and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before Jehovah, and said, I will entice him. And Jehovah said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, 55 Thou shalt entice him, and shalt prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, Jehovah hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets; and Jehovah hath spoken evil concerning thee."

Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near, and smote 60 Micaiah on the cheek and said, “Which way went the Spirit of Jehovah from me to speak unto thee?"

And Micaiah said, "Behold, thou shalt see on that day, when thou shalt go into an inner chamber to hide thyself." And the king of Israel said, "Take Micaiah, and carry him back unto Amon the 65 governor of the city, and to Joash the king's son; and say, Thus saith the king, Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace." And Micaiah said, "If thou return at all in peace, Jehovah hath not spoken by me." And he said, “Hear, ye peoples, all of 70 you."

So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth-gilead. And the king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat, "I will disguise myself, and go into the battle; but put thou on thy robes." And the king of Israel disguised himself, and went 75 into the battle. Now the king of Syria had commanded the thirty and two captains of his chariots, saying, “Fight neither with small nor great, save only with the king of Israel." And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, that they said, "Surely it is the king of Israel"; and they turned aside to fight So against him: and Jehoshaphat cried out. And it came to pass, when the captains of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, that they turned back from pursuing him. And a certain man drew his bow at a venture, and smote the king of Israel between the joints of the armor: wherefore he said unto the driver of his chariot, 85 "Turn thy hand, and carry me out of the host; for I am sore wounded." And the battle increased that day: and the king was stayed up in his chariot against the Syrians, and died at even;

1 *In disguise: Note the care with which Ahab guarded against the fulfilment of the word of Micaiah.

and the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot. And there went a cry throughout the host about the going down 90 of the sun, saying, “Every man to his city, and every man to his country."

So the king died, and was brought to Samaria; and they buried the king in Samaria.

The Extinction of Phoenician Baalism.—But great as was the work of Elijah, the hold of the worship of the Phoenician Baal upon the court and upon the people was greater. The fight between Baal worship and the prophets persisted for decades. Syrian wars devastated the country, and chief among the advisers of the king was Elisha, the successor of Elijah. A cool-headed statesman, in the conquest of Syria he saw the greatest hope of the extermination of foreign worship. But Syria grew stronger. Disappointed in his hopes, Elisha instigated the bloodiest revolution of Hebrew history, placing upon the throne for this purpose Jehu, one of the bodyguard of Ahab, who had doubtless listened to the threats of Elijah against the house of Ahab. In this revolution Jezebel perished. Besides the reigning kings of Israel and Judah2 who were together at the time, seventy sons and grandsons of Ahab were slain, as well as all the friends and adherents of the royal family. Even visiting relatives from the house of Judah were included in the slaughter.

It may be that Elijah in the prime of his power would have found higher and more convincing proof of Jehovah's right to the undivided loyalty of Israel than this bloodthirsty massacre, but it serves to show the prophet, as the spokesman of Jehovah, still supreme in Israel's political as well as her religious life, and foreign Baalism forever stamped out as a rival of the religion of Jehovah.

1 The story of the revolution of Jehu is recorded in II Kings, chap. 9 and 10: 1–28. The whole account should be read in order to get a vivid impression of the terrible process of this last step in the extinction of Phoenician Baalism in northern Israel.

2 King of Judah: Ahaziah, the grandnephew of King Ahab. A sister of Ahab had been married to the king of southern Israel in a period of temporary peace. King of Israel: Joram, son of Ahab.

The Contribution of Elijah and His Immediate Successors.1What was the contribution of Jehovah's prophets to the religion of the Hebrews in the century which we have just considered? To Elijah and his followers came the conviction that upon the preservation of the religion of Jehovah depended the life of the state. Coupled with this discerning statesmanship was a pure patriotism which kept the prophets faithfully banded together through persecution and almost extinction. Beyond and above this was a religious zeal for Jehovah which took no account of personal danger or private gain, and could brook no divided allegiance from his people. The blood of the prophets in this crusade was not less heroically or generously shed than that of the Christian martyrs under the persecutions of Rome.

So in this generation was passed on to Israel of the succeeding centuries the conception of a God whose followers might pay homage to no other; and for one more step in the progress toward our belief in God as the creator and ruler of the universe we are indebted to the prophets.

I Intertwined with the stories which relate Elijah and Elisha to the great religious and political movements of their day are many stories of wonderful and sometimes miraculous events which we must accept as the contribution of the people, many of them perhaps living at a much later time. In reading these stories which are found in the Books of Kings it is not worth while to try to explain them upon any rational basis. It is better to accept them just as they are, trivial or grave, as testifying to the reverence in which these great men were held, and the fact that in the estimation of the people nothing was impossible to them as representatives of the power of Jehovah.