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Syrians designed him another visit; which accordingly | about their necks, to make their submission upon what came to pass. For some of his generals having per-conditions he pleased. The conditions that Ahab insuaded the king of Syria, that the gods of the Israelites sisted on, were only, that the Syrians should restore all were gods of the hills,' and, therefore, to fight them the country which they had taken from Baasha, king of with advantage, was to fight them in a champaign coun- Israel, and grant him some privileges in Damascus try, he raised another army of equal force with that their capital, as a token of their homage and subjection; he had lost the year before, and came and sat down which the other very readily consented to, and so a before Apheck, a city in the tribe of Asher. Ahab, how-league was concluded between them: but a league so ever, was prepared to receive him, and though with a force far inferior to the Syrians, marched out to meet them, gave them battle, put them to the rout, and slew upon the spot 100,000 of them.

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a

a citizen thereof, who had a vineyard, which Ahab was | Jezreel, ordering them to proclaim a fast, to bring very desirous of obtaining and therefore offered the e Naboth before the judges, and to suborn two false owner of it an equivalent, either in land or money; but witnesses, who should depose against him, that he had the owner, upon the account of its being his paternal blasphemed God and the king, that so he might be inheritance, refusing to part with it, gave Ahab such carried out of the city, and stoned. 8 All this was done uneasiness, that he took his bed for mere discontent, according to this wicked woman's desire; and, as soon and was so sullen and uneasy, that he would not eat his as Ahab understood that Naboth was dead, he went to meat. But when his wife Jezebel came to understand Jezreel, and took possession of his vineyard: but upon the cause, she first upbraided him with his pusillanimity, his return to Samaria, the prophet Elijah, by God's dior not knowing how to exert the authority of a king, and rection, met him, and having upbraided him with this his then to cheer him up, bid him drive away all melancholy, last flagitiousness, in slaying the innocent, and seizing for that she had found out an expedient how to put him on his inheritance, he denounced this heavy sentence in the possession of Naboth's vineyard. To this pur- against him, That in the same manner that dogs had pose she wrote letters from Samaria in Ahab's name, licked Naboth's blood, they should lick his;' that all his and sealed with his signet, to the principal men of posterity should die by the sword, and be exposed without the honour of a decent funeral; and that, as to his wife Jezebel, she should be devoured by dogs near the 8. Esth. iii. 12. Dan, vi. 17 or 18, &c.) which are usually of silver or cornelian, with their respective names engraved upon them on one side, and the name of their kingdom or principality, or else some sentence of the Koran, on the other." Eastern signets have cypress and letters on them.-Clarke's Travels, vol. i. p. 320.--ED.

с

a 1 Kings xxi. 2. 'Give me thy vineyard.' The request of Ahab seems at first view fair and honourable. Naboth's vineyard was nigh to the palace of Ahab, and he wished to add it to his own for a kitchen garden, or perhaps a grass plot, gan yarak; and he offers to give him either a better vineyard for it, or to give him its worth in money. Naboth rejects the proposal with horror: The Lord forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to thee.' No man could finally alienate any part of the parental inheritance; it might be sold or mortgaged till the jubilee, but at that time it must revert to its original owner, if not redeemed before; for this God had particularly enjoined, (Lev. xxv. 14—17, 25—28.) therefore Naboth properly said, ver. 3, The Lord forbid it me, to give the inheritance of my fathers.' Ahab most evidently wished him to alienate it finally, and this is what God's law had expressly forbidden; therefore he could not, consistently with his duty to God, indulge Ahab; and it was high iniquity in Ahab to tempt him to do it; and to covet it showed the depravity of Ahab's soul.-ED.

By this it appears, that though the kings of Israel did rule their subjects in a very arbitrary and despotic manner, yet they did not as yet take the liberty to seize on their lands and hereditaments; and therefore what Samuel prophesies of the kings of Israel, that they would take their fields, their vineyards, and their olive-yards,' (1 Sam. viii, 14,) does not extend to any true and lawful, but a presumed and usurped right only in their kings.-Calmet's Commentary.

c 1 Kings xxi. 8. Seal.' Seals are of very ancient invention. Thus Judah left his seal with Tamar as a pledge. The ancient Hebrews wore their seals or signets in rings on their fingers, or in bracelets on their arms. Sealing rings, called annuli, signatorii, sigillares, and chirographi, are said by profane authors to have been invented by the Lacedæmonians, who, rot content to shut their chests, armouries, &c., with keys, added a seal also. Letters and contracts were sealed thus: first they were tied up with thread or a string, then the wax was applied to the knot, and the seal impressed upon it. Rings seem to have been used as seals in almost every country. Pliny, however, observes that seals were scarcely used at the time of the Trojan war; the method of shutting up letters was by curious knots, which invention was particularly honoured, as in the instance of the Gordian knot. We are also informed by Pliny, that in his time no seals were used but in the Roman empire: but at Rome testaments were null without the testator's seal and the seals of seven witnesses.-(Digest. b. xxxvii. tit. de Bonorum Possessione. Wilson's Archæol. Dict. art. Seal.) The very ancient custom of sealing dispatches with a seal or signet, set in a ring, is still retained in the east. Pococke says, (Travels, vol. i. p. 186, note,) “in Egypt they make the impression of their name with their seal, generally of cornelian, which they wear on their finger, and which is blacked when they have occasion to seal with it." Hanway remarks (Travels, i. 317.) that "the Persian ink serves not only for writing, but for subscribing with their seal; indeed many of the Persians in high office could not write. In their rings they wear agates, which serve for a seal, on which is frequently engraved their name, and some verse from the Koran." Shaw (Travels, p. 247.) says, "as few or none either of the Arab shekhs, or of Turkish and eastern kings, princes, or bashaws know to write their own names, all their letters and decrees are stamped with their proper rings, seals, or signets, (1 Kings xxi.

d 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 imploring 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 Commentaries.

e Josephus is of opinion, that, as Naboth was of an illustrious house, he was ordered to be set in an honourable place among the elders and chief rulers of the city; that so it might be thought, that they did not condemn him out of hatred or ill will, but merely as they were constrained to it by the evidence that was given against him. But others will have it, that the reason why he was set in an eminent place was only, because persons accusal and arraigned were wont to stand conspicuous before their judges, that all the people might see them, and hear both the accusations against them, and their defence.—Patrick's Commentary.

By the law of Moses it was death to blaspheme God, (Lev. xxiv. 16.) and by custom it was death to revile the king, (Ex. 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 at Jerusalem, as the Hebrew docters tell us, and his goods came to his heirs; whereas, when a mai 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 conEs cated, and Ahab, by that incans, get possession of his vineyard. -Patrick's Commentary.

g Princes never want instruments to execute their pleasure: and yet it is strange that among all these judges and great men, there should be none that abhorred such a villany. It must be considered, however, that for a long while they had cast off al fear and sense of God, and prostituted their consciences to please their king: nor durst they disobey Jezebel's commands, who had the full power and government of the king, as they well knew, and could easily have taken away their lives, had they refused to condemn Naboth.-Poole's Annotations.

h1 Kings xxi. 23. Mr Bruce, when at Gondar, was witness to a scene in a great measure similar to the devouring of Jezebel by dogs. He says, "the bodies of those killed by the sword,

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wall of Jezreel,' that is, a where Naboth was judged, | Astarte, d who unanimously agreed, that the expedition and unjustly condemned.

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Uneasy at the sight of the prophet, and much more terrified at his denunciations, Ahab rent his clothes, put on sackcloth, and gave other indications of his sorrow and humiliation; but as his repentance was neither sincere nor persevering, God, who might otherwise have revoked the whole sentence, inflicted part of it upon his person; but the utter extirpation of his family did not happen, till the reign of his son Jehoram, as we shall see in its proper place.

would prove successful; but as Jehoshaphat's purpose was, not to inquire of these, but of some true prophet of the Lord, with much difficulty he obtained of Ahab to have Micaiah produced, who, charging e Ahab's prophets with falsehood, foretold, that the enterprise would prove fatal to all Israel, and to Ahab in particular; and therefore he advised both kings to desist.

Ahab, however, instead of listening to Micaiah, ordered him into custody, until he should return in peace; and taking Jehoshaphat with him, marched with all his forces to the siege: but, when he came within sight of the enemy's army, his courage began to cool, and thinking to evade the force of Micaiah's prophecy by a stratagem of his own, he put himself in the garb of a common officer, and advised Jehoshaphat to fight in his royal robes. The king of Syria had given particular command to his generals to single out Ahab, and, if possible to kill him, as the chief author of the war. At first they mistook Jehoshaphat for the king of Israel, and therefore fell upon him with great impetuosity; but perceiving at length, that he was not the person they wanted, they desisted from the pursuit of him, and, in quest of Ahab,

Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, as we said before, had imprudently married his son and heir to this wicked Ahab's daughter; and as this alliance occasioned an interview between the two kings, Jehoshaphat went one day to Samaria, to visit Ahab, who entertained him and his attendants very splendidly; but taking the advantage of this opportunity, invited him to go along with him to the siege of Ramoth Gilead, a town in the tribe of Gad, which the king of Syria unjustly detained from him. Jehoshaphat agreed to attend him; but being loth to do any thing of this kind without a divine approbation, he desired of Ahab to inquire of the prophets concerning the event of this expedition. To this pur-bended their course another way. pose Ahab summoned together 400 priests of the goddess

were hewn to pieces and scattered about the streets, being denied burial. I was miserable, and almost driven to despair, at seeing my hunting dogs twice let loose by the carelessness of my servants, bringing into the court-yard the heads and arms of slaughtered men, and which I could no way prevent, but by the destruction of the dogs themselves." He also adds, that upon being asked by the king the reason of his dejected and sickly appearance, among other reasons he informed him, "it was occasioned by the execution of three men, which he had lately seen; because the hyænas, allured into the streets by the quantity of carrion, would not let him pass by night in safety from the palace, and because the dogs fled into his house, to eat pieces of human carcasses at their leisure." (Travels, vol. iv. p. 81.) This account illustrates also the readiness of the dogs to lick the blood of Ahab (1 Kings xxii. 38.), in perfect conformity to which is the expression of the prophet Jeremiah, (xv. 3.) I will appoint over them the sword to slay, and the dogs to tear.'-ED.

a There is a great dispute among the learned, as to the accomplishment of this prophecy. At first it was no doubt intended to be literally fulfilled; but upon Ahab's repentance, as we find below, the punishment was transferred from him to his son Jehoram, in whom it was actually accomplished; for his dead body was cast into the portion of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for the dogs to devour,' (2 Kings ix. 25.) Since Ahab's blood therefore was licked by dogs, not at Jezreel, but at Samaria, it seems necessary, that we should understand the Hebrew word which our translation renders in the place where,' not as denoting the place, but the manner in which the thing was done; and so the sense of the passage will be,-That as dogs licked, or in like manner as dogs licked Naboth's blood; even so shall they lick thine; observe what I say, even thine.-Poole's Annot. 61 Kings xxi. 27. Going softly seems to have been one of the many expressions of mourning commonly used among the eastern nations. That it was in use among the Jews appears from the case of Ahab; and by mistake it has been confounded with walking barefoot. It seems to have been a very slow, solemn manner of walking, well adapted to the state of mourners labouring under great sorrow and dejection of mind.-ED.

c The scope of the passage, (1 Kings xxi. 27–29.) leads us to believe, that Ahab's repentance was sincere, though it produced no lasting improvement in his character; besides, if his repentance had been merely a false pretence, it cannot be supposed that God would have signified his approbation of it by a remission of the threatened punishment. The circumstance deserves our particular notice, and furnishes a signal instance of God's readiness to meet the returning penitent, even while he is yet a great way off-ED.

Ahab, however, did not gain much by his politic pro

d In the text, they are simply called prophets; but it is not impossible that they were priests of the goddess Astarte, maintained by the wicked Jezebel.-Ep.

e Micaiah's answer to Ahab, inquiring of him the success of his intended exhibition, is, Go, and prosper; for the Lord shall deliver the city into the hands of the king,' (1 Kings xxii. 15.) which does not at all contradict the other prophets, had it been spoken in earnest; but we have good reason to believe, that the words were spoken ironically, and in mockery to the promises which the other prophets made Ahab. Accordingly, we may observe by Ahab's reply, that he suspected Micaiah's sincerity, and, either by his gesture or manner of speaking, gathered, that his meaning was to traduce these false prophets for their answers. So that Micaiah's answer is in effect, as if he had said,- Since thou dost not seek to know the truth, but only to please thyself, go to the battle, as all thy prophets advise thee; expect the success which they promise thee, and try the truth of their predictions, by thy dear bought experience.-Poole's Annotations. [The words of Micaiah evidently contain a strong irony; as if he had said, "All your prophets have predicted success; you wish me to speak as they speak: Go and prosper; for the Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king."" These were the precise words of the false prophets, (v. 6 and 12,) and were spoken by Micaiah in such a tone and manner as at once showed to Ahab that he did not believe them; hence the king adjures him (v. 16.) that he would speak to him nothing but truth; and on this the prophet immediately relates to him the prophetic vision which pointed out the disasters which ensued. It is worthy of remark, that this prophecy of the king's prophets is couched in the same ambiguous terms by which the false prophets in the heathen world endeavoured to maintain their credit, while they deluded their votaries. The reader will observe that the word it is not in the original.

The Lord will deliver it into the hand of the king;' and the words are so artfully constructed, that they may be interpreted for or against; so that, be the event whatever it might, the juggling prophet could save his credit, by saying he meant what had happened. Thus then the prophecy might have been understood:

The Lord will deliver (Ramoth Gilead) into the king's (Ahab's) hand;' or 'The Lord will deliver (Israel) into the king's hand;' that is, into the hand of the king of Syria. And Micaiah repeats these words of uncertainty, in order to ridicule them and expose their fallacy.—En.

f This Benhadad might order, either in policy, as supposing this to be the best and readiest way to put an end to this war; or with a design to take him prisoner, that thereby he might wipe out the stain of his own captivity, and recover the honour and advantages which he then lost.-Poole's Annotations.

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ject, as he thought it; for he was mortally wounded by a random arrow : and though he was held up in his chariot for some time, with his face towards the enemy, to encourage his soldiers, yet about sunset he died, and a retreat was sounded. His dead body was carried to Samaria, and there buried, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him in the kingdom. But as the chariot wherein he was carried, was all stained with the flux of blood from his wound, while it was washed in a pool near the city, the dogs came and licked it, that the prophecy of Elijah might not go altogether unfulfilled.

a most gracious answer vouchsafed him, namely, that, on the next day, he should obtain a complete victory, without once striking a stroke; which accordingly came to pass. For when Jehoshaphat drew up his army, near the place where the enemy lay, he found nothing there but dead bodies; God having been pleased, before his approach, so to confound their understanding, that being a mixed multitude of divers nations, they, d some way or

the most excellent that we meet with in sacred history. He begins it with an acknowledgment of God's supreme and irresistible power, which extends itself everywhere, over all creatures in heaven and earth, which are every one subject to his authori ty:-O Lord God of our fathers, art thou not God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to

As for Jehoshaphat, though he escaped from the battle, and returned in peace to Jerusalem, yet God sent the prophet Jehu to reprove him for his having assisted Ahab, who was a God's avowed enemy: but this fault he endeavoured to repair by the good order which he estab-withstand thee?' Then he remembers the peculiar relation lished in his dominions, both as to civil and religious affairs; by appointing honest and able judges, and giving them proper charges; by regulating the discipline and order of the priests and Levites, and by enjoining them to perform punctually their respective duties in the service of God. Nor was it long before he experimentally found the favour of God extended to him in a most miraculous mauner, for this his reformation. For when the Moabites and Ammonites, with their auxiliaries, made a formidable invasion upon his kingdom, and he thereupon had appointed a public fast, and applied himself to God for help by humiliation and prayer, he had a Even common reason taught the heathens not to make any friendship with such as were enemies to the gods; and therefore Callimachus, in his hymn to Ceres, tells her, "O mother Ceres, may that man never be in friendship with me, who is in enmity with thee; nor let him dwell under the same roof; for those who are thy foes, assuredly are no friends of mine." Whereupon the illustrious Spanheim has observed many similar sayings among the heathens, and how the ancient Greeks abhorred to lodge in the same house, or to eat at the same table, with a murderer, or any grievous criminal, for the same reason, perhaps, that Horace has thus expressed upon the like occasion:-"The man who hath revealed the secret mysteries of Ceres, must ever be debarred from sitting under the same roof, or sailing in the same boat with me; for frequently the incensed deity of Olympus, in inflicting due punishment, hath joined the innocent with the guilty.-Justice, though she may follow with a limping foot, hath rarely failed to grasp the evading criminal."

Abraham, as a reward of his fidelity; and the deed of gift which which the people of Israel have to him; the promise he made to he conveyed to him and his posterity, of this country for ever: 'Art thou not our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of the land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham, thy friend for ever?' Then he reminds him of the long possession they had had of the country, and of the temple which Solomon had built for his worship, to whom, at the consecration, (and therefore he refers to Solomon's words at the consecration, 1 Kings viii.) he promised a gracious reward to all and have built thee a sanctuary therein for thy name, saying, it the prayers that should be offered there: and they dwelt therein, when evil cometh upon us, as the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we stand before thee in this house, and in thy presence, for thy name is in this house, and cry unto thee in our affliction, then thou wilt hear and help.' In the next place, he represents the foul ingratitude of their enemies, in invading a country to which they had no manner of title, even though the Israelites did them not the least harm when they came to take possession of it, but took the pains to march a long way about to get to it, rather than give any molestation; and in aggravation of their wickedness in this respect, he suggests, that by this invasion they made an attempt, not only upon the rights of the Israelites, but of God himself, who was the great Lord and proprietor from whom they held the land: And now behold the children of Ammon, and Meab, and Mount Seir, whom thou wouldst not let Israel invade, when they came out of the land of Egypt, but they turned from them, and destroyed them not; behold, I say, how they reward us, to come to cast us out of the possession which thou gavest us to inherit.' Then he appeals to the justice of God, the righteous judge, who helps those that suffer wrong, especially when they have no other helper: for this is the last argument he makes use of to conciliate the divine assistance, even the weak condition wherein he and his people were, which made them the objects of the divine pity, especially since they placed their hope and confidence in him alone: O Lord, our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company, that cometh against us, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee.' (2 Chron. xx. 12.) &c. with Patrick's Commentary on the words.

b The charge or solemn admonition which Jehoshaphat gave the judges, whom he appointed in each city, runs in these words:Take heed what ye do, for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment; wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you: take heed and do it; for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, no respect of persons, no taking of gifts,' (2 Chron. xix. 6, 7.) It is a remarkable saying of Cicero, that judges, being sworn to do justice, should remember, d The words in the text are, the Lord set ambushments when they come to pass sentence, that they have God as a against the children of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, which witness, that is, as I suppose, that they have their own mind, were come against Judah, and they were smitten,' (2 Chron, than which God hath given to man nothing more divine." (De xx. 22.) And there are two ways where in this slaughter may be Offic. b. iii. c. 13.) Where he has left us this excellent instruc- supposed to have happened: either, 1st, by the ministry of God's tion likewise, that "a man must lay aside the person of a friend angels, who might appear in the shape of men, and, putting when he puts on the person of a judge." In like manner, there the appearance of Moabites or Ammonites, might smite some are several passages in Hesiod, admonishing those who have the part of the army privately, and they supposing this to be done administration of justice, to retain in their minds the considera- by their neighbours, might turn about and fall upon them like tion of their gods' inspection: but one of these will answer to our enemies, and so break forth into mutual slaughters: or, 2nd, ty purpose." Ye kings, and ye that on earth administer justice to some jealousies and animosities among themselves, which by man, be faithful! for, amidst the countless mortal tribes, immor- degrees break forth, first into secret ambushments, which cae tal beings dwell, and watch those who, wreckless of the wrath of party laid for another, and then into open hostilities and outrages heaven, grind the poor, inflicting undue punishment; yea, to the to their total destruction. So easy a thing it is for God to defeat all-rearing earth, Jove has commissioned three myriads of un- his enemies, who can, when he pleases, infatuate their designs, dying ones as guardians of the death-doomed, by night and by or arm their own passions and mistakes against them.-Poole's day hovering on the air, and crowding the earthward tracts of Annotations on 2 Chron. xx. 22.-Boothroyd renders the pas heaven, they chain the arms and curb the fiery wills of tyrants.-sage thus: "And when they began to sing and praise, Jehovah Works and Days, 1. 246.

turned the ambush-men of Mount Seir, who should have come e This prayer of Jehoshaphat's is deservedly accounted one of against Judah, against the Ammonites and Moabites, and they

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other, by mistake, fell a slaying and destroying one | equip out a fleet in the port of Ezion-Geber, in order to another; so that Jehoshaphat and his people had no- go to Tarshish; for the whole fleet was dashed in pieces thing else to do but to carry off the arms and spoils upon a ridge of rocks that lay in the mouth of the harof the dead, wherein they employed themselves for three bour, before they ever got to sea. But, as Jehoshaphat whole days, and, on the fourth, meeting in a valley, was afterwards convinced, that this was a judgment of which from this event, was called afterwards the valley God upon him for entering into partnership with an imof blessing,' they gave solemn thanks to God for this pious prince, as Ahaziah certainly was, the next fleet he deliverance; and, not long after, Jehoshaphat, with his set out was from his other port of Elah, wherein he suffervictorious troops, entering Jerusalem in triumph, was │ed Ahaziah to have no concern; and therefore came off received with the joyful acclamations of his people, and with better success. The truth is, Jehoshaphat was a restruck such terror into all the neighbouring nations, that, ligious and good prince, a zealous and great reformer, for the remainder of his reign, he met with no molesta- and yet the people still retained a kindness to the high tion. places. He lived sixty, and reigned twenty-five years; was buried in the city of David, and succeeded by his son Jehoram.