Awadh

“ If this were Ramoth-gilead, then how much of Bible story clusters about the spot! It was a "city of refuge"; and over these hills or up and down this valley rushed the accidental man-slayer to seek refuge within its gates from the blood-thirsty pursuer. Here Ahab was slain (I. Kings 22:34-37) , here Ahaziah and Jehoram defeated Hazael (II. Kings 8:28, 29; 9:14) , and here Jehu was anointed king of Israel and rode forth in a chariot to execute his terrible commission concerning the house of Ahab (II. Kings 9:4-26) .
Gerasa! Beautiful, though in ruins. What glory must once have been thine! ”

“ Whether any other cities were restored we do not find, but Ramoth-Gilead was not, a considerable city in the tribe of Gad, on the other side Jordan, a Levites' city, and one of the cities of refuge. Ahab blames himself, and his people, that they did not bestir themselves to recover it out of the hands of the Syrians, and to chastise Ben-hadad's violation of his league; and resolves to let that ungrateful perfidious prince know that as he had given him peace he could give him trouble. Ahab has a good cause, yet succeeds not. Equity is not to be judged of by prosperity. ”

“ Quoth Ajib, "Even so, O nuncle mine; my heart burns for the loss of a beloved one who is none other than my father; and indeed I come forth, I and my grandfather, [FN#459] to circle and search the world for him. Oh, the pity of it, and how I long to meet him!" Then he wept with exceeding weeping, and his father also wept seeing him weep and for his own bereavement, which recalled to him his long separation from dear friends and from his mother; and the Eunuch was moved to pity for him. Then they ate together till they were satisfied; and Ajib and the slave rose and left the shop. ”

“ The prophet then turned to the king, who seems to have been completely subjected by this tremendous proof of the prophetic authority, and said: "Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of abundance of rain." And Ahab ascended the hill, to eat and drink with his nobles at the sacrificial feast,--a venerable symbol by which, from the most primitive antiquity to our own day, by so universal an impulse that it would seem to be divinely imparted, every form of religion known to man has sought to typify the human desire to commune with Deity. ”

“ He rejoined, “She is one of thine handmaids: I give her to thee to wife, and I am thy slave.” Said Ajib, “I desire to look upon this son of an adulteress, Gharib, that I may destroy him and cause him taste all manner of torments.” Then he bade give Mardas, to his daughter’s dowry, thirty thousand dinars and an hundred pieces of silk-brocaded and fringed with gold and an hundred pieces of silk bordered stuffs and kerchiefs and golden collars. So he went forth with this mighty fine dowry and set himself to equip Mahdiyah in all diligence. ”

“ I have anointed thee king over the people of the Lord, even over Israel. 7And thou shalt smite the house of Ahab thy master, that I may avenge the blood of My servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the Lord, at the hand of Jezebel. 8For the whole house of Ahab shall perish; and I will cut off from Ahab every man-child, and him that is shut up and him that is left at large in Israel. 9And I will make the house of Ahab like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasa the son of Ahijah. ”

“ The messenger—the Rabbis guess that he was Jonah, the son of Amittai [160] —knew well that his was a service of immense peril, in which his life might easily pay the forfeit of his temerity. How was he to guess that at once, without striking a blow, the host of Israel would fling to the winds its sworn allegiance to the son of the warrior Ahab, the fourth monarch of the powerful dynasty of Omri? Might not any one of a thousand possible accidents thwart a conspiracy of which the success depended on the unflinching courage and promptitude of his single hand? ”

“ Indeed I keep off the folk from thee with this quarter-staff lest they even look upon thee; and I dare not suffer thee to enter this shop at all." When Hasan of Bassorah heard his speech he marvelled and turned to the Eunuch with the tears pouring down his cheeks; and Ajib said, "Verily my heart loves him!" But he answered, "Leave this talk, thou shalt not go in." Thereupon the father turned to the Eunuch and said, "O worthy sir, why wilt thou not gladden my soul by entering my shop? O thou who art like a chestnut, dark without but white of heart within! ”

“ When, hearing that those heroes have come, will Ayodhyā adorned with standards and garlands, attain fame, with her populace filled with joy? When, seeing those foremost of men returned from the forest, will the city overflow with delight, like the ocean on the occasion of a Parva? When will the mighty-armed hero enter the city of Ayodhyā, placing Sitā" before him on the car,—like unto a bull having his bovine mate before him? When will people by thousands shower fried paddy upon my sons on the road, as those repressors of foes will enter the city? ”

“ One of the yearly festivals was the Ayeetha, which affects every trade and calling in India. It is the blessing of the tools, and the offering of a sacrifice to ensure success for the coming year.
There is a legend to the effect that one year a fair and beautiful Mahratta maiden was chosen out of the rest to perform some special and mysterious pujah in the temple. She was very proud of the honour of being the chosen one, and was the envy of all her companions. Each day that passed some ceremony of preparation was performed. ”

“ The Eunuch was angered and said to Ajib, "This is just what I feared! we ate that unlucky mouthful (which we are bound to respect) , and here is the fellow following us from place to place; for the vulgar are ever the vulgar." Ajib, turning and seeing the Cook just behind him, was wroth and his face reddened with rage and he said to the servant; "Let him walk the highway of the Moslems; but, when we turn off it to our tents, and find that he still follows us, we will send him about his business with a flea in his ear." Then he bowed his head and walked on, the Eunuch walking behind him. ”

“ Ahab's poor spirit sends Ben-hadad a very disgraceful submission. It is general indeed (he cannot mention particulars in his surrender with so much pleasure as Ben-hadad did in his demand) , but it is effectual: I am thine, and all that I have, v. 4. See the effect of sin. (1.) If he had not by sin provoked God to depart from him, Ben-hadad could not have made such a demand. Sin brings men into such straits, by putting them out of divine protection. If God may not rule us, our enemies shall. A rebel to God is a slave to all besides. Ahab had prepared his silver and gold for Baal, Hos. ”

“ Mohammed and Abdallah still say their prayers occasionally, though with less and less fervour as the distance from Haïl grows greater. Awwad’s devotion is of a very varying quality, sometimes quite imperceptible, at others almost alarming. I have noticed that any special stress of work in loading the camels of a morning, or pitching the tents at night, is sure to call forth a burst of spiritual fervour. ”

“ Ahab killed sheep and oxen for him in abundance, and for the
people that he had with him, and persuaded him to go up with
him to Ramothgilead.
14:018:003 And Ahab king of Israel said unto Jehoshaphat king of Judah,
Wilt thou go with me to Ramothgilead? And he answered him, I
am as thou art, and my people as thy people; and we will be
with thee in the war.
14:018:004 And Jehoshaphat said unto the king of Israel, Enquire, I pray thee, at the word of the LORD to day. ”

“ Ahab served Baal a little - Jehu had determined to have no worship in Israel but that of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel; therefore he purposes to destroy all the worshippers of Baal: and that he may do it without suspicion, he proclaims a great sacrifice; and that he may do it the more easily, he gathers them all together into one place.
Verse 19
Whosoever shall be wanting, he shall not live - Because, as he will thereby show himself without zeal for the service of his God, he will justly forfeit his life. ”

“ Is it by thine understanding that the hawk hovers, spreading out his wings to the South wind ? Or will the vulture mount at thy bidding, and make her nest on high ? The precipice is her abode, and she hangs on the fang and snare of the rock. There she will feel the sting of hunger, from afar her eye will make search ; and her brood will guzzle blood, and where the wounded fall there is she.
27. And Jehovah answered Ayub, and said : He who impeaches a mighty one is a censor. One who criticises God shall answer it. ”

“ He sturdily refused the offer of the king. His case was different from that of the Jebusite prince Araunah, who had sold his threshing floor to David, and that of Shemer, who sold the Hill of Samaria to Omri. [752]
A sensible man would have accepted the inevitable, and done the best he could to find a garden elsewhere. But Ahab, who could not bear to be thwarted, came into his house "heavy and displeased." Like an overgrown, sullen boy he flung himself on his divan, turned his face to the wall, and would not eat. ”

“ In this long drought in the land of Canaan, the cattle must have suffered greatly, and many of them probably perished. Indeed, we read that Ahab, the king of Israel, and Obadiah, the governor of his house, searched the land for the fountains and brooks, to find grass to save, the horses and mules alive, that they might not be all lost.
God is a Father, and, like a tender, loving father, he removes his chastisements so soon as they have produced the effect designed. He was "grieved for the misery of Israel." He told Elijah he would send rain. ”

“ Then Jezebel his wife said to him, "Are you not the one who now rules in Israel? Rise, eat, and set your mind at rest. I will give you the vineyard of Naboth."
So she wrote letters in Ahab's name and sealed them with his seal and sent the letters to the leaders and officials who lived in Naboth's city. In the letters she wrote, "Proclaim a fast and put Naboth in front of the people. Then set up two base men before him and let them bring this charge against him: 'You cursed God and the ruler of Israel.' Then carry him out and stone him to death." ”

“ So Ahab sent unto all the children of Israel, and gathered the prophets together unto mount Carmel.’ The tyrant’s guilty conscience makes a coward of him: and he quails before the wild man out of the mountains, who has not where to lay his head, who stands alone against all the people, though Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men, and the prophets of the groves four hundred, and they eat at the queen’s table; and he only is left and they seek his life:—yet no man dare touch him, not even the king himself. ”

“ Jehoshaphat took for his son Jehoram to wife the daughter of Ahab, the king of the ten tribes, whose name was Athaliah. And when, after some time, he went to Samaria, Ahab received him courteously, and treated the army that followed him in a splendid manner, with great plenty of corn and wine, and of slain beasts; and desired that he would join with him in his war against the king of Syria, that he might recover from him the city Ramoth, in Gilead ”

“ The kingdom of Judah, on the other hand, was purified from the destructive consequences of the alliance with the dynasty of Ahab through the overthrow by the high priest Jehoiada of the godless Athaliah, who had murdered the royal children after the death of Ahaziah and seized upon the government, and, with the renewal of the covenant and the extermination of the worship of Baal under the young king whom Jehoiada had trained, was brought back to the theocratic path ”

“ When Ajib heard their words, he said, “I have no brother whom I should fear; so this your speech is mere lying.” They replied, “We tell thee naught save what we know;” but he was an-angered with them and bastinadoed them. Then he rose and, going in to the paternal palace, examined his father’s concubines and found one of them seven months gone with child; whereupon he gave an order to two of his slaves, saying, “Take this damsel, ye twain, and carry her to the sea-shore and drown her.” ”

“ I will tell you, said he, how the red-skin doctor influenced the welfare of a great Indian Prince.
Awaha was king of a tribe whose territory bordered on one of the great northern lakes. The eagle soaring when the heavens were filled with the winged tribes, was not more conspicuous and more supreme in grandeur, than he, when he stood among all the assembled warriors of the north. ”

“ The kings of Judah had followed the bad example of David and had been polygamists. Up to this time the kings of Israel seem to have been contented with a single wife. The wealth and power of Ahab led him to adopt the costly luxury of a harem, and he had seventy sons. [590] This, however, would have been regarded in those days as a venial offence, or as no offence at all; but just as the growing power of Solomon had been enhanced by marriage with a princess of Egypt, so Ahab was now of sufficient importance to wed a daughter of the King of Tyre. ”

“ Ayub seems to have, so far, at least, discerned between the Almighty and the god- ling Satan as to feel that any paltering with the latter would be fatal to him.
19. Only two things do not against me, then I shall not be hidden from thy presence : Remove thy hand from off me ; and thy terror shall not overwhelm me. But call and I will reply, or I will speak and do Thou restore me.
20. For what are my crimes and shortcomings ? Shew me my transgression and my failure. Why wilt Thou turn away Thy face and count me as Thine enemy? Wilt shake a leaf driven by the wind, and hunt a dry straw? ”