beyond it, even in hostile Syria. This, after what we have already learned, cannot surprise us. Although there is not any

express statement to that effect, we cannot but connect the journ ey of Elisha "towards Damascus,"  246 with the

commission formerly given to Elijah to anoint Hazael king over Syria (1 Kings 19:15).

This may help us to understand that the Word of God has a wider than the barely literal application which so often

tends to p erplex the superficial reader. It also shows that its fulfillment may be delayed, and when made, come in other

manner than was expected; and, lastly, that the prophets may for many years have borne about the painful secret of

some trouble to come - forbearing to take any part till the moment for action, or rather for their obedience, was

indicated to them from above.

It was, surely, not an accidental circumstance that when Elisha arrived in Syria Ben-hadad was on that sick-bed from

which his treacherous s ervant intended he should never rise. For the prophet was not to come until all was ready and

prepared for the deed by which Hazael would ascend the throne of Syria, that while in its sequences necessarily

connected with the judgments foretold upon Israel, yet no part of the incentive to the crime could be imputed to the

agency of the Divine messenger. Evidently, if Hazael had not intended to murder his master, and to pretend that he had

died of his disease, the words of Elisha would have had no meaning, nor could they have suggested to him his crime.

On hearing of the near approach of the great prophet of Israel, Ben-hadad charged Hazael, probably his vizier or chief

general, to meet Elisha, and inquire through him of Jehovah, whether he would recover fro m his sickness. After the

manner of the time, Hazael went to meet the prophet with a present. We are not to understand that those forty camels

which bore "of every good thing of Damascus," were literally fully laden. This magnifying of a present by distrib uting

and laying it on a great many bearers or beasts of burden, is characteristic of the East, and is not uncommonly

witnessed in our own days. Hazael delivered his master's message with unblushing hypocrisy. But Elisha had read his

purpose, and replied in language which, while it unmasked, could never have suggested his murderous scheme: "Go,

say to him, [viz. as thou intendest to do] Thou shalt surely live; howbeit Jehovah has shown me that he shall surely

die." And as we recall the hypocritical words by which Hazael had tried to disguise his purpose and deceive the

prophet, we feel that this was the most fitting answer to his pretended humility and care.

Yet this was only the beginning of what Elisha had to say to Hazael. "And he [Elisha] steadied his face, and set it till he

[Hazael] was ashamed," when reading not only his inmost thoughts, but his future history also, the prophet burst into

weeping. When Hazael inquired as to the reason of his tears, Elisha told the terrible cruelties which he knew the Syrian

would perpetrate upon Israel. The mock humility of Hazel's answer: "But what is thy servant, the dog, that he should do

this great thing?" reveals at least the spirit in which he contemplated such deeds against Israel. If Hazael had still

thought to deceive Elisha, the announcement that God had shown to his prophet Hazael as king of Syria, must have

convinced him that disguise was useless. Little more requires to be told. Hazael returned to his master, and gave him

the lying assurance of recovery, as Elisha had foretold. Then as in his sore sickness Ben-hadad lay prostrate and

helpless, Hazael laid upon his face a coverlet which had been soaked and made heavy with water. And so Ben-hadad

died, and his murderer, whose crime remained probably unknown, ascended the throne.

The accession of Hazael was only part of the burden of judgment upon Israel which had been announced to Elijah. The

other part was the usurpation of the throne of Israel by Jehu. With this twofold accession began the decay of the

northern kingdom of Israel. Presently we shall read (10:32). "In those days Jehovah began to cut Israel short; and

Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel," - a smiting which included the loss of the entire territory east of the

Jordan. And we believe that it was to declare, perhaps to warn of, this judgment upon Israel, that Elisha was sent to

Damascus, and made to have this interview with Hazael.

For Divine judgment cannot be arrested, though it may be deferred, and what Israel had sown when on the morrow of

the decisive contest on Carmel it cast out Elijah, that would it reap, when, notwithstanding all mercies shown, the son

of Ahab and Jezebel could order, though he dared not carry out, the execution of Elisha. They would have none of His

prophets, however clearly their mission was attested of God; nay, rather, they would have none of that God Whose

prophets Elijah and Elisha had been. And yet in faithfulness God would reveal the coming judgment to His servants,

and through them to Israel.

But quite a peculiar feeling comes over us in these far-off islands of the West, when now, thousands of years after these

events, we stand before the black obelisk on which this part of the history of ancient Assyria is recorded,247 and there