[37] It is now past doubt that these were two sacred stones used for decision in the case of an alternative issue. This is plain from the amended reading of Saul's prayer in 1 Sam. xiv. 41, 42 (after the LXX.): _O Jehovah God of Israel, wherefore hast Thou not answered Thy servant this day? If the iniquity be in me or in Jonathan my son, O Jehovah God of Israel, give Urim: and if it be in Thy people Israel, give, I pray Thee, Thummim._ [38] Hosea iii. 4. See next chapter, p. 38. [39] Cf. Deut. xxviii. 34. [40] 2 Sam. xii. 1 ff. [41] 1 Kings xi. 29; xii. 22. [42] 1 Kings xiv. 2, 7-11; xix. 15 f.; 2 Kings ix. 3 ff. [43] 1 Kings xxii. 5 ff.; 2 Kings iii. 11 ff. [44] 1 Kings xxi. 1 ff. [45] 2 Kings vi.-viii., etc. [46] 1 Kings xviii. 46; 2 Kings iii. 15. [47] 3 Kings ix. 11. _Mad fellow_, not necessarily a term of reproach. [48] 1 Kings xviii. 4, cf. 19; 2 Kings ii. 3, 5; iv. 38-44; v. 20 ff.; vi. 1 ff.; viii. 8 f., etc. [49] 1 Kings xviii. 19; xxii. 6. [50] So Elijah, 2 Kings i. 8: cf. John the Baptist, Matt. iii. 4. [51] Hosea ix. 7. [52] Jer. xxix. 26: _Every man that is mad, and worketh himself into prophecy_ (מתנבא, the same form as is used without moral reproach in 1 Sam. x. 10 ff.). [53] 1 Kings xxii. [54] Amos vii. 12. CHAPTER III _THE EIGHTH CENTURY IN ISRAEL_ The long life of Elisha fell to its rest on the margin of the eighth century.[55] He had seen much evil upon Israel. The people were smitten in all their coasts. None of their territory across Jordan was left to them; and not only Hazael and his Syrians, but bands of their own former subjects, the Moabites, periodically raided Western Palestine, up to the very gates of Samaria.[56] Such a state of affairs determined the activity of the last of the older prophets. Elisha spent his life in the duties of the national defence, and in keeping alive the spirit of Israel against her foes. When he died they called him _Israel's chariot and the horsemen thereof_,[57] so incessant had been both his military vigilance[58] and his political insight.[59] But Elisha was able to leave behind him the promise of a new day of victory.[60] It was in the peace and liberty of this day that Israel rose a step in civilisation; that prophecy, released from the defence, became the criticism, of the national life; and that the people, no longer absorbed in their own borders, looked out, and for the first time realised the great world, of which they were only a part.