[Following the distinction in spelling given in 2 Kings
viii. 25, I have everywhere written Joram (of Israel) and
Jehoram (of Judah), to avoid confusion.--Tr.]

**** Athaliah is sometimes called the daughter of Ahab (2
Kings viii. 18), and sometimes the daughter of Omri (2 Kings
viii. 26; cf. 2 Ohron. xxii. 2), and several authors prefer
the latter filiation, while the majority see in it a mistake
of the Hebrew scribe. It is possible that both attributions
may be correct, for we see by the Assyrian inscriptions that
a sovereign is called the son of the founder of his line
even when he was several generations removed from him: thus,
Merodach-baladan, the adversary of Sargon of Assyria, calls
himself son of Iakin, although the founder of the Bit-Iakin
had been dead many centuries before his accession. The
document used in 2 Kings viii. 26 may have employed the term
daughter of Omri in the same manner merely to indicate that
the Queen of Jerusalem belonged to the house of Omri.

It might well have appeared a more than foolhardy enterprise, and it was
told in Israel that Micaiah, a prophet, the son of Imlah, had predicted
its disastrous ending. "I saw," exclaimed the prophet, "the Lord sitting
on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing on His right hand and
on His left. And the Lord said, Who shall entice Ahab that he may go up
and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another
said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before
the Lord, and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him,
Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and will be a lying spirit in
the mouth of all his prophets. And He said, Thou shalt entice him, and
shalt prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord
hafch put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets; and the
Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee."*

* 1 Kings xxii. 5-23, reproduced in 2 Chron. xviii. 4-22.

The two kings thereupon invested Ramoth, and Ben-hadad hastened to
the defence of his fortress. Selecting thirty-two of his bravest
charioteers, he commanded them to single out Ahab only for attack, and
not fight with others until they had slain him. This injunction happened
in some way to come to the king's ears, and he therefore disguised
himself as a common soldier, while Jehoshaphat retained his ordinary
dress. Attracte