the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people beheld, they fell on their faces : and they said, The LORD he is the God; the LORD he is the God."

Q. How did Elijah improve this circumstance ?

A. He commanded the people to seize the false prophets by whom they had been deluded, and for whose abominations the land mourned; and having conducted them to the brook Kishon, slew them there.

Q. What followed this execution?

A. Elijah sent to Ahab saying, "Get thee up; eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain.""And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain."

Q. What effect did the execution of the prophets produce on Jezebel ?

A. It displeased her exceedingly, and she, threatened the life of Elijah in revenge. He fled therefore to Beersheba; and leaving his servant there, "went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers." He then lay down and slept.

Q. How was he awoke ?

A. “An angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruise of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.”

And the angel of the LORD came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee."

Q. What followed?

A. "He arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights. unto Horeb the mount of God."

Q. What occurred there?

A. After bewailing the apostacy of Israel, and the slaughter of the Lord's prophets, he had an awful manifestation of the presence of God: and was assured that there were yet in Israel seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. He was then commanded to return to the wilderness of Damascus, and to anoint Jehu to be king over Israel, Hazael to be king over Syria, and Elisha to succeed himself in the prophetic office.*

A. M. 3102. Q. Who made war upon Ahab about B. C. 902. this time?

Jehoshaphat 15. A. Benhadad, king of Syria, made war upon Ahab, and with two and thirty princes and a large army laid siege to Samaria. Ahab at first was inclined to submit; but the vexatious requirements of Benhadad determined him at length to resist and the war was terminated by the discomfiture of the Syrians, whom the Lord delivered into the hands of Ahab.

Q. How did Ahab act towards Benhadad ?

* He left the anointing of Jehu to Elisha his successor.

2 Kings ix. 1-10.

X

A. He made a treaty with him, and sent him away: therefore a prophet was sent to tell him that his own life should be forfeited for that of Benhadad, whom the Lord had appointed to utter destruction.

Q. How long did the peace between Israel and Syria continue ?

A. Three years.

Q. Of what wickedness were Ahab and Jezebel guilty during this interval?

A. Naboth, the Jezreelite, having refused to sell Ahab a vineyard, he was so displeased, that on his return home he "turned away his face and would eat no bread." Jezebel, therefore, having ascertained the cause of his grief, sent letters in his name to the elders of the city, and ordered them to try and to condemn Naboth on a false accusation of blasphemy. This was accordingly done; and Naboth being stoned, Ahab went to take possession of the vineyard.

Q. How was he reproved for this wicked deed?

A. Elijah was sent to meet him with this message, "Thus saith the Lord, Hast thou killed and also taken possession? In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.—And the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel."

Q. What effect was produced on Ahab by this denunciation ?

* The chutzoth or streets spoken of in this treaty, 1 Kings xx. 34. MICHAELIS supposes to be pasturing places for flocks, in the district of Damascus, and the circumjacent country.

A. He rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth and fasted ; on which account the evils threatened against his house were suspended in his days.

Q. From whom did Ahab receive tribute ?

A. He received annually a hundred thousand lambs, and a hundred thousand rams, with the wool, from Mesha, king of Moab.*

Q. What circumstance caused a renewal of the Syrian war?

A. The refusal of the Syrians to restore Ramothgilead. Ahab, therefore, accompanied by Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, went against them with an army; although forewarned by Micaiah the prophet, that he should be slain in the conflict.

Q. How did he treat Micaiah on this account?

A. Incensed at his prediction, because it was contradictory to the declarations of four hundred false prophets who had promised him success, he sent him to prison until the conclusion of the war.

A. M.

3105. Q. How was the war terminated? B. C. 899. A. Ahab being mortally wounded in Jehoshaphat 18. battle, died in the evening, and the Syrians were left in possession of the field.

Q. Was Elijah's prediction concerning Ahab fulfilled? A. Yes his body being carried home, the servants washed his chariot and his armour in the pool of Samaria :

*

:

like Mesha,-sheep

Many of the oriental princes were, masters. Both sacred and profane history abound in instances of the wealth and power of the eastern shepherds.

and dogs came and licked his blood. Ahaziah, his son, succeeded him.

Q. What city was rebuilt in the days of Ahab?

A. Jericho was rebuilt by Hiel of Bethel, "He laid the foundation thereof in Abiram his first-born, and set up the gates thereof in his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Joshua the son of Nun."

Q. What mercantile speculation was begun by Ahaziah?

A. He built ships at Ezion-geber to go to Ophir for gold, and was joined in the undertaking by Jehosaphat, king of Judah but the fleet was wrecked.

A. M.

3105. Q. What befel Ahaziah?

B. C. 899.

A. In the second year of his reign, he Jehosaphat 18. fell down through a lattice in his upper chamber, and died shortly after.

Q. What remarkable circumstance was connected with his death?

A. The servants whom he had sent to inquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron, concerning his illness, were met by Elijah, who bade them return and say to Ahaziah, "Thou shalt surely die." The king no sooner received this message, than he sent a captain and fifty men to bring Elijah to him: this company and another, with their captains, were consumed by fire from heaven, at the

Commentators interpret this in the successive deaths of all Hiel's children :-the first died in laying the foundation, and the last in setting up the gates of the city: thus his family became extiuct.