ons which they should soon have.

6. Hereupon, when Benhadad, the king of Syria, had escaped to Damascus,
and understood that it was God himself that cast all his army into
this fear and disorder, and that it did not arise from the invasion of
enemies, he was mightily cast down at his having God so greatly for
his enemy, and fell into a distemper. Now it happened that Elisha the
prophet, at that time, was gone out of his own country to Damascus, of
which Berthadad was informed: he sent Hazael, the most faithful of
all his servants, to meet him, and to carry him presents, and bade him
inquire of him about his distemper, and whether he should escape the
danger that it threatened. So Hazael came to Elisha with forty camels,
that carried the best and most precious fruits that the country of
Damascus afforded, as well as those which the king's palace supplied. He
saluted him kindly, and said that he was sent to him by king Berthadad,
and brought presents with him, in order to inquire concerning his
distemper, whether he should recover from it or not. Whereupon the
prophet bid him tell the king no melancholy news; but still he said he
would die. So the king's servant was troubled to hear it; and Elisha
wept also, and his tears ran down plenteously at his foresight of what
miseries his people would undergo after the death of Berthadad. And when
Hazael asked him what was the occasion of this confusion he was in,
he said that he wept out of his commiseration for the multitude of the
Israelites, and what terrible miseries they will suffer by thee; "for
thou wilt slay the strongest of them, and wilt burn their strongest
cities, and wilt destroy their children, and dash them against the
stones, and wilt rip up their women with child." And when Hazael said,
"How can it be that I should have power enough to do such things?" the
prophet replied, that God had informed him that he should be king
of Syria. So when Hazael was come to Benhadad, he told him good news
concerning his distemper [12] but on the next day he spread a wet
cloth, in the nature of a net, over him, and strangled him, and took his
dominion. He was an active man, and had the good-will of the Syrians,
and of the people of Damascus, to a great degree; by whom both Benhadad
himself, and Hazael, who ruled after him, are honored to this day as
gods, by reason of their benefactions, and their building them temples
by which they adorned the city of the Damascenes. They also ev