ANTIQUITIES OF THE JEWS. BOOK IX. Containing an interval of one hundred and fifty-seven years. FROM THE DEATH OF AHAB TO THE CAPTIVITY OF THE TEN TRIBES. CHAP. I. Concerning Jehoshaphat again; how he constituted Judges, and, by God's Assistance, overcame his enemies. § 1. WHEN Jehoshaphat the king was come to Jerusalem, from the assistance he had afforded Ahab the king of Israel, when he fought with Benhadad, king of Syria, the prophet Jehu met him, and accused him for assisting Ahab, a man both impious and wicked; and said to him, that "God was displeased with him for so doing, but that he delivered him from the enemy, notwithstanding he had sinned, because of his own proper disposition, which was good." Whereupon the king betook himself to thanksgivings and sacrifices to God; after which he presently went over all that country which he ruled round about, and taught the people, as well the laws which God gave them by Moses, and that religious worship that was due to him. He also constituted judges in every one of the cities in his kingdom, and charged them "to have regard to nothing so much in judging the multitude as to do justice, and not to be moved by bribes, nor by the dignity of men eminent for either their riches or their high birth, but to distribute justice equally to all, as knowing that God is conscious of every secret action of theirs." When he had himself instructed them thus, and gone over every city of the two tribes, he returned to Jerusalem. He there also con |