092. LXIV. The Decline Of The House Of Ahab
§ LXIV. THE DECLINE OF THE HOUSE OF AHAB
1. The alliance against Aram (1 Kings 22:1-4). Then for three years they remained at peace, without there being war between Aram and Israel. But in the third year, when Jehoshaphat the king of Judah had come down to the king of Israel, the king of Israel said to his servants, Do you know that Ramoth in Gilead belongs to us, yet we sit still instead of taking it from the king of Aram? And he said to Jehoshaphat, Will you go with me to fight against Ramoth in Gilead? And Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, I am as you, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.
2. Encouraging message of the official prophets (1 Kings 22:5-8). Jehoshaphat also said to the king of Israel, Inquire at this time, I pray, for the word of Jehovah. Then the king of Israel gathered the prophets together, about four hundred men, and asked them, Shall I go to fight against Ramoth in Gilead or shall I forbear? And they said, Go up; for Jehovah will deliver it into the hand of the king. But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no other prophet of Jehovah, that we may inquire of him? And the king of Israel said, There is another by whom we may inquire of Jehovah, Micaiah the son of Imlah, but I hate him; for he prophesies for me nothing good, but only evil. And Jehoshaphat said, Let not the king say so.
3. Their prediction of victory (1 Kings 22:9-12). Then the king of Israel called an eunuch and said, Bring quickly Micaiah the son of Imlah. Now while the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah were sitting each on his throne, clad in his robes of state at the entrance of the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying before them, Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made for himself horns of iron and said, Thus saith Jehovah, ‘With these shalt thou push the Arameans until thou hast destroyed them!’ And all the prophets prophesied the same saying, Go up to Ramoth in Gilead; for Jehovah will deliver it into the hand of the king.
4. Micaiah’s prediction of defeat (1 Kings 22:13-17). And the messenger who went to call Micaiah said to him, See, now the prophets have with one consent promised good fortune for the king; therefore speak the same as they all do and prophesy good fortune. But Micaiah said, As Jehovah liveth, I will speak what Jehovah saith to me. And when he came to the king, the king said to him, Micaiah, shall we go to Ramoth in Gilead to fight or shall we forbear? And he answered him, Go up and prosper; and Jehovah will deliver it into the hand of the king! But the king said to him, How many times shall I adjure you that you speak to me nothing but the truth in the name of Jehovah? And he said, I saw all Israel scattered upon the mountains, as sheep that have no shepherd. And Jehovah said, ‘These have no master; let each of them go home in peace!’
5. The lying spirit within the official prophets (1 Kings 22:18-23). And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, Did I not tell you that he would prophesy no good concerning me, but evil? And Micaiah said, Therefore hear the word of Jehovah: I saw Jehovah sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And Jehovah said, ‘Who shall delude Ahab so that he will go up and fall at Ramoth in Gilead?’ And one proposed one thing and another another, until there came forth a spirit and stood before Jehovah and said, ‘I will delude him.’ And Jehovah said to him, ‘By what means?’ And he said, ‘I will go forth and become a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Thereupon he said, ‘Thou shalt delude him and shalt succeed also! Go forth and do so.’ So behold, Jehovah hath now put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets, since Jehovah hath determined to bring evil upon you.
6. Micaiah’s imprisonment (1 Kings 22:24-28). Then Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah came near and struck Micaiah on the cheek and said, Which way did the spirit of Jehovah go from me to speak to you? And Micaiah said, Indeed, you shall see on that day, when you shall go from one chamber to another to hide yourself. Then the king of Israel said, Take Micaiah and carry him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son, and say, ‘Thus the king commands, “Put this fellow in prison and feed him with a scanty fare of bread and water until I return in peace.”’ And Micaiah said, If you indeed return in peace, Jehovah hath not spoken by me.
7. Ahab’s disguise (1 Kings 22:29-29). Then the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah went up to Ramoth in Gilead. And the king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, I will disguise myself and go into the battle, but you can put on your robes. So the king of Israel disguised himself and went into the battle. Now the king of Aram had given orders to the thirty-two commanders of his chariots, saying, Fight with neither small nor great, except only with the king of Israel. Accordingly when the commanders of the chariots saw Jehoshaphat, they said, Surely, it is the king of Israel, and they surrounded him to fight against him, but Jehoshaphat cried out. Therefore, as soon as the commanders of the chariots saw that it was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him.
8. His fatal wound (1 Kings 22:34-53). But a certain man drew at a venture and smote the king of Israel between the attachments and the coat of mail. Therefore he said to the driver of his chariot, Turn about and carry me out of the army; for I am severely wounded. And the battle increased that day, and the king was propped up in his chariot against the Arameans until evening, and the blood ran out of the wound into the bottom of the chariot. But at evening he died. And toward sunset the cry went throughout the army, Each to his city and each to his land, for the king is dead! So they came to Samaria and buried the king in Samaria. And when they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, the dogs licked up his blood, and the harlots washed themselves in it, just as Jehovah had declared.
9.Résumeof his reign (1 Kings 22:39-40). Now the other acts of Ahab, and all that he did and the ivory house which he built and all the cities that he built, are they not recorded in the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? So Ahab slept with his fathers and Ahaziah his son became king in his place.
10. Ahaziah’s policy (1 Kings 22:51;1 Kings 22:53). Ahaziah the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned two years over Israel. And he served Baal and worshipped him, and provoked to anger Jehovah, the God of Israel, just as his father had done.
11. Ahaziah’s embassy to Ekron (2 Kings 1:2-4). Now Ahaziah fell out through the lattice in his upper apartment in Samaria, and lay sick. Then he sent messengers and commanded them, Go, inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron, whether or not I shall recover of this sickness. But the messenger of Jehovah said to Elijah the Tishbite, Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria and say to them, ‘Is it because there is no God in Israel, that ye go to inquire of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron?’ Now therefore thus saith Jehovah, ‘Thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou hast gone up, but thou shalt surely die.’ Then Elijah went away.
12. Report of the embassy (2 Kings 1:5-8). And when the messengers came back to him, he said to them, Why have you returned? And they said to him, A man came up to meet us and said to us, ‘Go back again to the king who sent you and say to him, “Thus saith Jehovah: Is it because there is no God in Israel that thou sendest to inquire of Baal-Zebub the god of Ekron? Therefore thou shalt not come down from the bed whither thou hast gone up, but shalt surely die.”’ And he said to them, What kind of man was he who told you these things? And they answered him, A man clad in a skin and girt with a leather girdle about his loins. Then he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite!
13. Jehoram’s policy (2 Kings 3:1-2). So Ahaziah died according to the word of Jehovah which Elijah had spoken. And Jehoram the son of Ahab became king over Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Je-hoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years. And he displeased Jehovah, but not as did his father and mother, for he put away the pillar of Baal that his father had made.
14. Mesha’s rebellion (2 Kings 3:4-5). Now Mesha king of Moab was a sheepmaster; and he rendered regularly to the king of Israel a tribute of a hundred thousand lambs and the wool of a hundred thousand rams. But after Ahab died, the king of Moab rebelled against the king of Israel.
15. Perplexity of the invading kings (2 Kings 3:6-12). And King Jehoram went out of Samaria at that time and mustered all Israel. Then he proceeded at once to send to Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, saying, The king of Moab has rebelled against me; will you go with me to fight against Moab? And he replied, I will come up; I am as you, my people as your people, my horses as your horses. And he inquired, Which way shall we go up? And he answered, By the way of the Wilderness of Edom. So the king of Israel went with the king of Judah and the king of Edom. And when they made a circuit of seven days’ journey, the army and the beasts that followed them had no water. And the king of Israel said, Alas! for Jehovah hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab! But Jehoshaphat said, Is there no prophet of Jehovah here that through him we may inquire of Jehovah? And one of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah. And Jehoshaphat said, The word of Jehovah is with him. So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.
16. Elisha’s prediction and its realization (2 Kings 3:13-20). And Elisha said to the king of Israel, What have I to do with you? Go to the prophets of your father and to the prophets of your mother! But the king of Israel said to him. No; for Jehovah hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hand of Moab. And Elisha said, As surely as Jehovah of hosts liveth, whose servant I am, were it not that I have regard for the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would pay no attention to you. But now bring me a minstrel. And whenever the minstrel played, the power of Jehovah came upon him. And he said, Thus saith Jehovah, ‘I will make this torrentbed full of cisterns.’ For thus saith Jehovah, ‘Ye shall not see wind neither shall ye see rain; yet this torrent-bed shall be filled with water, so that ye yourselves together with your army and your beasts shall drink. But since this is only a slight thing in the sight of Jehovah, he also will deliver the Moabites into your hand. And ye shall smite every fortified city and fell all the good trees and stop up all the springs of water and destroy with stones all the good cultivated land.’ Accordingly in the morning, about the time when the offering is presented, water came suddenly from the direction of Edom, so that the country was filled with water.
17. The victory over the Moabites (2 Kings 3:21-25). Now when all the Moabites had heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, they gathered together all who were able to bear arms and upward, and stood on the border. But in the morning early, when the sun had risen on the water, the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood. And they said, This is blood! The kings have surely fought together and they have smitten one another. Now therefore, Moab, to the spoil! And when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose up and smote the Moabites, so that they fled before them; and they went forward smiting the Moabites as they went. And they kept on destroying the cities; on all the good cultivated land they cast each his stone, until they filled it; all the springs of water they stopped up, and felled all the good trees, and they harried Moab until her sons were left in Kir-hareseth, and the slingers surrounded and smote it.
18. Desperate straits of the king of Moab (2 Kings 3:26-27). But when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too fierce for him, he took with him seven hundred men, armed with swords, to break through against the king of Edom, but they could not. Then he took his eldest son, who was to reign in his place, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall. And great wrath came against Israel, so that they departed from him and returned to their own land.
I. The Advance of Assyria. Henceforth Assyria becomes more and more the determining factor in the politics of southwestern Asia. The contemporary Assyrian and Moabite inscriptions indicate that the biblical extracts from the personal memoirs of Ahab, Elijah and Jehu give only a fragmentary picture of the real course of Northern Israel’s history. The great Assyrian conqueror, Shalmaneser II, records in his annals a campaign in the year 854 B.C. into central and southern Syria. At Karkar on the River Orontes, twenty miles north of Hamath, he was confronted by the allied armies of Syria. His detailed account sheds contemporary light upon conditions along the Mediterranean seaboard: “1,200 chariots, 1,200 horsemen, 20,000 men of Dad’idri (Hadadezer, Ben-hadad II), of Damascus; 700 chariots, 700 horsemen, 10,000 soldiers of Irhulini of Hamath; 2,000 chariots, 10,000 soldiers of Ahab of Israel; 500 soldiers of Guai; 10,000 soldiers of the land of Muçri; 10 chariots, 10,000 soldiers of the land of Irkanat; 200 soldiers of Matinu-baal (Mattan-baal) of Arvad; 200 soldiers of the land of Usanata; 30 chariots, 10,000 soldiers of Adnu-bali (Adoni-baal) of Shiana; 1,000 camels of Gindibu of Arba; . . . 1,000 soldiers of the Ammonite, Basa son of Ruhubi (Rehob); these twelve kings he (i.e., Irhulini) took to help him; for battle and combat they advanced against me. With the exalted succor, which Asshur, the lord, rendered, with the mighty power, which Nergal, who marched before me, bestowed, I fought with them. From Karkar to Gilzan I effected their defeat; 14,000 of their troops with weapons I slew; like Adar (the storm-god) I rained down a flood upon them; I scattered their corpses; the surface of the wilderness I filled with their many troops; with weapons I caused their blood to flow. . . . I took possession of the River Orontes. In the midst of that battle I captured their chariots, their horsemen and their teams.”
It appears from this record that Ben-hadad of Damascus furnished the greater number of fighting men, although Ahab, perhaps as a result of his previous victories over the Arameans, was able to send a larger number of chariots. While the Assyrian king claimed that he won a sweeping victory, the result was by no means decisive. Hamath in the north met the chief brunt of the Assyrian attack, and Damascus seems for the time to have escaped invasion. The inscription is especially significant, for it contains the earliest reference in Assyrian annals to an Israelite king. For the first time, also, the Hebrew warriors met face to face the Assyrian foes who were destined for over two centuries to determine the course of Israel’s history.
II. Micaiah and the Four Hundred False Prophets. As soon as the Assyrian invader retired, the old feud between Damascus and Northern Israel was revived. The contest was now for the possession of the city of Ramoth in Gilead, east of the Jordan, which was the natural eastern outpost of Israel and commanded the important highway of trade from Damascus to the port of Elath on the Red Sea and on to Arabia. Originally Ramoth had been held by the Israelites; but apparently in the days of Omri it had been captured by the Arameans. It was among the cities ceded by Ben-hadad I after his defeat and capture by Ahaz at the battle of Aphek. To strengthen his forces, Ahab summoned his ally, and possibly at this time vassal, Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to join him in the campaign. Following the long-established custom, the king of Judah demanded that they should first consult the prophets of Jehovah regarding the outcome of the campaign. The prominence of the prophets at this time in Northern Israel is shown by the fact that Ahab is able at once to summon about four hundred. In the name of Jehovah these official prophets predicted victory with such unanimity that Jehoshaphat’s suspicions were aroused. It is evident in the light of the sequel that they were a body of prophets, apparently, like the prophets of Baal, connected with the royal sanctuaries and supported either directly or indirectly by court favor. Here again the indirect influence of Baalism may be recognized. Although they prophesied in the name of Jehovah, the God of Israel, it is evident that they were dominated by mercenary motives. Their presence shows how deep seated was the religious degeneracy against which the true prophets, like Elijah and Elisha, struggled. The incident also brings to the front, for a brief instant, another true prophet, who spoke not to secure royal favor, but as his deepest convictions dictated. Ahab’s reference to him indicates that Micaiah, like Elijah, found little to commend and much to condemn in the character and policy of the king.
It was a striking scene when this unpopular prophet was brought into the presence of the allied kings of the north and the south and, in the face of the definite predictions of the four hundred royal prophets, declared that only calamity awaited the king and people of Israel. The sarcastic prediction of success with which Micaiah introduced his prophecy, revealed his supreme contempt for his mercenary fellow prophets, and for the king who was ready to sacrifice even truth and religion for the realization of his selfish policy.
III. The Prototype of Satan. To confirm his prediction Micaiah uttered a parable which dramatically set forth the motive which actuated the false prophets. The heavenly scene thus pictured is strikingly similar to that presented in the opening chapters of the book of Job. Jehovah sits on his throne with angelic beings about him. The occasion is a divine council, corresponding to that at which the kings of Israel and Judah were then presiding. Jehovah’s disapproval of Ahab and his acts is implied by the question of how the king may be lured on to his ruin. Different counsels are suggested, until finally a certain spirit comes forth and proposes that Jehovah put a lying message in the mouth of his prophets. The proposal meets with the divine approval, and the spirit is commissioned to go forth and carry out his plan.
Here is found the first allusion in Israel’s history to a heavenly being whose rôle corresponds in part to that of the Satan of later Jewish belief. He is still an accredited member of the heavenly hierarchy and his act meets with full approval, and yet he manifests a zeal in misleading mankind which is in many ways akin to that attributed to Satan in later Jewish thought.
Although the story was clearly intended by Micaiah to be a dramatic illustration of his message, it would have been meaningless to his hearers were not the conceptions of Jehovah and of the angelic beings, which it reflects, already firmly fixed in the popular mind. The roots of these beliefs may be traced in the early Semitic mythology. The modifications are due to the influence of Israel’s faith, which attributed to Jehovah a transcendent position, far above all other heavenly beings. The incident discloses that broad underlying current of popular belief against which the true prophets of the latter day set their faces in their divinely inspired endeavor to proclaim the one supreme God of justice and love.
Like Jeremiah and other true prophets Micaiah was obliged, for his true speaking, to suffer persecution and indignity at the hands of his false brethren, and imprisonment at the command of the king; but his action shows that at this critical period in Israel’s history Elijah and Elisha did not stand entirely alone.
IV. Ahab’s Death. Following his own desire and the counsel of his false prophets, Ahab went forth to battle; but he bowed before Micaiah’s prediction so far as to disguise himself. Ahab’s importance as a commander and leader is indicated by the orders of the Aramean king to his captains that they direct the attack solely against the king of Israel. Jehoshaphat narrowly escaped falling a victim to this command. Ahab, however, was mortally wounded by a chance arrow; but with marvellous strength and courage he fought throughout the day, propped up in his chariot. When at evening he died and the news spread throughout his army, each man returned to his native town, and the Arameans were left in possession of Ramoth in Gilead.
Thus died on the field of battle the most active and energetic warrior who ever sat on the throne of Northern Israel. Ahab’s courage in battle and his sagacity as a diplomat are unquestioned; but his ambition and his attitude toward his subjects were those of a tyrant. His latter days witnessed the beginning of the decay of that kingdom for which he had sacrificed the nobler religious ideals of his race. His supreme mistake was in trampling upon the liberties of his subjects and in disregarding Jehovah’s claim to the complete and absolute loyalty of his people. The good is often the enemy of the best. In the pursuit of a worthy, but not the noblest ambition revealed to his race and age, Ahab sinned and brought ultimate disaster upon his house and nation.
V. The Reign of Ahaziah. Calamities in quick succession pursued the house of Ahab. Ahaziah, who succeeded him, suffered a severe accident. Tradition states that this son of Jezebel and Ahab sent messengers to consult Baal-Zebub the god of Ekron, regarding his recovery. In connection with this mission, Elijah for the last time appeared in Israel’s political history to protest against Ahaziah’s apostasy and to predict the death of the king, which speedily followed.
VI. The War Against Moab. Little is recorded regarding Jehoram, the son of Ahab, who succeeded his brother Ahaziah. His reign must have been short; for contrary to the chronology of Kings, which attributes fourteen years to the reigns of Ahaziah and Jehoram, but twelve years elapsed between the time when, in 854 B.C., Ahab fought at Karkar and 842 B.C. when Jehu, who exterminated the house of Omri, paid tribute to the king of Assyria. Evidently the war with the Arameans continued; for at the time of his death Jehoram had been wounded in an engagement at Ramoth in Gilead. The chief event of his reign appears to have been a campaign against the Moabites. The contemporary inscription of Mesha, the Moabite king (cf. § LXIIiii), states definitely that the Israelites retained possession of Moab for forty years after its capture by Omri. It also gives a vivid description of the recapture of the northern Moabite cities by Mesha; of the putting to death of the Hebrew colonists in the name of the Moabite god, Chemosh, and of the fortification of these northern border towns: “And I fortified Baal-meon; and I made in it the reservoir; and I fortified Kirjathaim. And the men of Gad had occupied the land of Ataroth from of old; and the king of Israel built Ataroth for himself. And I fought against the city and took it. And I slew all the people; the city (became) a gazing-stock to Chemosh and to Moab. And from there I brought the altar-hearth of Dodoh (?); and I dragged it before Chemosh in Kerioth; and I caused the men of Sharon (?) to dwell there, and also the men of . . .
“Then Chemosh said to me, ‘Go and take Nebo against Israel. So I went by night and fought against it from the break of dawn until noon, and I took it and slew them all—seven thousand men and women and . . . female slaves—for I had devoted it to Ashtar-chemosh. And I took from there the altar-hearths of Jehovah, and dragged them before Chemosh. And the king of Israel had fortified Jahaz, and occupied it while he fought against me. But Chemosh drove him out before me. I took two hundred men of Moab—all its poverty-stricken citizens—and I brought them into Jahaz and took possession of it, to add it to Dibon.
“I fortified Karhoh, the wall of the forests and the wall of the acropolis. And I built its gates; and I built the royal palace; and I constructed the sluices of the reservoir for the water in the midst of the city. And there was no cistern in the midst of the city, in Karhoh; so I said to the people, ‘Each of you make a cistern in his own house.’ And I cut the trenches for Karhoh with the help of the prisoners of Israel.
“I built Aroer, and I made the highway by the Arnon. I rebuilt Bethbamoth, for it had been overthrown. I rebuilt Bezer, for it was in ruins, (with the help of) fifty men of Dibon, for all Dibon was obedient. And I reigned over a hundred (chiefs) in the cities which I added to the land. And I built Medeba and Beth-diblathaim and Beth-baal-meon.” The campaign recorded in the popular Elisha stories evidently followed the Moabite rebellion recorded in the Mesha inscription. Again Jehoshaphat of Judah joined. his forces with those of his kinsman Jehoram (or Joram). To avoid the fortified cities in the north, the campaign was carried around the southern end of the Dead Sea. Elisha figures as the prophetic adviser of the allied kings. When their armies were threatened, because of lack of water in the barren region to the south of the Dead Sea, Elisha is represented as predicting, while in a state of ecstasy induced by music, that they should have an abundant supply of water and should overrun the land of the Moabites. Apparently the next morning, as the result of a heavy fall of rain in the uplands of Edom, the watercourses were filled with water as the prophet had predicted. The Moabites, misinterpreting natural phenomena, confidently attacked the allied Hebrew armies, but were defeated and put to flight. Southern Moab was conquered and pillaged and the king was shut up in one of his fortresses. The tradition states that in his extremity he sacrificed, as a burnt offering on the walls of the fortress, his eldest son in order to call forth the pity and aid of his god. The act apparently aroused the superstitious horror of the allies, for they retired without completing the conquest of Moab. This incident concludes the warlike history of the house of Omri. Under the leadership of this dynasty Israel had fought many and, for the most part, successful wars with the strong and bitter foes which encircled it. The effect of these wars between the petty states of Palestine had been, on the whole, disastrous, for they had only engendered greater bitterness, exhausted the natural resources of the land, and prepared the way for its ultimate conquest by Assyria which was slowly but surely advancing from the northeast.