3. History. — The northern kingdom had at this time forsaken almost entirely the faith in Jehovah. The worship of the calves had been a departure from him, it was a violation of his command against material resemblances ; but still it would appear that even in the presence of the calves Jehovah was acknowledged, and they were at any rate a national institution, not directly imported from the idolatries of any of the surrounding countries. See Calf. They win an- nounced by Jeroljoam as the preservers of the nation during the great crisis of its existence: "Behold thy gods, O Israel, that brought thee up out of the land of Egypt" (1 Kings xii, 28). But the case was quite different when Ahab, not content with the calf-wor- ship— "as if it had been a light thing to walk in the sins of Jerolioam, the son of Xebat" — married the daughter of the king of Sidon, and introduced on the
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most extensive scale (Josephus, Ant. ix, 6, G) the for- eign religion of his wife's family, the worship of the Phoenician Baal. AVhat this worship consisted of we are ignorant — doubtless it was of a gay, splendid, and festal character, and therefore very opposite to the grave severe service of the Mosaic ritual. Attached to it and to the worship of Asherah (A. V. ''Ashta- roth " and "the groves") were licentious and impure rites, which in earlier times had brought the heaviest judgments on the nation (Numb, xxv; Judg. ii, 13, 14 • iii, 7, 8). But the most obnoxious and evil char- acteristic of the Baal religion was that it was the wor- ship of power, of mere strength, as opposed to that of a God of righteousness and goodness — a foreign relig- ion, imported from nations the hatred of whom was inculcated in everj' page of the law, as opposed to the religion of that God who had delivered the nation from the bondage of Egypt, had "driven out the heathen with his hand, and planted them in," and through whom their forefathers had "trodden down their ene- mies, and destroyed those that rose up against them." It is as a witness against these two evils that Elijah comes forward. (B.C. cir. 907.)
(1.) What we maj' call the first act in his life em- braces between three and four years — three years and six months for the duration of the drought, according to the statements of the New Testament (Luke iv, 25 ; James v, 17), and three or four months more for the journey to Horeb and the return to Gilead (1 Kings xvii, 1-xix, 21). His introduction is of the most startling description : he suddenl}' appears before Ahab, as with the tinrestrained freedom of Eastern manners he would have no difficulty in doing, and proclaims the vengeance of Jehovah for the apostas}- of the king. This he does in the remarkable formula •vidently characteristic of himself, and adopted after his departure by his follower Elisha — a formula which includes everything at issue between himself and the king — the name of Jeliovah — his being the God of Israel — the Living God — Elijah being his messenger, and then — the special lesson of the event — that the god of power and of nature should be beaten at his own weapons. "As Jehovah, God of Israel, liveth, before whom I stand," whose constant servant I am, "there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." Before, however, he spoke thus, it would seem that he had been warning this most wicked king as to the fatal consequences which must result both to himself and his people from the iniquitous course he was then pursuing, and this may account for the apparent abruptness with which he opens his commission. What iunnediate action fol- lowed on this we are not told ; l)ut it is plain that Eli- jah had to fiy before some threatened vengeance, ei- ther of the king, or more probablj' of the queen (comp. xix, 2). Perhaps it was at this jmicture that Jezebel "cut off the prophets of Jehovah" (1 Kings xviii, 4). We can imagine Ahab and Jezebel being greatly in- censed against Elijah for having foretold and prayed that such calamities might befall them. For some time they might attribute the drought under which the nation suffered to natural causes, and not to the interposition of the prophet ; and, therefore, however they might despise him as a vain enthusiast, they would not proceed immediately' to punish him. When, however, they saw the denunciation of Elijah taking effect far more extensively than had been anticipated, the}- would naturally seek to wreak their vengeance iipon liim as the cause of their sufferings. But we do not find him taking one step for his own preservation till the God whom he served interposed. He was di- rected to the brook Cherith, either one of the torrents whicli cleave the high table-lands of his native hills, or on the west of Jordan, more in the neighborhood of Samaria, perhaps the present wady Kelt. See CnEHiTH. There, in the hollow of the torrent-bed, he remained, supported in the miraculous manner with III.— K
which we are all familiar, till the failing of the brook obliged him to forsake it. How long he remained in the Cherith is uncertain. The Hebrew expression is simply " at the end of days ;" nor does Josephus afford us any more information. A vast deal of ingenuity has been devoted to explaining away Elijah's " ra- vens." The Hebrew word, Q'^:2"i2', orehini , has been interpreted as "Arabians," as "merchants," as in- habitants of some neighboring town of Orbo or Orli. By others Elijah has been held to have plundered a raven's nest, and this twice a day regularly for several months ! See Raven'.