The story has usually been so read, but Elisha had neither prophesied this nor suggested it. The sequel is thus described. "And it came to pass on the morrow, that _he_ took the coverlet,[139] and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Hazael reigned in his stead." The repetition of the name Hazael in the last clause is superfluous if he was the subject of the previous clause, and it has been consequently conjectured that "he took" is merely the impersonal idiom "one took." Some suppose that, as Benhadad was in the bath, his servant took the bath-cloth, wetted it, and laid its thick folds over the mouth of the helpless king; others, that he soaked the thick quilt, which the king was too weak to lift away.[140] In either case it is hardly likely that a great officer like Hazael would have been in the bath-room or the bed-room of the dying king. Yet we must remember that the Prætorian Præfect Macro is said to have suffocated Tiberius with his bed-clothes. Josephus says that Hazael strangled his master with a net; and, indeed, he has generally been held guilty of the perpetration of the murder. But it is fair to give him the benefit of the doubt. Be that as it may, he seems to have reigned for some forty-six years (B.C. 886-840), and to have bequeathed the sceptre to a son on whom he had bestowed the old dynastic name of Benhadad. FOOTNOTES: [131] Jer. xxv. 29; Ezek. xxxviii. 21. [132] See the cases of Samuel (1 Sam. ix. 7), of Ahijah (1 Kings xiv. 3), and of Elisha himself (2 Kings iv. 42). [133] As Jacob did in sending forward his present to Esau. Comp. Chardin, _Voyages_, iii. 217. [134] 2 Kings x. 32, xiii. 3, 22. [135] Isa. xiii. 15, 16; Hos. x. 14, xiii. 16; Nah. iii. 10. [136] See Josh. vi. 17, 21; 1 Sam. xv. 3; Lev. xxvii. 28, 29. [137] Psalm cxxxvii. 9. [138] 1 Sam. xxiv. 14; 2 Sam. ix. 8. [139] מַכְבֵּר Jos., _Antt._, IX. iv. 6, δίκτυον διάβροχον. Aquila, Symmachus, τὸ στρῶμα. Michaelis supposed it to be the mosquito-net (κωνωπεῖον). Comp. 1 Sam. xix. 13. Ewald suggested "bath-mattress" (iii. 523). Sir G. Grove (_s.v._ "Elisha," _Bibl. Dict._, ii. 923) mentions that Abbas Pasha is said to have been murdered in the same manner. Some, however, think that the measure was taken by way of cure (Bruce, _Travels_, iii. 33. Klostermann, _ad loc._, alters the text at his pleasure). [140] 2 Kings viii. 15; LXX., τὸ μαχβάρ; Vulg., _stragulum_; lit., "woven cloth." CHAPTER X (1) _JEHORAM BEN-JEHOSHAPHAT OF JUDAH_ B.C. 851-843 (2) _AHAZIAH BEN-JEHORAM OF JUDAH_ B.C. 843-842 2 KINGS viii. 16-24, 25-29 "Bear like the Turk, no brother near the throne."--POPE. The narrative now reverts to the kingdom of Judah, of which the historian, mainly occupied with the great deeds of the prophet in Israel, takes at this period but little notice.