toward him, he mounted Jehu's chariot to go with him and see his ze al for Jehovah. The first measure of the conqueror

was to repeat in Samaria what he had done in Jezreel, and to kill all related to or connected with the family of Ahab.

His next was, by a truly Eastern device, to seize and destroy the adherents of the religious rites introduced under the

late regime. Although this was in fulfillment of his mission, it will be observed that it also afforded the best means of

establishing his own rule, since the national worship of Baal was identified with the house of Ahab. Accordingly we

imagine that when Jehu publicly announced that he meant to serve Baal even much more than Ahab, and proclaimed a

solemn assembly for Baal, the gathering would be thoroughly representative. First, as we understand it, Jehu

summoned all the p rophets and priests of Baal, and "all his servants" - either the leading laity generally, or else those in

Samaria itself - ostensibly to make preparation for his great sacrifice. Next, similar proclamation was made throughout

the country. In both cases th e object was to secure the attendance of all professed worshippers of Baal. On the day

appointed, the courts of the Temple of Baal were thronged "from one opening to the other [the opposite]." To make the

leaders of the new religion the more prominent, Jehu now directed that each of them should be arrayed in festive

vestments,295 and then, to prevent any possible mistake, since some of the servants of Jehovah might have followed

Jehu and Jehonadab to the house of Baal, he ordered, on his arrival, to search fo r and remove any worshippers of the

Neither of these measures would excite surprise, but would only be regarded as indications of Jehu's zeal, and his desire

that the rites of Baal should not be profaned by the presence of strangers. The attendance of Jehonadab might seem

strange; but he was in the train of the king whom he was known to have served, in whose company he had returned to

Samaria, and with whom he had continued while he issued his mandates, and prepared for the feast of Baal. He might

therefore be simply an adherent of Jehu, and now prepared to follow his lead.

The rest may be briefly told. As the sacrifices were offered Jehu surrounded the building with eighty of his trusted

guards, who, on the given word of command, entered the build ing, threw down all they encountered, and penetrated

into "the sanctuary* of the house of Baal," where all who had been marked out to them were slaughtered. Then they

brought out the wooden images and burnt them, while the large stone statue of Baal, as we ll as the Temple itself, were

destroyed. And completely to desecrate the site, and mark the contempt attaching to it, Jehu converted it into a place for

public convenience.

"Thus," as Scripture marks, "Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel." Yet, as the cessation of idolatry after the return from

the exile did not issue in true repentance towards God, nor in faith in the Messiah, so did not this destruction of Baal-

worship lead up to the service of Jehovah. Rather did king and people stray farther from the LORD their God. Of the

succeeding events in Jehu's reign, which lasted no less than twenty -eight years, no account is given in Scripture, except

this notice, that "in those days Jehovah began to cut Israel short: and Hazael smote them in all the coasts of Israel; from

Jordan eastward, all the land of Gilead, of the Gadites, and the Reubenites, and the Manassites, from Aroer, which is by

the river Arnon, even Gilead and Bashan." And the Assyrian monuments throw farther light upon this brief record.

They inform us about the wars of Hazael against Assyria, and they represent Jehu as bringing tribute to the king of

Assyria. The inference which we derive is that Jehu had entered into a tributary alliance with the more powerful empire

of Assyria against Hazael, and that when the latter had made his peace with Assyria, he turned against Jehu, and

inflicted on Israel the losses thus briefly noticed in Scripture. Be this as it may, this at least is certain, that with the loss

of the whole trans-Jordanic territory, the decline of the northern kingdom had commenced.

Nor was the state of matters more hopeful in the southern kingdom of Judah. The brief and bloody reign of Athaliah

was, indeed, followed by the counter-revolution of Jehoiada, and the elevation of Joash to t he throne. But the

reformation then inaugurated was of short duration. After the death of Jehoiada, the worship of Jehovah was once more

forsaken for that of "groves and idols, and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass" (2 Chronicles

And although the LORD sent them prophets to bring them again unto the LORD, they not only would not give ear, but

actually at the commandment of the king, and in the very house of Jehovah, shed the blood of Zechariah, which,

according to Jewish legend, could not be wiped out, but continued to bubble on the stones, till the Assyrians entered

and laid low the sanctuary thus profaned. And even before that, the army of Hazael, though greatly inferior in numbers,

defeated that of Judah, desolated and d espoiled the land, and laid siege to Jerusalem. The Syrian army was, indeed,

bought off, but the hand of God lay heavy on the king. Stricken down by disease he was murdered in his bed by his