selected him for his companion and servant, had just been ploughing his
twelve yoke of land (not of oxen), and was at work on the twelfth and
last. Passing by the place, Elijah, without stopping, took off his
shaggy mantle of skins, and cast it upon Elisha. The young man, who
doubtless was familiar with the appearance of the great prophet,
recognized and accepted this significant call, and without remonstrance,
even as others in later days devoted themselves to a greater Prophet,
"left all and followed" the one who had chosen him. He became Elijah's
constant companion and pupil and ministrant, until the great man's
departure. He belonged to "the sons of the prophets," among whom Elijah
sojourned in his latter days,--a community of young men, for the most
part poor, and compelled to combine manual labor with theological
studies. Very few of these prophets seem to have been favored with
especial gifts or messages from God, in the sense that Samuel and Elijah
were. They were teachers and preachers rather than prophets, performing
duties not dissimilar to those of Franciscan friars in the Middle Ages.
They were ascetics like the monks, abstaining from wine and luxuries, as
Samson and the Nazarites and Rechabites did. Religious asceticism goes
back to a period that we cannot trace.
After Elijah had gone from the scenes of his earthly labors, Elisha
became a man of the city, and had a house in Samaria. His dress was that
of ordinary life, and he was bland in manners. His nature, unlike that
of Elijah, was gentle and affectionate. He became a man of great
influence, and was the friend of three kings. Jehoshaphat consulted him
in war; Joram sought his advice, and Benhadad in sickness sent to him to
be healed, for he exercised miraculous powers. He cured Naaman of
leprosy and performed many wonderful deeds, chiefly beneficent in
character.
Elisha took no part in the revolutions of the palace, but he anointed
Jehu to be king over Israel, and predicted to Hazael his future
elevation. His chief business was as president of a school of the
prophets. His career as prophet lasted fifty-five years. He lived to a
good old age, and when he died, was buried with great pomp as a man of
rank, in favor with the court, for it was through him that Jehu
subsequently reigned. During the life of Elijah, however, Elisha was his
companion and coadjutor. More is said in Jewish history of Elisha than
of Elijah, though the former was not so lofty and original a character
as the latter. We are told that though Elisha inherited the mantle of
his master, he received only two-thirds of his master's spirit. But he
was regarded as a great prophet for over fifty years, even beyond the
limits of Israel. Unlike Elijah, Elisha preferred the companionship of
men rather than life in a desert. He fixed his residence in Samaria, and
was highly honored and revered by all classes; he exercised a great
influence on the king of Israel, and carried on the work which Elijah
began. He was statesman as well as prophet, and the trusted adviser of
the king; but his distinguished career did not begin till after Elijah
had ascended to heaven.
After the consecration of Elisha there is nothing said about Elijah for
some years, during which Ahab was involved in war with Benhadad, king of
Damascus. After that unfortunate contest it would seem that Ahab had
resigned himself to pleasure, and amused himself with his gardens at
Jezreel. During this time Elijah had probably lived in retirement; but
was again summoned to declare the judgment of God on Ahab for a most
atrocious murder.
In his desire to improve his grounds Ahab cast his eyes on a fertile
vineyard belonging to a distinguished and wealthy citizen named Naboth,
which had been in the possession of his family even since the conquest.
The king at first offered a large price for this vineyard, which he
wished to convert into a garden of flowers, but Naboth refused to sell
it for any price. "God forbid," said he, with religious scruples blended
with the pride of ancestry, "that I should give to thee the inheritance
of my fathers." Powerful and despotic as was the king, he knew he could
not obtain this coveted vineyard except by gross injustice and an act of
violence, which even he dared not commit. It would be an open violation
of the Jewish Constitution. By the laws of Moses the lands of the
Israelites, from the conquest, were inalienable. Even if they were sold
for debt, after fifty years they would return to the family. The pride
of ownership in real estate was one of the peculiarities of the Hebrews
until after their final dispersion. After the fall of Jerusalem by
Titus, personal property came to be more valued than real estate, and
the Jews became the money lenders and the bankers of the world. They
might be oppressed and robbed, but they could hide away their treasures.
A scrap of paper, they soon discovered, was enough to transfer in safety
the largest sums. A Jew had only to give a letter of credit on another
Jewish house, and a king could find ready money, if he gave sufficient
security, for any enterprise. Thus rare jewels pledged for gold
accumulated among the Hebrew merchants at an early date.
Ahab, disappointed in not being able without a crime to get possession
of Naboth's vineyard, abandoned himself to melancholy. In his deep
chagrin he laid himself down on his bed, turned his face to the wall,
and refused to eat. This seems strange to us, since he had more than
enough, and there was no check on his ordinary pleasures. But covetous
men never are satisfied. Ahab was miserable with all his possessions so
long as Naboth was resolved to retain his paternal acres. It seems that
it did not occur even to this unprincipled king that he could get
possession of the coveted vineyard if he resorted to craft
and violence.
But his clever and unscrupulous wife came to his assistance. In her
active brain she devised the means of success. She saw only the end; she
cared nothing for the means. It is probable, indeed, that Jezebel
hankered even more than Ahab for a garden of flowers. Yet even she dared
not openly seize the vineyard. Such an outrage might have caused a
rebellion; it would, at least, have created a great scandal and injured
her popularity, of which this artful woman was as tenacious as the Jew
was of his property. Moreover, Naboth was a very influential and wealthy
citizen, and had friends to support him. How could she remove the
grievous eye-sore? She pondered and consulted the doctors of the law, as
Henry VIII. made use of Cranmer when he wished to marry Anne Boleyn.
They told her that if it could be proved that any one, however high his
rank, had blasphemed God and the king, he could legally be executed, and
that his property would revert to the Crown. So she suborned false
witnesses, who swore at the trial of Naboth, already seized for high
treason, that he had blasphemed God and the king. Sentence, according to
law, was passed upon the innocent man, and according to law he was
stoned to death, and the vineyard according to law became the property
of the Crown. Jezebel, who had managed the whole affair, did not
undertake the prosecution in her own name; as a woman, she had not the
legal power. So she stole the king's ring, and sealed the indictment
with the royal seal.
Thus by force and fraud under skilful technicalities, and by usurpation
of the royal authority, the crime was consummated, and had the sanction
of the law. Oh, what crimes have been perpetrated in every age and
country under cover of the law! The Holy Inquisition was according to
law; the early Christian persecutions were according to law; usurpers
and murderers have reigned according to law; the Quakers were put in
prison, and witches were burned according to law. Slavery was sustained
by legal enactments; the rum shops are all under the protection of the
law. There is scarcely a public scandal and wrong in any civilized
country which the law does not somehow countenance or sustain. All
public robbers appeal to legal technicalities. How could city officials
steal princely revenues, how could lawyers collect exorbitant fees, if
it were not for the law? Neither Ahab nor Jezebel would have ventured to
seize Naboth's vineyard except under legal pretences; false witnesses
swore to a lie, and the law condemned the accused. Ahab in this instance
was not as bad as his wife. He may not even have known by what
diabolical craft the vineyard became his.
But such crimes, striking at the root of justice, cry to heaven for
vengeance. On Ahab as king rested the responsibility, and he as well as
his more guilty partner was made to pay the penalty. God in his
providence avenged the death of Naboth. The whole affair was widely
known. As Naboth's reputed offence was unusual, and the gravest known to
the Jewish laws, there was so great a sensation that a fast was
proclaimed. The false trial and murderous execution were accomplished
"before all the people." But this very ostentation of legal form made
the outrage notorious. It reached the ears of Elijah. The prophet's keen
sense of right detected such an outrageous combination of hypocrisy,
covetousness, fraud, usurpation, cruelty, robbery, and murder, that he
once more heard the Divine voice which summoned him from his retirement
and sent him to the court with an awful message. Suddenly, unannounced
and unexpected, the man of God appeared before the king in his newly
acquired possession, surrounded by his gardeners and artificers, and
accompanied by two of his officers,--Bidkar, and Jehu the son of
Nimshi,--destined to be both instrument and witness of the retribution.
With unwonted austerity, without preface or waste of words, Elijah broke
forth: "Thus saith Jehovah!"--how the monarch must have quaked at this
awful name: "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall
dogs also lick thine, even thine." The conscience-stricken, affrighted
monarch could only say, "Hast thou found me, oh mine enemy!" And
terrible was the response: "Yes, I have found thee! and because thou
hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the Lord, behold, I will
take away thy posterity, and will make thy house like the house of
Jeroboam, who made Israel to sin. And as to thy wife also, saith
Jehovah, 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 fowls of the air eat."
When and where, in the annals of the great, has such a dreadful
imprecation been uttered? It was more awful than the doom pronounced on
Belshazzar. The blood of Ahab and his wife was to be licked up by dogs,
their dynasty to be overthrown, and their whole house destroyed. This
dire punishment was inflicted probably not only on account of the crime
pertaining to Naboth, but for a whole life devoted to idolatry. The
sentence was not to be executed immediately,--possibly a time was given
for repentance; but it would surely be inflicted at last. This Ahab knew
better than any man in his kingdom. He was thrown into the depths of the
most abject despair. He rent his clothes; he put ashes on his head and
sackcloth on his flesh, and refused to eat or drink. He repented after
the fashion of criminals, and humbled himself, as Nebuchadnezzar did,
before the Most High God. God in mercy delayed, but did not annul, the
punishment Ahab lived long enough to fight the king of Syria
successfully, so that for three years there was peace in Israel. But
Ramoth in Gilead, belonging to the northern kingdom, remained in the
hands of the Syrians.
In the mean time Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, whose son Jehoram had
married Athaliah, daughter of Ahab, and who was therefore in friendly
social and political relations with Ahab, came to visit him. They
naturally talked about the war, and lamented the fall of Ramoth-Gilead.
Ahab proposed a united expedition to recover it, to which Jehoshaphat
was consenting; but before embarking in an offensive war against a
powerful state, the two monarchs consulted the prophets. It is not to be
supposed that they were the priests of Baal, but ordinary prophets who
wished to please. False prophets and false friends are very much
alike,--they give advice according to the inclinations and wishes of
those who consult them. They are afraid of incurring displeasure,
knowing well that no one likes to have his plans opposed by candid
advisers. Therefore they all gave their voices for war, foretelling a
grand success. But one prophet, more honest and bold--perhaps more
gifted--than the rest, Micaiah by name, took a different view of the
matter. He was constrained to speak his honest convictions, and
prophesied evil, and was thrown into prison for his honesty
and boldness.
Nevertheless Ahab in his heart was afraid, and had sad forebodings.
Knowing his peril, and alarmed at the words of a true prophet, he
disguised himself for the battle; but a chance arrow, shot at a venture,
penetrated through the joints of his armor, and he was mortally wounded.
His blood ran from his wound into the chariot, and when the chariot was
washed in the pool of Samaria, after Ahab had expired, the dogs licked
up his blood, as Elijah had predicted.
The death of Ahab put an end to the fighting; nor was Jehoshaphat
injured, although he wore his royal robes. The Syrian general had given
orders to slay only the king of Israel. At one time, however, the king
of Judah was in great peril, being mistaken for Ahab; but when his
pursuers discovered their mistake, they turned from the pursuit.
It seems that Jezebel survived her husband fourteen years, and virtually
ruled the kingdom, for she was a woman of ability. She exercised the
same influence over her son Ahaziah that she had over her husband, so
that the son like the father served Baal and made Israel to sin.
To this young king was Elijah also sent. Ahaziah had been seriously
injured by an accidental fall from his upper chamber, through the
lattice, to the court yard below. He sent to the priests of Baal, to
inquire whether he should recover or not. But Elijah by command of God
had intercepted the king's messengers, and suddenly appearing before
them, as was his custom, confronted them with these words: "Is there no
God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baalzebub, the God of Ekron?
Now, therefore, say unto the king, Thou shalt not come down from the bed
on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die." On their return to
Ahaziah, without delivering their message to the god of the Phoenicians
or Philistines, the king said: "Why are ye now turned back?" They
repeated the words of the strange man who had turned them back; and the
king said: "What manner of man was he who came up to meet you?" They
answered, "He was a hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather around
his loins." The king cried, "It is Elijah the Tishbite." Again his enemy
had found him!
Whereupon Ahaziah sent a band of fifty chosen soldiers to arrest the
prophet, who had retired to the top of a steep and rugged hill, probably
Carmel. The captain of the troop approached, and commanded him in the
name of the king to come down, addressing him as the man of God. "If I
am a man of God," said Elijah, "let fire come down from heaven and
consume thee and thy fifty." The fire came down and consumed them.
Again the king sent another band of fifty with their captain, who met
with the same fate. Again the king sent another band of fifty men, the
captain of which came and fell on his knees before Elijah and besought
him, saying, "O man of God! I pray thee let my life and the lives of
these fifty thy servants be precious in thy sight." And the angel of the
Lord said unto Elijah, "Go down with him; be not afraid of him." And he
arose and went with the soldiers to the king, repeating to him the words
he had sent before, that he should not recover, but should surely die.
So Ahaziah died, as Elijah prophesied, and Jehoram (or Joram) reigned in
his stead,--a brother of the late king, who did not personally worship
Baal, but who allowed the queen-mother to continue to protect idolatry.
The war which had been begun by Ahab against the Syrians still
continued, to recover Ramoth-Gilead, and the stronghold was finally
taken by the united efforts of Judah and Israel; but Joram was wounded,
and returned to Jezreel to be cured.
With the advent of Elijah a reaction against idolatry had set in. The
people were awed by his terrible power, and also by the influence of
Elisha, on whom his mantle fell. It does not appear that the people had
utterly abandoned the religion of their fathers, for they had not
hesitated to slay the eight hundred and fifty priests of Baal at the
command of Elijah. The introduction of idolatry had been the work of
princes, chiefly through the influence of Jezebel; and as the
establishment of a false religion still continued to be the policy of
the court, the prophets now favored the revolution which should overturn
the house of Ahab, and exterminate it root and branch. The instrument of
the Almighty who was selected for this work was Jehu, one of the
prominent generals of the army; and his task was made comparatively easy
from the popular disaffection. That a woman, a foreigner, a pagan, and a
female demon should control the government during two reigns was
intolerable. Only a spark was needed to kindle a general revolt, and
restore the religion of Jehovah.
This was the appearance of a young prophet at Ramoth-Gilead, whom Elisha
had sent with an important message. Forcing his way to the house where
Jehu and his brother officers were sitting in council, he called Jehu
apart, led him to an innermost chamber of the house, took out a small
horn of sacred oil, and poured it on Jehu's head, telling him that God
had anointed him king to cut off the whole house of Ahab, and destroy
idolatry. On his return to the room where the generals were sitting,
Jehu communicated to them the message he had received. As the discontent
of the nation had spread to the army, it was regarded as a favorable
time to revolt from Joram, who lay sick at Jezreel. The army, following
the chief officers, at once hailed Jehu as king. It was supremely
necessary that no time should be lost, and that the news of the
rebellion should not reach the king until Jehu himself should appear
with a portion of the army. Jehu was just the man for such an
occasion,--rapid in his movements, unscrupulous, yet zealous to uphold
the law of Moses. So mounting his chariot, and taking with him a
detachment of his most reliable troops, he furiously drove toward
Jezreel, turning everybody back on the road. It was a drive of about
fifty miles. When within six miles of Jezreel the sentinels on the
towers of the walls noticed an unusual cloud of dust, and a rider was at
once despatched to know the meaning of the approach of chariots and
horses. The rider, as he approached, was ordered to fall back in the
rear of Jehu's force. Another rider was sent, with the same result. But
Joram, discovering that the one who drove so rapidly must be his own
impetuous captain of the host, and suspecting no treachery from him,
ordered out his own chariot to meet Jehu, accompanied by his uncle
Ahaziah, king of Judah. He expected stirring news from the army, and was
eager to learn it. He supposed that Hazael, then king of Damascus, who
had murdered Benhadad, had proposed peace. So as he approached Jehu--the
frightful irony of fate halting him for the interview in the very
vineyard of Naboth--he cried out, "Is it peace, Jehu?" "Peace!" replied
Jehu; "what peace can be made so long as Jezebel bears rule?" In an
instant the king understood the ominous words of his general, turned
back his chariot, and fled toward his palace, crying, "There is
treachery, O Ahaziah!" An arrow from Jehu pierced the monarch in the
back, and he sank dead in his chariot. Ahaziah also was mortally wounded
by another arrow from Jehu, but he succeeded in reaching Megiddo, where
he died. Jehu spoke to Bidkar, his captain, and recalling the dread
prophecy of Elijah, commanded the body of Ahab's son to be cast out into
the dearly-bought field of Naboth.
In the mean time, Jezebel from her palace window at Jezreel had seen the
murder of her son. She was then sixty years of age. The first thing she
did was to paint her eyelids, and put on her most attractive apparel, to
appear as beautiful as possible, with the hope doubtless of attracting
Jehu,--as Cleopatra, after the death of Antony, sought to win Augustus.
Will a flattered woman, once beautiful, ever admit that her charms have
passed away? But if the painted and bedizened queen anticipated her
fate, she determined to die as she had lived,--without fear, imperious,
and disdainful. So from her open window she tauntingly accosted Jehu as
he approached: "What came of Zimri, who murdered his master as thou hast
done?" "Are there any on my side?" was the only reply he deigned to
make, as he looked up to a window of the palace, which was a part of the
wall of the city. Two or three eunuchs, looking out from behind her,
answered the summons, for the wicked and haughty queen had no real
friends. "Throw her down!" ordered Jehu; and in a moment the blood from
her mangled body splashed upon the walls and upon the horses. In another
instant the wheels of the chariot passed over her lifeless remains. Jehu
would have permitted a decent burial, "for," said he, "she is a king's
daughter;" but before her mangled corpse could be collected, in the
general confusion, the dogs of the city had devoured all that remained
of her but the skull, the feet, and hands.
So perished the most infamous woman that ever wore a royal diadem, as
had been predicted. With her also perished the seventy sons of Ahab, all
indeed that survived of the royal house of Omri. And the work of
destruction did not end until the courtiers of the late king and all
connected with them, even the palace priests, were killed. Then followed
the massacre of the other priests of Baal, the destruction of the
idolatrous temples, and the restoration of the worship of Jehovah, not
only at Samaria, but at Jerusalem, for the revolution extended far and
wide on the death of Ahaziah as of Joram. Athaliah, the daughter of
Jezebel, who reigned over Judah, also perished in those
revolutionary times.
It is not to be supposed that the relentless and savage Jehu was
altogether moved by a zeal for Jehovah in these revolting slaughters. He
was an ambitious and successful rebel; but like all notable forces, he
may be regarded as an instrument of Providence, whose ways are
"mysterious," because men are not large enough and wise enough to trace
effects to their causes under His immutable laws. Jehu was a necessary
consequence of Ahab and Jezebel. Jehovah, as the national deity of the
Jews, was the natural and necessary rallying cry of the revolt against
Phoenician idolatry and foulness. The missionary sermons of those crude
days were preached with the sword and the strong arm. God's revelations
of himself and his purposes to man have always been through men, and by
His laws the medium always colors the light which it transmits. The
splendor of the noonday sun cannot shine clearly through rough,
imperfect glass; and so the conceptions of Deity and of the divine will,
as delivered by the prophets, in every case show the nature of the man
receiving and delivering the inspired message. And yet, through all the
turmoil of those times, and the startling contrast between the
conceptions presented by the "Jehovah" of Elijah and the "Father" of
Jesus, the one grand central truth which the seed of Abraham were chosen
to conserve stands out distinctly from first to last,--the unity and
purity of God. However obscured by human passions and interests, that
principle always retained a vital hold upon some--if only a
"remnant"--of the Hebrew race.