Chapter 13.
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Chapter 13.
HOW AHAB WHEN HE HAD TAKEN JEZEBEL TO WIFE BECAME MORE WICKED THAN ALL THE KINGS THAT HAD BEEN BEFORE HIM; OF THE ACTIONS OF THE PROPHET ELIJAH, AND WHAT BEFELL NABOTH.FJAJ 8.89
1. NOW Ahab the king of Israel dwelt in Samaria, and held the government
for twenty-two years; and made no alteration in the conduct of the kings
that were his predecessors, but only in such things as were of his own
invention for the worse, and in his most gross wickedness
He imitated
them in their wicked courses, and in their injurious behavior towards God,
and more especially he imitated the transgression of Jeroboam; for he worshipped
the heifers that he had made; and he contrived other absurd objects of
worship besides those heifers: he also took to wife the daughter of Ethbaal,
king of the Tyrians and Sidonians, whose name was Jezebel, of whom he learned
to worship her own gods
This woman was active and bold, and fell into
so great a degree of impurity and madness, that she built a temple to the
god of the Tyrians, Which they call Belus, and planted a grove of all sorts
of trees; she also appointed priests and false prophets to this god
The
king also himself had many such about him, and so exceeded in madness and
wickedness all [the kings] that went before him.FJAJ 8.90
2. There was now a prophet of God Almighty, of Thesbon, a country in
Gilead, that came to Ahab, and said to him, that God foretold he would
not send rain nor dew in those years upon the country but when he should
appear
And when he had confirmed this by an oath, he departed into the
southern parts, and made his abode by a brook, out of which he had water
to drink; for as for his food, ravens brought it to him every day: but
when that river was dried up for want of rain, he came to Zarephath, a
city not far from Sidon and Tyre, for it lay between them, and this at
the command of God, for [God told him] that he should there find a woman
who was a widow that should give him sustenance
So when he was not far
off the city, he saw a woman that labored with her own hands, gathering
of sticks: so God informed him that this was the woman who was to give
him sustenance
So he came and saluted her, and desired her to bring him
some water to drink; but as she was going so to do, he called to her, and
would have her to bring him a loaf of bread also; whereupon she affirmed
upon oath that she had at home nothing more than one handful of meal, and
a little oil, and that she was going to gather some sticks, that she might
knead it, and make bread for herself and her son; after which, she said,
they must perish, and be consumed by the famine, for they had nothing for
themselves any longer
Hereupon he said, "Go on with good courage,
and hope for better things; and first of all make me a little cake, and
bring it to me, for I foretell to thee that this vessel of meal and this
cruse of oil shall not fail until God send rain." When the prophet
had said this, she came to him, and made him the before-named cake; of
which she had part for herself, and gave the rest to her son, and to the
prophet also; nor did any thing of this fall until the drought ceased.
Now Menander mentions this drought in his account of the acts of Ethbaal,
king of the Tyrians; where he says thus: "Under him there was a want
of rain from the month Hyperberetmus till the month Hyperberetmus of the
year following; but when he made supplications, there came great thunders.
This Ethbaal built the city Botrys in Phoenicia, and the city Auza in Libya."
By these words he designed the want of rain that was in the days of Ahab,
for at that time it was that Ethbaal also reigned over the Tyrians, as
Menander informs us.FJAJ 8.91
3. Now this woman, of whom we spake before, that sustained the prophet,
when her son was fallen into a distemper till he gave up the ghost, and
appeared to be dead, came to the prophet weeping, and beating her breasts
with her hands, and sending out such expressions as her passions dictated
to her, and complained to him that he had come to her to reproach her for
her sins, and that on this account it was that her son was dead
But he
bid her be of good cheer, and deliver her son to him, for that he would
deliver him again to her alive
So when she had delivered her son up to
him, he carried him into an upper room, where he himself lodged, and laid
him down upon the bed, and cried unto God, and said, that God had not done
well, in rewarding the woman who had entertained him and sustained him,
by taking away her son; and he prayed that he would send again the soul
of the child into him, and bring him to life again
Accordingly God took
pity on the mother, and was willing to gratify the prophet, that he might
not seem to have come to her to do her a mischief, and the child, beyond
all expectation, came to life again
So the mother returned the prophet
thanks, and said she was then clearly satisfied that God did converse with
him.FJAJ 8.92
4. After a little while Elijah came to king Ahab, according to God's
will, to inform him that rain was coming
Now the famine had seized upon
the whole country, and there was a great want of what was necessary for
sustenance, insomuch that it was after the recovery of the widow's son
of Sarepta, God sent not only men that wanted it, but the earth itself
also, which did not produce enough for the horse and the other beasts of
what was useful for them to feed on, by reason of the drought
So the king
called for Obadiah, who was steward over his cattle, and said to him, that
he would have him go to the fountains of water, and to the brooks, that
if any herbs could be found for them, they might mow it down, and reserve
it for the beasts
And when he had sent persons all over the habitable
earth (34)
Josephus, in his present copies, says, that a little while rain upon the
earth; whereas, in our other copies, it is after many days, 1 Kings 18:1.
Several years are also intimated there, and in Josephus, sect. 2, as belonging
to this drought and famine; nay, we have the express mention of the third
year, which I suppose was reckoned from the recovery of the widow's son,
and the ceasing of this drought in Phmuiela (which, as Menander informs
us here, lasted one whole year); and both our Savior and St. James affirm,
that this drought lasted in all three years and six months. as their copies
of the Old Testament then informed them, Luke 4:25; James 5:17. Josephus
here seems to mean, that this drought affected all the habitable earth,
and presently all the earth, as our Savior says it was upon all the earth,
Luke 4:25. They who restrain these expressions to the land of Judea alone,
go without sufficient authority or examples.
to discover the prophet Elijah, and they could not find him, he bade Obadiah
accompany him
So it was resolved they should make a progress, and divide
the ways between them; and Obadiah took one road, and the king another.
Now it happened that the same time when queen Jezebel slew the prophets,
that this Obadiah had hidden a hundred prophets, and had fed them with
nothing but bread and water
But when Obadiah was alone, and absent from
the king, the prophet Elijah met him; and Obadiah asked him who he was;
and when he had learned it from him, he worshipped him
Elijah then bid
him go to the king, and tell him that I am here ready to wait on him
But
Obadiah replied, "What evil have I done to thee, that thou sendest
me to one who seeketh to kill thee, and hath sought over all the earth
for thee? Or was he so ignorant as not to know that the king had left no
place untouched unto which he had not sent persons to bring him back, in
order, if they could take him, to have him put to death?" For he told
him he was afraid lest God should appear to him again, and he should go
away into another place; and that when the king should send him for Elijah,
and he should miss of him, and not be able to find him any where upon earth,
he should be put to death
He desired him therefore to take care of his
preservation; and told him how diligently he had provided for those of
his own profession, and had saved a hundred prophets, when Jezebel slew
the rest of them, and had kept them concealed, and that they had been sustained
by him
But Elijah bade him fear nothing, but go to the king; and he assured
him upon oath that he would certainly show himself to Ahab that very day.FJAJ 8.93
5. So when Obadiah had informed the king that Elijah was there, Ahab
met him, and asked him, in anger, if he were the man that afflicted the
people of the Hebrews, and was the occasion of the drought they lay under?
But Elijah, without any flattery, said that he was himself the man, he
and his house, which brought such sad afflictions upon them, and that by
introducing strange gods into their country, and worshipping them, and
by leaving their own, who was the only true God, and having no manner of
regard to him
However, he bade him go his way, and gather together all
the people to him to Mount Carmel, with his own prophets, and those of
his wife, telling him how many there were of them, as also the prophets
of the groves, about four hundred in number
And as all the men whom Ahab
sent for ran away to the forenamed mountain, the prophet Elijah stood in
the midst of them, and said, "How long will you live thus in uncertainty
of mind and opinion?" He also exhorted them, that in case they esteemed
their own country God to be the true and the only God, they would follow
him and his commandments; but in case they esteemed him to be nothing,
but had an opinion of the strange gods, and that they ought to worship
them, his counsel was, that they should follow them
And when the multitude
made no answer to what he said, Elijah desired that, for a trial of the
power of the strange gods, and of their own God, he, who was his only prophet,
while they had four hundred, might take a heifer and kill it as a sacrifice,
and lay it upon pieces of wood, and not kindle any fire, and that they
should do the same things, and call upon their own gods to set the wood
on fire; for if that were done, they would thence learn the nature of the
true God
This proposal pleased the people
So Elijah bade the prophets
to choose out a heifer first, and kill it, and to call on their gods
But
when there appeared no effect of the prayer or invocation of the prophets
upon their sacrifice, Elijah derided them, and bade them call upon their
gods with a loud voice, for they might either be on a journey, or asleep;
and when these prophets had done so from morning till noon, and cut themselves
with swords and lances, (35)
Mr. Spanheim takes notice here, that in the worship of Mithra (the god
of the Persians) the priests cut themselves in the same manner as did these
priests in their invocation of Baal (the god of the Phoenicians).
according to the customs of their country, and he was about to offer his
sacrifice, he bade [the prophets] go away, but bade [the people] come near
and observe what he did, lest he should privately hide fire among the pieces
of wood
So, upon the approach of the multitude, he took twelve stones,
one for each tribe of the people of the Hebrews, and built an altar with
them, and dug a very deep trench; and when he had laid the pieces of wood
upon the altar, and upon them had laid the pieces of the sacrifices, he
ordered them to fill four barrels with the water of the fountain, and to
pour it upon the altar, till it ran over it, and till the trench was filled
with the water poured into it
When he had done this, he began to pray
to God, and to invocate him to make manifest his power to a people that
had already been in an error a long time; upon which words a fire came
on a sudden from heaven in the sight of the multitude, and fell upon the
altar, and consumed the sacrifice, till the very water was set on fire,
and the place was become dry.FJAJ 8.94
6. Now when the Israelites saw this, they fell down upon the ground,
and worshipped one God, and called him The great and the only true God;
but they called the others mere names, framed by the evil and vile
opinions of men
So they caught their prophets, and, at the command of
Elijah, slew them
Elijah also said to the king, that he should go to dinner
without any further concern, for that in a little time he would see God
send them rain
Accordingly Ahab went his way
But Elijah went up to the
highest top of Mount Carmel, and sat down upon the ground, and leaned his
head upon his knees, and bade his servant go up to a certain elevated place,
and look towards the sea, and when he should see a cloud rising any where,
he should give him notice of it, for till that time the air had been clear.
When the Servant had gone up, and had said many times that he saw nothing,
at the seventh time of his going up, he said that he saw a small black
thing in the sky, not larger than a man's foot
When Elijah heard that,
he sent to Ahab, and desired him to go away to the city before the rain
came down
So he came to the city Jezreel; and in a little time the air
was all obscured, and covered with clouds, and a vehement storm of wind
came upon the earth, and with it a great deal of rain; and the prophet
was under a Divine fury, and ran along with the king's chariot unto Jezreel
a city of Izar (36)
For Izar we may here read (with Hudson and Cocceius) Isachar, i.e of the
tribe of Isachar, for to that tribe did Jezreel belong; and presently at
the beginning of sect. 8, as also ch. 15. sect. 4, we may read for Iar,
with one MS. nearly, and the Scripture, Jezreel, for that was the city
meant in the history of Naboth.
[Issaachar].FJAJ 8.95
7. When Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, understood what signs Elijah had
wrought, and how he had slain her prophets, she was angry, and sent messengers
to him, and by them threatened to kill him, as he had destroyed her prophets.
At this Elijah was affrighted, and fled to the city called Beersheba, which
is situate at the utmost limits of the country belonging to the tribe of
Judah, towards the land of Edom; and there he left his servant, and went
away into the desert
He prayed also that he might die, for that he was
not better than his fathers, nor need he be very desirous to live, when
they were dead; and he lay and slept under a certain tree; and when somebody
awakened him, and he was risen up, he found food set by him and water:
so when he had eaten, and recovered his strength by that his food, he came
to that mountain which is called Sinai, where it is related that Moses
received his laws from God; and finding there a certain hollow cave, he
entered into it, and continued to make his abode in it
But when a certain
voice came to him, but from whence he knew not, and asked him, why he was
come thither, and had left the city? he said, that because he had slain
the prophets of the foreign gods, and had persuaded the people that he
alone whom they had worshipped from the beginning was God, he was sought
for by the king's wife to be punished for so doing
And when he had heard
another voice, telling him that he should come out the next day into the
open air, and should thereby know what he was to do, he came out of the
cave the next day accordingly, When he both heard an earthquake, and saw
the bright splendor of a fire; and after a silence made, a Divine voice
exhorted him not to be disturbed with the circumstances he was in, for
that none of his enemies should have power over him
The voice also commanded
him to return home, and to ordain Jehu, the son of Nimshi, to be king over
their own multitude; and Hazael, of Damascus, to be over the Syrians; and
Elisha, of the city Abel, to be a prophet in his stead; and that of the
impious multitude, some should be slain by Hazael, and others by Jehu.
So Elijah, upon hearing this charge, returned into the land of the Hebrews.
And when he found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, ploughing, 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 presently, 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 taken his leave of them,
he followed him, and became the disciple and the servant of Elijah all
the days of his life
And thus have I despatched the affairs in which this
prophet was concerned.FJAJ 8.96
8. Now there was one Naboth, of the city Izar, [Jezreel,] who had a
field adjoining to that of the king: the king would have persuaded him
to sell him that his field, which lay so near to his own lands, at what
price he pleased, that he might join them together, and make them one farm;
and if he would not accept of money for it, he gave him leave to choose
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 king was grieved, as if he had
received an injury, when he could not get another man's possession, and
he 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 either dinner or supper, 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 to 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 Israelites [Jezreelites]
in Ahab's name, and commanded 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 witness 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 testified against, as the queen had written to
them, that he had blasphemed against God and Ahab the king, she desired
him to take possession of Naboth's vineyard on free cost
So Ahab was glad
at what had been done, and rose up immediately from the bed 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
to 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 that very place in which the dead body
of Naboth was eaten by dogs both his own blood and that of his wife's should
be shed, and that all his family should perish, because he had 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
(37)
"The Jews weep to this day," (says Jerome, here cited by Reland,)
"and roll themselves upon sackcloth, in ashes, barefoot, upon such
occasions." To which Spanheim adds, "that after the same manner
Bernice, when his life was in danger, stood at the tribunal of Florus barefoot."
Of the War, B. II. ch. 15. sect. 1. See the like of David, 2 Samuel 15:30;
Antiq. B. VII. ch. 9. sect. 2. and
would not touch any food; he also confessed his sins, and endeavored
thus to appease God
But God said to the prophet, that 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 fulfill
his threatening under Ahab's son; which message the prophet delivered to
the king.FJAJ 8.97