votaries had their temples and sacred groves to
worship in: their priests and prophets sat at the king's table. Ahab did
not reject the God of his ancestors in order to embrace the religion of
his wife--a reproach which was afterwards laid to his door; he remained
faithful to Him, and gave the children whom he had by Jezebel names
compounded with that of Jahveh, such as Ahaziah, Joram, and Athaliah.*

* 1 Kings xvi. 31-33. Ahaziah and Joram mean respectively
"whom Jahveh sustaineth," and "Jahveh is exalted." Athaliah
may possibly be derived from a Phoenician form, _Ailialith
or Athlifh,_ into which the name of Jahveh does not enter.

This was not the first instance of such tolerance in the history of the
Israelites: Solomon had granted a similar liberty of conscience to all
his foreign wives, and neither Rehoboam nor Abijam had opposed Maacah in
her devotion to the Canaanitish idols. But the times were changing, and
the altar of Baal could no longer be placed side by side with that of
Jahveh without arousing fierce anger and inexorable hatred. Scarce a
hundred years had elapsed since the rupture between the tribes, and
already one-half of the people were unable to understand how place could
be found in the breast of a true Israelite for any other god but Jahveh:
Jahveh alone was Lord, for none of the deities worshipped by foreign
races under human or animal shapes could compare with Him in might and
holiness. From this to the repudiation of all those practices associated
with exotic deities, such as the use of idols of wood or metal, the
anointing of isolated boulders or circles of rocks, the offering up of
prisoners or of the firstborn, was but a step: Asa had already furnished
an example of rigid devotion in Judah, and there were many in Israel who
shared his views and desired to imitate him. The opposition to what
was regarded as apostasy on the part of the king did not come from the
official priesthood; the sanctuaries at Dan, at Bethel, at Shiloh, and
at Gilgal were prosperous in spite of Jezebel, and this was enough for
them. But the influence of the prophets had increased marvellously since
the rupture between the kingdoms, and at the very beginning of his reign
Ahab was unwise enough to outrage their sense of justice by one of his
violent acts: in a transport of rage he had slain a certain Naboth, who
had refused to let him have his vineyard in order that he might enlarge
the grounds of the