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name was pronounced Ba'al (originally Ba'l);^110 in Aramaean it was Be'el; in
Babylono-Assyrian Bel (comp. Isaiah 46:1; Jeremiah 50:2).
The Baal-zebub, worshipped in Ekron^111 - the modern Akir^112 - and the most north-
eastern of the five cities of the Philistines, E.N.E. from Jerusalem, was the Fly
God,^113 who was supposed to send or to avert the plague of flies.^114 Like the great
Apollos, who similarly sent and removed diseases, he was also consulted as an
oracle.
We should be greatly mistaken if we were to regard the proposed inquiry on the part
of Ahaziah as only a personal, or even as an ordinary national sin. The whole course
of this history has taught us that the reign of Ahab formed a decisive epoch in the
development of Israel. The period between the murder of Nadab, the son of
Jeroboam, and the accession of Omri, the father of Ahab, was merely intermediate
and preparatory, the throne being occupied by a succession of adventurers, whose
rule was only transitory. With Omri, or rather with his son Ahab, a new period of
firm and stable government began, and politically it was characterized by
reconciliation and alliance with the neighboring kingdom of Judah, and with such
foreign enterprises as have been noticed in the course of this narrative. But even
more important was the religious crisis which marked the reign of Ahab. Although
Jeroboam had separated himself and his people from the Divinely ordered service of
Jehovah, as practiced in Jerusalem, he had, at least in profession, not renounced the
national religion, but only worshipped the God of Israel under the symbol of the
golden calf, and in places where worship was not lawful. But Ahab had introduced
the service of Baal and of Astarte as the religion of the State. True, this progress in
apostasy was in reality only the logical sequence of the sin of Jeroboam, and hence is
frequently mentioned in connection with it in the sacred narrative. Nevertheless, the
difference between the two is marked, and with Ahab began that apostasy which led
to the final destruction of the northern kingdom, and to the trackless dispersion of the
ten tribes. In this light we can understand such exceptional mission and ministry as
those of Elijah and Elisha, such a scene as the call to decision on Mount Carmel, and
such an event as that about to be related.
Viewed in this manner, the royal embassy sent to Ekron to consult "the fly god," was
really a challenge to Jehovah, whose prophet Elijah was in the land, and as such it
must bring sharpest punishment to all involved in it. It was fitting, so to speak, that,
in contrast to the messengers of the earthly king, Jehovah should commission His
angel,^115 and through him bid His prophet defeat the object of Ahaziah's mission.
As directed, Elijah went to meet the king's messengers. His first words exposed - not
for the sake of Ahaziah, but for that of Israel - the real character of the act. Was it
because there was no God in Israel that they went to inquire of the "fly god" of
(^)