manner of a judgment-seat, and they sounded the trumpet, and said: "Jehu is king."

They determined to strike a sudden blow against the king before the news reached him, and Jehu and a chosen company set out in chariots, intending to seize the king in Jezrahel. Their approach was observed from the watch tower in Jezrahel, and Joram suspecting no danger, went out with Ochozias king of Juda, who was upon a visit to him, to meet the horsemen who were coming. When Joram saw Jehu, he said: "Is there peace, Jehu?" And he answered: "What peace ? so long as the fornications of Jezabel thy mother, and her many sorceries are in their vigour. And Joram turned his head, and fleeing, said to Ochozias: "There is treachery, Ochozias." But Jehu bent his bow with his hand, and shot Joram between the shoulders and the arrow went out through his heart, and immediately he fell in his chariot. And Jehu said to Badacer his captain: "Take him, and cast him into the field of Naboth the Jezrahelite: for I remember when I and thou sitting in a chariot followed Achab this man's father, that the Lord laid this burden upon him, saying: 'If I do not requite thee in this field, saith the Lord, for the blood of Naboth, and for the blood of his children, which I saw yesterday,' saith the Lord. So now take him, and cast him into the field, according to the word of the Lord."

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§ 33. Jezabel's reckoning day comes.

Jehu came into Jezrahel. But Jezabel hearing of

JEZABEL'S RECKONING DAY.

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his coming in, painted her face with stibic stone, and adorned her head, and looking out of a window at Jehu coming in at the gate, she said: "Can there be peace for Zambri, that hath killed his master ?" And Jehu lifted up his face to the window, and said: "Who is this?" And two or three eunuchs bowed down to him. And he said to them: "Throw her down headlong" and they threw her down, and the wall was sprinkled with her blood, and the hoofs of the horses. trod upon her. And when he was come in to eat and to drink, he said: "Go and see after that cursed woman and bury her: because she is a king's daughter." And when they went to bury her, they found nothing but the skull, and the feet and the extremities of her hands. And coming back they told him. And Jehu said: "It is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elias the Thesbite, saying: In the field of Jezrahel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezabel. And the flesh of Jezabel shall be as dung upon the face of the earth in the field of Jezrahel, so that they who pass by shall say : "Is this that same Jezabel ?"

Jehu thus accomplished his mission of destruction upon the house of Achab faithfully. He also destroyed the temple of Baal in Samaria, and put the priests of Baal to death. But he could not bring his mind to touch the state church of Israel, and to restore his kingdom to the unity of the temple of Jerusalem. So the golden calves in Bethel and Dan continued. How it fared with the house of Jehu for this unfaithfulness, we shall presently see.

JEZABEL IS CAST OUT OF THE WINDOW BY HER OWN SERVANTS.

§ 34. The History from Jehu to the Assyrian Captivity of Israel under Salman el Assur.

Jehu had been faithful in some things, and God

1

ASSYRIA CHASTISES ISRAEL.

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gave him a reward. The Lord said to Jehu: "Because thou hast diligently executed that which was right and pleasing in My eyes, and hast done to the house of Achab according to all that was in My heart: thy children shall sit upon the throne of Israel to the fourth generation."

This promise was fulfilled. Jehu was succeeded by Joachaz his son, Joram his grandson, Jeroboam II., his great-grandson, and Zacharias the fourth in direct descent from him. Sellum, a captain in the army, conspired against Zacharias and slew him in the town of Samaria. The following month Manahem, another captain, murdered Sellum, and established himself upon the throne.

In the reign of Manahem, Phul, the king of the Assyrian empire, whose capital city was Ninive, invaded Israel with a large army, and Manahem was obliged to buy him off by a thousand talents of silver. The Assyrian army retired, carrying away several Israelite women captives. Phaceia, his son, succeeded Manahem, and in two years time he was murdered by Phacee, son of Romelia, a captain in his who established himself upon the throne.

army,

Theglath Phul el Assur, i.e., the Assyrian Phul, or king of the Assyrians, invaded the kingdoms of Israel and Juda, and Phacee was so reduced by the Assyrian victories, that Osee the son of Ela, conspired against him and seized the throne.

To establish himself upon the throne, Osee made himself and his kingdom tributary to Salman el Assur, i.e., Salman the Assyrian, who succeeded his father

Theglath, on the throne of Assyria; but six years afterwards Osee entered into negotiations with the king of Egypt, to be backed in his rebellion against Assyria. Salman hearing of it, invaded his kingdom before he was prepared; took Samaria, and carried off all the principal inhabitants captives, and planted them in Hala and Habor, cities of the Medes (B.C. 721).

Thus the judgment of God and his reckoning day with the kingdom of Israel for their transgression of the law of Moses, in separating themselves from the centre of unity in Jerusalem, came to pass, as God had repeatedly warned them by his prophets. Just before the judgment fell upon Israel, God had sent them two prophets, Amos and Osee, of whose mission a brief account must be given.

§ 35. The Prophet Amos.

Warning after warning had come to the kings of Israel and to the people, but all had been treated with scorn. Jeroboam's wicked policy in setting up the altars at Bethel and in Dan, and in making priests from the lowest of the people, had done its evil work. The Levites, whose duty it would have been to have taught the people to fear God, had been driven to sell their lands and take refuge in Juda, and the low fellows who had bought the office of priests from the government, neither cared themselves to instruct the people, nor would the people probably have listened to them if they had. Some few families, among whom was Tobias, before he was taken to Assyria, still went up to Jerusalem to offer their sacrifices according to