dued and carried prisoner to Nebuchadnezzar, who caused his children to be murdered before his face, and then his eyes to be plucked out; after which he loaded him with chains, and sent him to Babylon, where he died. (Jer. xxi. xxvii.)

JEROBOAM. The first king of Israel, one of the most wicked rulers that ever lived. He was a distinguished man under Solomon, and was chosen head of the ten tribes which revolted after Solomon's death, A. M. 3029. He reigned in horrible wickedness 22 years. (1 Kings xi., xii., xv.)

NADAB, (1 Kings xv. 25,) son and successor of Jeroboam, king of Israel, reigned two years. His reign was wicked and corrupt, and he was finally assassinated while prosecuting the siege of Gibbethon, a Philistine city.

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BAASHA (1 Kings xv. 16) was the son of Abijah, and commander-in-chief of a portion of the army of Israel. When Nadab, king of Israel was besieging Gibbethon, a city of the Philistines, Baasha formed a conspiracy against him and murdered him, and immediately usurped the throne, which he held for twenty-four years. secure himself against any disturbance from the family of Jeroboam, (the rightful heirs of the throne,) he caused them all to be put to death. By this cruel act he undesignedly fulfilled the prophecy respecting Jeroboam's posterity. (1 Kings xiv. 10.)

Baasha followed in the wicked ways of Jeroboam, and was visited with the most fearful judgments of God. The warning he received of the consequences of his conduct (1 Kings xvi. 1-9) did not induce him to forsake his evil course. His reign was filled with war and treachery, and his family and relatives were cut off, according to the prediction. (1 Kings xvi. 9. 11.)

ELAH. (1 Kings xvi. 6.) Son and successor of Baasha king of Israel. As he was revelling at a friend's house, was assassinated by Zimri, one of the officers of his army. He reigned only two years.

ZIMRI, who slew Elah, king of Israel, and who, when he found that the people had made Omri king, set fire to the palace, and perished in the flames.

OMRI. (1 Kings xvi. 16.) An officer in the army of Israel. He was engaged in the siege of Gibbethon, a Philistine city, when he received intelligence that Zimri, another officer of the army, had assassinated the king, and had usurped the throne. The army, by general acclamation, made Omri king, and raising the siege of Gibbethon, they forthwith marched to Tirzah, where Zimri resided, and captured it. Zimri set fire to the house he occupied, and was consumed. The Israelites were then divided into two parties; but, after a short struggle, Omri prevailed, and took the throne, which he polluted and disgraced through a reign of twelve years. Omri built Samaria, which thereafter became the capital of the ten tribes.

AHAB. (1 Kings xvi. 29.) The son of Omri, and his successor as king of Israel. He reigned twenty-two years, and the seat of his kingdom was at Samaria. He married Jezebel, a Zidonian woman of proverbially wicked character. She was a gross idolater, and Ahab followed her in all her idolatrous practices; became at once a worshipper of Baal, and even made a grove and built an altar for this abominable service. At a very early period of his history, the sacred historian says of him, that he did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him.

AHAZIAH, (1 Kings xxii. 40,) was the son and successor of Ahab king of Israel. So wicked was he, that when Jehoshaphat king of Judea had joined with him to build

a fleet at Ezion-geber for the Tarshish trade, God sent his prophet to tell him, that because of his alliance with Ahaziah, even in this secular enterprise, his fleet should be destroyed; and the ships were accordingly shattered to pieces by the winds.

JORAM, (2 Kings iii. 16,) or Jehoram, (2 Kings iii 1,) successor to Ahaziah, king of Israel, was the second son of Ahab. Though he put away the worship of Baal, he was still a very wicked king. (2 Kings iii. 3.) After the death of Ahab, the king of Moab refused to pay the annual tribute to the king of Israel, which he had been accustomed to pay; and Joram determined for this cause to wage war with him. He secured the aid of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and they went up through Edom, whose king also joined the expedition. After seven days march, they found themselves likely to be cut off by a severe drought. In this extremity, they besought the help of Elisha the prophet, who had followed the army, (probably under a divine influence.) Elisha at first referred him to the gods of Ahab, his father, and his mother, Jezebel, for succor; but finally, for the sake of Jehoshaphat, he consented to interpose for their relief, and received a command from God to make the valley full of ditches. This was done, and then, without wind or rain, at a particular hour of the next morning, water came, not from the springs, into which they dug, but from Edom, and supplied the army and the country with an abundance of water. (2 Kings iii. 20. Comp. Ex. xvii. 5. 6.)

JEHU, (2 Kings ix. 2.) The son of Nimshi, and grandson of Jehoshaphat, was selected by God to reign over Israel, and to be the instrument of executing his judgments on the house of Ahab. (1 Kings xix. 17. 2 Kings ix. 1-10.) In executing this commission, he commenced with the reigning king, Joram, who was then lying ill at Jezreel. Having been proclaimed king by a few adherents who were with him at Ramoth-gilead, he proceeded towards Jezreel. Upon his approach within sight of that place, Joram despatched two or three messengers to ascertain his design; and finding they did not return, he went out himself to meet him. It happened that they met on the ground of Naboth the Jez

reelite, (1 Kings xxi. 1—24;) and Jehu at once charged him with his gross iniquities, and immediately shot him dead in his chariot. (Comp. 1 Kings xxi. 19, and 2 Kings ix. 25.)

JEHOAHAZ Succeeded Jehu, his father, and reigned twenty-eight years in Israel, and did not depart from the sins of his predecessors, for which his kingdom was delivered into the hands of Hazael king of Syria, to whom he became tributary; he reigned seventeen years.

JOASH succeeded Jehoahaz, his father, about 835 years B. C., and reigned 16 years over Israel; he did evil in the sight of the Lord. During his reign the prophet Elisha died.

JEROBOAM II., the 13th king of Israel, succeeded his father, Joash, A. M. 3179, and reigned 41 years. He was a very wicked prince, but raised his kingdom to great outward prosperity. (2 Kings xiv. xv.)

ZECHARIAH, or Zachariah, the son of Rehoboam, reigned but six months over Israel. (2 Kings xv.)

MANAHEM, the General of Shallum, in his turn filled the throne; he extorted a thousand talents of silver from the people to buy off Pekah, king of Assyria.

PEKAH, next reigned over Israel. During his reign Tiglath Pileser destroyed many of the cities belonging to the Jews, and carried the people captive into Assyria.

HOSEA, the same with Joshua.” (Deut. xxxii. 44.) The son of Elah, and the last of the kings of Israel. (2 Kings xv. 30.) In the ninth year of his reign, the Assyrian king, provoked by an attempt which Hosea made to form an alliance with Egypt, and so throw off the Assyrian yoke, marched against Samaria, and after a siege of three years, took it, and carried the people away into Assyria. (2 Kings xvii. 1-6. Hos. xiii. 16. Mic. 1. 6.)

THE GOVERNORS OF JUDEA.

AFTER Judea became a province of the Roman empire, governors or procurators were appointed and sent thither from Rome. This was the office held by Pontius Pilate at the time of our Savior's crucifixion. Sometimes the word governor is used as a general title for ruler.

HEROD, (Matt. ii. 1,) surnamed the Great, was the ancestor of several of the same name, mentioned in the New Testament. He was governor of Judea (then a Roman province) at the time of our Savior's birth. Though he was called king, he was subject to the Roman emperor, and was distinguished for his savage cruelty.

ARCHELAUS. (Matt. ii. 22.) A son of Herod the Great. On the decease of his father, the same year that our Savior was born, Archelaus succeeded to the government of Judea, and reigned there when Joseph and Mary, with the infant Jesus, were returning from Egypt, whither they had gone to escape the fury of Herod. Archelaus, however, was much like his father in the malignity of his temper, and they were therefore still afraid to return.

PONTIUS PILATE, the Roman governor of Judea, was in office 10 years. The character of Pilate was remarkable. When Jesus was arraigned before him, he was not only anxious to avoid trying him, (Luke xxiii. 4. 7,) but he once and again, in the most solemn and impressive manner, even in presence of his malicious and bloodthirsty persecutors, declared his conviction of his perfect innocence. (Luke xxiii. 1. 14. John xix. 6.)

By his covetous and cruel administration he caused himself to be exceedingly hated, both by the Jews and Samaritans. At length, three years after the death of Christ, complaints against him reached the court of the Emperor Caligula, and he was recalled to Rome, tried, and banished to Gaul. Afterwards, through poverty and shame, he committed suicide.

AGRIPPA. (Acts xxv. 13.) Son and successor of Herod the persecutor. (Acts xii. 1.) Porcius Festus, the successor of Felix in the government of Judea, came to Cæsarea; and while there, Agrippa (who was governor or king of several of the eastern provinces of the Roman empire) came, with his sister Bernice or Berenice, to pay him a visit of congratulation upon his accession to office. The conversation between them turning upon Paul, who was then in confinement at Cæsarea, and whose remarkable story must have been very notorious, Festus stated the whole.

FELIX was deputy-governor of Judea. He enticed Drusilla to divorce Azizus, king of Emesa, and then