Verse 2.Jehoshaphat the king of Judah came down to the king of Israel.'-It is 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 in cementing it by the marriage of his eldest son Jehoram to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab 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 lay in 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 neutralise, and actually did far more than neutralise, the natural advantages of such an alliance.

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11. Zedekiah.....made him horns of iron, etc.-Of horns artificially used as ornaments, and as symbols of military prowess, we have spoken under 1 Sam. ii. 1. A reference to the particulars there stated makes the intention of Zedekiah's symbol clear. It may also be remarked that the Syrians of that age, as represented in Egyptian paintings,

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wore a spike on the top of their helmets (as shewn in the cut at the end of the first book of Samuel), which very possibly bore the name of a horn, and which conveys a further illustration, whether such spikes or horns were also used by the Israelites or not. It is likely that the horns produced by Zedekiah were two, one to represent the power of each of the kings who were proceeding to battle with the Syrians.

39. The ivory house.'-The ivory was doubtless obtained from the Phoenicians of Tyre, with whom Ahab had established very intimate relations, and not by direct traffic as in the time of Solomon. The ivory house was probably so called from being ornamented and in parts inlaid with ivory-the taste for which sort of decoration is not yet extinct in the East. There is, for instance, the ivory mosque at Ahmedabad in India, which, although built of white marble, has obtained that distinction from being curiously lined with ivory, and inlaid with a profusion of gems to imitate natural flowers, bordered with silver foliage in mother of pearl. This style of decoration is also exhibited in the palaces of more western countries, as in the apartments of the palace of Adrianople, described by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, which were wainscoted with inlaid work of mother of pearl, ivory of dif ferent colours, and olive wood, like the little boxes brought from Turkey.'

CHAPTER I.

1 Moab rebelleth. 2 Ahaziah, sending to Baalzebub, hath his judgment by Elijah. 5 Elijah twice bringeth fire from heaven upon them whom Ahaziah sent to apprehend him. 13 He pitieth the third captain, and, encouraged by an angel, telleth the king of his death. 17 Jehorar succeedeth Ahaziah.

HEN Moab rebelled a

gainst Israel after the death of Ahab.

2 T And Ahaziah fell

down through a lattice in his upper chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick and he sent

messengers, and said unto them, Go, enquire of Baalzebub the god of Ekron whether I shall recover of this disease.

3 But the angel of the LORD said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron?

4 Now therefore thus saith the LORD, "Thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.

5 ¶ And when the messengers turned back

unto him, he said unto them, Why are ye now turned back?

6 And they said unto him, There came a man up to meet us, and said unto us, Go, turn again unto the king that sent you, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that thou sendest to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron? therefore thou shalt not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.

7 And he said unto them, "What manner of man was he which came up to meet you, and told you these words?

8 And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.

9 Then the king sent unto him a captain of fifty with his fifty. And he went up to him: and, behold, he sat on the top of an hill. And he spake unto him, Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down.

10 And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

11 Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.

12 And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.

13

And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and 'fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.

14 Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight.

15 And the angel of the LORD said unto Elijah, Go down with him: be not afraid of him. And he arose, and went down with him unto the king.

16 And he said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast sent messengers to enquire of Baal-zebub the god of Ekron, is it not because there is no God in Israel to enquire of his word? therefore thou shalt not come down off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die.

17 So he died according to the word of the LORD which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram reigned in his stead in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah; because he had no son.

18 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaziah which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

(בַעַל זְבוּב) Baalzebub •

-Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron.'-There are some considerable difficulties relating to this idol. The name Omeans the lord of flies;' and the first question is, whether he was thus named by his worshippers, or nicknamed thus by the Hebrews, to avoid even the verbal recognition or utterance of his proper name, which, under this view, we may suppose to have been Baal-Samen,' the lord of heaven,' one of the gods mentioned by Sanchoniathon in his Phoenician theogony. That the Hebrews were in the habit of nicknaming the pagan idols and the seats of idolatrous worship is certain;

SILVER COIN OF ARADUS.

but if they did so in the present instance, what becomes of that opinion which makes Beelzebul (Beeλ(eBouλ), the dung god,' of the New Testament, a nickname of the Baalzebub of the Old? It is then the nickname of a nickname. Reserving for another place our opinion on this point, and without thinking it worth while to state more minutely the grounds of our conviction, we entertain little doubt that Baal-zebub, the fly-god,' is the name by which this idol was recognized by his worshippers. One might certainly hesitate at this conclusion, were it not that we find some even of the elegant divinities' of Greece and Rome similarly distinguished; and the reason why they were so distinguished, assists us to understand that this Baal obtained the surname of Zebub on account of his being considered to protect the town or district in which he was worshipped from the visitation of gnats and other troublesome insects, the presence of which does often, in the East, form by no means the lightest calamity of life. The most remarkable analogy is that offered by the fact, that the eastern Europeans had a fly-expelling Jupiter (Zeùs 'ATÓμvos) as well as the western Asiatics a fly-expelling Baal. Pausanias relates, that when Hercules sacrificed in

of which, either from his own invention or through the instruction of some other person, he sacrificed to Jupiter Apomyius, or the expeller of flies, and then the flies fled beyond the Alpheus. After this the Eleans also sacrificed to Jupiter Apomyius, as one who drove away flies from Olympia. (Eliac. pr. c. xiv.) We consider this very illustrative. It seems that Hercules himself was also honoured in precisely the same character among the Erythræans, although we do not read of any fly-expelling feats among the twelve celebrated labours of that hero. As another instance we may refer to Apollo, one of whose many surnames was Smintheus (Zuveeus), from the Cretan word for a mouse, which he received from having cleared the Cretan colony in Troas from the swarms of mice with which it had been infested. He is often mentioned under this name by Homer. From Ahaziah's application, it would seem as if Baal-zebub enjoyed some peculiar reputation for the cure of diseases: to explain which it is only necessary to observe, that under all systems of polytheism there have been always some particular gods distinguished for their supposed attention to the maladies of

men.

There is however another opinion concerning Baalzebub, which deserves attention: that is, that Baal-zebub was not a fly-expelling god, but was himself an insect-god, analogous to the scarabæus or beetle of the Egyptians, which we slightly mentioned in the note on seals under 1 Kings xxi. This opinion has the support of Calmet, in his Dissertation sur l'Origine des Philistins. After dwelling upon the fact that Baal-zebub is not called the fly-expelling god,' but the fly-god' on which we think he lays rather too much stress-and observing that the figure of a fly sometimes appears on Phoenician coins, he quotes Philastrius, who intimates that the insectworship was preserved at Accaron (Ekron) even subsequent to the Christian era, and mentions a sect of Jewish heretics who worshipped the fly of that place. Calmet himself also notices the fact that flies of gold were found at Tournay, in the tomb of Childeric; and, as he was a pagan, these were perhaps his divinities; and we may add to this, that the scarabæus is often found in the mummycases of the Egyptians. We do not, after all, see why these two opinions may not coalesce, and Baal-zebub be at the same time an insect-god and an expeller of insects. Enough, at least, has been said to render it unnecessary to suppose that Baal-zebub' was a nickname given to the god of Ekron by the Israelites. He was clearly the tutelary god of Ekron, as Dagon was of Ashdod, and Melkart of Tyre. Whether he was worshipped in the human or insect form, or as a combination of both, the evidence of Phoenician coins only can determine. We know, how

ever, that, in other instances, the same idol may exhibit three varieties of form-human, animal, and both combined.

8. An hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather.'It is generally agreed that the hairiness refers not to Elijah's person, but to his mantle; and that this mantle of hair and girdle of leather formed the cheap and humble attire which the prophets usually wore. In like manner the great anti-type of Elijah, John the Baptist, had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins' (Matt. iii. 4). Strong and broad girdles of leather are still much in use among the nomade tribes and the artisans and husbandmen of Western Asia. See the notes on 1 Sam. x. 5; and 2 Sam. iii. 31.

16. Thou shalt not come down off that bed.'-From this it is clear that Ahaziah did not sleep on the floor, as people of high consideration often do in the East. It appears that he lay on the raised divan, or on such a bedstead as we mentioned in the note to Deut. iii. 11. Sometimes the principle of this bedstead is applied to form a permanent platform or gallery at the upper end of a room, with a balustrade in front. It is sometimes so elevated that steps are provided for the ascent. The beds are laid here at night, and it serves as a sitting-place by day, being rather a modification of the divan than what we should call a bedstead. We imagine that either this, or the simple divan, or the bedstead mentioned in the note referred to above, must be understood whenever a bed is mentioned, so as to imply that it was elevated above the ground.

CHAPTER 11.

1 Elijah, taking his leave of Elisha, with his mantle divideth Jordan, 9 and, granting Elisha his request, is taken up by a fiery chariot into heaven. 12 Elisha, dividing Jordan with Elijah's mantle, is acknowledged his successor. 16 The young prophets, hardly obtaining leave to seek Elijah, could not find him. 19 Elisha with salt healeth the unwholesome waters. 23 Bears destroy the children that mocked Elisha.

AND it came to pass, when the LORD would take up Elijah into heaven by a whirlwind, that Elijah went with Elisha from Gilgal.

2 And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Beth-el. And Elisha said unto him, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Beth-el.

3 And the sons of the prophets that were at Beth-el came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.

4 And Elijah said unto him, Elisha, tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho.

5 And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away

thy master from thy head to day? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.

6 And Elijah said unto him, Tarry, I pray thee, here; for the LORD hath sent me to Jordan. And he said, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And they two went on.

7 And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood 'to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.

8 And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, and smote the waters, and they were divided hither and thither, so that they two went over on dry ground.

9 And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me.

10 And he said, "Thou hast asked a hard thing nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.

11 And it came to pass, as they still went on, and talked, that, behold, there appeared a chariot of fire, and horses of fire, and parted them both asunder; and 'Elijah went up by whirlwind into heaven.

12 ¶ And Elisha saw it, and he cried, 'My