Книга четвертая. От разделения монархии до падения Самарии

Chapter 26. Collapse of the monarchy After the death of Solomon, apparently his only son, Rehoboam, ascended to the Israeli throne. He was already 41 years old 197, but his misfortune was that he was born and raised among the relaxing and corrupting luxury of court life, as it was in the second half of the last reign. If then his father was such a famous and glorious monarch as Solomon, then his mother was an Ammonite princess and, therefore, an idolater 198. Reproducing in himself partly the mental vigor and dexterity of his father, he, however, inherited little of his other best qualities, as often happens with the sons of great people. Short-sighted and arrogant, he at the same time did not possess the independence so necessary for an unlimited monarch, and did not display either high abilities or civic courage. Under the circumstances in which his reign began, surrounded by political dangers that threatened him, he was completely unable to lead the state. Unable to clearly understand the actual state of things, he, like an inexperienced helmsman, directed his ship of state towards an underwater rock, on which it crashed forever. Rehoboam's grandfather, David, received a declaration of allegiance and honor from all the tribes, while still in Hebron, before the capture of Jerusalem, and Solomon in the same way was publicly proclaimed king before the death of his father, and his accession took place in the presence of representatives of the people. It was different with the rise of Rehoboam. Apparently, at least a year passed from the time of his accession to the throne before he found it necessary to take measures to achieve recognition of himself by the representatives of the people, and even, apparently, even then this step rather came from the tribes themselves than from him. He apparently came to the idea, false in a theocratic state, that the throne was his inalienable property by right of succession, apart from any assertion of his rights on the part of the people, and began to act with the same boundless arrogance characteristic of the ancient East, as was already noticeable in Solomon in the second half of his reign, as if the people were created in order to obey, and he was born in order to rule them according to his own will. But ancient communal self-government constituted such an essential part of the state life of the chosen people that they did not at all want to give it up and, in any case, jealously watched their right to participate in the accession of the king to the throne. Seeing now an unusual claim on the part of the new king, the northern tribes did not want to recognize his accession to the throne until it was confirmed by them, and for this purpose the elders or representatives of these tribes gathered for a meeting, and not in Jerusalem, as one might have expected, but in their own capital, in Shechem. Shechem, long the center of Israelite life in Palestine under Abraham and Jacob, retained its ancient dignity for centuries, like e.g. just as Reims, the old capital of France, continued to be the place of coronation of French kings long after Paris had already taken its place as the national capital, or just as Moscow, the primal capital, still serves as the place of coronation of Russian sovereigns, despite the fact that St. Petersburg has been the actual capital of the empire for about two centuries. This meeting immediately declared such independence that things did not bode well. It apparently expected that Rehoboam would find himself compelled to come to Shechem and present himself to the congregation, rather than the congregation to Rehoboam. But the young king obviously did not yet suspect any danger, was blissfully unaware of the actual state of things, was blind and deaf to what would have attracted the serious attention of a more reasonable ruler. However, no reason has yet been given by the assembly to consider him inclined to violate loyalty; representatives of the northern tribes wanted only some transformations, to which they, as free citizens, had every right, and for this purpose they offered him certain conditions to ease public duties, which in the last years of Solomon’s reign, due to his incessant construction and immoderate luxury, increased to such an extent that they became a heavy yoke for the people. When Rehoboam arrived in Shechem, the representatives of the people addressed him with the following speech: “Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but you make your father’s cruel work easier for us, and the heavy yoke that he put on us, and then we will serve you” (1 Kings 12:4). The matter was serious and required an all the more prudent attitude since it was presented by representatives of the national assembly, at the head of which, as Rehoboam himself could not help but know, was Jeroboam, who had returned from Egypt at that time. The king gave himself three days to discuss this issue, and this is completely understandable. Even if he had intended to make a proper concession, his royal dignity required him to act as befits a king. If he were at the present moment at the height of his calling, then the future of the Israeli people would be completely different. But the historical circumstances of the life of the people have already prepared the ground for a completely different solution to the matter. In the State Council, assembled to discuss this issue, the votes were divided. The old advisers who served under Solomon, understanding the actual state of the state and the people, advised Rehoboam to yield to the people, saying: “If you will be a servant to this people today, and serve them, and satisfy them, and speak kindly to them, then they will be your servants all the days.” But the young and inexperienced king neglected this prudent advice and followed the advice of his young peers, who, having been brought up under the corrupting influence of the last years of Solomon's reign, looked at everything lightly. They advised him to decisively refuse the people’s request, declaring that the needs of the new king were even greater than the needs of Solomon, since, in their bold expression, “his little finger is thicker than his father’s loins.” In order to wean the people once and for all from such demands, the king had to, on the advice of these dignitaries, threaten them with an even greater increase in the yoke. When Jeroboam, at the head of the representatives of the national assembly, again appeared to the king, Rehoboam answered them on the advice of the young people and said: “My father put a heavy yoke on you, but I will increase your yoke; my father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions,” that is, those spiked lashes that were used to punish serious criminals 199. Then the irritated people gave vent to the feeling of discontent that had been boiling up in them, and everywhere the cry that had already been heard before was heard: “What part do we have in David? We have no share in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now know your home, David! And Israel dispersed to their tents.” Thus, the indiscretion of the new king immediately destroyed the work created with such efforts by two generations. The tribes devoted and loyal to David himself were to a large extent already alienated by gross tyranny and selfish excesses during the reign of Solomon; the advantages granted to the tribe of Judah kindled old rivalries and aroused such a fierce desire for independence, before which all resistance was powerless. Puzzled by this, Rehoboam did not know what to do. Trying to somehow improve the spoiled situation, he sent the elderly Adoniram to propose reforms and at the same time to collect taxes, as if thereby wanting to make sure of the reality of the mood of the people. But he could hardly have chosen a worse representative for himself than the man who was the chief tax collector in the last difficult years of his father’s reign. As soon as this hated dignitary appeared among the population of the northern tribes, they stoned him and he died. Frightened by the fate of his dignitary, the king himself quickly had to flee to Jerusalem, and the popular assembly in Shechem proclaimed Jeroboam king, who was recognized by the ten northern tribes. Rehoboam wanted to correct his state mistake by military force and, for this purpose, gathered an army of one hundred and eighty thousand to subjugate the defected tribes; but the bloodshed was prevented by Samaeus, the “man of God,” who convinced Rehoboam that all this happened according to the will of God, and therefore the fratricidal war would be a direct crime against God, and Rehoboam had to come to terms with the coup that had taken place, although his enmity with Jeroboam, which often turned into a devastating war, did not stop “all the days of their lives” (1 Kings. 14:30, 15:6, 7). Thus the division of the Israeli people into two kingdoms took place, called the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel. At first glance, you might think that the house of David had lost everything. Only one tribe remained under the power of his scepter, with minor additions to it. Almost from Jerusalem itself, in the north, to the valley of the Oreont River, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, all these vast areas passed into the hands of a man who, already during Solomon’s lifetime, acted as a dangerous contender for the throne. Only his own tribe, with its mostly barren hills, remained loyal to Rehoboam. The boundaries of the tribes in general have more or less changed over the centuries. Jerusalem stood within the borders of the tribe of Benjamin, and its population largely belonged to this tribe 200. The southern part of it therefore joined the tribe of Judah as far as Mizpah and Gibeah. But the northern half, including the ancient and highly revered sanctuaries of Bethel, Ramah, Gilgal and Jericho, cast in their lot with the tribe of Ephraim (1 Kings 15:22, 12:29, 15:17, 16:34). The tribe of Judah, in turn, had already absorbed some part of Dan, since the settlements of Zorah and Aijalon were already considered to belong to it (2 Chron. 11:10), and thus part of the possessions of this tribe also remained under the rule of Rehoboam. But the capital of the tribe of Dan at that time was already the northern city of Dan, and as a result of this, this tribe for the most part belonged to the northern kingdom. The tribe of Simeon never occupied any prominent position among the people, because its possessions lay in the barren Negeb, much south of Hebron, representing poor, elevated pastures, which condemned the population to a primitive shepherd life. This tribe tried to develop city life with its higher culture, but already in the time of David it began to abandon it and again returned to shepherd life. Hence, naturally, it maintained a constant connection with the tribe of Judah, to which it turned for protection and protection from its powerful neighbors and with which it was in fact absorbed. This composition of the divided halves of the people determines their very names. While Rehoboam's domain could only be named after the one tribe that remained behind him, the northern kingdom on the other hand could appropriate to itself the high name of Israel, "the father of all the people," and pride itself on the fact that it was in fact a national kingdom. This claim was based on such tangible data as the geographical spatiality of the land and the large population that the name “Kingdom of Israel” henceforth came into general use. It was never again applied to the kingdom of Judah until the destruction of Samaria, while from the very beginning even the prophets always called this only the northern kingdom. In later times, however, with the spread of idolatry in the latter, the prophets began to call the kingdom of Israel “Ephraim,” but this was more likely out of fiery indignation at the apostasy than as a result of the denial of national dignity for it, because until recently the northern kingdom was called the kingdom of Isaac, Jacob and Joseph 201. Its establishment was always recognized by the prophets as one of the acts of divine economy, so that the vicissitudes and upheavals in its historical life, no less than the fate of the tribe of Judah, according to the prophets, were under the direct control of Providence. Within its borders, with the exception of Jerusalem and Hebron, were all the areas dear to every son of Israel, both east and west of the Jordan, and it was in it that the activity of the prophets developed with particular force. Although, at least after Elijah and Elisha, more prophets appeared in the kingdom of Judah, personally named St. In the Scriptures, however, it was in the kingdom of Israel, as far as is known, that most of the prophetic schools were located, and there were large hosts of prophets, numbering up to 50, 100 or up to 400 people at one time. During the division of the kingdom itself, more lofty goals could have been in mind. Since under the rule of such a monarch as Solomon, theocratic rule suffered in many respects a very significant violation and the entire system of government was threatened by a very strong danger from the autocracy of lawless kings, the division of the kingdom could serve first of all as a reminder that the fate of the Israelite people was in the hands of its supreme King, and then, by limiting the power of the king, it could provide more favorable conditions for the development of rivalry between the kingdoms in the interests of religion and morality. If in such a state the king of one half of the people could be mistaken and, violating the laws of the government of God, fall into idolatry, then one could hope that the king of the other half would support the law of God and by his very existence would serve as a reproach for the other, erring king. But these hopes were destined to be completely crushed. If from the division of the kingdom, apparently, one could expect a limitation of the royal autocracy by ancient theocratic decrees, then in reality, instead, the royal government soon became even more arbitrary than it had been before the division. Having no solid support in the valor of their own deeds or character, not having a historical past behind them, alienated from the people by their more despotic than people-loving inclinations, then placed between two hostile forces: the kingdom of Judah in the south and Syria in the north, the kings of Israel were the only ones who were able to create only a military state, and were concerned mainly with suppressing rebellion within and protecting their borders from external attack. As a result, from the very beginning, military force received the highest importance in the state; the leader of the army became even much more powerful and autocratic than he was in the undivided kingdom, when Joab could insult David himself with impunity. The military leader became the first person after the king, and was considered a necessary intermediary in receiving royal favor. On two occasions, his high and influential position gave him the opportunity to even seize the throne itself (1 Kings 16:16; 2 Kings 9:5). As a result, there was no longer any means left to maintain the authority of the royal power other than the development of military force, and the kings of Israel, not content with the old infantry, began to intensively build military chariots and cavalry in general. Instead of the faithful detachment of 600 Gibborim, who were the bodyguards of David, the kings of Israel formed for themselves, as bodyguards, a whole detachment of chariot riders, like the Egyptian or Assyrian, and on each chariot there was a shield bearer, a driver and the warrior himself. At the same time, a special detachment guarded the palace and the person of the king, at the same time ensuring the safety of the king and serving him as couriers and executors of his orders. Actually, the national weapon, however, continued to be the bow, the use of which many Israelis were famous for and were able to use it equally both from chariots and in foot combat. Another main reason for the division of the kingdom was undoubtedly that lawless tolerance of paganism, which under Solomon produced such a strong temptation among the people. In fact, it was on this basis that the prophet Ahijah announced to Jeroboam that the division of the monarchy would be accomplished as determined by God (1 Kings 12:33). But the kings of Israel did not live up to their appointment. They not only did not adopt a policy favorable to the old true religion, not only did they not show exclusive devotion to it, but they did not even take any precautions against the invasion of idolatry, and in many cases directly favored it. The prophets were not only not brought close to the court as advisers to the throne, as Nathan and Gad were under David, but they were either neglected, or even forcibly pushed away and persecuted. Not restrained by the restrictions that were still felt in the tribe of Judah, the kings did not even declare any desire to act according to the laws of government, but wanted to be guided by their own political views. As a result of this, of necessity, the clash between church and state had to be renewed with renewed vigor - the clash that occurred under Samuel and Saul, and this clash became the most distinctive feature of the history of the kingdom of Israel. For more than 250 years of the existence of this kingdom, there was a constant struggle for life and death between kings and prophets, and the latter, having founded this kingdom by the highest order, valiantly sought to guide its destiny along the path of righteousness. The throne in fact began to be passed on by election rather than by inheritance, accompanied by all the turmoil of such a system. The prophets continually made their denunciations, backing them up with threats that the kingdom would pass to another house, but it was all in vain. Despite all the efforts of the prophets, the life of the Israeli state was increasingly directed from bad to worse. Cut off from the center of religious and moral life and the source of spiritual revival, created by slow and persistent labor in the south under Samuel, David and Solomon, the new kingdom suffered greatly due to the deprivation of healthy and ennobling influences. Soon after its foundation, it then received a serious blow due to the removal of priests and Levites from it to Jerusalem. This was a great loss, since it was from this class that the enlightenment of the people exclusively came. They were precisely representatives of art, law, religion and general knowledge. The establishment of the worship of the golden calf in Bethel and Dan, instead of the worship of the invisible God that took place in Jerusalem, was a fatal mistake of the king of Israel; The people not only lost the elevating and strengthening influence of true spiritual faith, but henceforth lost the ability to resist the invasion of paganism, and, over time, inevitably had to completely submit to it. Once idolatry was recognized to a certain extent, nothing could hinder its ever-increasing tide from Phenicia and Syria, with which the kingdom of Israel was in close relations, both commercial and political. As a result of constant political upheavals, the turmoil that characterized the period of the Judges reappeared to a large extent; Along with internal decay, popular ignorance and superstition increased, idolatry became more and more rooted and expanded, and with it immorality spread, corroding the very foundations of people's life. From time to time, great prophets appeared among it, and capable kings appeared, but they could no longer stop the movement of the people along an inclined plane and, finally, it was left, even by its best citizens, to its own fate, which inevitably led it to political destruction. The original history of the southern or Jewish kingdom was different. Being weak from the outside, possessed by all those harmful tendencies that led to the present rupture, it nevertheless retained many of the advantages provided to it by the reigns of David and Solomon. The very legends about these kings were a precious treasure for him. This kingdom was in fact a continuation of the glorious past, based on the same principles. Although not constrained by the prophets and the people, the king nevertheless ruled in harmony with them, maintaining his dignity, and at the same time respecting public opinion and the advice of the prophets, combining supremacy in the state with moral submission to the voice of spiritual leaders. The splendor of the first two reigns then gave the throne a kind of halo, which maintained the people's loyalty to the house of David for 500 years. During this long period the succession remained undisputed, and the dynasty was finally overthrown only by a foreign conqueror. The ideal of royal dignity, as proclaimed in the inspired songs of David and Solomon, and their unfailing fidelity to their duties as rulers of a theocratic state, remained an example to their successors, restraining the weak or unworthy and guiding the reforms and activities of sincere and pious rulers. The brilliance of that golden age when David reigned, guided by the divinely inspired advice of the prophets Nathan and Gad, was constantly depicted and increasingly flared up before the imagination of all subsequent kings and generations. From here, public affairs in the kingdom of Judah proceeded much more calmly and peacefully than in the northern kingdom. Troubles could arise here too, but they were not strong enough to shake the throne. Despite its weakness, the kingdom of Judah could maintain its existence for a whole hundred years even after its more powerful rival had already become the prey of an external conqueror. The reason for this strength and stability of people's life in the kingdom of Judah was its comparatively greater fidelity to the law of God and the covenant with Jehovah. The invasion of idolatry there met with much stronger opposition than in the kingdom of Israel, and when at times it threatened to take complete root in the country, it was always overthrown by the sincere efforts of pious kings and people. Idolatry, introduced by Solomon, was expelled after a few decades, and when later, under Athaliah and Ahaz, it again invaded the people, the people, together with their new king, unanimously began to fight against it and solemnly restored the hereditary worship of Jehovah. As a result, there was no fatal struggle between prophets and kings. Having more freedom to express their warnings and advice than in the kingdom of Israel, these fearless witnesses of the truth of God unflaggingly supported the true faith there, and with it the religious and moral life of the people. Moreover, their activities did not end with their lives. They immortalized their divinely inspired preaching in their prophetic books, which became an inexhaustible source of moral edification and upliftment of humanity. Nevertheless, here too paganism pressed more and more. Finally, his unconditional exclusion turned out to be impossible. Constant intercourse with idolatrous peoples, the presence of an active party inclined to paganism, which began with the fatal mistake of Solomon, the influence of a king and court too often inclined to paganism, the natural inclination of the lower side of nature, clinging to every sensual cult - all this little by little displaced the true faith from its supreme position and gradually weakened its strength. With the increasing influence of Assyria and Babylonia, this pagan element strengthened over time, so that it finally became predominant. Alliances with pagan monarchies and the imitation of their example gradually pushed the ancient faith into the background and brought with them the inevitable results, expressed in the decline of the national spirit, dignity and national strength. Even the true faith itself, where it was still preserved, was significantly influenced by elements alien to it. Under the influence of a soulless and worldly-devoted priesthood, who cared more about the favors of the court than about the interests of religion, religion took on an increasingly ritualistic character, turning into a dead formality that contributed to the spiritual lull of the people, who were awakened from their spiritual slumber only by the cheerful voice of the waking prophets. At the same time, the throne itself became less and less like the ancient majestic ideal, and its very contrast with the former contributed to the weakening of its influence. The mad desire to interfere in the turbulent politics of that time and take part in the clashes of the most powerful monarchies among themselves completed the death of the kingdom. With him fell everything that remained purer in the national life of the chosen people. But the work of the prophets showed amazing vitality, so that these elements again recovered from this apparently deadly blow, as a result of which it subsequently became possible for the return of the people from the captivity of Babylon and, in general, the restoration of Judaism, free from any admixture of pagan influence. Taking into account all the data regarding the forces of the divided halves of the chosen people, we can say that in general they were equal, despite their apparent disproportion in external composition. If at first glance one might think that the kingdom of Israel, as made up of ten tribes, which made up 2/3 of the total population of the country and occupied the best and most fertile part of it, had on its side all the advantages and a clear guarantee of great political power, then on the other hand it must be borne in mind that the kingdom of Judah retained the capital as the center of established government and material interests of the people, along with the enormous state treasures accumulated there by Solomon. Moreover, not to mention the seasoned energy and enterprise of the tribe of Judah itself, it had all the advantages in religious and moral terms, since in its capital there was a church, the main shrine of the entire people, built by common popular efforts, consecrated with general popular participation and therefore involuntarily attracting general popular sympathy. This significance of the church explains the entire subsequent history of relations between both kingdoms. Seeing this attraction of the people to the temple of Jerusalem, the kings of Israel began to look at it with suspicion, fearing that the religious attraction to the church would not turn into a political attraction to Jerusalem itself, as the political capital. And so, contrary to the promise of God, which made fidelity and devotion to the true religion a condition for the longevity of the house of Jeroboam, the kings of Israel, from the very first steps of their reign, began to strive to alienate their people from the temple of Jerusalem, trying to establish their own center of religious life and even introduce a religion that would have nothing in common with the religion of the temple of Jerusalem. This policy directly led to a religious schism, which was carried out openly by the first king of Israel, Jeroboam. Chapter 27. The Reign of Jeroboam and His House Having been recognized by the popular assembly in Shechem as the king of the ten tribes of Israel, Jeroboam could well be proud of his position. Instead of the rocky hills of Judea, he took possession of the fertile plains and wooded heights of central Palestine, the great plain of Esdraelon, the rich, elevated region later known as upper Galilee, the forests and meadows of Gilead and Bashan, and the vast steppes of the tribes of Gad and Reuben. If the southern part of the Philistine plain and the mountains of Edom, with their favorable conditions for trade from Ezion-geber on the Red Sea, remained under the rule of Rehoboam, then his rival, in return, received tribute from the whole half of Philistia and from the rich countries of Ammon and Moab. Syria, up to the banks of the Euphrates, which had previously been part of the monarchy of Solomon, had in fact already become independent. That part of it, which constituted the kingdom of Damascus, caused a lot of anxiety to Solomon, when it rebelled under the command of Rezon or Ezion, the military leader of King Sob, defeated by Solomon, and subsequently, under Rimmon, his grandson and subsequent kings, became the hereditary and mortal enemy of Israel for centuries. Gradually conquering other Aramean lands on this side of the Euphrates, Syria, finally, during the reign of Ahab, was able to gather as many as 32 vassal princes to fight, under its banner, against the Israeli people. Consequently, Rehoboam appears to have maintained friendly relations with her in order to harass Jeroboam; but the cunning northern ruler more than rewarded himself for this political ploy, securing active support from his father-in-law, the king of Egypt, always having in him a strong ally who threatened the rear of the southern kingdom. Upon ascending the throne, Jeroboam first of all began to strengthen his position from the outside. For this purpose, he fortified several cities, and it was Shechem on this side and Penuel on the other side of the Jordan, which became the two main strongholds of his vast kingdom. He made Shechem his capital, and it was hardly possible to find a more beautiful place for the royal residence, since Shechem was not only the main city of the tribe of Ephraim, but at the same time the most ancient sanctuary of Israel in Palestine. Abraham himself once erected an altar in the Shechem Valley, Jacob bought land here and dug a famous well on it, Joseph’s tomb was located right there, and under Joshua, the blessings and curses of the law were read from the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, located to the north and south of him. But the Shechemites, since the time of Jacob, have repeatedly revealed their dual nature. Once, during the time of the Judges, they proclaimed Abimelech king for themselves, and then they themselves rebelled against him, and now, proclaiming Jeroboam their king, at the same time, from the very first days, they caused him a lot of anxiety. Jeroboam, therefore, soon left such a turbulent place, and, seeking for himself more solid ground to establish a newly established throne, moved to Penuel, near Jabbok, beyond the Jordan, another ancient sanctuary of the people, famous in the history of Jacob, and made it a second capital, perhaps in order to hold the lands of Moab and Ammon in his hands. But soon he also left this city, and finally chose Tirzah, a beautiful city located in the picturesque mountains, north of Shechem, as his residence. He strongly fortified the hill on which this city stood, and erected a royal palace and other buildings there, giving them such splendor that they could compete with Jerusalem itself. There was an old Canaanite city on this hill, but it fell during the invasion of Joshua and was not mentioned again until Jeroboam made it his capital. Tirzah retained this honor throughout the entire reign of Jeroboam, as well as under subsequent kings, until she lost this dignity during the dynasty of Omri, who moved his residence to the newly built city of Samaria. Having established his kingdom from the outside, Jeroboam could look with pride at his rival, who remained with one tribe of Judah. But even with the possession of such a beautiful kingdom, the fatal thought did not leave him. Feeling the insufficiency of his rights to the throne, he involuntarily thought, “the kingdom could again pass to the house of David. If this people go to Jerusalem to sacrifice in the house of the Lord, then the heart of this people will turn to their sovereign, to Rehoboam, king of the Jews.” The king of Israel obviously noticed that the people continued to have a strong attraction to the church with its great historical shrine, and therefore feared that the religious attraction to the church would not turn into a political attraction to Jerusalem itself, as the political capital. The only way, it seemed to Jeroboam, to get rid of this danger was to establish local religious centers in his own kingdom, as was the case in the time of the Judges, and he immediately set to work. The people in those troubled times worshiped Jehovah under external symbols, and will undoubtedly be ready to do so now. It was only necessary to please the religious inclination of the people by choosing a new cult for them. In the people's memory there was still a legend about the worship of the sacred bull Apis or the calf Mnevis in Egypt, the connection with which was all the closer because Jeroboam's wife was an Egyptian. In addition, throughout Western Asia, including the pagan parts of Palestine, the bull was also a favorite symbol of Baal and, of course, was already known to Israel. As a result, after consulting with his entourage, the king decided to found a new religion in this exact form, and deliberately relying on the example of Aaron, he made two golden calves, which he decided to place in the north and south of the country, proclaiming them emblems of Jehovah. This was a repetition of the same apostasy that had once occurred at Sinai during the worship of the golden calf. The very idea, obviously, arose as a result of this fatal event, since when proclaiming the new cult, Jeroboam used the same words. Addressing the people, he said: “You don’t need to go to Jerusalem; This is your God, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (2 Samuel 12:28; cf. Exodus 32:4, 8). The choice of places for the new cult was made with wise calculation: Bethel, this ancient sanctuary, was consecrated by the memories of Abraham and Jacob, and Dan in the north was also the site of an old cult, at least since the time of the famous Micah, when immigrants from the tribe of Dan founded their independent sanctuary there. Both of these places, moreover, apparently were considered sacred by the Canaanites themselves from the most distant times. This religious reform turned out to be very successful, as the Israelis willingly accepted the new cult and began to go to worship the golden calves in Bethel and Dan. But this innovation naturally aroused indignation among the priests and Levites scattered throughout the tribes of Israel, since they, with their knowledge of the Law of Moses, were horrified at the step taken and saw in it a complete departure from the true faith. As a result of this, they not only did not agree to be ministers at the new sanctuaries, as Jeroboam would have wished, but decided en masse to leave the borders of the wicked kingdom, and rushed to the kingdom of Judah, giving it new strength. Then the king took a new step towards breaking the law, and “ordained priests from among the people, who were not from the sons of Levi.” But the golden calves constituted only one part of the new system. Throughout Western Asia, for centuries, worship of God on the “heights” was very widespread. On the banks of the Euphrates, high towers were usually erected so that altars could be built on their tops; likewise in Palestine many of the hills were also dedicated to religious worship. This custom undoubtedly resulted from the widespread idolization of the sun in these countries, as a result of which places most open to the action of the sun's rays were usually chosen for religious purposes. From the surrounding peoples, this custom passed on to the Israelites, and over time it became so dear to them that it continued to exist even after the construction of the church, and was abolished only by the energetic activity of Josiah, shortly before the fall of the kingdom of Judah. Altars were erected next to the bullocks at Bethel and Dan. At Bethel, moreover, a new church was built, known for centuries as a royal and national sanctuary and a rival to the great temple in Jerusalem, and under it the newly established priesthood performed all the rites and festivals with a pomp designed also to rival Jerusalem. From that time on, the inhabitants of the Israeli tribes had to offer prayers and make sacrifices here, in local sanctuaries, and not go to Jerusalem. But that was not all. Wanting at all costs to divert the attention of the people from the ancient Jewish shrine and tie it to the new system, Jeroboam, with extreme shamelessness, indulged the worst superstitions and passions of the people and erected altars (in the form of goats) to the demons of the desert, which had always been the subject of superstitious fear of the people. In introducing this new cult, Jeroboam pursued only political goals and did not want to actually reject the true religion; but the very character of the new cult contained within itself the seeds of the worst consequences. The people of Israel have always turned out to be very prone to sensual worship of God, and were kept at the height of true reverence for God only by strict laws. Now that the government itself had begun to indulge this tendency, the inevitable results of it could not be slowed down. The first step of introducing the worship of calves opened a wide way for the invasion of paganism in general. Not long later, the Canaanite Ashers, with all the paraphernalia of their disgusting and corrupting cult, began to freely settle in the land of Israel. The proclamation of the new religion, as one might think, was carried out with great pomp and ceremony, like, for example. the transfer of the Ark of the Covenant by David to Jerusalem, or the dedication of the temple by Solomon. The king also decided to establish a great religious holiday, as a counterweight to the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem, but held a month later, and its first celebration was timed to coincide with the opening of the cult itself. From that time on, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, instead of the fifteenth day of the seventh month, as was the case in Jerusalem, the great harvest festival was to be celebrated in the kingdom of Israel. As for Passover and Pentecost, which served as a remembrance of the Exodus and legislation, from that time they apparently fell out of use, although Passover, at least, was never completely forgotten, and constantly continued to serve in subsequent times as a strong connection between north and south, despite all the efforts of Jeroboam to break it. Although, despite the introduction of golden calves, in the minds of the people this cult continued to be identified with the worship of Jehovah, nevertheless, by the very nature of this innovation, there was a great danger of deviation into idolatry. Consequently, the first important step, so fraught with future evil, immediately aroused the jealousy of the prophets. They quite rightly saw in it a departure from the spiritual concept of God that had been slowly developing in the people's soul since the time of Samuel. Their grief and indignation were the greater because they themselves had partly contributed to the division of the kingdom, in the hope of giving true religion more opportunity for prosperity than had been possible during the last years of Solomon's reign. Since Jeroboam, however, continued to follow the path he had once outlined, their opposition became stronger and stronger, until finally it turned into an open struggle between them and the kings. When all preparations for the holiday were made, Jeroboam wanted to personally offer a sacrifice on the erected altar in Bethel in order to solemnly open the practice of the religion he had newly established. But then a “man of God” appeared from Judea, and, standing face to face with Jeroboam, made a prediction that one of David’s descendants would sacrifice idolatrous priests on this very altar, and confirmed his prediction with a sign that the altar newly erected by the king would disintegrate and its ashes would scatter. The enraged king ordered to seize the daring soothsayer, and he himself stretched out his hand against him; but his hand suddenly became numb, and at the same time the altar fell apart and the ashes scattered from it. Then Jeroboam humbled himself and, through the prayer of the “man of God,” his hand recovered from the defeat. He invited the “man of God” to go to his palace and refresh himself with food, promising to offer him a special gift. But the man of God said to the king: “Even if you give half your house, I will not go with you, nor will I drink water in this place. For this is what I have been commanded by the word of the Lord: You shall not eat bread there, nor drink water, and do not return by the way that you came.” However, he then himself violated this commandment, and, having obeyed one false prophet, went to him and accepted a treat, for which he was killed on the way by a lion that attacked him, as a warning to all those who do not stand firmly in the commandment of God (1 Kings 13:1-32). This event deeply struck the people's imagination and remained in the people's memory for a long time. The curse of the prophet on the erected altar of Jeroboam took its toll, and it was indeed destroyed more than once. According to the prophet’s prediction, on the very day of the opening of the religious celebration, it split into two, then was again destroyed by an earthquake during the time of Amos, twenty years later after that, and finally, when the northern kingdom fell, Josiah, having burned the “high place” and the vile image of Asherah near it, overthrew this entire altar, ground its very stones into dust and burned the bones on them, for the greatest shame priests who were once servants at these altars, but had long since rested in their stone tombs in the adjacent valley below. The place where the prophet found his death also remained in popular memory for a long time, so that even in the time of Josiah the tombstone lying on it was still indicated (2 Kings 23:17, 18). Since, despite what happened, Jeroboam did not come to his senses and did not take into account the warning given to him, then as punishment for this, a family misfortune befell him: his son Abijah, the only person in his house, “in whom something good was found before the Lord God of Israel,” fell ill. The king at this time was already living in his new capital Tirzah, buried among vineyards and olive orchards, representing a purely paradise in the land of Israel. Tenderly and passionately loving his heir, Jeroboam desperately wanted to know whether he would recover from his dangerous illness, and for this purpose he wanted to secretly take advantage of the mercy of that God whom he openly rejected. He decided to ask the elderly prophet Ahijah for advice in this regard—the same one who predicted to him that he would be king and was now grieving over the king’s iniquities—and to ask him about the upcoming fate of his son. His wife, an Egyptian princess, with the willingness of her mother, volunteered to go to the prophet herself; but knowing what the relationship was between Ahijah and her husband, she thought it best to change her clothes so that the prophet would not know who she was. Taking with her, according to custom, gifts for the prophet, namely ten loaves of bread, cakes and a jug of honey, she set off for Shiloh, located 27 versts south of Tirzah. But when she entered the house of Ahijah, the elderly prophet, despite his blindness, immediately recognized who his visitor was, and not only did not accept the gifts brought to him, but pronounced a formidable condemnation on the entire house of Jeroboam, declaring that for the idolatry he had introduced, the Lord would bring all kinds of disasters to his house and “sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as one sweeps away rubbish,” and Israel himself would be cast out of the land promised, and will be taken beyond the river (Euphrates) into captivity, because they have made idols for themselves, provoking the Lord.” As a result of this, the king's sick son had to die, and this would happen before the queen, upon her return, crossed the threshold of her palace. This is what actually happened. By placing his kingdom on the path of lawlessness and idolatry, Jeroboam thereby pushed it out of the realm of God’s economy and subjected his own personality to oblivion. As a result, the biblical historian leaves his reign completely unattended, and briefly mentions only his death, which he came to after an inglorious and troubled reign that lasted 22 years. He was buried in the royal tomb, probably in Tirzah. But once the evil was installed, it continued to have its effect after it and developed quickly. After the death of Jeroboam, the instability of royal power in the kingdom of Israel was immediately revealed. His firm hand was still capable of suppressing any open discontent, but he, so to speak, sowed the wind, and his son Navat had to reap the storm. Since the throne of the kings of Israel was exclusively supported by the army, as a result of this, it, of necessity, became dependent on the army, and this subsequently served as a source of extreme unrest. The king became the protege of the troops and became completely dependent on them, just as was the case with the Roman emperors in the worst times of the empire. The people no longer had any political rights. Two years were enough for all unstable elements to bring matters to open indignation. Nebat undertook a siege of one Levitical city, Gibethon, west of Tibnah, on the hills overlooking the Philistine valley, on a line with Jerusalem. And since the enterprise, apparently, was not a happy one, this was enough to immediately arouse discontent in the army, and this discontent led to a clever military conspiracy drawn up by the military leader Baasha, from the tribe of Issachar, who, having killed the king, ascended to the throne. The curse pronounced on the house of Jeroboam by Ahijah of Shiloh now actually fell upon it. To strengthen his position, Vaasa, like eastern kings in general, ordered the extermination of all male members of the overthrown dynasty. They were actually exterminated, some in Tirzah itself, where the bodies of the dead were thrown in the streets to be devoured by stray dogs, and some in other settlements, where they were also left without any burial, becoming food for predatory kites. Thus perished the house of Jeroboam, who occupied the royal throne for only twenty-four years. Chapter 28. Chronicle of both kingdoms before the accession of Ahab After the overthrow of the house of Jeroboam, a series of upheavals began in the kingdom of Israel, which did not bode well for the future fate of this kingdom. The dynasty of Baasha, who illegally seized the throne of Israel, could not give stability to this throne due to its very illegality, especially since this dynasty in its policy followed the system of Jeroboam, and even more than the latter indulged in wickedness and idolatry. This dynasty ended with the son of Vaasa, Ila, who with his worthlessness accelerated the fatal, inevitable fate that befell the entire house of Vaasa. The times demanded a strong ruler, but he was simply an effete libertine. Leaving his kingdom and his army to themselves, he constantly spent time in drinking and carousing in Tirzah. But barely two years had passed since his accession to the throne when his reign was interrupted. Indulging in uncalculated and disastrous wars, waged only with the goal of finding satisfaction for his ambitious plans and love of fame, he met his end during the siege of the very city in which the son and successor of Jeroboam, namely Gibethon, was killed. Having sent his military leaders to besiege this city, the king himself, remaining in Tirzah, indulged in constant drinking and revelry. As a result, one of his military leaders had the idea to take advantage of such a frivolous life of the king and seize the throne into his own hands. This traitor was now Zamri, the head of one of the two chariot detachments. Having gone with significant forces to Tirzah, Zamri decided to overthrow Ila by force, and it was all the easier for him to achieve this because Ila was at that time visiting the head of his palace, Arsa, and “got drunk.” Having invaded the palace, Zamri, without any difficulty, killed Ila and proclaimed himself king, and then, according to the custom of the eastern usurpers, destroyed the entire house of Vaasa. But such a coup, which clearly demonstrated the cruelty and lawlessness of Zamri, naturally could not serve as a guarantee of the strength of his reign, and he himself had to reign for only seven days. Having learned that the people, without recognizing him, proclaimed another military leader, Omri, as their king, who, at the head of a strong army, approached Tirzah and had already taken the fortifications of the capital, Zamri, foreseeing his death, like Sardanapalus, “entered the inner room of the royal house, and lit the royal house with fire behind him, and died for his sins, which he sinned by doing evil before his eyes the Lord, walking in the way of Jeroboam and in his sins, which he committed to cause Israel to sin.” But this did not end the political unrest of the kingdom of Israel. Next to Omri, a certain Famnius came forward as a contender for the throne, who carried away half the people with him, so that the kingdom of Israel was divided among themselves, and a four-year internecine war began, and only after the death of Famnius the throne was established for Omri, who reigned for another eight years. This energetic ruler was distinguished by such abilities that gave him the opportunity to strengthen his dynasty so much that it was established for a long time at the head of the kingdom of Israel, and gave a number of kings who had a very strong influence on the fate of the kingdom. To strengthen the throne of his dynasty, he took several measures, and first of all, he left Tirzah with its burnt palace and dilapidated walls, and decided to build a new capital for himself. The very choice of location shows significant political foresight. About ten versts northwest of Shechem, in a richly irrigated valley, an elongated and almost completely lonely white limestone hill rises 400 feet above the surrounding area. On the eastern side it descends in long, small steps to the plain, but on all other sides it is precipitous and steep, although in all directions it presents good terraces for gardens, perhaps originally intended for protection. Not far from it rise magnificent hills, green with rich vegetation and intersected by a whole network of fertile valleys, large and small. Although a chain of heights to the north commands this area, however, before the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, the fortifications on this hill could be considered almost impregnable. Omri bought this entire hill for two talents of silver 203 from a certain Semir, a wealthy landowner of that time, whose name was immortalized in the name of the city itself, which was later built on this area, namely Samaria or Shomeron 204 . A palace and a fortress were built at the very top of the hill, and the rest of the city buildings descended down its slopes, and a strong wall, along which a wide road ran, surrounded this entire area. From the palace overlooking the city, Omri could survey the entire country to the west as far as the Mediterranean Sea, for the top of the hills lay more than 1,500 feet above sea level. On other sides there was a varied panorama of rounded hills and superb valleys. To the south was the royal “paradise,” with its luxurious springs and rich gardens, and behind the gates a vast area opened up, suitable for performing various ceremonies when the king appeared on state affairs. The houses in the city were at first built of brick, with beams and braces of common sycamore, but with the rise of wealth such houses mostly gave way to excellent palaces of cut stone and cedar (Ex. 9:9, 10). In the best days of its prosperity, Samaria must have presented a very impressive view from the valleys and from the surrounding hills, since its streets ran along the slopes of a magnificent hill, like lilies encircling it. And this newly built capital became precisely that famous Samaria, which remained the residence of the kings of Israel until the fall of the kingdom. The popular support given to Omri was justified on his part by that insightful sense and energetic policy, which, in addition to its religious character, alone could promote the well-being of the country or ensure peace for it. The rift between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel had already taken such deep roots, especially due to the fact that there had been almost continuous wars between them since the time of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, that there was obviously no more hope for reunification, and therefore the rulers had to worry only about strengthening the independent existence of these kingdoms. As a result of this, Omri decided to change the policy of his predecessors in this regard, and tried to seek peace with the southern kingdom. Even Baasha, with all his energy and ability, defeated his dynasty, so to speak, against the barren mountains of Judah. Omri decided to test what an olive branch could do. Firmly entrenched in his new capital, which could almost ignore any siege, he made peace with the Judah king Asa, and made the maintenance of this peace one of the main features of the internal policy of his house. Unfortunately, this peace had no deeper or nobler basis for itself, and was solely motivated by the desire to enable both kingdoms to defend themselves against their common enemies, and to reduce them, if possible, to a tributary state, as was the case in the time of Solomon. The highest purpose of Israel, as the chosen people of God - the purpose of supporting and spreading the true religion, which alone could give it lasting prosperity or glory, was completely lost sight of by Omri. The Moabite Stone seems to show that Omri forced the Moabites to again pay him the tribute of goats and sheep that had originally been imposed by David, but which they subsequently abandoned. This, however, entailed an attack from the strong sovereign Benhadad of Damascus. Omri was defeated and could only obtain peace on cruel terms, under which several cities were taken away from Israel. Samaria, according to these conditions, was to have a special Syrian quarter for trading purposes; a Syrian commissioner was to live permanently in this city to supervise the foreign policy of Omri; the Trans-Jordanian cities taken from Israel, including Ramoth-gilead, were completely held by Ben-hadad, and all roads had to be open for the passage of Syrian caravans through the land of Israel to the countries beyond it. Having failed in the military field, Omri set himself another thought - to connect his kingdom, as closely as possible, with Tire, with its commercial industry and enormous wealth. By their very language, the Israelites and the Phoenicians ought indeed to have been natural allies, had it not been prevented by the hateful and corrupting idolatry which made alienation the only means of salvation for Israel. The land of Israel was already dependent on Tyrian goods, and Tyrian industrialists had already flooded its bazaars with the products of their industry. Omri, by his very position, as a man who was solely concerned with strengthening his dynasty and did not have in mind any higher interests of the people, did not at all think about the consequences that could result from a close alliance with the pagan people. Did any good come to Israel as a result of its alienation from other nations? he involuntarily thought. Has Tire suffered any harm from its religion and, on the contrary, is not its population the richest in the world? If only he managed to establish earthly prosperity among his subjects, then he would be completely satisfied, would consider his goal achieved and the dynasty itself strengthened, since, having indulged in trading activities, the people would most easily come to terms with their position, and, busy with internal affairs, they would forget that the house of Omri occupies the throne illegally. Meanwhile, the internal state of Tire has lately been as restless as the state of Israel. The kings, one after another, were overthrown and killed, until, finally, the supreme power was seized by a certain Ethbaal, a priest of Astarte, who killed his brother Phallus 205. Such upheavals necessarily weakened the state, especially forcing the extensive migration of wealthy families seeking to establish new colonies in northern Africa. In addition, Benhadad of Damascus, who now had great military strength, was, according to general belief, preparing to attack the Phoenician communities in order to annex them to his kingdom. Ephbaal undoubtedly also wished to enter into a defensive and offensive alliance with Omri, and therefore it was decided between them to seal this alliance with a marriage between Ahab, heir to the throne of Israel, and one of his daughters, the princess of Tyre. But this event, which at the time may have seemed a brilliant political step on both sides, later brought the greatest disaster for Israel and for the house of Omri itself, since this princess, the famous Jezebel, was the cause of the death of the dynasty itself. She was no longer the first Israeli queen from the old Canaanite family, since David had already been married to the daughter of the king of Tessur (1 Chronicles 3:2), and Solomon took wives from almost all the surrounding nations, including the Hittites and Sidonians (1 Kings 11:1). But hitherto these queens had played only a minor role in the country, although in the time of Solomon they had led to the first formal introduction of idolatry in Jerusalem. But Jezebel was the first Canaanite who decided, with her characteristic persistence, to introduce her native cult among a people whose religion she despised. In his desire to take advantage of the alliance of Tire, and perhaps also hoping that the introduction of Canaanite customs among his people would free them from the influence of the prophets who were so dangerous to his predecessors, Omri not only ignored the theocratic basis of his kingdom, but also actively contributed to the introduction of paganism. To get closer to his new ally, Omri issued several decrees, which were later known as “decrees” or “customs of Omri” (Mic. 6:16), and were clearly imbued with idolatry. He began to treat the prophets as enemies of public order (1 Kings 16:25). Even the worship of the calf no longer enjoyed the favor of the court, and the worship of Jehovah, with or without any symbol, was considered completely inadequate to the needs of the time. This worship could only serve to alienate Israel and Tire, and since Omri’s goal was completely opposite, it was necessary to remove this obstacle. Such a policy, persistently pursued, entailed natural consequences. If the morality of the country began to quickly decompose, then in return for this, external well-being and wealth began to noticeably increase; if the sublime mission of Israel as the people of God was forgotten, then in return all unrest and internal upheavals ceased, at least for a while. With the reign of Omri begins a time of outward prosperity and luxury, which in themselves testify to extensive commercial enterprises and industrial activity. But along with the development of this external well-being, there was also a noticeable internal religious and moral decay, which found encouragement and example in the personality of the king himself, who in this regard “acted even worse than all those who came before him,” thus undermining the moral strength of the state in which he wanted to strengthen his throne. Thus, the kingdom of Israel, founded by Jeroboam, having become, as a result of the religious schism produced by the latter, on a false path, with each reign moved further and further away from the true path, preparing for its destruction. As for the kingdom of Judah, the history of the first reigns there presents a slightly different picture; although in its history light also often gave way to shadow, in general there was noticeably more stability and national-religious strength. After a failed attempt to subjugate the abandoned tribes by force, Rehoboam began to take care of strengthening the possession that remained to him. He fortified several cities and between them Bethlehem, Tekoa and Hebron, turning them into strong fortresses and supplying them with weapons and provisions. When the boundaries of the kingdom of Judah were determined, it embraced not only the possessions of the two main tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but also the former lands of the tribe of Dan, which moved to the north, and the lands of the tribe of Simeon, which was so weakened politically that it seemed to cease to even be considered an independent tribe. In addition, the previously conquered lands of Edom and Ammon remained under the rule of Rehoboam, and continued to pay the tribute established by David. Morally, the kingdom of Judah was further strengthened by the fact that the entire tribe of Levi moved into it - all the priests and Levites who were evicted from the kingdom of Israel as a result of the introduction of the idolatrous cult of golden calves there. As a result of all this, the first years of Rehoboam’s reign were distinguished by significant prosperity for the then political state of the country. Unfortunately, Rehoboam inherited his father's worst qualities and maintained a large harem of 18 wives and 60 concubines, who gave him twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. With this, the usual rivalries and intrigues were inseparable, especially since Rehoboam showed a clear preference for his beloved wife Maachah, the daughter (or rather granddaughter) of Absalom, for whose son, Abijah, he strengthened the inheritance of the throne and in advance made him the head and prince over his brothers.” To weaken their rivalry, he wisely “sent all his sons throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, to all the fortified cities, and gave them a great allowance, and sent many wives.” But temporary prosperity only accelerated the oblivion of the recent terrible trials, and Rehoboam, and with him the entire Jewish people, “forsaken the law of the Lord” and “did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.” Raised by an idolatrous mother, the head of a harem, in which, perhaps, there were several other pagan princesses, and having inherited the worst results of the introduction of idolatry in Jerusalem by his father, he soon surrendered to it and fell away from the true religion. Several new “high places” were built for idols, symbolic pillars were erected for Baal, and groves were built for Asherah for the performance of her dissolute cult. Paganism in its worst form began to spread across the earth. The king tolerated fornicators and harlots in the temples, who with their debauchery helped increase the income of the pagan priests. Such a religious and moral decline required punishment, and it appeared in the person of the Egyptian pharaoh Susakim. Susakim or Shoshenq I was the founder of the new 22nd dynasty of pharaohs, which replaced the previous dynasty to which Solomon was related. This change of dynasty took place during the lifetime of Solomon, and the new pharaoh then showed hostility towards the house of Solomon by giving shelter to Ader, the prince of Edom, and Jeroboam. Now, taking advantage of the weakening of the political power of this house, in the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, he launched a campaign against Jerusalem. Moving with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 cavalry and a huge army of Libyans, Ethiopian cave dwellers and Nubians, he easily and quickly took several fortified Jewish cities and approached the walls of Jerusalem itself. At the sight of the terrible danger, the king and the people repented and turned to God for help, who saved them from cruel captivity. However, salvation was achieved only thanks to the hasty surrender of the city to a formidable enemy on the most humiliating terms. The enormous wealth accumulated in the church, the famous golden shields taken from Syria by David, the shields made by Solomon for his bodyguards, and all the treasures of the royal palace were demanded by the victor as the ransom of the capital, and Rehoboam was in effect reduced to the position of a vassal of Egypt. Thus the first result of the division of the kingdom was the destruction of the glory of Solomon's days. Israel was again threatened by Egyptian slavery. An interesting monument of this disaster can still be seen on the walls of a small church built by Ramses III on the south side of the great church of Karnak, in Thebes. The smaller building was completed by Shusakim himself after his victory over Rehoboam, and its walls inside and outside are covered with sculptures, among which there is as direct and indisputable an indication of Jewish history as only the monuments of Egypt present. On one side, the king, depicted in gigantic features, stands holding a party of captives in his hands, and the god Ammon comes out to meet him with another party of captives, leading them by ropes tied to their necks. These figures are eleven in number, and they end with shields on which are written the names of the cities taken in Judea 206 . At first it was thought that one of these figures bears the name of the Jewish king himself, but the inscriptions on them generally indicate only a list of captured cities, and among them are also mentioned those that were especially diligently fortified by Rehoboam 207 . The magnificent hieroglyphic inscription contains praise for Ammon for subjugating the peoples of the south and north to the Egyptian king, so that their kings threw themselves on the ground at his feet. Solomon's marriage to an Egyptian princess was not able to ensure lasting peace with the pharaohs. The very palace which he had built for her in Jerusalem was now plundered, five years after his death, by the king of Egypt, her relative. The greatness of Israel thus quickly disappeared, like a short sleep. The Philistines and Edomites undoubtedly took advantage of Rehoboam's weakness to regain their independence. Adad the Edomite, no less than Jeroboam, used the help of Shusakim. But with the loss of Edom, at the same time, the rich sea trade with Ophir ceased again, since now there was no longer access to the seaport at Ezion-geber. This closed the greatest source of state income. The situation was also disappointing in other respects. The trade in horses and chariots carried on between Egypt and the Euphrates could no longer continue; the rebellion of the ten tribes and the independence of Damascus closed the caravan routes to the north. The poverty of the land, compared with its wealth under Solomon, was recognized by Rehoboam himself. When the golden shields of his bodyguards were taken by the Egyptian pharaoh, he had to limit himself to other shields made of copper, which were worn in front of him by his bodyguards in pathetic vanity, which meant to show that everything seemed to have remained the same since the glory of his father. The difficult lesson, however, apparently, was not in vain for the king and the Jewish people. “There was some good in Judah,” declares the biblical chronicler, but in general Rehoboam “did evil, because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.” He reigned for seventeen years, died at the age of 58 and was buried in the city of David. His reign was described in the chronicles of the prophet Samey and Adda the seer - in the book of royal genealogies. Rehoboam was succeeded by his son Abijah, in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign. He tried once again to regain the fallen tribes by force, and in the war that began he managed to defeat Jeroboam and take away several cities, including Bethel. This victory was the result of strong religious inspiration both from the king himself, who reproached the Israelites for their idolatry, and from the Jews in general, “who trusted in the Lord, the God of their fathers.” But Abijah himself could not stay on top of this good beginning and soon followed the bad example of his predecessors: he started a large harem of fourteen wives, from whom he had 22 sons and 16 daughters, and in general began to “walk in all the sins of his father, which he committed before him,” as a result of which his reign was short-lived. He reigned for only three years and was buried in the city of David, transferring the kingdom to his son Asa. Asa, the third king of Judah, ascended the throne in the 20th year of Jeroboam's reign and reigned in Jerusalem for forty-one years. Having been brought up amid the trials of his previous reigns, he reigned with the good intention of following in everything the example of his great great-great-grandfather David and, with heartfelt devotion to the true religion, began to cleanse his kingdom of the religious and moral evil that had accumulated in it. “He drove out the fornicators from the land, and rejected all the idols that his fathers had made. And even his mother Anu was deprived of the title of queen because she made an image of Ashtoreth, which he at the same time chopped up and burned by the Kidron stream, as Moses once did with the golden calf. However, he did not complete his transformation, since he did not destroy all the “high places” with their idolatrous paraphernalia, leaving this task to his successors. But in general, Asa showed so much pious zeal that his reign for a time again concentrated God’s favor on himself and was characterized by complete prosperity. His father's victory over Jeroboam secured him ten years of peace, and he took advantage of it to maintain profitable trade with Arabia, the east, and the silver-rich countries of western Europe, which enabled him to once again accumulate significant treasures both in the church and in the palace. At the same time, he again strengthened the most important cities. Having improved the internal affairs of the state, he gathered a strong army of 580,000 people with the goal of overthrowing the tributary yoke of the Egyptians. Having learned about this, the Egyptian pharaoh Zarai the Ethiopian marched against him with a huge “army of a thousand thousand and three hundred chariots” and reached Mareshah (near the later Eleutheropolis), in the southwestern part of the tribe of Judah. Here Asa met him and, strong in his trust in God, whose help he called in fiery prayer before the battle, defeated him on his head, capturing enormous booty 208. Upon his victorious return to Jerusalem, he was met by the prophet Azariah, who, with his divinely inspired speech about the good deeds of the Lord in case of trust in Him and about His terrible anger when falling away from Him, aroused in the king and the people a new impulse of zeal and true religion. “Pagan abominations” were removed from all Jewish cities, and the king renewed “the altar of the Lord, which was in front of the porch of the Lord,” which had probably been defiled by idolatry. At the same time, in the third month of the 14th year of his reign, Asa convened a great public meeting in Jerusalem, at which not only the inhabitants of his kingdom participated, but also people from the other tribes, and a solemn covenant was concluded “to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul,” and the death penalty was imposed for idolatry. This gathering of true worshipers of Jehovah from all tribes into Jerusalem naturally increased the moral strength of the kingdom of Judah, but at the same time it awakened with renewed vigor the suspicion of the kings of Israel, as a result of which Baasha renewed the war against the kingdom of Judah and strengthened the border Rama in order to block access to Asa for his subjects. Unfortunately, this time Asa wavered in his trust in God and not only called Ben-hadad, king of Syria, to his ally, but also bought his alliance at the dear price of the treasures of the church of the Lord and his palace. Although, thanks to this alliance, the invasion of Baasha was successfully repelled, Asa himself had to listen to a strong reproach for his sin from the prophet Ananias, who boldly reproached him for betraying the covenant he had concluded, for the fact that “he trusted in the king of Syria and did not trust in the Lord,” through which he blocked himself from conquering the kingdom of Syria itself. But once a person turns from the right path, it is easy to move from one sin to another. Asa not only did not repent of his sin, but “was angry with the seer and put him in prison, because he was irritated with him for this reproach.” At the same time, he began to oppress some other people from the people at that time. In this evasion of the duty of justice, in the 39th year of his reign, he suffered a serious illness of the legs, which, developing gradually, “rose to the upper parts of the body, but even in his illness he sought not the Lord, but the doctors.” In the 41st year of his reign, he died and was buried with royal solemnity in the city of David, in a tomb he had previously prepared for himself. Despite the sins of the last years of his reign, he left behind a good memory among the people, who expressed their respect to him by burning a great variety of incense in honor of his ashes and anointing him with expensive artificial ointments. The blessing of God upon him was reflected in the very length of his reign, during which he was a contemporary of eight quickly successive wicked kings of the kingdom of Israel. His successor was his son Jehoshaphat, who ascended the throne at the age of 35 and reigned for 25 years. Along with the throne, he inherited from his father the best principles of the first half of his reign and possessed all the qualities that made him similar to David, who was the highest example for him. Under him, the kingdom of Judah reached a high degree of prosperity and power. He began his reign by strengthening the most important cities of the kingdom, in which he stationed security troops. Having secured himself from external attack, he began to improve internally, and himself, “walking according to the commandments of God,” energetically set about eradicating idolatry among the people, abolishing “high places” and destroying “oak forests” dedicated to idols. Not content with this, in the third year of his reign he took more effective measures to raise the religious and moral life of the people and sent some of his close princes to teach the people the law of God in all the cities of Judea, together with the Levites and priests. His reward for such pious deeds was extraordinary prosperity. He was at peace with all the peoples around him. The Philistines paid him tribute in silver, the Arabians brought in a lot of all kinds of livestock, and his power was supported by a strong army, under the command of brave generals. This state of the kingdom of Judah was naturally dangerous for the kingdom of Israel, although at the same time this kingdom was too powerful to be able to start a new war against it. Since at the same time, on the border of the kingdom of Israel, the dangerous kingdom of Syria was rapidly developing and strengthening, the king of Israel Ahab considered it best to enter into a close alliance with Jehoshaphat. The latter accepted this proposal and, thus, entered into an alliance and even became related to the most wicked king of the kingdom of Israel, thereby bringing a whole series of disasters to his own kingdom. Chapter 29. Ahab and the Prophet Elijah While in the kingdom of Judah, after the wickedness of the first kings, efforts began to restore the true religion and the law of Moses among the people and achieved quite favorable results, in the kingdom of Israel, with each reign, wickedness and idolatry intensified. But this evil reached its highest degree under the eighth king of Israel, Ahab, who succeeded his father, Omri, in the 38th year of the reign of Asa, and reigned for 22 years. His father had already acquired a bad reputation, but Ahab surpassed him, leaving behind the saddest memory in history. By nature, Ahab was gifted with the inclinations of goodness, and they manifested themselves in his love of art and the ability to accept good advice. Unfortunately, he had a weak will, and completely submitted to his power-hungry and arrogant wife Jezebel, whose name is associated with even worse fame than his own. And this weakness was facilitated by the very prosperity that was established in the country by the policy of his father Omri. This prosperity enabled Ahab to satisfy his passion for brilliance and self-gratification. Samaria remained the capital, but it was now too crowded with houses to please him, and so he built a new palace in Jezreel, in the plain of Esdraelon, with rich gardens in which he could lead a completely calm, undisturbed life 209. In addition, he had a passion for construction and founded several new cities (1 Kings 22:39). Solomon was content with only an ivory throne, but new relations with Tire, the great center of African and Indian trade, gave Ahab the opportunity to build a palace in which ivory played a major role in decoration. The noble and richest citizens, taking advantage of the general prosperity, competed with each other in luxury and richness of the environment. A certain Achiel, a Bethelite, despite the curse of Joshua, even dared to restore and strengthen Jericho in the rich Jordan Valley, but he paid for this with a heavy blow, since during the work he lost his eldest and his youngest sons (1 Kings 16:34; Judges 1:16; 3:13). A hundred years later, the prophet Amos still testified how the most important nobles of the kingdom of Israel had special winter and summer houses, magnificently decorated with ivory, palaces, luxuriously decorated with expensive couches and sofas, on which they reclined during their feasts, since the ancient simple custom of sitting on mats and carpets had already fallen out of use by this time (1 Sam. 20:24; Am. 3:5). Lambs and fatted calves, which in former times were rare signs of generous hospitality, became objects of daily food. The dinners of the rich were like magnificent feasts, during which they reclined, anointed with precious incense (Eccl. 9:8). Whole wine, emptied in large cups into which their fathers used to mix water, now became a common drink, and musicians with harps and harps amused their masters, who, in their drunken state, sang various voluptuous songs ( Amos 6:4-7 ). The movement in favor of paganism that began under Omri continued even more strongly under his son. The alienation from the religious traditions of the people was complete. Everything that was sacred in popular belief was subjected to deliberate insult by the reigning house, with the aim of destroying the worship of Jehovah, even under the symbol of Jeroboam’s calves, and establishing Phoenician idolatry as the only tolerable religion in the land of Israel (1 Kings 16:31). This was precisely Jezebel's purpose. Arrogant and ambitious, looking at the foreign people over whom she had to be queen with insolent contempt, fanatically devoted to the religion of her own country, as was natural in the daughter of a priest, she knew how to make of her husband an obedient instrument in the execution of her plans. At her insistence, a vast church to Baal was erected in Samaria, so large that it could contain many worshipers (1 Kings 16:32; 2 Kings 10:21). This church, apparently, stood within the very boundaries of the city and looked like something like a fortified castle. A huge image of the solar god, surrounded by idolatrous symbols, stood in the middle of the church, amid the surrounding splendor reflected from the gilded and painted roofs, walls and columns. At the altar, a whole staff of priests was established, consisting of 450 people, who in their magnificent robes performed idolatry, and Ahab himself was present with him, along with his court retinue, making rich sacrifices, which were performed, according to the custom of the Canaanites, amid all kinds of wild excitement and debauchery that constituted the usual attribute of idolatry to Baal. But Jezebel did not limit herself to this cult, but took care to introduce another widespread in Phenicia - the cult of Astarte. For this purpose, apparently, within the boundaries of Jezreel the church of Asherah was built, and a new staff of 400 priests was appointed for idolatry at its altars. Jezebel became the special patroness of this particular cult and supported this entire institution even at her own expense. Having established these new states of preachers and ministers of idolatry, Jezebel, with the same persistence, began to persecute all ministers and heralds of the true religion. All the true prophets, by her command, were beaten, except for a hundred people who escaped and hid in a cave, where they were secretly fed bread and water by the pious Obadiah, the ruler of Ahab’s palace. The darkest period in the history of the Israeli people has arrived. True religion perished in him, and with it all the great promises for him collapsed. Then a special instrument of God’s Providence became necessary to support the sinking ship of faith. And it appeared in the person of the prophets, whose dedication in preserving the true faith increased as wickedness and idolatry increased. Since idolatrous wickedness reached its highest degree under Ahab, during his reign the greatest prophet of the Old Testament church, a terrible avenger for the trampling of the covenant, appeared, Elijah, the prototype of that great preacher of repentance who was the forerunner of Christ. And he was not just a preacher of the word. Under him, wickedness represented the highest evil spirit in the person of the king and was manifested in tangible acts of vile depravity and untruth. Therefore, the prophet Elijah appeared for his part as a representative of the power of God, which he put in opposition to the power of evil, and hence a whole series of great miracles that were supposed to serve as a new, more tangible form of edification and conviction of the hardened conscience of the wicked with his lost people. The Holy Prophet Elijah appears in history with striking suddenness, like a lightning arrow that instantly illuminated the midnight sky. Like Melchizedek, he is, as it were, a man “without father, without mother, without kinship, having neither the beginning of days nor the end of life.” It is not surprising that the ancient rabbis believed that he was the fiery Phinehas returning to earth, or an angel flying to admonish the powers that be. It is not surprising that Muslim traditions confused him with a mysterious being, an “immortal, eternal wanderer,” who appears from time to time to avenge the injustices of the earth and repeat the experiences of previous centuries. It is not surprising that medieval alchemists and magicians tried to trace their dark art back to Elijah the Tishbite, the “father of alchemy.” Other prophets, Moses, Samuel, Elisha, Isaiah, were constantly before the eyes of their compatriots. But they saw Elijah only from time to time in his momentary appearances. He did not belong to any special place, and his very place of birth is disputed. “There was no nation or kingdom where Ahab sent” to look for him, and nowhere could they find him. As soon as Ahab's messengers saw him, "the Spirit of the Lord carried him away to God knows where." It was as if he was constantly in the hand of God. “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand,” was his constant expression, and he was, as it were, a slave, constantly awaiting the command of his Lord 210 . At certain times he could be seen here and there, in the most remote places; sometimes in the hollow of Horath, in the Jordan Valley, sometimes in the forests of Carmel, sometimes on the Sidonian coast at Zarephath, sometimes in the desert of Horeb, in the distant south, sometimes on the way to northern Damascus, sometimes on the top of some secluded mountain on the way to Ekron, sometimes on a mountain or in a valley in the Jordanian desert. Throughout his life, he was what he still remains in the traditions of the Eastern Church, namely, the “prophet of the mountains” 211. Whatever the exact place of his birth, he was at any rate one of the "inhabitants of Gilead." He was the greatest representative of the Trans-Jordanian tribes. Their wild and imprisoned character was fully reflected in him. Wandering through the hills of the desert without a fixed abode, swift as the wind, when, under the pressure of the divine hand upon him, he fled before the chariot of Ahab from Carmel to Jezreel, he resembled the heroes of his own tribe of Gad in the time of David, who swam across the Jordan at the time of the flood, "whose faces were like the faces of lions, and whose feet were swift like the chamois on the mountains." He was similar to the Bedouins of the same area at the present time, who run with amazing speed next to the traveler's camel, and whose strange figures from time to time appear from behind a rock or tree, in a city or in a field, and then disappear again into their native desert. And as these Bedouins are, so was he in his appearance. His long, shaggy hair hung in large strands down his back, and a wide, rough mania of sheepskin, fastened around his loins with a leather belt, was his only attire. This mantle, a special sign of his prophetic calling, he either threw off and rolled up, like a staff, in his hand, or wrapped himself in it, hiding his face (1 Kings 19:13; 2 Kings 2:8). The features of Arab life were elevated, and not destroyed, by his high prophetic mission. And the fact that this mission was entrusted not to an inhabitant of a royal city or a prophetic school, but to a devout son of the forests and deserts of Gilead, is in exact agreement with the activities of Providence in other times. Thus, the unity of God was confirmed from ancient times by the wanderer from Ur of the Chaldeans and the Arabian shepherd at Sinai. So, in the spirit and power of Elijah, John, the son of Zechariah, came in the same desert from which Elijah came, and where he finally withdrew, supported by the meager productivity of the desert, dressed in a similar harsh and poor cloak, calling the people to repentance, with the same extraordinary appearance and the same simple preaching. So in later times, the hermits of Egypt and Russia emerged from time to time from their places of solitude, producing a striking impression that nothing else could have produced, and called upon kings and peoples to recognize their guilt and their responsibility towards God and man. And so, this extraordinary prophet suddenly appeared on the glittering streets of Samaria. The extraordinary appearance of this wanderer - barefoot, with long hair on his head, in a coarse cloak of camel's hair, with a leather belt around his loins and a staff in his hands - was immediately bound to create a considerable stir in the criminal capital of the wicked king; but the prophet went straight to the palace, and there, in the face of Ahab himself, pronounced the terrible sentence of God. “As the Lord God of Israel lives,” said Elijah, thereby denouncing the vile wickedness and foolishness of idolatry, “in these years there will be neither dew nor rain; except at my word." The criminal king must have shuddered upon hearing this terrible statement from a man whose impressive speech was enhanced by his extraordinary appearance. In him, who so shamelessly indulged in idolatry and, under the influence of his wicked wife, sought to completely eradicate true religion in the land of Israel, the very mention of the true God, as the only living one, should have awakened alarm in the heart. But he should have been even more amazed by the very message that his country would be struck by the greatest of the disasters in the east, namely, lack of rain, which would inevitably be followed by famine, with all the disasters that accompany it. But if the king, in his kindness, could feel the full force of the reproach from this prediction, then Jezebel, who would certainly have tried to destroy the prophet, could not have reacted to this this way. Therefore, having pronounced the sentence, Elijah left, avoiding the vengeance of the wicked royal couple. Meanwhile, the word of the prophet had its power. An extraordinary drought has occurred in Palestine. For at least one year it extended even to Phenicia. For our minds, this word hardly gives a true idea of ​​​​the magnitude of the disaster. But for the eastern and southern peoples, where life and water always go together, where vegetation huddles wherever even the slightest particle of moisture is found, and dies as soon as this moisture is removed, where meager spring greenery withers like melting snow under the scorching heat of the sun - the absence of rain entails the absence of any means of life and life itself: springs dry up, streams and rivers become simple rocky hollows, trees wither, grass disappears, “the sky becomes as if copper, and the earth as if iron.” This was precisely the calamity that the true prophet predicted as a punishment for the wickedness of the people of Israel. This drought even extended to Phenicia, as we know not only from St. Scripture, but also from one pagan writer cited by Josephus. “There was a shortage of rain,” he says, during the year under Ethbaal (Jezebel’s father); but, the historian adds, when he offered great prayers, strong thunderstorms arose" 212. This drought, undoubtedly, was the one that was predicted by the prophet Elijah, although in Israel it lasted three years, and stopped due to the death of the priests of Baal, and not as a result of their prayer. Meanwhile Elijah retired to the brook Cherith, on the east side of the Jordan, where so many streams cross the high plain of Gilead, and abundant forests provide a continuous supply of water. The position of this area is not well known; but the prophet disappeared for a time in those thickets with which the still not exhausted stream was shrouded. From this stream he took water to drink, and was supported by bread and meat, which were brought to him every morning and evening by the ravens, whose predatory habits the Lord God directed to the point that they became servants of His servant in need 213 . After some time, however, the Khorath stream dried up, the surrounding thickets dried up, and the birds themselves began to leave this place. Then another refuge became necessary for the prophet, and this time it was found, by divine direction, in Sarepta, the newest village of Sarafend, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, 15 versts south of Sidon. It was a distant area, already beyond the borders of the land of Israel, beyond the mountains of Lebanon. The deep streams of Lebanon could still provide life-giving power even after the more meager sources of Palestine had dried up. But the drought reached there too. In Zarephath, which lay on a plain by the sea, lived a widow of the same family and the same religion as Ethbaal and Jezebel. She went outside the city gates to collect some abandoned firewood in order to prepare herself a last meal from the provisions that she still had. And when she was collecting firewood, she heard the voice of one exhausted from a long journey and thirsty traveler: “Give me some water in a vessel so I can drink.” When, to fulfill this request, she went to fetch water, the exhausted wanderer still shouted after her: “Take a piece of bread into your hands for me.” But her means were very meager, and she, struggling between the desire to show hospitality to the weary stranger and the consciousness of her own poverty and poverty, said to him: “As the Lord your God lives!” I have nothing baked, but only a handful of flour in a tub, and a little oil in a jug, and now I will gather logs for firewood, and go and prepare it for myself and for my son; We’ll eat this and die.” The Stranger, however, knew how to persuade her in this regard. His very appearance, in all likelihood, immediately made it clear to the woman that he was a holy man. And Elijah supported this confidence in her with encouraging words: “don’t be afraid, go, do what you said; But first, make a small unleavened cake from this for me, and bring it to me, and you will make it for yourself and for your son after. For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: The jar of flour will not be exhausted, and the jar of oil will not fail, until the day that the Lord gives rain on the land.” Hearing this joyful news, the woman hastened to fulfill the stranger’s request, and invited Elijah himself to her house. This woman obviously once belonged to the class of wealthy people, because her house had a special upper room, that is, an upper room adapted for guests, best furnished and usually reserved for meditation and prayer. In this now poor, but hospitable refuge, the great prophet found rest and refreshment, and the widow’s hospitality was indeed rewarded by the miraculous replenishment of her meager supply of flour and oil, and even the restoration to life of her son, who was so seriously ill that “there was no breath left in him.” This whole event provides one of the finest examples of how good-heartedness finds unexpected rewards. Perhaps this incident serves as the basis for the great blessing expressed by the Prophet of the prophets, that those who receive a prophet will receive the prophet’s reward, and whoever gives one of these little ones to drink only a cup of cold water will not lose his reward (Matthew 10:41, 42). But the Savior also made a more direct interpretation of this entire story, which indicates its more sublime and striking feature. “There were many widows,” said the Savior, “in Israel in the day of Elijah, when heaven was shut up for three years and six months, so that there was a great famine throughout the whole earth, and Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to a widow in Zarephath of Sidon” (Luke 4:25–26). He, whose life was to consist in the struggle against the vile idolatry of Tire and Sidon, had now to support his life through the agency of a woman who was herself a slave to this idolatry. This was, as it were, an anticipation of the Gospel times and a prototype of the event that many centuries later took place near this same place, when Someone greater than Elijah departed beyond the Holy Land, and coming to the borders of Tire and Sidon, he met a Syrophoenician woman of the same tribe, blessed her faith, and told her what would be done to her according to her desire (Matt. 15:22-28; Mark. 7:24–30). Jewish tradition adds that the son of the Sarepta widow, who was resurrected to life, subsequently became a constant disciple and servant of Elijah on his wanderings, and finally became the first prophet of the pagan world, Jonah, the son of Amathite, who later became God’s messenger to preach to the criminal Ninevites. Meanwhile, the drought still continued, and with it, famine and all kinds of disasters that befell the Northern Kingdom intensified to an extraordinary degree. Samaria itself began to suffer terribly from this disaster. Finally it came to the point that there was not enough pasture even for the royal horses and mules. The vegetation in the fields had completely disappeared, but one could still hope that although some grass could be found around the springs that abound in central Palestine, in the hollows, or lowlands and shady places near the streams, where at least some moisture could remain. In this extremity, Ahab finally decided to look for an area that could serve as a relief for the disaster that was depressing his court, and therefore, together with his courtier Obadiah, he went to survey the country in order to at the same time be convinced of the general extent of the disaster that had befallen it. To quickly survey the country, they set off on different roads, and when Obadiah walked his way, Elijah suddenly appeared to meet him. Jezebel had long been looking for the prophet who had brought such a great disaster to the land of Israel, and since all searches had been in vain, now the personal appearance of Elijah led the pious Obadiah into extraordinary trepidation. Recognizing him and falling on his face, he exclaimed: “Is this you, my lord, Elijah?” The Prophet answered him: “I am; Go and tell your master, Elijah is here.” But as soon as the trembling Obadiah reported this to Ahab, who was nearby, Elijah himself personally appeared before him. And when the king met face to face with the prophet, he, one might say, for the first time in his life, perhaps excited by the despair that had spread throughout the country, showed himself to be a courageous man. Usually, both in his personal and public affairs, he apparently acted as a weak, cowardly instrument in the hands of his wife. At this moment, whatever the cause, he showed himself to be a man who felt that he was now obliged to act, and who did decide to act. Seeing the prophet Elijah, he boldly approached him and addressed him with menacing words: “Are you the one who troubles Israel?” The king angrily asked the prophet. “It is not I who trouble Israel, but you and your father’s house,” answered Elijah, “because you have despised the commandments of the Lord and are following the Baals.” But in making this reproach, Elijah was aware that his task was not to exchange angry words with Ahab. A great crisis arose in the history of the Israeli people, and it was necessary to take advantage of this crisis for the interests of the true religion. The Prophet, taking advantage of the disaster, which made a depressing impression on the entire people and involuntarily made the more pious people feel abandoned by Jehovah, proposed making a nationwide experiment through sacrifice, with the condition that God would most likely hear the prayer and bring down heavenly fire to burn the sacrifice. Ahab, depressed by the unexpected appearance of the prophet and wanting, apparently, to somehow smooth out the strength of this impression, accepted the offer and convened the priests of Baal, numbering 450 people. The experience was to take place on Mount Carmel. This area is extremely wonderful. “At the eastern extremity of the range,” says the newest explorer, “where the wooded heights of Carmel meet the usual pale hills of Palestine, there is a terrace of natural rocks. It is surrounded by dense, evergreen thickets, and on it are the remains of an ancient massive quadrangular building, built of large hewn stones. This is El-Muraqa, and here, in all likelihood, stood the altar of Elijah. The situation and surroundings correspond in all respects to the various circumstances of the story. At some distance from the terrace there is a spring from which water could be brought, which was poured around the sacrifice and the altar of Elijah. The terrace offers a magnificent view of the entire plain of Esdraelon from the banks of Kishon, at the foot of the steep rapids, to the distant hills of Gilboa, at the foot of which stood the royal city of Jezreel. To the 450 false prophets, seated no doubt on a wide eminence, just below the terrace, to the multitude of people, many of whom might have remained on the plain, the altar of Elijah could be fully visible, and they could all see, in the evening twilight, how the fire of the Lord fell on the sacrifice and consumed the wood, the stones, the dust, and dried up the water. On the lower spurs of the mountain there is a hill called Tell el-Kusis, meaning the hill of the priests - the priests, which probably marks the very place where the priests of Baal were exterminated. And the very name of the Kishon stream, now called Nar-El-Mokkata, that is, “river of slaughter,” probably originates from this tragic event.” To this description it can be added that from Carmel the view extends along the entire great plain of Esdraelon, to the mountains of Galilee in the north, the mountains of Samaria in the south, the lonely Mount Tabor, which, like a sentinel, stands at the end of the plain, with the river Kishon, driving its waters towards the Mediterranean Sea, flowing from the surrounding hills and, at times, flowing just under the rocks of Carmel, at the feet of spectators, twisting, tends to the west. It would be difficult to choose a more remarkable place for such a purpose, because, besides any other considerations, Elijah could see from its elevation the entire Samarian part of that promised land, which was originally given to Israel as an inheritance, for the light of divine revelation, but was now shrouded in the deepest darkness of idolatry. Moreover, many great memories were associated with this area. Elijah could remember the fact that in the past dark times, God saved His people there, and, moreover, not by the hand of many, but by the hand of a few! In the area that lay at his feet, there appeared exactly that woman who had once become the deliverer of the people in one of the darkest periods of their life, and the song of Deborah, the greatest of the national triumphal odes of the people, bears signs of origin in this very area. It was there that Gideon won his glorious victory over the Midianites, when the war cry of his three hundred detachment echoed like thunder across the plain, and terrified the Midianite horde. If this area was thus famous both in itself and in its memories, then one of the greatest events was now about to take place on it again. Israel now wavered between serving the living God and serving Baal. He had not yet completely given himself over to the idolatry that Ahab and especially Jezebel tried to introduce among him. Many, of course, have already given themselves over to idolatry, but not all the people in their entirety have yet. And now a test was to take place to see how much true religion was superior to idolatry, and how much devotion to Jehovah remained among the people. Ahab issued orders for the priests of Baal to arrive at the testing site and for the people to gather. And so, a lot of people really gathered. Elijah had to stand alone against hundreds of priests and thousands of idolaters. The priests of Baal built an altar and placed the calf on it. It was early morning. There was deep silence all around. And when the terrible and great prophet appeared, the people met him in complete silence. When the sun, madly idolized by the pagans, began to rise, the priests of Baal began to greet the appearance of this personification of their God with wild dancing with lamentations and cries: “Baal, hear us!” But, of course, there was no voice, no answer. “At midday Elijah began to laugh at them, and said: Shout with a loud voice, for he is God; maybe he’s lost in thought, or busy with something, or on the road, or maybe he’s sleeping—that’s how he’ll wake up.” The priests became even more enraged, screaming into a frenzy and stabbing themselves with knives and spears until they bled. “But there was no voice, no answer, no hearing.” The daylight, which they madly idolized, rolled down from the sky and disappeared into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Then it was the turn of the prophet of the living God. Having called the people to him, Elijah erected an altar of twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of Israel, dug it with a ditch, which he filled with water, and, having laid the sacrifice, uttered a fiery prayer to God, asking Him to show the idolaters that He is the one, true God - the God of the fathers of the lost people. Then fire suddenly flashed and destroyed not only the victim, but also the water in the ditch. Seeing this, all the people fell on their faces and said: “The Lord is God! The Lord is God! In relation to the idolaters, the decree of the Mosaic Law was carried out: all the priests present were captured and beaten on the banks of the Kishon stream. A sacrificial feast was held on the top of the mountain, and the king came to this feast, at the invitation of Elijah. It was a feast in honor of the triumph of the true faith, and the triumph was to be followed by relief from the disaster that was depressing the country. The prophet, with his inner hearing, already heard the sound of approaching rain. The prophet himself was on one of the lower ledges of the mountain, but he sent his servant to the very top, from where a distant view opened across the western hills to the blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The sun had already set, but the cloudless sky spread like a white-hot glow that usually comes after sunset in the east. Seven times the young minister went up the mountain and looked, and seven times he returned with the answer that “there is nothing.” The sky was still clear and the sea was calm. Finally, on the distant horizon a small cloud rose, the first one that had swept across the sky for months, and, as it approached the mountain, it became increasingly denser, and soon spread across the entire sky; the blessed sound of that wind, which in eastern countries usually precedes an approaching rain storm, swept through the mighty forests of Carmel. The king and the prophet came down from the top. As soon as the boy shouted from the mountain about the appearance of a cloud, a storm broke out over the plain, and the Kishon stream began to overflow its banks. The king did not have to waste a single moment in order not to be caught in the rain on the road and to reach Jezreel on time. He mounted his chariot, which stood at the foot of the mountain, and joyfully galloped to his summer residence, and the triumphant Elijah, girding his loins, ran before Ahab all the way to Jezreel, a distance of twenty-five miles. There is no need to think that this required extraordinary speed. Undoubtedly, Ahab rode as fast as his horses could carry him, but the very nature of the road was such that a fast walker could keep up with him without much difficulty, and the upbringing of a prophet among the hills of Gilead and the physical toughness with which he had been distinguished throughout his entire previous life made him capable of this. This action itself is explained differently. But since concepts and actions in the East change only very little over the centuries, the customs of the present, perhaps, are best explained by the customs of that time. Even now in the east, when the ruler of the people rides out, two walkers usually run in front of him, clearing the way for him. This is exactly how Elijah fled. He was, so to speak, a courier for the king. The dispute between them was over. Ahab, before the eyes of all the people, on that day bowed before the omnipotence of Jehovah, and the prophet could cherish the hope that this submission was sincere. Ahab thus again became the legitimate king of the people who had once again entered into a covenant with Jehovah. Why not show him every possible honor? This was all the more necessary because from this everyone could see that Elijah was the winner in the dispute that had just taken place. But since the winner was not Elijah himself, but God, of whom he was only a servant, the prophet, giving all the glory to God, himself avoided any personal self-exaltation, and only wanted to show that he had reconciled with the king and was ready to serve the king and the people as a messenger of God. But if Ahab himself was forced to recognize the omnipotence of Jehovah and, thus, feel the failure of Baal, then Jezebel was not like that. Everything that happened not only failed to convince her of the truth of the God of Israel, but even more inflamed her evil rage. She decided to die rather than leave Elijah without revenge for the beating of her priests and prophets. Mad with anger, she sent a terrible message to Elijah: “If you are Elijah, then I am Jezebel. Let the gods do this and that to me, and even more, if by this time tomorrow I do not do with your soul what was done with the soul of each of them,” that is, her priests. It was a decisive threat expressed by a woman of firm and unyielding character, who would undoubtedly not yield to any means in order to achieve her goal. But this threat could not achieve its goal. Prophet Elijah, like the desert wind, appeared and disappeared. He went to Beersheba, far beyond Samaria, to the southernmost edge of the tribe of Judah, where the cultivated land begins to turn into desert. Not content with this, he left there a servant accompanying him, and a day's journey went still further into the desert, and sat down there under a juniper bush, one of those bushes which, sometimes rising to a height of several feet, provide a beneficial shade for the weary traveler across the scorching sand. Both from exhaustion and from the thought that his great feat, apparently, remained completely fruitless for the cause of true religion, Elijah fell into extreme despondency and loudly said: “Enough already, Lord; take my soul, for I am no better than my fathers.” Having expressed his grief, he fell asleep from extreme exhaustion. Indeed, what change has occurred during this time? Only a few days had passed since Elijah stood on Carmel as the victorious prophet of God, and Israel humbly bowed at His feet. Now he was alone in the desert, physically exhausted, mentally depressed. And this moral torment fell most heavily on the great prophet. But when he was in such an extremely sad situation, an angel appeared to him, who, touching him, said to him: “Rise, eat and drink.” Having refreshed himself with the food offered, Elijah headed further, and for forty days and forty nights he walked to the mountain of God Horeb. This is the first time since the time of Moses that this sacred mountain has been mentioned in the biblical account. There, tired from the journey, the prophet found refuge in a cave, where he spent the night. The very place of this cave is precisely indicated by legend, and it is located below the top of that mountain, which is called the Mount of Moses. There, on the slope of the mountain, there is a ruined chapel, located exactly on the rock on which, according to legend, the prophet rested. That night he had another vision, and Elijah heard the question addressed to him: “Why are you here Elijah?” that is, why have you retired from the place of your activities and are in this secluded sanctuary of the mountains? To justify his stay here, Elijah replied that he remained the only person who still has faith in the Lord God of hosts, “for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, destroyed Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword; I am left alone, but they are also looking for my soul in order to take it away.” The voice, however, commanded him to leave the cave in the morning and stand on the mountain where the Lord was to appear to him. When, in obedience to this vision, he went out onto the mountain, then indeed the Lord appeared to him there in all the horror of His most amazing manifestations. A terrible hurricane swept through the terrible gorges of the mountains, exploding huge granites from all sides, from which Elijah had to once again take refuge in the depths of the cave. Then followed a strong earthquake, from which the formidable rocks shook and shook at their foundations. A little later, a terrible thunderstorm thundered across the exposed crevices, with lightning flashing everywhere and illuminating both the heights and abysses of the rocky desert. But Jehovah was not in any of these phenomena. Finally, in the silence that is amazing in this area, undisturbed by the murmur of streams, the chirping of birds, the sound of animals, or the voice of man, the “breath of a quiet wind” came. What this “quiet wind” meant we do not know, but Elijah immediately felt that the greatest and decisive moment had arrived. Covering his face with his robe and once again going out to the opening of the cave, he stood in awe to hear what would happen next. And he once again heard the question: “Why are you here, Elijah?” and again gave the same answer. From all this he learned a great lesson. Until then, he had thought only about the more terrible properties of God's omnipotence - the storm, earthquake and lightning of His wrath. But now he had learned the lesson that henceforth he had to recognize the gentler side of the Almighty, the “quiet wind” as His chosen symbol. He himself hid from more terrible manifestations, but involuntarily hid his face in front of the latter. God is not only just and formidable, but also gentle and full of love. Elijah's calling was activity, not fearful flight, like the calling of all historical people. Elijah was given three commands. He had to go to Syria and anoint a new king on the throne of this country instead of Benhadad, anoint Jehu instead of Ahab, and choose Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as his successor. At the same time, he was consoled by the message that, although he considered himself the only servant of Jehovah who remained in Israel, however, in the land of Israel, God knew another seven thousand such men who had not yet bowed to Baal. Through them and the successor to his office, the interests of true religion will find protection and assistance from generation to generation, until He comes in whom the “breath of the quiet wind” will lead the kingdom of God to its final and eternal triumph. All three, anointed ones indicated to the prophet Elijah, were to go out to exterminate the idolaters of Baal. Circumstances allowed Elijah to fulfill only the last of these orders, namely the anointing of Elisha, to whom he left to fulfill the rest. Leaving Horeb, Elijah, in obedience to divine command, went up the Jordan Valley, which could most easily hide him from prying eyes. His own loneliness perhaps aroused in him the desire to have some companion, since he was now growing old, and such a companion was given to him. In Abel-Mehol, a wider part of the Jordan Valley, about fifteen miles south of Bethsan, lived one local judge, Saphat, a man who, as his very position showed, occupied an honorable position in society. Like his neighbors, he was engaged in cultivating his land, and his son Elisha, at the time of the coming of Elijah, was just engaged in ploughing. He had twelve pairs of oxen at his disposal, and Elisha was now plowing on the twelfth pair, while the rest were either resting or in the hands of his slaves. Elijah was apparently on the other side of the river, but crossed the river and headed towards him. Approaching Elisha, he threw his robe over him, which was a generally accepted sign of being called to the prophetic office as a prophetic son or disciple. Elisha, struck by such a surprise, hesitated a little in accepting this calling, but Elijah fully felt the sincerity of the request that Elisha made to him, because he did not refuse it. In his opinion, a man who put his hand on a plowshare and looked back was, of course, unfit for the kingdom of God; but this saying was not applicable to the case of Elisha, whose hesitation was of a completely sincere nature. Leaving the oxen, Elisha ran after Elijah, who was moving away from him, and said: “Let me kiss my father and my mother, and I will follow you.” “Go,” Elijah answered him, “and come back,” he added: “what I did to you does not contradict the fulfillment of filial duties: but remember that you are already dedicated to God.” Having therefore returned home for a while, he hastily said goodbye to his parents. Then, on his return to the field, he offered the yoke of oxen with which he had plowed as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and consecration to Him whose minister he was now chosen, and, having made a farewell feast for the people who had worked with him, he arose, went after Elijah, and from that time began to serve him constantly. Chapter 30. Elijah and Naboth's Vineyard With the removal of the prophet Elijah from Abel-Meholah after he threw his mantle over Elisha, one might say that the prophet’s public activity ended. It was short-lived, but decisive. Elijah completed the work assigned to him. He, in the sight of all Israel, upheld the honor of the one, living, and true God. He caused the people gathered on Mount Carmel to exclaim in loud praise: “The Lord (Jehovah) is God, the Lord is God and was the instrument of destruction of the priests of Baal at the brook Kishon. Then he received at Horeb that revelation of the property and government of God, which was to lead the Israelites to a higher concept of the divine being and prepare the way for the introduction of a better covenant after the fulfillment of times. Finally, it was given to him to choose a man who was to succeed him in the prophetic office and continue his work in Israel. His main task was therefore completed. But, as numerous examples in the sacred narrative show, public activity is not all that is required of the prophets of God. They had to apply the principles of government to private life, and partly in order to clarify this truth, partly in order to shed further light on the characters of Ahab and Jezebel, so that we could better understand all the features of the fate being prepared for them, the biblical narrator sets before us the tragic story of Naboth with his vineyard. Ahab, having not met the formidable prophet for a long time, probably thought that he had finally freed himself from him, and took advantage of this time to commit a very heinous crime. Although his usual capital was Samaria, he also loved to live in the cheerful city of Jezreel, distinguished by the charming beauties of the surrounding nature. While expanding and decorating his palace there, his greed was seduced by a magnificent vineyard that belonged to one inhabitant of Jezreel, a certain Naboth. We know almost nothing about Naboth himself. He is called Naboth the Jezreelite, so we can only positively conclude that he was one of the inhabitants of Jezreel. In this city, Ahab built himself a royal palace, which he especially loved and which was surrounded by terraces and gardens. Naboth thus constantly had to witness the idolatry and corruption of the court. But his feelings and his speech in the case of the vineyard enable us to conclude that, like Lot in Sodom, he remained uninvolved in the debauchery that reigned around him, he was one of those valiant men who remained in Israel who did not bow their knees to Baal. For all his piety, he apparently was a poor man, and his entire possession consisted of a small plot of land with a vineyard planted on it. This area was his own. He inherited it from his ancestors, and was tied to it by those strong ties that everywhere connect people with the land passed to them from their fathers, and which were especially strong among the Jews. Naboth's vineyard was "near the palace of Ahab king of Samaria." One might even think that he cut into the corner of the plot that Ahab owned in the vicinity of his palace, and thus prevented him from carrying out the plan for those improvements that Ahab had in mind. As a result, the king naturally wanted to take possession of this vineyard, and unless he already knew about Naboth's mood, there was nothing unconscionable in the measures he took to achieve this goal. At this time, he himself lived in Samaria, but personally arrived in Jezreel to see Naboth on this matter, and this very circumstance should almost have inspired the Jezreelite with the idea of ​​​​the seriousness of the king’s desire. Arriving in Jezreel, Ahab actually called Naboth to him and said to him: “Give me your vineyard; from it I will have a vegetable garden; for it is near to my house; and instead of it, I will give you a better vineyard than this: or, if you wish, I will give you the amount of silver it is worth.” In the mouth of an idolatrous king who had forsaken the God of Israel, there could be said to be nothing unfair in this proposal thus made to Naboth. But in reality it was unfair. According to the law of Moses, no Israelite had the right to alienate or sell his property: the land actually belonged to God, not to him. Jehovah Himself was the owner of the entire land of Palestine, and from the very beginning He divided it among the people under the condition that it always remained in the families to which it was allocated. Even in case of poverty, it could only be sold for a sum of money calculated for the number of years that should have elapsed between the time of sale and the time of the next celebration of the jubilee year. After the sale itself, it could be redeemed at any time if the old owner was able to do so, and if he was unable to do so, then it returned in the year of jubilee to the original owner or his family (Lev. 25:13–28). In a word, the expressive decree of the Mosaic Law was: “The land must not be sold forever, for the land is Mine” (Lev. 25:23). Ahab, as king of the chosen people, probably knew this; if he didn't know, he should have known. At any rate, his proposal to Naboth was illegal, because it led to a direct violation of the divine law, and when we consider the character of the king, as he is in all the other actions of his life, we can hardly do him an injustice if we suppose that his apparent good faith in some degree flowed from his consciousness that he was inducing Naboth to commit a crime against the law. Here was presented that not unusual case when a well-known temptation to break the law, presented to others, is painted in the most rosy colors. Whatever the mood of Ahab in this case, there can in any case be no doubt regarding the spirit that animated Naboth. “The Lord preserve me,” Naboth responded to Ahab’s proposal, “so that I may give you the inheritance of my fathers.” There is not the slightest reason to doubt that the embarrassment he thus expressed was entirely sincere, or that (though Naboth may at the same time have been actuated by other motives) he was guided chiefly by his conviction that to pass on his inheritance to another, as was now proposed to him, was in direct contradiction to the law of God. The obstacle thus indicated to the fulfillment of Ahab's proposal was insurmountable. Here the promise of neither a large plot of land nor a larger sum of money than the king, apparently, wanted to spend on this purchase for the first time, could not help at all. Ahab had to deal not with a selfish owner who wanted to increase the price of his land, but with a pious Israelite who, knowing the divine law, considered it his duty to obey it unconditionally. The king had to completely abandon all hope of achieving this goal. This failure greatly saddened Ahab. “And Ahab came home, troubled and distressed at the word that Naboth the Jezreelite spoke to him, saying, “I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.” And in a troubled spirit he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and did not eat bread.” It is difficult to think that the biblical narrator, in giving such a description of Ahab's condition, did not have in mind the almost comical weakness of man of which he speaks. According to his description, the king finds himself in the position of a spoiled child, who, having encountered an obstacle to the realization of his goal from reasons whose strength he was secretly forced to recognize and, however, was not courageous enough to admit this openly, stood in front of an iron door, which, as he well knew, he could not open, and, however, he harmed himself by pushing into it in a powerlessness that was as pathetic as it was absurd. Ahab was obviously not only wicked, but also extremely weak. He was obviously a fool not only morally, but also mentally. To solve the difficulty, a person of stronger character than Ahab was required, and such a person immediately appeared on the scene. We have already seen how Jezebel represented a sharp contrast to her husband, because when, after the massacre of the priests of Baal, the latter, with complete satisfaction from everything that had been accomplished, rode home, allowing Elijah, the author of the massacre of the priests, to escape as one of his companions in front of his chariot, she, on the other hand, as soon as she heard about what had happened, immediately took measures for immediate vengeance. “Let the gods do this and that to me,” she shouted in an angry frenzy, “and they will do even more if by this time tomorrow I do not do with your soul what was done with the soul of each of them.” We see the same unyielding spirit in her now - that spirit which would inspire approval in its strength, if at the same time it were not distinguished by such an impious contempt for justice. And so she came to Ahab, and seeing him in a sad and embarrassed state, asked the reason for his sadness. “Why is your spirit troubled, that you do not even eat bread?” Jezebel asked. And when Ahab told her what the matter was, she immediately answered him: “What kind of kingdom would there be in Israel if you did this? Get up, eat bread, and be calm; I will bring you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.” Thus, in reality, the wife was the king of Israel, not her husband. In any case, Jezebel did not limit herself to just words. She immediately took measures to achieve her goal, and these measures were fully worthy of the cunning and the cruelty that were forever associated with her name. She wrote letters on behalf of the king, sealed them with his seal, and sent them to the elders and nobles of Jezreel. In these letters she commanded them to declare a fast, so that the feelings of the people might be excited by the thought that something much more important than an ordinary event had happened, and so that the evil deed which she proposed to do might be covered up by the solemnity of a religious act. Under the impression thus made, she proposed to convene a popular assembly, at the head of which Naboth was to be placed, with the aim of awakening the greatest possible horror by accusing a man of lawlessness and wickedness who occupied such an honorable position, and then it was necessary to obtain two false witnesses so that they would testify that the unfortunate owner of the vineyard had blasphemed God and the king. According to the law of Moses, both of these crimes were in a significant connection with each other (Ex. 22:28). And since the law further decreed that idolatry should be punishable by death by stoning (Deut. 12:10), it was concluded from this that blasphemy should be subject to no less punishment. In her boundless self-confidence and shameless wickedness, Jezebel did not for a moment hesitate in her calculation regarding the result that was to follow. Having made all the necessary arrangements, Jezebel concluded her letters with the heartless words: “then bring him out and stone him so that he may die.” Everything really happened according to her wishes. The elders carried out the criminal order with vile readiness. A meeting was held, Naboth was placed in charge, false witnesses appeared, they gave their false testimony, no excuse was taken into account on the part of the accused, Naboth was taken out of the city, because no execution was allowed within the walls, and there he was stoned to death, and the city dogs were allowed to lick the blood that flowed from his mortal wounds. His sons, as may be judged from a remark elsewhere (2 Kings 9:26), suffered the same fate. It was a terrible thing, which has its only parallel in the Bible in those false accusations that were brought against Jesus Christ when He was also taken out of the city and crucified on Calvary. In this whole affair, apparently, not a single feature touched the heart of the cruel queen. In her palace, in Samaria, she calmly received the messengers when they returned, and, as one might assume, without the slightest pallor on her cheeks or tears in her eyes, she listened to their terrible, in their very brevity, words: “Naboth was stoned and died.” With this news she immediately hurried to Ahab. The case was won, because the property of a person convicted of treason against God and the king went into the possession of the king. “Get up,” Jezebel said to Ahab with her face beaming with gloating, “take possession of the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite, who did not want to give it to you for silver, for Naboth is not alive, he is dead.” She did not give any explanation about the manner of his death. Ahab, perhaps, had his own suspicion that some nefarious deed was being done here. But when people see that the goal to which their hearts have been striving for so long has finally been achieved, they have an amazing ability to suppress their own doubts regarding the means by which this goal is achieved. These hands, they tell themselves, are at least clean; if any crime was committed, at least we did not take part in it. So Pilate washed his hands before the assembled people, when Christ was before his judgment seat, and to justify himself he said: “I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; look you” (Matthew 27:24). He did not want to admit how much his own self-defense was a verdict on his cruel and hardened conscience, that the one who allows a crime that he could have prevented and reaps its fruits is just as guilty of it as the actual criminal. Ahab, having heard the message from Jezebel that Naboth was no longer alive, did not ask any more questions. He “rose up to go to the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite and take possession of it” 214. And so, the deed was thus accomplished, Ahab's goal was achieved, and he now possessed what he had been striving for so long. Seeing him in the vineyard reached by the bloody crime, we involuntarily feel that one of those scenes of human life is passing before us that outrage the hearts of pious people at all times. Man believes that righteousness is right and wickedness is wrong. As a natural consequence of this, he also believes that one should be accompanied by reward, and the other by punishment. If it were otherwise, would not the very foundations of the world be shaken? If wickedness prospers and virtue perishes, then won’t the earth become a spectacle not of order, corresponding to all the best aspirations of the human heart, but of that disorder, by which we will be led to confusion and destruction? When we then have the conviction that there is a righteous Ruler of the World, does not the history of this, as well as many other successful crimes, contradict this faith of ours, and does it not mock it as a pathetic delusion? But the psalmist gives a divinely inspired answer to this, saying: “How good God is to Israel, to the pure in heart! And I - my legs almost shook, My feet almost slipped, I envied the foolish, seeing the piety of the dishonest. For they have no suffering until they die, There are none at human work, And with other people they are not subject to blows. That's why pride surrounded them like a necklace, And insolence, like an outfit, dresses them. Their eyes rolled out of fat, They maliciously spread slander, They raise their lips to heaven, And their tongue walks across the earth. Then his people turn there too, And they drink a full cup of water. And they say: how will God know? And does the Most High have knowledge? And these wicked ones prosper in this age, And I said: Was it not in vain that I purified my heart, And washed my hands in innocence, And exposed himself to wounds every day, And reproof every morning"? 215 Thus cried the psalmist, and his psalm resonates in the hearts of pious people of all times when they see the oppression of the pious and the prosperity of the wicked. But in the same psalm, the cry of doubt and sorrow is immediately followed by an expression of triumphant faith. “But if I said: I will reason like this,” Then I would be guilty before the generation of Your sons, And I thought how to understand this; But it was difficult in my eyes, Until I entered the sanctuary of God, So You placed them on slippery paths, And you cast them into the abyss. How unexpectedly they came to ruin, Disappeared, died from horrors Like a dream upon awakening, So You, Lord, will awaken them, A more striking explanation of this general principle, or the true results of God’s economy, cannot be imagined than how the history we present presents it. It is not known exactly how much time passed after the killing of Naboth before retribution took place: perhaps a day or two, but more likely just a few hours. This question is not important. It is enough to delve into what is narrated clearly and in detail. Ahab went to the garden, which he had acquired in such a cruel and bloody manner, and, apparently, nothing threatened to interfere with his pleasure. The sun, perhaps, was setting towards evening, spilling its rays over the green slopes of Jezreel. The young spring plants spread out their slender stems, the air was filled with the fragrance or cheerful songs of nature, and Ahab could congratulate himself that he had at last achieved his goal. This was precisely the position of the matter, considered from its human side, in that world into which sin had entered and which was thrown into disorder by the curse that inseparably followed sin. But the matter appears completely different when we turn from the human side to those divine plans that we do not see; then we will find that God does not delay His intervention until after the evil has been committed, but watches over it throughout, watches every step in the action of the sinner, and appoints that moment for action which proves best. This is exactly what happened with the famous rich man in the Gospel parable. Turning to the rich man himself, we hear from him a broad cry: “What should I do? I have nowhere to gather my fruits. And he said, “This is what I will do: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will gather all my grain and all my goods.” And I will say to my soul: soul, you have a lot of good things lying around for many years: rest, eat, drink, be merry.” Turning from this human side of the matter to the divine, we see that the sentence has already been pronounced on him, and not after he had already fulfilled all this, but at the very moment when he was still making his plans; “God said to him: You fool, this night they will take your soul from you; who will get what you have prepared? (Luke 12:17–20) The same thing happened now. If we look at the human side, Ahab is in his vineyard enjoying it. But let us turn to the divine side, and undoubtedly, before Ahab entered the vineyard, “the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: Arise, go to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; here he is now in Naboth's vineyard, where he came to take possession of it; and say to him: Thus says the Lord: have you killed, and still come into the inheritance? And tell him: Thus says the Lord: in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, the dogs will lick your blood also” (1 Kings 21:17-19). Elijah immediately obeyed the divine command and went to the vineyard. We have already seen with what amazing power a person’s conscience can steel itself against any conviction. But there is another, no less amazing side to the activity of conscience - namely, the way it awakens when the sinner finds himself in the presence of others who know his sin. He can remain emotionless for a long time, and can reap the fruits of his crime without any embarrassment. But now, others hint at his sin, or he himself finds out that the news about it has reached public hearing. As a result, the hitherto dormant conscience immediately awakens. The scorpion, which seemed dead, comes back to life and begins to sting with its deadly sting. A person cannot bear the searching eyes of others, all his courage disappears, self-delusion in innocence dissipates, and his cheek, hitherto cold from shamelessness, lights up with the flame of shame. The same thing happened now. Ahab was in his ill-acquired vineyard. Suddenly, the well-known figure of Elijah appeared in the vineyard, heading straight to the king. The moment of terrible awakening of conscience came, and Ahab, in extraordinary alarm, cried out: “You have found me, my enemy.” Elijah was not his enemy, and Ahab knew it. He was his own enemy, and Elijah revealed to him that this was indeed the case. A terrible prophet, a reproacher of all untruths, a herald of divine judgment, Elijah now reminded him of everything that had just happened before. At the sight of the formidable prophet, Ahab involuntarily remembered how the God of Israel supported His honor, how fire fell on the sacrifice at Carmel, about the beating of the Baal priests at the Kishon River and about the heavy rain. Before him, with a stern face and righteous indignation in his eyes, was the man who was the chief agent of all this, and he stood before him as bold, as steadfast and faithful as when he met face to face with the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal, and when his voice struck with trepidation the heart of the assembled people of Israel. The same voice, as the king knew, was to penetrate his heart, and in extreme confusion he could only exclaim: “You found me, my enemy.” Truly - “The joy of the lawless is short-lived, And the joy of the hypocrite is instantaneous" 217. “I saw a terrible wicked Expanded like a rooted, many-branched tree, But he passed, and behold, he was no more; I’m looking for him, and I don’t find him” 218. Ahab was now a completely different person from what he would have seemed to us if he had looked into his conscience a little earlier. His own heart and conscience anticipated what was to come, and not in vain. Elijah answered Ahab: “I found it; for you have given yourself over to doing what is displeasing in the sight of the Lord and to irritating Him. Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring trouble upon you, and will sweep away after you, and will destroy from Ahab the one who urinates against the wall (all the male members), and the prisoner, and the one who remains in Israel, and I will do to your house as I did to the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and to the house of Baasha the son of Ahiin, for the insult with which you provoked Me, and caused Israel to sin" (1 Kings. 21:20–22). This was the sentence pronounced on Ahab himself. It just corresponded to the circumstances of the case, and was literally fulfilled subsequently. Ahab, having captured Naboth's vineyard, hoped to use it not only in his own life, but also to transfer it to his family for use. He took possession of this small piece of land not only for his own pleasure, but also for the enrichment of his house; it was to be passed down from father to son, from generation to generation, so that each subsequent representative of the royal family, viewing his palace and gardens in Jezreel, would naturally remember with honor his great ancestor, who, by the palaces he built and the gardens he founded and acquired, both here and in other places, did so much for the happiness and welfare of his descendants. But Ahab at the same time forgot that if a person’s heart shows him the way, then the Lord guides his steps. If he were to study the history of the last half century in his own kingdom, what would he see? The house of Jeroboam, son of Nebat, was brought to a sudden and bloody end when his son Nadab, along with the rest of his family, was put to death by Baasha, who introduced a new dynasty in Israel. If he had gone a little further, he would have seen how Ila, the son of Baasha, was killed by Zamri, one of his own commanders, and with him all the relatives of Baasha died, so that not a single male child remained, and a new dynasty was again introduced. He undoubtedly knew these facts, but did not delve into their inner meaning and did not pay attention to their internal causes. Even less, of course, did the careless and cruel Jezebel take the lessons of these events to heart. And so now the verdict was pronounced on him, and he himself had to find out what he could have avoided if he had taken the lessons from the lives of others. And this sentence was not limited only to Ahab personally. In an even more terrible form it extended to Jezebel; because (added Elijah) “and the Lord said of Jezebel: Dogs will devour Jezebel outside the wall of Jezreel; Whoever dies in Ahab’s city will be eaten by dogs, and whoever dies in the field will be pecked by the birds of the air.” The sentence was terrible, but well deserved, and, to justify this, the biblical narrator adds: “there was never one like Ahab, who would have given himself up to doing what was disgraceful in the eyes of the Lord, as his wife, Jezebel, encouraged him to do. He acted very vilely, following idols, as did the Amorites, whom the Lord drove out from before the children of Israel.” The purpose of these words is not to show that Ahab and Jezebel, even after this sentence, continued in their wicked ways. On the contrary, a certain degree of repentance, at least on Ahab's part, is immediately then reported. These words simply indicate the reasons that explain the terrible severity of God’s sentence. The threat of the prophet, uttered by him under such terrible circumstances and at the very scene of Ahab’s most heinous crime, could not fail to make a strong impression on Ahab’s hardened conscience. “Having heard all these words, Ahab was moved before the Lord, walked and wept, tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his body, and fasted, and slept in sackcloth, and walked sadly.” All these external signs of humility and repentance show that for a while, at least, the king realized his lawlessness and indulged in sincere repentance. If this repentance were false or feigned, it would be difficult to explain the words that immediately follow, in which it is reported that “the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite concerning Ahab, and the Lord said: Do you see how Ahab humbled himself before Me? Because he humbled himself before Me, I will not bring trouble in his days; in the days of his son I will bring trouble upon his house.” The sentence was not supposed to affect Ahab personally, but only his son. This whole event affected Ahab so strongly that he, apparently, no longer indulged in the idolatry and wickedness that marked the first years of his reign. Chapter 31. The Last Years of Ahab's Reign In the last years of his reign, Ahab was mainly occupied with two great wars with Syria. His important victories in the first of these wars were, as it were, a sign of acceptance of his repentance in the murder of Naboth. Political circumstances by this time had become extremely complicated. The king of Syria, Benhadad II 219, whose capital was Damascus, quickly became the most powerful monarch west of the Euphrates, and stood at the head of a large alliance of more than thirty subordinate kings obliged to assist him in wars, Imath on the Orontes being the second state in this alliance. Supported by his vassals and taking advantage of that weakness, which was the cause of the turmoil and disasters brought upon the land of Israel by the wickedness and lawlessness of Ahab, apparently, he raided his possessions. Large areas of the land of Israel were soon captured by Benhadad, and Samaria itself was so oppressed that Ahab was forced to seek peace. Ben-hadad, however, was too confident in the strength of his weapons, and proposed terms that the Israelites could not submit to. He demanded that not only all the silver and gold in the city be transferred to him, but also the royal harem and the royal children. Benhadad agreed to spare the poorer houses, but he demanded that the palace and all the houses of the courtiers be left at his complete disposal. Ahab, extremely frightened by the success and arrogant cruelty of this terrible enemy, was ready to accept even the most humiliating conditions, but the elders of the city and the mass of the people did not allow him to do so. As a result, the Syrian king was given the answer that gold and silver, and even wives and children, could be given to him, but the houses of noble people should not be plundered. This was followed by an arrogant response, in which Benhadad threatened such complete destruction of Samaria itself that from its destroyed and burned walls there would not be even a handful of ashes left for each of the besieging warriors. Driven to despair, Ahab decided to offer all possible resistance to him, and to Benhadad’s arrogant statement he responded with a proverb: “Let not one who girds himself boast like one who ungirds himself.” At the same time, one prophet, with courage worthy of his title, faithful to the national spirit and to God, encouraged the king, assuring him that Benhadad would be defeated. According to his instructions, the servants of the country nobles who had fled to Samaria, and all the inhabitants of the city capable of bearing arms, in all, however, about seven thousand people, were trained for military operations, and they were to make a desperate sally at noon, when it was least expected. The enemy troops had already approached the city itself with the aim of storming its walls, but Benhadad and his nobles indulged in a feast in the hot part of the day in their tents or those hastily built huts from branches and bushes, which are still usually built during campaigns in the east. He was immediately informed about the raid carried out by the inhabitants of Samaria, but even this news could not force him to stop the feast. In his arrogance, he ordered that the insolent Israelites be captured alive and brought to him personally. Meanwhile, the matter turned out to be much more serious than he had expected. The Syrian army, taken by surprise by such a daring foray, could not withstand the brave attack of the Israelites, the besiegers abandoned their preparatory work and fled, and panic spread so quickly throughout the army that Ben-hadad himself, who was in an intoxicated state, had to seek salvation. Jumping on his horse, he, along with his cavalry, fled from the battlefield, leaving most of his chariots and the entire camp in the hands of Ahab. Such a strong sovereign as the sovereign of Damascus was, however, could not come to terms with such a humiliating defeat. The courtiers around him, consoling him in this defeat, assured him that the God of Israel is the God of the mountains, so that if this battle had taken place in the lowlands, the result would have been completely different. Yielding to these flattering assurances and desirous of restoring the honor of his arms, Ben-hadad therefore raised a new army, and in the following year, with the opening of a time convenient for the campaign, he marched into the great plain of Esdraelon. The city of Aphek, on Mount Gilboa, lay behind him, and the enemy army occupied the entire eastern end of the plain. But Ahab had already been warned by the prophet about the renewal of the invasion from Benhadad and therefore prepared for it. Dividing his forces into two detachments, he kept them for seven days on the heights under his arm, waiting for a favorable moment to attack. Compared to the enemy, the Israeli army stationed on the mountain looked like two herds of goats, while the enemies apparently covered the entire plain. But the Israelis were strong in the memory of their victory last year, and, waiting for the right moment, they rushed at the Syrians with such irresistible force that they again threw them into disorder and put them to flight. The beating was now even more terrible, and Benhadad was again forced to seek salvation in flight. This time, however, he could not escape further than Afek, in which he wanted to take refuge; but in a battle near this city he lost 100,000 infantry; the rest wanted to take refuge behind the fortified walls of the city, but another 27,000 people crushed them under the collapsed wall. Benhadad himself ran from house to house as the victors penetrated into the city, until finally he was forced in his turn to sue for peace. Putting on sackcloth and throwing ropes around their necks, his courtiers humbly came to the winner, asking for Ben-hadad that his life be spared. This was one of the decisive moments on which the entire future of the country depended. Here was the opportunity to finally crush the threatening power of Syria. Honor, interest, policy, patriotism, and respect for the prophets alike induced Ahab to take advantage of his position to the utmost degree. But his usual weakness, inability, love of tranquility, aversion to the high duties and concerns of his position, fear of taking matters to an extreme with such a powerful state, and, perhaps, also the hope of finding himself a strong ally against the Assyrians, who were beginning to threaten the whole of Western Asia, - all this forced Ahab to act completely differently, thereby preparing disaster for Israel. Flattered by the request for mercy from such a powerful enemy, he immediately revealed his weakness, asked with inappropriate generosity whether Ben-hadad was alive, and even called him his brother. Encouraged by such a favorable omen, the messengers hastened to take advantage of this brotherly sympathy. Ахав довел свою любезность до того, что пригласил к себе побежденного царя, и отвел ему место в царской колеснице, рядом с собою. Of course, Benhadad was ready to generously reward such generosity. Он выразил готовность возвратить те израильские города, которые прежде были взяты Сирией, и предоставлял израильтянам даже базары в Дамаске, подобно тому как сирияне имели себе базары в Самарии 220 . After concluding a treaty on such easy terms for the defeated king, Ben-hadad received permission to return to Damascus, probably laughing at the simplicity of the winner and making plans for revenge on him. Ahab’s act was indeed extremely absurd and politically harmful, and therefore could not pass without reproach from people who understood the interests of the state better than him. As Ahab rode in his chariot through the city, one prophet suddenly appeared before him, wounded and bleeding. He covered his face and head with mania, and, as a sign of deep sadness, sprinkled himself with ashes. Having turned the king's attention to himself with his strange appearance, the prophet shouted to him, expressing his complaint. “Your servant,” he complained to the king, went to battle, and one man, who stepped aside, brought a man to me and said: “Guard this man; if he is gone, then your soul will be for his soul, or you will have to weigh out a talent of silver. When your servant was busy with these and other things, he was gone.” Having heard this complaint, Ahab replied: “This is your sentence; you decided for yourself.” Then the prophet took the veil from his eyes, and the king learned that it was one of his prophets, and he threateningly pronounced God’s sentence over him: “Because you have let out of your hands the man whom I cursed, your soul will be instead of his soul, your people instead of his people.” That is, since Ahab allowed the enemy to escape, whom the Lord doomed to final destruction, he thereby prepared the utmost disaster for his own people. This sentence extremely alarmed and upset Ahab, who had a presentiment that the star of the house of Omri was increasingly declining, and he arrived in Samaria in extreme indignation. But in the presence of Jezebel, he soon forgot about everything that had happened. Meanwhile, a great revolution was taking place in the affairs of Western Asia, from which the entire future of the various peoples and states of this part of the world was to change. From the time of Solomon, the kingdom founded by the Razon dynasty in Damascus was a terrible and inveterate enemy of Israel. Each reign was threatened by war with Syria, often entailing disaster for the entire land. But now a power was again appearing on the historical stage, which had once dominated the vast space from the Tigris to the Mediterranean Sea, but for almost two hundred years remained inactive due to its internal exhaustion. This is exactly Assyria. Under Tiglath-Pilassar I around 1100 BC, the dominion of Assyria extended from Kurdistan to the Greek archipelago, including the entire region of Lebanon and Phenicia. But the strong alliance of the Hittite kings of Syria humbled her and took away from the successors of this great king all the possessions on this side of the Euphrates. Thanks to this, it was precisely this that made possible such a wide spread of the monarchy of David and Solomon, as well as the kingdom of the Syrians in Damascus. Egypt, distracted by the struggle between the priestly kings of Thebes and the kings of the 21st dynasty in Tanis, in the Delta, could not disturb Palestine or Western Asia and did not try to take advantage of the weakening power of Assyria to regain the previous conquests of Thothmes III or Ramses II. Babylon, in turn, also did not interfere in international relations and took advantage of this favorable opportunity only to regain its former independence, overthrowing the Assyrian yoke and seizing the districts south of Nineveh. After this temporary weakening, Assyria, however, again, in the half of the 9th century BC, under its warlike king Assur-Nazirgabal, entered the field of conquest and cleared its lands of Babylonian garrisons. He was succeeded by his son, Shalmaneser II, who, in his military abilities, was like the Napoleon of his time. Having conquered Babylonia, he moved to the shores of the Persian Gulf and forced the small kings of Chaldea to pay tribute. Эти победы только еще более воспламенили его военный дух. He decided to expand his monarchy to the limits of the world known to him and to raise it to the level of that ancient greatness to which it had reached under Tiglath-Pidassar I. The Kingdom of Damascus and the Kingdom of Palestine were therefore in serious danger. For them a new period of mortal struggle for existence had begun - a struggle that was supposed to end, after more than a century of effort, with the destruction of Damascus and Samaria and the humiliating submission of all peoples throughout the entire space from the Tigris to the Levant. From now on, all of Western Asia trembled in the name of Assyria. The political horizon was covered with black clouds, which rushed menacingly across the whole of Western Asia, destroying everything in its path and heading through all of Syria and Palestine to the very shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Under such circumstances, the only hope of the countries threatened with such great danger was to temporarily eliminate all mutual strife and unite in a united struggle against Assyria. One important result of Ahab's inglorious peace with Ben-hadad was, therefore, that he joined the alliance of the kings and princes of Palestine and Syria, united under the leadership of Ben-hadad to fight Assyria, and this alliance did not have to remain long only on paper. Shalmaneser II, seeking to expand his monarchy, made an invasion of Imath, one of the allied states, and all the forces of the allies were convened to counter him. Одна ассирийская надпись 221 , подтверждая библейское сказание, сообщает, что Венадад, как главнокомандующий союзниками, вывел на поле битвы армию, состоявшую из 1,200 колесниц, 1,200 конницы и 20,000 пехоты его собственного войска; 700 chariots, 7,000 horses and 10,000 infantry from Imath; Ahab's 2,000 chariots and 10,000 infantry; 500 пехотных воинов, гитов 222 ; 1,000 Egyptians, 10 chariots and 10,000 Irkanath infantry; 200 воинов арвадских; 200 from Usanat; 30 колесниц и 10,000 пехоты из Сизана; 1,000 гиндибовых верблюдов из Арбы, и отряд от царя аммонского. «Эти двенадцать царей, говорит Салманассар, помогали друг другу и вышли против меня воевать и сражаться. С помощью великих сил, данных мне могущественного оружия Бога Нергала, ходящего предо мною, я вступил в сражение с ними и разгромил их, преследуя от города Каркара до города Гилзана. Я убил 14.000 их вооруженных мужей. Like the air god Ben, I poured out a stream upon them. Я наполнил ими воды в их бегстве, и низложил все их вооруженное воинство. The whole country was not enough to contain their dead bodies. I pursued them to the Orontes River, and along the way I captured their chariots, their cavalry and their baggage train." But this victory was bought at a high price, because Shalmaneser also exhausted his strength and had to retreat. Nevertheless, Assyria irresistibly entered the field of subjugation of Western Asia. One of its kings had invaded Phenicia twenty years before and forced its cities to pay tribute to themselves, and Shalmaneser had to attack Ben-hadad again three times, eight years after his dubious triumph on the Orontes. The defensive alliance between the Kingdom of Israel and Syria lasted for three years. But, given the instability of treaties in ancient times, this very peace, as arising not from internal mutual interest, but only from external necessity, could be maintained only as long as this external necessity existed. Therefore, when the external danger from Assyria passed for a while, internal discord between the allies did not take long to appear, which naturally led to a violation of the alliance and the peace that existed between them. In any case, it is known that Ben-hadad, apparently, did not fulfill the promise he made to Ahab regarding the return of the cities he had once conquered, and kept them behind him, as a result of which war between them became inevitable. As a result, Ahab decided to take by force the important city of Ramoth-gilead from the Syrians. He was now in the twenty-second year of his reign, and his neighbor to the south, Jehoshaphat of Judah, was four years younger than him. The policy of Omri, initiated by Asa, was supported by their sons. Determined to take possession of Ramoth, but afraid to undertake this expedition alone, Ahab felt that this visit of the king of Judah presented an excellent opportunity for securing assistance in this important matter, and invited Jehoshaphat to join him. Jehoshaphat, as a guest, did not consider himself entitled to refuse such an offer from his hospitable brother. The king of the south, having expressed his readiness to enter into an alliance with his Israeli brother, however, as a religious man, did not consider himself entitled to act without first seeking divine permission through the prophets. Consequently, no less than 400 prophets were assembled, and they immediately gave a favorable answer to Ahab. Something like this, however, aroused Jehoshaphat’s suspicion, because the desire to enjoy the king’s favor had already significantly corrupted the very class of prophets and made their sayings false and in any case misleading. One day, when both kings were sitting on their thrones in full armor in the open square outside the gates of Samaria, where the troops were training, a whole crowd of prophets was again brought to them, but they only repeated the assurance of victory that had already been given earlier. One of them even went so far in this regard that he attached iron horns to himself and gored his name like an ox, as if showing how Ahab, the ox of Ephraim, would gore the Syrians. Nevertheless, Jehoshaphat was still unsatisfied. These were all prophets who were difficult to trust. “Is there not yet a prophet of the Lord here, that we may inquire of the Lord through him?” he asked. “There is one more person,” answered Ahab, through whom one can question the Lord; but I do not love him, for he does not prophesy good things about me, but only evil, - this is Micaiah, the son of Hemblai” (2 Kings 22:9). But Jehoshaphat insisted on calling this prophet and listening to his prediction. To please Jehoshaphat, Ahab sent for him, and Micaiah was brought out of prison, where he had previously been thrown by Ahab. In order not to spoil the impression, the person sent for him was ordered to persuade Micah so that he too would prophesy in the same way as others. But Micah answered: “As the Lord lives!” I will speak what the Lord tells me.” Appearing before the king, Micaiah, as if to ridicule the false prophets and the king himself, who trusted them, when asked whether to go to war against Ramoth-gilead, answered: “Go, there will be success,” but he said this in a tone that clearly showed the true meaning of this saying, so that Ahab was forced to ask the prophet to express his real and serious opinion. And then Micah, raising his voice, said to the king: “I see all the Israelites scattered on the mountains like sheep that have no shepherd. And the Lord said, “They have no leader; let them each return in peace to his own home.” Ahab's confidence that no good foreshadowing could be expected from this prophet was justified: Micah predicted his death on the battlefield. But that was not all. Micaiah then added that he had a vision in which it was shown to him how the spirits of lies were embodied in the prophets around him in order to bring him to destruction. Such exposure infuriated the false prophets, and one of them, Zedekiah, the one who attached iron horns to himself, struck Micah on the cheek and said: “What, has the Spirit of the Lord departed from me to speak in you?” Zedekiah was a beloved prophet at court, and Micah was a despised and insignificant man; but he answered sternly that his words would soon be justified when Zedekiah, after the victory of the Syrians, would run in despair from one room to another, seeking salvation for himself. A bitter truth is always more unpleasant than a flattering lie, and Micah was immediately handed over again to the mayor and prison manager, Joash, the king’s son, with a strict order to “feed him scantly with bread and sparingly with water” until the king returned from the campaign in peace and in victorious triumph. “If you return in peace,” Micaiah remarked to this, then it was not the Lord who spoke through me,” and loudly added: “Listen to all the people” (2 Kings 22:1–28). Reality soon justified the truth of the words of the prophet Micah. Self-deluded by previous successes, Ahab did not want to heed this warning, and the allied army, Israelite and Judah, set out on a campaign and soon encountered Syrian forces. Deciding to avenge himself and the humiliation he had once suffered from Ahab, Ben-hadad gave orders to his chariot commanders during the battle to direct all their strength against the enemy king and try above all to kill him, or capture him even alive. The battle took place near Ramoth-gilead; but Ahab, probably having learned in advance of the enemy's intentions, took some precautions. He took off his royal robe so as not to be particularly noticeable to the enemy, insidiously giving Jehoshaphat alone the honor of wearing royal clothes during the battle. The Syrian cavalry, seeing only one man in royal attire in the enemy army, rushed at Jehoshaphat with such irresistible force that he was saved only by a desperate cry that he was not Ahab. Meanwhile, despite his precautions, Ahab was mortally wounded by a stray arrow from an enemy bow and was bleeding to death. But he didn't want to give up hope yet. Bleeding, he decided to wait until the end of the battle and remained in his chariot, so as not to dishearten his army by leaving. But the flow of blood intensified, so that a whole puddle formed in the chariot, and the king, as evening approached, fainted, and then died, showing himself more noble at the time of death than during his entire life. With Ahab's death, the war effectively ended. When the sun set and news of the king’s death spread throughout the army, cries were heard everywhere: “Each one go to his own city, each one to his own land!”, and the army quickly scattered and disappeared. The king's corpse, brought to Samaria, was duly buried in the royal tomb. Micah's words were fully justified. At the same time, the prediction made to Ahab by the prophet Elijah was also justified. The bloody chariot was sent to the city pond and, while driving it there, blood flowed from it and from the bloody armor, dripping along the road. Such a sight naturally sank deep into the souls of all the inhabitants of Samaria, and the fathers told their sons how the city dogs licked the flowing blood of the murdered king, and how, when the court harlots shamelessly bathed in this pond the next morning, the water in it was still red. Meanwhile, Jehoshaphat returned unharmed to Jerusalem, repenting of his foolish alliance with the wicked king. He humbly listened to the reproach from the prophet Jehu for this union, and with deeds of piety he wanted to atone for this transgression. But its harmful consequences were not slow to affect even after that. The news of his defeat spread throughout all the surrounding nations, and the Ammonites and Moabites did not fail to take advantage of this misfortune, who decided to take revenge on the Israelites for their previous submission to them. Having united with other neighboring tribes, they formed a strong alliance against the king of Judah and made an invasion of the area rich in gardens near Engedi, west of the Dead Sea. The pious Jehoshaphat resorted to the highest help: he declared a fast throughout the country, and turned to God with fiery prayer. His prayer was heard. Discord arose between the allied enemies, they attacked each other, and the Jews took advantage of the rich booty in the camp they had left. Chapter 32. Prophet Elijah and King Ahaziah Ahab was succeeded by his son Ahaziah. He was a weak and criminal man, indifferent to the wonderful deeds of God in relation to his people during the reign of his father, and not taught the lessons that his family was destined to experience. He “did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin. He served Baal and worshiped him, and angered the Lord God of Israel with all that his father did” (1 Kings 22:52, 53). As a result of this, he thereby deserved the fact that it was on him that the fulfillment of the curse that was pronounced through the prophet Elijah on the house of Ahab began, and the last years of the activity of the prophet Elijah are associated with this king. Ahaziah once walked on the roof of his palace in Samaria and, admiring the beauty of the city, leaned on the railing that went around the roof. The railing broke off and the king fell either into the street or into the interior of the palace courtyard, and received such a severe bruise that he even began to fear for his life. Following the example of his father and mother, he forgot the true God Jehovah and, worshiping Baal, gave him all kinds of religious honors. In particular, Ahaziah especially revered this idol as Baal-Zebub, the god of flies - that god who, according to the pagans, has at his disposal the most terrible execution for the eastern countries in the form of flies, the nuisance of which is well known to all travelers in the east. This deity appears to have been especially revered in Ekron, the northernmost of the five main Philistine cities and therefore closest to Samaria. It was there, as a result, that Ahaziah sent messengers to ask what would be the outcome of his illness. This was an open and daring violation of the law of God, which clearly and expressively stated to Israel: “If any soul turns to those who call the dead and to magicians to walk after them fornication, then I will turn My face against that soul, and I will destroy it from among its people” (Lev. 20:6). Such recourse to pagan soothsayers for advice was idolatry in its worst form, and such idolatry was supported by Ahab and Jezebel. Such a crime was made even more heinous in view of the transformative activity that was carried out by the prophet Elijah in front of the entire people. Where exactly the prophet Elijah was at this time is unknown. If we assume that he was on Mount Carmel, then this assumption is incompatible with the fact that this mountain range lies in a completely different direction from the one that Ahaziah’s ambassadors had to go on their way to Ekron. This distance, however, is not so great that the prophet could not deliberately go in this direction and meet the messengers face to face 223. But, be that as it may, when the messengers were heading to the pagan city, Elijah received a command from the angel of the Lord, who said to him: “Arise, go to meet the messengers from the king of Samaria, and say to them: Is there no God in Israel, that you are going to inquire of Beelzebub, the deity of Ekron? For this reason, thus says the Lord: from the bed on which you lie down, you will not leave it, but you will die” (2 Kings 1:3, 4). This very command immediately shows how to look at this act of Ahaziah: It was an open and daring denial of the God of Israel. This was the idolization of one who was not God, and the soul that committed such a crime was subject to death by law. Elijah immediately obeyed the word of the Lord, and met the messengers of Ahaziah with the same amazing suddenness with which he had previously appeared before Ahab. Having told them the terrible news, he withdrew into the desert with equal speed. He did not consider it his duty to enter into any discussions with those to whom he conveyed the highest message. He was like “the voice of one crying in the wilderness.” This voice was supposed to proclaim a certain truth at the appointed moment and then fall silent again. Whether people listen to this voice or ignore it, in any case the prophet has done his job. The messengers were extremely embarrassed by such a message and considered themselves obliged to return to the king. The Prophet Elijah had not appeared among the people for so long, and especially at court, that the messengers, apparently, did not even know who was speaking to them. Seeing that the messengers returned so quickly, Ahaziah naturally asked the reason for this. They answered him: “A man came out to meet us and said to us: Go, return to the king who sent you, and tell him: Thus says the Lord: Is there no God in Israel, why are you sending Beelzebub, the deity of Ekron, to inquire? Therefore, from the bed on which you lay down, you will not leave it, but you will die.” The frightened king asks them: “What is the appearance of the man who came out to meet you and spoke these words to you?” And when they answered him that “that man is all covered in hair, and he has a leather belt girded around his loins,” the king immediately recognized who this formidable herald was and exclaimed: “This is Elijah the Tishbite.” There is no doubt that he had already guessed who it was. The extraordinary courage, the suddenness of the appearance and the equal suddenness of the disappearance of the man who made this prediction were such traits that they could hardly belong to anyone other than the one whom Ahaziah’s father knew so well, and who, of course, was well known to his family. The prediction itself was such that it could not help but touch the king’s conscience, and although it was not the prophet himself who stood before Ahaziah, but only his image, evoked by the king’s frightened imagination, he could only, as it were, repeat the exclamation that Ahab uttered in the vineyard to Naboth: “You have found me, my enemy.” But the son, having inherited all his bad qualities from his father, did not inherit from him the ability to repent. He not only did not repent, but took such measures as could only be prompted by an excited and frightened conscience. He flew into a rage against the man who had disturbed him in false self-confidence, and, as always happens in such circumstances, the extent of his rage may indicate the extent to which his conscience was wounded. This time the rage was great, and the king took the most decisive measures to punish the daring prophet. He immediately sent one captain of fifty with his detachment in order to seize the prophet where he was, or generally wherever he could be found. The military leader, who fully shared the views of his wicked king, of course showed all his zeal in fulfilling the assigned task and, finding the prophet on the top of the mountain, turned to him with the words: “man of God, the king says: come down.” The entire narrative shows in what sense and spirit these words were spoken. This treatment was rude and contemptuous, and showed that the military leader, before fulfilling his task, wanted to treat the prophet with mockery, which would humiliate him in the eyes of the entire detachment. Having called Elijah a man of God, the military commander at the same time, for greater mockery, added that the king commands him to immediately come down from the mountain, as if wanting to say by this: “you are considered a man of God, but there is a man whom you should fear more than the God whom you worship. You can live as long as you like on the top of this mountain and there be in communication with an invisible force, but I, with my squad, will show you that material force is higher than spiritual, the visible world is more tangible than the invisible.” The Prophet, defending, of course, not so much his honor as the honor of the God whom he served, took the impudent scoffer at his word and said to him: “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and burn you and your fifty.” The Prophet had already brought down fire from the sky before. Perhaps, near this very place, all the people, and, consequently, the military leaders saw how, through his prayer, the heavens opened and how the fire descended, destroying the burnt offering and disgracing the idolaters. If his prayer was successful then, then it was just as successful now: fire flashed from the sky and burned the wicked commander with his entire squad. This extraordinary event, however, did not humble the wicked king. Enraged even more by the prophet, he sent another military commander with a detachment, making an even stricter order to immediately bring the disobedient one to him. This military leader, approaching the place where the prophet was, also shouted to him: “Man of God, this is what the king said: come down quickly.” This demand was even more daring and persistent, since this second military leader, wanting to curry favor with the king, even used the word “rather,” which the former military leader had not used. Such increased insolence should have been subject to increased punishment; but the prophet responded to the demand with the same words as before: “If I am a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven and burn you and your fifty.” The words of the prophet were accompanied by the same miracle: “the fire of God came down from heaven and burned him and the fifty.” Despite the sad outcome of this embassy, ​​the king, apparently, did not come to his senses at all and did not show the slightest change in his bitter mood. He sent a third detachment after the prophet. But if this whole event did not have any effect on the callous soul of the king, then the sad fate of the previous two military leaders naturally had a strong influence on the military leader of the third detachment, who was entrusted with the execution of such a dangerous task. Perhaps, in himself, he was a less wicked man than the former, and in any case, in his soul the insolence, contempt and wickedness that distinguished the former were no longer noticeable. Instead of arrogance and insolence, he showed humility and submission. Arriving at the mountain where the prophet Elijah was, he “fell on his knees before Elijah, and begged him, and said to him: O man of God, let not my soul and the soul of your servants, these fifty in your sight, be despised. Behold, fire came down from heaven and consumed the two former Pentecostals with their fifties; but now let not my soul be despised in your sight.” There is no need to think that this was simple weakness or slavish fear on the part of the Pentecostal. That such feelings could flow from similar motives can, of course, be assumed, especially since there is no positive evidence to conclude that the behavior of the third Pentecostal stemmed from any truly more sublime feelings. However, an impulse of this latter kind is entirely consistent with what is related of it, and under the circumstances it is the most natural. This military leader, of course, was impressed by the terrible fate of his predecessors and trembled for himself. He recognized the divine hand in that punishment, which, at least, he knew about, and now he tried to achieve by asking what he could not achieve by force. And his humility was not in vain. The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go with him, do not be afraid of him,” and he stood up and went with him to the king. The Prophet immediately obeyed the suggestion and followed God's instructions. He came down from the mountain and appeared before the king. King Ahaziah, depressed by his developing illness and everything that had happened, lay on his bed. Perhaps there were those close to him, but he could also lie alone. Be that as it may, it must be assumed that the spectacle was extremely amazing and solemn when the stern prophet of the desert approached the bed of the royal patient without any hesitation in his step, without fear in his eyes, and, without trembling in his voice, expressed the prediction entrusted to him. Standing before the king, he firmly and sternly spoke to him: “Thus says the Lord: because you sent ambassadors to inquire of Beelzebub, the deity of Ekron, as if there was no God in Israel to inquire about His word, from the bed on which you lay down, you will not leave it, but you will die” (2 Kings 1:16) Having made this prediction, Elijah, according to his custom, with with the same firmness and abruptness he moved away from the bed of the extremely amazed and amazed king. Since Elijah's prediction was the word of God himself, this word had to come true. “And Ahaziah died according to the word of the Lord, which Elijah spake,” and thus the first part of the prophecy about the punishment to which the wicked house of Ahab was to be subjected was fulfilled. Ahaziah did not leave a direct heir, but his brother Joram reigned in his place. At the same time, the earthly career of the great prophet also came to an end. Anticipating the end of his earthly life, the prophet wanted to end it alone with God, but first he wanted to say goodbye to his successor, Elisha, and give him his last instructions. For this purpose, he went to Gilgal, but not the one that was located near Jericho and with which so many great historical memories from the life of the chosen people were associated, but to another Gilgal, located northwest of the first, and it was there that he met Elisha. Having stayed there together for some time, they then left the city, and Elijah, feeling the approach of the terrible moment of the end of his life, wanted Elisha not to be present at this. So he said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord is sending me to Bethel,” which lay further on his way to the Jordan and Jericho. But Elisha, for his part, was aware that something extraordinary was about to happen to his great teacher, and did not leave him. “As the Lord lives, and as my soul lives,” Elisha exclaimed, “I will not leave you.” And then they both went to Bethel. In Bethel there was another school of the sons of the prophets, and there, as one might well think, Elijah and Elisha stayed for some time. The same mysterious premonition that Elijah experienced, and which was also communicated from him to Elisha, was now communicated to the sons of the prophetic school where they were, and the latter, wanting to receive further information, as well as express their feelings, approached Elisha and said to him: “Do you know that today the Lord will exalt your master over your head”? Elisha answered them: “I also know, be silent.” This subject was too serious and important to be a subject of curiosity or questioning. The hand of God must apparently have been manifested in the events that took place, whatever they may have been, and under such circumstances the reverent soul must remain silent and wait with patience. “Be silent, and know that I am God,” - with such a command the Almighty more than once addressed people on the eve of any special manifestation of His glory, and “silence in heaven” is precisely the position in which the church will be before the opening of the seventh seal, which is to announce the terrible judgment of God over sinful humanity (Rev. 8:1). In order to get away from all prying eyes at the moment of his transition from earthly to heavenly life, Elijah again renewed his requests to the prophet accompanying him, and said to Elisha: “Elisha, stay here, for the Lord is sending me to Jericho.” But he, with the same persistence of a zealous follower, answered: “As the Lord lives, and as my soul lives! I will not leave you." And so they came to Jericho. At Jericho there was another of those prophetic schools that existed at Gilgal and Bethel, and there Elijah and Elisha also stopped for a temporary rest. Here the same thing was repeated as in Bethel, and when the sons of the prophets approached Elisha with the question of whether he knew that “the Lord will take his master and exalt him above his head,” he answered them the same as he answered the sons of the prophets in Bethel: “I also know, be silent.” In Jericho, Elijah also could not calm down in the presence of the disciples around him, and once again tried to remove Elisha from himself, telling him: “stay here, for the Lord is sending me to the Jordan.” But when he, with the same persistence, repeated his desire not to leave his teacher, they went together to the Jordan. During this procession, they, in all likelihood, remained deeply silent. They were overwhelmed by the consciousness of the divine presence, by the mournful feeling that every moment they were approaching a manifestation of divine omnipotence still unknown to both of them, and by the confidence that one of them, at least, stood on the threshold of the invisible world. Under the impression of such thoughts, Elisha himself already rejected the conversation with the sons of the prophets both in Bethel and in Jericho; under the impression of the same thoughts he remained silent now. Elijah also had no mood to speak. His very departure, and not the words with which he could accompany it, was the best lesson for his companion and friend. When we stand at the death-bed of some godly man, we are not so much moved to speak as to draw lessons from the silent scene before our eyes. The same thing happened with Elijah and Elisha. And so, they silently walked their way. This time, however, at some distance behind them, there were fifty more prophetic disciples who could not overcome their natural curiosity regarding what was about to happen to the great prophet. Their curiosity was natural, and it manifests itself at every age when the movements of the heart are given free rein, which especially happens among young people. These sons of the prophet fully knew that they had to see their great teacher for the last time, and they guessed that something extraordinary was about to happen to him. No wonder they followed from afar and watched him. Meanwhile, Elijah and Elisha arrived at the Jordan itself. Several centuries earlier, in the history of Israel, there was already a case when this river flowed between the chosen people and the Promised Land and, apparently, served as an obstacle to their entry into their inheritance. But this obstacle was then removed by a miraculous force, which forced the river to give a clear path for passage. The same thing happened now. A fast-flowing river flowed in front of the prophets, apparently giving them no opportunity to cross; but Elijah took his mantle, and, rolling it up, struck the water with it, “and it parted this way and that, and they both crossed on dry ground.” Just as the rod of Moses was a symbol of his prophetic power, and with a wave of it he divided the waters of the Red Sea, so the mantle was a symbol of the prophetic power of Elijah, and when struck by it, the Jordan was supposed to give a dry passage through its bed. The very use of mantle, or mantle, in this case undoubtedly has its own special meaning. It was the most distinctive feature of the prophet's activity. Like a cloak of coarse hair, she reminded both him and everyone who saw the use that was made of her of all the deprivations of the prophet in the desert, of his loneliness, his labors, his self-denial and his sufferings, which he had to endure and experience in the performance of his messengership. It was inextricably linked with the thought of the long struggle that he endured during his life, of the current that he had now passed away, and of the faith that he had preserved. Why shouldn’t she be a source of strength for him even at this hour of departure from earthly life? She covered him both in disasters and in victories, in sorrows and in joys. Having crossed the Jordan, Elijah, together with Elisha, came to the shores of Gilead - that Gilead, which was the place of his initial education in prophecy and which he left many years ago, when he received the higher calling to be a prophet in Israel. Thus, he returned, as it were, to his long-abandoned homeland. But these words could now be applied to him in a much deeper sense, because the hour had come for him when the doors of his eternal fatherland were to open before him. On the eastern side of the Jordan the soil gives way to the hills and rocky heights of Gilead, and it is undoubtedly towards one of these that Elijah headed. But the teacher, fully aware of what was now about to happen to him, did not want to leave his student without a blessing. He broke the reverent silence and, turning to Elisha, said to him: “Ask what you can do before I am taken from you.” The disciple's answer showed all the devotion of his heart and justified the choice that Elijah had long ago made in appointing a successor for himself. Elisha answered him: “Let the spirit that is in you be doubly on me.” These words of Elisha have been interpreted in different ways. It hardly needs saying that this request concerned only spiritual blessings. The tone of the entire narrative clearly shows that just as in the life of Solomon, the Lord who appeared to him in a dream said: “Ask what I will give you,” Elijah could not have even thought about offering, or Elisha about receiving, any earthly good. The minds of both were occupied only with spiritual blessings. At the same time, it is impossible to accept the idea that Elisha, asking for the spirit of his teacher in a double degree, had in mind that gospel spirit, which, in comparison with the spirit of the law, can be considered as a spirit twice as powerful as the first. Elisha could not comprehend the spirit of the Gospel any more than Elijah did. He, no less than his teacher, belonged to the subordinate state, and even if it was possible to prove that he was several steps closer to the New Testament economy than he really was, then in any case he could not receive from Elijah a gift that the latter did not possess. It is worth mentioning another interpretation, according to which the prophet Elijah understood that he would remember Elisha in the afterlife, and asked him what he could do for him when he was ascended to heaven. “Beloved,” Elijah seemed to say to Elisha: “we will have to be separated from each other; I am going to the Lord, for Whom I lived and worked, and you remain here below to serve Him, to glorify His name and to spread His kingdom on earth. If you have any request in your heart for me, do it now, before I am taken from you. If only I can do anything for you before the Lord in the country to which I am going, believe me that I will do it all. If you have any request for me, then put it before me now, and ask what I can do for you when I return to my Lord." 224 This interpretation is not implausible in itself, and indicates that the great saint has the power to intercede in heaven for those living on earth; but, nevertheless, it does not correspond to the completely literal meaning of the interpretation. Most likely, Elijah himself knew no more than Elisha what was ahead of him, or what relationship he would have with the God of Israel after his departure from the earth. Moreover, this whole speech shows that what he wanted to convey to his student was that last prophetic gift that he alone could communicate to his student and follower. There is nothing selfish or ambitious in Elisha’s very request for a double spirit. These words point to the law of the Mosaic Covenant, according to which the eldest son in the family had the right, in comparison with other children, to a double share in his father’s inheritance. Therefore, they are completely equivalent to the request that as the eldest son, as the most recognized in the family of the sons of the prophets, Elisha had the right to receive such a measure of the spirit of Elijah as would make him fully capable of accomplishing the great task that lay before him when his spiritual father was no longer on earth (See Deut. 21:17). But even this was too much, and Elijah felt that he could not impart such a wealth of gifts to his devoted disciple. “You are asking a difficult thing,” he said; if you see me taken from you, it will be so for you; but if you don’t see it, it won’t happen.” Thus Elijah left the whole matter to Him who was the only source of all power, both to the prophets and to all the people, and who gives or takes according to the judgment of His own mind. But now the last moment has come. As they walked and had a last farewell conversation along the way, “suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared, and separated them both; and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind.” Elisha looked and exclaimed: “My father, my father! The chariot of Israel and his cavalry! - and didn’t see him again. But the great prophet left his successor an object to remember. That mantle of Elijah, with which he had just before performed the great miracle of dividing the Jordan, fell from the air and was picked up by Elisha, who put it on instead of his own clothes, which he tore in grief over separation from his beloved teacher. Thus ended the magnificent work of the greatest of the prophets since the time of Moses. But his work remained, although he himself retired from the earthly field, because from the time of his life that reaction began that inflamed the jealousy of his brothers in subsequent generations and prepared the way to the One in Whom every prophecy was fulfilled. The personality of the great prophet in itself is extraordinary in history. According to Jewish legends, at his very birth he was wrapped in fiery swaddling clothes and fed on flames. Throughout his life he was like fire, and his word burned like a lamp (Sir. 47:13). And both in its fiery power and energy, and in its mystery, the end was fully consistent with the beginning. He appeared in history from nowhere, and left its field, retiring to who knows where. Both about Moses and Elijah - “no one knows the place of his burial even to this day.” The sons of prophecy tried in vain to find him on some solitary peak, or in some deep rut, supposing that he had been carried there by the Spirit of the Lord, as had happened before. “And they searched for three days and did not find him.” He withdrew into a region that was no longer accessible to mortal eyes, and if he appeared from it again, he appeared in exceptional cases, in order to testify to this higher region and its truth. The ascension of Elijah is a completely exceptional event in Jewish history, as the highest method of death of a great and pious man: often and subsequently, the greatest servants of God left the earthly field not through a vale of sorrows and illnesses, but suddenly, as if on fiery chariots and horses of God. Subsequent legends provide many different details regarding the very method of taking Elijah, but the biblical narrative is silent in this regard, putting a stamp of mystery on the event itself. The subsequent biblical writer, outlining the life and character of Elijah, enthusiastically speaks of him: “And Elijah the prophet rose up like fire, and his word burned like a lamp. He brought hunger upon them and diminished their number with his jealousy; With the word of the Lord he closed the heavens and brought down fire three times. How famous you are, Elijah, for your miracles, and who can compare with you in glory! You raised the dead from death and from hell by the word of the Most High. You brought down kings and nobles from their beds to destruction; You heard reproofs against them at Sinai, and vengeful judgments at Horeb; You have anointed kings for reward and prophets as your successors; you were delighted with a fiery whirlwind on a chariot with fiery horses; You were destined for reproof in your times, to calm anger before it turned to rage, to turn the heart of father to son and restore the tribe of Jacob. Blessed are those who have seen you and are adorned with love, and we will live life” (Sir. 48:1-11). The memory of the prophet was forever imprinted in the heart of the Israeli people, and from them passed on to the Christian peoples. It is remarkable that none of the Old Testament prophets is mentioned as often in the New Testament as the prophet Elijah, and his name is constantly found in places that themselves testify to the depth of the impression he made. His memory was surrounded by reverence and the greatest respect. The priests and Levites could not imagine the right of John the Baptist to baptize the people, unless he was Christ, or the coming again great prophet, Elijah (John 1:25). Ap. Paul refers to one incident in his history to strengthen his argument that Israel will not be rejected forever (Rom. 11:2). St. James sees in him the most striking proof of the power of prayer (James 5:18), and the disciples of the Savior referred to him as a person whose works served as a justification for what they wanted to do to the inhabitants of the village who did not want to accept their Teacher. ( OK. 9:54) Most of all, the unyielding severity and strength of his character left an impression on the souls of people. Everyone involuntarily felt that these were precisely the qualities that their time needed, and that there had never been such a person who would demonstrate these qualities with such irresistible force. Possessing a similar character, Elijah appears on the pages of Old Testament history as the greatest and most original of all personalities, with the exception of the great lawgiver Moses. He was truly a fiery prophet and, being such, he thereby prepared the way to the One who was the aspiration of Israel and the whole world. Chapter 33. The successors of Ahab and the prophet Elisha Joram, the tenth king of Israel, although the son of the wicked Ahab and Jezebel, was brought up under the influence of his father’s final trials, which forced him to humble himself before God, as a sign of which, perhaps, he gave the very name to his son Joram or, more fully, Jehoram, which means “great Jehovah.” He ascended the throne in the 18th year of the reign of Jehoshaphat of Judah, with whom he maintained an alliance that was beneficial to him. Probably, under the influence of the pious Jehoshaphat, he destroyed the most vile institutions of idolatry in his kingdom, such as. a statue of Baal made by his father. Nevertheless, the general spirit that permeated the kingdom of Israel affected him, so that in general he also “did evil in the sight of the Lord, holding on to the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat.” At first he had to wage war with the Moabite king Mesa, and the history of this war, thanks to the latest discoveries, is of particular interest. This king of a strong and rich people, who owned numerous herds of all kinds of livestock, was a tributary of the kings of Israel and paid them tribute “of a hundred thousand sheep and a hundred thousand unshorn rams.” Noticing the weakness of the kingdom of Israel, he broke away from it and stopped paying tribute, as a result of which a war against it became necessary, and the vicissitudes of this war are depicted on the famous Moabite stone, which constitutes a monument erected by Mesa himself. This monument was found in 1868. It is composed of black basalt and is 3 feet 10 inches high, 2 feet wide and 14½ inches thick. It has 44 lines written in Phoenician letters. It was found in the ruins of the ancient city of Dibon, the former northern capital of Moab, north of the Arnona River. Thus, this unexpectedly preserved monument, erected more than 2,600 years ago, turned out to be an amazing witness to the truth of the biblical narrative. The testimony of this monument, complementing and confirming the testimony of the Bible, reveals to us a highly interesting page from the relations of the kingdom of Israel to the surrounding semi-nomadic peoples. As can be seen from the inscription of the Moabite monument, Mesa's father reigned for 30 years and paid the tribute imposed on him by Israel. The country over which he was king, although not extensive, was so rich that its semi-nomadic, pastoral population not only could bear the enormous tribute imposed on them, but also accumulated great wealth, as can be judged by the enormous booty seized by Jehoshaphat a few years later, after the defeat of the Moabites (2 Chron. 20:25). However, this tribute was of course burdensome and annoying for them, since Mesa himself, as the largest cattle owner in Moab, undoubtedly had to pay a significant portion of his herds. Therefore Mesa took advantage of the death of Ahab and the natural weakening of Israel as a favorable opportunity to overthrow the hated yoke. And so began the war, which, as it is revealed on the Moab Stone, is of the deepest interest. At the rise of Mesa, the Israeli security detachment was only a day's march from Korhi, the northern capital of Moab. Previously, he was stationed by Omri in Medeb, but later the detachment was moved to Ataroth and had his duty to ensure that the tribute was paid properly by the Moabites. From the south, the mountain inhabitants of Edom, who at that time were dependent on Jehoshaphat and acted with him as allies of Israel, captured the Moabite city of Goronaim and harassed the whole side on this side. Finally, however, the oracle of Chemosh, the national god of the Moabites, announced that this god wanted to show mercy to his people and the church, and intended to completely destroy Israel, their oppressor - and for a time it seemed as if his prediction was true. The monument says the following about this: “Then Omri the king of Israel rose up, And he oppressed Moab many days; For Chemosh was angry with his country. And Omri was succeeded by his son, and he said this: In my days (that is, the days of Mesa) Chemosh said: I will once again have mercy on Moab and its church, And Israel will perish forever. And Omri captured the district of Medeva, And Israel kept him in his days and in the days of his son forty years. But Chemosh showed kindness to Moab in my days." After the death of Ahab, the entire district north of Arnon, which the Moabites had claimed since the conquest of Joshua, passed into the hands of Mesa, and the troubles in the northern kingdom of Israel gave him the courage to proclaim his independence from Ahaziah, Ahab's successor. Such rich land and such a large tribute, however, could not be easily abandoned, and therefore, with the onset of a new reign, war had to begin. The first military operations, for some unknown reason, were unsuccessful for the Israelis. The Edomites, allies of the Israelites, were driven from the south, and Mesa, carried away by his first triumph, built a high place at Korkh, erecting it to Chemosh, the national god, who, he believed, “delivered him from all his enemies and made him see his desire on all who hated him.” Mesa was further encouraged in his undertaking by the fact that Ahaziah died shortly afterwards, before he had time to take any measures to avenge his defeat. Seeing this as a good omen and the special mercy of his national god Chemosh, Mesa even went on the offensive and captured the city of Jahaz, thereby completing the liberation of his country. To secure the country from Israeli attack, he began a series of fortifications, as evidenced by the Moab Stone: “I have strengthened Baalmeon (says Mesa on this stone), and made ditches around it. And I built the city of Kiriath-Aim. And the men of Gad dwelt for centuries in the district of Ataroth, And the king of Israel fortified this city, And I fought against this city and took it, And he put to death all the men of the city, To please Chemosh, the god of Moab. And I took from there the sacred vessels of Jehovah, And he brought them before Chemosh in Kirgath. And I settled in it people from Shiran and Sharorat to live in it. Go and take the city of Nebo from Israel. And I went through the night, And he fought against him from dawn until noon, And he took it and put to death all its inhabitants, Seven princes of tribes... women and maidens. For I dedicated them to Ashgar 225, Chemosh. And the king of Israel strengthened Jahaz, And he took it and fought with me; But Chemosh drove him away before me. And I took from Moab two hundred men in all, And I besieged Jahaz, took it and annexed it to Dibon." Mesa then lists the buildings he erected, starting with those at Korhe. He took steps to strengthen its walls, gates and towers, decorated it with a royal palace, and made new pools to supply it with water in case of war, requiring in addition that the inhabitants have their own private pools. He apparently expelled from Korha all the hated Israelites who had formerly lived there, refusing them permission to remain any longer. Other cities, all north of Arnon, also received significant corrections and improvements at his hands. “I completed Aroer, and made a military road along the Arnon. For fifty men of Divo fell upon him, All of Divon was subordinate to me, And I settled the people in Bikran, And he annexed it to my land. And I built... both the church of Divlathaim and the church of Baalmeon, And he brought there (the image of) Chemosh.” Thus Mesa built fortifications in all the places where his possessions came closest to those of Israel, and the building of the church was a natural expression of gratitude on the part of the king, who imagined that he owed his success entirely to the national god Chemosh. Soon after the capture of Jahaz, Mesa decided to erect the height of Chemosh in Korkh, since he probably vowed to make this dedication to the god if victory was granted to him. Such heights represented several different rooms for the altar, sacred vessels, etc., although there was no church in the proper sense. Having done all this, he apparently became the head of an alliance of the united leaders of Moab and the predatory Edomite mountaineers, together with the Ammonites, in order to make an invasion of Judah (2 Chron. 20: 1, 2). The enemies, having rounded the southern end of the Dead Sea, invaded the Engedi oasis before news of this reached Jerusalem. Having climbed the rocky cliff of Ziz in Engedi, they could already quickly move along the elevated area extending to Jerusalem, so that the very capital of the kingdom of Judah was in unexpected danger of being captured by these steppe predators. In such extremity, Jehoshaphat, faithful to his duty as God’s vicegerent, immediately declared a nationwide fast and repentance, and in the midst of the people gathered in the church, he asked for help from the invisible and omnipotent King of Israel. Such a pious example of the king was supposed to raise the spirit of the people and ignite religious enthusiasm, which in itself was a guarantee of victory. In addition, a prophet told the people that Jehovah was with them and would protect them. Meanwhile, the enemy reached Tekoa and was thus only a few hours away from the capital. But it was there that, by some unforeseen event, a fierce discord arose between the allies, and the Moabites, together with their kindred tribe of the Ammonites, attacked the Edomites, who, despite fierce resistance, were beaten and scattered (2 Chron. 20:3). The discord, perhaps, arose due to the fact that the Moabites suspected the latter of treason, for which the Edomites had long been famous. It is also possible that this civil strife arose due to an explosion of religious fanaticism, since Moab and Ammon had essentially the same form of idolatry, while Edom apparently adhered to a comparatively purer faith. Be that as it may, weakened by such civil strife, the Moabites quickly, and apparently in panic, returned back, so that Jehoshaphat, when he approached with his army, found only the camp they had abandoned and a huge number of slain, with such rich booty of gold and silver, rich clothes and expensive vessels, and all kinds of jewelry that it took three whole days to collect it. Mesa, proud of his previous successes and relying on the prediction of Chemosh, still hoped to take Jerusalem itself, but by doing this he only prepared the catastrophe, which was the first step towards his complete destruction. Jehoshaphat set out on the campaign, having near him a choir of Levites, who, in their white robes, sang the ancient praise of David: “Praise the Lord, for His mercy endures forever,” a psalm that inflamed the spirit of the army. The same religious jubilation accompanied his return from the campaign. Such a miraculous deliverance from a terrible enemy excited the entire people. Psalms, harps and trumpets were again heard in the church, mingling with hymns of triumphant praise to the One who had so obviously come to the aid of his people. In memory of this event, the forty-sixth and fifty-eighth psalms were composed, which were sung in grateful memory of it. Meanwhile, the throne in the kingdom of Israel passed from Ahaziah, who had no son, to his brother Joram, who, as a capable and energetic man, decided to actively continue the fight against Moab, weakened by recent failures. Jehoshaphat of Judah was already about 55 years old at that time, and to facilitate his royal duties, he shared his power with his son Jehoram. The courts of Judah and Israel, who had been on friendly terms throughout the reign of Jehoshaphat, were now brought even closer together, since one of the results of the ill-considered visit to Samaria was the marriage of Joram, the son of Jehoshaphat, to Athaliah, the daughter of Jezebel, a daughter who, as it turned out, inherited all the worst qualities of her mother. Joram of Israel could therefore easily receive the help of the king of Judah in further waging the war against Mesa. To make the victory as confident as possible, all Israelites capable of bearing arms were recruited, and Jehoshaphat demanded that the vassal king of Edom join this campaign with his own forces. The combined forces of both kingdoms moved south and headed towards the borders of the land of Moab. The campaign was extremely difficult, since all the reservoirs, due to the extremely hot summer, dried up, and the army and cattle suffered greatly from thirst. Meanwhile, Mesa gathered all the forces of Moab, armed everyone who was able to bear arms, and was ready to meet the enemy. In such extremity, the allies were delivered from disaster by the prophetic advice of Elisha, who accompanied Joram of Israel and advised Jehoshaphat. At his direction, several holes were dug at the bottom of the wadi where they were in order to retain the water, which, as he told them, would flow from the heights of Moab, although they would not see any wind or rain, since the storm would pass at too great a distance. And this prediction was completely justified. Meanwhile Mesa with all his armed force advanced to the border and, preparing to repel the attack, encamped probably on the slopes of those hills that run along the southern part of the Cape, commanding the eastern desert. After standing here overnight, the Moabites rose at the first dawn of the day. But when the sun rose with its usual suddenness, as it happens in the east, then under its rays, reddened by the morning darkness, the Moabites did not see any enemy, and they only saw some kind of bloody spectacle in those holes in the wadi that had been dug the previous evening. Previously, there was no water there, and this spectacle could not be explained otherwise than by the assumption that the allies had quarreled and, destroying each other, fled from the battlefield. The pits, in all likelihood, were filled with the blood of the slain, and the rest fled and left the camp for the Moabites to spoil. Then a cry was heard among the Moabites: “Now for the spoils, Moab!” After a few moments, however, the Moabites clearly saw their mistake. Instead of empty tents, they met a strong army ready to attack. Being in extreme disorder and helpless, like scattered sheep, the Moabites could only turn back and flee, but it was too late. The combined forces of Israelites and Jews moved towards the fleeing Moabites and a terrible massacre began. The Moabites were then unable to offer any resistance, and one city after another fell into the hands of the Israelites and Jews, who, according to the military law of antiquity, destroyed them and razed them to the ground. The rage of the victors was boundless; they destroyed everything in their path that they encountered. Rich fields and vineyards were buried under a mass of stones, all the wells and cisterns, sources of life in a hot country, were filled up, and fruit trees were chopped down. Before the victorious army, “the earth was like the garden of Eden, but behind it it became like a wasteland, and no one could escape from it” (Joel 2:3). Fleeing, the ill-fated Mesa finally locked himself with the rest of his army in the inaccessible city of Kir-Hareshet (now known under the name Keraka) due to its elevated position. It stands in a secluded triangular area, measuring from 400 to 500 fathoms on each side, 3,720 feet above the level of the sea, among still higher mountains, from which it is cut off on all sides but one. Wadis from 1,000 to 1,350 feet deep, with precipitous walls, separate it from the north and south, the third side being a shallower rut. This entire triangle was originally surrounded by a strong wall, and the rock itself was cut through by ditches and rapids. For the enemy, Kir-Hareshet was completely inaccessible, except perhaps through difficult paths from the west and north-west, and it could only be penetrated at two points from the north-west and south through dark tunnels cut at a distance of 40 steps through the rock. Huge ditches carved into solid rock protected weaker points, although perhaps these ditches were of later origin 226 . Since the city was impregnable to be taken by arms, the allies besieged it in order to, with a regular siege, bring the besieged to starvation and force them to surrender. At the same time, the surrounding heights made it possible for the allies to harass the besieged by force of arms, since from these heights, as they rose above the city, it was possible for slingers and archers to wreak havoc in the city. No longer able to endure this persistent devastation, Mesa decided on a desperate foray at the head of a brave detachment of 700 people. The foray was directed against the point that was besieged by the Edomites, the worst and most hated enemy of Moab; but the attempt to break through the chain of besiegers was unsuccessful, and Mesa was forced to retire again to his fortress. Apparently, Chemosh was completely leaving Mesa, and, as it might seem to the latter, he was angry with him. There was only one hope left to appease him and return to his favor, and this hope lay in making a human sacrifice. In true extremity, Mesa decided to make the highest self-sacrifice that was possible for him, and wanted to sacrifice his firstborn son, the heir to the throne. Having decided on this terrible deed, the king, together with his son and accompanied by the priests of Chemosh, ascended the city wall, from where the besiegers could see them. To the horror of all the Israelites and Jews, an altar was erected there, and the royal boy was handed over to the priests, by whom he was openly put to death, and then offered up as a burnt offering, in order to appease the heart of God, for whom they did not spare even such an expensive sacrifice. This terrible tragedy, however, achieved its goal, and in a completely unexpected way. The sight that presented itself filled the besiegers with horror of indignation. Such sacrifices, according to the Israelites, desecrated the land and subjected it to the curse of blood (Ps. 105:37–39). The Israelites could not remain in it any longer, and preferred to give up everything that they had even acquired. As a result, the Allies lifted the siege of the city and Mesa was left to its own devices. But such a deliverance, achieved as if by the death of the crown prince, of course, could only strengthen Moab in its cruel and bloodthirsty idolatry. At the end of the campaign against Mesa, both kingdoms continued to be on friendly terms with each other and enjoyed relative prosperity. In the last years of Jehoshaphat's reign, Judah enjoyed complete prosperity. Maintaining to the end the dignity of a Jewish king and loyalty to the sublime public morality, as embodied in the ancient faith of Israel, he continued to enjoy the ever-increasing respect of neighboring peoples. The Philistines willingly paid him tribute and the Edomites were subordinate to him up to the eastern shore of the Red Sea. At the end of his reign he even made an attempt to reopen sea trade with Ophir and other Indian ports, and a fleet was again built at the old Solomon port of Ezion-geber; but this enterprise turned out to be unsuccessful, since a storm smashed the built ships against the coastal rocks before they had time to make any voyage. It is remarkable, however, that at this time Jehoshaphat could already manage in this enterprise without any assistance from Tyre, as was the case in the time of Solomon. His death followed after a twenty-five-year reign, and it was a great disaster for the country and the people, who sincerely mourned this pious king of theirs, especially since his son Joram, who succeeded him, was not at all like his pious father. In the person of this king, the harmful consequences of the alliance of the house of David with the wicked house of Ahab were reflected with particular force. Succumbing to the influence of his bloodthirsty wife, Joram, upon his very accession to the throne, mercilessly beat all his brothers, and with his indiscretion and vile life brought a whole series of disasters to his kingdom. The Edomites rebelled against him and took the main trading port on the Red Sea, Elath; The Philistines and Arabians invaded his country, even attacked his palaces, captured his wives and beat his sons. He himself died of an ugly and painful disease, in such contempt that he was not even honored with burial in the tomb of the kings. He was succeeded by his son Ahaziah, who continued his friendship with Joram of Israel, whose history from that time on is closely connected with the history of the prophet Elisha, as a worthy bearer of the great spirit of his teacher Elijah. Although Elisha received his prophetic calling from Elijah and was raised under his close guidance, there were many differences between him and his great teacher. Elijah was a prophet of wrath and harsh judgments, but Elisha came with a more gentle mission. The reason for this was that time itself had changed to some extent. Idolatry to Baal no longer enjoyed exceptional favor at court. Jehoram, son and successor of Ahab, at least tolerated the worship of Jehovah, although in conjunction with the symbols of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan. In the following time, under the evil influence of Jezebel, that evil genius of the whole house of Omri, he restored the idolatry of Baal to its former fullness, but for a time things were different. The thunder and lightning of Horeb had done its work, and the people could listen to a quieter voice. Although they had the same zeal for God, Elijah and Elisha were nevertheless in many respects very different people in their very characters. The first was a son of the desert, living far from human habitations. His home was the secluded wilds of Horath or Carmel. He avoided communication with people and moved away from the artificial life of cities. The element of life for him was the free air of the desert, some juniper bush served as a cover for him, and the terrible clefts of Sinai were a refuge for him in the highest hour of his despondency. Forced to seek help during times of famine and persecution, he sought and found it far from Israel, in the poverty-stricken house of an unknown pagan widow. Elisha, on the other hand, was a city man who loved the streets and crowds of cities. Returning from the scene of the capture of his teacher, he first visited the prophetic schools at Jericho and Bethel, in order to encourage their religious zeal and formally take them under his care. On the way to Bethel, he was greeted with ridicule by the children from this city, who, apparently following the example of their wicked parents, mocked the prophet, shouting to him: “Go, you bald one, go, you bald one!” For this, as a punishment and warning to wicked parents, forty-two of these children were torn to pieces by she-bears emerging from a nearby forest, and Elisha went to Mount Carmel, Elijah’s favorite abode. Like John the Baptist or St. Paul, he withdrew from people for a while in order to prepare his spirit for the great work that lay before him. But, at the end of this preparation, he returned forever to the environment of the home and everyday life of his people. Samaria became his place of residence for many years. Within the walls of the city he had his own house, located at the foot of the hill 227. From this center he conducted an extensive prophetic activity that lasted for fifty years. Like Samuel, he apparently went around the whole country, everywhere arousing the religious spirit among the people and teaching them instruction in faith and law. These rounds were so frequent and constant that in Sunem, for example, the present village of Salem, located 37 miles north of Samaria, in the great valley of Ezdrilon, one rich woman even prepared a special room for him, which he occupied during his visits. Sunem was almost his second home, since the mistress of the house assigned him a spacious room or upper room, so highly valued in the East, where, when it was cool, he could enjoy fresh air and complete privacy. The room allocated to him was furnished with everything necessary, so that there was always a bed, a table, a seat and a lamp 228. Elijah usually stayed away from the greats of this world, and Elisha was in frequent relations with two kings, Joram and Joash, and stood so close to them and to the nobles around them that he could promise his hospitable Shunemite to intercede for her either before the king himself or before the military leader 229 . Being a citizen among other citizens, he constantly lived among the people and walked leaning on his staff (2 Kings 4:29), wearing only as a sign of his prophetic service that sheepskin mantle that came to him by inheritance from Elijah. He had to act in a calmer time, so there was no need for the severity that distinguished his teacher, and in general he is a person with a softer and calmer character; he cried e.g. at the thought of the disasters prepared for Israel by Hazael, and the feature of his great miracles was charitable sympathy for the poorest members of the human family. Already in the war with the Moabites, Elisha rendered an irreplaceable service to the allied kings, which glorified his name in both kingdoms. But then begins a series of amazing miracles that fill the entire reign of Joram. While still in Jericho, he miraculously purified the malignant water of one spring that caused infertility; then he multiplied the oil in the poor widow’s vessel, giving her the opportunity to pay off her late husband’s debt, for which the lender threatened to take her two sons as slaves to himself; in Sonam he delivered from infertility that rich woman from whom he enjoyed hospitality, and resurrected her dead son; destroyed the destructive properties of poisonous herbs that accidentally fell into the food of the prophetic disciples in Gilgal; miraculously nourished a hundred people with twelve barley loaves and several green ears of corn, and caused an ax that had fallen into the Jordan to float to the surface of the water. The fame of these miracles spread not only throughout Palestine, but also beyond its borders, and this served as the occasion for one of the most remarkable events in the life of Elisha. When, after the division of the Israeli people into two hostile kingdoms, its political power weakened, the various peoples conquered by the sovereign kings broke away from them and formed independent states. One of the most powerful was the kingdom of Syria, with its capital - ancient Damascus. The kings of this newly formed state soon became so powerful that they entered into struggle even with the formidable kings of Assyria and, depending on the circumstances, were either friends or hostiles with the neighboring kingdoms of Israel and Judah, which sometimes called on them for help in their mutual wars. These constant relations naturally brought them closer to each other in other respects - in trade and even religious, so that the influence of the Israeli prophets was felt in Damascus. And so it happened that the main military leader of the Syrian king Naaman, on whose military genius the entire strength of the state rested in those turbulent times, was struck by leprosy, a terrible and disgusting disease that plunged into grief not only Naaman himself, but also King Benhadad. The disease was considered incurable, and the ill-fated commander was left in grief and despair to lay down his glorious armor. At this time, among the slaves who served Naaman's wife, there was one Israelite girl, captured by the Syrians in one of those unexpected raids that were a common occurrence in hostile relations between neighboring states. Struck by the misfortune of her great master, she, with childish intelligence, remembered the prophet Elisha, the fame of whose miracles thundered throughout the entire kingdom of Israel, and told her mistress that this prophet would undoubtedly heal Naaman, one had only to turn to him. Since popular rumors about the Israeli prophet undoubtedly reached Damascus, Naaman’s grief-stricken wife, with a ray of hope flashing in her soul, reported this to her husband, and through him to the king himself. Delighted at the opportunity to somehow console his famous commander, Ben-hadad wrote an official letter to Jehoram, with whom he was on peaceful terms at that time, and asked him to provide all the assistance he could in the enterprise, and included large gifts of ten talents of silver and 6,000 shekels of gold, in addition to ten changes of clothes. With this letter, Naaman, accompanied by a brilliant retinue and an armed convoy, set off for Samaria. Benhadad, as a pagan, wrote a letter purely in a pagan spirit, not even mentioning the prophet, but directly expressing the desire that the king of Israel himself would take care of this. But Joram, struck by such a strange request, saw in this only a pretext on the part of Ben-hadad to begin military action against him, and out of irritation and fear he even tore his clothes. Then the prophet Elisha himself rescued him from this difficulty and sent the king to tell him to send a noble foreigner to him, and the latter would know “that there is a prophet in Israel.” Naaman actually went to the house of the prophet, but his ignorance of the ritual laws of the Jewish religion almost ruined the whole matter. Elisha, as a strict Jew, could not approach the leper and therefore sent only his servant to Naaman with instructions. Accustomed to Eastern reverence for himself, Naaman could not understand and tolerate such a disdainful attitude towards his high-ranking personality. Moreover, the very remedy proposed by the prophet seemed to him almost a mockery. The Prophet, through his servant, ordered him to go to the river Jordan and bathe in it seven times. Puzzled by such a strange proposal in his opinion, the arrogant Naaman openly expressed his indignation and said to his entourage, “Behold, I thought that he would come out and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and lay his hand on that place, and remove the leprosy. But he sent only some servant and ordered him to simply bathe in this muddy Jordan! Are not Avana and Farfar, the rivers of Damascus (with their clear waters), better than all the waters of Israel? Angered by all this, Naaman turned away from the prophet's house and went back. But fortunately, among his retinue there were people who knew how to calm the anger of their master. They told him that the prophet demands only very little, and that if he probably would have done much more for his healing, then why should he not fulfill this simple proposal of the prophet, which seems offensive only because of its extraordinary simplicity. Convinced by these arguments, Naaman agreed and headed to the Jordan, which was located about forty miles from Samaria. And so, when he actually plunged seven times into the sacred river of the Israeli people, “his body was renewed like the body of a little child, and he was cleansed.” Delighted by such a miraculous healing, Naaman immediately headed back to Samaria, to the prophet’s house, to express his deepest gratitude to him and offer him rich gifts. Now the prophet personally came to meet him, although the honor of Jehovah forbade him to accept gifts, so that it would not seem to Naaman that the healing was carried out by the corrupt magic of pagan priests, as happened in Damascus. This selflessness amazed Naaman even more, and a complete religious revolution took place in his soul. “So I learned that there is no God in all the earth except Israel. “Your servant will no longer offer burnt offerings and sacrifices to other gods besides the Lord,” cried Naaman.” In order to worthily worship the true God, Naaman even asked Elisha for permission to take with him the sacred land of Israel, on which he could make Her burnt offerings in his Damascus. At the same time, however, Naaman asked for leniency towards himself as an official, since, due to the duties of his position, he would have to be present at the idolatry of his king and also worship outside before the Syrian idol Rimmon. “May the Lord forgive your servant in this case!” he spoke to the prophet. His heart was devoted to the Lord, but circumstances required from him at least external, formal idolatry. Elisha saw the sincerity of his heart and answered only to him: “Go in peace.” And Naaman actually went back to his country with peace and a spark of true faith in his good, regenerated soul, and his leprosy passed on to the prophet’s selfish servant, Gehazi, who wanted to deceive him to take advantage of at least part of those rich gifts that the prophet himself had refused. Given the usual hostility of the ancient states, even the miraculous healing of Naaman was not enough to strengthen peaceful relations between the kings of Syria and Israel, and soon war broke out between them. In this war, the prophet Elisha again provided important services to Joram, giving him such wise advice that they frustrated all the enemy’s military plans. Annoyed by this, Benhadad the Syrian sent a detachment of his army to surround the city of Dophaim, located not far from Samaria, and seize Elisha, who was there. But the army was struck by blindness and was taken to Samaria, although the prophet did not allow it to be exterminated and ordered the king to release the soldiers with refreshments. Nevertheless, Samaria was heavily surrounded by the enemy on all sides. The cost of living supplies became unusually high, so that “a donkey’s head was sold for 80 shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cabbage of pigeon dung for five shekels of silver.” Two women, in desperate pangs of hunger, agreed to kill their children in turn for food, and one of them came with a complaint to the king in order to force her friend to fulfill the terrible condition. Hearing about this, the king in despair tore his clothes and put on sackcloth, in which he walked along the walls of the capital. Joram already wanted to take revenge on this terrible disaster on Elisha, as the prophet predicted the quick deliverance of the capital from the siege and the unexpected abundance and cheapness of life supplies. The prediction was completely justified. Four unfortunate lepers, no longer able to bear the pangs of hunger, decided in desperation to go to the Syrian camp, saying: “Why should we sit here, waiting for death? Let us better go to the Syrian camp. If he leaves us alive, we will live, and if they kill us, we will die.” But as they approached the enemy camp, to their extraordinary amazement, they found it abandoned, with all its rich supply of life supplies. In the distance, only echoes of the disorderly flight of the Syrians could be heard, who, hearing the noise of the approaching army and thinking that it was the formidable army of the Egyptian king who had come to the rescue of Samaria, were struck by sudden panic and rushed into disorderly flight. Rich spoils rewarded the inhabitants of Samaria for the suffering they endured. One dignitary, who did not believe the prophet’s prediction, saw the fulfillment of this prediction, but he himself did not take advantage of the spoils, as the prophet had predicted to him, because he was crushed at the city gates by the people who rushed to collect the spoils. After this event, the prophetic glory of Elisha was even more firmly established outside the kingdom of Israel, so that Benhadad the Syrian himself, during his illness, sent the military commander Hazael to him to ask about the outcome of this illness. The prophet, having revealed to Hazael the imminent death of the king, at the same time with tears predicted to him that, unfortunately for the Israelites, he would be the king of Syria. And indeed the next day Hazael strangled Benhadad with a soaked blanket and proclaimed himself king of Syria. The kings of Israel and Judah wanted to take advantage of this revolution in order to make a new attempt to regain Ramoth-gilead, which still remained under the rule of the Syrians. King Ahaziah of Judah so submitted to the influence of his wicked mother Athaliah (daughter of Ahab and Jezebel) and his uncle Joram of Israel that idolatry to Baal and Ashtoreth was established in the kingdom of Judah. But the seat of Ahab's grandson on the throne of David overflowed the measure of God's long-suffering, and therefore this military enterprise of the Jewish kings should have served as a reason for the punishment of both of them, as representatives of the house of Ahab. Jehoram was wounded at the very beginning of the war and returned to Jezreel, where Ahaziah also went to visit the sick man. Meanwhile, Elisha, in fulfillment of the will of God, sent one of the disciples of the prophets to anoint Jehu, the military commander of the king of Israel, to the kingdom. Having learned about this, the army also proclaimed him king. Without hesitating any longer, Jehu, distinguished by his amazing horsemanship and indomitable spirit, dashingly rushed to Jezreel to consolidate his kingdom. He met both kings in Naboth's vineyard, that most terrible proof of the vile bloodthirstiness of the house of Ahab. During Elijah's menacing prediction to Ahab, Jehu was with him in this very vineyard and now hastened to fulfill this prediction. Drawing his bow, he shot Joram, who was sitting in the chariot, and ordered his body to be thrown out on Naboth's property to be devoured by dogs. Ahaziah fled to escape to Samaria, but was overtaken and also killed. The aged Jezebel, hearing about the turmoil, wanted to ward off disaster with the charms of her faded, rouged beauty, but Jehu ordered the eunuchs to throw her out the window from her high chamber. “And they threw it away. And her blood splashed on the wall and on the horses, and they trampled her.” Jehu, however, ordered “to bury her cursed, since she is the king’s daughter,” but nothing was found from her except her skull, legs and hands. Her body was eaten by dogs, as predicted by Elijah. Without knowing the limits of his jealousy, Jehu demanded the heads of 70 sons of Ahab from the elders of Samaria. On the way to Samaria, having met 42 relatives of Ahaziah, who, not knowing anything about what had happened, were going to visit the sons of Ahab, he also killed all of them, justifying his bloodthirsty cruelty with the decree of God. In Judah the dominion of the house of Ahab was continued for another six years by the seizure of the throne by Athaliah; but she accelerated her death by the complete extermination of the royal family, from which only one newborn son of Ahaziah Joash, hidden from the fury of his wicked grandmother by his aunt Josabeth, was saved. Her husband, the high priest Jehoiada, secretly raised him at the church and in the seventh year proclaimed him king. Upon learning of this, Athaliah screamed, “Conspiracy, conspiracy!” but was immediately killed. With her the last branch of the house of Ahab perished, “and all the people of the earth rejoiced, and the city was calm.” The high priest Jehoiada took advantage of this to awaken the religious and moral conscience of the people, solemnly “concluded a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people,” and the joyful people “went to the house of Baal, and destroyed his altars, and his images were completely broken, and Matthan, the priest of Baal, was killed in front of the altar,” after which the order of true worship in the church was restored. Thus, with the destruction of the wicked house of Ahab, his wicked deeds were partly destroyed. Chapter 34. Decomposition of the Kingdom of Israel With the destruction of the house of Ahab, in both kingdoms there was hope for the restoration of true religion in them, jealousy for which at first was shown by the rulers of both kingdoms. But this hope was not destined to be fully realized. Jehu of Israel was too bloodthirsty for this holy deed, and Joash of Judah was still young. True, Jehu showed himself to be a zealous executor of the will of God upon ascending the throne, and with his usual cruelty, under the pretext of a solemn service, he gathered the prophets of Baal, killed them at the very sacrifice, smashed the idol and desecrated and destroyed its church; but he himself still could not completely free himself from the wicked policy of Jeroboam and therefore did not want to completely abandon idolatry. Therefore, although for the zeal he showed, the dynasty he founded was promised stability until the fourth generation (his dynasty reigned for 111 years), but it was during his reign that the general fall of the kingdom of Israel began, which, as not justifying the highest intentions of God, from that time on “the Lord began to cut off in parts,” giving them to foreigners, and especially to Hazael of Syria, who under Jehu took possession of the entire Trans-Jordanian country. But Jehu, the first of the Israeli kings, had to especially feel the heavy hand of the formidable Assyrian conqueror at the same time. The highest development of the aggressive activity of Shalmaneser II dates back to his time. He could not tame his warlike spirit with anything, and one after another he made campaigns in Western Asia. In the eighteenth year of his reign, he says in one of his many inscriptions, “I crossed the Euphrates for the sixteenth time. Hazael, king of the land of Aram (Syria), relying on the strength of his army, gathered it in countless numbers and fortified himself on the tops of the mountains, on the spur of the Lebanese ridge. I fought with him and won a great victory, taking 16,000 of his warriors with their weapons, 1,121 of his chariots, 410 horsemen and all his baggage. He ran to save his life and I pursued him. I besieged him in Damascus, his capital, and destroyed his towers. Then I marched to the hills of Avran and destroyed, devastated and burned many cities and carried away numerous captives. Then I moved to the mountains near the Mediterranean Sea, and erected my royal image there. At that time I received tribute from Tire, Sidon and from Jehu the son of Omri.” This inscription is found on the famous obelisk of Shalmaneser II, a monument which, from the Assyrian point of view, sheds a very interesting light on the situation at this time of the kingdom of Israel and Syria, brilliantly confirming and explaining the biblical narrative. The Obelisk of the Ages is a monument of black basalt about seven feet high and two feet wide. On each side of it there are sculptural images representing various scenes from the conquest of Shalmaneser, and a significant place is reserved for his own royal chronicles. One of the images represents the Israelis paying tribute to Shalmaneser II, as a result of which we have the opportunity to look at one of the most important scenes of the ancient state life of the Israeli people. The tribute bearers are dressed in long, elegant, trimmed cloaks that reach the floor. They wear caps that are almost approaching Phrygian ones; the arms are bare to the elbows, and the beards are carefully curled; as was the custom among the Assyrians. In their hands and on their shoulders they carry gold and silver - in strips, ingots and slabs, various precious vases for wine and general use at the table, as well as a scepter for the Assyrian king - as a sign of complete submission to him. The bags apparently contain minted coin 230. The entire appearance of the tribute bearers reveals high grace, proving at what height the external culture stood in the kingdom of Israel at that time. The reason why Jehu found himself forced to submit to the tribute of Shalmaneser II is quite understandable. On the one hand, he was threatened by Syria, and on the other by an even more terrible enemy - Assyria. It was necessary to choose the lesser evil, and Jehu preferred tributary to the terrible conqueror, since otherwise he could not have avoided the most terrible defeat, to which Shalmaneser was betraying the peoples who disobeyed him at that very time. He marked his last campaigns with unimaginable barbarity and brutality. He swept through like an all-destroying hurricane, destroying cities, beating all armed men, building entire pyramids from their heads at the city gates, dishonoring and burning alive the sons and daughters of nobles, and consigning everything to fire and sword. He himself boasted that he had erected as many as five pyramids from the severed heads of his enemies. With such horrors threatening the kingdom of Israel, Jehu had no choice but to humbly acknowledge himself as a tributary of the merciless conqueror. He ended his reign as a tributary to the Assyrian king 231. After the 28-year reign of Jehu, he was succeeded by his son Jehoahaz, who, for his devotion to idolatry, was also attacked by the Syrians and got rid of them only by his fiery prayer. The mercy of God, however, did not heal all the ulcers of his conscience and state, and he transferred the throne to his no more pious successor, his son Joash. Under this king, the prophet Elisha died. When he was approaching death and lay on his sick bed, King Joash visited him and, fully appreciating the importance of the great prophet in the state, wept over his bed, saying the very words with which Elisha himself said goodbye to Elijah who ascended to heaven: “My father, my father, the chariot of Israel and his horses!” To console the king, Elisha ordered him to shoot an arrow into the ground as a sign that he would defeat the Syrians. Joash fired only three arrows and stopped, not believing in the possibility of winning more than three victories over the Syrians. If he had had more faith and trust in the omnipotence of God, he would have completely overthrown them, the dying prophet remarked to him. But with three victories over Benhadad, the son of Hazael, Joash returned the possessions taken from his father, and humbled the arrogance of the Jewish king Amaziah. During his reign, Elisha's last miracle took place. A year after the death of the prophet, the Moabites raided the land of Israel. At this very time they were carrying the dead man to burial. Frightened by the raid, the bearers threw the body into the first tomb they came across, which turned out to be the tomb of Elisha, and from contact with the bones of the wonderworker, the dead man came to life and stood up. Joash's successor was his son, Jeroboam II, one of the most remarkable kings of the kingdom of Israel. He reigned for forty-one years and during this long period managed to temporarily restore the power and splendor of his state. This was a warlike king, and first of all he directed his weapons against the predatory enemies of his kingdom - the Moabites and Ammonites, who, taking advantage of the turmoil of the kingdom of Israel, began to plunder it again. To punish them, the Israeli regiments crossed the Jordan, took Rabbah, the capital of Ammon, burned it and captured the king himself and his most important dignitaries. A similar fate befell the Moabites. After the Israelis retreated from Kir-Hareshet, the capital of Moab, Mesa, of course, again continued to refuse tribute to the Israelis, and then even began making predatory raids on the land of Israel. Now the Moabites had to suffer due punishment. Jeroboam II, in alliance with the Edomites, made a formidable invasion against them. Their cities were destroyed, and the cry of the population rang throughout the desert. Happy was the one who, at least naked, fled into the desert and was saved from death. Everyone who had time fled to the mountains, but many were killed or sold into slavery. The very vineyards, fields and pastures were burned out and destroyed. Having humbled these small predatory peoples, Jeroboam II also spoke out against the more powerful enemies of his kingdom, namely the Syrians, and achieved brilliant success in this regard. Even Damascus, the capital of Syria, bowed before his power, which he forced to surrender. In this regard, Shalmaneser II of Assyria provided him with unexpected help, who constrained the Syrian king from the east, taking from him a huge indemnity, which undermined the strength of the state. After these victories, Jeroboam II had no strong rivals in the east. Only Phenicia remained in the northwest; but this country was also exhausted from internal strife. The internecine wars, which finally forced the famous princess Elissa to flee, who, under the name of Dido, became famous as the founder of the famous Phoenician colony in northern Africa, namely Carthage, undermined the power of Tire, which also fell under the rule of Shalmaneser II. As for the kingdom of Judah, its king Hosea maintained peace with Jeroboam II, as a result of which friendly relations were established between both kingdoms: Jerusalem and Samaria competed with each other only in the field of peaceful industry and trade. As a result, the material well-being of the state reached a high level. Samaria became rich from military spoils and trade. Magnificent houses rose everywhere, the interior walls of which, in imitation of Ahab's palace, were sheathed with slabs of ivory brought from Africa by the Phoenicians. The rooms were filled with luxurious furniture, decorated with the same expensive material. There were special cool houses for the hot season, and warm houses for the winter. Excellent vineyards covered the adjacent mountain slopes. All the rich plains east and west of the Jordan were sown with crops of all kinds, and sowers and reapers were seen everywhere in due season. Rich people of both sexes shone with exquisite luxury; but at the same time, the majority of the population was in need or poverty. While the wealth of the few increased, the mass of the population became increasingly poor. The vast majority of the population no longer had their own land, which, due to the general violation of the laws of Moses, passed into the hands of the rich, and the people were forced to live only on wages for cultivating someone else's land, which reduced them to the level of slaves. Already from the last circumstance it is clear that all the external successes of Jeroboam II did not have a strong guarantee in religious and moral terms, since in general he adhered to the same direction that was outlined by the first king of the Israeli people, his co-name Jeroboam I. Although the state religion remained the worship of Jehovah, but under the pagan symbol in the form of a sacred calf. In Bethel, the religious capital of the state, there was a majestic church with many priests and magnificent rituals. The attempt made to cleanse religion of the grossest growths of paganism was unsuccessful, and idolatry invaded from all sides. Even the idolatry of Baal, so zealously eradicated by Jehu, was again established in various cities of the country. In Samaria itself there were several churches. It was reopened in the capital and church of Asher. Women, following the example of idolatrous peoples, brought incense before the shameful symbols of the goddess and performed riotous festivities. Images of Baal, made of gold and silver, were even erected by private individuals. The smoke of idol sacrifices smoked from the mountain heights, and idolatry was performed in sacred oak groves. The shamelessness of the pagan cult once again desecrated the promised land. Girls and women forgot feminine honor and became harlots at the churches. All this showed that the power of evil had finally established itself in the kingdom of Israel, and the brilliant reign of Jeroboam II was only the last and, moreover, illusory flowering before complete withering. This is exactly what happened after the death of this king. The current state of the people in the kingdom of Israel is remarkably reflected in a new source that appeared around this time. The prophetic spirit then began to express itself not only in actions and speech, but also in writing. This new manifestation of prophetic activity appeared with particular force in the kingdom of Judah, but it happened in the kingdom of Israel, in which throughout its existence the prophets found their main residence and the place of their main activity. The prophets Amos and Hosea, by their birth and the area of ​​their activity, belonged to the northern kingdom; several rays of light are also shed on the state of Israel by the great prophet Isaiah, who now, as a young man, spoke in the neighboring kingdom of Judah. From the writings of these various prophets we have the opportunity to become acquainted with the state of social, state, religious and moral life in Israel in such completeness as was impossible in any other period since the time of David. The whole tone of these books is so true to reality, so eloquent in describing the actual sins of the people and the state, that when the preacher, who, perhaps in modern times, came closest in appearance to the ancient prophets, wanted to blaspheme the sins and vices of Florence, he took his texts from the prophets of that particular time. Savanarola’s sermons about Amos are of such a kind that in them Amos himself seemed to come to life again. The foreign civilization of the house of Omri, together with the long perversion of public worship since the time of Jeroboam I., produced its natural fruits among the upper classes of society. One of the most common vices was drunkenness in its most outrageous forms. “Wine and drink have taken possession of their hearts” (Hos. 4:1). On royal days, says the prophet Hosea, the princes became hot with wine to the point of illness, and the king stretched out his hand to the blasphemers (Hos. 7:5). It was the greatest public plague, and, moreover, in one of the most fertile regions of Palestine, in the most luxurious valley of Shechem and on the green hill of Samaria. “Woe to the wreath of pride of the drunken Ephraimites, to the withered flower of their beautiful decoration, which is at the top of the fat valley of those slain by wine!” , exclaimed the prophet Isaiah (Is. 28:1). The gross drunkenness of the Israeli nobility and priests of that time was almost unprecedented. Even the best people among the people were subject to it. Justice itself was in the hands of people who, in the words of the same prophet, “were staggered by wine, and led astray by strong drink.” “The priests and false prophets stumble from strong drink; overcome by wine, maddened by strong drink, mistaken in vision, stumbled in judgment. For all the tables are filled with disgusting vomit; there is not a clean place” (Is. 28:6-8). Even strict Nazirites were forced, contrary to their vow, to drink wine forbidden to them (Amos 2:8, 12). Noble ladies, who were like the fat Bashan heifers grazing on the rich mountain pastures of Samaria, turned to their husbands with the words: “Give, and we will drink” (Amos 4:1). From this terrible vice arose other, even more disgusting sins - debauchery in all its forms, oppression of the poor, self-indulgent luxury, predation and murder. “Truly, as the prophet says, the Lord had judgment with the inhabitants of the land; because there is no truth, no mercy, no knowledge of God on earth. Oaths and deceptions, murders and thefts, and adultery have become extremely widespread, and bloodshed follows bloodshed” (Hosea 4:1, 2). In confirmation of this, the prophets provide many details. Unpaid debtors were bought and sold as slaves, often for the possession of a pair of expensive sandals. Wide cloaks, which were their only clothing, were used for beds of hard-hearted creditors. Outside, the profession of religion was still widespread, the holy days of tithes and the Sabbath were still strictly observed; priests, prophets and Nazirites were respected, the sacred ephod and sacred images were venerated; but all this was just a deceptive appearance: in reality, ugly orgies took place in the Bethel Church itself; pilgrims arriving at the sacred places of Mizpah and Gilead beyond the Jordan, or to Tabor and Shechem, in the middle of the state were attacked by bands of robbers, often led by the priests themselves (Am. 2:8; Hos. 5:1; 6:8, 9). In Dan and Bethel, the idolization of the calf continued, as a symbol of the true God, but at the same time, the darker Phoenician idolatry, introduced earlier under Ahab, was never completely eradicated. The Church of Asherah still stood proudly in Samaria (2 Kings 13:6). Baal was a familiar name throughout the land. Dissolute rituals were performed in the groves and on the heights. The ancient sanctuary at Gilgal, once a place of constant pilgrimage, was surrounded by altars, and at the same time was also the center of widespread pagan abominations 232. Such a state clearly showed signs of decomposition, and it was rapidly approaching. Both the performance of the house of Jehu and its final fate were proclaimed by the prophets. As it was in the time of the first Jeroboam, so now, in the time of the second Jeroboam, a prophet came from Judea to expose the crimes of Israel. He did not belong to any school of prophecy, but was one of those shepherds who often visited the wild hills near Tekoa and, along with his shepherd's life, were occupied with tending the sycamore trees in the neighboring gardens. It was the prophet Amos. He was truly a son of nature. All the images of his visions reflect rural life both in Judah and in the kingdom of Israel. Locusts in the royal meadows, baskets of fruit, vineyards and fig trees, herds of cows running along the hills of Samaria, shepherds robbing the lions of their prey, a lion and a bear, a heavily loaded cart, winnowing grain - all these images filled his prophecies. He was not so much an inspired poet as an orator. His speeches are poetic not because of the rhythm, but because of the captivating power and pathos of his diction. He appeared on Mount Samaria to denounce the nobility drowned in luxury. He appeared in the Bethel sanctuary itself to predict the violent death, if not of the king himself, then of the royal house - to foretell the fall of the kingdom, the fall of the consecrated altar. The new prophet, of course, met with opposition, but the sad sign of the times was that it was not the king who now opposed him, as had happened before, but the chief priest Amaziah, who sent the king news of the new newcomer, and himself warned the prophet to stay away from the confines of the sacred and royal dwellings. There he lived with his wife, his sons and daughters, and it was on them that Amos turned the curse that he had previously brought down on the people. The appearance of such a person, of course, was bound to arouse anger and alarm among the careless libertines, who “considered the day of disaster to be distant, and brought the triumph of violence closer.” The prophet’s denunciations were fiery, so that, according to the priest’s denunciation to the king of Israel, “the earth could not tolerate all his words.” It is not surprising that they tried to remove such a prophet from the kingdom. But when he persistently continued his preaching, then, according to legend, he was beaten. Having been wounded by the irritated Bethel hierarchy, he was carried half-dead to his homeland, so that the prophet himself had to come to the sad conviction that “it is better for the wise to remain silent at this time; for this is an evil time” ( Amos 5:13 ). But if the people did not want to listen to the warnings of the prophet, then they should have received a stronger warning through those disasters that befell the kingdom as predicted by the prophet. At this time, great natural disasters befell the kingdom of Israel, quickly eroding its material well-being. The plague of locusts that swept through the south affected the gardens and vineyards, fig trees and olive trees of Samaria (Amos 4:6). The fields and vineyards were spoiled; the heat burned the seedlings, and hunger fell upon the people. The rain did not fall at the right time in the spring, or it fell partly only in the city, so that the inhabitants of two or three cities flocked to one place to obtain water. The pastures of the shepherds were burned out, and even the forests of Carmel withered away. The ulcer, so common in Egypt, but so rare in Palestine, appeared precisely as a result of the rotting corpses of dead people and dead horses lying all around, as if after a terrible massacre. The whole earth was subjected to a terrible earthquake, which shook the Temple of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. The church at Bethel, like the temple at Jerusalem, with its altar and pillars, the palaces in Samaria, with their ivory ornaments, shook, fell and was partially destroyed (Am. 3:14, 15; 9:1). There were almost three total solar eclipses around this time. One of them was visible in Palestine in 771 on November 8, at 12:55 p.m. This was enough to attract the attention of the prophet, who predicted this: “And it will come to pass in that day, said the Lord God: I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the midst of the bright day” ( Amos 8:9 ). All this, however, was only a harbinger of an even more terrible disaster. Around this very time, that great monarchy rose on the eastern horizon, which a hundred years later became the terrible scourge of Asia. The ancient Assyrian monarchy, which was temporarily inactive due to its internal disorder, now again began to enter the field of conquest. Already during the reign of Jehu her influence began to be felt and he was forced to pay her tribute 233. The destruction of Damascus by Jeroboam II brought the kingdom of Israel into direct contact with Assyria, so that there was no longer any state between them that could serve as a dividing line between them. Far-sighted prophets had already noticed the emergence of this new dangerous power. Amos, although without calling Assyria by name, had already predicted that a people would rise up that would crush the mighty power of Jeroboam from end to end, and would carry the nations one after another into captivity ( Amos 1:2–15, 6:14, 7:17, 9:7–10 ). Hosea exposed the danger even more clearly, sometimes calling the formidable monarchy by name, sometimes speaking about it only under the guise of the king of Jareb, that is, the king of disputes and battles (Hos. 5:13, 10:6). The sensitive ear of the divinely inspired Isaiah had already heard the sounds of the devastating movement of the Assyrian armies, and he predicted their wild warlike spirit, their strange language, the speed of their campaigns, their tireless energy. This was the people who, according to the prophet, “The arrows are sharpened, and all his bows are drawn; The hooves of his horses are like flint; He roars like skimn And he will roar and grab the prey and carry it away, And on that day it will roar at him like the roar of an angry sea, And now there was darkness, grief, and the light faded in the clouds." 234. By making such warnings, the prophets showed how deeply they understood the actual state of affairs, and the truth of their predictions, as well as the correctness of their definition of the actual character of the Assyrian people, is brilliantly confirmed by the latest scientific and historical research. The Assyrian monarchy was indeed the great subject of the thoughts and fears of the peoples in the 8th century BC. It lay in the region of two great rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, far to the east and north-east of Palestine, from which it was separated by the Syrian Desert, extending, like a huge wedge or triangle, almost to the base of the great mountain range extending from Asia Minor to Armenia. Forced by this necessary obstacle to move up the Euphrates before crossing that river into Western Asia, the Assyrian troops could only reach Palestine from the north, and are therefore always spoken of as coming from this side of the world. The original capital of the monarchy lay on the western bank of the Tigris, a few miles south of Mosul, in a place now known as Kale Shergat, and received its name of Assyria from the main deity worshiped by the inhabitants, namely Assur, the “good God.” This name passed from here to the entire country inhabited by the Assyrian people, even after the capital was moved further north, to Nineveh, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, opposite the city of Mosul, at the place where the Great Zab flows into this more significant river. In this region, almost the same one that was known to the Greeks under the name Adiavenes, was the cradle of the future great monarchy, with the Armenian mountains encircling it from the north, the Lesser Zab from the south and Media from the east. Actually, Assyria was, therefore, a mountainous country in the northern and eastern parts; but these hills, covered with oak, sycamore, plum, poplar, sumap and other trees, gradually gave way to plains in the south and west. The climate was comparatively cold in these upper regions and the abundant streams that irrigated them produced rich vegetation in the sultry lowlands. Almonds and mulberry trees, oranges, lemons, pomegranates, apricots and grapevines, as well as melons, apples, pears, plums and cherries, grew successfully in various areas, while at the same time the country abounded in all kinds of cereals, flax and even cotton. Date palms and olive trees grew in the plains, but lemon trees were especially famous. In general, Assyria, however, was deprived of timber. The sculptural works of Nineveh show that in ancient times the country abounded in hares, chamois, various kinds of dogs, oxen, sheep, goats, camels, buffalos, wild asses and lions, and from the bird kingdom - eagles, kites, ostriches, quails and other breeds. The inhabitants belonged, like the inhabitants of Babylonia, to the Semitic branch of the Caucasian race (Gen. 10:11). The language of both countries was the same, and the same, in essential features, was in relation to religion, and the religion of Babylon was older in origin. The Assyrian writing was just a simplified form of the Babylonian writing. Their administration was a repetition of the usual type of eastern despotism, and unlimited power was in the hands of the monarch. In contrast to the mass of the population, the monarch had many wives in his harem, since even natural laws were not able to limit such a great king. But of these, one wife occupied first place, and, as can be seen on the monument of Sardanapal or Assurbanipal, she even sat at the feast with the king himself. At the royal harem, as its guardians, there were many eunuchs, and the chief of them bore the title of rapsaris (2 Kings 18:17). Eunuchs were kept for similar purposes in the harems of great nobles, but they, in addition, were the main representatives of Assyrian art and science and performed the office of scribes, although this latter was also occupied by persons who did not belong to their class. As was the case in other countries of the East, they often achieved high positions in the state. The administration of the province was in the hands of the highest dignitaries, called sagans, or governors, who in the conquered areas also assumed the title of the former rulers, as princes or kings. The highest dignitaries of the state were tartan, i.e. commander-in-chief, rapsak - chief of staff, and rapsaris (Isa. 20:1; 2 Kings 18:17). The entire state was organized on a strictly military footing, and to this the rulers of Nineveh owed the enormous political success that they achieved at the head of such a warlike people. They, however, were not indifferent to art or science, of which they borrowed significantly from the Babylonians. Among them, the study of astronomy and mathematics was especially common, and these sciences were transferred from Assyria to the inhabitants of Western Asia. Their day was divided into hours, with divisions such as minutes and seconds, and they used Babylonian scales, talent, mina and shekel. The Assyrians, more than even the Egyptians, were the teachers of the Greeks not only in architecture, but also in plastic and other arts, and in the artistic processing of metals. Among them were many careful chroniclers of national history, and each king left behind huge chronicles, which recounted the events of his reign. Great attention was paid to the preparation of chronological lists. General literature was not neglected either. Many treatises on language and grammar, on religion, geography, etc. have come down to us. The Assyrians and Babylonians had their own poetry, distinguished by the depth of feelings and religious enthusiasm, and in its rhythmic structure very similar to Jewish psalmody. They even had epic poems, which the Israelites did not have at all. One of them is known under the title: "The Descent of Istara into Hell," and it provides a very curious example of this type of literary productivity of the Assyrians. The religion of these two peoples, so close to each other, was basically the worship of heavenly bodies, but in ancient times it also contained a kind of dualism. In the form in which we see it, it could not have been at first of Semitic origin, because even the Arabs of the desert have nothing of the kind. Their worship of the heavenly bodies, as far as can be seen, is of a completely different kind. The Assyrian religious ideas could therefore have been borrowed from some ancient tribe, apparently of the Turanian type, from which they borrowed their writing - namely, the original inhabitants of Chaldea, whom the Semites made an attack from the south. The deity was depicted among this primitive people in the form of an eight-pointed star and, in accordance with this, the original religion in Babylon and Assyria consisted of the worship of the sun, moon and five planets, from which they had a week of seven days and the very name of these days. Based on the idolization of the forces of nature, the Assyrian religion, like the religion of all Western Asia, was extremely crude and sensual. Everything that the gods of Palestine were guilty of, all this was fully applied to the gods of Nineveh. Unlike most Asian peoples, the Assyrians were an extremely warlike and ferocious people. They revealed this nature even in their field hunts, when they preferred hunting lions and wild buffalos to hunting smaller and weaker animals. The invasion of their troops was like, in the words of the prophet, “a downpour with hail and a destructive whirlwind, like an overflowing flood of stormy waters, plunging the earth with force” (Is. 28:2). Nineveh in the eyes of the Israeli prophets was the “city of blood” (Nahum. 3:2). Captives were sometimes left alive to be subjected to endless hard labor as slaves, but many of them, after a battle or siege, were subjected to the most terrible cruelties, from which the heart involuntarily shudders. As a people they were treacherous, unfaithful and treacherous. No agreement could oblige them, all their rights lay in force, and when their interest required it, they “considered people nothing” (Isa. 33:8). Distinguished by their extraordinary pride, they looked at all others as inferior creatures in comparison with themselves. Over time, thanks to the looted wealth, significant luxury developed in the main centers of Assyria, expressed especially in majestic construction. Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was particularly great, and it became possible to get a true idea of ​​all its wealth and greatness only in very recent times, thanks to excavations carried out in its ruins. Huge mounds of rubbish, far separated from one another, were supposed by some to be within a common wall, but no trace of such a building has yet been discovered, and each hill, apparently, was surrounded by a wall in itself. In each of them, however, are found the ruins of great palaces, the majestic gates of which are guarded by colossal man-headed lions or bulls. Countless rooms in them were decorated with huge alabaster slabs, covered with images of military, civil and religious exploits of the king's triumph, as well as scenes taken from various hunting adventures. The palace of Sardanapalus was enormous. It was at least 350 feet long and almost as wide, with the courtyard in front of it being 120 feet long and 90 feet wide. In cities, church towers rose in ledges, and each ledge was dedicated to a special god. A watchtower rose above everything, from which it was possible to make observations of the celestial bodies. All sources of unlimited wealth and despotic power from century to century were turned to the construction of palaces, churches and public buildings of Nineveh, making it the glory of the entire monarchy. Magnificent gardens, for the pleasure of the monarch and his court or the nobility, varied the monotony of splendor. But the material used for the construction of both majestic and ordinary buildings was so fragile that over time it disintegrated, and the very traces of the existence of cities were swept away. Bricks dried in the sun could last for centuries if they were carefully protected by plaster from the ravages of the weather, but once left to the influence of the weather, they soon turned into shapeless heaps, overwhelming the alabaster slabs of the palaces with their paintings and writing. As a result, under the ruins of Nineveh, many tables made of burnt clay are found, which once stood in the libraries and imperial archives of the Assyrian kings. The great wall that protected the city was one of the wonders of antiquity, because Xenophon, who passed near it, during his retreat with 10,000 soldiers, long after it had been left to decay, says that it was still 150 feet high and 50 feet wide. It was built of limestone to a height of 50 feet, and then of sun-dried bricks. At irregular intervals there were gates, above which stood special towers that served to strengthen the defense. Adjacent to them were barracks for guard soldiers and on each side they were decorated with huge colossal human-headed bulls. The ground inside the gateway was paved with large limestone slabs, on which signs of chariot movement can still be seen. But these huge structures were not the only defense of the city. For this purpose, special canals were dug, which separated the city from the surrounding area and made its siege even more difficult. The Assyrian monarchy had been founded several centuries earlier and its people had already proven their warlikeness and strength; but his weapons did not threaten Palestine until the 9th century BC. In the 14th and 15th centuries, the greatest military monarchy was Egypt, whose troops continually made campaigns through Palestine and Syria, sometimes reaching Nineveh 236. The strength of Assyria, even at this distant time, was significantly weakened by the fierce struggle between Assyria and Babylonia, daughter and mother, a struggle that continued from generation to generation. In the 13th century, the power of the monarchy weakened greatly, but the great king Tiglath-Pelassar I, who reigned from 1120 to 1100 BC, again restored its strength, and at his death Assyria was nominally subject to the entire vast area stretching from the Mediterranean to Babylon, although Palestine remained aloof from this conquest. The rumor about his campaigns spread throughout all countries of Western Asia. But, as often happened in the East, the monarchy, created at the expense of such enormous misfortunes of mankind, fell with his death, and Assyria again became comparatively insignificant. It was during this period that the Davidic monarchy arose, since the decline of this great monarchy on the Euphrates made his Syrian conquests possible. Although during the time of the Jewish king Asa the circumstances of Nineveh somewhat improved and a great king sat on its throne, it was only after some time, precisely not before the reign of Joash, the son of Athaliah, that the Assyrian monarchy again reached a position in which it became possible for it to influence the destinies of the people of Israel. For 200 years, Assyria was cut off from the Mediterranean Sea. But King Assurnazirgabal again paved the way to this sea. Tire, Sidon, Ebal and Arvad brought him rich gifts as a sign of their submission. Then for the first time the gigantic shadow of the new monarchy fell over Palestine, striking its population with a premonition of the terrible fate that had already befallen others. Hemmed in on the east and north, as has been said, by the great mountain range which, under various names, extends from Asia Minor to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea, Assyria had access for its military forces only to the west and southwest. And so, having reached the shores of the Mediterranean Sea through Syria, the Assyrian kings had to direct their forces to the south, where Palestine lay on their way. From all this it is clear that the danger that threatened the chosen people was not only imaginary and the warning speeches of the prophets were not only a rhetorical device of moralizing preachers who deliberately thickened the shadows of the picture in order to have a stronger influence on the morally coarsened heart of the people. No, there really was a terrible danger. Over Palestine and closest to the kingdom of Israel, which lay in the northern half of it, the terrible sword of the formidable conqueror was already raised, from the horrors of whose aggressive cruelties the whole of Western Asia groaned and resounded with cries. And there was something to moan about. The great Assyrian conquerors were distinguished by their extraordinary, one might say, unprecedented cruelty of military law. Possessed by extraordinary pride and considering all the conquered peoples as sacrifices for their gods, they actually made human sacrifices to them in unprecedented quantities, beating and torturing entire masses of captives. Assyrian monuments are filled with images of such scenes from the conquest of the Assyrian kings, before which the heart freezes with horror. These kings were, as it were, deliberate and special servants of death, and with truly incomprehensible gloating they enjoyed all sorts of, the most painful, ways of putting prisoners of war to death. Impalement, flaying of living people, gradual cutting off of members - these and many other cruelties were commonplace and immortalized in inscriptions and monumental images. Since the Assyrian cult, along with bloodthirstiness, was also distinguished by monstrous debauchery, in the conquering activities of the Assyrians inhuman cruelties went alongside bestial lust, and on the monuments the kings more than once proudly declare how they personally dishonored the girls and boys of the conquered peoples. Such and such a conqueror now threatened the kingdom of Israel. The severity of his hand was already known to the chosen people from his previous frequent clashes with the Assyrians; but since these clashes usually did not take place in single combat, but in alliance with other peoples, who instinctively trembled for their existence and therefore rallied for joint action (as was the case under Ahab and Jehu), then although these clashes usually ended not in favor of the allies, however, the weight of the Assyrian hand was not felt directly by the Israelites and they got off with an insignificant tribute. But now, when the surrounding peoples lay ingloriously at the feet of the formidable conqueror, the fate of the kingdom of Israel was completely in the hands of the Assyrians. Of course, it alone could not even think about a successful struggle. The Assyrian conqueror had only to move his hordes - and Palestine would be stained with blood and subjected to all the horrors of the Assyrian conquest, inseparable from devastation, robbery and violence of all kinds. But the hour of the kingdom of Israel has not yet come. The cup of God’s patience had not yet been exhausted to the bottom, and among the people there were still seeds of truth, which, with the greater effort of the moral sense of his best sons, could still sprout and bear fruit. Therefore, it was necessary to remove the already raised sword of the formidable conqueror, and since in this regard all military and diplomatic efforts would have been fruitless, a representative of a religious and moral force emerged from among the people, before which the conqueror, who for the first time felt and realized that there was a force even greater than the strength of his victorious hordes, had to humble himself. This lesson was taught to the Assyrians through the prophet Jonah, whose story represents a striking example of the triumph of the religious and moral principle over the beginning of the brute egoistic force of paganism. When in the kingdom of Israel the people trembled for the inevitable, as it might seem to them, fate of a terrible defeat at the hands of a formidable and cruel conqueror, and when the eyes of politicians in despair turned in all directions in a vain search for protection and patronage, help suddenly came from where the people had already lost the habit of expecting it, but where exactly they should have expected it in the first place. This help came from above, from Jehovah, who, despite the general unfaithfulness of the people, continued to extend His mercy to them, if only for the sake of those few who had not yet bowed their knees before the Canaanite idols. And this help was carried out in an extraordinary way, unparalleled in history. A single unarmed man was put up against a formidable people, who concentrated in themselves all the power of armed paganism, but this man acted as the bearer of religious and moral truth in its purest form, and all the raw power of the pagan world had to bow before this man. Although the pagan world, despite its crude idolatry, was not completely alien to the knowledge of the true God, since the seeds of primitive tradition continued to be preserved here and there among rare righteous pagans, but in general it knew little about the true religion and even less about the fact that its bearer was the insignificant people of Israel in the eyes of the proud conquerors, who occupied a small piece of land. But the pagan world, in the very heart of its political power, had to feel the power of the moral greatness of Jehovah. When the Assyrian conquerors, having plundered all the peoples of Western Asia and from the filled treasures enriched Nineveh, which had become the center of world life with a moral decline inseparable from excessive wealth, amid insane and grossly sensual bacchanalia, they planned to round off their conquests by introducing Palestine into their circle, in this distant and insignificant land “the word of the Lord came to Jonah, the son of Amathite: Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it; for his evil deeds have come before Me.” The prophets had hitherto limited their activities to the chosen people, but now the word of one of these heralds of Jehovah was to be heard in the center of the pagan world. The choice fell on Jonah, as a person who could be more prepared for such a task, or by his very nature could be more capable of carrying it out. According to Jewish tradition, Jonah was the same boy who was once restored to life by the great prophet Elijah during his stay in Sarepta, where he miraculously rewarded the widow with kind hospitality. If so, then he was obviously a proselyte and, moreover, brought up under the guidance of the great prophet 237. As a pagan and a Canaanite by origin, he knew more than any other prophet the state of the pagan world, was familiar with its religious views and its moral state, and as a disciple and follower of Elijah, he at the same time could have the same power of accusatory preaching that distinguished the formidable prophet Carmel. Coming from a coastal city and carrying in his veins the restless blood of an enterprising people, he could visit many surrounding countries, and thus on this side there was a person who was most suitable for the assignment given to him. This assignment was not his first. He had already acted as a prophet before, and moreover, precisely in one international case. During the brilliant period of the reign of Jeroboam II, he was one of the main leaders and advisers of this valiant king in his quest to restore the glory of Israel and, with his inspired advice and encouragement, Jeroboam II “restored the borders of Israel from the entrance to Hamath to the desert sea” (2 Kings 14:25). Since Hamath or Imath (a well-known trading city in Syria) was already in the sphere of influence and even possession of Assyria, it is clear that Jonah had already dealt with the great conquering people even before the present commission. Despite all this, the present command from the Lord was so unexpected and concerned such an extraordinary subject that Jonah’s tried, courageous heart involuntarily became embarrassed and trembled. How will he go to Nineveh, that “city of blood,” where cruelty and the most unbridled debauchery have found a place for themselves on the very throne? What significance could his sermon on repentance have in a city where religion itself, with its proud priests and majestic churches, serves as a teacher of cruelty and debauchery, and where the mob, spoiled by the handout of looted treasures, was riotous, predatory and devoted to all wickedness? At best, he, an unknown newcomer from despised Palestine, will be greeted with ridicule and mockery; and worse could happen. He may be accused of undermining the national religion, of disrespect for those terrible deities, to whose help the power and greatness of Assyria was attributed; the mob, incited by the priests, can seize him and subject him to merciless beatings; the government itself may pay attention to him, which in this case may subject him to execution as a wicked person, an insulter of Assur, and at the same time an Israeli spy. Then the punishment will be simple: he will be impaled, wheeled, or even skinned alive so that his pitiful skin will be hung on the wall of one of the churches of the god whom he most of all, according to the Assyrians, insulted with his preaching. No, he will not go to Nineveh. It is much better to go somewhere to the ends of the world, overseas, and die there in obscurity, than to go to terrible Nineveh on such a dangerous mission. And so, guided by these or similar considerations, Jonah decided to “flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord,” to that distant and rich Phoenician colony of Tartessus, which, as it was already beyond the Pillars of Hercules (in Spain), lay on the most remote outskirts of the then known world. Without thinking twice, Jonah went to the nearest sea city of Joppa, present-day Jaffa, and just found a ship heading to Tarshish. Since the Israelites themselves were not distinguished by any special art of navigation, the ship was undoubtedly Phoenician, calling at this port only on the way of its circumferential voyage, and the sailors themselves were, therefore, idolaters. Jonah, as a passenger, paid the required fare (and probably a considerable one, since in ancient times it took at least three months to travel to Tartessus) and took his place on the ship. The ship raised the sails and, taking advantage of the fair wind, set off on a long journey. Once again Jonah looked back at his native land, and when, as the ship moved away, it merged in the outlines of water and sky and finally drowned in them, the prophet could breathe freely, considering himself free from the terrible task that weighed on his heart. But he was mistaken and had to experience a terrible lesson about how criminal and at the same time insane it is to “flee from the face of the Lord,” from this all-seeing eye, which simultaneously sees the movement of the world’s destinies and the secret thoughts of an individual person. When the ship was already at some distance from the land, a storm suddenly broke out at sea. Near Joppa there is indeed often a sudden storm, which in ancient times was called the “black norther”, due to the fact that it rose from the north, covering the sky with black impenetrable clouds 238 . The sea turned terribly black and swayed. The ship was heavy and the sailors were experienced, but a real storm broke out with unprecedented force. The wind with terrifying force tore the rigging and huge waves furiously threw the ship, breaking its sides. Captured by such a terrible surprise, not only the passengers, but also the sailors were seized with horror, since by all indications “the ship was ready to crash.” There was already a strong leak, and the ship began to fill with water and become heavy. Чтобы хотя сколько-нибудь облегчить его, капитан распорядился выбрасывать в море кладь, но и это не помогало. Then, in the extreme, there was only one hope left - for help from above. Все разноплеменные пассажиры и матросы язычники начали каждый «взывать к своему богу», но и эти вопли и воззвания заглушались яростным ревом и зловещим свистом бури. Но странно, что несмотря на это общее смятение на корабле, Иона спустился во внутренность корабля, лег и спал крепким сном. Измученный душевной тревогой и поспешным путешествием в Иопиию, он теперь, когда, как ему думалось, он навсегда избавился от тяжелого и страшного поручения, возмещал себя за бессонные и проведенные в душевной тревоге ночи. Такая бесчувственность странного пассажира изумила капитана корабля, и он, спустившись вниз, растолкал его и раздраженно сказал: «что ты спишь? Arise, cry to your God; perhaps God will remember us, and we will not perish.” In extreme cases, it was the custom of the pagans to pray to all the gods that were known to them by name, in the hope that at least one of them would respond to the prayer. Since the captain did not yet know who Jonah was, from what country and what faith, he did not mean Jehovah specifically, but forced the passenger to pray to his national God in general. Jonah stood up, and when he saw what was happening, how close the ship was to destruction, the consciousness of his sinfulness immediately appeared in his soul in all horror and a spiritual storm arose, in front of which this “black northerner” meant nothing, furiously striving to devour the ship he had overtaken. Meanwhile, terrible confusion continued to occur on the ship, desperate cries and pleas were heard. The sailors gave up and everyone expected death in mortal horror. Then the thought arose among the passengers and sailors that this terrible storm was probably an expression of the wrath of the gods against some grave sinner from among them. The sea, according to the pagan view, was considered one of the manifestations of the deity and his rage was recognized as a demand on the part of the last satisfaction for himself for some serious crime, and therefore, in such cases, it was customary to resort to finding the criminal in order to get rid of his anger by sacrificing him to the enraged deity. So it was now. The work began immediately. The culprit was recognized by lot, which custom was widespread not only in the pagan world, but was also used more than once among the Israelites (Joshua 7:14; 1 Sam. 10:20). “Let’s go,” they shouted on the ship, “let’s cast lots to find out for whom this misfortune befalls us.” The die was cast and, to the surprise of everyone, it fell on that strange stranger, who, during the general confusion and horror, was indulging in sleep and had just been awakened by the captain. Immediately everyone bombarded him with questions: “Tell us, for whom did this misfortune befall us? What is your occupation and where are you coming from? where is your country and what kind of people are you?”... Then Jonah, to whom it now became clear how insanely and criminally he had acted, deciding to “flee from the face of the Lord,” frankly said that he was “a Jew, honoring the Lord God of heaven, who created the sea and the dry land,” but that he had gravely sinned before his God by not listening to His command and trying to flee from His presence. This discovery filled everyone with fear and reverence for the terrible God of Israel, and since the sea did not cease to rage, the shipmen, not without some embarrassment, again turned to Jonah: “What should we do with you so that the sea will calm down for us?” Having learned that he was not an ordinary person, but a prophet and servant of that formidable Jehovah, about whose deeds in favor of his people wonderful legends were spread everywhere, the shipbuilders did not immediately resort to the usual method of satisfying the angry deity, but found it necessary to ask the prophet himself for advice. But what could the ill-fated prophet, who sinned so gravely and considered his death completely deserved, advise them? With a feeling of complete self-denial, he answered: “Take me and throw me into the sea, and the sea will calm down for you; for I know, he added, that for my sake this great storm has befallen you.” This unparalleled self-sacrifice of Jonah amazed the shipmen even more, and they were imbued with involuntary respect and reverence for the Israeli prophet. Instead of immediately satisfying the sea deity, they made another last desperate attempt - to escape without this. Seeing land on the horizon, they “began to row vigorously” in order to somehow stick to it; but their efforts were in vain. As if to punish them for this resistance, the sea became more and more violent and terrible. Then everyone became even more imbued with fear and reverence for the God of the prophet and cried out to Him: “We pray to You, Lord! Let us not perish for the soul of this man, and let us not impute innocent blood to us; for You, Lord, have done whatever pleased You!” Having offered this propitiatory prayer, the shipmen finally “took Jonah and threw him into the sea,” and to the extraordinary amazement of everyone, “the sea subsided from its fury.” All this amazed the pagan sailors and passengers of different tribes to such an extent that they all “feared the Lord (the God of Israel) with great fear, and made a sacrifice to the Lord, and made vows.” Thus, Jonah’s sin was atoned for not only by his self-sacrifice, but also by the fact that his criminal flight “from the presence of the Lord” involuntarily led to the recognition of the omnipotence of the true God by the pagans. Having got rid of the great danger, the ship moved on on its journey, and the shipbuilders, of course, were now more concerned about reaching the nearest port as quickly as possible and making the necessary repairs to the ship than about Jonah, who, in their opinion, had disappeared forever in the depths of the sea. But the ways of God are inscrutable, and the story of the prophet did not end with death at sea. The ship is usually followed by huge sea monsters - whales and especially sharks, who greedily swallow everything that falls from the ship, and by animal instinct - they always follow the ship more in cases where the latter is in danger of sinking. This was the case in this case as well. And as soon as Jonah was thrown into the sea, he was captured by one of these sea monsters and swallowed by it. What breed this monster actually belonged to is unknown 239 . But in any case, there is no doubt that in the Mediterranean Sea there are many whales and sharks that are capable of swallowing a whole person. Here, of course, the natural objection is that whales themselves have too narrow a throat to be capable of this. But this objection does not stand up to criticism even in relation to whales, since naturalists have certified the existence of a species of whales that have a throat large enough to swallow a whole person 240 . As for sharks, of which there are very many in the Mediterranean Sea, it is undoubtedly known about them that they are capable of swallowing not only a person, but also a whole bull, and a more strange fact is known that these sharks are also capable of throwing the swallowed objects back alive and unharmed 241. Be that as it may, “The Lord commanded a great whale to swallow Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights.” If a whale could swallow a prophet, then the stomach of this sea monster was already more than enough room for a person. How the prophet remained alive in the belly of the whale, without being exposed to the enormous digestive forces of the sea monster, this, of course, can only be explained by a miracle, the participation of which is generally strong and obvious in the story of the prophet Jonah; but even in this case, the testimony of naturalists can serve as an interesting explanation of this story. In the Mediterranean Sea there lives a special breed of whale, which is distinguished by one strange feature. This is the so-called rorqual, i.e. "whale with folds" 242. This peculiarity lies in the fact that under their lower jaw there is a huge bag with folds, into which large objects can be placed without undergoing digestion. Rorquals are sometimes of enormous size, reaching up to ten and a half fathoms in length. With such growth, the bag represents a room from 15 to 20 feet in length, i.e. the room is more than enough for a person. Thus, the sea presents such a variety of monsters that the Almighty Creator, in order to achieve the goal in this case, had only to give his command to a certain breed of whale and the swallowed prophet could rest in its womb for three days and three nights. “And Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the whale, and said: I cried to the Lord in my affliction, and He heard me; from the belly of the grave I cried, and You heard my voice; You cast me into the depths, into the heart of the sea, and the streams surrounded me; all Your waters and Your waves passed over me. I descended to the base of the mountains, the earth blocked me with its barriers forever; but You, Lord my God, will bring my soul out of hell.” This prayer, whether it was uttered by the prophet literally in the belly of the whale, or whether it represents a momentary swarm of thoughts that swept through the soul of the prophet during that terrible interval when he was swallowed up by the depths of the sea and the whale, 243 clearly shows that the lesson taught to Jonah fully achieved its goal. The Prophet, apparently, was imbued with the consciousness of the infinite mercy of God, from whose face he wanted to flee, and now placed all his hope in Him, expressing unshakable confidence that the Lord could not only deliver him from the disaster in Nineveh, but deliver him from the belly of the whale, even “from hell itself.” And this faith was completely justified. “The Lord spoke to the whale, and it cast Jonah out onto dry land.” Waking up from a terrible faint, Jonah saw that he was again on the shore, from which he had sailed on a ship to distant Tartessus, “to flee from the face of the Lord.” And then the word of the Lord came to him again: “Arise, go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it what I commanded you.” Now Jonah no longer thought of fleeing from the face of the Lord, but having recovered from exhaustion, he set off on the long journey indicated to him - to the capital of the Assyrian monarchy. The path from Palestine to the main cities of Mesopotamia was long ago paved not only by various warriors moving with their hordes, but also by peaceful trade caravans, through which the exchange of goods had long been carried out between the rich basin of the Tigris and Euphrates and the coastal countries, right up to the banks of the Nile. And in the history of the Israeli people themselves, this path was not completely unknown. The ancestor of the Jewish people came from the banks of the Euphrates, and after him, relations were more than once maintained between this homeland of the patriarch and his descendants. Therefore, it was not particularly difficult for Jonah to reach Nineveh, and after a few days he was already under the walls of the famous Assyrian capital. At that time Nineveh was in full bloom of its powerful beauty. The looted wealth served as a source for the construction of magnificent palaces and churches, the ruins of which still amaze researchers with their grandeur and vastness. Its fortifications, with their amazing height, stretched over a huge space, so that the entire city occupied an area of ​​“three days’ walk.” It is impossible to determine exactly how much this amounts to. Herodotus, for his part, defines a “day of walking” as 200 stages 244, i.e. about 35 versts, which will be about 105 versts for the entire city, i.e. along a circular line going around the entire city. This vastness of the city is confirmed by its population. The large size of its population can be judged by the fact that at the time of Jonah’s arrival there were “more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who could not distinguish their right hand from their left,” i.e. children under seven years of age. For the entire population, this will amount to at least 6-7 hundred thousand souls of both sexes - a truly great city for the ancient world. Its bazaars swarmed with merchants from all over the civilized world, heavily laden caravans moved through the streets; near the palaces stood detachments of those hordes who were waiting only for the king’s beck in order to move to conquer or exterminate cities and countries. The palaces themselves were huge buildings made of large unbaked bricks with stamps, all kinds of inscriptions and images, from which sometimes the heart, unaccustomed to horrors, must have shuddered. Here is a furious battlefield, where a brutal massacre takes place, ending in the most terrible barbarity of chopping off the members of prisoners, impaling them on stakes, or flaying the skin of living people. And nearby, as if as material evidence of such inhumanity, there are even skins hanging on the walls, human heads sticking out on the spikes of the towers along the walls, or even entire pyramids made of them. Masses of idolaters crowded around the churches, and in the groves adjacent to the churches of Ishtara lived “sacred harlots” who invited passers-by to make a disgusting sacrifice to the disgusting idol through vile voluptuousness. Luxury, cruelty and debauchery were the three main features of Nineveh, and now the unknown prophet of Israel came to this city to preach to its inhabitants about repentance. Not without embarrassment and inner trepidation, Jonah entered the capital of the Assyrian kingdom. Before him was the city on which the fate of the Israeli people depended. As soon as his king said a word, the formidable regiments would betray the entire kingdom of Israel to fire and sword. But even beyond this, Assyria became dangerous and disastrous for the chosen people by its very internal influence. Together with her political dominion, she spread her culture, thoroughly saturated with a cruel and at the same time vile cult. What the sword could not destroy was finally destroyed by the pernicious influence of this cult, and its influence had already begun to show itself in Palestine, where it was under the influence of the Assyrians that immoral service to the goddess of debauchery was increasingly established. To prevent the onslaught of this double destructive influence of the Assyrians on the chosen people was Jonah's main mission. The Prophet entered the city, as one might think, through the northern gate, through which caravans mainly entered. As a student of the great Elijah, he, in all likelihood, resembled his formidable teacher in his appearance - he wore a rough mantle made of sheep's skin, girded with a leather belt; long hair hung in waves over her shoulders; a traveling knapsack and a staff completed the prophet’s appearance. His very appearance should have attracted the attention of the Ninevites, so it is not difficult to imagine how many curious eyes were fixed on Jonah and how many questions were heard from all sides about his origin and purpose of arrival. But the prophet did not arrive to serve as an object of curiosity to the crowd, and immediately began his preaching. It is not known in what language he actually delivered his sermon. The Assyrian language, as the language of the great people of the conqueror, was widespread throughout Western Asia and therefore could have been known to the prophet. But even if he preached in Hebrew, then even in this case his speech could be completely understandable to the Ninevites, since the Assyrian language belonged to the Semitic language, had the closest similarity with Hebrew, similarity not only in grammatical, but also in syntactic structure, so that Assyrian grammar, according to competent researchers, is nothing more than a copy of Hebrew. In the inscriptions one constantly encounters not only words, but also entire sentences that are no different from Hebrew ones. Thus there could be no difficulty regarding language. But his unusual appearance and peculiar accent could only further arouse the attention of the people, who increasingly gathered around Jonah. Meanwhile, the prophet, going around the city, called for repentance everywhere. His preaching was terrible and involuntarily had to make his listeners tremble. He precisely proclaimed that “another forty days, and Nineveh will be destroyed”! Such preachers appeared more than once in the ancient cities of the East, and their preaching always made a stunning impression, for example. the sermon of the famous Jesus, who, walking through the streets of Jerusalem, doomed to death, cried out in a terrible voice: “a voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the holy house, a voice against the bridegrooms and brides, a voice against all the people; woe to Jerusalem!” 245. Given the ancient instability of international relations, with the general rule of law, every city at any time could fear a sudden attack and destruction. Despite all its greatness, Assyria was an artificial edifice, erected only by the hands of bloodshed and violence. The peoples she conquered had no moral connection with her or her monarchs. On the contrary, they were her worst enemies, restrained only by force and the fear of new devastation and bloodshed, and were waiting only for the first favorable opportunity to rebel, retreat, or, going on the offensive, pour out all the fury of their terrible vengeance on the culprit of their humiliation and beating. Therefore, Nineveh, despite the strength of its troops and the formidable inaccessibility of its fortresses, constantly had to fear for its fate, since a new powerful conqueror could emerge, who, using the support of dissatisfied peoples, could defeat the monarchy in a few days and leave no stone unturned in Nineveh itself (as happened later). It was precisely at this time that alarming rumors were heard from the outskirts of the state that among the conquered peoples a dangerous movement had begun to restore their independence, 246 and therefore the formidable sermon of the prophet made a particularly strong impression, and its echoes shook the hearts of all the Ninevites - from the inhabitant of a poor hut huddled at the foot of the city wall, to the king himself, who indulged in all the pleasures of his exceptional position in his brilliant palace. At the same time, the question involuntarily arises: how exactly did the Ninevites look at the prophet’s sermon and why could it make such a strong impression? The newest critics are trying to explain this in their favorite way, namely by reducing the story of Jonah itself to a native Assyrian myth, which supposedly found a unique expression in the biblical book about the prophet Jonah. The Assyrians had a myth about Oannes, who, occupying a place in the long ladder of Assyrian gods, had as his main concern the correction of disasters caused in the world by evil spirits. In appearance, he was a fish-like creature like Ea, with whom he is sometimes identified, and to teach people the veneration of the gods and virtue, he usually came out of the sea. It was this creature that the Ninevites could supposedly identify with the prophet Jonah, especially when he told his wonderful story about how, while preaching in Nineveh, he was thrown out of the sea by a large fish that swallowed him. To the extent that this view does not deny the very reality of the historical event, but only tries to understand the very way in which the prophet’s preaching influenced the Ninevites, this theory is not without a grain of plausibility, and it has already found a place in the research of our domestic biblical scholars. Thus, according to one researcher, 247 there is nothing incredible or offensive for the spirituality of God in the idea that, revealing himself to the pagans, God can reveal himself to them primarily under the form in which one of them thinks of Him; therefore, it is not impossible that the Ninevites understood the appearance of Jonah in accordance with their pagan views. “The story of the great fish that swallowed and cast out the prophet, and of the divine embassy of Jonah in Nineveh, reminded the Ninevites of their ancient religious legends about the fish-shaped Ea-Oannes emerging from the sea to teach people the veneration of the gods, religious and civil laws. And the prophet himself, a stranger speaking with authority, boldly and decisively proclaiming the complete destruction of the Assyrian kingdom for its iniquities and demanding repentance, could easily seem to the pagans to be something more than an ordinary person, perhaps even Ea himself or his son. There is nothing incredible or surprising about this. The people at Lystra cried out about Paul and Barnabas, that they were gods who had come down in human form. They called Barnabas Zeus, and Paul Ermios. And not only the simple, unreasonable and superstitious people, but even the Listrian priest had already brought oxen to slaughter them as a sacrifice, so that the apostles hardly convinced that they were ordinary people (Acts 14:11-23, 15:18). As many as eight centuries earlier, the same thing could have happened in Nineveh. The very name of the prophet, similar to the name of Oannes, could seem significant to them at first glance.” There is nothing impossible in all this, but there could be other reasons that more directly explain the formidable influence of Jonah’s preaching. The East has long been a convenient ground for various preachers. Eastern peoples have always been distinguished by a deep religious and moral meaning, and although this meaning often led to monstrous errors, the very productivity and vitality of these errors itself testifies to the strength of the religious and moral needs of these peoples. This need, of course, manifests itself more strongly the longer it does not find satisfaction, and then any new preacher is capable of causing a whole religious and moral conflagration, as was the case with Buddha and Mohammed. And in precisely this unsatisfied state was the religious and moral feeling of the Ninevites: the vile official cult, as inevitably happens in such cases, necessarily had to outrage the best of them with its unnaturalness, depress them with the consciousness of irreparable sinfulness. This consciousness, which found a place in the souls of the best people, could find an instant echo in the rest of the masses, as soon as a preacher appeared, touching with his fiery word a sore spiritual wound. And so, when a prophet appeared, who with his fiery speech taught lessons completely different from the speeches of depraved paganism, and just corresponded to the general consciousness of religious dissatisfaction and sinfulness, then his preaching should truly burn the hearts of people or, in another prophetic expression, rattle like a hammer breaking rocks. In such a strong excitement, the very religious view of the Ninevites could, at least temporarily, free themselves from the vile cycle of local gods and rise to the height of the idea of ​​a single, omnipotent, all-holy, albeit unknown God, unconsciously living in the human soul (even at the lowest level of its development). It was to this unknown God that the Ninevites could turn with their aching hearts, languishing under the yoke of a disgusting cult that delighted only the flesh and withered the soul. “This appeal of theirs was an appeal to God, which they felt in their hearts; it was the enlightenment of that innate idea of ​​God, which was obscured in them, but not destroyed by their pagan beliefs, and which, after the accusatory sermon of Jonah, which revealed perhaps the most secret and at the same time the most shameful movements of their hearts, woke up mainly, of course, from its moral side, and awakened their conscience. Hitherto lulled by the undemanding demands of paganism, the conscience of the Ninevites, awakening, raised its accusatory voice, and the Ninevites saw how far their life had gone from those ideal demands of it, which, as an expression of the idea of ​​​​the All-Holy God, had hitherto only been vaguely conveyed in their repentant cries and hymns. This state was not only the highest degree of pagan religious consciousness and feeling, for paganism in any case is only the longing of the human spirit for God, and not its very communication with God, not reconciliation with Him, as the state of the Ninevites seems to be according to the book of Proverbs. Jonah and which necessarily presupposes some influence on man from God. It was one of those dark glimpses of Christian, truly religious excitement that should have existed before Christ, since His work embraces people of all times - one of those glimpses about which Tertullian said that the human soul is Christian by nature, and for which the pagan polytheists loved to repeat: God gave, God sent” 249. Finally, and in addition to these general reasons, which acted only on the general religious consciousness of the Ninevites, the latter could also have more direct knowledge of the very God in whose name Jonah preached repentance. If the prophet directly stated that he was sent precisely by Jehovah, the God of Israel, then this statement could not remain indifferent to the Ninevites. On the banks of the Euphrates, where the founder of the Israeli people came from, traces of true knowledge of God have always been preserved. The well-known story of the soothsayer Balaam directly shows a close acquaintance with this knowledge of God. The unfortunate fate of this famous blamer in a clash with the formidable Jehovah undoubtedly also found its chronicle on the banks of the Euphrates, at least among the disciples and followers of Balaam and, of course, contributed to the renewal of old traditional legends about Jehovah as a terrible Avenger God for lawlessness and all untruths. The activities of subsequent prophets also greatly contributed to the spread of knowledge about Jehovah. Such prophets as the formidable inhabitant of Carmel, who with his wandering staff traveled around vast countries, could not help but be missionaries of their God, and the glory of their teaching and miracles spread far beyond the borders of Palestine. This is what we see under Elisha, who already took an open part in international affairs and his name was well known in Syria, as can be seen from the story of Naaman the Syrian. But if it was known in Syria, then there is nothing incredible in the fact that it was also known in Assyria, i.e. on the banks of the Euphrates, where trade caravans were constantly drawn, which in ancient times served as the main means of spreading all sorts of news from one country to another. In the absence of newspapers, this was the only means of disseminating news in ancient times, and it completely satisfied the curiosity of the sons of the East, since news of all the most important events from one country to another spread with amazing speed. And in this case, even in distant Nineveh they could not help but know the terrible significance of the preaching of the Israeli prophets; they could not help but know, for example. after the preaching of Elijah, the whole country was subjected to a three-year drought, this most terrible disaster in the east, a disaster that, as we saw, affected Phenicia, and, perhaps, also Syria, from which it was already not far from Assyria. If now one of these formidable prophets appeared in Nineveh itself, and, moreover, with a terrible prediction in the name of the formidable Jehovah about the impending destruction of Nineveh itself, then, in view of all that has been said, his preaching should have made a stunning impression, which it actually did. “And the Ninevites believed God, and declared a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them.” The hitherto cheerful and carefree city, through which only the voluptuous hymns of the priests, the incessant hubbub of merchants in the squares and the watch trumpets of passing detachments of troops were heard, resounded with desperate cries and lamentations from those penitential psalms that are now read on Assyrian inscriptions. This extraordinary turmoil in the capital came to the attention of the king, and when he learned about the real reason for it, he himself submitted to the general mood: “he rose from his throne, and took off his royal vestments, and dressed himself in sackcloth and sat down on ashes. And he commanded it to be proclaimed and said in Nineveh in the name of the king and his nobles: so that neither people, nor cattle, nor oxen, nor sheep should eat anything, or go to pasture, or drink water, and that people and cattle should be covered in sackcloth, and cry out loudly to God, and that everyone should turn from his evil way and from the violence of his hands. Who knows, the king added in his decree, maybe God will have mercy and turn away His burning anger from us, and we will not perish” ( Jonah 3:6–9) All these external expressions of the repentance of the Ninevites represent precisely those forms of contrition that were common to all the peoples of the ancient east. This is exactly how Job expressed his grief during his plight, David during his flight from Jerusalem, and Hezekiah during the siege of Jerusalem. The peculiarity of the repentant contrition of the Ninevites is only that they extended its expression to animals, and this phenomenon is by no means unprecedented. In the ancient east, with the predominance of a pastoral way of life, man lived closer to the animal world than in modern times, and as a result of this, he more directly extended his internal states to animals. Herodotus says that the Persians, when their commander Masistes fell in the battle of Plataea, cut the hair of the horses and other animals in the camp, indicating that the animals also felt human grief and mourned the loss of the brave Masistes 250. And even now the same idea about the ability of animals to share the sorrow and grief of a person is constantly carried out in the custom, during the burial of the highest military ranks, to dress in mourning their war horses, sadly performing behind the hearse of the dead. The repentance of the Ninevites was so strong and sincere that it was able to prolong God’s patience. Under the influence of Jonah’s preaching, they “turned from their evil way,” and by this evil way one must understand not only their internal lawlessness and wickedness, but also that path of bloodthirsty and predatory conquest, which was their main historical sin and from which the kingdom of Israel was threatened with inevitable destruction. Unparalleled contrition humbled their indomitable spirit, and they temporarily abandoned their intention to defeat and destroy the people from which such a wonderful prophet came. And in view of such repentant contrition of the Ninevites, “God regretted the disaster that he said he would bring on them, but did not bring it” (John 3:10). Meanwhile, Jonah, having gone around all of Nineveh with his preaching and not yet knowing about the decision of God’s mercy, went out of the city and waited to see what would happen to him. When the appointed time came, and the prediction about the destruction of Nineveh did not come true, Jonah, having learned about the mercy of God, succumbed to that petty feeling of self-love, from which even the great righteous are not free from time to time. He was extremely upset by the failure to fulfill his sermon and turned to God with a reproachful prayer, in which he even tried to justify his attempt to flee from the face of the Lord to distant Tarshish, since anyway his preaching turned out to be, in his opinion, unnecessary. But this grief stemmed from petty thoughtlessness, and therefore Jonah himself needed an object lesson, which was taught to him. Outside the city, the prophet found himself under the unbearable rays of the burning sun; to shelter from the heat, he hastily made himself a canopy out of branches and, in extreme exhaustion, sat down under it. But the canopy did little to protect him from the scorching sun, and therefore he was extremely happy when one native plant rose above his head with miraculous speed, giving a thick, fertile shade with its wide foliage 251 . In this cool shadow, Jonah forgot about his grief and slept peacefully through the night. But the next day, when the heat came again, the plant, undermined by the worm during the night, withered as quickly as it had grown, and again the sultry rays of the sun with the scorching eastern wind began to burn the prophet’s defenseless head so much that he was completely “exhausted, and asked himself to die, and said: it is better for me to die than to live.” “Are you really that upset about the plant?” asked his divine voice. “I was very upset,” Jonah answered exhaustedly: “even to the point of death.” Then the Lord taught him a great lesson: “You regret the plant that you did not work on and that you did not grow, which grew in one night and disappeared in one night. Should I not have pity on Nineveh, a great city, in which there are more than one hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot distinguish their right hand from their left, and a multitude of cattle? This testimony of God’s boundless mercy towards all those who fear Him, no matter what nation they belong to, ends the story of the prophet Jonah. In addition to the presented historical side, the story of the prophet Jonah also has a deep educational and prophetic character. The divine Savior himself interpreted that the three-day stay of Jonah in the belly of the whale was a sign that “and the Son of man will be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights” (Matthew 12:40), and the very story of the prophet forever became such a great sign of the providential economy of God that only “an evil and adulterous generation” can demand another sign as proof of this economy. Chapter 36. The Fall of the Kingdom of Israel Temporary freedom from the terrible danger threatening from Assyria, whose proud capital had humbled itself under the influence of Jonah’s wonderful preaching, gave the kingdom of Israel complete opportunity to engage in its internal revival in order to show that this kingdom had not yet completely corrupted in its internal basis and represented the germs of a healthy life. The terrible lesson of only miraculously averting a great danger should have a strong influence on all right-thinking people of the kingdom, and above all on the king, and awaken in them the desire to wake up from their criminal delusion. But unfortunately, the corruption of idolatry had long since infected the deepest foundations of the northern kingdom, so that correction was no longer possible and the entire kingdom was clearly a dead and rotten, no longer worthwhile member in the economy of the kingdom of God. After the tinsel-brilliant reign of Jeroboam II, we do not see the slightest signs of a religious and moral revival. At court, the aristocracy became increasingly stronger, which, completely indulging in unbridled Epicureanism, was solely concerned with limiting the power of the king in narrow class interests. Having largely achieved this under the weak successors of Jeroboam II, she used her unlimited power in order to enrich herself at the expense of the increasingly poor people, from whom she took away fields, vineyards and all other valuable property under various pretexts. The common people groaned from extortion of all kinds and fell into unpayable debts. Throughout the country there was nowhere to find a fair trial and fair punishment, since the courts either suffered general damage and unscrupulously traded justice, selling it to the highest bidder, or were in the hands of self-interested and proud “princes” who decided all matters in favor of their class. This glaring injustice was associated with an increasingly developing vice - devotion to ugly revelry and drunkenness. The nobles constantly threw large feasts, trying to outdo each other in their luxury, and they drank wine with insane immoderation. Already early in the morning, these “princes”, getting out of bed with a sore head from yesterday’s drinking, first of all stretched out their hands to the wineskins, and then again indulged in revelry until late at night, inflaming their base passions with the thunder of voluptuous music. Constant carousing naturally dulled the moral sense, and as a result, the most unbridled debauchery reigned alongside drunkenness. In Samaria itself, such debauchery was not only not considered a vice, but was even sanctified by a distorted cult and was included in a number of some kind of religious duties. The dissolute cult of Baal and Ashtoreth was in full bloom. The kings who followed Jeroboam II not only did not abolish this cult, but also openly patronized it. At the churches there were many church harlots (kedeshot), who shamelessly invited those passing by for a vile sacrifice in the groves of Astarte. Debauchery reached such an incredible degree that not only hardened sinners and sinners openly committed adultery, but also the young female generation, daughters and daughters-in-law indulged in the same shameful act (Hos. 4:13-14). In a word, instead of drawing an edifying lesson from the last great events and taking care of religious and moral correction, the people of Israel seemed to deliberately want to prove that they were already completely unfit for God’s economy and therefore deserved their destruction. In view of all this, the fate of the kingdom of Israel was decided irrevocably, and from that time on it quickly rushed towards the destruction it had prepared for itself. After Jeroboam II, a series of political unrest began, which were a clear harbinger of a fatal end. Jeroboam II died in peace and was buried with royal solemnity. But his son, Zechariah, was the last king to properly occupy the throne of Israel. The depraved nobles once prepared a magnificent feast for him, got the young king madly drunk and carried him away with her debauchery. But the next morning a conspiracy was hatched, and the king was killed. The year of Zechariah's death was probably the year of the solar eclipse already mentioned above. After the murder of Zechariah comes a whole series of kings (Sellum, Menaim, Pakiah, Pekah), who quickly succeed one after another on the throne in Samaria, marking their short-term reign with wickedness and bloodthirstiness, and increasingly weakening their kingdom and preparing its inevitable destruction. But even then the Lord still did not leave His people without moral encouragement and sent prophets who, with their preaching, reminded of the trampled law and with their prophecies warned of the coming wrath of God. Such was the prophet Hosea of ​​this time. He had already clearly predicted the impending captivity, and although he softened this terrible prediction with a prophecy of deliverance, in his prophecies one could hear an inconsolable cry about the impending fate. Addressing the people of Israel, the prophet Hosea spoke thus on behalf of God: “My people have become stagnant in falling away from Me, and although they are called to things above, they do not rise up with one accord. How will I deal with you, Ephraim? How can I betray you, Israel? Will I do to you as I did to Adam? Will I do to you as I did to him 252. My heart has turned in Me; all my pity was kindled." Terrible natural disasters, such as for example, also served as dire warnings to the people. the earthquake that Amos predicted. But it was all in vain. Impiety and untruth filled the cup of God’s patience, and then the Lord allowed the formidable conqueror to put an end to the kingdom of Israel. The Assyrian monarchy was destined to put an end to this ugly political bacchanalia, whose warriors, after a temporary lull, again entered the field of conquest and, as the scourges of God, again moved to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, trampling and destroying everything in their path. In the face of this threatening destruction, the long-standing enmity between the kingdom of Israel and Damascus was involuntarily suppressed, and their kings made another attempt to defend their existence through joint efforts. Having seized the Syrian throne, one adventurer entered into negotiations with Phakay about concluding an alliance for defense against Assyria through an attack on Judea. But the result of this union for the kingdom of Israel was only the acceleration of its final destruction. A few years later, the alliance collapsed, and the kingdom of Israel became defenseless prey to a formidable conqueror. Meanwhile, the Assyrian throne passed into the hands of the energetic Tiglath-Pelassar II, who is called Thul or Feglath-Pelassar in biblical history. At the head of his victorious troops, he set out along the road trodden by his predecessors to conquer Western Asia. Heading first to the West of Lebanon, Phul crushed all opposition here in his campaign. His second army at the same time made an invasion of Gilead, and the main detachment persistently marched towards the south and nothing was able to withstand the irresistible pressure. “Annon of Gaza,” this conqueror proudly proclaims on his monuments, “fled before my troops and sought refuge in Egypt. I took Gaza, and captured its spoils and its gods, and erected a royal image for myself.” The same is said about other places whose names cannot be made out. From Philistia he moved into the wild deserts of the Sinai Peninsula and Arabia, and forced the new queen who reigned there to recognize his power. Phakai was to lose several cities and a significant part of his people captured, although he saved his kingdom for a time by humble recognition of the supremacy of the conqueror. Many of the nobles who belonged to the anti-Assyrian party were taken into captivity as slaves across the Euphrates, with all their wealth. Amos' words came true. The arrogant oppressors of their poor countrymen were exposed and humiliated. The region east of the Jordan now for the first time received a predominant place in the kingdom of Israel, because Pekah was a native of Gilead, and his accomplices from the royal guard, who assisted him in seizing the throne, belonged to the same tribe. The names of two of them have survived to us, and take us back to the Trans-Jordanian history of the times of Joshua and David. But this triumph of the Gileadites was short-lived. The hour has come for punishment for their many sins. The earth was full of “evildoers and stained with blood” (Hos. 6:1; 6:8; 12:11). The curse of God, announced by the prophet for the idolatry of the people, was now beginning to be realized; the hills of the northern tribes, as well as the valleys of Gilead, thundered with the menacing sounds of the deadly weapons of the Assyrian regiments. Cities one after another, in the tribe of Naphtali and near Lake Merom, fell into the hands of the conqueror, and many of their inhabitants, who did not have time to escape from the enemy, were taken into captivity in long lines in Assyria. The entire region at the headwaters of the Jordan was captured as if by a huge net. Smoke from burning settlements darkened the air. The mountain caves were filled with trembling crowds who sought refuge in them to save their lives while the earth was overrun by the army of conquerors. Beyond the Jordan, through the rich meadows and wooded hills of Gilead, the population, in insane fear and with loud cries, fled from the advancing enemy, leaving behind them all their wealth as spoils for the enemies. Despite this, many people were captured and added to those parties of captives who were already sent with a convoy beyond the Euphrates. Almost half of Israel's vast dominions were cut off from the kingdom. Other tribes were brought in to populate the depopulated area. It was precisely this time that “made small the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, the seaside way, the valley beyond Jordan, the Galilee of the heathen” (Isa. 9:1). Samaria itself was saved only by expressing its willingness to pay a tribute of ten talents in gold, a thousand talents in silver, and paid other fines that are now difficult to read in the chronicles. “All this,” says Tiglath-Pelassar on his monuments, “I took to Assyria. The regions belonging to Gilead, Abel and others,” he adds, “to the east of the land of the house of Omri, along and across I annexed throughout their entire territory to Assyria, and placed my commanders over them” 253. Damascus, now deprived of all allies and left alone, was also subjected to a terrible attack. He fought courageously for his existence, but could not withstand the irresistible pressure, and fell after a siege in 733 or 732. His fall was terrible. “I beheaded Razon,” says Phul in his annals; - I besieged and took the palace of Benhadad, his father, built on a high mountain; I took 8,000 citizens, with their property, into captivity; I turned 518 cities of the sixteen districts of the kingdom of Damascus into ashes" 254. The biblical narrator adds that the population was taken to Cyrus, which, according to Josephus, was in Media, but some were settled in Armenia or even southern Babylonia. The strong kingdom of Syria, which had been the bitter enemy of Israel for so long, finally disappeared from among the powers of the world. During his reign, Pekah managed to somehow retain the kingdom, humiliating himself before the conqueror, but his fate was obviously decided, and this was justified under the next king Hoshea, the twentieth and last king of Israel, who, like his predecessors, achieved the throne through regicide. The heavy tribute previously imposed by the Assyrians on the kingdom of Israel lay a heavy burden on the people, and Hosea planned to overthrow this heavy yoke. There was a strong Egyptian party in Samaria, perhaps based partly on the old tradition of Jeroboam I, who found refuge on the banks of the Nile during his exile and brought with him an Egyptian princess, but even more due to the insidious diplomacy of the pharaohs, whose agents in all the courts of Palestine constantly sought an alliance with Egypt and promised their assistance to all who refused to pay tribute to Assyria. In his predicament, Hosea apparently first tried to maintain the favor of the Assyrian king, although at the same time he was secretly already seeking help from the Egyptian Pharaoh So or Sheba, the second king of the Ethiopian dynasty (2 Kings 17:4). Sheba, or, in biblical terms, Zoar, is called “sultan” in the annals of Sargon, and is distinguished from “pharaoh, king of Egypt.” He was in fact a foreign ruler of Egypt, so that under his authority were the Egyptian pharaoh in Tanis and many other small kings who ruled in the Nile valley and delta 255. But Assyrian spies in Samaria reported this treason to their king before it ripened into a rebellion, and the fate of Hosea was sealed. In vain he now tried to be a good and true king, even trying, if possible, to restore the worship of Jehovah. Now it was too late to save his country. The worship of the calf, however, almost ceased, since Phul took the calf from Dan, and the one that was in Bethel was taken by the Assyrians. Wishing, if possible, to revive the old theocracy, Hosea even removed the border guards who blocked the path of pilgrims heading to Jerusalem for worship. But things have already gone too far for the state to be saved. The prophet Amos had not yet spoken about an alliance with Assyria or Egypt, but his successor, Hosea, the same-name of the reigning king, strongly denounced the people for striving for such alliances. But what his crowned co-name could have done differently, humanly speaking, is difficult to imagine, because God’s help was promised only on the now impossible condition of Israel’s sincere return to serving Jehovah. Phul or Tiglath-Pelassar II died in 728 or 727 and was succeeded by Shalmaneser IV. Meanwhile, around this time, thanks to the intrigues of the Egyptian envoys, a defensive alliance was formed against Assyria in Samaria and Tire; Hosea, in alliance with this rich Phoenician city, and perhaps with some other Canaanite principalities, planned to refuse tribute to Nineveh, relying on the very unreliable promise of military assistance from Egypt. To suppress this uprising, Shalmaneser moved to Palestine with his army in 725. Unfortunately for Tire, he aroused fierce enmity against himself in other Phoenician cities, which, in order to take revenge on their rival, even joined the army of the Assyrians. The fleet prepared by these traitors to their country for the conqueror was, however, scattered by the Tyrians, and Shalmaneser was forced to limit himself to the blockade of the courageous capital, which held on its island for five years, so Shalmaneser did not wait for the end of this siege. Meanwhile, a special detachment of the conquering army was sent against Samaria and immediately besieged it. The proud capital of Israel defended itself bravely. Nevertheless, a terrible disaster was bound to befall her sooner or later. Its king Hosea was somehow captured and brought in chains to Assyria, where he remained until his death 256. As the prophet Hosea predicted, the ill-fated king of Israel disappeared like foam on water (Hosea 11:7), and died at dawn (Hosea 11:1). But even without a king, Samaria continued to bravely defend itself, so that it held out for three years. And when Tire and Samaria waged a mortal struggle for their existence with their terrible enemy, Shalmaneser IV died in 722, whether from a court conspiracy or from illness is unknown. He was succeeded by Sargon, a man already about sixty years of age. He never calls himself the son of Shalmaneser, although in the arrogant style of Eastern kings he considers himself a descendant of “three hundred and fifty kings of Assyria.” But whether he was some kind of impostor, or the legitimate heir to the throne, in any case, he was a courageous and worthy man. He filled the world with the glory of his great exploits during the 17 years of his reign 257. Having intensified military operations against Tire, he finally forced it to surrender. Having finished with the proud commercial city, Sargon then directed all the forces of his weapons towards Samaria. And so, under the walls of this city, a desperate struggle followed, which is generally different from the struggle of perishing peoples. But the forces of Samaria could not match the forces of the formidable warrior, and the city finally fell in 722. Fortunately, we have preserved evidence of this great event in the annals of Sargon himself. “I besieged the city of Samaria,” he says, and took it. I took 27,280 citizens captive; I chose 50 chariots for myself from among the chariots taken; I left all the other wealth of the people of this city to my servants to take. I appointed permanent commanders over them, and imposed on them the same tribute as was paid before. In place of those taken captive, I sent there the inhabitants of the lands I conquered, and imposed on them the tribute that I demand from the Assyrians” 258. This evidence from the Assyrian monument is strikingly consistent with the testimony of the biblical historian (2 Kings 17:6). “In the ninth year of Hoshea,” says the biblical narrator, “the king of Assyria took Samaria, and deported the Israelites to Assyria, and settled them in Halakh and in Habor, by the Gazan River, and in the cities of the Medes,” that is, in the wild, elevated region east of the Tigris and north of the Persian Gulf. Then “the king of Assyria transferred people from Babylon, and from Kuta, and from Abba, and from Hamav, and from Sepharvaim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria, instead of the children of Israel.” One passage in the annals of the first year of Sargon's reign, when Samaria fell, almost forms an echo of these words. “Having defeated the king of Babylon, I deported the inhabitants with their property and settled them in the land of Hatti,” that is, in the land of Syria-Israel. In one inscription on one cylinder we then read “Sargon, who subdued the people of Tammud (an Arab tribe in rocky Arabia), and Ibadid Marsiman and Chaiapu, and having killed many of the rest, carried them into a distant land of the house of Omri” (into Samaria) 259 . The chronicles from the seventh year then say: “I subjugated the inhabitants of Tasid, Ibadid Marsiman, Haiapu, the peoples of distant Arva, the inhabitants of the land of Bari, which even the scientists did not know and which never brought its tribute to the king, my father, and resettled those who remained and settled them in the city of Samaria” 260. These records show that the forced removal of the pagans continued for a number of years, the first batch of immigrants, as stated in the 2nd Book of Kings, being taken from Babylonia. In addition to the places mentioned in the chronicles, the Bible also mentions others, conveying additional details. Thus, many of the migrants of both sexes were transferred to the Samaria country from Kuta, apparently a city in central Babylonia; from Abva, located unknown where, and from Hamath or Imath, a famous Hittite-Phoenician city on the Orontes. This rich city, as the Assyrian chronicles report, was taken by Sargon in the second year of his reign, in 721-20. Having chosen for himself 200 chariots and 200 horsemen, he sent the rest of the population to Samaria and other countries, replacing them with people resettled here from distant countries. Such immigrants were transferred even from Sepharvaim, or Sipporis, a city in Babylonia. From the mixture of these nationalities with the pitiful remnants of the Israeli population, that mixed nationality was formed, which later received the name Samaritans. Thus ended the kingdom of Israel. It existed for 257 years and had 20 kings, but not one of them was worthy of his high calling as a representative of the chosen people: all were idolaters, wicked traitors to religion and Jehovah. And the Lord was greatly angry with the Israelites, and cast them away from His presence. There was no one left except the tribe of Judah.” The subsequent fate of the ten tribes was the subject of endless debate. But it can be taken for granted that they died completely, lost among the peoples to whose countries they were resettled. Some of them were settled in the districts already mentioned, others even in Media, where we find them in the time of Tobit, in Rages, near Tehran, in Persia. But the biblical narrator names only those countries to which the bulk of the captives were taken, while many of them were sent even to remote parts of the vast Assyrian monarchy, such as. at Imath, in northern Syria. Many were settled even in Elam and in Babylonia, many were then taken captive to Egypt by the Nile kings, and many, moreover, fled there voluntarily; indeed, in general there was hardly a country along the Mediterranean coast where masses of Israelis in the form of slaves were not ruined or sold. However, many modern researchers see in this testimony the mistake of the copyist, who mixed letters with similar designs (mem instead of kaf), so they find it possible to consider Rehoboam as a 21-year-old youth upon his accession to the throne, which would indeed be more consistent with the further course of affairs. She was the daughter of Hanun, king of the Ammonites. 2 Sam. 10:1. Wed. 1 Sam. 12:24 . 1 Kings 12:11 . The Romans called a scourge studded with sharp metal needles also a scorpion. 2 Sam. 12:20 . That the population of Jerusalem for the most part consisted of Benjamites is evident from Jer. 6:1. In Ezek. 37:16 By the children of Israel are meant the Benjamites. In its entirety, the tribe of Benjamin was included in the northern kingdom under Iboshee (2 Kings 2:9), and the same thing happened after the fall of this kingdom (Ps. 79:2). The bitter enemies of the house of David, Saul, Shimei and Ziba, were also the Benjamites. Nevertheless, part of this tribe recognized Rehoboam, apparently that part of him that lived in and around Jerusalem. See 1 Kings. 12:21 . Am. 3:13; 6:8; 7:2, 5, 9, 16; Os. 12:2. See Volume I, last chapter. About 5,000 rubles (1889). In Assyrian inscriptions Samaria is usually called Samirina. Josephus, Antiq. vin, § 13, 1, 2. C. Apion. I, 18. Mövers, Phenicicrs II, 344. It is not without interest to note that the Egyptian artist reproduced with amazing accuracy the most characteristic features of the Jewish type. Some of the cities on the list are, of course, in Judea, but some are also in the region of the ten tribes, which Susakim, one might think, should have spared, since Jeroboam was his ally and friend. But the difficulty is resolved by the fact that these last peas, as it turns out, were either Levitical or Canaanite, and from this we can conclude that Jeroboam did not immediately take possession of his entire future kingdom.” The Levites appeared to be holding out against Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:13), and the remnants of the Canaanites were probably making a last ditch attempt at independence. Zarai, an Ethiopian by birth, was the king of the XXII dynasty; he is identified with the pharaoh, whose name on the monuments reads Ozorkon or Ozorton (according to Manetho). On the other hand, in Ethiopia at that time there reigned a king whose name is also consonant with the name of Zarai, namely Azerkh-Amar (from which the Jews, with their tendency to abbreviate their own names, could easily make Zarai or Zera. The Ethiopians, as is known, at that time made a strong attack on Egypt. See Lenormant, Histoire, t. II, p. 346 et seq. Jezreel lies on the divide between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan. The entire plain of Ezdrilon, with Mount Carmel, was visible from this city to the west, and to the east the eye reaches the oasis of Bethshan, on the Jordan. Two springs, one twelve and the other twenty minutes from the city, flow from the base of the mountains of Gilboa, which descend into a valley near the city, towards the east. 1 Kings 17:1; 17:15. Wed. 1 Kings 10:8. Mar-Eliya (Lord Elijah) is a common name throughout Lebanon. for eminent and sacred heights. Josephus, Antiq. VIII, 13, § 4. Some, instead of orebim - “crows”, read arbim - “Arabs”. But such a change cannot be allowed, since it does not find confirmation in the most ancient manuscripts. 1 Kings 21:16. The Greek translation 70 presents Ahab's state of mind somewhat differently. According to this idea, Jezebel’s criminal deed outraged even Ahab’s dark conscience. Having learned about the vile murder of an honest Israeli, he “torn his clothes, put on sackcloth,” and only when he had already suppressed the voice of his conscience in himself, “rose up” to go to Naboth’s vineyard and take it over. The word “Syria” was originally formed from the abbreviation of Assyria, and in its broad sense was equivalent to Aram, that is, the entire vast region bordering the great Taurus mountain range and stretching from Asia Minor to the north, to the Euphrates to the east and Arabia to the south. In this agreement, of course, the square or street itself. An explanation of such a treaty may partly be found in the condition imposed on Constantinople by Sultan Bayazet, namely, that the Turks should have a special square or street in that city in which they could live, having their own judge and freely practicing their religion and laws. As a result, many Turks actually went to live in Constantinople. On a monolith found in Kurka. It is translated by Sayce, Records of the Past, I, 99, 100; Menant, Annales de Rois d'Assyrie, p. 112. It is unknown which tribe. The very expression of the original: “get up, go,” in 2 Kings. 1:3 seems to indicate that the prophet had to travel a considerable distance along the road leading to Jerusalem. Tristram, Land of Moab, p. 70 2 Kings 2:25; 5:3, 9; 6:32ff; 13:14. 2 Kings 4:8, 10. Furrer says that hospitality continues to exist in this village, and that he was shown the most cordial kindness there. Wanderungen, b. 266. See also Thomson, Land and Book, p. 160. 2 Kings 4:13; 5:8; 6:9, 21, 32; 7:1; 8:4; 9:1; 13:14. There is one coin in the British Museum which apparently dates specifically to the time of Jehu, showing that in his time Samaria already had a mint. The letters on it are very similar to the letters of the Moabite Stone, although they are made much more accurately. Jehu himself is depicted standing on a “winged chariot,” and his name appears on the edges of the coin above his head. It is interesting to note that Shalmaneser II, in calling Jehu on his obelisk “the son of Omri,” i.e., a member of his dynasty, made a gross historical error, showing that he was more concerned about the thunder of his weapons than the accuracy of the historical inscriptions on his monuments. Os. 2:8, 17, 4:13, 15, 9:2, 15, 12:11; Am.4:4. Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, p. 613. Cm. Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, II, 365. Such a campaign was made by the famous Egyptian warrior, pharaoh of the 18th dynasty Thothmes III. In 2 Kings 14:25 Jonah is called a prophet from Gethhepher, i.e. city that lay in the tribe of Zebulun, trace. in Galilee. (John 12:52). This city could have become his second homeland as a result of his relocation here with his mother after converting to Judaism. Josephas, V. I, ΙΙΙ, 9, 3, μελαμβόρείον – “black north wind.” The Hebrew original simply says, “big fish.” The Greek translators convey this expression with the words “big whale” (χητος μεγαλος), but the Greeks also called “whale” any big fish, just as the same word is vaguely used in the popular language of various peoples of the present time (as, for example, in Russian). The so-called Physeter Catodera, according to Linnaeus’ terminology, Cachalot Macrocephalus according to Cuvier. The English naturalist T. Beale, who specially studied this breed of whale, directly says in his special study about this whale (Observations on the Spermaceti Whale, London, 1839) that “the throat of this whale is a passage large enough to swallow a whole person, and in this respect this breed presents a striking contrast with the ordinary bowhead whale.” (p. 294). The existence of this breed of whales in the Mediterranean Sea was undoubtedly proven by Cuvier, in his Rogne Animal, vol. 1, p. 342. This feature is predominantly distinguished by the Carcharidae shark breed living in the Mediterranean Sea. See Pusey, Minor Prophets, Introd, to Jonah, p. 257, 258, According to Cuvier Rorqualus Mediterraniensis. From the experience of persons exposed to the danger of drowning, it is known that during drowning the soul instantly experiences many thoughts and feelings, rushing through consciousness with extraordinary speed and vividness. After getting rid of the danger, all these thoughts and feelings are easily reproduced again. In accordance with this experience, some think that Jonah’s prayer was said precisely at the terrible moment between falling into the waves and being swallowed up by a whale. But there is nothing difficult in the literal understanding of the expression: “I prayed from the belly of the whale.” Negodotus, IV, 101. Elsewhere, however, he defines 150 stadia, which would be 25 versts, therefore 75 versts for the circumference of the city. The extreme vastness of ancient cities was given by the fact that their boundaries usually included large expanses of empty land - for crops and pastures, gardens and vegetable gardens - in case of siege by enemies. Joseph. Bell. Jud. v, 5, 3. Schrader, Keilinschriften, 124 et seq. A. P. Smirnova, in his article “Repentance of the Ninevites”, in the magazine “Readings of the General Love Spirit. Enlightenment.” 1872 A striking historical example of pagan semi-conscious faith in the true God under the guise of an “unknown God” was represented by a famous monument in Athens, with the inscription: “to the unknown God” (Acts 17:23). I. Solovyov, About the book of Jonah Ave., Moscow 1884, pp. 318, 319. Herodotus IX, 24, cited. in Solovyov, op. op. page 326. What kind of plant it actually was is unknown. Some refer to pumpkin, ivy, and others identify it with the Egyptian kiki plant (Hebrew kukaion), which is characterized by amazing rapidity of growth and reaches a height of from 8 to 12 feet, giving good shade. Despite its tenderness, it disappears as quickly as it grows. See Solovyov, uk. op. pp. 216–220. Adama and Seboim are cities that perished along with Sodom and Gomorrah. Schrader, Keilinschriften, 149. Lenοrman, Histoire Ancienne, III, 350–1. Lenormand thinks that he was summoned to Nineveh to justify himself in treason, and, since he did not dare disobey, upon his arrival he was captured and thrown into prison. Histoire Ancienne, II, 354. He reigned from 722 to 705. You might be interested in: