"fathers." The rights of an Israelite landowner were not to be despised. The land had descended to Naboth, possibly, from the first partition of the tribes. Omri, the father of Ahab, had given a great price for the hill of Samaria to its owner Shemer. David would not take the threshing-floor on Moriah, even from the heathen Araunah, without a payment. The refusal brought on a peculiar mood of sadness,1 described on two occasions in Ahab and in no one else. But in his palace there was one who cared nothing for the scruples which tormented the conscience even of the worst of the Kings of Israel. In the pride of her conscious superiority to the weaknesses of her husband, "Jezebel came to him "and said, Dost thou now govern 2 the kingdom of Is"rael? Arise, and eat bread, and let thine heart be merry, I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the "Jezreelite." It is the same contrast- true to nature -that we know so well in Ægisthus and Clytemnestra, in Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, where the feebler resolution of the man has been urged to the last crime by the bolder and more relentless spirit of the woman. She wrote the warrant in Ahab's name; she gave the hint to the chiefs and nobles of the city. An assembly was called, at the head of which Naboth, by virtue of his high position, was placed. There, against him, as he so stood, the charge of treason was brought according to the forms of the Jewish law. The two or three 1 necessary witnesses were produced, and sate before him. The sentence was pronounced. The whole family were 8 1 "Heavy and displeased," 1 Kings viii. 13, § 8) is the explanation of xx. 43; xxi. 4. Naboth" was set on high." 4 Deut. xvii. 6; xix. 15. Josephus 2 Ποιεῖς βασιλέα (LXX.). 3 This (according to Josephus, Ant. says there were three witnesses; the Hebrew and LXX. two. involved in the ruin. Naboth and his sons, in the darkness of the night, were dragged out from the city. According to one biblical account,2 the capital was the scene; and in the usual place of execution at Samaria, by the side of the great tank or pool (here as at Hebron Naboth and his sons were stoned; and the blood from their mangled remains ran down into the reservoir, and was licked up on the broad margin of stone by the ravenous dogs which infest an Eastern capital, and by the herds of swine which were not allowed to enter the Jewish city. "Then they sent to Jezebel saying, Naboth "is stoned and is dead." And she repeated to Ahab all that he cared to hear: "Naboth is not alive, but is "dead." The narrative wavers in its account of his reception of the tidings. The more detailed version of the Septuagint tells us that, immediately, the pang of remorse shot through his heart. "When he heard that "Naboth was dead, he rent his clothes and put on sack"cloth." But this was for the first moment only. From the capital of Samaria, as it would seem, he rose up, and went down the steep descent which leads into the plain of Jezreel. He went in state, in his royal chariot. Behind him, probably in the same chariot,5 were two of the great officers of his court; Bidkar, and one whose name afterwards bore a dreadful sound to the House of Ahab, Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. And now they neared the city of Jezreel; and 1 This is to be inferred from the word emesh, "yesternight," used in 2 Kings ix. 26. See Dict. of the Bible, i. 529, note. 21 Kings xxi. 19. (LXX.) 3 2 Sam. iv. 12. 4 1 Kings xxii. 38 (LXX.), compared with xxi. 19. According to Josephus, it was in his own city of Jezreel that the trial took place, and 5 So Josephus, Ant. ix. 6, § 3, KavεÇoμÉvos: 2 Kings ix. 25, tsemadim (as a "yoke" of animals). The LXX. makes them in separate char iots, ènì тà Gevyn. on Ahab. now the green terraces appeared, which Ahab at last might call his own, with no obstinate owner to urge against him the claims of law and of property; and there was the fatal vineyard, the vacant plot of ground waiting for its new possessor. There is a soli- The curse tary figure standing on the deserted ground, as though the dead Naboth had risen from his bloody grave to warn off the King from his unlawful gains. It is Elijah. As in the most pathetic of Grecian dramas, the unjust sentence has no sooner been pronounced on the unfortunate Antigone, than Tiresias rises up to pronounce the curse on the Theban king, so, in this grander than any Grecian tragedy, the well-known Prophet is there to utter the doom of the House of Ahab. He comes, we know not whence. He has arisen; he has come down at the word of the LORD to meet the King, as once before, in this second crisis of his life. Few and short were the words which fell from those awful lips; and they are variously reported. But they must have fallen like thunderbolts on that royal company. They were never forgotten. Years afterwards, long after Ahab and Elijah had gone to their account, two of that same group found themselves once again on that same spot; and a king, the son of Ahab, lay dead at their feet; and Jehu turned to Bidkar and said, "Remember "how that thou and I rode behind Ahab his father, "when the Lord laid this burden upon him. Surely "yesternight I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood "of his sons, saith JEHOVAH, and I will requite thee in "this plat, saith JEHOVAH." And not only on that plat, but wherever the House of Ahab should be found, and wherever the blood of Naboth had left its traces, the decree of vengeance was pronounced; the horizon was 1 2 Kings ix. 26. 9 1 Kings xxi. 19 (LXX.). 2 darkened with the visions of vultures glutting on the carcasses of the dead, and the packs of savage dogs feeding on their remains, or lapping up their blood. — All these threats the youthful soldier heard, unconscious that he was to be their terrible executioner. But it was on Ahab himself that the curse fell with the heaviest weight. He burst at once into the familiar cry, "Hast "thou found me, O mine enemy?" The Prophet and the King parted, to meet no more. But the King's last act was an act of penitence; on every anniversary1 of Naboth's death he wore the Eastern signs of mourning. And the Prophet's words were words of mercy. It was as if the revelation of "the still small voice" was becoming clearer and clearer. For in the heart of Ahab there was a sense of better things, and that sense is recognized and blessed. on Ramoth It was three years afterwards that the first part of Elijah's curse, in its modified form, fell on the royal house. The scene is given at length, apparently to bring before us the gradual working-out of the catastrophe. The Syrian war, which forms the background of the whole of the history of Omri's dynasty, furThe attack nishes the occasion. To recover the fortress Gilead. of Ramoth-Gilead is the object of the battle. The Kings of Judah and Israel are united for the grand effort. The alliance is confirmed by the marriage of Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab, with Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat.2 The names of the two royal families are intermixed for the first time since the separation of the kingdoms. Jehoshaphat comes down in state to Samaria. A grand sacrificial 1 1 Kings xxi. 27 (LXX.). “ Went 2 2 Kings viii. 18, 26. softly," is probably "went barefoot" (Josephus). feast for him and his suite is prepared. The two kings, an unprecedented sight, sit side by side, each on his throne, in full pomp,2 in the wide open space before. the gateway of Samaria. Once again, though in a less striking form, is repeated the conflict between the true and false prophesyings, as at Carmel. Four hundred prophets of Baal, yet evidently professing the worship of JEHOVAH, and Israelites, not foreigners - all, in one mystic chorus, urged the war. One only exception was heard to the general acclamation; not Elijah, but one who, according to Jewish tradition, had once before foretold the fall of Ahab,- Micaiah, The vision the son of Imlah. In the vision which he of Micaiah. describes, we feel that we are gradually drawing nearer to the times of the later Prophets. It is a vision which might rank amongst those of Isaiah, or of Ezekiel. On earth, the Prophet sees the tribes of Israel, scattered on the hills of Gilead, like sheep who have lost their shepherd; and he hears a voice bidding them return each to their own homes, as best they can; for their human leader is gone they have no help but in God.5 Above, he sees the God of Israel on His throne, as the kings on their thrones before the gate of Samaria. His host, as theirs, is all around Him. There is a glimpse into the truth, so difficult of conception in early ages, that even the Almighty works by secondary agents. Not by Himself, but by one or other of His innumerable host; not by these indiscriminately, but by one, to whom is given the name of "The Spirit." Not by 1 2 Chr. xviii. 2. 2 1 Kings xxii. 10; 2 Chr. xviii. 9 (LXX. and Ewald). 3 See the name Zedekiah, "justice of Jehovah" (ver. 11), and the constant mention of the name of Jehovah (5, 6, 11, 12). Possibly the 400 prophets of Ashtaroth (" the groves") who escaped destruction at Carmel. Compare 1 Kings xviii. 19 with 22. 4 1 Kings xx. 35, with the comment of Josephus, Ant. viii. 14, § 5. 5 1 Kings xxii. 17 (LXX.). 6 2 Chr. xviii. 20 (Heb.). |