even Damascus paid reverent attention to their voice; yet with all the variety, the greatness, the marvellous nature of the events of this age, it was in the memory of the giant spirit of Elijah as their true originator that they found their divine explanation and their higher unity. But in the second place, men began to realise equally forcibly how great were the evils of every description which marked the conclusion of the whole period, although blessings instead of woes might have been expected to follow the labours of so great a prophet; so that when the question arose why the era of which Elijah had been the moving spirit closed amid such severe calamities, the answer could only be found in the failure of the men whom he had benefited and whom he might have benefited still more, to receive him as they should have done. Upon the basis of these two truths the whole history of Elijah and his age is reconstructed by a narrator whose own spirit is not far behind that of his great subject in purity and elevation, and who is able to employ a marvellously creative genius in presenting the most sublime prophetic truths. He evidently made use of older narratives and records which extended over the whole period; but, carried away by a genuinely poetic as well as prophetic inspiration, he sheds on every detail the light and warmth of the highest truths alone, and the result is a new conception of the whole, in which

Namely, the composer of the passages 1 Kings xvii.-xix., 2 Kings ii. 1-18; see the remarks above, pp. 63, 68.

2 One example still enables us to prove this clearly by a closer comparison of the twelve narratives of Elisha (p. 85 sqq.) with these passages. We have only to bear in mind, first of all, that these two passages are composed by totally different persons, in spite of a certain connexion between their contents. Both generally and in particular, great differences of language are here and there to be found, if really decisive examples are looked for; for the recurrence of special expressions arises from the use of common sources. Flights of pure verse in the middle of the narrative like 1 Kings xvii. 16 are very becoming to this narrator, who conceives everything from a poetical elevation, but do not once occur at the introduction of the word of God in the Elisha-narratives. Similarly in the Elijah-fragments three is the regular round number and seven is rare (1 Kings xviii. 43); conversely, in the other passages seven is invariably used. But if the two authors are distinct, there is further every reason to believe that the Elisha-narratives, at any

2

rate, as they came from the first composer described above, are older than the Elijahnarrative. For the twelve Elisha-narratives stand apart individually distinct, and have therefore remained to that extent more simple; while the Elijah-narrative has been artificially reconstituted on the basis of older accounts. The former, therefore, describe the separate miracles more circumstantially and pictorially, indicate in every case the external means of which Elisha availed himself, and do not elevate the reader to such dizzy heights as the Elijah-narrative. These relations render it unmistakably clear that the narrative of the two miracles in 1 Kings xvii. 10-16, which are conceived with the utmost distinctness, rests on the basis of the third and sixth narratives in the Elisha-cycle (p. 85 sq.); and a similar connexion becomes further probable between the story in 1 Kings xvii. 17-24 and the fourth Elisha-narrative. We observed a similar relation, p. 82, in the case of the name

chariot of Israel and its horsemen ;' and it is better to treat the expression 1 Kings xviii. 29, cf. ver. 26, as a recollection of 2 Kings iv. 31, than the reverse.

the noblest and most lasting elements of the age are firmly incorporated and reflected with imperishable splendour. Among the greatest of the prophets of the old covenant, Elijah finds in this writer a portrayer of proportionate elevation, and the passages which proceed from his hand are among the most sublime in the whole range of the Old Testament. The form of his representation is determined solely by the great forces and antagonisms in operation, Jahveism and Baalism, true and false prophetism, prophetism and monarchy, heaven and earth; and every limitation of lower historical matter is removed.

It is true only a few fragments remain to us of his unique work but these describe, on the one hand, the true meridian of the sun of Elijah's life when all its beams blend in the most brilliant light, and, on the other, its serene setting in this life only to rise mysteriously in the next; and it may perhaps be permitted to us to estimate the value of what is lost by the importance of what is preserved, the beauty of which, indeed, stimulates us to attempt to restore as far as possible the entire work.

1) It probably commenced somewhat as follows. A crime of unexampled heinousness, which Ahab made no attempt to prevent, has been committed by Jezebel. She has not only introduced the worship of Baal, but she has also destroyed the altars of Jahveh, and murdered the prophets whom she has so long persecuted. Only one of them is left, Elijah; but he has received from Jahveh, on his consecration long ago to the prophetic office, the promise that no man should have power to harm him and that he need fear no one save Jahveh; and so in the midst of all the persecutions, while others hid themselves, he publicly displayed his constant zeal for Jahveh, unmolested and borne about as it were by Jahveh's wind. But now the great blow has been struck; the altars of Jahveh are all overthrown, his prophets are all slain; and, as though the whole creation were compelled to mourn such horrors, Jahveh commands the rain to abstain from falling in blessing upon men for many years. Deep and dreadful stillness broods over all. The prophets of Baal cannot draw from their idol deity the least alleviation of their great need; and Elijah has already received from Jahveh the command to hide himself altogether when he has once more reminded the king of the truth.

So Elijah appears (and here begins the narrative preserved to us) before Ahab, to proclaim to him that neither dew nor rain should thereafter come upon the earth but according to

his word (i.e. according to the word of Jahveh, whose solitary representative he was now become); and Ahab is left alone with this threat pointing to a still more dreadful future, in the midst of his country's misery.-Elijah retires altogether from the busy haunts of men; he is, however, not only sustained himself by the divine help during this long and sultry time, but he is also miraculously empowered to sustain the lives of others. The spirit first calls him into the wilderness east of the Jordan to the brook Cherith,' where by divine command morning and evening the ravens bring him bread, and where he drinks of the water of the wasting brook. When even this supply dries up, it calls him just in the opposite direction to Sarepta in Sidon,2 where a poor widow whom he asks for water fetches it for him, and, when he further asks for bread, would gladly give him that too, did she not fear she would soon consume the last piece left with her son. But at that moment she learns, to her amazement, that to the truly pious who joyfully sacrifice a part even of their last piece, that very morsel may become an inexhaustible source of new life, that the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil shall not be diminished for all for whom God wills it He even restores the son of the widow in whose house he dwelt, when sick to death. She begins to complain, in her trouble and perplexity, that the holy man had only come to her abode to descry her secret sins, and so rouse against her house the anger of God; but he proves to her, on the other hand, how the work and prayer of the righteous may have power to call back and to preserve life.

so.

2) At length in the third year3 Ahab has been sufficiently punished to be exposed to a new trial. In the meantime, mindful of the deep significance of Elijah's parting threat, he has sought for him everywhere to move him to retract what was now being only too severely fulfilled, has sent to all kingdoms and countries, and required of them an assurance or oath that they could not find him, but all his labour has been in vain. At last, however, when a severe famine visits Samaria, Elijah is

That this brook flowed east of the Jordan in a district which was probably at that time heathen, is clearly implied in the context of the words and of the story: and it is consequently impossible to look for it with Robinson (Bib. Res. i. p. 558) and Burchard (in Laurent's Peregrinatores, vii. 32) in the Wâdi Kelt near Jericho, or with Vandervelde (Syr. and Pal. ii. p. 310 sq.), in accordance with a common belief of earlier date, in the well of Phasael much farther to the north. The LXX spell the

name Χαῤῥάθ.-That the ravens convey from distant spots many articles of human food, is a notion of primitive antiquity.

2 In the Middle Ages two towns of this name were distinguished, see Wilbrand in Laurent's Peregrinatores, pp. 165, 183; cf. also Osborne's Palestina, p. 178 sqq.

Namely, after Elijah had parted from Ahab; that the drought lasted about three years and a half (James v. 17, Luke iv. 25) is probably a fragment of the fuller original account; cf. p. 103 sq.

commissioned to present himself before Ahab, and try him by bestowing the heavenly blessing which Jahveh purposes to grant through him. Ahab and Obadiah, the principal officer of his court, have undertaken between them to search throughout the country in all the valleys and by all the wells for any fodder that might remain for the languishing cattle. On his way Obadiah encounters Elijah, who requires him to announce his coming to Ahab. He is at first terrified at such a commission, fearing that Elijah may repeat his former practice and make himself entirely invisible again before Ahab can find him out; and then all the king's anger will fall on him for having hidden him, since he was known to be a worshipper of Jahveh, and once before had concealed a hundred prophets. However, upon Elijah's declaration of his determination to appear before Ahab, Obadiah informs the king; and, when the first unfriendliness of the meeting with Elijah is past, Ahab expresses his readiness to permit a public contest with the prophets of Baal, which was to prove that Jahveh alone was able to relieve the great distress of the land.-The contest takes place on Carmel,' and the immediate point on which it turns is nothing more than the power to draw down fire from heaven to kindle the proper sacrifice for the deity. The whole description of it, therefore, depends upon the ancient popular belief formerly referred to; and its peculiar form is due solely to the fact that the opposition between the great champion of Jahveh and the prophets of Baal represents at the same time, not without a certain grim humour, the opposition implied in the respective origins of the two religions. Those who do not direct their thoughts and their labours to the true God may build the altar and prepare the sacrifice, may loudly invoke their deity, and their exertions may increase in violence and frenzy as one after another proves fruitless, as though any blessing were ever to be wrested from heaven by defying it; but with all their pains and all their fury they cannot draw down from heaven that fire which they seek, and which alone can reward their efforts with success. It was otherwise with Elijah. With twelve stones, the sacred number, he rebuilds the altar of Jahveh, which, like every other in the kingdom, has been destroyed, calmly prepares the sacrifice, offers a fervent prayer, and beholds the heavenly fire consume the offering. Such a triumph

2

The place where Elijah must have sacrificed is now called Mochraqah, or better

i.e. Burnt-offering-place; a detailed

description of these localities is to be found in Vandervelde's Syr. and Pal. i. p. 320 sqq.; cf. Tristram's Land of Israel, p. 115 sqq., 636.

2 Vol. iii. p. 246.

before the assembled people immediately converts them, and with their aid he overpowers the prophets of Baal, and slays them at the brook Kishon, on the north of Carmel. He then requires Ahab to eat once more of the sacrificial meat offered to Jahveh to renew his strength, for the rain so ardently longed for was coming soon; with firm trust he sends his messenger to the mountain top to announce the approach, which every moment made more certain, of the storm from the far west; recommends Ahab to drive to Jezreel before the rain prevents him; and, when it really falls, carried away with the fresh impetus of divine energy, he runs on foot before the king, and meets him at the entrance to Jezreel, in order to take measures with him for consummating throughout the realm the victory he had just won on Carmel.

3) As soon, however, as the tidings of these events reach Jezebel, she sends him the stern message that he shall be a dead man if he be found the next day in the kingdom. This proves the great crisis in the destinies of the whole age. For this threat Elijah was not prepared, least of all in the moment when he had achieved the victory. Hitherto, he had worked in the belief that his life, at any rate, would be inviolable, for he was the last of the prophets of Jahveh; now, he sees nothing before him in the kingdom but the immediate fall even of this last prophet soul, the ruin of that great career of triumph which had been just commenced, the final destruction of the whole religion of Jahveh. His human feelings are too deeply moved; he hurries in despair to Beersheba in the extreme south of Judah, and, leaving his servant behind him, hastens in the same direction a day's journey further on into the wilderness. There he sinks to sleep, but his last wish is for death. Just then an angel touches him, bidding him renew his strength with the food sent to him from heaven; he does so and again falls asleep, when the angel touches him a second time that he may eat again, because he will have far to go. And now at length conscious of what he has to do, he collects his strength for the forty days' journey through the great wilderness to Sinai itself, there in the supreme sanctity of this ancient home

2

2 The whole representation in 1 Kings xix. 4-8, has evidently been modelled upon such narratives as Gen. xvi. xxi. 15-19, and certain reminiscences from the history of Moses, just as 1 Kings xviii. 31 is a verbal repetition of Gen. xxxv. 10; and the numerous hints of visions xix. 5-7, 9 recall the patriarchal history.