With the elevation of Omri (899-875 B.C.) a third dynasty ascended the throne of Israel, while in Judah the crown continued peacefully in the family of David. Like Baasha, Omri founded a new residence; he removed his seat from Tirzah to Mount Shomron, and here built the new city of that name (Samaria). Nothing is said of the wars of Omri against Judah. To Benhadad of Damascus he seems to have lost some towns in the land of Gilead.[437] That he ruled with address, vigour, and a strong hand is clear from the inscription on a monument which Mesha, king of Moab, caused to be erected in his city of Dibon (east of the Dead Sea). This tells us that Omri and his son after him held Moab in subjection for 40 years; that not only was the city of Nebo garrisoned by the Israelites, but Omri even took Medabah, i. e. the region south of Nebo towards Dibon, and occupied it, and "oppressed Moab for a long time," because "Camos, the god of the Moabites, was angry at his land."[438] As Mesha regained his independence after the death of Ahab, the son of Omri, the more severe subjection of the Moabites by Omri must have begun in the year 893 B.C. Omri seems to have entered into friendly relations with Ethbaal, king of Tyre (917-885 B.C.), or his successor Balezor (885-877 B.C.).[439] Omri's authority and reputation must have been considerable, since even after the overthrow of his house, in the second half of the ninth century B.C., the kings of Assyria speak of the king of Israel as "the son of Omri," and the kingdom of Israel as the "house of Omri."
Ahab, Omri's son (875-853 B.C.), maintained the power which his father had won. The Books of Kings tell us that Mesha, king of Moab, sent him yearly the wool of 100,000 sheep and lambs,[440] and Mesha himself tells us that Omri was followed by his son, who also said, "I will oppress Moab;" and Israel "dwelt at Medabah for 40 years in the days of Omri and Ahab." That the Ammonites also were subject to Ahab seems a just conclusion from the inscriptions of Shalmanesar, king of Assyria.[441] With Tyre Ahab was in close connection. His wife Jezebel was the daughter of Ethbaal, king of Tyre, the aunt of Mutton, the contemporary king of Tyre (p. 268). He was on friendly terms with Judah, which began to rise again (as we saw) under the rule of Jehoshaphat. Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, was married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and Jezebel.[442] On the vine-clad hills of Jezreel Ahab built himself a palace adorned with ivory, after the pattern of the Phenician princes.[443]
The rites of the neighbouring tribes, the worship of Astarte, Camos, and Milcom, which found their way into the Hebrew tribes, and even to Jerusalem in the last years of Solomon's reign, were again removed in Judah, as we have seen (p. 235), under the reigns of Asa and Jehoshaphat. For Israel the dedication of the places of worship at Bethel and Dan to Jehovah, which Jeroboam instituted, in spite of the erection of the image of Jehovah, marked a reaction against the rites of the Canaanites. But the connection into which Ahab entered with Tyre brought it about that the gods of the Phenicians were again looked on with reverence in Israel. Induced by Jezebel, his Tyrian wife, so we are told, Ahab caused a temple to be erected in Samaria, which his father had built, to Baal of Tyre, at which 450 priests maintained the worship; and a temple was also dedicated to Astarte, which gave occupation to 400 priests.[444]
It was an ancient custom among the Hebrews, as we have already found more than once, to inquire of Jehovah what should be done. In Israel the custom of thus making inquiry was more widely spread than in other nations. Before any undertaking inquiry was made of his will. Jehovah's voice decided the sentence in the judgment court. It was usual in all cases and times to appeal to the decision of Jehovah. Question and answer were made, as has been remarked, by the priests casting lots before the sacred ark, the altars, and the images of Jehovah. If a criminal had to be discovered, the tribes and races came forward, and he was marked out by the lot cast before Jehovah. We saw that Saul inquired of Jehovah on his campaign (p. 124). David undertook nothing without inquiring of the image of Jehovah which he carried about with him (p. 139). If any one wished to mark out the wisdom of any advice, it was said, "It is as if Jehovah had answered." But beside the priests who cast the lots, there were men who saw into what was hidden, and knew the future. To these soothsayers men went as well as to the lot before Jehovah; they desired to know whether there would be rain or drought, where a lost beast was to be found; they inquired for remedies for disease. The soothsayers even pronounced sentences at law, and their sentence was then as the sentence of Jehovah. It was Jehovah who illuminated such men, and imparted to them a keener vision, a higher knowledge. They believed, as the people believed of them—and the belief was stronger as the religious feeling was more intense—that they stood in a nearer and closer relation to Jehovah. If they also foretold events for reward, yet they lived in the belief that they knew the will and the counsels of Jehovah, and in this conviction they gave advice and judgment; they were not only soothsayers, but seers. In such a conviction mere prediction passed into prophecy, i. e. into the revelation of the will of Jehovah by the mental certainty of the seer. In this position we found Samuel, who, from being a priest, had attained to a knowledge of the will of Jehovah; he was at once priest, soothsayer for hire, and prophet; i. e. he not only announced external matters still in the future, but also announced the just decision, the resolve pleasing to God. He gathered disciples round him, who praised Jehovah with harp and lute, and waited to see his face, and became changed into other men (p. 117). Gad and Nathan, with whom David and Solomon took counsel, were men of this style and tone. With the loftier impulses which the religious life received both on the ritual and legal side, as well as on the side of religious feeling under David and Solomon, with the survey of the fortunes which Jehovah had prepared for his people, with the expression of intense devotion in that poetry to which David opened the way, the elevation of mind in the prophets must have been increased and extended; their views must have become deeper. In the kingdom of Israel, so far as our knowledge goes, the seers and prophets had made no protest against the worship of Jehovah under an image. But they came forward with decisive opposition to the worship of Baal and Astarte, the strange gods which Ahab and Jezebel had introduced into Samaria and Israel. Ahab decreed persecution against them, which strengthened instead of breaking the intensity of their faith, their adhesion and devotion to the God of the ancestors. They were driven to live in solitudes, deserts, ravines, and caves. On their privations, fasts, and lonely contemplations in the silence of the desert followed dreams and ecstatic visions. By these the close and favoured relation of the persecuted to the God of Israel became an established certainty. The power of prediction passed into the background as compared with this awakening by Jehovah, and the duty to strive, contend, and suffer for the worship of the God of the nation against strange gods. If a prophet who had lifted up his voice against the sacrifice to Baal was compelled to fly before the king into the desert, he was followed thither by eager associates, who had at heart the worship and service of Jehovah. These listened to his words and promptings; these were his disciples. The numbers of the awakened and illuminated increased; amid danger and in privation their religious life became more earnest; their zeal for Jehovah and their hatred of the strange gods and their worshippers became deeper as the persecution fell heavier upon them. They became men of word and action.
Strengthened in this conflict for zealous struggles in behalf of the ancient Lord, oppressed and persecuted for their faithfulness to the God of Israel, their relation to him took the shape of an inward conviction of great force and intensity. Filled with their belief and the revelations which Jehovah had imparted to them, they came forward in the boldest manner to oppose the apostate kings; their zeal for Jehovah rose to the wildest fanaticism, which shrunk from no means of destroying the servants of the strange gods. To bring into light the force of their opposition to the wicked kings, and the power which Jehovah gives to his faithful servants, tradition has adorned with many miracles the lives of Elijah and Elisha, the men who in Ahab's time transformed the prognostications of the seers into a prophetic censure. Elijah is said to have ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire, and even the corpse of Elisha worked miracles.
At the urgent request of Jezebel, so we are told, Ahab gave orders that the prophets of Jehovah, who roused the people against him, should be driven out of the land or put to death.[445] Elijah retired from Thisbe in Gilead, first to the region of Jordan, and then to Zarephath (Sarepta) in the land of the Sidonians;[446] and finally he found a place of refuge in the ravines of Carmel, on the sea-shore. A girdle of skins surrounded his loins, and a mantle of hair covered his shoulders; ravens were said to have brought bread and flesh to the hungry prophet in the desert.[447] It came to pass that there was a long drought in Israel. In this time of distress Elijah came forth from his hiding-place to point out the anger of Jehovah on the king and the people for their worship of Baal, and to proclaim relief if they returned to the God of Israel. He requested Ahab to gather the people and all the priests of Baal and Astarte to Carmel, and there Jehovah would send rain. To this request Ahab agreed. "How long will ye halt on both knees, and go after Jehovah as well as Baal," cried Elijah to the assembled multitude. "I alone am left of the prophets of Jehovah, and the prophets of Baal are 450 men. Give us then two bulls: one to me, and one to the priests of Baal. We will cut them in pieces and lay them on the wood, and the God who answers with fire shall be our God." The priests of Baal slew their bull, laid him on the wood, and called on Baal from morning to mid-day, and said, O Baal, hear us! But in vain. Meanwhile Elijah, so the narrative continues, built an altar of 12 stones, for the 12 tribes, and made a trench round it; cut the bull in pieces, and laid him on the wood of the altar, and thrice poured water over all. When he called on Jehovah—to make it known on that day that he was God in Israel, and Elijah was his servant—fire fell from heaven and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the altar. All the people fell on their faces, and Elijah said, Seize the prophets of Baal; let none of them escape. The people fell upon them; they were brought down from the mountain, and Elijah slew them at the brook Kishon. Then a little cloud was seen from Carmel rising out of the sea, of the size of a man's hand, and Elijah said to the king, "Harness thy chariot and haste away, that the rain overtake thee not." The sky was quickly covered with black clouds, and heavy rain followed upon storms of wind. But Elijah ran before Ahab to his palace in Jezreel.[448] Of this narrative, which belongs to the prophetic revision of the annals, we may perhaps retain with certainty the facts that Elijah declared a severe famine and drought in the land to be the punishment of Jehovah for the worship of Baal; that the excited people slew the priests of Baal; that Ahab accorded to the prophets of Jehovah permission to return to their homes and liberty; and that the worship of Jehovah in Israel, which had been seriously threatened by those rites, regained the upper hand and decided victory, though it could not entirely drive out the worship of Baal.
The increase in the strength of Israel under Omri and Ahab, the connection into which Ahab entered with Jehoshaphat of Judah, the alliance between the two houses, must have appeared to Benhadad II., the king of Damascus, a serious matter for his own position. For this or for other reasons he broke with Ahab, and renewed the struggle which had gone on in Omri's time between Israel and Damascus. He invaded Israel with all his power: 32 kings were with him—such is the no doubt greatly exaggerated account. Ahab fell upon the Aramaeans while Benhadad was at a banquet, and though his army was only 7000 strong, he obtained a great victory. Then, as we are told in the prophetic revision of the Books of Kings, Benhadad's servants advised him to contend with the Israelites on the plain; their gods were gods of the hills, and therefore they had gained the victory. Benhadad came in the next year with an army of Aramaeans, which filled the land. Nevertheless Ahab again defeated them at Aphek (eastward of Lake Merom), and so utterly overthrew them that Benhadad sent his servants with sackcloth about their loins, and halters round their heads, to Ahab to pray for mercy. This Ahab granted, and Benhadad in turn undertook to restore the cities which his father had taken from the father of Ahab, i. e. from Omri.
The princes of Syria had every reason to forget their hatred and make up their quarrels. Assurbanipal and Shalmanesar II., kings of Assyria, had attacked and subjugated the districts on the Euphrates, and established fortresses there. The former forced his way as far as the Orontes and the Amanus; the latter had already subjugated Cilicia. In the year 854 B.C. Shalmanesar II. left Nineveh in the spring, crossed the Euphrates, demanded tribute there, and then turned towards Damascus. He came upon Benhadad (Bin-hidri) of Damascus, to whom Ahab (Achabbu), king of Israel, as well as the king of Hamath, and the king of Aradus, together with some other Syrian kings, had brought up their forces. To the army of the Syrians Shalmanesar allowed more than 60,000 men—he enumerates 12 princes who combined to oppose him. Damascus furnished the strongest contingent, viz., 20,000 men and 1200 chariots; then came Israel, with 10,000 men and 200 chariots; and Hamath, with 10,000 men and 700 chariots. The armies met at Karkar. The king of Assyria claims the victory; he professes to have captured the chariots and horsemen of the Syrians, and to have cut down their leaders. According to one inscription 14,000 Syrians, according to two others 20,500, were left on the field. But Shalmanesar says nothing of the subjection of the princes who fought against him, or of the payment of tribute by those who are said to be vanquished, or of conquered cities. Hence the truth is that the combined forces of the Syrians succeeded in repulsing the attack of the Assyrians. This was their victory, though they may not have obtained the victory on the field.[449]
When the danger threatened by the attack of Assyria passed away, the contention between Damascus and Israel broke out again. The Hebrew Scriptures tell us that Benhadad did not keep his promise, and did not restore the city of Ramoth in Gilead to Ahab. Ahab may have thought that he had the greater ground for complaint against Damascus, as he took upon himself the severe battle against Assyria, though it was Damascus, and not Israel, which stood in the direct line of danger. He united with Judah against Damascus, and sent a request to Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to march out with him. Jehoshaphat answered, "I will go forth as thou goest; my people as thy people; my horses as thy horses;" and he came with his warriors to Samaria. Both kings sat on their seats at the gate, in order to review the army as it passed out; and the prophets of Jehovah, 400 in number, prophesied good things to them, and said, "Go forth against Ramoth in Gilead; Jehovah will give it into your hands." One only of these prophets, Michaiah, the son of Imlah, prophesied evil; Ahab, we are told, caused him to be thrown into prison till he should return in prosperity.[450] A battle took place in the neighbourhood of Ramoth in Gilead; Ahab was severely wounded by an arrow which passed between the joints of his mail; he caused the wound to be bound up, and returned to the fight, in order not to discourage his warriors, and continued to stand upright in his chariot, though his blood flowed to the bottom of it, till the evening, when he died. When the soldiers heard of the death of the king the army dispersed in every direction. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, escaped (853 B.C.).
The death of such a brave warrior as Ahab was a heavy blow to the kingdom of Israel. We are not told by what sacrifices Ahaziah, the son of Ahab and Jezebel, had to purchase peace; we only know that the Moabites revolted from Israel on the news of the death of Ahab, and that Mesha no longer paid the tribute which he and his father had paid to Omri and Ahab. In any case it was a great relief for Israel when Shalmanesar, king of Assyria, in the years 851 and 850 B.C., turned his arms against Hamath and Damascus.[451] In this way Ahaziah's younger brother, Joram, who succeeded him after a short reign (851-843 B.C.), was able to attempt to subjugate the Moabites anew. He called on Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, to go out with him, and Jehoshaphat said, "I am as thou art; my horses as thy horses," and raised not only the warriors of Judah, but those of Edom also. The attack was made from the land of the kingdom of Judah and Edom on the southern border of the Moabites. The Moabites were defeated, their cities destroyed, their fields laid waste, their wells filled up. Mesha threw himself into the fortress of Kir Harosheth, which is probably the later Kerak, to the south of the Arnon, not far from the east shore of the Dead Sea. The slingers of both kings surrounded the fortress, and cast stones against the walls. "And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too strong for him," and he had attempted in vain to break out, "he took his firstborn son, who would be king in his place, and sacrificed him as a burnt offering on the wall. And there was a great anger against Israel, and they returned from him, and went back into their own land" (849 B.C.).