Antiquities of the Jews
- Book VIII
CONTAINING THE INTERVAL OF ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE YEARS.
FROM THE DEATH OF DAVID TO THE DEATH OF AHAB.
CHAPTER 1.
HOW SOLOMON, WHEN HE HAD RECEIVED THE KINGDOM TOOK OFF HIS
ENEMIES.
1. WE have already treated of David, and his virtue, and of the benefits
he was the author of to his countrymen; of his wars also and battles, which
he managed with success, and then died an old man, in the foregoing book.
And when Solomon his son, who was but a youth in age, had taken the kingdom,
and whom David had declared, while he was alive, the lord of that people,
according to God's will; when he sat upon the throne, the whole body of
the people made joyful acclamations to him, as is usual at the beginning
of a reign; and wished that all his affairs might come to a blessed conclusion;
and that he might arrive at a great age, and at the most happy state of
affairs possible.
2. But Adonijah, who, while his father was living, attempted to gain
possession of the government, came to the king's mother Bathsheba, and
saluted her with great civility; and when she asked him, whether he came
to her as desiring her assistance in any thing or not, and bade him tell
her if that were the case, for that she would cheerfully afford it him;
he began to say, that she knew herself that the kingdom was his, both
on account of his elder age, and of the disposition of the multitude, and
that yet it was transferred to Solomon her son, according to the will of
God. He also said that he was contented to be a servant under him, and
was pleased with the present settlement; but he desired her to be a means
of obtaining a favor from his brother to him, and to persuade him to bestow
on him in marriage Abishag, who had indeed slept by his father, but, because
his father was too old, he did not lie with her, and she was still a virgin.
So Bathsheba promised him to afford him her assistance very earnestly,
and to bring this marriage about, because the king would be willing to
gratify him in such a thing, and because she would press it to him very
earnestly. Accordingly he went away in hopes of succeeding in this match.
So Solomon's mother went presently to her son, to speak to him about what
she had promised, upon Adonijah's supplication to her. And when her son
came forward to meet her, and embraced her, and when he had brought her
into the house where his royal throne was set, he sat thereon, and bid
them set another throne on the right hand for his mother. When Bathsheba
was set down, she said, "O my son, grant me one request that
I desire of thee, and do not any thing to me that is disagreeable or ungrateful,
which thou wilt do if thou deniest me." And when Solomon bid her to
lay her commands upon him, because it was agreeable to his duty to grant
her every thing she should ask, and complained that she did not
at first begin her discourse with a firm expectation of obtaining what
she desired, but had some suspicion of a denial, she entreated him to grant
that his brother Adonijah might marry Abishag.
3. But the king was greatly offended at these words, and sent away his
mother, and said that Adonijah aimed at great things; and that he wondered
that she did not desire him to yield up the kingdom to him, as to his elder
brother, since she desired that he might marry Abishag; and that he had
potent friends, Joab the captain of the host, and Abiathar the priest.
So he called for Benaiah, the captain of the guards, and ordered him to
slay his brother Adonijah. He also called for Abiathar the priest, and
said to him, "I will not put thee to death because of those other
hardships which thou hast endured with my father, and because of the ark
which thou hast borne along with him; but I inflict this following punishment
upon thee, because thou wast among Adonijah's followers, and wast of his
party. Do not thou continue here, nor come any more into my sight, but
go to thine own town, and live on thy own fields, and there abide all thy
life; for thou hast offended so greatly, that it is not just that thou
shouldst retain thy dignity any longer." For the forementioned cause,
therefore, it was that the house of Ithamar was deprived of the sacerdotal
dignity, as God had foretold to Eli, the grandfather of Abiathar. So it
was transferred to the family of Phineas, to Zadok. Now those that were
of the family of Phineas, but lived privately during the time that the
high priesthood was transferred to the house of Ithamar, (of which family
Eli was the first that received it,)were these that follow: Bukki, the
son of Abishua the high priest; his son was Joatham; Joatham's son was
Meraioth; Meraioth's son was Arophseus; Aropheus's son was Ahitub; and
Ahitub's son was Zadok, who was first made high priest in the reign of
David.
4. Now when Joab the captain of the host heard of the slaughter of Adonijah,
he was greatly afraid, for he was a greater friend to him than to Solomon;
and suspecting, not without reason, that he was in danger, on account of
his favor to Adonijah, he fled to the altar, and supposed he might procure
safety thereby to himself, because of the king's piety towards God. But
when some told the king what Joab's supposal was, he sent Benaiah, and
commanded him to raise him up from the altar, and bring him to the judgment-seat,
in order to make his defense. However, Joab said he would not leave the
altar, but would die there rather than in another place. And when Benaiah
had reported his answer to the king, Solomon commanded him to cut off his
head there (1)
and let him take that as a punishment for those two captains of the host
whom he had wickedly slain, and to bury his body, that his sins might
never leave his family, but that himself and his father, by Joab's death,
might be guiltless. And when Benaiah had done what he was commanded to
do, he was himself appointed to be captain of the whole army. The king
also made Zadok to be alone the high priest, in the room of Abiathar, whom
he had removed.
5. But as to Shimei, Solomon commanded that he should build him a house,
and stay at Jerusalem, and attend upon him, and should not have authority
to go over the brook Cedron; and that if he disobeyed that command, death
should be his punishment. He also threatened him so terribly, that he compelled
him to take all oath that he would obey. Accordingly Shimei said that he
had reason to thank Solomon for giving him such an injunction; and added
an oath, that he would do as he bade him; and leaving his own country,
he made his abode in Jerusalem. But three years afterwards, when he heard
that two of his servants were run away from him, and were in Gath, he went
for his servants in haste; and when he was come back with them, the king
perceived it, and was much displeased that he had contemned his commands,
and, what was more, had no regard to the oaths he had sworn to God; so
he called him, and said to him, "Didst not thou swear never to leave
me, nor to go out of this city to another? Thou shalt not therefore escape
punishment for thy perjury, but I will punish thee, thou wicked wretch,
both for this crime, and for those wherewith thou didst abuse my father
when he was in his flight, that thou mayst know that wicked men gain nothing
at last, although they be not punished immediately upon their unjust practices;
but that in all the time wherein they think themselves secure, because
they have yet suffered nothing, their punishment increases, and is heavier
upon them, and that to a greater degree than if they had been punished
immediately upon the commission of their crimes." So Benaiah, on the
king's command, slew Shimei.
CHAPTER 2.
CONCERNING THE WIFE OF SOLOMON; CONCERNING HIS WISDOM AND
RICHES; AND CONCERNING WHAT HE OBTAINED OF HIRAM FOR THE BUILDING OF THE
TEMPLE.
1. SOLOMON having already settled himself firmly in his kingdom, and
having brought his enemies to punishment, he married the daughter of Pharaoh
king of Egypt, and built the walls of Jerusalem much larger and stronger
than those that had been before, (2)
and thenceforward he managed public affairs very peaceably. Nor was his
youth any hinderance in the exercise of justice, or in the observation
of the laws, or in the remembrance of what charges his father had given
him at his death; but he discharged every duty with great accuracy, that
might have been expected from such as are aged, and of the greatest prudence.
He now resolved to go to Hebron, and sacrifice to God upon the brazen altar
that was built by Moses. Accordingly he offered there burnt-offerings,
in number a thousand; and when he had done this, he thought he had paid
great honor to God; for as he was asleep that very night God appeared to
him, and commanded him to ask of him some gifts which he was ready to give
him as a reward for his piety. So Solomon asked of God what was most excellent,
and of the greatest worth in itself, what God would bestow with the greatest.
joy, and what it was most profitable for man to receive; for he
did not desire to have bestowed upon him either gold or silver, or any
other riches, as a man and a youth might naturally have done, for these
are the things that generally are esteemed by most men, as alone of the
greatest worth, and the best gifts of God; but, said he, "Give me,
O Lord, a sound mind, and a good understanding, whereby I may speak and
judge the people according to truth and righteousness." With these
petitions God was well pleased; and promised to give him all those things
that he had not mentioned in his option, riches, glory, victory over his
enemies; and, in the first place, understanding and wisdom, and this in
such a degree as no other mortal man, neither kings nor ordinary persons,
ever had. He also promised to preserve the kingdom to his posterity for
a very long time, if he continued righteous and obedient to him, and imitated
his father in those things wherein he excelled. When Solomon heard this
from God, he presently leaped out of his bed; and when he had worshipped
him, he returned to Jerusalem; and after he had offered great sacrifices
before the tabernacle, he feasted all his own family.
2. In these days a hard cause came before him in judgment, which it
was very difficult to find any end of; and I think it necessary to explain
the fact about which the contest was, that such as light upon my writings
may know what a difficult cause Solomon was to determine, and those that
are concerned in such matters may take this sagacity of the king for a
pattern, that they may the more easily give sentence about such questions.
There were two women, who were harlots in the course of their lives, that
came to him; of whom she that seemed to be injured began to speak first,
and said, "O king, I and this other woman dwell together in one room.
Now it came to pass that we both bore a son at the same hour of the same
day; and on the third day this woman overlaid her son, and killed it, and
then took my son out of my bosom, and removed him to herself, and as I
was asleep she laid her dead son in my arms. Now, when in the morning I
was desirous to give the breast to the child, I did not find my own, but
saw the woman's dead child lying by me; for I considered it exactly, and
found it so to be. Hence it was that I demanded my son, and when I could
not obtain him, I have recourse, my lord, to thy assistance; for since
we were alone, and there was nobody there that could convict her, she cares
for nothing, but perseveres in the stout denial of the fact." When
this woman had told this her story, the king asked the other woman what
she had to say in contradiction to that story. But when she denied that
she had done what was charged upon her, and said that it was her child
that was living, and that it was her antagonist's child that was dead,
and when no one could devise what judgment could be given, and the whole
court were blind in their understanding, and could not tell how to find
out this riddle, the king alone invented the following way how to discover
it. He bade them bring in both the dead child and the living child; and
sent one of his guards, and commanded him to fetch a sword, and draw it,
and to cut both the children into two pieces, that each of the women might
have half the living and half the dead child. Hereupon all the people privately
laughed at the king, as no more than a youth. But, in the mean time, she
that was the real mother of the living child cried out that he should not
do so, but deliver that child to the other woman as her own, for she would
be satisfied with the life of the child, and with the sight of it, although
it were esteemed the other's child; but the other woman was ready to see
the child divided, and was desirous, moreover, that the first woman should
be tormented. When the king understood that both their words proceeded
from the truth of their passions, he adjudged the child to her that cried
out to save it, for that she was the real mother of it; and he condemned
the other as a wicked woman, who had not only killed her own child, but
was endeavoring to see her friend's child destroyed also. Now the multitude
looked on this determination as a great sign and demonstration of the king's
sagacity and wisdom, and after that day attended to him as to one that
had a divine mind.
3. Now the captains of his armies, and officers appointed over the whole
country, were these: over the lot of Ephraim was Ures; over the toparchy
of Bethlehem was Dioclerus; Abinadab, who married Solomon's daughter, had
the region of Dora and the sea-coast under him; the Great Plain was under
Benaiah, the son of Achilus; he also governed all the country as far as
Jordan; Gabaris ruled over Gilead and Gaulanitis, and had under him the
sixty great and fenced cities [of Og]; Achinadab managed the affairs of
all Galilee as far as Sidon, and had himself also married a daughter of
Solomon's, whose name was Basima; Banacates had the seacoast about Arce;
as had Shaphat Mount Tabor, and Carmel, and [the Lower] Galilee, as far
as the river Jordan; one man was appointed over all this country; Shimei
was intrusted with the lot of Benjamin; and Gabares had the country beyond
Jordan, over whom there was again one governor appointed. Now the people
of the Hebrews, and particularly the tribe of Judah, received a wonderful
increase when they betook themselves to husbandry, and the cultivation
of their grounds; for as they enjoyed peace, and were not distracted with
wars and troubles, and having, besides, an abundant fruition of the most
desirable liberty, every one was busy in augmenting the product of their
own lands, and making them worth more than they had formerly been.
4. The king had also other rulers, who were over the land of Syria and
of the Philistines, which reached from the river Euphrates to Egypt, and
these collected his tributes of the nations. Now these contributed to the
king's table, and to his supper every day (3)
thirty cori of fine flour, and sixty of meal; as also ten fat oxen, and
twenty oxen out of the pastures, and a hundred fat lambs; all these were
besides what were taken by hunting harts and buffaloes, and birds and fishes,
which were brought to the king by foreigners day by day. Solomon had also
so great a number of chariots, that the stalls of his horses for those
chariots were forty thousand; and besides these he had twelve thousand
horsemen, the one half of which waited upon the king in Jerusalem, and
the rest were dispersed abroad, and dwelt in the royal villages; but the
same officer who provided for the king's expenses supplied also the fodder
for the horses, and still carried it to the place where the king abode
at that time.
5. Now the sagacity and wisdom which God had bestowed on Solomon was
so great, that he exceeded the ancients; insomuch that he was no way inferior
to the Egyptians, who are said to have been beyond all men in understanding;
nay, indeed, it is evident that their sagacity was very much inferior to
that of the king's. He also excelled and distinguished himself in wisdom
above those who were most eminent among the Hebrews at that time for shrewdness;
those I mean were Ethan, and Heman, and Chalcol, and Darda, the sons of
Mahol. He also composed books of odes and songs a thousand and five, of
parables and similitudes three thousand; for he spake a parable upon every
sort of tree, from the hyssop to the cedar; and in like manner also about
beasts, about all sorts of living creatures, whether upon the earth, or
in the seas, or in the air; for he was not unacquainted with any of their
natures, nor omitted inquiries about them, but described them all like
a philosopher, and demonstrated his exquisite knowledge of their several
properties. God also enabled him to learn that skill which expels demons,
(4) which
is a science useful and sanative to men. He composed such incantations
also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind him the manner
of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never
return; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day; for I
have seen a certain man of my own country, whose name was Eleazar, releasing
people that were demoniacal in the presence of Vespasian, and his sons,
and his captains, and the whole multitude of his soldiers. The manner of
the cure was this: He put a ring that had a Foot of one of those sorts
mentioned by Solomon to the nostrils of the demoniac, after which he drew
out the demon through his nostrils; and when the man fell down immediately,
he abjured him to return into him no more, making still mention of Solomon,
and reciting the incantations which he composed. And when Eleazar would
persuade and demonstrate to the spectators that he had such a power, he
set a little way off a cup or basin full of water, and commanded the demon,
as he went out of the man, to overturn it, and thereby to let the spectators
know that he had left the man; and when this was done, the skill and wisdom
of Solomon was shown very manifestly: for which reason it is, that all
men may know the vastness of Solomon's abilities, and how he was beloved
of God, and that the extraordinary virtues of every kind with which this
king was endowed may not be unknown to any people under the sun for this
reason, I say, it is that we have proceeded to speak so largely of these
matters.
6. Moreover Hiram, king of Tyre, when he had heard that Solonion succeeded
to his father's kingdom, was very glad of it, for he was a friend of David's.
So he sent ambassadors to him, and saluted him, and congratulated him on
the present happy state of his affairs. Upon which Solomon sent him an
epistle, the contents of which here follow:
SOLOMON TO KING HIRAM.
"(5)Know
thou that my father would have built a temple to God, but was hindered
by wars, and continual expeditions; for he did not leave off to overthrow
his enemies till he made them all subject to tribute. But I give thanks
to God for the peace I at present enjoy, and on that account I am at leisure,
and design to build a house to God, for God foretold to my father that
such a house should he built by me; wherefore I desire thee to send some
of thy subjects with mine to Mount Lebanon to cut down timber, for the
Sidonians are more skillful than our people in cutting of wood. As for
wages to the hewers of wood, I will pay whatsoever price thou shalt determine."
7. When Hiram had read this epistle, he was pleased with it; and wrote
back this answer to Solomon.
HIRAM TO KING SOLOMON.
"It is fit to bless God that he hath committed thy father's government
to thee, who art a wise man, and endowed with all virtues. As for myself,
I rejoice at the condition thou art in, and will be subservient to thee
in all that thou sendest to me about; for when by my subjects I have cut
down many and large trees of cedar and cypress wood, I will send them to
sea, and will order my subjects to make floats of them, and to sail to
what place soever of thy country thou shalt desire, and leave them there,
after which thy subjects may carry them to Jerusalem. But do thou take
care to procure us corn for this timber, which we stand in need of, because
we inhabit in an island." (6)
8. The copies of these epistles remain at this day, and are preserved
not only in our books, but among the Tyrians also; insomuch that if any
one would know the certainty about them, he may desire of the keepers of
the public records of Tyre to show him them, and he will find what is there
set down to agree with what we have said. I have said so much out of a
desire that my readers may know that we speak nothing but the truth, and
do not compose a history out of some plausible relations, which deceive
men and please them at the same time, nor attempt to avoid examination,
nor desire men to believe us immediately; nor are we at liberty to depart
from speaking truth, which is the proper commendation of an historian,
and yet be blameless: but we insist upon no admission of what we say, unless
we be able to manifest its truth by demonstration, and the strongest vouchers.
9. Now king Solomon, as soon as this epistle of the king of Tyre was
brought him, commended the readiness and good-will he declared therein,
and repaid him in what he desired, and sent him yearly twenty thousand
cori of wheat, and as many baths of oil: now the bath is able to contain
seventy-two sextaries. He also sent him the same measure of wine. So the
friendship between Hiram and Solomon hereby increased more and more; and
they swore to continue it for ever. And the king appointed a tribute to
be laid on all the people, of thirty thousand laborers, whose work he rendered
easy to them by prudently dividing it among them; for he made ten thousand
cut timber in Mount Lebanon for one month; and then to come home, and rest
two months, until the time when the other twenty thousand had finished
their task at the appointed time; and so afterward it came to pass that
the first ten thousand returned to their work every fourth month: and it
was Adoram who was over this tribute. There were also of the strangers
who were left by David, who were to carry the stones and other materials,
seventy thousand; and of those that cut the stones, eighty thousand. Of
these three thousand and three hundred were rulers over the rest. He also
enjoined them to cut out large stones for the foundations of the temple,
and that they should fit them and unite them together in the mountain,
and so bring them to the city. This was done not only by our own country
workmen, but by those workmen whom Hiram sent also.
CHAPTER 3.
OF THE BUILDING OF THIS TEMPLE
1. SOLOMON began to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign,
on the second month, which the Macedonians call Artemisius, and
the Hebrews Jur, five hundred and ninety-two years after the Exodus
out of Egypt; but one thousand and twenty years from Abraham's coming out
of Mesopotamia into Canaan, and after the deluge one thousand four hundred
and forty years; and from Adam, the first man who was created, until Solomon
built the temple, there had passed in all three thousand one hundred and
two years. Now that year on which the temple began to be built was already
the eleventh year of the reign of Hiram; but from the building of Tyre
to the building of the temple, there had passed two hundred and forty years.
2. Now, therefore, the king laid the foundations of the temple very
deep in the ground, and the materials were strong stones, and such as would
resist the force of time; these were to unite themselves with the earth,
and become a basis and a sure foundation for that superstructure which
was to be erected over it; they were to be so strong, in order to sustain
with ease those vast superstructures and precious ornaments, whose own
weight was to be not less than the weight of those other high and heavy
buildings which the king designed to be very ornamental and magnificent.
They erected its entire body, quite up to the roof, of white stone; its
height was sixty cubits, and its length was the same, and its breadth twenty.
There was another building erected over it, equal to it in its measures;
so that the entire altitude of the temple was a hundred and twenty cubits.
Its front was to the east. As to the porch, they built it before the temple;
its length was twenty cubits, and it was so ordered that it might agree
with the breadth of the house; and it had twelve cubits in latitude, and
its height was raised as high as a hundred and twenty cubits. He also built
round about the temple thirty small rooms, which might include the whole
temple, by their closeness one to another, and by their number and outward
position round it. He also made passages through them, that they might
come into on through another. Every one of these rooms had five cubits
in breadth, (7)
and the same in length, but in height twenty. Above these there were other
rooms, and others above them, equal, both in their measures and number;
so that these reached to a height equal to the lower part of the house;
for the upper part had no buildings about it. The roof that was over the
house was of cedar; and truly every one of these rooms had a roof of their
own, that was not connected with the other rooms; but for the other parts,
there was a covered roof common to them all, and built with very long beams,
that passed through the rest, and rough the whole building, that so the
middle walls, being strengthened by the same beams of timber, might be
thereby made firmer: but as for that part of the roof that was under the
beams, it was made of the same materials, and was all made smooth, and
had ornaments proper for roofs, and plates of gold nailed upon them. And
as he enclosed the walls with boards of cedar, so he fixed on them plates
of gold, which had sculptures upon them; so that the whole temple shined,
and dazzled the eyes of such as entered, by the splendor of the gold that
was on every side of them, Now the whole structure of the temple was made
with great skill of polished stones, and those laid together so very harmoniously
and smoothly, that there appeared to the spectators no sign of any hammer,
or other instrument of architecture; but as if, without any use of them,
the entire materials had naturally united themselves together, that the
agreement of one part with another seemed rather to have been natural,
than to have arisen from the force of tools upon them. The king also had
a fine contrivance for an ascent to the upper room over the temple, and
that was by steps in the thickness of its wall; for it had no large door
on the east end, as the lower house had, but the entrances were by the
sides, through very small doors. He also overlaid the temple, both within
and without, with boards of cedar, that were kept close together by thick
chains, so that this contrivance was in the nature of a support and a strength
to the building.
3. Now when the king had divided the temple into two parts, he made
the inner house of twenty cubits [every way], to be the most secret chamber,
but he appointed that of forty cubits to be the sanctuary; and when he
had cut a door-place out of the wall, he put therein doors of Cedar, and
overlaid them with a great deal of gold, that had sculptures upon it. He
also had veils of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and the brightest and
softest linen, with the most curious flowers wrought upon them, which were
to be drawn before those doors. He also dedicated for the most secret place,
whose breadth was twenty cubits, and length the same, two cherubims of
solid gold; the height of each of them was five cubits (8)
they had each of them two wings stretched out as far as five cubits; wherefore
Solomon set them up not far from each other, that with one wing they might
touch the southern wall of the secret place, and with another the northern:
their other wings, which joined to each other, were a covering to the ark,
which was set between them; but nobody can tell, or even conjecture, what
was the shape of these cherubims. He also laid the floor of the temple
with plates of gold; and he added doors to the gate of the temple, agreeable
to the measure of the height of the wall, but in breadth twenty cubits,
and on them he glued gold plates. And, to say all in one word, he left
no part of the temple, neither internal nor external, but what was covered
with gold. He also had curtains drawn over these doors in like manner as
they were drawn over the inner doors of the most holy place; but the porch
of the temple had nothing of that sort.
4. Now Solomon sent for an artificer out of Tyre, whose name was Hiram;
he was by birth of the tribe of Naphtali, on the mother's side, (for she
was of that tribe,) but his father was Ur, of the stock of the Israelites.
This man was skillful in all sorts of work; but his chief skill lay in
working in gold, and silver, and brass; by whom were made all the mechanical
works about the temple, according to the will of Solomon. Moreover, this
Hiram made two [hollow] pillars, whose outsides were of brass, and the
thickness of the brass was four fingers' breadth, and the height of the
pillars was eighteen cubits and their circumference twelve cubits; but
there was cast with each of their chapiters lily-work that stood upon the
pillar, and it was elevated five cubits, round about which there was net-work
interwoven with small palms, made of brass, and covered the lily-work.
To this also were hung two hundred pomegranates, in two rows. The one of
these pillars he set at the entrance of the porch on the right hand, and
called it Jachin (9)
and the other at the left hand, and called it Booz.
5. Solomon also cast a brazen sea, whose figure was that of a hemisphere.
This brazen vessel was called a sea for its largeness, for the laver
was ten feet in diameter, and cast of the thickness of a palm. Its middle
part rested on a short pillar that had ten spirals round it, and that pillar
was ten cubits in diameter. There stood round about it twelve oxen, that
looked to the four winds of heaven, three to each wind, having their hinder
parts depressed, that so the hemispherical vessel might rest upon them,
which itself was also depressed round about inwardly. Now this sea contained
three thousand baths.
6. He also made ten brazen bases for so many quadrangular lavers; the
length of every one of these bases was five cubits, and the breadth four
cubits, and the height six cubits. This vessel was partly turned, and was
thus contrived: There were four small quadrangular pillars that stood one
at each corner; these had the sides of the base fitted to them on each
quarter; they were parted into three parts; every interval had a border
fitted to support [the laver]; upon which was engraven, in one place a
lion, and in another place a bull, and an eagle. The small pillars had
the same animals engraven that were engraven on the sides. The whole work
was elevated, and stood upon four wheels, which were also cast, which had
also naves and felloes, and were a foot and a half in diameter. Any one
who saw the spokes of the wheels, how exactly they were turned, and united
to the sides of the bases, and with what harmony they agreed to the felloes,
would wonder at them. However, their structure was this: Certain shoulders
of hands stretched out held the corners above, upon which rested a short
spiral pillar, that lay under the hollow part of the laver, resting upon
the fore part of the eagle and the lion, which were adapted to them, insomuch
that those who viewed them would think they were of one piece: between
these were engravings of palm trees. This was the construction of the ten
bases. He also made ten large round brass vessels, which were the lavers
themselves, each of which contained forty baths; (10)
for it had its height four cubits, and its edges were as much distant from
each other. He also placed these lavers upon the ten bases that were called
Mechonoth; and he set five of the lavers on the left side of the temple
(11) which
was that side towards the north wind, and as many on the right side, towards
the south, but looking towards the east; the same [eastern] way he also
set the sea Now he appointed the sea to be for washing the hands and the
feet of the priests, when they entered into the temple and were to ascend
the altar, but the lavers to cleanse the entrails of the beasts that were
to be burnt-offerings, with their feet also.
7. He also made a brazen altar, whose length was twenty cubits, and
its breadth the same, and its height ten, for the burnt-offerings. He also
made all its vessels of brass, the pots, and the shovels, and the basons;
and besides these, the snuffers and the tongs, and all its other vessels,
he made of brass, and such brass as was in splendor and beauty like gold.
The king also dedicated a great number of tables, but one that was large
and made of gold, upon which they set the loaves of God; and he made ten
thousand more that resembled them, but were done after another manner,
upon which lay the vials and the cups; those of gold were twenty thousand,
those of silver were forty thousand. He also made ten thousand candlesticks,
according to the command of Moses, one of which he dedicated for the temple,
that it might burn in the day time, according to the law; and one table
with loaves upon it, on the north side of the temple, over against the
candlestick; for this he set on the south side, but the golden altar stood
between them. All these vessels were contained in that part of the holy
house, which was forty cubits long, and were before the veil of that most
secret place wherein the ark was to be set.
8. The king also made pouring vessels, in number eighty thousand, and
a hundred thousand golden vials, and twice as many silver vials: of golden
dishes, in order therein to offer kneaded fine flour at the altar, there
were eighty thousand, and twice as many of silver. Of large basons also,
wherein they mixed fine flour with oil, sixty thousand of gold, and twice
as many of silver. Of the measures like those which Moses called the Hin
and the Assaron, (a tenth deal,) there were twenty thousand
of gold, and twice as many of silver. The golden censers, in which they
carried the incense to the altar, were twenty thousand; the other censers,
in which they carried fire from the great altar to the little altar, within
the temple, were fifty thousand. The sacerdotal garments which belonged
to the high priest, with the long robes, and the oracle, and the precious
stones, were a thousand. But the crown upon which Moses wrote [the name
of God], (12)
was only one, and hath remained to this very day. He also made ten
thousand sacerdotal garments of fine linen, with purple girdles for every
priest; and two hundred thousand trumpets, according to the command of
Moses; also two hundred thousand garments of fine linen for the singers,
that were Levites. And he made musical instruments, and such as were invented
for singing of hymns, called ,Nablee and Cindree, [psalteries
and harps,] which were made of electrum, [the finest brass,] forty thousand.
9. Solomon made all these things for the honor of God, with great variety
and magnificence, sparing no cost, but using all possible liberality in
adorning the temple; and these things he dedicated to the treasures of
God. He also placed a partition round about the temple, which in our tongue
we call Gison, but it is called Thrigcos by the Greeks, and
he raised it up to the height of three cubits; and it was for the exclusion
of the multitude from coming into the temple, and showing that it was a
place that was free and open only for the priests. He also built beyond
this court a temple, whose figure was that of a quadrangle, and erected
for it great and broad cloisters; this was entered into by very high gates,
each of which had its front exposed to one of the [four] winds, and were
shut by golden doors. Into this temple all the people entered that were
distinguished from the rest by being pure and observant of the laws. But
he made that temple which was beyond this a wonderful one indeed, and such
as exceeds all description in words; nay, if I may so say, is hardly believed
upon sight; for when he had filled up great valleys with earth, which,
on account of their immense depth, could not be looked on, when you bended
down to see them, without pain, and had elevated the ground four hundred
cubits, he made it to be on a level with the top of the mountain, on which
the temple was built, and by this means the outmost temple, which was exposed
to the air, was even with the temple itself. (13)
He encompassed this also with a building of a double row of cloisters,
which stood on high upon pillars of native stone, while the roofs were
of cedar, and were polished in a manner proper for such high roofs; but
he made all the doors of this temple of silver.
CHAPTER 4.
HOW SOLOMON REMOVED THE ARK INTO THE TEMPLE HOW HE MADE SUPPLICATION
TO GOD, AND OFFERED PUBLIC SACRIFICES TO HIM.
1. WHEN king Solomon had finished these works, these large and beautiful
buildings, and had laid up his donations in the temple, and all this in
the interval of seven years, and had given a demonstration of his riches
and alacrity therein, insomuch that any one who saw it would have thought
it must have been an immense time ere it could have been finished; and
would be surprised that so much should be finished in so short a time;
short, I mean, if compared with the greatness of the work: he also wrote
to the rulers and elders of the Hebrews, and ordered all the people to
gather themselves together to Jerusalem, both to see the temple which he
had built, and to remove the ark of God into it; and when this invitation
of the whole body of the people to come to Jerusalem was every where carried
abroad, it was the seventh month before they came together; which month
is by our countrymen called Thisri, but by the Macedonians Hyperberetoets.
The feast of tabernacles happened to fall at the same time, which was
celebrated by the Hebrews as a most holy and most eminent feast. So they
carried the ark and the tabernacle which Moses had pitched, and all the
vessels that were for ministration, to the sacrifices of God, and removed
them to the temple. (14)
The king himself, and all the people and the Levites, went before, rendering
the ground moist with sacrifices, and drink-offerings, and the blood of
a great number of oblations, and burning an immense quantity of incense,
and this till the very air itself every where round about was so full of
these odors, that it met, in a most agreeable manner, persons at a great
distance, and was an indication of God's presence; and, as men's opinion
was, of his habitation with them in this newly built and consecrated place,
for they did not grow weary, either of singing hymns or of dancing, until
they came to the temple; and in this manner did they carry the ark. But
when they should transfer it into the most secret place, the rest of the
multitude went away, and only those priests that carried it set it between
the two cherubims, which embracing it with their wings, (for so were they
framed by the artificer,) they covered it, as under a tent, or a cupola.
Now the ark contained nothing else but those two tables of stone that preserved
the ten commandments, which God spake to Moses in Mount Sinai, and which
were engraved upon them; but they set the candlestick, and the table, and
the golden altar in the temple, before the most secret place, in the very
same places wherein they stood till that time in the tabernacle. So they
offered up the daily sacrifices; but for the brazen altar, Solomon set
it before the temple, over against the door, that when the door was opened,
it might be exposed to sight, and the sacred solemnities, and the richness
of the sacrifices, might be thence seen; and all the rest of the vessels
they gathered together, and put them within the temple.
2. Now as soon as the priests had put all things in order about the
ark, and were gone out, there cane down a thick cloud, and stood there,
and spread itself, after a gentle manner, into the temple; such a cloud
it was as was diffused and temperate, not such a rough one as we see full
of rain in the winter season. This cloud so darkened the place, that one
priest could not discern another, but it afforded to the minds of all a
visible image and glorious appearance of God's having descended into this
temple, and of his having gladly pitched his tabernacle therein. So these
men were intent upon this thought. But Solomon rose up, (for he was sitting
before,) and used such words to God as he thought agreeable to the Divine
nature to receive, and fit for him to give; for he said, "Thou hast
an eternal house, O Lord, and such a one as thou hast created for thyself
out of thine own works; we know it to be the heaven, and the air, and the
earth, and the sea, which thou pervadest, nor art thou contained within
their limits. I have indeed built this temple to thee, and thy name, that
from thence, when we sacrifice, and perform sacred operations, we
may send our prayers up into the air, and may constantly believe that thou
art present, and art not remote from what is thine own; for neither when
thou seest all things, and hearest all things, nor now, when it pleases
thee to dwell here, dost thou leave the care of all men, but rather thou
art very near to them all, but especially thou art present to those that
address themselves to thee, whether by night or by day." When he had
thus solemnly addressed himself to God, he converted his discourse to the
multitude, and strongly represented the power and providence of God to
them; - how he had shown all things that were come to pass to David his
father, as many of those things had already come to pass, and the rest
would certainly come to pass hereafter; and how he had given him his name,
and told to David what he should be called before he was born; and foretold,
that when he should be king after his father's death, he should build him
a temple, which since they saw accomplished, according to his prediction,
he required them to bless God, and by believing him, from the sight of
what they had seen accomplished, never to despair of any thing that he
had promised for the future, in order to their happiness, or suspect that
it would not come to pass.
3. When the king had thus discoursed to the multitude, he looked again
towards the temple, and lifting up his right hand to the multitude, he
said," It is not possible by what men can do to return sufficient
thanks to God for his benefits bestowed upon them, for the Deity stands
in need of nothing, and is above any such requital; but so far as we have
been made superior, O Lord, to other animals by thee, it becomes us to
bless thy Majesty, and it is necessary for us to return thee thanks for
what thou hast bestowed upon our house, and on the Hebrew people; for with
what other instrument can we better appease thee when thou art angry at
us, or more properly preserve thy favor, than with our voice? which, as
we have it from the air, so do we know that by that air it ascends upwards
[towards thee]. I therefore ought myself to return thee thanks thereby,
in the first place, concerning my father, whom thou hast raised from obscurity
unto so great joy; and, in the next place, concerning myself, since thou
hast performed all that thou hast promised unto this very day. And I beseech
thee for the time to come to afford us whatsoever thou, O God, hast power
to bestow on such as thou dost esteem; and to augment our house for all
ages, as thou hast promised to David my father to do, both in his lifetime
and at his death, that our kingdom shall continue, and that his posterity
should successively receive it to ten thousand generations. Do not thou
therefore fail to give us these blessings, and to bestow on my children
that virtue in which thou delightest. And besides all this, I humbly beseech
thee that thou wilt let some portion of thy Spirit come down and inhabit
in this temple, that thou mayst appear to be with us upon earth. As to
thyself, the entire heavens, and the immensity of the things that are therein,
are but a small habitation for thee, much more is this poor temple so;
but I entreat thee to keep it as thine own house, from being destroyed
by our enemies for ever, and to take care of it as thine own possession:
but if this people be found to have sinned, and be thereupon afflicted
by thee with any plague, because of their sin, as with dearth or
pestilence, or any other affliction which thou usest to inflict on those
that transgress any of thy holy laws, and if they fly all of them to this
temple, beseeching thee, and begging of time to deliver them, then do thou
hear their prayers, as being within thine house, and have mercy upon them,
and deliver them from their afflictions. Nay, moreover, this help is what
I implore of thee, not for the Hebrews only, when they are in distress,
but when any shall come hither from any ends of the world whatsoever, and
shall return from their sins and implore thy pardon, do thou then pardon
them, and hear their prayer. For hereby all shall learn that thou thyself
wast pleased with the building of this house for thee; and that we are
not ourselves of an unsociable nature, nor behave ourselves like enemies
to such as are not of our own people; but are willing that thy assistance
should be communicated by thee to all men in common, and that they may
have the enjoyment of thy benefits bestowed upon them."
4. When Solomon had said this, and had cast himself upon the ground,
and worshipped a long time, he rose up, and brought sacrifices to the altar;
and when he had filled it with unblemished victims, he most evidently discovered
that God had with pleasure accepted of all that he had sacrificed to him,
for there came a fire running out of the air, and rushed with violence
upon the altar, in the sight of all, and caught hold of and consumed the
sacrifices. Now when this Divine appearance was seen, the people supposed
it to be a demonstration of God's abode in the temple, and were pleased
with it, and fell down upon the ground and worshipped. Upon which the king
began to bless God, and exhorted the multitude to do the same, as now having
sufficient indications of God's favorable disposition to them; and to pray
that they might always have the like indications from him, and that he
would preserve in them a mind pure from all wickedness, in righteousness
and religious worship, and that they might continue in the observation
of those precepts which God had given them by Moses, because by that means
the Hebrew nation would be happy, and indeed the most blessed of all nations
among all mankind. He exhorted them also to be mindful, that by what methods
they had attained their present good things, by the same they must preserve
them sure to themselves, and make them greater and more than they were
at present; for that it was not sufficient for them to suppose they had
received them on account of their piety and righteousness, but that they
had no other way of preserving them for the time to come; for that it is
not so great a thing for men to acquire somewhat which they want, as to
preserve what they have acquired, and to be guilty of no sin whereby it
may be hurt.
5. So when the king had spoken thus to the multitude, he dissolved the
congregation, but not till he had completed his oblations, both for himself
and for the Hebrews, insomuch that he sacrificed twenty and two thousand
oxen, and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep; for then it was that the
temple did first of all taste of the victims, and all the Hebrews, with
their wives and children, feasted therein: nay, besides this, the king
then observed splendidly and magnificently the feast which is called the
Feast of Tabernacles, before the temple, for twice seven days; and
he then feasted together with all the people.
6. When all these solemnities were abundantly satisfied, and nothing
was omitted that concerned the Divine worship, the king dismissed them;
and they every one went to their own homes, giving thanks to the king for
the care he had taken of them, and the works he had done for them; and
praying to God to preserve Solomon to be their king for a long time. They
also took their journey home with rejoicing, and making merry, and singing
hymns to God. And indeed the pleasure they enjoyed took away the sense
of the pains they all underwent in their journey home. So when they had
brought the ark into the temple, and had seen its greatness, and how fine
it was, and had been partakers of the many sacrifices that had been offered,
and of the festivals that had been solemnized, they every one returned
to their own cities. But a dream that appeared to the king in his sleep
informed him that God had heard his prayers; and that he would not only
preserve the temple, but would always abide in it; that is, in case his
posterity and the whole multitude would be righteous. And for himself,
it said, that if he continued according to the admonitions of his father,
he would advance him to an immense degree of dignity and happiness, and
that then his posterity should be kings of that country, of the tribe of
Judah, for ever; but that still, if he should be found a betrayer of the
ordinances of the law, and forget them, and turn away to the worship of
strange gods, he would cut him off by the roots, and would neither suffer
any remainder of his family to continue, nor would overlook the people
of Israel, or preserve them any longer from afflictions, but would utterly
destroy them with ten thousand wars and misfortunes; would cast them out
of the land which he had given their fathers, and make them sojourners
in strange lands; and deliver that temple which was now built to be burnt
and spoiled by their enemies, and that city to be utterly overthrown by
the hands of their enemies; and make their miseries deserve to be a proverb,
and such as should very hardly be credited for their stupendous magnitude,
till their neighbors, when they should hear of them, should wonder at their
calamities, and very earnestly inquire for the occasion, why the Hebrews,
who had been so far advanced by God to such glory and wealth, should be
then so hated by him? and that the answer that should be made by the remainder
of the people should be, by confessing their sins, and their transgression
of the laws of their country. Accordingly we have it transmitted to us
in writing, that thus did God speak to Solomon in his sleep.
CHAPTER 5.
HOW SOLOMON BUILT HIMSELF A ROYAL PALACE, VERY COSTLY AND
SPLENDID; AND HOW HE SOLVED THE RIDDLES WHICH WERE SENT HIM BY HIRAM.
1. AFTER the building of the temple, which, as we have before said,
was finished in seven years, the king laid the foundation of his palace,
which be did not finish under thirteen years, for he was not equally zealous
in the building of this palace as he had been about the temple; for as
to that, though it was a great work, and required wonderful and surprising
application, yet God, for whom it was made, so far co-operated therewith,
that it was finished in the forementioned number of years: but the palace,
which was a building much inferior in dignity to the temple, both on account
that its materials had not been so long beforehand gotten ready, nor had
been so zealously prepared, and on account that this was only a habitation
for kings, and not for God, it was longer in finishing. However, this building
was raised so magnificently, as suited the happy state of the Hebrews,
and of the king thereof. But it is necessary that I describe the entire
structure and disposition of the parts, that so those that light upon this
book may thereby make a conjecture, and, as it were, have a prospect of
its magnitude.
2. This house was a large and curious building, and was supported by
many pillars, which Solomon built to contain a multitnde for hearing causes,
and taking cognizance of suits. It was sufficiently capacious to contain
a great body of men, who would come together to have their causes determined.
It was a hundred cubits long, and fifty broad, and thirty high, supported
by quadrangular pillars, which were all of cedar; but its roof was according
to the Corinthian order, (15)
with folding doors, and their adjoining pillars of equal magnitude, each
fluted with three cavities; which building as at once firm, and very ornamental.
There was also another house so ordered, that its entire breadth was placed
in the middle; it was quadrangular, and its breadth was thirty cubits,
having a temple over against it, raised upon massy pillars; in which temple
there was a large and very glorious room, wherein the king sat in judgment.
To this was joined another house that was built for his queen. There were
other smaller edifices for diet, and for sleep, after public matters were
over; and these were all floored with boards of cedar. Some of these Solomon
built with stones of ten cubits, and wainscoted the walls with other stones
that were sawed, and were of great value, such as are dug out of the earth
for the ornaments of temples, and to make fine prospects in royal palaces,
and which make the mines whence they are dug famous. Now the contexture
of the curious workmanship of these stones was in three rows, but the fourth
row would make one admire its sculptures, whereby were represented trees,
and all sorts of plants; with the shades that arose from their branches,
and leaves that hung down from them. Those trees anti plants covered the
stone that was beneath them, and their leaves were wrought so prodigious
thin and subtile, that you would think they were in motion; but the other
part up to the roof, was plastered over, and, as it were, embroidered with
colors and pictures. He, moreover, built other edifices for pleasure; as
also very long cloisters, and those situate in an agreeable place of the
palace; and among them a most glorious dining room, for feastings and compotations,
and full of gold, and such other furniture as so fine a room ought to have
for the conveniency of the guests, and where all the vessels were made
of gold. Now it is very hard to reckon up the magnitude and the variety
of the royal apartments; how many rooms there were of the largest sort,
how many of a bigness inferior to those, and how many that were subterraneous
and invisible; the curiosity of those that enjoyed the fresh air; and the
groves for the most delightful prospect, for the avoiding the heat, and
covering of their bodies. And, to say all in brief, Solomon made the whole
building entirely of white stone, and cedar wood, and gold, and silver.
He also adorned the roofs and walls with stones set in gold, and beautified
them thereby in the same manner as he had beautified the temple of God
with the like stones. He also made himself a throne of prodigious bigness,
of ivory, constructed as a seat of justice, and having six steps to it;
on every one of which stood, on each end of the step two lions, two other
lions standing above also; but at the sitting place of the throne hands
came out and received the king; and when he sat backward, he rested on
half a bullock, that looked towards his back; but still all was fastened
together with gold.
3. When Solomon had completed all this in twenty years' time, because
Hiram king of Tyre had contributed a great deal of gold, and more silver
to these buildings, as also cedar wood and pine wood, he also rewarded
Hiram with rich presents; corn he sent him also year by year, and wine
and oil, which were the principal things that he stood in need of, because
he inhabited an island, as we have already said. And besides these, he
granted him certain cities of Galilee, twenty in number, that lay not far
from Tyre; which, when Hiram went to, and viewed, and did not like the
gift, he sent word to Solomon that he did not want such cities as they
were; and after that time these cities were called the land of Cabul; which
name, if it be interpreted according to the language of the Phoenicians,
denotes what does not please. Moreover, the king of Tyre sent sophisms
and enigmatical sayings to Solomon, and desired he would solve them, and
free them from the ambiguity that was in them. Now so sagacious and understanding
was Solomon, that none of these problems were too hard for him; but he
conquered them all by his reasonings, and discovered their hidden meaning,
and brought it to light. Menander also, one who translated the Tyrian archives
out of the dialect of the Phoenicians into the Greek language, makes mention
of these two kings, where he says thus: "When Abibalus was dead,.
his son Hiram received the kingdom from him, who, when he had lived fifty-three
years, reigned thirty-four. He raised a bank in the large place, and dedicated
the golden pillar which is in Jupiter's temple. He also went and cut down
materials of timber out of the mountain called Libanus, for the roof of
temples; and when he had pulled down the ancient temples, he both built
the temple of Hercules and that of Astarte; and he first set up the temple
of Hercules in the month Peritius; he also made an expedition against the
Euchii, or Titii, who did not pay their tribute, and when he had subdued
them to himself he returned. Under this king there was Abdemon, a very
youth in age, who always conquered the difficult problems which Solomon,
king of Jerusalem, commanded him to explain. Dius also makes mention of
him, where he says thus: "When Abibalus was dead, his son Hiram reigned.
He raised the eastern parts of the city higher, and made the city itself
larger. He also joined the temple of Jupiter, which before stood by itself,
to the city, by raising a bank in the middle between them; and he adorned
it with donations of gold. Moreover, he went up to Mount Libanus, and cut
down materials of wood for the building of the temples." He says also,
that Solomon, who was then king of Jerusalem, sent riddles to Hiram, and
desired to receive the like from him, but that he who could not solve them
should pay money to them that did solve them, and that Hiram accepted the
conditions; and when he was not able to solve the riddles proposed by Solomon,
he paid a great deal of money for his fine; but that he afterward did solve
the proposed riddles by means of Abdemon, a man of Tyre; and that Hiram
proposed other riddles, which, when Solomon could not solve, he paid back
a great deal of money to Hiram." This it is which Dius wrote.
CHAPTER 6.
HOW SOLOMON FORTIFIED THE CITY OF JERUSALEM, AND BUILT GREAT
CITIES; AND HOW HE BROUGHT SOME OF THE CANAANITES INTO SUBJECTION, AND
ENTERTAINED THE QUEEN OF EGYPT AND OF ETHIOPIA.
1. Now when the king saw that the walls of Jerusalem stood in need of
being better secured, and made stronger, (for he thought the wails that
encompassed Jerusalem ought to correspond to the dignity of the city,)
he both repaired them, and made them higher, with great towers upon them;
he also built cities which might be counted among the strongest, Hazor
and Megiddo, and the third Gezer, which had indeed belonged to the Philistines;
but Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, had made an expedition against it, and
besieged it, and taken it by force; and when he had slain all its inhabitants,
he utterly overthrew it, and gave it as a present to his daughter, who
had been married to Solomon; for which reason the king rebuilt it, as a
city that was naturally strong, and might be useful in wars, and the mutations
of affairs that sometimes happen. Moreover, he built two other cities not
far from it, Beth-horon was the name of one of them, and Baalath of the
other. He also built other cities that lay conveniently for these, in order
to the enjoyment of pleasures and delicacies in them, such as were naturally
of a good temperature of the air, and agreeable for fruits ripe in their
proper seasons, and well watered with springs. Nay, Solomon went as far
as the desert above Syria, and possessed himself of it, and built there
a very great city, which was distant two days' journey from Upper Syria,
and one day's journey from Euphrates, and six long days' journey from Babylon
the Great. Now the reason why this city lay so remote from the parts of
Syria that are inhabited is this, that below there is no water to be had,
and that it is in that place only that there are springs and pits of water.
When he had therefore built this city, and encompassed it with very strong
walls, he gave it the name of Tadmor, and that is the name it is still
called by at this day among the Syrians, but the Greeks name it Palmyra.
2. Now Solomon the king was at this time engaged in building these cities.
But if any inquire why all the kings of Egypt from Menes, who built Memphis,
and was many years earlier than our forefather Abraham, until Solomon,
where the interval was more than one thousand three hundred years, were
called Pharaohs, and took it from one Pharaoh that lived after the kings
of that interval, I think it necessary to inform them of it, and this in
order to cure their ignorance, and to make the occasion of that name manifest.
Pharaoh, in the Egyptian tongue, signifies a king (16)
but I suppose they made use of other names from their childhood; but when
they were made kings, they changed them into the name which in their own
tongue denoted their authority; for thus it was also that the kings of
Alexandria, who were called formerly by other names, when they took the
kingdom, were named Ptolemies, from their first king. The Roman emperors
also were from their nativity called by other names, but are styled Caesars,
their empire and their dignity imposing that name upon them, and not suffering
them to continue in those names which their fathers gave them. I suppose
also that Herodotus of Halicarnassus, when he said there were three hundred
and thirty kings of Egypt after Menes, who built Memphis, did therefore
not tell us their names, because they were in common called Pharaohs; for
when after their death there was a queen reigned, he calls her by her name
Nicaule, as thereby declaring, that while the kings were of the male line,
and so admitted of the same nature, while a woman did not admit the same,
he did therefore set down that her name, which she could not naturally
have. As for myself, I have discovered from our own books, that after Pharaoh,
the father-in-law of Solomon, no other king of Egypt did any longer use
that name; and that it was after that time when the forenamed queen of
Egypt and Ethiopia came to Solomon, concerning whom we shall inform the
reader presently; but I have now made mention of these things, that I may
prove that our books and those of the Egyptians agree together in many
things.
3. But king Solomon subdued to himself the remnant of the Canaanites
that had not before submitted to him; those I mean that dwelt in Mount
Lebanon, and as far as the city Hamath; and ordered them to pay tribute.
He also chose out of them every year such as were to serve him in the meanest
offices, and to do his domestic works, and to follow husbandry; for none
of the Hebrews were servants [in such low employments]: nor was it reasonable,
that when God had brought so many nations under their power, they should
depress their own people to such mean offices of life, rather than those
nations; while all the Israelites were concerned in warlike affairs, and
were in armor; and were set over the chariots and the horses, rather than
leading the life of slaves. He appointed also five hundred and fifty rulers
over those Canaanites who were reduced to such domestic slavery, who received
the entire care of them from the king, and instructed them in those labors
and operations wherein he wanted their assistance.
4. Moreover, the king built many ships in the Egyptian Bay of the Red
Sea, in a certain place called Ezion-geber: it is now called Berenice,
and is not far from the city Eloth. This country belonged formerly to the
Jews, and became useful for shipping from the donations of Hiram king of
Tyre; for he sent a sufficient number of men thither for pilots, and such
as were skillful in navigation, to whom Solomon gave this command: That
they should go along with his own stewards to the land that was of old
called Ophir, but now the Aurea Chersonesus, which belongs to India, to
fetch him gold. And when they had gathered four hundred talents together,
they returned to the king again.
5. There was then a woman queen of Egypt and Ethiopia; (17)
she was inquisitive into philosophy, and one that on other accounts also
was to be admired. When this queen heard of the virtue and prudence of
Solomon, she had a great mind to see him; and the reports that went every
day abroad induced her to come to him, she being desirous to be satisfied
by her own experience, and not by a bare hearing; (for reports thus heard
are likely enough to comply with a false opinion, while they wholly depend
on the credit of the relators;) so she resolved to come to him, and that
especially in order to have a trial of his wisdom, while she proposed questions
of very great difficulty, and entreated that he would solve their hidden
meaning. Accordingly she came to Jerusalem with great splendor and rich
furniture; for she brought with her camels laden with gold, with several
sorts of sweet spices, and with precious stones. Now, upon the king's kind
reception of her, he both showed a great desire to please her, and easily
comprehending in his mind the meaning of the curious questions she propounded
to him, he resolved them sooner than any body could have expected. So she
was amazed at the wisdom of Solomon, and discovered that it was more excellent
upon trial than what she had heard by report beforehand; and especially
she was surprised at the fineness and largeness of his royal palace, and
not less so at the good order of the apartments, for she observed that
the king had therein shown great wisdom; but she was beyond measure astonished
at the house which was called the Forest of Lebanon, as also at
the magnificence of his daily table, and the circumstances of its preparation
and ministration, with the apparel of his servants that waited, and the
skillful and decent management of their attendance: nor was she less affected
with those daily sacrifices which were offered to God, and the careful
management which the priests and Levites used about them. When she saw
this done every day, she was in the greatest admiration imaginable, insomuch
that she was not able to contain the surprise she was in, but openly confessed
how wonderfully she was affected; for she proceeded to discourse with the
king, and thereby owned that she was overcome with admiration at the things
before related; and said, "All things indeed, O king, that came to
our knowledge by report, came with uncertainty as to our belief of them;
but as to those good things that to thee appertain, both such as thou thyself
possessest, I mean wisdom and prudence, and the happiness thou hast from
thy kingdom, certainly the same that came to us was no falsity; it was
not only a true report, but it related thy happiness after a much lower
manner than I now see it to be before my eyes. For as for the report, it
only attempted to persuade our hearing, but did not so make known the dignity
of the things themselves as does the sight of them, and being present among
them. I indeed, who did not believe what was reported, by reason of the
multitude and grandeur of the things I inquired about, do see them to be
much more numerous than they were reported to be. Accordingly I esteem
the Hebrew people, as well as thy servants and friends, to be happy, who
enjoy thy presence and hear thy wisdom every day continually. One would
therefore bless God, who hath so loved this country, and those that inhabit
therein, as to make thee king over them."
6. Now when the queen had thus demonstrated in words how deeply the
king had affected her, her disposition was known by certain presents, for
she gave him twenty talents of gold, and an immense quantity of spices
and precious stones. (They say also that we possess the root of that balsam
which our country still bears by this woman's gift.) (18)
Solomon also repaid her with many good things, and principally by bestowing
upon her what she chose of her own inclination, for there was nothing that
she desired which he denied her; and as he was very generous and liberal
in his own temper, so did he show the greatness of his soul in bestowing
on her what she herself desired of him. So when this queen of Ethiopia
had obtained what we have already given an account of, and had again communicated
to the king what she brought with her, she returned to her own kingdom.
CHAPTER 7.
HOW SOLOMON GREW RICH, AND FELL DESPERATELY IN LOVE WITH
WOMEN AND HOW GOD, BEING INCENSED AT IT, RAISED UP ADER AND JEROBOAM AGAINST
HIM. CONCERNING THE DEATH OF SOLOMON.
1. ABOUT the same time there were brought to the king from the Aurea
Chersonesus, a country so called, precious stones, and pine trees, and
these trees he made use of for supporting the temple and the palace, as
also for the materials of musical instruments, the harps and the psalteries,
that the Levites might make use of them in their hymns to God. The wood
which was brought to him at this time was larger and finer than any that
had ever been brought before; but let no one imagine that these pine trees
were like those which are now so named, and which take that their denomination
from the merchants, who so call them, that they may procure them to be
admired by those that purchase them; for those we speak of were to the
sight like the wood of the fig tree, but were whiter, and more shining.
Now we have said thus much, that nobody may be ignorant of the difference
between these sorts of wood, nor unacquainted with the nature of the genuine
pine tree; and we thought it both a seasonable and humane thing, when we
mentioned it, and the uses the king made of it, to explain this difference
so far as we have done.
2. Now the weight of gold that was brought him was six hundred and sixty-six
talents, not including in that sum what was brought by the merchants, nor
what the toparchs and kings of Arabia gave him in presents. He also cast
two hundred targets of gold, each of them weighing six hundred shekels.
He also made three hundred shields, every one weighing three pounds of
gold, and he had them carried and put into that house which was called
The Forest of Lebanon. He also made cups of gold, and of [precious]
stones, for the entertainment of his guests, and had them adorned in the
most artificial manner; and he contrived that all his other furniture of
vessels should be of gold, for there was nothing then to be sold or bought
for silver; for the king had many ships which lay upon the sea of Tarsus,
these he commanded to carry out all sorts of merchandise unto the remotest
nations, by the sale of which silver and gold were brought to the king,
and a great quantity of ivory, and Ethiopians, and apes; and they finished
their voyage, going and returning, in three years' time.
3. Accordingly there went a great fame all around the neighboring countries,
which proclaimed the virtue and wisdom of Solomon, insomuch that all the
kings every where were desirous to see him, as not giving credit to what
was reported, on account of its being almost incredible: they also demonstrated
the regard they had for him by the presents they made him; for they sent
him vessels of gold, and silver, and purple garments, and many sorts of
spices, and horses, and chariots, and as many mules for his carriages as
they could find proper to please the king's eyes, by their strength and
beauty. This addition that he made to those chariots and horses which he
had before from those that were sent him, augmented the number of his chariots
by above four hundred, for he had a thousand before, and augmented the
number of his horses by two thousand, for he had twenty thousand before.
These horses also were so much exercised, in order to their making a fine
appearance, and running swiftly, that no others could, upon the comparison,
appear either finer or swifter; but they were at once the most beautiful
of all others, and their swiftness was incomparable also. Their riders
also were a further ornament to them, being, in the first place, young
men in the most delightful flower of their age, and being eminent for their
largeness, and far taller than other men. They had also very long heads
of hair hanging down, and were clothed in garments of Tyrian purple. They
had also dust of gold every day sprinkled on their hair, so that their
heads sparkled with the reflection of the sun-beams from the gold. The
king himself rode upon a chariot in the midst of these men, who were still
in armor, and had their bows fitted to them. He had on a white garment,
and used to take his progress out of the city in the morning. There was
a certain place about fifty furlongs distant from Jerusalem, which is called
Etham, very pleasant it is in fine gardens, and abounding in rivulets of
water; (19)
thither did he use to go out in the morning, sitting on high [in his chariot.]
4. Now Solomon had a divine sagacity in all things, and was very diligent
and studious to have things done after an elegant manner; so he did not
neglect the care of the ways, but he laid a causeway of black stone along
the roads that led to Jerusalem, which was the royal city, both to render
them easy for travelers, and to manifest the grandeur of his riches and
government. He also parted his chariots, and set them in a regular order,
that a certain number of them should be in every city, still keeping a
few about him; and those cities he called the cities of his chariots.
And the king made silver as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones in the
street; and so multiplied cedar trees in the plains of Judea, which did
not grow there before, that they were like the multitude of common sycamore
trees. He also ordained the Egyptian merchants that brought him their merchandise
to sell him a chariot, with a pair of horses, for six hundred drachmae
of silver, and he sent them to the kings of Syria, and to those kings that
were beyond Euphrates.
5. But although Solomon was become the most glorious of kings, and the
best beloved by God, and had exceeded in wisdom and riches those that had
been rulers of the Hebrews before him, yet did not he persevere in this
happy state till he died. Nay, he forsook the observation of the laws of
his fathers, and came to an end no way suitable to our foregoing history
of him. He grew mad in his love of women, and laid no restraint on himself
in his lusts; nor was he satisfied with the women of his country alone,
but he married many wives out of foreign nations; Sidontans, and Tyrians,
and Ammonites, and Edomites; and he transgressed the laws of Moses, which
forbade Jews to marry any but those that were of their own people. He also
began to worship their gods, which he did in order to the gratification
of his wives, and out of his affection for them. This very thing our legislator
suspected, and so admonished us beforehand, that we should not marry women
of other countries, lest we should be entangled with foreign customs, and
apostatize from our own; lest we should leave off to honor our own God,
and should worship their gods. But Solomon was Gllen headlong into unreasonable
pleasures, and regarded not those admonitions; for when he had married
seven hundred wives, (20)
the daughters of princes and of eminent persons, and three hundred concubines,
and those besides the king of Egypt's daughter, he soon was governed by
them, till he came to imitate their practices. He was forced to give them
this demonstration of his kindness and affection to them, to live according
to the laws of their countries. And as he grew into years, and his reason
became weaker by length of time, it was not sufficient to recall to his
mind the institutions of his own country; so he still more and more contemned
his own God, and continued to regard the gods that his marriages had introduced
nay, before this happened, he sinned, and fell into an error about the
observation of the laws, when he made the images of brazen oxen that supported
the brazen sea, (21)
and the images of lions about his own throne; for these he made, although
it was not agreeable to piety so to do; and this he did, notwithstanding
that he had his father as a most excellent and domestic pattern of virtue,
and knew what a glorious character he had left behind him, because of his
piety towards God. Nor did he imitate David, although God had twice appeared
to him in his sleep, and exhorted him to imitate his father. So he died
ingloriously. There came therefore a prophet to him, who was sent by God,
and told him that his wicked actions were not concealed from God; and threatened
him that he should not long rejoice in what he had done; that, indeed,
the kingdom should not be taken from him while he was alive, because God
had promised to his father David that he would make him his successor,
but that he would take care that this should befall his son when he :was
dead; not that he would withdraw all the people from him, but that he would
give ten tribes to a servant of his, and leave only two tribes to David's
grandson for his sake, because he loved God, and for the sake of the city
of Jerusalem, wherein he should have a temple.
6. When Solomon heard this he was grieved, and greatly confounded, upon
this change of almost all that happiness which had made him to be admired,
into so bad a state; nor had there much time passed after the prophet had
foretold what was coming before God raised up an enemy against him, whose
name was Ader, who took the following occasion of his enmity to him. He
was a child of the stock of the Edomites, and of the blood royal; and when
Joab, the captain of David's host, laid waste the land of Edom, and destroyed
all that were men grown, and able to bear arms, for six months' time, this
Hadad fled away, and came to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, who received him
kindly, and assigned him a house to dwell in, and a country to supply him
with food; and when he was grown up he loved him exceedingly, insomuch
that he gave him his wife's sister, whose name was Tahpenes, to wife, by
whom he had a son; who was brought up with the king's children. When Hadad
heard in Egypt that both David and Joab were dead, he came to Pharaoh,
and desired that he would permit him to go to his own country; upon which
the king asked what it was that he wanted, and what hardship he had met
with, that he was so desirous to leave him. And when he was often troublesome
to him, and entreated him to dismiss him, he did not then do it; but at
the time when Solomon's affairs began to grow worse, on account of his
forementioned transgressions (22)
and God's anger against him for the same, Hadad, by Pharaoh's permission,
came to Edom; and when he was not able to make the people forsake Solomon,
for it was kept under by many garrisons, and an innovation was not to be
made with safety, he removed thence, and came into Syria; there he lighted
upon one Rezon, who had run away from Hadadezer, king of Zobah, his master,
and was become a robber in that country, and joined friendship with him,
who had already a band of robbers about him. So he went up, and seized
upon that part of Syria, and was made king thereof. He also made incursions
into the land of Israel, and did it no small mischief, and spoiled it,
and that in the lifetime of Solomon. And this was the calamity which the
Hebrews suffered by Hadad.
7. There was also one of Solomon's own nation that made an attempt against
him, Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had an expectation of rising, from
a prophecy that had been made to him long before. He was left a child by
his father, and brought up by his mother; and when Solomon saw that he
was of an active and bold disposition, he made him the curator of the walls
which he built round about Jerusalem; and he took such care of those works,
that the king approved of his behavior, and gave him, as a reward for the
same, the charge of the tribe of Joseph. And when about that time Jeroboam
was once going out of Jerusalem, a prophet of the city Shilo, whose name
was Ahijah, met him and saluted him; and when he had taken him a little
aside to a place out of the way, where there was not one other person present,
he rent the garment he had on into twelve pieces, and bid Jeroboam take
ten of them; and told him beforehand, that "this is the will of God;
he will part the dominion of Solomon, and give one tribe, with that which
is next it, to his son, because of the promise made to David for his succession,
and will have ten tribes to thee, because Solomon hath sinned against him,
and delivered up himself to women, and to their gods. Seeing therefore
thou knowest the cause for which God hath changed his mind, and is alienated
from Solomon, be thou
8. So Jeroboam was elevated by these words of the prophet; and being
a young man, (23)
of a warm temper, and ambitious of greatness, he could not be quiet; and
when he had so great a charge in the government, and called to mind what
had been revealed to him by Ahijah, he endeavored to persuade the people
to forsake Solomon, to make a disturbance, and to bring the government
over to himself. But when Solomon understood his intention and treachery,
he sought to catch him and kill him; but Jeroboam was informed of it beforehand,
and fled to Shishak, the king of Egypt, and there abode till the death
of Solomon; by which means he gained these two advantages to suffer no
harm from Solomon, and to be preserved for the kingdom. So Solomon died
when he was already an old man, having reigned eighty years, and lived
ninety-four. He was buried in Jerusalem, having been superior to all other
kings in happiness, and riches, and wisdom, excepting that when he was
growing into years he was deluded by women, and transgressed the law; concerning
which transgressions, and the miseries which befell the Hebrews thereby,
I think proper to discourse at another opportunity.
CHAPTER 8.
HOW, UPON THE DEATH OF SOLOMON THE PEOPLE FORSOOK HIS SON
REHOBOAM, AND ORDAINED JEROBOAM KING OVER THE TEN TRIBES.
1. NOW when Solomon was dead, and his son Rehoboam (who was born of
an Amntonite wife; whose name was Naamah) had succeeded him in the kingdom,
the rulers of the multitude sent immediately into Egypt, and called back
Jeroboam; and when he was come to them, to the city Shethem, Rehoboam came
to it also, for he had resolved to declare himself king to the Israelites
while they were there gathered together. So the rulers of the people, as
well as Jeroboam, came to him, and besought him, and said that he ought
to relax, and to be gentler than his father, in the servitude he had imposed
on them, because they had borne a heavy yoke, and that then they should
be better affected to him, and be well contented to serve him under his
moderate government, and should do it more out of love than fear. But Rehoboam
told them they should come to him again in three days' time, when he would
give an answer to their request. This delay gave occasion to a present
suspicion, since he had not given them a favorable answer to their mind
immediately; for they thought that he should have given them a humane answer
off-hand, especially since he was but young. However, they thought that
this consultation about it, and that he did not presently give them a denial,
afforded them some good hope of success.
2. Rehoboam now called his father's friends, and advised with them what
sort of answer he ought to give to the multitude; upon which they gave
him the advice which became friends, and those that knew the temper of
such a multitude. They advised him to speak in a way more popular than
suited the grandeur of a king, because he would thereby oblige them to
submit to him with goodwill, it being most agreeable to subjects that their
kings should be almost upon the level with them. But Rehoboam rejected
this so good, and in general so profitable, advice, (it was such, at least,
at that time when he was to be made king,) God himself, I suppose, causing
what was most advantageous to be condemned by him. So he called for the
young men who were brought up with him, and told them what advice the elders
had given him, and bade them speak what they thought he ought to do. They
advised him to give the following answer to the people (for neither their
youth nor God himself suffered them to discern what was best): That his
little finger should be thicker than his father's loins; and if they had
met with hard usage from his father, they should experience much rougher
treatment from him; and if his father had chastised them with whips, they
must expect that he would do it with scorpions. (24)
The king was pleased with this advice, and thought it agreeable to the
dignity of his government to give them such an answer. Accordingly, when
the multitude was come together to hear his answer on the third day, all
the people were in great expectation, and very intent to hear what the
king would say to them, and supposed they should hear somewhat of a kind
nature; but he passed by his friends, and answered as the young men had
given him counsel. Now this was done according to the will of God, that
what Ahijah had foretold might come to pass.
3. By these words the people were struck as it were by all iron hammer,
and were so grieved at the words, as if they had already felt the effects
of them; and they had great indignation at the king; and all cried out
aloud, and said, "We will have no longer any relation to David or
his posterity after this day." And they said further, "We only
leave to Rehoboam the temple which his father built;" and they threatened
to forsake him. Nay, they were so bitter, and retained their wrath so long,
that when he sent Adoram, which was over the tribute, that he might pacify
them, and render them milder, and persuade them to forgive him, if he had
said any thing that was rash or grievous to them in his youth, they would
not hear it, but threw stones at him, and killed him. When Rehoboam saw
this, he thought himself aimed at by those stones with which they had killed
his servant, and feared lest he should undergo the last of punishments
in earnest; so he got immediately into his chariot, and fled to Jerusalem,
where the tribe of Judah and that of Benjamin ordained him king; but the
rest of the multitude forsook the sons of David from that day, and appointed
Jeroboam to be the ruler of their public affairs. Upon this Rehoboam, Solomon's
son, assembled a great congregation of those two tribes that submitted
to him, and was ready to take a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men
out of the army, to make an expedition against Jeroboam and his people,
that he might force them by war to be his servants; but he was forbidden
of God by the prophet [Shemaiah] to go to war, for that it was not just
that brethren of the same contry should fight one against another. He also
said that this defection of the multitude was according to the purpose
of God. So he did not proceed in this expedition. And now I will relate
first the actions of Jeroboam the king of Israel, after which we will relate
what are therewith connected, the actions of Rehoboam, the king of the
two tribes; by this means we shall preserve the good order of the history
entire.
4. When therefore Jeroboam had built him a palace in the city Shechem,
he dwelt there. He also built him another at Penuel, a city so called.
And now the feast of tabernacles was approaching in a little time, Jeroboam
considered, that if he should permit the multitude to go to worship God
at Jerusalem, and there to celebrate the festival, they would probably
repent of what they had done, and be enticed by the temple, and by the
worship of God there performed, and would leave him, and return to their
first kings; and if so, he should run the risk of losing his own life;
so he invented this contrivance; He made two golden heifers, and built
two little temples for them, the one in the city Bethel, and the other
in Dan, which last was at the fountains of the Lesser Jordan (25)
and he put the heifers into both the little temples, in the forementioned
cities. And when he had called those ten tribes together over whom he ruled,
he made a speech to the people in these words: "I suppose, my countrymen,
that you know this, that every place hath God in it; nor is there any one
determinate place in which he is, but he every where hears and sees those
that worship him; on which account I do not think it right for you to go
so long a journey to Jerusalem, which is an enemy's city, to worship him.
It was a man that built the temple: I have also made two golden heifers,
dedicated to the same God; and the one of them I have consecrated in the
city Bethel, and the other in Dan, to the end that those of you that dwell
nearest those cities may go to them, and worship God there; and I will
ordain for you certain priests and Levites from among yourselves, that
you may have no want of the tribe of Levi, or of the sons of Aaron; but
let him that is desirous among you of being a priest, bring to God a bullock
and a ram, which they say Aaron the first priest brought also." When
Jeroboam had said this, he deluded the people, and made them to revolt
from the worship of their forefathers, and to transgress their laws. This
was the beginning of miseries to the Hebrews, and the cause why they were
overcome in war by foreigners, and so fell into captivity. But we shall
relate those things in their proper places hereafter.
5. When the feast [of tabernacles] was just approaching, Jeroboam was
desirous to celebrate it himself in Bethel, as did the two tribes celebrate
it in Jerusalem. Accordingly he built an altar before the heifer, and undertook
to be high priest himself. So he went up to the altar, with his own priests
about him; but when he was going to offer the sacrifices and the burnt-offerings,
in the sight of all the people, a prophet, whose name was Jadon, was sent
by God, and came to him from Jerusalem, who stood in the midst of the multitude,
and in the 'hearing of' the king, and directing his discourse to the altar,
said thus: God foretells that there shall be a certain man of the family
of David, Josiah by name, who shall slay upon thee those false priests
that shall live at that time, and upon thee shall burn the bones of those
deceivers of the people, those impostors' and wicked wretches. However,
that this people may believe that these things shall so come to pass, I
foretell a sign to them that shall also come to pass. This altar shall
be broken to pieces immediately, and all the fat of the sacrifices that
is upon it shall be poured upon the ground." When the prophet had
said this, Jeroboam fell into a passion, and stretched out his hand, and
bid them lay hold of him; but that hand which he stretched out was enfeebled,
and he was not able to pull it in again to him, for it was become withered,
and hung down, as if it were a dead hand. The altar also was broken to
pieces, and all that was upon it was poured out, as the prophet had foretold
should come to pass. So the king understood that he was a man of veracity,
and had a Divine foreknowledge; and entreated him to pray to God that he
would restore his right hand. Accordingly the prophet did pray to God to
grant him that request. So the king, having his hand recovered to its natural
state, rejoiced at it, and invited the prophet to sup with him; but Jadon
said that he could not endure to come into his house, nor to taste of bread
or water in this city, for that was a thing God had forbidden him to do;
as also to go back by the same way which he came, but he said he was to
return by another way. So the king wondered at the abstinence of the man,
but was himself in fear, as suspecting a change of his affairs for the
worse, from what had been said to him.
CHAPTER 9.
HOW JADON THE PROPHET WAS PERSUADED BY ANOTHER LYING PROPHET
AND RETURNED [TO BETHEL,] AND WAS AFTERWARDS SLAIN BY A LION. AS ALSO WHAT
WORDS THE WICKED PROPHET MADE USE OF TO PERSUADE THE KING, AND THEREBY
ALIENATED HIS MIND FROM GOD.
1. NOW there was a certain wicked man in that city, who was a false
prophet, whom Jeroboam had in great esteem, but was deceived by him and
his flattering words. This man was bedrid, by reason or the infirmities
of old age: however, he was informed by his sons concerning the prophet
that was come from Jerusalem, and concerning the signs done by him; and
how, when Jeroboam's right hand had been enfeebled, at the prophet's prayer
he had it revived again. Whereupon he was afraid that this stranger and
prophet should be in better esteem with the king than himself, and obtain
greater honor from him: and he gave orders to his sons to saddle his ass
presently, and make all ready that he might go out. Accordingly they made
haste to do what they were commanded, and he got upon the ass and followed
after the prophet.; and when he had overtaken him, as he was resting himself
under a very large oak tree that was thick and shady, he at first saluted
him, but presently he complained of him, because he had not come into his
house, and partaken of his hospitality. And when the other said that God
had forbidden him to taste of any one's provision in that city, he replied,
that "for certain God had not forbidden that I should set food before
thee, for I am a prophet as thou art, and worship God in the same manner
that thou dost; and I am now come as sent by him, in order to bring thee
into my house, and make thee my guest." Now Jadon gave credit to this
lying prophet, and returned back with him. But when they were at dinner,
and merry together, God appeared to Jadon, and said that he should suffer
punishment for transgressing his commands, - and he told him what that
punishment should be for he said that he should meet with a lion as he
was going on his way, by which lion he should be torn in pieces, and be
deprived of burial in the sepulchers of his fathers; which things came
to pass, as I suppose, according to the will of God, that so Jeroboam might
not give heed to the words of Jadon as of one that had been convicted of
lying. However, as Jadon was again going to Jerusalem, a lion assaulted
him, and pulled him off the beast he rode on, and slew him; yet did he
not at all hurt the ass, but sat by him, and kept him, as also the prophet's
body. This continued till some travelers that saw it came and told it in
the city to the false prophet, who sent his sons, and brought the body
unto the city, and made a funeral for him at great expense. He also charged
his sons to bury himself with him and said that all which he had foretold
against that city, and the altar, and priests, and false prophets, would
prove true; and that if he were buried with him, he should receive no injurious
treatment after his death, the bones not being then to be distinguished
asunder. But now, when he had performed those funeral rites to the prophet,
and had given that charge to his sons, as he was a wicked and an impious
man, he goes to Jeroboam, and says to him, "And wherefore is it now
that thou art disturbed at the words of this silly fellow?" And when
the king had related to him what had happened about the altar, and about
his own hand, and gave him the names of divine man, and an excellent
prophet, he endeavored by a wicked trick to weaken that his opinion;
and by using plausible words concerning what had happened, he aimed to
injure the truth that was in them; for he attempted to persuade him that
his hand was enfeebled by the labor it had undergone in supporting the
sacrifices, and that upon its resting awhile it returned to its former
nature again; and that as to the altar, it was but new, and had borne abundance
of sacrifices, and those large ones too, and was accordingly broken to
pieces, and fallen down by the weight of what had been laid upon it. He
also informed him of the death of him that had foretold those things, and
how he perished; [whence he concluded that] he had not any thing in him
of a prophet, nor spake any thing like one. When he had thus spoken, he
persuaded the king, and entirely alienated his mind from God, and from
doing works that were righteous and holy, and encouraged him to go on in
his impious practices (26)
and accordingly he was to that degree injurious to God, and so great a
transgressor, that he sought for nothing else every day but how he might
be guilty of some new instances of wickedness, and such as should be more
detestable than what he had been so insolent as to do before. And so much
shall at present suffice to have said concerning Jeroboam.
CHAPTER 10.
CONCERNING REHOBOAM, AND HOW GOD INFLICTED PUNISHMENT UPON
HIM FOR HIS IMPIETY BY SHISHAK [KING OF EGYPT].
1. Now Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, who, as we said before, was king
of the two tribes, built strong and large cities, Bethlehem, and Etare,
and Tekoa, and Bethzur, and Shoco, and Adullam, and Ipan, and Maresha,
and Ziph, and Adorlam, and Lachlsh, and Azekah, and Zorah, and Aijalon,
and Hebron; these he built first of all in the tribe of Judah. He also
built other large cities in the tribe of Benjamin, and walled them about,
and put garrisons in them all, and captains, and a great deal of corn,
and wine, and oil, and he furnished every one of them plentifully with
other provisions that were necessary for sustenance; moreover, he put therein
shields and spears for many ten thousand men. The priests also that were
in all Israel, and the Levites, and if there were any of the multitude
that were good and righteous men, they gathered themselves together to
him, having left their own cities, that they might worship God in Jerusalem;
for they were not willing to be forced to worship the heifers which Jeroboam
had made; and they augmented the kingdom of Rehoboam for three years. And
after he had married a woman of his own kindred, and had by her three children
born to him, he married also another of his own kindred, who was daughter
of Absalom by Tamar, whose name was Maachah, and by her he had a son, whom
he named Abijah. He had moreover many other children by other wives, but
he loved Maachah above them all. Now he had eighteen legitimate wives,
and thirty concubines; and he had born to him twenty-eight sons and threescore
daughters; but he appointed Abijah, whom he had by Maachah, to be his successor
in the kingdom, and intrusted him already with the treasures and the strongest
cities.
2. Now I cannot but think that the greatness of a kingdom, and its change
into prosperity, often become the occasion of mischief and of transgression
to men; for when Rehoboam saw that his kingdom was so much increased, he
went out of the right way unto unrighteous and irreligious practices, and
he despised the worship of God, till the people themselves imitated his
wicked actions: for so it usually happens, that the manners of subjects
are corrupted at the same time with those of their governors, which subjects
then lay aside their own sober way of living, as a reproof of their governors'
intemperate courses, and follow their wickedness as if it were virtue;
for it is not possible to show that men approve of the actions of their
kings, unless they do the same actions with them. Agreeable whereto it
now happened to the subjects of Rehoboam; for when he was grown impious,
and a transgressor himself, they endeavored not to offend him by resolving
still to be righteous. But God sent Shishak, king of Egypt, to punish them
for their unjust behavior towards him, concerning whom Herodotus was mistaken,
and applied his actions to Sesostris; for this Shishak, (27)
in the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, made an expedition [into Judea]
with many ten thousand men; for he had one thousand two hundred chariots
in number that followed him, and threescore thousand horsemen, and four
hundred thousand footmen. These he brought with him, and they were the
greatest part of them Libyans and Ethiopians. Now therefore when he fell
upon the country of the Hebrews, he took the strongest cities of Rehoboam's
kingdom without fighting; and when he had put garrisons in them, he came
last of all to Jerusalem.
3. Now when Rehoboam, and the multitude with him, were shut up in Jerusalem
by the means of the army of Shishak, and when they besought God to give
them victory and deliverance, they could not persuade God to be on their
side. But Shemaiah the prophet told them, that God threatened to forsake
them, as they had themselves forsaken his worship. When they heard this,
they were immediately in a consternation of mind; and seeing no way of
deliverance, they all earnestly set themselves to confess that God might
justly overlook them, since they had been guilty of impiety towards him,
and had let his laws lie in confusion. So when God saw them in that disposition,
and that they acknowledge their sins, he told the prophet that he would
not destroy them, but that he would, however, make them servants to the
Egyptians, that they may learn whether they will suffer less by serving
men or God. So when Shishak had taken the city without fighting, because
Rehoboam was afraid, and received him into it, yet did not Shishak stand
to the covenants he had made, but he spoiled the temple, and emptied the
treasures of God, and those of the king, and carried off innumerable ten
thousands of gold and silver, and left nothing at all behind him. He also
took away the bucklers of gold, and the shields, which Solomon the king
had made; nay, he did not leave the golden quivers which David had taken
from the king of Zobah, and had dedicated to God; and when he had thus
done, he returned to his own kingdom. Now Herodotus of Halicarnassus mentions
this expedition, having only mistaken the king's name; and [in saying that]
he made war upon many other nations also, and brought Syria of Palestine
into subjection, and took the men that were therein prisoners without fighting.
Now it is manifest that he intended to declare that our nation was subdued
by him; for he saith that he left behind him pillars in the land of those
that delivered themselves up to him without fighting, and engraved upon
them the secret parts of women. Now our king Rehoboam delivered up our
city without fighting. He says withal (28)
that the Ethiopians learned to circumcise their privy parts from the Egyptians,
with this addition, that the Phoenicians and Syrians that live in Palestine
confess that they learned it of the Egyptians. Yet it is evident that no
other of the Syrians that live in Palestine, besides us alone, are circumcised.
But as to such matters, let every one speak what is agreeable to his own
opinion.
4. When Shishak was gone away, king Rehoboam made bucklers and shields
of brass, instead of those of gold, and delivered the same number of them
to the keepers of the king's palace. So, instead of warlike expeditions,
and that glory which results from those public actions, he reigned in great
quietness, though not without fear, as being always an enemy to Jeroboam,
and he died when he had lived fifty-seven years, and reigned seventeen.
He was in his disposition a proud and a foolish man, and lost [part of
his] dominions by not hearkening to his father's friends. He was buried
in Jerusalem, in the sepulchers of the kings; and his son Abijah succeeded
him in the kingdom, and this in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign
over the ten tribes; and this was the conclusion of these affairs. It must
be now our business to relate the affairs of Jeroboam, and how he ended
his life; for he ceased not nor rested to be injurious to God, but every
day raised up altars upon high mountains, and went on making priests out
of the multitude.
CHAPTER 11.
CONCERNING THE DEATH OF A SON OF JEROBOAM. HOW JEROBOAM WAS
BEATEN BY ABIJAH WHO DIED A LITTLE AFTERWARD AND WAS SUCCEEDED IN HIS KINGDOM
BY ASA. AND ALSO HOW, AFTER THE DEATH OF JEROBOAM BAASHA DESTROYED HIS
SON NADAB AND ALL THE HOUSE OF JEROBOAM.
1. HOWEVER, God was in no long time ready to return Jeroboam's wicked
actions, and the punishment they deserved, upon his own head, and upon
the heads of all his house. And whereas a soil of his lay sick at that
time, who was called Abijah, he enjoined his wife to lay aside her robes,
and to take the garments belonging to a private person, and to go to Ahijah
the prophet, for that he was a wonderful man in foretelling futurities,
it having been he who told me that I should be king. He also enjoined her,
when she came to him, to inquire concerning the child, as if she were a
stranger, whether he should escape this distemper. So she did as her husband
bade her, and changed her habit, and came to the city Shiloh, for there
did Ahijah live. And as she was going into his house, his eyes being then
dim with age, God appeared to him, and informed him of two things; that
the wife of Jeroboam was come to him, and what answer he should make to
her inquiry. Accordingly, as the woman was coming into the house like a
private person and a stranger, he cried out, "Come in, O thou wife
of Jeroboam! Why concealest thou thyself? Thou art not concealed from God,
who hath appeared to me, and informed me that thou wast coming, and hath
given me in command what I shall say to thee." So he said that she
should go away to her husband, and speak to him thus: "Since I made
thee a great man when thou wast little, or rather wast nothing, and rent
the kingdom from the house of David, and gave it to thee, and thou hast
been unmindful of these benefits, hast left off my worship, hast made thee
molten gods and honored them, I will in like manner cast thee down again,
and will destroy all thy house, and make them food for the dogs and the
fowls; for a certain king is rising up, by appointment, over all this people,
who shall leave none of the family of Jeroboam remaining. The multitude
also shall themselves partake of the same punishment, and shall be cast
out of this good land, and shall be scattered into the places beyond Euphrates,
because they have followed the wicked practices of their king, and have
worshipped the gods that he made, and forsaken my sacrifices. But do thou,
O woman, make haste back to thy husband, and tell him this message; but
thou shalt then find thy son dead, for as thou enterest the city he shall
depart this life; yet shall he be buried with the lamentation of all the
multitude, and honored with a general mourning, for he was the only person
of goodness of Jeroboam's family." When the prophet had foretold these
events, the woman went hastily away with a disordered mind, and greatly
grieved at the death of the forenamed child. So she was in lamentation
as she went along the road, and mourned for the death of her son, that
was just at hand. She was indeed in a miserable condition at the unavoidable
misery of his death, and went apace, but in circumstances very unfortunate,
because of her son: for the greater haste she made, she would the sooner
see her son dead, yet was she forced to make such haste on account of her
husband. Accordingly, when she was come back, she found that the child
had given up the ghost, as the prophet had said; and she related all the
circumstances to the king.
2. Yet did not Jeroboam lay any of these things to heart, but he brought
together a very numerous army, and made a warlike expedition against Abijah,
the son of Rehoboam, who had succeeded his father in the kingdom of the
two tribes; for he despised him because of his age. But when he heard of
the expedition of Jeroboam, he was not affrighted at it, but proved of
a courageous temper of mind, superior both to his youth and to the
hopes of his enemy; so he chose him an army out of the two tribes, and
met Jeroboam at a place called Mount Zemaraim, and pitched his camp near
the other, and prepared everything necessary for the fight. His army consisted
of four hundred thousand, but the army of Jeroboam was double to it. Now
as the armies stood in array, ready for action and dangers, and were just
going to fight, Abijah stood upon an elevated place, and beckoning with
his hand, he desired the multitude and Jeroboam himself to hear first with
silence what he had to say. And when silence was made, he began to speak,
and told them, - "God had consented that David and his posterity should
be their rulers for all time to come, and this you yourselves are not unacquainted
with; but I cannot but wonder how you should forsake my father, and join
yourselves to his servant Jeroboam, and are now here with him to fight
against those who, by God's own determination, are to reign, and to deprive
them of that dominion which they have still retained; for as to the greater
part of it, Jeroboam is unjustly in possession of it. However, I do not
suppose he will enjoy it any longer; but when he hath suffered that punishment
which God thinks due to him for what is past, he will leave off the transgressions
he hath been guilty of, and the injuries he hath offered to him, and which
he hath still continued to offer and hath persuaded you to do the same:
yet when you were not any further unjustly treated by my father, than that
he did not speak to you so as to please you, and this only in compliance
with the advice of wicked men, you in anger forsook him, as you pretended,
but, in reality, you withdrew yourselves from God, and from his laws, although
it had been right for you to have forgiven a man that was young in age,
and not used to govern people, not only some disagreeable words, but if
his youth and unskilfulness in affairs had led him into some unfortunate
actions, and that for the sake of his father Solomon, and the benefits
you received from him; for men ought to excuse the sins of posterity on
account of the benefactions of parent; but you considered nothing of all
this then, neither do you consider it now, but come with so great an army
against us. And what is it you depend upon for victory? Is it upon these
golden heifers, and the altars that you have on high places, which are
demonstrations of your impiety, and not of religious worship? Or is it
the exceeding multitude of your army which gives you such good hopes? Yet
certainly there is no strength at all in an army of many ten thousands,
when the war is unjust; for we ought to place our surest hopes of success
against our enemies in righteousness alone, and in piety towards God; which
hope we justly have, since we have kept the laws from the beginning, and
have worshipped our own God, who was not made by hands out of corruptible
matter; nor was he formed by a wicked king, in order to deceive the multitude;
but who is his own workmanship, (29)
and the beginning and end of all things. I therefore give you counsel even
now to repent, and to take better advice, and to leave off the prosecution
of the war; to call to mind the laws of your country, and to reflect what
it hath been that hath advanced you to so happy a state as you are now
in."
3. This was the speech which Abijah made to the multitude. But while
he was still speaking Jeroboam sent some of his soldiers privately to encompass
Abijab round about, on certain parts of the camp that were not taken notice
of; and when he was thus within the compass of the enemy, his army was
affrighted, and their courage failed them; but Abijah encouraged them,
and exhorted them to place their hopes on God, for that he was not encompassed
by the enemy. So they all at once implored the Divine assistance, while
the priests sounded with the trumpet, and they made a shout, and fell upon
their enemies, and God brake the courage and cast down the force of their
enemies, and made Ahijah's army superior to them; for God vouchsafed to
grant them a wonderful and very famous victory; and such a slaughter was
now made of Jeroboam's army (30)
as is never recorded to have happened in any other war, whether it were
of the Greeks or of the Barbarians, for they overthrew [and slew] five
hundred thousand of their enemies, and they took their strongest cities
by force, and spoiled them; and besides those, they did the same to Bethel
and her towns, and Jeshanah and her towns. And after this defeat Jeroboam
never recovered himself during the life of Abijah, who yet did not long
survive, for he reigned but three years, and was buried in Jerusalem in
the sepulchers of his forefathers. He left behind him twenty-two sons,
and sixteen daughters; and he had also those children by fourteen wives;
and Asa his son succeeded in the kingdom; and the young man's mother was
Michaiah. Under his reign the country of the Israelites enjoyed peace for
ten years.
4. And so far concerning Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon,
as his history hath come down to us. But Jeroboam, the king of the ten
tribes, died when he had governed them two and twenty years; whose son
Nadab succeeded him, in the second year of the reign of Asa. Now Jeroboam's
son governed two years, and resembled his father in impiety and wickedness.
In these two years he made an expedition against Gibbethon, a city of the
Philistines, and continued the siege in order to take it; but he was conspired
against while he was there by a friend of his, whose name was Baasha, the
son of Ahijah, and was slain; which Baasha took the kingdom after the other's
death, and destroyed the whole house of Jeroboam. It also came to pass,
according as God had foretold, that some of Jeroboam's kindred that died
in the city were torn to pieces and devoured by dogs, and that others of
them that died in the fields were torn and devoured by the fowls. So the
house of Jeroboam suffered the just punishment of his impiety, and of his
wicked actions.
CHAPTER 12.
HOW ZERAH, KING OF THE ETHIOPIANS, WAS BEATEN BY ASA; AND
HOW ASA, UPON BAASHA'S MAKING WAR AGAINST HIM, INVITED THE KING OF THE
DAMASCENS TO ASSIST HIM; AND HOW, ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THE HOUSE OF BAASHA
ZIMRI GOT THE KINGDOM AS DID HIS SON AHAB AFTER HIM.
1. Now Asa, the king of Jerusalem, was of an excellent character, and
had a regard to God, and neither did nor designed any thing but what had
relation to the observation of the laws. He made a reformation of his kingdom,
and cut off whatsoever was wicked therein, and purified it from every impurity.
Now he had an army of chosen men that were armed with targets and spears;
out of the tribe of Judah three hundred thousand; and out of the tribe
of Benjamin, that bore shields and drew bows, two hundred and fifty thousand.
But when he had already reigned ten years, Zerah, king of Ethiopia, (31)
made an expedition against him, with a great army, of nine hundred thousand
footmen, and one hundred thousand horsemen, and three hundred chariots,
and came as far as Mareshah, a city that belonged to the tribe of Judah.
Now when Zerah had passed so far with his own army, Asa met him, and put
his army in array over against him, in a valley called Zephathah, not far
from the city; and when he saw the multitude of the Ethiopians, he cried
out, and besought God to give him the victory, and that he might kill many
ten thousands of the enemy: "For," said he, (32)
"I depend on nothing else but that assistance which I expect from
thee, which is able to make the fewer superior to the more numerous, and
the weaker to the stronger; and thence it is alone that I venture to meet
Zerah, and fight him."
2. While Asa was saying this, God gave him a signal of victory, and
joining battle cheerfully on account of what God had foretold about it,
he slew a great many of the Ethiopians; and when he had put them to flight,
he pursued them to the country of Gerar; and when they left off killing
their enemies, they betook themselves to spoiling them, (for the city Gerar
was already taken,) and to spoiling their camp, so that they carried off
much gold, and much silver, and a great deal of [other] prey, and camels,
and great cattle, and flocks of sheep. Accordingly, when Asa and his army
had obtained such a victory, and such wealth from God, they returned to
Jerusalem. Now as they were coming, a prophet, whose name was Azariah,
met them on the road, and bade them stop their journey a little; and began
to say to them thus: That the reason why they had obtained this victory
from God was this, that they had showed themselves righteous and religious
men, and had done every thing according to the will of God; that therefore,
he said, if they persevered therein, God would grant that they should always
overcome their enemies, and live happily; but that if they left off his
worship, all things shall fall out on the contrary; and a time should come,
wherein no true prophet shall be left in your whole multitude, nor a priest
who shall deliver you a true ,answer from the oracle; but your cities shall
be overthrown, and your nation scattered over the whole earth, and live
the life of strangers and wanderers. So he advised them, while they had
time, to be good, and not to deprive themselves of the favor of God. When
the king and the people heard this, they rejoiced; and all in common, and
every one in particular, took great care to behave themselves righteously.
The king also sent some to take care that those in the country should observe
the laws also.
3. And this was the state of Asa, king of the two tribes. I now return
to Baasha, the king of the multitude of the Israelites, who slew Nadab,
the son of Jeroboam, and retained the government. He dwelt in the city
Tirzah, having made that his habitation, and reigned twenty-four years.
He became more wicked and impious than Jeroboam or his son. He did a great
deal of mischief to the multitude, and was injurious to God, who sent the
prophet Jehu, and told him beforehand that his whole family should be destroyed,
and that he would bring the same miseries on his house which had brought
that of Jeroboam to ruin; because when he had been made king by him, he
had not requited his kindness, by governing the multitude righteously and
religiously; which things, in the first place, tended to their own happiness,
and, in the next place, were pleasing to God: that he had imitated this
very wicked king Jeroboam; and although that man's soul had perished, yet
did he express to the life his wickedness; and he said that he should therefore
justly experience the like calamity with him, since he had been guilty
of the like wickedness. But Baasha, though he heard beforehand what miseries
would befall him and his whole family for their insolent behavior, yet
did not he leave off his wicked practices for the time to come, nor did
he care to appear other than worse and worse till he died; nor did he then
repent of his past actions, nor endeavor to obtain pardon of God for them,
but did as those do who have rewards proposed to them, when they have once
in earnest set about their work, they do not leave off their labors; for
thus did Baasha, when the prophet foretold to him what would come to pass,
grow worse, as if what were threatened, the perdition of his family, and
the destruction of his house, (which are really among the greatest of evils,)
were good things; and, as if he were a combatant for wickedness, he every
day took more and more pains for it: and at last he took his army and assaulted
a certain considerable city called Ramah, which was forty furlongs distant
from Jerusalem; and when he had taken it, he fortified it, having determined
beforehand to leave a garrison in it, that they might thence make excursions,
and do mischief to the kingdom of Asa.
4. Whereupon Asa was afraid of the attempts the enemy might make upon
him; and considering with himself how many mischiefs this army that was
left in Ramah might do to the country over which he reigned, he sent ambassadors
to the king of the Damascenes, with gold and silver, desiring his assistance,
and putting him in mind that we have had a friendship together from the
times of our forefathers. So he gladly received that sum of money, and
made a league with him, and broke the friendship he had with Baasha, and
sent the commanders of his own forces unto the cities that were under Baasha's
dominion, and ordered them to do them mischief. So they went and burnt
some of them, and spoiled others; Ijon, and Dan, and Abelmain (33)
and many others. Now when the king of Israel heard this, he left off building
and fortifying Ramah, and returned presently to assist his own people under
the distresses they were in; but Asa made use of the materials that were
prepared for building that city, for building in the same place two strong
cities, the one of which was called Geba, and the other Mizpah; so that
after this Baasha had no leisure to make expeditions against Asa, for he
was prevented by death, and was buried in the city Tirzah; and Elah his
son took the kingdom, who, when he had reigned two years, died, being treacherously
slain by Zimri, the captain of half his army; for when he was at Arza,
his steward's house, he persuaded some of the horsemen that were under
him to assault Elah, and by that means he slew him when he was without
his armed men and his captains, for they were all busied in the siege of
Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines.
5. When Zimri, the captain of the army, had killed Elah, he took the
kingdom himself, and, according to Jehu's prophecy, slew all the house
of Baasha; for it came to pass that Baasha's house utterly perished, on
account of his impiety, in the same manner as we have already described
the destruction of the house of Jeroboam. But the army that was besieging.
Gibbethon, when they heard what had befallen the king, and that when Zimri
had killed him, he had gained the kingdom, they made Omri their general
king, who drew off his army from Gibbethon, and came to Tirzah, where the
royal palace was, and assaulted the city, and took it by force. But when
Zimri saw that the city had none to defend it, he fled into the inmost
part of the palace, and set it on fire, and burnt himself with it, when
he had reigned only seven days. Upon which the people of Israel were presently
divided, and part of them would have Tibni to be king, and part Omri; but
when those that were for Omri's ruling had beaten Tibni, Omri reigned over
all the multitude. Now it was in the thirtieth year of the reign of Asa
that Omri reigned for twelve years; six of these years he reigned in the
city Tirzah, and the rest in the city called Semareon, but named by the
Greeks Samaria; but he himself called it Semareon, from Semer, who sold
him the mountain whereon he built it. Now Omri was no way different from
those kings that reigned before him, but that he grew worse than they,
for they all sought how they might turn the people away from God by their
daily wicked practices; and oil that account it was that God made one of
them to be slain by another, and that no one person of their families should
remain. This Omri also died in Samaria and Ahab his son succeeded him.
6. Now by these events we may learn what concern God hath for the affairs
of mankind, and how he loves good men, and hates the wicked, and destroys
them root and branch; for many of these kings of Israel, they and their
families, were miserably destroyed, and taken away one by another, in a
short time, for their transgression and wickedness; but Asa, who was king
of Jerusalem, and of the two tribes, attained, by God's blessing, a long
and a blessed old age, for his piety and righteousness, and died happily,
when he had reigned forty and one years; and when he was dead, his son
Jehoshaphat succeeded him in the government. He was born of Asa's wife
Azubah. And all men allowed that he followed the works of David his forefather,
and this both in courage and piety; but we are not obliged now to speak
any more of the affairs of this king.
CHAPTER 13.
HOW AHAB WHEN HE HAD TAKEN JEZEBEL TO WIFE BECAME MORE WICKED
THAN ALL THE KINGS THAT HAD BEEN BEFORE HIM; OF THE ACTIONS OF THE PROPHET
ELIJAH, AND WHAT BEFELL NABOTH.
1. NOW Ahab the king of Israel dwelt in Samaria, and held the government
for twenty-two years; and made no alteration in the conduct of the kings
that were his predecessors, but only in such things as were of his own
invention for the worse, and in his most gross wickedness. He imitated
them in their wicked courses, and in their injurious behavior towards God,
and more especially he imitated the transgression of Jeroboam; for he worshipped
the heifers that he had made; and he contrived other absurd objects of
worship besides those heifers: he also took to wife the daughter of Ethbaal,
king of the Tyrians and Sidonians, whose name was Jezebel, of whom he learned
to worship her own gods. This woman was active and bold, and fell into
so great a degree of impurity and madness, that she built a temple to the
god of the Tyrians, Which they call Belus, and planted a grove of all sorts
of trees; she also appointed priests and false prophets to this god. The
king also himself had many such about him, and so exceeded in madness and
wickedness all [the kings] that went before him.
2. There was now a prophet of God Almighty, of Thesbon, a country in
Gilead, that came to Ahab, and said to him, that God foretold he would
not send rain nor dew in those years upon the country but when he should
appear. And when he had confirmed this by an oath, he departed into the
southern parts, and made his abode by a brook, out of which he had water
to drink; for as for his food, ravens brought it to him every day: but
when that river was dried up for want of rain, he came to Zarephath, a
city not far from Sidon and Tyre, for it lay between them, and this at
the command of God, for [God told him] that he should there find a woman
who was a widow that should give him sustenance. So when he was not far
off the city, he saw a woman that labored with her own hands, gathering
of sticks: so God informed him that this was the woman who was to give
him sustenance. So he came and saluted her, and desired her to bring him
some water to drink; but as she was going so to do, he called to her, and
would have her to bring him a loaf of bread also; whereupon she affirmed
upon oath that she had at home nothing more than one handful of meal, and
a little oil, and that she was going to gather some sticks, that she might
knead it, and make bread for herself and her son; after which, she said,
they must perish, and be consumed by the famine, for they had nothing for
themselves any longer. Hereupon he said, "Go on with good courage,
and hope for better things; and first of all make me a little cake, and
bring it to me, for I foretell to thee that this vessel of meal and this
cruse of oil shall not fail until God send rain." When the prophet
had said this, she came to him, and made him the before-named cake; of
which she had part for herself, and gave the rest to her son, and to the
prophet also; nor did any thing of this fall until the drought ceased.
Now Menander mentions this drought in his account of the acts of Ethbaal,
king of the Tyrians; where he says thus: "Under him there was a want
of rain from the month Hyperberetmus till the month Hyperberetmus of the
year following; but when he made supplications, there came great thunders.
This Ethbaal built the city Botrys in Phoenicia, and the city Auza in Libya."
By these words he designed the want of rain that was in the days of Ahab,
for at that time it was that Ethbaal also reigned over the Tyrians, as
Menander informs us.
3. Now this woman, of whom we spake before, that sustained the prophet,
when her son was fallen into a distemper till he gave up the ghost, and
appeared to be dead, came to the prophet weeping, and beating her breasts
with her hands, and sending out such expressions as her passions dictated
to her, and complained to him that he had come to her to reproach her for
her sins, and that on this account it was that her son was dead. But he
bid her be of good cheer, and deliver her son to him, for that he would
deliver him again to her alive. So when she had delivered her son up to
him, he carried him into an upper room, where he himself lodged, and laid
him down upon the bed, and cried unto God, and said, that God had not done
well, in rewarding the woman who had entertained him and sustained him,
by taking away her son; and he prayed that he would send again the soul
of the child into him, and bring him to life again. Accordingly God took
pity on the mother, and was willing to gratify the prophet, that he might
not seem to have come to her to do her a mischief, and the child, beyond
all expectation, came to life again. So the mother returned the prophet
thanks, and said she was then clearly satisfied that God did converse with
him.
4. After a little while Elijah came to king Ahab, according to God's
will, to inform him that rain was coming. Now the famine had seized upon
the whole country, and there was a great want of what was necessary for
sustenance, insomuch that it was after the recovery of the widow's son
of Sarepta, God sent not only men that wanted it, but the earth itself
also, which did not produce enough for the horse and the other beasts of
what was useful for them to feed on, by reason of the drought. So the king
called for Obadiah, who was steward over his cattle, and said to him, that
he would have him go to the fountains of water, and to the brooks, that
if any herbs could be found for them, they might mow it down, and reserve
it for the beasts. And when he had sent persons all over the habitable
earth (34)
to discover the prophet Elijah, and they could not find him, he bade Obadiah
accompany him. So it was resolved they should make a progress, and divide
the ways between them; and Obadiah took one road, and the king another.
Now it happened that the same time when queen Jezebel slew the prophets,
that this Obadiah had hidden a hundred prophets, and had fed them with
nothing but bread and water. But when Obadiah was alone, and absent from
the king, the prophet Elijah met him; and Obadiah asked him who he was;
and when he had learned it from him, he worshipped him. Elijah then bid
him go to the king, and tell him that I am here ready to wait on him. But
Obadiah replied, "What evil have I done to thee, that thou sendest
me to one who seeketh to kill thee, and hath sought over all the earth
for thee? Or was he so ignorant as not to know that the king had left no
place untouched unto which he had not sent persons to bring him back, in
order, if they could take him, to have him put to death?" For he told
him he was afraid lest God should appear to him again, and he should go
away into another place; and that when the king should send him for Elijah,
and he should miss of him, and not be able to find him any where upon earth,
he should be put to death. He desired him therefore to take care of his
preservation; and told him how diligently he had provided for those of
his own profession, and had saved a hundred prophets, when Jezebel slew
the rest of them, and had kept them concealed, and that they had been sustained
by him. But Elijah bade him fear nothing, but go to the king; and he assured
him upon oath that he would certainly show himself to Ahab that very day.
5. So when Obadiah had informed the king that Elijah was there, Ahab
met him, and asked him, in anger, if he were the man that afflicted the
people of the Hebrews, and was the occasion of the drought they lay under?
But Elijah, without any flattery, said that he was himself the man, he
and his house, which brought such sad afflictions upon them, and that by
introducing strange gods into their country, and worshipping them, and
by leaving their own, who was the only true God, and having no manner of
regard to him. However, he bade him go his way, and gather together all
the people to him to Mount Carmel, with his own prophets, and those of
his wife, telling him how many there were of them, as also the prophets
of the groves, about four hundred in number. And as all the men whom Ahab
sent for ran away to the forenamed mountain, the prophet Elijah stood in
the midst of them, and said, "How long will you live thus in uncertainty
of mind and opinion?" He also exhorted them, that in case they esteemed
their own country God to be the true and the only God, they would follow
him and his commandments; but in case they esteemed him to be nothing,
but had an opinion of the strange gods, and that they ought to worship
them, his counsel was, that they should follow them. And when the multitude
made no answer to what he said, Elijah desired that, for a trial of the
power of the strange gods, and of their own God, he, who was his only prophet,
while they had four hundred, might take a heifer and kill it as a sacrifice,
and lay it upon pieces of wood, and not kindle any fire, and that they
should do the same things, and call upon their own gods to set the wood
on fire; for if that were done, they would thence learn the nature of the
true God. This proposal pleased the people. So Elijah bade the prophets
to choose out a heifer first, and kill it, and to call on their gods. But
when there appeared no effect of the prayer or invocation of the prophets
upon their sacrifice, Elijah derided them, and bade them call upon their
gods with a loud voice, for they might either be on a journey, or asleep;
and when these prophets had done so from morning till noon, and cut themselves
with swords and lances, (35)
according to the customs of their country, and he was about to offer his
sacrifice, he bade [the prophets] go away, but bade [the people] come near
and observe what he did, lest he should privately hide fire among the pieces
of wood. So, upon the approach of the multitude, he took twelve stones,
one for each tribe of the people of the Hebrews, and built an altar with
them, and dug a very deep trench; and when he had laid the pieces of wood
upon the altar, and upon them had laid the pieces of the sacrifices, he
ordered them to fill four barrels with the water of the fountain, and to
pour it upon the altar, till it ran over it, and till the trench was filled
with the water poured into it. When he had done this, he began to pray
to God, and to invocate him to make manifest his power to a people that
had already been in an error a long time; upon which words a fire came
on a sudden from heaven in the sight of the multitude, and fell upon the
altar, and consumed the sacrifice, till the very water was set on fire,
and the place was become dry.
6. Now when the Israelites saw this, they fell down upon the ground,
and worshipped one God, and called him The great and the only true God;
but they called the others mere names, framed by the evil and vile
opinions of men. So they caught their prophets, and, at the command of
Elijah, slew them. Elijah also said to the king, that he should go to dinner
without any further concern, for that in a little time he would see God
send them rain. Accordingly Ahab went his way. But Elijah went up to the
highest top of Mount Carmel, and sat down upon the ground, and leaned his
head upon his knees, and bade his servant go up to a certain elevated place,
and look towards the sea, and when he should see a cloud rising any where,
he should give him notice of it, for till that time the air had been clear.
When the Servant had gone up, and had said many times that he saw nothing,
at the seventh time of his going up, he said that he saw a small black
thing in the sky, not larger than a man's foot. When Elijah heard that,
he sent to Ahab, and desired him to go away to the city before the rain
came down. So he came to the city Jezreel; and in a little time the air
was all obscured, and covered with clouds, and a vehement storm of wind
came upon the earth, and with it a great deal of rain; and the prophet
was under a Divine fury, and ran along with the king's chariot unto Jezreel
a city of Izar (36)
[Issaachar].
7. When Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, understood what signs Elijah had
wrought, and how he had slain her prophets, she was angry, and sent messengers
to him, and by them threatened to kill him, as he had destroyed her prophets.
At this Elijah was affrighted, and fled to the city called Beersheba, which
is situate at the utmost limits of the country belonging to the tribe of
Judah, towards the land of Edom; and there he left his servant, and went
away into the desert. He prayed also that he might die, for that he was
not better than his fathers, nor need he be very desirous to live, when
they were dead; and he lay and slept under a certain tree; and when somebody
awakened him, and he was risen up, he found food set by him and water:
so when he had eaten, and recovered his strength by that his food, he came
to that mountain which is called Sinai, where it is related that Moses
received his laws from God; and finding there a certain hollow cave, he
entered into it, and continued to make his abode in it. But when a certain
voice came to him, but from whence he knew not, and asked him, why he was
come thither, and had left the city? he said, that because he had slain
the prophets of the foreign gods, and had persuaded the people that he
alone whom they had worshipped from the beginning was God, he was sought
for by the king's wife to be punished for so doing. And when he had heard
another voice, telling him that he should come out the next day into the
open air, and should thereby know what he was to do, he came out of the
cave the next day accordingly, When he both heard an earthquake, and saw
the bright splendor of a fire; and after a silence made, a Divine voice
exhorted him not to be disturbed with the circumstances he was in, for
that none of his enemies should have power over him. The voice also commanded
him to return home, and to ordain Jehu, the son of Nimshi, to be king over
their own multitude; and Hazael, of Damascus, to be over the Syrians; and
Elisha, of the city Abel, to be a prophet in his stead; and that of the
impious multitude, some should be slain by Hazael, and others by Jehu.
So Elijah, upon hearing this charge, returned into the land of the Hebrews.
And when he found Elisha, the son of Shaphat, ploughing, and certain others
with him, driving twelve yoke of oxen, he came to him, and cast his own
garment upon him; upon which Elisha began to prophesy presently, and leaving
his oxen, he followed Elijah. And when he desired leave to salute his parents,
Elijah gave him leave so to do; and when he had taken his leave of them,
he followed him, and became the disciple and the servant of Elijah all
the days of his life. And thus have I despatched the affairs in which this
prophet was concerned.
8. Now there was one Naboth, of the city Izar, [Jezreel,] who had a
field adjoining to that of the king: the king would have persuaded him
to sell him that his field, which lay so near to his own lands, at what
price he pleased, that he might join them together, and make them one farm;
and if he would not accept of money for it, he gave him leave to choose
any of his other fields in its stead. But Naboth said he would not do so,
but would keep the possession of that land of his own, which he had by
inheritance from his father. Upon this the king was grieved, as if he had
received an injury, when he could not get another man's possession, and
he would neither wash himself, nor take any food: and when Jezebel asked
him what it was that troubled him, and why he would neither wash himself,
nor eat either dinner or supper, he related to her the perverseness of
Naboth, and how, when he had made use of gentle words to him, and such
as were beneath the royal authority, he had been affronted, and had not
obtained what he desired. However, she persuaded him not to be cast down
at this accident, but to leave off his grief, and return to the usual care
of his body, for that she would take care to have Naboth punished; and
she immediately sent letters to the rulers of the Israelites [Jezreelites]
in Ahab's name, and commanded them to fast and to assemble a congregation,
and to set Naboth at the head of them, because he was of an illustrious
family, and to have three bold men ready to bear witness that he had blasphemed
God and the king, and then to stone him, and slay him in that manner. Accordingly,
when Naboth had been thus testified against, as the queen had written to
them, that he had blasphemed against God and Ahab the king, she desired
him to take possession of Naboth's vineyard on free cost. So Ahab was glad
at what had been done, and rose up immediately from the bed whereon he
lay to go to see Naboth's vineyard; but God had great indignation at it,
and sent Elijah the prophet to the field of Naboth, to speak to Ahab, and
to say to him, that he had slain the true owner of that field unjustly.
And as soon as he came to him, and the king had said that he might do with
him what he pleased, (for he thought it a reproach to him to be thus caught
in his sin,) Elijah said, that in that very place in which the dead body
of Naboth was eaten by dogs both his own blood and that of his wife's should
be shed, and that all his family should perish, because he had been so
insolently wicked, and had slain a citizen unjustly, and contrary to the
laws of his country. Hereupon Ahab began to be sorry for the things he
had done, and to repent of them; and he put on sackcloth, and went barefoot
(37) and
would not touch any food; he also confessed his sins, and endeavored
thus to appease God. But God said to the prophet, that while Ahab was living
he would put off the punishment of his family, because he repented of those
insolent crimes he had been guilty of, but that still he would fulfill
his threatening under Ahab's son; which message the prophet delivered to
the king.
CHAPTER 14.
HOW HADAD KING OF DAMASCUS AND OF SYRIA, MADE TWO EXPEDITIONS
AGAINST AHAB AND WAS BEATEN.
1. WHEN the affairs of Ahab were thus, at that very time the son of
Hadad, [Benhadad,] who was king of the Syrians and of Damascus, got together
an army out of all his country, and procured thirty-two kings beyond Euphrates
to be his auxiliaries: so he made an expedition against Ahab; but because
Ahab's army was not like that of Benhadad, he did not set it in array to
fight him, but having shut up every thing that was in the country in the
strongest cities he had, he abode in Samaria himself, for the walls about
it were very strong, and it appeared to be not easily to be taken in other
respects also. So the king of Syria took his army with him, and came to
Samaria, and placed his army round about the city, and besieged it. He
also sent a herald to Ahab, and desired he would admit the ambassadors
he would send him, by whom he would let him know his pleasure. So, upon
the king of Israel's permission for him to send, those ambassador's came,
and by their king's command spake thus: That Ahab's riches, and his children,
and his wives were Benhadad's, and if he would make an agreement, and give
him leave to take as much of what he had as he pleased, he would withdraw
his army, and leave off the siege. Upon this Ahab bade the ambassadors
to go back, and tell their king, that both he himself and all that he hath
are his possessions. And when these ambassadors had told this to Berthadad,
he sent to him again, and desired, since he confessed that all he had was
his, that he would admit those servants of his which he should send the
next day; and he commanded him to deliver to those whom he should send
whatsoever, upon their searching his palace, and the houses of his friends
and kindred, they should find to be excellent in its kind, but that what
did not please them they should leave to him. At this second embassage
of the king of Syria, Ahab was surprised, and gathered together the multitude
to a congregation, and told them that, for himself, he was ready, for their
safety and peace, to give up his own wives and children to the enemy, and
to yield to him all his own possessions, for that was what the Syrian king
required at his first embassage; but that now he desires to send his servants
to search all their houses, and in them to leave nothing that is excellent
in its kind, seeking an occasion of fighting against him, "as knowing
that I would not spare what is mine own for your sakes, but taking a handle
from the disagreeable terms he offers concerning you to bring a war upon
us; however, I will do what you shall resolve is fit to be done."
But the multitude advised him to hearken to none of his proposals, but
to despise him, and be in readiness to fight him. Accordingly, when he
had given the ambassadors this answer to be reported, that he still continued
in the mind to comply with what terms he at first desired, for the safety
of the citizens; but as for his second desires, he cannot submit to them,
- he dismissed them.
2. Now when Benhadad heard this, he had indignation, and sent ambassadors
to Ahab the third time, and threatened that his army would raise a bank
higher than those walls, in confidence of whose strength he despised him,
and that by only each man of his army taking a handful of earth; hereby
making a show of the great number of his army, and aiming to affright him.
Ahab answered, that he ought not to vaunt himself when he had only put
on his armor, but when he should have conquered his enemies in the battle.
So the ambassadors came back, and found the king at supper with his thirty-two
kings, and informed him of Ahab's answer; who then immediately gave order
for proceeding thus: To make lines round the city, and raise a bulwark,
and to prosecute the siege all manner of ways. Now, as this was doing,
Ahab was in a great agony, and all his people with him; but he took courage,
and was freed from his fears, upon a certain prophet coming to him, and
saying to him, that God had promised to subdue so many ten thousands of
his enemies under him. And when he inquired by whose means the victory
was to be obtained, be said," By the sons of the princes; but under
thy conduct as their leader, by reason of their unskilfulness [in war]."
Upon which he called for the sons of the princes, and found them to be
two hundred and thirty-two persons. So when he was informed that the king
of Syria had betaken himself to feasting and repose, he opened the gates,
and sent out the princes' sons. Now when the sentinels told Benhadad of
it, he sent some to meet them, and commanded them, that if these men were
come out for fighting, they should bind them, and bring them to him; and
that if they came out peaceably, they should do the same. Now Ahab had
another army ready within the walls, but the sons of the princes fell upon
the out-guard, and slew many of them, and pursued the rest of them to the
camp; and when the king of Israel saw that these had the upper hand, he
sent out all the rest of his army, which, falling suddenly upon the Syrians,
beat them, for they did not think they would have come out; on which account
it was that they assaulted them when they were naked (38)
and drunk, insomuch that they left all their armor behind them when they
fled out of the camp, and the king himself escaped with difficulty, by
fleeing away on horseback. But Ahab went a great way in pursuit of the
Syrians; and when he had spoiled their camp, which contained a great deal
of wealth, and moreover a large quantity of gold and silver, he took Benhadad's
chariots and horses, and returned to the city; but as the prophet told
him he ought to have his army ready, because the Syrian king would make
another expedition against him the next year, Ahab was busy in making provision
for it accordingly.
3. Now Benhadad, when he had saved himself, and as much of his army
as he could, out of the battle, he consulted with his friends how he might
make another expedition against the Israelites. Now those friends advised
him not to fight with them on the hills, because their God was potent in
such places, and thence it had come to pass that they had very lately been
beaten; but they said, that if they joined battle with them in the plain,
they should beat them. They also gave him this further advice, to send
home those kings whom he had brought as his auxiliaries, but to retain
their army, and to set captains over it instead of the kings, and to raise
an army out of their country, and let them be in the place of the former
who perished in the battle, together with horses and chariots. So he judged
their counsel to be good, and acted according to it in the management of
the army.
4. At the beginning of the spring, Benhadad took his army with him,
and led it against the Hebrews; and when he was come to a certain city
which was called Aphek, he pitched his camp in the great plain. Ahab also
went to meet him with his army, and pitched his camp over against him,
although his army was a very small one, if it were compared with the enemy's;
but the prophet came again to him, and told him, that God would give him
the victory, that he might demonstrate his own power to be, not
only on the mountains, but on the plains also; which it seems was contrary
to the opinion of the Syrians. So they lay quiet in their camp seven days;
but on the last of those days, when the enemies came out of their camp,
and put themselves in array in order to fight, Ahab also brought out his
own army; and when the battle was joined, and they fought valiantly, he
put the enemy to flight, and pursued them, and pressed upon them, and slew
them; nay, they were destroyed by their own chariots, and by one another;
nor could any more than a few of them escape to their own city Aphek, who
were also killed by the walls falling upon them, being in number twenty-seven
thousand. (39)
Now there were slain in this battle a hundred thousand more; but Benhadad,
the king of the Syrians, fled away, with certain others of his most faithful
servants, and hid himself in a cellar under ground; and when these told
him that the kings of Israel were humane and merciful men, and that they
might make use of the usual manner of supplication, and obtain deliverance
from Ahab, in case he would give them leave to go to him, he gave
them leave accordingly. So they came to Ahab, clothed in sackcloth, with
ropes about their heads, (for this was the ancient manner of supplication
among the Syrians,) (40)
and said, that Benhadad desired he would save him, and that he would ever
be a servant to him for that favor. Ahab replied he was glad that he was
alive, and not hurt in the battle; and he further promised him the same
honor and kindness that a man would show to his brother. So they received
assurances upon oath from him, that when he came to him he should receive
no harm from him, and then went and brought him out of the cellar wherein
he was hid, and brought him to Ahab as he sat in his chariot. So Benhadad
worshipped him; and Ahab gave him his hand, and made him come up to him
into his chariot, and kissed him, and bid him be of good cheer, and not
to expect that any mischief should be done to him. So Berthadad returned
him thanks, and professed that he would remember his kindness to him all
the days of his life; and promised he would restore those cities of the
Israelites which the former kings had taken from them, and grant that he
should have leave to come to Damascus, as his forefathers had to come to
Samaria. So they confirmed their covenant by oaths, and Ahab made him many
presents, and sent him back to his own kingdom. And this was the conclusion
of the war that Benhadad made against Ahab and the Israelites.
5. But a certain prophet, whose name was Micaiah, (41)
came to one of the Israelites, and bid him smite him on the head, for by
so doing he would please God; but when he would not do so, he foretold
to him, that since he disobeyed the commands of God, he should meet with
a lion, and be destroyed by him. When that sad accident had befallen the
man, the prophet came again to another, and gave him the same injunction;
so he smote him, and wounded his skull; upon which he bound up his head,
and came to the king, and told him that he had been a soldier of his,
and had the custody of one of the prisoners committed to him by an
officer, and that the prisoner being run away, he was in danger of losing
his own life by the means of that officer, who had threatened him, that
if the prisoner escaped he would kill him. And when Ahab had said that
he would justly die, he took off the binding about his head, and was known
by the king to be Micaiah the prophet, who made use of this artifice as
a prelude to his following words; for he said that God would punish him
who had suffered Benhadad, a blasphemer against him, to escape punishment;
and that he would so bring it about, that he should die by the other's
means (42)
and his people by the other's army. Upon which Ahab was very angry at the
prophet, and gave commandment that he should be put in prison, and there
kept; but for himself, he was in confusion at the words of Micaiah, and
returned to his own house.
CHAPTER 15.
CONCERNING JEHOSHAPHAT THE KING OF JERUSALEM AND HOW AHAB
MADE AN EXPEDITION AGAINST THE SYRIANS AND WAS ASSISTED THEREIN BY JEHOSHAPHAT,
BUT WAS HIMSELF OVERCOME IN BATTLE AND PERISHED THEREIN.
1. AND these were the circumstances in which Ahab was. But I now return
to Jehoshaphat, the king of Jerusalem, who, when he had augmented his kingdom,
had set garrisons in the cities of the countries belonging to his subjects,
and had put such garrisons no less into those cities which were taken out
of the tribe of Ephraim by his grandfather Abijah, when Jeroboam reigned
over the ten tribes [than he did into the other]. But then he had God favorable
and assisting to him, as being both righteous and religious, and seeking
to do somewhat every day that should be agreeable and acceptable to God.
The kings also that were round about him honored him with the presents
they made him, till the riches that he had acquired were immensely great,
and the glory he had gained was of a most exalted nature.
2. Now, in the third year of this reign, he called together the rulers
of the country, and the priests, and commanded them to go round the land,
and teach all the people that were under him, city by city, the laws of
Moses, and to keep them, and to be diligent in the worship of God. With
this the whole multitude was so pleased, that they were not so eagerly
set upon or affected with any thing so much as the observation of the laws.
The neighboring nations also continued to love Jehoshaphat, and to be at
peace with him. The Philistines paid their appointed tribute, and the Arabians
supplied him every year with three hundred and sixty lambs, and as many
kids of the goats. He also fortified the great cities, which were many
in number, and of great consequence. He prepared also a mighty army of
soldiers and weapons against their enemies. Now the army of men that wore
their armor, was three hundred thousand of the tribe of Judah, of whom
Adnah was the chief; but John was chief of two hundred thousand. The same
man was chief of the tribe of Benjamin, and had two hundred thousand archers
under him. There was another chief, whose name was Jehozabad, who had a
hundred and fourscore thousand armed men. This multitude was distributed
to he ready for the king's service, besides those whom he sent to the best
fortified cities.
3. Jehoshaphat took for his son Jehoram to wife the daughter of Ahab,
the king of the ten tribes, whose name was Athaliah. And when, after some
time, he went to Samaria, Ahab received him courteously, and treated the
army that followed him in a splendid manner, with great plenty of corn
and wine, and of slain beasts; and desired that he would join with him
in his war against the king of Syria, that he might recover from him the
city Ramoth, in Gilead; for though it had belonged to his father, yet had
the king of Syria's father taken it away from him; and upon Jehoshaphat's
promise to afford him his assistance, (for indeed his army was not inferior
to the other,) and his sending for his army from Jerusalem to Samaria,
the two kings went out of the city, and each of them sat on his own throne,
and each gave their orders to their several armies. Now Jehoshaphat bid
them call some of the prophets, if there were any there, and inquire of
them concerning this expedition against the king of Syria, whether they
would give them counsel to make that expedition at this time, for there
was peace at that time between Ahab and the king of Syria, which had lasted
three years, from the time he had taken him captive till that day.
4. So Ahab called his own prophets, being in number about four hundred,
and bid them inquire of God whether he would grant him the victory, if
he made an expedition against Benhadad, and enable him to overthrow that
city, for whose sake it was that he was going to war. Now these prophets
gave their counsel for making this expedition, and said that he would beat
the king of Syria, and, as formerly, would reduce him under his power.
But Jehoshaphat, understanding by their words that they were false prophets,
asked Ahab whether there were not some other prophet, and he belonging
to the true God, that we may have surer information concerning futurities.
Hereupon Ahab said there was indeed such a one, but that he hated him,
as having prophesied evil to him, and having foretold that he should be
overcome and slain by the king of Syria, and that for this cause he had
him now in prison, and that his name was Micaiah, the son of Imlah. But
upon Jehoshaphat's desire that he might be produced, Ahab sent a eunuch,
who brought Micaiah to him. Now the eunuch had informed him by the way,
that all the other prophets had foretold that the king should gain the
victory; but he said, that it was not lawful for him to lie against God,
but that he must speak what he should say to him about the king, whatsoever
it were. When he came to Ahab, and he had adjured him upon oath to speak
the truth to him, he said that God had shown to him the Israelites running
away, and pursued by the Syrians, and dispersed upon the mountains by them,
as flocks of sheep are dispersed when their shepherd is slain. He said
further, that God signified to him, that those Israelites should return
:in peace to their own home, and that he only should fall in the battle.
When Micalab had thus spoken, Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, "I told thee
a little while ago the disposition of the man with regard to me, and that
he uses to prophesy evil to me." Upon which Micaiah replied, that
he ought to hear all, whatsoever it be, that God foretells; and that in
particular, they were false prophets that encouraged him to make this war
in hope of victory, whereas he must fight and be killed. Whereupon the
king was in suspense with himself: but Zedekiah, one of those false prophets,
came near, and exhorted him not to hearken to Micaiah, for he did not at
all speak truth; as a demonstration of which he instanced in what Elijah
had said, who was a better prophet in foretelling futurities than Micaiah
(43) for
he foretold that the dogs should lick his blood in the city of Jezreel,
in the field of Naboth, as they licked the blood of Naboth, who by his
means was there stoned to death by the multitude; that therefore it was
plain that this Micalab was a liar, as contradicting a greater prophet
than himself, and saying that he should be slain at three days' journey
distance: "and [said he] you shall soon know whether he be a true
prophet, and hath the power of the Divine Spirit; for I will smite him,
and let him then hurt my hand, as Jadon caused the hand of Jeroboam the
king to wither when he would have caught him; for I suppose thou hast certainly
heard of that accident." So when, upon his smiting Micaiah, no harm
happened to him, Ahab took courage, and readily led his army against the
king of Syria; for, as I suppose, fate was too hard for him, and made him
believe that the false prophets spake truer than the true one, that it
might take an occasion of bringing him to his end. However, Zedekiah made
horns of iron, and said to Ahab, that God made those horns signals, that
by them he should overthrow all Syria. But Micaiah replied, that Zedekiah,
in a few days, should go from one secret chamber to another to hide himself,
that he might escape the punishment of his lying. Then did the king give
orders that they should take Micaiah away, and guard him to Amon, the governor
of the city, and to give him nothing but bread and water.
5. Then did Ahab, and Jehoshaphat the king of Jerusalem, take their
forces, and marched to Ramoth a city of Gilead; and when the king of Syria
heard of this expedition, he brought out his army to oppose them, and pitched
his camp not far from Ramoth. Now Ahalx and Jehoshaphat had agreed that
Ahab should lay aside his royal robes, but that the king of Jerusalem should
put on his [Ahab's] proper habit, and stand before the army, in order to
disprove, by this artifice, what Micaiah had foretold. (44)But
Ahab's fate found him out without his robes; for Benhadad, the king of
Assyria, had charged his army, by the means of their commanders, to kill
nobody else but only the king of Israel. So when the Syrians, upon their
joining battle with the Israelites, saw Jehoshaphat stand before the army,
and conjectured that he was Ahab, they fell violently upon him, and encompassed
him round; but when they were near, and knew that it was not he, they all
returned back; and while the fight lasted from the morning till late in
the evening, and the Syrians were conquerors, they killed nobody, as their
king had commanded them. And when they sought to kill Ahab alone, but could
not find him, there was a young nobleman belonging to king Benhadad, whose
name was Naaman; he drew his bow against the enemy, and wounded the king
through his breastplate, in his lungs. Upon this Ahab resolved not to make
his mischance known to his army, lest they should run away; but he bid
the driver of his chariot to turn it back, and carry him out of the battle,
because he was sorely and mortally wounded. However, he sat in his chariot
and endured the pain till sunset, and then he fainted away and died.
6. And now the Syrian army, upon the coming on of the night, retired
to their camp; and when the herald belonging to the camp gave notice that
Ahab was dead, they returned home; and they took the dead body of Ahab
to Samaria, and buried it there; but when they had washed his chariot in
the fountain of Jezreel, which was bloody with the dead body of the king,
they acknowledged that the prophecy of Elijah was true, for the dogs licked
his blood, and the harlots continued afterwards to wash themselves in that
fountain; but still he died at Ramoth, as Micaiah had foretold. And as
what things were foretold should happen to Ahab by the two prophets came
to pass, we ought thence to have high notions of God, and every where to
honor and worship him, and never to suppose that what is pleasant and agreeable
is worthy of belief before what is true, and to esteem nothing more advantageous
than the gift of prophecy (44)
and that foreknowledge of future events which is derived from it, since
God shows men thereby what we ought to avoid. We may also guess, from what
happened to this king, and have reason to consider the power of fate; that
there is no way of avoiding it, even when we know it. It creeps upon human
souls, and flatters them with pleasing hopes, till it leads them about
to the place where it will be too hard for them. Accordingly Ahab appears
to have been deceived thereby, till he disbelieved those that foretold
his defeat; but, by giving credit to such as foretold what was grateful
to him, was slain; and his son Ahaziah succeeded him.
ENDNOTE
(1) This
execution upon Joab, as a murderer, by slaying him, even when he had taken
sanctuary at God's altar, is perfectly agreeable to the law of Moses, which
enjoins, that "if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay
him with guile, thou shalt take him from mine altar that he die,"
Exodus 21:14.
(2) This
building of the walls of Jerusalem, soon after David's death, illustrates
the conclusion of the 51st Psalm, where David prays, "Build thou the
walls of Jerusalem;" they being, it seems, unfinished or imperfect
at that time. See ch. 6. sect. 1; and ch. 1. sect. 7; also 1 Kings 9:15.
(3) It
may not be amiss to compare the daily furniture of king Solomon's table,
here set down, and 1 Kings 4;22, 23, with the like daily furniture of Nehemiah
the governor's table, after the Jews were come back from Babylon; and to
remember withal, that Nehemiah was now building the walls of Jerusalem,
and maintained, more than usual, above a hundred and fifty considerable
men every day, and that, because the nation was then very poor, at his
own charges also, without laying any burden upon the people at all. "Now
that which was prepared for me daily was one ox and six choice sheep; also
fowls were prepared for me, and once in ten days store of all sorts of
wine; and yet for all this required not the bread of the governor, because
the bondage was heavy upon this people," Nehemiah 5:18: see the whole
context, ver. 14-19. Nor did the governor's usual allowance of forty shekels
of silver a-day, ver. 15, amount to 45 a day, nor to 1800 a-year. Nor does
it indeed appear that, under the judges, or under Samuel the prophet, there
was any such public allowance to those governors at all. Those great charges
upon the public for maintaining courts came in with kings, as God foretold
they would, 1 Samuel 8:11-18.
(4) Some
pretended fragments of these books of conjuration of Solomon are still
extant in Fabricius's Cod. Pseudepigr. Vet. Test. page 1054, though I entirely
differ from Josephus in this his supposal, that such books and arts of
Solomon were parts of that wisdom which was imparted to him by God in his
younger days; they must rather have belonged to such profane but curious
arts as we find mentioned Acts 19:13-20, and had been derived from the
idolatry and superstition of his heathen wives and concubines in his old
age, when he had forsaken God, and God had forsaken him, and given him
up to demoniacal delusions. Nor does Josephus's strange account of the
root Baara (Of the War, B. VIII. ch. 6. sect. 3) seem to be other than
that of its magical use in such conjurations. As for the following history,
it confirms what Christ says, Matthew 12;27 "If I by Beelzebub cast
out demons, by whom do your Sons cast them out?"
(5) These
epistles of Solomon and Hiram are those in 1 Kings 5:3-9, and, as enlarged,
in 2 Chronicles 2:3-16, but here given us by Josephus in his own words.
(6) What
Josephus here puts into his copy of Hiram's epistle to Solomon, and repeats
afterwards, ch. 5. sect. 3, that Tyre was now an island, is not in any
of the three other copies, viz. that of the Kings, Chronicles, or Eusebius;
nor is it any other, I suppose, than his own conjectural paraphrase; for
when I, many years ago, inquired into this matter, I found the state of
this famous city, and of the island whereupon it stood, to have been very
different at different times. The result of my inquiries in this matter,
with the addition of some later improvements, stands thus: That the best
testimonies hereto relating, imply, that Paketyrus, or Oldest Tyre, was
no other than that most ancient smaller fort or city Tyre, situated on
the continent, and mentioned in Joshua 19:29, out of which the Canaanite
or Phoenician inhabitants were driven into a large island, that lay not
far off in the sea, by Joshua: that this island was then joined to the
continent at the present remains of Paketyrus, by a neck of land over against
Solomon's cisterns, still so called; and the city's fresh water, probably,
was carried along in pipes by that neck of land; and that this island was
therefore, in strictness, no other than a peninsula, having villages in
its fields, Ezekiel 26:6, and a wall about it, Amos 1:10, and the city
was not of so great reputation as Sitlon for some ages: that it was attacked
both by sea and land by Salmanasser, as Josephus informs us, Antiq. B.
IX. ch. 14. sect. 2, and afterwards came to be the metropolis of Phoenicia;
and was afterwards taken and destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, according to
the numerous Scripture prophecies thereto relating, Isaiah 23.; Jeremiah
25:22; 27:3; 47:4; Ezekiel 26., 27., 28.: that seventy years after that
destruction by Nebuchadnezzar, this city was in some measure revived and
rebuilt, Isaiah 23:17, 18, but that, as the prophet Ezekiel had foretold,
chap. 26:3-5, 14; 27: 34, the sea arose higher than before, till at last
it over flowed, not only the neck of land, but the main island or peninsula
itself, and destroyed that old and famous city for ever: that, however,
there still remained an adjoining smaller island, once connected to Old
Tyre itself by Hiram, which was afterwards inhabited; to which Alexander
the Great, with incredible pains, raised a new bank or causeway: and that
it plainly appears from Ifaundreh, a most authentic eye-witness, that the
old large and famous city, on the original large island, is now laid so
generally under water, that scarce more than forty acres of it, or rather
of that adjoining small island remain at this day; so that, perhaps, not
above a hundredth part of the first island and city is now above water.
This was foretold in the same prophecies of Ezekiel; and according to them,
as Mr. Maundrell distinctly observes, these poor remains of Old Tyre are
now "become like the top of a rock, a place for the spreading of nets
in the midst of the sea."
(7) Of
the temple of Solomon here described by Josephus, in this and the following
sections of this chapter, see my description of the temples belonging to
this work, ch. 13, These small rooms, or side chambers, seem to have been,
by Josephus's description, no less than twenty cubits high a piece, otherwise
there must have been a large interval between one and the other that was
over it; and this with double floors, the one of six cubits distance from
the floor beneath it, as 1 Kings 6:5
(8) Josephus
says here that the cherubims were of solid gold, and only five cubits high,
while our Hebrew copies (1 Kings 6;23, 28) say they were of the olive tree,
and the LXXX. of the cypress tree, and only overlaid with gold; and both
agree they were ten cubits high. I suppose the number here is falsely transcribed,
and that Josephus wrote ten cubits also.
(9) As
for these two famous pillars, Jachin and Booz, their height could be no
more than eighteen cubits, as here, and 1 Kings 7:15; 2 Kings 25:17; Jeremiah
3:21; those thirty-five cubits in 2 Chronicles 3:15, being contrary to
all the rules of architecture in the world.
(10)
The round or cylindrical lavers of four cubits in diameter, and four in
height, both in our copies, 1 Kings 7:38, 39, and here in Josephus, must
have contained a great deal more than these forty baths, which are always
assigned them. Where the error lies is hard to say: perhaps Josephus honestly
followed his copies here, though they had been corrupted, and he was not
able to restore the true reading. In the mean time, the forty baths are
probably the true quantity contained in each laver, since they went upon
wheels, and were to be drawn by the Levites about the courts of the priests
for the washings they were designed for; and had they held much more, they
would have been too heavy to have been so drawn.
(11)
Here Josephus gives us a key to his own language, of right and left hand
in the tabernacle and temple; that by the right hand he means what is against
our left, when we suppose ourselves going up from the east gate of the
courts towards the tabernacle or temple themselves, and so vice versa;
whence it follows, that the pillar Jachin, on the right hand of the temple
was on the south, against our left hand; and Booz on the north, against
our right hand. Of the golden plate on the high priest's forehead that
was in being in the days of Josephus, and a century or two at least later,
seethe note on Antiq. B. III. ch. 7. sect. 6.
(12)
Of the golden plate on the High priests forehead that was in being in the
days of Josephus, and a century or two at least later, see the note on
Antiq. B. III. ch.vii. sect. 6.
(13)
When Josephus here says that the floor of the outmost temple or court of
the Gentiles was with vast labor raised to be even, or of equal height,
with the floor of the inner, or court of the priests, he must mean this
in a gross estimation only; for he and all others agree, that the inner
temple, or court of the priests, was a few cubits more elevated than the
middle court, the court of Israel, and that much more was the court of
the priests elevated several cubits above that outmost court, since the
court of Israel was lower than the one and higher than the other. The Septuagint
say that "they prepared timber and stones to build the temple for
three years," 1 Kings 5:18; and although neither our present Hebrew
copy, nor Josephus, directly name that number of years, yet do they both
say the building itself did not begin till Solomon's fourth year; and both
speak of the preparation of materials beforehand, 1 Kings v. 18; Antiq.
B. VIII. ch. 5. sect. 1. There is no reason, therefore, to alter the Septuagint's
number; but we are to suppose three years to have been the just time of
the preparation, as I have done in my computation of the expense in building
that temple.
(14)
This solemn removal of the ark from Mount Sion to Mount Moriah, at the
distance of almost three quarters of a mile, confutes that notion of the
modern Jews, and followed by many Christians also, as if those two were
after a sort one and the same mountain, for which there is, I think, very
little foundation.
(15)
This mention of the Corinthian ornaments of architecture in Solomon's palace
by Josephus seems to be here set down by way of prophecy although it appears
to me that the Grecian and Roman most ancient orders of architecture were
taken from Solomon's temple, as from their original patterns, yet it is
not so clear that the last and most ornamental order of the Corinthian
was so ancient, although what the same Josephus says, (Of the War, B. V.
ch. 5. sect. 3,) that one of the gates of Herod's temple was built according
to the rules of this Corinthian order, is no way improbable, that order
being, without dispute, much older than the reign of Herod. However, upon
some trial, I confess I have not hitherto been able fully to understand
the structure of this palace of Solomon, either as described in our Bibles,
or even with the additional help of this description here by Josephus;
only the reader may easily observe with me, that the measures of this first
building in Josephus, a hundred cubits long, and fifty cubits broad, are
the very same with the area of the cart of the tabernacle of Moses. and
just hall' an Egyptian orout, or acre.
(16)
This signification of the name Pharaoh appears to be true. But what Josephus
adds presently, that no king of Egypt was called Pharaoh after Solomon's
father-in-law, does hardly agree to our copies, which have long afterwards
the names of Pharaoh Neehob, and Pharaoh Hophrah, 2 Kings 23:29; Jeremiah
44:30, besides the frequent mention of that name Pharaoh in the prophets.
However, Josephus himself, in his own speech to the Jews, Of the War, B.
V. ch. 9. sect. 4, speaks of Neehao, who was also called Pharaoh, as the
name of that king of Egypt with whom Abraham was concerned; of which name
Neehao yet we have elsewhere no mention till the days of Josiah, but only
of Pharaoh. And, indeed, it must be conceded, that here, and sect. 5, we
have more mistakes made by Josephus, and those relating to the kings of
Egypt, and to that queen of Egypt and Ethiopia, whom he supposes to have
come to see Solomon, than almost any where else in all his Antiquities.
(17)
That this queen of Sheba was a queen of Sabea in South Arabia, and not
of Egypt and Ethiopia, as Josephus here asserts, is, I suppose, now generally
agreed. And since Sabea is well known to be a country near the sea in the
south of Arabia Felix, which lay south from Judea also; and since our Savior
calls this queen, "the queen of the south," and says, "she
came from the utmost parts of the earth," Matthew 12:42; Luke 11:31,
which descriptions agree better to this Arabia than to Egypt and Ethiopia;
there is little occasion for doubting in this matter.
(18)
Some blame Josephus for supposing that the balsam tree might be first brought
out of Arabia, or Egypt, or Ethiopia, into Judea, by this queen of Sheba,
since several have said that of old no country bore this precious balsam
but Judea; yet it is not only false that this balsam was peculiar to Judea
but both Egypt and Arabia, and particularly Sabea; had it; which last was
that very country whence Josephus, if understood not of Ethiopia, but of
Arabia, intimates this queen might bring it first into Judea. Nor are we
to suppose that the queen of Sabaea could well omit such a present as this
balsam tree would be esteemed by Solomon, in case it were then almost peculiar
to her own country. Nor is the mention of balm or balsam, as carried by
merchants, and sent as a present out of Judea by Jacob, to the governor
of Egypt, Genesis 37:25; 43:11, to be alleged to the contrary, since what
we there render balm or balsam, denotes rather that turpentine which we
now call turpentine of Chio, or Cyprus, the juice of the turpentine tree,
than this precious balm. This last is also the same word that we elsewhere
render by the same mistake balm of Gilead; it should be rendered, the turpentine
of Gilead, Jeremiah 8:22.
(19)
Whether these fine gardens and rivulets of Etham, about six miles from
Jerusalem, whither Solomon rode so often in state, be not those alluded
to, Ecclesiastes 2:5, 6, where he says, "He made him gardens and orchards,
and planted trees in them of all kinds of fruits: he made him pools of
water, to water the wood that bringeth forth trees;" and to the finest
part whereof he seems to allude, when, in the Canticles, he compares his
spouse to a garden "enclosed," to a "spring shut up,"
to a "fountain sealed," ch. 4. 12 (part of which from rains are
still extant, as Mr. Matmdrell informs us, page 87, 88); cannot now be
certainly determined, but may very probably be conjectured. But whether
this Etham has any relation to those rivers of Etham, which Providence
once dried up in a miraculous manner, Psalm 74:15, in the Septuagint, I
cannot say.
(20)
These seven hundred wives, or the daughters of great men, and the three
hundred concubines, the daughters of the ignoble, make one thousand in
all; and are, I suppose, those very one thousand women intimated elsewhere
by Solomon himself, when he speaks of his not having found one [good] woman
among that very number, Ecclesiastes 7:28.
(21)
Josephus is here certainly too severe upon Solomon, who, in making the
cherubims, and these twelve brazen oxen, seems to have done no more than
imitate the patterns left him by David, which were all given David by Divine
inspiration. See my description of the temples, ch. 10. And although God
gave no direction for the lions that adorned his throne, yet does not Solomon
seem therein to have broken any law of Moses; for although the Pharisees
and latter Rabbins have extended the second commandment, to forbid the
very making of any image, though without any intention to have it worshipped,
yet do not I suppose that Solomon so understood it, nor that it ought to
be so understood. The making any other altar for worship but that at the
tabernacle was equally forbidden by Moses, Antiq. B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 5;
yet did not the two tribes and a half offend when they made an altar for
a memorial only, Joshua 22; Antiq. B. V. ch. 1. sect. 26, 27.
(22)
Since the beginning of Solomon's evil life and adversity was the time when
Hadad or Ader, who was born at least twenty or thirty years before Solomon
came to the crown, in the days of David, began to give him disturbance,
this implies that Solomon's evil life began early, and continued very long,
which the multitude of his wives and concubines does imply also; I suppose
when he was not fifty years of age.
(23)
This youth of Jeroboam, when Solomon built the walls of righteous and keep
the laws, because he hath proposed to thee the greatest of all rewards
for thy piety, and the honor thou shalt pay to God, namely, to be as greatly
exalted as thou knowest David to have been." Jerusalem, not very long
after he had finished his twenty years building of the temple and his own
palace, or not very long after the twenty-fourth of his reign, 1 Kings
9:24; 2 Chronicles 8:11, and his youth here still mentioned, when Solomon's
wickedness was become intolerable, fully confirm my former observation,
that such his wickedness began early, and continued very long. See Ecclus.
47:14.
(24)
That by scorpions is not here meant that small animal so called, which
was never used in corrections, but either a shrub, furze bush, or else
some terrible sort of whip of the like nature see Hudson's and Spanheim's
notes here.
(25)
Whether these "fountains of the Lesser Jordan" were near a place
called Dan, and the fountains of the Greater near a place called Jor, before
their conjunction; or whether there was only one fountain, arising at the
lake Phiala, at first sinking under ground, and then arising near the mountain
Paneum, and thence running through the lake Scmochonitis to the Sea of
Galilee, and so far called the Lesser Jordan; is hardly certain, even in
Josephus himself, though the latter account be the most probable. However,
the northern idolatrous calf, set up by Jeroboam, was where Little Jordan
fell into Great Jordan, near a place called Daphnae, as Josephus elsewhere
informs us, Of the War, B. IV. ch. 1. sect. 1: see the note there.
(26)
How much a larger and better copy Josephus had in this remarkable history
of the true prophet of Judea, and his concern with Jeroboam, and with the
false prophet of Bethel, than our other copies have, is evident at first
sight. The prophet's very name, Jadon, or, as the Constitutions call him,
Adonias, is wanting in our other copies; and it is there, with no little
absurdity, said that God revealed Jadon the true prophet's death, not to
himself as here, hut to the false prophet. Whether the particular account
of the arguments made use of, after all, by the false prophet against his
own belief and his own conscience, in order to persuade Jeroboam to persevere
in his idolatry and wickedness, than which more plausible could not be
invented, was intimated in Josephus's copy, or in some other ancient book,
cannot now be determined; our other copies say not one word of it.
(27)
That this Shishak was not the same person with the famous Sesostris, as
some have very lately, in contradiction to all antiquity, supposed, and
that our Josephus did not take him to be the same, as they pretend, but
that Sesostris was many centuries earlier than Shishak, see Authent. Records,
part II. page 1024.
(28)
Herodotus, as here quoted by Josephus, and as this passage still stands
in his present copies, B. II. ch. 14., affirms, that "the Phoenicians
and Syrians in Palestine [which last are generally supposed to denote the
Jews] owned their receiving circumcision from the Egyptians;" whereas
it is abnudantly evident that the Jews received their circumcision from
the patriarch Abraham, Genesis 17:9-14; John 7:22, 23, as I conclude the
Egyptian priests themselves did also. It is not therefore very unlikely
that Herodotus, because the Jews had lived long in Egypt, and came out
of it circumcised, did thereupon think they had learned that circumcision
in Egypt, and had it not broke. Manetho, the famous Egyptian chronologer
and historian, who knew the history of his own country much better than
Herodotus, complains frequently of his mistakes about their affairs, as
does Josephus more than once in this chapter. Nor indeed does Herodotus
seem at all acquainted with the affairs of the Jews; for as he never names
them, so little or nothing of what he says about them, their country, or
maritime cities, two of which he alone mentions, Cadytus and Jenysus, proves
true; nor indeed do there appear to have ever been any such cities on their
coast.
(29)
This is a strange expression in Josephus, that God is his own workmanship,
or that he made himself, contrary to common sense and to catholic Christianity;
perhaps he only means that he was not made by one, but was unoriginated.
(30)
By this terrible and perfectly unparalleled slaughter of five hundred thousand
men of the newly idolatrous and rebellious ten tribes, God's high displeasure
and indignation against that idolatry and rebellion fully appeared; the
remainder were thereby seriously cautioned not to persist in them, and
a kind of balance or equilibrium was made between the ten and the two tribes
for the time to come; while otherwise the perpetually idolatrous and rebellious
ten tribes would naturally have been too powerful for the two tribes, which
were pretty frequently free both from such idolatry and rebellion; nor
is there any reason to doubt of the truth of the prodigious number upmost:
signal an occasion.
(31)
The reader is to remember that Cush is not Ethiopia, but Arabia. See Bochart,
B. IV. ch. 2.
(32)
Here is a very great error in our Hebrew copy in this place, 2 Chronicles
15:3-6, as applying what follows to times past, and not to times future;
whence that text is quite misapplied by Sir Isaac Newton.
(33)
This Abelmain, or, in Josephus's copy, Abellane, that belonged to the land
of Israel, and bordered on the country of Damascus, is supposed, both by
Hudson and Spanheim, to be the same with Abel, or Ahila, whence came Abilene.
This may he that city so denominated from Abel the righteous, there buried,
concerning the shedding of whose blood within the compass of the land of
Israel, I understand our Savior's words about the fatal war and overthrow
of Judea by Titus and his Roman army; "That upon you may come all
the righteous blood shed upon the land, from the blood of righteous Abel
to the blood of Zacharias son of Barnchins, whom ye slew between the temple
and the altar. Verily, I say unto you, all these things shall come upon
this generation," Matthew 23;35, 36; Luke 11:51.
(34)
Josephus, in his present copies, says, that a little while rain upon the
earth; whereas, in our other copies, it is after many days, 1 Kings 18:1.
Several years are also intimated there, and in Josephus, sect. 2, as belonging
to this drought and famine; nay, we have the express mention of the third
year, which I suppose was reckoned from the recovery of the widow's son,
and the ceasing of this drought in Phmuiela (which, as Menander informs
us here, lasted one whole year); and both our Savior and St. James affirm,
that this drought lasted in all three years and six months. as their copies
of the Old Testament then informed them, Luke 4:25; James 5:17. Josephus
here seems to mean, that this drought affected all the habitable earth,
and presently all the earth, as our Savior says it was upon all the earth,
Luke 4:25. They who restrain these expressions to the land of Judea alone,
go without sufficient authority or examples.
(35)
Mr. Spanheim takes notice here, that in the worship of Mithra (the god
of the Persians) the priests cut themselves in the same manner as did these
priests in their invocation of Baal (the god of the Phoenicians).
(36)
For Izar we may here read (with Hudson and Cocceius) Isachar, i.e of the
tribe of Isachar, for to that tribe did Jezreel belong; and presently at
the beginning of sect. 8, as also ch. 15. sect. 4, we may read for Iar,
with one MS. nearly, and the Scripture, Jezreel, for that was the city
meant in the history of Naboth.
(37)
"The Jews weep to this day," (says Jerome, here cited by Reland,)
"and roll themselves upon sackcloth, in ashes, barefoot, upon such
occasions." To which Spanheim adds, "that after the same manner
Bernice, when his life was in danger, stood at the tribunal of Florus barefoot."
Of the War, B. II. ch. 15. sect. 1. See the like of David, 2 Samuel 15:30;
Antiq. B. VII. ch. 9. sect. 2.
(38)
Mr. Reland notes here very truly, that the word naked does not always signify
entirely naked, but sometimes without men's usual armor, without heir usual
robes or upper garments; as when Virgil bids the husbandman plough naked,
and sow naked; when Josephus says (Antiq. B. IV. ch. 3. sect. 2) that God
had given the Jews the security of armor when they were naked; and when
he here says that Ahab fell on the Syrians when they were naked and drunk;
when (Antiq. B. XI. ch. 5. sect. 8) he says that Nehemiah commanded those
Jews that were building the walls of Jerusalem to take care to have their
armor on upon occasion, that the enemy might not fall upon them naked.
I may add, that the case seems to be the same in the Scripture, when it
says that Saul lay down naked among the prophets, 1 Samuel 19:24; when
it says that Isaiah walked naked and barefoot, Isaiah 20:2, 3; and when
it says that Peter, before he girt his fisher's coat to him, was naked,
John 21:7. What is said of David also gives light to this, who was reproached
by Michal for "dancing before the ark, and uncovering himself in the
eyes of his handmaids, as one of the vain fellows shamelessly uncovereth
himself," 2 Samuel 6:14, 20; yet it is there expressly said (ver.
14) that "David was girded with a linen ephod," i.e. he had laid
aside his robes of state, and put on the sacerdotal, Levitical, or sacred
garments, proper for such a solemnity.
(39)
Josephus's number, two myriads and seven thousand, agrees here with that
in our other copies, as those that were slain by the falling down of the
walls of Aphek; but I suspected at first that this number in Josephus's
present copies could not be his original number, because he calls them
"oligoi," a few, which could hardly be said of so many as twenty-seven
thousand, and because of the improbability of the fall of a particular
wall killing so many; yet when I consider Josephus's next words, how the
rest which were slain in the battle were "ten other myriads,"
that twenty-seven thousand are but a few in comparison of a hundred thousand,
and that it was not "a wall," as in our English version, but
"the walls" or "the entire walls" of the city that
fell down, as in all the originals, I lay aside that suspicion, and firmly
believe that Josephus himself hath, with the rest, given us the just number,
twenty-seven thousand.
(40)
This manner of supplication for men's lives among the Syrians, with ropes
or halters about their heads or necks, is, I suppose, no strange thing
in later ages, even in our own country.
(41)
It is here remarkable, that in Josephus's copy this prophet, whose severe
denunciation of a disobedient person's slaughter by a lion had lately come
to pass, was no other than Micaiah, the son of Imlah, who, as he now denounced
God's judgment on disobedient Ahab, seems directly to have been that very
prophet whom the same Ahab, in 1 Kings 22:8, 18, complains of, "as
one whom he hated, because he did not prophesy good concerning him, but
evil," and who in that chapter openly repeats his denunciations against
him; all which came to pass accordingly; nor is there any reason to doubt
but this and the former were the very same prophet.
(42)
What is most remarkable in this history, and in many histories on other
occasions in the Old Testament, is this, that during the Jewish theocracy
God acted entirely as the supreme King of Israel, and the supreme General
of their armies, and always expected that the Israelites should be in such
absolute subjection to him, their supreme and heavenly King, and General
of their armies, as subjects and soldiers are to their earthly kings and
generals, and that usually without knowing the particular reasons of their
injunctions.
(43)
These reasonings of Zedekiah the false prophet, in order to persuade Ahab
not to believe Micaiah the true prophet, are plausible; but being omitted
in our other copies, we cannot now tell whence Josephus had them, whether
from his own temple copy, from some other original author, or from certain
ancient notes. That some such plausible objection was now raised against
Micaiah is very likely, otherwise Jehoshaphat, who used to disbelieve all
such false prophets, could never have been induced to accompany Ahab in
these desperate circumstances.
(44)
This reading of Josephus, that Jehoshaphat put on not his own, but Ahab's
robes, in order to appear to be Ahab, while Ahab was without any robes
at all, and hoped thereby to escape his own evil fate, and disprove Micaiah's
prophecy against him, is exceeding probable. It gives great light also
to this whole history; and shows, that although Ahab hoped Jehoshaphat
would he mistaken for him, and run the only risk of being slain in the
battle, yet he was entirely disappointed, while still the escape of the
good man Jehoshaphat, and the slaughter of the bad man Ahab, demonstrated
the great distinction that Divine providence made betwixt them.
(45)We
have here a very wise reflection of Josephus about Divine Providence, and
what is derived from it, prophecy, and the inevitable certainty of its
accomplishment; and that when wicked men think they take proper methods
to elude what is denounced against them, and to escape the Divine judgments
thereby threatened them, without repentance, they are ever by Providence
infatuated to bring about their own destruction, and thereby withal to
demonstrate the perfect veracity of that God whose predictions they in
vain endeavored to elude.
Antiquities of the Jews
War of the Jews
Autobiography
Hades
Against Apion