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gross and total is not in that place set down, as it was under the other kings formerly named. Again, as the aids which Jehoshaphat brought to Ahab, did not shew that he was a prince of extraordinary power, so the Moabites and Ammonites, which he fear ́ed, could never make the one half of those numbers which he that commanded least among Jehoshaphat's leaders had under him.

This mighty prince, notwithstanding his greatness, yet joined in friendship with Ahab king of Israel, who had married that wicked woman Jezebel. Him Jehoshaphat visited at Samaria, and caused his son Joram to marry Athaliah, this Ahab's daugh

ter.

Ahab persuaded Jehoshaphat to assist him in the war against the Syrians, who held the city of Ramoth-Gilead from him, and called together four hundred of his prophets, or Baalites, to foretel the success; who promised him victory. But Jehoshaphat believed nothing at all in those diviners, but resolved first of all to confer with some one prophet cf the Lord God of Israel. Hereupon Ahab made answer, that he had one called Michaiah, but he hated that prophet, because he always foretold of evil, and never of any good towards him. Yet Michaiah was sent for to the king; but by the way the messenger prayed him to consent with the prophets, and to promise victory unto them, as they did. But Michaiah spake the truth, and repeated his vision to both the kings, which was,That God asked who shall persuade

Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gi' lead?' To whom a spirit that stood before the Lord answered, that he would enter into his prophets, and be in them a false spirit to delude. For as it is said by Christ, Non enim vos estis qui loquimini, sed spiri'tus patris vestri loquitur in vobis;' it is not you that speak, but the spirit of your father speaks in you; so in a contrary kind did the devil in the prophets of Baal, or Satan, encourage Ahab to his de

struction. And as P. Martyr, upon this place, well observeth, these evil spirits are the ministers of God's vengeance, and are used as the hangmen and tormentors, which princes sometimes employ. For as it pleaseth God, by his good angels, to save and deliver from destruction, of which the scriptures have many examples; so, on the contrary, it is by the evil that he punisheth and destroyeth,-both which are said to perform the will of their Creator, licet non eodem animo. Ecclesiasticus remembereth a second sort of malignant natures, but they are everywhere visible. There are spirits, saith he, created for vengeance, which in their rigour lay on sure strokes. In the time of destruction they shew forth their power, and accomplish the wrath of him that made them.

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Now Michaiah having, by this his revelation, greatly displeased the king, and the prophets, whose spirit he discovered, was stricken by Zedekiah one of Baal's prophets, and by Ahab himself committed to prison; where he appointed him to be reserved and fed with bread of affliction till he returned in peace. But Michaiah not fearing to reply, answered, If ⚫ thou return in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me.' Nevertheless Ahab went on in that war, and was wounded to death. Jehoshaphat returned to Jerusalem, where he was reprehended by Jehu the prophet, for assisting an idolatrous prince, and one that hated God3.

After this the Aramites of Damascus, joined with the Moabites, Ammonites, and Idumeans, to invade Judea; who pass Jordan, and encamp at Engaddi ; and when Jehoshaphat gathered his army, the prophet Jahaziel foretold him of the victory, which should be obtained without any blood-shed on his part; and so when Jehoshaphat approached, this assembly of the nations, the Ammonites and Moabites disagreeing with the Idumeans, and quarrelling for

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some causes among themselves, those of Ammon and Moab set upon the Idumeans, and brake them utterly; which done, they also invaded each other; in which broil Jehoshaphat arriving, took the spoil of them all, without any loss on his part, as it was foretold and promised by God3. Nothwithstanding this victory, Jehoshaphat, forgetting that he was formerly reprehended for assisting an idolatrous king, did notwithstanding join with Achazias the son of Ahab, in preparing a fleet to send to Ophir, hoping of the like return which Solomon had; but as Eliezer the prophet foretold him, his ships perished and were broken in the port of Ezion-gaber, and so that enterprise was overthrown.

Yet he taketh part with Jehoram the brother of Achazias, against the Moabites, with which kings of Judah and Israel the Edomites join their forces, not forgetting, it seems, that the Moabites, assisted by the Ammonites, had not long before destroyed their army.

The Moabites, subjects to David and Solomon, forsaking the kings of Judah, gave themselves for vassals to Jeroboam, and so they continued to his successors till the death of Ahab; but Jehoshaphat, notwithstanding the idolatry of his colleague, yet, as it seemeth, he was drawn into this war both to be avenged of the Moabites for their defection from Judah to Israel, as also because they had lately joined themselves with the Syrians against Jehoshaphat, and, thirdly, to punish their double rebellion, who first forsook Judah and now Israel.

Both kings resolved to pass by the way of Idumea, thereby the better to assure that nation; for we find that both Moab, Ammon, and Edom, were all in the field together at Engaddi, against Jehoshaphat; but whether they had then declared themselves against Jehoshaphat, it is not certain; for in 2 Chron. xi. 8., it is written, that in the time of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, Edom rebelled: and therefore it seemeth to me,

32 Chron. 19. 4 2 Chron. 20.

that the Edomites, when they were slain by Moab and Ammon, not finding themselves satisfied in such conditions as they required, offered to turn from them, and to join themselves with the army of Judah for that they were numbered among the enemies of Jehoshaphat, it is plain in 2 Chron. xx., and as plain, chap. ii. 8., that they were not declared, nor had made them a king, till Jehoshaphat's death. Now, in the passage of these kings towards Moab, whether it were by the extraordinary heat of the year, or whether the Idumeans, having a purpose to rebel, misled the army of Judah and Israel with intent to enfeeble them for want of water; true it is, that they suffered the same, if not a greater thirst, than the armies of Crassus and M. Antonius did in their Parthian expeditions; and had, in all likelihood, utterly perished, had not Elisha taught them to cut trenches whereinto the water sprang, by which, not only Jehoshaphat and his army, but Jehoram king of Israel, an idolator, was relieved:-the great mercy and goodness of God having ever been prone to save the evil for the good, whereas he never destroyed the good for the evil.

The miserable issue of this war, and how Moab s burnt his son, or the son of the king of Edom, for sacrifice on the rampart of his own city, I have already written in the life of Jehoram, among the kings of Israel. Jehoshaphat" reigned twenty-five years and died; he was buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and a part of the Pyramis set over his grave is yet to be seen, saith Brochard". His acts are written at large by Jehu the son of Hanani.

There lived with Jehoshaphat, Ophratenes in Assyria, Capetus and Tiberinus kings of the Albans in Italy; of the latter the river Tiber, (formerly Albula,) took name.

In Jehoshaphat's time also ruled Mecades or Mezades in Athens: Agelas, or Agesilaus, in Corinth;

5 2 Kings iii.

62 Chron. XX.

7 Broch. ter. sanct,

and Archilaus, of the same race of the Heraclidæ, the seventh in Lacedæmon. Badesorus ruled the Tyrians; Ahab, Achazias, and Jehoram the Israelites.

CHAP. XX.

OF JEHORAM, THE SON OF JEHOSHAPHAT, AND
AHAZIAH.

SECT. I.

That Jehoram was made king sundry times.

JEH

[EHORAM, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, began to reign at thirty-two years of age, and lived until he was forty years old, being eight years a king; but of these eight years, which Jehoram is said to have reigned, four are to be reckoned in the life of his father, who, going to the Syrian war with Ahab, left this Jehoram king in his stead, as Ahab did his son Ahaziah. This appears by the several beginnings, which are given in scripture to the two Jehorams, kings of Israel and Judah, and to Ahaziah, the eldest son of Ahab; for Ahaziah' is said to have begun his reign in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat. Jehoram, the brother of Ahaziah", succeeded him in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, that is, in the next year after that Jehoram of Judah was designed king by his father; it being, (as we find elsewhere, 3) the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat himself, who went with the Israelites against Moab. Hereby it appears that the full power and execution of the 1 1 Kings xxii. 51. 2 2 Kings i. 17. 32 Kings iii. v. 1. and 9,

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