O Israel, who brought And he set the one in And he built temples,

enough to Jerusalem; behold thy god, thee up out of the land of Egypt. Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. And these things became sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.

At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam: and get thee to Shiloh; behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, who told me that I should be king over this people. And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child. And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah.

Now Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age. And God said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask thee about her son; for he is sick : thus and thus shalt thou say unto her. So when she came in disguised, and Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings. Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes; but hast done evil above all that were before thee, and hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back: therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every man child, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweepeth away dung, till it be all gone. Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the Lord hath spoken it. Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam

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shall come to the grave: because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover the Lord shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam. For the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the River; because of the poles which they have made, provoking the Lord to anger. And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, wherewith he did sin, and wherewith he made Israel to sin.

And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet. And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. And the days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.

And Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin. And Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him; and Baasha smote him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines; for Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. Even in the third year of Asa king of Judah did Baasha slay him, and reigned in his stead. And it came to pass, when he reigned, he smote all the house of Jeroboam; he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed, until he had destroyed him; according unto the saying of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the Shilonite: because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and wherewith he made Israel to sin; by his provocation wherewith he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger. Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

In the third year of Asa king of Judah began Baasha the son of Ahijah to reign over all Israel in Tirzah, and reigned

twenty and four years. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin wherewith he made Israel to sin. Then the word of the Lord came to Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha, saying, Forasmuch as I exalted thee out of the dust, and made thee prince over my people Israel; and thou hast walked in the way of Jeroboam, and hast made my people Israel to sin, to provoke me to anger with their sins; behold, I will utterly sweep away Baasha and his house; and I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Him that dieth of Baasha in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth of his in the field shall the fowls of the air eat. Now the rest of the acts of Baasha, and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? And Baasha slept with his fathers, and was buried in Tirzah; and Elah his son reigned in his stead. In the twenty and sixth year of Asa king of Judah began Elah the son of Baasha to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and reigned two years. And his servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him: now he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, steward of his house in Tirzah: and Zimri went in and smote him, and killed him, in the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his stead. And it came to pass, when he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, that he smote all the house of Baasha, together with his kinsfolks, and his friends. Thus did Zimri destroy all the house of Baasha, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake against Baasha by Jehu the prophet, for all the sins of Baasha, and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned, and by which they made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities. Now the rest of the acts of Elah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

In the twenty and seventh year of Asa king of Judah did Zimri reign seven days in Tirzah. Now the people were encamped against Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. And the people that were encamped heard say, Zimri hath conspired, and hath also slain the king: wherefore all Israel made Omri, the captain of the host, king over Israel that day in the camp. And Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. And

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it came to pass, when Zimri saw that the city was taken, that he went into the king's house, and burnt the king's house over him with fire, and died, for his sins which he sinned in doing evil in the sight of the Lord, in walking in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin which he did, to make Israel to sin. Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and his treason that he wrought, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Then were the people of Israel divided into two parts: half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king; and half followed Omri. But the people that followed Omri prevailed against the people that followed Tibni the son of Ginath: so Tibni died, and Omri reigned. In the thirty and first year of Asa king of Judah began Omri to reign over Israel, and reigned twelve years: six years reigned he in Tirzah. And he bought the hill Samaria of Shemer for two talents of silver; and he built on the hill, and called the name of the city which he built, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill, Samaria. And Omri wrought evil in the sight of the Lord, and did worse than all that were before him. For he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in his sins wherewith he made Israel to sin, to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger with their vanities. Now the rest of the acts of Omri which he did, and his might that he shewed, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? So Omri slept with his fathers, and was buried in Samaria : and Ahab his son reigned in his stead.

We have to read these passages about the kings of Israel from Jeroboam to Omri remembering the writer and all that we have heard about him before. His one fixed idea was that all the kings of Israel were wicked and that they were wicked because they transgressed the laws of the Retrospect. He repeats the same judgement in almost the same words about every one of them, though Omri (so far as we know merely because he was the father of Ahab, of whom we are soon to hear) is declared to have been even worse than his forerunners. Notice that Zimri, who only reigned seven days, is condemned precisely in the same stereotyped way! But what strikes us even more is this: the writer assumes that what he thinks, God thought, and that as his judgement was, so too was and must be the judgement of God. Yet as we know, his judgement was often unhistorical and unfair. For the laws of the

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Retrospect had not even been written, far less published and accepted, by the reign of Omri. The consequence of our writer's rash identification of his own thoughts with the thoughts of God is that he puts words into the mouths of the prophets of that time which cannot represent what they actually said, and he makes God responsible for, and the author of, the very horrible and wholesale murders by which each fresh usurper exterminates the family of his predecessor on the throne. Once more it is from the Bible that we have to correct the Bible, for we must never drag down what is highest in the Bible to the level of what is less high. Now the Bible says this:

My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

And again:

God is full of compassion and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. Like as a father pitieth his children, so God pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our

frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

And in the law of the Retrospect itself we are told:

The father shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers.

And elsewhere this:

The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. Cast away from you all your transgressions, and make you a new heart and a new spirit. I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves

and live.

If we compare these utterances with what we have heard about the kings of Israel, we shall be aware of a difference between the two. And it is a good working rule that that which is higher and better is also truer and more divine.