Prophet, fifteen years before [1 Kings xxi, 23], the dogs came and devoured her, all but her feet, the palms of her hands, and her head: see 2 Kings, ix, 35. On this subject, respecting the parts of her body which the dogs refused to eat, the Jewish Rabbi have made, says Adam Clarke, some very singular remarks, from which we gather a few particulars relative to the private character of this queen of prostitutes, as follows:
The reason [say these Jewish Rabbi] the dogs left the parts of her body spoken of above, was because, in her festal dances in the house of her gods, which was built in a grove, she used to get down on all fours, in imitation of a beast, and in this attitude would caper and leap about, being disrobed, while the multitude of her priests and the worshipers looked on. During such performances, she would move her head from one side to the other, in a gay and wanton manner, for a purpose not proper to describe. She was no doubt [says Adam Clarke] guilty of the foulest actions, almost too bad to be believed.
The temple of Baal, in the grove which Ahab built for his negro queen, was occupied by no less than four hundred and fifty priests, and the temple, another vast building, but not in the woods, was occupied by four hundred more — amounting in all to eight hundred and fifty lusty negro ministers, of the whorish religion of the Zidonians, the people of Jezebel. This great multitude of priestly dignitaries were all put to the sword, at the suggestion of the Prophet Elijah, under the authority of Ahab, as the law of Moses required respecting idolaters, at the time of the
