wretched woman, Jehu proceeded with the remainder of his terrible duty. He took measures for having the whole posterity of Achab, amounting to seventy persons, put to death; and he then abolished the worship of Baal, craftily proclaiming a festival in order of the idol-god, and slaying every creature who presented himself. Still, Jehu's whole heart was not with God, though he obeyed Him so far as it suited his own personal and ambitious designs. He followed the idolatries of Jeroboam, and left the golden calves standing in Bethel and Dan; and his sins and those of the people drew down the wrath of the Almighty; and the whole country of Israel was long harassed by the attacks of the Syrians. CHAP. XXVII. Athalia and Joiada. The Death of Eliseus. As soon as Ochozias was dead, his mother, Athalia, seized his throne, and murdered all her son's posterity, save one, an infant, Joas by name, who was hidden by his aunt Josaba. For six years the bloody queen reigned undisturbed; but in the seventh year the high-priest Joiada brought forth the young Joas from his concealment, and presented him to the people, and crowned him king, and the whole people joyfully recognising his claim, Athalia was slain. So long as Joiada lived, the young monarch lived in a decent observance of his duty to God; but when the aged priest was gathered to his fathers, Joas betook himself to idolatries and vice, till Zacharias, who was now high-priest in the place of his father, rebuked him for his sins. Wild with anger, the king sent, and had the holy man stoned to death, and plunged into renewed iniquities, till the patience of God was tried to the uttermost, and Joas was murdered in his bed by two of his own household. Before he died, on one occasion he shewed that he still reverenced the divine gifts of the prophet Eliseus, though he would not turn from his own idols. The prophet was on his dying bed, and the king came to visit him, and wept before him, and said: O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel and the guider thereof. And Eliseus said to him: Bring a bow and arrows. And when he had brought him a bow and arrows, he said to the king of Israel: Put thy hand upon the bow. And when he had put his hand, Eliseus put his hands over the king's hands, and said: Open the window to the east. And when he had opened it, Eliseus said: Shoot an arrow. And he shot. And Eliseus said: The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of the deliverance from Syria: and thou shalt strike the Syrians in Aphec, till thou consume them. And he said: Take the arrows. And when he had taken them, he said to him: Strike with an arrow upon the ground. And he struck three times, and stood still. And the man of God was angry with him, and said: If thou hadst smitten five or six or seven times, thou hadst smitten Syria even to utter destruction: but now three times shalt thou smite it. And Eliseus died: and they buried him. Within a short time after the prophet's death, a miracle was wrought with his relics. A party of persons were burying a dead man near where the body of Eliseus lay in its tomb. Suddenly a roving band of Moabites came upon them, and in their terror they cast the corpse into the grave of the prophet and fled. The moment, however, the dead body touched the bones of Eliseus, life returned to it, and the man stood alive upon his feet. Such as the prophet was in his lifetime, such was he, by the power of God, even after his death. CHAP. XXVIII. The Destruction of the Ten Tribes. NINE monarchs after Jehu succeeded one another in rapid succession, through blood and violence, on the throne of Israel. In the reign of Osee, the last of them, the measure of national guilt was full, and the ten tribes were carried captive into Assyria by the Assyrian king Salmanasar. From that captivity, as a nation they never entirely returned. A partial restoration took place in after-times; but as a people, the ten tribes were lost amidst the heathen, and to this day it is a source of curious speculation to discover what was their final end, and whether any traces of them can yet be found existing. During the reign of one of their latest kings in Samaria, Jeroboam, the second of that name, lived the prophet Jonas, who was the only one of the prophets of the true God who was sent to preach to the heathens. He lived in a town of Galilee; and the word of the Lord came to him, saying: Arise, and go to Ninive, the great city, and preach in it for the wickedness thereof is come up before me. And Jonas rose up to flee into Tharsis from the face of the Lord: and he went down to Joppe, and found a ship going to Tharsis: and he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them to Tharsis from the face of the Lord. But the Lord sent a great wind into the sea and a great tempest was raised in the sea; and the ship was in danger to be broken. And the mariners were afraid; and the men cried to their god: and they cast forth the wares that were in the ship, into the sea, to lighten it of them : and Jonas went down into the inner part of the ship, and fell into a deep sleep. And the ship-master came to him, and said to him: Why art thou fast asleep? rise up, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think of us, that we may not perish. And they said every one to his fellow: Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know why this evil is upon us. And they cast lots; and the lot fell upon Jonas. And they said to him: Tell us for what cause this evil is upon us? what is thy business? of what country art thou? and whither goest thou? or of what people art thou? And he said to them I am a Hebrew and I fear the Lord the God of heaven, who made both the sea and the dry land. And the men were greatly afraid: and they said to him: Why hast thou done this? (for the men knew that he had fled from the face of the Lord; because he had told them.) And they said to him: What shall we do to thee, that the sea may be calm to us? for the sea flowed : and swelled. And he said to them: Take me up, and cast me into the sea and the sea shall be calm to you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you. And the men rowed hard to return to land: but they were not able; because the sea tossed, and swelled upon them. And they cried to the Lord, and said: We beseech Thee, O Lord, let us not perish for this man's life; and lay not upon us innocent blood: for Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased Thee. And they took Jonas, and cast him into the sea: and the sea ceased from raging. And the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and sacrificed victims to the Lord, and made vows. Now the Lord prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonas and Jonas was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. And Jonas prayed to the Lord his God out of the belly of the fish. And he said: I cried out of my affliction to the Lord; and He heard me I cried out of the belly of hell; and Thou hast heard my voice. And Thou hast cast me forth into the deep in the heart of the sea; and a flood hath compassed me all Thy billows and Thy waves have passed over me. And I said: I am cast away out of the sight of Thy eyes but yet I shall see Thy holy temple again. The waters compassed me about even to the soul: the deep hath closed me round about: the sea hath covered my head. I went down to the lowest parts of the mountains: the bars of the earth have shut me up for ever and Thou wilt bring up my life from corruption, O Lord my God. When my soul was in distress within me, I remembered the Lord: that my prayer may come to Thee, unto Thy holy temple. They that in vain observe vanities, forsake their own mercy. But I with the voice of praise will sacrifice to Thee: I will pay whatsoever I have vowed for my salvation to the Lord. And the Lord spoke to the fish: and it vomited out Jonas upon the dry land. : And the word of the Lord came to Jonas the second time, saying: Arise, and go to Ninive, the great city: and preach in it the preaching that I bid thee. And Jonas arose, and went to Ninive according to the word of the Lord: now Ninive was a great city of three days' journey. And Jonas began to enter into the city one day's journey: and he cried, and said: Yet forty days, and Ninive shall be destroyed. And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least. And the word came to the king of Nineve: and he rose up out of his throne, and cast away his robe from him, and was clothed with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he caused it to be proclaimed and published in Ninive from the mouth of the king and of his princes, saying:. Let neither men nor beasts, oxen nor sheep, taste any thing: let them not feed nor drink water. And let men and beasts be covered with sackcloth, and cry to the Lord with all their strength: and let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the iniquity that is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn, and forgive; and will turn away from His fierce anger, and we shall not perish? And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which He had said that He would do to them and He did it not. And Jonas was exceedingly troubled, and was angry. And he prayed to the Lord, and said: I beseech Thee, O Lord, is not this what I said, when I was yet in my own country? therefore I went before to flee into Tharsis: for I know that Thou art a gracious and merciful God, patient, and of much compassion, and easy to forgive evil. And now, O Lord, I beseech Thee take my life from me: for it is better for me to die than to live. And the Lord said: Dost thou think thou hast reason to be angry? Then Jonas went out of the city, and sat toward the east side of the city and he made himself a booth there: and he sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would befal the city. And the Lord God prepared an ivy, and it came up over the head of Jonas, to be a shadow over his head, and to cover him (for he was fatigued): and Jonas was exceeding glad of the ivy. But God prepared a worm, when the morning arose on the following day and it struck the ivy; and it withered. And |