non eodem animo. Ecclesiasticus remembereth a second sort of malignant natures, but they are every where visible. There are spirits, saith he, created for vengeance, which in their rigour lay on sure strokes. In the time of destruction they shew forth their power, and accomplish the wrath of him that made them. Now Michaiah having by this his revelation greatly displeased the king, and the prophets whose spirit he discovered, was stricken by Zedekiah, one of Baal's prophets, and by Ahab himself committed to prison; where he appointed him to be reserved and fed with bread of affliction till he returned in peace. But Michaiah, not fearing to reply, answered, If thou return in peace, the Lord hath not spoken by me: nevertheless, Ahab went on in that war, and was wounded to death. Jehoshaphat returned to Jerusalem, where he was * reprehended by Jehu the prophet for assisting an idolatrous prince, and one that hated God. After this, the Aramites of Damascens joined with the Moabites, Ammonites, and Idumæans, to invade Judæa; who pass Jordan, and encamp at Engaddi: and when Jehoshaphat gathered his army, the prophet Jahaziel foretold him of the victory, which should be obtained without any bloodshed of his part: and so when Jehoshaphat approached this assembly of nations, the Ammonites and Moabites disagreeing with the Idumæans, and quarrelling for some causes among themselves, those of Ammon and Moab set upon the Idumæans, and brake them utterly; which done, they also invaded each other; in which broil Jehoshaphat arriving, y took the spoil of them all without any loss of his part, as it was foretold and promised by God. Notwithstanding this victory, Jehoshaphat, forgetting that he was formerly reprehended for assisting an idolatrous king, did notwithstanding join with Ochazias, the son of Ahab, in preparing a fleet to send to Ophir, hoping of the like return which Salomon had: but as z Eliezer the prophet foretold him, his ships perished and were broken in the port of Ezion-gaber, and so that enterprise was overthrown. * 2 Chron. xix. 2 Chron. xx. * Ibid. Yet he taketh part with Jehoram, the brother of Ochazias, against the Moabites, with which kings of Juda and Israel the Edomites join their forces, not forgetting, it seems, that the Moabites, assisted by the Ammonites, had not long before destroyed their army. The Moabites, subjects to David and Salomon, forsaking the kings of Juda, gave themselves for vassals to Jeroboam, and so they continued to his successors till the death of Ahab: but Jehoshaphat, notwithstanding the idolatry of his colleague, yet, as it seemeth, he was drawn into this war both to be avenged of the Moabites for their defection from Juda to Israel, as also because they had lately joined themselves with the Syrians against Jehoshaphat; and thirdly, to punish their double rebellion, who first forsook Juda and now Israel. Both kings resolved to pass by the way of Idumæa, thereby the better to assure that nation; for we find that both Moab, Ammon, and Edom were all in the field together at Engaddi against Jehoshapat; but whether they had then declared themselves against Jehoshaphat, it is not certain: for in 2 Chron. xxi. 8. it is written, that in the time of Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, Edom rebelled; and therefore it seemeth to me that the Edomites, when they were slain by Moab and Ammon, not finding themselves satisfied in such conditions as they required, offered to turn from them, and to join themselves with the army of Juda: for that they were numbered among the enemies of Jehoshaphat, it is plain in 2 Chron. xx. and as plain chap. ii. 8. that they were not declared, nor had made them a king, till Jehoshaphat's death. Now in the passage of these kings towards Moab, whether it were by the extraordinary heat of the year, or whether the Idumæans, having a purpose to rebel, misled the army of Juda and Israel with intent to enfeeble them for want of water; true it is, that they suffered the same, if not a greater thirst than the armies of Crassus and M. Antonius did in their Parthian expeditions; and had, in all likelihood, utterly perished, had not Elisha taught them to cut trenches whereinto the water sprang, by which, not only Jehoshaphat and his army, but Jehoram king of Israel, an idolater, was relieved: the great mercy and goodness of God having ever been prone to save the evil for the good, whereas he never destroyed the good for the evil. The miserable issue of this war, and how a Moab burnt his son, or the son of the king of Edom, for sacrifice on the rampire of his own city, I have already written in the life of Jehoram among the kings of Israel. b Jehoshaphat reigned twenty-five years, and died: he was buried in the valley of Jehoshaphat; and a part of the pyramis set over his grave is yet to be seen, saith Brochard. His acts are -written at large by Jehu the son of Hanani. There lived with Jehoshaphat, Ophratenes in Assyria, Capetus and Tiberinus, kings of the Albans, in Italy: of the latter the river Tiber (formerly Albula) took name. In Jehoshaphat's time also ruled Mecades, or Mezades, in Athens; Agelas, or Agesilaus, in Corinth; and Archilaus, of the same race, of the Heraclidæ the seventh in Lacedæmon. Badesorus ruled the Tyrians; Ahab, Ochazias, and Jehoram, the Israelites. CHAP. XX. Of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, and Ahaziah. SECT. I. That Jehoram was made king sundry times. JEHORAM, the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Juda, began to reign at thirty-two years of age, and lived until he was forty years old, being eight years a king: but of these eight years, which Jehoram is said to have reigned, four are to be reckoned in the life of his father, who going to the Syrian war with Ahab, left this Jehoram king in his stead, as Ahab did his son Ahaziah. This appears by the several beginnings which are given in scripture to the two Jehorams, kings of Israel and Juda, and to Ahaziah, the a 2 Kings iii. b 2 Chron. xx. < Broch. ter. sanct. eldest son of Ahab; for d Ahaziah is said to have begun his reign in the seventeenth year of Jehoshaphat. Jehoram the brother of Ahaziah succeeded him in the second year of Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Juda, that is, in the next year after that Jehoram of Juda was designed king by his father; it being (as we find elsewhere) the feighteenth year of Jehoshaphat himself, who went with the Israelite against Moab. Hereby it appears that the full power and execution of the royal office was retained still by Jehoshaphat, who governed absolutely by himself, not communicating the rule with his son. But in the fifth year of 8 Jehoram king of Israel, which was the two and twentieth of Jehoshaphat, the old king took unto him, as partner in the government, this his eldest son, who was at that time thirty-two years old, his father being fifty-seven. Now forasmuch as Jehoshaphat reigned h twenty-five years, it is evident that his son did not reign alone till the eighth of Joram king of Israel. The like regard is to be had in accounting the times of other kings of Juda and Israel, who did not always reign precisely so long as the bare letter of the text may seem at first to affirm; but their years were sometimes complete, sometimes only current, sometimes confounded with the years of their successors or foregoers, and must therefore be found by comparing their times with the years of those others, with whom they did begin and end. It were perhaps a thing less needful than curious, to inquire into the reasons moving Jehoshaphat either to assume unto him his son as partner in the kingdom, whilst he was able himself to command both in peace and in war, the like having never been done by any of his progenitors, or having once (in the seventeenth of his reign) vouchsafed unto him that honour, to resume it unto himself, or at leastwise to defer the confirmation of it, until four or five years were passed. Yet forasmuch as to enter into the examination of these passages may be a mean to find some light whereby a 1 Kings xxii. 51. h 2 Kings viii. 16. 1 Kings xxii. 42. nary we may more clearly discover the causes of much extraordibusiness ensuing, I hold it not amiss to make such conjecture, as the circumstances of the story, briefly handled in the scriptures, may seem to approve. We are therefore to consider, that this king Jehoshaphat was the first of Rehoboam's issue that ever entered into any strait league with the kings of the ten tribes. All that reigned in Juda before him had with much labour and long war tired themselves in vain, making small profit of the greatest advantages that could be wished. Wherefore Jehoshaphat thought it the wisest way to make a league offensive and defensive between Israel and Juda, whereby each might enjoy their own in quiet. This confederacy, made by a religious king with one that did i hate the Lord, could not long prosper, as not issuing from the true root and fountain of all wisdom; yet as a piece of sound policy, doubtless it wanted not fair pretences of much common good thereby likely to arise, with mutual fortification of both those kingdoms against the uncircumcised nations, their ancient enemies. This apparent benefit being so inestimable a jewel, that it might not easily be lost, but continue as hereditary from father to son, it was thought a very good course to have it confirmed by some sure bond of affinity, and thereupon was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri, and sister of Ahab king of Israel, given in marriage to Jehoram, who was son and heir apparent to the king of Juda. This lady was of a masculine spirit, and learned so much of queen Jezabel, her brother's wife, that she durst undertake, and could thoroughly perform, a great deal more in Jerusalem than the other knew how to compass in Samaria. She was indeed a firebrand, ordained by God to consume a great part of the noblest houses in Juda, and perhaps of those men or their children, whose worldly wisdom, regardless of God's pleasure, had brought her in. The first-fruits of this great league was the Syrian war at Rampth-Gilead, wherein Juda and Israel did adventure equally, but the profit of the victory should have redounded i 2 Chron. xix. 2, 3. |