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ness of the Aramean upstart that he himself saddled his war- horse for the battle. His zeal was rewarded by God; he gained a brilliant victory in a battle in which no less than a hundred thousand of the Syrians were slain, as the prophet Micaiah had foretold to him.35 The same seer88 admon- ished him not to deal gently with Ben-hadad. God's word to him had been : " Know that I had to set many a pitfall and trap to deliver him into thy hand. If thou lettest him escape, thy life will be forfeit for his." "
Nevertheless the disastrous end of Ahab is not to be as- cribed to his disregard of the prophet's warning — for he finally liberated Ben-hadad, — but chiefly to the murder of his kinsman Naboth, whose execution on the charge of treason he had ordered, so that he might put himself in possession of Naboth's wealth.88 His victim was a pious man, and in the habit of going on pilgrimages to Jerusalem on the festi- vals. As he was a great singer, his presence in the Holy City attracted many other pilgrims thither. Once Naboth failed to go on his customary pilgrimage. Then it was that his false conviction took place — a very severe punishment for the transgression, but not wholly unjustifiable.88 Under Jehoshaphat's influence and counsel, Ahab did penance for his crime, and the punishment God meted out to him was thereby mitigated to the extent that his dynasty was not cut off from the throne at his death.40 In the heavenly court of justice,41 at Ahab's trial, the accusing witnesses and his de- fenders exactly balanced each other in number and state- ments, until the spirit of Naboth appeared and turned the scale against Ahab. The spirit of Naboth it had been, too, that had led astray the prophets of Ahab, making them all
