This infamous defection was, consequently, displeasing to the Almighty; and Solomon was assured in a dream, that his successors should mourn the loss of the kingdom, as the result of his ingratitude, except the tribe of Judah, which would be left them in consideration of the sacred promise given to David. The effect of this awful denunciation is not recorded in Scripture, nor is there any farther account of this monarch, but that he died in the fortieth year of his reign, and about the fifty-eighth of his age; and was buried in the sepulchre of his royal father.

B. C.

Rehoboam, Solomon's son and suc975. cessor, went, upon his accession, with his court, and the elders of all the tribes, to receive their homage at Shechem; but they refused to acknowledge his sovereignty, unless he would promise to redress some popular griev·ances, which had crept into the administration during the latter part of Solomon's reign. The king took three days to meditate on their request, but having listened to the advice of some rash youths, who had been brought up with him in ease and luxury, he answered the people in a haughty tone, that he designed to rule them with greater severity than his father ever exercised; and threatened to chastise the slightest murmur with scorpions instead of whips.

A reply so harsh, and unsuitable to a people who regarded themselves as the peculiar favourites of Heaven, occasioned an immediate revolt: and ten of the tribes, disdaining all further allegiance to the house of David, chose Jeroboam, an enterprising youth of the tribe of Ephraim, to be their sovereign. Judah and Benjamin,

however, resolved to remain beneath the government of Rehoboam, whom they conducted with all speed to Jerusalem. An army was then raised to reduce the rebels to obedience, but on the assertion of the prophet Shemaiah, that this defection was strictly consonant with the Divine will, the intended hostilities were laid aside.

Jeroboam embraced the first opportunity of rebuilding Penuel and Shechem, which he made the seat of his residence. But he was still apprehensive that the custom of going thrice in the year to Jerusalem might, in time, reconcile his new subjects to the house of David. He therefore sacrificed religion to his security, and set up two golden calves at Dan and Bethel, the extremities of the kingdom, whither he ordered the people to repair with their offerings instead of going to the temple. He also built some idolatrous edifices, and selected priests for his imaginary deities from among the lowest class of the people.

At the dedication of the two calves a prophet denounced the destruction of the new altar by a future king of Judah; and as a proof of his divine mission, told the spectators that they should immediately witness an instance of God's displeasure. Upon these words the altar burst asunder, and Jeroboam's arm, then stretched out to seize the prophet, was suddenly withered. In consequence of his submission, however, his affliction was withdrawn, and the stranger departed hastily from the contaminated city.

Notwithstanding this miraculous event, and the awful threatenings of the prophet Ahijah, the king persisted in debauching the people

from the worship of their Creator, and filled Israel with idolatry.

Rehoboam, in the mean time, built and fortified several places in Judah and Benjamin, while multitudes of persons, who abhorred the infamous practices of his revolted rival, flocked to his metropolis, and voluntarily renewed their former allegiance. But this weak prince, instead of expressing his thanks to God for the favourable turn of his affairs, abandoned himself to the most absurd idolatries, and even exceeded the abominations of the apostate Israelites.

B. C. 972.

To reward these enormities, the Almighty stirred up a formidable enemy in the person of Shishak, king of Egypt, who took several fenced cities; reduced Jerusalem, and pillaged the temple and palaces of their most costly ornaments. After this disaster Rehoboam retained the regal dignity twelve years, and died in the eighteenth year of his reign.

B. C. 958.

Abijah, the succeeding monarch, had no sooner ascended the throne, than he took the field with four hundred thou sand men, and Jeroboam went out to meet him with an army of double that number. When the two kings were within hearing of each other, Abijah upbraided his rival with the baseness of his extraction, the grossness of his idolatries, and the extreme sinfulness of his conduct, in deluding the Israelites from the worship of their God. Jeroboam pretended to listen attentively to these just reproaches, but in the mean time had ordered a detachment of his forces to wheel round and surprise the enemy in the rear, while

́he should prepare for the attack in front. This base stratagem was immediately executed, to the consternation of Abijah's army; but at length the idolaters were put to flight, and Abijah pursued his victory with such success, that his abandoned' competitor could not recover his strength for the space of three years.

B. C. 955.

Asa, the successor of Abijah, was a pious monarch, who applied himself zealously to the work of reformation, and even deposed his own mother for patronizing idolatry. He also put his kingdom in a good posture of defence, by fortifying several important places, and entertaining a numerous army. His riches augmented so rapidly under the blessing of Providence, that he was soon enabled to adorn the temple with a quantity of gold and silver vessels to supply the loss occasioned by Shishak and he utterly destroyed all the monuments of irreligion except the high places, which he endeavoured in vain to abolish.

In the second year of this reign, Nadab succeeded to the throne of Jeroboam, but no particulars worthy of notice are transmitted respecting him, except his adhering to the iniquitous practices of his father, and his being slain at the siege of Gibbethon by a man of the tribe of Issachar, called Baasha, who seized upon the kingdom and destroyed the whole race of Jeroboam, according to the threatening prediction of Ahijah.

941.

About fourteen years after Asa's acB. C. cession, his kingdom was attacked by a numerous army of Cushites, under the command of Zera, an Ethiopian. The king of Judah was however by no means alarmed at

their appearance, but, trusting to God for the event, marched boldly against them to Mereshah, where he overthrew them in a pitched battle, and returned victorious to Jerusalem. Having devoted a considerable part of the spoil to the service of his heavenly patron, he had the pleasure to hear himself encouraged by a prophet, and to see many of Baasha's subjects flock to his city, on the report of his justice and munificence. He died in the forty-first year of his reign, and was succeeded by his son Jeho shaphat.

930.

Baasha is said to have continued the

B. C. idolatrous practices of Jeroboam, notwithstanding he was the instrument of Divine vengeance against that family. He was engaged in hostilities with the king of Judah, when Jehu the son of Hanani was commissioned to threaten him with the heaviest effects of God's anger, in consequence of his disobedience and impenitency. Soon after this denunciation he expired, and left the kingdom to his son.

Elah had scarcely enjoyed the regal dignity two years before he was assassinated at Tirzah, where he dwelt, by Zimri, one of his offi

cers.

Zimri's reign was but of seven days duration, yet in that time he found means to exterminate the whole race of Baasha. Omri, another officer, being chosen king by the army, hastened to attack the usurper in Tirzah; but before he could obtain admission, Zimri went into the royal palace, and having set it on fire, perished in the flames. Omri had another competitor in Tibni, the son of Ginath, whom one part of the