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CHAP. XI.

HIS SUBSEQUENT DEATH, AND DESTRUCTION OF HIS HOUSE BY BA
ASHA.

leave none of the family of Jeroboam remaining.

OF THE DEATH OF JEROBOAM'S SON; JEROBOAM'S DEFEAT BY ABIJAH; The multitude also shall themselves partake of the same punishment, and shall be cast out of this good land, and shall be scattered into the places beyond Euphrates; because they have followed the wicked practices of their king, and have worshipped the gods that he made, and forsaken my sacrifices. Do thou, O woman! make haste back to thy husband, and tell him this message. But thou shalt then find thy son dead; for as thou enterest the city he shall depart this life. Yet shall he be buried with the lamentations of all the multitude, and be honoured with a general mourning: he is the only innocent person of Jeroboam's family."+ When the prophet had foretold these events, the woman went hastily away with a disordered mind, and greatly grieved at the death of the child. So she was in lamentation as she went along the road, and mourned for the death of her son, that was just at hand. She was indeed in a miserable condition at the unavoidable approach of death, and went apace; but in circumstances very unfortunate because of her son: for the greater haste she made, she would the sooner see her son dead. Yet was she forced to make such haste on account of her husband. Accordingly when she was come back, she found that the child had given up the ghost, as the prophet had said, and she related all the circumstances to the king.

GOD was in no long time ready to return Jeroboam's wicked actions, and the punishment they deserved, upon his head, and upon the heads of all his house. And whereas a son of the king's lay sick at that time, who was called Abijah;* he enjoined his wife to lay aside her robes, and to take the garments belonging to a private person, and to go to Ahijah the prophet; for that he was a wonderful man in foretelling future events; it having been he who told him, that he should be king. He also enjoined her, when she came to him, to inquire concerning the child, as if she were a stranger, whether he should escape this distemper. So she did as her husband bade her; and changed her habit, and came to the city Shiloh; for there did Ahijah live. But as she was going into his house, his eyes being then dim with age, God appeared to him, and informed him that the wife of Jeroboam was come to him; and what answer he should make to her inquiry. Accordingly as the woman was coming into the house, like a private person, and a stranger, he cried out, "Come in, O thou wife of Jeroboam. Why concealest thou thyself? Thou art not concealed from God; who hath appeared to me, and informed me that thou wast coming, and hath given me in command what I shall say to thee." So he said, that she should go away to her husband, and speak to him thus: "Since I made thee a great man, when thou wast little, or rather nothing, and rent the kingdom from the house of David, and gave it to thee; and thou hast been unmindful of these benefits, hast left off my worship, hast made thee molten gods and honoured them: I will in like manner cast thee down again, and will destroy all thy house, and make them food for the dogs, and the fowls. For a certain king is rising up, by my appointment, over all this people, who shall

Jeroboam might be for having his wife go to consult the prophet at Shiloh, because this was a secret not to be intrusted with any body else; a secret which if it had been divulged, might have endangered his whole government: because, if once his subjects came to understand, that he himself had no confidence in the calves which he had set up, but in any matter of importance had recourse to the true worshippers of God, it is not to be imagined, what an inducement this would have been for them to forsake these senseless idols, and to return to the worship of the God of Israel, whom they imprudently had forsaken. The queen was then the only person he could have confidence in. As a mother, he knew, that she would be diligent in her inquiry; and as a wife, faithful in her report; but there were sundry reasons why he might desire her to disguise herself. For though Shiloh lay within the confines of Ephraim, yet there is sufficient ground to think, that it was subject to the

Jeroboam, however, did not lay any of these things to heart; but he brought together a very numerous army, and made a warlike expedition against Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, who had succeeded his father in the kingdom of the two tribes. For he despised him, because of his age. But when he heard of the expedition of Jeroboam, he was not affrighted at it; but proved of a courageous temper of mind, superior both to his youth, and to the hopes of his enemy. So he chose an army out of the two tribes, and met Jeroboam at a place called mount Zemaraim, and pitched his camp near the others, and prepared house of David, and belonged to the kingdom of Judah. It was certainly nearer Jerusalem than Shechem, which Rehoboam had lately fortified, and made his place of residence: and therefore Jeroboam thought it not safe to venture his queen, in a place that was under his rival's government, without her putting on some disguise. He knew too, that the prophet Ahijah was greatly offended at him, for the gross idolatry he had introduced: and therefore he thought (as justly he might) that, if the prophet perceived it to be his wife, he would either tell her nothing, or make things much worse than they were. The only way, therefore, to come at the truth, was, (as he thought,) to do what he did: but herein appears his infatuation, that he should not think the person, whom he held capable of resolving him in the fate of his son, able to see through this guile and disguise. Calmet's Commentary, and Pool's Annotations. B. † 1 Kings xiv. 13.

every thing necessary for the fight. His army consisted of four hundred thousand: but the army of Jeroboam was double that number. Now as the armies stood in array ready for action, and were just going to fight, Abijah stood upon an elevated place, and beckoning with his hand, he desired the multitude, and Jeroboam himself, to hear first what he had to say. And when silence was made, he began to speak to this effect: "God consented that David and his posterity should be your rulers for all time to come; and this you yourselves are not unacquainted with. But I cannot but wonder how you should forsake my father, and join yourselves to his servant, Jeroboam; and are now here with him to fight against those who, by God's own determination, are to reign, and to deprive them of that dominion which they have still retained; for as to the greater part of it, Jeroboam is unjustly in possession of it. However, I do not suppose he will enjoy it any longer; but when he hath suffered that punishment which God thinks due to him for what is past, he will leave off the transgressions he hath been guilty of and the injuries he hath offered to him, and which he hath still continued to offer; and hath persuaded you to do the same. Yet, when you were not any further unjustly treated by my father, than that he did not speak to you so as to please you; and this only in compliance with the advice of wicked men, you in anger forsook him, as you pretended; but in reality you withdrew yourselves from God, and from his laws. Although it had been right for you to have forgiven so young a man not only some disagreeable words; but if his youth and his unskilfulness in affairs had led him into some unfortunate actions; and that for the sake of his father Solomon, and the benefits you received from him. For men ought to excuse the sins of posterity, on account of the benefactions of parents. But you considered nothing of all this then, neither do you consider it now; but come with so great an army against us. And what is it that you depend upon for victory? Is it upon the golden heifers, and the altars you have erected on high places, which are demonstrations of your impiety, and not of religious worship? Or is it the exceeding multitude

* This is a strange expression in Josephus, that God is his own workmanship, or that he made himself; contrary to common sense, and to Christianity. Constitut. Apost. VI. 11. Perhaps he only means that he was made by none, but was unoriginated. See Cotelerius's note on the forecited place of the Constitutions.

By this terrible and unparalleled slaughter of 500,000 men of the newly idolatrous and rebellious ten tribes, God's high displeasure and indignation against idolatry and rebellion fully ap peared; the remainder were thereby seriously cautioned not to

of your army which gives you such good hopes? yet certainly there is no strength in an army of many thousands when the war is unjust. For we ought to place our surest hope of success against our enemies in righteousness alone, and in piety towards God. Which hope we justly have, since we have kept the laws from the beginning, and have worshipped our own God, who was not made by hands out of corruptible matter; nor was he formed by a wicked king, in order to deceive the multitude; but who is his own workmanship, and the beginning and end of all things. I therefore give you counsel even now to repent, and to take better advice, and to leave off the prosecution of the war; to call to mind the laws of your country, and to reflect what it hath been that hath advanced you to so happy a state as you are now in.”

*

This was the speech which Abijah made to the multitude. But while he was still speaking, Jeroboam sent some of his soldiers privately to surround him on certain parts of the camp that were not taken notice of. And when he was thus within the compass of the enemy, his army was affrighted, and their courage failed them. But Abijah encouraged them, and exhorted them to place their hopes on God: for that he was not encompassed by the enemy. So they all at once implored the divine assistance; while the priests sounded with the trumpets, and they made a shout, and fell upon their enemies; and God brake the courage and cast down the force of their enemies, and made Abijah's army superior to them. For God vouchsafed them a wonderful and very famous victory; and such a† slaughter was now made of Jeroboam's army, as is never recorded to have happened in any other war; whether it were of the Greeks or of the Barbarians; for they overthrew and slew five hundred thousand of their enemies, and they took their strongest cities by force, and spoiled them, and besides those they did the same to Bethel and her towns; and Jeshanah and her towns. And after this defeat Jeroboam never recovered himself during the life of Abijah; who yet did not long survive for he reigned but three years,§ and was buried in Jeru

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salem, in the sepulchres of his forefathers. He left behind him twenty-two sons, and sixteen daughters; and he had also those children by fourteen wives; and Asa his son succeeded in his kingdom; and the young man's mother was Michaiah. Under his reign the country of the Israelites enjoyed peace for ten years.

But Jeroboam, the king of the ten tribes, died when he had reigned twenty-two years.* His son Nadab succeeded him in the second year of the reign of Asa; and governed two years, and resembled his father in impiety and wickedness. In these two years he made an expedition against Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines, and continued the siege in order to take it; but he was conspired against while he was there by a friend of his, whose name was Baasha, the son of Ahijah, and was slain. Baasha took the kingdom after the other's death, and destroyed the whole house of Jeroboam. It also came to pass, according as God had foretold, that some of Jeroboam's kindred that died in the city were torn to pieces and devoured by dogs, and that others of them that died in the field were torn and devoured by the fowls. So the house of Jeroboam suffered the just punishment of his impiety, and of his wicked ac

tions.

CHAP. XII.

OF THE AFFAIRS OF ASA, KING OF JERUSALEM; THE DESTRUCTION

had reigned ten years, Zerah,† king of Ethiopia,‡ made an expedition against him, with a great army, of nine hundred thousand footmen, one hundred thousand horsemen, and three hundred chariots: and came as far as Mareshah, a city that belonged to the tribe of Judah. Now when Zerah had passed so far with his own army, Asa met him, and put his army in array over against him, in a valley called Zepathan, not far from the city. And when he saw the multitude of the Ethiopians, he cried out, and besought God to give them the victory, and that he might kill many thousands of the enemy. "For," said he, "I depend on nothing else but that assistance which I expect from thee: which is able to make the fewer superior to the more numerous, and the weaker to the stronger, and thence it is alone that I venture to meet Zerah and fight him."

While Asa was speaking thus, God gave him a signal victory; and joining battle cheerfully on account of what God had foretold about it, he slew a great many of the Ethiopians: and when he had put them to flight, he pursued them to the country of Gerar. And when they left off killing their enemies, they betook themselves to spoiling them, (for the city of Gerar was already taken ;) and to spoiling their camp. So that they carried off much gold and silver, and a great deal of other prey, and camels, and cattle, and flocks of sheep. Accordingly when Asa and his army had obtained such a victory, and such wealth from God, they returned to Jerusalem. Now as they were coming, Now Asa, the king of Jerusalem, was an ex- a prophet whose name was Azariah, met them on cellent character, and had a regard to God; and the road, and bade them stop their journey a litneither did nor designed any thing but what was tle; and began to say to them, that the reason consistent with the laws. He made a reformation why they had obtained this victory from God was of his kingdom, and cut off whatsoever was wick-that they had shown themselves righteous and reed therein, and purified it from every impurity.ligious men, and had done every thing according Now he had an army of chosen men that were armed with targets and spears; out of the tribe of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of the tribe of Benjamin that bare shields and drew bows, two hundred and fifty thousand. But when he

OF THE HOUSE OF BAASHA, AND THE CONDUCT OF THE SUCCESSORS

ON THE THRONE OF ISRAEL.

From An. 975 to 955, at eleven months to a year. See Chron. of the Old Testament, page 16-20.

The Scripture takes no notice of what was the cause of this war between Zerah and Asa, nor are interpreters well agreed what the country was from whence this enemy came. The country, in the original, is called Cush, though we translate it Ethiopia. Now there are three countries different from one another, all called by the name of Cush: 1. the land of Cush, upon the river Gihon; 2. Cush upon the eastern shore of the Red Sea; and, 3. Cush, situated above Thebais, and in Upper Egypt. It is very probable, then, that the country here spoken of must not be Ethiopia, properly so called, because we can hardly imagine, how an army of a million of men should be permitted to march through Egypt, (as they must have done to invade Judea,) without some opposition: and therefore the

to the will of God; that therefore, if they persevered therein, God would grant that they should always overcome their enemies, and live happily; but if they left off his worship, all things would fall out on the contrary; and the time should

country must be the land of Cush, which lay in Arabia Petræa, upon the east shore of the Red Sea, and, at the extremity to the point of that sea, inclining towards Egypt and Judea. And whereas some have made a doubt, how so small a country could have produced so large an army, it is no hard matter to sup pose, that a great part of the army might perhaps have been mercenaries. Calmet's Commentary on 2 Chron. xiv. 9. and Dictionary, under the word Cush. And Well's Geography of the Old Testament, vol. I. c. 4. B.

The reader is to remember that Cush is not Ethiopia, but Arabia. See Bochart Phaleg. IV. 2. § An. 947. 2 Chron. xiv. 9. Here is a very great error in our Hebrew copy in this place, 2 Chron. xvi. 3-6, as applying what follows to times past, and not in times future.

come, wherein no true prophet should be left in || him what would come to pass: as if the threatened their whole multitude; nor a priest who should deliver a true answer from the oracle: but their cities should be overthrown, and their nation scattered over the whole earth, and live the life of strangers and wanderers. So he advised them, while they had time, to be good, and not to deprive themselves of the favour of God. When the king and the people heard this, they rejoiced; and all in common, and every one in particular, took great care to behave themselves righteously.* The king also sent some to take care, that those in the country should observe the laws.

I now return to Baasha, king of the multitude of the Israelites, who slew Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, and retained the government. He dwelt in the city Tirzah; having made that his habitation; and reigned twenty-four years. He became more wicked and impious than Jeroboam or his son: for he did a great deal of mischief to the multitude; and was injurious to God. The prophet Jehu was therefore sent to tell him beforehand, that his whole family should b destroyed, and that God would bring the same miseries on his house, which had brought that of Jeroboam to ruin: because when he had been made king by him, he had not requited his kindness, by governing the multitude righteously and religiously; which things in the first place tended to their own happiness, and in the next place were pleasing to God; that he had imitated this very wicked king Jeroboam; and although that man's soul had perished, yet did he express to the life his wickedness; and he said, that he should therefore justly experience the like calamity with him; since he had been guilty of the like wickedness. But Baasha, though he heard beforehand what miseries would befall him and his whole family for their insolent behaviour, yet did not he leave off his wicked practices for the time to come; nor did he care to appear to be other than worse and worse till he died; nor did he even then repent of his past actions, nor endeavour to obtain pardon of God for them; but did as those do, who have rewards proposed to them, when they have once in earnest set about their work, they do not leave off their labours. For thus did Baasha grow worse when the prophet foretold to

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perdition of his family, and the destruction of his house were good things; and as if he were a combatant for wickedness, he every day took more and more pains for it. And at last he took his army, and assaulted a certain considerable city called Ramah, which was forty furlongs distant from Jerusalem; and when he had taken it, he fortified it; having previously determined to leave a garrison in it, that they might thence make excursions, and do mischief to the kingdom of Asa.

Hereupon Asa was afraid of the attempts the enemy might make upon him; and, considering with himself how many mischiefs this army that was left in Ramah might do to the country over which he reigned, he sent ambassadors to the king of the Damascens, with gold and silver, desiring his assistance, and putting him in mind that they had a friendship together,§ from the times of their forefathers. So he gladly received that sum of money; and made a league with him, and brake the friendship he had with Baasha, and sent the commanders of his own forces unto the cities that were under Baasha's dominion; and ordered them to do them mischief. So they went and burnt some of them, and spoiled others: Ijon, Dan, and Abelmaim,|| and many others.

Now when the king of Israel heard this, he left off building and fortifying Ramah, and returned to assist his own people under the distresses they were in. But Asa made use of the materials that were prepared for building that city, for erecting in the same place two strong cities; the one of which was called Geba, and the other Mizpah. So that after this, Baasha had no leisure to make expeditions against Asa, for he was prevented by death, and was buried in the city Tirzah. Elah, his son, took the kingdom; but when he had reigned two years, he was treacherously slain by Zimri, the captain of half his army: for when he was at a feast of Arza, his steward's house, he persuaded some of the horsemen, that were under him, to assault Elah; and by that means he slew him when he was without his armed men, and his captains. For they were all busied in the siege of Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines.

When Zimri, the captain of the army, had killed

compass of the land of Israel, I understand our Saviour's words, about the fatal war and overthrow of Judea by Titus, and his Roman army, "That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the land, from the blood of righteous Abel, to the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation," Matt. xxiii. 35, 36. Luke xi. 51. See Authent. Rec. P. II. page 884, 885.

¶ 1 Kings xvi. 6.

Elah, he took the kingdom himself; and, according to Jehu's prophecy, slew all the house of Baasha. For it came to pass that Baasha's house utterly perished, on account of his impiety, in the same manner as we have already described the destruction of the house of Jeroboam. But the army that was besieging Gibbethon, when they heard what had befallen the king, and that when Zimri* had killed him he had gained the kingdom, they bestowed the government on Omri their general, who drew off his army from Gibbethon, and came to Tirzah, where the royal palace was, and assaulted the city, and took it by force. But when Zimri saw that the city had none to defend it, he fled into the inmost part of the palace, and set it on fire, and burnt himself with it;t when he had reigned only seven days. Hereupon the people of Israel were presently divided; and part of them would have Tibni to be king, and part Omri; but when those who were for Omri's ruling had beaten Tibni, Omri reigned over all the multitude.

Now it was in the thirtieth year of the reign of Asa, that Omri reigned for twelve years: six of these years he reigned in the city Tirzah, and the rest in the city called Samarcon, but named by the Greeks Samaria. But he himself called it Semareon, from Semer, who sold him the mountain whereon he built it. Now Omri was noway different from those kings that reigned before him; but only that he grew worse than they. For they all sought how they might turn people away from God, by their daily wicked practices. And on that account it was that God made one of them to be slain by another; and that no one person of their families should remain. This Omri also died at Samaria, and Ahab his son succeeded him.§

Now by these events we may learn what concern God hath for the affairs of mankind; and how he loves good men, and hates the wicked, and destroys them root and branch. For many of these kings of Israel, they and their families, were

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The thirty-first, Heb. and Septuagint. An. 919. The words in the text are these:-They laid him on the bed, which was filled with sweet odours, and divers kinds of spices, prepared by the apothecaries' art: and they made a great burning for him, 2 Chron. xvi. 26. But then the question is, whether the body itself was burnt, or only some spices and odoriferous drugs to prevent any bad smell that might attend the corpse. The Greeks and Romans indeed, when they burnt any dead bodies, threw frankincense, myrrh, cassia, and other fragrant things into the fire, and this in such abundance, that Pliny, (Nat. Hist. cap. 18,) represents it as a piece of profaneness, to bestow such heaps of frankincense upon a dead body, when they offered it so sparingly to their gods. The Jews, however, (say the maintainers of this side of the question,) were accustomed to inter, and not to burn their dead, though they might

miserably destroyed, and taken away one by another, in a short time, for their transgressions. But Asa, who was king of Jerusalem, and of the two tribes, attained, by God's blessing, a long and a felicitous old age, for his piety and his righteousness; and died happily, when he had reigned fortyone years. And when he was dead,|| his son Jehoshaphat succeeded him in the government. He was born of Asa's wife Azubah. And all men allowed that he followed the works of David his forefather, and this both in courage and piety. But we are not obliged now to speak any more of the affairs of this king.

CHAP. XIII.

OF THE IMPIETY OF AHAB KING OF ISRAEL: THE ACTIONS OF THE

PROPHET ELIJAH; AND THE murder of NABOTH.

AHAB, the king of Israel, dwelt in Samaria, and held the government for twenty-two years; and made no alteration in the conduct of the kings that were his predecessors, but only in such things as were of his own invention for the worse, and in his most gross wickedness. He imitated them in their wicked courses, and in their injurious behaviour towards God; and most especially he imitated the transgression of Jeroboam. For he worshipped the heifers that he had made; and he contrived other absurd objects of worship. He also married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Tyrians and Sidonians; of whom he learnt to worship her own gods, This woman was active and bold; and fell into so great a degree of impurity and madness, that she built a temple to the god of the Tyrians, which they call Belus, and planted a grove of all sorts of trees; she also appointed priests and false prophets to this god. The king also himself had many such about him; and so exceeded in madness and wickedness all the kings that went before him.

Now there was a prophet** of God, of Thesbon,t

possibly learn from the Egyptians the usage of burning many spices at their funerals, as we find they did at the funeral of Zedekiah king of Judah, Jer. xxxiv. 5; but notwithstanding this, some very able commentators are of opinion, that all these spices and perfumes were burnt along with Asa's body; and they remark, that among his other offences, the sacred history takes no notice of this vanity of his, in ordering his body to be disposed of according to the manner of the Gentiles, and not of his own people. Though therefore they suppose that Asa was the first who introduced this custom; yet, in after ages, it became very frequent, and was thought the more honourable ceremony of the two, 2 Chron. xxi. 19. Ibid. xvi. 14. Amos vi. 10. Patrick's and Calmet's Commentaries on 2 Chron. xvi. 14. B.

¶ An. 916.

** About An. 910.

†† Thesbe was a town on the other side of Jordan, in the tribe of Gad, and in the land of Gilead, where this prophet was born,

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