rmed
me that thou wast coming, and hath given me in command what I shall say
to thee." So he said that she should go away to her husband, and speak
to him thus: "Since I made thee a great man when thou wast little, or
rather wast nothing, and rent the kingdom from the house of David, and
gave it to thee, and thou hast been unmindful of these benefits, hast
left off my worship, hast made thee molten gods and honored them, I will
in like manner cast thee down again, and will destroy all thy house, and
make them food for the dogs and the fowls; for a certain king is rising
up, by appointment, over all this people, who shall leave none of
the family of Jeroboam remaining. The multitude also shall themselves
partake of the same punishment, and shall be cast out of this good land,
and shall be scattered into the places beyond Euphrates, because they
have followed the wicked practices of their king, and have worshipped
the gods that he made, and forsaken my sacrifices. But do thou, O woman,
make haste back to thy husband, and tell him this message; but thou
shalt then find thy son dead, for as thou enterest the city he shall
depart this life; yet shall he be buried with the lamentation of all
the multitude, and honored with a general mourning, for he was the only
person of goodness of Jeroboam's family." When the prophet had foretold
these events, the woman went hastily away with a disordered mind, and
greatly grieved at the death of the forenamed child. So she was in
lamentation as she went along the road, and mourned for the death of her
son, that was just at hand. She was indeed in a miserable condition
at the unavoidable misery of his death, and went apace, but in
circumstances very unfortunate, because of her son: for the greater
haste she made, she would the sooner see her son dead, yet was she
forced to make such haste on account of her husband. Accordingly, when
she was come back, she found that the child had given up the ghost, as
the prophet had said; and she related all the circumstances to the king.

2. Yet did not Jeroboam lay any of these things to heart, but he brought
together a very numerous army, and made a warlike expedition against
Abijah, the son of Rehoboam, who had succeeded his father in the kingdom
of the two tribes; for he despised him because of his age. But when he
heard of the expedition of Jeroboam, he was not affrighted at it, but
proved of a courageous temper of mind, superior both to his youth a