to come down, and to come to the king, for so he had enjoined; but that in case he refused, they would carry him by force. Elijah said to him, "That you may have a trial whether I be a true prophet, I will pray that fire may fall from heaven, and destroy both the soldiers and yourself." So he prayed, and a whirlwind of fire fell [from heaven,] and destroyed the captain, and those that were with him. And when the king was informed of the destruction of these men, he was very angry, and sent another captain with the like number of armed men that were sent before. And when this captain also threatened the prophet, that unless he came down of his own accord, he would take him and carry him away; upon his prayer against him, the fire [from heaven] slew this captain as well as the other. And when, upon inquiry, the king was informed of what had happened to him, he sent out a third captain. But when this captain, who was a wise man, and of a mild disposition, came to the place where Elijah happened to be, and spake civilly to him; and said, that "he knew that it was without his own consent, and only in submission to the king's command, that he came unto him; and that those that came before did not come willingly, but on the same account: he therefore desired him to have pity on those armed men that were with him; and that he would come down and follow him to the king." So Elijah accepted of his discreet words and courteous behavior, and came down and followed him. And when he came to the king, he prophesied to him, and told him, that "God said, Since thou hast despised him as not being God, and so unable to foretell the truth about thy distemper, but hast sent to the god of Ekron to inquire of him what will be the end of this thy distemper, know this, that thou shalt die."

against the king of Moab, whose name was Me sha; for, as we told you before, he was departed from his obedience to his brother [Ahaziah,] while he paid to his father Ahab two hundred thousand sheep with their fleeces of wool. When therefore he had gathered his own army together, he sent also to Jehoshaphat, and entreated him, that since he had from the beginning been a friend to his father, he would assist him in the war that he was entering into against the Moabites, who had departed from their obedience; who not only himself promised to assist him, but would also oblige the king of Edom, who was under his authority, to make the same expedition also. When Joram had received these assurances of assistance from Jehoshaphat, he took his army with him, and came to Jerusalem; and when he had been sumptuously entertained by the king of Jerusalem, it was resolved upon by them to take their march against their enemies through the wilderness of Edom; and when they had taken a compass of seven days' journey, they were in distress for want of water for the cattle, and for the army, from the mistake of their roads by the guides that conducted them, insomuch that they were all in an agony, espe cially Joram; and cried to God by reason of their sorrow, and [desired to know] what wickedness had been committed by them, that induced him to deliver three kings together, without fighting, unto the king of Moab. But Jehoshaphat, who was a righteous man, encouraged him, and bade him send to the camp, and know whether any prophet of God was come along with them, that we might by him learn from God what we should do. And when one of the servants of Joram said, that he had seen there Elisha, the son of Shaphat, the disciple of Elijah, the three kings went to him, at the entreaty of Jehoshaphat; and when they were come at the prophet's tent, which tent was pitched out of the camp, they asked him, "What would become of the army?" And Joram was particularly very pressing with him about it. And when he replied to him, that "he should not trouble him, but go to his father's and mother's prophets, for they [to be sure] were true prophets," he still desired him to prophesy, and to save them. So he swore by God, that he would not answer him unless it were on account of Jehoshaphat, who was a holy and righteous man; and when, at his desire, they brought him a man that could play on the psaltery, the divine Spirit came upon him as the music played, and he commanded them to dig many trenches in the valley; for, said he, "Though there appear neither cloud, nor wind, nor storm of rain, ye shall see this valley full of water, till the army and the cattle be saved for you by drinking of it; nor How Joram and Jehoshaphat made an Expedition will this be all the favor that you shall receive against the Moabites; as also concerning themes, and take the best and strongest cities from God, but you shall also overcome your eneWonders of Elisha; and the death of Jehosha of the Moabites, and you shall cut down their phat. fruit-trees, and lay waste their country, and stop up their fountains and rivers."

2. Accordingly, the king in a very little time died, as Elijah had foretold; but Jehoram his brother succeeded him in the kingdom, for he died without children: but for this Jehoram, he was like his father Ahab in wickedness, and reigned twelve years, indulging himself in all sorts of wickedness and impiety towards God; for, leaving off his worship, he worshipped foreign gods: but in other respects he was an acNow at this time it was that Elijah disappeared from among men, and no one knows of his death to this very day; but he left behind him his disciple Elisha, as we have formerly declared. And indeed, as to Elijah, and as to Enoch, who was before the deluge, it is written in the sacred books that they disappeared, but so that nobody knew that they died."

tive man.

CHAP. III.

1. WHEN Joram had taken upon him the kingdom, he determined to make an expedition

It is commonly esteemed a very cruel action of Elijah, when he called for a fire from heaven, and consumed no fewer than two captains and a hundred soldiers, and this for no other crime than obeying the or ders of their king, in attempting to seize him; and it is owned by our Saviour that it was an instance of greater severity than the spirit of the New Testament allows, Luke ix. 54. But then we must consider, that it is not unlikely that these captains and soldiers believed that they were sent to fetch the prophet, that he might be put to death for foretelling the death of the king, and this while they knew him to be the prophet of the true God, the supreme king of Israel, (for they were still under the theocracy,) which was no less than impiety, rebellion, and treason in the highest degree. Nor would the command of a subaltern, or inferior captain, contradicting the commands of the general, when the cap. tain and soldiers both knew it to be so, as I suppose, jus tify or excuse such gross rebellion and disobedience in

2. When the prophet had said this, the next soldiers at this day. Accordingly, when Saul commanded his guards to slay Ahimelech and the priests at Nob, they knew it to be an unlawful command, and would not obey it, 1 Sam. xxii. 17. From which cases both officers and soldiers may learn, that the commands of their leaders or kings cannot justify or excuse them in doing what is wicked in the sight of God, or in fighting in an unjust cause when they know it so to be.

†This practice of cutting down or plucking up by the roots the fruit-trees, was forbidden, even in ordinary wars, by the law of Moses, Deut. xx. 19, 20, and only al lowed by God in this particular case, when the Moabites were to be punished and cut off in an extraordinary manner for their wickedness. See Jer. xlviii. 11, 12, 13, and many the like prophecies against them. Nothing could therefore justify this practice but a particular commission from God by his propi et, as in the present case, which was ever a sufficient warrant for breaking any such ritual or ceremonial law whatsoever.

CHAP. IV.

Jehoram succeeds Jehoshaphat; how Joram, hu
Namesake, King of Israel, fought with the Sy
rians; and what Wonders were done by the
Prophet Elisha.

1. JEHOSHAPHAT had a good number of children; but he appointed his eldest son Jehoram to be his successor, who had the same name with his mother's brother, that was king of Israel, and the son of Ahab. Now when the king of Israe was come out of the land of Moab to Samaria, he had with him Elisha the prophet, whose acts I have a mind to go over particularly, for they were illustrious and worthy to be related, as we have them set down in the sacred books.

day, before the sur ising, a great torrent ran strongly, for God had caused it to rain very plentifully at the distance of three days' journey iuto Edom; so that the army and the cattle found water to drink in abundance. But when the Moabites heard that the three kings were coming upon them, and made their approach through the wilderness, the king of Moab gathered his army together presently, and commanded them to pitch their camp upon the mountains, that when the enemies should attempt to enter their country, they might not be concealed from them. But when at the rising of the sun they saw the water in the torrent, for it was not far from the land of Moab, and that it was of the color of blood, for at such a time the water especially looks red, by the shining of the sun upon it, they 2. For they say that the widow of Obadi. formed a false notion of the state of their ene- ah,* Ahab's steward, came to him, and said, that mies, as if they had slain one another for thirst," he was not ignorant how her husband had and that the river ran with their blood. How- preserved the prophets that were to be slain by ever, supposing that this was the case, they de- Jezebel, the wife of Ahab; for she said that he sired their king would send them out to spoil hid a hundred of them, and had borrowed money their enemies; whereupon they all went in for their maintenance; and that after her hus haste, as to an advantage already gained, and band's death, she and her children were carried came to the enemy's camp, as supposing them away to be made slaves by the creditors; and destroyed already. But their hope deceived she desired of him to have mercy upon her on them, for as their enemies stood round about account of what her husband did, and afford het them, some of them were cut to pieces, and some assistance." And when he asked her what others of them were dispersed, and fled to their she had in the house, she said, nothing but a very own country. And when the kings entered the small quantity of oil in a cruse. So the prophet land of Moab, they overthrew the cities that were bade her go away, and borrow a great many in it, and spoiled their fields, and marred them, empty vessels of her neighbors, and when she filling them with stones out of the brooks, and had shut her chamber door, to pour the oil into cut down the best of their trees, and stopped up them all; for God would fill them full. And when their fountains of water, and overthrew their the woman had done what she was commanded walls to their foundations. But the king of to do, and bade her children bring every one of Moab, when he was pursued, endured a siege, the vessels, and all were filled, and not one left and seeing his city in danger of being overthrown empty, she came to the prophet, and told him by force, made a sally, and went out with seven that they were all full: upon which he advised hundred men, in order to break through the her to go away, and sell the oil, and pay the creenemies' camp with his horsemen, on that side ditors what was owing to them, for that there where the watch seemed to be kept most negli- would be some surplus of the price of the oil, gently and when upon trial, he could not get which she might make use of for the mainte away, for he lit upon a place that was carefully nance of her children. And thus did Elisha dis watched, he returned into the city, and did a charge the woman's debts, and free her from the thing that showed despair and the utmost dis- vexation of her creditors. tress; for he took his eldest son, who was to reign after him, and lifting him up upon the wall, that he might be visible to all the enemies, he offered him as a whole burnt-offering to God, whom, when the kings saw, they commiserated the distress that was the occasion of it, and were so affected, in way of humanity and pity, that they raised the siege and every one returned to his own house. So Jehoshaphat came to Jerusalem, and continued in peace there, and outlived this expedition but a little time, and then died, having lived in all sixty years, and of them reigned twenty-five. He was buried in a magnificent manner in Jerusalem, for he had imitated the actions of David.

That this woman who cried to Elisha, and who in our Bible is styled the wife of one of the sons of the prophets, 2 Kings iv. 1, was no other than the widow of Obadiah, the good steward of Ahab, is confirmed by the Chaldee paraphrast, and by the Rabbins and others. Nor is that unlikely which Josephus here adds, that these debts were contracted by her husband for the support of those hundred of the Lord's prophets whom ke maintained by fifty in a care, in the days of Ahab and Jezebel, 1 Kings xviii. 4, which circumstances rendered it highly fit that the prophet Elisha should provide her a remedy, and enable her to redeem herself and her sons from the fear of that slavery which insolvent debrors were liable to by the law of Moses. Lev. xxv. 39; Matt, xviii. 25, which he did accordingly, with God's help, at the expense of a miracle.

Dr. Hudson, with very good reason, suspects that there is no small defect in our present copies of Josephus, just before the beginning of this section, and that chiefly as to that distinct account which he had given us reason to expect in the first section, and to which he seems to refer, ch. viii. sect. 6, concerning the glorious miracles which Elisha wrought, which indeed in our Bibles are not a few, 2 Kings iv.-ix, but of w ich ve have seve ral omitted in Josephus's present copies One of those

3. Elisha also sent a hasty message to Joram,t and exhorted him to take care of that place, for that therein were some Syrians lying in ambush to kill him. So the king did as the prophet exhorted him, and avoided his going a hunting. And when Benhadad missed of the success of his lying in ambush, he was wroth with his own servants, as if they had betrayed his ambushment to Joram, and sent for them, and said they were the betrayers of his secret counsels; and he threatened that he would put them to death, since such their practice was evident, because he had intrusted this secret to none but them, and yet it was made known to his enemy. And when one that was present said, that "he histories, omitted at present, was evidently in his Bible, I mean that of the curing of Naaman's leprosy, 2 Kings v. for he plainly alludes to it, bili, ch. xi. sect. 4, where he observes, "that there were lepers in many nations who yet have been in honor, and not only free from reproach and avoidance, but who have been great captains of armies, and been intrusted with high offices in the commonwealth, and have had the privilege of entering into holy places and temples." But what makes me most to regret the want of tint history in our present copies of Josephus is this, that we have here, as it is commonly understood, one of the greatest difficulties in all the Bible, that in 2 Kings v. 18, 19, where Naaman, nf ter he had been miraculously cured by a prophet of the true God, and had thereupon promised. v. 17, that "he would henceforth offer neither burnt-offerings for sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord, adds, “In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon; when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. And Elisha said, Go in peace." This looks like a prophet's permission for being partaker in idol try itself. out of ea'ionna