himself on Mount Zion. The burning of the dead, as a rite of sepulture, had originally been regarded with dislike by the Hebrews. But a change of feeling in this matter had by this time taken place; for the practice is not now mentioned as a new thing, and had probably been some time previously introduced. Afterward burning was considered the most distinguished honor which could be rendered to the dead, and the omission of it, in the case of royal personages, a disgrace. (See 2 Chron. xvi. 14, xxi. 19; Jer. xxxiv. 5; Amos vi. 10.) But in later days the Jews conceived a dislike to this rite; and their doctors endeavored, in consequence, to pervert the passages of Scripture which refer to it, so as to induce a belief that the aromatic substances alone, and not the body, were burnt. ISRAEL, FROM B. C. 931 TO B. C. 895. more striking were the prophecies and miracles which directed the attention of the Israelites to Jehovah, and brought disgrace upon the idols, and confusion on their worshippers. The history of this great and memorable struggle gives to the narrative of Ahab's reign an unusual prominence and extent in the Hebrew annals; and although a writer studious of brevity might at the first view might be disposed to omit, as episodical, much of the history of Elijah the Tishbite,* a little reflection will render it manifest that the prominence given to the history of this illustrious champion for the truth, was a designed and necessary result from the fact that the history of the Hebrew nation is the history of a church; and that although the history of this great controversy might be omitted or overlooked by those who erroneously regard the history of the Hebrews merely as a political history, in the other point of view it becomes of the most vital importance. The first appearance of Elijah is with great abruptness to announce a drought, and consequent famine, for the punishment of the idolatry into which the nation had fallen; and that this calamity should only be removed at his own intercession. He apprehended that the iniquities of the land would bring down upon it destruction from God and he therefore prayed for this lesser visitation, which might possibly bring the king and people to repentance. Ahab, the son of Omri, mounted the throne of Israel in the year 931 B. C., being the thirty-eighth year of Asa, king of Judah. This king was, throughout his reign of twenty-two years, entirely under the influence of his idolatrous and unprincipled wife, Jezebel, a daughter of Ethbaal, or Ithobalus, king of Tyre. Hitherto the irregularities connected with the service before the golden calves, as symbols of Jehovah, had formed the chief offence of Israel. But now Ahab and Jezebel united their authority to introduce the gods of other nations. The king built a temple in Sama- After such a denunciation, it was necesria, erected an image, and consecrated a sary that the prophet should withdraw himgrove to Baal, the god of the Sidonians. self from the presence and solicitations of Jezebel, earnest in promoting the worship the king, when the drought should comof her own god, maintained a multitude of mence, which it did, probably about the sixth priests and prophets of Baal. In a few years idolatry became the predominant religion of the land; and Jehovah, and the golden calves as representations of him, were viewed with no more reverence than Baal and his image. It now appeared as if the knowledge of the true God was forever lost to the Israelites; but Elijah the prophet boldly stood up, and opposed himself to the authority of the king, and succeeded in retaining many of his countrymen in the worship of Jehovah. The greater the power was which supported idolatry, so much the * He is introduced as " Elijah the Tishbite, of the inhabitants of Gilead." It is probable therefore that the designation of "Tishbite" is from year of Ahab. Accordingly, obeying the directions of the divine oracle, he withdrew to his native district beyond Jordan, and hid himself in a cave by the brook Cherith; where the providence of God secured his support by putting it into the hearts of the Arabs encamped in the neighborhood, to send him bread and meat every morning and evening; and the brook furnished him with drink, until "the end of the year," or beginning of spring, when it was dried up from the continued drought.† It was probably under the irritation pro some town in Gilead, which cannot now be clearly ascertained. †The subject of Elijah's sustenance at Che duced by the first pressure of the calamity, was returning from Sarepta, met him, and that Jezebel induced the king to issue orders commissioned him to announce his arrival to for the destruction of all the prophets of Ahab. The king, when he saw the prophet, Jehovah Many of them perished; but a reproached him as the cause of the national good and devout man, even in the palace of calamities "Art thou he that troubleth Ahab, Obadiah, the steward of his house- Israel?" But the prophet boldly retorted hold, managed to save a hundred of the the charge upon himself and his father's number by sheltering them in caverns, where house, because they had forsaken Jehovah he provided for their maintenance until, and followed Baal. He then secured the probably, an opportunity was found for their attention of the king by intimating an intenescape into the kingdom of Judah. tion of interceding for rain; and required. him to call a general assembly of all the people at Mount Carmel, and also to bring all the prophets or priests of Baal,* and of the groves. When the brook of Cherith was dried up, the prophet was then directed by the Divine Voice to proceed westward to Sarepta, a town of Sidon, under the dominion of Jezebel's father; where he lodged with a poor widow, and was miraculously supported with her and her family for a considerable time, according to his own prediction that her single barrel of meal should not waste, nor her single cruse of oil fail, until that day when Jehovah should send rain upon the earth." While he remained at this place, the prophet, by his prayers to God, restored to life the son of the widow with whom he lodged. Here he staid until the end of three years from the commencement of the drought, when he was commanded to go and show himself to Ahab. That king had meanwhile caused the most diligent search to be made for him in every quarter, doubtless with the view of inducing him to offer up those intercessions through which alone the present grievous calamity could terminate. But at this time, having probably relinquished this search as hopeless, the attention of the king was directed to the discovery of any remaining supplies of water which might still exist in the land. He had, therefore, for the purposes of this exploration, divided the country between himself and Obadiah; and both proceeded personally to visit all the brooks and fountains of the land. Obadiah was journeying on this mission, when Elijah, who rith by means of ravens has given occasion to much fanciful speculation. It has been attempted to show that the 'ôrébim ("ravens") were the people of Orbo, a small town near Cherith. Others have found in the ravens merely merchants; while Michaelis has attempted to show that Elijah merely plundered the ravens' nests of hares and other game! To the fact of the raven being a common bird in Palestine, and to its habit of flying restlessly about in constant search for food to satisfy its voracious appetite, may perhaps be traced the reason for its being selected by our Lord and the inspired writers as the especial object of God's providing care. There is no There, in the audience of that vast assembly, Elijah reproached the people with the destruction of the prophets of Jehovah, of whom, he alleged, that he alone remained, while the prophets of Baal alone were four hundred and fifty, fed at the table of Jezebel; and then he called them to account for their divided worship "How long halt ye between two opinions? If JEHOVAH be the God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him." The people intimated their uncertainty by their silence to this appeal; on which the prophet, fully conscious of his unlimited commission, proposed a solemn sacrifice to each, and "the God that answereth by fire (to consume his sacrifice) let him be the God." As this was a fair trial of Baal's supposed power in his own element, the most zealous of his worshippers could make no objection to it, and the proposal was approved by all the people. Accordingly, when Baal answered not the earnest and ultimately maddened invocations of his prophets but Jehovah instantly answered the prayer of Elijah, by sending fire (as on former occasions) to consume the victim on the altar, although it had previously been inundated with water by the direction of the prophet then the people, yielding to one mighty impulse of con necessity for departing from the literal meaning of the account of Elijah's sustenance, as given 1 Kings xvii. 6. — A. B. * BAAL was the supreme male divinity of the Phoenician and Canaanitish nations. The plural, BAALIM, is frequently found in the Old Testament. The word in Hebrew means Master, Owner, Possessor. The worship of this idol was practised from a very remote antiquity among the Moabites and Midianites, and through the influence of these nations the Israelites were seduced to the worship of this god, which became extensively prevalent in the times of the kings. — A. B. 66 There he heard the voice of Jehovah viction, fell upon their faces, and cried, he saw the glory of Jehovah in the cleft JEHOVAH, HE IS THE GOD! JEHOVAH, of the rock." HE IS THE GOD! thus also expressing that Baal was not the God, and rejecting him. To ratify this abjuration of Baal, Elijah commanded them to destroy his priests; and this, in the enthusiasm of their rekindled zeal for Jehovah, they immediately did, at the brook Kishon, which had been the scene of Barak's victory over the Canaanites. Immediately after this sublime national act of acknowledgment of Jehovah and rejection of Baal, the prophet went up to the top of Carmel, and prayed fervently for rain seven times; the promise of which (speedily followed by fulfilment) at last appeared in the form of a little cloud like a man's hand," rising out of the Mediterranean Sea a phenomenon which, in warm maritime climates, is not the unusual harbinger of rain. This remarkable transaction may be ascribed to the tenth year of Ahab's reign. calling to him, What doest thou here, Elijah?" The prophet, evidently recog nizing that voice, said, "I have been very zealous for Jehovah, the God of Hosts, for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword, and I only am left; and they seek my life to take it away. Then the voice commanded him to go forth, for Jehovah was about to pass by. The first harbinger of the divine presence was a great and strong wind, which rent the mountain and brake the rock in pieces; but Jehovah was not in that wind. Then followed an earthquake; but Jehovah was not in the earthquake. This was succeeded by a fire; but Jehovah was not in the fire. After this, came a still, small Voice;" and when the prophet heard it, he knew the voice of God, and, reverently Elijah was now compelled to fly for his hiding his face in his mantle, he stood forth life, to avoid the threatened vengeance of in the entrance of the cave. The Voice Jezebel for the destruction of her prophets. repeated the former question, "What doest He fled southward, and when he had travel- thou here, Elijah ? to which the same led nearly 100 miles, from Samaria to answer as before was returned. The Voice, Beersheba, he left his servant and went in reply, gently rebuked the prophet for alone a day's journey into the wilderness. his crimination of the whole people of There as he sat, for rest and shelter, under Israel, and his discouraging representation the scanty shade which a broom-tree offered, of himself as the only prophet left. the mighty spirit by which he had hitherto have yet left to me seven thousand men, been sustained, gave way, and he prayed in Israel, who have not bowed the knee to for death to end his troubles. "It is enough" he cried, "now, O Jehovah, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers!" To strengthen his now sinking faith, and reward his sufferings in the cause of the God of Israel, whose honor he had so zealously vindicated, the prophet was encouraged by an angel to undertake a long journey to the "mount of God," Ahab. Horeb, where the divine presence had been Of the three, Elisha was the only one manifested to Moses, the founder of the to whom Elijah himself made known this law, and of which a further manifestation appointment. Elisha was the son of was now probably promised to this great Shaphat, an opulent man of Abel-maholah, champion and restorer of the same law. in the half-tribe of Manasseh, west of the On this mysterious occasion the angel touched him twice, to rouse him from his sleep, and twice made him eat of food which he found prepared for him. In the strength which that food gave, the prophet journeyed (doubtless by a circuitous route) forty days, until he came, it is supposed, to the cave where Moses was stationed, when "I Baal." He was further instructed to return by a different route, by the way of Damascus; and, by the way to anoint or appoint Elisha to be his own successor, and (either by himself or Elisha), Hazael to be king of Damascene-Syria, and Jehu to be king of Israel as the chosen ministers of divine vengeance upon the house and people of | Jordan. The prophet found him ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen, when, by a significant action, still well understood in the East, that of throwing his own mantle upon him, he conveyed the intimation of his prophetic call. That call was understood and obeyed by Elisha; and after having, with the prophet's permission, taken |