ceedings of his son; whom if the Levites did (according to the trust reposed in them) neglect, in discharging their duties, likely it is that he meant to be even with them, and make them now to feel, as many princes of the land had done, his heavy indignation. How it happened that Libna was not hereupon destroyed, yea, that it was not (for ought that we can read) so much as besieged or molested, may justly seem very strange. And the more strange it is in regard of the mighty armies which Jehoshaphat was able to raise, being sufficient to have overwhelmed any one town, and buried it under the earth, which they might in one month have cast into it with shovels by ordinary approaches.

But it seems that of these great numbers which his father could have levied, there were not many whom Jehoram could well trust; and therefore perhaps he thought it an easier loss to let one town go, than to put weapons into their hands, who were more likely to follow the example of Libna, than to punish it. So desperate is the condition of tyrants, who thinking it a greater happiness to be feared than to be loved, are fain themselves to stand in fear of those, by whom they might have been dreadful unto others.

1

SECT. IV.

Of the miseries falling upon Jehoram, and of his death.

THESE afflictions not sufficing to make any impression of God's displeasure in the mind of the wicked prince; a prophecy in writing was delivered unto him, which threatened both his people, his children, his wives, and his own body. Hereby likewise it appears, that he was a cruel persecutor of God's servants; inasmuch as the prophets durst not reprove him to his face, as they had done many of his predecessors, both good and evil kings, but were fain to denounce God's judgments against him by letters, keeping themselves close, and far from him. This epistle is said to have been sent unto him from Elias the prophet; but Elias was translated, and Elizeus prophesied in his stead before this

• 2 Chron. xxi. 12.

time, even in the days of Jehoshaphat P. Wherefore it may be that Elias left this prophecy in writing behind him, or that (as some conjecture) the error of one letter in writing was the occasion that we read Elias for Elizeus. Indeed any thing may rather be believed than the tradition held by some of the Jewish rabbins, that Elias from heaven did send this epistle; a tale somewhat like to the fable of our Lady's letters, devised by Erasmus, or of the verse that was sent from heaven to St. Giles.

But whosoever was the author of this threatening epistle, the accomplishment of the prophecy was as terrible as the sentence. For the Philistines and Arabians brake into Judæa, and took the king's house, wherein they found all or many of his children and wives, all which they slew or carried away, with great part of his goods. These Philistines had not presumed, since the time of David, to make any offensive war till now; for they were by him almost consumed, and had lost the best of their towns, maintaining themselves in the rest of their small territory by defensive arms, to which they were constrained at Gibbethon by the Israelites. The Arabians were likely to have been then, as they are now, a naked people, all horsemen, and ill appointed; their country affording no other furniture, than such as might make them fitter to rob and spoil in the open fields, than to offend strong cities, such as were thick set in Juda. True it is, that in ages long after following they conquered all the south parts of the world then known, in a very short space of time, destroying some, and building other some very stately cities. But it must be considered, that this was when they had learned of the Romans the art of war; and that the provisions which they found, together with the arts which they learned, in one subdued province, did make them able and skilful in pursuing their conquest, and going onward into regions far removed from them. At this day, having lost in effect all that they had gotten, such of them as live in Arabia itself are good horsemen, but ill appointed, very dangerous to passengers, but unable to P2 Kings ii. 3. 11.

deal with good soldiers, as riding stark naked, and rather trusting in the swiftness of their horses than in any other means of resistance, where they are well opposed. And such, or little better, may they seem to have been, that spoiled Judæa in the time of Jehoram. For their country was always barren and desert, wanting manual arts whereby to supply the naturals with furniture; neither are these bands named as chief in that action, but rather adherents of the Philistines. Out of this we may infer, that one half, yea, or one quarter of the numbers found in the least muster of Juda and Benjamin under Jehoshaphat, (wherein were enrolled three hundred and eighty thousand fighting men,) had been enough to have driven away far greater forces than these enemies are likely to have brought into the field, had not the people been unable to deal with them for lack of weapons, which were now kept from them by their prince's jealousy, as in Saul's time by the policy of the Philistines.

It may seem that the house of the king, which these invaders took, was not his palace in Jerusalem, but rather some other house of his abroad in the country, where his wives and children at that time lay for their recreation; because we read not that they did sack the city, or spoil the temple, which would have invited them as a more commodious booty, had they got possession thereof. Yet perhaps they took Jerusalem itself by surprise, the people being disarmed, and the king's guards too weak to keep them out; yet had not the courage to hold it, because it was so large and populous; and therefore having done what spoil they could, withdrew themselves with such purchase as they were able safely to convey away.

The slaughter committed by Jehu upon the two and forty brethren of Ahazia, or (as they are called elsewhere) so many of his brother's sons, and the cruel massacre, wherein all the royal seed perished (only Joas excepted) under the tyranny of Athalia, following within two years after this invasion of the Philistines and Arabians, make it seem probable, that the sons of Jehoram were not all slain at once, but that rather the first murder began in his own

time, and was seconded by many other heavy blows, wherewith his house was incessantly stricken, until it was in a manner quite hewed down.

After these calamities, the hand of God was extended against the body of this wicked king, smiting him with a grievous disease in his bowels, which left him not until his guts fell out, and his wretched soul departed from his miserable carcass. The people of the land, as they had small cause of comfort in his life, so had they not the good manners to pretend sorrow for his death; wherefore he was denied a place of burial among his ancestors the kings of Juda, though his own son succeeded him in the kingdom, who was guided by the same spirits that had been his father's evil angels. Athalia had other matters to trouble her head, than the pompous interring of a dead husband. She was thinking how to provide for the future, to maintain her own greatness, to retain her favourites in their authority, and to place about her son such counsellors of the house of Ahab as were fittest for her turn. Wherefore she thought it unreasonable to make much ado about a thing of nothing, and offend the people's eyes with a stately funeral of a man by them detested; but rather chose to let the blame of things past be laid upon the dead, than to procure an ill opinion of herself and hers, which it now did concern her to avoid. Such is the quality of wicked instigators, having made greedy use of bad employments, to charge, not only with his own vices, but with their faults also, the man whose evil inclinations their sinister counsels have made worse, when once he is gone, and can profit them no longer. The death of Jehoram fell out indeed in a busy time, when his friend and cousin the Israelite, who had the same name, was entangled in a difficult war against the Aramite; and therefore could have had no better leisure to help Athalia in setting of things according to her own mind, than he had (perhaps through the same hinderance) to help her husband, when he was distressed by the Philistines. Yea, rather, he needed and craved the assist92 Chron. xxii. 4.

ance of the men of Juda, for the taking in of Ramoth Gilead, where they had not sped so well the last time, that they should willingly run thither again, unless they were very fairly entreated.

The acts of this wicked man I have thought good to handle the more particularly, (pursuing the examination of all occurrences, as far as the circumstances remembered in holy scripture would guide me by their directions,) to the end that it might more plainly appear how the corrupted affections of men, impugning the revealed will of God, accomplish nevertheless his hidden purpose, and without miraculous means confound themselves in the seeming wise devices of their own folly: as likewise to the end that all men might learn to submit their judgments to the ordinance of God, rather than to think that they may safely dispense with his commandments, and follow the prudent conceits which worldly wisdom dictateth unto them. For in such kind of unhappy subtilties it is manifest that Athaliah was able to furnish both her husband and her son; but the issue of them partly hath appeared already, and partly will appear in that which immediately followeth.

SECT. V.

Of the reign of Ahaziah, and his business with the king of Israel. OCHAZIAS, or Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram and Athaliah, began his reign over Juda in the twelfth year of Jehoram, the son of Ahab king of Israel, and reigned but that one year. Touching his age, it is a point of more difficulty than importance to know it; yet hath it bred much disputation, whereof I see no more probable conclusion than that of Torniellus, alleging the edition of the Septuagint at Rome, anno Domini 1588, which saith that he was twenty years old in the beginning of his kingdom, and the annotations thereupon, which cite other copies, that give him two years more. Like enough he is to have been young; for he was governed by his mother and her ministers, who gave him counsel by which he perished. In matter of religion, he altered none of his father's courses. In matter of state,

RALEGH, HIST. WORLD. VOL. II.

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