73; Köster,Der Thesbiter; Stanley, ii., lect. xxx.; Maurice,Prophets and Kings, serm. viii.; F. W. Robertson, ii., serm. vi.; Milligan,Elijah(Men of the Bible).
[608]See 1 Chron. ii. 55.
[609]See Cheyne,The Hallowing of Criticism, p. 9.
[610]Zech. xiii. 4.
[611]The word also means "sea-mist" (Cheyne, p. 15).
[612]Lev. xxvi. 19; Psalm cxxxiv. 1; Heb. x. 11.
[613]So too Ecclus. xlviii. 2, "Hebroughta sore famine upon them, and by his zeal he diminished their number"; but the writer adds, "By the word of the Lord he shut up the heavens." Deut. xxviii. 12; Amos iv. 7.
[614]2 Sam. xxi. 1.
[615]2 Sam. xxiv. 13. "Three," not "seven," is probably here the true reading.
[616]Not "by," as in the A.V. Cherith means "cut off" (1 Kings xvii. 3). "The Lord hid him" (Jer. xxxvi. 26). "In famine he shall redeem thee from death.... At famine and destruction thou shalt laugh" (Job v. 20-22).
[617]Robinson.
[618]Benjamin of Tudela.
[619]Marinus Sanutus (1321).
[620]The ravens were unclean birds (Deut. xiv. 14), and this naturally startled and offended the Rabbis.
[621]Prov. xxx. 17.
[622]Orbo was a small town near the Jordan and Bethshan.
[623]On the other side, Bunsen (Bibelwerk, v. 2, 540) speaks too strongly when he says that "nothing but boundless ignorance, or, where historical criticism has not died out, an hierarchical dilettanti reaction, foolhardy hypocrisy, and weak-hearted fanaticism would wish to demand the faith of a Christian community in the historic truths of these miracles as if they had actually taken place." He regards the whole narrative as a "popular epic—the fruit of an inspiration, which he, as it were some superhuman being, awakened in his disciples."
[624]I append the remarks of Professor Milligan, a theologian of unimpeachable orthodoxy. "The miracle," he says, "is so remarkable, so much out of keeping with most of the other miracles of Scripture, that even pious and devout minds may well be perplexed by it, and we can feel no surprise at the attempts made to explain it. Such attempts are not inconsistent with the most devout reverence for the word of God. They are rather, not unfrequently, the result of a just persuasion that the Eastern mind did not express itself in forms similar to those of the West" (Elijah, p. 22). He proceeds to protest against the harsh condemnation of those who thus only try to interpret the real ideas present in the mind of the writer. He regards it as perhaps a highly poetic and figurative representation of the truth that the God of Nature was with Elijah. "The value of the Prophet's experience is neither heightened by a literal, nor diminished by a figurative, interpretation of what passed" (p. 24).
[625]1 Kings xvii. 7. Perhaps years (Lev. xxv. 29; 1 Sam. xxvii. 7).
[626]Job vi. 17.
[627]Menander, quoted by Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 2. He says it lasted for a year.
[628]LXX., "My sons"—perhaps with reference to "her house" in verse 15.
[629]Perhaps the language of the Hebrew is not actually decisive. Josephus says, τὴν ψυχὴν ἀφεῖναι καὶ δόξαι νεκρόν. In any case his recovery was due to Elijah's prayer.
[630]The phrase "man of God" is characteristic of the Book of Kings, in which it occurs fifty-three times. It became a normal description of Elijah and Elisha. "What have I to do with thee?" Comp. 2 Sam. xvi. 10; Luke v. 8. It was a common superstition that death always followed the appearance of superhuman beings.
[631]Compare the similar revivals of life wrought by Elisha (2 Kings iv. 34), and by St. Paul (Acts xx. 10).
[632]Amos ix. 3: "And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence." The phrase shows the security and seclusion of these caves and thickets, the haunt once of lions and bears, and still of leopards and hyænas.
[633]The LXX. adds that he inflicted vengeance because Elijah was not found: "Καὶ ἐνέπρησε τὴν βασιλείαν καὶ τὰς χωρὰς αὐτῆς ὅτι οὐχ εὔρηκέ σε" (1 Kings xviii. 10).
[634]Obadiah seems to have believed in miraculous transference of the Prophet from place to place. Comp. Ezek. iii. 12-14 (where "the spirit" may be rendered "a spirit," or "a wind"), viii. 3; 2 Kings ii. 16; Acts viii. 39; and the Ebionite Gospel of St. Matthew. "My mother, the Holy Ghost, took me by a hair of the head, and carried me to Mount Tabor" (Orig.in Joann., ii., § 6; and Jer.in Mic.vii. 6). So in Bel and the Dragon 33-36 (Abarbanel,Comm. in Habakkuk) the prophet Habakkuk is said to have been taken invisibly to supply food to Daniel in the den of lions. "Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown and bare him by the hair of his head, and through the vehemency of his spirit" (Midr. Robshik Rabba, "in the might of the Holy Ghost") "set him in Babylon."
[635]1 Kings xviii. 15, LXX., "The Lord God of Israel" has now become to him more prominently "the Lord God of Hosts."
[636]The phrase had already been applied to Achan (Josh. vii. 25).
[637]I.e., were maintained at Jezebel's expense. The subsequent narration is silent as to the presence of the prophets of the Asherah, and Wellhausen thinks that the words here are an interpolation.
[638]Isa. xxxiii. 9, xxxv. 2; Micah vii. 14. Its beauty and fruitfulness are alluded to in Jer. xlvi. 18, l. 19; Amos i. 2, ix. 3; Nahum i. 4; Cant. vii. 5.
[639]Sir George Grove, to whose excellent article in Smith'sDict. of Bible(i. 279) I am indebted, quotes Martineau (i. 317), Porter'sHandbook, Van de Velde, etc. See, too, Stanley,Sinai and Palestine, pp. 353-56.
[640]On theseLapides judaici, see myLife of Christ, i. 129. Illustrations are given in the illustrated edition.
[641]Jambl.,Vit. Pythag., iii.; Suet.,Vesp., 5; Tac.,Hist., ii. 78; Reland,Palest., pp. 327-30.
[642]Megiddo lies in the plain below, and this scene of conflict between good and the powers of evil was an anticipated Armageddon.
[643]Isa. xlix. 2; Cheyne, p. 16.
[644]LXX., 1 Kings xviii. 21, ἕως πότε ὑμεῖς χωλανεῖτε ἐπ' ἀμφοτέραις ταῖς ἰγνύαις. Vulg.,usquequo claudicatis in duas partes?Cheyne renders it: "How long will ye go lame upon tottering knees?" In Psalm cxix. 113, סֵעֲפִים are "the double-minded." In Ezek. xxxi. 6, סְעַפּוֹת, "diverging branches." In Isa. ii. 21, סְעִפֵי, "clefts of rocks" (Bähr).
[645]Herodian (Hist., v. 3) describes the dance of Heliogabalus round the altar of the Emesene Sun-god, and Apuleius describes at length the fanatic leapings and gashings of the execrableGalli—the eunuch-mendicant priests of the Syrian goddess. From these sources and from allusions in Seneca, Lucian, Statius, Arnobius, etc., Movers (Phöniz., i. 682) derives his description (quoted by Keil,ad loc., E.T., p. 281): "A discordant howling opens the scene. Now they fly wildly through one another, with the head sunk down to the ground, but turning round in circles, so that the loose flowing hair drags through the mire. Thereupon they first bite themselves on the arm, and at last cut themselves with two-edged swords, which they are wont to carry. Then begins a new scene. One of them who surpasses all the rest in frenzy, begins to prophesy with sighs and groans, openly accuses himself of past sins, which he now wishes to punish by the mortifying of the flesh, takes the knotted whip which the Galli are wont to bear, lashes his back, cuts himself with swords, till the blood trickles down from his mangled body."
[646]Verse 27. Others render it "meditating" (De Wette Thenius) or "peevish" (Bähr). Comp. Hom.,Il., i. 423;Od., i. 22, etc.
[647]This instance of "grim sarcastic humour" is almost unique in Scripture. It was made more mordant by the paronomasiaכִּי־שִׂיחַ וְכִי־שִׂיג לֹּו(2 Sam. i. 22).
[648]Plutarch (De Superstit., p. 170) says: "The priests of Bellona offered their own blood, which was deemed powerful to move their gods." Comp. Herod., ii. 61; Lucian,De Dea Syra, 50; Apul.,Metam., viii. 28.
[649]עַד לַעֲלוֹת הַמִּנחָה, "till towards (Numb. xxviii. 4) the offering of the Minchah." LXX., θυσία; Vulg.,sacrificiumandholocaustum. In verse 39 it is omitted in the LXX. "There is a great concurrence of evidence that the evening sacrifice of the first Temple was not a holocaust, but a cereal oblation" (Robertson Smith, p. 143, quoting 1 Kings xviii. 34; 2 Kings xvi. 15; Ezek. ix. 4, Heb).
[650]Heb., וַיִתְנַבְּאוּ; LXX., διέτρεχον; Vulg.,transiliebant. Literally, they acted like frantic prophets (1 Sam. xviii. 10; Jer. xxix. 26).
[651]LXX., θαλάσσαν, or "sea"—the name given to Solomon's molten laver; but the description, "as great as would contain twoseahsof seed," is curious, for a seah was only the third of an ephah.
[652]Blunt (Undesigned Coincidences, II. xxxii.) thinks that as the drought had been so intense the water must have been sea-water. But Josephus says it was drawn ἀπὸ τῆς κρήνης (Antt., VIII. xiii. 5); and the well still exists.
[653]Priests, both pagan and mediæval, have been adepts at deception. At the Reformation the mechanism of winking Madonnas, etc., was exposed to the people. At Pompeii may still be seen the secret staircase behind the altar, and the pipes let into the head of Isis from behind, through which the priests spoke her pretended oracles. St. Chrysostom (Orat. in. Petr. et Eliam, which is of uncertain genuineness) tells us that he had himself seen (θεάτης αὐτὸς γενομένος) altars with concealed hollows in the middle, into which the unsuspected operator crept, and blew up a fire which the people were assured was self-kindled (see Keil, p. 282). One legend says that on this occasion a man was suffocated, who had been concealed by the Baal priests inside their altar.
[654]1 Kings xviii. 36.
[655]Comp. Lev. ix. 24. Analogous stories existed among pagans (Hom.,Il., ii. 305;Od., ii. 143; Verg.,Ecl., viii. 105). Pliny says that annals recorded the eliciting of lightning by prayers and incantations (H. N., ii. 54; Winer,Realwörterb.371).
[656]It is after Elijah's time, and probably from his influence, that from this time proper names compounded with Jehovah become almost the rule—as in Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Joash, Pekahiah, etc.
[657]1 Kings xix. 1, בְּחָרֶב; LXX., ἐν ῥομφάιᾳ.
[658]Renan,Vie de Jésus, 100.
[659]Matt. xii. 19, 20; Isa. xlii. 2, 3; Ezek. xxxiv. 16.
[660]LXX., ὅτι φωνὴ τῶν ποδῶν τοῦ ὑετοῦ. Perhaps, with reference to this reading, Josephus afterwards describes "the little cloud" as "no bigger than a human footstep" (οὐ πλέον ἴχνους ἀνθρωπίνου).
[661]LXX., τῷ παιδαρίῳ αὐτοῦ.
[662]LXX., 1 Kings xviii. 45, Καὶ ἔκλαιε καὶ ἐπορεύετο Ἀχαὰβ ἕως Ιεζράελ.
[663]Menander of Ephesus (Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 2).
[664]Eisenlohr,Das Volk Israel, p. 162.
[665]He refers to Gibbon, iv. 232.
[666]See Mrs. Gaskell'sLife of Charlotte Brönte.
[667]LXX., 1 Kings xix. 2.
[668]The touch "which belongeth to Judah" shows that the Elijah-narrative emanated from some prophet in the northern schools. In later days it was much visited by pilgrims from the Northern Kingdom (Amos v. 5, viii. 14).
[669]Matt. xxvi. 36.
[670]1 Kings xix. 4, 5, רֹתֶם אֵחָת; Vulg.,subter unam juniperum. The plant is theGenista monosperma, with papilionaceous flowers. Not "juniper," as in Luther (Wachholder) and the A.V. LXX., ῥαθμὲν φύτον. See Robinson,Researches, i. 203, 205. It gave its name to the station Rithmah (Numb. xxxiii. 18) and the Wadies Retemît and Retâmah.
[671]Comp. Moses (Numb. xi. 15), Jonah (Jonah iv. 3).
[672]Pope's epitaph on Mrs. Elizabeth Corbet, in St. Margaret's Westminster.
[673]Jer. xx. 1-18.
[674]Psalm cii. 6, 8.
[675]Psalm xxxviii. 11, 12.
[676]Jer. v. 31, xxix. 9.
[677]John xvi. 32.
[678]Krummacher.
[679]Thecoals(reshaphim) for the cake (LXX., ἔγκρυφίας ὀλυρίτης; Vulg.,subcinericius panis) were the dry twigs of the broom plant, still sold for that purpose in the markets of Cairo. Comp. Psalm cxx. 4; "coals of juniper."
[680]1 Kings xix. 5. מַלְאָךְ means "a messenger," and in verse 2 is used of the messenger of Jezebel.
[681]Exod. xxxiii. 22.
[682]Bible Educator, iii. 135.
[683]The use of the plural, and the absence of any objections to an uncentralised worship, are proofs of the northern origin of the Elijah-episode.
[684]LXX., αὔριον; Josephus,Antt., VIII. xiii. 7; Comp. Exod. xxxiv. 2. It is hardly likely that the stupendous vision would follow instantly and without a moment's preparation.
[685]Deut. iv. 12, 15, (comp. v. 4, 22, 23). Of Moses, on the other hand, it is said, "the similitude of the Lord shall he behold" (Numb. xii. 8; Exod. xxxiii. 11; Deut. xxxiv. 10).
[686]מָקוֹם, τόπος, "place," was a sort of recognised euphemism for God in Rabbinic and Alexandrian exegesis. Thus, in Exod. xxiv. 10, for "they sawthe God of Israel," the LXX. have εἷδον τὸν τόπον οὗ εἱστήκει ὁ θεός. Philo says, "God Himself is called Place" (De Somn., i. 525). Rabbi Isaac says, "God is not in Makom, but Makom is in God." See my Bampton Lectures onHist. of Interpretation, p. 120;Early Days of Christianity, i. 261.
[687]Psalm civ. 4; Heb. i. 7. This intermediacy of angels is prominently alluded to in Acts vii. 53; Gal. iii. 19; Heb. ii. 2, 3; Deut. xxxiii. 2; Psalm lxviii. 17.
[688]The anthropomorphism which the Targumists disliked vanishes in the Chaldee: "And before Him was a host of angels of the wind rending the mountains, and breaking the rocks, before the Lord but the Shechinah was not in the hosts of the angels of the wind, and after the hosts of the angels of the wind was the host of the angel of the earthquake, etc."
[689]Job xxxviii. 1, xl. 6.
[690]Ezek. i. 4.
[691]Jer. xxiii. 19, 20, xxv. 32, xxx. 23.
[692]Psalms xviii. 10, civ. 3, 5.
[693]Nahum i. 3, 5.
[694]Psalm xviii. 7, lxxvii. 18, xcvii. 4; Judg. v. 4; 2 Sam. xxii. 8.
[695]Hab. iii. 3-16.
[696]1 Kings xix. 12; LXX., φωνὴ αὔρας λεπτῆς; Vulg.,Sibilus auræ tenuis; Chaldee, "a voice of angels singing in silence."
[697]Jehu was the grandson of Nimshi, and was the son of Jehoshaphat (2 Kings ix. 2).
[698]Isa. xi. 4, xlix. 2; comp. Jer. i. 10, xviii. 7.
[699]Comp. Rom. xii. 5. Kissing images was a sign of idolatry then as it is now. The foot of the statue of St. Peter in Rome is worn away with kisses. Hosea xiii. 2 tells us of the custom of kissing the calves. Comp. Psalm ii. 12. Cicero tells us that the lovely brazen statue of Hercules at Agrigentum had the mouth and chin partly worn away by the kisses of the devout (inVerr., iv. 43).
[700]Herder, who was a devout poet, and therefore a true imaginative interpreter of devout poetry, says: "The vision was to show the fiery zeal of the Prophet that would amend everything by the storm, the mild process of God, and proclaim His longsuffering tender nature as previously the voice did to Moses: hence the scene was so beautifully changed." Long before him the wise Theodoret had said: Διὰ δὲ τούτων ἔδειξεν ὅτι μακροθυμία καὶ φιλανθρωπία μόνη φίλη Θεῷ. Irenæus, still earlier (c. Hær., iv. 27), saw in the vision an emblem of the difference between the law and the gospel; and Grotius, following him, says, "Evangelii figuratio, quod non venit cum vento, terræ motu, et fulminibus ut lex," Exod. xix. 16 (see Keil,ad loc., whose illustrations are often valuable when his exegesis is false and obsolete).
[701]Psalm xviii. 7-9; comp. 2 Sam. xxii. 8-11.
[702]Isa. xiii. 13.
[703]Isa. xxix. 6; comp. Ecclus. xxxix. 28.
[704]W. S. Landor.
[705]1 Kings iv. 12. It was in the north part of the Jordan valley.
[706]1 Kings xix. 19.
[707]The Hebrew can hardly bear the meaning that he was finishing the twelfth furrow in his field, ploughed by his single yoke of oxen.
[708]For these particulars, and the following translations, see Dr. Ginsburg inRecords of the Past, xi. 163; and Dr. Neubauer,id., New Series, ii. 194;The Moabite Stone, Second Edition (Reeves & Turner), 1871; Dr. Schlottmann,Die Sieggessaüle Mesas, 1870; Nöldeke,Die Inschrift der König Mesa, 1870; Stade, i. 534; Kittel, ii. 198, etc.
[709]Chemosh-Gad perhaps came to the throne in the fourth year of Omri, aboutb.c.926, and reigned till the close of Ahaziah's reign (b.c.896).