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There he heard the voice of Jehovah calling to him, What doest thou here, Elijah?'

viction, fell upon their faces, and cried, he saw the glory of Jehovah in "the cleft JEHOVAH, HE IS THE GOD! JEHOVAH, of the rock. HE IS THE GOD!' thus also expressing that Baal was not the God, and rejecting him. To ratify this abjuration of Baal, Elijah commanded them to destroy his priests; and this, in the enthusiasm of their rekindled zeal for Jehovah, they immediately did, at the brook Kishon, which had been the scene of Barak's victory over the Canaanites.

Immediately after this sublime national act of acknowledgment of Jehovah and rejection of Baal, the prophet went up to the top of Carmel, and prayed fervently for rain seven times; the promise of which (speedily followed by fulfilment) at last appeared in the form of a little cloud like a man's hand," rising out of the Mediterranean Sea. a phenomenon which, in warm maritime climates, is not the unusual harbinger of rain.

This remarkable transaction may be ascribed to the tenth year of Ahab's reign.

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Elijah was now compelled to fly for his life, to avoid the threatened vengeance of Jezebel for the destruction of her prophets. He fled southward, and when he had travelled nearly 100 miles, from Samaria to Beersheba, he left his servant and went alone a day's journey into the wilderness. There as he sat, for rest and shelter, under the scanty shade which a broom-tree offered, the mighty spirit by which he had hitherto been sustained, gave way, and he prayed for death to end his troubles. It is enough: he cried, " now, O Jehovah, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers! To strengthen his now sinking faith, and reward his sufferings in the cause of the God of Israel, whose honor he had so zealously vindicated, the prophet was encouraged by an angel to undertake a long journey to the "mount of God," Horeb, where the divine presence had been manifested to Moses, the founder of the law, and of which a further manifestation was now probably promised to this great champion and restorer of the same law On this mysterious occasion the angel touched him twice, to rouse him from his sleep, and twice made him eat of food which he found prepared for him. In the strength which that food gave, the prophet journeyed (doubtless by a circuitous route) forty days, until he came, it is supposed, to the cave where Moses was stationed, when

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Then

The prophet, evidently recog nizing that voice, said, "I have been very zealous for Jehovah, the God of Hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword, and I only am left; and they seek my life to take it away. Then the voice commanded him to go forth, for Jehovah was about to pass by. The first harbinger of the divine presence was a great and strong wind, which rent the mountain and brake the rock in pieces; but Jehovah was not in that wind. followed an earthquake; but Jehovah was not in the earthquake. This was succeeded by a fire; but Jehovah was not in the fire. After this, came a still, small Voice;" and when the prophet heard it, he knew the voice of God, and, reverently hiding his face in his mantle, he stood forth in the entrance of the cave. The Voice repeated the former question, “What doest thou here, Elijah?" to which the same answer as before was returned. The Voice, in reply, gently rebuked the prophet for his crimination of the whole people of Israel, and his discouraging representation of himself as the only prophet left. have yet left to me seven thousand men, in Israel, who have not bowed the knee to Baal." He was further instructed to return by a different route, by the way of Damascus; and, by the way to anoint or appoint Elisha to be his own successor, and (either by himself or Elisha), Hazael to be king of Damascene-Syria, and Jehu to be king of Israel as the chosen ministers of divine vengeance upon the house and people of Ahab.

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Of the three, Elisha was the only one to whom Elijah himself made known this appointment. Elisha was the son of Shaphat, an opulent man of Abel-maholah, in the half-tribe of Manasseh, west of the Jordan. The prophet found him ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, when, by a significant action, still well understood in the East, that of throwing his own mantle upon him, he conveyed the intimation of his prophetic call. That call was understood and obeyed by Elisha; and after having, with the prophet's permission, taken

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SLAUGHTER OF THE SYRIANS BY THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL.

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The confidence of the Syrians was so great that they led a careless and jovial life, thinking of little but of indulgence in wine and good cheer, of which the king himself set the example. In the midst of these feasts, a body of two hundred and thirty-two men was seen to leave the city, and advance toward the camp. Ben-hadad, when he heard of it, quietly ordered them to be taken alive, whether they came for peace or for

It is singular that the first formal alliance between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah took 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 in cementing it by the marriage of his eldest son Jehoram to Athaliah the daughter of Ahab war. But suddenly these men fell upon the and Jezebel, he doubtless acted from very ill-considered policy, and laid in a great store of disasters for himself and his house. It is unfortunate that we are unacquainted with the motives which led to this most unhappy connection. A close and intimate union between the two kingdoms could not but be, in itself, a political good; and the error of Jehoshaphat probably considering this fact by itself, without taking due account of that evil character of Ahab and his house, and that alienation of his people from God, which were calculated to neutralize, and actually did far more than neutralize, the natural advantages of such alliance. The marriage took place in the fifteenth year of Ahab's, and the thirteenth of Jehoshaphat's reign.

advanced sentinels, and upon all who were near them; and the cries and confusion of so many persons, taken as it were by surprise, were instrumental in creating a general panic among the vast Syrian host. Drawn himself by the irresistible movement, Ben-hadad fled on horseback with all his army; and the troops of Israel (7,000 in number), which attended the motions and watched the effect of the sally of the brave two hundred and thirty-two, closely pursued the flying Syrians, and rendered the victory complete.

The prophet who foretold this victory now apprised Ahab that Ben-hadad would renew his attempt the ensuing year. This took place accordingly. The Syrians came in equal force as before, and, as they thought, with wiser counsels. The kingdom of Damascene-Syria was mostly a plain; whereas the kingdom of Israel, and the site of Samaria in particular, was mountainous. Rightly attributing their defeat to the God (or, as they chose in their idolatrous ignorance, to say the gods) of Israel, they reasoned that he was a god of the hills, and therefore among the hills more powerful than their gods, who were gods of the valleys and the plains. Instead therefore of going among the hills as before, they would now fight in the plains, where they could not doubt of success. This reasoning, however absurd it now seems to us and did then seem (such were their privileges) to all enlightened Israelites, was in strict and philosophical accordance with the first principles of idolatry, and the general system of national and local deities. But such a view being taken by them, it became necessary to Jehovah to vindicate his own honor and assert his omnipotence by their overthrow. For this reason he delivered this vast host that covered the land into the hands of the comparatively small and feeble host of Israel. The Syrians were cut in pieces; 100,000 of their number were left dead upon

Not long after this, Ahab had cause to be alarmed at the designs of Ben-hadad, the king of Damascene-Syria, which kingdom had been gathering such strength, while that of the Hebrews had been weakened by divisions and by misconduct, that even the subjugation of Israel did not seem to Benhadad an enterprise to which his ambition might not aspire. To this end he made immense preparations: he claimed the united aid of all his tributary princes, thirty-two in number, and ultimately appeared with all his forces before Samaria, to which he laid siege. He first summoned Ahab to deliver up all his most precious things; and, compelled by dire necessity, the king of Israel consented. But Ben-hadad was only induced by this readiness of yielding, to enhance his terms, and sent further demands, which were so very hard and insulting, that the spirit of Ahab was at last roused, and, supported by the advice of his council, he determined to act on the defensive. Soon after a prophet came with the promise of victory over the vast host of the Syrians, by means of a mere handful of spirited young men who were particularly indicated.

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the field of battle, and the rest were entirely blasphemer and enemy of his Great Name. dispersed. Ben-hadad, with a large number For this he was, in the name of Jehovah, of the fugitives, sought refuge in Aphek; but severely rebuked and threatened by one of by the sudden fall of the wall of that fortified "the sons of the prophets," by the waytown, 27,000 of his men were crushed to side; in consequence he withdrew to his death, and the place was rendered defence- palace "heavy and displeased." less. Nothing was now left to him but to yield himself up to Ahab. That monarch, weak and criminal by turns, received the Syrian king into his friendship, and formed an impious alliance with him, regardless not only of the law, but of the honor of God, who had given him the victory, and had delivered for punishment into his hands this

The history of Ahab affords one more, and the last, interview between him and Elijah. This was about nine years after the grand solemnity at Mount Carmel, and the nineteenth of Ahab's reign.

At that time the king took a fancy to enlarge his own garden by taking into it an adjoining vineyard which formed part of the

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TERRACE CULTIVATION.

patrimonial estate of a person named Naboth. | now govern the kingdom of Israel; Arise, eat He made him the fair offer of its value in food, and let thine heart be cheerful; the money, or to give him some other piece of land of equal value. But Naboth, considering it a religious duty to preserve the inheritance of his fathers, declined on any terms to alienate it. The reason was good, and ought to have satisfied the king. But he received the refusal like a spoiled child; he lay down upon his bed, and turned away his face to the wall, and refused to take his food. When his wife heard this she came to him, and having learned the cause of his grief, she said indignantly, "Dost thou not

vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, I will give to thee." Accordingly, she procured Naboth to be put to death under the form of law. At a public feast he was accused by suborned witnesses of blasphemy, for which he was stoned to death, and his estates confiscated to the king. Jezebel then went to Ahab, apprised him of what had happened, and told him to go down and take possession of the vineyard. It is clear that if he did not suggest, he approved of the crime, and proceeded with joy to reap the fruits of it.

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