provisions to be exceedingly abundant and cheap, but the unbelieving courtier was crushed in the gate by the people who struggled to obtain egress, and he died, according to the prophet's word.

3. 2 Kings 8: 1–15.- Elisha afterwards goes to Damascus, and is met by Ben-hadad's servant Hazael, whom Elijah had been commissioned to anoint. (1 Kings 19: 16.) Hazael is commanded by his master, who is sick, to inquire of the prophet concerning the course which his disease will take. Elisha answers that the disease itself is not fatal, but that, nevertheless, the king will die, and he weeps as he meditates on the misery which Hazael will cause Israel to suffer. Hazael returns, murders the

king, and reigns in his stead.

§ 96. Jehoram and Ahaziah in Judah.—Jehu in Israel.— Athaliah and Jekoash in Judah.

816,

1. 2 Kings 8: 16, &c. (2 Chron. 21, 22). Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, commenced his reign with the murder of his brothers, who were better than himself; and, entertaining sentiments similar to those of his ungodly wife Athaliah, he introduced the worship of Baal in Judah. The Philistines and Arabians plundered Jerusalem, and carried away all his treasures and his children; his youngest son alone was left, named Jehoahaz (2 Chron. 21: 17), and also Ahaziah (2 Chron. 22:1). The Lord, moreover, smote him in his bowels with an incurable disease, and he died in great agony; this event occurred according to the prediction contained in a writing which came to him from Elijah, and which the prophet had either prepared himself, previous to his death, or directed the sons of the prophets to prepare in his name, after his death. - Ahaziah succeeded him. He united with Joram, the son of Ahab, in a military expedition against Hazael of Syria. At Ramoth-gilead, Joram is wounded; he retires to his summer-house in Jezreel, where he receives a visit from Ahaziah.

2. 2 Kings 9, 10.-In the mean time Elisha directs one of the children of the prophets to anoint Jehu, the general of Jehoram (Joram), who was with the army near Ramoth. After he had

been proclaimed king, he advances towards Jezreel. Jehoram sends messengers to meet him, and, as they are detained by Jehu, he goes forward himself, in company with his nephew Ahaziah, king of Judah, to meet Jehu; as soon as the latter sees him, he draws his bow, pierces his heart with an arrow, and commands his body to be cast from the chariot on the field of Naboth; Ahaziah attempts to escape, but is pursued, and receives a wound of which he also dies. Jezebel is thrown down from a window of the palace, and devoured by dogs.-Jehu transmits a letter to Samaria, in which he calls upon the guardians of 70 grand-sons of Ahab, who resided in that city, to put them all to death, and he is obeyed. As he approaches Samaria, he meets 42 men from Judah, who design to visit the king, to whom they are related; these also are slain. After entering the city, Jehu gathers all the people together, and says: "Ahab served Baal a little; but Jehu shall serve him much." All the priests of Baal assemble, a solemn sacrifice to that idol is proclaimed, the sacrifice is offered, and when the worshippers are collected in Baal's temple, they are all slain. Nevertheless, Jehu did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam, and God accordingly declared that his house should not continue after the fourth generation. In those days the Lord began to be weary of Israel, and Hazael smote them in all their coasts.

3. 2 Kings 11, 12. (2 Chron. 22-24.)-After the death of Ahaziah, his mother Athaliah destroyed the seed royal, for the purpose of securing the royal authority for herself. Only one of the king's sons, Joash (a grand-son of Athaliah), who was one year old, escaped death; his father's sister, the wife of the highpriest Jehoiada, withdrew him from the slaughter, and concealed him in the temple. Six years afterwards, Jehoiada succeeded in placing him on the throne; Athaliah was put to death, and the worship of Baal was suppressed in Judah. The priests readily dedicated their income to the work of repairing the injuries which the temple had sustained. But Joash (Jehoash) restored the worship of Baal, after the death of Jehoiada, and the prophet Zechariah (the son of the latter), who rebuked the idolatrous people, was stoned. The calamities which he had predicted, soon

occurred; the Syrians came against Jerusalem, shed much blood, and carried much spoil away. Joash himself was slain by his

own servants.

§ 97. Jehoahaz, Joash and Jeroboam II. in Israel. Amaziah in Judah.

1. 2 Kings 13, 14.-Jehoahaz, the son of Jehu, also followed the sins of Jeroboam, and the Lord delivered him into the hand of Hazael. During the reign of his son Joash, the prophet Elisha died, after having symbolically announced to the king (by the bow and arrows) that he should thrice defeat the Syrians. Joash was overwhelmed with grief when the prophet died, and exclaimed: "O my father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!" A dead man, whose body was cast into Elisha's sepulchre, was restored to life, when he came in contact with the prophet's bones. Jeroboam II., the son of Joash, retook, in accordance with the words of the prophet Jonah, the whole east-Jordanic territory from Ben-hadad III., king of Syria, for the Lord saw that Israel was in affliction, and had no helper. He saved Israel by the hand of Jeroboam, and sent the prophets Hosea, Amos, Jonah and others, to teach the king of Israel the ways of Jehovah. This improved condition of the kingdom was not, however, long sustained, for the people refused to be led to repentance by the goodness of God.

2. 2 Kings 14. (2 Chron. 25.) — Amaziah, the son and successor of Joash king of Judah, numbered 300,000 men in his kingdom, who were able to go forth to war; he also hired 100,000 men of Israel, whom he, however, soon afterwards dismissed, in obedience to the directions of a certain prophet. He defeated the Edomites, and took Selah (Petra), their chief city. But he brought back with him the idols of the Edomites, and burned incense to them. During his absence, the Israelitish mercenaries whom he had dismissed, destroyed many men in Judah and plundered their cities. It was, probably, in consequence of these transactions, that he declared war against Israel. The answer of Joash consisted of the parable of the cedar and the thistle; but Amaziah would not receive the warning, and was defeated

and taken prisoner. Joash broke down the wall of Jerusalem, and robbed the temple and palace. Amaziah, who was afterwards restored to liberty, lost his life in consequence of a conspiracy which his own people formed against him.

-

The cotemporaneous

1. 2 Kings 15: 1-7. (2 Chron. 26.) — Uzziah (also called Azariah), the son of Amaziah, ascended the throne when he was sixteen years old, and reigned fifty-two years. He sought God as long as the prophet Zechariah remained with him, and the divine blessing caused him to prosper. He subdued the Philistines and the Arabians, fortified Jerusalem, built other cities and strong places, loved agriculture, and promoted its interests. His army amounted to more than 300,000 men, and he introduced the use of the catapult and ballista in the siege of fortified places. But at length his heart was lifted up, and he presumed to connect the office of the high-priest with the royal dignity. On attempting to burn incense, in opposition to the remonstrances of the priests, he was instantly smitten with the leprosy, and remained a leper until he died. His son Jotham, who had assumed the regency, after his father's disease had compelled him to seclude himself, ascended the throne after the death of the latter and reigned sixteen years. He did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, repaired the temple, compelled the Ammonites to pay him tribute, and acquired great power.

2. 2 Kings 15: 8, &c. After the death of Jeroboam II. the internal affairs of Israel long remained in confusion; it was only at the expiration of eleven years of anarchy that his son Zachariah ascended the throne; but he was murdered six months afterwards, and with him the family of Jehu became extinct. Shallum, who had slain him, after reigning one month only, was put to death by his general Menahem. This king retained possession of the throne by means of the terror which his cruelty inspired, and also by the aid of Pul, the powerful king of Assyria, whose protection he purchased for 1000 talents of silver. After a reign of ten years he was succeeded by his son Pekahiah

This king, after reigning two years, was killed by Pekah, who reigned twenty years, when he too was slain, and Hoshea, the last king of Israel, seized the throne. Pekah had previously made an alliance with Rezin king of Syria, against king Ahaz of Judah; the latter invoked the aid of Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, by whom both the Syrians and the inhabitants of the northern part of Galilee and the east-Jordanic territory, were carried captive to Assyria.

$99. The new character which Prophecy assumed.

1. At the commencement of the eighth century before the Christian era, the development of Prophecy (as far as it was sustained by the Old Testament) exhibited a new phase. Since the period in which Prophecy had received a new impulse through Samuel, it had directed its attention almost exclusively to the present time; indications of future events were rare. The reformation of which he was the agent had given a new and more animated appearance to theocratical life and theocratical forms, and the most noble fruits of the change were produced during the period in which David and Solomon occupied the throne. The present times contained the visible germs and types of that future and perfect state to which the tendencies of the old covenant were directed. It had hitherto been the office of prophecy to tend and to preserve these germs and types, and organically unfold them more and more. Thus, too, Messianic prophecy (a distinct style of prophecy), was founded on the present condition of the people-it viewed the age of the Messiah as the period in which the present condition would undergo a change and be raised to glory and perfection. This bloom of Prophecy did not long continue; the division of the theocratic state into two kingdoms, was the first violent outbreak of that corruption which, henceforward, continually assumed a darker hue. While the hope remained that a return to the former and happier condition would occur, the efforts of Prophecy were unwearied to infuse new vigor into the theocratic element which still subsisted, and to suppress the corruption which had unveiled itself. In these circumstances, when all the energy of prophecy was necessarily