head was Ephraim) prosecutes; as also in his lamentation for Judah he followeth the other allegory of Jacob, Gen. xlix. 9. comparing Judah to a lion. Upon the top of one of the highest of these hills of Ephraim, which overlooketh all the plains on both sides of Jordan, they find the castle called Dok, which they make to be the same with Dagon, of which Joseph. 1. Bell. Jud. c. 2. in which castle, as it is 1 Mac. xvi. Ptolemy most traitorously, at a banquet, slew Simon Maccabæus his father-in-law.

Among the rivers of this tribe of Ephraim they name Gaas, remembered in 2 Sam. xxiii. 30. where, though Junius reads Hiddai ex una vallium Gahasi, yet the Vulgar and Vatablus read Giddai, of the river of Gaas. Also in this tribe they place the river of Carith, by which the prophet Elias abode during the great drought, where he was d fed by the ravens; and after that the river was dried up, he travelled (by the Spirit of God guided) towards Sidon, where he was relieved by the poor widow of Zarepta, whose dead son he revived, and increased her pittance of meal and oil, whereby she sustained her life.

SECT. II.

Of the kings of the ten tribes, from Jeroboam to Achab.

OF the first kings of Israel I omit in this place to speak, and reserve it to the catalogue of the kings of Judah; of whom hereafter.

Touching the acts of the kings of the ten tribes, but briefly, beginning after the division from Judah and Benjamin, now it followeth to speak. The first of these kings was Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, who being a man of strength and courage, was by Solomon made overseer of the buildings of the Millo, or munition in Jerusalem, for as much as belonged to the charge of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and so many of them as wrought in those works. During which time, as he went from Jerusalem, he encountered the prophet Ahijah, who made him know that he was by God destined to be king of d 1 Reg. xvii. 5.

Israel, and to command ten of the twelve tribes. After this, fearing that those things might come to Solomon's knowledge, he fled into Egypt to Shishak, whom Eusebius calleth Osochores, whose daughter he married; the predecessor of which Shishak (if not the same) did likewise entertain Adad the Idumean, when he was carried young into Egypt, from the fury of David and his captain Joab, which Adad the king of Egypt married to his wife's sister Taphnes, using both him and Jeroboam as instruments to shake the kingdom of Judæa, that himself might the easilier spoil it, as he did; for in the fifth year of Rehoboam, e Shishak sacked the city of Jerusalem, and carried thence all the treasure of David and Solomon, and all the spoils which David took from Adadezer of Soba, with the presents of Tohu king of Hamath, which were of an inestimable value.

This Jeroboam, after the death of Solomon, became lord of the ten tribes; and though he were permitted by God to govern the Israelites, and from a mean man exalted to that state, yet preferring the policies of the world before the service and honour of God, (as fearing that if the tribes under his rule should repair to Jerusalem, to do their usual sacrifices, they might be drawn from him by degrees,) he erected two golden calves, one in Dan, and another in Bethel, for the people to worship; (an imitation of the Egyptian Apis, saith f St. Ambrose, or rather of Aaron's calf in Horeb ;) further, he made election of his priests out of the basest and unlearned people. This king made his chief seat and palace at Sichem : he despised the warning of the Judean prophet, whom Josephus calleth Adon, and Glycas, Joel; his hand thereafter withered, and was again restored: but continuing in his idolatry, and hardened upon occasion that the prophet returning was slain by a lion, Ahijah makes him know that God purposed to root out his posterity.

He was afterwards overthrown by 5 Abia king of Judah, and died after he had governed twenty-two years, whom Nadab his son succeeded; who, in the second year of his reign, together with all the race of Jeroboam, was slain, * 1 Reg. xiv. § 1 Kings xi. 12-15.

f Ambrose on Rom. i.

and rooted out by Baasha, who reigned in his stead; so Nadab lived king but two years.

Baasha the son of Ahijah, the third king after the partition, made war with Asa king of Judah: he seated himself in Thersa, and fortified Rama against Judah, to restrain their excursions. Hereupon Asa entertained Benhadad of Damascus against him, who invaded Nephtalim, and destroyed many places therein: the mean while Asa carried away the materials, with which Baasha intended to fortify Rama, but being an idolater, he was threatened by Jehu the prophet, that it should befall his race as it did to h Jeroboam, which afterward came to pass. He ruled twenty-four years, and died.

To Baasha succeeded Ela his son, who at a feast at his palace of Thersa was in his cups slain by Zambris, after he had reigned two years; and in him the prophecy of Jehu was fulfilled.

Zambris succeeded Ela, and assumed the name of a king seven days but Ambris, in revenge of the king's murder, set upon i Zambris, or Zimri, and enclosed him in Thersa, and forced him to burn himself.

Ambris, or Homri, succeeded Ela, and transferred the regal seat from Thersa to Samaria, which he bought of Shemer, built, and fortified it. This k Ambris was also an idolater, no less impious than the rest, and therefore subjected to Tabremmon, king of Syria; the father of Benhadad, according to Eusebius, Nicephorus, and Zonaras. But how this should stand, I do not well conceive; seeing Benhadad, the son of Tabremmon, was invited by 1Asa, king of Judah, to assail Baasha king of Israel, the father of Ela, who forewent Ambris. This Ambris reigned twelve years, six in Thersa and six in Samaria, and left two children, Achab and Athalia.

SECT. III.

Of Achab and his successors, with the captivity of the ten tribes. ACHAB, or Ahab, succeeded Omri, who not only up

h

I Kings xv. and xvi.

i 1 Kings xvi.

k Ibid. 11 Kings xv.

held the idolatry of Jeroboam, borrowed of the Egyptians, but he married Jezabel the Zidonian; and as Jeroboam followed the religion of his Egyptian wife, so did Achab of his Zidonian, and erected an altar and a grove to Baal in Samaria. He suffered Jezabel to kill the prophets of the most high God. God sent famine on the land of Israel. Achab met Elias; Elias prevailed in the trial of the sacrifice, and killeth the false prophets, and afterwards flieth for fear of Jezabel.

Benhadad not long after besieged Samaria, and taken by Achab, was by him set at liberty; for which the prophet (whom Glycas calleth Michæas) reproveth him: afterwards he causeth Naboth, by a false accusation, to be stoned. Then joining with Josaphat in the war for the recovery of Ramoth, he was slain, as Michæas had foretold him.

He had three sons named in the scripture, Ochozias, Joram, and Joas, besides seventy other sons by sundry wives and concubines.

Ochozias succeeded his father Achab. The Moabites fell from his obedience; he bruised himself by a fall, and sent for counsel to m Beelzebub, the god of Acharon. Elijah the prophet meeteth the messenger on the way, and misliking that Ochozias sought help from that dead idol, asked the messenger, if there were not a God in Israel. Ochozias sendeth two captains, and with each fifty soldiers, to bring Elijah unto him; both which, with their attendants, were consumed with fire. The third captain besought mercy at Elijah's hands, and he spared him, and went with him to the king, avowing it to the king that he must then die; which came to pass in the second year of his reign.

Joram, the brother of Ochozias by Jezabel, succeeded: he allured Josaphat, king of Judah, and the king of Edom, to assist him against the Moabites, who refused to pay him the tribute of 20,000 sheep. The three kings wanted water for themselves and their horses in the deserts. The prophet Elisha causeth the ditches to flow. The "Moabites are

m Beelzebub was the same with Livy. 2 Kings i. Belus and Pluto, saith Viginere upon n 2 Kings iii.

overthrown; their king flieth to Kirharaseth; and being besieged, according to some expositors, burnt his son on the walls as a sacrifice, whereat the three kings, moved with compassion, returned and left Moab, wasting and spoiling that region. Others, as it seems, with better reason, understand the text to speak of the son of the king of Edom, whom they suppose in this irruption to have been taken prisoner by the Moabites, and that the king of Moab shewed him over the walls, threatening, unless the siege were dissolved, that he would offer him in sacrifice to his gods. Whereupon the king of Edom besought those of Judah and Israel to break off the siege for the safety of his son; which when the other kings refused to yield unto, and that Moab, according to his former threatening, had burnt the king of Edom's son upon the rampire, that all the assailants might discern it; the king of Edom, being by this sad spectacle enraged, forsook the party of the other kings; for want of whose assistance the siege was broken up.

After this the king of Aram sent to Joram, to heal Naaman, the captain of his army, of the leprosy. The answer of Joram was, Am I God to kill, and to give life, that he doth send to heal a man from his leprosy ? adding, that the Aramite sought but matter of quarrel against him. Elisha hearing thereof, willed the king to send Naaman to him, promising that he should know that there was a prophet in Israel; and so Naaman was healed, by washing himself seven times in Jordan. Elisha refused the gifts of Naaman, but his servant Gehazi accepted a part thereof; from whence the sellers of spiritual gifts are called Gehazites, as the buyers are Simonians, of Simon Magus.

Afterwards Benhadad, king of Aram or Damascus, having heard that this prophet did discover to the king of Israel whatsoever the Aramite consulted in his secretest council, sent a troop of horse to take Elisha: all whom Elisha struck blind, and brought them captives into Samaria. Joram then asking leave of the prophet to slay them,

。 2 Kings i. 5.