The siege dragged on through many weary months.At last,when it seemed that the town must surrender,the King of Moab decided to make a sacrifice.It was to be an occasion which both the gods and men would remember.The King took his oldest son and he killed him on the walls of his capital (in full sight of the enemy),and he burned the body to the greater glory of the Moabite idols.
When they saw this,the Jews were greatly disheartened,for they (the generation of Jehoram and Jehoshaphat),did not place much trust in their own Jehovah.
They feared the wrath of his Moabite rivals,who had just been favoured with such a signal evidence of devotion and worship.They said that it would serve no good purpose to continue the siege under those circumstances and they went home.
It was a most critical moment in the history of the Jewish people.The house of Omri was now almighty in both kingdoms.In the North,Jezebel ruled with the fierce violence of a despot.In the South,her daughter Athaliah managed both her husband and his country according to the wishes of her foreign councillors.Everywhere the reign of Jehovah seemed to have come to an end.Baal seemed to be triumphant.Something must be done and it must be done quickly to save the people from the consequences of their own folly.
It was a moment which demanded immediate and energetic action.
But the man of few words and big deeds was gone.
Elijah no longer dwelled upon this earth.One day while he was walking with Elisha,a fiery wagon had descended from Heaven,and had carried the old Prophet to his reward.At least,so Elisha told the people when he returned alone from the town of Bethel,and they dared not doubt his words.For Elisha had inherited his master's power over the forces of nature and he was a man to be treated with awe and respect.
When naughty little boys from the village of Bethel poked fun at the Prophet's bald head,two bears rushed forth from the bushes and ate up the children as a warning to all others.That,however,was only a detail.There was no end to the things which Elisha could do.Like Elijah,he could make rivers stop at a single word of command.He could make iron float on top of the water and he was for ever curing sick people.Finally,he too possessed the wonderful gift of making himself almost invisible.
All this stood him in good stead when he felt that the time had come to remove Jezebel from the scene of Jewish national life.He deliberately placed himself at the head of a revolutionary movement which planned to overthrow the house of Omri,and to purge both Israel and Judah from the iniquities of the Baal service.
Elisha did not take part in the actual uprising.
He was not a man of the sword,although he was by no means of a peaceful nature when it came to a matter of principle.But the fighting he left to a man called Jehu,one of the most picturesque figures of the Old Testament.
Jehu was a captain in the Israelite army.He was famous for his careless bravery.He could ride faster than any other man and he could shoot straighter and he was absolutely indefatigable in the pursuit of his enemies.He was just the sort of leader to be chosen for the dangerous task of upsetting an old and established dynasty.
Luck was with him.The King of Judah and the King of Israel happened to be staying together.They were closely related and outwardly they maintained a semblance of good feeling.
Jehoram,King of Israel,was the first to discover the danger.When he heard that Jehu was on the war-path,he tried to escape in his armour-clad chariot.It was too late.Jehoram fell dead with an arrow through his heart.His body was left by the side of the road and when the soldiers of the regular army (who followed their master at a distance)found it there,they threw it on the land which Ahab had stolen from Naboth,and there they left it to the mercy of the ever-present dogs.
Ahaziah,warned by the fate of his uncle,did his best to reach his own frontier.Near Ibleam in the land of Manasseh he was overtaken by the rebels,and was mortally wounded.He managed to drag himself to Megiddo,the famous old fortress near the battlefield of Armageddon (where so many kings of the Jews had met a violent death)and there he died.
When this had been successfully accomplished,the wrath of Jehu was turned against Jezebel.The old Queen,when she saw that she was doomed,met her fate with great dignity.With great care she dressed herself in the royal robes.Then she awaited the arrival of the men who were to be her executioners.When Jehu reached the palace,he called to Jezebel's servants and ordered them to fling their mistress out of the window.A couple of eunuchs(the private guardians of the harem)obeyed this order.
Jezebel was thrown into the street.Jehu drove his chariot across her dead body and went his way,without looking backwards.
That night,under cover of darkness,a few faithful retainers of Ahab,remembering better days,left the palace to give their dead ruler the funeral which befitted the daughter of a king.
They could not find Jezebel's body.
The dogs of Jezreel had torn it to pieces.
Next it was the turn of all the descendants of Ahab.Most of these had fled to Samaria.But when they saw how the whole country rallied to Jehu,they understood the uselessness of a defence and they surrendered upon such terms as Jehu was willing to grant.He did not spare a single one.Their heads were placed in two large heaps just outside of the city gate as a warning to those who might try to oppose the will of the rebel chieftain.
A little later,forty-two other princes of the royal house of Judah suffered a similar fate.
