As a rule, they settled near one of the temples, and lived there on excellent terms with the members of the regular priesthood. Accompanied by musical instruments, they chanted the songs in which the poets of other days extolled the mighty deeds of Jahveh, and obtained from this source the incidents of the semi-religious accounts which they narrated concerning the early history of the people; or, when the spirit moved them, they went about through the land prophesying, either singly, or accompanied by a disciple, or in bands.* The people thronged round them to listen to their hymns or their stories of the heroic age: the great ones of the land, even kings themselves, received visits from them, and endured their reproaches or exhortations with mingled feelings of awe and terror. A few of the prophets took the part of Ahab and Jezebel,** but the majority declared against them, and of these, the most conspicuous, by his forcibleness of speech and action, was Elijah. We do not know of what race or family he came, nor even what he was:*** the incidents of his life which have come down to us seem to be wrapped in a vague legendary grandeur. He appears before Ahab, and tells him that for years to come no rain or dew shall fall on the earth save by his command, and then takes flight into the desert in order to escape the king’s anger. * 1 Sam. x. 5, where a band of prophets is mentioned “coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a timbrel, and a pipe, and a harp, before them, prophesying;” cf. ver. 10. In 2 Kings ii. 3-5, bands of the “children of the prophets” come out from Bethel and Jericho to ask Elisha if he knows the fate which awaits Elijah on that very day. ** Cf. the anonymous prophet who encourages Ahab, in the name of Jahveh, to surprise the camp of Benhadad before Samaria (1 Kings xx. 13-15, 22-25, 28); and the prophet Zedekiah, who gives advice contrary to that of his fellow- prophet Micaiah in the council of war held by Ahab with Jehoshaphat, King of Judah, before the attack on Ramobh- gilead (1 Kings xxii. 11, 12, 24). *** The ethnical inscription, “Tishbite,” which we find after his name (1 Kings xvii. 1, xxi. 17), is due to an error on the part of the copyist.