THIS warning, however, though confirmed by signs and wonders, had little or no effect on Jeroboam himself. He persisted in his evil courses, and his dynasty was destined to pass away, a fact before long revealed to him under very mournful circumstances. His son Abijah fell sick. In his anxiety to know the fate of the hope of his kingdom, Jeroboam bade his wife disguise herself, and repair to Shiloh, and there consult the now blind and aged prophet, who had foretold his own elevation to the throne. Though she was effectually disguised, and presented only the gift of an ordinary person, a few loaves, some cakes, and a cruse of honey, the prophet detected his visitor as soon as he heard the sound of her feet at the door, and confirmed her worst fears. In words of utmost sternness he denounced her husband’s idolatries, and distinctly told her that her son would die. He, indeed, as one in whom was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel, would descend into the grave mourned and lamented by the whole people. But no other of his family would thus receive an honourable funeral, and his death would be but the prelude of the destruction of his father’s dynasty. With a heavy heart the mother returned, and as she entered the town of Tirzah, Abijah sickened, and the blind prophet’s words came true (1 K. xiv. 1–18).
Meanwhile, the relations between the rival kingdoms had been marked by continued hostility (1 K. xiv. 30; 2 Chr. xii. 15). The first step taken by Rehoboam, when the disruption of the kingdom was complete, was to fortify 15 cities in the neighbourhood of his capital, and in the southern and south-western portions of Judah (2 Chr. xi. 5–12). All these he stored with provisions and arms, and placed over them commandants. During the first three years of his reign he walked in the ways of the Lord, and was strengthened in upholding the principles of true religion by numerous bodies of priests and Levites, who flocked into the territory of Judah from that of Jeroboam, as also by many of the tribes of Israel, who still remained faithful to the Lord God of their fathers (2 Chr. xi. 13–17). But soon, like Solomon before him, he too was found wanting. Surrounding himself with a numerous harem, he took 18 wives and 60 concubines, by whom he became the father of numerous sons and daughters. Reserving the throne for Abijah, the son of Maachah daughter of Absalom, he dispersed the rest of the royal princes among his fortified cities, and in the splendour of his court and the security of his now established throne, forgat the law of the Lord (2 Chr. xii. 1), and set an evil example to his subjects, who speedily began to build high places, and set up images and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree (1 K. xiv. 22–24).
Five years, however, after his accession, his peace was rudely disturbed. Shishak the Egyptian king, instigated probably by Jeroboam, whom as we have already seen, he had befriended in exile, advanced against Judah with 1200 chariots, 60,000 cavalry, and an enormous host of Libyans, Nubians, and Ethiopians. Having made himself master of Rehoboam’s fenced cities, he penetrated as far as his capital, and forced him to purchase an ignominious peace by delivering up the treasure of the royal palace and the Temple, even to the shields of gold, which Solomon had made for the purpose of being borne before him whenever he visited the Temple in state347 (1 K. x. 16, 17). More than this the Egyptian monarch did not attempt, as Shemaiah the prophet had promised would be the case, if the king and his people displayed signs of real contrition for their idolatries. After this deep humiliation, the moral condition of Judah seems to have improved, and the rest of Rehoboam’s reign is not marked by any remarkable event. He died, B.C. 957, at the age of 58, after a reign of 17 years, and was succeeded by his son Abijah.
The new king continued the war with Jeroboam, and made a determined effort to recover the ten tribes. At Mount Zemaraim, in the range of Ephraim, he confronted with 400,000 troops twice that number of the enemy; and previously to the battle endeavoured by a solemn address to win over the subjects of his rival to their former allegiance. He reminded them of the Divine election of David to the throne of the entire nation, and the emphatic manner in which the monarchy had been covenanted to him; he recounted the circumstances under which Jeroboam had usurped the regal power, and contrasted the idolatrous worship he had established with the time-honoured ritual of the Temple, and its divinely-ordained priests. While he thus sought to awaken the loyalty of the tribes, his rival had posted an ambuscade behind the men of Judah, who found themselves entrapped. But, nothing daunted, they cried unto the Lord, and, while the priests sounded with the silver trumpets, raised a shout, and fell upon the foe. The forces of Jeroboam were utterly routed, and Abijah succeeded in capturing the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephraim with the surrounding villages. From this signal defeat the king of Israel never recovered strength again (2 Ch. xiii. 20), and soon after died, bequeathing his throne to his son Nadab, while his rival Abijah, after a brief reign of three years, also died, and was succeeded by his son Asa, B.C. 954.
THE reign of Nadab was very brief, lasting only two years. As he was besieging Gibbethon, a town allotted to Dan (Josh. xix. 44), and afterwards given to the Kohathite Levites (Josh. xxi. 23), but which was now in the hands of the Philistines, Baasha, the son of Abijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him, and, usurping the throne, smote all the house of Jeroboam till he left none that breathed, thus fulfilling the words of Ahijah, and destroying the first Israelitish dynasty, B.C. 953.
Between the new king and Asa constant hostilities were maintained. The latter, mindful of the conditions on which he held the kingdom, no sooner ascended the throne, than he commenced a general religious reform throughout his dominions. He removed the idols his father had set up, the high places, the images, and the groves; nor did he spare the idolatrous ritual even of his grandmother Maachah, who held the special dignity of queen-mother; he removed the symbol of her religion, and flung the ashes into the brook Kidron. Having thus restored the worship of Jehovah to something of its former purity, he strengthened his kingdom by fortifying the frontier towns, and raised and equipped a large army. He was thus in a condition to confront the enormous host with which his realm was invaded by Zerah, the Ethiopian, probably Osorkon II.348, the successor of Shishak, and the inheritor of his quarrel with Rehoboam. The Egyptian host penetrated as far as Mareshah in the low country of Judah, where they were confronted by Asa, whose confidence in his God was rewarded by a complete victory, and the Egyptian host fell back routed as far as Gerar, leaving immense spoils in the hands of the men of Judah (2 Chr. xiv. 9–15).
After this signal success, encouraged by the assurances of the prophet Azariah, Asa resolved to continue his religious reforms, and on his arrival at Jerusalem convoked an assembly of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, as well as of the strangers sojourning amongst them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, and in the 3rd month of the 15th year of his reign, renewed with solemn sacrifices a national Covenant. With a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets, the assembly swore fealty to their God and king, and vowed to put to death all who proved unfaithful to Jehovah (2 Chr. xv. 1–15).
The peace which his kingdom now enjoyed was soon disturbed by the hostility of Baasha, who marched against Asa, and having recovered the territory which he had lost, fortified Ramah, about 6 miles north of Jerusalem, not only to annoy his enemy, and stop the tide of emigration from his own kingdom into that of Judah, but also to cut off Asa’s communications with the central portion of Israel. On this that monarch resolved to purchase the aid of the king of Syria, Benhadad I.349, and persuade him to break off his alliance with his rival. Sending, therefore, all the silver and gold left in the treasuries of the Temple to the Syrian monarch, he succeeded in inducing him to fling an army into northern Palestine, which smote Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-Maachah, Cinneroth, and all the land of Naphtali. This forced Baasha to withdraw his forces, and retire to Tirzah; whereupon Asa summoned all Judah, and having destroyed the works at Ramah, used the stones and timber to fortify two towers, Geba and Mizpeh, as checks to any similar attempts in future. This is the first instance of a Hebrew king courting an alliance with a heathen power in a great crisis of the national fortunes, and it did not pass unnoticed by the prophetical order. Hanani the seer denounced such faithless leaning on an arm of flesh, and foretold that from henceforth he should have wars. The outspoken rebuke roused the anger of Asa. He flung the bold prophet into prison, and oppressed some of the people, who probably sympathised in his denunciations. In other respects he had ruled his kingdom with energy, loyalty, and piety, and after a severe attack of gout, died in the 41st year of his reign, and was committed to the tomb amidst general sorrow, bequeathing his throne to his son Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. xvi. 7–14), B.C. 914.
Meanwhile there had been great vicissitudes in the kingdom of Israel. After destroying the whole house of Jeroboam, Baasha made the beautiful city of Tirzah350 his capital, and in spite of the warnings of the prophet Jehu the son of Hanani (1 K. xvi. 1–7), persisted in walking in the ways of Jeroboam, wherewith he made Israel to sin. His reign of 24 years was chiefly distinguished by his persistent hostility to his rival Asa, which cost him, as we have seen, several cities in the northern part of his dominions, in consequence of Asa’s alliance with Benhadad. He was succeeded in the year B.C. 930 by his son Elah; who had barely reigned for the brief space of a year, when on the occasion of a riotous feast in the house of his steward at Tirzah, he was assassinated by Zimri, the captain of half his chariots, B.C. 929. The usurper signalized his accession by ruthlessly murdering every member of the family of Baasha, but had barely occupied the throne for seven days, when Omri, captain of the army then besieging Gibbethon, attacked him at Tirzah. Despairing of aid Zimri anticipated the wishes of his rival by firing the palace over his head, and perished in the flames.
But the claims of the usurper to his blood-stained throne were not universally acknowledged. Half the people sided with him, and half with another aspirant, Tibni the son of Ginath (1 K. xvi. 21). For 5 years the latter reigned as rival king, and the land was desolated with civil discord. At length the faction of Omri prevailed, and Tibni dying, he became sole king of Israel, and founder of its third dynasty. For 6 years he made Tirzah, though now in ruins, his capital, and then in spite of its proverbial beauty (Cant. vi. 4) determined to remove his residence elsewhere. About 6 miles north-west of Shechem was “an oval-shaped isolated hill, rising by successive terraces 600 feet above the surrounding plateau, and combining in union not elsewhere found in Palestine, strength, beauty, and fertility.” This hill Omri purchased of Shemer, its owner, for two talents of silver, and on its “long flat top” built a city, which instead of naming after himself, he called after the name of its owner Shomrôn, “the city of Shemer,” afterwards corrupted into the Chaldee Shemrin, and thence into the Greek Samaria351. In his new capital Omri reigned 6 years more. A vigorous and unscrupulous ruler, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord more than all his predecessors on the throne. He not only courted an alliance with Benhadad I. and surrendered to him some border towns (1 K. xx. 34), and admitted a resident Syrian embassy352 into Samaria, but gave his son and successor Ahab in marriage to Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Zidon (1 K. xvi. 31), thus introducing the worship of Baal as the recognised religion of his kingdom.
THE first act of Jehoshaphat, who succeeded Asa on the throne of Judah, was to fortify and garrison the fenced cities in his dominions, as well as the towns in Ephraim, which his father had captured (2 Chr. xvii. 2). With much zeal for the national faith he next endeavoured to put down the high places and groves, and sent a commission of princes, priests, and Levites to traverse the various towns, and instruct the people out of the Book of the Law (2 Chr. xvii. 6–9). His pious zeal did not go unrewarded. The Lord established the kingdom in his hand, and gave him peace round about. Not only his own subjects, but even the Philistines and Arabians brought him tribute (2 Chr. xvii. 5, 11), which enabled him to build castles and store-cities in Judah, and maintain a large standing army (2 Chr. xvii. 12–19).
Meanwhile, very different scenes were enacted in the rival kingdom of Israel.
Ithobalus or Ethbaal353, the father of Ahab’s queen, had once been a priest of the Phœnician goddess Astarte, and had usurped the throne of his brother Phalles354. Jezebel inherited the spirit of her father, and quickly acquired the most unbounded influence over her weak-minded husband, so that he became a mere puppet in her hands. The first effect of her influence was the establishment of the worship of Baal on the most extensive scale. Near the palace at Samaria rose a temple in honour of this Phœnician deity, and an oracular grove, while 450 of the prophets of Baal, and 400 of Astarte, were supported at the queen’s table (1 K. xvi. 31, 32, xviii. 19). She also resolved that a worship, now formally legalized, should be forcibly imposed on her husband’s subjects, and so great was her severity towards the prophets of Jehovah, that they were constrained to conceal themselves in caves, and there eke out a precarious existence (1 K. xviii. 13). While she thus persecuted the servants of Jehovah, her yielding husband occupied himself chiefly with indulging a taste for splendid architecture. He erected several cities, and built an ivory palace; and while Samaria remained his capital, sought another Tirzah in the beautiful city of Jezreel, the very name of which, the seed-plot of God, indicates the fertility of the neighbourhood355.
In this crisis of the Israelitish kingdom came forth, sudden as the lightning, alarming as the thunder, one of the most remarkable men that Israel ever produced. From the wooded uplands across the Jordan, “from the country of the rude soldier-judge Jephthah356,” clad in the austere garb of the prophets, consisting of a girdle of skin round his loins, and a sheep-skin “mantle,” his “hair long and thick, and hanging down his back” (2 K. i. 8), appeared in the palace of Ahab, Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead. Without a word of comment or introduction, he announced in the name of that God, whom the monarch had insulted, a speedy and awful judgment. As the Lord God of Israel liveth, said he, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years but according to my word357. Having thus boldly delivered his message, he fled for his life to the brook or torrent-bed of the Cherith, either amongst his own native hills, or on the west of Jordan and nearer to Samaria. Here he was for some time miraculously supported by ravens, which brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, while he drank of the water of the brook (1 K. xvii. 1–7).
After a while the slender streamlet was dried up. Guided by the Divine direction the prophet now repaired to Zarephath or Sarepta (Lk. iv. 25–29), a Phœnician village on the sea-shore between Tyre and Sidon, and in the very midst of Phœnician heathenism. As he drew nigh the place he met the widow, with whom he was to lodge, gathering sticks. Though she was so poverty-stricken, that she had but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, and the sticks she was gathering were to make a last meal for her child and herself before they died, he yet bade her make a little cake for him first, and assured her that the barrel of meal should not waste, nor the cruse of oil fail, till the rain returned. Strong in faith, the woman did as he bade her, and found his words true. For a full year (1 K. xvii. 15, margin) she and her house did eat, nor did their supplies fail. But before long a sore trouble visited her home. Her son sickened, and seemed at the point of death. In the agony of her grief she imputed this trial to the presence of the mysterious prophet. But Elijah took the boy up to his chamber, and laid him on his own bed; then he stretched himself three times upon him, and cried mightily to the Lord that his life might be restored to him. His prayer was heard; the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived, and the prophet restored him to his mother, who was now convinced that her guest was a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in his mouth was truth (1 K. xvii. 8–24).
Meanwhile, the kingdom of Israel was suffering the most grievous extremities from the prolonged drought. The earth lay cracked and parched and barren. Sheep, cattle, horses, perished from want of water, and from the failure of the crops. So great was the destitution, that Ahab left his luxurious palace at Samaria, and divided with Obadiah—his chief domestic officer, and who, at the peril of his life, remained faithful in his allegiance to Jehovah—the duty of examining every spring and “nook of the most shaded torrent-bed” to discover any sign of herbage, wherewith to save the horses and mules alive, that they might not lose all the beasts. While, then, Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way by himself, suddenly the latter discerned the prophet standing in the midst of the path. At the Divine command Elijah had left his retreat at Zarephath, and now bade the minister of Ahab announce to his master his own return. At first Obadiah demurred. He feared lest, while he had gone on this mission, the Spirit of the Lord might summon the prophet in some other direction, and the king would slay him in his disappointment. But Elijah reassured him, and he went and told Ahab, and Ahab went to meet the servant of Jehovah. Few but pointed were the prophet’s words, when he was confronted with the weak woman-governed king. After sternly denouncing his idolatries, he commanded him to summon instantly to the top of Carmel358 the 450 prophets of Baal, and the 400 prophets of Ashtaroth. Awed by the bearing of the seer, the monarch dared not disobey, and the prophets, followed by a large concourse of people, repaired to the appointed spot, at the extreme eastern point of the long Carmel range, “commanding the last view of the sea behind, and the first view of the great plain in front359.”
It was the crisis in the history of the Ten Tribes. On that day it was to be proved, once for all, who was supreme, Baal or Jehovah. With his one attendant Elijah proceeded to the Place of Controversy, and proposed to the assembled multitudes a decisive test. Let two bullocks be chosen; let one of them be slain by the priests of Baal, and cut in pieces; let these be laid upon an altar, with no fire under; let them then call upon the name of their gods, and the God that answered by fire let him be God. The challenge was accepted. The altar was built; the victim slain; the pieces laid in order; and the priests of Baal commenced their incantations. But there was no voice, neither any that answered. Morning passed, and noon came, and still there was no reply. Meanwhile Elijah suggested to them that they should cry aloud, for, said he, with cutting irony, he is a god; either he meditateth, or he is pursuing, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. Stung to the quick, the priests redoubled their invocations. They cried aloud, they cut themselves, after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. But prayers, cries, lacerations were each and all in vain (1 K. xviii. 1–30).
The hour for the evening-sacrifice now drew near, and Elijah bade the people approach, and with twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of Jacob, repaired an ancient altar on the mountain-top, which Jezebel probably had caused to be thrown down. Round about it he next caused a trench to be dug, and having slain his victim, laid it upon the altar. Then once, twice, and yet again he caused victim and altar to be drenched with water360, till it filled even the trench. This done, the solitary prophet poured forth his whole soul to the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, praying Him that He would that day prove that He was indeed the Lord, and that he himself had done all these things at His word. His prayer was answered. The Fire of the Lord descended, and consumed the burnt-sacrifice and the wood, and the stones and the dust, and licked up even the water that was in the trench. The effect on the people was profound. Falling on their faces to the earth, they with one accord confessed, Jehovah, He is the God; Jehovah, He is the God (1 K. xviii. 30–39).
It was the moment for still more decisive measures. Elijah had bowed the hearts of the people as one man. Take the prophets of Baal, he cried, let not one of them escape; and down the steep sides of the mountain they were brought to the level plain below361, where flowed the Kishon. There these troublers of the nation’s peace were slain, and this stern act of duty done, the prophet bade the king accompany him up the mountain to join in a sacrificial feast. Then, while Ahab ate and drank, he himself ascended to a higher level, and on the bare ground, with his face between his knees, remained wrapt in prayer, having bidden his servant ascend yet higher, and look towards the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Six times he came back to his master with the announcement that he could see nothing. But the seventh time he returned, saying, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. It was the long-desired sign, “the first that had for days and months passed across the heavens,” telling of the coming rain. Instantly the prophet bade the king descend the mountain, prepare his chariot, and make for his palace. The king obeyed, and meantime the little cloud had grown and overcast the whole evening sky. Soon a wind arose and shook the forests of Carmel, and the welcome rain poured down in torrents. Across the bed of the Kishon Ahab urged his chariot along the road to Jezreel, while Elijah, girding up his loins and tightening his hairy mantle about him, ran before the chariot of his sovereign at least 16 miles to the entrance of the city362.
Thus far the triumph of the Prophet was complete. But now, when victory seemed to be in the hollow of his hand, at the most critical moment of his life, his courage failed him. Jezebel, informed of what had taken place on Carmel, sent a messenger threatening him with certain death, and Elijah, who had boldly defied multitudes on Carmel, fled before the face of a woman, in a southerly direction towards Beer-sheba. There he left his attendant, and went alone a day’s journey into the waste uninhabited country, which borders on the south of Palestine. Wearied, disappointed, he requested that he might die, and flinging himself under a juniper-tree363 fell asleep. Presently an angel awoke him, and pointing to a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water, bade him refresh himself, and in the strength of that meat go still further southward, to Horeb the Mount of God.
Arrived there, he remained at least one night in one of the caverns of the awful mountain-range, and in the morning heard the word of the Lord enquiring, What doest thou here, Elijah? In reply, the prophet urged his eminent services for the cause of Jehovah. The children of Israel had forsaken the covenant, thrown down the Lord’s altars, and slain the prophets with the sword, he alone was left, and they sought his life to take it away. In this dejected, murmuring mood he was not fit to discharge the duties of his office. The Lord, therefore, bade him leave his cave, and stand before Him face to face upon the mountain, while He passed by “in all the terror of His most appalling manifestations.” First, a mighty rushing wind rent the solid mountain, and brake in pieces the cliffs of Sinai, but the Lord was not in the wind. Then an earthquake shook the rocks, and the mountain trembled with the crash, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. Then a fire blazed forth, and burned with a consuming heat, but the Lord was not in the fire. Then all was quiet; the convulsion of nature was hushed; and presently there came a still, small, Voice, and as Elijah listened, his face wrapped in his mantle, he learnt that there was yet something left for him to do, that he was not the only instrument the Lord could employ. He was to return, and anoint Hazael king over Syria, Jehu the son of Nimshi king of Israel, and Elisha of Abel-meholah as his successor in the prophetical office; and whereas he had complained that he was the only faithful servant of Jehovah, he now learnt that the Lord had left him 7000 in Israel, all the knees which had not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which had not kissed him (1 K. xix. 1–18).
OF the three commands thus laid upon him, Elijah straightway proceeded to execute the last. From Horeb he journeyed to Abel-meholah364 (the Meadow of the Dance), in the northern part of the Jordan valley. Here he met Elisha, the son of Shaphat, apparently a man of substance, plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him and he with the twelfth. Casting his well-known mantle upon him, the prophet by this symbolic action claimed him as his son, and called him to follow him. Lingering only to bid farewell to his father and mother, and to celebrate a parting feast with his people, Elisha arose and hurried after the great Prophet, and became henceforth his constant attendant.
Meantime Ahab, while he retained Samaria as the capital of his kingdom, adorned with a palace and park the beautiful city of Jezreel, in the Esdraelon plain. But ere long this and other instances of his passion for splendid architecture received a rude check. At the head of a large army and aided by 32 vassal kings, Benhadad II., king of Syria365, laid siege to Samaria. While this was in progress, with true Oriental haughtiness he made a formal demand of all the silver and gold, the wives, and children belonging to his enemy. Hoping to disarm hostility, the servile Ahab replied by a promise of faithful vassalage to the lord of Syria. But Benhadad, emboldened by this weak compliance, sent ambassadors with the announcement that on the following day he should enforce his demand by an actual search of Ahab’s palace. Even the king of Israel was stung to the quick by this insulting message, and summoning all the elders of his kingdom he laid the matter before them. It was resolved to defend Samaria at all risks, and Benhadad was informed that his demand could not be entertained. On receiving this reply, the king of Syria sent another message to declare his intention of laying Samaria level with the ground. Tell him, rejoined Ahab, Let not him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it off, a spirited reply, which filled Benhadad with rage, and he ordered preparations to be made for an instant assault.
At this juncture a prophet stood forth, and assured Ahab of a complete victory over the vast host of his enemy, which should be achieved by a mere handful of men. In accordance with his suggestion, the king thereupon numbered the 232 attendants on the “princes of the provinces366,” and prepared to send them against the Syrian camp, while 7,000 of the regular troops followed behind. The little band left the gates of Samaria and proceeded towards the pavilions, or rather “the tents and booths of branches, boughs, and brushwood, which were erected for the Syrian chiefs in the camp, as they are still erected for the Turkish pashas and agas in their expeditions367.” Though it was only high noon, Benhadad with his vassal chiefs was carousing over his wine-cups. But he no sooner heard of the approach of the little band from the city, than with drunken insolence he ordered that they should be taken alive, whether they came for peace or war. The force, however, sent to execute this order found it no easy one, for the 232 “princes of the provinces” offered a strenuous resistance, and struck down all who opposed them. This, and the sight of the 7,000 following behind, filled the Syrian host with a sudden panic, and they fled precipitately, headed by Benhadad himself on a fleet horse, and pursued by the victorious Israelites, who inflicted upon them a great slaughter (1 K. xx. 1–22).
Thus Samaria was delivered. But the same prophet, who had predicted the victory, now warned Ahab to be on his guard, for with the return of spring the enemy would renew the invasion, which duly came to pass. Annoyed at their late humbling defeat, the Syrians had concluded that it was owing to the fact that they had attacked in a hilly region a people, whose gods were gods of the hills368. They now resolved to fight in a more level region, and in place of the vassal kings, who probably had been the first to fly in the late battle, they had substituted captains, and mustered an army as large as the last. Accordingly, at the season named by the prophet, they advanced with a vast host to Aphek369, a town in the level country, east of the Jordan, on the military road from Syria to Israel. Hither the army of Ahab went forth to meet them, and encamped, appearing like two little flocks of kids in comparison of their formidable foes, who filled the country round. But again a prophet appeared to encourage Ahab, and assure him of a second victory. The Syrians had imagined Jehovah to be merely a god of the hills, they should know that he was a god also of the valleys (1 K. xx. 28).
For seven days the two armies confronted one another, and then the battle was joined. The Syrians were utterly routed, and fled in confusion to Aphek, resolved there to make a stand. But the wall of the town, in consequence probably of a sudden earthquake, fell with a terrible crash and buried upwards of 27,000 in the ruins370. Benhadad himself with his immediate attendants escaped, and was advised by them to throw himself on the mercy of the conqueror. They proposed to go forth with sackcloth on their loins and ropes on their heads, and plead for their lives. Mounted in his chariot Ahab received the envoys, enquired after the welfare of his late dreaded enemy, and called him his brother. The word brother revived the courage of the Syrian ambassadors, and they were presently bidden to return and usher their master into Ahab’s presence. Benhadad came, and was invited to take his place in the chariot by the side of his conqueror. Grateful for this unexpected clemency, he promised to restore to the king of Israel all the towns his father had taken from the Israelites, and to permit his subjects to have a quarter in the Syrian capital, similar to that which Benhadad’s father had obtained in Samaria (1 K. xx. 34).
This impolitic clemency to an unrelenting national foe was sternly rebuked by one of the sons of the prophets. Having caused himself to be wounded and disguised with a headband, he awaited Ahab’s coming along the road, and said, Thy servant went out into the midst of the late battle; and, behold, a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me, and said, Keep this man: if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou shalt pay a talent of silver; and as thy servant was busy here and there, he was gone. Instantly Ahab decided the matter, and pronounced that he must bear the penalty. On this the headband was removed, and the king perceived not only that the speaker was a scholar of the prophets, but understood also the true meaning of his parable. Because he had spared a man, whom Jehovah had devoted to utter destruction, the punishment should fall upon him and his people, which he had failed to execute on Benhadad (1 K. xx. 35–43).