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did not escape the sentence that had been pronounced against him; for a certain man,1 shooting an arrow from his bow at random, smote him where the helmet is joined to the breastplate. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, “Turn and carry me out of the battle." Then the battle waxed fiercer and fiercer all that day; and the king, that his host might make head against the Syrians, bade his servants prop him up in his chariot. At even he died; and about the going down of the sun there went this proclamation throughout the host, "Every man to his city, and every man to his own country."

They brought the body of the king to Samaria, and buried him there. His chariot and his armour they washed in the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked his blood.

Ahaziah, son of Ahab, reigned in his father's stead; and when he died, having fallen from an upper window in his palace, because he had no son his brother Jehoram became king. And in the twelfth year of Jehoram, Elisha the prophet called a certain young man of the school of the prophets, and said unto him, "Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramoth-in-Gilead; and when thou comest thither look out Jehu, the son of Nimshi, and take him apart from his brethren into an inner chamber. Then take the box of oil, and pour it upon his head, and say, Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel. Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not."

This Elisha did that he might fulfil the commandment which the Lord gave to Elijah, his master, in Horeb, the mount of God, saying, “Jehu, the son of Nimshi, shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel."

Now the host of Israel was encamped before Ramoth1 Afterwards said to have been Naaman.

in-Gilead, Jehu being its chief captain; but King Jehoram had gone back to Jezreel to be healed of the wounds which he had received in battle with the Syrians. The man came to Ramoth, and, behold, the captains of the host were sitting together. And he said, I have an errand to thee, O captain." And Jehu said, "Unto which of all of us?" And the young man said, "To thee, O captain." Then Jehu arose, and went into the house; and the young man poured the oil on his head, and said, "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, I have anointed thee king over Israel, and thou shalt destroy the house of Ahab." Then he opened the door and fled.

Then Jehu came forth from the chamber to where the captains were sitting. And they asked him, saying, "Is all well? wherefore came this mad fellow unto thee?" But he, supposing that they were concerned in the matter, said, "Ye know the man, and also his message." They said, "It is false. Tell us now." Then Jehu said: "The man spake thus: The Lord hath anointed thee king over Israel." Then the captains took every man his cloak and put them under Jehu's feet at the top of the staircase, and blew with trumpets, and made proclamation, "Jehu is king."

Then Jehu said, "If this be your purpose, take care that none escape to tell the matter in Jezreel." And they did so; but Jehu rode to Jezreel with all speed in his chariot.

Now there stood a watchman on the tower in Jezreel, and the man said, "I see a company." Then said the king, "Send a horseman to meet them, and let him say, Is it peace ?" So there rode a horseman to meet them. And when the man came to them he said, "Thus saith the king, Is it peace?" Jehu answered, "What hast thou to do with peace? turn thee behind me." The watchman said, "The messenger came to

them, but he cometh not again."

So the king sent a

second messenger, and it happened to him as to the first. The watchman said, "The messenger came to them, but he cometh not again; and the driving is like the driving of Jehu, the son of Nimshi; for he driveth furiously." Then said the king, "Make ready my chariot." So they made ready his chariot, and he went forth to meet Jehu; and Ahaziah, king of Judah, went with him, for Ahaziah had come down to see him, because he had been sick. forth, each in his own chariot.

So the two kings went

Now the place of their

And when

meeting was near to the vineyard of Naboth. Jehoram met Jehu he said, "Is it peace, Jehu?" But Jehu answered, "What peace can there be, so long as the wickedness of thy mother Jezebel is so great ? "—for Jezebel ruled the king, her son. Then Jehoram turned his chariot about, crying out, "There is treachery, O Ahaziah." Then Jehu drew his bow with all his might, and smote Jehoram between the shoulders; and the arrow pierced him to the heart, so that he sank down dead in the chariot. Then said Jehu to Bidkar, his captain, "Take up his body, and cast it into the portion of Naboth. Dost thou not remember how, when thou and I rode behind Ahab his father, the Lord laid this sentence upon his house, Surely I have seen the blood of Naboth and the blood of his sons; and I will requite thee in this portion, saith the Lord ?"

Then Jehu rode into Jezreel. And when he was come thither Jezebel adorned herself, and painted her face for she knew that her son was dead, and that she must herself die—and as Jehu passed by, she looked out from a window, and cried, “Had Zimri peace, who slew his master?" Jehu lifted up his face to the window, and cried, "Who is on my side? who?" And there looked out to him from one window two of the

servants of the women's chambers, and from another three. He said to them, "Throw her down." And they threw her down; and her blood was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses; and he trampled her under the feet of the horses.

And when he was come in, he sat down to eat and

[graphic]

drink.

THE END OF JEZEBEL.

Afterwards he said, "Go, see now this cursed woman, and bury her; for she was a king's daughter." But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of the hands. When Jehu heard this, he said, "Now is fulfilled that which the Lord spake by the mouth of Elijah, In the portion of Jezreel shall dogs eat the flesh of Jezebel. For her carcase shall be as dung upon the face of the earth, so that they shall not say, This is Jezebel."

THE STORY OF JEREMIAH THE

PROPHET

JEREMIAH, the son of Hilkiah, was of the house of Aaron, and he was born in Anathoth, which was a city that belonged to the priests in the land of Benjamin. In the evil days of Manasseh he was born, and in the twelfth year1 of Josiah he was called by the Lord to be a prophet. Now in the eighteenth year of his reign King Josiah made a great reformation in the land. First he repaired the places that were broken down in the house of the Lord; for the house had suffered great damage in the days of Amon his father, and of his grandfather Manasseh. And while they repaired the house, it came to pass that they found a book of the law. This book Hilkiah the priest gave to Shaphan the scribe, and Shaphan gave it to the king. When the king read it he was greatly dismayed, seeing how great were the sins which his people had committed against the Lord, and how grievous were the judgments which were written in the law against them that did such things. So he sent Hilkiah and Shaphan, and others with them, to inquire of Huldah the prophetess. And Huldah said, "Tell the man that sent you, Thus saith the Lord, I will bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, even all that is written in the book

1 Josiah came to the throne in 638 B.C., being then eight years of age. Jeremiah may have been born about 650 B.C.

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