And that of the impious multitude, some should be slain by Hazael, and others by Je-. hu. So Elijah, upon hearing this charge, returned into the land of the Hebrews. And when he found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, plowing, and certain others with him driving twelve yoke of oxen, he came to him, and cast his own garment upon him. Upon which Elisha began to prophesy; and leaving his oxen, he followed Elijah. And when he desired leave to salute his parents, Elijah gave him leave so to do: and when he had bidden them adieu, he followed him, and became the disciple and the servant of Elijah all the days of his life. And thus have I related the affairs in which this prophet was con ter. So when he had eaten, and recollected | Now there was one Naboth, of the city Izar, who had a field adjoining to that of the king's. The king would have persuaded him to sell him that field, which lay so near to his own lands, at what price he pleased that he join them together, and make them one farm; and if he would not accept of money for it, he gave him leave to chuse any of his other fields in its stead. But Naboth said he would not do so; but would keep the possession of that land of his own, which he had by inheritance from his father. § Upon this the was in; for that none of his enemies should might Elijah being now come to the same place, where he had rather attain his end by patience, and tenderness, and long suffering, (signified by that small still voice, wherein the Deity exhibited himself,) and consequently, that the prophet should hereby be incited to imitate him, bridling that passionate zeal to which his natural complexion did but too much incline him. Le Clerc's, Calmet's, and Patrick's Commentaries. B. + About An. 899. The account of Ahab's coveting Naboth's vineyard, as Abarbinel observes, is immediately set after his treatment of Benhadad, to shew his extreme great wickedness in sparing him, as Saul did Agag king of the Amalekites, and killing Naboth, that he might get possession of his vineyard. For this was an high aggravation of his crime, that he basely murthered a just Israelite, and let an impious enemy escape. Patrick's Com. B. As it is natural to all men to love and value the ancient possessions that have been in their family; so the law of Moses prohibited the alienation of lands from one tribe or family to another, unless a man was reduced to poverty, in which case he might sell it to the jubilee; but then it was to revert to him again, Lev. xxv. 15, 25, 28. Now as Naboth was in no need to sell his vineyard, so he considered with himself, that if merely to do the king a pleasure, he should part with it out of his hands, whereon he lay, to go to see Naboth's vineyard: but God had great indignation at it, and sent Elijah the prophet to the field of Naboth, to speak to Ahab, and say to him, that he had slain the true owner of that field unjustly. And as soon as he came to him, and the king had said, that he might do with him what he pleased, (for he thought it a reproach to him to be thus caught in his sin,) Elijah said, that in the very place in which the dead body of Naboth was eaten up by the dogs, both his own blood, and that of his wife, should be shed; and that all his family should perish, because he bad been so insolently wicked, and had slain a citizen unjustly, and contrary to the laws of his country. Hereupon Ahab began to be sorry for the things he had done, and to repent of them; and he put on sackcloth, and went barefoot, and would not king was grieved, as if he had received an injury, when he could not get another man's possession; and would neither wash himself, nor take any food. And when Jezebel asked him, what it was that troubled him? and why he would neither wash himself, nor eat? he related to her the perverseness of Naboth; and how when he had made use of gentle words to him, and such as were beneath the royal authority, he had been affronted, and had not obtained what he desired. However she persuaded him not to be cast down at this accident; but leave off his grief, and return to the usual care of his body: for that she would take care to have Naboth punished. And she immediately sent letters to the rulers of the Jezreelites in Ahab's name: and com. manded them to fast, and to assemble a congregation, and to set Naboth at the head of them, because he was of an illustrious family; and to have three bold men ready to bear wit-touch any food: he also confessed his sins, and ness that he had blasphemed God and the king; † and then to stone him, and slay him in that manner. Accordingly when Naboth had been thus accused, he was stoned by the multitude and slain. When Jezebel heard that, she went to the king, and desired him to take possession of Naboth's vineyard on free cost. So Ahab was glad of what had been done; and rose up immediately from the bed * especially to be made a garden, and so annexed to the palace, neither he nor his posterity, should ever be able to recover it again; so that, in this act, he should both offend God, and injure his posterity, which he, being a pious and religious man, durst not adventure to do. Pool's Annot. B. *It was always a customary thing, upon the approach of any great calamity, or the apprehension of any national judgment, to proclaim a fast; and Jezebel ordered such a fast to be observed in Jezreel, the better to conceal her design against Naboth. For, by this means, she intimated to the Jezreelites, that they had some accursed thing among them, which was ready to draw down the vengeance of God upon their city; and that therefore it was their business to inquire into all those sins which provoked God to anger against them, and to purge them out effectually. As therefore these days of fasting were employed in punishing offenders, doing justice, and im. ploring God's pardon, they gave the elders of the city an occasion to convene an assembly, and the false witnesses a fair opportunity to accuse Naboth before them. Le Clerc's and Patrick's Com. B. + By the law of Moses it was death to blaspheme God, Lev. xxiv. 16, and by custom it was death to revile the endeavoured thus to appease God. But God said to the prophet, while Ahab was living he would put off the punishment of his family, because he repented of those insolent crimes he had been guilty of; but that still he would fulfil his threatenings under his son: § and this message the prophet delivered to the king. king, Exod. xxii. 28. Now, in order to make safe work, the evidences, as they were instructed, accused Naboth of both these crimes, that the people might be the better satisfied to see him stoned. There is this difference, however, to be observed between these two crimes, that, if a man had only blasphemed God he was to be tried by the great court of Jerusalem, as the Hebrew doctors tell us, and his goods came to his heirs; whereas, when a man was executed for treason against the king, his estate went to the exchequer, and was forfeited to him against whom the offence was committed; and for this reason it was, that they accused Naboth of this crime likewise, that his estate might be confiscated, and Ahab, by that means, got possession of his vineyard; Patrick's Com. B. "The Jews weep to this day," says Jerome, here recited by Reland, "and roll themselves upon sackcloth, in ashes, barefoot, upon such occasions." To which Spanheim adds, "that after the same manner Bernice, when life was in danger, stood at the tribunal of Florus barefoot." Of the War II. 15. See the like of David, 2 Sam. xv. 50. Antiq. VII. § 1 Kings xxi. 29. CHAP. CHAP. XIV. OF THE EXPEDITION OF HADAD, KING OF DAMASCUS AND WHE "For myself, I am ready, for your safety and peace, to give up my own wives and children to the enemy, and to yield to him all my own possessions for that was what the Syrian king required at his first ambassage. But now he desires to send his servants to search all your houses; and in them to leave nothing that is excellent in its kind; seeking an occasion of fighting against me; as knowing that I would not spare what is mine own for your sakes; but taking a handle from the disagreeable terms he offers concerning you, to bring a war upon us. However, I will do what you shall resolve is fit to be done." Hereupon the multitude advised him to hearken to none of Benhadad's proposals, but to despise him, and to be in readiness to fight. Accordingly he dismissed the ambassadors with this answer, that he still continued in the mind to comply with what terms their master at first desired, for the safety of the citizens; but as for his second desires he could not submit to them. HEN the affairs of Ahab were in this situation, the son of Benhadad, who was king of the Syrians and Damascus, got together an army out of all his country, and procured thirty-two kings beyond Euphrates to be his auxiliaries. So he made an expedition against Ahab. But because Ahab's army was not like that of Benhadad's, he did not set it in array to fight him; but having shut up every thing that was in the country in the strongest cities he had, he abode in Samaria himself: for the walls about it were very strong, and it appeared not easily to be taken in other respects also. So the king of Syria took his army with him, and came to Samaria, and placed his army round about the city, and besieged it. He also sent a herald to Ahab, and desired he would admit the ambassadors he would send him; by whom When Benhadad beard this, he had indighe would let him know his pleasure. So up- nation, and sent ambassadors a third time; on the king of Israel's permission for him to threatening that his army should raise a bank send, those ambassadors came, and by their higher than those walls, in confidence of whose king's command spake thus: that Ahab's strength Ahab despised him, and that by only riches, and his children and his wives, were each man of his army taking a handful of earth; Benhadad's and if he would make an agree-hereby making a shew of the great number of ment, and give him leave to take as much of what he had as he pleased, he would withdraw his army, and leave off the seige. Upon this Ahab made the ambassadors to go back, and tell their king, that both he himself, and all that he had, were his possessions. And when these ambassadors had told this to Benhadad, he sent to him again, and desired, since he confessed that all he had was his, that he would admit those servants of his which he would send the next day: and he commanded him to deliver to those whom he should send, whatever, upon their searching his palace, and the houses of his friends, and kindred, they should find to be excellent in its kind but that what did not please them they should leave him. At this second ambassage, Ahab was surprised, and gathered together the multitude to a congregation, and said: : 1 Kings xx. 11. his forces, and aiming to affright him. Ahab, however, answered, that he ought not to vaunt himself when he had only put on his armor, but when he should have conquered his enemies in the battle.* So the ambassadors came back, and found Benhadad at supper with his thirty-two kings, and informed him of Ahab's answer; in consequence of which he immediately gave orders to make lines round the city, and raise a bulwark: and to prosecute the siege all manner of ways. Now as this was doing, Ahab was in great agony, and all his people with him. But he took courage and was freed from his fears, upon a certain prophet's coming to him, and saying, that God had promised to subdue so many thousands of his enemies under him. And when he had enquired by whose means the victory was to be obtained; he said, By the sons of the princes; but under thy conduct, as their leader; by reason of their unskilfulness in war." Hereupon he called for the sons of the princes, and found them to be two hundred and thirty-two persons; and when he was informed that the king of Syria had betaken himself to feasting and repose, he opened the gates, and sent out the princes' sons. Now when the sentinels told Benhadad of it, he sent some to meet them, and commanded that if these men were come out for fighting, they should bind them, and bring them to him; and that if they came out peaceably, they should do the same. Now Ahab had another army ready within the walls. But the sons of the princes fell upon the out-guard, and slew many of them, and pursued the rest of them to the camp. And when the king of Israel saw that these had the upper hand, he sent out all the rest of his army; which falling suddenly upon the Syrians, beat them: for they did not think they would have come out. On which account it was that they assaulted them when they were naked, and intoxicated; insomuch that they left all their armor behind them when they fled out of the camp; and the king himself escaped with difficulty, by fleeing away on horseback. But Ahab went a great way in pursuit of the Syrians: and when he had spoiled their camp, which contained a great deal of wealth, and a large quantity of gold and silver, he took Benhadad's chariots and horses, and returned to the city. But as the prophet told him he ought to have his army ready, because the Syrian king would make another expedition against him the next year, Ahab was busy in making provision for it accordingly. * Mr. Reland notes here very truly that the word naked does not always signify entirely naked; but sometimes without men's usual armor, without their usual robes, or upper garments. As when Virgil bids the husbandinen plow and sow naked. When Josephus says, IV. 3, that God had given the Jews the security of armor, when they were naked: and when he here says that Ahab fell on the Syrians when they were naked and intoxicated. When, XI. 5, he says that Nehemiah commanded those Jews that were building the walls of Jerusalem, to take care to have their armor on upon occasion, that the enemy might not fall upon them naked. I may add, that the case seems to be the same in the Scripture, when it says, that Saul lay down naked among the prophets, 1 Sam. xix. 24. When it says, that Isaiah walked nak When Benhadad had saved himself, † and as much of the army he could out of the battle; he consulted with his friends how he might make another expedition against the Israelites. Now those friends advised him, not to fight with them on the hills; because their God was potent in such places; and thence it had come to pass that they had lately been beaten. But they said, that if they joined battle with them in the plain, they should beat them. They also gave him this farther advice; to send home those kings whom he had brought as his auxiliaries; but to retain their army, and to set captains over it, instead. of the kings; and to raise an army out of their country, and let them be in the place of the former who perished in the battle, together with horses and chariots. So he judged their counsel to be good, and acted according to it in the management of his army. At the beginning of the spring Benhadad took his army with him, and led it against the Hebrews; and when he was come to a certain city called Aphek, he pitched his camp in the great plain. Ahab also went to meet him with his army, and encamped over against him: although his army were a very small one, if it were compared with his enemies. But the prophet came again to him, and told him, that God would give him the victory; that he might demonstrate his own power to be not only on the mountains, but on the plains also: which it seems was contrary to the opinion of the Syrians. So they lay quiet in the camp seven days; but on the last of those days, when the enemies came out and put themselves in array, in order to fight, Ahab also brought out his army: and when the battle was joined, ed and barefoot, Isaiah xx. 2, 3, and when it says, that Peter, before he girt his fisher's coat about him, was naked, John xxi. 7. Nor were the naked soldiers others than those levis armaturæ, who were free from the heavy armor of the rest. And the like may be supposed in several other places. What is said to David also gives light to this; who was reproached by Michal for dancing before the ark, and uncovering himself in the eyes of the handmaids, as one of the vain fellows shamefully uncovereth himself, 2 Sam. vi. 14, 20, yet is it there expressly said, verse 14, that David was girded with a linen ephod: i. e. he had laid aside his robe of state, and put on only the sacerdotal, Levitical, or sacred garments, proper for such a solemnity. See also Antiq. V. 3, VI. 2, and XVII. 10. + About An. 898. and |