into captivity. It is said that "his mother's name was Athaliah, the
daughter of Omri. He also walked in the way of the house of Ahab, for
his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly,"--as wife and mother,
alike unholy. "Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the Lord, like the
house of Ahab, for they were his counsellors, after the death of his
father, to his destruction."

The second son of Ahab had succeeded to the kingdom of Israel, and
Jezebel was surrounded by all the splendours of royalty. Peace and
prosperity still attended her family. The death of Naboth and his sons,
and the denunciations of the prophet, were probably forgotten, or
remembered only to be despised. The royal houses, so closely allied,
maintained a familiar intercourse, and the King of Judah was on a visit
of sympathy to the King of Israel, who was sick and wounded, when the
rebellion of Jehu broke out. It came upon the house of Ahab like a
hurricane: in the midst of security and of apparently profound peace,
the storm swept over and destroyed them.

While the kings were in the palace of Israel, the rapid approach of a
messenger awoke the curiosity rather than the apprehension of the King
of Israel. With the rashness of a doomed man, he rushed upon his own
destruction. As the messengers, whom he had sent to meet the approaching
foes, returned not, the two kings hastened to meet the advancing troop.
And they met Jehu by the vineyard of Naboth, and there the King of
Israel was slain, while the King of Judah fled, mortally wounded, to
Megiddo, where he died. All that belonged to the house of Ahab in Israel
perished in this hour of vengeance and righteous retribution. Jehu
murdered those of the descendants of Jehoram who fell in his way; and
Athaliah hastened to complete the fulfilment of the prophetic doom of
her house by herself instigating the murder of all who remained of the