of God, and keeping his commandments, as the whole duty and chief interest of man, Eccles. i. and ii. and xii. 13, 14.

20 Q. How long did Solomon reign?

A. Forty years; and though he had such a shameful number of wives and concubines, yet he had left but one son behind him, whose name was Rehoboam, to succeed him in the kingdom of Israel, 1 Kings xi. 3. 43.

21 Q. What was the character of Rehoboam?

A. Though Solomon had written so many excellent lessons of morality and piety for his son in the book of Proverbs, and given him so many warnings, yet he followed evil courses; and Solomon himself seems to intimate it in the book of Ecclesiastes, chap. ii. 19. Who knoweth whether his son will be a wise man or a fool?

22 Q. What further occasion did Rehoboam give for the revolt of the tribes of Israel from him?

A. Upon the death of his father, and his accession to the throne, he despised the counsel of the old men ; and hearkened to the advice of rash young men; he threatened the nation of Israel to make their yoke heavier than his father had done, that is to lay heavier taxes upon them, 1 Kings xii. 8, &c. 23 Q. What followed upon this threatening of king Rehoboam?

A. All the tribes of Israel, except Judah and Benjamin, made Jeroboam their king; and thus the nation was divided into two kingdoms, which were afterwards called the kingdom of Judah, and the kingdom of Israel, 1 Kings xii. 15. 20. 2 Chron. xi. 11, 12.

CHAPTER XI.

Of the Kings of Israel.

1 Q. How many kings reigned over Israel after they were separated from Judah ?

A. These nineteen, and not one of them were good; Jeroboam the first, Nadab, Baasha, Elab, Zimri, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehoram, Jehu, Jehoahaz, Joash, Jeroboam the second, Zachariah, Shallum, Menahem, Pekahiah, Pekah, and Hoshea, 2 Q. Who were the most remarkable among these kings of Israel?

A. Jeroboam the first, Omri, Ahab, Ahaziah, Jehu, Joash, Pekah, and Hoshea.

3 Q. What was the chief character and crime of Jeroboam?

A. Instead of worshipping God who dwelt between the Cherubs in the temple at Jerusalem, he made two golden images which are called calves, and set them up in two distant parts of the land of Israel, namely, Dan and Bethel, and taught the people to worship before them, 1 Kings xii. 28-30. 4 Q. What was the worship he appointed?

A. Something like the worship which God appointed at Jerusalem, with an altar and priests, and sacrifices, and incense, ver. 32.

5 Q. Wherein did it differ from the worship at Jerusalem?

A. Besides the forsaking of the temple and the place which God appointed, he also made priests of the lowest of the people, instead of the sons of Levi, and ordained feasts at a different time from that which God had appointed, and set up the images of calves to represent the presence of God, ver. 23. 32. and 2 Chron. xi. 6. and xii. 13. and xiii. 8, 9. Note, Here it is not to be supposed that Jeroboam forsook the God of Israel, and taught the people to

worship mere calves; but only that he devised of his own heart other times and places, and other forms and circumstances of worship to be paid to the God of Israel; and that by images or idols, which were probably the figures of the cherubs on the mercy-seat where God dwelt: but the Scripture in contempt, calls them calves. See chap. V. qu. 37. and chap. VII. qu. 3. And the worship is called idolatry and the worship of other Gods. The prophet Hosea, who lived in the days of Jeroboam the second, the son of Joash, perpetually rebukes this sin of idolatry, and inveighs against these idols, the calves, Hos. i. 1. and chap. viii. 3. 5. and chap. x. 5. and xiii. 2.

6 Q. For what end did Jeroboam do this?

A. He feared, if the people went up frequently to sacrifice at Jerusalem, they would be tempted to return again to Rehoboam king of Judah, ver. 26, 27, 28.

7Q. What visible token of displeasure did God manifest against this worship which Jeroboam set up? A. He sent a prophet to the altar at Bethel, who foretold that a son of the house of David, Josiah by name, should burn the bones of Jeroboam's priests upon the altar, 1 Kings xii. 1, 2.

8 Q. What sign did the Prophet give that this prophecy should be fulfilled?

A. The prophet foretold that the altar should be rent asunder, and the ashes poured out, both which were fulfilled immediately: and Jeroboam's hand withered when he stretched it out to lay hold of the prophet, ver. 3, 4, &c. though at the prayer of the prophet, God restored it again.

9 Q. What other token did God give of his anger against Jeroboam?

A. God threatened Jeroboam and his family with utter destruction, so that none of them should find a grave, besides Abijah his youngest son, because there were found in him some good inclinations toward the God of Israel, 1 Kings xiv. 13.

10 Q. Who was Omri?

A. The captain of the host of Israel, who was made king by the people when Zimri set up himself, 1 Kings xvi. 16.

11 Q. What is recorded concerning Omri?

A. (1.) That he besieged Zimri his predecessor so closely in Tirzah, the royal city, that Zimri burnt himself and the palace together and died. (2.) That he built Samaria for the royal city, on a hill. And (3.) That he walked in all the sinful ways of Jeroboam, ver. 17-28.

12 Q. Who was Ahab, and what was his character? A. Ahab was the son of Omri, who followed the wicked ways of his predecessors; he sinned against God and man grievously, and provoked God beyond all who were before him, ver. 29-33. and 1 Kings xxi. 25.

13 Q. How did God signify his displeasure against Ahab ?

A. He sent Elijah the prophet to reprove him, and to foretel that there should be neither dew nor rain for several years, which accordingly came to pass, 1 Kings xvii. 1.

14 Q. How was Elijah himself fed during this famine?

A. He was appointed to hide himself by the brook Cherith, and the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning and the evening, and he drank of the water of the brook, ver. 5, 6.

15 Q. Whither did the prophet go when the brook was dried up?

A. God sent him to a woman of Sarepta, near Sidon, to be maintained by her, when she had only a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, 1 Kings xvii. 9, &c.

16 Q. How could this maintain the woman, her son, and the prophet?

A. God wonderfully increased the oil and the meal, so that the barrel of meal wasted not, neither

did the cruse of oil fail, till God sent rain upon the land, ver. 14, &c.

17 Q. What further miracles did Elijah work in this woman's family, to prove that he was sent from God?

A. When her son died, the prophet raised him to life again, ver. 21-24.

18 Q. What special deliverance did God give Israel in the time of Ahab?

A. Though Ahab was so great a sinner, yet God made Israel victorious over the Syrians who invaded them, because Benhadad the king of Syria boasted, and blasphemed God, 1 Kings xx. 10. 28.

19 Q. What were some of the special sins of Ahab against God?

A. Besides the idolatry of the calves, he also set up the idol Baal, he caused Israel to worship it, and by the influence of his wife Jezebel, slew a great number of the prophets of the Lord, 1 Kings xviii. 4.

20Q. Were any of the prophets of the Lord saved?

A. Obadiah, the governor of Ahab's house, hid a hundred of them in two caves, and fed them with bread and water, while Elijah fled wheresoever he could find a hiding place, ver. 5, 6. 10.

21 Q. How did Elijah bring about the destruction of Baal's prophets?

A. He boldly met Ahab, and bid him summon all Israel together, and the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, that a sacrifice might be offered to Baal and to Jehovah, to make an experiment which was the true God.

22 Q. How did he convince the people that Jehovah was the true God?

A. Fire came down from heaven and consumed Elijah's sacrifice, after he had poured great quantities of water upon it; which the prophets of Baal attempted in vain to procure on their altar, though they cut themselves with knives, and cried aloud to their god, 1 Kings xviii. 17-38.