[117] So _asafœtida_ is called "devil's dung" in Germany; and the _Herba alcali_, "sparrow's dung" by Arabs. The _Q'ri_, however, supports the _literal_ meaning; and compare 2 Kings xviii. 27; Jos., _B. J._, V. xiii. 7. Analogies for these prices are quoted from classic authors. Plutarch (_Artax._, xxiv.) mentions a siege in which an ass's head could hardly be got for sixty drachmas (£2 10_s._), though usually the whole animal only cost £1. Pliny (_H. N._, viii. 57) says that during Hannibal's siege of Casilinum a mouse sold for £6 5_s._ [118] So Clericus. Comp. Jos. ἐπηράσατο αὐτῇ. [119] Lev. xxvi. 29. [120] Deut. xxviii. 52-58. [121] Jer. xix. 9. [122] Lam. iv. 10: comp. ii. 20; Ezek. v. 10; Jos., _B. J._, VI. iii. 4. [123] 1 Kings xxi. 27; Isa. xx. 2, 3. [124] Compare the wrath of Pashur the priest in consequence of the denunciation of Jeremiah (Jer. xx. 2). [125] 1 Kings xix. 2. [126] In 2 Kings vi. 33 we should read _melek_ (king) for _maleak_ (messenger). Jehoram repented of his hasty order. [127] The Jews say Gehazi, and his three sons (Jarchi). [128] Lev. xiii. 46; Num. v. 2, 3. [129] The capitals of the ancient Hittites--a nation whose fame had been almost entirely obliterated till a few years ago--were Karchemish, Kadesh, Hamath, and Helbon (Aleppo). [130] _Lectures_, ii. 345. CHAPTER IX _THE SHUNAMMITE AND HAZAEL_ 2 KINGS viii. 1-6, 7-15. (Circ. B.C. 886.) "Our acts still follow with us from afar, And what we have been makes us what we are." GEORGE ELIOT. The next anecdote of Elisha brings us once more into contact with the Lady of Shunem. Famines, or dearths, were unhappily of very frequent occurrence in a country which is so wholly dependent, as Palestine is, upon the early and latter rain. On some former occasion Elisha had foreseen that "Jehovah had called for a famine"; for the sword, the famine, and the pestilence are represented as ministers who wait His bidding.[131] He had also foreseen that it would be of long duration, and in kindness to the Shunammite had warned her that she had better remove for a time into a land in which there was greater plenty. It was under similar circumstances that Elimelech and Naomi, ancestors of David's line, had taken their sons Mahlon and Chilion, and gone to live in the land of Moab; and, indeed, the famine which decided the migration of Jacob and his children into Egypt had been a turning-point in the history of the Chosen People.