This being so, Elijah’s contest with Baal cannot have possessed the importance attributed to it from the point of view of a later time.  In the group of popular narratives above referred to, there is no trace of a religious commotion that tore Israel asunder:  the whole strength of the people is absorbed in the Syrian wars.  The kings are the prominent figures, and do well and according to their office in battle:  Elijah stands in the background.  From several indications, though from no direct statements, we learn of the high esteem which Ahab enjoyed from friend and foe alike (xx. 3I, xxii. 32-34 seq.).  Joram also, and even Jezebel, are drawn not without sympathy (2Kings vi. 30, ix. 31).  We can scarcely say the same of Jehu, the murderer, instigated by the prophets, of the house of Ahab (2Kings ix. 10).

It is the fact, certainly, that the prophets’ hatred of Baal succeeded at last in overturning the dynasty of Omri.  But in what manner was this done?  At a time when King Joram was prevented by a wound he had received from being with his army in the field, a messenger of Elisha went to the camp, called the captain apart from a banquet at which he found him, to a secret interview, and anointed him king.  When Jehu returned to his comrades at their wine, they asked him what that mad fellow had wanted, and, his evasive answers failing to satisfy them, he told them the truth.  They at once raised him on an improvised throne, and caused the trumpets to proclaim him king:  they were quite ready for such an exploit, not that they cared in the least for “that mad fellow.”  Jehu justified their confidence by his astounding mastery in treachery and bloodshed, but he placed his reliance entirely on the resources of his own talent for murder.  He was not borne along by any general movement against the dynasty; the people, which he despised (x. 9), stood motionless and horrified at the sight of the crimes which came so quickly one after another; even a hundred years afterwards the horror at the massacre of Jezreel still lived (Hosea i. 4).  The crown once gained, the reckless player showed his gratitude to the fanatics, and sent the priests and worshippers of Baal after the priests of Jehovah whom he had slaughtered along with all belonging to the royal house (x. 11).  The manner in which he led them into the snare (x. 18 seq.) shows that no one had thought before this of regarding him as the champion of Jehovah; and even at this time his zeal was manifestly only ostensible:  he was not fighting for an idea (x. 15. seq.).  Thus we see that Baal did not bring about the fall of the house of Ahab, but common treason; the zealots employed for their purposes a most unholy instrument, which employed them in turn as a holy instrument for its purposes; they did not succeed in rousing the people to a storm against Baal, far from it.  The execution of Naboth seems to have excited greater indignation:  it was a crime against morals, not against religion.  Even in the history of Elijah