were destroyed in 928, when after the slaughter of two short-lived
usurpers, the captain of the army, Omri, became king. Omri belonged
to the city of Jezreel, in the inheritance of Issachar; but he built
Samaria in the midst of Ephraim, between the two hills of blessing and
of cursing, and this town becoming the capital, gave its name to the
whole kingdom. In 918, Omri left his crown to his son Ahab, who allied
himself with the rich Phoenicians, and took the Zidonian princess
Jezebel for his wife; the most unfortunate marriage in the whole
Israelitish history. Sinful as had been the calf-worship, it was still
meant for adoration of the true God; but Jezebel brought her foul
Phoenician faith with her, and tried to force on the Israelites the
worship of Baal as a separate god, in the stead of the Lord Jehovah.

Ahab was weak, and yielded; and the greater number of the nation were so
much corrupted by the breach of the Second Commandment, that they were
not slow to break the First, although God had sent the most glorious of
all His prophets to prove to them that "the Lord, He is the God." Three
years of drought showed who commands the clouds, and then came Elijah's
challenge to the four hundred prophets of Baal, to prove who was the God
who could send fire from Heaven! All day did the four hundred cry wildly
on their idol, while Elijah mocked them; at evening his offering was
made, and drenched with water to increase the wonder of the miracle. He
prayed, the fire fell at once from Heaven, and the people shouted "The
Lord He is the God!" and gave their deceivers up to punishment; and when
this partial purification was made, he prayed upon Mount Carmel, and the
little cloud arose and grew into a mighty storm, bringing abundance of
rain on the thirsty land.

Who could withstand such wonders? Yet they only hardened Jezebel into
greater cruelty, and Elijah was forced to flee into the utmost desert,