. The training of the Chosen people. passion. The period of the revolution under Jehu conformsto this general description. Moral forces were at workof no mean order. For example, the deep resentmentof the whole people at the judicial murder of Nabothindicates the existence of a sound moral sense. Eventhe great house of Omri was threatened by an arousedpublic opinion. There is something essentially whole-some in the moral life of a people when a wrong doneto an individual arouses the whole nation, as the in-justice to Dreyfus aroused France, or as the outrageupon Naboth aroused Israel. Then, to
. The training of the Chosen people. passion. The period of the revolution under Jehu conformsto this general description. Moral forces were at workof no mean order. For example, the deep resentmentof the whole people at the judicial murder of Nabothindicates the existence of a sound moral sense. Eventhe great house of Omri was threatened by an arousedpublic opinion. There is something essentially whole-some in the moral life of a people when a wrong doneto an individual arouses the whole nation, as the in-justice to Dreyfus aroused France, or as the outrageupon Naboth aroused Israel. Then, too, Elisha, by methods quite different fromthose of Elijah, had succeeded in organizing effective-ly the widespread antagonism to the worship of thePhoenician Baal, which had been introduced by Jeze-bel. These two conditions made it comparatively easy io8 Old Testament History for Jehu, with the support of Elisha, to overthrow thehouse of Omri, putting Jezebel to a shameful death(2 Ki. 9: 30-37), exterminating the seed royal, accord-. Ruins at Jezreel, the Site of Jezebels Palace. ing to the custom of Oriental despots (2 Ki. 10: 1-12),and wreaking signal vengeance upon the prophets ofBaal (2 Ki. 10:18-28). But the zeal of Jehu failed at the crisis. He couldbe fierce enough against the foreign idolatry intro-duced by Jezebel, but very tolerant toward the heathen-ism of bull-worship that was so deep-seated in thelife of Israel. Thus Jehu destroyed Baal out ofIsrael. Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the sonof Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin, Jehu de-parted not from after them, to wit, the golden calvesthat were in Beth-el, and that were in Dan (2 :28, 29). Thus reform in the northern kingdomproceeded to a certain extent, when it was sharplybrought to a halt by the inveterate heathenism of Jehu,in which he appears to have had a large popularsupport. At this point a new factor enters the situation. Thehistorian sees what the prophets were soon to empha-size, namely, that
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