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had brought Israel out of Egypt. This transformation of the religion of Israel has been
fully described in another place. Such a form of worship would have the twofold
recommendation, that, while it seemed a return from the service of Baal to that of
Jehovah, it still left to Ahab, as king, the office and control of chief pontiff of the
new religion (comp. 1 Kings 12:32, 33).^69
Indeed, it may have been in this sense also that the four hundred prophets were
designated those of Ahab, just as they of Astarte may have been called those of
Jezebel, because in her character as queen she was their high-priestess. And if these
prophets were really priests of the worship originally instituted by Jeroboam, and
now restored, it is only natural to suppose that they may have been formed into a
prophetic association, after the mode and in imitation of the institution of the "sons of
the prophets." Whether any connection between the two really existed at the time can
scarcely be determined, although the angry speech of Zedekiah (ver. 24), the leader
of the prophets of Ahab, seems to imply it.
And we can readily believe that in those degenerate days many of the "sons of the
prophets" - perhaps even an association of them - may have lent themselves to this
spurious worship of Jehovah. We can now realize the scene enacted before Ahab and
Jehoshaphat. It is related in almost identical terms in the Books of Kings and of
Chronicles (2 Chronicles 18:2-34). In the latter it is introduced, by an account of the
circumstances which led up to the ill-fated expedition against Syria. We remember^70
that eight or nine years previously, Jehoram, the son of Jehoshaphat, then a youth of
about fifteen or sixteen, had been married to Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and
Jezebel.
So far as we know, the two monarchs had not personally met after that event. But
when Israel, after the defeat of Ben-hadad, enjoyed a long period of peace, while
Judah was in an equally prosperous condition (2 Chronicles 18:1), it was both natural
and easy for the two monarchs whose families and kingdoms were so closely
connected to arrange a personal interview. We may conjecture that the proposal had
come from Ahab, nor are we probably mistaken in supposing that in this the
Israelitish king had the scheme of an alliance against Syria in his mind. At any rate
this would accord with that systematic intriguing and desire to form alliances which
we have repeatedly noticed as characteristic of Ahab.
Jehoshaphat and his retinue were right royally received and entertained at Samaria. It
was, surely, a strange thing to see a Davidic king of Judah on a visit to the capital of
the rebel provinces, yet not more strange than that one of the decided religiousness of
Jehoshaphat should consort with an Ahab. The consequences appeared only too soon.
The Book of Chronicles uses the expression that Ahab "enticed"^71 Jehoshaphat (2
Chronicles 18:2), while the Book of Kings only relates the circumstances that led to
(^)