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The true Place ascertained.

It may be asked, If the message were not sent to Ekron, or Accaron, in the southern part of Judah, to what place was it directed? I answer to Baal of the Tyrians and Sidonians, whose temple and oracle seem to have been about this time famous. The worship of this deity had been introduced into the kingdom of Israel by Ahab, the father of this very prince, with whom we have been so much concerned.

1 Kings, ch. xvi. ver. 30. And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him.

V. 31. And it came to pass-that he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians; and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.

V. 32. And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.

Hence we find it intimated, that Ahab had visited the shrine and altar of this deity at Tyre or Sidon, and when he married a princess of that country, he introduced these fo

reign rites into his own kingdom; and raised an house and altar to Baal in Samaria.

I

But

the priests were all slain by Elijah; and the temple consequently deserted: and probably for a time ruined. When therefore Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, who resided in Samaria, wanted to know about his recovery: he sent messengers to inquire, not of Baalzebub the God of Ekron: but of Baal, Oɛov Muiar, the FlyGod, called Accaron; whose temple will be found to have been at Tyre. To this interpretation the authors of the Greek version bear witness. Και απέστειλεν αγγέλες, και είπε

προς αυτές, δευτε και επι

πιζητηζατε εν τῷ Βααλ (i. e. ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ Βααλ) Μυιαν θεον Ακκάρων, ει ζησομαι εκ της αρρωστίας. And he sent messengers, and said unto them, Go, and inquire, in the temple of Baal, of the Fly-God Accaron, if I shall recover of my infirmity. The angel of the Lord gave immediate directions to Elijah to go and meet these messengers, and to say unto them-E παρα το μη είναι θεον εν Ισραηλ ὑμεις πορευεσθε επιζητησαι εν τῷ Βάαλ Μυιαν Θεον Ακκάρων. Is it, because there is no God in Israel, that ye go to inquire in the house of Baal of the Fly-God Accaron? It is repeated in the sixth verse.-E.

1 ' 1 Kings ch. xviii. v. 40.

παρα το μη είναι θεον εν Ισραηλ συ πορευη επιζητη σαι εν τῷ Βααλ Μυιαν θεον Ακκάρων. The same occurs, v. 16. We have seen that Josephus accords with the authors of the Greek version; as does Gregory Nazianzen: and from them we may infer that Accaron was the name of the Deus Musca, who was worshipped in the temple. of Baal at Tyre; and that Ahab was the first recorded, who applied to this oracle, when he fetched his idolatrous wife from that part of the world. From hence I should think, as I have before urged, that there was not in this passage any reference to the city Ekron in the tribe of Dan: but to a temple and deity belonging to the king of the Tyrians and Sidonians. Josephus says expressly of the God introduced at Samaria

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• Ουτος ὁ Βααλ Τυριών ην θεος. This Baal was a deity of the Tyrians. The original, as it stands now expresses it differently.

by which is signified the God of : זבוב אלהי עקרון

Ekron, or Accaron. But we have seen that the fly was certainly worshipped under the name

Ant. 1. ix. c. 6. p. 489. There was no city Accaron, nor people called Accaronitæ, in Tyre or Sidon; from whence we may be assured, that the name could not relate to a place, or people: but to a deity of the former city.

F

of Achor: and Josephus plainly intimates, that Accaron in the passage before us was not the name of a place, but a deity, the sog

2

Μνια, Mula, or Fly-God: and that his temple was at Tyre The authors of the Greek version seem to give the same interpretation: and we may determine their meaning by the authority of those who copied from them. Such was Zonaras, who speaks of this deity in the feminine-- Νοσησας δε προς την Ακκάρων, θεον μυιας ονομασμένην, επεμψεν. If the meaning of a passage can be at all ascertained by the collocation of the terms, of which it is composed, the interpretation is as follows.---Upon Ahaziah's being ill he sent to the goddess Accaron, which was stiled the Fly Deity. This is cer

'There was no Accaronitæ here, nor any place stiled Ekron, or Accaron.

εκαλείτο.

The deity in the original is stiled Baal: and Baal-zebub: and agreeably to this Josephus tells us—o de Deos Axaby Baxλ The God of Ahab (and we may presume, of his son, Ahaziah) was named Baal. He adds 'Outos • Baar Tugiar ην θεος. Αχαβος δε τω πενθερα βελομενος χαρισασθαι Ιθοβααλ Τυρίων οντι βασίλει και Σιδωνίων ναον τε αυτῳ κατεσκευάσεν εν Σαμάρεια, και #goQntas amideiže. 1. ix. c. vi. p. 448. This Baal was a Tyrian deity to whom Ahab, out of regard to Ithobaal his wife's father, king both of the Tyrians and Sidonians, had raised a tem ple in Samaria and appointed priests.

3 Zonaras Annal. 1. 2. p. 96.

tainly the meaning of Syncellus also: who says, that Elijah upbraided the king---* voσ8v7, και χρησμον αποςείλαντα λαβειν εν » ειδωλια μυιας Azagwv---who was ill, and sent for oracular intelligence to the temple of the Fly Acaron.

A more determinate Proof.

The whole, I think, may be most satisfactorily determined by the command given to the prophet Elijah. We find, that king Ahaziah had sent his messengers from Samaria. Upon this, the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite: Go up to meet the messengers of Ahaziah, king of Samaria. This is rendered by the Seventy---δευρο εις συναντησιν. Now Elijah was not only of the kingdom of Israel; but more particularly of Thisba, a city of Galilee, in the tribe of Naphthali; where he

' p. 190.

> Instead of ειδωλια I should read ειδωλεια. 3 It was sometimes expressed Thesba. Θεσσα, όθεν ην Ηλιας ο Θεσβίτης.

Eusebii Onomasticon,

Jerome supposes Elijah to have been born there.

Thesba, unde ortus est Elias propheta Thesbites. Heironymus de locis sacris, p. 238.

Thesba, urbs Galilee in regione tribus Naphtali. Relandi Palæstina, v. 2. p. 1035.

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