came again a prophetic messenger, who declared to Ahab that on account of the impiety of the Syrians asserting that the Lord was God of the hills, but not the God of the valleys, the Israelites should assuredly defeat them, as they did when the battle took place, "and slew of the Syrians an hundred thousand footmen in one day." Benhadad fled to the city of Aphek, and there concealed himself in an inner room. At last, the terror of death upon him, he ventured to present himself before Ahab, and in the humblest manner entreated his compassion. He promised well, and Ahab, complacent of his own magnanimity, made a covenant with him, and allowed him to depart, as Saul spared Agag.

Then came the warning voice of a prophet filling the miserable king with new fears: "Thus saith the Lord; Because thou hast let go out of thy hand a man whom I appointed to utter destruction, therefore thy life shall go for his life, and thy people for his people."

For three years there was peace between Syria and Israel.

Jezebel meanwhile continued to rule with a very high hand. The more and more haughty grew the queen, and the more and more obnoxious she became to his subjects, the more the love of Ahab for her seemed intensified. She was the Lady Macbeth of Israel's history-a woman of prompt action-and did the deeds he only thought about, while he was considering the matter. The narrative of Naboth's vineyard is a case in point.

There are few sights more beautiful than a well cultivated vineyard. Courteous Italians tell us our hop gardens are as beautiful; but our gardens are wanting in colour, and in many of the picturesque accessories which belong to the vineyards of the sunny south. And Eastern vineyards are fair to see-the sparing foliage leaving the full clusters to the ripening kisses of the sun. Well, there was a vineyard near the palace, and it occurred to the king that he would take it for his own; the owner would no doubt yield it to him for a fair price, and feel himself exalted by the business. But the owner flatly refused. It had been his father's and his father's father's, and he did not care to part with the land. He was a true son of the soil, and took pride in his farm, and felt himself, with all due respect, as good as the king

with the crown on his head. And majesty fretted-this yokel -this rustic-this boor to withstand the king, was something which worried the royal heart; and he lost his appetite, and went about as though some serious calamity had befallen him. At first the queen would take but little trouble about the matter, but, perhaps having her attention directed to her husband's forlorn state, she would grow impatient with his folly, and sharply chide-which only made him fret the more; then, leaving her apes and peacocks, her maids and minstrels, for a brief season, she sacrificed half an hour in learning the secret. It is probable that she could scarcely restrain her contempt for the king who allowed himself to be thwarted by a farmer; however, she took the matter into her own hands.

In her hands the miserable farmer met with no mercy. He was suddenly arrested, charged with blasphemy and disloyalty; two witnesses swore positively as to his profanity-though there was not a more virtuous man alive; he was condemned and promptly executed, his property being forfeited to the crown. And when the king heard that the coveted vineyard was his own, he took heart of grace and went to look at it, and there met the messenger of evil tidings-the man hated of the queen -who brought no better news for him than that of sin and shame, and death and sorrow.

Evil should come upon him, and his posterity should be cut off; his house should be made like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah. "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the birds of the air devour."

On hearing these words Ahab rent his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted. And for a time the evil was turned away from him, but he went in constant dread; the expression is, “he walked softly." As for Jezebel, the threatening seems to have been entirely lost upon her; she lived on in her open wickedness, resigning herself to vanity and to luxury-even after her husband's death-unto the bitter end.

Turning now to the condition of the kingdom of Judah, we

find that Asa, who died about the fourth year of the reign of king Ahab of Israel, had been succeeded on the throne by his son Jehoshaphat. This prince immediately set about strengthening all the garrisons in the land, and took special care to fortify those cities which had been captured from the Israelites. He was no less diligent in the moral and religious instruction of his people; and in the third year of his reign, after holding a council at Jerusalem, he commissioned competent persons to make a circuit of the land, visiting city by city, for the purpose of ascertaining that the inhabitants were properly instructed in the law of Moses.

Jehoshaphat maintained friendly relations with the surrounding nations. The Philistines paid their appointed tribute, and the Arabians supplied him every year with seven thousand and seven hundred rams, and as many he goats. His army, although it was a time of peace, was on a grand scale. It consisted of three hundred thousand men of the tribe of Judah, of whom Adnah was the chief; another chieftain of the tribe of Benjamin had two hundred thousand archers under him, while a third chief commanded no less than one hundred and eighty thousand.

Jehoshaphat, with a considerable army at his back, made a visit to king Ahab of Israel, and contracted a marriage between Ahab's daughter Athaliah and his own son Jehoram. The two kings appear to have entered into an alliance offensive and defensive, and probably it was through this that ultimately the two kingdoms were again blended into one.

It has been well observed as remarkable, that the first formal alliance between the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel should have taken place during the reigns of two princes of such opposite characters as Ahab in Israel and Jehoshaphat in Judah. But it was so, and in forming it and cementing it by a marriage contract Jehoshaphat doubtless acted from ill-considered policy, and brought upon himself much disaster.

One of the first acts of union between Ahab and Jehoshaphat appears to have been the going to battle to Ramoth-Gilead, to seize that place from the Syrians. Before doing so the kings took counsel of the prophets, and Ahab was assured by about

four hundred of these that he should certainly have a decisive victory. In their robes of state, surrounded by all the magnificence of royalty, the two kings sat in the gate of Samaria as the prophets prophesied before them. But Ahab was not satisfied; there was one prophet named Micaiah, whom he dreaded, and yet whose word, if it confirmed those of the other prophets, would make assurance doubly sure. So Micaiah was brought forward, and at the first spoke as the others had spoken, “Go up and prosper;" but there was something in his manner that annoyed Ahab, and he adjured him to speak the truth. Then the prediction changed, and all Israel was scattered on the hills as sheep without a shepherd, and a lying spirit was in all the prophets which had told of peace.

The indignation of Ahab was great, and the prophet was sent to gaol, while the united forces, confident of victory, marched on Ramoth-Gilead. The Syrian king had issued special instructions to his army that their chief object should be either to kill or take prisoner king Ahab. Probably suspecting some such design, he disguised himself, and went into the battle as an ordinary officer, inducing Jehoshaphat to appear as king. This ruse very nearly cost Jehoshaphat his life. In the midst of the fight an arrow struck Ahab, and entered between the joints of his harness, Josephus says, "the bow was drawn by Naaman, then a rising man in the Syrian army." Ahab resolved, if possible, to conceal his mischance from his soldiers; he directed the driver to turn back and carry him out of the thick of the fight, but he sat in his chariot and endured the pain till sunset. When it was known that the king of Israel was dead the battle ended, and the body of the king was conveyed to Samaria and buried there. "When," says Josephus, "they washed his chariot in the fountain of Jezreel, which was bloody with the dead body of the king, they acknowledged that the prophecy of Elijah was true, for the dogs licked his blood."

CHAPTER XI.

JUDAH AND ISRAEL.—FROM B.C. 914 TO B.C. 673.

Jehoshaphat returns to Judah and institutes a Regular Oversight of the People— Moabites and Ammonites attempt an Invasion, and are Repulsed-Ahaziah's accidental Death-Jehoram of Judah-Jehoram of Israel-Miracles-The Credentials of a Prophet -Elisha's Miracles -His Stratagem to Deceive the Syrians -The Famine in Samaria-Discomfiture of the Syrians-Jehoram of Judah and Jehoram of Israel-The Prophetic Message to Jehu-Ramoth-Gilead-Jehu the Vengeance Taker-Requital-The End of Jezebel-The Destruction of Ahab's Children-Athaliah's Murderous Usurpation Overthrown-Coronation of the Young Prince, and Murder of the Queen Dowager-Dust of the Threshing-floor -Jehoash-Hazael marches on Jerusalem; Pacified with the Church PlateDeath of Hazael, and Victories of Joash-Amaziah's Presumption and Humiliation Jeroboam II.-The Prophet Jonah-Story of Nineveh-The Profanity of Uzziah-The Earthquake-A Heavy Tax-The Horrible Impiety of Ahaz— Tiglath-Pileser-Lions and Dogs-Idolatrous Altars-Hoshea-ShalmaneserCaptivity of the Ten Tribes.

AFTER the battle in which Ahab was slain, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, returned to Jerusalem. A prophet met him by the way and assured him that but for his integrity of heart he would have been slain, as a just punishment for allying himself with a man so wicked as Ahab. The king was thankful for his escape, and at once set himself to the task of personally visiting every city in his dominions, that he might convince himself by personal inspection of their moral and religious state. When he had completed this work he appointed a council at Jerusalem, constituted of priests, Levites, and principal people, to whom any difficult piece of litigation was to be referred.

While Jehoshaphat was thus occupied with civil affairs, the Moabites and Ammonites made a sudden and unexpected incursion on his territory. This invasion at the first filled the hearts of the men of Judah and of Benjamin with terror, but during a solemn service of supplication in the Temple they received encouragement, a prophet declaring that God would fight for them, and that while the soldiers next day marched forth to do battle, the priests and Levites, the choir and band of the Temple, should go also, for the purpose of celebrating the victory. During the night a panic seized on the invaders; they imagined