face of the LORD thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the LORD, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.

And the king said unto the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.

And the man of God said unto the king, If thou wilt give me half thine house I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place for so was it charged me by the word of the LORD, saying, Eat no bread, nor drink water, nor turn again by the same way that thou

camest.

So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Beth-el.

Now there dwelt an old prophet in Beth-el; and his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Beth-el: the words which he had spoken unto the king, them they told also to their father.

And their father said unto them, What way went he? For his sons had seen what way the man of God went, which came from Judah. And he said unto his sons, Saddle me the ass. So they saddled him the ass: and he rode thereon, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak: and he said unto him, Art thou the man of God that camest from Judah? And he said, I am.

Then he said unto him, Come home with me, and eat bread. And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee: neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place for it was said to me by the word of the LORD, Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that thou

camest.

He said unto him, I am a prophet also as thou art; and an angel spake unto me by the word of the LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thine house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied unto him. So he went back with him, and did eat bread in his house, and drank water.

And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of the LORD came unto the prophet that brought him back: and he cried unto the man of God that came from Judah, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the LORD, and hast not kept the commandment which the LORD thy God commanded thee, but camest back, and hast eaten bread and drunk water in the place, of the which the LORD did say to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water; thy carcase shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers.

And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled for him the ass, to wit, for the prophet whom he had brought back

And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and slew him: and his carcase was cast in the way, and the ass stood by it, the lion also stood by the carcase. And, behold, men passed by, and saw the carcase cast in the way, and the lion standing by the carcase and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

And when the prophet that brought him back from the way heard thereof, he said, It is the man of God, who was disobedient unto the word of the LORD therefore, the LORD hath delivered him unto the lion, which hath torn him, and slain him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake unto him.

And he spake to his sons, saying, Saddle me the ass. And they saddled

him. And he went and found his carcase cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcase: the lion had not eaten the carcase, nor torn the ass.

And the prophet took up the carcase of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and brought it back: and the old prophet came to the city, to mourn and to bury him. And he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!

And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spake to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man. of God is buried; lay my bones be-side his bones: for the saying which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Beth-el, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.

Question.-Was the prophecy made by the man of God respecting the burning of men's bones upon the altar fulfilled?

Answer. Yes. We read, in the Second Book of Kings, that Josiah "slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars, and burned men's bones upon them." King Josiah was not born until more than three hundred years after the prophecy was made. Q-What was the punishment of Jeroboam for trying to seize the man of God?

A. His hand dried up, or stiffened so that he could not move it, but remained with outstretched arm, until the prophet, who returned good for evil, prayed that the power to move it might be restored to him.

Q.-Why did the prophet refuse to go with the king and have food, or to return by the same way that he came ?

A. If he had accepted the king's invitation to eat bread and drink water with him, it would have been a sign of peace and friendship; and he would not have shown God's abhorrence of the wickedness of Jeroboam. The command not to return by the same way was an additional precaution against forming any acquaintances among the people; perhaps, also, a test of the obedience of the prophet.

Q.-Why did the old prophet go after the man of1 God?

A. He was, perhaps, a man who had once been obedient to> the Lord, and had received the gift of prophecy; or he might have been a pretender to the prophetic office, who was afraid that he might lose his influence with Jeroboam; and he therefore hoped to lead the man of God into sin, so that the king, seeing his disobedience, might not believe in his authority as a messenger from the Lord. The old prophet must have been a very bad man, for he did not hesitate to tell a lie to serve his purpose, and, having once been good, must have well known the greatness of the sin he committed. It is remarkable, as showing how the Lord overrules the thoughts of the wicked, that He made this old man the means of telling the other prophet what the punishment of his disobedience would be.

Q.-What singular circumstances attended the punishment of the disobedient prophet?

A. The lion that killed him did not eat his body, a most unusual thing, as lions generally attack for the sake of food, neither did it touch the ass, nor was the ass afraid of the lion. The body of the prophet was preserved so that it might be taken back into the city, and to be a witness of the terrible power of the Lord.

AFTER this thing Jeroboam re

turned not from his evil way, but made again of the lowest of the people priests of the high places:

whosoever would, he consecrated him,. and he became one of the priests of the high places.

And this thing 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, which 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. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.

And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he is sick thus and thus shalt thou say unto her for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman.

And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that 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: for thou 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 male, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam. 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 own 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 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 that day: but what? even now. 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 they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger. And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.

And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, 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.

Question.-What sin did Jeroboam afterwards commit?

Answer. He made priests of the lowest orders of the people, as he had done before, having driven away the men of the tribe of Levi, who alone were chosen by the Lord for the priesthood.

Q.-What is the meaning of the name of the king's son, Abijah?

A.-"Jehovah is my father," or "Jehovah is my desire." Although Jeroboam had so greatly sinned, in his heart he retained a belief in the God of Israel, as we may see by the name he gave his child.

Q.-Could he and his wife deceive the Lord? A.-No. The prophet was told by the Lord that the king's wife would come to him disguised, and when she came he at once told her who she was.

Q. What message did the prophet Ahijah deliver to the wife of Jeroboam?

A.-That the Lord would bring evil upon his house, that all the males of his family should be put to death; that the child she came to inquire about should die directly she reached the city on her return, but that he only should be buried, because in him there was some good thing; that a king of Israel should cut off the house of Jeroboam, and that Israel should be rooted out of that good land.

Q. How were these prophecies fulfilled? A.—Baasha, a man of the tribe of Issachar conspired against Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, killed him, reigned in his stead, and "smote all the house of Jeroboam-he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed." The prophecy that the people of Israel should be rooted out of the good land, was a repetition of the prophecy of Moses, in the Book of Deuteronomy, and was fulfilled by the dispersion of the ten tribes.

AND Rehoboam the son of Solo

mon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess.

And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.

And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem and he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house: he even

took away all and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king's house. And it was so, when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard

chamber.

Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.

And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead.

Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned

Abijam over Judah.

Three years

reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Maachah the daughter of Abishalom.

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless for David's sake did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. And Abijam slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead.

And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel reigned Asa over Judah. And forty and one years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, as did David his father.

And he removed all the idols that his fathers had made. And also Maachah his mother, even her he removed from being queen, because she had made an idol in a grove; and Asa destroyed her idol, and burnt it by the brook Kidron.

But the high places were not removed: nevertheless Asa's heart was perfect with the LORD all his days. And he brought in the things which his father had dedicated, and the

things which himself had dedicated, into the house of the LORD, silver, and gold, and vessels.

And there was war between Ası and Baasha king of Israel all their days. And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not suffer any to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants and king Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, that dwelt at Damascus, saying, There is a league between thee and me, and between my father, and thy father: behold, I have sent unto thee a present of silver and gold; come and break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.

So Ben-hadad hearkened unto king Asa, and sent the captains of the hosts which he had against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maachah, and all Cinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.

And it came to pass, when Baasha heard thereof, that he left off building of Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah. Then king Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted: and they took away the stones of Ramah, and the timber thereof, wherewith Baasha had builded; and king Asa built with them Geba of Benjamin, and Mizpah.

The rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? Nevertheless in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. And Asa slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father: and Jehoshaphat his son reigned in his stead.