,,the ,,expositor',s ,,bible ,,edited ,,by ,,the ,,rev4 ,w4 ,,robertson ,,nicoll1 ,m4,a41 ,,ll4,d4 ,editor of ,the ,expositor ,,the ,,first ,,book ,,of ,,kings ,,by ,f4 ,w4 ,,farrar1 ,d4,d41 ,f4,r4,s4 ,london ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton #bg1 ,,paternoster ,,row ,,mdcccxciii ,,the ,,expositor',s ,,bible4 ,crown #hvo1 cloth1 price #gs4 #f;d4 each vol4 ,,first ,,series1 #ahhg-h4 ,colossians4 ,by ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,st4 ,mark4 ,by ,very ,rev4 the ,dean of ,armagh4 ,genesis4 ,by ,prof4 ,,marcus ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 #a ,samuel4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,g4 ,,blaikie1 ,d4,d4 #b ,samuel4 ,by the ,same ,author4 ,hebrews4 ,by ,principal ,t4 ,c4 ,,edwards1 ,d4,d4 ,,second ,,series1 #ahhh-i4 ,galatians4 ,by ,prof4 ,g4 ,g4 ,,findlay1 ,b4,a4 ,the ,pastoral ,epistles4 ,by ,rev4 ,a4 ,,plummer1 ,d4,d4 ,isaiah ,i4--,,xxxix4 ,by ,g4 ,a4 ,,smith1 ,m4,a4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,the ,book of ,revelation4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,,milligan1 ,d4,d4 #a ,corinthians4 ,by ,prof4 ,,marcus ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,epistles of ,st4 ,john4 ,by ,rt4 ,rev4 ,w4 ,,alexander1 ,d4,d4 ,,third ,,series1 #ahhi-ij4 ,judges and ,ruth4 ,by ,rev4 ,r4 ,a4 ,,watson1 ,d4,d4 ,jeremiah4 ,by ,rev4 ,c4 ,j4 ,,ball1 ,m4,a4 ,isaiah ,,xl4--,,lxvi4 ,by ,g4 ,a4 ,,smith1 ,m4,a4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,st4 ,matthew4 ,by ,rev4 ,j4 ,,monro ,,gibson1 ,d4,d4 ,exodus4 ,by ,very ,rev4 the ,dean of ,armagh4 ,st4 ,luke4 ,by ,rev4 ,h4 ,,burton1 ,b4,a4 ,,fourth ,,series1 #ahij-a4 ,ecclesiastes4 ,by ,rev4 ,,samuel ,,cox1 ,d4,d4 ,st4 ,james and ,st4 ,jude4 ,by ,rev4 ,a4 ,,plummer1 ,d4,d4 ,proverbs4 ,by ,rev4 ,r4 ,f4 ,,horton1 ,m4,a4 ,leviticus4 ,by ,rev4 ,s4 ,h4 ,,kellogg1 ,d4,d4 ,the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john4 ,by ,prof4 ,m4 ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,the ,acts of the ,apostles4 ,by ,prof4 ,,stokes1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,,fifth ,,series1 #ahia-b4 ,the ,psalms4 ,by ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,i4 #a and #b ,thessalonians4 ,by ,,jas4 ,,denney1 ,b4,d4 ,the ,book of ,job4 ,by ,r4 ,a4 ,,watson1 ,d4,d4 ,ephesians4 ,by ,prof4 ,g4 ,g4 ,,findlay1 ,b4,a4 ,the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john4 ,by ,prof4 ,m4 ,,dods1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,the ,acts of the ,apostles4 ,by ,prof4 ,,stokes1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,sixth ,,series1 #ahib-c4 #a ,kings4 ,by ,ven4 ,archdeacon ,,farrar4 ,philippians4 ,by ,principal ,,rainy1 ,d4,d4 ,ezra1 ,nehemiah1 ,esther4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,f4 ,,adeney1 ,m4,a4 ,joshua4 ,by ,prof4 ,w4 ,g4 ,,blaikie1 ,d4,d4 ,daniel4 ,by ,prof4 ,,fuller1 ,m4,a4 ,the ,psalms4 ,by ,a4 ,,maclaren1 ,d4,d4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,the ,,first ,,book ,,of ,,kings ,f4 ,w4 ,,farrar1 ,d4,d41 ,f4,r4,s4 ,,late ,,fellow ,,of ,,trinity ,,college1 ,,cambridge2 ,,archdeacon ,,of ,,westminster ,london ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton #bg1 ,,paternoster ,,row ,,mdcccxciii ,printed by ,hazell1 ,watson1 ,viney1 ,ld41 ,london and ,aylesbury4 ,,contents4 ,,book ,i4 ,,introduction4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,page ,,the ,,higher ,,criticism #c ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,the ,,books ,,of ,,kings #ad ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,the ,,historian ,,of ,,the ,,kings #cj ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,god ,,in ,,history #ci ,,chapter ,v4 ,,history ,,with ,a ,,purpose #df ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,lessons ,,of ,,the ,,history #ej ,,book ,,ii4 ,,david ,,and ,,solomon4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,david',s ,,decrepitude #fa #a ,,kings i4 #a-d4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,an ,,eastern ,,court ,,and ,,home #gj #a ,,kings i4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,adonijah',s ,,rebellion #ha #a ,,kings i4 #e-ec4 ,,chapter ,x4 ,,david',s ,,death-,,bed #id #a ,,kings ii4 #a-aa4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 ,,avenging ,,justice #aje #a ,,kings ii4 #ac-df4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 ,,the ,,boy-,,king',s ,,wisdom #abj #a ,,kings iii4 #e-bh4 ,,chapter ,,xiii4 ,,solomon',s ,,court ,,and ,,kingdom #acd #a ,,kings iv4 #a-cd4 ,,chapter ,,xiv4 ,,the ,,temple #adi #a ,,kings v41 vi41 vii4 ,,chapter ,,xv4 ,,the ,,ideal ,,significance ,,of ,,the ,,temple #agb #a ,,kings vii4 #ac-ea2 viii4 #ab-fa4 ,,chapter ,,xvi4 ,,the ,,ark ,,and ,,the ,,cherubim #agg #a ,,kings vi4 #bc-cj2 viii4 #f-aa4 ,,chapter ,,xvii4 ,,the ,,gradual ,,growth ,,of ,,the ,,levitic ,,ritual #ahf #a ,,kings viii4 #a-ff4 ,,chapter ,,xviii4 ,,the ,,temple ,,worship #aic #a ,,kings viii4 #a-aa4 ,,chapter ,,xix4 ,,the ,,temple ,,sacrifices #bjb #a ,,kings viii4 #fb-ff1 ix4 #be4 ,,chapter ,,xx4 ,,solomon ,,in ,,all ,,his ,,glory #bbb #a ,,kings x4 #a-bi4 ,,chapter ,,xxi4 ,,hollow ,,prosperity #bcj #a ,,kings xi4 ,,chapter ,,xxii4 ,,the ,,old ,,age ,,of ,,solomon #bci #a ,,kings xi4 #a-ac4 ,,chapter ,,xxiii4 ,,the ,,wind ,,and ,,the ,,whirlwind #bej #a ,,kings xi4 #ad-da4 ,,book ,,iii4 ,,the ,,divided ,,kingdom4 ,b4,c4 #icg-hhi4 ,,chapter ,,xxiv4 ,a ,,new ,,reign4 ,b4,c4 #icg #bfi #a ,,kings xii4 #a-e4 ,,chapter ,,xxv4 ,,the ,,disruption #bge #a ,,kings xii4 #f-bj4 ,,chapter ,,xxvi4 ,,jeroboam ,,the ,,son ,,of ,,nebat1 ,,who ,,made ,,israel ,,to ,,sin4 ,b4,c4 #icg-iae #bhf #a ,,kings xii4 #ba-bc4 ,,chapter ,,xxvii4 ,,jeroboam1 ,,and ,,the ,,man ,,of ,,god #bif #a ,,kings xiii4 #a-cd4 ,,chapter ,,xxviii4 ,,doom ,,of ,,the ,,house ,,of ,,nebat #cjb #a ,,kings xiv4 #a-bj4 ,,chapter ,,xxix4 ,,nadab2 ,,baasha2 ,,elah4 ,b4,c4 #iae-hhi #cji #a ,,kings xv4 #be2 xvi4 #aj4 ,,chapter ,,xxx4 ,,the ,,earlier ,,kings ,,of ,,judah4 ,b4,c4 #icg-hea #cac #a ,,kings xiv4 #ba-ca2 xv4 #a-bd4 ,,chapter ,,xxxi4 ,,jehoshaphat4 ,b4,c4 #hgf-hea #cbg #a ,,kings xxii4 #da-ej4 ,,chapter ,,xxxii4 ,,the ,,kings ,,of ,,israel ,,from ,,zimri ,,to ,,ahab4 ,b4,c4 #hhi-hgg #ccg #a ,,kings xvi4 #aa-cd4 ,,book ,,iv4 ,,ahab ,,and ,,elijah4 ,b4,c4 #hgg-hee4 ,,chapter ,,xxxiii4 ,,king ,,ahab ,,and ,,queen ,,jezebel #cdg #a ,,kings xvi4 #bi-cd4 ,,chapter ,,xxxiv4 ,,elijah #ceg #a ,,kings xvii4 #a-g4 ,,chapter ,,xxxv4 ,,elijah ,,at ,,sarepta #cgb #a ,,kings xvii4 #g-xviii4 #ai4 ,,chapter ,,xxxvi4 ,,elijah ,,and ,,ahab #cgg #a ,,kings xviii4 #a-bj4 ,,chapter ,,xxxvii4 ,,elijah ,,on ,,mount ,,carmel #chc #a ,,kings xviii4 #bj-dj4 ,,chapter ,,xxxviii4 ,,the ,,rain #cii #a ,,kings xviii4 #da-df4 ,,chapter ,,xxxix4 ,,elijah',s ,,flight #djd #a ,,kings xix4 #a-d4 ,,chapter ,,xl4 ,,elijah',s ,,despair #dae #a ,,kings xix4 #a-aj4 ,,chapter ,,xli4 ,,how ,,god ,,deals ,,with ,,despondency #dbd #a ,,kings xix4 #e-h4 ,,chapter ,,xlii4 ,,the ,,theophany ,,and ,,its ,,significance #dbi #a ,,kings xix4 #i-ah4 ,,chapter ,,xliii4 ,,the ,,call ,,of ,,elisha #dde #a ,,kings xix4 #ai-ba4 ,,chapter ,,xliv4 ,,ahab ,,and ,,benhadad #dej #a ,,kings xx4 #a-cj4 ,,chapter ,,xlv4 ,,ahab',s ,,infatuation #dfc #a ,,kings xx4 #ca-dc4 ,,chapter ,,xlvi4 ,,naboth',s ,,vineyard #dgc #a ,,kings xxi4 #a-bi4 ,,chapter ,,xlvii4 ,,alone ,,against ,,the ,,world #dhe #a ,,kings xxii4 #a-dj4 ,,chapter ,,xlviii4 ,,conclusion #dig ,,appendix4 ,,chronology ,,of ,,the ,,first ,,book ,,of ,,kings #ejj ,,authorities ,,consulted4 ,josephus1 ,antiquities1 ,books ,,vii4 to ,x4 ,munk1 ,palestine4 #ahde4 ,jahn1 ,hist4 of the ,hebrew ,commonwealth1 ,e4 ,t4 #ahbh4 ,reuss1 ,la ,bible4 ,hist4 des ,israelites4 ,paris1 #ahgg4 ,renan1 ,histoire du ,peuple ,israel4 #ahhe-ahij4 ,lange1 ,bibelwerk 7,k4 ,c4 ,w4 ,f4 ,bhr1 #ahfh74 ,bunsen1 ,bibelwerk4 ,heinrich von ,ewald1 ,the ,history of ,israel1 ,e4 ,t4 ,the ,rise and ,splendour of the ,hebrew ,monarchy4 ,london1 #ahga4 ,grtz1 ,geschichte der ,israeliten1 vol4 ii4 ,leipzig1 #ahge4 ,hitzig1 ,geschichte des ,volkes ,israel4 #ahdg1 #aheg1 #ahgj4 ,stade1 ,geschichte des ,volkes ,israel1 vol4 i4 #ahhg4 ,kuenen1 ,religion of ,israel1 ,e4 ,t4 #ahgd4 ,eisenlohr1 ,das ,volk ,israel unter der ,herrschaft der ,knige4 ,leipzig1 #ahef4 ,klostermann1 ,die ,bcher ,samuels und der ,knige4 #ahhg4 ,van ,oort1 ,bible for ,young ,people1 ,e4 ,t41 vol4 iii4 #ahgg4 ,f4 ,w4 ,newmann1 ,hebrew ,monarchy1 ,second ,edition4 #ahec4 ,milman1 ,hist4 of the ,jews1 #c vols4 ,edersheim1 ,hist4 of the ,jewish ,nation4 ,the ,temple and its ,services4 #ahgd4 ,stanley1 ,lectures on the ,jewish ,church1 ,second ,series4 #ahfe4 ,kittel1 ,geschichte der ,hebrer4 ,gotha1 #ahhh1 #ahib4 ,wellhausen-,bleek1 ,einleitung1 ,fourth ,edition4 ,berlin1 #ahgh4 ,wellhausen1 ,geschichte ,israel1 ,e4 ,t41 ,third ,edition4 #ahia4 ,driver1 ,introduction to the ,literature of the ,old ,testament4 #ahia4 ,prof4 ,j4 ,r4 ,lumby1 ,the ,first ,book of ,kings 7,cambridge ,bible for ,schools74 #ahij4 ,canon ,rawlinson1 ,speaker's ,commentary1 #a ,kings4 #ahgb4 ,prof4 ,robertson ,smith1 ,the ,old ,testament in the ,jewish ,church1 ,second ,edition4 #ahib4 ,k4 ,f4 ,keil1 ,the ,books of ,kings1 ,e4 ,t4 #aheg4 ,maurice1 ,prophets and ,kings of the ,old ,testament1 ,third ,edition4 #ahga4 ,canon ,rawlinson1 ,the ,kings of ,israel and ,judah 7,men of the ,bible74 #ahhi4 ,farrar1 ,solomon 7,men of the ,bible74 #ahhg4 ,prof4 ,milligan1 ,elijah 7,men of the ,bible74 ,prof4 ,robertson1 ,early ,religion of ,israel4 ,baird ,lecture1 #ahhg4 ,riehm1 ,handwrterbuch des ,biblischen ,altertums4 ,leipzig1 #ahhd4 ,herzog1 ,encyclopdie1 ,e4 ,t4 #ahef4 ,smith1 ,dictionary of the ,bible4 #ahfj4 ,kitto1 ,biblical ,encyclopdia4 #ahfd4 ,duncker1 ,geschichte des ,altherthums 7,bd4 ,,ii4 ,geschichte ,israel71 ,fifth ,edition4 ,leipzig1 #ahgh4 ,oppert1 ,salomon et les successeurs4 ,paris4 ,e4 ,maspero1 ,hist4 anc4 des peuples de l',orient1 ,e4 ,t4 #ahib4 ,schrader1 ,keilinschriften u4 das ,alte ,testament1 ,second ,edition4 ,giessen1 #ahhc4 ,brugsch-,bey1 ,geschichte gyptens4 ,leipzig1 #ahgg4 ,hamburger1 ,real-,encyklopdie fr ,bibel und ,talmud4 ,strelitz1 #ahfe1 #ahhc4 ,book by ,book1 ,popular ,studies in the ,canon of ,scripture by various authors4 ,isbister ,co41 #ahib4 ,prof4 ,robertson1 ,d4 ,d41 ,early ,religion of ,israel4 ,baird ,lectures1 #ahhi4 ,blackwood1 #ahib4 ,robinson1 ,researches in ,palestine1 #c vols4 #ahda4 ,,book ,i4 ,,introduction4 ,ich bin berzeugt1 dass die ,bibel immer schner wird1 je mehr man sie versteht1 d4h4 je mehr man einsieht und anschaut1 dass jedes ,wort1 das wir allgemein auffassen und in ,besondern auf uns anwenden1 nach gewissen ,umstnden1 nach ,zeit- und ,orts-verhltnissen einen1 eigenen1 besondern1 unmittelbar individuellen ,bezug gehabt hat4--,,goethe4 ,es bleibt dabei1 das beste ,lesen der ,bibel1 dieses ,gttlichen ,buchs1 ist menschlich4 ,ich nehme dies ,wort im weitesten ,umfang und in der andringendsten ,bedeutung4 ,menschlich muss man die ,bibel lesen3 denn sie ist ein ,buch durch ,menschen fr ,menschen geschrieben2 menschlich ist die ,sprache1 menschlich die ussern ,hlfsmittel1 mit denen sie geschrieben und aufbehalten ist4444 ,es darf also sicher geglaubt werden3 je humaner 7im besten ,sinn des ,worts7 man das ,wort ,gottes liest1 desto nher kommt man dem ,zweck seines ,urhebers1 welcher ,menschen zu seinem ,bilde schuf 444 und fr uns menschlich handelt4--,,herder4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,the ,,higher ,,criticism4 ,god shows all things in the slow history of their ripening4--,,george ,,eliot4 ,god has given us many ,bibles4 ,the book which we call the ,bible consists of a series of books1 and its name represents the ,greek plural 4 ,it is not so much a book1 as the extant fragments of a literature1 which grew up during many centuries4 ,supreme as is the importance of this ,book of ,god1 it was never meant to be the sole teacher of mankind4 ,we mistake its purpose1 we misapply its revelation1 when we use it to exclude the other sources of religious knowledge4 ,it is supremely profitable for our instruction1 but1 so far from being designed to absorb our exclusive attention1 its work is to stimulate the eagerness with which1 by its aid1 we are able to learn from all other sources the will of ,god towards men4 ,god speaks to us in many voices4 ,in the ,bible ,he revealed ,himself to all mankind by ,his messages to the individual souls of some of ,his servants4 ,but those messages1 whether uttered or consigned to writing1 were but one method of enabling us to hold communion with ,him4 ,they were not even an indispensable method4 ,thousands of the saints of ,god lived the spiritual life in close communion with their ,father in heaven in ages which possessed no written book2 in ages before any such book existed2 in ages during which1 though it existed1 it was practically inaccessible2 in ages during which it had been designedly kept out of their hands by priests4 ,this fact should quicken our sense of gratitude for the inestimable boon of a ,book wherein he who runs may now read1 and respecting the main teaching of which wayfaring men1 and even fools1 need not err4 ,but it should at the same time save us from the error of treating the ,bible as though it were in itself an amulet or a fetish1 as the ,mohammedan treats his ,koran4 ,the ,bible was written in human language1 by men for men4 ,it was written mainly in ,juda1 by ,jews1 for ,jews4 ,scripture1 as the old theological rule said1 is the sense of ,scripture1#a and the sense of ,scripture can only be ascertained by the methods of study and the rules of criticism without which no ancient document or literature can be even approximately understood4 ,in these respects the ,bible cannot be arbitrarily or exceptionally treated4 ,no a priori rules can be devised for its elucidation4 ,it is what it is1 not what we might have expected it to be4 ,language1 at the best1 is an imperfect and ever-varying instrument of thought4 ,it is full of twilight1 and of gracious shadows4 ,vast numbers of its words were originally metaphorical4 ,when the light of metaphor has faded from them they come to mean different things at different times1 under different conditions1 in different contexts1 on different lips4 ,language can at the best be but an asymptote to thought2 in other words1 it resembles the mathematical line which approaches nearer and nearer to the circumference of a circle1 but which1 even when infinitely extended1 can never actually touch it4 ,the fact that the ,bible contains a ,divine revelation does not alter the fact that it represents a nation's literature4 ,it is the library of the ,jewish people1 or rather all that remains to us of that library1 and all that was most precious in it4 ,holy men of old were moved by the ,spirit of ,god1 but as this ,divine inspiration did not make them personally sinless in their actions1 or infallible in their judgments1 so neither does it exempt their messages from the limitation which attaches to all human conditions4 ,criticism would have rendered an inestimable service to every thoughtful reader of the ,scriptures if it had done nothing more than impress upon them that the component books are not one1 but complex and multiform1 separated from each other by centuries of time1 and of very varying value and preciousness4 ,they too1 like the greatest apostles of ,god1 have their treasure in earthen vessels2 and we not only may1 but must1 by the aid of that reason which is the candle of the ,lord1 estimate both the value of the treasure1 and the age and character of the earthen vessel in which it is contained4 ,there are hundreds of texts in ,scripture which may convey to some souls a very true and blessed meaning1 but which do not in the original possess any such meaning as that which is now attached to them4 ,the words of ,hebrew prophets often seem perfectly clear1 but in some cases they had another set of connotations in the mouths of those by whom they were originally spoken4 ,it requires a learned and a literary training to discover by philology1 by history1 or by comparison1 what alone they could have meant when they were first spoken4 ,in many cases their exact significance is no longer to be ascertained with certainty4 ,it must be more or less conjectural4 ,there are passages of ,scripture which have received scores of differing interpretations4 ,there are entire books of ,scripture about the general scope of which there have been diametrically opposite opinions4 ,the spiritual intuition of the saint may in some instances be keener to read aright than the laborious researches of the scholar1 because spiritual things can only be spiritually discerned4 ,but in general it is true that the ex cathedra assertions of ignorant readers1 though they are often pronounced with an assumption of infallibility1 are not worth the breath which utters them4 ,all artificial dogmas as to what ,scripture must be1 and must mean1 are worse than idle2 we have only to deal with what it really is1 and what it really says4 ,even when opinions respecting it have been all but unanimously pronounced by the representatives of all the ,churches1 they have nevertheless been again and again shown to be absurdly erroneous4 ,the slow light of scholarship1 of criticism1 of comparative religion1 has proved that in many instances not only the interpretations of former ages1 but the very principles of interpretation from which they were derived1 had no basis whatever in fact4 ,and the methods of interpretation--dogmatic1 ecclesiastical1 mystic1 allegorical1 literal--have changed from age to age4#b ,the asserted heresy of yesterday has in scores of instances become the accepted commonplace of to-morrow4 ,the duty of the ,church in the present day is neither to make out that the ,bible is what men have imagined that it was1 nor to repeat the assertions of ancient writers as to what they declared it to be1 but honestly and truthfully to discover the significance of the actual phenomena which it presents to the enlightened and cultivated intelligence4 ,if it were not so common a failing to ignore the lessons of the past1 it might have been hoped that a certain modesty1 of which the necessity is taught us by centuries of error1 would have saved a multitude of writers from rushing into premature and denunciative rejection of results which they have not studied1 and of which they are incapable to judge4 ,st4 ,jerome complained that in his day there was no old woman so fatuous as not to assume the right to lay down the law about ,scriptural interpretation4 ,it is just the same in these days4 ,half-taught dogmatists-- 1 as they have been called--may sweepingly condemn the lifelong researches of men far superior to themselves1 not only in learning1 but in love of truth2 they may attribute their conclusions to faithless infatuation1 and even to moral obliquity4 ,this has been done over and over again in our own lifetime2 and yet such self-constituted and unauthorised defenders of their own prejudices and traditions--which they always identify with the ,catholic faith--are impotent to prevent1 impotent even greatly to retard1 the spread of real knowledge4 ,many of the now-accepted certainties of science were repudiated a generation ago as absurd and blasphemous4 ,as long as it was possible to put them down by persecution1 the thumbscrew and the stake were freely used by priests and inquisitors for their suppression4 ,e pur si muove4 ,theologians who mingled the gold of ,revelation with the clay of their own opinions have been driven to correct their past errors4 ,untaught by experience1 religious prejudice is ever heaping up fresh obstacles to oppose the progress of new truths4 ,the obstacles will be swept away in the future as surely as they have been in the past4 ,the eagle1 it has been said1 which soars through the air does not worry itself how to cross the rivers4 ,it is probable that no age since that of the ,apostles has added so much to our knowledge of the true meaning and history of the ,bible as has been added by our own4 ,the mode of regarding ,scripture has been almost revolutionised1 and in consequence many books of ,scripture previously misunderstood have acquired a reality and intensity of interest and instructiveness which have rendered them trebly precious4 ,a deeper and holier reverence for all eternal truth which the ,bible contains has taken the place of a meaningless letter worship4 ,the fatal and wooden ,rabbinic dogma of verbal dictation--a dogma which either destroys intelligent faith altogether1 or introduces into ,christian conduct some of the worst delusions of false religion--is dead and buried in every capable and well-taught mind4 ,truths which had long been seen through the distorting mirage of false exegesis have now been set forth in their true aspect4 ,we have been enabled1 for the first time1 to grasp the real character of events which1 by being set in a wrong perspective1 had been made so fantastic as to have no relation to ordinary lives4 ,figures which had become dim spectres moving through an unnatural atmosphere now stand out1 full of grace1 instructiveness and warning1 in the clear light of day4 ,the science of ,biblical criticism has solved scores of enigmas which were once disastrously obscure1 and has brought out the original beauty of some passages1 which1 even in our ,authorised ,version1 conveyed no intelligible meaning to earnest readers4 ,the ,revised ,version alone has corrected hundreds of inaccuracies which in some instances defaced the beauty of the sacred page1 and in many others misrepresented and mistranslated it4 ,intolerance has been robbed of favourite shibboleths1 used as the basis of cruel beliefs1 which souls unhardened by system could only repudiate with a ,god forbid6 ,familiar error has ever been dearer to most men than unfamiliar truths2 but truth1 however slow may seem to be the beat of her pinions1 always wins her way at last4 ,thro' the heather an' howe gaed the creepin' thing1 ,but abune was the waft of an angel's wing4 ,can there be any doubt that mankind has everything to gain and nothing to lose from the ascertainment of genuine truth8 ,are we so wholly devoid of even an elementary faith as to think that man can profit by consciously cherished illusions8 ,does it not show a nobler confidence in facts to correct traditional prejudices1 than to rest blindly content with conventional assertions8 ,if we do not believe that ,god is a ,god of truth1 that all falsity is hateful to ,him1--and religious falsity most hateful of all1 because it adds the sin of hypocrisy to the love of lies1--we believe in nothing4 ,if our religion is to consist in a rejection of knowledge1 lest it should disturb the convictions of times of ignorance1 the dicta of the ,fathers1 or dogmas which arrogate to themselves the sham claim of ,catholicity--if we are to give only to the ,dark ,ages the title of the ,ages of ,faith1 then indeed ,the pillared firmament is rottenness1 ,and earth's base built on stubble4 ,there is and will be much discussion1 says ,goethe1 as to the advantage or disadvantage of the popular dissemination of the ,bible4 ,to me it is clear that it will be mischievous1 as it always has been1 if used dogmatically and capriciously2 beneficial1 as it always has been1 if accepted didactically 7for our instruction7 and with feeling4 ,there is abundance in the ,bible for doctrine1 for reproof1 for correction1 for instruction in righteousness2--we shall weaken its moral and spiritual force1 and gain nothing in its place1 if we turn it into an idol adorned with impossible claims which it never makes for itself1 and if we support its golden image upon the brittle clay of an exegesis which is morally1 critically1 and historically false4 ,i do not see how there can be any loss in the positive results of what is called the ,higher ,criticism4 ,certainly its suggestions must never be hastily adopted4 ,nor is it likely that they will be4 ,they have to fight their way through crowds of opposing prejudices4 ,they are first held up to ridicule as absurd2 then exposed to anathema as irreligious2 at last they are accepted as obviously true4 ,the very theologians who once denounced them silently ignore or readjust what they previously preached1 and hasten1 first to minimise the importance1 then to extol the value of the new discoveries4 ,it is quite right that they should be keenly scrutinised4 ,all new sciences are liable to rush into extremes4 ,their first discoverers are misled into error by premature generalisations born of a genuine enthusiasm4 ,they are tempted to build elaborate superstructures on inadequate foundations4 ,but when they have established certain irrefragable principles1 can the obvious deductions from those principles be other than a pure gain8 ,can we be the better for traditional delusions8 ,can mistakes and ignorance--can anything but the ascertained fact--be desirable for man1 or acceptable to ,god8 ,no doubt it is with a sensation of pain that we are compelled to give up convictions which we once regarded as indubitable and sacred4 ,that is a part of our human nature4 ,we must say with all gentleness to the passionate devotees of each old erroneous mumpsimus-- ,disce2 sed ira cadat naso rugosaque sanna ,cum veteres avias tibi de pulmone revello4 ,our blessed ,lord1 with ,his consummate tenderness1 and ,divine insight into the frailties of our nature1 made tolerant allowance for inveterate prejudices4 ,no man1 ,he said1 having drunk old wine straightway desireth new3 for he saith1 ,the old is good4 ,but the pain of disillusionment is blessed and healing when it is incurred in the cause of sincerity4 ,there must always be more value in results earned by heroic labour than in conventions accepted without serious inquiry4 ,already there has been a silent revolution4 ,many of the old opinions about the ,bible have been greatly modified4 ,there is scarcely a single competent scholar who does not now admit that the ,hexateuch is a composite structure2 that much of the ,levitical legislation1 which was once called ,mosaic1 is in reality an aftergrowth which in its present form is not earlier than the days of the prophet ,ezekiel2 that the ,book of ,deuteronomy belongs1 in its present form1 whatever older elements it may contain1 to the era of ,hezekiah's or ,josiah's reformation2 that the ,books of ,zechariah and ,isaiah are not homogeneous1 but preserve the writings of more prophets than their titles imply2 that only a small section of the ,psalter was the work of ,david2 that the ,book of ,ecclesiastes was not the work of ,king ,solomon2 that most of the ,book of ,daniel belongs to the era of ,antiochus ,epiphanes2 and so forth4 ,in what respect is the ,bible less precious1 less inspired in the only tenable sense of that very undefined word1 in consequence of such discoveries8 ,in what way do they touch the outermost fringe of our ,christian faith8 ,is there anything in such results of modern criticism which militates against the most inferential expansion of a single clause in the ,apostolic1 the ,nicene1 or even the ,athanasian ,creed8 ,do they contravene one single syllable of the hundreds of propositions to which our assent is demanded in the ,thirty-nine ,articles8 ,i would gladly help to mitigate the needless anxiety felt by many religious minds4 ,when the ,higher ,criticism is in question ,i would ask them to distinguish between established premisses and the exorbitant system of inferences which a few writers have based upon them4 ,they may rest assured that sweeping conclusions will not be hastily snatched up2 that no conclusion will be regarded as proved until it has successfully run the gauntlet of many a jealous challenge4 ,they need not fear for one moment that the ,ark of their faith is in peril1 and they will be guilty not only of unwisdom but of profanity if they rush forward to support it with rude and unauthorised hands4 ,there never has been an age of deep thought and earnest inquiry which has not left its mark in the modification of some traditions or doctrines of theology4 ,but the truths of essential ,christianity are built upon a rock4 ,they belong to things which cannot be shaken1 and which remain4 ,the intense labours of eminent scholars1 ,english and ,german1 thanklessly as they have been received1 have not robbed us of so much as a fraction of a single precious element of revelation4 ,on the contrary1 they have cleared the ,bible of many accretions by which its meaning was spoilt1 and its doctrines wrested to perdition1 and they have thus rendered it more profitable than before for every purpose for which it was designed1 that the man of ,god may be perfect1 throughly furnished unto all good works4 ,when we study the ,bible it is surely one of our most primary duties to beware lest any idols of the caverns or of the forum tempt us to offer to the ,god of truth the unclean sacrifice of a lie4#c ,,footnotes3 #a ,scriptura est sensus ,scriptur4--,st4 ,augustine4 #b ,for a decisive proof of these statements ,i refer to my ,bampton ,lectures on the ,history of ,interpretation 7,macmillan1 #ahij74 #c ,bacon4 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,the ,,books ,,of ,,kings4 ,the ,two ,books of ,kings1 as we call them1 are only one book 7,sepher ,melakm71 and were so regarded not only in the days of ,origen 7ap4 ,euseb41 ,h4 ,e41 vi4 #be7 and of ,jerome 7,a4,d4 #dbj71 but by the ,jews even down to ,bomberg's ,hebrew ,bible of #aeah4 ,they are treated as one book in the ,talmud and the ,peshito4 ,the ,western ,bibles followed the ,alexandrian division into two books 7called the third and fourth of ,kings71 and ,jerome adopted this division in the ,vulgate 7,regum1 iii4 et iv474 ,but if this separation into two books was due to the ,,lxx4 translators1 they should have made a less awkward and artificial division than the one which breaks off the first book in the middle of the brief reign of ,ahaziah4 ,jerome's version of the ,books of ,samuel and ,kings appeared first of his translations1 and in his famous ,prologus ,galeatus he mentions these facts4 ,the ,history was intended to be a continuation of the ,books of ,samuel4 ,some critics1 and among them ,ewald1 assign them to the same author1 but closer examination of the ,book of ,kings renders this more than doubtful4 ,the incessant use of the prefix ,king1 the extreme frequency of the description ,man of ,god1 the references to the law1 and above all the constant condemnation of high places1 counterbalance the minor resemblance of style1 and prove a difference of authorship4 ,what has the ,higher ,criticism1 as represented in historic sequence by such writers as ,vatke1 de ,wette1 ,reuss1 ,graf1 ,ewald1 ,kuenen1 ,bleek1 ,wellhausen1 ,stade1 ,kittel1 ,renan1 ,klostermann1 ,cheyne1 ,driver1 ,robertson ,smith1 and others1 to tell us about the structure and historic credibility of the ,books of ,kings8 ,has it in any way shaken their value1 while it has undoubtedly added to their intelligibility and interest8 #a4 ,it emphasises the fact that they are a compilation4 ,in this there is nothing either new or startling1 for the fact is plainly and repeatedly acknowledged in the page of the sacred narrative4 ,the sources utilised are3-- 7#a7 ,the ,book of the ,acts of ,solomon 7#a ,kings xi4 #da74 7#b7 ,the ,book of the ,chronicles of the ,kings of ,judah 7referred to fifteen times74 7#c7 ,the ,book of the ,chronicles of the ,kings of ,israel 7referred to seventeen times74#d ,by comparing the authority referred to in #a ,kings xi4 #da with those quoted in #b ,chron4 ix4 #bi1 we see that the ,book of the ,acts of ,solomon must have been to a large extent identical with the annals of that king's reign contained in the ,book 7,r4,v41 ,histories7 of ,nathan the ,prophet1 the prophecy of ,ahijah the ,shilonite1 and the story 7,r4,v41 commentary7 or visions of ,iddo the ,seer4#e ,similarly it appears that the ,acts of ,rehoboam1 ,abijam1 ,jehoshaphat1 ,uzziah1 were compiled1 at any rate in part1 from the histories of ,shemaiah1 ,jehu the son of ,hanani1#f ,isaiah the son of ,amoz1 ,hozai 7#b ,chron4 xxxiii4 #ah1 ,r4,v471 and other seers4 ,in the narrative of a history of #dej years 7from ,b4,c4 #ajaf to #efb7 the writer was of course compelled to rely for his facts upon more ancient authorities4 ,whether he consulted the original documents in the archives of ,jerusalem1 or whether he utilised some outline of them which had previously been drawn up1 cannot easily be determined4 ,the work would have been impossible but for the existence of the officials known as recorders and historiographers 7,mazkirim1 ,sopherim71 who first make their appearance in the court of ,david4 ,but the original documents could hardly have survived the ravages of ,shalmanezer in ,samaria and of ,nebuchadnezzar in ,jerusalem1 so that ,movers is probably right in the conjecture that the author's extracts were made1 not immediately1 but from the epitome of an earlier compiler4#g #b4 ,although no direct quotations are referred to other documents1 it seems certain from the style1 and from various minor touches1 that the compiler also utilised detailed accounts of great prophets like ,elijah1 ,elisha1 and ,micaiah son of ,imlah1 which had been drawn up by literary students in the ,schools of the ,prophets4 ,the stories of prophets and men of ,god who are left unnamed were derived from oral traditions so old that the names had been forgotten before they had been committed to writing4#h #c4 ,the work of the compiler himself is easily traceable4 ,it is seen in the constantly recurring formul1 which come almost like the refrain of an epic poem1 at the accession and close of every reign4 ,they run normally as follows4 ,for the ,kings of ,judah3-- ,and in the 444 year of 444 ,king of ,israel reigned 444 over ,judah4 ,and 444 years he reigned in ,jerusalem4 ,and his mother's name was 444 the daughter of4444 ,and 444 did that which was right_/evil in the sight of the ,lord4 ,and 444 slept with his fathers1 and was buried with his fathers in the ,city of ,david his father4 ,and 444 his son reigned in his stead4 ,in the formul for the ,kings of ,israel slept with his fathers is omitted when the king was murdered2 and was buried with his fathers is omitted because there was no unbroken dynasty and no royal burial-place4 ,the prominent and frequent mention of the queen-mother is due to the fact that as ,gebira she held a far higher rank than the favourite wife4 #d4 ,to the compiler is also due the moral aspect given to the annals and other documents which he utilised4 ,something of this religious colouring he doubtless found in the prophetic histories which he consulted2 and the unity of aim visible throughout the book is due to the fact that his standpoint is identical with theirs4 ,thus1 in spite of its compilation from different sources1 the book bears the impress of one hand and of one mind4 ,sometimes a passing touch in an earlier narrative shows the work of an editor after the ,exile1 as when in the story of ,solomon 7#a ,kings iv4 #bj-bf7 we read1 ,and he had dominion over all the region on the other side of the river1 i4e41 west of the ,euphrates1 exactly as in ,ezra iv4 #aj4 ,here the rendering of the ,a4,v41 on this side the river1 is certainly inaccurate1 and is surprisingly retained in the ,r4,v4 also4#i #e4 ,to this high moral purpose everything else is subordinated4 ,like all his ,jewish contemporaries1 the writer attaches small importance to accurate chronological data4 ,he pays little attention to discrepancies1 and does not care in every instance to harmonise his own authorities4#aj ,some contradictions may be due to additions made in a later recension1#aa and some may have arisen from the introduction of marginal glosses1#ab or from corruptions of the text which 7apart from a miraculous supervision such as was not exercised7 might easily1 and indeed would inevitably1 occur in the constant transcription of numerical letters closely resembling each other4 ,the numbers as they have come down to us in the ,book of ,kings1 says ,canon ,rawlinson1 are untrustworthy1 being in part self-contradictory1 in part opposed to other ,scriptural notices1 in part improbable1 if not impossible4#ac #f4 ,the date of the book as it stands was after ,b4,c4 #edb1 for the last event mentioned in it is the mercy extended by ,evil-merodach1 ,king of ,babylon1 to his unfortunate prisoner ,jehoiachin 7#b ,kings xxv4 #bg7 in the thirty-seventh year of his captivity4 ,the language--later than that of ,isaiah1 and earlier than that of ,ezra--confirms this conclusion4 ,that the book appeared before ,b4,c4 #ecf is clear from the fact that the compiler makes no allusion to ,zerubbabel1 ,jeshua1 or the first exiles who returned to ,jerusalem after the decree of ,cyrus4 ,but it is generally agreed that the book was substantially complete before the ,exile 7about ,b4,c4 #fjj71 though some exilic additions may have been made by a later editor4#ad ,the writer was already removed by at least six hundred years from the days of ,samuel1 a space of time as long as that which separates us from the first ,parliament of ,edward ,i4 ,this date of the book--which cannot but have some bearing on its historic value--is admitted by all1 since the peculiarities of the language from the beginning to the end are marked by the usages of later ,hebrew4#ae ,the chronicler lived some two centuries later in about the same chronological relation to ,david as ,professor ,freeman stands to ,william ,rufus4#af #g4 ,criticism cannot furnish us with the name of this great compiler4#ag ,jewish tradition1 as preserved in the ,talmud1#ah assigned the ,books of ,kings to the prophet ,jeremiah1 and in the ,jewish canon they are reckoned among the earlier prophets4 ,this would account for the strange silence about ,jeremiah in the ,second ,book of ,kings1 whereas he is prominently mentioned in the ,book of ,chronicles1 in the ,apocrypha1 and in ,josephus4 ,but unless we accept the late and worthless ,jewish assertion that1 after being carried to ,egypt by ,johanan1 son of ,kareah 7,jer4 xlii4 #f1 #g71 ,jeremiah escaped to ,babylon1#ai he could not have been the author of the last section of the book 7#b ,kings xxv4 #bg-cj74bj ,yet it is precisely in the closing chapters of the second book 7in and after chap4 xvii47 that the resemblances to the style of ,jeremiah are most marked4#ba ,that the writer was a contemporary of that prophet1 was closely akin to him in his religious attitude1 and was filled with the same melancholy feelings1 is plain2 but this1 as recent critics have pointed out1 is due to the fact that both writers reflect the opinions and the phraseology which we find in the ,book of ,deuteronomy4 #h4 ,the critics who are so often charged with rash assumptions have been led to the conclusions which they adopt by intense and infinite labour1 including the examination of various books of ,scripture phrase by phrase1 and even word by word4 ,the sum total of their most important results as regards the ,books of ,kings is as follows3-- i4 ,the books are composed of older materials1 retouched1 sometimes expanded1 and set in a suitable framework1 mostly by a single author who writes throughout in the same characteristic phraseology1 and judges the actions and characters of the kings from the standpoint of later centuries4 ,the annals which he consulted1 and in part incorporated1 were twofold--prophetic and political4 ,the latter were probably drawn up for each reign by the official recorder 771 who held an important place in the courts of all the greatest kings 7#b ,sam4 viii4 #af1 xx4 #bd2 #a ,kings iv4 #c2 #b ,kings xviii4 #ah71 and whose duty it was to write the acts or words of the days of his sovereign 7 74 ii4 ,the compiler's work is partly of the nature of an epitome1#bb and partly consists of longer narratives1 of which we can sometimes trace the ,northern ,israelitish origin by peculiarities of form and expression4 iii4 ,the synchronisms which he gives between the reigns of the kings of ,israel and ,judah are computed by himself1 or by some redactor1 and only in round numbers4 iv4 ,the speeches1 prayers1 and prophecies introduced are perhaps based on tradition1 but1 since they reflect all the peculiarities of the compiler1 must owe their ultimate form to him4 ,this accounts for the fact that the earlier prophecies recorded in these books resemble the tone and style of ,jeremiah1 but do not resemble such ancient prophecies as those of ,amos and ,hoshea4 v4 ,the numbers which he adopts are sometimes so enormous as to be grossly improbable2 and in these1 as in some of the dates1 allowance must be made for possible errors of tradition and transcription4 vi4 ,deuteronomy1 says ,professor ,driver1 is the standard by which the compiler judges both men and actions2 and the history from the beginning of ,solomon's reign is presented1 not in a purely 'objective' form 7as e4g4 in #b ,sam4 ix4-xx471 but from the point of view of the ,deuteronomic code4#bc444 ,the principles which1 in his view1 the history as a whole is to exemplify1 are already expressed succinctly in the charge which he represents ,david as giving to his son ,solomon 7#a ,kings ii4 #c1 #d72 they are stated by him again in chap4 iii4 #ad1 and more distinctly in chap4 ix4 #a-i4 ,obedience to the ,deuteronomic law is the qualification for an approving verdict2 deviation from it is the source of ill success 7#a ,kings xi4 #i-ac1 xiv4 #g-aa1 xvi4 #b2 #b ,kings xvii4 #g-ah71 and the sure prelude to condemnation4 ,every king of the ,northern ,kingdom is characterised as doing 'that which was evil in the eyes of ,jehovah4' ,in the ,southern ,kingdom the exceptions are ,asa1 ,jehoshaphat1 ,jehoash1 ,amaziah1 ,uzziah1 ,jotham1 ,hezekiah1 ,josiah--usually1 however1 with the limitation that 'the high places were not removed' as demanded by the ,deuteronomic law4#bd ,the constantly recurring ,deuteronomic phrases which most directly illustrate the point of view from which the history is regarded are1 ',to keep the charge of ,jehovah'2 'to walk in the ways of ,jehovah'2 'to keep 7or execute7 ,his commandments1 or statutes1 and judgments'2 'to do that which is right in the eyes of ,jehovah'2 'to provoke ,jehovah to anger'2 'to cleave to ,jehovah4' ,if the reader will be at the pains of underlining in his text the phrases here cited 7and many others of which ,professor ,driver gives a list71 he will not only realise how numerous they are1 but also perceive how they seldom occur indiscriminately in the narrative as such1 but are generally aggregated in particular passages 7mostly comments on the history1 or speeches7 which are thereby distinguished from their context1 and shown to be presumably the work of a different hand4#be vii4 ,it must not be imagined that the late compilation of the book1 or its subsequent recensions1 or the dogmatic colouring which it may have insensibly derived from the religious systems and organisations of days subsequent to the ,exile1 have in the least affected the main historic veracity of the kingly annals4 ,they may have influenced the omissions and the moral estimates1 but the events themselves are in every case confirmed when we are able to compare them with any records and monuments of ,phnicia1 ,moab1 ,egypt1 ,assyria1 or ,babylon4 ,the discovery and deciphering of the ,moabite stone1 and of the painted vaunts of ,shishak at ,karnak1 and of the cuneiform inscriptions1 confirm in every case the general truth1 in some cases the minute details1 of the sacred historian4 ,in so passing an allusion as that in #b ,kings iii4 #af1 #ag the accuracy of the narrative is confirmed by the fact that 7as ,delitzsch has shown7 the method of obtaining water is that which is to this day employed in the ,wady el-,hasa at the southern end of the ,dead ,sea4#bf viii4 ,the ,book of ,kings consists1 according to ,stade1#bg of1 7a7 #a ,kings i41 ii41 the close of a history of ,david1 in continuation of #a and #b ,samuel4 ,the continuity of the ,scriptures is marked in an interesting way by the word and1 with which so many of the books begin4 ,the ,jews1 devout believers in the work of a ,divine ,providence1 saw no discontinuities in the course of national events4#bh 7b7 #a ,kings iii4-xi41 a conglomerate of notices about ,solomon1 grouped round chaps4 vi41 vii41 which narrate the building of the ,temple4 ,they are arranged by the pr-exilic compiler1 but not without later touches from the ,deuteronomic standpoint of a later editor 7e4g41 iii4 #b1 #c74 ,chap4 viii4 #ad-;ix4 #i also belong to the later editor4 7c7 #a ,kings xi4-#b ,kings xxiii4 #bi1 an epitome of the entire regal period of ,judah and ,israel1 after the three first reigns over the undivided kingdom1 compiled mainly before the ,exile4 7d7 #b ,kings xxiii4 #cj-xxv4 #cj1 a conclusion1 added1 in its present form1 after the ,exile4 ,two positions are maintained 7,a7 as regards the text1 and 7,b7 as regards the chronology4 ,a4 ,as regards the text no one will maintain the old false assertion that it has come down to us in a perfect condition4 ,there are in the history of the text three epochs3 #a1 ,the ,pr-,talmudic2 #b1 ,the ,talmudic-,massoretic up to the time when vowel-points were introduced2 #c1 ,the ,massoretic traditions of a later period4 ,the marginal annotations known as ,q'ri1 read 7plural1 ,qarjan71 consist of glosses and euphemisms which were used in the service of the synagogue in place of the written text 7,k'tib72 the oral tradition of these variations was known as the ,massora 7i4e41 tradition74 ,the ,greek version 7,septuagint1 ,,lxx471 which is of immense importance for the history of the text1 was begun in ,alexandria under ,ptolemy ,philadelphus 7,b4,c4 #bhc-bdg74 ,it presents many additions and variations in the ,books of ,kings4#cj ,all ,hebrew manuscripts1 as is well known1 are of comparatively recent date1 owing to the strict rule of the ,jewish ,schools that any manuscript which had in the slightest degree suffered from time or use was to be instantly destroyed4 ,the oldest ,hebrew manuscript is supposed to be the ,codex ,babylonicus at ,st4 ,petersburg 7,a4,d4 #iaf71 unless one recently discovered by ,dr4 ,ginsburg in the ,british ,museum be older4 ,most ,hebrew manuscripts are later than the twelfth century4 ,the variations in the ,samaritan ,pentateuch1 and in the ,septuagint version--the latter of which are often specially valuable as indications of the original text--furnish abundant proof that no miracle has been wrought to preserve the text of ,scripture from the changes and corruptions which always arise in the course of constant transcriptions4 ,a further and serious difficulty in the reproduction of events in their historic exactitude is introduced by the certainty that many books of the ,bible1 in their present form1 represent the results arrived at after their recension by successive editors1 some of whom lived many centuries after the events recorded4 ,in the ,books of ,kings we probably see many nuances which were not introduced till after the epoch-making discovery of the ,book of the ,law 7perhaps the essential parts of the ,book of ,deuteronomy7 in the reign of ,josiah1 ,b4,c4 #fba 7#b ,kings xxii4 #h-ad74 ,it is1 for instance1 impossible to declare with certainty what parts of the ,temple service were really coval with ,david and ,solomon1 and what parts had arisen in later days4 ,there appear to be liturgical touches1 or alterations as indicated by the variations of the text in #a ,kings viii4 #d1 #ab1 #ac4 ,in xviii4 #bi-cf the allusion to the ,minchah is absent from the ,,lxx4 in verse #cf1 and in #b ,kings iii4 #bj another reading is suggested4 ,b4 ,as regards the difficult question of ,chronology we need add but little to what has been elsewhere said4#ca ,even the most conservative critics admit that 7#a7 the numbers of the ,biblical text have often become corrupt or uncertain2 and 7#b7 that the ancient ,hebrews were careless on the subject of exact chronology4 ,the ,chronology of the ,kings1 as it now stands1 is historically true in its general outlines1 but in its details presents us with data which are mutually irreconcilable4 ,it is obviously artificial1 and is dominated by slight modifications of the round number #dj4cb ,thus from the ,exodus to the ,building of the ,temple is stated at #dhj years1 and from that period to the fiftieth year of the ,exile also at #dhj years4 ,in the ,chronicles there are eleven high priests from ,azariah ben-,ahimaaz to the ,exile of ,jozadak1 which1 with the ,exile period1 gives twelve generations of #dj years each4 ,again1 from ,rehoboam to the ,fall of ,samaria in the sixth year of ,hezekiah1 following the #dj years' reign of ,saul1 of ,david1 and of ,solomon1 we have3-- ,rehoboam1 ,abijah #bj years4 ,asa #da ,jehoshaphat1 ,jehoram #dj ,ahaziah1 ,athaliah ,joash #dj ,amaziah1 ,uzziah #ha ,jotham1 ,ahaz1 ,hezekiah #ch ,after the ,fall of ,samaria we have3-- ,hezekiah1 ,manasseh1 ,amon #hj and it can hardly be a mere accident that in these lists the number #dj is only modified by slight necessary details4 ,the history of the ,northern ,kingdom seems to be roughly trisected into #hj years before ,benhadad's first invasion1 #hj years of ,syrian war1 #dj years of prosperity under ,jeroboam ,,ii41 and #dj years of decline4#cc ,this is probably a result of chronological system1 not uninfluenced by mystical considerations4 ,for #dhj #dj #ab4 ,forty is repeatedly used as a sacred number in connexion with epochs of penitence and punishment4 ,twelve 7#d #c7 is1 according to ,bhr 7the chief student of numerical and other symbolism71 the signature of the people of ,israel--as a whole 7#d71 in the midst of which ,god 7#c7 resides4 ,similarly ,stade thinks that #af is the basal number for the reigns of kings from ,jehu to ,hoshea1 and #ab from ,jeroboam to ,jehu4#cd ,it is possible that the synchronistic data did not proceed from the compiler of the ,book of ,kings1 but were added by the last redactor4 ,are these critical conclusions so formidable8 ,are they fraught with disastrous consequences8 ,which is really dangerous--truth laboriously sought for1 or error accepted with unreasoning blindness and maintained with invincible prejudice8 ,,footnotes3 #d ,how closely these documents are transcribed is shown by the recurrence of unto this day1 though the phrase had long ceased to be true when the book appeared4 #e ,it is inferred from #a ,kings viii4 #ab1 #ac1 which have a poetic tinge1 and to which the ,,lxx4 add ,behold they are written in the ,book of the ,song1 that in this section the ,book of ,jashar has been utilised1 and that the reading has been confused with 7,driver1 p4 #ahb74 #f #b ,chron4 xx4 #cd1 ,r4,v41 ,the history of ,jehu1 the son of ,hanani1 which is inserted in the ,book of the ,kings of ,israel 7not who is mentioned1 ,a4,v41 which1 however1 gives in the margin the literal meaning was made to ascend74 #g ,movers1 ,krit4 ,untersuch41 p4 #ahe 7,bonn1 #ahcf74 ,the use of older documents explains the phrase till this day1 and the passages which speak of the ,temple as still standing 7#a ,kings viii4 #h1 ix4 #ba1 xii4 #ai2 #b ,kings x4 #bg1 xiii4 #bc74 ,sometimes the traces of earlier and later date are curiously juxtaposed1 as in #b ,kings xvii4 #ah1 #ba and #ai1 #bj4 #h ,difference of sources is marked by the different designations of the months1 which are called sometimes by their numbers1 as in the ,priestly ,codex 7#a ,kings xii4 #cb1 #cc71 sometimes by the old ,hebrew names ,zif 7blossom1 ,april1 ,may1 #a ,kings vi4 #a71 ,ethanim 7fruit1 ,sept41 ,oct41 #a ,kings viii4 #b71 and ,bul 7rain1 #a ,kings vi4 #ch74 #i 7compare 74 ,lit41 ,beyond the river1 i4e41 from the ,persian standpoint4 ,it becomes a fixed geographical phrase4 ,traces of the editor's hand occur in #a ,kings xiii4 #cb 7the cities of ,samaria72 #b ,kings xiii4 #bc 7as yet74 #aj ,comp4 #b ,kings viii4 #be with ix4 #bi4 #aa ,see #b ,kings xv4 #cj and #cc1 viii4 #be and ix4 #bi4 #ab ,as1 perhaps1 the clause ,in the thirty and first year of ,asa king of ,judah in #a ,kings xvi4 #bc2 and the much more serious in the #dhjth year after the children of ,israel were come out of the land of ,egypt1 which are omitted by ,origen 7comm4 in ,johannem1 ii4 #bj71 and create many difficulties4 ,the only narratives which critics have suggested as possible interpolations1 from the occurrence of unusual grammatical forms1 are #b ,kings viii4 #a-f and iv4 #a-cg 7in the story of ,elisha72 but these forms are perhaps northern provincialisms4 #ac ,speaker's ,commentary1 ii4 #dge4 ,instances will be found in #a ,kings xiv4 #ba1 xvi4 #bc1 #bi2 #b ,kings iii4 #a1 xiii4 #aj1 xv4 #a1 #cj1 #cc1 xiv4 #bc1 xvi4 #b1 xvii4 #a1 xviii4 #b4 #ad ,stade1 p4 #gi2 ,kalisch1 ,exodus1 p4 #die4 #ae ,see ,keil1 pp4 #i1 #aj4 #af ,r4 ,f4 ,horton1 ,inspiration1 p4 #hdc4 #ag ,he was not the author of the ,book of ,samuel1 for the standpoint and style are quite different4 ,in the ,first and ,second ,books of ,samuel the high places are never condemned1 as they are incessantly in ,kings 7#a ,kings iii4 #b1 xiii4 #cb1 xiv4 #bc1 xv4 #ad1 xxii4 #dc1 etc474 #ah ,baba ,bathra1 #ae a4 #ai ,seder ,olam ,rabba1 #bj4 #bj ,even then he would have been ninety years old4 #ba ,there are1 however1 some differences between #b ,kings xxv4 and ,jer4 lii4 7see ,keil1 p4 #ab71 though the manner is the same1 ,carpzov1 ,introd41 i4 #bfb-fd 7,hvernick1 ,einleit41 ii4 #aga74 ,jer4 li4 7verse #fd7 ends with ,thus far are the words of ,jeremiah1 excluding him from the authorship of chap4 lii4 7,driver1 ,introd41 p4 #aji74 ,the last chapter of ,jeremiah was perhaps added to his volume by a later editor4 #bb ,the ,old ,testament does not furnish a history of ,israel1 though it supplies the materials from which such a history can be constructed4 ,for example1 the narrative of ,kings gives but the merest outline of the events that preceded the fall of ,samaria4 ,to understand the inner history of the time we must fill up this outline with the aid of the prophets ,amos and ,hoshea4--,,robertson ,,smith',s ,preface to translation of ,wellhausen1 p4 vii4 #bc ,in der ,chronik1 on the other hand1 ist es der ,pentateuch1 d4h4 vor ,allem der ,priestercodex1 nach dessen ,muster die ,geschichte des alten ,israels dargestellt wird 7,wellhausen1 ,prolegom41 p4 #cji74 ,it has been said that the ,book of ,kings reflects the political and prophetic view1 and the ,book of ,chronicles the priestly view of ,jewish history4 ,it is about the ,pentateuch1 its date and composition1 that the battle of the ,higher ,criticism chiefly rages4 ,with that we are but indirectly concerned in considering the ,book of ,kings2 but it is noticeable that the ablest and most competent defender of the more conservative criticism1 ,professor ,james ,robertson1 ,d4,d41 both in his contribution to ,book by ,book and in his ,early ,religion of ,israel1 makes large concessions4 ,thus he says1 ,it is particularly to be noticed that in the ,book of the ,pentateuch itself the ,mosaic origin is not claimed 7,book by ,book1 p4 #e74 ,the anonymous character of all the historical writings of the ,old ,testament would lead us to conclude that the ancient ,hebrews had not the idea of literary property which we attach to authorship 7p4 #h74 ,it is long since the composite character of the ,pentateuch was observed 7p4 #i74 ,there may remain doubts as to when the various parts of the ,pentateuch were actually written down2 it may be admitted that the later writers wrote in the light of the events and circumstances of their own times 7p4 #af74 #bd ,driver1 p4 #ahi4 ,comp4 ,professor ,robertson ,smith3 ,the most notable feature in the extant redactions of the book is the strong interest shown in the ,deuteronomic law of ,moses1 and especially in the centralisation of worship in the ,temple on ,zion1 as pre-supposed in ,deuteronomy and enforced by ,josiah4 ,this interest did not exist in ancient ,israel1 and is quite foreign to the older memories incorporated in the book4 #be ,driver1 p4 #aib4 #bf ,delitzsch1 ,genesis1 #fth ed41 p4 #efg4 #bg ,geschichte des ,volkes ,israel1 i4 #gc4 #bh ,even the ,first ,book of ,maccabees begins with 4 #bi ,stade thinks that this is confirmed by viii4 #df-di4 #cj ,stade1 pp4 #cb ff4 ,thus1 in #a ,kings viii4 #ad-ec1 verses #ab1 #ac are in the ,septuagint placed after verse #ec1 are incomplete in the ,hebrew text1 and have a remarkable reading in the ,targum4 ,professor ,robertson ,smith infers that a ,deuteronomic insertion has misplaced them in one text1 and mutilated them in another4 ,the order of the ,,lxx4 differs in #a ,kings iv4 #ai-bg2 and it omits #a ,kings vi4 #aa-ad2 ix4 #ae-bf4 ,it transposes the story of ,naboth1 and omits the story of ,ahijah and ,abijah1 which is added from ,aquila's version to the ,alexandrian ,,ms4 ,see ,wellhausen-,bleek1 ,einleitung1 #aad1 #acd4 #ca ,see ,appendix on the ,chronology4 #cb ,see ,wellhausen1 ,prolegomena1 pp4 #bhe-hg2 ,robertson ,smith1 ,journ4 of ,philology1 x4 #bji-ac4 #cc ,encycl4 ,brit41 s4v4 ,kings 7,w4,r4,s474 #cd ,see ,stade1 i4 #hh-ii2 ,w4 ,r4 ,smith1 l4 c42 ,kreuz1 ,zeitschr4 f4 ,wiss4 ,theol41 #ahgg1 p4 #djd4 ,some of the dates1 as ,dr4 ,w4 ,r4 ,smith shows1 are traditional1 and are probably taken from ,temple records 7e4g41 the invasion of ,shishak1 and the change of the revenue system in the twenty-third year of ,joash74 ,taking these as data1 we have 7roughly7 #afj years to the twenty-third year of ,joash1 #afj to the death of ,hezekiah1 #afj years to the return from the ,exile #dhj4 ,he infers that the existing scheme was obtained by setting down a few fixed dates1 and filling up the intervals with figures in which #bj and #dj were the main units4 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,the ,,historian ,,of ,,the ,,kings4 ,the hearts of kings are in ,thy rule and governance1 and ,thou dost dispose and turn them as it seemeth best to ,thy godly wisdom4 ,were we to judge the compiler or epitomator of the ,book of ,kings from the literary standpoint of modern historians1 he would1 no doubt1 hold a very inferior place2 but so to judge him would be to take a mistaken view of his object1 and to test his merits and demerits by conditions which are entirely alien from the ideal of his contemporaries and the purpose which he had in view4 ,it is quite true that he does not even aim at fulfilling the requirements demanded of an ordinary secular historian4 ,he does not attempt to present any philosophical conception of the political events and complicated interrelations of the ,northern and ,southern ,kingdoms4 ,his method of writing the story of the ,kings of ,judah and ,israel in so many separate paragraphs gives a certain confusedness to the general picture4 ,it leads inevitably to the repetition of the same facts in the accounts of two reigns4 ,each king is judged from a single point of view1 and that not the point of view by which his own age was influenced1 but one arrived at in later centuries1 and under changed conditions1 religious and political4 ,there is no attempt to show that ,god fulfils ,himself in many ways1 ,lest one good custom should corrupt the world4 ,the military splendour or political ability of a king goes for nothing4 ,it has so little interest for the writer that a brilliant and powerful ruler like ,jeroboam ,,ii4 seems to excite in him as little interest as an effeminate weakling like ,ahaziah4 ,he passes over without notice events of such capital importance as the invasion of ,zerah the ,ethiopian 7#b ,chron4 xiv4 #i-ae1 xvi4 #h72 the wars of ,jehoshaphat against ,edom1 ,ammon1 and ,moab 7#b ,chron4 xx4 #a-be72 of ,uzziah against the ,philistines 7#b ,chron4 xxvi4 #f-h72 and of the ,assyrians against ,manasseh 7#b ,chron4 xxxiii4 #aa-ac74 ,he neither tells us that ,omri subdued ,moab1 nor that he was defeated by ,syria4 ,he scarcely more than mentions events of such deep interest as the conquest of ,jerusalem by ,shishak 7#a ,kings xiv4 #be1 #bf72 the war between ,abijam and ,jeroboam 7#a ,kings xv4 #g72 of ,amaziah with ,edom 7#b ,kings xiv4 #g72 or even the expedition of ,josiah against ,pharaoh-nechoh 7#b ,kings xxiii4 #bi74ce ,for these events he is content to relegate us to the best authorities which he used1 with the phrase and the rest of his acts1 his wars1 and all that he did4 ,the fact that ,omri was the founder of so powerful a dynasty that the ,kings of ,israel were known to ,assyria as the ,house of ,omri1 does not induce him to give more than a passing notice to that king4 ,it did not come within his province to record such memorable circumstances as that ,ahab fought with the ,araman host against ,assyria at the battle of ,karkar1 or that the bloodstained ,jehu had to send a large tribute to ,shalmaneser ,,ii4 ,there is a certain monotony in the grounds given for the moral judgments passed on each successive monarch4 ,one unchanging formula tells us of every one of the kings of ,israel that he did that which was evil in the sight of the ,lord1 with exclusive reference in most cases to the sins of ,jeroboam the son of ,nebat1 wherewith he made ,israel to sin4 ,the unfavourable remark about king after king of ,judah that nevertheless the high places were not taken away2 the people offered and burnt incense yet in the high places 7#a ,kings xv4 #ad1 xxii4 #dc2 #b ,kings xii4 #c1 xiv4 #d7 makes no allowance for the fact that high places dedicated to ,jehovah had been previously used unblamed by the greatest judges and seers1 and that the feeling against them had only entered into the national life in later days4 ,it belongs to the same essential view of history that the writer's attention is so largely occupied by the activity of the prophets1 whose personality often looms far more largely on his imagination than that of the kings4 ,if we were to remove from his pages all that he tells us of ,nathan1 ,ahijah of ,shiloh1 ,shemaiah1 ,jehu the son of ,hanani1 ,elijah1 ,elisha1 ,micaiah1 ,isaiah1 ,huldah1 ,jonah1 and various nameless men of ,god1#cf the residuum would be meagre indeed4 ,the silence as to ,jeremiah is a remarkable circumstance which no theory has explained2 but we must remember the small extent of the compiler's canvas1 and that1 even as it is1 we should have but a dim insight into the condition of the two kingdoms if we did not study also the extant writings of contemporary prophets4 ,his whole aim is to exhibit the course of events as so controlled by the ,divine ,hand that faithfulness to ,god ensured blessing1 and unfaithfulness brought down ,his displeasure and led to national decline4 ,so far from concealing this principle he states it1 again and again1 in the most formal manner4#cg ,these might be objections against the author if he had written his book in the spirit of an ordinary historian4 ,they cease to have any validity when we remember that he does not profess to offer us a secular history at all4 ,his aim and method have been described as prophetico-didactic4 ,he writes avowedly as one who believed in the ,theocracy4 ,his epitomes from the documents which he had before him were made with a definite religious purpose4 ,the importance or unimportance of kings in his eyes depended on their relation to the opinions which had come home to the conscience of the nation in the still recent reformation of ,josiah4 ,he strove to solve the moral problems of ,god's government as they presented themselves1 with much distress and perplexity1 to the mind of his nation in the days of its decadence and threatened obliteration4 ,and in virtue of his method of dealing with such themes1 he shares with the other historical writers of the ,old ,testament a right to be regarded as one of the ,prophet priores4#ch ,what were those problems8 ,they were the old problems respecting ,god's moral government of the world which always haunted the ,jewish mind1 complicated by the disappointment of national convictions about the promises of ,god to the race of ,abraham and the family of ,david4 ,the ,exile was already imminent--it had indeed partly begun in the deportation of ,jehoiakin and many ,jews to ,babylon 7,b4,c4 #eih7--when the book saw the light4 ,the writer was compelled to look back with tears on the days that were no more4 ,the epoch of ,israel's splendour and dominion seemed to have passed for ever4 ,and yet1 was not ,god the true ,governor of ,his people8 ,had ,he not chosen ,jacob for ,himself1 and ,israel for ,his own possession8 ,had not ,abraham received the promise that his seed should be as the sand of the sea1 and that in his seed should all the nations of the earth be blessed8 ,or was it a mere illusion that when ,israel was a child ,i loved him1 and out of ,egypt ,i called ,my son8 ,the writer clung with unquenchable faith to his convictions about the destinies of his people1 and yet every year seemed to render their fulfilment more distant and more impossible4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the promise to ,abraham had been renewed to ,isaac1 and to ,jacob1 and to the patriarchs2 but to ,david and his house it had been reiterated with special emphasis and fresh details4 ,that promise1 as it stood recorded in #b ,sam4 vii4 #ab-af1 was doubtless in the writer's hands4 ,the election of ,israel as ,god's people is a world-historic fact1 the fundamental miracle which no criticism can explain away4#ci ,and1 in addition1 ,god had sworn in ,his holiness that ,he would not forsake ,david4 ,when thy days be fulfilled1 ,he had said1 and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers1 ,i will set up thy seed after thee 444 and will establish his kingdom4 ,he shall build an house for ,my name1 and ,i will establish the throne of his kingdom for ever1 ,i will be his father1 and he shall be ,my son4 ,if he commit iniquity1 ,i will chastise him with the rod of men1 and with the stripes of the children of men4 ,but ,my mercy shall not depart from him1 as ,i took it from ,saul whom ,i put away before thee1 and thy house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee2 thy throne shall be established for ever4 ,this promise haunted the imagination of the compiler of the ,book of ,kings4 ,he repeatedly refers to it1 and it is so constantly present to his mind that his whole narrative seems to be a comment1 and often a perplexed and half-despairing comment1 upon it4#dj ,yet he resisted the assaults of despair4 ,the ,lord had made a faithful oath unto ,david1 and ,he would not depart from it4 ,it is this that makes him linger so lovingly on the glories of the reign of ,solomon4 ,at first they seem to inaugurate an era of overwhelming and permanent prosperity4 ,because ,solomon was the heir of ,david whom ,god had chosen1 his dominion is established without an effort in spite of a formidable conspiracy4 ,under his wise1 pacific rule the united kingdom springs to the zenith of its greatness4 ,the writer dwells with fond regret upon the glories of the ,temple1 the ,empire1 and the ,court of the wise king4 ,he records ,god's renewed promises to him that there should not be any among the kings like unto him all his days4 ,alas6 the splendid visions had faded away like an unsubstantial pageant4 ,glory had led to vice and corruption4 ,worldly policy carried apostasy in its train4 ,the sun of ,solomon set in darkness1 as the sun of ,david had set in decrepitude and blood4 ,and the ,lord was angry with ,solomon1 because his heart was turned from the ,lord ,god of ,israel1 who had appeared unto him twice3 444 but he kept not that which the ,lord commanded4 ,wherefore the ,lord said unto ,solomon1 ,forasmuch as this is done of thee1 and thou hast not kept ,my covenant1 444 ,i will surely rend the kingdom from thee4444 ,notwithstanding in thy day ,i will not do it for ,david thy father's sake4444 ,howbeit ,i will not rend away all the kingdom2 but will give one tribe to thy son1 for ,david ,my servant's sake1 and for ,jerusalem's sake which ,i have chosen4#da ,thus at one blow the heir of ,solomon in all his glory dwindles into the kinglet of a paltry little province not nearly so large as the smallest of ,english counties4 ,so insignificant1 in fact1 do the fortunes of the kingdom become1 that1 for long periods1 it has no history worth speaking of4 ,the historian is driven to occupy himself with the northern tribes because they are the scene of the activity of two glorious though widely different prophets4 ,from first to last we seem to hear in the prose of the annalist the cry of the troubled ,psalmist1 ,lord1 where are ,thy old loving-kindnesses which ,thou swarest unto ,david in ,thy truth8 ,remember1 ,lord1 the rebukes that ,thy servants have1 and how ,i do bear in my bosom the rebukes of many people wherewith thine enemies have blasphemed ,thee1 and slandered the footsteps of ,thine anointed4 ,and yet1 in spite of all1 with invincible confidence1 he adds1 ,praised be the ,lord for evermore4 ,amen and ,amen4 ,and this is one of the great lessons which we learn alike from ,scripture and from the experience of every holy and humble life4 ,it may be briefly summed up in the words1 ,put thou thy trust in ,god and be doing good1 and ,he shall bring it to pass4 ,in multitudes of forms the ,bible inculcates upon us the lesson1 ,have faith in ,god1 ,fear not2 only believe4 ,the paradox of the ,new ,testament is the existence of joy in the midst of sorrow and sighing1 of exultation 77 even amid the burning fiery furnaces of anguish and persecution4 ,the secret of both ,testaments alike is the power to maintain an unquenchable faith1 an unbroken peace1 an indomitable trust amid every complication of disaster and apparent overthrow4 ,the writer of the ,book of ,kings saw that ,god is patient1 because ,he is eternal2 that even the histories of nations1 not individual lives only1 are but as one ticking of a clock amid the eternal silence2 that ,god's ways are not man's ways4 ,and because this is so--because ,god sitteth above the water floods and remaineth a ,king for ever--therefore we can attain to that ultimate triumph of faith which consists in holding fast our profession1 not only amid all the waves and storms of calamity1 but even when we are brought face to face with that which wears the aspect of absolute and final failure4 ,the historian says in the name of his nation what the saint has so often to say in his own1 ,though ,he slay me1 yet will ,i trust in ,him4 ,amos1 earliest of the prophets whose written utterances have been preserved1 undazzled by the magnificent revival of the ,northern ,kingdom under ,jeroboam ,,ii41 was still convinced that the future lay with the poor fallen booth of ,david's royalty3 ,and ,i will raise up his ruins1 and ,i will build it as in the days of old1 444 saith the ,lord that doeth this4#db ,in many a dark age of ,jewish affliction this fire of conviction has still burned amid the ashes of national hopes after it had seemed to have flickered out under white heaps of chilly dust4#dc ,,footnotes3 #ce ,speaker's ,commentary1 ii4 #dgg4 #cf #a ,kings xiii4 #a-cb1 xx4 #ac-ae1 #bh1 #ce1 #db2 #b ,kings xxi4 #aj-ae4 #cg #b ,kings xvii4 #g-bc1 #cb1 #da1 xxiii4 #bf1 #bg4 #ch 4 ,the three greater and twelve minor prophets are called prophet posteriores 774 ,daniel is classed among the ,hagiographa 774 ,this title of former prophets was1 however1 given by the ,jews to the historic books from the mistaken fancy that they were all written by prophets4 #ci ,martensen1 ,dogmatics1 p4 #cfc4 #dj #b ,sam4 vii4 #ab-af2 #a ,kings xi4 #cf1 xv4 #d2 #b ,kings viii4 #ai1 xxv4 #bg-cj4 ,his object evidently was1 says ,professor ,robertson1 to exhibit the bloom and decay of the ,kingdom of ,israel1 and to trace the influences which marked its varying destiny4 ,he proceeds on the fixed idea that the promise given to ,david of a sure house remained in force during all the vicissitudes of the divided kingdom1 and was not even frustrated by the fall of the kingdom of ,judah4 #da #a ,kings xi4 #i-ac4 #db ,amos ix4 #aa1 #ab4 #dc ,psalm lxxxix4 #dh-ej4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,god ,,in ,,history4 ,the ,lord remaineth a ,king for ever4 ,had the compiler of the ,book of ,kings been so incompetent and valueless an historian as some critics have represented1 it would indeed have been strange that his book should have kindled so immortal an interest1 or have taken its place securely in the ,jewish canon among the most sacred books of the world4 ,he could not have secured this recognition without real and abiding merits4 ,his greatness appears by the manner in which he grapples with1 and is not crushed by1 the problems presented to him by the course of events to him so dismal4 #a4 ,he wrote after ,israel had long been scattered among the nations4 ,the sons of ,jacob had been deported into strange lands to be hopelessly lost and absorbed amid heathen peoples4 ,the district which had been assigned to the ,ten ,tribes after the conquest of ,joshua had been given over to an alien and mongrel population4 ,the worst anticipations of northern prophets like ,amos and ,hoshea had been terribly fulfilled4 ,the glory of ,samaria had been wiped out1 as when one wipeth a dish1 wiping and turning it upside down4 ,from the beginning of ,israel's separate dominion the prophets saw the germ of its final ruin in what is called the calf-worship of ,jeroboam1 which prepared the way for the ,baal-worship introduced by the ,house of ,omri4 ,in the two and a half centuries of ,samaria's existence the compiler of this history finds nothing of eternal interest except the activity of ,god's great messengers4 ,in the history of ,judah the better reigns of a ,jehoshaphat1 of a ,hezekiah1 of a ,josiah1 had shed a sunset gleam over the waning fortunes of the remnant of ,god's people4 ,hezekiah and ,josiah1 with whatever deflections1 had both ruled in the theocratic spirit4 ,they had both inaugurated reforms4 ,the reformation achieved by the latter was so sweeping and thorough as to kindle the hope that the deep wound inflicted on the nation by the manifold crimes of ,manasseh had been healed4 ,but it was not so4 ,the records of these two best kings end1 nevertheless1 in prophecies of doom4#dd ,the results of their reforming efforts proved to be partial and unsatisfactory4 ,a race of vassal weaklings succeeded4 ,jehoahaz was taken captive by the ,egyptians1 who set up ,jehoiakim as their puppet4 ,he submits to ,nebuchadnezzar1 attempts a weak revolt1 and is punished4 ,in the short reign of ,jehoiachin the captivity begins1 and the futile rebellion of ,zedekiah leads to the deportation of his people1 the burning of the ,holy ,city1 and the desecration of the ,temple4 ,it seemed as though the ruin of the olden hopes could not have been more absolute4 ,yet the historian will not abandon them4 ,clinging to ,god's promises with desperate and pathetic tenacity he gilds his last page1 as with one faint sunbeam struggling out of the stormy darkness of the exile1 by narrating how ,evil-merodach released ,jehoiachin from his long captivity1 and treated him with kindness1 and advanced him to the first rank among the vassal kings in the court of ,babylon4 ,if the ruler of ,judah must be a hopeless prisoner1 let him at least occupy among his fellow-prisoners a sad pre-eminence6 #b4 ,the historian has been blamed for the perpetual gloom which enwraps his narrative4 ,surely the criticism is unjust4 ,he did not invent his story4 ,he is no whit more gloomy than ,thucydides1 who had to record how the brief gleam of ,athenian glory sank in the ,bay of ,syracuse into a sea of blood4 ,he is not half so gloomy as ,tacitus1 who is forced to apologise for the hues of earthquake and eclipse which darken his every page4 ,the gloom lay in the events of which he desired to be the faithful recorder4 ,he certainly did not love gloom4 ,he lingers at disproportionate length over the grandeur of the reign of ,solomon1 dilating fondly upon every element of his magnificence1 and unwilling to tear himself away from the one period which realised his ideal expectations4 ,after that period his spirits sink4 ,he cared less to deal with a divided kingdom of which only the smallest fragment was even approximately faithful4 ,there could be nothing but gloom in the record of shortlived1 sanguinary1 and idolatrous dynasties1 which succeeded each other like the scenes of a grim phantasmagoria in ,samaria and ,jezreel4 ,there could be nothing but gloom in the story of that northern kingdom in which king after king was dogged to ruin by the politic unfaithfulness of the rebel by whom it had been founded4 ,nor could there be much real brightness in the story of humiliated ,judah4 ,there also many kings preferred a diplomatic worldliness to reliance on their true source of strength4 ,even in ,judah there were kings who defiled ,god's own temple with heathen abominations2 and a saint like ,hezekiah had been followed by an apostate like ,manasseh4 ,had ,judah been content to dwell in the defence of the ,most ,high and abide under the shadow of the ,almighty1 she would have been defended under ,his wings and been safe beneath ,his feathers2 ,his righteousness and truth would have been her shield and buckler4 ,he who protected her in the awful crisis of ,sennacherib's invasion had proved that ,he never faileth them that trust ,him4 ,but her kings had preferred to lean on such a bruised reed as ,egypt1 which broke under the weight1 and pierced the hand of all who relied on her assistance4 ,but ye said1 ,nay1 but we will flee upon horses2 therefore shall ye flee3 and1 ,we will ride upon the swift2 therefore shall they that pursue you be swift4#de #c4 ,and has not gloom been the normal characteristic of many a long period of human history8 ,it is with the life of nations as with the life of men4 ,with nations1 too1 there is a perpetual fading of all beauty into darkness1 and of all strength into dust4 ,humanity advances1 but it advances over the ruins of peoples and the wrecks of institutions4 ,truth forces its way into acceptance1 but its progress is from scaffold to scaffold1 and from stake to stake4 ,all who have generalised on the course of history have been forced to recognise its agonies and disappointments4 ,there1 says ,byron1 ,there is the moral of all human tales2 ',tis but the same rehearsal of the past2 ,first ,freedom1 and then ,glory--when that fails1 ,wealth1 ,vice1 ,corruption--,barbarism at last4 ,and ,history1 with all her volumes vast1 ,hath but one page3 'tis better written here ,where gorgeous tyranny hath thus amassed ,all treasures1 all delights that eye or ear1 ,heart1 soul could seek1 tongue ask4 ,mr4 ,j4 ,r4 ,lowell1 looking at the question from another side1 sings3-- ,careless seems the ,great ,avenger2 ,history's pages but record ,one death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt all systems and the ,word2 ,truth for ever on the scaffold1 ,wrong for ever on the throne-- ,yet that scaffold sways the ,future1 and behind the dim unknown ,standeth ,god within the shadow1 keeping watch above ,his own4 ,mr4 ,w4 ,h4 ,lecky1 again1 considering the facts of national story from the point of view of heredity1 and the permanent consequences of wrong-doing1 sings3-- ,the voice of the afflicted is rising to the sun1 ,the thousands who have perished for the selfishness of one2 ,the judgment-seat polluted1 the altar overthrown1 ,the sighing of the exile1 the tortured captive's groan1 ,the many crushed and plundered to gratify the few1 ,the hounds of hate pursuing the noble and the true4 ,or1 if we desire a prose authority1 can we deny this painful estimate of ,mr4 ,ruskin8--,truly it seems to me as ,i gather in my mind the evidence of insane religion1 degraded art1 merciless war1 sullen toil1 detestable pleasure1 and vain or vile hope in which the nations of the world have lived since first they could bear record of themselves1 it seems to me1 ,i say1 as if the race itself were still half serpent1 not extricated yet from its clay2 a lacertine brood of bitterness1 the glory of it emaciate with cruel hunger and blotted with venomous stain1 and the track of it on the leaf a glittering slime1 and in the sand a useless furrow4#df ,dark as is the story which the author of the ,book of ,kings has to record1 and hopeless as might seem to be the conclusion of the tragedy1 he is responsible for neither4 ,he can but tell the things that were1 and tell them as they were2 the picture is1 after all1 far less gloomy than that presented in many a great historic record4 ,consider the features of such an age as that recorded by ,tacitus1 with the ,iliad of woes of which he was the annalist4#dg ,does ,jewish history offer us nothing but this horrible monotony of delations and suicides8 ,consider the long ages of darkness and retrogression in the fifth and following centuries2 or the unutterable miseries inflicted on the seaboard of ,europe by the invasions of the ,norsemen--the mere thought of which drove ,charlemagne to tears2 or the long complicated agony produced by hundreds of petty feudal wars1 and the cruel tyranny of marauding barons2 or the condition of ,england in the middle of the fourteenth century when the ,black ,death swept away half of her population2 or the extreme misery of the masses after the ,thirty ,years' ,war2 or the desolating horror of the wars of ,napoleon which filled ,germany with homeless and starving orphans4 ,the annals of the ,hebrew monarchy are less grim than these2 yet the ,house of ,israel might also seem to have been chosen out for a pre-eminence of sorrow which ended in making ,jerusalem a rendezvous for the extermination of the race4 ,when once the ,jewish wars began-- ,vengeance6 thy fiery wing their race pursued1 ,thy thirsty poniard blushed with infant blood6 ,roused at thy call and panting still for game ,the bird of war1 the ,latin eagle came4 ,then ,judah raged1 by ruffian discord led1 ,drunk with the steamy carnage of the dead2 ,he saw his sons by dubious slaughter fall1 ,and war without1 and death within the wall4 ,probably no calamity since time began exceeded in horror and anguish the carnage and cannibalism and demoniac outbreak of every vile and furious passion which marked the siege of ,jerusalem2 and1 in the dreary ages which followed1 the world has heard rising from the ,jewish people the groan of myriads of broken hearts4 ,the fruits of the earth have lost their savour1 wrote one poor ,rabbi1 the son of ,gamaliel1 and no dew falls4 ,in the crowded ,ghettos of medival cities1 during the foul tyranny of the ,inquisition in ,spain1 and many a time throughout ,europe1 amid the iron oppression of ignorant and armed brutality1 the hapless ,jews have been forced to cry aloud to the ,god of their fathers3 ,thou feedest ,thy people with the bread of tears1 and givest them plenteousness of tears to drink6 ,thou sellest ,thy people for nought1 and givest no money for them4 ,when the eccentric ,frederic ,william ,i4 of ,prussia ordered his ,court chaplain to give him in one sentence a proof of ,christianity1 the chaplain answered without a moment's hesitation3 ,the ,jews1 your ,majesty4 ,truly it might seem that the fortunes of that strange people had been designed for a special lesson1 not to them only1 but to the whole human race2 and the general outlines of that lesson have never been more clearly and forcibly indicated than in the ,book of ,kings4 ,,footnotes3 #dd #b ,kings xx4 #af-ah1 xxii4 #af-bj4 #de ,isa4 xxx4 #af4 #df ,queen of the ,air1 p4 #hg4 #dg ,tac41 ,hist41 #a1 #b3 ,opus aggredior opimum casibus1 atrox prliis1 discors seditionibus1 ipsa etiam pace svum4 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,history ,,with ,a ,,purpose4 ,history1 as distinguished from chronicles or annals1 must always contain a theory whether confessed by the writer or not4 ,a sound theory is simply a general conception which co-ordinates a multitude of facts4 ,without this1 facts cease to have interest except to the antiquarian4--,,laurie4 ,the prejudice against history written with a purpose is a groundless prejudice4 ,herodotus1 ,thucydides1 ,livy1 ,sallust1 had each his guiding principle1 no less than ,ammianus ,marcellinus1 ,st4 ,augustine1 ,orosius1 ,bossuet1 ,montesquieu1 ,voltaire1 ,kant1 ,turgot1 ,condorcet1 ,hegel1 ,fichte1 and every modern historian worthy the name4 ,they have all1 as ,mr4 ,morley says1 felt the intellectual necessity for showing those secret dispositions of events which prepared the way for great changes1 as well as the momentous conjunctures which more immediately brought them to pass4 ,orosius1 founding his epitome on the hint given by ,st4 ,augustine in his ,de ,civitate ,dei1 begins with the famous words1 ,divina providentia agitur mundus et homo4 ,other serious writers may vary the formula1 but in all their annals the lesson is essentially the same4 ,the foundation upon which1 at all periods1 ,israel's sense of its national unity rested was religious in its character4 ,the history of ,israel1 says ,stade1 is essentially a history of religious ideas4#dh ,of course the history is rendered valueless if1 in pursuing his purpose1 the writer either falsifies events or intentionally manipulates them in such a way that they lead to false issues4 ,but the man who is not inspired by his subject1 the man to whom the history which he is narrating has no particular significance1 must be a man of dull imagination or cold affections4 ,no such man can write a true history at all4 ,for history is the record of what has happened to men in nations1 and its events are swayed by human passions1 and palpitate with human emotions4 ,there is no great historian who may not be charged with having been in some respects a partisan4 ,the ebb and flow of his narrative1 the to-and-fro-conflicting waves of the struggles which he records1 must be to him as idle as a dance of puppets if he feels no special interest in the chief actors1 and has not formed a distinct judgment of the sweep of the great unseen tidal forces by which they are determined and controlled4 ,the greatness of the sacred historian of the ,kings consists in his firm grasp of the principle that ,god is the controlling power and sin the disturbing force in the entire history of men and nations4 ,surely he does not stand alone in either conviction4 ,both propositions are confirmed by all experience4 ,in all life1 individual and national1 sin is weakness2 and human life without ,god1 whether isolated or corporate1 is no better than ,a trouble of ants 'mid a million million of suns4 ,why do the heathen so furiously rage together1 sang the ,psalmist1 and why do the people imagine a vain thing8444 ,he that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh them to scorn2 the ,lord shall have them in derision4 ,even the oldest of the ,greek poets1 in the first lines of the ,iliad1 declares that amid those scenes of carnage1 and the tragic fate of heroes1 ' 3-- ,achilles' wrath1 to ,greece the direful spring ,of woes unnumbered1 ,heavenly ,goddess sing2 ,that wrath which hurled to ,pluto's gloomy reign ,the souls of countless chiefs untimely slain2 ,whose limbs1 unburied on the naked shore1 ,devouring dogs and hungry vultures tore3 ,since great ,achilles and ,atreides strove1 ,such was the sovereign doom1 and such the will of ,jove6 ,in the ,odyssey the same conviction is repeated1 where ,odysseus says that it is the fate-fraught decree of ,zeus which stands by as arbiter1 when it is meant that miserable men should suffer many woes4#di ,the heathen1 too1 saw clearly that1 ,though the mills of ,god grind slowly1 ,yet they grind exceeding small2 and that1 alike for ,trojans and ,danaans1 the chariot-wheels of ,heaven roll onward to their destined goal4 ,such words express a belief in the hearts of pagans identical with that in the hearts of the early disciples when they exclaimed3 ,of a truth in this city against ,thy holy ,servant ,jesus1 whom ,thou didst anoint1 both ,herod and ,pontius ,pilate1 with the ,gentiles and the peoples of ,israel1 were gathered together1 to do whatsoever ,thy hand and ,thy counsel foreordained to come to pass4#ej ,the ever-present intensity of these convictions leads the historian of the ,kings to many shorter or longer homiletic excursuses1 in which he develops his main theme4 ,and if he inculcates his high faith in the form of speeches and other insertions which perhaps express his own views more distinctly than they could have been expressed by the earlier prophets and kings of ,judah1 he adopts a method which was common in past ages and has always been conceded to the greatest and most trustworthy of ancient historians4 ,,footnotes3 #dh ,wellhausen1 ,history of ,israel1 p4 #dcb2 ,stade1 ,gesch4 des ,volkes ,israel1 i41 p4 #ab2 ,robinson1 ,ancient ,history of ,israel1 p4 #ae4 #di ,od41 ix4 #ea1 #eb4 #ej ,acts iv4 #bg1 #bh4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,lessons ,,of ,,the ,,history4 ,great men are the inspired texts of that ,divine ,book of ,revelation of which a chapter is completed from epoch to epoch1 and by some named ,history4--,,carlyle4 ,thus history becomes one of the most precious books of ,god4 ,to speak vaguely of a stream of tendency not ourselves which makes for righteousness1 is to endow a stream of tendency with a moral sense4 ,philosophers may talk of dass unbekannte hhere ,wesen das wir ahnen2 but the great majority1 alike of the wisest and the humblest of mankind1 will give to that moral ,not-ourselves the name of ,god4 ,the truth was more simply and more religiously expressed by the ,american orator when he said that ,one with ,god is always in a majority1 and ,god is the only final public opinion4 ,only thus can we account for the fact that events apparently the most trivial have repeatedly been overruled to produce the most stupendous issues1 and opposition apparently the most overwhelming has been made to further the very ends which it most fiercely resisted4 ,the fierceness of man shall turn to ,thy praise1 and the fierceness of them shalt ,thou restrain4 ,st4 ,paul expresses his sense of this fact when he says1 ,not many wise after the flesh1 not many mighty1 not many noble1 are called3 but ,god chose the foolish things of the world1 and the weak things of the world1 and the base things of the world1 and the things that are despised did ,god choose1 and the things that are not1 that ,he might bring to nought the things that are3#ea and that because the foolishness of ,god is wiser than men1 and the weakness of ,god is stronger than men4#eb ,the most conspicuous instance of these laws in history is furnished by the victories of ,christianity4 ,it was against all probability that a faith not only despised but execrated--a faith whose crucified ,messiah kindled unmitigated contempt1 and its doctrine of the ,resurrection unmingled derision--a faith confined originally to a handful of ignorant peasants drawn from the dregs of a tenth-rate and subjugated people--should prevail over all the philosophy1 and genius1 and ridicule1 and authority of the world1 supported by the diadems of all-powerful ,csars and the swords of thirty legions4 ,it was against all probability that a faith which1 in the world's judgment1 was so abject1 should in so short a space of time achieve so complete a triumph1 not by aggressive force1 but by meek non-resistance1 and that it should win its way through armed antagonism by the sole powers of innocence and of martyrdom--not by might1 nor by power1 but by ,my ,spirit1 saith the ,lord of ,hosts4 ,but though the thoughtful ,israelite had no such glorious spectacle as this before him1 he saw something analogous to it4 ,the prophets had been careful to point out that no merit or superiority of its own had caused the people to be chosen by ,god from among the nations for the mighty functions for which it was destined1 and which it had already in part fulfilled4 ,and thou shalt answer before the ,lord thy ,god1 and say1 ,a ,syrian ready to perish was my father2 he went down to ,egypt1 and sojourned there1 few in number4#ec ,the chosen people could boast of no loftier ancestry than that they sprang from a fugitive from the land of ,ur1 whose descendants had sunk into a horde of miserable slaves in the hot valley of ,egypt4 ,yet from that degraded and sensuous serfdom ,god had led them into the wilderness through parted seas and thundering battles1 and had spoken to them at ,sinai in a voice so mighty that its echoes have rolled among the nations for evermore4 ,if through their sins and shortcomings they had once more been reduced to the rank of captive strangers in a strange land1 the historian knew that even then their lot was not so abject as it once had been4 ,they had at least heroic memories and an imperishable past4 ,he believed that though ,god's face was darkened to them1 the light of it was neither utterly nor finally withdrawn4 ,nothing could henceforth shake his trust that1 even when ,israel walked in the valley of the shadow of death1 ,god would still be with ,his people2 that ,he would love their souls out of the pit of destruction4#ed ,the vain-glorious efforts of the heathen were foredoomed to final impotence1 for ,god ruled the raging of the sea1 the noise of his waves1 and the madness of the people4 ,if this high faith seemed so often to lead only to frustrate hopes1 the historian saw the reason4 ,his philosophy of history reduced itself to the one rule that ,righteousness exalteth a nation1 but sin is the reproach of any people4 ,it is a sublime philosophy1 and no other is possible4 ,it might be written as the comment on every history in the world4 ,the prophets write it large1 and again and again1 as in letters of blood and fire4 ,upon their pages1 even from the days of ,balaam1 ,in outline dim and vast ,their mighty shadows cast ,the giant forms of ,empires on their way ,to ruin3 one by one ,they tower1 and they are gone6 ,balaam had uttered his denunciation on ,moab and ,amalek and the ,kenite4 ,amos hurled defiance on ,moab1 ,ammon1 and the ,philistines4 ,isaiah taunted ,egypt with her splendid impotence1 and had said of ,babylon3 ,how art thou fallen from heaven1 ,o ,lucifer1 son of the morning6 ,as the sphere of national life enlarged1 ,nahum had poured forth his exultant dirge over the falling greatness of ,assyria2 and ,ezekiel had painted the desolation which should come on glorious ,tyre4 ,these great prophets had read upon the palace-walls of the mightiest kingdoms the burning messages of doom1 because they knew that 7to quote the words of a living historian7 for every false word and unrighteous deed1 for cruelty and oppression1 for lust and vanity1 the price has to be paid at last4444 ,justice and truth alone endure and live4 ,injustice and falsehood may be long-lived1 but doomsday comes to them at last4 ,has the course of ages at all altered the incidence of these eternal laws8 ,do modern kingdoms offer any exceptions to the universal experience of the past8 ,look at ,spain4 ,corrupted by her own vast wealth1 by the confusion of religion with the indolent acceptance of lies which paraded themselves as catholic orthodoxy1 and by the fatal disseverance of religion from the moral law1 she has sunk into decrepitude4 ,read in the utter collapse and ruin of her great ,armada the inevitable ,nemesis on greed1 indolence1 and superstition4 ,look at modern ,france4 ,when the inflated bubble of her arrogance collapsed at ,sedan as with a touch1 two of her own writers1 certainly not prejudiced in favour of ,christian conclusions--,ernest ,renan and ,alexandre ,dumas1 fils--pointed independently to the causes of her ruin1 and found them in her irreligion and her debauchery4 ,the warnings which they addressed to their countrymen in that hour of humiliation1 on the sanctity of family life and the eternal obligations of national righteousness1 were identical with those addressed to the ,israelites of old by ,amos or ,isaiah4 ,the only difference was that the form in which they were uttered was modern and came with incomparably less of impassioned force4 ,the historian who1 six hundred years before ,christ1 saw so clearly1 and illustrated with such striking conciseness1 the laws of ,god's moral governance of the world stands far above the casual censure of those who judge him by a mistaken standard4 ,we owe him a debt of the deepest gratitude1 not only because he has preserved for us the national records which might otherwise have perished1 but far more because he has seen and pointed out their true significance4 ,imagine an ,english writer trying to give a sketch of ,english history since the death of ,henry ,,vi4 in a thin volume of sixty or seventy octavo pages6 ,is it conceivable that even the most gifted and brilliant of our historians could in so short a space have rendered such a service as this sacred historian has rendered to all mankind8 ,do we owe nothing to the vivid insight which enabled him to set so many characters clearly before us with a few strokes of the pen8 ,it is true that it is the history which is inspired rather than the record of the history2 but the record itself is of quite exceptional value4 ,it is true that the prophetic historian and the scientific historian must be judged by wholly different canons of criticism2 but may not the prophetic historian be much the greater of the two8 ,by the light of his histories we can read all histories1 and see the common lesson taught us by the life of nations1 as by the life of individuals--which is1 that obedience to ,god's law is the only path of safety1 the only condition of permanence4 ,to fear ,god and keep ,his commandments is the end of the matter1 and is the whole duty of man4 ,to one who follows the guiding clue of these convictions history becomes ,providence made visible4 ,bossuet1 like ,st4 ,augustine1 found the key to all events in a ,divine ,will controlling and overruling the course of human destinies by a constant exercise of superhuman power4 ,even ,comte ascribed a hardly less resistible power to a ,providence of his own construction1 directing present events along a groove cut ever more and more deeply for them by the past4 ,and ,mr4 ,john ,morley admits that whether you accept ,bossuet's theory or ,comte's--whether men be their own ,providence1 or no more than instruments or secondary agents in other hands--this classification of either ,providence equally deserves study and meditation4 ,thus1 though the ,jews were a small and insignificant people--though their kings were mere local sheykhs in comparison with the ,pharaohs1 or the kings of ,assyria and ,babylon2 though they had none of that sense of beauty which gave immortality to the arts of ,greece2 though their temple was an altogether trivial structure when compared with the ,parthenon or the ,serapeum2 though they had no drama which can be distantly compared with the ,oresteia of schylus1 and no epic which can be put beside the ,iliad or the ,nibelungen2 though they had nothing which can be dignified with the name of a system of ,philosophy--yet their influence on the human race--rendered permanent by their literature1 or by that fragment of it which we call ,the ,books as though there were none other in the world worth speaking of--has been more powerful than that of all nations upon the development of humanity4 ,millions have known the names of ,david or ,isaiah1 who never so much as heard of ,sesostris or of ,plato4 ,the influence of the ,hebrew race upon mankind has been a moral and a religious influence4 ,leaving ,christianity out of sight--though ,christianity itself was nursed in the cradle of ,judaism1 and was the fulfilment of the ,messianic idea which was the most characteristic element in the ancient religion of the ,hebrews--the history of ,israel is more widely known a million-fold than any history of any people4 ,professor ,huxley is an unsuspected witness to this truth4 ,he has declared that he knows of no other work in the world by the study of which children could be so much humanised1 and made to feel that each figure in that vast historical procession fills1 like themselves1 but a momentary space in the interval between the two eternities4 ,what other nation has contributed to the treasure of human thought elements so immeasurably important as the idea of monotheism1 and the ,ten ,commandments1 and the high spiritual teaching by which the prophets brought home to the consciousness of our race the nearness1 the holiness1 and the love of ,god8 ,we do not underrate the value of ,eternal ,inspiration in the richly-variegated wisdom which multifariously and fragmentarily the ,creator has vouchsafed to man2 but the ,jews will ever be the most interesting of nations1 chiefly because to them were entrusted the oracles of ,god4#ee ,,footnotes3 #ea #a ,cor4 i4 #bf-bh4 #eb ,id41 v4 #be4 #ec ,deut4 xxvi4 #e4 #ed ,isa4 xxxviii4 #ag 7,heb474 #ee ,see ,stade1 i4 #a-h4 ,,book ,,ii4 ,,david ,,and ,,solomon4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,david',s ,,decrepitude4 #a ,,kings i4 #a-d4 ,praise a fair day at night4 ,the old age of good men is often a beautiful spectacle4 ,they show us the example of a mellower wisdom1 a larger tolerance1 a sweeter temper1 a more unselfish sympathy1 a clearer faith4 ,the setting sun of their bright day tinges even the clouds which gather round it with softer and more lovely hues4 ,we cannot say this of ,david's age4 ,after the oppressive splendour of his heroic youth and manhood there was no dewy twilight of honoured peace4 ,we see him in a somewhat pitiable decrepitude4 ,he was not really old2 the expression of our ,authorised ,version1 stricken in years1 is literally entered into days1 but the ,book of ,chronicles calls him old and full of days4#ef ,josephus says that when he died he was only seventy years old4 ,he had reigned seven years and a half in ,hebron and thirty-three years in ,jerusalem4#eg ,at the age of seventy many men are still in full vigour of strength and intellect1 but the conditions of that day were not favourable to longevity4 ,solomon does not seem to have survived his sixtieth year2 and it is doubtful whether any one of the kings of ,israel or ,judah--excepting1 strange to say1 the wicked ,manasseh--attained even that moderate age4 ,threescore years and ten have always been the allotted space of human life1 and few who long survive that age find that their strength then is anything but labour and sorrow4 ,but the decrepitude of ,david was exceptional4 ,he was drained of all his vital force4 ,he took to his bed1 but though they heaped clothes upon him he could get no warmth4 ,he remained cold amid the torrid heat of ,jerusalem4 ,then his physicians recommended the only remedy they knew1 to give heat to his chilled and withered frame4 ,it was the primitive and not ineffectual remedy--which was suggested twenty-two centuries later to the great ,frederic ,barbarossa--of contact with the warmth of a youthful frame4#eh ,so they sought out the fairest virgin in all the coasts of ,israel to act as the king's nurse1 and their choice fell on ,abishag1 a maiden of ,shunem in ,issachar4#ei ,there was no question of his taking another wife4 ,he had already many wives and concubines1 and what the bed-ridden invalid required was a strong and youthful nurse to cherish him4 ,we are surprised at such total failure of life's forces4 ,but ,david had lived through a youth of toil and exposure1 of fight and hardship1 in the days when his only home had been the dark and dripping limestone caves1 and he had been hunted like a partridge on the mountains by the furious jealousy of ,saul4 ,the sun had smitten him by day and the moon by night1 and the chill dews had fallen on him in the midnight bivouacs among the crags of ,engedi4 ,then had followed the burdens and cares of royalty with guilty anxieties and deeds which shook his pulses with wrath and fear4 ,coincident with these were the demoralising luxuries and domestic sensualism of a polygamous palace4 ,worst of all1 he had sinned against ,god1 and against light1 and against his own conscience4 ,for a time his moral sense had slumbered1 and retribution had been delayed4 ,but when he awoke from his sensual dream1 the belated punishment burst over him in thunder and his conscience with outstretched finger and tones of menace must often have repeated to the murderous adulterer the doom of ,nathan and the stern sentence1 ,thou art the man6 ,many a vulgar ,eastern tyrant would hardly have regarded ,david's sin as a sin at all2 but when such a man as ,david sins1 the fact that he has been admitted into a holier sanctuary adds deadliness to the guilt of his sacrilege4 ,true he was forgiven1 but he must have found it terribly hard to forgive himself4 ,god gave back to him the clean heart1 and renewed a right spirit within him2 but the sense of forgiveness differs from the sweetness of innocence1 and the remission of his sins did not bring with it the remission of their consequences4 ,from that disastrous day ,david was a changed man4 ,it might be said of him as of the ,fallen ,spirit3-- ,his face ,deep scars of thunder had entrenched1 and care ,sat on his faded cheek4 ,the ,nemesis of sin's normal consequences pursued him to the end4 ,dark spirits walked in his house4 ,joab knew his guilty secrets1 and ,joab became the tyrannous master of his destiny4 ,those guilty secrets leaked out1 and he lost his charm1 his influence1 his popularity among his subjects4 ,he was haunted by an ever-present sense of shame and humiliation4 ,joab was a murderer1 and went unpunished2 but was not he too an unpunished murderer8 ,if his enemies cursed him1 he sometimes felt with a sense of despair1 ,let them curse4 ,god hath said unto them1 ,curse ,david4 ,his past carried with it the inevitable deterioration of his present4 ,in the overwhelming shame and horror which rent his heart during the rebellion of ,absalom1 he must often have felt tempted to the fatalism of desperation1 like that guilty king of ,greek tragedy who1 burdened with the curse of his race1 was forced to exclaim1-- ' ' 1 1 4#fj ,curses in his family1 a curse upon his daughter1 a curse upon his sons1 a curse upon himself1 a curse upon his people1--there was scarcely one ingredient in the cup of human woe which1 in consequence of his own crimes1 this unhappy king had not been forced to taste4 ,scourges of war1 famine1 and pestilence--of a three years' famine1 of a three years' flight before his enemies1 of a three days' pestilence--he had known them all4 ,he had suffered with the sufferings of his subjects1 whose trials had been aggravated by his own transgressions4 ,he had seen his sons following his own fatal example1 and he had felt the worst of all sufferings in the serpent's tooth of filial ingratitude agonising a troubled heart and a weakened will4 ,it is no wonder that ,david became decrepit before his time4 ,yet what a picture does he present of the vanity of human wishes1 of the emptiness of all that men desire1 of the truth which ,solon impressed on the ,lydian king that we can call no man happy before his death6 ,david's youth had been a pastoral idyll2 his manhood an epic of war and chivalry2 his premature age becomes the chronicle of a nursery4 ,what different pictures are presented to us by ,david in his sweet youth and glowing bloom1 and ,david in his unloved and disgraced decline6 ,we have seen him a beautiful ruddy boy1 summoned from his sheepfolds1 with the wind of the desert on his cheek and its sunlight in his hair1 to kneel before the aged prophet and feel the hands of consecration laid upon his head4 ,swift and strong1 his feet like hart's feet1 his arms able to bend a bow of steel1 he fights like a good shepherd for his flock1 and single-handed smites the lion and the bear4 ,his harp and song drive the evil spirit from the tortured soul of the demoniac king4 ,with a sling and a stone the boy slays the giant champion1 and the maidens of ,israel praise their deliverer with songs and dances4 ,he becomes the armour-bearer of the king1 the beloved comrade of the king's son1 the husband of the king's daughter4 ,then indeed he is driven into imperilled outlawry by the king's envy1 and becomes the captain of a band of freebooters2 but his influence over them1 as in our ,english legends of ,robin ,hood1 gives something of beneficence to his lawlessness1 and even these wandering years of brigandage are brightened by tales of his splendid magnanimity4 ,the young chieftain who had mingled a loyal tenderness and genial humour with all his wild adventures--who had so generously and almost playfully spared the life of ,saul his enemy--who had protected the flocks and fields of the churlish ,nabal--who1 with the chivalry of a ,sydney1 had poured on the ground the bright drops of water from the ,well of ,bethlehem for which he had thirsted1 because they had been won by imperilled lives--sprang naturally into the idolised hero and poet of his people4 ,then ,god had taken him from the sheepfolds1 from following the ewes great with young ones1 that he might lead ,jacob ,his people and ,israel ,his inheritance4 ,generous to the sad memories of ,saul and ,jonathan1 generous to the princely ,abner1 generous to the weak ,ishbosheth1 generous to poor lame ,mephibosheth1 he had knit all hearts like the heart of one man to himself1 and in successful war had carried all before him1 north and south1 and east and west4 ,he enlarged the borders of his kingdom1 captured the ,city of ,waters1 and placed the ,moloch-crown of ,rabbah on his head4 ,then in the mid-flush of his prosperity1 in his pride1 fulness of bread1 and abundance of idleness1 the tempting opportunity met the susceptible disposition1 and ,david forgat ,god who had done so great things for him4 ,the people must have felt how deep was the debt of gratitude which they owed to him4 ,he had given them a consciousness of power yet undeveloped2 a sense of the unity of their national life perpetuated by the possession of a capital which has been famous to all succeeding ages4 ,to ,david the nation owed the conquest of the stronghold of ,jebus1 and they would feel that as the hills stand about ,jerusalem so standeth the ,lord round about them that fear ,him4#fa ,the king who associates his name with a national capital--as ,nebuchadnezzar built great ,babylon1 or ,constantine chose ,byzantium--secures the strongest claim to immortality4 ,but the choice made by ,david for his capital showed an intuition as keen as that which has immortalised the fame of the ,macedonian conqueror in the name of ,alexandria4 ,jerusalem is a city which belongs to all time1 and even under the curse of ,turkish rule it has not lost its undying interest4 ,but ,david had rendered a still higher service in giving stability to the national religion4 ,the prestige of the ,ark had been destroyed in the overwhelming defeat of ,israel by the ,philistines at ,aphek1 when it fell into the hands of the uncircumcised4 ,after that it had been neglected and half forgotten until ,david brought it with songs and dances to ,god's holy hill of ,zion4 ,since then every pious ,israelite might rejoice that1 as in the ,tabernacle of old1 ,god was once more in the midst of ,his people4 ,the merely superstitious might only regard the ,ark as a fetish--the fated ,palladium of the national existence4 ,but to all thoughtful men the presence of the ,ark had a deeper meaning1 for it enshrined the ,tables of the ,moral ,law2 and those broken ,tables1 and the bending ,cherubim which gazed down upon them1 and the blood-sprinkled gold of the ,mercy-,seat were a vivid emblem that ,god's ,will is the ,rule of ,righteousness1 and that if it be broken the soul must be reconciled to ,him by repentance and forgiveness4 ,that meaning is beautifully brought out in the ,psalm which says1 ,who shall ascend into the hill of the ,lord1 or who shall rise up into the holy place8 ,even he that hath clean hands and a pure heart3 who hath not lifted up his mind unto vanity1 nor sworn to deceive his neighbour4 ,to ,david more than to any man that conviction of the supremacy of righteousness must have been keenly present1 and for this reason his sin was the less pardonable4 ,it tore down the altar of confidence in many hearts4 ,it caused the enemies of the ,lord to blaspheme1 and was therefore worthy of a sorer punishment4 ,and ,god in ,his mercy smote1 and did not spare4 ,he sinned3 then came earthquake and eclipse4 ,his earthly life was shipwrecked in that place where two seas meet--where the sea of calamity meets the sea of crime4#fb ,then followed the death of his infant child2 the outrage of ,amnon2 the blood of the brutal ravisher shed by his brother's hands2 the flight of ,absalom2 his insolence1 his rebellion1 his deadly insult to his father's household2 the long day of flight and shame and weeping and curses1 as ,david ascended the slope of ,olivet and went down into the ,valley of ,jordan2 the sanguinary battle2 the cruel murder of the beloved rebel2 the insolence of ,joab2 the heartrending cry1 ,o ,absalom1 my son1 my son ,absalom2 would ,god ,i had died for thee1 ,o ,absalom1 my son1 my son6 ,not even then had ,david's trials ended4 ,he had to endure the fierce quarrel between ,israel and ,judah2 the rebellion of ,sheba2 the murder of ,amasa1 which he dared not punish4 ,he had to sink into the further sin of pride in numbering the people1 and to see the ,angel of the ,plague standing with drawn sword over the threshing-floor of ,araunah1 while his people--those sheep who had not offended--died around him by thousands4 ,after such a life he was made to feel that it was not for blood-stained hands like his to rear the ,temple1 though he had said1 ,i will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eyelids to slumber1 neither the temples of my head to take any rest till ,i find a place for the tabernacle of the ,lord1 a habitation for the mighty ,god of ,jacob4 ,and now we see him surrounded by intrigues2 alienated from the friends and advisers of his youth2 shivering in his sick-room2 attended by his nurse2 feeble1 apathetic1 the ghost and wreck of all that he held been1 with little left him of his life but its glimmerings and decays4 ,it is an oft-repeated story4 ,even so we see great ,darius ,deserted at his utmost need ,by those his former bounty fed2 ,on the bare ground exposed he lies ,without a friend to close his eyes4 ,so we see glorious ,alexander the ,great1 dying as a fool dieth1 remorseful1 drunken1 disappointed1 at ,babylon4 ,so we see our great ,plantagenet3-- ,mighty victor1 mighty lord1 ,low on his funeral couch he lies6 ,no pitying heart1 no eye afford ,a tear to grace his obsequies4 ,so we see ,louis ,,xiv41 le grand monarque1 peevish1 ennuy1 fortunate no longer1 an old man of seventy-seven left in his vast lonely palace with his great-grandson1 a frivolous child of five1 and saying to him1 ,j'ai trop aime la guerre2 ne m'imitez point4 ,so we see the last great conqueror of modern times1 embittering his dishonoured island-exile by miserable disputes with ,sir ,hudson ,lowe about etiquette and champagne4 ,but among all the sad stories of the deaths of kings none ends a purer glory with a more pitiful decline than the poet-king of ,israel1 whose songs have been to so many thousands their delight in the house of their pilgrimage4 ,truly ,david's experience no less than his own may have added bitterness to the traditional epitaph of his son on all human glory3 ,vanity of vanities1 saith the ,preacher1 vanity of vanities2 all is vanity4 ,,footnotes3 #ef #a ,chron4 xxiii4 #a4 #eg #b ,sam4 v4 #e4 #eh ,it is mentioned by ,galen1 vii42 ,valesius1 ,de ,sacr4 ,philos41 xxix41 p4 #ahg2 ,bacon1 ,hist4 ,vit et ,mortis1 ix4 #be2 ,reinhard1 ,bibel-,krankheiten1 p4 #aga4 ,see ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,vii4 xv4 #c4 #ei ,now ,solam1 near ,zerin 7,jezreel71 five miles south of ,tabor 7,robinson1 ,researches1 iii4 #dfb71 on the south-west of ,jebel el-,duhy 7,little ,hermon71 ,josh4 xix4 #ah2 #a ,sam4 xxviii4 #d4 #fj sch41 ,sept4 c4 ,theb41 #fij4 #fa ,see ,psalm cxxii4 #c-e4 #fb ,see ,kittel1 ii4 #adg4 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,an ,,eastern ,,court ,,and ,,home4 #a ,,kings i4 ,pride1 fulness of bread1 and abundance of idleness4--,,ezek4 xvi4 #di4 ,a man does not choose his own destiny2 it is ordained for higher ends than his own personal happiness4 ,if ,david could have made his choice1 he might1 indeed1 have been dazzled by the glittering lure of royalty2 yet he would have been in all probability happier and nobler had he never risen above the simple life of his forefathers4 ,our saintly king in ,shakespeare's tragedy says3-- ,my crown is in my heart1 not on my head2 ,not decked with diamonds and ,indian stones1 ,nor to be seen4 ,my crown is called ,content2 ,and crown it is which seldom kings enjoy4 ,david assuredly did not enjoy that crown4 ,after his establishment at ,jerusalem it is doubtful whether he could count more happy days than ,abderrahman the ,magnificent1 who recorded that amid a life honoured in peace and victorious in war he could not number more than fourteen4 ,we admire the generous freebooter more than we admire the powerful king4 ,as time went on he showed a certain deterioration of character1 the inevitable result of the unnatural conditions to which he had succumbed4 ,saul was a king of a very simple type4 ,no pompous ceremonials separated him from the simple intercourse of natural kindliness4 ,he did not tower over the friends of his youth like a ,colossus1 and look down on his superiors from the artificial elevation of his inch-high dignity4 ,in himself was all his state1 and there was something kinglier in his simple majesty when he stood under his pomegranate at ,migron1 with his huge javelin in his hand1 than in ,the tedious pomp which waits ,on princes1 when their rich retinue long ,of horses led1 and grooms besmeared with gold ,dazzles the crowd1 and sets them all agape4 ,we should not have assumed beforehand that there was anything in ,david's character which rendered external pomp and ceremony attractive to him4 ,but the inherent flunkeyism of ,eastern servility made his courtiers feed him with adulation1 and approach him with genuflexions4 ,apparently he could not rise superior to the slowly corrupting influences of autocracy which gradually assimilated the court of the once simple warrior to that of his vulgar compeers on the neighbouring thrones4 ,there is something startling to see what a chasm royalty has cleft between him and the comrades of his adversity1 and even the partner of his guilt who had become his favourite queen4 ,we see it throughout the story of the last scenes in which he plays a part4 ,he can only be addressed with periphrases and in the third person4 ,let there be sought for my lord the king a young virgin2 and let her stand before the king1 and let her lie in thy bosom1 that my lord the king may get heat4 ,bathsheba can only speak to him in such terms as1 ,didst not thou1 my lord1 ,o king1 swear unto thy handmaid8 and even she1 when she enters the sick-chamber of his decrepitude1 prostrates herself and does obeisance4 ,every other word of her speech is interlarded with my lord the king1 and my lord1 ,o king2 and when she leaves the presence she again bows herself with her face to the earth1 and does reverence to the king#fc with the words1 ,may my lord1 ,king ,david1 live for ever4 ,the anointed dignity of the prophet who had once so boldly rebuked ,david's worst crime does not exempt him from the same ceremonial1 and he too goes into the inner chamber bowing his face before the king to the earth4 ,insensibly ,david must have come to require it all1 and to like it4 ,yet the unsophisticated instincts of his more natural youth would surely have revolted from it4 ,he would have deprecated it as sternly as the ,greek conqueror in the mighty tragedy who hates to walk to his throne on purple tapestries1 and says to his queen3-- ,ope not the mouth to me1 nor cry amain ,as at the footstool of a man of the ,east1 ,prone on the ground3 so stoop not thou to me2 or1 as another has more literally rendered it3-- ,nor like some barbarous man ,gape thou upon me an earth-grovelling howl4#fd ,but the royal position of ,david brought with it a surer curse than that which follows the extreme exaltation of a man above his fellows4 ,it brought with it the permitted luxury of imaginary necessity for polygamy1 and the man-enervating1 woman-degrading paraphernalia of an ,eastern harem4 ,jesse and ,boaz1 in their paternal fields at ,bethlehem1 had been content with one wife1 and had known the true joys of love and home4 ,but monogamy was thought unsuitable to the new grandeur of a despot1 and under the curse of polygamy the joy of love1 the peace of home1 are inevitably blighted4 ,in that condition man gives up the sweetest sources of earthly blessing for the meanest gratifications of animal sensuousness4 ,love1 when it is pure and true1 gilds the life of man with a joy of heaven1 and fills it with a breath of ,paradise4 ,it renders life more perfect and more noble by the union of two souls1 and fulfils the original purpose of creation4 ,a home1 blessed by life's most natural sanctities1 becomes a saving ark in days of storm4 ,here ,love his golden shafts employs1 here lights ,his constant lamp1 and waves his purple wings1 ,reigns here and revels4 ,but in a polygamous household a home is exchanged for a troubled establishment1 and love is carnalised into a jaded appetite4 ,the ,eastern king becomes the slave of every wandering fancy1 and can hardly fail to be a despiser of womanhood1 which he sees only on its ignoblest side4 ,his home is liable to be torn by mutual jealousies and subterranean intrigues1 and many a foul and midnight murder has marked1 and still marks1 the secret history of ,eastern seraglios4 ,the women--idle1 ignorant1 uneducated1 degraded1 intriguing--with nothing to think of but gossip1 scandal1 spite1 and animal passion2 hating each other worst of all1 and each engaged in the fierce attempt to reign supreme in the affection which she cannot monopolise--spend wasted lives of ennui and slavish degradation4 ,eunuchs1 the vilest products of the most corrupted civilisation1 soon make their loathly appearance in such courts1 and add the element of morbid and rancorous effeminacy to the general ferment of corruption4 ,polygamy1 as it is a contravention of ,god's original design1 enfeebles the man1 degrades the woman1 corrupts the slave1 and destroys the home4 ,david introduced it into the ,southern ,kingdom1 and ,ahab into the ,northern2--both with the most calamitous effects4 ,polygamy produces results worse than all the others upon the children born in such families4 ,murderous rivalry often reigns between them1 and fraternal affection is almost unknown4 ,the children inherit the blood of deteriorated mothers1 and the sons of different wives burn with the mutual animosities of the harem1 under whose shadowing influence they have been brought up4 ,when ,napoleon was asked the greatest need of ,france1 he answered in the one laconic word1 ,mothers2 and when he was asked the best training ground for recruits1 he said1 ,the nurseries1 of course4 ,much of the manhood of the ,east shows the taint and blight which it has inherited from such mothers and such nurseries as seraglios alone can form4 ,the darkest elements of a polygamous household showed themselves in the unhappy family of ,david4 ,the children of the various wives and concubines saw but little of their father during their childish years4 ,david could only give them a scanty and much-divided attention when they were brought to him to display their beauty4 ,they grew up as children1 the spoiled and petted playthings of women and debased attendants1 with nothing to curb their rebellious passions or check their imperious wills4 ,the little influence over them which ,david exercised was unhappily not for good4 ,he was a man of tender affections4 ,he repeated the errors of which he might have been warned by the effects of foolish indulgence on ,hophni and ,phinehas1 the sons of ,eli1 and even on the sons of the guide of his youth1 the prophet ,samuel4 ,the wild careers of ,david's elder sons show that they had inherited his strong passions and eager ambition1 and that in their case1 as well as ,adonijah's1 he had not displeased them at any time in saying1 ,why hast thou done so8 ,the consequences which followed had been frightful beyond precedent4 ,david must have learnt by experience the truth of the exhortation1 ,desire not a multitude of unprofitable children1 neither delight in ungodly sons4 ,though they multiply1 rejoice not in them1 except the fear of the ,lord be with them3 for one that is just is better than a thousand2 and better it is to die without children1 than to have those that are ungodly4#fe ,david's eldest son was ,amnon1 the son of ,ahinoam of ,jezreel2 his second ,daniel or ,chileab1 son of ,abigail1 the wife of ,nabal of ,carmel2 the third ,absalom1 son of ,maacah1 daughter of ,talmai1 ,king of ,geshur2 the fourth ,adonijah1 the son of ,haggith4 ,shephatiah and ,ithream were the sons of two other wives1 and these six sons were born to ,david in ,hebron4 ,when he became king in ,jerusalem he had four sons by ,bathsheba1 born after the one that died in his infancy1 and at least nine other sons by various wives1 besides his daughter ,tamar1 sister of ,absalom4 ,he had other sons by his concubines4 ,most of these sons are unknown to fame4 ,some of them probably died in childhood4 ,he provided for others by making them priests4#ff ,his line1 down to the days of ,jeconiah1 was continued in the descendants of ,solomon1 and afterwards in those of the otherwise unknown ,nathan4 ,the elder sons1 born to him in the days of his more fervent youth1 became the authors of the tragedies which laid waste his house4 ,they were youths of splendid beauty1 and1 as they bore the proud title of the king's sons1 they were from their earliest years encircled by luxury and adulation4#fg ,amnon regarded himself as the heir to the throne1 and his fierce passions brought the first infamy into the family of ,david4 ,by the aid of his cousin ,jonadab1 the wily son of ,shimmeah1 the king's brother1 he brutally dishonoured his half-sister ,tamar1 and then as brutally drove the unhappy princess from his presence4 ,it was ,david's duty to inflict punishment on his shameless heir1 but he weakly condoned the crime4 ,absalom dissembled his vengeance for two whole years1 and spoke to his brother neither good nor evil4 ,at the end of that time he invited ,david and all the princes to a joyous sheep-shearing festival at ,baal ,hazor4 ,david1 as he anticipated1 declined the invitation1 on the plea that his presence would burden his son with needless expense4 ,then ,absalom asked that1 as the king could not honour his festival1 at least his brother ,amnon1 as the heir to the throne1 might be present4 ,david's heart misgave him1 but he could refuse nothing to the youth whose magnificent and faultless beauty filled him with an almost doting pride1 and ,amnon and all the princes went to the feast4 ,no sooner was ,amnon's heart inflamed with wine1 than1 at a preconcerted signal1 ,absalom's servants fell on him and murdered him4 ,the feast broke up in tumultuous horror1 and in the wild cry and rumour which arose1 the heart of ,david was torn with the intelligence that ,absalom had murdered all his brothers4 ,he rent his clothes1 and lay weeping in the dust surrounded by his weeping servants4 ,but ,jonadab assured him that only ,amnon had been murdered in revenge for his unpunished outrage1 and a rush of people along the road1 among whom the princes were visible riding on their mules1 confirmed his words4 ,but the deed was still black enough4 ,bathed in tears1 and raising the wild cries of ,eastern grief1 the band of youthful princes stood round the father whose incestuous firstborn had thus fallen by a brother's hand1 and the king also and all his servants wept greatly with a great weeping4 ,absalom fled to his grandfather the ,king of ,geshur2 but his purpose had been doubly accomplished4 ,he had avenged the shame of his sister1 and he was now himself the eldest son and heir to the throne4#fh ,his claim was strengthened by the superb physique and beautiful hair of which he was so proud1 and which won the hearts both of king and people4 ,capable1 ambitious1 secure of ultimate pardon1 the son and the grandson of a king1 he lived for three years at the court of his grandfather4 ,then ,joab1 perceiving that ,david was consoled for the death of ,amnon1 and that his heart was yearning for his favourite son1#fi obtained the intercession of the wise woman of ,tekoah1 and got permission for ,absalom to return4 ,but his offence had been terrible1 and to his extreme mortification the king refused to admit him4 ,joab1 though he had manuvred for his return1 did not come near him1 and twice refused to visit him when summoned to do so4 ,with characteristic insolence the young man obtained an interview by ordering his servants to set fire to ,joab's field of barley4 ,by ,joab's request the king once more saw ,absalom1 and1 as the youth felt sure would be the case1 raised him from the ground1 kissed1 forgave1 and restored him to favour4 ,for the favour of his weakly-fond father he cared little2 what he wanted was the throne4 ,his proud beauty1 his royal descent on both sides1 fired his ambition4 ,eastern peoples are always ready to concede pre-eminence to splendid men4 ,this had helped to win the kingdom for stately ,saul and ruddy ,david2 for the ,jews1 like the ,greeks1 thought that loveliness of person involves the blossoming promises of future excellence1 and is1 as it were1 a prelude of riper beauty4#gj ,it seemed intolerable to this prince in the zenith of glorious life that he should be kept out of his royal inheritance by one whom he described as a useless dotard4 ,by his personal fascination1 and by base intrigues against ,david1 founded on the king's imperfect fulfilment of his duties as judge1 he stole the hearts of the children of ,israel4 ,after four years#ga everything was ripe for revolt4 ,he found that for some unexplained reason the tribe of ,judah and the old capital of ,hebron were disaffected to ,david's rule4 ,he got leave to visit ,hebron in pretended fulfilment of a vow1 and so successfully raised the standard of revolt that ,david1 his family1 and his followers had to fly hurriedly from ,jerusalem with bare feet and cheeks bathed in tears along the road of the ,perfumers4 ,of that long day of misery--to the description of which more space is given in ,scripture than to that of any other day except that of the ,crucifixion--we need not speak1 nor of the defeat of the rebellion4 ,david was saved by the adhesion of his warrior-corps 7the ,gibborim7 and his mercenaries 7the ,krthi and ,plthi74 ,absalom's host was routed4 ,he was in some strange way entangled in the branches of a tree as he fled on his mule through the forest of ,rephaim4#gb ,as he hung helpless there1 ,joab1 with needless cruelty1 drove three wooden staves through his body in revenge for his past insolence1 leaving his armour-bearer to despatch the miserable fugitive4 ,to this day every ,jewish child flings a contumelious stone at the pillar in the ,king's ,dale1 which bears the traditional name of ,david's ,son1 the beautiful and bad4#gc ,the days which followed were thickly strewn with calamities for the rapidly ageing and heart-broken king4 ,his helpless decline was yet to be shaken by the attempted usurpation of another bad son4 ,,footnotes3 #fc ,the same word is rendered worship in ,psalm xlv4 #aa4 ,comp4 #b ,sam4 ix4 #f2 ,esth4 iii4 #b-e4 ,in #a ,chron4 xxix4 #bj we are told that the people worshipped the ,lord and the king4 #fd 4 sch41 ,agam41 #hhg4 #fe ,ecclus4 xvi4 #a-c4 ,he must have had at least twenty sons1 and at least one daughter 7#b ,sam4 iii4 #a-e1 v4 #ad-af2 #a ,chron4 iii4 #a-i1 xiv4 #c-g74 ,josephus again 7,antt41 ,,vii4 iii4 #c7 has a different list4 #ff ,kohanim4 #fg ,from the fact that his son ,eliada 7#b ,sam4 v4 #af7 is called ,beeliada 7i4e41 ,baal knows7 in #a ,chron4 xiv4 #g1 it is surely a precarious inference that now and then he paid his homage to some ,baal1 perhaps to please one of his foreign wives 7,van ,oort1 ,bible for ,young ,people1 iii4 #hd74 ,the true explanation seems to be that at one time ,baal1 ,lord1 was not regarded as an unauthorised title for ,jehovah4 ,the fact that ,david once had teraphim in his house 7#a ,sam4 xix4 #ac1 #af7 shows that his advance in knowledge was gradual4 #fh ,chileab was either dead1 or was of no significance4 #fi #b ,sam4 xiii4 #ci4 ,the soul of king ,david longed to go forth unto ,absalom4 #gj ,max4 ,tyr41 ,dissert41 #i 7,keil1 ad loc474 #ga ,in #b ,sam4 xv4 #g we should certainly alter forty into four4 #gb ,rephaim seems a more probable reading than ,ephraim in #b ,sam4 xviii4 #f2 see ,josh4 xvii4 #ae1 #ah4 ,yet the name ,ephraim may have been given to this transjordanic wood4 ,the notion that he hung by his hair is only a conjecture1 and not a probable one4 #gc ,his three sons had pre-deceased him2 his beautiful daughter ,tamar 7#b ,sam4 xiv4 #bg7 became the wife of ,rehoboam4 ,she is called ,maachah in #a ,kings xv4 #b1 and the ,,lxx4 addition to #b ,sam4 xiv4 #bg says that she bore both names4 ,the so-called tomb of ,absalom in the ,valley of ,hebron is of ,asmonan and ,herodian origin4 ,,chapter ,,ix4 ,,adonijah',s ,,rebellion4 #a ,,kings i4 #e-ec4 ,the king's word hath power2 and who may say unto him1 ,what doest thou8--,,eccles4 viii4 #d4 ,the fate of ,amnon and of ,absalom might have warned the son who was now the eldest1 and who had succeeded to their claims4 ,adonijah was the son of ,haggith1 the dancer4 ,his father had piously given him the name1 which means ,jehovah is my ,lord4 ,he1 too1 was a very goodly man1 treated by ,david with foolish indulgence1 and humoured in all his wishes4 ,although the rights of primogeniture were ill-defined1 a king's eldest son1 endowed as ,adonijah was1 would naturally be looked on as the heir2 and ,adonijah was impatient for the great prize4 ,following the example of ,absalom he exalted himself1 saying1 ,i will be king1 and1 as an unmistakable sign of his intentions1 prepared for himself fifty runners with chariots and horsemen4#gd ,david1 unwarned by the past1 or perhaps too ill and secluded to be aware of what was going on1 put no obstacle in his way4 ,the people in general were tired of ,david1 though the spell of his name was still great4 ,adonijah's cause seemed safe when he had won over ,joab1 the commander of the forces1 and ,abiathar1 the chief priest4 ,but the young man's precipitancy spoiled everything4 ,david lingered on4 ,it was perhaps a palace-secret that a strong court-party was in favour of ,solomon1 and that ,david was inclined to leave his kingdom to this younger son by his favourite wife4 ,so ,adonijah1 once more imitating the tactics of ,absalom1 prepared a great feast at the ,dragon-stone by the ,fullers' ,well1 in the valley below ,jerusalem4#ge ,he sacrificed sheep and fat oxen and cattle1 and invited all the king's fifteen sons1 omitting ,solomon1 from whom alone he had any rivalry to fear4 ,to this feast he also invited ,joab and ,abiathar1 and all the men of ,judah1 the king's servants1 by which are probably intended all the captains of the host who formed the nucleus of the militia forces4#gf ,at this feast ,adonijah threw off the mask4 ,in open rebellion against ,david1 his followers shouted1 ,god save king ,adonijah6 ,the watchful eye of one man--the old prophet-statesman1 ,nathan--saw the danger4 ,adonijah was thirty-five2 ,solomon was comparatively a child4 ,solomon1 my son1 says ,david1 is young and tender4#gg ,what his age was at the date of ,adonijah's rebellion we do not know4 ,josephus says that he was only twelve1 and this would well accord with the fact that he seems to have taken no step on his own behalf1 while ,nathan and ,bathsheba act for him4 ,it accords less well with the calm magnanimity and regal decisiveness which he displayed from the first day that he was seated on the throne4 ,the ,greek proverb says1 1 ,power shows the man4 ,perhaps ,solomon1 hitherto concealed in the seclusion of the harem1 was1 up to this time1 ignorant of himself as well as unknown to the people4 ,being unaware of the boy's capacity1 many were taken in by the more showy gifts of the handsome ,adonijah1 whose age might seem to promise greater stability to the kingdom4 ,but ,solomon from his birth upwards had been ,nathan's special charge4#gh ,no sooner had he been born than ,david had entrusted the infant to the care of the man who had awakened his slumbering conscience to the heinousness of his offence1 and had prophesied his punishment in the death of the child of adultery4 ,an oracle had forbidden him to build the ,temple because his hands were stained with blood1 but had promised him a son who should be a man of rest1 and in whose days ,israel should have peace and quietness4#gi ,long before1 in ,hebron1 ,david1 yearning for peace1 had called his eldest son ,absalom 7the father of peace74 ,to the second son of ,bathsheba1 whom he regarded as the heir of oracular promise1 he gave the sounding name of ,shelmoh 7the ,peaceful74#hj ,but ,nathan1 perhaps with reference to ,david's own name of the ,beloved1 had called the child ,jedidiah 7the beloved of ,jehovah74 ,the secret of his destiny was probably known to few1 though it was evidently suspected by ,adonijah4 ,to have proclaimed it in a crowded harem would have been to expose the child to the perils of poison1 and to have doomed him to certain death if one of his unruly brothers succeeded in seizing the royal authority4 ,the oath to ,bathsheba that her son should succeed must have been a secret known at the time to ,nathan only4 ,it is evident that ,david had never taken any step to secure its fulfilment4 ,the crisis was one of extreme peril4 ,nathan was now old4 ,he had perhaps sunk into the courtly complaisance which1 content with one bold rebuke1 ceased to deal faithfully with ,david4 ,he had at any rate left it to ,gad the ,seer to reprove him for numbering the people4 ,now1 however1 he rose to the occasion1 and by a prompt coup d'tat caused the instant collapse of ,adonijah's conspiracy4 ,adonijah had counted on the jealousy of the tribe of ,judah1 on the king's seclusion and waning popularity1 on the support of all the captains of the host1 on the acquiescence of all the other princes1 and above all on the favour of the ecclesiastical and military power of the kingdom as represented by ,abiathar and ,joab4 ,to ,solomon himself1 as yet a shadowy figure and so much younger1 he attached no importance4 ,he treated his aged father as a cipher1 and ,nathan as of no particular account4#ha ,he overlooked the influence of ,bathsheba1 the prestige which attached to the nomination of a reigning king1 and above all the resistance of the body-guard of mercenaries and their captain ,benaiah4 ,nathan had no sooner received tidings of what was going on at ,adonijah's feast than he shook off his lethargy and hurried to ,bathsheba4 ,she seems to have retained the same sort of influence over ,david that ,madame de ,maintenon exercised over the aged ,louis ,,xiv4 ,had she heard1 asked ,nathan1 that ,adonijah's coronation was going on at that moment8 ,let her hurry to ,king ,david1 and inquire whether he had given any sanction to proceedings which contravened the oath which he had given her that her son ,solomon should be his heir4 ,as soon as she had broken the intelligence to the king1 he would come and confirm her words4#hb ,bathsheba did not lose a moment4 ,she knew that if ,adonijah's conspiracy succeeded her own life and that of her son might not be worth a day's purchase4 ,the helplessness of ,david's condition is shown by the fact that she had to make her way into the inner chamber to visit him4 ,in violation of the immemorial etiquette of an ,eastern household1 she spoke to him without being summoned1 and in the presence of another woman1 ,abishag1 his fair young nurse4 ,with profound obeisances she entered1 and told the poor old hero that ,adonijah had practically usurped the throne1 but that the eyes of all ,israel were awaiting his decision as to who should be his successor4 ,she asked whether he was really indifferent to the peril of herself and of ,solomon1 for ,adonijah's success would mean their doom4#hc ,while she yet spoke ,nathan was announced1 as had been concerted between them1 and he repeated the story of what was going on at ,adonijah's feast4 ,it is remarkable that he says nothing to ,david either about consulting the ,urim1 or in any way ascertaining the will of ,god4 ,he and ,bathsheba rely exclusively on four motives--,david's rights of nomination1 his promise1 the danger to ,solomon1 and the contempt shown in ,adonijah's proceedings4 ,the whole incident1 says ,reuss1 is swayed by the ordinary movements of passion and interest4#hd ,the news woke in ,david a flash of his old energy4 ,with instant decision he summoned ,bathsheba1 who1 as custom required1 had left the chamber when ,nathan entered4 ,using his strong and favourite adjuration1 ,as the ,lord liveth1 that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress1#he he pledged himself to carry out that very day the oath that ,solomon should be his heir4 ,she bowed her face to the earth in adoration with the words1 ,let my lord1 ,king ,david1 live for ever4 ,he then summoned ,zadok1 the second priest1 ,nathan1 and ,benaiah1 and told them what to do4 ,they were to take the body-guard#hf which was under ,benaiah's command1 to place ,solomon on the king's own she-mule#hg 7which was regarded as the highest honour of all honours71 to conduct him down the ,valley of ,jehoshaphat to ,gihon1#hh where the pool would furnish the water for the customary ablutions1 to anoint him king1 and then to blow the consecrated ram's horn 7shophar7#hi with the shout1 ,god save ,king ,solomon6 ,after this the boy was to be seated on the throne1 and proclaimed ruler over ,israel and ,judah4 ,benaiah was one of ,david's twelve chosen captains1 who was placed at the head of one of the monthly courses of #bd1jjj soldiers in the third month4 ,the chronicler calls him a priest4#ij ,his available forces made him master of the situation1 and he joyfully accepted the commission with1 ,amen6 ,so may ,jehovah say6 and with the prayer that the throne of ,solomon might be even greater than the throne of ,david4 ,joab was commander-in-chief of the army1 but his forces had not been summoned or mobilised4 ,accustomed to a bygone state of things he had failed to observe that ,benaiah's palace-regiment of six hundred picked men could strike a blow long before he was ready for action4 ,these guards were the ,krthi and ,plthi1#ia executioners and runners1 perhaps an alien body of faithful mercenaries originally composed of ,cretans and ,philistines4 ,they formed a compact body of defenders1 always prepared for action4 ,they resemble the ,germans of the ,roman ,emperors1 the ,turkish ,janissaries1 the ,egyptian ,mamelukes1 the ,byzantian ,varangians1 or the ,swiss ,guard of the ,bourbons4 ,their one duty was to be ready at a moment's notice to carry out the king's behests4 ,such a picked regiment has often held in its hands the prerogative of ,empire4 ,they were1 originally at any rate1 identical with the ,gibborim1#ib and had been at first commanded by men who had earned rank by personal prowess4 ,but for their intervention on this occasion ,adonijah would have become king4 ,while ,adonijah's followers were wasting time over their turbulent banquet1 the younger court-party were carrying out the unexpectedly vigorous suggestions of the aged king4 ,while the eastern hills echoed with ,long live ,king ,adonijah6 the western hills resounded with shouts of ,long live ,king ,solomon6 ,the young ,solomon had been ceremoniously mounted on the king's mule1 and the procession had gone down to ,gihon4 ,there1 with the solemnity which is only mentioned in cases of disputed succession1#ic ,nathan the prophet and ,zadok as priest anointed the son of ,bathsheba with the horn of perfumed oil which the latter had taken from the sacred tent at ,zion4#id ,these measures had been neglected by ,adonijah's party in the precipitation of their plot1 and they were regarded as of the utmost importance1 as they are in ,persia to this day4#ie ,then the trumpets blew1 and the vast crowd which had assembled shouted1 ,god save ,king ,solomon6 ,the people broke into acclamations1 and danced1 and played on pipes1 and the earth rang again with the mighty sound4#if ,adonijah had fancied1 and he subsequently asserted1 that all ,israel set their faces on me that ,i should reign4 ,but his vanity had misled him4 ,many of the people may have seen through his shallow character1 and may have dreaded the rule of such a king4 ,others were still attached to ,david1 and were prepared to accept his choice4 ,others were struck with the grave bearing and the youthful beauty of the son of ,bathsheba4 ,the multitude were probably opportunists ready to shout with the winner whoever he might be4 ,the old warrior ,joab1 perhaps less dazed with wine and enthusiasm than the other guests of ,adonijah1 was the first to catch the sound of the trumpet blasts and of the general rejoicing1 and to portend its significance4 ,as he started up in surprise the guests caught sight of ,jonathan1 son of ,abiathar1 a swift-footed priest who had acted as a spy for ,david in ,jerusalem at ,absalom's rebellion1#ig but who now1 like his father ,abiathar and so many of his betters1 had gone over to ,adonijah4 ,the prince welcomed him as a man of worth1 one who was sure to bring tidings of good omen2#ih but ,jonathan burst out with1 ,nay1 but our ,lord king ,david hath made ,solomon king4 ,he does not seem to have been in a hurry to bring this fatal intelligence2 for he had not only waited until the entire ceremony at ,gihon was over1 but to the close of the enthronisation of ,solomon in ,jerusalem4#ii ,he had seen the young king seated on the throne of state in the midst of the jubilant people4 ,david had been carried out upon his couch1 and1 bowing his head in worship before the multitude1 had said1 ,blessed be the ,lord ,god of ,israel1 which hath given one to sit on my throne this day1 mine eyes even seeing it4 ,this intelligence fell like a thunderbolt among ,adonijah's unprepared adherents4 ,a general flight took place1 each man being only eager to save himself4 ,the straw fire of their enthusiasm had already flared itself away4 ,deserted by every one1 and fearing to pay the forfeit of his life1 ,adonijah fled to the nearest sanctuary1 where the ,ark stood on ,mount ,zion under the care of his supporter the high priest ,abiathar4#ajj ,there he caught hold of the horns of the altar--wooden projections at each of its corners1 overlaid with brass4 ,when a sacrifice was offered the animal was tied to these horns of the altar1#aja and they were smeared with the victim's blood just as in after days the propitiatory was sprinkled with the blood of the bull and the goat on the ,great ,day of ,atonement4 ,the mercy-seat thus became a symbol of atonement1 and an appeal to ,god that ,he would forgive the sinful priest and the sinful nation who came before ,him with the blood of expiation4 ,the mercy-seat would have furnished an inviolable sanctuary had it not been enclosed in the ,holiest ,place1 unapproachable by any feet but that of the high priest once a year4 ,the horns of the altar were1 however1 available for refuge to any offender1 and their protection involved an appeal to the mercy of man as to the mercy of ,god4#ajb ,there in wretched plight clung the fallen prince1 hurled down in one day from the summit of his ambition4 ,he refused to leave the spot unless ,king ,solomon would first of all swear that he would not slay his servant with the sword4#ajc ,adonijah saw that all was over with his cause4 ,god1 says the ,portuguese proverb1 can write straight on crooked lines2 and as is so often the case1 the crisis which brought about ,his will was the immediate result of an endeavour to defeat it4 ,solomon was not one of those ,eastern princes who ,bear like the ,turk no brother near the throne4 ,many an ,eastern king has begun his reign as ,baasha1 ,jehu1 and ,athaliah did1 by the exile1 imprisonment1 or execution of every possible rival4 ,adonijah1 caught red-handed in an attempt at rebellion1 might have been left with some show of justice to starve at the horns of the altar1 or to leave his refuge and face the penalty due to crime4 ,but ,solomon1 unregarded and unknown as he had hitherto been1 rose at once to the requirements of his new position1 and magnanimously promised his brother a complete amnesty#ajd so long as he remained faithful to his allegiance4 ,adonijah descended the steps of the altar1 and having made sacred obeisance to his new sovereign#aje was dismissed with the laconic order1 ,go to thine house4 ,if1 as some have conjectured1 ,adonijah had once urged on his father the condign punishment of ,absalom1 he might well congratulate himself on receiving pardon4#ajf ,,footnotes3 #gd ,morier tells us that in ,persia runners before the king's horses are an indispensable adjunct of his state4 #ge ,the ,stone of ,zoheleth1 probably a sacred stone--one of the numerous isolated rocks of ,palestine2 is not mentioned elsewhere4 ,the ,fuller's ,fountain is mentioned in ,josh4 xv4 #g1 xviii4 #af2 #b ,sam4 xvii4 #ag4 ,it was south-east of ,jerusalem1 and is perhaps identical with ,job's ,fountain1 where the wadies of ,kedron and ,hinnom meet 7,palestine ,exploration ,fund1 #ahgd1 p4 #hj74 #gf ,comp4 #a ,kings i4 #i-be4 #gg ,the same phrase is used of ,rehoboam 7#b ,chron4 xii4 #ac1 xiii4 #g7 when he was twenty-one1 reading for 1 forty-one4 #gh #b ,sam4 xii4 #be3 ,and he sent by the hand of ,nathan1 the prophet2 he called his name ,jedidiah1 because of the ,lord 7,a4,v474 ,the verse is somewhat obscure4 ,it either means that ,david sent the child to ,nathan to be brought up under his guardianship1 or sent ,nathan to ask of the oracle the favour of some well-omened name 7,ewald1 iii4 #afh74 ,nathan was perhaps akin to ,david4 ,the ,rabbis absurdly identify him with ,jonathan 7#a ,chron4 xxvii4 #cb2 #b ,sam4 xxi4 #ba71 nephew of ,david1 son of ,shimmeah4 #gi #a ,chron4 xxii4 #f-i4 #hj ,,lxx41 1 and in ,ecclus4 xlvii4 #ac4 ,comp4 ,shelmith 7,lev4 xxiv4 #aa71 ,shelmi 7,num4 xxxiv4 #bg74 ,but it became in the ,new ,testament1 ,josephus1 the ,sibylline verses1 etc4 ,the long vowel is retained in ,salme and in the ,arabic ,sleyman1 etc4 #ha ,among ,solomon's adherents are mentioned ,shimei and ,rei 7#a ,kings i4 #h71 whom ,ewald supposes to stand for two of ,david's brothers1 ,shimma and ,raddai1 and ,stade to be two officers of the ,gibborim4 ,thenius adopts a reading partly suggested by ,josephus1 ,hushai1 the friend of ,david4 ,others identify ,rei with ,ira2 a ,shimei1 the son of ,elah1 is mentioned among ,solomon's governors 7,nitzabim1 #a ,kings iv4 #ah72 and there was a ,shimei of ,ramah over ,david's vineyards 7#a ,chron4 xxvii4 #bg74 ,the name was common1 and meant famous4 #hb ,duncker1 ,meyer1 ,wellhausen1 ,stade1 regard ,solomon's accession as due to a mere palace intrigue of ,nathan and ,bathsheba1 and ,david's dying injunctions as only intended to excuse ,solomon4 ,they treat #a ,kings ii4 #a-ab as a ,deuteronomic interpolation4 ,dillmann1 ,kittel1 ,kuenen1 ,budde1 rightly reject this view4 ,stade says1 ,nach menschlichen ,gefhl1 ein ,unrecht war die ,salbung ,salomos4 ,he thinks that the aged ,david was over-influenced by the intrigues of the harem and the court 7i4 #bib74 #hc ,she said that they would be counted as offenders 7chattaim7 ,comp4 #a ,kings i4 #ab1 where ,nathan assumes that they will both be put to death4 ,thus ,cassander put to death ,roxana1 the widow of ,alexander the ,great1 and her son ,alexander 7,justin41 xv4 #b74 #hd ,reuss1 ,hist4 des ,israelites1 i4 #dji4 #he ,comp4 #b ,sam4 iv4 #i2 ,psalm xix4 #ad4 #hf ,the servants of your ,lord4 ,comp4 #b ,sam4 xx4 #f1 #g4 #hg ,comp4 ,gen4 xli4 #dc2 #a ,kings i4 #cc2 ,esth4 vi4 #h4 #hh #b ,chron4 xxxii4 #cj1 xxxiii4 #ad4 ,it was apparently the ,virgin's ,fountain1 east of ,jerusalem1 in the ,valley of ,jehoshaphat4 #hi ,comp4 #b ,kings ix4 #ac4 #ij #a ,chron4 xxvii4 #e1 where the true rendering is not ,benaiah the chief priest1 as in ,a4,v41 nor principal officer1 as in the margin3 but ,benaiah the priest1 as chief4 #ia #a ,sam4 xxx4 #ad2 ,josephus1 4 ,the ,targum calls them archers and slingers 7which is unlikely71 or nobles and common soldiers4 ,this body-guard is also said to be composed of ,gittites 7#b ,sam4 xv4 #ah1 xviii4 #b72 but some suppose that they were so called not by nationality1 but because they had served under ,david at ,gath4 ,the question is further complicated by the appearance of ,carians 7,a4,v41 captains7 in #b ,kings xi4 #d1 #ae1 and also in #b ,sam4 xx4 #bc 7,heb474 ,the ,carians were universal mercenaries 7,herod41 ii4 #aeb2 ,liv41 xxxvii4 #dj74 ,that there was an early intercourse between ,palestine and the ,west is shown by the fact that such words as peribolory1 machaera1 macaina1 lesche1 pellex1 have found their way into ,hebrew 7see ,renan1 ,hist4 du ,peuple ,israel1 ii4 #cc74 #ib #b ,sam4 xxiii4 #h-ci2 #a ,chron4 xi4 #aj-dg2 #a ,kings i4 #h4 ,the ,gibborim are by some supposed to be a different body from the ,krthi and ,plthi 7#b ,sam4 xv4 #ah1 xx4 #g72 but from #a ,kings i4 #h1 #aj1 #ch they seem to be the same 7,stade1 i4 #bge74 ,the thirty heroes at their head furnish1 as ,renan says1 the first germ of a sort of ,legion of ,honour4 #ic ,saul 7#a ,sam4 x4 #a71 ,david 7#a ,sam4 xvi4 #ac1 and twice afterwards1 #b ,sam4 ii4 #d1 v4 #c71 ,jehu 7#a ,kings xix4 #af71 ,joash 7#b ,chron4 xxiii4 #aa74 #id #a ,kings i4 #ci4 ,tent1 not tabernacle1 as in ,a4,v4 ,it has generally been supposed that ,zadok took it from the tabernacle at ,gibeon 7#a ,chron4 xvi4 #ci71 but there would have been no time to send so far4 ,zadok is called a ,seer in the ,a4,v4 7#b ,sam4 xv4 #bg72 but the true version may be ,seeth thou8 ,the ,,lxx4 and ,vulgate omit the words4 #ie ,morier1 quoted by ,stanley1 p4 #agb1 says that the ,mustched1 or chief priest1 and the ,munajem1 or prophet1 are always present at a ,persian coronation4 #if ,,lxx41 1 2 ,vulg41 insonuit4 ,comp4 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,vii4 xiv4 #c1 #e4 #ig #b ,sam4 xv4 #bg1 xvii4 #ag4 #ih #b ,sam4 xviii4 #bg4 ,heb41 2 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 vir fortis4 ,it is rather virtuous1 as in ,prov4 xii4 #d4 #ii ,it is true that ,solomon's adherents had wasted no time over a feast4 #ajj #a ,kings i4 #ej4 #aja ,psalm cxviii4 #bg1 and ,exod4 xxvii4 #b ff41 xxix4 #ab1 xxx4 #aj4 ,comp4 ,exod4 xxi4 #ad4 #ajb ,exod4 xxi4 #ad4 ,it protected the homicide1 but not the wilful murderer4 #ajc #a ,kings i4 #ea4 ,the words this day should be first of all1 i4e41 before ,i leave the sanctuary4 ,many must have been reminded of this scene when ,eutropius1 the eunuch-minister of ,arcadius1 under the protection of ,st4 ,chrysostom1 cowered in front of the high altar at ,constantinople4 #ajd ,there shall not a hair of him fall4 ,comp4 #a ,sam4 xiv4 #de2 #b ,sam4 xiv4 #aa4 #aje ,bowed himself4 ,comp4 #a ,kings i4 #dg4 #ajf ,grtz1 i4 #ach 7,e4 ,t474 ,,chapter ,x4 ,,david',s ,,death-,,bed4 #a ,,kings ii4 #a-aa4 ,omnibus idem exitus est1 sed et idem domicilium4--,,petron41 ,satyr4 ,in the ,book of ,samuel we have the last words of ,david in the form of a brief and vivid psalm1 of which the leading principle is1 ,he that ruleth over men must be just1 ruling in the fear of ,god4 ,a king's justice must be shown alike in his gracious influence upon the good and his stern justice to the wicked4 ,the worthless sons of ,belial are1 he says1 to be beaten down like thorns with spear-shafts and iron4#ajg ,the same principle dominates in the charge which he gave to ,solomon1 perhaps after the magnificent public inauguration of his reign described in #a ,chron4 xxviii41 xxix4 ,he bade his young son to show himself a man1 and be rigidly faithful to the law of ,moses1 earning thereby the prosperity which would never fail to attend true righteousness4#ajh ,thus would the promise to ,david--,there shall not fail thee a man on the throne of ,israel--be continued in the time of ,solomon4 ,with our ,western and ,christian views of morality we should have rejoiced if ,david's charge to his son had ended there4 ,it is painful to us to read that his last injunctions bore upon the punishment of ,joab who had so long fought for him1 and of ,shimei whom he had publicly pardoned4 ,between these two stern injunctions came the request that he would show kindness to the sons of ,barzillai1#aji the old ,gileadite sheykh who had extended such conspicuous hospitality to himself and his weary followers when they crossed the ,jordan in their flight from ,absalom4 ,but the last words of ,david1 as here recorded1 are3 his 7,shimei's7 hoar head bring thou down to the grave with blood4#aaj ,in these avenging behests there was nothing which was regarded as unnatural1 nothing that would have shocked the conscience of the age4 ,the fact that they are recorded without blame by an admiring historiographer shows that we are reading the annals of times of ignorance which ,god winked at4 ,they belong to the era of imperfect moral development1 when it was said to them of old time1 ,thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy1 and men had not fully learnt the lesson1 ,vengeance is ,mine2 ,i will repay1 saith the ,lord4 ,we must discriminate between the vitia temporis and the vitia hominis4 ,david was trained in the old traditions of the avenger of blood2 and we cannot be astonished1 though we may greatly regret1 that his standard was indefinitely below that of the ,sermon on the ,mount4 ,he may have been concerned for the safety of his son1 but to us it must remain a proof of his imperfect moral attainments that he bade ,solomon look out for pretexts to smite the hoary head of inveterate wickedness1 and use his wisdom not to let the two offenders go down to the grave in peace4 ,the character of ,joab furnishes us with a singular study4 ,he1 ,abishai1 and ,asahel were the brave1 impetuous sons of ,zeruiah1 the sister or half-sister of ,david4 ,they were about his own age1 and it is not impossible that they were the grandsons of ,nahash1 ,king of ,ammon4#aaa ,in the days of ,saul they had embraced the cause of ,david1 heart and soul4 ,they had endured all the hardships and fought through all the struggles of his freebooting days4 ,asahel1 the youngest1 had been in the front rank of his ,gibborim1 and his foot was fleet as that of a gazelle upon the mountain4 ,abishai had been one of the three who1 with jeopardy of their lives1 had burst their way to ,bethlehem when ,david longed to drink of the water of its well beside the gate4 ,he had also1 on one occasion1 saved ,david's life from the giant ,ishbi of ,gath1 and had slain three hundred ,philistines with his spear4 ,his zeal was always ready to flash into action in his uncle's cause4 ,joab had been ,david's commander-in-chief for forty years4 ,it was ,joab who had conquered the ,ammonites and ,moabites and stormed the ,city of ,waters4 ,it was ,joab who1 at ,david's bare request1 had brought about the murder of ,uriah4 ,it was ,joab who1 after wise but fruitless remonstrance1 had been forced to number the people4 ,but ,david had never liked these rough imperious soldiers1 whose ways were not his ways4 ,from the first he was unable to cope with them1 or keep them in order4 ,in the early days they had treated him with rude familiarity1 though in late years they1 too1 were obliged to approach him with all the forms of ,eastern servility4 ,but ever since the murder of ,uriah1 ,joab knew that ,david's reputation and ,david's throne were in his hand4 ,joab himself had been guilty of two wild acts of vengeance for which he would have offered some defence1 and of one atrocious crime4 ,his murder of the princely ,abner1 the son of ,ner1 might have been excused as the duty of an avenger of blood1 for ,abner1 with one back-thrust of his mighty spear1 had killed the young ,asahel1 after the vain warning to desist from pursuing him4 ,abner had only killed ,asahel in self-defence2 but1 jealous of ,abner's power as the cousin of ,king ,saul1 the husband of ,rizpah1 and the commander of the northern army1 ,joab1 after bluntly rebuking ,david for receiving him1 had without hesitation deluded ,abner back to ,hebron by a false message and treacherously murdered him4 ,even at that early period of his reign ,david was either unable or unwilling to punish the outrage1 though he ostentatiously deplored it4 ,doubtless in slaying ,absalom1 in spite of the king's entreaty1 ,joab had inflicted an agonising wound on the pride and tenderness of his master4 ,but ,absalom was in open rebellion1 and ,joab may have held that ,david's probable pardon of the beautiful rebel would be both weak and fatal4 ,this death was inflicted in a manner needlessly cruel1 but might have been excused as a death inflicted on the battle-field1 though probably ,joab had many an old grudge to pay off besides the burning of his barley field4 ,after ,absalom's rebellion ,david foolishly and unjustly offered the commandership of the army to his nephew ,amasa4 ,amasa was the son of his sister ,abigail by an ,ishmaelite father1 named ,jether4#aab ,joab simply would not tolerate being superseded in the command which he had earned by lifelong and perilous services4 ,with deadly treachery1 in which men have seen the antitype of the world's worst crime1 ,joab invited his kinsman to embrace him1 and drove his sword into his bowels4 ,david had heard1 or perhaps had seen1 the revolting spectacle which ,joab presented1 with the blood of war shed in peace1 dyeing his girdle and streaming down to his shoes with its horrible crimson4 ,yet1 even by that act1 ,joab had once more saved ,david's tottering throne4 ,the ,benjamite ,sheba1 son of ,bichri1 was making head in a terrible revolt1 in which he had largely enlisted the sympathy of the northern tribes1 offended by the overbearing fierceness of the men of ,judah4 ,amasa had been either incompetent or half-hearted in suppressing this dangerous rising4 ,it had only collapsed when the army welcomed back the strong hand of ,joab4 ,but whatever had been the crimes of ,joab they had been condoned4 ,david1 on more than one occasion1 had helplessly cried1 ,what have ,i to do with you1 ye sons of ,zeruiah8 ,i am this day weak though anointed king1 and these men1 the sons of ,zeruiah1 are too hard for me4 ,but he had done nothing1 and1 whether with or against his will1 they continued to hold their offices near his person4 ,david did not remind ,solomon of the murder of ,absalom1 nor of the words of menace--words as bold as any subject ever uttered to his sovereign--with which ,joab had imperiously hushed his wail over his worthless son4 ,those words had openly warned the king that1 if he did not alter his line of conduct1 he should be king no more4 ,they were an insult which no king could pardon1 even if he were powerless to avenge4 ,but ,joab1 like ,david himself1 was now an old man4 ,the events of the last few days had shown that his power and influence were gone4 ,he may have had something to fear from ,bathsheba as the wife of ,uriah and the granddaughter of ,ahithophel2 but his adhesion to the cause of ,adonijah had doubtless been chiefly due to jealousy of the ever-growing influence of the priestly soldier ,benaiah1 son of ,jehoiada1 who had so evidently superseded him in his master's favour4 ,however that may be1 the historian faithfully records that ,david1 on his death-bed1 neither forgot nor forgave2 and all that we can say is1 that it would be unfair to judge him by modern or by ,christian principles of conduct4 ,the other victim whose doom was bequeathed to the new king was ,shimei1 the son of ,gera4 ,he had cursed ,david at ,bahurim on the day of his flight1 and in the hour of his extremest humiliation4 ,he had walked on the opposite side of the valley1 flinging stones and dust at ,david1#aac cursing him with a grievous curse as a man of ,belial and a man of blood1 and telling him that the loss of his kingdom was the retribution which had fallen upon him for the blood of the ,house of ,saul which he had shed4 ,so grievous was the trial of these insults that the place where the king and his people rested that night received the pathetic name of ,ayephim1 the place of the weary4#aad ,for this conduct ,shimei might have pleaded the pent-up animosities of the ,house of ,saul1 which had been stripped by ,david of all its honours1 and of which poor lame ,mephibosheth was the only scion left1 after ,david had impaled ,saul's seven sons and grandsons in human sacrifice at the demand of the ,gibeonites4 ,abishai1 indignant at ,shimei's conduct1 had said1 ,why should this dead dog curse my lord the king8 and had offered1 then and there1 to cross the valley and take his head4 ,but ,david rebuked his generous wrath1 and when ,shimei came out to meet him on his return with expressions of penitence1 ,david not only promised but swore that he should not die4 ,no further danger surely could be anticipated from the ruined and humiliated ,house of ,saul2 yet ,david bade ,solomon to find some excuse for putting ,shimei to death4 ,how are we to deal with sins which are recorded of ,god's olden saints on the sacred page1 and recorded without a word of blame8 ,clearly we must avoid two errors--the one of injustice1 the other of dishonesty4 #a4 ,on the one hand1 as we have said1 we must not judge ,abraham1 or ,jacob1 or ,gideon1 or ,jael1 or ,david1 as though they were nineteenth-century ,christians4 ,christ ,himself taught us that some things inherently undesirable were yet permitted in old days because of the hardness of men's hearts2 and that the moral standards of the days of ignorance were tolerated in all their imperfection until men were able to judge of their own deeds in a purer light4 ,the times of ignorance ,god overlooked1 says ,st4 ,paul1 but now ,he commandeth men that they should all everywhere repent4#aae ,ye have heard that it was said1 ,thou shalt love thy neighbour1 and hate thine enemy4 ,but ,i say unto you1 ,love your enemies1 said our ,lord4#aaf ,when ,bayle and ,tindal and many others declaim against the immorality of the ,bible they are unfair in a high degree4 ,they pass judgment on men who had been trained from infancy in opinions and customs wholly unlike our own1 and whose conscience would not be wounded by many things which we have been rightly taught to regard as evil4 ,they apply the enlightenment of two millenniums of ,christianity to criticise the more rudimentary conditions of life a millennium before ,christ4 ,the wild justice inflicted by an avenger of blood1 the rude atrocity of the lex talionis1 are rightly abhorrent to us in days of civilisation and settled law3 they were the only available means of restraining crime in unsettled times and half-civilised communities4 ,in his final injunctions about his enemies1 whom he might have dreaded as enemies too formidable for his son to keep in subjection1 ,david may have followed the view of his day that his former condonations had only been co-extensive with his own life1 and that the claims of justice ought to be satisfied4#aag #b4 ,but while we admit every palliation1 and endeavour to judge justly1 we must not fall into the conventionality of representing ,david's unforgiving severity as otherwise than reprehensible in itself4 ,attempts to gloss over moral wrong-doing1 to represent it as blameless1 to invent supposed ,divine sanctions and intuitions in defence of it1 can but weaken the eternal claims of the law of righteousness4 ,the rule of right is inflexible3 it is not a leaden rule which can be twisted into any shape we like4 ,a crime is none the less a crime though a saint commits it2 and imperfect conceptions of the high claims of the moral law1 as ,christ expounded its ,divine significance1 do not cease to be imperfect though they may be sometimes recorded without comment on the page of ,scripture4 ,no religious opinion can be more fatal to true religion than that wrong can1 under any circumstances1 become right1 or that we may do evil that good may come4 ,because an act is relatively pardonable1 it does not follow that it is not absolutely wrong4 ,if it be dangerous to judge the essential morality of any earlier passage of ,scripture by the ultimate laws which ,scripture itself has taught us1 it is infinitely more dangerous1 and essentially ,jesuitical1 to explain away misdeeds as though1 under any circumstances1 they could be pleasing to ,god or worthy of a saint4 ,the total omission of ,david's injunctions and of the sanguinary episodes of their fulfilment by the author of the ,books of ,chronicles1 indicates that1 in later days1 they were thought derogatory to the pure fame both of the warrior-king and of his peaceful son4 ,david slept with his fathers1 and passed before that bar where all is judged of truly4 ,his life is an ,april day1 half sunshine and half gloom4 ,his sins were great1 but his penitence was deep1 lifelong1 and sincere4 ,he gave occasion for the enemies of ,god to blaspheme1 but he also taught all who love ,god to praise and pray4 ,if his record contains some dark passages1 and his character shows many inconsistencies1 we can never forget his courage1 his flashes of nobleness1 his intense spirituality whenever he was true to his better self4 ,his name is a beacon-light of warning against the glamour and strength of evil passions4 ,but he showed us also what repentance can do1 and we are sure that his sins were forgiven him because he turned away from his wickedness4 ,the sacrifices of ,god are a troubled spirit3 a broken and a contrite heart1 ,o ,god1 ,thou wilt not despise4 ,i go the way of all the earth1 said ,david4 ,in life1 says ,calmet1 each one has his particular route3 one applies to one thing1 another to another4 ,but in the way to death they are all re-united4 ,they go to the tomb by one path4#aah ,david was buried in his own city--the stronghold of ,zion2 and his sepulchre--on the south part of ,ophel1 near the pool of ,siloam--was still pointed out a thousand years later in the days of ,christ4#aai ,as a poet who had given to the people splendid specimens of lyric songs2 as a warrior who had inspired their youth with dauntless courage2 as a king who had made ,israel a united nation with an impregnable capital1 and had uplifted it from insignificance into importance2 as the man in whose family the distinctive ,messianic hopes of the ,hebrews were centred1 he must remain to the end of time the most remarkable and interesting figure in the long annals of the ,old ,dispensation4 ,,footnotes3 #ajg #b ,sam4 xxiii4 #a-g4 ,it is no part of my duty here to enter into the extent of ,david's share in the ,psalms2 but ,i think that it is an exaggerated inference 7of ,wellhausen and others7 from ,amos vi4 #e1 #f to suppose that he only wrote festal and warlike songs4 #ajh ,apparently an allusion to ,deut4 xvii4 #ah-bj4 ,we read of no such exhortation having been addressed to ,saul1 or to ,david4 #aji ,chimham accompanied ,david to ,jerusalem 7#b ,sam4 xvii4 #bg1 xix4 #cg-dj71 and perhaps inherited his property at ,bethlehem1 where he founded the ,khan 7,jer4 xli4 #ag71 in the cavern stable of which it may be that ,christ was born4 #aaj ,wellhausen1 ,stade1 and others venture on the conjecture that ,david never gave these injunctions at all1 but that they were invented afterwards to excuse ,solomon for his acts of severity towards ,adonijah's conspirators4 ,i cannot see any valid ground for such arbitrary re-writing of the history4 ,shimei had taken no part in ,adonijah's rebellion4 #aaa ,zeruiah was a sister of the sons of ,jesse 7#a ,chron4 ii4 #af71 and was therefore a sister of ,abigail1 mother of ,amasa2 but she is called the daughter of ,nahash 7#b ,sam4 xvii4 #be74 #aab #a ,chron4 ii4 #ag4 ,jether 7i4e41 ,jethro1 'pre-eminence'7 the ,ishmaelite has been altered in #b ,sam4 xvii4 #be into ,ithra1 an ,israelite 7see #b ,sam4 xix4 #ac74 ,the way in which names have been tampered with is an interesting study1 and often conceals ,masoretic secrets4 #aac ,david's enemies thought but little of the fact that ,david had spared ,mephibosheth4 ,they may have supposed that ,david spared him1 not only because he was the son of the beloved ,jonathan1 but because being lame he could never become king4 ,david's relations to him do not seem to have been very cordial4 #aad #b ,sam4 xvi4 #ad 7,heb474 ,for ,bahurim1 see #b ,sam4 xvi4 #e1 xvii4 #ah4 #aae ,acts xvii4 #cj4 #aaf ,matt4 v4 #dc1 #dd4 #aag ,there is something analogous to protection granted only for a lifetime in the fact that the homicide at a refuge city could not be slain there while the high priest lived4 ,see ,num4 xxxv4 #bh4 #aah ,comp4 ,josh4 xxiii4 #ad2 ,keil1 ad loc4 #aai ,acts ii4 #bi4 ,josephus says that both ,hyrcanus and ,herod opened it to find the treasures which legend asserted to have been buried there 7,antt41 ,,vii4 xv4 #c4 ,comp4 ,,xiii4 viii4 #d1 ,,xvi4 vii474 ,the kings alone were buried in ,jerusalem2 but legend says that an exception was made in favour of ,huldah the prophetess4 ,,chapter ,,xi4 ,,avenging ,,justice4 #a ,,kings ii4 #ac-df4 ,the wrath of a king is as messengers of death4--,,prov4 xvi4 #ad4 ,the reign of ,solomon began with a threefold deed of blood4 ,an ,eastern king1 surrounded by the many princes of a polygamous family1 and liable to endless jealousies and plots1 is always in a condition of unstable equilibrium2 the death of a rival is regarded as his only safe imprisonment4#abj ,on the other hand1 it must be remembered that ,solomon allowed his other brethren and kinsmen to live2 and1 in point of fact1 his younger brother ,nathan became the ancestor of the ,divine ,messiah of his race4#aba ,it was the restless ambition of ,adonijah which again brought down an avalanche of ruin4 ,he and his adherents were necessarily under the cold shadow of royal disfavour1 and they must have known that they had sinned too deeply to be forgiven4 ,they felt the position intolerable4 ,in the light of the king's countenance is life1 and his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain2 but ,adonijah1 in the prime of strength and the heyday of passion1 beautiful and strong1 and once the favourite of his father1 could not forget the banquet at which all the princes and nobles and soldiers had shouted1 ,long live ,king ,adonijah6 ,that the royalty of one delirious day should be succeeded by the dull and suspected obscurity of dreary years was more than he could endure1 if1 by any possible subtlety or force1 he could avert a doom so unlike his former golden dreams4 ,was not ,solomon at least ten or fifteen years younger than himself8 ,was not his seat on the throne of his kingdom still insecure8 ,were not his own followers powerful and numerous8 ,perhaps one of those followers--the experienced ,joab1 or ,jonathan1 son of ,abiathar--whispered to him that he need not yet acquiesce in the ruin of his hopes1 and suggested a subtle method of strengthening his cause1 and keeping his claim before the eyes of the people4 ,every one knew that ,abishag1 the fair damsel of ,shunem1 the ideal of ,hebrew maidenhood1 was the loveliest virgin who could be found throughout all the land of ,israel4 ,had she been in the strict sense ,david's wife or concubine1 it would have been regarded as a deadly contravention of the ,mosaic law that she should be wedded to one of her stepsons4 ,but as she had only been ,david's nurse1 what could be more suitable than that so bright a maiden should be united to the handsome prince8 ,it was understood in all ,eastern monarchies that the harem of a predecessor belonged to the succeeding sovereign4 ,the first thing that a rival or a usurper aimed at was to win the prestige of possessing the wives of the royal house4 ,nathan reminds ,david that the ,lord had given his master's wives into his bosom4#abb ,ishbosheth1 weak as he was1 had been stung into indignation against his general and great-uncle the mighty ,abner1 because ,abner had taken ,rizpah1 the daughter of ,aiah1 ,saul's concubine1 to wife1 which looked like a dangerously ambitious encroachment upon the royal prerogative4 ,absalom1 by the vile counsel of ,ahithophel1 had openly taken possession of the ten concubines whom his father1 in his flight from ,jerusalem1 had left in charge of the palace4 ,the pseudo-,smerdis1 when he revolted against the absent ,cambyses1 at once seized his seraglio4#abc ,it is noted even in our ,english history that the relations between the ,earl of ,mortimer and ,queen ,isabella involved danger to the kingdom2 and when ,admiral ,seymour married ,queen ,catharine ,parr1 widow of ,henry ,,viii41 he at once entered into treasonable conspiracies4 ,adonijah knew well that he would powerfully further his ulterior purpose if he could secure the hand of the lovely ,shunamite4 ,yet he feared to make the request to ,solomon1 who had already inspired him with wholesome awe4 ,with pretended simplicity he sought the intercession of the ,gebira ,bathsheba1 who1 being the queen-mother1 exercised great influence as the first lady of the land4#abd ,she it was who had placed the jewelled bridal crown with her own hand on the head of her young son4#abe ,alarmed at his visit she asked1 ,comest thou peaceably8 ,he came1 he humbly assured her1 to ask a favour4 ,might she not think of his case with a little pity8 ,he was the elder son2 the kingdom by right of primogeniture was his2 all ,israel1 so he flattered himself1 had wished for his accession4 ,but it had all been in vain1 ,jehovah had given the kingdom to his brother4 ,might he not be allowed some small consolation1 some little accession to his dignity8 at least some little source of happiness in his home8 ,flattered by his humility and his appeal1 ,bathsheba encouraged him to proceed1 and he begged that1 as ,solomon would refuse no request to his mother1 would she ask that ,abishag might be his wife8 ,with extraordinary lack of insight1 ,bathsheba1 ambitious as she was1 failed to see the subtle significance of the request1 and promised to present his petition4 ,she went to ,solomon1 who immediately rose to meet her1 and seated her with all honour on a throne at his right hand4#abf ,she had only come1 she said1 to ask a small petition4 ,ask on1 my mother1 said the king tenderly1 for ,i will not say thee nay4 ,but no sooner had she mentioned the small petition than ,solomon burst into a flame of fury4 ,why did she not ask for the kingdom for ,adonijah at once8 ,he was the elder4 ,he had the chief priest and the chief captain with him4 ,they must be privy to this new plot4 ,but by the ,god who had given him his father's kingdom1 and established him a house1 ,adonijah had made the request to his own cost1 and should die that day4 ,the command was instantly given to ,benaiah1 who1 as captain of the body-guard1 was also chief executioner4 ,he slew ,adonijah that same hour1 and so the third of ,david's splendid sons died in his youth a death of violence4 ,we pause to ask whether the sudden and vehement outburst of ,king ,solomon's indignation was only due to political causes8 ,if1 as seems almost certain1 ,abishag is indeed the fair ,shulamite of the ,song of ,songs1 there can be little doubt that ,solomon himself loved her1#abg and that she was the jewel of his seraglio4#abh ,the true meaning of ,canticles is not difficult to read1 however much it may lend itself to mystical and allegorical applications4 ,it represents a rustic maiden1 faithful to her shepherd lover1 resisting all the allurements of a king's court1 and all the blandishments of a king's affection4 ,it is the one book of ,scripture which is exclusively devoted to sing the glory of a pure love4 ,the king is magnanimous2 he does not force the beautiful maiden to accept his addresses4 ,exercising her freedom1 and true to the dictates of her heart1 she rejoicingly leaves the perfumed atmosphere of the harem of ,jerusalem for the sweet and vernal air of her country home under the shadow of its northern hills4 ,solomon's impetuous wrath would not be so unaccountable if an unrequited affection added the sting of jealousy to the wrath of offended power4 ,the scene is the more interesting because it is one of the very few personal touches in the story of ,solomon1 which is chiefly composed of external details1 both in ,scripture and in such fragments as have been preserved of the pagan historian ,dios1 ,eupolemos1 ,nicolas ,polyhistor1 and those referred to by ,josephus1 ,eusebius1 and ,clemens of ,alexandria4 ,the fall of ,adonijah involved his chief votaries in ruin4 ,abiathar had been a friend and follower of ,david from his youthful days4 ,when ,doeg1 the treacherous ,edomite1 had informed ,saul that the priests of ,nob had shown kindness to ,david in his hunger and distress1 the demoniac king had not shrunk from employing the ,edomite herdsman to massacre all on whom he could lay his hands4 ,from this slaughter of eighty-five priests who wore linen ephods1 ,abiathar had fled to ,david1 who alone could protect him from the king's pursuit4#abi ,in the days when the outlaw lived in dens and caves1 the priest had been constantly with him1 and had been afflicted in all wherein he was afflicted1 and had inquired of ,god for him4 ,david had recognised how vast was his debt of gratitude to one whose father and all his family had been sacrificed for an act of kindness done to himself4 ,abiathar had been chief priest for all the forty years of ,david's reign4 ,in ,absalom's rebellion he had still been faithful to the king4 ,his son ,jonathan had been ,david's scout in the city4 ,abiathar had helped ,zadok to carry the ,ark to the last house by the ascent to the ,mount of ,olives1 and there he had stood under the olive tree by the wilderness#acj till all the people had passed by4 ,if his loyalty had been less ardent than that of his brother-priest ,zadok1 who had evidently taken the lead in the matter1 he had given no ground for suspicion4 ,but1 perhaps secretly jealous of the growing influence of his younger rival1 the old man1 after some fifty years of unswerving allegiance1 had joined his lifelong friend ,joab in supporting the conspiracy of ,adonijah1 and had not even now heartily accepted the rule of ,solomon4 ,assuming his complicity in ,adonijah's request1 ,solomon sent for him1 and sternly told him that he was a man of death1 i4e41 that death was his desert4 ,but it would have been outrageous to slay an aged priest1 the sole survivor of a family slaughtered for ,david's sake1 and one who had so long stood at the head of the whole religious organisation1 wearing the ,urim and carrying the ,ark4 ,he was therefore summarily deposed from his functions1 and dismissed to his paternal fields at ,anathoth1 a priestly town about six miles from ,jerusalem4#aca ,we hear no more of him2 but ,solomon's warning1 ,i will not at this time put thee to death1 was sufficient to show him that1 if he mixed himself with court intrigues again1 he would ultimately pay the forfeit with his life4 ,solomon1 like ,saul1 paid very little regard to benefit of the clergy4#acb ,the doom fell next on the arch-offender ,joab1 the white-haired hero of a hundred fights1 the ,douglas of the ,house of ,david4 ,he had1 if the reading of the ancient versions be correct1 turned after ,adonijah1 and had not turned after ,solomon4 ,solomon could hardly have felt at ease when a general so powerful and so popular was disaffected to his rule1 and ,joab read his own sentence in the execution of ,adonijah4 ,on hearing the news the old hero fled up ,mount ,zion1 and clung to the horns of the altar4 ,but ,abiathar1 who might have asserted the sacredness of the asylum1 was in disgrace1 and ,joab was not to escape4 ,what has happened to thee that thou hast fled to the altar8 was the message sent to him by the king4 ,because1 he answered1 ,i was afraid of thee1 and fled unto the ,lord4#acc ,it was ,solomon's habit to give his autocratic orders with laconic brevity4 ,go1 fall upon him1 he said to ,benaiah4 ,the scene which ensued was very tragic4 ,the two rivals were face to face4 ,on the one side the aged general1 who had placed on ,david's head the crown of ,rabbah1 who had saved him from the rebellions of ,absalom and of ,sheba1 and had been the pillar of his military glory and dominion for so many years2 on the other the brave soldier-priest1 who had won a chief place among the ,gibborim by slaying a lion in a pit on a snowy day1 and two lion-like men of ,moab1#acd and a gigantic ,egyptian whom he had attacked with only a staff1 and out of whose hand he had plucked a spear like a weaver's beam and killed him with his own spear4 ,as ,david lost confidence in ,joab he had reposed more and more confidence in this hero4 ,he had placed him over the body-guards1 whom he trusted more than the native militia4 ,the ,levite-soldier had no hesitation about acting as executioner1 but he did not like to slay any man1 and above all such a man1 in a place so sacred1#ace--;in a place where his blood would be mingled with that of the sacrifices with which the horns of the altar were besmeared4 ,the king bids thee come forth1 he said4 ,nay1 said ,joab1 but ,i will die here4 ,perhaps he thought that he might be protected by the asylum1 as ,adonijah had been2 perhaps he hoped that in any case his blood might cry to ,god for vengeance1 if he was slain in the sanctuary of ,mount ,zion1 and on the very altar of burnt offering4 ,benaiah naturally scrupled under such circumstances to carry out ,solomon's order1 and went back to him for instruction4 ,solomon had no such scruples1 and perhaps held that this act was meritorious4#acf ,slay him1 he said1 where he stands6 ,he is a twofold murderer2 let his blood be on his head4 ,then ,benaiah went back and killed him1 and was promoted to his vacant office4 ,such was the dismal end of so much valour and so much glory6 ,he had taken the sword1 and he perished by the sword4 ,and the ,jews believed that the curse of ,david clung to his house for ever1 and that among his descendants there never lacked one that was a leper1 or a lame man1 or a suicide1 or a pauper4#acg ,shimei's turn came next4 ,a watchful eye was fixed implacably on this last indignant representative of the ruined ,house of ,saul4 ,solomon had sent and ordered him to leave his estate at ,bahurim1 and build a house at ,jerusalem1 forbidding him to go any whither1#ach and telling him that if on any pretence he passed the wady of ,kidron he should be put to death4 ,as he could not visit ,bahurim1 or any of his ,benjamite connexions1 without passing the ,kidron1 all danger of further intrigues seemed to be obviated4#aci ,to these terms the dangerous man had sworn1 and for three years he kept them faithfully4 ,at the end of that time two of his slaves fled from him to ,achish1 son of ,maachah1 ,king of ,gath4#adj ,when informed of their whereabouts1 ,shimei1 apparently with no thought of evil1 saddled his mule and went to demand their restoration4 ,as he had not crossed the ,kidron1 and had merely gone to ,gath on private business1 he thought that ,solomon would never hear of it1 or would at any rate treat the matter as harmless4 ,solomon1 however1 regarded his conduct as a proof of retributive dementation4 ,he sent for him1 bitterly upbraided him1 and ordered ,benaiah to slay him4 ,so perished the last of ,solomon's enemies2 but ,shimei had two illustrious descendants in the persons of ,mordecai and ,queen ,esther4#ada ,solomon perhaps conceived himself to be only acting up to the true kingly ideal4 ,a king that sitteth on the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eyes4 ,a wise king scattereth the wicked1 and bringeth the wheel over them4 ,an evil man seeketh only rebellion2 therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him4 ,the fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion1 whoso provoketh him to anger endangereth his own soul4#adb ,on the other hand1 he continued hereditary kindness to ,chimham1 son of the old chief ,barzillai the ,gileadite1 who became the founder of the ,khan at ,bethlehem in which a thousand years later ,christ was born4#adc ,the elevation of ,zadok to the high priesthood vacated by the disgrace of ,abiathar restored the priestly succession to the elder line of the ,house of ,aaron4 ,aaron had been the father of four sons3 ,nadab1 ,abihu1 ,eleazar1 and ,ithamar4 ,the two eldest had perished childless in the wilderness1 apparently for the profanation of serving the tabernacle while in a state of intoxication and offering strange fire upon the altar4#add ,the son of ,eleazar was the fierce priestly avenger ,phinehas4 ,the order of succession was as follows3-- ,,aaron4 --------------- ,eleazar4 ,ithamar4 ,phinehas4 7gap47 ,abishua4 ,eli4 ,bukki4 ,phinehas4 ,uzzi4 ,ahitub4 ,zerahiah4 ,ahiah 7#a ,sam4 xiv4 #c74 ,meraioth4 ,ahimelech4 ,amariah4 ,abiathar 7#a ,sam4 xxii4 #bj74 ,ahitub4 ,zadok4#ade ,the question naturally arises how the line of succession came to be disturbed1 since to ,eleazar1 and his seed after him1 had been promised the covenant of an everlasting priesthood4#adf ,as the elder line continued unbroken1 how was it that1 for five generations at least1 from ,eli to ,abiathar1 we find the younger line of ,ithamar in secure and lineal possession of the high priesthood8 ,the answer belongs to the many strange reserves of ,jewish history4 ,it is clear from the silence of the ,book of ,chronicles that the intrusion1 however caused1 was an unpleasant recollection4 ,jewish tradition has perhaps revealed the secret1 and a very curious one it is4 ,we are told that ,phinehas was high priest when ,jephthah made his rash vow1 and that his was the hand which carried out the human sacrifice of ,jephthah's daughter4 ,but the inborn feelings of humanity in the hearts of the people were stronger than the terrors of superstition1 and arising in indignation against the high priest who could thus imbrue his hands in an innocent maiden's blood1 they drove him from his office and appointed a son of ,ithamar in his place4 ,the story then offers a curious analogy to that told of the ,homeric hero ,idomeneus1 ,king of ,crete4 ,caught in a terrible storm on his return from ,troy1 he too vowed that if his life were saved he would offer up in sacrifice the first living thing that met him4 ,his eldest son came forth with gladness to meet him4 ,idomeneus fulfilled his vow1 but the ,cretans rose in revolt against the ruthless father1 and a civil war ensued1 in which a hundred cities were destroyed and the king was driven into exile4 ,the ,jewish tradition is one which could hardly have been invented4 ,it is certain that ,jephthah's daughter was offered up in sacrifice1 in accordance with his rash vow4 ,this could hardly have been done by any but a priest1 and the ferocious zeal of ,phinehas would not perhaps have shrunk from the horrible consummation4 ,revolting1 even abhorrent1 as is such a notion from our views of ,god1 and decisively as human sacrifice is condemned by all the highest teaching of ,scripture1 the traces of this horrible tendency of human guilt and human fear are evident in the history of ,israel as of all other early nations4 ,some thought akin to it must have lain under the temptation of ,abraham to offer up his son ,isaac4 ,twelve centuries later ,manasseh made his son pass through the fire1 and kindled the furnaces of ,moloch at ,tophet in ,gehenna1 the valley of the sons of ,hinnom4#adg ,his grandfather ,ahaz had done the same before him1 offering sacrifice and burning his children in the fire4#adh ,surrounded by kindred tribes1 to which this worship was familiar1 the ,israelites1 in their ignorance and backsliding1 were not exempt from its fatal fascination4 ,solomon himself went after1 and built a high place for ,milcom1 the abomination of the ,ammonites1 on the right hand of the hill that is before ,jerusalem1 which from this desecration got the name of ,the ,mount of ,corruption4 ,these high places continued1 and it must be supposed1 had their votaries on that opprobrious hill1 until good ,josiah dismantled and defiled them about the year #fci1 some three centuries after they had been built4 ,but whether this legend about ,phinehas be tenable or not1 it is certain that the ,house of ,ithamar fell into deadly disrepute and abject misery4 ,in this the people saw the fulfilment of an old traditional curse1 pronounced by some unknown man of ,god on the ,house of ,eli1 that there should be no old man in his house for ever2 that his descendants should die in the flower of their age2 and that they should come cringing to the descendants of the priest whom ,god would raise up in his stead1 to get some humble place about the priesthood for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread4#adi ,the prolongation of the curse in the ,house of ,joab and of ,eli furnishes an illustration of the menacing appendix to the second commandment--,for ,i the ,lord thy ,god am a jealous ,god1 visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generation of them that hate ,me1 and showing mercy unto thousands 7of generations7 of them that love ,me and keep ,my commandments4 ,there is in families1 as in communities1 a solidarity alike of blessing and curse4 ,no man perishes alone in his iniquity1 whether he be an offender like ,achan or an offender like ,joab4 ,families have their inheritance of character1 their prerogative examples of misdoing1 their influence of the guilty past flowing like a tide of calamity over the present and the future6 ,the physical consequences of transgression remain long after the sins which caused them have ended4 ,three things1 however1 are observable in this1 as in every faithfully recorded history4 ,one is that mercy boasteth over justice1 and the area of beneficent consequence is more permanent and more continuous than that of the entailed curse1 as right is always more permanent than wrong4 ,a second is that1 though man at all times is liable to troubles and disabilities1 no innocent person who suffers temporal afflictions from the sins of his forefathers shall suffer one element of unjust depression in the eternal interests of life4 ,a third is that the ultimate prosperity of the children1 alike of the righteous and of sinners1 is in their own control2 each soul shall perish1 and shall only perish1 for its own sin4 ,in this sense1 though the fathers have eaten sour grapes1 the teeth of the children shall not be set on edge4 ,in the long generations the line of ,david no less than the line of ,joab1 the line of ,zadok no less than that of ,abiathar1 was destined to feel the ,nemesis of evil-doing1 and to experience that1 of whatever parentage men are born1 the law remains true--,say ye of the righteous1 that it shall be well with him3 for they shall eat the fruit of their doings4 ,woe unto the wicked6 it shall be ill with him3 for the reward of his hands shall be given him4#aej ,,footnotes3 #abj ,these events--like almost everything derogatory to ,david and ,solomon--are omitted by the chronicler4 #aba ,luke iii4 #ca4 ,salathiel1 son of ,neri 7,luke iii4 #bg71 of ,nathan's house1 was probably adopted by ,jeconiah1 who was childless2 or if he had a son ,assir 7captive71 the son had died4 #a ,chron4 iii4 #ag2 ,isa4 xxii4 #c4 #abb #b ,sam4 xii4 #h4 ,comp4 #a ,kings xx4 #g2 #b ,kings xxiv4 #ae4 ,we only know1 however1 of one wife of ,saul1 and one concubine4 #abc ,herod41 iii4 #fh2 ,justin41 x4 #b4 #abd ,comp4 #a ,kings xv4 #ac2 #b ,kings xi4 #a4 ,the queen-mother1 like the ,sultana ,walid1 is always more powerful than even the favourite wife4 #abe ,cant4 iii4 #aa4 #abf ,psalm xlv4 #i4 ,some little mystery evidently hangs over the name of ,bathsheba4 ,in #b ,sam4 xi4 #c she is called ,bathsheba1 the daughter of ,eliam1 the wife of ,uriah the ,hittite2 but in #a ,chron4 iii4 #e she is called ,bathshua1 the daughter of ,ammiel4 ,now ,shua was a ,canaanite name 7,gen4 xxxviii4 #ab2 #a ,chron4 ii4 #c71 and it is at least remarkable that ,bathsheba should be married to a ,hittite4 ,further1 the chronicler disguises ,ahithophel the ,gilonite 7the father of ,eliam7 into ,ahijah the ,pelonite1 who is one of ,david's ,gibborim in #a ,chron4 xi4 #cf4 ,pelonite means nescio qius2 in ,spanish1 ,don ,fulano1--,signor ,so-and-so4 ,and how are we to account for the strange name ,ahithophel 7brother of foolishness878 #abg ,comp4 ,cant4 vii4 #a4 ,it has been assumed that ,solomon had already married ,naamah the ,ammonitess1 and that ,rehoboam was already born 7see #a ,kings xiv4 #ba71 but this is uncertain4 ,rehoboam1 if he had reached the age of forty-one1 could hardly have been called young and tender-hearted 7#b ,chron4 xiii4 #g74 #abh ,shunem 7,sulem1 ,euseb41 ,jer47 is now ,solam 7,robinson1 ,researches1 iii4 #djb74 #abi #a ,sam4 xxii4 #bc4 #acj #b ,sam4 xv4 #ah 7,,lxx474 #aca ,anata1 ,robinson1 ,researches1 ii1 #cai2 ,josh4 xxi4 #ah2 #a ,chron4 vi4 #fj4 ,it was the native town of ,jeremiah 7,jer4 i4 #a74 #acb ,it should be remembered that1 as ,ewald points out1 imprisonment for life was a thing unknown4 #acc ,this interesting addition is found in the ,septuagint version4 #acd #b ,sam4 xxiii4 #bj4 ,ewald1 ,thenius1 and most other critics1 followed by the ,r4,v41 adopt the ,,lxx4 reading1 ,slew the two sons of ,ariel of ,moab4 #ace ,comp4 #b ,kings xi4 #ae4 #acf ,see ,deut4 xix4 #ac4 #acg #b ,sam4 iii4 #bh1 #bi4 #ach 7#a ,kings ii4 #cf74 #aci ,it should be remembered that when ,shimei came to meet ,david on his return1 he managed to muster one thousand of his ,benjamite kinsmen4 ,such local influence might prove troublesome4 #adj ,achish seems to have been the dynastic name of the kings of ,gath 7#a ,sam4 xxi4 #aj1 xxvii4 #b74 ,if this was the ,achish1 son of ,maoch1 with whom ,david had taken refuge fifty years before1 he must now have been a very old man4 #ada ,esth4 ii4 #e4 #adb ,prov4 xix4 #aa1 xx4 #b1 #h1 #bf4 #adc #a ,kings ii4 #g2 ,jer4 xli4 #ag4 #add ,lev4 x4 #a-bj2 ,num4 iii4 #d1 xxvi4 #fa4 ,this has been not unnaturally inferred from the prohibition to the priests to drink wine while serving the tabernacle lest they die1 which occurs immediately after the catastrophe of the two priests 7,lev4 x4 #i-aa74 #ade #a ,chron4 vii4 #d-ae4 ,in ,david's time there were only eight descendants of ,ithamar1 but sixteen of ,eleazar 7#a ,chron4 xxiv4 #d74 ,for full discussion of these priestly genealogies1 see ,lord ,a4 ,hervey1 ,on the ,genealogies1 pp4 #bgg-cjf4 ,it is true that they are not free from elements of difficulty1 but ,i am unable to find any valid ground for the suspicion of some critics that ,zadok was not even a priest1 or of the priestly house at all4 ,all the evidence we have points in the opposite direction4 #adf ,num4 xxv4 #ac4 #adg #b ,chron4 xxxiii4 #f2 #b ,kings xxi4 #f4 ,his children4 #adh #b ,chron4 xxviii4 #c2 #b ,kings xvi4 #c4 ,his son4 #adi #a ,sam4 ii4 #bg-cf4 ,for eight centuries there was no other instance of a high priest's deposition4 #aej ,isa4 iii4 #aj4 ,,chapter ,,xii4 ,,the ,,boy-,,king',s ,,wisdom4 #a ,,kings iii4 #a-bh4 ,an oracle is upon the lips of a king4--,,prov4 xvi4 #aj 7,heb474 ,a king that sitteth on the throne of judgment scattereth away all evil with his eye4--,,prov4 xx4 #h4 ,ch' ei fu ,r1 che chiese senno ,accioch ,r sufficiente fosse4 ,,dante1 ,parad41 xiii4 #ie4 ,deos ipsos precor ut mihi ad finem usque vit quietam et intelligentem humani divinique juris mentem duint4--,,tac41 ,ann41 iv4 #ch4 ,it would have thrown an interesting light on the character and development of ,solomon1 if we had been able to conjecture with any certainty what was his age when the death of ,david made him the unquestioned king4 ,the pagan historian ,eupolemos1 quoted by ,eusebius1 says that he was twelve2 ,josephus asserts that he was fifteen4 ,if ,rehoboam was indeed as old as forty-one when he came to the throne 7#a ,kings xiv4 #ba71 ,solomon can hardly have been less than twenty at his accession1 for in that case he must have been married before ,david's death 7#a ,kings xi4 #db74 ,but the reading forty-one in #a ,kings xiv4 #ba is altered by some into twenty-one1 and we are left in complete uncertainty4 ,solomon is called a child 7#a ,kings iii4 #g71 young and tender 7#a ,chron4 xxix4 #a72 but his acts show the full vigour and decision of a man4#aea ,the composite character of the ,books of ,kings leads to some disturbance of the order of events1 and #a ,kings iii4 #a-d is perhaps inserted to explain ,solomon's sacrifice at the high place of ,gibeon1#aeb where stood the brazen altar of the old ,tabernacle4#aec ,but no apology is needed for that act4#aed ,the use of high places1 even when they were consecrated to the worship of ,jehovah1 was regarded in later days as involving principles of danger1 and became a grave offence in the eyes of all who took the ,deuteronomic standpoint4 ,but high places to ,jehovah1 as distinct from those dedicated to idols1 were not condemned by the earlier prophets1 and the resort to them was never regarded as blameworthy before the establishment of the central sanctuary4 ,after the frightful massacre of the descendants of ,aaron at ,nob1 the old ,tabernacle of the congregation and the great brazen altar of burnt offerings had been removed to ,gibeon from a city defiled by the blood of priests4#aee ,gibeon stood on a commanding elevation within easy distance of ,jerusalem1 and was henceforth regarded as the great high place1 until the ,temple on ,mount ,zion was finished4 ,thither ,solomon went in that imposing civil1 religious1 and military procession of which the tradition may be preserved in the name of ,wady ,suleiman still given to the adjoining valley4 ,there1 with ,oriental magnificence1 like ,xerxes at ,troy1 he offered what the ,greeks called a chiliombe1 that is1 a tenfold hecatomb of burnt offerings4#aef ,this thousandfold holocaust1 as the ,septuagint terms it1 must have been a stately and long-continued function1 and in approval of his sacrifice ,jehovah granted a vision to the youthful king4 ,will the ,lord be pleased with thousands of rams and ten thousands of rivers of oil1 when all the beasts of the forest are ,his1 and the cattle upon a thousand hills8 ,thinkest thou1 ,he asked1 in the words of the ,psalmist1 that ,i will eat bull's flesh or drink the blood of goats8 ,no2 but ,god always accepts a willing sacrifice in accordance with the purpose and sincerity of the giver4 ,in reward for the pure intention of the king ,he appeared to ,solomon in a dream1 and said1 ,ask what ,i shall give thee4 ,the ,jews recognised three modes of ,divine communication--by dreams2 by ,urim1 and by prophets4 ,the highest and most immediate illumination was the prophetic4 ,the revelation by means of the primitive ,urim and ,thummin1 the oracle and jewelled breastplate of the high priest1 was the poorest1 the most elementary1 the most liable to abuse4 ,it was analogous to the method used by the ,egyptian chief priests1 who wore round their necks a sapphire ornament called ,thmei1 or truth1 for purposes of divination4#aeg ,after the death of ,david the ,urim and ,thummin fell into such absolute desuetude1 as a survival of primitive times1 that we do not read of its being consulted again in a single instance4 ,it is not so much as mentioned during the five centuries of the history of the kings1 and we do not hear of it afterwards4 ,solomon never once inquired of the priests as ,david did repeatedly4 ,in the reign of ,solomon the voice of prophecy1 too1 was silent1 until disasters began to cloud its close4 ,times of material prosperity and autocratic splendour are unfavourable to the prophet's function1 and sometimes1 as in the days of ,ahab1 the prophets themselves philippised in ,jehovah's name4 ,but revelation by dreams occurs in all ages4 ,in his prophecy of the great future1 ,joel says1 ,your old men shall see visions1 your young men shall dream dreams4 ,it is true that dreams must always have a subjective element1 yet1 as ,aristotle says1 ,the visions of the noble are better than those of common men4#aeh ,the dreams of night are reflections of the thoughts of day4 ,solomon worships ,god by day2 ,god appears to ,solomon by night4 ,well may we look to enjoy ,god1 when we have served ,him4#aei ,full of the thoughts inspired by an intense devotion1 and a yearning desire to rule aright1 the sleeping soul of ,solomon became bright with eyes1#afj and in his dream he made a worthy answer to the appeal of ,god4 ,ask what ,i shall give thee6 ,that blessed and most loving offer is made to every human soul4 ,to the meanest of us all ,god flings open the treasuries of heaven4 ,the reason why we fatally lose them is because we are blinded by the glamour of temptation1 and snatch instead at glittering bubbles or ,dead ,sea fruits4 ,we fail to attain the best gifts1 because so few of us earnestly desire them1 and so many disbelieve the offer that is made of them4 ,yet there is no living soul to which ,god has not given the choice of good and evil4 ,he hath set fire and water before thee3 stretch forth thy hand unto whether thou wilt4 ,before man is life and death2 and whether him liketh shall be given him4#afa ,even when our choice is not evil it is often desperately frivolous1 and it is only too late that we rue the folly of having rejected the better and chosen the worse4 ,damsels of ,time the hypocritic days1 ,muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes1 ,and marching single in an endless file1 ,bring diadems and fagots in their hands4 ,to each they offer gifts after his will1-- ,bread1 kingdoms1 stars1 and sky that holds them all4 ,i1 in my pleachd garden1 watched the pomp1 ,forgot my morning wishes2 hastily ,took a few herbs and apples1 and the ,day ,turned and departed silent4 ,i1 too late1 ,under her solemn fillet saw the scorn4#afb ,but ,solomon made the wise choice4 ,in his dream he thanked ,god for ,his mercifully fulfilled promise to ,david his father1 and with the touching humble confession1 ,i am but a little child3 ,i know not how to go out or come in1#afc he begged for an understanding heart to judge between right and wrong in guiding his great and countless people4#afd ,god was pleased with the noble1 unselfish request4 ,the youthful king might have besought the boon of many days1 which was so highly valued before ,christ had brought life and immortality to light2 or for riches1 or for victory over his enemies4 ,instead of this he had asked for understanding1 to discern judgment1 and the lesser gifts were freely accorded him4 ,seek ye first the kingdom of ,god1 and ,his righteousness1 and all these things shall be added unto you4#afe ,god promised him that he should be a king of unprecedented greatness4 ,he freely gave him riches and honour1 and1 conditionally on his continued faithfulness1 a long life4 ,the condition was broken1 and ,solomon was not more than sixty years old when he was called before the ,god whom he forsook4#aff ,and ,solomon awoke1 and behold it was a dream4 ,but he knew well that it was also more than a dream1 and that ,god giveth to ,his beloved even sleeping4#afg ,in reverential gratitude he offered a second sacrifice of burnt offerings before the ark on ,mount ,zion1 and added to them peace offerings1 with which he made a great feast to all his servants4 ,twice again did ,god appear to ,solomon2 but the second time it was to warn1 and the third time to condemn4 ,in the parallel account given by the chronicler1 ,solomon says1 ,give me now wisdom and knowledge1 and ,god replies1 ,wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee4 ,there is a wide difference between the two things4 ,knowledge may come while wisdom still lingers1 and wisdom may exist in ,divine abundance where knowledge is but scant and superficial4 ,the wise may be as ignorant as ,st4 ,antony1 or ,st4 ,francis of ,assisi2 the masters of those who know may show as little 'wisdom for a man's self' as ,ablard1 or as ,francis ,bacon4 ,among the ,jews one set of terms does service to express both intellectual and moral wisdom4 ,the 'wise' man means the righteous man2 the 'fool' is one who is godless4 ,intellectual terms that describe knowledge are also moral terms describing life4 ,no doubt in the ultimate senses of the words there can be no true knowledge1 as there can be no perfect wisdom1 without goodness4 ,this was a truth with which ,solomon himself became deeply impressed4 ,the fear of the ,lord1 he said1 is the beginning of wisdom1 but fools despise knowledge and understanding4 ,the lineaments of a fool are drawn in the ,book of ,proverbs1 and they bear the impress of moral baseness and moral aberrations4 ,to ,solomon both boons were given1 wisdom and understanding exceeding much1 and largeness of heart1 even as the sand that is on the sea shore4 ,of his many forms of intellectual eminence ,i will speak later on4 ,what he longed for most was evidently moral insight and practical sagacity4 ,he felt that through justice shall the throne be established4 ,practical wisdom was eminently needed for the office of a judge4#afh ,judgeship was a main function of ,eastern royalty1 and rulers were called ,shophetim or judges4#afi ,the reality of the gift which ,solomon had received from ,god was speedily to be tested4#agj ,two harlots came before him4#aga ,one had overlaid her child in the night1 and stealing the living child of the other she put her dead child in its place4 ,there was no evidence to be had4 ,it was simply the bare word of one disreputable woman against the bare word of the other4 ,with instant decision1 and a flash of insight into the springs of human actions1 ,solomon gave the apparently childish order to cut the children in two1 and divide them between the claimants4 ,the people laughed1#agb and the delinquent accepted the horrible decision2 but the mother of the living child yearned for her babe1 and she cried out1 ,o my lord1 give her the living babe1#agc and in no wise slay it4 ,give her the living babe1 and in no wise slay it1 murmured the king to himself1 repeating the mother's words2 and then he burst out with the triumphant verdict1 ,give her the living child6 she is the mother thereof6#agd ,the story has several parallels4 ,it is said by ,diodorus ,siculus that when three youths came before ,ariopharnes1 ,king of ,thrace1 each claiming to be the only son of the ,king of the ,cimmerians1 he ordered them each to hurl a javelin at their father's corpse4 ,two obeyed1 one refused1 and ,ariopharnes at once proclaimed him to be the true son4#age ,similarly an ,indian story tells that a woman1 before she bathed1 left her child on the bank of the pool1 and a female demon carried it off4 ,the goddess1 before whom each claimed the child1 ordered them to pull it in two between them1 and consigned it to the mother who shuddered at the test4#agf ,a judgment similarly founded on filial instinct is attributed to the ,emperor ,claudius4 ,a mother refused to acknowledge her son2 and as there were no proofs ,claudius ordered her to marry the youth1 whereupon she was obliged to acknowledge that he was her son4#agg ,modern critics1 wise after the event1 express themselves very slightingly of the amount of intelligence required for the decision2 but the people saw the value of the presence of mind and rapid intuition which settled the question by bringing an individual dilemma under the immediate arbitrament of a general law4 ,they rejoiced to recognise the practical wisdom which ,god had given to their young king4 ,the word ,chokhmah1 which is represented by one large section of ,jewish literature1 implied the practical intelligence derived from insight or experience1 the power to govern oneself and others4 ,its conclusions were expressed chiefly in a gnomic form1 and they pass through various stages in the ,sapiential ,books of the ,old ,testament4 ,the chief books of the ,chokhmah are the ,books of ,proverbs1 ,job1 and ,ecclesiastes1 followed by such books as ,wisdom and ,ecclesiasticus4 ,on the ,divine side ,wisdom is the ,spirit of ,god1 regarded by man under the form of ,providence 7,wisdom i4 #d1 #g1 vii4 #g1 #bb1 ix4 #ag72 and on the human side it is trustworthy knowledge of the things that are 7id4 vii4 #ag74 ,it is1 in fact1 a knowledge of ,divine and human things1 and of their causes 7#d ,macc4 ii4 #af74 ,this branch of wisdom could be repeatedly shown by ,solomon at the city gate and in the hall of judgment4 #b4 ,his varied intellectual wisdom created deeper astonishment4 ,he spake1 we are told1 of trees from the cedar which is in ,lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall3 he spake also of beasts and fowl and of creeping things and of fishes4 ,this knowledge has been misunderstood and exaggerated by later tradition4 ,it is expanded in the ,book of ,wisdom 7viii4 #ag7 into a perfect knowledge of kosmogony1 astronomy1 the alterations of solstices1 the cycles of years1 the natures of wild beasts1 the forces of spirits1 the reasonings of men1 the diversities of plants4 ,solomon became to ,eastern legend ,the warrior-sage1 whose restless mind ,through nature's mazes wandered unconfined1 ,who every bird1 and beast1 and insect knew1 ,and spake of every plant that quaffs the dew4 ,his knowledge1 however1 does not seem to have been even empirically scientific4 ,it consisted in the moral and religious illustration of truth by emblems derived from nature4#agh ,he surpassed1 we are told1 the ethnic gnomic wisdom of all the children of the ,east--the ,arabians and ,chaldans1 and all the vaunted scientific and mystic wisdom of ,egypt4#agi ,ethan and ,heman were ,levitic poets and musicians2#ahj ,chalcol and ,darda#aha were sons of the choir1 i4e41 poets 7,luther71 or sacred singers2#ahb and all four were famed for wisdom2 but ,solomon excelled them all4 ,of his one thousand and five songs1 the majority were probably secular4 ,only two psalms are even traditionally assigned to him4#ahc ,of his three thousand proverbs not more than two hundred survive1 even if all in the ,book of ,proverbs be his4 ,tradition adds that he was a master of riddles or dark sayings1 by which he won largely in fines from ,hiram1 whom he challenged for their solution1 until the ,tyrian king defeated him by the aid of a sharp youth named ,abdemon4#ahd ,specimens of these riddles with their answers may be found in the ,book of ,proverbs1#ahe for the ,hebrew word proverb 7,mashal7 probably means originally1 an illustration4 ,this book also contains various ambiguous hard sayings of which the skilful construction awoke admiration and stimulated thought4#ahf ,the ,queen of ,sheba is said to have tested ,solomon by riddles4#ahg ,the tradition gradually spread in the ,east that ,solomon was also skilled in magic arts1 that he knew the language of the birds1#ahh and possessed a seal which gave him mastery over the genii4 ,in the ,book of ,wisdom he is made to say1 ,all such things as are either secret or manifest1 them ,i know4 ,josephus attributes to him the formul and spells of exorcism1 and in ,eccles4 ii4 #h the words rendered musical instruments 7shiddah and shiddoth2 ,r4,v41 concubines very many7 were understood by the ,rabbis to mean that he was the lord over male and female demons4#ahi #c4 ,far more precious than practical or intellectual ability is the gift of moral wisdom1 which ,solomon so greatly appreciated but so imperfectly attained4 ,yet he felt that wisdom is the principal thing1 therefore get wisdom4 ,the world gives that name to many higher and lower manifestations of capacity and attainment1 but wisdom is in ,scripture the one law of all true life4 ,in that magnificent outburst of ,semitic poetry1 the twenty-eighth chapter of the ,book of ,job1 after pointing out that there is such a thing as natural knowledge--that there is a vein for the silver1 and ore of gold1 and a place of sapphires1 and reservoirs of subterranean fire--the writer asks3 ,but where shall wisdom be found8 and where is the place of understanding8 ,after showing with marvellous power that it is beyond man's unaided search--that the depths and the seas say1 ,it is not in us1 and destruction and death have but heard the fame thereof with their ears--he adds with one great crash of concluding music1 ,god understandeth the way thereof1 and ,he knoweth the place thereof4444 ,and unto man ,he said1 ,behold1 the fear of the ,lord1 that is wisdom2 and to depart from evil is understanding4#aij ,and again we read1 ,the fear of the ,lord is the beginning of knowledge4#aia ,the sated cynic of the ,book of the ,ecclesiastes1 or one who had studied1 not without dissatisfaction1 his sad experience1 adds1 ,fear ,god1 and keep ,his commandments3 for this is the whole duty of man4 ,and in answer to the question ,who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you8 ,st4 ,james1 the ,lord's brother1 who had evidently been a deep student of the ,sapiential literature1 does not answer1 ,he who understands all mysteries1 or1 ,he who speaks with the tongue of men or of angels1 but1 ,let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom4 ,men whom the world has deemed wise have often fallen into utter infatuation1 as it is written1 ,he taketh the wise in their own craftiness2 but heavenly wisdom may belong to the most ignorant and simplehearted4 ,it is first pure1 then peaceable1 gentle1 and easy to be entreated1 without partiality and without hypocrisy4 ,we should observe1 however1 that the ,chokhmah1 or wisdom-literature of the ,jews1 while it incessantly exalts morality1 and sometimes almost attains to a perception of the spiritual life1 was neither prophetic nor priestly in its character4 ,it bears the same relation to the teaching of the prophets on the one hand1 and the priests on the other1 as morality does to religion and to externalism4 ,its teaching is loftier and truer than the petty insistence of ,pharisaism on meats and drinks and divers washings1 in that it deals with the weightier matters of the law2 but it does not attain to the passionate spirituality of the greater ,hebrew seers4 ,it cares next to nothing for ritual1 and therefore rises above the developed ,judaism of the post-exilic epoch4 ,it is lofty and true inasmuch as it breathes the spirit of the ,ten ,commandments1 but it has not learnt the freedom of love and the beatitudes of perfect union with ,god4 ,in one word1 it finds its culmination in ,proverbs and ,ecclesiasticus1 rather than in the spirit of the ,sermon on the ,mount and the ,gospel of ,st4 ,john4 ,we cannot better conclude this chapter than with the eulogy of the son of ,sirach3 ,solomon reigned in a peaceable time and was honoured2 for ,god made all quiet round about him1 that he might build a house in ,his name and prepare ,his sanctuary for ever4 ,how wise wast thou in thy youth1 and1 as a flood1 filled with understanding6 ,thy soul covered the whole earth1 and thou filledst it with dark parables4 ,thy name went far unto the islands1 and for thy peace thou wast beloved4 ,the countries marvelled at thee for thy songs1 and proverbs1 and parables1 and interpretations4 ,by the name of the ,lord ,god1 who is called the ,lord ,god of ,israel1 thou didst gather gold as tin1 and didst multiply silver as lead4#aib ,,footnotes3 #aea ,see #a ,sam4 xxi4 #f1 compared with #a ,chron4 xvi4 #ci1 #dj2 #b ,chron4 i4 #c4 #aeb ,an old ,hivite capital 7,josh4 xviii4 #ba-be71 now ,el ,jib4 ,josephus alters it to ,hebron4 #aec ,see #a ,chron4 xvi4 #ci1 #dj1 xxi4 #bi2 #b ,chron4 i4 #c4 ,the annals of ,solomon fall into three divisions3 first1 his secure establishment upon the throne 7#a ,kings i1 ii472 next1 his wisdom1 wealth1 glory1 and great buildings1 especially the building of the ,temple 7iii4-x472 lastly1 his fall and death 7xi474 #aed ,it was sufficiently sanctioned by ,exod4 xx4 #bd1 and ,jerusalem was not yet chosen 7,deut4 xii4 #ac1 #ad74 ,see ,judg4 vi4 #bd1 xiii4 #ai2 #a ,sam4 ix4 #ab1 etc4 ,this seems to have been the last great sacrifice there4 ,in #a ,kings iii4 #e-ae the sacrifice is regarded with approval2 in verses #b1 #c it is condemned1 but excused by circumstances2 in the verses inserted by the chronicler 7#b ,chron4 i4 #c-f7 it is said that the ,tabernacle was there4 #aee ,see #a ,sam4 xxii4 #ag-ai4 #aef ,herod41 vii4 #dc4 ,xerxes offered one thousand at ,troy1 and ,crsus three thousand at ,delphi 7,id41 i4 #ej74 #aeg ,hence1 perhaps1 the ,,lxx4 rendering of 4 ,this view is accepted by ,hengstenberg 7,egypt and the ,five ,books of ,moses1 chap4 vi471 and ,kalisch 7on ,exod4 xxviii4 #ca74 #aeh ,arist41 ,eth4 ,nic41 i4 #ac3 4 #aei ,bishop ,hall4 #afj 4--sch41 ,eum41 #ajd4 #afa ,ecclus4 xv4 #af1 #ag4 #afb ,emerson4 #afc ,the phrase a little child 7comp4 ,jer4 i4 #f7 hardly bears on his actual age4 ,see ,gen4 xliii4 #h2 ,exod4 xxxiii4 #aa4 ,it is proverbial like the subsequent phrase1 for which see ,deut4 xxviii4 #f2 ,psalm cxxi4 #h1 etc4 #afd ,heb41 ,a hearing heart4 ,,lxx41 ,a heart to hear and judge ,thy people in righteousness4 ,in #b ,chron4 i4 #aj1 ,wisdom and knowledge4 #afe ,matt4 vi4 #cc4 #aff ,josephus 7,antt41 ,,viii4 vii4 #h7 makes him die at ninety-four1 and become king at fourteen4 ,perhaps he mistook ' for ' in the ,,lxx4 #afg ,psalm cxxvii4 #b 7uncertain74 #afh #a ,sam4 viii4 #f1 #bj2 #b ,sam4 xv4 #d4 ,to rule was with the ancients the synonym of to judge4 ,artemidorus1 ,oneirocr41 ii4 #ad4 7,bhr1 ad loc474 #afi ,compare the ,phnician's ,suffetes 7,liv474 #agj ,as instances of the lower sense in which the term wisdom was applied1 see #b ,sam4 xiii4 #c 7,jonadab72 xiv4 #b 7the woman of ,tekoa72 xx4 #af 7the woman of ,abel of ,beth-maachah74 #aga ,the ,rabbis call them innkeepers1 as they call ,rahab4 #agb ,i follow the not improbable additional details given by ,josephus from tradition4 #agc 4 ,,lxx41 4 #agd ,so the ,greek version1 which represents the clause rightly4 ,tradition narrates a yet earlier specimen of ,solomon's wisdom4 ,some sheep had strayed into a pasture4 ,the owner of the land demanded reparation4 ,david said that to repay his loss he might keep the sheep4 ,no1 said ,solomon1 who was but eleven years old1 let him keep them only till their wool1 milk1 and lambs have repaid the damage2 then let him restore them to their owner4 ,david admitted that this was the more equitable judgment1 and he adopted it4 ,see ,the ,qur'an1 ,sura xxi4 #gi 7,palmer's ,qur'an1 ii4 #eb74 #age ,the parallel is adduced by ,grotius4 #agf ,quoted by ,bhr4 #agg ,suet41 ,claud41 #ae4 #agh ,for references to animals1 etc41 see ,prov4 vi4 #f1 xxiv4 #cj-cd1 xxx4 #ae-ai1 #bd-ca2 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 ii4 #e2 ,ecclus4 xlvii4 #ag4 #agi ,see ,isa4 xix4 #aa1 xxxi4 #b2 ,acts vii4 #bb2 ,herod41 ii4 #afj2 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 ii4 #e 7,keil74 #ahj ,see #a ,chron4 ii4 #f1 vi4 #dd1 xv4 #ag1 #ai1 xxv4 #e4 ,titles of ,psalms xviii41 lxxxviii41 lxxxix4 ,ezrahite1 perhaps1 is a transposition of ,zerahite4 #aha #a ,chron4 ii4 #f4 ,in ,seder ,olam they are called prophets who prophesied in ,egypt4 #ahb ,sons of ,mahol 7comp4 ,eccles4 xii4 #d74 #ahc ,psalms lxxii41 cxxvii4 ,the so-called ,psalms of ,solomon1 fifteen in number1 are of the ,maccabean age2 ,josephus calls his songs 1 and his proverbs 4 #ahd ,see ,euseb41 ,prp4 ,evang41 ix4 #cd1 #ai4 #ahe ,prov4 xi4 #bb1 xxiv4 #cj-cd1 xxv4 #be1 xxvi4 #h1 xxx4 #ae4 #ahf ,e4g41 ,prov4 vi4 #aj4 #ahg #a ,kings x4 #a2 ,,lxx41 4 ,see ,wnsche1 ,die ,rthselweisheit1 #ahhc2 ,grtz1 ,hist4 of the ,jews1 i4 #afb4 ,for specimens of her traditional puzzles see the author's ,solomon1 p4 #ace 7,men of the ,bible74 #ahh ,and ,solomon was ,david's heir1 and said1 ,ye folk6 we have been taught the speech of birds1 and we have been given everything3 verily this is a ,divine grace 7,qur'an1 ,sura xxvii4 #ae74 ,for the legend of ,solomon and the hoopoes1 see ,sura #bg4 #ahi ,according to ,suidas 7s4v41 7 ,hezekiah found his 7magic87 formul for the cure of diseases engraved on the posts of the ,temple4 ,see ,targum on ,esth4 i4 #b2 ,eccles4 ii4 #h4 #aij ,job xxviii4 #bc1 #bh4 #aia ,prov4 i4 #g4 #aib ,ecclus4 xlvii4 #ac-ah4 ,,chapter ,,xiii4 ,,solomon',s ,,court ,,and ,,kingdom4 #a ,,kings iv4 #a-cd4 ,but what more oft in nations grown corrupt ,and by their vices brought to servitude1 ,than to love bondage more than liberty1 ,bondage with ease than strenuous liberty8 ,samson ,agonistes4 ,when ,david was dead1 and ,solomon was established on his throne1 his first thoughts were turned to the consolidation of his kingdom4 ,he was probably quite a youth4#aic ,he was not1 nor did he ever desire to be1 a warlike prince2 but he was compelled to make himself secure from two enemies--,hadad and ,rezon--who began almost at once to threaten his frontiers4 ,of these1 however1 we shall speak later on1 since it is only towards the close of ,solomon's reign that they seem to have given serious trouble4 ,if the second psalm is by ,solomon it may point to some early disturbances among heathen neighbours which he had successfully put down4 ,the only actual expedition which ,solomon ever made was one against a certain ,hamath-,zobah1 to which1 however1 very little importance can be attached4 ,it is simply mentioned in one line in the ,book of ,chronicles1 and it is hard to believe--considering that ,rezon had possession of ,damascus--that ,solomon was master of the great ,hamath4#aid ,he made a material alteration in the military organisation of his kingdom by establishing a standing army of fourteen hundred war-chariots1 and twelve thousand horsemen1 whom he dispersed in various cities and barracks1 keeping some of them at ,jerusalem4#aie ,in order to save his kingdom from attack ,solomon expended vast sums on the fortification of frontier towns4 ,in the north he fortified ,hazor2 in the north-west ,megiddo4 ,the passes to ,jerusalem on the west were rendered safe by the fortresses at ,upper and ,nether ,bethhoron4 ,the southern districts were overawed by the building of ,baalath and ,tamar1 the palm-city1 which is described as in the wilderness in the land1--perhaps in the desolate tract on the road from ,hebron to ,elath4#aif ,movers thinks that ,hazezon-,tamar or ,engedi is meant1 as this town is called ,tamar in ,ezek4 xlvii4 #ai4 ,as the king grew more and more in power he gave full reins to his innate love of magnificence4 ,we can best estimate the sudden leap of the kingdom into luxurious civilisation if we contrast the royalty of ,saul with that of ,solomon4 ,saul was little more than a peasant-prince1 a local emr1 and such state as he had was of the humblest description4 ,but ,solomon vied with the gorgeous secular dynasts of historic empires4 ,his position had become much more splendid owing to his alliance with the ,king of ,egypt--an alliance of which his humbler predecessors would scarcely have dreamed4 ,we are not told the name of his ,egyptian bride1 but she must have been the daughter of one of the last kings of the twenty-first ,tanite dynasty--either ,psinaces1 or ,psusennes ,,ii4#aig ,the dynasty had been founded at ,tanis 7,zoan7 about ,b4,c4 #aajj by an ambitious priest named ,hir-hor4 ,it only lasted for five generations4 ,whatever other dower ,solomon received with this ,egyptian princess1 his father-in-law rendered him one signal service4 ,he advanced from ,egypt with an army against the ,canaanite town of ,gezer1 which he conquered and destroyed4#aih ,solomon rebuilt it as an outpost of defence for ,jerusalem4 ,further than this the ,egyptian alliance did not prove to be of much use4 ,the last king of this weak twenty-first dynasty was succeeded ,b4,c4 #iij by the founder of a new ,bubastite dynasty1 the great ,shishak ,i4 7,shesonk1 71 the protector of ,jeroboam and the plunderer of ,jerusalem and its ,temple4 ,ker'amat1 niece of the last king of the dynasty1 married ,shishak1 the founder of the new dynasty1 and was the mother of ,u-,sark-on ,i4 7,zerah the ,ethiopian74 ,it has been a matter of dispute among the ,rabbis whether ,solomon was commendable or blameworthy for contracting this foreign alliance4 ,if we judge him simply from the secular standpoint1 nothing could be more obviously politic than the course he took4 ,nor did he break any law in marrying ,pharaoh's daughter4 ,moses had not forbidden the union with an ,egyptian woman4 ,still1 from the religious point of view1 it was inevitable that such a connexion would involve consequences little in accordance with the theocratic ideal4 ,the kings of ,judah must not be judged as though they were ordinary sovereigns4 ,they were meant to be something more than mere worldly potentates4 ,the ,egyptian alliance1 instead of flattering the pride1 only wounded the susceptibilities of the later ,jews4 ,the ,rabbis had a fantastic notion that ,shimei had been ,solomon's teacher1 and that the king did not fall into the error of wedding an alien#aii until ,shimei had been driven from ,jerusalem4#bjj ,that there was some sense of doubt in ,solomon's mind appears from the statement in #b ,chron4 viii4 #aa1 that he deemed it unfit for his bride to have her residence on ,mount ,moriah1 a spot hallowed by the presence of the ,ark of ,god4#bja ,that she became a proselytess has been suggested1 but it is most unlikely4 ,had this been the case it would have been mentioned in contrast with the heathenism of the fair idolatresses who in later years beguiled the king's heart4 ,on the other hand1 the princess1 who was his chief if not his earliest bride1 does not seem to have asked for any shrine or chapel for the practice of her ,egyptian rites4 ,this is the more remarkable since ,solomon1 ashamed of the humble cedar house of ,david--which would look despicable to a lady who had lived in the gigantic edifices1 and labyrinthine palace of ,egyptian kings#bjb--;expended vast sums in building her a palace which should seem worthy of her royal race4 ,from this time forward the story of ,solomon becomes more the record of a passing pageant preserved for us in loosely arranged fragments4 ,it can never be one tithe so interesting as the history of a human heart with its sufferings and passions4 ,solomon in all his glory1 that figure so unique1 so lonely in its wearisome pomp1 can never stir our sympathy or win our affection as does the natural1 impetuous ,david1 or even the fallen1 unhappy ,saul4 ,the low sun makes the colour4 ,the bright gleams and dark shadows of ,david's life are more instructive than the dull monotony of ,solomon's magnificence4 ,the large space of ,scripture devoted to him in the ,books of ,kings and ,chronicles is occupied almost exclusively with the details of architecture and display4 ,it is only in the first and last sections of his story that we catch the least glimpse of the man himself4 ,in the central section we see nothing of him1 but are absorbed in measurements and descriptions which have a purely archological1 or1 at the best1 a dimly symbolic significance4 ,the man is lost in the monarch1 the monarch in the appurtenances of his royal display4 ,his annals degenerate into the record of a sumptuous parade4 ,the fourth chapter of the ,book of ,kings gives us the constitution of his court as it was in the middle of his reign1 when two of his daughters were already married4 ,it need not detain us long4 ,the highest officers of the kingdom were called ,sarim1 princes1 a title which in ,david's reign had been borne almost alone by ,joab1 who was ,sar-ha-zaba1 or captain of the host4 ,the son of ,zadok#bjc is named first as the priest4 ,the two chief secretaries 7,sopherim7 were ,elihoreph and ,ahiah4 ,they inherited the office of their father ,shavsha 7#a ,chron4 xviii4 #af71bjd who had been the secretary of ,david4 ,it was their duty to record decrees and draw up the documents of state4 ,jehoshaphat1 the son of ,ahilud1 continued to hold the office of annalist or historiographer 7,mazkr71 the officer known as the ,waka ,nuwish in ,persian courts4#bje ,azariah was over the twelve prefects 7,nitzabim71 or farmers-general1 who administered the revenues4#bjf ,his brother ,zabud became priest and king's friend4#bjg ,ahishar was over the household 7al-hab-,baith72 that is1 he was the chamberlain1 vizier1 or mayor of the palace1 wearing on his shoulder the key which was the symbol of his authority4#bjh ,adoniram or ,adoram1 who had been tax-collector for ,david1 still held that onerous and invidious office1#bji which subsequently1 in his advanced old age1 cost him his life4 ,benaiah succeeded to the chief-captaincy of ,joab4 ,we hear nothing more of him1 but the subsequent history shows that when ,david gathered around him this half alien and wholly mercenary force in a country which had no standing army1 he turned the sovereignty into what the ,greeks would have called a tyranny4 ,as the only armed force in the kingdom the body-guard overawed opposition1 and was wholly at the disposal of the king4 ,these troops were to ,solomon at ,jerusalem what the ,prtorians were to ,tiberius at ,rome4 ,the chief points of interest presented by the list are these3-- #a4 ,first we mark the absence of any prophet4 ,neither ,nathan nor ,gad is even mentioned4 ,the pure ray of ,divine illumination is overpowered by the glitter of material prosperity4 #b4 ,secondly1 the priests are quite subordinate4 ,they are only mentioned fifth in order1 and ,abiathar is named with ,zadok1 though after his deposition he was living in enforced retirement4#baj ,the sacerdotal authority was at this time quite overshadowed by the royal4 ,in all the elaborate details of the pomp which attended the consecration of the ,temple1 ,solomon is everything1 the priests comparatively nothing4 ,zadok is not even mentioned as taking any part in the sacrifices in spite of his exalted rank4 ,solomon acts throughout as supreme head of the ,church4 ,nor was this unnatural1 since the two capital events in the history of the worship of ,jehovah--the removal of the ,ark to ,mount ,zion1 and the suggestion1 inception1 and completion of the building of the ,temple--were due to ,solomon and ,david1 not to ,zadok or ,abiathar4 ,the priests1 throughout the monarchy1 suggest nothing1 inaugurate nothing4 ,they are lost in functions and formal ceremonies4 ,they are but obedient administrative servants1 and1 so far from protecting religion1 they acquiesce with tame indifference in every innovation and every apostasy4 ,history has few titles which form so poor a claim to distinction as that of ,levitic priest4 #c4 ,further1 we have two curious and significant phenomena4 ,the title the priest is given to ,azariah1 who is first mentioned among the court functionaries4 ,solomon had not the least intention to allow either the priestly or the much loftier prophetic functions to interfere with his autocracy4 ,he did not choose that there should be any danger of a priest usurping an exorbitant influence1 as ,hir-hor had done in ,egypt1 or ,ethbaal afterwards did in the court of ,tyre1 or ,thomas -,becket in the court of ,england1 or ,torquemada in that of ,spain4 ,he was too much a king to submit to priestly domination4 ,he therefore appointed one who should be the priest for courtly and official purposes1 and should stand in immediate subordination to himself4 #d4 ,the ,nathan whose two sons1 ,azariah and ,zabud1 held such high positions1 was in all probability not ,nathan the ,prophet1 who is rarely introduced without his distinctive title1 but ,nathan1 the younger brother of ,solomon1 in whose line the race of ,david was continued after the extinction of the elder branch in ,jeconiah4 ,here again we note the union of civil with priestly functions4 ,zabud is called a priest though he is a layman1 a prince of the tribe of ,judah4 ,nor was this the first instance in which princes of the royal house had found maintenance1 occupation1 and high official rank by being in some sort engaged in the functions of the priesthood4 ,already in ,david's reign we find the title priests 7,kohanim7 given to the sons of ,david in the list of court officials#baa--;and ,david's sons were priests4 ,in this we trace the possible results of ,phnician influences4 #e4 ,incidentally it is pleasing to find that1 though ,solomon put ,adonijah to death1 he stood in close and kindly relations with his other brothers1 and gave high promotions to the sons of the brothers who stood nearest to him in age1 in one of whom we see the destined ancestor of the future ,messiah4#bab #f4 ,the growth of imposing officialism1 and its accompanying gulf between the king and his people1 is marked by the first appearance of the chamberlain as a new functionary4 ,on him fell the arrangement of court pageants and court etiquette4 ,the chamberlain in despotic ,eastern courts becomes a personage of immense importance1 because he controls the right of admission into the royal presence4 ,such officers1 even when chosen from the lowest rank of slaves--like ,eutropius the eunuch-minister of ,arcadius1#bac or ,olivier le ,daim1 the barber-minister of ,louis ,,xi4--often absorb no mean part of the influence of the sovereign with whom they are brought into daily connexion4 ,in the court of ,solomon the chamberlain stands only ninth in order2 but three centuries later1 in the days of ,hezekiah1 he has become the greatest of the officials1 and ,eliakim who was over the household is placed before ,shebna1 the influential scribe1 and ,joah1 the son of ,asaph the recorder4#bad #g4 ,last on the list stands the minister who has the ominous title of al-ham-,mas1 or over the tribute4 ,the ,mas means the levy1 corve1 or forced labour4 ,in other words1 ,adoram was overseer of the soccagers4 ,saul had required an overseer of the flocks1 and ,david a guardian of the treasury1 but ,adoram is not mentioned till late in his reign4#bae ,the gravamen of ,david's numbering of the people seems to have lain in the intention to subject them to a poll tax1 or to personal service1 such as had become necessary to maintain the expenses of the court4 ,it is obvious that1 as royalty developed from the conception of the theocratic king to that of the ,oriental despot1 the stern warning of ,samuel to the people of ,israel was more and more fulfilled4 ,they had said1 ,nay1 but we will have a king to reign over us1 when ,jehovah was their king2 and ,samuel had told them how much less blessed was bondage with ease than their strenuous liberty4 ,he had warned them that their king would take their sons for his runners and charioteers and reapers and soldiers and armourers1 and their daughters for his perfumers and confectioners2 and that he would seize their fields and vineyards for his courtiers1 and claim the tithes of their possession1 and use their asses1 and put their oxen to his work4 ,the word ,mas representing soccage1 serfdom1 forced labour 7corve2 ,germ41 ,frohndienst71 first became odiously familiar in the days of ,solomon4 ,solomon was an expensive king1 and the ,jewish kings had no private revenue from which the necessary resources could be supplied4 ,in order to secure contributions for the maintenance of the royal establishment1 ,solomon appointed his twelve ,prefects4 ,the list of them is incorporated from a document so ancient that in several instances the names have dropped out1 and only son of remains4#baf ,the districts entirely and designedly ignored the old tribal limits1 which ,solomon probably wished to obliterate4 ,ben-,hur administered the hill country of ,ephraim2 ,ben-,dekar had his headquarters in ,dan2 ,ben-,hesed had the maritime plain2 ,ben-,abinadab the fertile region of ,carmel1 and he was wedded to ,solomon's daughter ,taphath2#bag ,baana1 son of ,ahilud1 managed the plain of ,esdraelon2 ,ben-,geber the mountainous country east of ,jordan1 including ,gilead and ,argob with its basaltic towns2 ,ahinadab1 son of ,iddo1 was officer in ,mahanaim2 ,ahimaaz in ,naphtali 7he was married to ,solomon's daughter ,basmath1 and was perhaps the son of ,zadok72 ,baanah1 son of ,david's faithful ,hushai1 was in ,asher2 ,shimei1 son of ,elah1 in ,benjamin2 ,jehoshaphat in ,issachar4 ,geber administered alone the ancient dominions of ,sihon and ,og4 ,we see with surprise that ,judah seems to have been exempted from the burdens imposed on the other districts1 and if so the impolitic exemption was a main cause of the subsequent jealousies4#bah ,the chief function of these officers was to furnish provisions for the immense numbers who were connected with the court4 ,the curious list is given of the provision required for one day--thirty measures of fine flour1 sixty of bread1#bai ten fat oxen1 twenty pasture oxen1 and one hundred sheep1 besides the delicacies of harts1 gazelles1 fallow-deer1 and fatted guinea-hens or swans4#bbj ,bunsen reckons that this would provide for about fifteen thousand persons4 ,in this there is nothing extraordinary1 though the number is disproportionate to the smallness of the kingdom4 ,about the same number were daily supported by the kings of the great empire of ,persia4#bba ,we see how rapidly the state of royalty had developed when we compare ,solomon's superb surroundings with the humble palace of ,ishbosheth less than fifty years earlier--a palace of which the only guard was a single sleepy woman1 who had been sifting wheat in the noontide1 and had fallen asleep over her task in the porch4#bbb ,yet in the earlier years of the reign1 while the people1 dazzled by the novel sense of national importance1 felt the stimulus given to trade and industry1 the burden was not painfully felt4 ,they multiplied in numbers1 and lived under their vines and fig trees in peace and festivity4#bbc ,but much of their prosperity was hollow and shortlived4 ,wealth led to vice and corruption1 and in place of the old mountain breezes of freedom which purified the air1 the nation1 like ,issachar1 became like an ass crouching between two burdens1 and bowing its shoulders to the yoke in the hot valley of sensuous servitude4 ,ill fares the land1 to hastening ills a prey1 ,where wealth accumulates and men decay6 99 99 99 99 99 ,it is impossible to overlook the general drift of ,jewish royalty towards pure materialism in the days of ,solomon4 ,we search in vain for the lofty spirituality which survived even in the rough epoch of the ,judges and the rude simplicity of ,david's earlier reign4 ,the noble aspirations which throb in one ,davidic psalm are worth all the gorgeous formalism of the ,temple service4 ,amid the luxuries of plenty and the feasts of wine on the lees there seems to have been an ever-deeping famine of the ,word of ,god4 ,there was one innovation1 which struck the imagination of ,solomon's contemporaries1 but was looked on with entire disfavour by those who had been trained in the old pious days4 ,solomon had immense stables for his chariot horses 7susim71 and the swift riding horses of his couriers 7parashim74#bbd ,it seems to have been ,solomon's ambition to equal or outshine the chariots of ,pharaoh1#bbe with which his ,egyptian queen had been familiar at ,tanis4 ,this feature of his reign is dwelt upon in the ,arabian legends1 as well as in all the historical records of his greatness4#bbf ,but the maintenance of a cavalry force had always been discouraged by the religious teachers of ,israel4 ,the use of horses in war is forbidden in ,deuteronomy4#bbg ,joshua had houghed the horses of the ,canaanites1 and burned their chariots at ,misrephoth-maim4 ,david had followed his example4 ,barak had defeated the iron chariots of ,sisera1 and ,david the splendid cavalry of ,hadadezer with the simple infantry of ,israel4#bbh ,the spirit of the olden faithfulness spoke in such words as1 ,some put their trust in chariots1 and some in horses2 but we will trust in the name of the ,lord our ,god4 ,solomon's#bbi successors discovered that they had not gained in strength by adopting this branch of military service in their hilly and rocky land4 ,they found that a horse is but a vain thing to save a man1 neither shall he deliver any man by his great strength4#bcj ,for a time1 however1 ,solomon's strenuous centralisation was successful4 ,his dominion extended1 at least nominally1 from ,tiphzah 7,thapsacus71 beside the ford on the west bank of the ,euphrates1 to the ,mediterranean2 over the whole domain of the ,philistines2 and from ,damascus to the river of ,egypt1 that is1 the ,rhinokolura or ,wady el-,areesh4 ,the names ,jeroboam and ,rehoboam imply that they were born in an epoch of prosperity4#bca ,but the sequel proves that it was that sort of empire which1 ,like expanded gold1 ,exchanges solid strength for feeble splendour4#bcb ,,footnotes3 #aic ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 vii4 #h4 ,according to one tradition he lived to fifty-three 7,ewald1 iii4 #bjh71 and was only twelve when he succeeded ,david4 #aid #b ,chron4 viii4 #c4 ,ewald thinks it is confirmed by #b ,kings xiv4 #bh1 where1 however1 the ,hebrew is obscure4 #aie #a ,kings x4 #bf4 #aif #a ,kings ix4 #ah4 ,here the ,q'r1 the marginal1 or read text1 has ,tadmor 7i4e41 ,palmyra71 as also in #b ,chron4 viii4 #d4 ,but this ,tamar 7,ezek4 xlvii4 #ai1 xlviii4 #bh7 is in the land on the south border4 ,in the ,chronicles ,tadmor is the right reading1 for the chronicler is speaking of ,hamath-,zobah and the north4 ,it is not at all unlikely that ,solomon also built ,tadmor 7,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 vi4 #a7 to protect his commerce on the route to the ,euphrates4 #aig ,the forty-fifth psalm is supposed by old interpreters to have been an epithalamium on this occasion1 but was probably much later4 ,perhaps notices like #a ,kings iii4 #a-c 7the ,egyptian alliance71 the admonition in #a ,kings ix4 #a-i and the luxury described in x4 #ad-bi1 are meant as warning notes of what follows in xi4 #a-h 7the apostasy71 #i-ac 7the prophruption71 and #ad-dc 7the concluding disaster74 #aih ,gezer is ,abu-,shusheh1 or ,tell-el-,gezer1 between ,ramleh and ,jerusalem 7,oliphant1 ,haifa1 p4 #bec71 on the lower border of ,ephraim4 ,ewald identifies it with ,geshur1 the town of ,talmai1 ,absalom's grandfather4 ,see ,lenormant1 ,hist4 anc4 de l',orient41 i4 #ccg-dc4 ,the genealogy of this dynasty is thus given by ,brugsch-,bey 7,gen4 ,table iv471 ,hist4 of ,egypt1 vol4 ii43-- ,hir-hor,notem4 ,piankhi4 ,pinotem ,i4 ----------------- ,pisebkhan ,i4 ,men-khepher-ra4 ---------------------------- ,pinotem ,,ii4 ,pisebkhan ,,ii4 ,ker'amat 7a daughter74 #aii ,see ,deut4 xxiii4 #g1 #h4 #bjj ,schwab's ,berakhoth1 p4 #beb2 ,hershon1 ,treasures of the ,talmud1 p4 #be4 ,in ,sanhedrin1 ff4 #ba1 #bb1 there is another trace of the dislike with which the marriage 7though not forbidden1 ,deut4 xxiii4 #g1 #h7 was regarded3 ,when ,solomon married the daughter of ,pharaoh1 ,gabriel descended and fixed a reed in the sea4 ,a sandbank formed around it on which ,rome was subsequently built4 ,in ,shabbath1 ff4 #ea1 #eb1 we are told that the princess brought with her one thousand different kinds of musical instruments1 and taught ,solomon the chants to his various idols4 #bja ,no trace of any such misgiving is found in the ,book of ,kings4 #bjb ,seine ,liebhaberei sind kostbare ,bauten1 fremde ,weiber1 reiche ,prachtentfaltung 7,kittel1 ii4 #afj74 #bjc ,perhaps rather the grandson4 ,he was the son of ,ahimaaz 7comp4 ,gen4 xxix4 #e2 ,ezra v4 #a1 where son grandson74 #bjd ,shisha and ,shavsha are perhaps corruptions of ,seraiah 7#b ,sam4 viii4 #ag74 #bje ,comp4 ,esth4 vi4 #a4 ,,lxx41 ,isa4 xxxvi4 #c1 #b ,sam4 viii4 #ag1 4 ,jerome1 a commentariis4 ,comp4 ,suet41 ,aug4 #gi1 qui e memoria ,augusti4 #bjf ,it is a somewhat ominous fact that netsib means properly an 1 a garrison in a hostile country4 #bjg ,the king's friend 7#b ,sam4 xv4 #cg7 seems to have been a sort of confidential privy councillor 7,prov4 xxii4 #aa74 #bjh ,isa4 xxii4 #ba4 #bji #b ,sam4 xx4 #bd4 #baj ,possibly this clause is an interpolation4 #baa #b ,sam4 viii4 #ah4 ,even ,ira the ,jairite is called a priest 7#b ,sam4 xx4 #bf74 ,an attempt has been made to explain the word away because it obviously clashes with ,levitic ordinances2 but the word priest could not be used in two different senses in two consecutive lines4 ,dogmatic considerations have tampered with the obvious meaning of the word4 ,the ,,lxx4 omits it1 and in the case of ,david's sons calls them 4 ,the ,a4,v4 renders it chief officer4 ,the ,vulgate wrongly refers it to ,zadok 7filius ,sadoc sacerdotis74 ,movers 7,krit4 ,unters41 #cja ff47 renders it court chaplains4 ,already in #a ,chron4 xviii4 #ag we find that the title gave offence1 and we read instead1 ,and the sons of ,david were at the hand of the king 7see ,ewald1 ,alterthumsk1 p4 #bgf74 ,compare the title ,bishop of ,osnaburg1 borne by ,frederick1 ,duke of ,york1 son of ,george ,,iii4 #bab #b ,sam4 v4 #ad2 ,zech4 xii4 #ab2 ,luke iii4 #ca4 #bac ,the degraded and ominous apparitions of ,sarisim 7eunuchs7 probably began at the court of ,solomon on a large scale1 though the name occurs in the days of ,david 7#a ,sam4 viii4 #ae2 #a ,chron4 xxviii4 #a74 ,in the ,northern ,kingdom we first hear of them in the harem of the polygamous ,ahab4 #bad #b ,kings xviii4 #ah2 ,isa4 xxii4 #ae4 #bae #b ,sam4 xx4 #bd4 ,he is not mentioned in #a ,chron4 xxvii4 #be-ca4 #baf ,this use of patronymics only is common among the ,arabs1 but not in ,scripture 7,reuss1 ,hist4 d4 ,isr41 i4 #dbc74 #bag ,if he was the son of ,david's elder brother 7#a ,sam4 xvi4 #h1 xvii4 #ac7 he was ,solomon's first cousin4 ,the materialistic or non-religious element in ,solomon seems to come out in the names of his only known children4 ,the element ,jehovah1 afterwards so universal1 does not occur in them4 ,basmath1 characteristically1 means fragrant2 ,taphath is perhaps connected with 1 to go mincingly2 ,rehoboam means enlarger of the people4 #bah ,the ,,lxx4 indeed reads 7and he was the only officer in the land of ,judah74 ,but this would make thirteen fiscal overseers4 ,the ,targum1 adopting the same reading1 says that the thirteenth nitzab was to maintain the king in the intercalary month4 #bai ,taking the cor at a low estimate this would amount to eighteen thousand pounds of bread a day4 #bbj #a ,kings iv4 #bc1 4 ,vulg41 ,avium altilium4 #bba ,athen41 ,deipnos41 iv4 #adf4 #bbb #b ,sam4 iv4 #f 7,,lxx474 #bbc ,this description of agricultural felicity soon became an anachronism4 #bbd ,not dromedaries 7,a4,v474 ,the ruins of his stables are still pointed out at ,jerusalem4 ,he traded with ,egypt for horses and chariots which his merchants brought to ,tekoa1 and he then sold them at a profit to the ,hittite princes4 ,the forty thousand stalls of #a ,kings iv4 #bf should doubtless be four thousand 7#b ,chron4 ix4 #be71 as ,solomon only had fourteen hundred chariots 7#a ,kings x4 #bf74 ,in #a ,kings x4 #bh the meaning and reading is as for the export of horses1 which ,solomon got from ,egypt even from ,tekoa 7,,lxx41 71 the royal merchants used to fetch a troop of horses at a price4 ,the linen yarn of the ,a4,v4 is a mistranslation4 #bbe ,cant4 i4 #i4 #bbf #a ,kings v4 #f1 ix4 #ai1 x4 #bf1 #bh4 ,two of those passages are omitted in the ,,lxx4 ,comp4 #a ,kings xvi4 #i4 #bbg ,deut4 xvii4 #af4 #bbh ,josh4 xi4 #i2 #a ,sam4 viii4 #aa1 #ab2 #b ,sam4 viii4 #d4 #bbi ,the energetic dislike to the importation or use of horses is also found in ,isa4 ii4 #g1 xxx4 #af1 #ag1 xxxi4 #a-c2 ,micah v4 #aj-ad2 ,zech4 ix4 #aj1 x4 #e1 xii4 #d4 #bcj ,psalm xxxiii4 #ag1 lxxvi4 #f1 cxlvii4 #aj4 #bca ,compare ,poludemos1 ,eurudemos4 #bcb ,xen41 ,anab41 i4 #d1 #aa2 ,arrian1 ii4 #ac1 iii4 #g4 ,for the phrase on this side of the river1 see ante1 p4 #ah4 ,,chapter ,,xiv4 ,,the ,,temple4 #a ,,kings v41 vi41 vii4 ,and his next son1 for wealth and wisdom famed1 ,the clouded ,ark of ,god1 till then in tents ,wandering1 shall in a glorious temple enshrine4 ,paradise ,lost1 xii4 #cdj4 ,after the destructive battle of ,aphek1 in which the ,philistines had defeated ,israel1 slain the two sons of ,eli1 and taken captive the ,ark of ,god1 they had inflicted a terrible vengeance on the old sanctuary at ,shiloh4 ,they had burnt the young men in the fire1 and slain the priests with the sword1 and no widows were left to make lamentation4#bcc ,it is true that1 terrified by portents and diseases1 the ,philistines after a time restored the ,ark1 and the ,tabernacle of the wilderness with its brazen altar still gave sacredness to the great high place at ,gibeon1 to which apparently it had been removed4#bcd ,nevertheless1 the old worship seems to have languished till it received a new and powerful impulse from the religious earnestness of ,david4 ,he had the mind of a patriot-statesman as well as of a soldier1 and he felt that a nation is nothing without its sacred memories4 ,those memories clustered round the now-discredited ,ark4 ,its capture1 and its parade as a trophy of victory in the shrine of ,dagon1 had robbed it of all its superstitious prestige as a fetish2 but1 degraded as it had been1 it still continued to be the one inestimably precious historic relic which enshrined the memories of the deliverance of ,israel from ,egypt1 and the dawn of its heroic age4 ,as soon as ,david had given to his people the boon of a unique capital1 nothing could be more natural than the wish to add sacredness to the glory of the capital by making it the centre of the national worship4 ,according to the ,chronicles1 ,david--feeling it a reproach that he himself should dwell in palaces ceiled with cedar and painted with vermilion while the ,ark of ,god dwelt between curtains--had made unheard-of preparations to build a house for ,god4 ,but it had been decreed unfit that the sanctuary should be built by a man whose hands were red with the blood of many wars1 and he had received the promise that the great work should be accomplished by his son4#bce ,into that work ,solomon threw himself with hearty zeal in the month ,zif#bcf of the fourth year of his reign1 when his kingdom was consolidated4#bcg ,it commanded all his sympathies as an artist1 a lover of magnificence1 and a ruler bent on the work of centralisation4 ,it was a task to which he was bound by the solemn exhortation of his father1 and he felt1 doubtless1 its political as well as its religious importance4 ,with his sincere desire to build to ,god's glory was mingled a prophetic conviction that his task would be fraught with immense issues for the future of his people and of all the world4 ,the presence of the ,temple left its impress on the very name of ,jerusalem4 ,although it has nothing to do with the ,temple or with ,solomon1 it became known to the heathen world as ,hierosolyma1 which1 as we see from ,eupolemos 7,euseb41 ,prp4 ,evang41 ix4 #cd71 the ,gentile world supposed to mean the ,temple 7,hieron7 of ,solomon4 ,the materials already provided were of priceless value4 ,david had consecrated to ,god the spoils which he had won from conquered kings4 ,we must reject1 as the exaggerations of national vanity1 the monstrous numbers which now stand in the text of the chronicler2 but a king whose court was simple and inexpensive was quite able to amass treasures of gold and silver1 brass and iron1 precious marbles and onyx stones4 ,solomon had only to add to these sacred stores4#bch ,he inherited the friendship which ,david had enjoyed1 with ,hiram1 ,king of ,tyre1 who1 according to the strange phrase of the ,vatican ,septuagint1 sent his servants to anoint ,solomon4 ,the friendliest overtures passed between the two kings in letters1 to which ,josephus appeals as still extant4 ,a commercial treaty was made by which ,solomon engaged to furnish the ,tyrian king with annual revenues of wheat1 barley1 and oil1#bci and ,hiram put at ,solomon's disposal the skilled labour of an army of ,sidonian wood-cutters and artisans4#bdj ,the huge trunks of cedar and cypress were sent rushing down the heights of ,lebanon by schlittage1 and laboriously dragged by road or river to the shore4 ,there they were constructed into immense rafts1 which were floated a hundred miles along the coast to ,joppa1 where they were again dragged with enormous toil for thirty-five miles up the steep and rocky roads to ,jerusalem4 ,for more than twenty years1 while ,solomon was building the ,temple and his various royal constructions1 ,jerusalem became a hive of ceaseless and varied industry4 ,its ordinary inhabitants must have been swelled by an army of ,canaanite serfs and ,phnician artisans to whom residences were assigned in ,ophel4 ,there lived the hewers and bevellers of stone2 the cedar-cutters of ,gebal or ,biblos2#bda the cunning workmen in gold or brass2 the bronze-casters who made their moulds in the clay ground of the ,jordan valley2 the carvers and engravers2 the dyers who stained wool with the purple of the murex1 and the scarlet dye of the trumpet fish2 the weavers and embroiderers of fine linen4 ,every class of labourer was put into requisition1 from the descendants of the ,gibeonite ,nethinim1 who were rough hewers of wood and drawers of water1 to the trained artificers whose beautiful productions were the wonder of the world4 ,the father1 or master-workman1 of the whole community was a half-caste1 who also bore the name of ,hiram1 and was the son of a woman of ,naphtali by a ,tyrian father4#bdb ,some writers have tried to minimise ,solomon's work as a builder1 and have spoken of the ,temple as an exceedingly insignificant structure which would not stand a moment's comparison with the smallest and humblest of our own cathedrals4 ,insignificant in size it certainly was1 but we must not forget its costly splendour1 the remote age in which the work was achieved1 and the truly stupendous constructions which the design required4 ,mount ,moriah was selected as a site hallowed by the tradition of ,abraham's sacrifice1 and more recently by ,david's vision of the ,angel of the ,pestilence with his drawn sword on the threshing-floor of the ,jebusite ,prince ,araunah4#bdc ,but to utilise this doubly consecrated area involved almost superhuman difficulties1 which would have been avoided if the loftier but less suitable height of the ,mount of ,olives could have been chosen4 ,the rugged summit had to be enlarged to a space of five hundred yards square1 and this level was supported by ,cyclopean walls1 which have long been the wonder of the world4#bdd ,the magnificent wall on the east side1 known as the ,jews' wailing-place1 is doubtless the work of ,solomon1 and after outlasting the drums and tramplings of a hundred triumphs1 it remains to this day in uninjured massiveness4 ,one of the finely bevelled stones is #ch-a_/b feet long and #g feet high1 and weighs more than #ajj tons4 ,these vast stones were hewn from a quarry above the level of the wall1 and lowered by rollers down an inclined plane4 ,part of the old wall rises #cj feet above the present level of the soil1 but a far larger part of the height lies hidden #hj feet under the accumulated dbris of the often captured city4 ,at the south-west angle1 by ,robinson's arch1 three pavements were discovered1 one beneath the other1 showing the gradual filling up of the valley2 and on the lowest of these were found the broken voussoirs of the arch4 ,in ,solomon's day the whole of this mighty wall was visible4 ,on one of the lowest stones have been discovered the ,phnician paint-marks which indicated where each of the huge masses1 so carefully dressed1 edge-drafted1 and bevelled1 was to be placed in the structure4 ,the caverns1 quarries1 water storages1 and subterranean conduits hewn out of the solid rock1 over which ,jerusalem is built1 could only have been constructed at the cost of immeasurable toil4 ,they would be wonderful even with our infinitely more rapid methods and more powerful agencies2 but when we remember that they were made three thousand years ago we do not wonder that their massiveness has haunted the imagination of so many myriads of visitors from every nation4 ,it was perhaps from his ,egyptian father-in-law that ,solomon1 to his own cost1 learnt the secret of forced labour which alone rendered such undertakings possible4 ,in their ,egyptian bondage the forefathers of ,israel had been fatally familiar with the ugly word ,mas1 the labour wrung from them by hard task-masters4#bde ,in the reign of ,solomon it once more became only too common on the lips of the burdened people4#bdf ,four classes were subject to it4 #a4 ,the lightest labour was required from the native freeborn ,israelites 7ezrach74 ,they were not regarded as bondsmen 771 yet #cj1jjj of these were required in relays of #aj1jjj to work1 one month in every three1 in the forest of ,lebanon4#bdg #b4 ,there were the strangers1 or resident aliens 7,gerim71 such as the ,phnicians and ,giblites1 who were ,hiram's subjects and worked for pay4 #c4 ,there were three classes of slaves--those taken in war1 or sold for debt1 or home-born4 #d4 ,lowest and most wretched of all1 there were the vassal ,canaanites 7,toshabim71 from whom were drawn those #gj1jjj burden-bearers1 and #hj1jjj quarry-men1 the ,helots of ,palestine1 who were placed under the charge of #cfjj ,israelite officers4 ,the blotches of smoke are still visible on the walls and roofs of the subterranean quarries where these poor serfs1 in the dim torchlight and suffocating air1 laboured without reward1 perished without pity1 and suffered without redress4 ,the sad narrative reveals to us1 and modern research confirms1 that the purple of ,solomon had a very seamy side1 and that an abyss of misery heaved and moaned under the glittering surface of his splendour4#bdh ,jerusalem during the twenty years occupied by his building must have presented the disastrous spectacle of task-masters1 armed with rods and scourges1 enforcing the toil of gangs of slaves1 as we see them represented on the tombs of ,egypt and the palaces of ,assyria4 ,the sequel shows the jealousies and discontents even of the native ,israelites1 who felt themselves to be scourged with whips and laden with heavy burdens4 ,they were bondmen in all but name1 for purposes which bore very little on their own welfare4 ,but the curses of the wretched aborigines must have been deeper1 if not so loud4 ,they were torn from such homes as the despotism of conquest still left to them1 and were forced to hopeless and unrewarded toil for the alien worship and hateful palaces of their masters4 ,five centuries later we find a pitiable trace of their existence in the #cib ,hierodouloi1 menials lower even than the enslaved ,nethinim1 who are called sons of the slaves of ,solomon--the dwindling and miserable remnant of that vast levy of ,palestinian serfs4 ,apart from the lavish costliness of its materials the actual ,temple was architecturally a poor and commonplace structure4 ,it was quite small--only #ij feet long1 #ce feet broad1 and #de feet high4 ,it was meant for the symbolic habitation of ,god1 not for the worship of great congregations4 ,it only represented the nascent art and limited resources of a tenth-rate kingdom1 and was totally devoid alike of the pure and stately beauty of the ,parthenon and the awe-inspiring grandeur of the great ,egyptian temples with their avenues of obelisks and sphinxes and their colossal statues of deities and kings ,staring right on with calm1 eternal eyes4 ,when ,justinian boastfully exclaimed1 as he looked at his church1 ,i have vanquished thee1 ,o ,solomon1#bdi and when the ,khalif ,omar1 pointing to the ,dome of the ,rock1 murmured1 ,behold1 a greater than ,solomon is here1 they forgot the vast differences between them and the ,jewish king in the epoch at which they lived and the resources which they could command4 ,the ,temple was built in majestic silence4 ,no workman's axe1 no ponderous hammer rung1 ,like some tall palm the noiseless fabric sprung4 ,this was due to religious reverence4 ,it could be easily accomplished1 because each stone and beam was carefully prepared to be fitted in its exact place before it was carried up the ,temple hill4 ,the elaborate particulars furnished us of the measurements of ,solomon's ,temple are too late in age1 too divergent in particulars1 too loosely strung together1 too much mingled with later reminiscences1 and altogether too architecturally insufficient1 to enable us to re-construct the exact building1 or even to form more than a vague conception of its external appearance4 ,both in ,kings and ,chronicles the notices1 as ,keil says1 are incomplete extracts made independently of one another1 and vague in essential details4 ,critics and architects have attempted to reproduce the ,temple on ,greek1#bej ,egyptian1#bea and ,phnician#beb models1 so entirely unlike each other as to show that we can arrive at no certainty4#bec ,it is1 however1 most probable that1 alike in ornamentation and conception1 the building was predominantly ,phnician4#bed ,severe in outline1 gorgeous in detail1 it was more like the ,temple of ,venus-,astarte at ,paphos than any other4 ,fortunately the details1 apart from such dim symbolism as we may detect in them1 have no religious importance1 but only an historic and antiquarian interest4#bee ,the ,temple--called ,baith 77 or ,hkl 77--was surrounded by the thickly clustered houses of the ,levites1 and by porticoes#bef through which the precincts were entered by numerous gates of wood overlaid with brass4 ,a grove of olives1 palms1 cedars1 and cypresses1 the home of many birds1 probably adorned the outer court4#beg ,this court was shut from the higher court1#beh afterwards known as the ,court of the ,priests1 by a partition of three rows of hewn stones surmounted by a cornice of cedar beams4 ,in the higher court1 which was reached by a flight of steps1 was the vast new altar of brass1 #ae feet high and #cj feet long1 of which the hollow was filled with earth and stones1 and of which the blazing sacrifices were visible in the court below4#bei ,here also stood the huge molten sea1 borne on the backs of twelve brazen oxen1 of which three faced to each quarter of the heavens4#bfj ,it was in the form of a lotus blossom1 and its rim was hung with three hundred wild gourds in bronze1 cast in two rows4 ,its reservoir of eight hundred and eighty gallons of water was for the priestly ablutions necessary in the butcheries of sacrifice1 and its usefulness was supplemented by ten brazen caldrons on wheels1 five on each side1 adorned like the sea1 with pensile garlands and cherubic emblems4#bfa ,whether the brazen serpent of the wilderness1 to which the children of ,israel burnt incense down to the days of ,hezekiah1 was in that court or in the ,temple we do not know4 ,on the western side of this court1 facing the rising sun1 stood the ,temple itself1 on a platform elevated some sixteen feet from the ground4 ,its side chambers were lean-to annexes 7,heb41 ribs2 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 tabulata71 in three stories1 all accessible by one central entrance on the outside4 ,their beams rested on rebatements in the thickness of the wall1 and the highest was the broadest4 ,above these were windows skewed and closed1 as the margin of the ,a4,v4 says2 or broad within and narrow without2 or1 as it should rather be rendered1 with closed crossbeams1 that is1 with immovable lattices1 which could not be opened and shut1 but which allowed the escape of the smoke of lamps and the fumes of incense4 ,these chambers must also have had windows4 ,they were used to store the garments of the priests and other necessary paraphernalia of the ,temple service1 but as to all details we are left completely in the dark4 ,of the external aspect of the building in ,solomon's day we know nothing4 ,we cannot even tell whether it had one level roof1 or whether the ,holy of ,holies was like a lower chancel at the end of it2 nor whether the roof was flat or1 as the ,rabbis say1 ridged2 nor whether the outer surface of the three-storeyed chambers which surrounded it was of stone1 or planked with cedar1 or overlaid with plinths of gold and silver2#bfb nor whether1 in any case1 it was ornamented with carvings or left blank2 nor whether the cornices only were decorated with open flowers like the ,assyrian rosettes4 ,nor do we know with certainty whether it was supported within by pillars#bfc or not4 ,in the state of the records as they have come down to us1 all accurate or intelligible descriptions are slurred over by compilers who had no technical knowledge and whose main desire was to impress their countrymen with the truth that the holy building was--as indeed for its day it was--exceeding magnifical of fame and of glory throughout all countries4 ,in front of or just within the porch were two superb pillars1 regarded as miracles of ,tyrian art1 made of fluted bronze1 #bg feet high and #ah feet thick4 ,their capitals of #g-a_/b feet in height resembled an open lotos blossom1 surrounded by double wreaths of two hundred pensile bronze pomegranates1 supporting an abacus1 carved with conventional lily work4 ,both pomegranates and lilies had a symbolic meaning4#bfd ,the pillars were1 for unknown reasons1 called ,jachin and ,boaz4#bfe ,much about them is obscure4 ,it is not even known whether they stood detached like obelisks1 or formed ,propyla2 or supported the architraves of the porch itself1 or were a sort of gateway1 surmounted by a melathron with two epithemas1 like a ,japanese or ,indian toran4 ,the porch 7,olam71 which was of the same height as the house 7i4e41 #de feet high71#bff was hung with the gilded shields of ,hadadezer's soldiers which ,david had taken in battle1#bfg and perhaps also with consecrated armour1 like the sword of ,goliath1#bfh to show that unto the ,lord belongeth our shield 7,psalm lxxxix4 #ah71 and that the shields of the earth belong unto ,god 7,psalm xlvii4 #i74 ,a door of cypress wood1 of two leaves1 made in four squares1 #g-a_/b feet broad and high1 turning on golden hinges overlaid with gold1 and carved with palm branches and festoons of lilies and pomegranates1 opened from the porch into the main apartment4 ,this was the ,mikdash 771 ,holy ,place1 or ,sanctuary1 and sometimes specially called in ,chaldee the ,palace 7,hkl1 or ,brah7 7,ezra v1 #ad1 #ae1 etc474 ,before it1 as in the ,tabernacle1 hung an embroidered curtain 7,msak74 ,it was probably supported by four pillars on each side4 ,in the interspaces were five tables on each side1 overlaid with gold1 and each encircled by a wreath of gold 7zr74 ,on these were placed the cakes of shewbread4#bfi ,at the end of the chamber1 on each side the door of the ,holiest1 were five golden candlesticks with chains of wreathed gold hanging between them4 ,in the centre of the room stood the golden altar of incense1 and somewhere 7we must suppose7 the golden candlestick of the ,tabernacle1 with its seven branches ornamented with lilies1 pomegranates1 and calices of almond flowers4 ,nothing which was in the darkness of the ,holiest was visible except the projecting golden staves with which the ,ark had been carried to its place4 ,the ,holy ,place itself was lighted by narrow slits4 ,the entrance to the ,holiest1 the ,debir1 or oracle1#bgj which corresponded to the ,greek adytum1 was through a two-leaved door of olive wood1 #f feet high and broad1 overlaid with gold1 and carved with palms1 cherubim1 and open flowers4 ,the partition was of cedar wood4 ,the floor of the whole house was of cedar overlaid with gold4 ,the interior of this ,oracle1 as it was called--for the title ,holy of ,holies is of later origin--was1 at any rate in the later ,temples1 concealed by an embroidered veil of blue1 purple1 and crimson1 looped up with golden chains4 ,the ,oracle1 like the ,new ,jerusalem of the ,apocalypse1 was a perfect cube1 #cj feet broad and long and high1 covered with gold1 but shrouded in perpetual and unbroken darkness4#bga ,no light was ever visible in it save such as was shed by the crimson gleam of the thurible of incense which the high priest carried into it once a year on the ,great ,day of ,atonement4#bgb ,in the centre of the floor must apparently have risen the mass of rock which is still visible in the ,mosque of ,omar1 from which it is called ,al ,sakhra1 the ,dome of the ,rock4 ,tradition pointed to it as the spot on which ,abraham had laid for sacrifice the body of his son ,isaac1 when the angel restrained the descending knife4 ,it was also the site of ,araunah's threshing-floor1 and had been therefore hallowed by two angelic apparitions4#bgc ,on it was deposited with solemn ceremony the awful palladium of the ,ark1 which had been preserved through the wanderings and wars of the ,exodus and the troublous days of the ,judges4#bgd ,it contained the most sacred possession of the nation1 the most priceless treasure which ,israel guarded for the world4 ,this treasure was the ,two ,tables of the ,ten ,commandments1 graven 7in the anthropomorphic language of the ancient record7 by the actual finger of ,god2 the tables which ,moses had shattered on the rocks of ,mount ,sinai as he descended to the backsliding people4#bge ,the ,ark was covered with its old ,propitiatory1 or ,mercy-seat1 overshadowed by the wings of two small cherubim2 but ,solomon had prepared for its reception a new and far more magnificent covering1 in the form of two colossal cherubim1 #ae feet high1 of which each expanded wing was #g-a_/b feet long4 ,these wings touched the outer walls of the ,oracle1 and also touched each other over the centre of the ,ark4 ,such was the ,temple4 ,it was the forum1 fortress1 university1 and sanctuary of the ,jews1 and the transitory emblem of the ,church of ,christ's kingdom4 ,it was destined to occupy a large share in the memory1 and even in the religious development1 of the world1 because it became the central point round which crystallised the entire history of the ,chosen ,people4 ,the kings of ,judah are henceforth estimated with almost exclusive reference to the relation in which they stood to the centralised worship of ,jehovah4 ,the ,spanish kings who built and decorated the ,escurial caught the spirit of ,jewish annals when1 in the ,court of the ,kings1 they reared the six colossal statues of ,david the originator1 of ,solomon the founder1 of ,jehoshaphat1 ,hezekiah1 ,josiah1 and ,manasseh the restorers or purifiers of the ,temple worship4#bgf ,it required the toil of #cjj1jjj men for twenty years to build one of the pyramids4 ,it took two hundred years to build and four hundred to embellish the great ,temple of ,artemis of the ,ephesians4 ,it took more than five centuries to give to ,westminster ,abbey its present form4 ,solomon's ,temple only took seven and a half years to build2 but1 as we shall see1 its objects were wholly different from those of the great shrines which we have mentioned4 ,the wealth lavished upon it was such that its dishes1 bowls1 cups1 even its snuffers and snuffer trays1 and its meanest utensils1 were of pure gold4 ,the massiveness of its substructions1 the splendour of its materials1 the artistic skill displayed by the ,tyrian workmen in all its details and adornments1 added to the awful sense of its indwelling ,deity1 gave it an imperishable fame4 ,needing but little repair1 it stood for more than four centuries4 ,succeeded as it was by the ,temples of ,zerubbabel and of ,herod1 it carried down till seventy years after the ,christian era the memory of the ,tabernacle in the wilderness1 of which it preserved the general outline1 though it exactly doubled all the proportions and admitted many innovations4#bgg ,the dedication ceremony was carried out with the utmost pomp4 ,it required nearly a year to complete the necessary preparations1 and the ceremony with its feasts occupied fourteen days1 which were partly coincident with the autumn ,feast of ,tabernacles4#bgh ,the dedication falls into three great acts4 ,the first was the removal of the ,ark to its new home 7#a ,kings viii4 #a-aa72 then followed the speech and the prayer of ,solomon 7vv4 #ab-fa72 and1 finally1 the great holocaust was offered 7vv4 #fb-ff74 ,the old ,tabernacle1 or what remained of it1 with its precious heirlooms1 was carried by priests and ,levites from the high place at ,gibeon1 which was henceforth abandoned4#bgi ,this procession was met by another1 far more numerous and splendid1 consisting of all the princes1 nobles1 and captains1 which brought the ,ark from the tent erected for it on ,mount ,zion by ,david forty years before4 ,the ,israelites had flocked to ,jerusalem in countless multitudes1 under their sheykhs and emrs#bhj from the border of ,hamath on the ,orontes1#bha north of ,mount ,lebanon1 to the ,wady el-,areesh4#bhb ,the king1 in his most regal state1 accompanied the procession1 and the ,ark passed through myriads of worshippers crowded in the outer court1 from the tent on ,mount ,zion into the darkness of the ,oracle on ,mount ,moriah1 where it continued1 unseen perhaps by any human eye but that of the high priest once a year1 until it was carried away by ,nebuchadnezzar to ,babylon4#bhc ,to indicate that this was to be its rest for ever1 the staves1 contrary to the old law1 were drawn out of the golden rings through which they ran1 in order that no human hand might touch the sacred emblem itself when it was borne on the shoulders of the ,levitic priests4 ,and there they are unto this day1 writes the compiler from his ancient record1 long after ,temple and ,ark had ceased to exist4#bhd ,the king is the one predominant figure1 and the high priest is not once mentioned4 ,nathan is only mentioned by the heathen historian ,eupolemos4 ,visible to the whole vast multitude1 ,solomon stood in the inner court on a high scaffolding of brass4 ,then came a burst of music and psalmody from the priests and musicians1 robed in white robes1 who densely thronged the steps of the great altar4#bhe ,they held in their hands their glittering harps and cymbals1 and psalteries in their precious frames of red sandal wood1 and twelve of their number rent the air with the blast of their silver trumpets as ,solomon1 in this supreme hour of his prosperity1 shone forth before his people in all his manly beauty4 ,at the sight of that stately figure in its gorgeous robes the song of praise was swelled by innumerable voices1 and1 to crown all1 a blaze of sudden glory wrapped the ,temple and the whole scene in heaven's own splendour 7#b ,chron4 v4 #ac1 #ad74 ,first1 the king1 standing with his back to the people1 broke out into a few words of prophetic song4 ,then1 turning to the multitude1 he blessed them--he1 and not the high priest--and briefly told them the history and significance of this house of ,god1 warning them faithfully that the ,temple after all was but the emblem of ,god's presence in the midst of them1 and that the ,most ,high dwelleth not in temples made with hands1 neither is worshipped with men's hands as though ,he needed anything4 ,after this he advanced to the altar1 and kneeling on his knees 7#b ,chron4 vi4 #ac7--;a most unusual attitude among the ,jews1 who1 down to the latest ages1 usually stood up to pray--he prayed with the palms of his hands upturned to heaven1 as though to receive in deep humility its outpoured benefits4 ,the prayer1 as here given1 consists of an introduction1 seven petitions1 and a conclusion4 ,it was a passionate entreaty that ,god would hear1 both individually and nationally1 both in prosperity and in adversity1 the supplications of ,his people1 and even of strangers1 who should either pray in the courts of that ,his house1 or should make it the ,kibleh of their devotions4#bhf ,after the dedicatory prayer both the outer and the inner court of the ,temple reeked and swam with the blood of countless victims--victims so numerous that the great brazen altar became wholly insufficient for them4#bhg ,at the close of the entire festival they departed to their homes with joy and gladness4#bhh ,but whatever the ,temple might or might not be to the people1 the king used it as his own chapel4 ,three times a year1 we are told1 he offered--and for all that appears1 offered with his own hand without the intervention of any priest--burnt offerings and peace offerings upon the altar4 ,not only this1 but he actually burnt incense therewith upon the altar which was before the ,lord1--the very thing which was regarded as so deadly a crime in the case of ,king ,uzziah4#bhi ,throughout the history of the monarchy1 the priests1 with scarcely any exception1 seem to have been passive tools in the hands of the kings4 ,even under ,rehoboam--much more under ,ahaz and ,manasseh--the sacred precincts were defiled with nameless abominations1 to which1 so far as we know1 the priests offered no resistance4 ,,footnotes3 #bcc ,psalm lxxviii4 #eh-fd4 #bcd ,according to #b ,chron4 i4 #c4 #bce ,david's suggestion does not seem to have been received favourably at first 7#b ,sam4 vii4 #a-ag74 ,the chronicler 7#a ,chron4 xxviii4 #ai7 indulges in the amazing hyperbole that ,david had been made to understand all the works of the pattern of the ,temple in writing from the hand of the ,lord4 #bcf ,the ancient ,israelites named their months from the seasons1 as did the ,canaanites4 ,only four of those old names are preserved in the ,bible3 ,zif1 brightness 7comp4 ,floreal1 ,lenz72 ,bul1 rain-month 7,pluviose72 ,abib1 corn-ear month2 ,ethanim1 fruit-month 7,fructidor74 #bcg ,in #a ,kings vi4 #a we read in the #dhjth year after the children of ,israel were come out of the land of ,egypt4 ,this may possibly be a later gloss4 ,the ,,lxx41 ,origen1 ,josephus1 etc41 omit the words1 and the ,old ,testament does not1 as a rule1 date events by epochs4 ,further1 the date is full of difficulties1 though our received chronology is based on it4 ,it was perhaps arrived at after the ,exile1 by counting backwards from the ,decree of ,cyrus1 ,b4,c4 #ece4 ,see note at the end of the volume4 #bch #a ,chron4 xxii4 #ad says that ,david 7comp4 xxviii41 xxix47 with much labour 7,a4,v41 in my trouble1 #a ,chron4 xxii4 #ad7 bequeathed to ,solomon #ajj1jjj talents of gold and #ajj1jjj talents of silver6 ,this impossible number is very considerably reduced in #a ,chron4 xxix4 #d1 where the mention of darics shows an author living in the captivity4 #bci ,comp4 ,ezek4 xxvii4 #ag2 ,acts xii4 #bj4 #bdj ,according to ,tatian1 ,orat4 ad ,grc41 p4 #aga1 ,solomon married a daughter of ,hiram4 ,hiram1 like the ,queen of ,sheba1 acknowledges ,jehovah as the 7local7 ,god of ,israel4 ,he was the son of ,abibaal1 and1 according to ,menander 7a ,greek historian of ,ephesus about ,b4,c4 #cjj1 who consulted ,tyrian records71 he began to reign at nineteen1 and reigned thirty-four years4 ,josephus thinks that there were two successive ,hirams4 #bda ,giblim1 #a ,kings v4 #ah1 where and the stone-squarers should be and especially the men of ,gebal4 ,,lxx41 ,alex41 2 ,vulg41 ,giblii1 ,comp4 ,ezek4 xxvii4 #i1 ,psalm lxxxiii4 #g1 ,the ancients of ,gebal and the wise thereof were in thee4 ,it is now ,jebeil1 between ,beyrout and ,tripoli4 ,the ,phnician and ,sidonian artisans were famous from the earliest antiquity for metal-work1 embroidery1 dyes1 ship-building1 and the fine arts 7,hom41 ,il41 xxiii4 #gdc2 ,od41 iv4 #fad-ah1 xv4 #dbe2 ,herod41 iii4 #ai1 vii4 #bc1 #if1 etc474 #bdb #b ,chron4 ii4 #ac1 iv4 #af1 where a cunning man of ,huram my father's should be even ,huram1 my father1 i4e41 master-workman or deviser 7comp4 ,gen4 xlv4 #h74 ,in ,chronicles he is called the son of a ,danite mother4 ,here we have another of the manipulations used by later ,jewish tradition to get rid of what they disliked2 for in ,eupolemos 7,euseb41 ,prp4 ,evang41 ix4 #cd7 ,hiram is said to belong to the family of ,david4 ,quite a little romance1 as ,wellhausen says1 has been constructed out of the fact that the chronicler assigns his mother to the tribe of ,dan2 but it is not worth repeating1 being a mass of hypotheses4 ,to the dislike of ,sidonian and semi-,sidonian influence1 we perhaps owe the notion that ,david had already received a design from the hand of ,god ,himself 7#a ,chron4 xxviii4 #aa-ai7 7,ewald1 iii4 #bbg74 ,jerome mentions the ,jewish fable that the artist ,hiram was of the family of ,aholiab1 the artist of the wilderness4 #bdc ,araunah the king 7#b ,sam4 xxiv4 #bc74 ,the ,temple ,mount was usually called the ,mount of the ,house4 ,it is only called ,mount ,moriah in #b ,chron4 iii4 #a4 ,it cannot be regarded as certain that the land of ,moriah 7,gen4 xxii4 #b7 is identical with it4 #bdd ,the present platform is #aeba feet long on the east1 #idj on the south1 #afag on the west1 #ajbj on the north4 ,bartlett1 ,walks about ,jerusalem1 pp4 #afa-gj2 ,williams1 ,the ,holy ,city1 pp4 #cae-fb4 ,kugle1 ,gesch4 der ,baukunst1 p4 #abe4 ,the excellent stone was supplied by quarries at ,jerusalem itself4 ,comp4 ,cavati sub terra montes4 7,tac41 ,hist41 v4 #ab74 ,it may have been extended by ,justinian when he built his church4 ,see ,ewald1 iii4 #bcb1 ,the ,mount of the ,temple was #ejj yards square2 ,middoth1 c4 #b4 ,comp4 ,ezek4 xiii4 #ae-bj1 xlv4 #b2 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,xv4 xi4 #c4 #bde ,exod4 i41 ii4 #bdf #a ,kings iv4 #f1 v4 #ac1 #ad1 #ag1 #ah1 ix4 #ae1 #ba1 xii4 #ah4 #bdg ,ewald thinks that it was only at the beginning that ,solomon1 like ,sesostris 7,diod4 ,sic41 ,hist41 i4 #ef71 could boast that his work was done without exacting bitter labour from his own countrymen4 ,but #a ,kings ix4 #bb shows that the king's opinion on this subject differed widely from that of his people 7#a ,kings xi4 #bh1 xii4 #c72 for we are told that he did not make servants of the children of ,israel1 but used them as military officers 7,sarim7 and chariot-warriors 7,shalishim1 7 and knights4 ,it required a little euphemism to gild the real state of affairs4 ,the details of numbers in the ,books of ,chronicles differ from those in the ,kings4 #bdh #a ,kings v4 #ac1 ix4 #bb2 #b ,chron4 viii4 #i4 7,omitted in the ,,lxx47 #bdi ,in token of this defeat of ,solomon he was represented in a statue outside the church leaning his hand on his cheek with a gesture of sorrow4 #bej ,professor ,williams1 ,prolus4 ,architectonic4 #bea ,professor ,hoskins 7,enc4 ,brit472 ,canina1 ,jewish ,antiquities2 ,thrupp1 ,ancient ,jerusalem2 ,count de ,vog1 ,le ,temple de ,jrusalem4 #beb ,fergusson1 ,temples of the ,jews2 ,e4 ,robbins1 ,temple of ,solomon4 #bec ,eupolemos 7,euseb41 ,prp4 ,evang41 ix4 #cj7 and ,alex4 ,polyhistor 7,clem4 ,alex41 ,strom41 i4 #ba7 idly talk of help furnished to ,solomon in building the ,temple by an ,egyptian ,king ,vaphres1 and of letters interchanged between them4 ,vaphres seems to be a mere anachronism for ,hophra4 #bed ,the ,phnician style may1 however1 have been borrowed in part from ,egypt4 #bee ,i have spoken of the ,temple in ,solomon and his ,times 7,men of the ,bible71 and have there furnished some illustrations4 ,the following special authorities may be referred to4 ,stade1 i4 #caa-eg1 ,friederich1 ,tempel und ,palast ,salomo's 7,innsbruck1 #ahhg72 ,chipiez et ,perrot1 ,le ,temple de ,jrusalem 7,paris1 #ahhi72 ,warren1 ,underground ,jerusalem2 ,wilson and ,warren1 ,recov4 of ,jerusalem 7#ahga74 #bef ,parbarim 7#b ,kings xxiii4 #aa74 ,comp4 #a ,chron4 xxvi4 #ah 7,a4,v41 suburbs2 ,r4,v41 precincts and ,parbar74 ,descriptions of the ,temple1 imperfect1 and not always accordant with each other1 are found in #a ,kings v4-vii42 #b ,chron4 ii4-v42 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 iii4 #g1 #h4 #beg ,as we infer from ,psalms lii4 #h1 lxxxiv4 #c1 lxxvi4 #b 7where tabernacle should be covert74 ,eupolemos 7ap4 ,euseb41 ,prp4 ,evang41 etc474 ,scattered passages of the ,talmud which refer mainly to ,herod's ,temple are full of extravagances4 #beh ,jer4 xxxvi4 #aj4 #bei #b ,chron4 iv4 #a4 ,this could not have been the brazen altar of the wilderness1 the fate of which we do not know4 ,it was far larger1 but probably on the same model1 except that steps were forbidden as an approach to the altar of the ,tabernacle 7,exod4 xx4 #bd-bf74 ,it is difficult to reconcile the description of the brazen altar with the distinct prohibition of that passage4 ,comp4 ,ezek4 xliii4 #ag4 #bfj ,the huge stone vase of ,amathus was borne on a bull 7,duncker1 ii4 #ahd74 ,josephus says that in making these oxen ,solomon broke the law 7,antt41 ,,viii4 vii4 #e71 as well as by the lions on his throne4 ,the ,romans called huge vases lacus4 #bfa ,the descriptions of these lavers1 whether in the ,hebrew1 the ,,lxx41 or ,josephus1 are not intelligible1 and are wholly unimportant4 #bfb ,like the palace of ,ecbatana 7,polyb41 x4 #bg1 #aj2 ,herod41 i4 #ih71 and possibly the upper stories of the great temple of ,bel at ,birs-,nimrud 7,borsippa74 #bfc ,in #a ,kings x4 #ab pillars should be a rail or balustrade4 ,heb41 2 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 fulcra4 #bfd ,lilies symbolised beauty and innocence2 pomegranates good works 7so the ,chaldee in ,cant4 iv4 #ac1 vi4 #aa1 ,bhr1 ,symbol41 ii4 #abb74 ,raphael crowns his ,theology with pomegranates1 ,giotto places a pomegranate in the hand of his youthful ,dante1 and ,giovanni ,bellini in the hand of the ,virgin ,mary4 #bfe ,some suppose that the words imply ,he will establish 7,jachin7 in strength 7,boaz74 ,after some favourite persons of the time1 perhaps young sons of ,solomon1 says ,ewald1 very improbably4 ,,lxx4 7#b ,chron4 iii4 #ag71 and 4 ,see a description of these pillars in ,jer4 lii4 #ba-bc4 #bff ,some writers have supplied the ,temple with a porch #ahj feet high1 misled by the astounding method of the chronicler of adding the four sides into the total4 ,thus1 he tells us that the wings of the cherubim were #cj feet long1 meaning that each single wing was #g-a_/b feet long 7#b ,chron4 iii4 #aa74 ,josephus does the same in telling us the height of the ,temple wall4 #bfg ,the ground plans of most ancient temples were alike4 #bfh #b ,sam4 viii4 #g2 #a ,chron4 xviii4 #g4 #bfi ,so #b ,chron4 iv4 #h4 ,but it would seem from #a ,kings vii4 #dh2 #b ,chron4 xiii4 #aa1 xxix4 #ah that only one table and one candlestick were ordinarily used4 #bgj ,st4 ,jerome rendered debir by oraculum1 but some derive it from the ,arabic root dabar1 to be behind1 not from 1 to speak 7,munk1 p4 #bij74 #bga ,in ,zerubbabel's and ,herod's ,temples there was a curtain 7,parocheth7 before the ,holiest2 but we read of no such curtain in ,solomon's1 except in #b ,chron4 iii4 #ad4 ,the fact that the staves of the ,ark were visible seems to show that there was not one4 ,the chronicler speaks of the vail 7#b ,chron4 iii4 #ad71 showing1 apparently1 that there was only one2 and does not mention the ,msak1 which hung between the ,porch and the ,holy ,place4 ,except in #b ,chron4 iii4 #ad1 the only mention of either is in the ,priestly ,code4 ,since the ,oracle had a door1 one hardly sees why there should also have been a curtain4 ,but the whole subject is obscure1 and perhaps the chronicler is sometimes thinking of the second ,temple4 #bgb ,we read nothing1 however1 of any observance of the ,day of ,atonement till centuries later4 #bgc #b ,sam4 xxiv4 #be 7,,lxx472 #a ,chron4 xxii4 #a2 #b ,chron4 iii4 #a2 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,i4 xiii4 #a1 ,,vii4 xiii4 #d2 ,targum of ,onkelos on ,gen4 xii4 #bgd ,the ,ark of the ,lord1 or of the ,testimony1 or of the ,covenant1 was an oblong chest of acacia wood1 overlaid with gold1 surmounted by a border of gold1 and resting on four feet1 to which 7,a4 ,v4 corners7 were attached golden rings4 #bge #a ,kings viii4 #i4 ,the pot of manna and the budded rod of ,aaron were placed before it 7,exod4 xvi4 #cd2 ,numb4 xvii4 #aj71 and the ,book of the ,law beside it 7,deut4 xxxi4 #bf74 ,the ,mercy-seat above was more sacred than the ,ark itself 7,lev4 xvi4 #b74 ,it was the cover 7,kapporeth1 7 of the ,ark1 and was partly formed of two winged cherubim which gazed down upon it and faced each other4 #bgf ,stanley1 ii4 #bjc4 #bgg ,the ,tyrian adornments2 the steps to the altar2 the ten candlesticks1 and tables2 the lions and oxen4 #bgh ,the ,temple was finished in the eighth month of ,solomon's eleventh year1 and dedicated in the seventh month 7,ethanim1 or ,tisri7 of the twelfth year4 ,the first eight days 7#hth to #aeth7 were devoted to the ,feast of ,dedication1 and then from the #aeth to the #bbnd they kept the ,feast of ,tabernacles4 ,on the #bcrd 7the eighth day from the beginning of the ,feast of ,tabernacles1 called 'atsereth1 #b ,chron4 #aj7 ,solomon dismissed the people4 ,the 1 solemn assembly1 is not mentioned in ,exodus or ,deuteronomy1 but in ,lev4 xxiii4 #cf4 #bgi ,it was perhaps stored away in one of the ,temple chambers 7#b ,macc4 ii4 #d74 ,the ,gibeonites 7,nethinim7 were at the same time transferred to ,jerusalem4 ,the chronicler 7#b ,chron4 v4 #f7 says that the ,levites took the ,ark1 according to the ,levitic rule2 but #a ,kings viii4 #c says that the priests bore it1 as in ,deut4 xxxi4 #i1 and in all the pr-exilic histories 7,josh4 iii4 #c1 vi4 #f2 #b ,sam4 xv4 #bd-bi1 etc474 ,w4 ,robertson ,smith1 p4 #add4 #bhj ,the sheykhs are heads of clans2 the emrs of tribes 7,reuss1 i4 #ddd74 #bha ,the ,greek 4 ,solomon seems to have had some jurisdiction there 7#b ,chron4 viii4 #f74 #bhb ,the torrent 7nachal7 of ,egypt4 #bhc ,the ,holiest1 being an unlighted cube1 must always have been dim2 but1 as we have seen1 we have no proof that in ,solomon's ,temple the entrance to it was shrouded by a curtain4 ,in #a ,kings viii4 #ab1 for ,the ,lord said that ,he would dwell in the thick darkness1 the ,targum had ,in ,jerusalem4 #bhd ,in #a ,kings viii4 #d we read that the priests and the ,levites brought up to ,jerusalem the ,tabernacle of the congregation4 ,but the ,,lxx4 only has 4 ,in #b ,chron4 v4 #e the ,hebrew text has the ,levites in some ,,mss41 or the priests1 the ,levites--i4e41 the ,levitic priests4 ,for the priests took up the ark 7#a ,kings viii4 #c7 the chronicler has the ,levites 7comp4 ,numb4 iii4 #ca1 iv4 #ae74 ,it is at least doubtful whether the distinction between priests and ,levites is older than the ,priestly ,code and the days of ,ezekiel4 ,also1 the ,,lxx4 in #a ,kings viii4 #d puts witness for congregation1 and some critics maintain that congregation 7'edah7 is post-exilic4 7,see ,robertson ,smith1 ,enc4 ,brit41 s4v4 ,kings74 ,see infra1 pp4 #ahi1 #aij4 #bhe ,some psalm1 like ,psalm cxxxvi41 was probably sung by alternate choirs1 but hardly in the attitude of prostration which followed the sudden blaze of glory 7#b ,chron4 vii4 #c74 #bhf ,the prayer is of extreme beauty1 but it belongs by its ideas to the seventh and not to the eleventh or tenth centuries ,b4,c4 7,ewald74 ,it is probably added by a later editor who took the ,deuteronomic standpoint4 ,it is found1 sometimes almost word for word1 in ,lev4 xxvi4 and ,deut4 xxviii42 but there are many variations between the ,hebrew and the ,,lxx41 and ,kings and ,chronicles4 ,looking only at actual facts1 not at a priori theories1 we see that1 as ,professor ,driver says 7,contemporary ,review1 ,feb4 #ahij71 the ,hebrew historians used some freedom in attributing speeches to historical characters4 ,thus1 both the syntax and vocabulary1 to say nothing of the thoughts of various speeches attributed to ,david by the chronicler1 are sometimes such as mark the latest period in the history of the language1 and are often quite without precedent in pr-exilic literature4 ,some feelings which gathered round the ,temple find expression in ,psalms xxiv41 xxvii41 xlii41 lxxii41 lxxxiv41 cxxii41 and in more extravagant and less spiritual forms throughout the ,talmud4 ,soteh1 f4 #dh2 ,berachoth1 f4 #eia2 ,moed ,qaton1 f4 #bfa1 etc4 #bhg ,the ,khalif ,moktader sacrificed at ,mecca #dj1jjj camels and #ej1jjj sheep 7,burton's ,pilgrimage1 i4 #cah74 ,solomon offered burnt offerings 7oloth7 and thank offerings 7shellamim74 ,no mention is made of sin offerings2 and it may be doubted whether they had any separate existence till the days of the ,exile4 #bhh #a ,kings viii4 #ff1 went unto their tents1 is a reminiscence of earlier days4 ,the chronicler 7#a7 extends the feast to fourteen days1 according to which there is an interpolation1 and seven days1 even fourteen days1 in verse #fe2 7#b7 he says that the sacrifices were consumed by fire from heaven4 #bhi #a ,kings ix4 #be4 ,the ,hebrew text seems to have been tampered with1 and the allusions significantly disappear from #b ,chron4 viii4 #ab1 #ac4 ,the commentators assiduously try to clear away the difficulty4 ,,chapter ,,xv4 ,,the ,,ideal ,,significance ,,of ,,the ,,temple4 #a ,,kings vii4 #ac-ea1 viii4 #ab-fa4 ,the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain1 nor yet at ,jerusalem1 worship the ,father4444 ,but the hour cometh1 and now is1 when the true worshippers shall worship the ,father in spirit and in truth4--,,john iv4 #ba1 #bc4 ,five long chapters of the ,first ,book of ,kings are devoted to the description of ,solomon's ,temple1 which occupies a still larger space in the ,books of ,chronicles4 ,the ,temple was regarded as the permanent form of the ancient ,tabernacle1#bij which is described with lengthy and minute detail in ,exodus4 ,it might seem1 therefore1 that there must be some clear explanation of the idea which this sacred building was intended to embody4 ,yet it is by no means easy to ascertain what this idea was1 and those who have deeply studied the question have in age after age been led to widely different views4 #a4 ,philo and ,josephus1#bia with certain variations of detail1 regard it as a symbol of the universe--the world of idea and the world of sense4 ,thus the seven-branched candlestick represents the seven planets2 the twelve cakes of shewbread are the twelve signs of the ,zodiac2 the court is the earth2 the sanctuary the sea2 and the oracle the heavens4 ,the theory derives no importance from its authorship4 ,neither ,philo nor ,josephus1 nor the ,rabbis1 nor the ,fathers who adopted their views1#bib have the least authority in such matters2 and ,philo1 who led the way in mystical interpretation1 abounds in fantasies which are ludicrously impossible1 and are now universally rejected4 #b4 ,the ,talmudists held that the ,tabernacle was the exact copy of one in heaven1#bic and that its services reflected those of the heavenly hierarchy4 ,this view went into the extreme of literalism1 as the other did into the extreme of spiritualisation4 ,it was based on the text1 ,look that thou make them after their pattern1 which was showed thee in the mount4#bid ,the ,book of ,chronicles goes so far in this direction as to say that ,david received from ,jehovah the exact pattern of the ,temple down to its minutest details1 together with the entire priestly and ,levitic organisation of its services4 ,all this1 says ,david to ,solomon1 the ,lord made me to understand in writing1 by ,his hand upon me1 even all the works in the pattern4 #c4 ,christian writers have seen in the ,temple an emblem of the visible1 the invisible1 and the triumphant ,church4 ,such symbolic interpretation depends on the most arbitrary combinations1 and does not rise higher than an exercise of fancy4 ,it has not the smallest exegetic importance4 #d4 ,luther thought that the ,tabernacle and ,temple were emblems of human nature3--the court1 the sanctuary1 and the oracle corresponding to the body1 the soul1 and the spirit4 ,later writers have pushed this opinion1 already sufficiently baseless1 into the absurdest detail4 #e4 ,the much simpler view of ,maimonides#bie who is followed by our learned ,spencer1 is that the ,temple was simply the palace of ,jehovah1 with its vestibule1 its audience hall1 its ,presence-chamber1 its attendant courtiers1 its throne1 and its offerings of food and wine and sacrifice4 ,the simplicity of this conception seems to be in accordance with what we know of ancient forms of worship1 and it is certain that in many heathen temples the offerings of food and wine were supposed to be consumed by the god4 ,the name palace is1 however1 only given to the ,temple in one chapter 7#a ,chron4 xxix4 #a1 #ai72 and the ,hebrew1 or rather the ,persian1#bif word so rendered 7brah7 may also be rendered fortress4 #f4 ,in truth we cannot be sure that the idea of the ,temple remained single and definite through so many ages4 ,it was probably a composite and varying emblem1 of which the original significance had become mingled with many later elements4 ,it is1 however1 certain that many numbers and details were symbolical1 and there was a deep insight and magnificent completeness in the manner in which certain truths were shadowed forth by its construction and its central service4 ,the book in which its symbolism is most thoroughly worked out is ,bhr's ,symbolik4 ,he elaborates1 in a simpler form1 the opinion of ,philo1 that the ,temple represented the structure which ,god has erected1 the house in which ,god lives4 ,so far the fact cannot be disputed for1 in ,exod4 xxix4 #de we are told that the ,tabernacle is called the ,house of ,god because ,i will dwell in the midst of the children of ,israel1 and will be their ,god4 ,but ,bhr takes a great leap when he proceeds to explain the house of ,god as the creation of heaven and earth4 ,if his views were true as a whole1 it would indeed be strange that they are not indicated in a single passage either of the ,old or ,new ,testaments4 ,the ,tabernacle was called the ,tabernacle of the ,testimony because its two tables of stone were a witness of the covenant between ,god and man4 ,it was also called the ,tabernacle of ,meeting1 by which is not meant the place where ,israel assembled1 but the place where ,god met ,moses and the children of ,israel4#big ,for there will ,i meet with thee1 and ,i will commune with thee from above the mercy-seat1 says ,jehovah to ,moses2#bih and at the entrance of the tent of meeting ,i will meet with you to speak there unto thee1 and there ,i will meet with the children of ,israel4#bii ,thus1 in its broadest idea1 the ,temple brought before the soul of every thoughtful ,israelite the three great beliefs1 7#a7 that ,god deigned to dwell in the midst of ,his people2 7#b7 that1 in ,his infinite mercy and condescension1 ,he admitted a reciprocity between ,himself and ,his human children2 and 7#c7 that the most absolute expression of ,his will was the moral law1 obedience to which was the condition of heavenly favour and earthly happiness4 ,in the ,porch1 says ,bishop ,hall1 we may see the regenerate soul entering into the blessed society of the ,church2 in the ,holy ,place we may see a figure of the ,communion of the true visible ,church on earth2 in the ,holy of ,holies the glories of ,heaven opened to us by our true ,high ,priest ,christ ,jesus1 who entered once for all to make an ,atonement betwixt ,god and man4 ,,footnotes3 #bij ,the scepticism of modern critics1 who doubt whether there ever was a ,tabernacle in the wilderness at all1 seems to be insufficiently grounded4 #bia ,vit4 ,mos41 iii42 ,antt41 ,,iii4 vi4 #d1 vii4 #g2 ,b4 ,j41 ,,vii4 v4 #e4 #bib ,e4g41 ,origen 7,hom41 ix471 ,clement of ,alexandria 7,strom41 v471 ,theodoret 7,qu41 xl4 in ,exod471 ,jerome 7,ep41 lxiv471 and others4 ,see ,kalisch1 ,exodus1 p4 #die4 #bic ,wisdom ix4 #h3 ,a copy of the holy tabernacle which ,thou didst prepare from the beginning4 #bid ,exod4 xxv4 #dj1 xxvi4 #cj2 ,acts vii4 #dd2 ,heb4 viii4 #e4 #bie ,more ,nebochim1 iii1 #de-di2 ,kalisch1 ,exodus1 p4 #dig4 #bif ,the three names given to the ,tabernacle are ,ohel 7tent71 ,mishkan 7tabernacle1 habitation1 or dwelling-place71 and ,baith 7house74 ,it is undoubted that the ,tabernacle followed the ordinary construction of the ,oriental tent1 with its two divisions1 of which the interior could not be entered by strangers4 #big ,numb4 xvii4 #g1 xviii4 #b2 #b ,chron4 xxiv4 #f2 ,acts vii4 #dd2 ,exod4 xxix4 #aj1 etc42 #a ,kings viii4 #d2 #b ,chron4 viii4 #ac4 ,the phrase ,tent of ,meeting in the ,r4,v4 removes the complete obscuring of the meaning involved by the ,a4,v4 rendering of ,tabernacle of the ,congregation4 #bih ,exod4 xxv4 #bb4 #bii ,exod4 xxix4 #db1 #dc4 ,,chapter ,,xvi4 ,,the ,,ark ,,and ,,the ,,cherubim4 #a ,,kings vi4 #bc-cj1 viii4 #f-aa4 ,jehovah1 thundering out of ,sion1 throned ,between the cherubim4 ,,milton4 ,the inculcation of truths so deep as the unity1 the presence1 and the mercy of ,god would alone have sufficed to give preciousness to the national sanctuary1 and to justify the lavish expenditure with which it was carried to completion4 ,but as in the ,tabernacle1 so in the ,temple1 which was only a more rich and permanent structure1 the numbers1 the colours1 and many details had a real significance4 ,the unity of the ,temple shadowed forth the unity of the ,godhead2 while the concrete and perfect unity1 resulting from the reconciliation of unity with difference and opposition 7#a #b71 is the signature of the ,deity4 ,hence1 as in our ,english cathedrals1 three was the predominant number4 ,there were three divisions1--,porch1 ,holy ,place1 ,oracle4 ,each main division contained three expiatory objects4 ,three times its width 7which was #c #aj7 was the measure of its length4 ,the number ten is also prominent in the measurements4 ,it includes all the cardinal numbers1 and1 as the completion of multiplicity1 is used to indicate a perfect whole4 ,the seven pillars which supported the house1 and the seven branches of the candlestick1 recalled the sacredness of the seventh day hallowed by the ,sabbath1 by circumcision1 and by the ,passover4 ,the number of the cakes of shewbread was twelve1 the signature of the people of ,israel1 a whole in the midst of which ,god resides1 a body which moves after ,divine laws4 ,of the colours predominant in the ,temple1 blue1 the colour of heaven1 symbolises revelation2 white is the colour of light and innocence2 purple1 of majesty and royal power2 crimson1 of life1 being the colour of fire and blood4 ,every gem on the high priest's pectoral had its mystic significance1 and the bells and pomegranates which fringed the edge of his ephod were emblems of devotion and good works4 ,two instances will suffice to indicate how deep and rich was the significance of the truths which ,moses had endeavoured to engraft in the minds of his people1 and to which ,solomon1 whether with full consciousness or not1 gave permanence in the ,temple4 #a4 ,consider1 first1 the ,ark4 ,every step towards the ,holiest was a step of deepening reverence4 ,the ,holy ,land was sacred1 but ,jerusalem was more sacred than all the rest4 ,the ,temple was the most sacred part of the city2 the ,oracle was the most sacred part of the ,temple2 the ,ark was the most sacred thing in the ,oracle2 yet the ,ark was only sacred because of that which it contained4 ,and what did it contain8 ,what was it which enshrined in itself this quintessence of all sanctitude8 ,when we pierce to the inmost recesses of a pyramid1 we find there only the ashes of a dead man1 or even of an animal4 ,within the adytum of an ,egyptian temple we might have found an ox wallowing on purple tapestry4 ,the ,egyptians1 too1 had their arks1 as the ,greeks had the cyst of ,cybele1 and the vannus of ,iacchus4 ,what did they contain8 ,at the best phallic emblems1 the emblems of prolific nature4 ,but the ,ark of ,jehovah contained nothing but the stone tablets on which were carved the ,ten ,words of the ,covenant1 the briefest possible form of the moral law of ,god4 ,in the inmost heart of the ,temple was its most inestimable treasure1--a protest against all idolatry2 a protest against all polytheism1 or ditheism1 or atheism2 a protest1 too1 against the formalism which the ,temple itself and its services might tend to produce in its least spiritually minded worshippers4 ,thus the entire ,temple was a glorification of the truth that the fear of the ,lord is the beginning of wisdom1 and that the one end to be produced by the fear of the ,lord is obedience to ,his commandments4 ,the ,ark and its unseen treasure taught that no religion can be of the least value which does not result in conformity with the plain moral laws3--,be obedient2 be kind2 be pure2 be honest2 be truthful2 be contented2 and that this obedience can only spring from faith in the one ,god whom all real worshippers must worship in spirit and truth4 ,obvious as this lesson might seem to be1 it was entirely missed by the ,jews in general4 ,the ,ark1 too1 was degraded into a fetish1 and ,jeremiah says 7iii4 #af7 of the exiles1 ,they shall say no more1 ,the ark of the covenant of the ,lord3 neither shall it come to mind3 neither shall they miss it3 neither shall it be made any more 7,heb474 ,when a symbol has been perverted into a source of materialism and superstition1 it becomes not only useless but positively dangerous4 ,no religions have fallen so absolutely dead as those which have sunk into petty formalism4 ,the ,ark1 for all its quintessential sacredness1 had been suffered to fall into the hands of uncircumcised ,philistines1 and to be placed in their ,dagon temple1 to show that it was no mere idolatrous amulet4 ,ultimately it was carried away to ,babylon1 to adorn the palace of a heathen tyrant1 and probably to perish by fire in his captured city4 ,in the second ,temple there was no ark4 ,nothing remained but the rock of ,araunah's threshing-floor1 on which it once had stood4 #b4 ,consider1 next1 the meaning of the ,cherubim4 7#a7 ,the infinite sanctity given to the conception of the moral law was enhanced by the introduction of these overshadowing figures4 ,we are never told in the entire books of ,scripture what was the form of these cherubim2 nor is their function anywhere specially defined2 nor1 again1 can we be at all certain of the derivation of the name4 ,that the cherubim over the ,ark were not identical with the fourfold-visaged four of ,ezekiel's cherub-chariot we know1 because they certainly had but one face4 ,but we now know that among the ,assyrians1 ,persians1 ,egyptians1 and other nations nothing was more common than these cherubic emblems1 which were introduced into their palaces and temples under the forms of winged lions1 oxen1 men1 and eagle-headed human figures4 ,we see also that in the ,tabernacle1#cjj and to a still greater extent in the ,temple1 a tacit exception to the stringency of the ,second ,commandment seems to have been made in favour of the component parts of these cherubic figures4 ,if ,solomon was aware 7as he surely must have been7 of the existence of the law1 ,thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image1 he must either have laid stress on the words to thyself1 and have excused the brazen oxen which supported his great laver on the ground that they could not be turned into objects of worship1 or he must have held1 as ,ezekiel apparently did1 that the ox was the predominant form in the cherubic emblem4#cja ,from the ,vision of ,ezekiel we see that the cherubim--like the ,immortalities 77 of the ,apocalypse1 which had faces of the ox1 the eagle1 the lion1 and the man--were conceived of as living creatures upholding the sapphire ,throne of ,god4 ,they had wings1 and the similitude of hands under their wings4 ,they flashed to and fro like lightning in the midst of a great cloud1 and an enfolding fire1 and a rolling mass of amber-coloured flame4 ,of the form of this changeable hieroglyphic we need say no more4 ,perhaps originally suggested by the wreathing fires and rolling stormclouds1 which were regarded as immediate signs of the ,divine proximity1 the cherubim came to be regarded as the genius of the created universe in its richest perfection and energy1 at once revealing and shrouding the ,presence of ,god4#cjb ,their eyes represent ,his omniscience1 for the eyes of the ,lord are in every place2 their wings and straight feet represent the speed and fiery gliding of ,his omnipresence2#cjc each element of their fourfold shape indicates ,his love1 ,his patience1 ,his power1 ,his sublimity4 ,their wheels imply that the dread magnificence of the unintelligent creation is under ,his entire control2 and1 as a whole1 they symbolise the dazzling beauty of the universe1 alike conscious and material4 ,they were the ideal anima animantium--the perfection of existence emanating from and subject to the ,divine ,creator whose tender mercy is over all ,his works4 ,their function1 when they are first introduced in the ,book of ,genesis1 is at once vengeful and protective2 vengeful of the violated law1 protective of the treasure of life4#cjd ,they are here the ,erinnyes of the ,dawn1 revealing and avenging the works of darkness4 ,their dreadful faces and fiery arms at the gate of ,eden typify guilty awakenment1 realised retribution1 conscious alienation from ,god1 the universe siding with ,his awakened anger4 7#b7 ,but when next they are mentioned1 ,god says to ,moses1 ,thou shalt make a mercy-seat of pure gold1 and thou shalt make two cherubim of gold at the two ends of the mercy-seat4 ,but for their presence on the mercy-seat how terrible would have been the symbolism of the ,holy of ,holies--,god's darkness1 man's crime1 a broken law6 ,it would have represented ,him who hath clouds and darkness round about ,him1 and dwelleth in darkness which no man can approach unto2 and the ,ark would only have treasured up1 as a witness against man's apostasy1 the shattered slabs of the words of ,sinai4#cje ,but over that ,ark1 and its saddening because dishallowed treasure1 bent once more these mystic figures1 these cherubim of glory4 ,they bent down as though at once to protect with outspread wings1 and to regard with awful contemplation1 that mystic gift of a law promulgated to all nations as their moral heritage and as the revealed will of ,god4 ,these are no longer cherubim of vengeance or awakened wrath1 for they stand on the ,capporeth1 the covering1 or propitiatory of the ,ark4#cjf ,they gleamed out in the red light of the high priest's golden brazier on the one day when human foot entered the darkness in which they were shrouded2 and even by him they were but dimly discerned through the ascending wreaths of fragrant incense4 ,but he stood before them1 where1 on their spreading wings1 the light of the ,divine presence was deemed to dwell2 and with the blood of expiation he sprinkled seven times the mercy-seat over which these adoring figures leaned4 ,the wrathful cherubim of the lost ,eden had driven man from a treasure which he had forfeited2 but these1 though they guard the ten words of a law which man had broken1 were cherubim of mercy and reconciliation4 ,those of ,eden were armed with swords of flame2 those of the ,temple were reddened with the blood of forgiveness4 ,those typified a covenant destroyed and ended2 these a covenant broken yet renewed4 ,those spoke of awakened wrath2 these of covenanted mercy4 ,those kept men back from the ,tree of ,life2 these guarded that which is a ,tree of ,life to them that love it4 ,could the whole covenant of the law and the gospel have been symbolised more simply1 yet with ,diviner force8 ,the ,temple itself1 with all its sacrifices1 with all its service and ceremonial and all the gorgeous vestments of ,aaron's vestry1 served but to teach the infinite worth of simple righteousness4 ,the heart of the ,mosaic legislation was nothing so poor1 so paltry1 so material as the promotion of liturgical ,levitism1 and the pomp of ritual1 and the organisation of priestly functions--as though these in themselves had any value in the sight of ,god4 ,it lay in the lesson that ,obedience is better than sacrifice1 and to hearken than the fat of rams4 ,the law of ,moses--the ten words which constituted the inmost preciousness of his legislation--was1 alas6 a violated law4 ,for the disobedient it had no message but the wrathful menace of death4 ,but to show that ,god has not abandoned ,his disobedient children1 but would still enable them to keep that law1 and to repent for its transgression1 the cherubim are there4 ,their presence on the propitiatory was meant to reveal the glory of the gospel4 ,the high priest1 who alone saw them on the ,great ,day of ,israel1 was a type of ,him who1 not with the blood of bulls and goats1 but in ,his own blood 7i4e41 in the glory of the life outpoured for man71 entered into ,god's presence within the veil4 7#c7 ,in the dazzling living creatures before the throne in the ,revelation of ,st4 ,john1 we see once more these cherubim of ,eden1 who1 having indicated at the ,fall an awful warning1 and represented in the ,tabernacle a blessed hope1 symbolise1 in the last book of the ,bible1 a ,divine fulfilment4 ,they are there no longer with fiery swords1 in wrathful aspect1 in repellent silence2 but1 gracious and beautiful1 they join in the new song of the redeemed multitude under the shadow of the ,tree of ,life1 to which all have free access in that recovered ,eden4 ,in the ,temple--glimmering through the rising fumes of incense1 which were the type of accepted prayer1 their golden plumage sprinkled with the blood of the atoning sacrifice--they became a type both of all creation1 up to its most celestial beings1 gazing in adoration on the will of ,god1 and of all creation1 in its groaning and travailing1 restored through the precious blood that speaketh better things than the blood of ,abel4 ,not all1 of course1 of these deep meanings were present to the souls of ,israel's worshippers2 but the best of them might with joy see something of the things which we see when we say that in these glorious figures are summed up the three chief images of all ,scripture3 first1 the ,primval ,dispensation1 ,in the day that thou eatest thereof1 thou shalt surely die2 next1 in the wilderness1 ,this do1 and thou shalt live2 last of all1 in the ,gospel ,dispensation1 ,thou wast slain1 and hast redeemed us to ,god by ,thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation1 and hast made us unto our ,god kings and priests4 ,,footnotes3 #cjj ,kuenen's notion that the cherubim had come to the ,jews through the ,phnicians from the ,assyrians is quite improbable4 ,the symbol was common throughout the ,east1 whatever be the derivation of the word4 #cja ,compare ,ezek4 i4 #aj with x4 #ad1 where the face of an ox is identical with the face of a cherub4 ,perhaps this gave rise to the pagan calumnies that the ,jews worshipped an ass4 ,josephus says 7insincerely7 that no man could tell or even conjecture the shape of the cherubim4 #cjb ,bhr1 whose profound studies on symbolism command respect1 says that as standing on the highest step of created life1 and uniting in themselves the most perfect created life1 they are the most perfect revelation of ,god and the ,divine 7,symbolik1 i4 #cdj74 #cjc ,compare the ,homeric epithet 1 and ,milton's smooth-gliding1 without step4 #cjd ,one of the ,scriptural functions of the cherubim was to guard treasure 7,ezek4 xxviii4 #ac-ae74 ,this conception1 too1 was widely diffused throughout the ,east3-- ,as when a ,gryphon through the wilderness ,pursues the ,arimaspian1 who1 by stealth1 ,has from his watchful custody purloined ,the guarded gold4 ,,milton4 #cje ,i follow the ,rabbis in saying that the first broken slabs were in the ,ark4 #cjf ,like the ,greek images of the gods1 they were made of olive1 the least corruptible kind of wood1 and overlaid with the purest gold4 ,,chapter ,,xvii4 ,,the ,,gradual ,,growth ,,of ,,the ,,levitic ,,ritual4 #a ,,kings viii4 #a-ff4 ,behold1 to obey is better than sacrifice4--#a ,,sam4 xv4 #bb4 ,before we enter on the subject of the ,temple worship1 it is necessary to emphasise a fact which will meet us again and again in many forms as we consider the history of the ,chosen ,people3 it is the amazing ignorance which seems to have prevailed among them for centuries as to the most central and decisive elements of nearly the whole of the ,mosaic law as we now read it in the ,pentateuch4 #a4 ,take1 for instance1 the law of a central sanctuary4 ,it is strongly laid down1 and incessantly insisted on1 throughout the ,book of ,deuteronomy4#cjg ,yet that law does not seem to have been so much as noticed by any of the earlier prophets or judges1 or by ,saul1 or by ,david4 ,the judges and early kings offer sacrifices at any place which they regard as sacred--,bochim1 ,ophrah1 ,mizpeh1 ,gilgal1 ,bethel1 ,bethlehem1 etc4#cjh ,the rule of one place for sacrifice was not regarded for a moment by the kings of the ,northern ,kingdom4 ,the transgression of it was not made a subject of complaint by ,elijah1 ,elisha1 or any of the earlier prophets4 ,not one of the kings1 even of the most pious kings--,asa1 ,jehoshaphat1 ,joash1 ,amaziah1 ,uzziah1 ,jotham--rigidly enforced it until the reign of ,josiah4 ,the law seems to have remained an absolutely dead letter for hundreds of years4 ,now this would be amply accounted for if the ,deuteronomic and ,levitic ,codes only belonged in reality to the days of ,josiah and of the ,exile2 for in the ,book of the ,covenant 7,exod4 xxiv4 #g71 which is the most ancient part of these codes1 and comprises ,exod4 xx4-xxviii4 #cc1 and is briefly repeated in ,exod4 xxxiv4 #aj-bh1 there is not only no insistence on a central shrine1 but many of the regulations would have been rendered impossible had such a shrine existed 7e4g41 ,exod4 xxi4 #f1 xxii4 #g1 #h1 where the judges should be ,god1 as in the ,r4,v474 ,indeed1 so far from insistence on one ,temple1 we expressly read 7,exod4 xx4 #bd71 ,an altar of earth shalt thou make ,me1 and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings1 thy sheep and thine oxen1 in all places where ,i record ,my name1 and ,i will come unto thee and bless thee4 #b4 ,again1 the ,book of ,leviticus lays down a singularly developed code of ritual1 extending to the minutest details of worship and of life4 ,yet there is scarcely the shadow of a trace of the observance of even its most reiterated and important provisions during centuries of ,israelitish history4 ,it is emphatically a priestly book2 yet from the days of ,david down to those of ,josiah1 the priests1 with few exceptions1 are almost ignored in the national records4 ,they took the colour of their opinions from the reigning kings1 even in matters which were contrary to the whole extent and spirit of the ,mosaic ,code4 ,samuel1 who was not a priest1 nor even a ,levite1 performed every function of a priest1 and of a high priest1 all his life long4 #c4 ,again1 as we have seen1 in spite of the positive distinctness of the ,second ,commandment1 not only is the calf-worship established1 with scarcely a protest1 throughout the ,northern ,kingdom2 but ,solomon even ventures1 without question or reproof1 to place twelve oxen under his brazen sea1 and to adorn the steps of his throne with golden lions4 #d4 ,again1 no ceremony was more awful1 or more strikingly symbolical1 in the later religion of ,israel1 than that of the ,great ,day of ,atonement4 ,it was the only appointed fast in the ,jewish year1#cji a day so sacred that it acquired the name of ,yoma1 the ,day4 ,yet the ,day of ,atonement1 with its arresting ceremonies and intense significance1 is not so much as once mentioned outside the ,levitical ,code by a single prophet1 or priest1 or king4 ,it is not even mentioned--which is exceedingly strange--in the post-exilic ,books of ,chronicles4 ,between the ,book of ,leviticus 7with its supposed date of #adia ,b4,c471 down to the days of ,philo1 ,josephus1 and the ,new ,testament1 there is not so much as a hint of the observance of this central ceremony of the whole ,levitic law6 ,what is more perplexing is1 that1 in the ideal legislation of ,ezekiel1 where alone anything distantly resembling the ,day of ,atonement is alluded to 7,ezek4 xlv4 #ah-bj71 the time1 manner1 and circumstances are as absolutely different as if ,ezekiel had never read the ,levitic law at all4 ,how would any prophet have dared to ignore or alter1 without a word of reference or apology1 a rite of ,divine origin and immemorial sanctity1 if he had been aware of its existence8 #e4 ,nor is this only the case with the ,day of ,atonement4 ,it seems certain that at ,jerusalem there was not for centuries anything distantly resembling the due ,levitic observance of the three great yearly feasts4 ,nehemiah1 for instance1 tells us in so many words that since the days of ,joshua the son of ,nun down to ,b4,c4 #dde--perhaps for a thousand years--the ,feast of ,tabernacles had never been observed in the most characteristic of all its appointed rites--the dwelling in booths4#caj #f4 ,again1 although there are slight allusions in some of the ,prophets to laws and statutes and commandments1 their silence about1 if not their absolute ignorance of1 anything which resembles the ,levitic legislation as a whole is a startling problem4 ,thus1 even a late prophet like ,jeremiah alludes1 without a word of reprobation1 to men cutting and making themselves bald for the dead 7,jer4 xvi4 #f2 comp4 xli4 #e7 in a way which the ,levitic law 7,lev4 xix4 #bh2 ,deut4 xiv4 #a7 strenuously forbids4 #g4 ,again1 as is well known1 there is a fundamental difference between the three codes as to the relative position of the priests and ,levites4 7i7 ,in ,exod4 xix4 #f all ,israel is regarded as a kingdom of priests and an holy nation1 and in ,exod4 xxiv4 #e the young men of the children of ,israel offer burnt offerings and sacrifice peace offerings4 7ii7 ,in ,numb4 iii4 #dd-ea the ,levites are set aside for the service of the ,tabernacle in place of the firstborn4 ,but neither in the ,book of the ,covenant nor in ,deuteronomy is there any distinction between the services of the priests and the ,levites4 7iii7 ,in ,deut4 x4 #h every ,levite may become a priest4 ,all priestly functions are open to the ,levites1 and the arrangements for the ,levites are wholly different from those of ,numbers4 7iv7 ,but in the ,priestly ,code only the sons of ,aaron are to be priests 7,numb4 vi4 #bb-bg1 xviii4 #a-g2 ,lev4 i4 #e1 #h74 ,the ,levites are to minister to them in more or less menial functions1 and are permitted a share in the tithes1 but not 7as in ,deut4 xviii4 #a7 in the firstfruits4 ,we have first identity of priests and ,levites1 then partial1 then absolute separation4#caa ,the earliest trace of this degradation of the ,levites is propounded as something quite new in ,ezek4 xliv4 #aj-af1 which distinctly implies 7see verse #ac7 that up to that time the ,levites had enjoyed full priestly rites4 ,it must be admitted that these facts are not capable of easy explanation1 nor is it strange that they have led the way to unexpected conclusions4 ,we have to face the certainty that1 for ages together1 the ,levitic law was not only a dead letter among the people for whom it was intended1 but that its very existence does not seem to have been known4 ,for long periods1 says ,professor ,robertson1 the people of ,israel seem to have been as ignorant of their own religion as the people of ,europe were of theirs in the ,dark ,ages4#cab ,but the problem1 were we to pursue it into its details1 is far more perplexing than can be accounted for by the very partial and misleading parallel which ,professor ,robertson adduces4 ,the parallel would be nearer if1 throughout the ,dark ,ages for a thousand years together1 scarcely a single trace were to be found1 even under the best popes and the most pious kings1 and even in theologic and sacred literature1 of so much as the existence of a ,new ,testament1 or of any observance of the most distinctive festivals and sacraments of ,christianity4 ,and this1 as ,professor ,robertson knows1 is infinitely far from being the case4 ,it is true that an argument ex silentio may easily be pushed too far2 but we cannot ignore it when it is so striking as this1 and when it is also strengthened by so many positive and corroborative facts4 ,a solution of this phenomenon--which becomes most salient in the ,book of ,kings--is proposed by the criticism which has received the title of ,the ,higher ,criticism1 because it is historic and constructive1 and rises above purely verbal elements4 ,that solution is that the ,pentateuch is not only a composite structure 7which all would concede71 but that it was written in very different ages1 and that much of it is of very late origin4 ,critics of the latest school believe that it consists of three well-marked and entirely different codes of laws--namely1 the ,book of the ,covenant 7,exod4 xx4 #bc-xxiii472 the ,deuteronomic ,code1 first brought into prominence in the reign of ,josiah1 and written shortly before that reign2 and the ,levitical or ,priestly ,code1 which comprises most of ,exodus1 and nearly all ,leviticus1 and was not introduced till after the ,exile4 ,this would be indeed a radical conclusion1 and cannot yet be regarded as having been conclusively established4 ,but so remarkable has been the rapidity with which the opinion of religious critics has advanced on the subject1 that now even the strongest opponents of this extreme view admit that the existence of the three separate codes has been demonstrated1 although they still think that all three may belong to the ,mosaic age4#cac ,it is obvious1 however1 that this view leaves many of the difficulties entirely untouched4 ,criticism has not yet spoken her last word upon the subject1 but we ought to take her views into account in considering the judgments pronounced by the historian of the ,kings4 ,they were judgments which1 in their details1 though not as regards broad moral principles1 were based on the standpoint of a later age4 ,the views of that later age must be discounted if we have to admit that some of the ritual innovations and legal transgressions of the kings were transgressions of laws of the very existence of which they were profoundly ignorant4 ,that they were thus ignorant of them is not only implied throughout1 but appears from the direct statements of the sacred historians4#cad ,,footnotes3 #cjg ,see1 especially1 ,deut4 xii4 #e-ai4 ,in the later ,priestly ,code the centralisation of worship is not inculcated1 but supposed to be already established4 ,in the original ,book of the ,covenant it is not required at all4 #cjh ,judg4 ii4 #e1 vi4 #bd1 viii4 #bg1 xx4 #a1 xxi4 #b1 #d2 #a ,sam4 vii4 #i1 x4 #h1 xi4 #ae1 xiii4 #i1 xvi4 #e1 etc4 #cji 7,acts xxvii4 #i72 ,philo1 ,lib4 de ,septenariis4 #caj ,neh4 viii4 #ag4 #caa ,canon ,cook in the ,speaker's ,commentary 7,leviticus1 p4 #dif7 admits3 ,it is by no means unlikely there are insertions of a later date1 which were written and sanctioned by the prophets and holy men who after the captivity arranged and edited the ,scriptures of the ,old ,testament4 #cab ,book by ,book1 p4 #g4 #cac ,see ,professor ,robertson1 ,book by ,book1 p4 #ef4 ,i quote ,professor ,robertson as one of the ablest and most competent opponents of extreme conclusions2 but it does not seem to me that he touches on some of the arguments which constitute the main strength of the case against him4 #cad ,see #b ,kings xxii4 #aa2 ,ezra ix4 #a1 #g2 ,neh4 ix4 #c4 ,,chapter ,,xviii4 ,,the ,,temple ,,worship4 #a ,,kings viii4 #a-aa4 ,trust ye not in lying words1 saying1 ,the temple of the ,lord1 the temple of the ,lord1 the temple of the ,lord1 are these4444 ,behold1 ye trust in lying words1 that cannot profit4--,,jer4 vii4 #d1 #h4 ,the actual ,temple building1 apart from its spacious courts1 was neither for worshippers nor for priests1 neither for sacrifice nor for prayer4 ,it existed only for symbolism and1 at least in later days1 for expiation4 ,no prayer was offered in the sanctuary4 ,the propitiatory was the symbol of expiation1 but even after the introduction of the ,day of ,atonement the atoning blood was only carried into it once a year4 ,all the worship was in the outer court1 and consisted mainly1 7#a7 of praise1 and 7#b7 of offerings4 ,both were prominent in the ,dedication ,festival4 ,it is written1 said our ,lord1 ,my house shall be called a ,house of ,prayer1 but ye have made it a den of robbers4 ,the quotation is from the later ,isaiah1 and represents a happy advance in spiritual religion4 ,among the details of the ,levitic ,tabernacle no mention is made of prayer1 though it was symbolised both in the incense and in the sacrifices which have been called unspoken prayers4#cae ,let my prayer be set forth as incense1 says the ,psalmist1 and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice4 ,in the ,new ,testament we read that the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense4 ,but during the whole history of the first ,temple we only hear--and that very incidentally--of private prayer in the ,temple4 ,solomon's prayer was public1 and combined prayer with praises and benedictions4 ,but no fragments of ,jewish liturgies have come down to us which we can with any probability refer to the days of the kings4 ,the ,psalms which most clearly belong to the ,temple service are mainly services of praise4 ,in the mind of the people the sacrifices were undoubtedly the main part of the ,temple ritual4 ,this fact was specially emphasised by the scene which marked the ,festival of the ,dedication4 ,it is difficult to imagine a scene which to our unaccustomed senses would have been more revolting than the holocausts of a great ,jewish ,festival like that of ,solomon's ,dedication4 ,as a rule the daily sacrifices1 exclusively of such as might be brought by private worshippers1 were the lambs slain at morning and evening4 ,yet ,maimonides gives us the very material and unpoetic suggestion that the incense used was to obviate the effluvium of animal sacrifice4 ,the suggestion is unworthy of the great ,rabbi's ability1 and is wholly incorrect2 but it reminds us of the almost terrible fact that1 often and often1 the ,temple must have been converted into one huge and abhorrent abattoir1 swimming with the blood of slaughtered victims1 and rendered intolerably repulsive by heaps of bloody skins and masses of offal4 ,the smell of burning flesh1 the swift putrescence caused by the tropic heat1 the unlovely accompaniments of swarms of flies1 and ministers with blood-drenched robes would have been inconceivably disagreeable to our ,western training--for no one will believe the continuous miracle invented by the ,rabbis1 who declare that no fly was ever seen in the ,temple1 and no flesh ever grew corrupt4#caf ,no doubt the brazen sea and the movable caldrons were in incessant requisition1 and there were provisions for vast storages of water4 ,these could have produced a very small mitigation of the accompanying pollutions during a festival which transformed the great court of the ,temple into the reeking shambles and charnel-house of sheep and oxen which could not be told nor numbered for multitude4 ,had such spectacles been frequent1 we should surely have had to say of the people of ,jerusalem as ,sir ,monier ,williams says of the ancient ,hindus1 ,the land was saturated with blood1 and people became wearied and disgusted with slaughtered sacrifices and sacrificing priests4#cag ,what infinite1 and what revolting labour1 must have been involved in the right burning of the two kidneys and the fat1 and the due disposition of the inwards of all these holocausts6 ,the groaning brazen altar1 vast as it was1 failed to meet the requirements of the service1 and apparently a multitude of other altars were extemporised for the occasion4 ,when the festival was over ,god appeared to ,solomon in vision1 as ,he had done at ,gibeon4 ,so far ,solomon had not gravely or consciously deflected from the ideal of a theocratic king4 ,anything which had been worldly or mistaken in his policy--the oppression into which he had been led1 the heathen alliances which he had formed1 his crowded harem1 his evident fondness for material splendour which carried with it the peril of selfish pride--were only signs of partial knowledge and human frailty4 ,his heart was still1 on the whole1 right with ,god4 ,he was once more assured in nightly vision that his prayer and supplication were accepted4 ,the promise was renewed that if he would walk in integrity and uprightness his throne should be established for ever2 but that if he or his children swerved into apostasy ,israel should be driven into exile1 and1 as a warning to all lands1 this house1 which ,i have hallowed for ,my name1 will ,i cast out of ,my sight1 and ,israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people4 ,here1 then1 we are brought face to face with problems which arise from the whole system of worship in the ,old ,dispensation4 ,whatever it was1 to whatever extent it was really carried out and was not merely theoretical1 at whatever date its separate elements originated1 and however clear it is that it has utterly passed away1 there must have been certain ideas underlying it which are worthy of our study4 #a4 ,of the element of praise1 supported by music1 we need say but little4 ,it is a natural mode of expressing the joy and gratitude which fill the heart of man in contemplating the manifold mercies of ,god4 ,for this reason the pages of ,scripture ring with religious music from the earliest to the latest age4 ,we are told in the ,chronicles that triumphant praise was largely introduced into the great festival services1 and that the ,temple possessed a great organisation for vocal and orchestral music4 ,david was not only a poet1 but an inventor of musical instruments4#cah ,fifteen musical instruments are mentioned in the ,bible1 and five of them in the ,pentateuch4 ,most important among them are cymbals1 flutes1 silver trumpets1 rams' horns1 the harp 7,kinnor7 and the ten-stringed lute 7,nevel74#cai ,the remark of ,josephus that ,solomon provided #dj1jjj harps and lutes and #bjj1jjj silver trumpets is marked by that disease of exaggeration which seems to infect the mind of all later ,jewish writers when they look back with yearning to the vanished glories of their past4 ,there can1 however1 be no doubt that the orchestra was amply supplied1 and that there was a very numerous and well-trained choir4#cbj ,we read in the ,psalms and elsewhere of tunes which they were trained to sing4 ,such tunes were ,the ,well1 and ,the ,bow1 and ,the ,gazelle of the morning1 and ,all my fresh springs shall be in ,thee1 and ,die for the son 7,muth-labben74#cba ,in the second ,temple female singers were admitted2#cbb in ,herod's ,temple ,levite choir-boys took their place4#cbc ,the singing was often antiphonal4 ,some of the music still used in the synagogue must date from these times1 and there is no reason to doubt that in the so-called ,gregorian tones we have preserved to us a close approximation to the ancient hymnody of the ,temple4 ,this element of ancient worship calls for no remark4 ,it is a religious instinct to use music in the service of ,god2 and perhaps the imagination of ,st4 ,john in the ,revelation1 when he describes the rapture of the heavenly host pouring forth the chant ,alleluia1 for the ,lord ,god omnipotent reigneth1 was coloured by reminiscences of gorgeous functions in which he had taken part on the ,mountain of the ,house4 #b4 ,when we proceed to speak of the ,priesthood we are met by difficulties1 to which we have already alluded1 as to the date of the varying regulations respecting it4 ,it would be difficult1 says ,dr4 ,edersheim1 to conceive arrangements more thoroughly or consistently opposed to what are commonly called 'priestly pretensions' than those of the ,old ,testament4#cbd ,according to the true ideal1 ,israel was to be a kingdom of priests and an holy nation2#cbe but the institution of ministering priests was of course a necessity1 and the ,jewish priesthood1 which is now utterly abrogated1 was1 or gradually became1 representative4 ,representatively they had to mediate between ,god and ,israel1 and typically to symbolise the holiness1 i4e41 the consecration of the ,chosen ,people4 ,hence they were required to be free from every bodily blemish4 ,it was regarded as a deadly offence for any one of them to officiate without scrupulous safeguard against every ceremonial defilement1 and they were specially adorned and anointed for their office4 ,they were an extremely numerous body1 and from the days of ,david are said to have been divided into twenty-four courses4 ,they were assisted by an army of attendant ,levites1 also divided into twenty-four courses1 who acted as the cleansers and keepers of the ,temple4 ,but the distinction of priests and ,levites does not seem to be older than the ,priestly ,code1 and criticism has all but demonstrated that the sections of the ,pentateuch known by that name belong1 in their present form1 not to the age of ,moses1 but to the age of the successors of ,ezekiel4 ,the elaborate priestly and ,levitic arrangements ascribed to the days of ,aaron by the chronicler1 who wrote six hundred years after ,david's day1 are unknown to the writers of the ,book of ,kings4 ,in daily life they wore no distinctive dress4 ,in the ,temple service1 all the year round1 their vestments were of the simplest4 ,they were of white byssus to typify innocence1#cbf and four in number to indicate completeness4 ,they consisted of a turban1 breeches1 and seamless coat of white linen1 together with a girdle1 symbolic of zeal and activity1 which was assumed during actual ministrations4#cbg ,the only magnificent vestments were those worn for a few hours by the high priest once a year on the ,great ,day of ,atonement4 ,these golden vestments were eight in number4 ,to the ordinary robes were added the robe of the ephod 7,meil7 of dark blue1 with seventy-two golden bells1 and pomegranates of blue1 purple1 and scarlet2 a jewelled pectoral containing the ,urim and ,thummim2 the mitre2 and the golden frontlet 7,ziz71 with its inscription of ,holiness to the ,lord4 ,the ideal type was fulfilled1 and the poor shadows abolished for ever1 by ,him of whom it is said1 ,such an high priest became us1 who is holy1 harmless1 undefiled1 separate from sinners4 ,the priests were poor2 they were very often entirely unlettered2 they seem to have had for many centuries but little influence on the moral and spiritual life of the people4 ,hardly any good is recorded of them as a body throughout the four hundred and ten years during which the first ,temple stood1 as very little good had been recorded of them in the earlier ages1 and not much in the ages which were to follow4 ,we read of scarcely a single moral protest or spiritual awakenment which had its origin in the priestly body4 ,their temptation was to be absorbed in their elaborate ceremonials4 ,as these differed but little from the ritual functions of surrounding heathendom they seem to have relapsed into apostasy with shameful readiness1 and to have submitted without opposition to the idolatrous aberrations of king after king1 even to the extent of admitting the most monstrous idols and the most abhorrent pollutions into the sacred precincts of the ,temple1 which it was their work to guard4 ,when a prophet arose out of their own supine and torpid ranks he invariably counted his brethren amongst his deadliest antagonists4 ,they ridiculed him as they ridiculed ,isaiah2 they smote him on the cheek as they smote ,jeremiah4 ,the only thing which roused them was the spirit of revolt against their vapid ceremonialism1 and their abject obedience to kings4 ,the ,presbyterate could have no worse ideal1 and could follow no more pernicious example1 than that of the ,jewish priesthood4 ,the days of their most rigid ritualism were the days also of their most desperate moral blindness4 ,the crimes of their order culminated when they combined1 as one man1 under their high priest ,caiaphas and their sagan ,annas#cbh to reject ,christ for ,barabbas1 and to hand over to the ,gentiles for crucifixion the ,messiah of their nation1 the ,lord of ,life4 ,,footnotes3 #cae ,sacrificia symbolic preces 7,outram1 ,de ,sacrif41 p4 #ajh74 #caf ,yoma1 f4 #ba1 a4 #cag ,on vast ancient holocausts1 see ,athen41 ,deipnos41 i4 #e2 ,diod4 ,sic41 xi4 #gb2 ,porph41 ,de abstin41 ii4 #fj2 ,suet41 ,calig41 #ad2 ,sen41 ,de ,benef41 iii4 #bg2 ,ammian4 ,marcel41 xxii4 #d1 xxv4 #d2 and other passages collected by the diligence of commentators4 ,see1 too1 ,josephus 7,b4 ,j41 ,,vi4 ix4 #c7 who reckons that at a passover in ,nero's time #bef1jjj sacrifices were offered4 #cah ,amos vi4 #e2 #a ,chron4 xxiii4 #e4 #cai ,edersheim1 ,the ,temple and its ,services1 p4 #ed4 #cbj ,the chronicler says that there were #ch1jjj ,levites1 of which #bd1jjj were to oversee the work of the house of the ,lord2 and #fjjj were officers and judges1 and #djjj door-keepers2 and #djjj praised the ,lord with the instruments which ,i made1 said ,david1 to praise therewith4 #cba ,some of these titles of the ,psalms are1 however1 very uncertain4 ,gesenius thinks that this last title 7,psalm ix47 means that the ,psalm was to be sung by boys with virgins' voices4 ,it is1 to say the least1 a very curious coincidence1 that in #a ,chron4 xxv4 #d the names of the sons of ,heman1 ,giddalti and ,romamti-ezer1 ,joshbekashah1 ,mallothi1 ,hothir1 ,mahazioth1 mean 7omitting the strange ,joshbekashah1 for which the ,,lxx4 ,cod4 ,alex4 reads 71 consecutively1 ,i have given great and high help3 ,i have spoken visions in abundance4 ,had the names any reference to tunes8 #cbb ,ezra ii4 #fe2 ,neh4 vii4 #fg2 ,psalm lxxxvii4 #g4 #cbc ,of these1 perhaps1 were the children who shouted their hosannas to ,jesus in the ,temple 7,matt4 xxi4 #ae74 #cbd ,the ,temple and its ,services1 p4 #fg4 #cbe ,exod4 xix4 #e1 #f4 #cbf ,rev4 xv4 #f4 #cbg ,comp4 ,rev4 i4 #ac1 xv4 #f4 #cbh ,on this sagan1 the later title for the second priest1 see #b ,kings xxv4 #ah2 ,jer4 lii4 #bd4 ,,chapter ,,xix4 ,,the ,,temple ,,sacrifices4 #a ,,kings viii4 #fb-ff1 ix4 #be4 ,i have chosen this house to ,myself for an house of sacrifice4--#b ,chron4 vii4 #ab4 ,gifts and sacrifices1 that cannot1 as touching the conscience1 make the worshipper perfect1 being only 444 carnal ordinances1 imposed until a time of reformation4--,heb4 ix4 #i1 #aj4 ,the whole sacrificial system with which our thoughts of ,judaism are perhaps erroneously1 and much too exclusively identified1 furnishes us with many problems4 ,whether it was originally of ,divine origin1 or whether it was only an instinctive expression1 now of the gratitude1 and now of the guilt and fear1 of the human heart1 we are not told4 ,nor is the basal idea on which it was founded ever explained to us4 ,were the ideas of atonement or propitiation 7,kippurim7 really connected with those of substitution and vicarious punishment8 ,or was the main conception that of self-sacrifice1 which was certainly most prominent in the burnt offerings8 ,doubtless the views alike of priests and worshippers were to a great extent indefinite4 ,we are not told what led ,cain and ,abel to present their sacrifices to ,god2 nor did ,moses--if he were its founder--furnish any theories to explain the elaborate system laid down in the ,book of ,leviticus4 ,the large majority of the ,jews probably sacrificed simply because to do so had become a part of their religious observances1 and because in doing so they believed themselves to be obeying a ,divine command4 ,others1 doubtless1 had as many divergent theories as ,christians have when they attempt to explain the ,atonement4 ,the substitution theory of the sin offering finds little or no support from the ,old ,testament2 not only is it never stated1 but there is not a single clear allusion to it4 ,it is emphatically asserted by later ,jewish authorities1 such as ,rashi1 ,aben ,ezra1 ,moses ben-,nachman1 and ,maimonides1 and is enshrined in the ,jewish liturgy4 ,yet ,dr4 ,edersheim writes3 ,the common idea that the burning1 either of part or the whole of the sacrifice1 pointed to its destruction1 and symbolised the wrath of ,god and the punishment due to sin1 does not seem to accord with the statements of ,scripture4#cbi ,sacrifices were of two kinds1 bloody 7,zebach2 ,,lxx41 71 or unbloody 7minchah1 korban2 ,,lxx41 1 74 ,the latter were oblations4 ,such were the cakes of shewbread1 the meal and drink offerings1 the first sheaf at ,passover1 the two loaves at ,pentecost4 ,in almost every instance the minchah accompanied the offering of a sacrificial victim4 ,the two general rules about all victims for sacrifice were1 7#a7 that they should be without blemish and without spot1 as types of perfectness2 and 7#b7 that every sacrifice should be salted with salt1 as an antiseptic1 and therefore a type of incorruption4#ccj ,sacrificial victims could only be chosen from oxen1 sheep1 goats1 turtle doves1 and young pigeons--the latter being the offering of the poor who could not afford the costlier victims4 ,sacrifices were also divided generally 7#a7 into free1 or obligatory2 7#b7 public1 or private2 and 7#c7 most holy or less holy1 of which the latter were slain at the north and the former at the east side of the altar4#cca ,the offerer1 according to the ,rabbis1 had to do five things--to lay on hands1 slay1 skin1 dissect1 and wash the inwards4 ,the priest had also to do five things at the altar itself--to catch the blood1 sprinkle it1 light the fire1 bring up the pieces1 and complete the sacrifices4 ,sacrifices are chiefly dwelt upon in the ,priestly ,code2 but nowhere in the ,old ,testament is their significance formally explained1 nor for many centuries was the ,levitic ritual much regarded4#ccb ,the sacrifices commanded in the ,pentateuch fall under four heads4 7#a7 ,the burnt offering 7,olah1 ,kalil71#ccc which typified complete self-dedication1 and which even the heathen might offer2 7#b7 the sin offering 7,chattath71#ccd which made atonement for the offender2 7#c7 the trespass offering 7,ashm71#cce which atones for some special offence1 whether doubtful or certain1 committed through ignorance2 and 7#d7 the thank offering1 eucharistic peace offering 7,shelem71#ccf or offering of completion1 which followed the other sacrifices1 and of which the flesh was eaten by the priest and the worshippers4#ccg ,the oldest practice seems only to have known of burnt offerings and thank offerings1 and the former seem only to have been offered at great sacrificial feasts4 ,even in ,deuteronomy a common phrase for sacrifices is eating before the ,lord1 which is almost ignored in the ,priestly ,code4 ,of the sin offering1 which in that code has acquired such enormous importance1 there is scarcely a trace--unless ,hosea iv4 #h be one1 which is doubtful--before ,ezekiel1 in whom the ,ashm and ,chattath occur in place of the old pecuniary fines 7#b ,kings xii4 #af74 ,originally sacrifice was a glad meal1 and even in the oldest part of the code 7,lev4 xvii4-xxvi47 sacrifices are comprised under the ,olam and ,zebach4 ,the turning-point of the history of the sacrificial system is ,josiah's reformation1 of which the ,priestly ,code is the matured result4#cch ,it is easy to see that sacrifices in general were eucharistic1 dedicatory1 and expiatory4 ,the eucharistic sacrifices 7the meal and peace offerings7 and the burnt offerings1 which indicated the entire sacrifice of self1 were the offerings of those who were in communion with ,god4 ,they were recognitions of ,his absolute supremacy4 ,the sin and trespass offerings were intended to recover a lost communion with ,god4 ,and thus the sacrifices were1 or ultimately came to be1 the expression of the great ideas of thanksgiving1 of self-dedication1 and of propitiation4 ,but the ,israelites1 while they seem always to have retained the idea of propitiation and of eucharistic offering1 constantly ignored the self-dedication1 which is the link between the two1 and which the regular burnt offering should have impressed upon them as their daily thought and duty4 ,had they kept this in view they would have been saved from the superstitions and degeneracies which made their use of the sacrificial system a curse and not a blessing4 ,the expiatory conception1 which was probably the latest of the three1 expelled the others1 and was perverted into the notion that ,god was a ,god of wrath1 whose fury could be averted by gifts and ,his favour won by bribes4 ,there was this truth in the notion of propitiation--that ,god hates1 and is alienated by1 and will punish1 sin2 and yet that in ,his mercy ,he has provided an ,atonement for us4 ,but in trying to imagine how the sacrifice affected ,god1 the ,israelites lost sight of the truth that this is an inexplicable mystery1 and that all which we can know is the effect which it can produce on the souls of man4 ,if they had interpreted the sacrifices as a whole to mean this only--that man is guilty and that ,god is merciful2 and that though man's guilt separates him from ,god1 reunion with ,him can be gained by confession1 penitence1 and self-sacrifice1 by virtue of an ,atonement which ,he had revealed and would accept--then the effect of them would have been spiritually wholesome and ennobling4 ,but when they came to think that sacrifices were presents to ,god1 which might be put in the place of amendment and moral obedience1 and that the punishment due to their offences might be thus mechanically diverted upon the heads of innocent victims1 then the sacrificial system was rendered not only nugatory but pernicious4 ,nor have ,christians been exempt from a similar corruption of the doctrine of the ,atonement4 ,in treating it as vicarious and expiatory they have forgotten that it is unavailing unless it be also representative4 ,in looking upon it as the atonement for sin they have overlooked that there can be no such atonement unless it be accompanied by redemption from sin4 ,they have tacitly and practically acted on the notion1 which in the days of ,st4 ,paul some even avowed1 that we may continue in sin that grace may abound4 ,but in the great work of redemption the will of man cannot be otiose4 ,he must himself die with ,christ4 ,as ,christ was sacrificed for him he1 too1 must offer his body a living sacrifice1 holy1 acceptable unto ,god4 ,without the sin offering of the ,cross1 says ,bishop ,barry1 our burnt offering 7of self-dedication7 would be impossible2 so also without the burnt offering the sin offering will1 to us1 be unavailing4#cci ,many of the crudities1 and even horrors1 which1 alike in ,jewish and ,christian times1 have been mixed up with the idea of bloody sacrifices1 would have been removed if more attention had been paid to the prominence and real significance of blood in the entire ritual4 ,as taught by some revivalists the doctrine of the blood adds the most revolting touches to theories which assimulate ,god to ,moloch2 but the true significance of the phrase and of the symbol elevates the entire doctrine of sacrifice into a purer and more spiritual atmosphere4 ,the central significance of the whole doctrine lies in the ancient opinion that the blood of the sacrifice was its life4 ,this was why an expiatory power was ascribed to the blood4 ,there was certainly no transfer of guilt to the animal1 for its blood remained clean and cleansing4 ,nor was the animal supposed to undergo the transgressor's punishment2 first1 because this is nowhere stated1 and next1 because had that been the case1 fine flour would certainly not have been permitted 7as it was7 as a sin offering4#cdj ,moreover1 no wilful offence1 no offence with uplifted hand1 i4e41 with evil premeditation1 could be atoned for either by sin or trespass offerings2--though certainly so wide a latitude was given to the notion of sin as an involuntary error as to tend to break down the notion of moral responsibility4 ,the sin offering was further offered for some purely accidental and ceremonial offences1 which could not involve any real consciousness of guilt4#cda ,the blood of the covenant 7,exod4 xxiv4 #d-h7 was not of the sin offering1 but of peace and burnt offerings2 and though1 as ,canon ,cook says1 we read of blood in paganism as a propitiation to a hostile demon1 we seem to seek in vain for an instance in which the blood1 as a natural symbol for the soul1 was offered as an atoning sacrifice4#cdb ,the atoning virtue of the blood lies not in its material substance1 but in the life of which it is the vehicle1 says ,bishop ,westcott4 ,the blood always includes the thought of the life preserved and active beyond death4 ,it is not simply the price by which the redeemed were purchased1 but the power by which they were quickened so as to be capable of belonging to ,god4 ,to drink the blood of ,christ1 says ,clement of ,alexandria1 is to partake of the ,lord's incorruption4#cdc ,besides the points to which we have alluded1 there is a further difficulty created by the singular silence respecting sin offerings of any kind1 except in that part of the ,old ,testament which has recently acquired the name of the ,priestly ,code4#cdd ,the word ,chattath1 in the sense of sin offering1 occurs in ,exod4 xxix41 xxx41 and many times in ,leviticus and ,numbers1 and six times in ,ezekiel4 ,otherwise in the ,old ,testament it is barely mentioned1 except in the post-exilic ,books of ,chronicles 7#b ,chron4 xxix4 #bd7 and ,ezra 7viii4 #be74cde ,it is not mentioned in any other historic book2 nor in any prophet except ,ezekiel4 ,again1 as we have seen1 the ,day of ,atonement leaves not a trace in any of the earlier historic records of ,scripture1 and is found only in the authorities above mentioned4 ,through all the rest of ,scripture the scape-goat is unmentioned1 and ,azazel is ignored4 ,dr4 ,kalisch goes so far as to say that there is conclusive evidence to prove that the ,day of ,atonement was instituted considerably more than a thousand years after the death of ,moses and ,aaron4#cdf ,for even in ,ezekiel1 who wrote ,b4,c4 #egd1 there is no ,day of ,atonement on the tenth day of the seventh month1 but on the first and seventh of the first month 7,abib1 ,nisan74 ,he thinks it utterly impossible that1 had it existed in his time1 ,ezekiel could have blotted out the holiest day of the year1 and substituted two of his own arbitrary choice4#cdg ,the rites1 moreover1 which he describes differ wholly from those laid down in ,leviticus4 ,even in ,nehemiah there is no notice of the ,day of ,atonement1 though a day was observed on the twenty-fourth of the month4 ,hence this learned writer infers that even in ,b4,c4 #ddj the ,great ,day of ,atonement was not yet recognised1 and that the pagan element of sending the scape-goat to ,azazel1 the demon of the wilderness1 proves the late date of the ceremony4 ,it is interesting to observe how utterly the sacrificial priestly system1 in the abuses which not only became involved in it1 but seemed to be almost inseparable from it1 is condemned by the loftier spiritual intuition which belongs to phases of revelation higher than the external and the typical4 ,thus in the ,old ,testament no series of inspired utterances is more interesting1 more eloquent1 more impassioned and ennobling1 than those which insist upon the utter nullity of all sacrifices in themselves1 and their absolute insignificance in comparison with the lightest element of the moral law4 ,on this subject the ,prophets and the ,psalmists use language so sweeping and exceptionless as almost to repudiate the desirability of sacrifices altogether4 ,they speak of them with a depreciation akin to scorn4 ,it may be doubted whether they had the ,mosaic system with all its details1 as we know it1 before them4 ,they do not enter into those final elaborations which it assumed1 and not one of them so much as alludes to any service which resembles the powerfully symbolic ceremonial of the ,great ,day of ,atonement4 ,but they speak of the ceremonial law in such fragments and aspects of it as were known to them4 ,they deal with it as priests practised it1 and as priests taught--if they ever taught anything--respecting it4 ,they speak of it as it presented itself to the minds of the people around them1 with whom it had become rather a substitute for moral efforts and an obstacle in the path of righteousness1 than an aid to true religion4 ,and this is what they say3-- ,hath the ,lord as great delight in sacrifice1 asks the indignant ,,samuel1 as in obeying the voice of the ,lord8 ,behold1 to obey is better than sacrifice1 and to hearken than the fat of rams4#cdh ,i hate1 ,i despise your feasts1 says ,jehovah by ,amos1 and ,i will take no delight in your solemn assemblies4 ,yea1 though ye offer ,me your burnt offerings and meal offerings1 ,i will not accept them3 neither will ,i regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts4 ,turn thou away from ,me the noise of thy songs2 for ,i will not hear the melody of thy viols4 ,but let judgment roll down as waters1 and righteousness as a mighty stream4#cdi ,wherewith shall ,i come before the ,lord1 asks ,,micah1 and bow myself before the most high ,god8 ,shall ,i come before ,him with burnt offerings1 with calves of a year old8 ,will the ,lord be pleased with thousands of rams1 or with ten thousands of rivers of oil8 ,shall ,i give my firstborn for my transgression1 the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul8 ,he hath showed thee1 ,o man1 what is good3 and what doth the ,lord require of thee1 but to do justly1 and to love mercy1 and to walk humbly with thy ,god8#cej ,,hosea again in a message of ,jehovah1 twice quoted on different occasions by our ,lord1 says3 ,i desire mercy and not sacrifice1 and the knowledge of ,god more than burnt offerings4#cea ,,isaiah also1 in the word of the ,lord1 gives burning expression to the same conviction3 ,to what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto ,me8 saith the ,lord3 ,i am full of the burnt offerings of lambs1 and the fat of fed beasts2 and ,i delight not in the blood of bullocks1 or of lambs1 or of he-goats4 ,when ye come to appear before ,me1 who hath required this at your hands1 to trample ,my courts8 ,bring no more vain oblations2 incense is an abomination unto ,me2 new moon and sabbath1 the calling of assemblies1--,i cannot away with iniquity and the solemn meeting4 ,your new moons and your appointed feasts ,my soul hateth3 they are a cumbrance unto ,me2 ,i am weary to bear them4444 ,wash you1 make you clean6#ceb ,the language of ,,jeremiah',s message is even more startling3 ,i spake not unto your fathers1 nor commanded them in the day that ,i brought them out of the land of ,egypt1 concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices3 but this thing ,i commanded them1 saying1 ,obey ,my voice4 ,and again--in the version of the ,,lxx41 given in the margin of the ,revised ,version for the unintelligible rendering of the ,authorised ,version--he asks3 ,why hath the beloved wrought abomination in ,my house8 ,shall vows and holy flesh take away from thee thy wickedness1 or shalt thou escape by these8#cec ,jeremiah is1 in fact1 the most anti-ritualistic of the prophets4 ,so far from having hid and saved the ,ark1 he regarded it as entirely obsolete 7iii4 #af74 ,he cares only for the spiritual covenant written on the heart1 and very little1 if at all1 for ,temple services and ,levitic scrupulosities 7vii4 #d-ae1 xxxi4 #ca-cd74ced ,,the ,,psalmists are no less clear and emphatic in putting sacrifices nowhere in comparison with righteousness3-- ,i will not reprove thee for thy sacrifices2 ,nor for thy burnt offerings which are continually before ,me4 ,i will take no bullock out of thine house1 ,nor he-goats out of thy folds4 99 99 99 99 99 ,will ,i eat the flesh of bulls1 ,or drink the blood of goats8 ,offer unto ,god thanksgiving2 ,and pay thy vows unto the ,most ,high4#cee ,and again3-- ,for ,thou desirest not sacrifice1 else would ,i give it ,thee3 ,thou delightest not in burnt offering4 ,the sacrifices of ,god are a broken spirit3 ,a broken and contrite heart1 ,o ,god1 ,thou wilt not despise4#cef ,and again3-- ,sacrifice and offering ,thou hast no delight in2 ,mine ears hast thou opened3 ,burnt offering and sin offering hast ,thou not required4#ceg ,and again3-- ,to do justice and judgment ,is more acceptable to the ,lord than sacrifice4#ceh ,and again3-- ,i will praise the name of ,god with a song1 ,and magnify it with thanksgiving4 ,this also shall please the ,lord ,rather than a bullock that hath horns and hoofs4#cei ,surely the most careless and conventional reader cannot fail to see that there is a wide difference between the standpoint of the prophets1 which is so purely spiritual1 and that of the writers and redactors of the ,priestly ,code1 whose whole interest centred in the sacrificial and ceremonial observances4 ,nor is the intrinsic nullity of the sacrificial system less distinctly pointed out in the ,new ,testament4 ,the better-instructed ,jews1 enlightened by ,christ's teaching1 could give emphatic testimony to the immeasurable superiority of the moral to the ceremonial4 ,the candid scribe1 hearing from ,christ's lips the two great commandments1 answers1 ,of a truth1 ,master1 ,thou hast well said that ,he is one2 and there is none other but ,he3 and to love ,him with all the heart1 444 and to love his neighbour as himself1 is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices4#cfj ,and our ,lord quoted ,hosea with the emphatic commendation1 ,go ye and learn what that meaneth1 ,i desire mercy1 and not sacrifice4#cfa ,and on another occasion3 ,but if ye had known what this meaneth1 ,i desire mercy1 and not sacrifice1 ye would not have condemned the guiltless4#cfb ,the presenting of our bodies1 says ,st4 ,paul1 as a living sacrifice is our reasonable service2 and ,st4 ,peter calls all ,christians a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice4#cfc ,it is impossible1 says the writer of the ,epistle to the ,hebrews1 that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins2 and he speaks of the priests daily offering the same sacrifice1 the which can never take away sins4#cfd ,and again3-- ,to do good and to distribute forget not3 for with such sacrifices ,god is well pleased4#cfe ,the wisest fathers of ,jewish thought in the post-exilic epoch held the same views4 ,thus the son of ,sirach says3 ,he that keepeth the law bringeth offerings enough4#cff ,and ,philo1 echoing an opinion common among the best heathen moralists from ,socrates to ,marcus ,aurelius1#cfg writes1 ,the mind1 when without blemish1 is itself the most holy sacrifice1 being entirely and in all respects pleasing to ,god4#cfh ,and what is very remarkable1 modern ,judaism now emphasises its belief that neither sacrifices nor a ,levitical system belong to the essence of the ,old ,testament4#cfi ,such was the view of the ancient ,essenes1 no less than of ,maimonides or ,abarbanel4 ,modern ,rabbis even go so far as to argue that the whole system of ,levitical sacrifice was an alien element1 introduced into ,judaism from without1 tolerated indeed by ,moses1 but only as a concession to the immaturity of his people and their hardness of heart4#cgj ,such1 too1 was the opinion of the ancient ,fathers1--of the author of the ,epistle of ,barnabas1 of ,justin ,martyr1 ,origen1 ,tertullian1 ,jerome1 ,chrysostom1 ,epiphanius1 ,cyril1 and ,theodoret1 who are followed by such ,roman ,catholic theologians as ,petavius and ,bellarmine4#cga ,this at any rate is certain3--that the ,judaic system is not only abrogated1 but rendered impossible4 ,whatever were its functions1 ,god has stamped with absolute disapproval any attempt to continue them4 ,they are utterly annulled and obliterated for ever4 ,i am come to repeal the sacrifices4 ,such is the ascribed to ,christ2 and unless ye desist from sacrificing1 the wrath of ,god will not desist from you4#cgb ,the argument of ,st4 ,paul in the ,epistles to the ,romans and ,galatians1 and of the writer of the ,epistle to the ,hebrews1 show us why this was inevitable2 and they were but following the initiative of ,christ and the teaching of ,his ,spirit4 ,it is a mistake to imagine that our ,lord merely repudiated the inane pettinesses of ,pharisaic formalism4 ,he went much further4 ,there is not the slightest trace that ,he personally observed the requirements of the ceremonial law4 ,it is certain that ,he broke them when ,he touched the leper and the dead youth's bier4 ,the law insisted on the centralisation of worship1 but ,jesus said1 ,the day cometh1 and now is1 when neither in ,jerusalem1 nor yet in this mountain1 shall men worship the ,father4 ,god is a ,spirit1 and they that worship ,him must worship ,him in spirit and in truth4 ,the law insisted1 with extreme emphasis1 on the burdensome distinctions between clean and unclean meats4 ,jesus said that it is not that which cometh from without1 but that which cometh from within which defileth a man1 and this ,he said making all meats clean4#cgc ,st4 ,paul1 when the types of ,mosaism had been for ever fulfilled in ,christ1 and the antitype had thus become obsolete and pernicious1 went further still4 ,taking circumcision1 the most ancient and most distinctive rite of the ,old ,dispensation1 he called it concision or mere mutilation1 and said thrice over1 ,circumcision is nothing1 and uncircumcision is nothing1 but 'a new creature'2 but faith working by love1 but the keeping of the commandment of ,god4 ,the whole system of ,judaism was local1 was external1 was minute1 was inferior1 was transient1 was a concession to infirmity1 was a yoke of bondage3 the whole system of ,christianity is universal1 is spiritual1 is simple1 is unsacrificial1 is unsacerdotal1 is perfect freedom4 ,judaism was a religion of a temple1 of sacrifices1 of a sacrificial priesthood3 ,christianity is a religion in which the ,spirit of ,god ,doth prefer ,before all temples the upright heart and pure4 ,it is a religion in which there is no more sacrifice for sin1 because the one perfect and sufficient sacrifice1 oblation and satisfaction1 has been consummated for ever4 ,it is a religion in which there is no altar but the ,cross2 in which there is no priest but ,christ1 except so far as every ,christian is by metaphor a priest to offer up spiritual sacrifices which alone are acceptable to ,god4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the ,temple of ,solomon lasted only four centuries1 and they were for the most part years of dishonour1 disgrace1 and decadence4#cgd ,solomon was scarcely in his grave before it was plundered by ,shishak4 ,during its four centuries of existence it was again stripped of its precious possessions at least six times1 sometimes by foreign oppressors1 sometimes by distressed kings4 ,it was despoiled of its treasure by ,asa1 by ,jehoash of ,judah1 by ,jehoash of ,israel1 by ,ahaz1 by ,hezekiah1 and lastly by ,nebuchadnezzar4 ,after such plunderings it must have completely lost its pristine splendour4 ,but the plunder of its treasures was nothing to the pollutions of its sanctity4 ,they began as early as the reigns of ,rehoboam and ,abijah4 ,ahaz gave it a ,syrian altar1 ,manasseh stained it with impurities1 and ,ezekiel in its secret chambers surveyed the dark idolatries of alienated ,judah4 ,and in the days when ,judaism most prized itself on ritual faithfulness1 the ,lord of the ,temple was insulted in the ,temple of the ,lord1 and its courts were turned by greedy priests and ,sadducees into a cowshed1 and a dovecot1 and a fair1 and a usurer's mart1 and a robber's den4 ,from the first the centralisation of worship in the ,temple must have been accompanied by the danger of dissociating religious life from its daily social environments4 ,the multitudes who lived in remote country places would no longer be able to join in forms of worship which had been carried on at local shrines4 ,judaism1 as the prophets so often complain1 tended to become too much a matter of officialism and function1 of rubric and technique1 which always tend to substitute external service for true devotion1 and to leave the shell of religion without its soul4#cge ,even when it had been purified by ,josiah's reformation1 the ,temple proved to be a source of danger and false security4 ,it was regarded as a sort of ,palladium4 ,the formalists began to talk and act as though it furnished a mechanical protection1 and gave them licence to transgress the moral law4 ,jeremiah had sternly to warn his countrymen against this trust in an idle formalism4 ,amend your ways and your doings1 he said4 ,behold1 ye trust in lying words which cannot profit4 ,will ye steal1 murder1 and commit adultery1 and swear falsely1 and burn incense unto ,baal1 and walk after other gods whom ye have not known1 and come and stand before ,me in this house1 which is called by ,my name1 and say1 ,we are delivered2 that ye may do all these abominations8 ,the ,temple of ,solomon was defaced and destroyed and polluted by the ,babylonians1 but not until it had been polluted by the ,jews themselves with the blood of prophets1 by idolatries1 by chambers of unclean imagery4 ,it was rebuilt by a poor band of disheartened exiles to be again polluted by ,antiochus ,epiphanes1 and ultimately to become the headquarters of a narrow1 arrogant1 and intriguing ,pharisaism4 ,it was rebuilt once more by ,herod1 the brutal ,idumean usurper1 and its splendour inspired such passionate enthusiasm that when it was wrapped in flames by ,titus1 it witnessed the carnage of thousands of maddened and despairing combatants4 ,as 'mid the cedar courts and gates of gold ,the trampled ranks in miry carnage rolled ,to save their ,temple every hand essayed1 ,and with cold fingers grasp'd the feeble blade2 ,through their torn veins reviving fury ran ,and life's last anger warm'd the dying man4 ,yet that last ,temple had been defiled by a worse crime than the other two4 ,it had witnessed the priestly idols and the priestly machinations which ended in the murder of the ,son of ,god4 ,from the ,temple sprang little or nothing of spiritual importance4 ,intended to teach the supremacy of righteousness1 it became the stronghold of mere ritual4 ,for the development of true holiness1 as apart from ceremonial scrupulosity1 its official protectors rendered it valueless4 ,we are not surprised that ,christianity knows no temple but the hearts of all who love the ,lord ,jesus ,christ in sincerity and truth2 and that the characteristic of the ,new ,jerusalem1 which descends out of heaven like a bride adorned for her husband1 is3-- ,and ,i saw no temple therein4#cgf ,abundantly was the menace fulfilled in which ,jehovah warned ,solomon after the ,feast of ,dedication that if ,israel swerved into immorality and idolatry1 that house should be an awful warning--that its blessing should be exchanged into a curse1 and that every one who passed by it should be astonished and should hiss4#cgg ,,footnotes3 #cbi ,he refers to ,wnsche1 ,die ,leiden des ,messias4 #ccj ,mark ix4 #di4 #cca ,lev4 vi4 #ag1 vii4 #a1 xiv4 #ac4 ,on this whole subject see ,edersheim1 pp4 #gi-aaa4 #ccb ,see ,judg4 vi4 #ai-ba2 #a ,sam4 ii4 #ac1 xiv4 #ce2 #a ,kings xix4 #ba2 #b ,kings v4 #ag4 #ccc ,,lxx41 4 #ccd ,,lxx41 4 ,chattath and ,ashm both imply guilt1 debt1 sin4 ,the trespass offering affected rights of property1 but no precise definition of the two kinds of expiatory offerings can be based upon the statements made in the ,pentateuch in respect to them4 ,perhaps they cannot all be referred to the same time and to one author2 for they prescribe both sin and trespass offerings in cases of ,levitical impurity1 and also for moral offences4 ,all ,levites attempting to establish palpable distinctions between them must inevitably fail4 7,kalisch1 ,leviticus1 part ii41 p4 #bgb74 ,the general scheme of sacrifices1 as they now stand in the ,pentateuch1 is as follows3-- ,sacrifice 7,zebach1 ,minchah74 ---------------------------------------- ----- ,burnt offering4 ,peace offering4 ,expiatory ,offering of offering4 ,purification4 ----------------- ,child ,leprosy4 ,issue4 birth4 -------------------------- ,sin offering ,trespass ,offering 7,chattath74 offering ,jealousy4 7,ashm74 ---------------------------------------- ,thank ,praise4 ,paschal ,firstborn ,firstfruits4 offerings4 ,lamb4 of animals4 #cce ,,lxx41 4 #ccf ,,lxx41 4 #ccg ,the phrase wave offering indicates the ceremony used by the priests in presenting peace offerings to ,god4 #cch ,for the full development of these views1 see ,wellhausen's ,prolegomena4 #cci ,see ,bishop ,barry's article on ,sacrifice in ,smith's ,dictionary of the ,bible1 to which1 in this paragraph1 ,i am much indebted4 #cdj ,lev4 v4 #aa-ac4 #cda ,see ,kuenen1 ,rel4 of ,israel1 ii4 pp4 #bei-gf4 #cdb ,speaker's ,commentary1 ,leviticus1 p4 #ejh4 ,in ,lev4 xvii4 #aa--;,for the soul of the flesh is in the blood1 and ,i have ordained it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls2 for the blood it is which makes atonement by means of the soul--,kurtz points out that the blood is simply chosen as a symbol1 and the superstition that there is any atoning virtue in the blood itself is excluded4 #cdc ,pd41 ii4 #b1 #ai4 #cdd ,the ,priestly ,code is that part of the ,pentateuch which is occupied with public worship and the function of priests--viz41 most of ,leviticus2 ,exod4 xxv4-xl42 ,numb4 i4-x41 xv4-xx41 xxv4-xxxvi4 7with inconsiderable exceptions7 #cde ,in ,psalm xl4 #f1 ,sin offering hast ,thou not required4 ,the ,psalm is perhaps of the age of ,jeremiah4 #cdf ,he argues that even in ,chronicles it is not mentioned2 and that there was no curtain 7,parocheth7 before the ,holiest in ,solomon's ,temple 7#a ,kings vi4 #ca1 #cb4 ,comp4 ,ezek4 xli4 #bc1 #bd2 #a ,kings viii4 #h74 ,he considers that #b ,chron4 iii4 #ad 7the only place in the ,old ,testament where ,parocheth occurs except in the ,p4,c47 cannot overthrow #a ,kings vi4 #ba1 which speaks only of chains of gold between the ,holy and the ,holiest4 7,there was a curtain in ,herod's ,temple1 ,matt4 xxvii4 #ea2 ,heb4 ix4 #c74 ,but if there was no ,parocheth in ,solomon's ,temple1 the rule of ,lev4 xvi4 #b1 #ab1 #ae could not have been observed4 #cdg ,this caused immense perplexity to the ,rabbis4 ,shabbath1 xiii4 #b2 ,chagigah1 xiii4 #a2 ,menachoth1 xlv4 #a4 #cdh #a ,sam4 xv4 #bb4 #cdi ,amos v4 #ba-bc4 #cej ,micah vi4 #f-h4 ,some suppose that the words are attributed to ,balaam 7see verse #e74 #cea ,hosea vi4 #f4 #ceb ,isa4 i4 #aa-af4 #cec ,jer4 vii4 #bb1 xi4 #ae4 #ced ,jer4 xxxiii4 #ad-bf seems to speak in a different tone1 but is probably an interpolation4 ,it is not found in the ,,lxx4 #cee ,psalm l4 #h-ad4 #cef ,psalm li4 #af1 #ag4 ,it is difficult to believe that the two last verses of the ,psalm are not a later addition4 #ceg ,psalm xl4 #f4 #ceh ,prov4 xxi4 #c4 #cei ,psalm lxix4 #cj1 #ca4 #cfj ,mark xii4 #cb1 #cc4 ,so in the ,talmud3 ,acts of justice are more meritorious than all sacrifices 7,succoth41 lxix4 #b74 #cfa ,matt4 ix4 #ac4 #cfb ,matt4 xii4 #g4 #cfc ,rom4 xii4 #a2 #a ,peter ii4 #e4 #cfd ,heb4 x4 #d1 #aa4 #cfe ,heb4 xiii4 #af4 #cff ,ecclus4 xxxv4 #a-ae4 #cfg ,comp4 ,ov41 ,trist41 ii4 #a1 #ge2 ,ep4 xx4 #ha2 ,persius1 ii4 #de2 ,varro1 ap4 ,arnob41 c4 ,natt41 vii4 #a4 ,dii veri neque desiderant ea1 neque deposcunt4 #cfh ,philo1 ,de ,victimis1 #e4 #cfi ,a4 ,geiger1 ,judenthum und seine ,geschichte1 ,sect4 #e4 #cgj ,vajikra ,r41 #bb and #cd b4 ,they got over ,jer4 xxxiii4 #ah 7in ,yalkuth1 on the passage7 by saying1 ,he that doeth repentance it is counted to him as if he offered all the sacrifices of the land4 ,they held that the place of sacrifices was taken by prayer1 penitence1 and good works4 ,see ,edersheim1 ,jesus the ,messiah1 i4 #bge4 #cga ,see ,spencer1 ,de ,legg4 ,ritual41 iii42 ,dissert41 ii41 chap4 #a4 #cgb ,evang4 ,ebion1 ap4 ,epiph41 ,hr41 xxx4 #af4 #cgc ,mark vii4 #ai4 #cgd ,it was twice repaired--about ,b4,c4 #hef in the reign of ,joash1 and about two centuries later under ,josiah4 #cge ,see ,isa4 xxix4 #ac1 #ad2 ,ezek4 xxxiii4 #ca2 ,matt4 xv4 #g-i2 ,col4 i4 #bj-bb1 etc4 ,comp4 ,wellhausen1 pp4 #gg-gi4 #cgf ,rev4 xxi4 #bb4 #cgg #a ,kings ix4 #f-i4 ,the phrase at this house which is high is uncertain4 ,the ,vulgate has domus hc erit in exemplum2 the ,peshito and ,arabic have and this house shall be destroyed4 ,,chapter ,,xx4 ,,solomon ,,in ,,all ,,his ,,glory4 #a ,,kings x4 #a-bi4 ,o ,luxury6 thou curs'd by ,heaven's decree6 ,how do thy potions with insidious joy ,diffuse their pleasures only to destroy6 ,kingdoms by thee to sickly greatness grown ,boast of a florid vigour not their own4 ,,goldsmith1 ,deserted ,village4 ,the ,queen of the ,south shall rise up in judgment against this generation1 and shall condemn it4 ,for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of ,solomon4--,,matt4 xii4 #db4 ,the history of the ,temple is the event which gives supreme religious importance to the reign of one who became in other respects a worldly and irreligious king4 ,it is for this reason that ,i have dwelt upon its significance1 and on the many interesting questions which its worship naturally suggests4 ,solomon gave an impulse to outward service1 not to spiritual life4 ,his religion was mainly that form of externalism which rose but little above the ,gay religions full of pomp and gold of the surrounding heathens4 ,the other fragments of his story which have been preserved for us are mainly of a political character4 ,they point us to ,solomon in his wealth and ostentation1 and contain nothing specially edifying4 ,our ,lord thought less of all this splendour than of the flower of the field4 ,consider the lilies of the field1 how they grow2 they toil not1 neither do they spin3 yet ,i say unto you1 that ,solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these4 ,princes who have once begun to build find a certain fascination in the task4 ,after the seven years devoted to the ,temple1 ,solomon occupied thirteen more in building halls of ,lebanoniac cedar for himself1 for his audience-chamber1 and for ,pharaoh's daughter4 ,chief of these were3-- #a4 ,the house of the forest of ,lebanon1 a sort of arsenal so called from its triple rows of cedar pillars1 on which hung the golden shields for the king's guards when they attended his great visits to the ,temple4 #b4 ,the justice hall1 the ,sublime ,porte of ,jerusalem1 built of gold and cedar4 ,it contained the famous ,lion ,throne of gold and ivory1 with two lions on each of its six steps4#cgh ,it is not known whether these buildings formed part of the palace and harem of ,solomon1 nor is it worth while to waste time on the impossible attempt to reconstruct them4 ,solomon also built the fortification of ,jerusalem known as the ,millo1 and the wall of ,jerusalem1 and repaired the breaches of the city of ,david1#cgi as well as the fortresses and treasure cities to which we have already alluded1 and the summer palaces in the region of ,lebanon known as the delights of ,solomon4#chj ,amid these records of palatial architecture we hear next to nothing of the religious life4 ,he further dazzled his people by an extensive system of foreign commerce4 ,his land-traffic with ,arabia familiarised them with spicery 7necoth71 gum tragacanth1 frankincense1 myrrh1 aloes1 and cassia and with precious stones of all kinds4 ,from ,egypt he obtained horses and chariots4 ,they were brought from ,tekoa1 by his merchants1 and kept by ,solomon1 or sold at a profit4#cha ,he found a ready market for them among the ,hittite and ,araman kings4 ,emulating the ,phnicians1 and apparently invading the monopoly of ,tyre1 he had--if we may take the chronicler literally--a fleet of ships of ,tarshish which sailed along the coasts of ,spain4#chb ,above all1 he made the daring attempt to establish a fleet of ,tarshish-ships at ,ezion-,geber1 the port of ,elath1 at the north of the ,gulf of ,akaba4 ,this fleet sailed down the ,red ,sea to ,ophir--perhaps ,abhra1 at the mouth of the ,indus--and amazed the simple ,hebrews with the sight of gorgeous iridescent peacocks1 wrinkled chattering apes1 the red and richly scented sandal wood of ,india1 and the large tusks of elephants from which cunning artificers carved the smooth ivory to inlay furniture1 thrones1 and ultimately even houses1 with lustrous ornamentation4 ,cinnamon came to him from ,ceylon1 and sapphires 7lapis lazuli7 from ,babylon4#chc ,other services which he rendered to his capital and kingdom were more real and permanent4 #a4 ,jerusalem may have been in part indebted to ,solomon for its supply of water4 ,the magnificent springs of pure gushing water at ,etam are still called ,solomon's fountains1 and it is believed that he used their rocky basins as reservoirs from which to irrigate his garden in the ,wady ,urtas 7,lat41 ,hortus74 ,etam is two hours distant from ,jerusalem1 and if ,solomon built the aqueduct which once conveyed its water supply to the city he proved himself a genuine benefactor4#chd ,there was immense need of the fons perennis aqu of which ,tacitus speaks for the purifications of the ,temple1 soiled by the reek and offal of so many holocausts4 #b4 ,maritime allusions now began to appear in ,hebrew literature2#che and maritime enterprise produced the marvellous effect it always produces on the character and progress of the nation4 ,along the black basalt roads--the king's highways--of which the construction was necessitated by the outburst of commercial activity flocked hundreds of foreign visitors1 not only merchantmen and itinerant traffickers1 but governors of provinces1 and vassal or allied princes4 ,the isolated and stationary tribes of ,palestine suddenly found themselves face to face with a new and splendid civilisation4 ,admiring visitors flocked to see the great king's magnificence and to admire his foreign curiosities1 bringing with them presents of gold and silver1 armour#chf and spicery1 horses and mules1 the broidered garments of ,babylon1 and robes rich with the crimson1 purple1 and scarlet dyes of ,tyre4#chg ,instead of riding like his predecessors on a humble mule1 the king made his royal progress to his watered garden at ,etam drawn by steeds magnificently caparisoned4 ,he reclined in ,pharaoh's chariot richly chased and brilliantly coloured4 ,he was followed by a train of archers riding on war-horses and clothed in purple1 and was escorted by a body-guard of youths tall and beautiful1 whose dark and flowing locks glittered with gold dust4 ,in the heat of summer1 if we may accept the poetic picture of the ,song of ,songs1 he would be luxuriously carried to some delicious retreat amid the hills of myrrh and leopard-haunted woods of ,lebanon1 in a palanquin of cedar wood with silver pillars1 purple cushions1 and richly embroidered curtains1 wearing the jewelled crown which his mother placed on his head on the day of his espousals4#chh ,or he would sit to do justice on his throne of ivory and gold1#chi with its steps guarded by golded lions leaning upon the golden bull of ,ephraim which formed its back1#cij in all his princely beauty1 anointed with the oil of gladness1 his lips full of grace1 his garments breathing of perfume4 ,on great occasions of state his ,queen1 and the virgins that bore her company1 would stand among the crowd of inferior princesses1 in garments of the wrought gold of ,ophir1 in which she had been carried from the inner palace upon tapestries of needlework4 ,in the pomp of such ceremonials1 amid bursts of rejoicing melody1 the people began to believe that not even the ,pharaohs of ,egypt1 or the ,tyrian kings with every precious stone as their covering1 could show a more glorious pageant of royal state4#cia ,this career of magnificence culminated in the visit of ,balkis1 the ,queen of ,sheba1#cib who came to him across the desert with a very great train of her camels1 bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones4 ,she saw his abounding prosperity1 his peaceful people1 his houses1 his vineyards at ,beth-,haccerem1 his parks and gardens1 his pools and fruit trees1 his herds of cattle1 his horses1 chariots1 and palanquins1 and all the delight of the sons of men4 ,she saw his men singers and women singers with their harps of red sandal wood and gold4 ,she saw him at the banquet at his golden table covered in boundless profusion with delicacies brought from every land4 ,she saw his hosts of beautiful and richly dressed slaves with lavers1 dishes1 and goblets all made of the gold of ,uphaz4 ,she saw him dispensing justice in his pillared hall of cedar1 seated on his lion-throne4 ,she saw the golden shields and targets#cic carried before him as he went in state to the ,temple over the ,mount1 across the valley1 and mounted from the palace to the sacred courts by the gilded staircase with its balustrades of aromatic sandal wood4#cid ,perhaps she was present as a spectator at some great ,temple festival4 ,and when she had tested his wisdom by communing with him of all that was in her heart1 there was no more spirit in her4 ,she confessed that the half of his wisdom and glory had not been reported to her4 ,happy were his servants1 happy the courtiers who stood by him and heard his words6 ,blessed was the ,lord his ,god who delighted in him1 and who1 out of love for ,israel1 had given them such a king to do justice and judgment among them4 ,the visit ended with an interchange of royal presents4#cie ,solomon1 we are vaguely told1 gave unto her all her desire1 whatsoever she asked1 and sent her away glad-hearted to her native land1 leaving behind her a trail of legends4 ,before her departure she opened her treasures1 and gave him vast stores of spicery and gold4#cif ,and to sum up the accounts1 which read like a page of the story of ,haroun al ,raschid1 the king made silver to be as stones in ,jerusalem1 so that it was nothing accounted of in the day of ,solomon1#cig and the cedars made he to be as the sycomores which are in the ,shefelah for multitude4 ,it is around this epoch of ,solomon's career that the legends of the ,east mainly cluster4 ,they have received a larger development from the allusions to ,mohammed in the ,qur'an4#cih ,they take the place of the personal incidents of which so few are recorded1 although ,solomon occupies so large a space in sacred history4 ,that stately and melancholy figure--in some respects the grandest and the saddest in the ,sacred ,volume--is in detail little more than a mighty 'shadow4' ,yet in later ,jewish records he is scarcely mentioned4 ,of all the characters in the sacred history he is the most purely secular2 and merely secular magnificence was an excrescence1 not a native growth of the chosen people4#cii ,,footnotes3 #cgh ,to form some notion of these buildings1 see the excellent illustrations in ,stade1 i4 #cah-be4 #cgi ,the hill of ,zion1 the city of ,david1 had become overcrowded1 and the hill which lay to the north1 which was called ,millo1 or the border1 had to be included in it4 ,a narrow valley lay between them4 ,mount ,moriah1 and its offshoot ,ophel1 remained outside the city1 and the latter was inhabited by the remnant of the ,jebusites 7,grtz1 ,hist4 of the ,jews1 ,e4 ,t41 i4 #aba72 ,millo1 ,,lxx41 4 ,see #a ,macc4 iv4 #da1 xiii4 #di-eb2 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,xiii4 vi4 #g4 #chj #a ,kings ix4 #ai4 #cha ,the linen yarn of #a ,kings x4 #bh seems to be an error4 ,the ,hebrew is 2 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 de ,co2 ,r4,v41 in droves4 #chb #b ,chron4 ix4 #ba4 #chc ,see ,max ,mller1 ,lectures on ,language1 i4 #aia4 ,the names ,shen ,habbim1 ivory 7,sanskr4 ibhas1 elephant71 ,kophim1 apes 7,sanskr4 kapi71 ,tukkyim1 peacocks 7,tamil1 togei71 algum trees 7,sanskr4 ,valgaka1 ,,lxx4 1 ,alex4 1 ,vulg4 thyina71 all point to ,india4 ,aloes 7ahalim1 ,psalm xlv4 #h7 are a fragrant tree of ,malacca2 cassia 7,ind4 koost71 cinnamon 7cacyn-nama7 come from ,ceylon4 ,see ,stanley1 ii4 #ahe4 ,european history here first comes into contact with ,sanskrit4 #chd ,see ,eccles4 ii4 #d-f4 ,see on the extensive water-works1 ,ewald1 iii4 #beb-eg4 #che #b ,chron4 ix4 #ba4 #chf 2 ,,lxx41 1 oil of myrrh4 #chg #a ,kings x4 #be4 #chh ,see ,cant4 i4 #i1 iii4 #f-aa1 iv4 #h2 #b ,chron4 xi4 #f2 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 vii4 #c2 ,psalm xlv4 #chi ,the great statue of ,athene by ,phidias was of this ,chryselephantine work4 ,comp4 ivory palaces 7,psalm xlv4 #h2 #a ,kings xxii4 #ci2 ,amos iii4 #ae7 and ivory couches 7,amos vi4 #d74 #cij ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 v4 #b2 ,hosea iv4 #af2 ,jer4 xxxi4 #ah1 etc4 #cia ,ezek4 xxvii41 xxviii42 ,zech4 ix4 #c4 #cib ,the ,abyssinian1 confusing ,sheba 7,arabia ,felix7 with ,seba 7as do ,origen and ,augustine71 call her ,makeda1 ,queen of ,abyssinia1 and say that she had a son by ,solomon named ,melinek 7,ludolphus1 thiop41 ii4 #c71 from whom all their emperors down to ,theodore were descended4 ,the legend of the ,queen of ,sheba is related in the ,qur'an1 ,sura xxvii4 #bj-dj 7chapter of the ,ant74 ,the ,arabs call her ,balkis1 whose legends are narrated by ,d',herbelot 7,bibl4 ,or41 s4v4 ,balki74 ,josephus identifies her with ,nicaule 7the ,nitocris of ,herod41 ii4 #ajj71 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 vi4 #b4 ,in the ,new ,testament she is called the ,queen of the ,south 7,matt4 xii4 #db74 #cic ,he had made two hundred large shields 7tzinnm1 1 scuta7 and three hundred targets 7maginnm1 1 clypei7 of gold at fabulous cost 7#a ,kings x4 #af74 ,they were all plundered by ,shishak4 #cid #a ,kings x4 #e1 but ascent should perhaps be burnt offering1 as in margin of ,r4,v4 and in all the versions4 ,comp4 #b ,chron4 ix4 #d 7,,lxx474 ,a special seat or platform of brass seems to have been assigned to ,solomon in the ,temple court 7#b ,kings xi4 #ad1 xvi4 #ah1 xxiii4 #c2 #b ,chron4 vi4 #ac74 #cie ,josephus says that she introduced the balsam plant into ,palestine1 which1 in later years at ,jericho1 became a great source of revenue4 ,jer4 viii4 #bb1 xlvi4 #aa2 ,ezek4 xxvii4 #ag2 ,josephus1 ,antt42 ,,viii4 vi4 #f1 ,,xiv4 iv4 #a1 ,,xv4 iv4 #b2 ,pliny1 ,h4 ,n41 xii4 #ed1 xiii4 #i 7but see ,gen4 xliii4 #aa74 #cif ,psalm lxxii4 #ae4 ,spices1 ,herod41 iii4 #ajg-aac4 ,for one hundred and twenty talents we should probably read twenty 7comp4 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 vi4 #f71 i4e41 twelve thousand pounds4 ,into the riddles of ,balkis 7#a ,kings x4 #a1 hard questions2 ,,lxx41 71 and all the strange ,talmudic and ,arabian legends which have gathered round her visit1 we need not enter4 ,i may perhaps refer to my little monograph on ,solomon 7pp4 #acd-cg71 in the ,men of the ,bible series4 #cig ,the #fff gold talents of his revenue are estimated at #c1fac1ejj1 and this is described as his own revenue1 exclusive of tolls1 tributes1 etc4 7#a ,kings x4 #ae74 ,presents reached him from kings of the mingled people 7,jer4 xxv4 #bd71 ,pachas of the country 7 ,ezra v4 #f2 ,neh4 v4 #ad74 #cih ,see ,weil1 ,biblische ,legenden2 ,d',herbelot1 ,bibl4 ,oriental1 s4v4 ,soliman ben-,daoud2 ,qur'an1 ,suras xxii41 xxvii41 xxviii41 xxxiv4 ,suleyman means ,little ,solomon1 a term of affection4 #cii ,stanley1 ,lectures1 ii4 #aff1 #afg4 ,,chapter ,,xxi4 ,,hollow ,,prosperity4 #a ,,kings xi4 ,vanity of vanities1 saith the ,preacher1 vanity of vanities2 all is vanity4--,,eccles4 i4 #b4 ,at every draught more large and large they grow ,a bloated mass of rank unwieldy woe1 ,till1 sapp'd their strength1 and every part unsound1 ,down1 down they sink1 and spread a ruin round4 ,,goldsmith4 ,there was a ver rongeur at the root of all ,solomon's prosperity4 ,his home was afflicted with the curse of his polygamy1 his kingdom with the curse of his despotism4 ,failure is stamped upon the issues of his life4 #a4 ,his ,temple was a wonder of the world2 yet his own reign was scarcely over before it was plundered by the ,egyptian king who had overthrown the feeble dynasty on alliance with which he had trusted4 ,under later kings its secret chambers were sometimes desecrated1 sometimes deserted4 ,it failed to exercise the unique influence in support of the worship of ,jehovah for which it had been designed4 ,some of ,solomon's successors confronted it with a rival temple1 and a rival high priest1 of ,baal1 and suffered atrocious emblems of heathen nature-worship to profane its courts4 ,he himself became an apostate from the high theocratic ideal which had inspired its origin4 #b4 ,his long alliance and friendship with ,hiram ended1 to all appearance1 in coolness and disgust1 even if it be true that a daughter of ,hiram was one of the princesses of his harem4#djj ,for his immense buildings had so greatly embarrassed his resources that1 when the day for payment came1 the only way in which he could discharge his obligations was by alienating a part of his dominions4 ,he gave ,hiram twenty cities in the land of ,galilee4 ,the kings of ,judah1 down to the days of ,hezekiah1 and even of ,josiah1 show few traces of any consciousness that there was such a book as the ,pentateuch and such a code as the ,levitic law4 ,solomon may have been unaware that ,phnicia itself was part of the land which ,god had promised to ,his people4 ,if that gift had lapsed through their inertness1#dja the law still remained1 which said1 ,the land shall not be sold for ever2 for the land is ,mine1 for ye are strangers and sojourners with ,me4 ,it was a strong measure to resign any part of the soil of ,juda1 even to discharge building debts1 much more to pay for mercenaries and courtly ostentation4 ,the transaction1 dubious in every particular1 was the evident cause of deep-seated dissatisfaction4 ,hiram thought himself ill-paid and unworthily treated4 ,he found1 by a personal visit1 that these inland ,galilan towns1 which were probably inhabited in great measure by a wretched and dwindling remnant of ,canaanites1#djb were useless to him1 whereas he had probably hoped to receive part1 at least1 of the ,bay of ,acco 7,ptolemais74#djc ,they added so little to his resources1 that he complained to ,solomon4 ,he called the cities by the obscure1 but evidently contemptuous name ,cabul1 and gave them back to ,solomon in disgust as not worth having4#djd ,what significance lies in the strange and laconic addition1 ,and ,hiram sent to the king six-score talents of gold1 it is impossible for us to understand4 ,if the ,tyrian king gave as a present to ,solomon a sum which was so vast as at least to equal #gbj1jjj--;apparently1 as ,canon ,rawlinson thinks1 to show that1 although disappointed1 he was not offended6--he must have been an angel in human form4 #c4 ,solomon's palatial buildings1 while they flattered his pride and ministered to his luxury1 tended directly1 as we shall see1 to undermine his power4 ,they represented the ill-requited toil of hopeless bondmen1 and oppressed freedmen1 whose sighs rose1 not in vain1 into the ears of the ,lord ,god of ,sabaoth4 #d4 ,his commerce1 showy as it was1 turned out to be transitory and useless4 ,if for a time it enriched the king1 it did not enrich his people4 ,at ,solomon's death1 if not earlier1 it not only languished but expired4 ,horses and chariots might give a pompous aspect to stately pageants1 but they were practically useless in the endless hills of which ,palestine is mainly composed4 ,apes1 peacocks1 and sandal wood were curious and interesting1 but they certainly did not repay the expense incurred in their importation4 ,no subsequent sovereign took the trouble to acquire these wonders1 nor are they once mentioned in the later ,scriptures4 ,precious stones might gleam on the necks of the concubine1 or adorn the housings of the steed1 but nothing was gained from their barren splendour4 ,at one time the king's annual revenue is stated to have been six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold2 but the story of ,hiram1 and the impoverishment to which ,rehoboam succeeded1 show that even this exchequer had been exhausted by the sumptuous prodigalities of a too luxurious court4 ,and1 indeed1 the commerce of ,solomon gave a new and untheocratic bias to ,hebrew development4 ,the ideal of the old ,semitic life was the pastoral and agricultural ideal4 ,no other is contemplated in ,exod4 xxi4-xxix4 ,commerce was left to the ,phnicians and other races1 so that the word for merchant was ,canaanite4 ,but after the days of ,solomon in ,judah1 and ,ahab in ,israel1 the ,hebrews followed eagerly in the steps of ,canaan1 and trade and commerce acting on minds materialised into worldliness brought their natural consequences4 ,he is a merchant1 says ,hosea 7xii4 #g72 the balances of deceit are in his hand3 he loveth to defraud4 ,here the words he is a merchant may equally well be rendered as for ,canaan2 and by ,canaan is here meant ,canaanised or commercial ,ephraim4 ,and the prophet continues1 ,and ,ephraim said1 ,surely ,i am become rich1 ,i have found me wealth3 in all my labour they shall find in me none iniquity that were sin4 ,in other words1 these influences of foreign trade had destroyed the moral sense of ,israel altogether3 ,howl1 ye inhabitants of ,maktesh--i4e41 ,the ,mortar1 a bazaar of that name in ,jerusalem--for all the people of ,canaan 7i4e41 the merchants7 are brought to silence4 ,but the hypnotising influence of wealth became more and more a potent factor in the development of the people4 ,by an absolute reversal of their ancient characteristics they learnt1 in the days of the ,rabbis1 utterly to despise agriculture and extravagantly to laud the gains of commerce4 ,of too many of them it became true1 that they ,with dumb despair their country's wrongs behold1 ,and dead to glory1 only burn for gold4 ,it was the mighty hand of ,solomon which first gave them an impulse in this direction1 though he seems to have managed all his commerce with exclusive reference to his own revenues4 ,in the wake of commerce1 and the inevitable intercourse with foreign nations which it involves1 came as a matter of course the fondness for luxuries2 the taste for magnificence2 the fraternisation with neighbouring kings2 the use of cavalry2 the development of a military caste2 the attempts at distant navigation2 the total disappearance of the antique simplicity4 ,in the train of these innovations followed the disastrous alterations of the old conditions of society of which the prophets so grievously complain--extortions of the corn market2 the formation of large estates2 the frequency of mortgages2 the misery of peasant proprietorship1 unable to hold its own against the accumulations of wealth2 the increase of the wage-receiving class2 and the fluctuations of the labour market4 ,these changes caused1 by way of consequence1 so much distress and starvation that even freeborn ,hebrews were sometimes compelled to sell themselves into slavery as the only way to keep themselves alive4 ,so that the age of ,solomon can in no respect be regarded as an age of gold4 ,rather1 it resembled that grim ,colossus of ,dante's vision1 which not only rested on a right foot of brittle clay1 but was cracked and fissured through and through1 while the wretchedness and torment which lay behind the outward splendour ever dripped and trickled downward till its bitter streams swelled the rivers of hell3-- ,abhorrd ,styx1 the flood of deadly hate1 ,sad ,acheron of sorrow black and deep1 ,corytus named of lamentation loud ,heard on its rueful stream1 fierce ,phlegethon1 ,whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage4 ,but there was something worse even than this4 ,the ,book of ,proverbs shows us that1 as in ,rome1 so in ,jerusalem1 foreign immoralities became fatal to the growing youth4 ,the picta lupa barbara mitr1 with her fatal fascinations1 and her banquets of which the guests were in the depths of ,hades1 became so common in ,jerusalem that no admonitions of the wise were more needful than those which warned the simple ones that to yield to her seductive snares was to go as an ox to the slaughter1 as a fool to the correction of the stocks4 #e4 ,even were there no disastrous sequel to ,solomon's story--if we saw him only in the flush of his early promise1 and the noon of his highest prosperity--we could still readily believe that he passed through some of the experiences of the bitter and sated voluptuary who borrows his name in the ,book of ,ecclesiastes4 ,the human pathos1 the fresh and varied interest1 which meet us at every page of the annals of ,david1 are entirely lacking in the magnificent monotony of the annals of ,solomon4 ,the splendours of materialism1 which are mainly dwelt upon1 could never satisfy the poorest of human souls4 ,there are but two broad gleams of religious interest in his entire story--the narrative of his prayer for wisdom1 and the prayer1 in its present form of later origin1 attributed to him at the ,dedication ,festival4 ,all the rest is a story of gorgeous despotism1 which gradually paled into ,the dim grey life and apathetic end4 ,there was no king like ,solomon3 he exceeded all the kings of the earth1 we are told1 for riches and for wisdom4 ,but all that we know of such kings furnishes fresh proof of the universal experience that the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them are absolutely valueless for all the contributions they can lend to human happiness4 ,the autocrats who have been most conspicuous for unchecked power and limitless resources have also been the most conspicuous in misery4 ,we have but to recall ,tiberius tristissimus ut constat hominum1 who1 from the enchanted isle which he had degraded into the stye of his infamies1 wrote to his servile senate that all the gods and goddesses were daily destroying him2 or ,septimius ,severus1 who1 rising step by step from a ,dalmatian peasant and common soldier to be emperor of the world1 remarked with pathetic conviction1 ,omnia fui et nihil expedit2 or ,abderrahman the ,magnificent1 who1 in all his life of success and prosperity1 could only count fourteen happy days2 or ,charles ,v41 over-eating himself in his monastic retreat at ,san ,yuste in ,estremadura2 or ,alexander1#dje dying as a fool dieth2 or ,louis ,,xiv41 surrounded by a darkening horizon1 and disillusioned into infinite ennui and chagrin2 or ,napoleon ,i41 saying1 ,i regard life with horror1 and contrasting his abject misery with the adored and beloved dominion of ,christ1 who was meek and lowly of heart4 ,napoleon confessed that1 even in the zenith of his empire1 and the fullest flush of his endless victories1 his days were consumed in vanity and his years in trouble4 ,the cry of one and all1 finding that the soul1 which is infinite1 cannot be satisfied with the transient and hollow boons of earth1 is1 and ever must be1 ,vanity of vanities1 saith the ,preacher1 vanity of vanities2 all is vanity4 ,and this is one main lesson of the life of ,solomon4 ,nothing is more certain than that1 if earthly happiness is to be found at all1 it can only be found in righteousness and truth2 and if even these do not bring earthly happiness they securely give us a blessedness which is deeper and more eternal4 ,if the ,book of ,ecclesiastes1 even traditionally1 is the reflection and echo of ,solomon's disenchantment1 we see that in later years his soul had been sullied1 his faith had grown dim1 his fervour cold4 ,all was emptiness4 ,he stood horribly alone4 ,his one son was not a wise man1 but a fool4 ,gewgaws could no longer satisfy him4 ,his wealth exhausted1 his fame tarnished1 his dominions reduced to insignificance1 himself insulted by contemptible adversaries whom he could neither control nor punish1 he entered on the long course of years plus ples et moins couronnes4 ,the peaceful is harried by petty raids2 the magnificent is laden with debts2 the builder of the ,temple has sanctioned polytheism2 the favourite of the nation has become a tyrant1 scourging with whips an impatient people2 the darling of the ,lord has built shrines for ,moloch and ,astarte4 ,the glamour of youth1 of empire1 of gorgeous tyranny was dispelled1 and the splendid boy-king is the weary and lonely old man4 ,hiram of ,tyre has turned in disgust from an ungenerous recompense4 ,a new ,pharaoh has dispossessed his ,egyptian father-in-law and shelters his rebel servant4 ,his shameful harem has given him neither a real home nor a true love2 his commerce has proved to be an expensive failure2 his politic alliances a hollow sham4 ,in another and direr sense than after his youthful vision1 ,solomon awoke1 and behold it was a dream4#djf ,the ,talmudists show some insight amid their fantasies when they write3 ,at first1 before he married strange wives1 ,solomon reigned over the angels 7#a ,chron4 xxix4 #bc72 then only over all kingdoms 7#a ,kings iv4 #ba72 then only over ,israel 7,eccles4 i4 #ab72 then only over ,jerusalem 7,eccles4 i4 #a74 ,at last he reigned only over his staff--as it is said1 ',and this was the portion of my labour'2 for by the word 'this1' says ,rav1 he meant that the only possession left to him was the staff which he held in his hand4 ,the staff was not the rod and staff of the ,good ,shepherd1 but the earthly staff of pride and pomp1 and 7as in the ,arabian legend7 the worm of selfishness and sensuality was gnawing at its base4 ,,footnotes3 #djj ,see ,euseb41 ,prp4 ,evang41 x4 #aa4 #dja ,lev4 xxv4 #bc1 #bd4 ,see ,judg4 i4 #ca1 #cb4 #djb ,hence1 perhaps1 the name ,galilee of the nations 7,isa4 ix4 #a74 ,comp4 ,harosheth of the nations 7,judg4 iv4 #b1 #ac74 ,hazor was in this district4 #djc ,milman1 ,hist4 of the ,jews1 i4 #cba4 #djd #a ,kings ix4 #aj-ac4 ,there was a place called ,cabul in ,asher 7,josh4 xix4 #bg74 ,ewald thinks that ,cabul was a sort of witticism meaning as nothing4 ,josephus 7,antt41 ,,viii4 v4 #c7 says that in ,phnician means not pleasing1 and that ,hiram would not take the cities4 ,nothing can be made of the allusion to this transaction in #b ,chron4 viii4 #a1 #b4 ,why did ,solomon re-occupy these cities8 and why did ,hiram give him one hundred and twenty talents of gold8 ,the gloss put on the matter by late tradition cannot conceal the fact that ,solomon tried to diminish his embarrassments by alienating some of the sacred territory4 #dje ,the later ,jews chose the name ,alexander as the ,western equivalent for ,solomon3 hence the names ,alexander ,jannus1 etc4 #djf #a ,kings iii4 #ae4 ,see ,ecclus4 xlvii4 #ab-ba4 ,,chapter ,,xxii4 ,,the ,,old ,,age ,,of ,,solomon4 #a ,,kings xi4 #a-ac4 ,that uxorious king1 whose heart1 though large1 ,beguiled by fair idolatresses1 fell ,to idols foul4 ,,milton1 ,paradise ,lost4 ,did not ,solomon1 king of ,israel1 sin by these things8--,,neh4 xiii4 #bf4 ,that they might know1 that wherewithal a man sinneth1 by the same also shall he be punished4--,,wisdom xi4 #af4 ,solomon had endeavoured to give a one-sided development to ,israelitish nationality1 and a development little in accord with the highest and purest traditions of the people4 ,what he did with one hand by building the ,temple he undid with the other by endowing and patronising the worship of heathen deities4#djg ,in point of fact1 ,solomon was hardly a genuine off-shoot of the stem of ,jesse4 ,it is at least doubtful whether ,bathsheba was of ,hebrew race1 and from her he may have derived an alien strain4 ,it is at all events a striking fact that1 so far from being regarded as an ideal ,hebrew king1 he was rather the reverse4 ,the chronicler1 indeed1 exalts him as the supporter and redintegrator of the ,priestly-,levitic system1 which it is the main object of that writer to glorify2 but this picture of theocratic purity1 even if it be not altogether an anachronism1 is only obtained by the total suppression of every incident in the story of ,solomon which militates against it4 ,in the ,book of ,kings we are faithfully told of the disgust of ,hiram at the reward offered to him2 of the alienation of a fertile district of the promised land2 of the apostasy1 the idolatries1 and the reverses which disgraced and darkened his later years4 ,the ,book of ,chronicles ignores every one of these disturbing particulars4 ,it does not tell us of the depths to which ,solomon fell1 though it tells us of the extreme scrupulosity which regarded as a profanation the residence of his ,egyptian queen on the hill once hallowed as the resting-place of ,jehovah's ,ark4 ,yet1 if we understand in their simple sense the statements of the editor of the ,book of ,kings1 and the documents on which he based his narrative1 ,solomon1 even at the ,dedication ,festival1 ignored all distinction between the priesthood and the laity4 ,nay1 more than this1 he seems to have offered1 with his own hands1 both burnt offerings and peace offerings three times a year1#djh and1 unchecked by priestly opposition or remonstrance1 to have burnt incense before the altar that was before the ,lord1 though1 according to the chronicler1 it was for daring to attempt this that ,uzziah was smitten with the horrible scourge of leprosy4 ,the ideal of a good and great king is set before us in the ,book of ,proverbs1 and in many respects ,solomon fell very far short of it4 ,further than this1 there are in ,scripture two warning sketches of everything which a good king should not be and should not do1 and these sketches exactly describe the very things which ,solomon was and did4 ,those who take the view that the books of ,scripture have undergone large later revision1 see in each of these passages an unfavourable allusion to the king who raised ,israel highest amongst the nations1 only to precipitate her disintegration and ruin1 and who combined the highest service to the centralisation of her religion with the deadliest insult to its supreme claim upon the reverence of the world4 #a4 ,the first of these pictures of selfish autocrats is found in #a ,sam4 viii4 #aj-ah3-- ,and ,samuel told all the words of the ,lord unto the people that asked of ,him a king4 ,and he said1 ,this will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you3 ,he will take your sons1 and appoint them for himself1 for his chariots1 and to be his horsemen2 and some shall run before his chariots4 ,and he will appoint his captains over thousands1 and captains over fifties2 and will set them to ear his ground1 and to reap his harvest1 and to make his instruments of war1 and instruments of his chariots4 ,and he will take your daughters to be perfumers1 and to be cooks1 and to be bakers4 ,and he will take your fields1 and your vineyards1 and your oliveyards1 even the best of them1 and give them to his servants4 ,and he will take the tenth of your seed1 and of your vineyards1 and give to his courtiers1 and to his servants4 ,and he will take your menservants and your maidservants1 and your goodliest oxen1 and your asses1 and put them to his work4 ,he will take the tenth of your sheep1 and you shall be his servants4 ,and ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you2 and the ,lord will not hear you in that day4 #b4 ,the other1 which is still more detailed and significant1 was perhaps written with the express intention of warning ,solomon's descendants from the example which ,solomon had set4#dji ,it is found in ,deut4 xvii4 #ad-bj4 ,thus1 speaking of a king1 the writer says3-- ,only he shall not multiply horses to himself1 nor cause the people to return to ,egypt1 to the end that he should multiply horses3 forasmuch as the ,lord hath said unto you1 ,ye shall henceforth return no more that way4 ,neither shall he multiply wives to himself2 that his heart turn not away2 neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold4 ,and it shall be that when he sitteth upon the throne of his kingdom1 that he shall write him a copy of this law in a book 444 that he may learn to fear the ,lord his ,god1 444 that his heart be not lifted up above his brethren1 and that he turn not aside from the commandment1 444 to the end that he may prolong his days in his kingdom1 he1 and his children1 in the midst of ,israel4 ,if ,deuteronomy be of no older date than the days of ,josiah1 it is difficult not to see in this passage a distinct polemic against ,solomon2 for he did not do what he is here commanded1 and he most conspicuously did every one of the things which is here forbidden4 ,it is quite clear that in his foreign alliances1 in his commerce1 in his cavalry1 in his standing army1 in his extravagant polygamy1 in his exaggerated and exhausting magnificence1 in his despotic autocracy1 in his palatial architecture1 and in his patronage of alien art1 in his system of enforced labour1 in his perilous religious syncretism1 ,solomon was by no means a king after the hearts of the old faithful and simple ,israelites4 ,they did not look with entire favour even on the centralisation of worship in a single ,temple which interfered with local religious rites sanctioned by the example of their greatest prophets4 ,his ideal differed entirely from that of the older patriarchs4 ,he gave to the life of his people an alien development2 he obliterated some of their best national characteristics2 and the example which he set was at least as powerful for evil as for good4 ,when we read the lofty sentiments expressed by ,solomon in his dedication prayer1 we may well be amazed to hear that one who had aspirations so sublime could sink into idolatry so deplorable4 ,if it was the object of the chronicler to present ,solomon in unsullied splendour1 he might well omit the deadly circumstance that when he was old1 and prematurely old1 he loved many strange women1 and went after ,ashtoreth the goddess of the ,sidonians1 and after ,milcom the abomination of the ,ammonites4#daj ,and ,solomon did evil in the sight of the ,lord1 and went not fully after the ,lord as did ,david his father4 ,then did ,solomon build a high place for ,chemosh the abomination of ,moab1 in the hill that is before ,jerusalem1 and for ,molech the abomination of the children of ,ammon4#daa ,and likewise did he for all his strange wives1 which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods4#dab ,the sacred historian not only records the shameful fact1 but records its cause and origin4 ,the heart of ,solomon was perverted1 his will was weakened1 his ideal was dragged into the mire by the strange wives who crowded his seraglio4 ,he went the way that destroys kings4#dac ,the polygamy of ,solomon sprang naturally from the false position which he had created for himself4 ,a king who puts a space of awful distance between himself and the mass of his subjects--a king whose will is so absolute that life is in his smile and death in his frown--is inevitably punished by the loneliest isolation4 ,he may have favourites1 he may have flatterers1 but he can have no friends4 ,a thronged harem becomes to him not only a matter of ostentation and luxury1 but a necessary resource from the vacuity and ennui of a desolate heart4 ,tiberius was driven to the orgies of ,capre by the intolerableness of his isolation4 ,the weariness of the king who used to take his courtiers by the button-hole and say1 ,ennuyons-nous ensemble1 drove him to fill up his degraded leisure in the ,parc aux ,cerfs4 ,yet even ,louis ,,xv4 had more possibilities of rational intercourse with human beings than a ,solomon or a ,xerxes4 ,it was in the nature of things that ,solomon1 when he had imitated all the other surroundings of an ,oriental despot1 should sink1 like other ,oriental despots1 from sensuousness into sensualism1 from sensualism into religious degeneracy and dishonourable enervation4 ,two facts1 both full of warning1 are indicated as the sources of his ruin3 7#a7 the number of his wives2 and 7#b7 their heathen extraction4 #a4 ,he had1 we are told1 seven hundred wives1 princesses1 and three hundred concubines4#dad ,the numbers make up a thousand1 and are almost incredible4 ,we are told indeed that in the monstrosities of ,indian absolutism the ,great ,mogul had a thousand wives2 but even ,darius1 the king par excellence1 the awful autocrat of ,persia1 had only one wife and thirty-two concubines4#dae ,it is inconceivable that the monarch of a country so insignificant as ,palestine could have maintained so exorbitant a household in a small city like ,jerusalem4 ,moreover1 there is1 on every ground1 reason to correct the statement4 ,saul1 so far as we know1 had only one wife1 and one concubine2 ,david1 though he put so little restraint on himself1 had only sixteen2 no subsequent king of ,israel or ,judah appears to have had even a small fraction of the number which is here assigned to ,solomon1 either by the disease of exaggeration or by some corruption of the text4 ,more probably we should read seventy wives1 which at least partially assimilates the number to the threescore queens of whom we read in the ,canticles4#daf ,even then we have a household which must have led to miserable complications4 ,the seraglio at ,jerusalem must have been a burning fiery furnace of feuds1 intrigues1 jealousies1 and discontent4 ,it is this fact which gives additional meaning to the ,song of ,songs4 ,that unique book of ,scripture is a sweet idyll in honour of pure and holy love4 ,it sets before us in glowing imagery and tender rhythms how the lovely maiden of ,shunem1 undazzled by all the splendours and luxuries of the great king's court1 unseduced by his gifts and his persistence1 remained absolutely faithful to her humble shepherd lover1 and1 amid the gold and purple of the palace at ,jerusalem1 sighed for her simple home amid the groves of ,lebanon4 ,surely she was as wise as fair1 and her chances of happiness would be a thousandfold greater1 her immunities from intolerable conditions a thousandfold more certain1 as she wandered hand in hand with her shepherd youth amid pure scenes and in the vernal air1 than amid the heavy exotic perfumes of a sensual and pampered court4 ,perhaps in the word princesses we see some sort of excuse for that effeminating self-indulgence which would make the exhortations to simplicity and chastity in the ,book of ,proverbs sound very hollow on the lips of ,solomon4 ,it may have been worldly policy which originally led him to multiply his wives4 ,the alliance with ,pharaoh was secured by a marriage with his daughter1 and possibly that with ,hiram by the espousal of a ,tyrian princess4 ,the friendliness of ,edom on the south1 of ,moab and ,ammon on the east1 of ,sidon and the ,hittites and ,syria on the north1 might be enhanced by matrimonial connexions from which the greater potentates might profit and of which the smaller sheykhs were proud4#dag ,yet if this were so1 the policy1 like all other worldly policy unsanctioned by the law of ,god1 was very unsuccessful4 ,egypt as usual proved herself to be a broken reed4 ,the ,hittites only preserved a dream and legend of their olden power4 ,edom and ,moab neither forgot nor abandoned their implacable and immemorial hatred4 ,syria became a dangerous rival awaiting the day of future triumphs4 ,it is better to trust in the ,lord than to put any confidence in man2 it is better to trust in the ,lord than to put any confidence in princes4 #b4 ,but the heathen religion of these strange women from so many nations turned away the heart of ,solomon after other gods4 ,it may be doubted whether ,solomon had ever read the stern prohibitions against intermarriage with the ,canaanite nations which now stand on the page of the ,pentateuch4 ,if so he broke them1 for the ,hittites and the ,phnicians were ,canaanites4 ,marriages with ,egyptians1 ,moabites1 and ,edomites had not been1 in so many words1 forbidden1 but the feeling of later ages applied the rule analogously to them4 ,the result proved how necessary the law was4 ,when ,solomon was old his heart was no longer proof against feminine wiles4 ,he was not old in years1 for this was some time before his death1 and when he died he was little more than sixty4 ,but a polygamous despot gets old before his time4 ,the attempt made by ,ewald and others to gloss over ,solomon's apostasy as a sign of a large-hearted tolerance is an astonishing misreading of history4 ,tolerance for harmless divergences of opinion there should always be1 though it is only a growth of modern days2 but tolerance for iniquity is a wrong to holiness4 ,the worship of these devils adored for deities was stained with the worst passions which degrade human nature4 ,they were themselves the personification of perverted instincts4 ,the main facts respecting them are collected in ,selden's famous ,de ,dis ,syris ,syntagma1 and ,milton has enshrined them in his stateliest verse3-- ,first ,moloch1 horrid king1 besmeared with blood ,of human sacrifice1 and parents' tears3 444 ,next1 ,chemos1 the obscene dread of ,moab's sons1 ,peor his other name1 when he enticed ,israel in ,sittim1 on their march from ,nile1 ,to do him wanton rites1 which cost them woe4 ,yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged ,even to that hill of scandal1 by the ,grove ,of ,moloch homicide2 lust1 hard by hate3 ,till good ,josiah drove them thence to hell4 444 ,with these in troop ,came ,ashtoreth1 whom the ,phnicians call ,astarte1 queen of heaven1 with crescent horns2 ,to whose bright image nightly by the moon ,sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs2 ,in ,sion also not unsung1 where stood ,her temple on the offensive mountain1 built ,by that uxorious king1 whose heart1 though large1 ,beguiled by fair idolatresses1 fell ,to idols foul4 ,what tolerance should there be for idols whose service was horrible infanticide and shameless lust8 ,what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness8 and what communion hath light with darkness8 and what concord hath ,christ with an infidel8 and what agreement hath the temple of ,god with idols8 ,how vile the worship of ,chemosh was1 ,israel had already experienced in the wilderness where he was called ,peor4#dah ,what ,moloch was they were to learn thereafter by many a horrible experience4 ,had ,solomon never heard that the ,lord ,god was a jealous ,god1 and would not tolerate the rivalries of gods of fire and of lust8 ,at least he was not afraid to desecrate one1 if not two1 of the summits of the ,mount of ,olives with shrines to these monstrous images1 which seem to have been left on that opprobrious mount for many an age1 so that they durst abide ,jehovah1 thundering out of ,sion1 throned ,between the cherubim2 yea1 often placed ,within ,his sanctuary itself their shrines1 ,abominations1 and with cursed things ,his holy rites and solemn feasts profaned1 ,and with their darkness durst affront ,his light4 ,and1 to crown all1 ,solomon not only showed this guilty complaisance to all his strange wives1 but even1 sinking into the lowest abyss of apostasy1 burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods4 ,he that built a temple for himself and for ,israel in ,sion1 says ,bishop ,hall1 built a temple for ,chemoch in the ,mount of ,scandal for his mistresses in the very face of ,god's house4 ,because ,solomon feeds them in their superstition1 he draws the sin home to himself1 and is branded for what he should have forbidden4 ,,footnotes3 #djg ,l'amour du luxe et de la nouveaut le conduira peu peu dfaire l'uvre de son pre1 ruiner le peuple dont il pouvait faire le bonheur1 detruire les institutions1 et ddaigner le culte national1 auquel il avait d'abord cherch donner le plus grand clat4--,munk1 ,palestine1 p4 #bhe4 #djh #a ,kings ix4 #be4 #dji ,modern criticism generally regards the ,book of ,deuteronomy1 or some elements of it1 as the ,book of the ,law which was found in the ,temple by the high priest ,hilkiah in the reign of ,josiah4 ,we shall speak of this in the following volume 7in #b ,kings74 ,see ,deut4 xvii4 #ah4 #daj ,,lxx41 4 ,vulg41 adamavit mulieres alienigenus4 #daa ,some suppose that this clause about ,milcom is an interpolation from #b ,kings xxiii4 #ac4 #dab ,see ,exod4 xxxiv4 #aa-ag2 ,deut4 vii4 #a-d4 ,the ,talmud makes one of its dishonest attempts to get rid of the fact2 ,shabbath1 p4 #ef1 b4 ,sanhedrin1 ff4 #ee1 #ef4 ,justin ,martyr preserves a tradition 7,dial4 c4 ,tryph41 #cd7 that ,solomon in taking a ,sidonian wife worshipped idols at ,sidon4 ,muslim tradition attributes ,solomon's idolatry to the tricks of demons who assumed his form 7,qur'an1 ,sura ii4 #ii2 but see ,sura xxxviii4 #cj74 #dac ,prov4 xxxi4 #c4 #dad ,the ,song of ,solomon 7vi4 #h7 gives him1 besides the 'alamoth 7damsels7 without number1 the sixty wives 7saroth71 and the eighty concubines1 who were partly perhaps their slaves4 #dae ,parmen4 ap4 ,athen41 ,deipnos41 iii4 #c4 ,comp4 ,quint4 ,curt41 ,vit4 ,alex41 iii4 #c4 ,amehhate of ,egypt had more than three hundred and seventeen wives 7,brugsch1 ,egypt1 iii4 #fjg1 ,e4,t474 ,rehoboam1 who had eighteen wives and sixty concubines1 left twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters4 ,solomon1 so far as we know1 had only one son and two daughters4 #daf ,cant4 vi4 #h4 #dag ,the ,vatican ,,ms4 of the ,,lxx4 adds ,syrian and ,amorite princesses to the number4 ,marriages with ,sidonians and ,hittites are expressly forbidden in ,exod4 xxxiv4 #ab-af1 and with ,canaanites in ,deut4 vii4 #c 7comp4 ,ezra ix4 #b and ,neh4 xiii4 #bc74 #dah ,numb4 xxv4 #c4 ,,chapter ,,xxiii4 ,,the ,,wind ,,and ,,the ,,whirlwind4 #a ,,kings xi4 #ad-da4 ,he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption4--,,gal4 vi4 #h4 ,such degeneracy could not show itself in the king without danger to his people4 ,delirant reges1 plectuntur ,achivi4 ,in the disintegration of ,solomon's power and the general disenchantment from the glamour of his magnificence1 the land became full of corruption and discontent4 ,the wisdom and experience of the aged were contemptuously hissed off the seat of judgment by the irreverent folly of the young4 ,the existence of a corrupt aristocracy is always a bad symptom of national disease4 ,these lisping hawthorn-buds of fashion only bourgeon in tainted soil4 ,the advice given by the young men who had grown up with ,rehoboam and stood before him shows the insolence preceding doom which had been bred by the idolism of tyranny in the hearts of silly youths who had ceased to care for the wrongs of the people or to know anything about their condition4 ,violence1 oppression1 and commercial dishonesty1 as we see in the ,book of ,proverbs1 had been bred by the mad desire for gain2 and even in the streets of holy ,jerusalem1 and under the shadow of its ,temple1 strange women1 introduced by the commerce with heathen countries and the attendants on heathen princesses1 lured to their destruction the souls of simple and ,god-forgetting youths4#dai ,the simple and joyous agricultural prosperity in which the sons of the people grew up as young plants and their daughters as the polished corners of the ,temple was replaced by struggling discontent and straining competition4 ,and amid all these evils the voices of the courtly priests were silent1 and for a long time1 under the menacing and irresponsible dominance of an oracular royalty1 there was no prophet more4 ,early in ,solomon's reign two adversaries had declared their existence1 but only became of much account in the darker and later days of its decline4#dbj ,one of these was ,hadad1 ,prince of ,edom4 ,upon the ,edomites in the days of ,david the prowess of ,joab had inflicted an overwhelming and all but exterminating reverse4 ,joab had remained six months in the conquered district to bury his comrades who had been slain in the terrible encounter1 and to extirpate as far as possible the detested race4 ,but the king's servants had been able to save ,hadad1 then but a little child1 from the indiscriminate massacre1 as the sole survivor of his house4#dba ,the young ,edomite prince was conveyed by them through ,midian and the desert of ,paran into ,egypt1 and there1 for political reasons1 had been kindly received by the ,pharaoh of the day1 probably ,pinotem ,i4 of the ,tanite dynasty1 the father of ,psinaces whose alliance ,solomon had secured by marriage with his daughter4 ,pinotem not only welcomed the fugitive ,edomite as the last scion of a kingly race1 but even deigned to bestow on him the hand of the sister of ,tahpenes1 his own ,gebira or queen-mother4#dbb ,their son ,genubath was brought up among the ,egyptian princes4 ,but amid the luxurious splendours of ,pharaoh's palace ,hadad carried in his heart an undying thirst for vengeance on the destroyer of his family and race4 ,the names of ,david and ,joab inspired a terror which made rebellion impossible for a time2 but when ,hadad heard1 with grim satisfaction1 of ,joab's judicial murder1 and that ,david had been succeeded by a peaceful son1 no charm of an ,egyptian palace and royal bride could weigh in the balance against the fierce passion of an avenger of blood4 ,better the wild freedom of ,idumea than the sluggish ease of ,egypt4 ,he asked the ,pharaoh's leave to return to his own country1 and1 braving the reproach of ingratitude1 made his way back to the desolated fields and cities of his unfortunate people4#dbc ,he developed their resources1 and nursed their hopes of the coming day of vengeance4 ,if he could do nothing else he could at least act as a desperate marauder1 and prove himself a satan to the successor of his foe4#dbd ,solomon was strong enough to keep open the road to ,ezion-,gebir1 but ,hadad was probably master of ,sela and ,maon4#dbe ,another enemy was ,rezon1 of whom but little is known4 ,david had won a great victory1 the most remarkable of all his successes1 over ,hadadezer1 ,king of ,zobah1 and had then signalised his conquest by placing garrisons in ,syria of ,damascus4 ,on this occasion ,rezon1 the son of ,eli1 who is perhaps identical with ,hezion1 the grandfather of ,benhadad1 ,king of ,syria in the days of ,asa1 fled from the host of ,hadadezer with some of the ,syrian forces4 ,with these and all whom he could collect about him1 he became a guerilla captain4 ,after a successful period of predatory warfare he found himself strong enough to seize ,damascus1 where1 to all appearance1 he founded a powerful hereditary kingdom4 ,thus with ,hadad in the south to plunder his commercial caravans1 and ,rezon on the north to threaten his communication with ,tiphsah1 and alarm his excursions to his pleasances in ,lebanon1 ,solomon was made keenly to feel that his power was rather an unsubstantial pageant than a solid dominion4 ,the enmity of these powerful ,emirs of ,edom and ,syria was an hereditary legacy from the wars of ,david and the ruthless savagery of ,joab4 ,a third adversary was far more terrible1 and he was called into existence by the conduct of ,solomon himself4 ,this was ,jeroboam1 the son of ,nebat4 ,in himself he was of no account1 being a man of isolated position and obscure origin4 ,he was the son of a widow named ,zeruah1#dbf who lived at ,zarthan in the ,jordan valley4 ,the position of a widow in the ancient world was one of feebleness and difficulty2 and if we may trust the apocryphal additions to the ,septuagint1 ,zeruah was not only a widow but a harlot4 ,but ,jeroboam1 whose name perhaps indicates that he was born in the golden days of ,solomon's prosperity1 was a youth of vigour and capacity4 ,he made his way from the wretched clay fields of ,zeredah to ,jerusalem1 and there became one of the vast undistinguished gang who were known as slaves of ,solomon4 ,the corve of many thousands from all parts of ,palestine was then engaged in building the ,millo and the huge walls and causeway in the valley between ,zion and ,moriah1 which was afterwards known as the ,valley of the ,cheesemongers 7,tyropon74 ,here the unknown youth distinguished himself by his strenuousness1 and by the influence which he rapidly acquired4 ,solomon knew the value of a man diligent in his business1 and therefore worthy to stand before kings4 ,untrammelled by any rules of seniority1 and able to make and unmake as he thought fit1 ,solomon promoted him while still young1 and at one bound1 to a position of great rank and influence4 ,jeroboam was an ,ephraimite1 and ,solomon therefore gave him charge over all the compulsory levies 7,mas7 of the tribe of the house of ,joseph--that is1 of the proud and powerful tribes of ,ephraim and ,manasseh1 who practically represented all ,israel except ,judah1 ,benjamin1 and the almost nominal ,simeon4 ,the spark of ambition was now kindled in the youth's heart1 and as he toiled among the workmen he became aware of two secrets of deadly import to the master who had lifted him out of the dust--secrets which he well knew how to use4 ,one was that a deep undercurrent of tribal jealousy was setting in with the force of a tide4 ,solomon had unduly favoured his own tribe by exemptions from the general requisition1 and ,ephraim fretted under a sense of wrong4 ,that proud tribe1 the heir of ,joseph's pre-eminence1 had never acquiesced in the loss of the hegemony which it so long had held4 ,from ,ephraim had sprung ,joshua1 the mighty successor of ,moses1 the conqueror of the ,promised ,land1 and his sepulchre was still among them at ,timnath-,serah4 ,from their kith had sprung the princely ,gideon1 the greatest of the judges1 who might1 had he so chosen1 have anticipated the foundation of royalty in ,israel4 ,shiloh1 which ,god had chosen for ,his inheritance1 was in their domains4 ,it required very little at any time to make the ,ephraimites second the cry of the insurgents who followed ,sheba1 the son of ,bichri1-- ,we have no part in ,david1 ,neither have we inheritance in the son of ,jesse4 ,every man to his tents1 ,o ,israel4 ,jeroboam1 who was now by ,solomon's favour a chief ruler over his fellow-tribesmen1 had many opportunities to foment this jealousy1 and to win for himself by personal graciousness the popularity of ,solomon which had so long begun to wane4 ,but a yet deeper feeling was at work against ,solomon4 ,the men of ,ephraim and all the northern tribes had not only begun to ask why ,judah was to monopolise the king's partiality1 but the much more dangerous question1 ,what right has the king to enforce on us these dreary and interminable labours1 in making a city of palaces and an impregnable fortress of a capital which is to overshadow our glory and command our subjection8 ,with consummate astuteness1 by a word here and a word there1 ,jeroboam was able to pose before ,solomon as the enforcer of a stern yoke1 and before his countrymen as one who hated the hard necessity and would fain be their deliverer from it4 ,and while he was already in heart a rebel against the ,house of ,david1 he received what he regarded as a ,divine sanction to his career of ambition4 ,the prophets1 as we have seen1 had sunk to silence before the oracular autocrat who so frequently impressed on the people that there is a ,divine sentence on the lips of kings4 ,no special inspiration seemed to be needed either to correct or to corroborate so infallible a wisdom4 ,but the heaven-enkindled spark of inspiration can never be permanently suffocated4 ,priests as a body have often proved amenable to royal seductions1 but individual prophets are irrepressible4 ,what were the priests doing in the face of so fearful an apostasy8 ,apparently nothing4 ,they seem to have sunk into comfortable acquiescence1 satisfied with the augmentation of rank and revenue which the ,temple and its offerings brought to them4 ,they offered no opposition to the extravagances of the king1 his violations of the theocratic ideal1 or even his monstrous tolerance for the worship of idols4 ,that prophets as a body existed in ,judah during the early years of this reign there is no proof4 ,the atmosphere was ill-suited to their vocation4 ,nathan probably had died long before ,solomon reached his zenith4#dbg ,of ,iddo we know almost nothing4 ,two prophets are mentioned1 but only towards the close of the reign--,ahijah of ,shiloh1#dbh and ,shemaiah2 and there seems to have been some confusion in the rles respectively assigned to them#dbi by later tradition4 ,but the hour had now struck for a prophet to speak the word of the ,lord4 ,if the king1 surrounded by formidable guards and a glittering court1 was too exalted to be reached by a humble son of the people1 it was time for ,ahijah to follow the precedent of ,samuel4 ,he obeyed a divine intimation in selecting the successor who should punish the great king's rebellion against ,god1 and inaugurate a rule of purer obedience than now existed under the upas-shadow of the throne4 ,he was the ,mazkr1 the annalist or historiographer of ,solomon's court 7#b ,chron4 ix4 #bi72 but loyalty to a backsliding king had come to mean disloyalty to ,god4 ,there was but one man who seemed marked out for the perilous honour of a throne4 ,it was the brave1 vigorous1 ambitious youth of ,ephraim who had risen to high promotion and had won the hearts of his people1 though ,solomon had made him the task-master of their forced labour4 ,on one occasion ,jeroboam left ,jerusalem1 perhaps to visit his native ,zeredah and his widowed mother4#dcj ,ahijah intentionally met him on the road4 ,he drew him aside from the public path into a solitary place4 ,there1 seen by none1 he took off his own shoulders the new stately abba#dca in which he had clad himself1 and proceeded to give to ,jeroboam one of those object-lessons in the form of an acted parable1 which to the ,eastern mind are more effective than any words4#dcb ,rending the new garment into twelve pieces1 he gave ten to ,jeroboam1 telling him that ,jehovah would thus rend the kingdom from the hands of ,solomon because of his unfaithfulness1 leaving his son but one tribe#dcc that the lamp of ,david might not be utterly extinguished4 ,jeroboam should be king over ,israel2 to the ,house of ,david should be left but an insignificant fragment4 ,god would build a sure house for ,jeroboam as ,he had done for ,david1 if he would keep ,his commandments1 though the ,house of ,david should not be afflicted for ever4#dcd ,a scene so memorable1 a prophecy of such grave significance1 could hardly remain a secret4 ,ahijah may have hinted it among his sympathisers4 ,jeroboam would hardly be able to conceal from his friends the immense hopes which it excited2 and as his position probably gave him the command of troops he became dangerous4 ,his designs reached the ears of ,solomon1 and he sought to put ,jeroboam to death4 ,the young man1 who had probably betrayed his secret ambition1 and may even have attempted some premature and abortive insurrection1 escaped from ,jerusalem1 and took refuge in ,egypt4 ,there the ,bubastite dynasty had displaced the ,tanite1 and from ,shishak ,i41 the earliest ,pharaoh whose individuality eclipsed the common dynastic name1 he received so warm a welcome that1 according to one story1 ,shishak gave him in marriage ,ano1 the elder sister of his ,queen ,tahpanes 7or ,thekemina1 ,,lxx47 and of ,hadad's wife4#dce ,he stayed in ,egypt till the death of ,solomon1 and then returned to ,zeredah1 either in consequence of the summons of his countrymen1 or that he might be ready for any turn of events4 ,under such melancholy circumstances the last great king of the united kingdom passed away4 ,of the circumstances of his death we are told nothing1 but the clouds had gathered thickly round his declining years4 ,the power to which he had elevated ,israel1 says the ,jewish historian ,grtz1 resembled that of a magic world built up by spirits4 ,the spell was broken at his death4 ,it must not1 however1 be imagined that no abiding results had followed from so remarkable a rule4 ,the nation which he left behind him at his death was very different from the nation to whose throne he had succeeded as a youth4 ,it had sprung from immature boyhood to the full-grown stature of manhood4 ,if the purity of its spiritual ideal had been somewhat corrupted1 its intellectual growth and its material power had been immensely stimulated4 ,it had tasted the sweets of commerce1 and never forgot the richness of that intoxicating draught which was destined in later ages to transform its entire nature4 ,tribal distinctions1 if not obliterated1 had been subordinated to a central organisation4 ,the knowledge of writing had been more widely spread1 and this had led to the dawn of that literature which saved ,israel from oblivion1 and uplifted her to a place of supreme influence among the nations4 ,manners had been considerably softened from their old wild ferocity4 ,the more childish forms of ancient superstition1 such as the use of ephods and teraphim1 had fallen into desuetude4 ,the worship of ,jehovah1 and the sense of ,his unique supremacy over the whole world1 was fostered in many hearts1 and men began to feel the unfitness of giving to ,him that name of ,baal which began henceforth to be confined to the ,syrian sun-god4#dcf ,amid many aberrations the sense of religion was deepened among the faithful of ,israel1 and the ground was prepared for the more spiritual religion which in later reigns found its immortal expositors in those ,hebrew prophets who rank foremost among the teachers of mankind4#dcg ,but as for ,solomon himself it is a melancholy thought that he is one of the three or four of whose salvation the ,fathers and others have openly ventured to doubt4#dch ,the discussion of such a question is1 indeed1 wholly absurd and profitless1 and is only here alluded to in order to illustrate the completeness of ,solomon's fall4 ,as the book of ,ecclesiastes is certainly not by him it can throw no light on the moods of his latter days1 unless it be conceivable that it represents some faint breath of olden tradition4 ,the early commentators acquitted or condemned him as though they sat on the judgment-seat of the ,almighty4 ,they would have shown more wisdom if they had admitted that such decisions are--fortunately for all men--beyond the scope of human judges4 ,happily for us ,god1 not man1 is the judge1 and ,he looks down on earth ,with larger other eyes than ours ,to make allowance for us all4 ,orcagna was wiser when1 in his great picture in the ,campo ,santo at ,pisa and in the ,strozzi ,chapel at ,florence1 he represented ,solomon rising out of his sepulchre in robe and crown at the trump of the archangel1 uncertain whether he is to turn to the right hand or to the left4 ,and ,dante1 as all men know1 joins ,solomon in ,paradise with the ,four ,great ,schoolmen4 ,the great medival poet of ,latin ,christianity did not side with ,st4 ,augustine and the ,latin ,fathers against the wise king1 but with ,st4 ,chrysostom and the ,greek ,fathers for him4 ,he did so because he accepted ,st4 ,bernard's mystical interpretation of the ,song of ,songs3-- ,la quinta luce1 ch' tra noi pi bella ,spira di tale amor1 che tutto il mondo ,laggi ne gola di saver novella4 ,entro v' l'alta mente1 u' s profondo ,saver fu messo1 che si il vero vero1 ,a veder tanto non surse il secondo4#dci ,there is a famous legend in the ,qur'an about the death of ,solomon4#ddj ,work ye righteousness ,o ye family of ,david2 for ,i see that which ye do4 ,and we made the wind subject unto ,solomon4444 ,and we made a fountain of molten brass to flow for him4 ,and some of the genii were obliged to work in his presence by the will of his ,lord4 ,they made for him whatever he pleased of palaces1 and statues1 and large dishes like fishponds1 and caldrons standing firm on their trivets2 and we said1 ,work righteousness1 ,o family of ,david1 with thanksgiving2 for few of my servants are thankful4 ,and when we had decreed that ,solomon should die1 nothing discovered his death unto them1 except the creeping thing of the earth that gnawed his staff4 ,and when his body fell down1 the genii plainly perceived that if they had known that which is secret they had not continued in a vile punishment4#dda ,the legend briefly alluded to was that ,solomon employed the genii to build his ,temple1 but1 foreseeing that he would die before its completion1 he prayed ,god to conceal his death from them1 so that they might go on working4 ,his prayer was heard1 and the rest of the legend may best be told in the words of a poet3#ddb-- ,king ,solomon stood in his crown of gold1 ,between the pillars1 before the altar ,in the ,house of the ,lord4 ,and the king was old1 ,and his strength began to falter1 ,so that he leaned on his ebony staff1 ,sealed with the seal of the ,pentegraph4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and the king stood still as a carven king1 ,the carven cedar beams below1 ,in his purple robe1 with his signet-ring1 ,and his beard as white as snow4 ,and his face to the ,oracle1 where the hymn ,dies under the wings of the cherubim4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and it came to pass as the king stood there1 ,and looked on the ,house he had built with pride1 ,that the hand of the ,lord came unaware ,and touched him1 so that he died ,in his purple robe and his signet ring ,and the crown wherewith they had crowned him king4 ,and the stream of folk that came and went ,to worship the ,lord with prayer and praise1 ,went softly ever in wonderment1 ,for the king stood there always2 ,and it was solemn and strange to behold ,the dead king crowned with a crown of gold4 99 99 99 99 99 ,so ,king ,solomon stood up dead in the ,house ,of the ,lord1 held there by the ,pentegraph1 ,until out from the pillar there ran a red mouse1 ,and gnawed through his ebony staff2 ,then flat on his face the king fell down1 ,and they picked from the dust a golden crown4 ,the legends of the ,east describe ,solomon as tormented indeed1 yet not without hope4 ,in the romance of ,vathek he is described as listening earnestly to the roar of a cataract1 because when it ceases to roar his anguish will be at an end4 ,the king so renowned for his wisdom was on the loftiest elevation1 and placed immediately beneath the ,dome4 ',the thunder1' he said1 'precipitated me hither1 where1 however1 ,i do not remain totally destitute of hope2 for an angel of light hath revealed that1 in consideration of the piety of my early youth1 my woes shall come to an end4 ,till then ,i am in torments1 ineffable torments2 an unrelenting fire preys on my heart4' ,the caliph was ready to sink with terror when he heard the groans of ,solomon4 ,having uttered this exclamation1 ,solomon raised his hands towards heaven1 in token of supplication2 and the caliph discerned through his bosom1 which was transparent as crystal1 his heart enveloped in flames4 99 99 99 99 99 ,so ,solomon passed away--the last king of all ,palestine till another king arose a thousand years later1 like him in his fondness for magnificence1 like him in his tamperings with idolatry1 like him in being the builder of the ,temple1 but in all other respects a far more grievous sinner and a far more inexcusable tyrant--,herod1 falsely called ,the ,great4 ,and in the same age arose another ,king of ,solomon's descendants1 whose palace was the shop of the carpenter and ,his throne the cross1 and whose mortal body was the true ,temple of the ,supreme--that ,king whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom1 and whose dominion endureth throughout all ages4 ,,footnotes3 #dai ,see ,prov4 ii4 #aj-bb1 v4 #a-ad1 vi4 #bd-ce1 etc4 7contrast ,psalm cxliv4 #ab-ae74 #dbj ,in #a ,kings xi4 #i-be the mischief inflicted by ,rezon and ,hadad is represented as a punishment for ,solomon's apostasy4 ,it has been said that here the pragmatism belongs to the redactor1 because these enemies sprang into existence when he came to the throne4 ,but1 as ,i have here represented it1 nothing seems more probable than that ,rezon and ,hadad were practically impotent to inflict much damage before the period of ,solomon's decline4 7,verse #bc is omitted in some ,,mss4 of the ,,lxx47 #dba ,an isolated anecdote of the exterminating war is preserved in #a ,chron4 xi4 #bb1 #bc1 from which it would seem that ,egypt had interfered in favour of ,edom4 #dbb ,renan conjectures that the real ,egyptian name is ,ahotepnes4 ,the ,,lxx4 wrongly calls this ,pharaoh ,sheshonk 771 who came later1 and whose queen's name was ,karama 7not ,thekemina1 as the ,,lxx4 says74 #dbc ,canon ,rawlinson 7,speaker's ,commentary1 ad loc47 points out that fugitives once received at ,eastern courts found it very difficult to get away1 e4g41 ,democedes1 ,herod41 iii4 #acb-cg4 ,histius1 in leaving the court of ,persia1 has expressly to say that he had lacked nothing-- 2 ,herod41 v4 #ajf2 comp4 #a ,kings xi4 #bb4 #dbd #a ,kings xi4 #ad3 ,the ,lord stirred up an adversary 774 #dbe ,stade1 i4 #cjb4 ,in #a ,kings xi4 #bb1 #be the text is corrupt4 ,verse #be should partly be transferred to the end of verse #bb1 and should run1 ,and ,hadad returned to his own land1 i4e41 to ,edom4 7,edom has been confused with ,aram47 #dbf ,the additions to the ,,lxx4 call her ,sarira4 ,but the names ,sarira1 ,enlamite1 ,ano are all suspicious2 and possibly the ,,lxx4 additions may be only part of some ,alexandrian ,haggadah4 #dbg ,in #b ,chron4 ix4 #bi the ,,lxx4 reads ,joel4 ,he wrote visions against ,jeroboam1 a life of ,ahijah1 and a book on 7or after the manner of7 genealogies 7#b ,chron4 ix4 #bi1 xii4 #ae1 xiii4 #bb74 ,jerome 7on #b ,chron4 xv4 #a7 identifies him with ,oded4 #dbh #b ,chron4 ix4 #bi4 ,perhaps #a ,kings xi4 may be borrowed from the historic records of ,ahijah4 #dbi ,for in the ,,lxx4 #a ,kings xi4 #bi-ci is absent in some ,,mss41 as well as #a ,kings xiv4 7,ahijah and ,abijah71 which has been added from the ,greek version of ,aquila4 ,in verse #bi1 for ,ahijah the ,shilonite we have in some ,,mss4 of the ,,lxx4 ,shemaiah the ,elamite or ,eulamite4 #dcj #a ,kings xi4 #bi1 addition of ,,lxx4 #dca ,the square cloth worn over the other dress1 and now called abba1 seems to represent the salemh 77 here mentioned4 #dcb ,the story is usually made to apply to ,jeroboam's new robe2 but in the addition to the ,,lxx41 where the action is ascribed to ,shemaiah1 the word of the ,lord says to him1 4 4 4 ,the method of acted parables was common among the ,hebrew prophets 7,see ,jer4 xiii41 xix41 xxvii42 ,ezek4 iii41 iv41 v41 etc472 but this is the earliest recorded instance of the kind4 #dcc ,not two tribes1 as the ,,lxx4 says4 ,but neither the number #a nor the number #b are literally exact1 for certainly ,jeroboam did not command the territory of ,simeon1 south of ,judah4 ,the adherence of ,benjamin1 or part of ,benjamin1 to ,judah was mainly a geographical accident1 due to the fact that ,jerusalem lay in both tribes 7,josh4 xv4 #h1 xviii4 #af2 ,jer4 xx4 #b74 ,late in ,david's reign a ,benjamite 7,sheba1 son of ,bichri7 had headed a revolt against ,david 7#b ,sam4 xx4 #a74 #dcd #a ,kings xi4 #cd-ci4 #dce ,the story occurs in the additions to the ,,lxx41 and is highly improbable4 ,shishak came to the throne1 according to ,r4 ,s4 ,poole1 about ,b4,c4 #igb2 others date his accession in #ige or #ihh4 ,no such name as ,tahpanes or ,thekemina is found in the ,egyptian records1 and the wife of ,shishak was ,karamat4 #dcf ,compare the names ,eshbaal1 ,meribaal1 ,jerubbaal1 ,baaljada1 with ,ishjo 7,,lxx4 #a ,sam4 xiv4 #di1 ,heb471 ,mephibosheth ,eliada4 ,in later days ,baal was changed into the nickname ,bosheth1 shame3 hence ,ishbosheth1 ,jerubesheth1 ,mephibosheth4 ,see ,kittel1 ii4 #hg4 #dcg ,see ,kittel1 ,gesch4 der ,hebr41 ii4 #afi-gf4 #dch ,see ,buddus1 ,hist4 ,eccl41 ii4 #bcg4 #dci ,the fifth light shining with a beauty pure ,breathes from such love that all the world below ,craves to have tidings of him true and sure4 ,within it is the lofty mind1 where so ,deep knowledge dwelt1 that1 if the truth be true1 ,such insight ne'er a second rose to know4 ,parad41 x4 #aji-aad1 and ,dean ,plumtre's notes4 #ddj ,qur'an1 xxxiv4 #aj2 ,chapter of ,seb 7,palmer's translation1 p4 #aea74 #dda ,sale's ,koran1 ii4 #bhg2 ,palmer's ,qur'an1 ii4 #aeb4 #ddb ,the ,earl of ,lytton4 ,,book ,,iii4 ,,the ,,divided ,,kingdom4 ,b4,c4 #icg-hhi4 ,,chapter ,,xxiv4 ,a ,,new ,,reign4 #a ,,kings xii4 #a-e4 ,a foolish son is the calamity of his father4--,,prov4 xix4 #ac4 ,he left behind him ,roboam1 even the foolishness of the people1 and one that had no understanding4--,,ecclus4 xlvii4 #bc4 ,rehoboam1 who was ,solomon's only son1 succeeded in ,jerusalem without opposition1 ,b4,c4 #icg4ddc ,but the northern tribes were in no mood to regard as final the prerogative acceptance of the son of ,solomon by the rival tribe of ,judah4 ,david had won them by his vivid personality2 ,solomon had dazzled them by his royal magnificence4 ,it did not follow that they were blindly to accept a king who emerged for the first time from the shadow of the harem1 and was the son of an ,ammonitess1 who worshipped ,chemosh4 ,instead of going to ,rehoboam at ,jerusalem as the tribes had gone to ,david at ,hebron1 they summoned an assembly at their ancient city of ,shechem1 on the site of the modern ,nablus1 between ,mount ,ebal and ,gerizim4 ,in this fortress-sanctuary they determined1 as men of ,israel1 to bring their grievances under the notice of the new sovereign before they formally ratified his succession4 ,according to one view they summoned ,jeroboam1 who had already returned to ,zeredah1 to be their spokesman4#ddd ,when the assembly met they told the king that they would accept him if he would lighten the grievous service which his father had put upon them4#dde ,rehoboam1 taken by surprise1 said that they should receive his answer in three days4 ,in the interval he consulted the aged counsellors of his father4 ,their answer was astute in its insight into human nature4 ,it resembled the long promises1 short performance which ,guido da ,montefeltro recommended to ,pope ,boniface ,,viii4 in the case of the town of ,penestrino4#ddf ,they well understood the maxim of omnia serviliter pro imperio1 which has paved the way to power of many a usurper from ,otho to ,bolingbroke4 ,give the people a civil answer1 they said2 tell them that you are their servant4 ,content with this they will be scattered to their homes1 and you will bind them to your yoke for ever4 ,in an answer so deceptive1 but so immoral1 the corrupting influence of the ,solomonian autocracy is as conspicuous as in that of the malapert youths who made their appeal to the king's conceit4 ,who knoweth whether his son will be a wise man or a fool8 asks ,solomon in the ,book of ,proverbs4 ,apparently he had done little or nothing to save his only son from being the latter4 ,despots in polygamous households1 whether in ,palestine or ,zululand1 live in perpetual dread of their own sons1 and generally keep them in absolute subordination4 ,if ,rehoboam had received the least political training1 or had been possessed of the smallest common sense1 he would have been able to read the signs of the times sufficiently well to know that everything might be lost by blustering arrogance1 and everything gained by temporising plausibility4 ,had ,rehoboam been a man like ,david1 or even like ,saul in his better day1 he might have grappled to himself the affections of his people as with hooks of steel by seizing the opportunity of abating their burdens1 and offering them a sincere assurance that he would study their peace and welfare above all4 ,had he been a man of ordinary intelligence1 he would have seen that the present was not the moment to exacerbate a discontent which was already dangerous4 ,but the worldly-wise counsel of the elders of ,solomon was utterly distasteful to a man who1 after long insignificance1 had just begun to feel the vertigo of autocracy4 ,his sense of his right was strong in exact proportion to his own worthlessness4 ,he turned to the young men who had grown up with him1 and who stood before him--the jeunesse dore of a luxurious and hypocritical epoch1 the aristocratic idlers in whom the insolent self-indulgence of an enervated society had expelled the old spirit of simple faithfulness4#ddg ,their answer was the sort of answer which ,buckingham and ,sedley might have suggested to ,charles ,,ii4 in face of the demands of the ,puritans2 and it was founded on notions of inherent prerogative1 and the right ,divine of kings to govern wrong1 such as the ,bishops might have instilled into ,james ,i4 at the ,hampton ,court ,conference1 or ,archbishop ,laud into ,charles ,i4 in the days of ,thorough4 ,threaten this insolent canaille1 they said1 with your royal severity4 ,tell them that you do not intend to give up your sacred right to enforced labour1 such as your brother of ,egypt has always enjoyed4#ddh ,tell them that your little finger shall be thicker than your father's loins1#ddi and that instead of his whips you will chastise them with leaded thongs4#dej ,that is the way to show yourself every inch a king4 ,the insensate advice of these youths proved itself attractive to the empty and infatuated prince4 ,he accepted it in the dementation which is a presage of ruin2 for1 as the pious historian says1 the cause was from the ,lord4 ,the announcement of this incredibly foolish reply woke in the men of ,israel an answering shout of rebellion4 ,in the rhythmic war-cry of ,sheba1 the son of ,bichri1 which had become proverbial1#dea they cried3-- ,what portion have we in ,david8 ,neither have we inheritance in the son of ,jesse4 ,to your tents1 ,o ,israel3 ,now see to thine own house1 ,david6#deb ,unable to appease the wild tumult1 ,rehoboam again showed his want of sense by sending an officer to the people whose position and personality were most sure to be offensive to them4 ,he sent ,adoram1 who was over the tribute--the man who stood1 before the ,ephraimites especially1 as the representative of everything in monarchical government which was to them most entirely odious4 ,josephus says that he hoped to mollify the indignant people4 ,but it was too late4 ,they stoned the aged ,al-ham-,mas with stones that he died2 and when the foolish king witnessed or heard of the fate of a man who had grown grey as the chief agent of despotism he felt that it was high time to look after his own safety4 ,apparently he had come with no other escort than that of the men of ,judah who formed a part of the national militia4 ,of ,cherethites1 ,pelethites1 and ,gittites we hear no more4 ,the princeling of a despoiled and humiliated kingdom was perhaps in no condition to provide the pay of these foreign mercenaries4 ,the king found that the name of ,david was no longer potent1 and that royalty had lost its awful glamour4 ,he made an effort#dec to reach his chariot1 and1 barely succeeding1 fled with headlong speed to ,jerusalem4 ,from that day for ever the unity of ,israel was broken1 and the twelve tribes became a name for two mutually antagonistic powers4#ded ,the men of ,israel at once chose ,jeroboam for their king1 and an event was accomplished which had its effect on the history of all succeeding times4 ,the only ,israelites over whom the ,house of ,david continued to rule were those who1 like the scattered remnant of ,simeon1 dwelt in the cities of ,judah4#dee ,thus ,david's grandson found that his kingdom over a people had shrunk to the headship of a tribe1 with a sort of nominal suzerainty over ,edom and part of ,philistia4 ,he was reduced to the comparative insignificance of ,david's own position during his first seven years1 when he was only king in ,hebron4 ,this disruption was the beginning of endless material disasters to both kingdoms2 but it was the necessary condition of high spiritual blessings1 for it was of the ,lord4 ,politically it is easy to see that one cause of the revolt lay in the too great rapidity in which kings1 who1 as it was assumed1 were to be elective1 or at least to depend on the willing obedience of the people1 had transformed themselves into hereditary despots4 ,judah might still accept the sway of a king of her own tribe2 but the powerful and jealous ,ephraimites1 at the head of the ,northern ,confederation1 refused to regard themselves as the destined footstool for a single family4 ,as in the case of ,saul and of ,david1 they determined once more to accept no king who did not owe his sovereignty to their own free choice4 ,,footnotes3 #ddc ,rehoboam means enlarger of the people 7comp4 ,eurudemos72 ,jeroboam1 whose people is many 7,poludemos2 comp4 ,thiodric1 ,thierry74 ,but ,cheyne makes it mean the kingdom contendeth 7,kleinert1 ,volkstreiter74 #ddd ,so we read in the ,,lxx4 ,cod4 ,vat41 and 7partly7 in the ,vulgate 7see ,robertson ,smith1 ,the ,old ,testament1 p4 #aag74 ,unless ,jeroboam had spontaneously returned from ,egypt on hearing of the death of ,solomon1 there would hardly have been time to summon him thence4 #b ,chron4 x4 #b represents the matter thus4 ,possibly his name has crept by error into #a ,kings xii4 #c4 ,see ,wellhausen-,bleek's ,einleitung1 p4 #bdc4 #dde ,in the ,,lxx4 the ,ephraimites complain of the expensive provision for ,solomon's table4 ,thy father made his yoke grievous upon us1 and made grievous to us the meats of his table4 ,,lxx4 7,cod4 ,vat471 4 #ddf ,dante1 ,inferno1 ,cant4 xxvii4 #ddg ,they are called yeladim1 which surely cannot apply to men of forty1 so that ,rehoboam was probably little more than a youth1 na'ar 7#b ,chron4 xiii4 #g2 comp4 ,gen4 xxxiii4 #ac74 #ddh ,herod41 ii4 #abd-bh4 #ddi ,my little finger4 ,heb41 my littleness2 ,,lxx41 4 ,but the paraphrase is perfectly correct 7,vulg41 ,pesh41 ,josephus1 and the ,rabbis74 #dej ,virga si est nodosa et aculeata scorpios vocatur1 quia arcuato vulnere in corpus infigitur 7,isodore41 ,orig41 i4 #age74 #dea #b ,sam4 xx4 #a4 #deb ,or1 ,now feed thine own house 7,,lxx41 1 reading for 72 and the ,,lxx4 adds1 ,for this man is not 7fit7 to be a ruler1 nor to be a prince4 ,evidently the revolt was the culmination of those jealousies which the haughty tribe of ,ephraim had already manifested in the lives of ,gideon1 ,abimelech1 and ,david4 #dec ,heb41 strengthened himself4 #ded ,in fact1 the became more of a reminiscence than anything else4 ,simeon1 for instance1 practically disappeared 7#a ,chron4 iv4 #bd-dc74 #dee #a ,kings xii4 #ag4 ,,chapter ,,xxv4 ,,the ,,disruption4 #a ,,kings xii4 #f-bj4 ,it was of the ,lord4 ,it is no small proof of the insight and courageous faithfulness of the historian that he accepts without question the verdict of ancient prophecy that the disruption was ,god's doing2 for everything which happened in the four subsequent centuries1 alike in ,judah and in ,israel1 seemed to belie this pious conviction4 ,we1 in the light of later history1 are now able to see that the disseverance of ,israel's unity worked out results of eternal advantage to mankind2 but in the sixth century before ,christ no event could have seemed to be so absolutely disastrous4 ,it must have worn the aspect of an extinction of the glory of the ,house of ,jacob4 ,it involved the obliteration of the great majority of the descendants of the patriarchs1 and the reduction of the rest to national insignificance and apparently hopeless servitude4 ,throughout those centuries of troubled history1 in the struggle for existence which was the lot of both kingdoms alike1 it was difficult to say whether their antagonism or their friendship1 their open wars or their matrimonial alliances1 were productive of the greater ruin4 ,each section of the nation fatally hampered and counterpoised the other with a perpetual rivalry and menace4 ,ephraim envied ,judah1 and ,judah vexed ,ephraim4 ,in extreme cases the south was ready to purchase the intervention of ,syria1 or even of ,assyria1 to check and overwhelm its northern rival1 while the north could raise up ,egypt or ,edom to harass the southern kingdom with intolerable raids4 ,to us the ,southern ,kingdom1 the kingdom of ,judah1 seems the more important and the more interesting division of the people4 ,it became the heir of all the promises1 the nurse of the ,messianic hope1 the mother of the four greater prophets1 the continuer of all the subsequent history after the glory of ,israel had been stamped out by ,assyria for ever4 #a4 ,but such was not the aspect presented by the kingdom of ,judah to contemporary observers4 ,on the contrary1 ,judah seemed to be a paltry and accidental fragment--one tribe1 dissevered from the magnificent unity of ,israel4 ,nothing redeemed it from impotence and obliteration but the splendid possessions of ,jerusalem and the ,temple1 which guaranteed the often threatened perpetuity of the ,house of ,david4 ,the future seemed to be wholly with ,israel when men compared the relative size and population of the disunited tribes4 ,judah comprised little more than the environs of ,jerusalem4 ,except ,jerusalem1 ,mizpeh1 ,gibeon1 and ,hebron1 it had no famous shrines and centres of national traditions4 ,it could not even claim the southern town of ,beersheba as a secure possession4#def ,the tribe of ,simeon had melted away into a shadow1 if not into non-existence1 amid the surrounding populations1 and its territory was under the kings of ,judah2 but they did not even possess the whole of ,benjamin1 and if that little tribe was nominally reckoned with them1 it was only because part of their capital city was in ,benjamite territory1 to which belonged the valley of ,hinnom4 ,to ,israel1 on the other hand1 pertained all the old local sanctuaries and scenes of great events4 ,on the east of ,jordan they held ,mahanaim2 on the west ,jericho1 near as it was to ,jerusalem1 and ,bethel with its sacred stone of ,jacob1 and ,gilgal with its memorial of the conquest1 and ,shechem the national place of assembly1 and ,accho and ,joppa on the sea shore4 ,israel1 too1 inherited all the predominance over ,moab and ,ammon1 and the ,philistines1 which had been secured by conquest in the reign of ,david4#deg #b4 ,then1 again1 the greatest heroes of tradition had been sons of the northern tribes4 ,the fame of ,joshua was theirs1 of ,deborah and ,barak1 of fierce ,jephthah1 of kingly ,gideon1 and of bold ,abimelech4 ,holy ,samuel1 the leader of the prophets1 and heroic ,saul1 the first of the kings1 had been of their kith and kin4 ,judah could only claim the bright personality of ,david1 and the already tarnished glories of ,solomon1 which men did not yet see through the mirage of legend but in the prosaic light of every day4 #c4 ,again1 the ,northern ,kingdom was unhampered by the bad example and erroneous development of the preceding royalty4 ,jeroboam had not stained his career with crimes like ,david2 nor had he sunk1 as ,solomon had done1 into polygamy and idolatry4 ,it seemed unlikely that he1 with so fatal an example before his eyes1 could be tempted into oppressive tyranny1 futile commerce1 or luxurious ostentation4 ,he could found a new dynasty1 free from the trammels of a bad commencement1 and as fully built on ,divine command as that of the ,house of ,jesse4 #d4 ,nor was it a small advantage that the new kingdom had an immense superiority over its southern compeer in richness of soil and beauty of scenery4 ,to it belonged the fertile plain of ,jezreel1 rolling with harvests of golden grain4 ,its command of ,accho gave it access to the treasures of the shore and of the sea4 ,to it belonged the purple heights of ,carmel1 of which the very name meant a garden of ,god2 and the silver ,lake of ,galilee1 with its inexhaustible swarms of fish2 and the fields of ,gennesareth1 which were a wonder of the world for their tropical luxuriance4 ,theirs also were the lilied waters and paper-reeds of ,merom1 and the soft1 green1 park-like scenery of ,gerizim1 and the roses of ,sharon1 and the cedars of ,lebanon1 and the vines and fig trees and ancient terebinths of all the land of ,ephraim1 and the forest glades of ,zebulon and ,naphtali1 and the wild uplands beyond the ,jordan--which were all far different from the awful barrenness of ,judah1 with its monotony of rounded hills4#deh #e4 ,under these favourable conditions three great advantages were exceptionally developed in the ,northern ,kingdom4 7#a7 ,it evidently enjoyed a larger freedom as well as a greater prosperity4 ,how gay and bright1 how festive and musical1 how worldly and luxurious1 was the life of the wealthy and the noble in the ivory palaces and on the gorgeous divans of ,samaria and ,jezreel1 as we read of it in the pages of the contemporary prophets6#dei ,naboth and ,shemer show themselves as independent of tyranny as any sturdy dalesman or feudal noble1 and the great lady of ,shunem1 on the slopes of ,esdraelom1 in her well-known home1 is a sample of ,israelite life in the north as true as that of the reaper ,boaz in the south4 ,she leaves her home under the pressure of famine1 and goes down to the plains of ,philistia4 ,when she returns and finds a stranger in her corn-fields1 she insists on restitution1 even at the hand of the king himself4#dfj 7#b7 ,the ,ten ,tribes also developed a more brilliant literature4 ,some of the most glowing psalms are probably of northern origin1 as well as the ,song of ,deborah1 and the work of the writer who is now generally recognised by critics under the name of the ,deuteronomist4 ,the loveliest poem produced by ,jewish literature--the ,song of ,songs--bears on every page the impress of the beautiful and imaginative north4 ,the fair girl of ,shunem loves her leopard-haunted hills1 and the vernal freshness of her northern home1 more than the perfumed chambers of ,solomon's seraglio2 and her poet is more charmed with the lustre and loveliness of ,tirzah than with the palaces and ,temple of ,jerusalem4 ,the ,book of ,job may have originated in the ,northern ,kingdom1 from which also sprang the best historians of the ,jewish race4#dfa 7#c7 ,but the main endowment of the new kingdom consisted in the magnificent development and independence of the prophets4 ,it was not till after the overthrow of the ,ten ,tribes that the glory of prophecy migrated southwards1 and ,jerusalem produced the mighty triad of ,isaiah1 ,jeremiah1 and ,ezekiel4 ,for the two and a half centuries that the ,northern ,kingdom lasted scarcely one prophet is heard of in ,judah except the scarcely known ,hanani1 and ,eliezer1 the son of ,mareshah1#dfb who is little more than a nominis umbra4 ,to the north belongs the great herald-prophet of the ,old ,dispensation1 the mighty ,elijah2 the softer spirit of the statesman-prophet ,elisha2 the undaunted ,micaiah1 son of ,imlah2 the picturesque ,micah2 the historic ,jonah2 the plaintive ,hosea2 and that bold and burning patriot1 a fragment of whose prophecy now forms part of the ,book of ,zechariah4 ,amos1 indeed1 belonged by birth to ,tekoa1 which was in ,judah1 but his prophetic activity was confined to ,bethel and ,jezreel4 ,the ,schools of the ,prophets at ,ramah1 ,bethel1 ,jericho1 and ,gilgal were all in ,israel4 ,the passages in the third section of the ,book of ,zechariah are alone sufficient to show how vast was the influence in the affairs of the nation of the prophets of the north1 and how fearless their intervention4 ,even when they were most fiercely persecuted1 they were not afraid to beard the most powerful kings--an ,ahab and a ,jeroboam ,,ii4--in all their pride4#dfc ,samaria and ,galilee were rich in prophetic lives2 and they1 too1 were the destined scene of the life of ,him of whom all the prophets prophesied1 and from whose inspiration they drew their heavenly fire4 ,against these advantages1 however1 must be set two serious and ultimately fatal drawbacks--germs of disease which lay in the very constitution of the kingdom1 and from the first doomed it to death4 ,one of these was the image-worship1 of which ,i shall speak in a later section2 the other was the lack of one predominant and continuous dynasty4 ,the royalty of the north did not spring up through long years of gradual ascendency1 and could not originally appeal to splendid services and heroic memories4 ,jeroboam was a man of humble1 and1 if tradition says truly1 of tainted origin4 ,he was not a usurper1 for he was called to the throne by the voice of prophecy and the free spontaneous choice of his people2 but in ,solomon's days he had been a potential if not an actual rebel4 ,he set the example of successful revolt1 and it was eagerly followed by many a soldier and general of similar antecedents4 ,in the short space of two hundred and forty-five years there were no less than nine changes of dynasty1 of which those of ,jeroboam1 ,baasha1 ,kobolam1#dfd ,menahem1 consisted only of a father and son4 ,there were at least four isolated or partial kings3 ,zimri1 ,tibni1 ,pekah1 and ,hosea4 ,only two dynasties1 those of ,omri and ,jehu1 succeeded in maintaining themselves for even four or five generations1 and they1 like the others1 were at last quenched in blood4 ,the close of the kingdom in its usurpations1 massacres1 and catastrophes reminds us of nothing so much as the disastrous later days of the ,roman ,empire1 when the purple was so often rent by the dagger-thrust1 and it was rare for emperors to die a natural death4 ,the kingdom which had risen from a sea of blood set in the same red waves4 ,on the other hand1 whatever may have been the drawback of the small and hampered ,southern ,kingdom1 it had several conspicuous advantages4 ,it had a settled and incomparable capital1 which could be rendered impregnable against all ordinary assaults2 while the capital of the ,northern ,kingdom shifted from ,shechem to ,penuel#dfe and ,tirzah1 and from ,tirzah to ,samaria and ,jezreel4 ,it had the blessing of a loyal people1 and of the all-but-unbroken continuity of one loved and cherished dynasty for nearly four centuries4 ,it had the yet greater blessing of producing not a few kings who more or less fully attained to the purity of the theocratic ideal4 ,asa1 ,jehoshaphat1 ,hezekiah1 ,josiah1 were good and high-minded kings1 and the two latter were religious reformers4 ,whatever may have been the sins and shortcomings of ,judah--and they were often very heinous--still the prophets bear witness that her transgressions were less incurable than those of her sister ,samaria4 ,all good men began to look to ,jerusalem as the nursing mother of the ,promised ,deliverer4 ,out of ,judah1 said the later ,zechariah1 shall come forth the corner stone1 out of him the nail1 out of him the battle bow1 out of him every governor together4#dff ,amos was born in ,judah2 ,hoshea took refuge there2 the later ,zechariah laboured 7ix41 xi41 xiii4 #g-i7 for the fusion of the two kingdoms4 ,from the unknown1 or little known1 seers who endeavoured to watch over the infant destinies of ,judah1 to the mighty prophets who inspired her early resistance to ,assyria1 or menaced her apostasy with ruin at the hands of ,babylon1 she rarely lacked for any long period the inspired guidance of moral teachers4 ,if ,judah was for many years behindhand in power1 in civilisation1 in literature1 even in the splendour of prophetic inspiration1 she still managed on the whole to uplift to the nations the standard of righteousness4 ,that standard was often fiercely assaulted1 but the standard-bearers did not faint4 ,the torn remnants of the old ideal were still upheld by faithful hands4 ,neither the heathen tendencies of princes nor the vapid ceremonialism of priests were allowed unchallenged to usurp the place of religion pure and undefiled4 ,the later ,judan prophets1 and especially the greatest of them1 rose to a spirituality which had never yet been attained1 and was never again equalled till the rise of the ,son of ,righteousness with healing in ,his wings4 ,how clearly1 then1 do we see the truth of the prophetic announcement that the disruption of the kingdom was of the ,lord6 ,out of apparent catastrophe was evolved infinite reparation4 ,the abandonment of the ,davidic dynasty of the ,ten ,tribes looked like earthly ruin4 ,it did indeed hasten the final overthrow of all national autonomy2 but that would have come in any case1 humanly speaking1 from ,assyria1 or ,babylonia1 ,persia1 or the ,seleucids1 or the ,ptolemies1 or ,rome4 ,on the other hand1 it fostered a religious power and concentration which were of more value to the world than any other blessings4 ,on all the past greatness and glory of ,israel1 says ,ewald1#dfg ,judah cast its free and cheerful gaze4 ,before its kings floated the vision of great ancestors2 before its prophets examples like those of ,nathan and ,gad2 before the whole people the memory of its lofty days4 ,and so it affords us no unworthy example of the honourable part which may be played for many centuries in the history of the world1 and the rich blessings which may be imparted1 even by a little kingdom1 provided it adheres faithfully to the eternal truth4 ,the gain to the higher life of humanity acquired under the earthly protection of this petty monarchy far outweighs all that has been attempted or accomplished for the permanent good of man by many much larger states4 ,the people of ,israel goes under1 says ,stade1 but the religion of ,israel triumphs over the powers of the world1 while it changes its character from the religion of a people into a religion of the world4 ,this development of religion1 as he proceeds to point out1 was mainly due to the long1 slow enfeeblement of the people through many centuries1 until at last it had acquired a force which enabled it to survive the political annihilation of the nationality from which it sprang4 ,in reality both kingdoms gained under the appearance of total loss4 ,every people called to high destinies1 says ,renan1 ought to be a small complete world1 enclosing opposed poles within its bosom4 ,greece had at a few leagues from each other1 ,sparta and ,athens1 two antipodes to a superficial observer1 but in reality rival sisters1 necessary the one to the other4 ,it was the same in ,palestine4 ,the high merit of the historian of the two kingdoms appears in this1 that1 without entangling himself in details1 and while he contents himself with sweeping and summary judgments1 he established a moral view of history which has been ratified by the experience of the world4 ,he shows us how the tottering and insignificant kingdom of ,judah1 secured by ,god's promise1 and rising through many backslidings into higher spirituality and faithfulness1 not only out-lasted for a century the overthrow of its far more powerful rival1 but kept alive the torch of faith1 and handed it on to the nations of many centuries across the dust and darkness of intervening generations4 ,and in drawing this picture he helped to secure the fulfilment of his own ideal1 for he inspired into many a patriot and many a reformer the indomitable faith in ,god which has enabled men1 in age after age1 to defy obloquy and opposition1 to face the prison and the sword1 secure in the ultimate victory of ,god's truth and ,god's righteousness amidst the most seemingly absolute failure1 and against the most apparently overwhelming odds4 ,,footnotes3 #def ,in #a ,kings xix4 #c it is reckoned as belonging to ,judah 7comp4 ,josh4 xv4 #bh71 being really a town of ,simeon 7,josh4 xix4 #b72 but from ,amos v4 #e1 viii4 #ad1 we should infer that it was at any rate largely frequented by ,israelites4 #deg #a ,kings xvi4 #cd2 #b ,kings ii4 #d4 #deh ,see ,stanley1 ,lectures on the ,jewish ,church1 ii4 #bfi-ga4 #dei ,amos v4 #aa1 vi4 #d-f4 #dfj #b ,kings iv4 #ah1 #bb1 viii4 #a-f2 ,stanley1 ii4 #bga4 #dfa ,see ,ewald1 iv4 #i 7,e4 ,t474 #dfb #b ,chron4 xx4 #cg4 #dfc ,zech4 xi4 #d-ag1 xiii4 #g-i4 #dfd ,if we may regard ,kobolam as a real person 7#b ,kings xv4 #aj1 ,,lxx474 ,thus1 in the ,northern ,kingdom twenty kings belong to nine different dynasties in two hundred and forty-five years2 and in the ,southern only nineteen kings of one dynasty rule for three hundred and forty-five years4 #dfe ,jeroboam lived for a time at ,penuel1 on the east of the ,jordan1 perhaps to escape all danger from ,shishak's invasion4 ,for ,penuel1 on the eastern side of the ,jabbok1 see ,gen4 xxxii4 #bb1 #cj2 ,judg4 viii4 #h1 #ag4 ,it was important as commanding the caravan route from ,damascus to ,shechem4 #dff ,zech4 x4 #d 7,r4,v41 exactors74 #dfg ,hist4 of ,isr41 iv4 #ab4 ,,chapter ,,xxvi4 ,,jeroboam ,,the ,,son ,,of ,,nebat1 ,,who ,,made ,,israel ,,to ,,sin4 #a ,,kings xii4 #ba-bc4 ,for from ,israel is even this2 the workman made it1 and it is no god3 yea1 the calf of ,samaria shall be broken in pieces4--,,hosea viii4 #f4 ,the condemnation of the first king of ,israel sounds like a melancholy and menacing refrain through the whole history of the ,northern ,kingdom4#dfh ,let us consider the extent and nature of his crime2 for though the condemnation is most true if we judge merely by the issue of ,jeroboam's acts1 a man's guilt cannot always be measured by the immensity of its unforeseen consequences1 nor can his actions and intentions be always fairly judged after the lapse of centuries4 ,the moral judgments recorded in the ,book of ,kings concerning legal and ritual offences are measured by the standard of men's consciences nearly a century after ,josiah's ,reformation in ,b4,c4 #fbc1 not by that which prevailed in ,b4,c4 #icg1 when ,jeroboam came to the throne4 ,it seems clear that1 even in the opinion of his contemporaries1 ,jeroboam was unfaithful to the duties of the call which he had received from ,god2 but it would be an error to suppose that his sin was1 in itself1 so heinous as those of which both ,solomon and ,rehoboam and other kings of ,judah were guilty4 ,calf-worship1 as it was contemptuously called in later days1 did not present itself as calf-worship to ,jeroboam or his people4 ,to them it was only the more definite adoration of ,jehovah under the guise of the cherubic emblem which ,solomon had himself enshrined in the ,temple and ,moses himself had sanctioned in the ,tabernacle4 ,there is not a word to show that they were cognisant of the book which had narrated the fierce reprobation by ,moses of ,aaron's golden calf in the wilderness4 ,jeroboam's chief sin was not that as a king he tolerated1 or even set up1 a sort of idolatry1 but that he induced the whole body of his subjects to share in his evil innovations4 ,the charge brought against him was threefold4 ,first1 he set up the golden calves at ,dan and ,bethel4 ,secondly1 he made priests from among all the people1 which were not of the sons of ,levi4 ,thirdly1 he established his harvest feast not on the fifteenth day of the seventh month1 which was the ,feast of ,tabernacles1 but on the fifteenth day of the eighth month4 ,in estimating these sins let us endeavour--for it is a sacred duty--to be just4 #a4 ,we read in the ,authorised ,version that he made priests of the lowest of the people1#dfi and this tends to increase the prejudice against him4 ,but to have done this wilfully would have been entirely against his own interests4 ,the more honourable his priests were1 the more was his new worship likely to succeed4 ,the ,hebrew only says that he made priests of all classes of the people1 or1 as the ,revised ,version renders it1 from among all the people4 ,no doubt this would appear to have been a heinous innovation1 judged from the practice of later ages2 it is not clear that it was equally so in the days of ,jeroboam4 ,if ,david1 unrebuked1 made his sons priests2 if ,ira the ,ithrite was a priest2 if ,solomon1 by his own fiat1 altered the succession of the priesthood2 if ,solomon 7no less than ,jeroboam7 arrogated to himself priestly functions on public occasions1 the opinion as to priestly rights may not have existed in the days of ,jeroboam1 or may only have existed in an infinitely weaker form than in the days of the post-exilic chronicler4 ,an incidental notice in another book shows us that in ,dan1 at any rate1 he did not disturb the ,levitic ministry4 ,there the descendants of ,jonathan1 the son of ,gershom1 the grandson of ,moses1#dgj continued their priestly functions from the day when that unworthy descendant of the mighty lawgiver was seduced to conduct a grossly irregular cult for a few shillings a year1 down to the day when the golden calf at ,dan was carried away by ,tiglath-,pileser1 ,king of ,assyria4 ,if the ,levites preferred to abide by the ministrations of ,jerusalem1 and migrated in large numbers to the south1 ,jeroboam may have held that necessity compelled him to appoint priests who were not of the ,house of ,levi4 ,neither for this1 nor for his new feast of ,tabernacles1 nor for the calf-worship1 were the kings of ,israel condemned 7so far as is recorded7 even by such mighty prophets as ,elijah and ,elisha4 ,in choosing ,dan and ,bethel as the seats for his new altars1 the king was not actuated by purely arbitrary considerations4 ,they were ancient and venerated shrines of pilgrimage and worship 7,judg4 xviii4 #cj1 xx4 #ah1 #bf2 #a ,sam4 x4 #c74 ,he did not create any sacredness which was not already attached to them in the popular imagination4#dga ,in point of fact he would have served the ends of a worldly policy much better if he had chosen ,shechem2 for ,dan and ,bethel were the two farthest parts of his kingdom4 ,dan was in constant danger from the ,syrians1 and ,bethel1 which is only twelve miles from ,jerusalem1 more than once fell into the hands of the kings of ,judah1 though they neither retained possession of it1 nor disturbed the shrines1 nor threw down the calf of the new worship4 ,jeroboam could not have created the calf-worship if he had not found everything prepared for its acceptance4 ,dan had been1 since the earliest days1 the seat of a chapelry and ephod served by the lineal descendants of ,moses in unbroken succession2 ,bethel was associated with some of the nation's holiest memories since the days of their forefather ,israel4 #b4 ,again1 if in ,jeroboam's day the ,priestly ,code was in existence1 he was clearly guilty of unjustifiable wilfulness in altering the time for observing the ,feast of ,tabernacles from the seventh to the eighth month4 ,but if there be little or no contemporary trace of any observation of the ,feast of ,tabernacles--if1 as ,nehemiah tells us1 it had not once been properly observed from the days of ,joshua to his own1 or if ,jeroboam was unaware of any sacred legislation on the subject--the writers of the tenth century may have judged too severely the fixing of a date for the ,feast of ,ingathering1 which may have seemed more suitable to the conditions of the northern and western tribes4 ,for in parts of that region the harvest ripens a month earlier than in ,judah1 and the festival was meant to be kept at the season of harvest4#dgb #c4 ,these1 however1 were but incidental and subordinate matters compared with the setting up of the golden calves4 ,jeroboam felt that if his people flocked to do sacrifice at the new and gorgeous ,temple in ,jerusalem they would return to their old monarchy and put him to death4 ,he wished to avoid the fate of ,ishbosheth4#dgc ,he believed that he should be doing both a popular and a politic act if he saved them from the burden of this long journey and again decentralised the cult which ,solomon had so recently centralised4 ,he determined1 therefore1 to furnish the ,ten ,tribes with high places1 and temples of high places1 and objects of worship which might rival the golden cherubim of ,zion1 and be honoured with festal music and royal pomp4 ,he never dreamed either of apostatising from ,jehovah1 or of establishing the worship of idols4 ,he broke the ,second ,commandment under pretence of helping the people to keep the first4 ,the images which he set up were not meant to be substitutes for the one ,god1 the ,god of their fathers1 the ,god who had brought them from the land of ,egypt2 they were regarded as figures of ,jehovah under the well understood and universally adopted emblem of a young bull1 the symbol of fertility and strength4#dgd ,some have fancied that he was influenced by his ,egyptian reminiscences1 and perhaps by ,ano1 his traditional ,egyptian bride4 ,that is an obvious error4 ,in ,egypt living bulls were worshipped under the names of ,apis and ,mnevis1 not idol-figures4 ,egyptian gods would have been strange reminders of ,him who delivered ,his people from ,egyptian tyranny4 ,it would have been insensate1 by quoting the very words of ,aaron1 to recall to the minds of the people the disasters which had followed the worship of the golden calf in the wilderness4#dge ,beyond all question1 ,jeroboam neither did nor would have dreamed of bidding his whole people to abandon their faith and worship ,egyptian idols1 which never found any favour among the ,israelites4 ,he only encouraged them to worship ,jehovah under the form of the cherubim4#dgf ,whatever may have been the aspect of the cherubim in the ,oracle of the ,temple1 cherubic emblems appeared profusely amid its ornamentation1 and the most conspicuous object in its courts was the molten sea1 supported on the backs of twelve bulls4 ,it is true that later prophets and poets1 like ,hosea and the ,psalmist1 spoke in scorn of his images as mere calves1 and spoke of him as likening his ,maker to an ox that eateth hay4#dgg ,they even came in due time to regard them as figures of ,baal and ,astarte1#dgh but this view is falsified by the entire annals of the ,northern ,kingdom from its commencement to its close4 ,jeroboam was1 and always regarded himself as1 a worshipper of ,jehovah4 ,he named his son and destined successor ,abijah 7,jehovah is my ,father74 ,rehoboam himself was a far worse offender than he was1 so far as the sanction of idolatry was concerned4 ,and yet he sinned1 and yet he made ,israel to sin4 ,it is true that he did not sin against the full extent of the light and knowledge vouchsafed to men in later days4 ,the sin of which he was guilty was the sin of worldly policy4 ,with professions of religion on his lips he pandered to the rude and sensuous instinct which makes materialism in worship so much more attractive to all weak minds than spirituality4 ,proclaiming as his motive the rights of the people1 he accelerated their religious degeneracy4 ,the means to strengthen or ruin the civil power1 says ,lowth1 is either to establish or destroy the right worship of ,god4 ,the way to destroy religion is to embase the dispenser of it4444 ,this is to give the royal stamp to a piece of lead4 ,if we may trust to ,jewish tradition1 there were some families in ,israel who1 though they clung to their old homes1 and would not migrate to the south1 yet refused to worship what is1 not quite justly1 called the heifer ,baal4#dgi ,the legendary ,tobit 7i4 #d-g7 boasts that when all the tribes of ,naphthali fell from the house of ,jerusalem and sacrificed to the heifer ,baal ,i alone went often to ,jerusalem at the feasts1 and1 in general1 observed the provisions of the ,levitic law4 ,there seems to have been but little religion in ,jeroboam's temperament4 ,in every other great national gathering at ,shechem and other sacred places we read of religious rites4#dhj ,no mention is made of them1 no allusion occurs respecting them1 in the assembly to which ,jeroboam owed his throne4 ,he might at least have consulted ,ahijah1 who had given him1 when he was still a subject1 the ,divine promise and sanction of royalty4 ,he might1 had he chosen1 have followed a higher and purer guidance than that of his own personal misgiving and his own arbitrary will4 ,the error which he committed was this--he trusted in policy1 not in the ,living ,god4 ,it was1 says ,dean ,stanley1 precisely the policy of ,abder-,rahman1 ,caliph of ,spain1 when he arrested the movement of his subjects to ,mecca1 by the erection of a ,holy ,place of the ,zeca at ,cordova1 and of ,abd-el-,malik when he built the ,dome of the ,rock at ,jerusalem1 because of his quarrel with the authorities at ,mecca4 ,he was not guilty of revolt1 for he acted under prophetic sanction2 nor of idolatry1 for he did not abandon the worship of ,jehovah2 but he broke the unity and tampered with the spiritual conception of the national worship4 ,from worshipping ,god under a gross material symbol1 the ,israelites gradually learnt to worship other gods altogether2 and the venerable sanctuaries of ,dan and ,bethel prepared the way for the temples of ,ashtaroth and ,bethel at ,samaria and ,jezreel4 ,the religion of the kingdom of ,israel at last sank lower than that of the kingdom of ,judah against which it had revolted4 ',the sin of ,jeroboam the son of ,nebat1 who made ,israel to sin1' is the sin again and again repeated in the policy1 half-worldly1 half-religious1 which has prevailed through large tracts of ecclesiastical history4 ,many are the forms of worship which1 with high pretensions1 have been nothing else but so many various and opposite ways of breaking the ,second ,commandment4 ,many a time has the end been held to justify the means1 and the ,divine character been degraded by the pretence1 or even the sincere intention1 of upholding ,his cause1 for the sake of secular aggrandisement2 for the sake of binding together good systems1 which it was feared would otherwise fall to pieces2 for the sake of supporting the faith of the multitude for fear they should otherwise fall away to rival sects1 or lest the enemy should come and take away their place and nation4 ,false arguments have been used in support of religious truths1 false miracles promulgated or tolerated1 false readings in the sacred text defended4444 ,and so the faith of mankind has been undermined by the very means intended to preserve it4 ,the whole subsequent history is a record of the mode by which1 with the best intentions1 ,church and nation may be corrupted4 ,this view of ,dean ,stanley is confirmed by another wise teacher1 ,professor ,f4 ,d4 ,maurice4 ,jeroboam1 he says1 did not trust the ,living ,god4 ,he thought1 not that his kingdom stood upon a ,divine foundation1 but that it was to be upheld by certain ,divine props and sanctions4 ,the two doctrines seem closely akin4 ,many regard them as identical4 ,in truth there is a whole heaven between them4 ,the king who believes that his kingdom has a ,divine foundation confesses his own subjection and responsibility to an actual living ruler4 ,the king who desires to surround himself with ,divine sanctions would fain make himself supreme1 knows that he cannot1 and would therefore seek help from the fear men have of an invisible power in which they have ceased to believe4 ,he wants a ,god as the support of his authority4 ,what ,god he cares very little4 ,and thus1 to quote once more1 the departure from spiritual principles out of political motives surely leads to destruction1 and is here portrayed for all times4#dha ,,footnotes3 #dfh ,it recurs twenty-three times3 #a ,kings xiv4 #af1 xv4 #bf1 #cj1 #cd1 xvi4 #b1 #ai1 #bf1 #ca1 xxi4 #bb1 xxii4 #eb2 #b ,kings iii4 #c1 x4 #bi1 #ca1 xiii4 #b1 #f1 xiv4 #bd1 xv4 #i1 #ah1 #bd1 #bh1 xvii4 #ba1 #bb1 xxiii1 #ae4 #dfi ,literally1 he filled the hand1 because the priests were consecrated by putting into their hands the parts of the sacrifice which were to be presented to ,god on the altar 7,exod4 xxviii4 #da1 xxix4 #i-ce2 ,lev4 viii4 #bg74 #dgj ,such is the true reading4 ,the ,manasseh of our existing text is a ,jewish falsification of the text timidly and tentatively introduced to protect the memory of ,moses 7see ,judg4 xviii4 #bf ff474 #dga ,for the sanctity of ,bethel1 ,house of ,god1 where ,god had twice appeared to ,jacob1 see ,gen4 xxviii4 #aa-ai1 xxxv4 #i-ae4 ,the ,ark had once rested there under ,phinehas 7,judg4 xx4 #bf-bh71 and it had been the home of ,samuel 7#a ,sam4 vii4 #af74 ,dan1 too1 was a holy city 7,judg4 xviii4 #cj1 #ca2 ,tobit i4 #e1 #f74 ,in #a ,kings xii4 #cj 7the people went to worship before the one1 even unto ,dan7 some words may have dropped out4 ,klostermann adds1 and neglected ,bethel2 but is that the fact8 ,the ,,lxx4 adds1 4 ,on the other hand1 the clause has been taken to imply the opposite--i4e41 that even as far as ,dan some were found who went in preference to ,bethel1 the king's chapel 7,amos vii4 #ac74 ,in #a ,kings xii4 #bh the fairer rendering would be1 ,these are thy ,god1 not gods4 #dgb ,lev4 xxiii4 #ci4 ,there is no hint about the other two annual feasts of ,passover and ,pentecost4 ,josephus implies that ,jeroboam's feast was in the seventh month1 as in ,judah 7,antt41 ,,viii4 viii4 #e74 #dgc #b ,sam4 iv4 #g4 #dgd ,conceivably there may have been a reference to the heraldic sign of ,ephraim 7,deut4 xxxiii4 #ag71 as ,klostermann supposes4 #dge ,exod4 xx4 #bc1 xxxii4 #d1 #h4 ,see ,professor ,paul ,cassel1 ,knig ,jeroboam1 p4 #f4 ,the identity of ,jeroboam's words with ,exod4 xxxii4 #d may be due to the narrator4 #dgf ,it has been considered probable that he found an additional sanction for these material symbols in an ancient existing image at ,gilgal1 to which there may be obscure allusion in the ,prophet ,hosea 7iv4 #ae1 ix4 #ae74 #dgg ,see #b ,chron4 xi4 #ae1 where the chronicler in his flaming hatred calls them devils 7i4e41 satyrs1 ,feldtufel1 ,isa4 xiii4 #ba2 comp4 ,hosea viii4 #e1 xiii4 #b74 ,they were probably two young bulls of brass overlaid with gold 7see ,psalm cvi4 #ai2 ,isa4 xl4 #ai74 #dgh ,tobit i4 #e4 #dgi 4 ,if this be the right reading1 not 1 the feminine implies special scorn1 either implying 7,bosheth71 or pointing1 as ,baudissin thinks1 to an androgynous deity4 ,grtz thinks that ,bethel may be the true reading4 #dhj ,josh4 xxiv4 #a2 #a ,sam4 x4 #ai2 #b ,sam4 v4 #a-c2 #a ,kings viii4 #a-e1 #fb4 #dha ,vilmar4 ,,chapter ,,xxvii4 ,,jeroboam1 ,,and ,,the ,,man ,,of ,,god4 #a ,,kings xiii4 #a-cd4 ,beloved1 believe not every spirit1 but try the spirits whether they are of ,god4--#a ,,john iv4 #a4 4--,,theodoret4 ,we are told that ,jeroboam1 whose position probably made him restless and insecure1 first built or fortified ,shechem1 and then went across the ,jordan and established another palace and stronghold at ,penuel4 ,after this he shifted his residence once more to the beautiful town of ,tirzah1#dhb where he built for himself the palace which ,zimri afterwards burnt over his own head4 ,although the prophet ,shemaiah forbade ,rehoboam's attempt to crush him in a great war1 ,jeroboam remained at war with him and ,abijah all his life1 till his reign of two-and-twenty troubled years ended apparently by a sudden death--for the chronicler says that the ,lord struck him1 and he died4 ,nearly all that we know of ,jeroboam apart from these incidental notices is made up of two stories1 both of which are believed by critics to date from a long subsequent age1 but which the compiler of the ,book of ,kings introduced into his narrative from their intrinsic force and religious instructiveness4 ,the first of these stores tells us of the only spontaneous prophetic protest against his proceedings of which we read4 ,so ancient is this curious narrative that tradition had entirely forgotten the names of the two prophets concerned in it4 ,it probably assumed shape from the dim local reminiscences evoked in the days of ,josiah's reformation1 when the grave of a forgotten prophet of ,judah was discovered among the tombs at ,bethel1 three hundred and twenty years after the events described4 ,a nameless man of ,god--,josephus calls him ,jadon1 and some have identified him with ,iddo#dhc--;came out of ,judah to atone for the silence of ,israel1 and to protest in ,god's name against the new worship4 ,his protest1 however1 is against the altar4 ,he does not say a word about the golden calves4 ,jeroboam1 perhaps1 at his dedication festival of the king's shrine at ,bethel1 was standing on the altar-slope1#dhd as ,solomon had done in the ,temple1 to burn incense4 ,suddenly the man of ,god appeared1 and threatened to the altar the destruction and desecration which subsequently fell upon it4 ,we cannot be sure that some of the details are not later additions supplied from subsequent events4 ,josephus rationalises the story very absurdly in the style of ,paulus4 ,the sign of the destruction or rending of the altar1 and the outpouring of the ashes1#dhe may have been first fulfilled in that memorable earthquake which became a date in ,israel4#dhf ,the desecration which it received at the hands of ,josiah reminded men of the threat of the unknown messenger4#dhg ,then we are told that ,jeroboam raised his hand in anger1 with the order to secure the bold offender1 but that his arm at once dried up1 and was only restored by the man of ,god#dhh at the king's entreaty4 ,the king invites the prophet to go home and refresh himself and receive a reward2 but he replies that not half ,jeroboam's house could tempt him to break the command which he had received to eat no bread neither drink water at ,bethel4 ,an old ,israelite prophet was living at ,bethel1 and his son told him what had occurred4 ,struck with admiration by the faithfulness of the southern man of ,god1 he rode after him to bring him to his house4 ,he found him seated under the terebinth--evidently some aged and famous tree4 ,when he refused the renewed invitation1 the old man lyingly said to him that he too was a man of ,god1 and had been bidden by an angel to bring him back4 ,deceived1 perhaps too easily deceived1 the man of ,god from ,judah went back4 ,it would have been well for him if he had believed that even an angel of ,god1 or what may seem to wear such a semblance1 may preach a false message1 and may deserve nothing but an anathema4#dhi ,with terrible swiftness the delusion was dispelled4 ,while he was eating in ,bethel1 the old prophet1 overcome by an impulse of inspiration1 told him that for his disobedience he should perish and lie in a strange grave4 ,accordingly he had not gone far from ,bethel when a lion met and killed him1 not1 however1 mangling or devouring him1 but standing still with the ass beside the carcase4#dij ,on hearing this the old prophet of ,bethel went and brought back the corpse4 ,he mourned over his victim with the cry1 ,alas1 my brother1#dia and bade his sons that when he died they should bury him in the same sepulchre with the man of ,god1 for all that he had prophesied should come to pass4 ,josephus adds many idle touches to this story4 ,if in a tale which assumed its present form so long after the events imaginative details were introduced1 the incident of the lion subserves the moral aim of the narrative 7#b ,kings xvii4 #be2 ,jer4 xxv4 #cj1 xlix4 #ai2 ,wisdom xi4 #ae-ag1 etc474 ,the significance of the story for us is happily neither historic nor evidential1 but it is profoundly moral4 ,it is the lesson not to linger in the neighbourhood of temptation1 nor to be dilatory in the completion of duty4#dib ,it is the lesson to be ever on our guard against the tendency to assume inspired sanction for the conduct and opinions which coincide with our own secret wishes4 ,satan finds it easy to secure our credence when he answers us according to our idols1 and can quote ,scripture for our purpose as well as his own2 and ,god sometimes punishes men by granting them their own desires1 and sending leanness withal into their bones4 ,the man of ,god from ,judah had received a distinct injunction from which the invitation of a king had been insufficient to shake him4 ,if the old prophet wilfully lied1 his victim was willingly seduced4 ,we may think his sin venial1 his punishment excessive4 ,it will not seem so unless we unduly extenuate his sin and unduly exaggerate the nature of his penalty4 ,his sin consisted in his ready acceptance of a sham inspiration which came to him from a tainted source1 and which he ought to have suspected because it conceded what he desired4 ,god's indisputable intimations to our individual souls are not to be set aside except by intimations no less indisputable4 ,there had been an obvious reason for the command which ,god had given4 ,the reason still existed2 the prohibition had not been withdrawn4 ,the sham revelation furnished him with an excuse2 it did not give him a justification4 ,doubtless ,jadon's first thought was that ,he lied in every word1 ,that hoary prophet1 with malicious eye1 ,askance to watch the working of his lie4 ,why did he yield so readily8 ,it was for the same reason which causes so many to sin4 ,the tempting opportunity did but meet1 as sooner or later it always will meet1 the susceptible disposition4 ,yet his punishment does not justify us in branding him as a weak or a vicious man4 ,we must judge him and all men1 at his best1 not at his worst2 in his hours of faithfulness and splendid courage1 not in his moment of unworthy acquiescence4 ,and his speedy punishment was his best blessing4 ,who knows what might not have happened to him if the speck of conventionality and corruption had been allowed to spread8 ,who can tell whether in due time he might not have sunk into something no better than his miserable tempter8 ,rather than that we should be in any respect false to our loftiest ideals1 or less noble than our better selves1 let the lion meet us1 let the tower of ,siloam fall on us1 let our blood be mingled with our sacrifices4 ,better physical death than spiritual degeneracy4 ,,footnotes3 #dhb ,now ,talura1 six miles north of ,nablus4 #dhc ,so1 too1 ,jarchi4 ,no doubt they were guided by the remark in #b ,chron4 ix4 #bi1 the visions of ,iddo the seer against ,jeroboam4 ,but it is not possible1 for ,iddo lived to a later date 7#b ,chron4 xiii4 #bb74 ,ephrem ,syrus and ,tertullian suppose him to have been ,shemaiah 7comp4 #b ,chron4 xii4 #e74 ,these are untenable guesses4 ,epiphanius calls him ,joas2 ,clement1 ,abd-adonai2 ,tertullian1 ,sameas4 #dhd ,not by the altar1 as in ,a4,v4 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 super altare4 #dhe ,the ashes of the animal offerings 77 used to be carried away to a clean place 7,lev4 vi4 #aa74 #dhf ,amos ix4 #a4 ,the ,vatican ,,lxx4 distinctly makes the sign a future one 7#a ,kings xiii4 #c71 4 ,the narrative seems to suppose1 but it does not assert that the altar was rent then and there4 ,had these miracles immediately followed1 it is difficult to imagine that no deeper impression should have been made4 ,as it was the new cult does not seem to have been interrupted for a single day4 #dhg ,the mention by name of a king three centuries before he was even born is wholly alien from every characteristic of ,jewish prophecy1 and1 as in the case of ,cyrus 7,isa4 xliv4 #bh71 it would be false to say that we have even a particle of evidence to show that the name was not added from a marginal gloss or by the latest redactor4 ,he also makes the mistake of putting into the old prophet's mouth the phrase all the cities of ,samaria at least fifty years before ,samaria existed 7#a ,kings xvi4 #bd74 ,keil's remark that ,josiah is only used appellatively for one whom ,jehovah will support 767 is one of the miserable expedients of reckless harmonists4 ,even ,bhr1 ad loc41 admits that the narrative is of later date1 and has received a traditional colouring4 ,in #b ,kings xxiii4 #ae-ah there is no hint that ,josiah had been prophesied of by name4 #dhh #a ,kings xiii4 #f1 ,intreat now 7lit41 make soft7 the face of the ,lord4 ,klostermann1 ,besnftige noch das ,angesicht ,jahve's4 #dhi ,gal4 i4 #h4 #dij ,klostermann1 in his ,kurzgefasster ,kommentar1 gets rid of the lion altogether by one of his sweeping emendations of the text1 p4 #ceb4 ,he considers that the whole story comes from a book of edifying anecdotes for the use of young prophets in the schools2 and that it may have some connexion with the threat of another ,jewish prophet against the altar at ,bethel in the days of another ,jeroboam 7,amos iii4 #ad1 vii4 #i74 #dia ,comp4 ,jer4 xxii4 #ah4 #dib ,the older expositors at any rate see in the prophet's rest under the terebinth1 so near ,bethel1 peccati initium2 moras utique nectere non debuit4 ,it was like ,eve's lingering near the place where temptation lay4 ,,chapter ,,xxviii4 ,,doom ,,of ,,the ,,house ,,of ,,nebat4 #a ,,kings xiv4 #a-bj4dic ,whom the gods love die young4 2 4--,,epictet4 ,the other story about ,jeroboam is full of pathos2 and though here1 too1 there are obvious signs that1 in its present form1 it could hardly have come from a contemporary source1 it doubtless records an historic tradition4 ,it is missing in the ,septuagint1 though in some copies the blank is supplied from ,aquila's version4 ,jeroboam was living with his queen at ,tirzah when1 as a judgment on him for his neglect of the ,divine warning1 his eldest and much loved son1 ,abijah1 fell sick4 ,torn with anxiety the king asked his wife to disguise herself that she might not be recognised on her journey1 and to go to ,shiloh1 where ,ahijah the prophet lived1#did to inquire about the dear youth's fate4 ,take with you1 he said1 as a present to the prophet ten loaves1 and some little cakes for the prophet's children1#die and a cruse of honey4 ,jeroboam remembered that ,ahijah's former prophecy had been fulfilled1 and believed that he would again be able to reveal the future1 and say whether the heir to the throne would recover4 ,the queen obeyed2 and if she were indeed the ,egyptian princess ,ano1 it must have been for her a strange experience4 ,through the winding valley1 she reached the home of the aged prophet unrecognised4 ,but he had received a ,divine intimation of her errand2 and though his eyes were now blind with the gutta serena1#dif he at once addressed her by name when he heard the sound of her approaching footsteps4 ,the message which he was bidden to pronounce was utterly terrible2 it was unrelieved by a single gleam of mitigation or a single expression of pity4 ,it reproached and denounced ,jeroboam for faithless ingratitude in that he had cast ,god behind his back2#dig it threatened hopeless and shameful extermination to all his house4#dih ,his dynasty should be swept away like dung4 ,the corpses of his children should be left unburied and be devoured by vultures and wild dogs4#dii ,the moment the feet of the queen reached her house the youth should die1 and this bereavement1 heavy as it was1 should be the sole act of mercy in the tragedy1 for it should take away ,abijah from the dreadful days to come1 because in him alone of the ,house of ,jeroboam had ,god seen something good4 ,the avenger should be a new king1 and all this should come to pass even now4#ejj ,this speech of the prophet is given in a rhythmical form1 and has probably been mingled with later touches4 ,it falls into two strophes 7#g-aa1 #ab-af7 of #c #b and #b #c verses4#eja ,the expressions thou hast done above all that were before thee1 for thou hast gone and made thee other gods 7verse #i7 hardly suits the case of ,jeroboam2 and the omission by the ,,lxx4 of the prophecy of ,israel's ultimate captivity1 together with the treatment of the prophecy by ,josephus1 throw some doubt on verses #i1 #ae1 and #af4ejb ,they seem to charge ,jeroboam with sanctioning ,asherim1 or wooden images of the ,nature-goddess ,asherah1 of which we read in the history of ,judah1 but which are never mentioned in the acts of ,jeroboam1 and do not accord with his avowed policy4 ,these may possibly be due to the forms which the tradition assumed in later days4 ,the awful prophecy was fulfilled4 ,as the hapless mother set foot on the threshold of her palace at beautiful ,tirzah the young prince died1 and she heard the wail of the mourners for him4#ejc ,he alone was buried in the grave of his fathers1 and ,israel mourned for him4 ,he was evidently a prince of much hope and promise1 and the deaths of such princes have always peculiarly affected the sympathy of nations4 ,we know in ,roman history the sigh which arose at the early death of ,marcellus3-- ,ostendent terris hunc tantum fata neque ultra ,esse sinent4 ,nimium vobis1 ,romana propago1 ,visa potens1 superi1 propria hc si dona fuissent1 ,heu miserande puer1 si qua fata aspera rumpas ,tu ,marcellus eris4#ejd ,we know the remark of ,tacitus as he contemplates the deaths of ,germanicus1 ,caius1 and ,drusus1 ,piso ,licinianus1 ,britannicus1 and ,titus1 breves atque infaustos ,populi ,romani amores4 ,we know how1 when ,prince ,william was drowned in the ,white ,ship1 ,henry of ,england never smiled again2 and how the nation mourned the deaths of ,prince ,alfonso1 of the ,black ,prince1 of ,prince ,arthur1 of ,prince ,henry1 of the ,princess ,charlotte1 of the ,duke of ,clarence and ,avondale4 ,but these untimely deaths of youths in their early bloom1 before their day1 ,impositique rogis juvenes ante ora parentum1 are not half so deplorable as the case of those who have grown up like ,nero to blight every hope which has been formed of them4 ,when ,louis le ,bien-,aim lay ill of the fever at ,metz which seemed likely to be fatal1 all ,france wept and prayed for him4 ,he recovered1 and grew up to be that portent of selfish boredom and callous sensuality1 ,louis ,,xv4 ,it was better that ,abijah should die than that he should live to be overwhelmed in the shameful ruin which soon overtook his house4 ,it was better far that he should die than that he should grow up to frustrate the promise of his youth4 ,he was beckoned by the hand of ,god because in him was found some good thing towards the ,lord ,god of ,israel4 ,we are not told wherein the goodness consisted1 but ,rabbinic tradition guessed that in opposition to his father he discountenanced the calf-worship and encouraged and helped the people to continue their visits to ,jerusalem4 ,such a king might indeed have recovered the whole kingdom1 and have dispossessed ,david's degenerate line4 ,but it was not to be4 ,the fiat against ,israel had gone forth1 though a long space was to intervene before it was fulfilled4 ,and ,god's fiats are irrevocable1 because with ,him there is no changeableness neither shadow of turning4 ,the moving finger writes1 and1 having writ1 ,moves on2 nor all thy piety nor wit ,shall lure it back to cancel half a line1 ,nor all thy tears wash out a word of it4 ,but the passage about ,abijah has a unique preciousness1 because it stands alone in ,scripture as an expression of the truth that early death is no sign at all of the ,divine anger1 and that the length or brevity of life are matters of little significance to ,god1 seeing that1 at the best1 the longest life is but as one tick of the clock in the eternal silence4 ,the promise to filial obedience1 that thy days may be long1 in the ,fifth ,commandment is primarily national2 and although undoubtedly length of days then1 as now1 was regarded as a blessing1#eje yet the blessing is purely relative1 and wholly incommensurate with others which affect the character and the life to come4 ,this passage may be the consolation of many thousands of hearts that ache for some dear lost child4 ,is it well with the child8 ,it is well6 ,the story of ,cleobis and ,biton shows how fully the wisest of the ancients had recognised the truth that early death may be a boon of ,god to save ,his children from being snared in the evil days4 ,honourable age1 says the ,book of ,wisdom1 is not that which standeth in length of time1 nor that is measured by number of years4 ,but wisdom is the grey hair unto men1 and an unspotted life is old age4 ,he pleased ,god1 and was beloved of ,him3 so that living among sinners he was translated4 ,yea1 speedily was he taken away1 lest that wickedness should alter his understanding1 or deceit beguile his soul4444 ,he1 being made perfect in a short time1 fulfilled a long time3 for his soul pleased the ,lord3 therefore ,he hastens to take him away from among the wicked4#ejf ,it is the truth so beautifully expressed by ,seneca3 ,vita non quam diu sed quam bene acta refert2 by ,st4 ,ambrose3 ,perfecta est tas1 ubi perfecta est virtus2 by ,shakspeare3-- ,the good die early1 ,and they whose hearts are dry as summer dust ,burn to the socket2 and by ,ben ,jonson3-- ,it is not growing like a tree ,in bulk1 doth make man better be3 ,or standing long an oak1 three hundred year1 ,to fall1 a log at last1 dry1 bald1 and sere3 ,a lily of a day ,is fairer far in ,may1 ,although it fall and die that night-- ,it was the plant and flower of ,light4 ,in small proportions we just beauties see1 ,and in short measures life may perfect be4 ,it is recorded also on the tomb of a gallant youth1 in ,westminster ,abbey1 ,francis ,holles1 who died at eighteen years of age after noble deeds3-- ,man's life is measured by the work1 not days2 ,not aged sloth1 but active youth1 hath praise4 ,,footnotes3 #dic ',whom the gods love die young' was said of yore 7,byron74 ,it was said by ,menander3 2 and by ,plautus3 ,quem dii diligunt1 adolescens moritur 7,bacch41 iv4 #g1 #ah74 ,a similar thought is found in ,plutarch1 in ,st4 ,chrysostom1 and many others4 #did ,ahijah had not followed the example of the ,levites and pious persons who1 the chronicler says1 went in numbers to the ,southern ,kingdom4 #die ,nikuddim 7only elsewhere in ,josh4 ix4 #e-ab72 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 crustula2 ,a4,v41 cracknels4 ,they were some sort of cakes4 ,presents to prophets were customary 7see #a ,sam4 ix4 #g1 #h2 #a ,kings xiii4 #g2 #b ,kings v4 #e1 viii4 #h1 #i74 #dif ,heb41 ,his eyes stood 7comp4 #a ,sam4 iv4 #ae74 ,it seems to imply amaurosis4 #dig ,this tremendous expression only occurs elsewhere in ,ezek4 xxiii4 #ce2 but comp4 ,psalm l4 #ag2 ,neh4 ix4 #bf4 #dih ,the coarse expression of #a ,kings xiv4 #aj 7#a ,sam4 xxv4 #bb2 #b ,kings ix4 #h7 means every male4 ,the phrase him that is shut up and him that is left in ,israel 7,deut4 xxxii4 #cf7 is obscure and alliterative4 ,it has been variously explained to mean1 7#a7 bond and free1 7#b7 imprisoned or released1 7#c7 kept in by legal impurity or at large 7,jer4 xxxvi4 #e71 7#d7 under or over age1 7#e7 married or unmarried4 7,reuss renders the paronomasia1 qu'il soit cach ou lch en ,israel47 ,,lxx4 2 ,vulg4 clausum et novissimum4 #dii ,in ancient days this was regarded as the most terrible of calamities4 ' 1 4 ,hom41 ,od41 iii4 #beh4 ,comp4 ,deut4 xxviii4 #bf2 #a ,sam4 xvii4 #dd1 #de4 ,and after in ,jeremiah 7vii4 #cc1 viii4 #b1 ix4 #bb1 etc47 and ,ezekiel 7xxix4 #e1 xxxix4 #ag1 etc474 #ejj #a ,kings xiv4 #ad3 ,that day3 but what8 even now4 #eja ,it is almost identical with the message of doom pronounced on other kings1 like ,baasha 7#a ,kings xvi4 #c-e7 and ,ahab 7#a ,kings xxi4 #ai-bc74 #ejb ,ewald pronounces them to be clearly an addition of the ,deuteronomist4 #ejc ,,lxx41 4 ,the additions to the ,,lxx4 have the touching incident1 1 4 #ejd ,verg41 n41 vi4 #hgj4 #eje ,see ,job xii4 #ab2 ,psalm xxi4 #d2 ,prov4 iii4 #b-af4 #ejf ,wisdom iv4 #h-ad4 ,,chapter ,,xxix4 ,,nadab2 ,,baasha2 ,,elah4 #a ,,kings xv4 #be-xvi4 #aj4 ,wheresoever the carcase is1 there will the vultures be gathered together4--,,matt4 xxiv4 #bh4 ,jeroboam slept with his fathers and went to his own place1 leaving behind him his dreadful epitaph upon the sacred page4 ,his son ,nadab succeeded him4 ,in his reign of twenty-two years the first king of ,israel had outlived ,rehoboam and his son ,abijah4 ,asa1 the great grandson of ,solomon1 was already on the throne of ,judah4 ,of ,nadab we are told next to nothing4 ,the appreciation of the kings of ,israel tends to drift into the meagre formula that they did that which was evil in the sight of the ,lord1 and walked in the way of ,jeroboam1 the son of ,nebat1 and in his sin wherewith he caused ,israel to sin4 ,in the second year of his reign ,nadab was engaged in a wearisome military expedition against ,gibbethon in the ,shephelah1 which belonged to the ,philistines4 ,it was a ,levitical city in the tribe of ,dan1 which had been assigned to the ,kohathites1 and its siege continued for twenty-seven years with no apparent result4#ejg ,that the ,philistines1 who had been so utterly crushed by ,david and who were an insignificant power1 should have thus been able to assert themselves once more1 is a proof of the weakness to which ,israel had been reduced4 ,while ,nadab was thus occupied1 an obscure conspirator1 ,baasha1 son of ,ahijah1 of the tribe of ,issachar1#ejh actuated perhaps by tribal jealousy1 or stirred up as ,jeroboam had been before him and as ,jehu was after him by some prophetic message1 conspired against him1 and slew him4#eji ,as soon as this military revolt had placed ,baasha on the throne he fulfilled the frightful curse which ,ahijah had uttered against the ,house of ,jeroboam4 ,he absolutely exterminated the family of ,nebat1 and left him neither kinsman nor friend to avenge his death4 ,he seems to have been a powerful soldier1 and he inflicted severe humiliation on the ,southern ,kingdom until ,asa bribed ,benhadad to invade his territory4 ,he reigned at ,tirzah for twenty-four years1 of which nothing is recorded but the ordinary formula4 ,towards the close of his reign he received from the prophet ,jehu1 the son of ,hanani1 the message of his doom4 ,jehu must have been at this time a young prophet4 ,according to the ,chronicles his father ,hanani rebuked ,asa for the alliance which 7as we shall see7 he made with the ,syrian against ,baasha2#eaj and he himself rebuked ,jehoshaphat for his alliance with ,ahab1 and lived to be his annalist4#eaa ,like ,amos1 he lived in ,judah1 but prophesied also against a king of ,israel4 ,he told ,baasha that ,god1 who had exalted him out of the dust to be king of ,israel1 should inflict on his family the same terrible extirpation which ,he had inflicted on the ,house of ,jeroboam1 whose sins he had1 nevertheless1 followed4 ,baasha slept with his fathers1 and his son ,elah succeeded him4 ,elah seems to have been an incapable drunkard1 and reigned in ,tirzah for less than two years4 ,while he was drinking himself drunk1 not even secretly in his own palace1 but in the house of his chamberlain ,arza--a shamelessness which was regarded as an aggravation of his offence#eab--;he was murdered by ,zimri1 the captain of half of his chariots1 and the revolting tragedy of massacre was enacted once again4#eac ,the fact that ,baasha was a man of no distinction1 but exalted out of the dust 7#a ,kings xvi4 #b71 probably added to the weakness of his dynasty4 ,from such meagre records of horror there is not much to learn beyond the general truth of the ,nemesis which dogs the heels of crime2 but there is one significant clause which throws great light on the judgment which we are asked to form of these events4 ,the prophet ,jehu rebukes ,baasha for showing himself false to the destiny to which ,god had summoned him4 ,he implies1 therefore1 that ,baasha had some ,divine sanction for the revolution which he headed2 and certainly in his slaughter of the ,house of ,jeroboam he was the instrument of a ,divine decree4 ,yet we are expressly told that he provoked the ,lord to anger with the work of his hands1 in being like the ,house of ,jeroboam1 and because he killed him1 or1 as it is rendered in the ,revised ,version margin1 because he smote it4 ,this is not the only place where we find that a man may be in one sense commissioned to do a deed of blood1 yet in another sense may be held guilty for fulfilment of the commission4#ead ,the prophecy of extirpation had been passed1 but the cruel agent of its accomplishment was not thereby condoned4 ,god's decrees are carried out as part of the vast scheme of ,providence1 and ,he may use guilty hands to fulfil ,his purposes4 ,king ,jehu is ,his minister of vengeance1 but the tiger-like ferocity with which he carried out his work awoke ,god's anger and received ,god's punishment4 ,the ,king of ,babylon fulfils the purpose for which he had been appointed1 but his ruthlessness receives its just recompense4 ,the wrath of man may accomplish the decrees of ,god1 but it worketh not ,his righteousness4 ,herod and ,pontius ,pilate1 ,jews and ,gentiles1 priests and ,pharisees1 rulers and the mob may rage against ,christ1 but all they can accomplish is whatsoever ,god's hand and ,god's counsel determine before to be done4 ,,footnotes3 #ejg ,josh4 xix4 #dd1 xxi4 #bc2 #a ,kings xv4 #bg1 xvi4 #ae4 #ejh ,his father therefore could not have been ,ahijah the prophet1 who was an ,ephraimite4 ,he was the only ruler who came from slothful ,issachar 7,gen4 xlix4 #ad1 #ae7 except the unknown ,tola 7,judg4 x4 #a74 #eji ,for any other records of ,nadab the writer refers to the ,chronicles of the ,kings of ,israel4 #eaj #b ,chron4 xvi4 #g-aj4 #eaa #b ,chron4 xx4 #cd4 #eab ,comp4 ,hosea vii4 #c-g4 #eac ,if ,zimri was a descendant of the ,house of ,saul1 as is possible from the occurrence of the name in the number of ,saul's descendants 7#a ,chron4 viii4 #cf71 we perhaps see an excuse for his ill-considered conspiracy4 ,he acted1 says ,grotius1 upon the principle1 4 #ead ,comp4 #b ,kings ix4 #g with ,hosea i4 #d4 ,thus ,babylon is at once commissioned to punish1 and condemned for ruthlessness3 ,isa4 xlvii4 #f4 ,,chapter ,,xxx4 ,,the ,,earlier ,,kings ,,of ,,judah4 #a ,,kings xiv4 #ba-ca1 xv4 #a-bd4 ,the history of the ,jews begins1 properly speaking1 from the reign of ,rehoboam1 and for four centuries it is mainly the history of the ,davidic dynasty4 ,the only records of the son of ,solomon are meagre records of disaster and disgrace4 ,he reigned seventeen years1 and his mother1 the ,ammonitess ,naamah1 occupied the position of queen-mother4#eae ,she was1 doubtless1 a worshipper in the shrine which ,solomon had built for her national god1 ,molech of ,ammon1 who was the same as the ,ashtar-,chemosh of the ,moabite stone--the male form of ,ashtoreth4#eaf ,whether her son was twenty-one or forty-one when he succeeded to the throne we do not know4#eag ,his attempted expedition against ,jeroboam was forbidden by ,shemaiah2#eah but ineffectual and distressing war smouldered on between the ,northern and ,southern ,kingdoms4 ,if ,jeroboam sinned by the erection in the old sanctuaries of the two golden calves1 ,rehoboam surely sinned far more heinously4 ,he not only sanctioned the high places--which in him may have been very venial1 since they held their own unchallenged till the days of ,hezekiah--but he allowed stone obelisks 7,matstseboth7 in honour of ,baal1 and pillars 7,chammanim7 of the ,nature-goddess 7,asherah7 to be set up on every high hill and under every green tree4#eai ,worse than this1 and a proof of the abyss of corruption into which the evil example of ,solomon had beguiled the nation1 there were found in the land the ,kedeshim1 the infamous eunuch-ministers of a most foul worship4#ebj ,in spite of ,temple and priesthood1 they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the ,lord drave out before the children of ,israel4#eba ,since ,rehoboam thus sinned so much more heinously than his northern compeer we can hardly admire the conduct of the ,levites1 who1 according to the chronicler1 fled southward in swarms from the innovations of the son of ,nebat4 ,the ,scylla of calf-worship was incomparably less shameful than the ,charybdis of these heathen abominations4 ,such atrocities could not be left unpunished4 ,where the carcase is the eagles will gather4 ,in the fifth year of ,rehoboam1 ,shishak1 ,king of ,egypt1#ebb put an end to the shortlived glories of the age of ,solomon4 ,of his reason for invading ,palestine we know nothing4 ,it was probably mere ambition and the love of plunder1 stimulated by stories which ,jeroboam may have brought to him about the inexhaustible riches of ,jerusalem4 ,he is the first ,pharaoh whose individuality was so marked as to transcend and replace the common dynastic name4#ebc ,he was astute enough to seize the opportunity of self-aggrandisement which offered itself when ,jeroboam took refuge at his court2 but the conjecture that former friendly relations induced ,jeroboam to invite the services of ,shishak for the destruction of his rival1 is rendered impossible if ,egyptologists have correctly deciphered the splendid memorial of his achievements which he twice carved on the great ,temple of ,amon at ,karnak4 ,there the most conspicuous figure is the colossal likeness of the king4 ,his right hand holds a sword2#ebd his left grasps by the hair a long line which passes round the necks of a troop of thirty-eight mean and diminutive ,jewish captives4 ,the smaller figure of the god ,amon leads other strings of one hundred and thirty-three captives1 and the third king from his left hand bears a name which ,champollion deciphered ,yudeh-,malk1 which he took to mean ,king of ,judah4#ebe ,if the interpretation were correct1 we should here have a picture of the son of ,solomon4 ,on the other figures are the names of the cities of which they were kings or sheykhs4 ,among these are not only the names of southern towns1 like ,ibleam1 ,gibeon1 ,bethhoron1 ,ajalon1 ,mahanaim1 but even of ,canaanite and ,levitic cities in the ,northern ,kingdom1 including ,taanach and ,megiddo4#ebf ,shashonq 7as the monuments call him7 came with a huge and motley army of many nationalities1 among whom were ,libyans1 ,troglodytes1 and ,ethiopians4 ,this host was composed of twelve hundred chariots1 sixty thousand horsemen1 and a numberless infantry of mercenaries4 ,such an invasion1 though it was little more than an insulting military parade and predatory incursion1 rendered resistance impossible1 especially to a people enervated by luxury4 ,shishak came1 saw1--and plundered4 ,his chief spoil was taken from the poor dishonoured ,temple and the king's palace4#ebg ,judah specially grieved for the loss of the shields of gold which hung on the cedar pillars of the house of the forest of ,lebanon1#ebh--;apparently both those which ,solomon had made1 and those which ,david had consecrated from the spoils of ,hadadezer1 ,king of ,zobah4#ebi ,perhaps a great soul would hardly have been consoled by putting mean substitutes in their place4 ,rehoboam1 however1 made bronze imitations of them in the guard-room1#ecj and marched in pomp to the ,temple preceded by his meanly armed runners1#eca as though everything was the same as before4 ,the bitter irony with which the sacred historian records the parade of these counterfeits1 says ,stanley1 may be considered as the keynote to this whole period4 ,they well represent the 'brazen shields' by which fallen churches and kingdoms have endeavoured to conceal from their own and their neighbours' eyes that the golden shields of ,solomon have passed away from them4#ecb ,the age of pinchbeck follows the age of gold1 and a ,louis ,,xv4 succeeds ,le ,grand ,monarque4#ecc ,rehoboam had many sons1 and he wisely 7#b ,chron4 xi4 #bc7 gave them1 by way of maintenance1 the governorship of his fenced cities4 ,that he sought for them a multitude of wives was perhaps a stroke of worldly policy1 but an unwise and unworthy one4 ,but their little courts and their little harems may have helped to keep them out of mischief4 ,they might otherwise have destroyed each other by mutual jealousies4 ,rehoboam was succeeded by his son ,abijam4 ,there is a little doubt as to the exact name of this king4 ,the ,book of ,chronicles calls him ,abijah1#ecd but in #a ,kings xv4 #a1 #g1 #h1 he is called ,abijam4#ece ,as the curious form ,abijam seems to be unmeaning1 it has been precariously conjectured that dislike to his idolatries led the ,jews to alter a name which means ,jehovah is my ,father4#ecf ,some doubt also rests on the name of his mother4 ,she is here called ,maacha1 the daughter of ,abishalom1 but in ,chronicles ,michaiah1 the daughter of ,uriel of ,gibeah4 ,maachah was perhaps the granddaughter of ,absalom1 whose beautiful daughter ,tamar 7named after his dishonoured sister7 may have been the wife of ,uriel4 ,in that case her name1 ,maachah1 was a name given her in reminiscence of her royal descent as a great-granddaughter of the princess of ,geshur1 who was mother of ,absalom4 ,all sorts of secrets1 however1 sometimes lie behind these changes of names4 ,she was the second1 but favourite wife of ,rehoboam2 and ,abijam1 who was not the eldest son1 owed his throne to his father's preference for her4#ecg ,all that we are here told of ,abijam is that his heart was not perfect with ,jehovah his ,god1 and that he walked in all the sins of his father2 though for ,david's sake his ,god gave him a lamp in ,jerusalem2#ech and that1 after a brief reign of three years--i4e41 of one year and parts of two others--he slept with his fathers4 ,for the rest of his acts and all that he did1 the historian refers us to the ,chronicles of the ,kings of ,judah3 he does not trouble himself with military details4 ,the chronicler1 referring to the ,commentary of ,iddo1#eci adds a great deal more4 ,jeroboam1 he says1 went out against him with eight hundred thousand men4 ,abijam1 who had only half the number1 stood on ,mount ,zemaraim in the hill country of ,ephraim1#edj and made a speech to ,jeroboam and his army4 ,he reproached him with rebellion against his father when he was young and tender-hearted1 and with his golden calves1 and his non-,levitical priests4 ,he vaunted the superiority of the ,temple priests with their holocausts and sweet incense and shewbread and golden candlestick1 which priests were now with the army4 ,jeroboam sets an ambuscade1 but at the shout of the men of ,judah is routed with a loss of five hundred thousand men1 after which ,abijah recovers ,bethel with the towns thereof1#eda and ,jeshanah and ,ephron 7or ,ephraim71 completely humbling the northern king until the ,lord smote him and he died4 ,after this ,abijah waxes mighty1 has fourteen wives1 twenty-two sons1 and sixteen daughters4 ,if we had read two accounts so different1 and presenting such insuperable difficulties to the harmonist1 in secular historians1 we should have made no attempt to reconcile them1 but merely have endeavoured to find which record was the more trustworthy4 ,if the pious ,levitical king of #b ,chron4 xiii4 be a true picture of the idolater of #a ,kings xv4 #c1 it is clear that the accounts are difficult to reconcile1 unless we resort to incessant and arbitrary hypotheses4 ,but the earlier authority is clearly to be preferred when the two obviously conflict with each other4 ,as it is we can only say that the kings of whom the chronicler approves are1 as it were1 clericalised1 and seen through a cloud of incense1 all their faults being omitted4 ,the edifying speech of ,abijah1 and his boast about purity of worship1 sounds most strange on the lips of a king who--if he walked in all the sins of his father--suffered his people to be guilty of a worship grossly idolatrous1 including the toleration of ,bamoth1 ,chammanim1 and ,asherim on every high hill and under every green tree2 and of all the abominations of the neighbouring idolaters1#edb--;a state of things infinitely worse than the symbolic ,jehovah-worship which ,jeroboam had set up4 ,yet such was the strange syncretism of religion in ,jerusalem1 of which ,solomon had set the fatal example1 that 7as we learn quite incidentally7 ,abijah seems to have dedicated certain vessels--part of his warlike spoils--to the service of the ,temple4#edc ,they were perhaps intended to supply the gaps left by the plundering raid of ,shishak4 ,after this brief and perplexing1 but apparently eventful reign1 ,abijah was succeeded by his son ,asa1 whose long reign of forty-one years was contemporary with the reigns of no less than seven kings of ,israel--,nadab1 ,baasha1 ,elah1 ,zimri1 ,omri1 ,tibni1 and ,ahab4 ,we are told that--aided perhaps by such prophets as ,hanani and ,azariah1 son of ,oded#edd 7or ,iddo7--he did that which was right in the sight of the ,lord4 ,of this he gave an early1 decisive1 and courageous proof4 ,when he succeeded to the throne at an early age his grandmother ,maachah still held the high position of queen-mother4#ede ,this great lady inherited the fame and popularity of ,absalom1 and was a princess both of the line of ,david and of ,tolmai1 ,king of ,geshur4 ,she was1 and always had been1 an open idolatress4#edf ,asa began his reign with a reformation4 ,he took away the contemptible idols 7,gilloolim7 which his fathers had made1 and suppressed the odious ,kedeshim2 or he at least made a serious1 if an unsuccessful1 effort to do so4#edg ,as to the high places we have a direct verbal contradiction4 ,here we are told that they were not removed1 whereas the chronicler says that he took them away out of all the cities of ,judah1 but afterwards that the high places were not taken away out of ,israel1 in spite of ,asa's heart being perfect all his days4 ,the explanation would seem to be that he made a partial attempt to anticipate the subsequent reformation of ,hezekiah1 but was defeated by the inveteracy of popular custom4 ,he did1 however1 take the great step of branding with infamy the impure idolatry of the queen-mother1 and he degraded her from her rank4 ,she had made an idol1 which is significantly called a fright or a horror 7,miphletzeth71#edh to serve as an emblem of the ,nature-goddess4 ,it was probably a phallic symbol which he indignantly cut down1 and burnt it1 where all pollutions were destroyed1 in the dry wady of the ,kidron4#edi ,in the fifteenth year of his reign he dedicated in the ,temple silver and gold and vessels1 consecrated by his father and himself for this purpose4 ,he also restored the great altar in the porch of the ,temple1 which in the course of more than sixty years had fallen into neglect and disrepair4 ,for ten years the land had rest under this pious king1 though war was always smouldering between him and ,baasha4 ,in the eleventh year1 however1 according to the chronicler1 ,zerach the ,ethiopian#eej attacked him with an army of a million ,sushim and ,lubim and three hundred chariots1 and suffered an immense defeat in the valley of ,zephathah1 the watch-tower at ,mareshah4#eea ,it was the sole occasion in sacred history in which an ,israelite army met and defeated one of the great world powers in open battle1 and it was deemed so remarkable a proof of ,divine interposition that ,asa1 encouraged by the prophet ,azariah1 invited his people to renew their covenant with ,god4 ,more alarming to ,asa was the action of ,baasha in fortifying ,ramah#eeb in the thirty-sixth year of ,asa's reign4 ,this was a veritable of the most dangerous kind1 for ,ramah1 in the heart of ,benjamin1 was only five miles north of ,jerusalem4 ,if ,abijah's signal defeat of ,jeroboam and capture of ,bethel1 ,jeshanah1 and ,ephron be historical1 these towns must not only have been speedily recovered1 but ,baasha had even pushed towards ,jerusalem1 five miles south of ,bethel4 ,had ,ramah been left undisturbed it would have been a thorn in the side of ,judah1 as ,deceleia was in ,attica1 and ,pylos in ,messenia4 ,asa saw that the demolition of this fortress was a positive necessity4 ,since he was too weak to effect this1 he stripped both his own palace and the ,temple of the treasures with which he had himself enriched them1 and sent them as a vast bribe to ,benhadad ,i41 ,king of ,damascus1 begging him to renew the treaty which had existed between their fathers1 and to invade the kingdom of ,baasha4 ,this step shows to what a depth of weakness ,judah had fallen1 for ,benhadad was a son of ,tabrimmon1 the son of ,hezion 7probably ,rezon7 of ,damascus2#eec so that here we have the great-grandson of ,solomon stripping ,solomon's ,temple of its consecrated vessels wherewith to bribe the grandson of the petty rebel freebooter1 whose whole present kingdom had once been a part of ,solomon's dominions6 ,the policy was successful4 ,it is easy for us now to condemn it as unpatriotic and short-sighted1 but to ,asa it seemed a matter of life or death4 ,benhadad invaded ,israel1 and mastered its territory in the tribe of ,naphtali1 from ,ijon and ,abel-beth-maachah on the waters of ,merom#eed down to ,chinnereth or the ,lake of ,gennesareth4#eee ,baasha in alarm abandoned his attempt to blockade ,jerusalem1 and retired to ,tirzah for the protection of his own kingdom4 ,thereupon ,asa proclaimed a levy of all ,judah to seize and dismantle ,ramah1 and with the ample materials which ,baasha had amassed he fortified ,geba to the north of ,ramah#eef and ,mizpah 7probably ,neby ,samwyl1 to the north of the ,mount of ,olives71 where he also sank a deep well for the use of the garrison4#eeg ,he thus effectually protected the frontier of ,benjamin4 ,he built1 as ,bossuet says1 the fortresses of ,judah out of the ruins of those of ,samaria1 and thus set us the example of making holy use of hostile and heretical materials4 ,we should have thought that the invitation of ,benhadad was1 in a worldly point of view1 brilliantly successful1 and that it saved the kingdom of ,judah from utter ruin4 ,it involved1 however1 a dangerous precedent1 and ,hanani rebuked ,asa for having done foolishly4 ,after a powerful and useful reign ,asa was attacked with gout in his feet two years before his death4 ,the chronicler reproaches him for seeking not to ,jehovah but to the physicians in his exceeding great disease4 ,if this was a sin1 it is one of which we are unable to estimate the sinfulness from this meagre notice4 ,it has been conjectured that it may have some reference to the name ,asa1 which1 if written ,asjah1 might mean whom ,jehovah heals4#eeh ,it belongs1 however1 to the theocratic standpoint of the chronicler1 who condemns everything which bears the aspect of a worldly policy4 ,he slept with his fathers in a tomb which he had built for himself1 and was buried with unusual magnificence1 amid the burning of many spices4 ,we are not surprised that the historian should not mention the invasion of ,zerah1 since he refers us for the wars f ,asa to the ,judan annals4 ,it is much more remarkable that he wholly omits all reference to the prophetic activity of which the chronicler speaks as exercised in this reign4 ,he had evidently formed a very high estimate of ,asa1 with none of the shadows and drawbacks which in the later annalist seemed to point to a marked degeneracy of character in his later days4 ,on the favourable side the historian does not mention the high and eulogistic encouragement which the king received from ,azariah1 the son of ,oded2 nor the multitude which joined him out of ,israel2 nor the cities which he took from the hill country of ,ephraim2 nor his restoration of the altar4 ,he even passes over the solemn league and covenant which he made with ,judah and ,benjamin and many members of the ,ten ,tribes in his fifteenth year1 at a festival celebrated with an immense sacrifice1 and with shouting and trumpets and cornets and a great exultant oath4#eei ,on the unfavourable side he does not tell us that ,hanani the ,seer rebuked him for summoning the help of the ,syrians instead of relying on ,jehovah2 and that ,asa was in a rage because of this thing1 and shut up ,hanani in the ,house of the ,stocks1 and oppressed some of the people at the same time1 apparently because they took part with the prophet4#efj ,for none of these events does the chronicler refer us to any ancient authority4 ,they came from separate records1 perhaps written in prophetic commentaries and unknown to the compiler of the ,kings4 ,but whatever may have been the failings or shortcomings of ,asa it is clear that he must be ranked among the more eminent and righteous sovereigns of ,judah4 ,,footnotes3 #eae ,according to the ,,lxx4 she was a daughter of ,hanun1 son of ,naash1 ,king of ,ammon 7#b ,sam4 x4 #a74 #eaf ,canon ,rawlinson1 ,kings of ,israel and ,judah4 #eag #a ,kings xiv4 #ba4 ,a boy and faint-hearted 7#b ,chron4 xiii4 #g74 ,the additions to the ,,lxx4 say that he was sixteen1 and reigned twelve years4 #eah ,in the ,,lxx4 additions it was a little before this occasion 7after the revolt7 that ,shemaiah the ,enlamite tore his new cloak and gave ten parts to ,jeroboam4 #eai ,the ,chammanim were1 according to some1 pillars to ,baal-,hammon4 ,for the ,asherim1 see ,deut4 xvi4 #ba2 #b ,kings xxi4 #c4 ,they were wooden pillars to ,asherah1 and were called ,asherim just as statues of the ,virgin are called ,virgins4 ,asheroth seem to be various forms of the ,nature-goddess herself 7#b ,chron4 xxxiii4 #c74 ,asherah 4 ,like the other kings of ,judah1 ,rehoboam had an exaggerated harem1 and provided for the young princes by settling them in separate cities as governors4 #ebj ,jerome compares them to the horrible ,galli of the ,syrian goddess4 ,,lxx41 7initiated72 ,aquila1 7changed72 ,theodotion1 7set apart72 ,symmachus1 4 ,they were also called dogs 7comp4 ,deut4 xxiii4 #ah74 #eba ,according to the chronicler ,rehoboam's defection only began in the fourth year of his reign4 #ebb ,he was the first king of the twenty-second dynasty of ,bubastis or ,pibeseth1 and succeeded about ,b4,c4 #ihh in the fourteenth year of ,solomon4 ,the ,egyptians 7,manetho7 called him ,shesonk 7,sesonsochosis7 ,sasychis1 ,herod41 ii4 #acf2 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 ,sesac4 #ebc ,he was of alien1 perhaps of ,assyrian1 race4 ,his family had settled at ,bubastis1 and his grandfather had married the daughter of the ,pharaoh4 ,his son ,osorkhon also married the ,princess ,keramat1 a daughter of the last ,tanite king4 ,imitating the example of ,hir-hor1 he combined many offices1 and then quietly seized the crown4 #ebd ,brugsch1 ,geogr4 ,inschriften altgyptischer ,denkmler1 ii4 #eh2 ,lepsius1 ,denkmler1 iii4 #beb2 ,story of the ,nations3 ,egypt1 pp4 #bbh-cjg2 ,stade1 i4 #ced 7who reproduces the sculptures74 ,they are carved on the wall of a ,temple of ,amon on the southern side of a smaller temple 7built by ,rameses ,,iii474 ,shishak is smiting with his club a number of captive ,jews1 whom he grasps by the hair4 ,the names of the towns and districts are paraded in two long rows1 each name being enclosed in a shield4 ,amon is delivering them all to his beloved son ,shashonq4 ,these smitten people are described as the ,am of a distant land1 and the ,fenekh 7,phnicians74 #ebe ,lit41 ,judah-king4 ,brugsch thinks it is the name of a town4 ,it cannot mean1 as ,champollion thought1 ,king of ,judah4 #ebf ,see ,shishak in ,bibl4 ,dict4 ,it is extremely difficult to believe that these cities were taken by the ,egyptian army in order to help ,jeroboam4 #ebg ,josephus says that ,shishak did all this 7,antt41 ,,viii4 x4 #b1 #c71 but he confuses ,shishak with ,sesostris 7,herod41 ii4 #ajb1 #ajf74 #ebh #a ,kings x4 #ag4 #ebi ,,lxx41 #b ,sam4 viii4 #g2 #a ,kings x4 #ag4 ,a timely humiliation saved ,rehoboam from extinction1 but he practically became a vassal of ,egypt 7#b ,chron4 xii4 #e74 #ecj 7,ezek4 xl4 #g74 #eca ,ratzim2 comp4 ,celeres1 ,liv41 i4 #ad4 ,we hear no more of ,cherethites and ,pelethites4 ,the later kings could not afford to keep up these mercenaries4 #ecb ,jewish ,church1 ii4 #che4 #ecc ,renan4 #ecd #b ,chron4 xii4 #af2 comp4 ,abiel 7#a ,sam4 ix4 #a74 #ece ,abijam seems to mean father of the sea2 vir maritimus1 ,gesenius4 #ecf ,so perhaps1 for the same reason1 ,jehoahaz was shortened into ,ahaz4 ,see ,canon ,rawlinson on #b ,kings xv4 #ch 7,speaker's ,commentary74 ,but ,simonis1 ,onomasticon1 regards the final m as intensive4 #ecg #b ,chron4 xi4 #ah-bc4 ,rehoboam had eighteen wives1 sixty concubines1 twenty-eight sons1 and sixty daughters4 ,a fragment of the ,stemma ,davidis may make things clearer to the reader3-- ,jesse4 ---------------------- ,eliab4 ,david4 -------------- ,abihial4 ,solomon4 ,absalom4 -- ,abihail ,rehoboam ,maachah4 ,tamar ,uriel4 ,abijah4 ,maachah4 ,thus on both sides1 as a great-grandson and great-great-grandson1 ,abijah was descended from ,david4 #ech ,the lamp 7,,lxx41 2 in xi4 #cf1 7 is the sign of home 7#a ,kings xi4 #cf2 #b ,kings viii4 #ai4 ,comp4 ,psalm xviii4 #bh1 cxxxii4 #ag74 ,there was1 as the chronicler boldly expressed it1 a covenant of salt between ,god and the ,house of ,david 7#b ,chron4 xiii4 #e2 comp4 ,numb4 xviii4 #ai74 #eci ,chron4 xiii4 #bb4 #edj ,zemaraim was in ,benjamin near ,bethel 7,josh4 xviii4 #bb71 apparently ,kirbet el-,szomer in the ,jordan valley1 four miles north of ,jericho4 #eda #b ,chron4 xiii4 #c-ai4 ,so that the golden calf and its chapel and its priests must1 if the account be true1 have fallen into his power4 ,but it does not seem to have made the least difference4 ,it is certain that the calf remained undisturbed till the days of the ,assyrian invasion4 #edb ,how atrocious these abominations were may be seen from the ,pentateuch 7,lev4 xviii4 #c-be1 xx4 #a-bc2 ,deut4 xviii4 #f-ab74 #edc #a ,kings xv4 #ae4 #edd ,ewald1 iv4 #di4 #ede ,comp4 the ,madame ,mre in the ,french court4 #edf ,the ,,lxx4 7,vat47 calls her ,ana4 #edg ,that it was not perfectly successful we see from #a ,kings xxii4 #df4 #edh ,the word is an 4 ,it is only applied to this grotesque and obscene figure 7#a ,kings xv4 #ac2 #b ,chron4 xv4 #af74 #edi #b ,kings xi4 #af1 xxiii4 #d1 #f1 #ab2 #b ,chron4 xxix4 #af1 xxx4 #ad4 ,vulg41 in ,sacris ,priapi4 ,jerome 7ad ,hos41 i4 #d7 calls ,maachah's horror a ,simulacrum ,priapi 7see ,selden1 ,de ,dis ,syris ,syntagma1 ii4 #e74 #eej #b ,chron4 xvi4 #h4 ,zarkh1 perhaps ,osorkhon ,i4 7,o-serek-on1 ,ammon's darling71 was the feebler successor of ,shesonk1 ,maspero1 p4 #cfb2 ,ewald1 iii4 #dgj4 ,shishak's army also consisted of ,sushim and ,lubim 7#b ,chron4 xii4 #c74 #eea ,the defeat had important consequences4 ,egypt did not again attack ,palestine till three centuries later1 under ,pharaoh ,nechoh 7,b4,c4 #fji74 ,the defeat weakened the ,bubastite dynasty 7,rawlinson1 p4 #cf71 though it continued to reign for two centuries4 ,the invasion may have been a mere raid4 ,the ,pharaohs always seem to have degenerated from the founders of their dynasty1 both in personal beauty and intellectual force4 #eeb ,josh4 xviii4 #be1 now ,er-,ram4 ,no great importance can be attached to the dates1 which are often self-contradictory4 #eec ,ben-,hadad1 son of ,hadad1 the ,sun-god 7,macrob41 ,saturn1 i4 #bd74 ,tabrimmon1 ,rimmon is good4 ,according to ,sayce 7,hibbert ,lectures1 p4 #db71 ,rimmon--an ,accadian name1 which became1 in ,semitic1 ,rammnu1 the exalted--was identified by the ,syrians with the ,sun-god ,hadad1 whom ,shahmanaser called ,dada4 ,in ,assyrian ,dadu 7dear child7 is akin to ,david and to ,dido4 #eed ,ijon is probably ,merj ,ayion1 the meadow of the ,house of ,maachah2 called also1 ,abel-maim1 the meadow of the waters2 a city and a mother in ,israel 7#b ,sam4 xx4 #ai72 now ,abil in the ,ard-el-,huleh4 #eee ,see ,numb4 xxxiv4 #aa2 ,josh4 xiii4 #bg4 #eef ,josh4 xxi4 #ag2 #b ,kings xxiii4 #h4 #eeg ,,lxx41 4 ,jer4 xli4 #e-i4 ,into this well ,ishmael flung the corpses of the murdered adherents of ,gedaliah4 #eeh ,renan1 ,hist4 du ,peuple ,israel1 ii4 #bdh4 ,comp4 ,rephaiah4 #eei #b ,chron4 xv4 #a-ae4 #efj #b ,chron4 xvi4 #i1 #aj4 ,,chapter ,,xxxi4 ,,jehoshaphat4 #a ,,kings xxii4 #da-ej4 ,before we leave the ,house of ,david we must speak of ,jehoshaphat1 the last king of ,judah whose reign is narrated in the ,first ,book of ,kings4 ,he was abler1 more powerful1 and more faithful to ,jehovah than any of his predecessors1 and was alone counted worthy in later ages to rank with ,hezekiah and ,josiah among the most pious rulers of the ,davidic line4 ,the annals of his reign are found chiefly in the ,second ,book of ,chronicles1 where his story occupies four long chapters4 ,the ,first ,book of ,kings compresses all record of him into nine verses1 except so far as his fortunes are commingled with the history of ,ahab4 ,but both accounts show us a reign which contributed as greatly to the prosperity of ,judah as that of ,jeroboam ,,ii4 contributed to the prosperity of ,israel4 ,he ascended the throne at the age of thirty-five4 ,he was apparently the only son of ,asa1 by ,azubah1 the daughter of ,shilhi2 for ,asa1 greatly to his credit1 seems to have been the first king of ,judah who set his face against the monstrous polygamy of his predecessors1 and1 so far as we know1 contented himself with a single wife4 ,he received the high eulogy that he turned not aside from doing that which was right in the eyes of the ,lord1 with the customary qualification that1 nevertheless1 the people still burnt incense and offerings at the ,bamoth1 which were not taken away4 ,the chronicler says that he did take them away4 ,this stock contradiction between the two authorities must be accounted for either by a contrast between the effort and its failure1 or by a distinction between idolatrous ,bamoth and those dedicated to the worship of ,jehovah to which the people clung with the deep affection which local sanctuaries inspire4 ,to the historians of the ,book of ,kings the central fact of ,jehoshaphat's history is that he made peace with the ,king of ,israel4 ,as a piece of ordinary statesmanship no step could have been more praiseworthy4 ,the sixty-eight years or more which had elapsed since the divinely-suggested choice of ,jeroboam by the ,northern ,kingdom had tended to soften old exasperations4 ,the kingdom of ,israel was now an established fact1 and nothing had become more obvious than that the past could not be undone4 ,meanwhile the threatening spectre of ,syria1 under the dynasty of ,benhadad1 was beginning to throw a dark shadow over both kingdoms4 ,it had become certain that1 if they continued to destroy each other by internecine warfare1 both would succumb to the foreign invader4 ,wisely1 therefore1 and kindly ,jehoshaphat determined to make peace with ,ahab1 in about the eighth year after his accession2 and this policy he consistently maintained to the close of his twenty-five years' reign4 ,no one surely could blame him for putting an end to an exhaustive civil war between brethren4 ,indeed1 in so doing he was but carrying out the policy which had been dictated to ,rehoboam by the prophet ,shemaiah1 when he forbade him to attempt the immense expedition which he had prepared to annihilate ,jeroboam4 ,peace was necessary to the development and happiness of both kingdoms1 but even more so to the smaller and weaker1 threatened as it was not only by the more distant menace of ,syria1 but by the might of ,egypt on the south and the dangerous predatory warfare of ,edom and ,moab on the east4 ,but ,jehoshaphat went further than this4 ,he cemented the new peace by an alliance between his young son ,jehoram and ,athaliah1 daughter of ,ahab and ,jezebel1 who was then perhaps under fifteen years of age4 ,later chroniclers formed their moral estimates by a standard which did not exist so many centuries before the date at which they wrote4 ,if we are to judge the conduct of these kings truthfully we must take an unbiassed view of their conduct4 ,we adopt this principle when we try to understand the characters of saints and patriarchs like ,abraham1 ,isaac1 and ,jacob1 or judges and prophets like ,gideon1 ,deborah1 and ,samuel2 and in general we must not sweepingly condemn the holy men of old because they lacked the full illumination of the gospel4 ,we must be guided by a spirit of fairness if we desire to form a true conception of the kings who lived in the ninth century before ,christ4 ,it is probable that the religious gulf between the kings of ,judah and ,israel was not so immense as on a superficial view it might appear to be2 indeed1 the balance seems to be in favour of ,jeroboam as against ,abijam1 ,rehoboam1 or even ,solomon4 ,the worship of the golden symbols at ,dan and ,bethel did not appear half so heinous to the people of ,judah as it does to us4 ,even in the ,temple they had cherubim and oxen4 ,the ,bamoth to ,chemosh1 ,milcom1 and ,astarte glittered before them undisturbed on the summit of ,olivet1 and abominations which they either tolerated or could not remove sheltered themselves in the very precincts of the ,temple1 under the shadows of its desecrated trees4 ,to the pious ,jehoshaphat the tolerance of ,baal-worship by ,ahab could hardly appear more deadly than the tolerance of ,chemosh-worship by his great-great-grandfather1 and the permission of ,asherim and ,chammanim by his grandfather1 to say nothing of the phallic horror openly patronised by the queen-mother who was a granddaughter of ,david4 ,that ,ahab himself was a worshipper of ,jehovah is sufficiently proved by the fact that he had given the name of ,athaliah to the young princess whose hand ,jehoshaphat sought for his son1 and the name of ,ahaziah 7,jehovah taketh hold7 to the prince who was to be his heir4 ,jehoshaphat acted from policy2 but so has every king done who has ever reigned4 ,he could neither be expected to see these things with the illumination of a prophet1 nor to read--as later writers could do in the light of history--the awful issues involved in an alliance which looked to him so necessary and so advantageous4 ,at the time of the proposed alliance there seems to have been no protest--at any rate1 none of which we read4 ,micaiah alone among the prophets uttered his stern warning when the expedition to ,ramoth ,gilead was actually on foot1 and ,jehu1 son of ,hanani1 went out to rebuke ,jehoshaphat at the close of that disastrous enterprise4 ,it is to the history attributed to this seer and embodied in the annals of ,israel that the chronicler refers4 ,shouldst thou help the wicked1 asked the bold prophet1 and love them that hate the ,lord8 ,for this thing wrath is upon thee from the ,lord4 ,nevertheless1 there are good things found in thee1 in that thou hast put away the ,asheroth out of the land1 and hast set thy heart to seek ,god4 ,the moral principle which ,jehu1 son of ,hanani1 here enunciated is profoundly true4 ,it was terribly emphasised by the subsequent events4 ,a just and wise forecast may have sanctioned the restoration of peace1 but ,jehoshaphat might at least have learnt enough to avoid affinity with a queen who1 like ,jezebel1 had introduced frightful and tyrannous iniquities into the ,house of ,ahab4 ,faithful as the ,king of ,judah evidently intended to be to the law of ,jehovah1 he should have hesitated before forming such close bonds of connexion with the cruel daughter of the usurping ,tyrian priest4 ,his error hardly diminished the warmth of that glowing eulogy which even the chronicler pronounces upon him2 but it brought upon his kingdom1 and upon the whole family of his grandchildren1 overwhelming misery and all but total extermination4 ,the rules of ,god's moral government are written large on the story of nations1 and the consequences of our actions come upon us not arbitrarily1 but in accordance with universal laws4 ,when we err1 even though our error be leniently judged and fully pardoned1 the human consequences of the deeds which we have done may still come flowing over us with the resistless march of the ocean tides4 ,you little fancy what rude shocks apprise us4 ,we sin3 ,god's intimations rather fail ,in clearness than in energy4 ,jehoshaphat did not live to see the ultimate issues of massacre and despotism which came in the train of his son ,jehoram's marriage4#efa ,perhaps to him it wore the golden aspect which it wears in the forty-fifth ,psalm1 which1 as some have imagined1 was composed on this occasion4 ,but he had abundant proof that close relationship for mutual offence and defence with the kings of ,israel brought no blessing in its train4 ,in the expedition against ,ramoth ,gilead when ,ahab was slain1 he too very nearly lost his life4 ,even this did not disturb his alliance with ,ahab's son ,ahaziah1 with whom he joined in a maritime enterprise which1 like its predecessors1 turned out to be a total failure4 ,jehoshaphat in his successful wars had established the supremacy over ,edom which had been all but lost in the days of ,solomon4 ,the ,edomite ,hadad and his successors had not been able to hold their own1 and the present kings of ,edom were deputies or vassals under the suzerainty of ,juda4#efb ,this once more opened the path to ,elath and ,ezion-,geber on the gulf of ,akaba4 ,jehoshaphat1 in his prosperity1 felt a desire to revive the old costly commerce of ,solomon with ,ophir for gold1 sandal wood1 and curious animals4 ,for this purpose he built ships of ,tarshish1 i4e41 merchant ships1 like those used for the ,phnician trade between ,tyre and ,tartessus1 to go this long voyage4 ,the ships1 however1 were wrecked on the reefs of ,ezion-,geber1 for the ,jews were timid and inexperienced mariners4 ,hearing of this disaster1 according to the ,book of ,kings1 ,ahaziah made an offer to ,jehoshaphat to make the enterprise a joint one1--thinking1 apparently1 that the ,israelites1 who1 perhaps1 held ,joppa and some of the ports on the coast1 would bring more skill and knowledge to bear on the result4 ,but ,jehoshaphat had had enough of an attempt which was so dangerous and which offered no solid advantages4 ,he declined ,ahaziah's offer4 ,the story of these circumstances in the chronicler is different4 ,he speaks as if from the first it was a joint experiment of the two kings1 and says that1 after the wreck of the fleet1 a prophet of whom we know nothing1 ,eliezer1 the son of ,dodavahu of ,mareshah1#efc prophesied against ,jehoshaphat1 saying1 ,because thou hast joined thyself with ,ahaziah1 ,jehovah hath made a breach in thy works4 ,the passage shows that the word prophesied was constantly used in the sense of preached1 and did not necessarily imply any prediction of events yet future4 ,the chronicler1 however1 apparently makes the mistake of supposing that ships were built at ,ezion-,geber on the ,red ,sea to sail to ,tartessus in ,spain6#efd ,the earlier and better authority says correctly that these merchantmen were built to trade with ,ophir1 in ,india1 or ,arabia4 ,the chronicler seems to have been unaware that ships of ,tarshish1 like our ,indiamen1 was a general title for vessels of a special build4#efe ,we see enough in the ,book of ,kings to show the greatness and goodness of ,jehoshaphat1 and later on we shall hear details of his military expeditions4#eff ,the chronicler1 glorifying him still more1 says that he sent princes and ,levites and priests to teach the ,book of the ,law throughout all the cities of ,judah2 that he received large presents and tribute from neighbouring peoples2 that he built castles and stone cities2 and that he had a stupendous army of #afj1jjj troops under four great generals4 ,he also narrates that when an immense host of ,moabites1 ,ammonites1 and ,meunim came against him to ,hazezon-,tamar or ,engedi1 he took his stand before the people in the ,temple in front of the new court and prayed4 ,thereupon the ,spirit of the ,lord came upon ,jahaziel the son of ,zechariah1 the son of ,benaiah1 the son of ,jeiel1 the son of ,mattaniah the ,levite1 of the sons of ,asaph1 who told them that the next day they should go against the invader1 but that they need not strike a blow4 ,the battle was ,god's1 not theirs4 ,all they had to do was to stand still and see the salvation of ,jehovah4 ,on hearing this the king and all his people prostrated themselves1 and the ,levites stood up to praise ,god4 ,next morning ,jehoshaphat told his people to believe ,god and ,his prophets and they should prosper1 and bade them chant the verse1 ,give thanks unto the ,lord1 for ,his mercy endureth for ever1 which now forms the refrain of ,psalm cxxxvi4#efg ,on this ,jehovah set liers in wait against the children of ,ammon1 ,moab1 and ,mount ,seir4 ,intestine struggles arose among the invaders4 ,the inhabitants of ,mount ,seir were first destroyed1 and the rest then turned their swords against each other until they were all dead bodies fallen to the earth4 ,the soldiers of ,jehoshaphat despoiled these corpses for three days1 and on the fourth assembled themselves in the valley of ,beracah 7,blessing71 which received its name from their tumultuous rejoicings4#efh ,after this they returned to ,jerusalem with psalteries and harps and trumpets1 and ,god gave ,jehoshaphat rest from all his enemies round about4 ,of all this the historian of the ,kings tells us nothing4 ,jehoshaphat died full of years and honours1 leaving seven sons1 of whom the eldest was ,jehoram4#efi ,his reign marks a decisive triumph of the prophetic party4 ,the prophets not only felt a fiercely just abhorrence of the abominations of ,canaanite idolatry1 but wished to establish a theocracy to the exclusion on the one hand of all local and symbolic worship1 and on the other of all reliance on worldly policy4 ,up to this time1 as ,dean ,stanley says in his usual strikingly picturesque manner1 if there was a 'holy city1' there was also an 'unholy city' within the walls of ,sion4 ,it was like a seething caldron of blood and froth 'whose scum is therein and whose scum has not gone out of it4' ,the ,temple was hemmed in by dark idolatries on every side4 ,mount ,olivet was covered with heathen sanctuaries1 monumental stones1 and pillars of ,baal4 ,wooden images of ,astarte under the sacred trees1 huge images of ,molech appeared at every turn in the walks around ,jerusalem4#egj ,jehoshaphat introduced a decisive improvement into the conditions which prevailed under ,rehoboam and ,abijah1 but practically the conflict between light and darkness goes on for ever4 ,it was in days when ,jerusalem had come to be regarded by herself and by all nations as exceptionally holy1 that she1 who had been for centuries the murderess of the prophets1 became under her priestly religionists the murderess of the ,christ1 and--far different in ,god's eyes from what she was in her own--deserved the dreadful stigma of being the great city which spiritually is called ,sodom and ,egypt4 ,,footnotes3 #efa ,following the precedent set by ,rehoboam1 he established his six younger sons in castles and fenced cities4 ,athaliah must have found it difficult to exterminate their families if she attempted this4 #efb ,the ,nitzab or ,prfect of ,edom was allowed the barren title of king4 #efc #b ,chron4 xx4 #cg4 ,his name faintly recalls that of ,eleazar1 son of ,dodo 7#b ,sam4 xxiii4 #i74 ,dodavahu means friend of ,god4 #efd #b ,chron4 xx4 #cf1 #cg4 ,it would be monstrous to send ships to circumnavigate ,africa in order to reach ,tartessus4 ,the last resource of the harmonists 7e4g41 ,keil7 to save the accuracy of the chronicler is to suppose that ,jehoshaphat meant to drag the whole fleet across the ,isthmus of ,suez1 and so to sail from one of the havens of ,palestine6 #efe ,cette version1 says ,munk 7,palestine1 p4 #cad71 a probablement pris naissance dans l'esprit de rigorisme qui animait plus tard les crivans ,juifs4 ,this1 says ,dr4 ,robertson ,smith1 is a mere pragmatical inference from the story in ,kings4 ,see his further remarks in ,the ,old ,testament in the ,jewish ,church1 chap4 ii41 p4 #adf4 ,he regards parts of the ,books of ,chronicles as being1 in fact1 a ,jewish ,midrash4 ,it is not ,history1 but ,haggada1 moralising romance4 ,and the chronicler himself gives the name of ,midrash 7,r4,v41 'story'7 to two of the sources from which he drew 7#b ,chron4 xiii4 #bb1 xxiv4 #bg71 so that there is really no mystery as to the nature of the work when it departs from the old canonical histories 7p4 #adh74 #eff ,we shall have further glimpses of ,jehoshaphat in the reigns of ,ahab and even of ,jehoram4 #efg ,see #a ,chron4 xvi4 #cd2 #b ,chron4 v4 #ac1 vii4 #c1 xx4 #ba2 ,psalms cvi41 cvii41 cxviii41 etc4 ,the eighty-third ,psalm may owe its origin to this deliverance1 and ,hengstenberg thinks ,psalms xlvii4 and xlviii4 also4 #efh ,the title valley of ,jehoshaphat is thought also to have derived its origin from these events4 ,comp4 ,joel iii4 #b4 #efi #b ,chron4 xxi4 #b1 #c4 #egj ,there is a little exaggeration here4 ,,chapter ,,xxxii4 ,,the ,,kings ,,of ,,israel ,,from ,,zimri ,,to ,,ahab4 ,b4,c4 #hhi-hgg4 #a ,,kings xvi4 #aa-cd4 ,as far as we can understand from our meagre authorities--and we have no independent source of information--we infer that ,elah1 son of the powerful ,baasha1 was a self-indulgent weakling4 ,the army of ,israel was encamped against ,gibbethon--originally a ,levitical town of the ,kohathites1 in the territory of ,dan--which they hoped to wrest from the ,philistines4 ,it was during the interminable and intermittent siege of this town that ,nadab1 the son of ,jeroboam1 had been murdered4 ,whatever may have been his sins1 he was in his proper place leading the armies of ,israel4 ,elah was not there1 but in his beautiful palace at ,tirzah4 ,it was probably contempt for his incapacity and the bad example of ,baasha's successful revolt1 that tempted ,zimri to murder him as he was drinking himself drunk in the house of his chamberlain ,arza4 ,zimri was a commander of half the chariots1 and probably thinking that he could secure the throne by a coup de main he slew not only ,elah1 but every male member of his family4 ,to extinguish any possibility of vengeance1 he even massacred all who were known to be friends of the royal house4 ,it was a consummate crime1 and it was followed by swift and condign judgment4 ,through that sea of blood ,zimri only succeeded in wading to one week's royalty1 followed by a shameful and agonising death4 ,we are told that he did evil in the sight of the ,lord by following the sin of ,jeroboam's calf-worship4 ,the phrase must be here something of a formula1 for in seven days he could hardly have achieved a religious revolution1 and every other king of ,israel1 some of whom have long and prosperous reigns1 maintained the unauthorised worship4 ,but ,zimri's atrocious revolt had been so ill-considered that it furnished a proverb of the terrible fate of rebels4#ega ,he had not even attempted to secure the assent of the army at ,gibbethon4 ,no sooner did the news reach the camp than the soldiers tumultuously refused to accept ,zimri as king1 and elected ,omri their captain4 ,omri instantly broke up the camp1 and led them to besiege the new king in ,tirzah4 ,zimri saw that his cause was hopeless1 and took refuge in the fortress 7birah7 attached to the palace4#egb ,when he saw that even there he could not maintain himself1 he preferred speedy death to slow starvation or falling into the hands of his rival4 ,he set fire to the palace1 and1 like ,sardanapalus1 perished in the flames4#egc ,the swift suppression of his treason did not save the unhappy kingdom from anarchy and civil war4 ,however popular ,omri might be with the army1 he was unacceptable to a large part of the people4 ,they chose as their king a certain ,tibni1 son of ,ginath1 who was supported by a powerful brother named ,joram4 ,for four years the contest was continued4 ,at the end of that time ,tibni and ,joram were conquered and killed1#egd and ,omri began his sole reign1 which lasted eight years longer4 ,he founded the most conspicuous dynasty of ,israel1 and so completely identified his name with the ,northern ,kingdom that it was known to the ,assyrians as ,beit-,khumri1 or the ,house of ,omri4#ege ,they even speak of ,jehu the destroyer of ,omri's dynasty1 as the son of ,omri4 ,incidental allusions in the annals of his son show that ,omri was engaged in incessant wars against ,syria4 ,he was unsuccessful1 and ,benhadad robbed him of ,ramoth ,gilead and other cities1 enforcing the right of ,syrians to have streets of their own even in his new capital of ,samaria4#egf ,on the other hand1 he was greatly successful on the south-east against the ,moabites and their warrior-king ,chemosh-,gad1 the father of ,mesha4 ,few details of either war have come down to us4#egg ,we learn1 however1 from the famous ,moabite stone that he began his assault on ,moab by the capture of ,mediba1 several miles south of ,heshbon1 overran the country1 made the king a vassal1 and imposed on ,moab the enormous annual tribute of #ajj1jjj sheep and #ajj1jjj rams4#egh ,mesha in his inscription records that ,omri oppressed ,moab many days1 and attributed this to the fact that ,chemosh was angry with his chosen people4 ,he stamped his impress deep upon his subjects4 ,it must have been to him that the alliance with the ,tyrians was due1 which in his son's reign produced consequences so momentous4 ,he did worse we are told than all the kings that were before him4#egi ,although he is only charged with walking in the way of ,jeroboam1 the indignant manner in which the prophet ,micah speaks of the statutes of ,omri as still being kept1#ehj seems to prove that his influence on religion was condemned by the prophetic order on special grounds4 ,it is clear that he was a sovereign of far greater eminence and importance than we might suppose from the meagreness of his annals as here preserved2 indeed1 for thirty-four years after his accession the history of the ,southern ,kingdom becomes a mere appendix to that of the ,northern4 ,one conspicuous service he rendered to his subjects by providing them with the city which became their permanent and famous capital4 ,this he did in the sixth year of his reign4 ,the burning of the fortress-palace of ,tirzah1 and the rapidity with which the town had succumbed to its besiegers1 may have led him to look out for a site1 which was central1 strong1 and beautiful4 ,his choice was so prescient that the new royal residence superseded not only ,penuel and ,tirzah1 but even ,shechem4 ,it was1 says ,dean ,stanley1 as though ,versailles had taken the place of ,paris1 or ,windsor of ,london4 ,he fixed his eye on an oblong hill1 with long flat summit1 which rose in the midst of a wide valley encircled with hills1 near the edge of the plain of ,sharon1 and six miles north-west of ,shechem4 ,its beauty is still the admiration of the traveller in ,palestine4 ,it gave point to the apostrophe of ,isaiah3 ,woe to the crown of pride1 to the drunkards of ,ephraim1 whose glorious beauty is a fading flower1 which is on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine6444 ,the crown of pride1 the drunkards of ,ephraim1 shall be trodden under foot3 and the fading flower of his glorious adornment1 which is on the head of the fat valley1 shall become as a fading flower and as an early fig4#eha ,all around it the low hills and rich ravines were clothed with fertility4 ,they recall more nearly than any other scene in ,palestine the green fields and parks of ,england4 ,it commanded a full view of the sea and the plain of ,sharon on the one hand1 and of the vale of ,shechem on the other4 ,the town sloped down from the summit of this hill2 a broad wall with a terraced top ran round it4 ,in front of the gates was a wide open space or threshing floor1 where the kings of ,samaria sat on great occasions4 ,the inferior houses were built of white brick1 with rafters of sycomore1 the grandeur of hewn stones and cedar 7,isa4 ix4 #i1 #aj74 ,its soft1 rounded1 oblong platform was1 as it were1 a vast luxurious couch1 in which the nobles securely rested1 propped and cushioned up on both sides1 as in the cherished corner of a rich divan4#ehb ,far more important in the eyes of ,omri than its beauty was the natural strength of its position4 ,it did not possess the impregnable majesty of ,jerusalem1 but its height and isolation1 permitting of strong fortifications1 enabled it to baffle the besieging hosts of the ,aramans in ,b4,c4 #ija and in ,b4,c4 #hib4 ,for three long years it held out against the mighty ,assyrians under ,sargon and ,shalmanezer4 ,its capture in ,b4,c4 #gba involved the ruin of the whole kingdom in its fall4#ehc ,nebuchadnezzar took it in ,b4,c4 #eed1 after a siege of thirteen years4 ,in later centuries it partially recovered4 ,alexander the ,great took it1 and massacred many of its inhabitants1 ,b4,c4 #ccb4 ,john ,hyrcanus1 who took it after a year's siege1 tried to demolish it in ,b4,c4 #abi4 ,after various fortunes it was splendidly rebuilt by ,herod the ,great1 who called it ,sebaste1 in honour of ,augustus4 ,it still exists under the name of ,sebastyeh4#ehd ,when ,omri chose it for his residence it belonged to a certain ,shemer1 who1 according to ,epiphanius1 was a descendant of the ancient ,perizzites or ,girgashites4 ,the king paid for this hill the large sum of two talents of silver1#ehe and called it ,shomeron4 ,the name means a watch tower1 and was appropriate both from its commanding position and because it echoed the name of its old possessor4#ehf ,the new capital marked a new epoch4 ,it superseded as completely as ,jerusalem had done the old local shrines endeared by the immemorial sanctity of their traditions2 but as its origin was purely political it acted unfavourably on the religion of the people4 ,it became a city of idolatry and of luxurious wealth2 a city in which ,baal-worship with its ritual pomp threw into the shade the worship of ,jehovah2 a city in which corrupted nobles1 lolling at wine feasts on rich divans in their palaces inlaid with ivory1 sold the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes4 ,of ,omri we are told no more4 ,after a reign of twelve years he slept with his fathers1 and was buried in the city which was to be for so many centuries a memorial of his fame4 ,the name of ,omri marks a new epoch4 ,he is the first ,jewish king whose name is alluded to in ,assyrian inscriptions4 ,assyria had emerged into importance in the twelfth century before ,christ under ,tiglath-,pileser ,i41 but during the eleventh and down to the middle of the tenth century it had sunk into inactivity4 ,assurbanipal1 the father of ,shalmanezer ,,ii4 7#hhd-hfj71 enlarged his dominions to the ,mediterranean westwards and to ,lebanon southwards4 ,in #hgj1 when ,ahab was king1 the ,assyrian warriors had exacted tribute from ,tyre1 ,sidon1 and ,biblos4#ehg ,it is not impossible that ,omri also had paid tribute1 and it has even been conjectured that it was to ,assyrian help that he owed his throne4 ,the ,book of ,kings only alludes to the valour of this warrior-king in the one word his might2#ehh but it is evident from other indications that he had a stormy and chequered reign4 ,,footnotes3 #ega #b ,kings ix4 #ca4 #egb ,r4,v41 the castle of the king's house4 #egc ,justin1 ,hist41 i4 #c2 cf4 ,herod41 i4 #agf1 vii4 #ajg2 ,liv41 xxi4 #ad4 ,ewald elaborates out of his own consciousness an extraordinary romance about ,zimri and the queen-mother4 #egd ,josephus 7,antt41 ,,viii4 xii4 #e7 says that ,tibni was assassinated1 as does the ,rabbinic ,seder ,olam ,rabba1 chap4 xvii4 ,,lxx41 4 #ege ,athaliah is called the daughter of ,omri4 #egf ,the ,aramans have come to be incorrectly called ,syrians because the ,greeks confused them with the ,assyrians4 #egg #a ,kings xx4 #cd4 #egh #b ,kings iii4 #d4 #egi #a ,kings xvi4 #be4 #ehj ,micah vi4 #af4 #eha ,isa4 xxviii4 #a-d4 #ehb ,stanley1 ,lectures1 ii4 #bdb4 #ehc #a ,kings xx4 #a2 #b ,kings vi4 #bd4 #ehd ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,xv4 vii4 #g4 ,one of the few instances in ,palestine where the ancient name has been superseded by a more modern one4 ,the early ,assyrians call it ,beth-,khumri1 ,house of ,omri2 but the name ,sammerin occurs in the monument of ,tiglath-,pileser ,,ii4 #ehe ,about #hjj of our money4 #ehf ,,lxx41 2 1 to watch4 #ehg ,meyer1 ,gesch4 d4 ,alt41 #cca2 ,kittel1 ii4 #bba2 ,schrader1 ,keilinschr41 i4 #afe4 #ehh 7#a ,kings xvi4 #bg74 ,,book ,,iv4 ,,ahab ,,and ,,elijah4 ,b4,c4 #hgg-hee4 ,,chapter ,,xxxiii4 ,,king ,,ahab ,,and ,,queen ,,jezebel4 ,besides what that grim wolf with privy paw ,daily devours apace1 and nothing said4 ,,lycidas4 #a ,,kings xvi4 #bi-cd4 ,omri was succeeded by his son ,ahab1 whose eventful reign of upwards of twenty years#ehi occupies so large a space even in these fragmentary records4 ,his name means brother-father1 and has probably some sacred reference4 ,he is stigmatised by the historians as a king more wicked than his father1 though ,omri had done worse than all who were before him44 ,that he was a brave warrior1 and showed some great qualities during a long and on the whole prosperous career2 that he built cities1 and added to ,israel yet another royal residence2 that he advanced the wealth and prosperity of his subjects2 that he was highly successful in some of his wars against ,syria1 and died in battle against those dangerous enemies of his country2 that he maintained unbroken1 and strengthened by yet closer affinity1 the recent alliance with the ,southern ,kingdom1--all this goes for nothing with the prophetic annalists4 ,they have no word of eulogy for the king who added ,baal-worship to the sin of ,jeroboam4 ,the prominence of ,ahab in their record is only due to the fact that he came into dreadful collision with the prophetic order1 and with ,elijah1 the greatest prophet who had yet arisen4 ,the glory and the sins of the warrior-king interested the young prophets of the schools solely because they were interwoven with the grand and sombre traditions of their mightiest reformer4 ,the historian traces all his ignominy and ruin to a disastrous alliance4 ,the kings of ,judah had followed the bad example of ,david and had been polygamists4 ,up to this time the kings of ,israel seem to have been contented with a single wife4 ,the wealth and power of ,ahab led him to adopt the costly luxury of a harem1 and he had seventy sons4#eij ,this1 however1 would have been regarded in those days as a venial offence1 or as no offence at all2 but just as the growing power of ,solomon had been enhanced by marriage with a princess of ,egypt1 so ,ahab was now of sufficient importance to wed a daughter of the ,king of ,tyre4 ,as though it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of ,jeroboam the son of ,nebat1 he took to wife ,jezebel1 the daughter of ,ethbaal1 ,king of the ,zidonians4 ,it was an act of policy in which religious considerations went for nothing4 ,there is little doubt that it flattered his pride and the pride of his people1 and that ,jezebel brought riches with her and pomp and the prestige of luxurious royalty4#eia ,the ,phnicians were of the old race of ,canaan1 with whom all affinity was so strongly forbidden4 ,ethbaal--more accurately1 perhaps1 ,itto-baal 7,baal is with him7#eib--though he ruled all ,phnicia1 both ,tyre and ,sidon1 was a usurper1 and had been the high priest of the great ,temple of ,ashtoreth in ,tyre4 ,hiram1 the friend of ,solomon1 had now been dead for half a century4 ,the last king of his dynasty was the fratricide ,phelles1 whom in his turn his brother ,ethbaal slew4 ,he reigned for thirty-two years1 and founded a dynasty which lasted for sixty-two years more4 ,he was the seventh successor to the throne of ,tyre in the fifty years which had elapsed since the death of ,hiram4 ,menander of ,ephesus1 as quoted by ,josephus1 shows us that in the history of this family we find an interesting point of contact between sacred and classic history4 ,jezebel was the aunt of ,virgil's ,belus1 and great-aunt of ,pygmalion1 and of ,dido1 the famous foundress of ,carthage4#eic ,a king named after ,baal1 and who had named his daughter after ,baal--a king whose descendants down to ,maherbal and ,hasdrubal and ,hannibal bore the name of the ,sun-god#eid--;a king who had himself been at the head of the cult of ,ashtoreth1 the female deity who was worshipped with ,baal--was not likely to rest content until he had founded the worship of his god in the realm of his son-in-law4 ,ahab1 we are told1 went and served ,baal and worshipped him4 ,we must discount by recorded facts the impression which might prim facie be left by these sweeping denunciations4 ,it is certain that to his death ,ahab continued to recognise ,jehovah4 ,he enshrined the name of ,jehovah in the names of his children4#eie ,he consulted the prophets of ,jehovah1 and his continuance of the calf-worship met with no recorded reproof from the many true prophets who were active during his reign4 ,the worship of ,baal was due to nothing more than the unwise eclecticism which had induced ,solomon to establish the ,bamoth to heathen deities on the mount of offence4 ,it is exceedingly probable that the permission of ,baal-worship had been one of the articles of the treaty between ,tyre and ,israel1 which1 as we know from ,amos1 had been made at this time4 ,it had probably been the condition on which the fanatical ,phnician usurper had conceded to his far less powerful neighbour the hand of his daughter4 ,it was1 as we see1 alike in sacred and secular history a time of treaties4 ,the menacing spectre of ,assyria was beginning to terrify the nations4 ,hamath1 ,syria1 and the ,hittites had formed a league of defence against the northern power1 and similar motives induced the kings of ,israel to seek alliance with ,phnicia4 ,perhaps neither ,omri nor ,ahab grasped all the consequences of their concession to the ,sidonian princess4#eif ,but such compacts were against the very essence of the religion of ,israel1 which was ,yahveh ,israel's ,god1 and ,israel ,yahveh's people4 ,the new queen inherited the fanaticism as she inherited the ferocity of her father4 ,she acquired from the first a paramount sway over the weak and uxorious mind of her husband4 ,under her influence ,ahab built in ,samaria a splendid temple and altar to ,baal1 in which no less than four hundred orgiastic priests served the ,phnician idol in splendid vestments1 and with the same pompous ritual as in the shrines at ,tyre4 ,in front of this temple1 to the disgust and horror of all faithful worshippers of ,jehovah1 stood an ,asherah in honour of the ,nature-goddess1 and ,matstseboth pillars or obelisks which represented either sunbeams or the reproductive powers of nature4 ,in these ways ,ahab did more to provoke the ,lord ,god to anger than all the kings of ,israel that were before him4#eig ,when we learn what ,baal was1 and how he was worshipped1 we are not surprised at so stern a condemnation4 ,half ,sun-god1 half ,bacchus1 half ,hercules1 ,baal was worshipped under the image of a bull1 the symbol of the male power of generation4 ,in the wantonness of his rites he was akin to ,peor2 in their cruel atrocity to the kindred ,moloch2 in the demand for victims to be sacrificed to the horrible consecration of lust and blood he resembled the ,minotaur1 the wallowing infamy of ,crete1 with its yearly tribute of youths and maidens4 ,what the combined worship of ,baal and ,asherah was like--and by ,jezebel with ,ahab's connivance they were now countenanced in ,samaria--we may learn from the description of their temple at ,apheka4#eih ,it confirms what we are incidentally told of ,jezebel's devotions4 ,it abounded in wealthy gifts1 and its multitude of priests1 women1 and mutilated ministers--of whom ,lucian counted three hundred at one sacrifice--were clad in splendid vestments4 ,children were sacrificed by being put in a leathern bag and flung down from the top of the temple1 with the shocking expression that they were calves1 not children4 ,in the forecourt stood two gigantic phalli4 ,the ,galli were maddened into a tumult of excitement by the uproar of drums1 shrill pipes1 and clanging cymbals1 gashed themselves with knives and potsherds1 and often ran through the city in women's dress4#eii ,such was the new worship with which the dark murderess insulted the faith in ,jehovah4 ,could any condemnation be too stern for the folly and faithlessness of the king who sanctioned it8 ,a consequence of this tolerance of polluted forms of worship seems to have shown itself in defiant contempt for sacred traditions4 ,at any rate1 it is in this connexion that we are told how ,hiel of ,bethel set at naught an ancient curse4 ,after the fall of ,jericho ,joshua had pronounced a curse upon the site of the city4 ,it was never to be rebuilt1 but to remain under the ban of ,god4 ,the site1 indeed1 had not been absolutely uninhabited1 for its importance near the fords of ,jordan necessitated the existence of some sort of caravanserai in or near the spot4#fjj ,at this time it belonged to the kingdom of ,israel1 though it was in the district of ,benjamin and afterwards reverted to ,judah4#fja ,hiel1 struck by the opportunities afforded by its position1 laughed the old cherem to scorn1 and determined to rebuild ,jericho into a fortified and important city4 ,but men remarked with a shudder that the curse had not been uttered in vain4 ,the laying of the foundation was marked by the death of his firstborn ,abiram1 the completion of the gates by the death of ,segub1 his youngest son4#fjb 99 99 99 99 99 ,the shadow of ,queen ,jezebel falls dark for many years over the history of ,israel and ,judah4 ,she was one of those masterful1 indomitable1 implacable women who1 when fate places them in exalted power1 leave a terrible mark on the annals of nations4 ,what the ,empress ,irene was in the history of ,constantinople1 or the ,she-wolf of ,france in that of ,england1 or ,catherine de ,medicis in that of ,france1 that ,jezebel was in the history of ,palestine4 ,the unhappy ,juana of ,spain left a physical trace upon her descendants in the perpetuation of the huge jaw which had gained her the soubriquet of ,maultasch2 but the trace left by ,jezebel was marked in blood in the fortunes of the children born to her4 ,already three of the six kings of ,israel had been murdered1 or had come to evil ends2 but the fate of ,ahab and his house was most disastrous of all1 and it became so through the whoredoms and witchcrafts of his ,sidonian wife4 ,a thousand years later the name of ,jezebel was still ominous as that of one who seduced others into fornication and idolatry4#fjc ,if no king so completely sold himself to work wickedness as ,ahab1 it was because ,jezebel his wife stirred him up4#fjd ,yet1 however guilty may have been the uxorious apostasies of ,ahab1 he can hardly be held to be responsible for the marriage itself4 ,the dates and ages recorded for us show decisively that the alliance must have been negotiated by ,omri1 for it took place in his reign and when ,ahab was too young to have much voice in the administration of the kingdom4 ,he is only responsible for abdicating his proper authority over ,jezebel1 and for permitting her a free hand in the corruption of worship1 while he gave himself up to his schemes of worldly aggrandisement4 ,absorbed in the strengthening of his cities and the embellishment of his ivory palaces1 he became neglectful of the worship of ,jehovah1 and careless of the more solemn and sacred duties of a theocratic king4 ,the temple to ,baal at ,samaria was built2 the hateful ,asherah in front of it offended the eyes of all whose hearts abhorred an impure idolatry4 ,its priests and the priests of ,astarte were the favourites of the court4 ,eight hundred and fifty of them fed in splendour at ,jezebel's table1 and the pomp of their sensuous cult threw wholly into the shade the worship of the ,god of ,israel4 ,hitherto there had been no protest against1 no interference with the course of evil4 ,it had been suffered to reach its meridian unchecked1 and it seemed only a question of time that the service of ,jehovah would yield to that of ,baal1 to whose favour the queen probably believed that her priestly father had owed his throne4 ,there are indications that ,jezebel had gone further still1 and that ,ahab1 however much he may secretly have disapproved1 had not interfered to prevent her4 ,for although we do not know the exact period at which ,jezebel began to exercise violence against the worshippers of ,jehovah1 it is certain that she did so4 ,this crime took place before the great famine which was appointed for its punishment1 and which roused from cowardly torpor the supine conscience of the king and of the nation4 ,jezebel stands out on the page of sacred history as the first supporter of religious persecution4 ,we learn from incidental notices that1 not content with insulting the religion of the nation by the burdensome magnificence of her idolatrous establishments1 she made an attempt to crush ,jehovah-worship altogether4 ,such fanaticism is a frequent concomitant of guilt4 ,she is the authentic authoress of priestly inquisitions4 ,the ,borgian monster1 ,pope ,alexander ,,vi41 who founded the ,spanish ,inquisition1 is the lineal inheritor of the traditions of ,jezebel4 ,had ,ahab done no more than ,solomon had done in ,judah1 the followers of the true faith in ,israel would have been as deeply offended as those of the ,southern ,kingdom4 ,they would have hated a toleration which they regarded as wicked1 because it involved moral corruption as well as the danger of national apostasy4 ,their feelings would have been even more wrathful than were stirred in the hearts of ,english ,puritans when they heard of the ,masses in the chapel of ,henrietta ,maria1 or saw ,father ,petre gliding about the corridors of ,whitehall4 ,but their opposition was crushed with a hand of iron4 ,jezebel1 strong in her entourage of no less than eight hundred and fifty priests1 to say nothing of her other attendants1 audaciously broke down the altars of ,jehovah--even the lonely one on ,mount ,carmel--and endeavoured so completely to extirpate all the prophets of ,jehovah that ,elijah regarded himself as the sole prophet that was left4 ,those who escaped her fury had to wander about in destitution1 and to hide in dens and caves of the earth4 ,the apostasy of ,churches always creeps on apace1 when priests and prophets1 afraid of malediction1 and afraid of imperilling their worldly interests become cowards1 opportunists1 and time-servers1 and not daring to speak out the truth that is in them1 suffer the cause of spirituality and righteousness to go by default4 ,but when ,iniquity hath played her part1 ,vengeance1 leaps upon the stage4 ,the comedy is short1 but the tragedy is long4 ,the black guard shall attend upon you3 you shall eat at the table of sorrow1 and the crown of death shall be upon your heads1 many glittering faces looking upon you4#fje ,,footnotes3 #ehi ,it is needless in each separate case to enter into the chronological minuti about which the historian is little solicitous4 ,a table of the chronology so far as it can be ascertained is furnished1 infra4 #eij #a ,kings xx4 #e2 #b ,kings x4 #g4 #eia ,hitzig thinks that ,psalm xlv4 was an epithalamium on this occasion1 from the mention of ivory palaces and the daughter of ,tyre4 ,had it been composed for the marriage of ,solomon1 or ,jehoram and ,athaliah1 or any king of ,judah1 there would surely have been an allusion to ,jerusalem4 ,moreover1 the queen is called 1 which is a ,chaldee 7,dan4 v4 #b71 or perhaps a ,north ,palestine word4 ,the word in ,judah was ,gebira4 #eib 1 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 xiii4 #a2 c4 ,ap41 ,i4 #ah 7quoting the heathen historian ,menander of ,ephesus74 ,it may1 however1 be ,man of ,baal1 like ,saul's son ,ishbaal 7,ishbosheth74 ,in ,tyre the high priest was only second to the king in power 7,justin1 ,hist41 xviii4 #d71 and ,ethbaal united both dignities4 ,he died aged sixty-eight4 ,another ,ethbaal was on the throne during the siege of ,tyre by ,nebuchadnezzar 7,josephus1 ,antt41 ,x4 xi4 ,i74 #eic ,josephus1 c4 ,ap41 ,i4 #ah4 ,the genealogy is3-- ----------------------- ,phelles ,ethbaal4 7a usurper1 whom his brother ,ethbaal slew74 ---------------- ,badezon4 ,jezebel4 ,matger 7,belus74 --------------- ,pygmalion4 ,dido4 ,see ,canon ,rawlinson1 ,speaker's ,commentary1 ad loc4 #eid ,plaut41 ,pnul41 ,v4 ii4 #f1 #g4 ,phnician names abound in the element ,baal4 #eie ,ahaziah 7,jehovah supports71 ,jehoram 7,jehovah is exalted71 ,athaliah 7874 ,the word ,baal merely meant ,lord2 and perhaps the fact that at one time it had been freely applied to ,jehovah ,himself may have helped to confuse the religious perceptions of the people4 ,saul1 certainly no idolater1 called his son ,eshbaal 7the man of ,baal72 and it was only the hatred of the name ,baal in later times which led the ,jews to alter ,baal into ,bosheth 7shame71 as in ,ishbosheth1 ,mephibosheth4 ,david himself had a son named ,beeliada 7known to ,baal71 which was altered into ,eliada 7#a ,chron4 xiv4 #g1 iii4 #h2 #b ,sam4 v4 #af2 comp4 #b ,chron4 xvii4 #ag74 ,we even find the name ,bealiah 7,baal is ,jah7 as one of ,david's men 7#a ,chron4 xii4 #e74 ,hoshea too records that ,baali 7my ,lord7 was used of ,jehovah1 but changed into ,ishi 7my husband7 7,hosea ii4 #af1 #ag74 ,it is used simply for owner 7the baal of an ox7 in the ,book of the ,covenant 7,exod4 xxi4 #bh74 ,see ,robertson ,smith1 ,rel4 of the ,semites1 #ib4 #eif ,ethbaal is called ,king of ,sidon 7#a ,kings xvi4 #ca71 and was also ,king of ,tyre 7,menander ap4 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 xiii4 #a74 #eig #a ,kings xvi4 #bc2 #b ,kings iii4 #b1 x4 #bg4 #eih ,asherim seem to be upright wooden stocks of trees in honour of the ,nature-goddess ,asheroth4 ,the ,temple of ,baal at ,tyre had no image1 only two ,matstseboth1 one of gold given by ,hiram1 one of emerald 7,dius and ,menander ap4 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 v4 #c2 c4 ,ap41 ,i4 #ah2 ,herod41 ii4 #ff74 #eii ,dllinger1 ,judenth4 u4 ,heidenthum 7,e4 ,t471 i4 #dbe-bi4 #fjj #b ,sam4 x4 #e2 ,judg4 iii4 #bh4 #fja #b ,chron4 xxviii4 #ae4 #fjb ,comp4 ,josh4 vi4 #bf2 #b ,sam4 x4 #e4 #fjc ,rev4 ii4 #bj4 #fjd #a ,kings xxi4 #be1 #bf4 #fje ,henry ,smith1 ,the ,trumpet of the ,lord sounding to ,judgment4 ,,chapter ,,xxxiv4 ,,elijah4 #a ,,kings xvii4 #a-g4 ,and ,elias the prophet stood up as fire1 and his word was burning as a torch4--,,ecclus4 xlviii4 #a4 ,but that two-handed engine at the door ,stands ready to smite once1 and smite no more4 ,lycidas4 ,many chapters are now occupied with narratives of the deeds of two great prophets1 ,elijah and ,elisha1 remarkable for the blaze and profusion of miracles and for similarity in many details4 ,for thirty-four years we hear but little of ,judah1 and the kings of ,israel are overshadowed by the men of ,god4 ,both narratives1 of which the later in sequence seems to be the earlier in date1 originated in the ,schools of the ,prophets4 ,both are evidently drawn from documentary sources apart from the ordinary annals of the ,kings4 ,doubtless something of their fragmentariness is due to the abbreviation of the prophetic annals by the historians4 ,suddenly1 with abrupt impetuosity1 the mighty figure of ,elijah the ,prophet bursts upon the scene like lightning on the midnight4 ,so far as the sacred page is concerned1 he1 like ,melchizedek1 is without father1 without mother1 without descent4 ,he appears before us unannounced as ,elijah the ,tishbite of the inhabitants of ,gilead4 ,such a phenomenon as ,jezebel explains and necessitates such a phenomenon as ,elijah4 ,the loftiest and sternest spirit of the true faith is raised up1 says ,dean ,stanley1 face to face with the proudest and fiercest spirit of the old ,asiatic ,paganism4 ,the name ,elijah1 or1 in its fuller and more sonorous ,hebrew form1 ,elijahu1 means ,jehovah is my ,god4 ,who he was is entirely unknown4 ,so completely is all previous trace of him lost in mystery that ,talmudic legends confounded him with ,phinehas1 the son of ,aaron1 the avenging and fiercely zealous priest2 and even identified him with the angel or messenger of ,jehovah who appeared to ,gideon and ascended in the altar flame4 ,the name ,tishbite tells us nothing4 ,no town of ,tishbi occurs in ,scripture1 and though a ,thisbe in the tribe of ,naphtali is mentioned as the birthplace of ,tobit1#fjf the existence of such a place is as doubtful as that of ,thesbon of the ,gileadite district to which ,josephus assigns his birth4#fjg ,the ,hebrew may mean the ,tishbite from ,tishbi of ,gilead1 or ,the sojourner from the sojourners of ,gilead2 and we know no more4 ,elijah's grandeur is in himself alone4 ,perhaps he was by birth an ,ishmaelite4 ,when the wild ,highlander in ,rob ,roy says of himself ,i am a man1 ,a man6 repeated ,frank ,osbaldistone2 that is a very brief description4 ,it will serve1 answered the outlaw1 for one who has no other to give4 ,he who is without name1 without friends1 without coin1 without country1 is still at least a man3 and he that has all these is no more4 ,so ,elijah stands alone in the towering height of his fearless manhood4 ,some clue to the swift mysterious movements1 the rough asceticism1 the sheepskin robe1 the unbending sternness of the ,prophet may lie in the notice that he was a ,gileadite1 or at any rate among the sojourners of ,gilead1 and therefore akin to them4 ,it might even be conjectured that he was of ,kenite origin1 like ,jonadab1 the son of ,rechab1 in the days of ,jehu4#fjh ,the ,gileadites were the ,highlanders of ,palestine1 and the name of their land implies its barren ruggedness4#fji ,they1 like the modern ,druses1 were ,fierce1 hardy1 proud1 in conscious freedom bold4 ,we catch a glimpse of these characteristics in the notice of the four hundred ,gadites who swam the ,jordan in ,palestine to join the freebooters of ,david in the cave of ,adullam1 whose faces were like the faces of lions1 and who were as swift as the roes upon the mountains4 ,though of ,israelitish origin they were closely akin to the ,bedawin1 swift1 strong1 temperate1 fond of the great solitudes of nature1 haters of cities1 scorners of the softnesses of civilisation4 ,elijah shared these characteristics4 ,like the forerunner of ,christ1 in whom his spirit reappeared nine centuries later1 he had lived alone with ,god in the glowing deserts and the mountain fastnesses4 ,he found ,jehovah's presence1 not in the ,gay religions1 full of pomp and gold1 which he misdoubted and despised1 but in the barren hills and wild ravines and bleak uplands where only here and there roamed a shepherd with his flock4 ,in such hallowed loneliness he had learnt to fear man little1 because he feared ,god much1 and to dwell familiarly on the sterner aspects of religion and morality4 ,the one conscious fact of his mission1 the sufficient authentication of his most imperious mandates1 was that he stood before ,jehovah4 ,so unexpected were his appearances and disappearances1 that in the popular view he only seemed to flash to and fro1 or to be swept hither and thither1 by the ,spirit of the ,lord4 ,we may say of him as was said of ,john the ,baptist1 that in his manifestation and agency he was like a burning torch2 his public life was quite an earthquake2 the whole man was a sermon1 the voice of one crying in the wilderness4 ,and1 like the ,baptist1 he had been in the deserts1 till the day of his showing unto ,israel4 ,somewhere--perhaps at ,samaria1 perhaps in the lovely summer palace at ,jezreel--he suddenly strode into the presence of ,ahab4 ,coming to him as the messenger of the ,king of kings he does not deign to approach him with the genuflexions and sounding titles which ,nathan used to the aged ,david4 ,with scanted courtesy to one whom he does not respect or dread--knowing that he is in ,god's hands1 and has no time to waste over courtly periphrases or personal fears--he comes before ,ahab unknown1 unintroduced4 ,what manner of man was it by whom the king in his crown and ,tyrian purple was thus rudely confronted8 ,he was1 tradition tells us1 a man of short stature1 of rugged countenance4 ,he was a lord of hair--the thick black locks of the ,nazarite 7for such he probably was7 streamed over his shoulders like a lion's mane1 giving him a fierce and unkempt aspect4 ,they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses1 and doubtless under a queen who1 even in old age1 painted her face and tired her head1 and was given to ,sidonian luxuries1 ,ahab was accustomed to see men about him in bright apparel4 ,but ,elijah had not stooped to alter his ordinary dress1 which was the dress of the desert by which he was always known4 ,his brown limbs1 otherwise bare1 were covered with a heavy mantle1 the skin of a camel or a sheep worn with the rough wool outside1 and tightened round his loins by a leathern girdle4 ,so unusual was his aspect in the cities east of ,jordan1 accustomed since the days of ,solomon to all the refinements of ,egyptian and ,phnician culture1 that it impressed and haunted the imagination of his own and of subsequent ages4 ,the dress of ,elijah became so normally the dress of prophets who would fain have assumed his authority without one spark of his inspiration1 that the later ,zechariah has to warn his people against sham prophets who appeared with hairy garments1 and who wounded their own hands for no other purpose than to deceive4#faj ,the robe of skin1 after the long interspace of centuries1 was still the natural garb of the glorious eremite1 who in his spirit and power made straight in the deserts a highway for our ,god4 ,such was the man who delivered to ,ahab in one sentence his tremendous message3 ,as ,jehovah1 ,god of ,israel1 liveth1 before whom ,i stand--such was the introductory formula1 which became proverbial1 and which authenticated the prophecy--,there shall not be dew#faa nor rain these years but according to my word4 ,the phrase to stand before ,jehovah was used of priests3 it was applicable to a prophet in a far deeper and less external sense4#fab ,drought was one of the recognised ,divine punishments for idolatrous apostasy4 ,if ,israel should fall into disobedience1 we read in ,deuteronomy1 the ,lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust2 from heaven shall it come down upon thee--until thou be destroyed2 and in ,leviticus we read1 ,if ye will not hearken1 ,i will make your heaven as iron and your earth as brass4 ,the threat was too significant to need any explanation4 ,the conscience of ,ahab could interpret only too readily that prophetic menace4 ,the message of ,elijah marked the beginning of a three1 or three and a half years' famine4 ,this historic drought is also mentioned by ,menander of ,tyre1 who says that after a year1 at the prayer of ,ethbaal1 the priest and king1 there came abundant thunder showers4 ,st4 ,james represents the famine as well as its termination as having been caused by ,elijah's prayer4#fac ,but the expression of the historian is general4 ,elijah might pray for rain1 but no prophet could1 proprio motu1 have offered up a prayer for so awful a curse upon an entire country as a famine1 in which thousands of the innocent would suffer no less severely than the guilty4 ,three years' famine was a recognised penalty for apostasy4 ,it was one of the sore plagues of ,god4 ,it had befallen ,judah because of ,saul and his bloody house1#fad and had been offered to guilty ,david as an alternative for three days' pestilence1 or three years' flight before his enemies4#fae ,we are not here told that ,elijah prayed for it1 but that he announced its commencement1 and declared that only in accordance with his announcement should it close4 ,he delivered his message1 and what followed we do not know4 ,ahab's tolerance was great2 and1 however fierce may have been his displeasure1 he seems in most cases to have personally respected the sacredness and dignity of the prophets4 ,the king's wrath might provoke an outburst of sullenness1 but he contented himself with menacing and reproachful words4 ,it was otherwise with ,jezebel4 ,a genuine idolatress1 she hated the servants of ,jehovah with implacable hatred1 and did her utmost to suppress them by violence4 ,it was probably to save ,elijah from her fury that he was bidden to fly into safe hiding1 while her foiled rage expended itself in the endeavour to extirpate the whole body of the prophets of the ,lord4 ,but1 just as the child ,christ was saved when ,herod massacred the infants of ,bethlehem1 so ,elijah1 at whom ,jezebel's blow was chiefly aimed1 had escaped beyond her reach4 ,a hundred other imperilled prophets were hidden in a cave by the faithfulness of ,obadiah1 the king's vizier4 ,the word of the ,lord bade ,elijah to fly eastward and hide himself in the brook ,cherith1#faf that is before ,jordan4 ,the site of this ravine--which ,josephus only calls a certain torrent bed--has not been identified4 ,it was doubtless one of the many wadies which run into the deep ,ghr or cleft of the ,jordan on its eastern side4 ,if it belonged to his native ,gilead1 ,elijah would be in little fear of being discovered by the emissaries whom ,ahab sent in every direction to seek for him4 ,whether it was the ,wady ,kelt1#fag or the ,wady el ,jabis1#fah or the ,ain ,fusail1#fai we know the exact characteristics of the scene4 ,on either side1 deep1 winding and precipitous1 rise the steep walls of rock1 full of tropic foliage1 among which are conspicuous the small dark green leaves and stiff thorns of the nubk4 ,far below the summit of the ravine1 marking its almost imperceptible thread of water by the brighter green of the herbage1 and protected by masses of dewy leaves from the fierce power of evaporation1 the hidden torrent preserves its life in all but the most long-continued periods of drought4 ,in such a scene ,elijah was absolutely safe4 ,whenever danger approached he could hide himself in some fissure or cavern of the beetling crags where the wild birds have their nest1 or sit motionless under the dense screen of interlacing boughs4 ,the wildness and almost terror of his surroundings harmonised with his stern and fearless spirit4 ,a spirit like his would rejoice in the unapproachable solitude1 communing with ,god alike when the sun flamed in the zenith and when the midnight hung over him with all its stars4 ,the needs of an ,oriental--particularly of an ascetic ,bedawy prophet--are small as those of the simplest hermit4 ,water and a few dates often suffice him for days together4 ,elijah drank of the brook1 and ,god had commanded the ravens to feed him there4 ,the shy1 wild1 unclean birds#fbj brought him--so the old prophetic narrative tells us--bread and flesh in the morning1 and bread and flesh in the evening4 ,we may remark in passing1 that flesh twice a day or even once a day1 if with ,josephus we read bread in the morning and flesh in the evening1 is no part of an ,arab's ordinary food4 ,it is regarded by him as wholly needless1 and indeed as an exceptional indulgence4 ,the double meal of flesh does not resemble the simple diet of bread and water on which the ,prophet lived afterwards at ,sarepta4 ,are we or are we not to take this as a literal fact8 ,here we are face to face with a plain question to which ,i should deem it infamous to give a false or a prevaricating answer4 ,before giving it1 let us clear the ground4 ,first of all1 it is a question which can only be answered by serious criticism4 ,assertion can add nothing to it1 and is not worth the breath with which it is uttered4 ,the anathemas of obsolete and a priori dogmatism against those who cannot take the statement as simple fact do not weigh so much as a dead autumn leaf in the minds of any thoughtful men4 ,some holy but uninstructed soul may say1 ,it stands on the sacred page3 why should you not understand it literally8 ,it might be sufficient to answer1 ,because there are many utterances on the sacred page which are purely poetic or metaphorical4 ,the eye that mocketh at his father1 and despiseth to obey his mother1 the ravens of the brook shall pick it out1 and the young vultures shall eat it4#fba ,the statement looks prosaic and positive enough1 but what human being ever took it literally8 ,curse not the king--for a bird of the air shall carry the voice1 and that which hath wings shall tell the matter4 ,who does not see at once that the words are poetic and metaphorical8 ,where their worm dieth not1 and their fire is not quenched4 ,how many educated ,christians can assert that they believe that the unredeemed will be eaten for ever by literal worms in endless flames8 ,the man who pretends that he is obliged to understand literally the countless ,scriptural metaphors involved in an ,eastern language of which nearly every word is a pictorial metaphor1 only shows himself incompetent to pronounce an opinion on subjects connected with history1 literature1 or religious criticism4 ,is it then out of dislike to the supernatural1 or disbelief in its occurrence1 that the best critics decline to take the statement literally8 ,not at all4 ,most ,christians have not the smallest difficulty in accepting the supernatural4 ,if they believe in the stupendous miracles of the ,incarnation and the ,resurrection1 what possible difficulty could they have in accepting any other event merely on the ground that it is miraculous8 ,to many ,christians all life seems to be one incessant miracle4 ,disbelieving that any force less than the fiat of ,god could have thrilled into inorganic matter the germs of vegetable and still more of animal life2 believing that their own life is supernatural1 and that they are preserved as they were created by endless cycles of ever-recurrent miracles2 believing that the whole spiritual life is supernatural in its every characteristic2 they have not the slightest unwillingness to believe a miracle when any real evidence can be adduced for it4 ,they accept1 without the smallest misgiving1 the miracles of ,jesus ,christ our ,lord1 radiating as ordinary works from ,his ,divine nature1 performed in the full blaze of history1 attested by hundredfold contemporary evidence1 leading to results of world-wide and eternal significance--miracles which were1 so to speak1 natural1 normal1 and necessary1 and of which each revealed some deep moral or spiritual truth4 ,but if miracles can only rest on evidence1 the dullest and least instructed mind can see that the evidence for this and for some other miracles in this narrative stands on a wholly different footing4 ,taken apart from dogmatic assertions which are themselves unproven or disproved1 the evidence that ravens daily fed ,elijah is wholly inadequate to sustain the burden laid upon it4 ,in the first place1 the story occurs in a book compiled some centuries after the event which it attests2 in a book solemn indeed and sacred1 but composite1 and in some of its details not exempt from the accidents which have always affected all human literature4 ,and this incident is unattested by any other evidence4 ,it is1 so to speak1 isolated4 ,it is quite separable from the historic features of the narrative1 and is out of accordance with what is truly called the ,divine economy of miracles4 ,no miracle was wrought to supply ,elijah with water2 and if a miracle was needed to supply him with bread and flesh1 it is easy to imagine hundreds of forms of such direct interposition which would be more normal and more in accordance with all other ,scripture miracles than the continuous overruling of the natural instincts of ravenous birds4 ,it has been said that this particular form of miracle was needed for its evidential value2 but there is nothing in the narrative to imply that it had the smallest evidential value for any one of ,elijah's contemporaries1 or even that they knew of it at all4 ,further1 we find it1 not in a plain prose narrative1 but in a narrative differing entirely from the prosaic setting in which it occurs--a narrative which rises in many parts to the height of poetic and imaginative splendour4 ,there is nothing to show that it was not intended to be a touch of imaginative poetry and nothing more4 ,part of the greatness of ,hebrew literature lies in its power of conveying eternal truth1 as1 for instance1 in the ,book of ,job and in many passages of the prophets1 in the form of imaginative narration4 ,the stories of ,elijah and ,elisha come from the ,schools of the ,prophets4 ,if room was left in them for the touch of poetic fiction1 or for the embellishment of history with moral truth1 conveyed in the form of parable or apologue1 we can at once account for the sudden multitude of miracles4 ,they were founded no doubt in many instances on actual events1 but in the form into which the narrative is thrown they were recorded to enhance the greatness of the heroic chiefs of the ,schools of the ,prophets4 ,it is therefore uncertain whether the original narrator believed1 or meant his readers literally to believe1 such a statement as that ,elijah was fed morning and evening by actual ravens4 ,it cannot be proved that he intended more than a touch of poetry1 by which he could convey the lesson that the prophet was maintained by marked interventions of that providence of ,god which is itself in all its workings supernatural4 ,god's feeding of the ravens in their nest was often alluded to in ,hebrew poetry2 and if the marvellous support of the ,prophet in his lonely hiding-place was to be represented in an imaginative form1 this way of representing it would naturally occur to the writer's thoughts4 ,similarly1 when ,jerome wrote the purely fictitious life of ,paul the ,hermit1 which was taken for fact even by his contemporaries1 he thinks it quite natural to say that ,paul and ,antony saw a raven sitting on a tree1 who flew gently down to them and placed a loaf on the table before them4 ,ravens haunt the lonely1 inaccessible cliffs among which ,elijah found his place of refuge4 ,it needed but a touch of metaphor to transform them into ministers of ,heaven's beneficence4 ,but besides all this1 the word rendered ravens 7,orebim1 7 only has that meaning if it be written with the vowel points4 ,but the vowel points are confessedly not inspired in any sense1 but are a late ,massoretic invention4 ,without the change of a letter the word may equally well mean people of the city ,orbo1#fbb or of the rock ,oreb 7as was suggested even in the ,bereshith ,rabba by ,rabbi ,judah72 or merchants1 as in ,ezek4 xxvii4 #bg2 or ,arabians4 ,no doubt difficulties might be suggested about any of these interpretations2 but which would be most reasonable1 the acceptance of such small difficulties1 or the literal acceptance of a stupendous miracle1 unlike any other in the ,bible1 by which we are to believe on the isolated authority of a nameless and long subsequent writer1 that1 for months or weeks together1 voracious and unclean birds brought bread and flesh to the ,prophet twice a day8 ,the old naturalistic attempts to explain the miracle are on the face of them absurd2 but it is as perfectly open to any one who chooses to say that ,arabians1 or ,orbites1 or merchants1 or people of the rock ,oreb fed ,elijah1 as to say that the ravens did so4 ,the explanation now universally accepted by the ,higher ,criticism is different4 ,it is to accept the meaning ravens1 but not with wooden literalness to interpret didactic and poetic symbolism as though it were bald and matter-of-fact prose4 ,the imagery of a grand religious ,haggada is not to be understood1 nor was it ever meant to be understood1 like the page of a dull annalist4 ,analogous stories are found abundantly alike in early pagan and early ,christian literature and in medival hagiology4 ,they are true in essence though not in fact1 and the intention of them is often analogous to this2 but no story is found so noble as this in its pure and quiet simplicity4 ,let this then suffice and render it needless to recur to similar discussions4 ,if any think themselves bound to interpret this and all the other facts in these narratives in their most literal sense2 if they hold that the mere mention of such things by unknown writers in unknown time--possibly centuries afterwards1 when the event may have become magnified by the refraction of tradition--is sufficient to substantiate them1 let them hold their own opinion as long as it can satisfy them4 ,but proof of such an opinion they neither have nor can have2 and let them beware of priding themselves on the vaunt of their faith1 when such faith may haply prove to be no more than a distortion of the truer faith which proves all things and only holds fast that which will stand the test4 ,a belief based on some a priori opinion about verbal dictation is not necessarily meritorious4 ,it may be quite the reverse4 ,such a dogma has never been laid down by the ,church in general4 ,it has very rarely been insisted upon by any branch of the ,church in any age4 ,a belief which prides itself on ignorance of the vast horizon opened to us by the study of many forms of literature1 by the advance of criticism1 by the science of comparative religion--so far from being religious or spiritual may only be a sign of ignorance1 or of a defective love of truth4 ,a dogmatism which heaps upon intelligent faith burdens at once needless and intolerable may spring from sources which should tend to self-humiliation rather than to spiritual pride4#fbc ,abundet quisque in sensu suo4 ,but such beliefs have not the smallest connexion with true faith or sincere ,christianity4 ,god is a ,god of truth1 and he who tries to force himself into a view which history and literature1 no less than the faithful following of the ,divine light within him1 convince him to be untenable1 does not rise into faith1 but sins and does mischief by feebleness and lack of faith4#fbd ,,footnotes3 #fjf ,tobit i4 #b4 #fjg ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 xiii4 #b2 ,vat4 7,,lxx471 4 ,the ,alex4 ,,lxx4 omits 4 ,an immense amount has been written about ,elijah4 ,among others1 see ,knobel1 ,der ,prophetismus1 ii4 #gc2 ,kster1 ,der ,thesbiter2 ,stanley1 ii41 lect4 xxx42 ,maurice1 ,prophets and ,kings1 serm4 viii42 ,f4 ,w4 ,robertson1 ii41 serm4 vi42 ,milligan1 ,elijah 7,men of the ,bible74 #fjh ,see #a ,chron4 ii4 #ee4 #fji ,see ,cheyne1 ,the ,hallowing of ,criticism1 p4 #i4 #faj ,zech4 xiii4 #d4 #faa ,the word also means sea-mist 7,cheyne1 p4 #ae74 #fab ,lev4 xxvi4 #ai2 ,psalm cxxxiv4 #a2 ,heb4 x4 #aa4 #fac ,so too ,ecclus4 xlviii4 #b1 ,he brought a sore famine upon them1 and by his zeal he diminished their number2 but the writer adds1 ,by the word of the ,lord he shut up the heavens4 ,deut4 xxviii4 #ab2 ,amos iv4 #g4 #fad #b ,sam4 xxi4 #a4 #fae #b ,sam4 xxiv4 #ac4 ,three1 not seven1 is probably here the true reading4 #faf ,not by1 as in the ,a4,v4 ,cherith means cut off 7#a ,kings xvii4 #c74 ,the ,lord hid him 7,jer4 xxxvi4 #bf74 ,in famine he shall redeem thee from death4444 ,at famine and destruction thou shalt laugh 7,job v4 #bj-bb74 #fag ,robinson4 #fah ,benjamin of ,tudela4 #fai ,marinus ,sanutus 7#acba74 #fbj ,the ravens were unclean birds 7,deut4 xiv4 #ad71 and this naturally startled and offended the ,rabbis4 #fba ,prov4 xxx4 #ag4 #fbb ,orbo was a small town near the ,jordan and ,bethshan4 #fbc ,on the other side1 ,bunsen 7,bibelwerk1 v4 #b1 #edj7 speaks too strongly when he says that nothing but boundless ignorance1 or1 where historical criticism has not died out1 an hierarchical dilettanti reaction1 foolhardy hypocrisy1 and weak-hearted fanaticism would wish to demand the faith of a ,christian community in the historic truths of these miracles as if they had actually taken place4 ,he regards the whole narrative as a popular epic--the fruit of an inspiration1 which he1 as it were some superhuman being1 awakened in his disciples4 #fbd ,i append the remarks of ,professor ,milligan1 a theologian of unimpeachable orthodoxy4 ,the miracle1 he says1 is so remarkable1 so much out of keeping with most of the other miracles of ,scripture1 that even pious and devout minds may well be perplexed by it1 and we can feel no surprise at the attempts made to explain it4 ,such attempts are not inconsistent with the most devout reverence for the word of ,god4 ,they are rather1 not unfrequently1 the result of a just persuasion that the ,eastern mind did not express itself in forms similar to those of the ,west 7,elijah1 p4 #bb74 ,he proceeds to protest against the harsh condemnation of those who thus only try to interpret the real ideas present in the mind of the writer4 ,he regards it as perhaps a highly poetic and figurative representation of the truth that the ,god of ,nature was with ,elijah4 ,the value of the ,prophet's experience is neither heightened by a literal1 nor diminished by a figurative1 interpretation of what passed 7p4 #bd74 ,,chapter ,,xxxv4 ,,elijah ,,at ,,sarepta4 #a ,,kings xvii4 #g1 xviii4 #ai4 ,the rain is ,god's compassion4--,,mohammed4 ,the fierce drought continued1 and at the end of days#fbe even the thin trickling of the stream in the clefts of ,cherith was dried up4 ,in the language of ,job it felt the glare and vanished4#fbf ,no miracle was wrought to supply the ,prophet with water1 but once more the providence of ,god intervened to save his life for the mighty work which still awaited him4 ,he was sent to the region where1 nearly a millennium later1 the feet of his ,lord followed him on a mission of mercy to those other sheep of ,his flock who were not of the ,judan fold4 ,the word of the ,lord bade him make his way to the ,sidonian city of ,zarephath4 ,zarephath1 the ,sarepta of ,st4 ,luke1 the modern ,surafend1 lay between ,tyre and ,sidon1 and there the waters would not be wholly dried up1 for the fountains of ,lebanon were not yet exhausted4 ,the drought had extended to ,phnicia1#fbg but ,elijah was told that there a widow woman would sustain him4 ,the ,baal-worshipping queen who had hunted for his life would be least of all likely to search for him in a city of ,baal-worshippers in the midst of her own people4 ,he is sent among these ,baal-worshippers to do them kindness1 to receive kindness from them--perhaps to learn a wider tolerance1 and to find that idolaters also are human beings1 children1 like the orthodox1 of the same heavenly ,father4 ,he had been taught the lesson of dependence upon ,god3 he was now to learn the lesson of fellowship with man4 ,travelling probably by night both for coolness and for safety1 ,elijah went that long journey to the heathen district4 ,he arrived there faint with hunger and thirst4 ,seeing a woman gathering sticks near the city gate he asked her for some water1 and as she was going to fetch it he called to her and asked her also to bring him a morsel of bread4 ,the answer revealed the condition of extreme want to which she was reduced4 ,recognising that ,elijah was an ,israelite1 and therefore a worshipper of ,jehovah1 she said1 ,as ,jehovah thy ,god liveth1 ,i have not a cake1 but 7only7 a handful of meal in the barrel1 and a little oil in the cruse4 ,she was gathering a couple of sticks to make one last meal for herself and her son1 and then to lie down and die4#fbh ,for drought did not only mean universal anguish1 but much actual starvation4 ,it meant1 as ,joel says1 speaking of the desolation caused by locusts1 that the cattle groan and perish1 and the corn withers1 and the seeds rot under their clods4 ,strong in faith ,elijah told her not to fear1 but first to supply his own more urgent needs1 and then to make a meal for herself and her son4 ,till ,jehovah sent rain1 the barrel of meal should not waste1 nor the cruse of oil fail4 ,she believed the promise1 and for many days1 perhaps for two whole years1 the ,prophet continued to be her guest4 ,but after a time her boy fell grievously sick1 and at last died1 or seemed to die4#fbi ,so dread a calamity--the smiting of the stay of her home1 and the son of her widowhood--filled the woman with terror4 ,she longed to get rid of the presence of this terrible man of ,god4#fcj ,he must have come1 she thought1 to bring her sin to remembrance before ,god1 and so to cause ,him to slay her son4 ,the ,prophet was touched by the pathos of her appeal1 and could not bear that she should look upon him as the cause of her bereavement4 ,give me thy son1 he said4 ,taking the dead boy from her arms1 he carried him to the chamber which she had set apart for him1 and laid him on his own bed4 ,then1 after an earnest cry to ,god1 he stretched himself three times over the body of the youth1 as though to breathe into his lungs and restore his vital warmth1 at the same time praying intensely that his soul might come into him again4#fca ,his prayer was heard2 the boy revived4 ,carrying him down from the chamber1 ,elijah had the happiness of restoring him to his widowed mother with the words1 ,see1 thy son liveth4 ,so remarkable an event not only convinced the woman that ,elijah was indeed what she had called him1 a man of ,god1 but also that ,jehovah was the true ,god4 ,it was not unnatural that tradition should interest itself in the boy thus strangely snatched from the jaws of death4 ,the ,jews fancied that he grew up to be servant of ,elijah1 and afterwards to be the prophet ,jonah4 ,the tradition at least shows an insight into the fact that ,elijah was the first missionary sent from among the ,jews to the heathen1 and that ,jonah became the second4 ,we are not to suppose that during his stay at ,zarephath ,elijah remained immured in his chamber4 ,safe and unsuspected1 he might1 at least by night1 make his way to other places1 and it is reasonable to believe that he then began to haunt the glades and heights of beautiful and deserted ,carmel1 which was at no great distance1 and where he could mourn over the ruined altar of ,jehovah and take refuge in any of its more than two thousand tortuous caves4 ,but what was the object of his being sent to ,zarephath8 ,that it was not for his own sake alone1 that it had in it a purpose of conversion1 is distinctly implied by our ,lord when ,he says that in those days there were many widows in ,israel1 yet ,elijah was not sent to them1 but to this ,sidonian idolatress4 ,the prophets and saints of ,god do not always understand the meaning of ,providence or the lessons of their ,divine training4 ,francis of ,assisi at first entirely misunderstood the real drift and meaning of the ,divine intimations that he was to rebuild the ruined ,church of ,god1 which he afterwards so gloriously fulfilled4 ,the thoughts of ,god are not as man's thoughts1 nor ,his ways as man's ways1 nor does ,he make all ,his servants as it were fusile apostles1 as ,he made ,st4 ,paul4 ,the education of ,elijah was far from complete even long afterwards4 ,to the very last1 if we are to accept the records of him as historically literal1 amid the revelations vouchsafed to him he had not grasped the truth that the ,elijah-spirit1 however needful it may seem to be1 differs very widely from the ,spirit of the ,lord of ,life4 ,yet may it not have been that ,elijah was sent to learn from the kind ministrations of a ,sidonian widow1 to whose care his life was due1 some inkling of those truths which ,christ revealed so many centuries afterwards1 when ,he visited the coasts of ,tyre and ,sidon1 and extended ,his mercy to the great faith of the ,syro-,phnician woman8 ,may not ,elijah have been meant to learn what had to be taught by experience to the two great ,apostles of the ,circumcision and the ,uncircumcision1 that not every ,baal-worshipper was necessarily corrupt or wholly insincere8 ,st4 ,peter was thus taught that ,god is no respecter of persons1 and that whether their religious belief be false or true1 in every nation he that feareth ,him and doeth righteousness is accepted of ,him4 ,st4 ,paul learnt at ,damascus and taught at ,athens that ,god made of one every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth1 that they should seek ,god if haply they might feel after ,him and find ,him1 though ,he be not far from every one of us4 ,,footnotes3 #fbe #a ,kings xvii4 #g4 ,perhaps years 7,lev4 xxv4 #bi2 #a ,sam4 xxvii4 #g74 #fbf ,job vi4 #ag4 #fbg ,menander1 quoted by ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 xiii4 #b4 ,he says it lasted for a year4 #fbh ,,lxx41 ,my sons--perhaps with reference to her house in verse #ae4 #fbi ,perhaps the language of the ,hebrew is not actually decisive4 ,josephus says1 4 ,in any case his recovery was due to ,elijah's prayer4 #fcj ,the phrase man of ,god is characteristic of the ,book of ,kings1 in which it occurs fifty-three times4 ,it became a normal description of ,elijah and ,elisha4 ,what have ,i to do with thee8 ,comp4 #b ,sam4 xvi4 #aj2 ,luke v4 #h4 ,it was a common superstition that death always followed the appearance of superhuman beings4 #fca ,compare the similar revivals of life wrought by ,elisha 7#b ,kings iv4 #cd71 and by ,st4 ,paul 7,acts xx4 #aj74 ,,chapter ,,xxxvi4 ,,elijah ,,and ,,ahab4 #a ,,kings1 xviii4 #a-ai4 ,return1 oh backsliding children1 and ,i will heal your backslidings4 ,behold1 we come unto thee2 for ,thou art ,jehovah our ,god4 ,truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the tumult 7of votaries7 upon the mountains4 ,truly in ,jehovah our ,god is the salvation of ,israel4 ,and the ,shame 7i4e41 ,baal7 hath devoured the labour of our fathers4--,,jer4 iii4 #bb-bd4 ,elijah stayed long with the ,sidonian widow1 safe in that obscure concealment1 and with his simple wants supplied4 ,but at last the word of the ,lord came to him with the conviction that the drought had accomplished its appointed end in impressing the souls of king and people1 and that the time was come for some immense and decisive demonstration against the prevalent apostasy4 ,all his sudden movements1 all his stern incisive utterances were swayed by his allegiance to ,jehovah before whom he stood1 and he now received the command1 ,go1 show thyself unto ,ahab2 and ,i will send rain upon the earth4 ,to obey such a mandate showed the strength of his faith4 ,it is clear that even before the menace of the thought he had been known1 and unfavourably known1 to ,ahab4 ,the king saw in him a prophet who fearlessly opposed all the idolatrous tendencies into which he had led his easy and faithless people4 ,how terribly must ,ahab's hatred have been now intensified6 ,we see from all the books of the prophets that they were personally identified with their predictions2 that they were held responsible for them1 were even regarded in popular apprehension as having actually brought about the things which they predicted4 ,see1 says ,jehovah to the timid boy ,jeremiah1 ,i have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms to root out1 and to pull down1 and to destroy1 and to throw down1 to build1 and to plant4 ,the ,prophet is addressed as though he personally effected the ruin he denounced4 ,elijah1 then1 would be regarded by ,ahab as in one sense the author of the three years' famine4 ,it would be held--not indeed with perfect accuracy1 yet with a not unnatural confusion--that it was he who had shut up the windows of heaven and caused the misery and starvation of the suffering multitudes4 ,with what wrath would a great and powerful king like ,ahab look on this bold intruder1 this skin-clad alien of ,gilead1 who had frustrated his policy1 defied his power1 and stamped his reign with so overwhelming a disaster4 ,yet he is bidden1 ,go1 show thyself unto ,ahab2 and perhaps his immediate safety was only secured by the additional message1 and ,i will send rain upon the earth4 ,things had1 indeed1 come to their worst4 ,the sore famine in ,samaria had reached a point which1 if it had not been alleviated1 would have led to the utter ruin of the miserable kingdom4 ,in this crisis ,ahab did all that a king could do4 ,most of the cattle had perished1 but it was essential to save if possible some of the horses and mules4 ,no grass was left on the scorched plains and bare brown hills except where there were fountains and brooks which had not entirely vanished under that copper sky4 ,to these places it was necessary to drive such a remnant of the cattle as it might be still possible to preserve alive4 ,but who could be trusted to rise entirely superior to individual selfishness in such a search8 ,ahab thought it best to trust no one but himself and his vizier ,obadiah4 ,the very name of this high official1 ,obadjahu1 like the common ,mohammedan names ,abdallah1 ,abderrahnan1 and others1 implied that he was a servant of ,jehovah4 ,his conduct answered to his name1 for on ,jezebel's persecuting attempt to exterminate ,jehovah's prophets in their schools or communities1 he1 the ,sebastian of the ,jewish ,diocletian1 had1 at the peril of his own life1 taken a hundred of them1 concealed them in two of the great limestone caves of ,palestine--perhaps in the recesses of ,mount ,carmel1#fcb and fed them with bread and water4 ,it is to ,ahab's credit that he retained such a man in office1 though the touch of timidity which we trace in ,obadiah may have concealed the full faithfulness of his personal allegiance to the old worship4 ,yet that such a man should still hold the post of chamberlain 7al-hab-baith7 furnishes a fresh proof that ,ahab was not himself a worshipper of ,baal4 ,the king and his vizier went in opposite directions1 each of them unaccompanied1 and ,obadiah was on his way when he was startled by the sudden appearance of ,elijah4 ,he had not previously seen him1 but recognising him by his shaggy locks1 his robe of skin1 and the awful sternness of his swarthy countenance1 he was almost abjectly terrified4 ,apart from the awe-inspiring aspect and manner of the ,prophet1 this seemed no mere man who stood before him1 but the representative of the ,eternal1 and the wielder of ,his power4 ,to his contemporaries he appeared like the incarnate vengeance of ,jehovah against guilty times1 a flash as it were of ,god's consuming fire4 ,to the ,moslim of to-day he is still ,el ,khudr1 the eternal wanderer4 ,springing from his chariot1 ,obadiah fell flat on his face and cried1 ,is it thou1 my lord ,elijah8 ,it is ,i1 answered the ,prophet1 not wasting words over his terror and astonishment4 ,go1 tell thy lord1 ,behold1 ,elijah is here4 ,the message enhanced the vizier's alarm4 ,why had not ,elijah showed himself at once to ,ahab8 ,did some terrible vindictive purpose lurk behind his message8 ,did ,elijah confuse the aims and deeds of the minister with those of the king8 ,why did he despatch him on an errand which might move ,ahab to kill him8 ,was not ,elijah aware1 he asks1 with ,eastern hyperbole1 that ,ahab had sent to every nation and kingdom to ask if ,elijah was there1 and when told that he was not there he made them confirm the statement by an oath8#fcc ,what would come of such a message if ,obadiah conveyed it8 ,no sooner would it be delivered than the wind of the ,lord would sweep ,elijah away into some new and unknown solitude1#fcd and ,ahab1 thinking that he had only been befooled1 would in his angry disappointment1 put ,obadiah to death4 ,had he deserved such a fate8 ,had not ,elijah heard of his reverence for ,jehovah from his youth1 and of his saving the hundred prophets at the peril of his life8 ,why then send him on so dangerous a mission8 ,to these agitated appeals ,elijah answered by his customary oath1 ,as ,jehovah of hosts liveth1 before whom ,i stand1#fce ,i will show myself unto him to-day4 ,then ,obadiah went and told ,ahab1 and ,ahab with impetuous haste hastened to meet ,elijah1 knowing that on him depended the fate of his kingdom4 ,yet when they met he could not check the burst of anger which sprang to his lips4 ,is it thou1 thou troubler of ,israel8 he fiercely exclaimed4#fcf ,elijah was not the man to quail before the vultus instantis tyranni4 ,i have not troubled ,israel1 was the undaunted answer1 but thou and thy father's house4 ,the cause of the drought was not the menace of ,elijah1 but the apostasy to ,baalim4 ,it was time that the fatal controversy should be decided4 ,there must be an appeal to the people4 ,elijah was in a position to dictate1 and he did dictate4 ,let all ,israel1 he said1 be summoned to ,mount ,carmel2 and there he would singly meet in their presence the four hundred and fifty prophets of ,baal1 and the four hundred prophets of the ,asherah1 all of whom ate at ,jezebel's table4#fcg ,then and there a great challenge should take place1 and the question should be settled for ever1 whether ,baal or ,jehovah was to be the national god of ,israel4 ,what challenge could be fairer1 seeing that ,baal was the ,sun-god1 the god of fire8 ,,footnotes3 #fcb ,amos ix4 #c3 ,and though they hide themselves in the top of ,carmel1 ,i will search and take them out thence4 ,the phrase shows the security and seclusion of these caves and thickets1 the haunt once of lions and bears1 and still of leopards and hynas4 #fcc ,the ,,lxx4 adds that he inflicted vengeance because ,elijah was not found3 7#a ,kings xviii4 #aj74 #fcd ,obadiah seems to have believed in miraculous transference of the ,prophet from place to place4 ,comp4 ,ezek4 iii4 #ab-ad 7where the spirit may be rendered a spirit1 or a wind71 viii4 #c2 #b ,kings ii4 #af2 ,acts viii4 #ci2 and the ,ebionite ,gospel of ,st4 ,matthew4 ,my mother1 the ,holy ,ghost1 took me by a hair of the head1 and carried me to ,mount ,tabor 7,orig4 in ,joann41 ii41 #f2 and ,jer4 in ,mic4 vii4 #f74 ,so in ,bel and the ,dragon #cc-cf 7,abarbanel1 ,comm4 in ,habakkuk7 the prophet ,habakkuk is said to have been taken invisibly to supply food to ,daniel in the den of lions4 ,then the angel of the ,lord took him by the crown and bare him by the hair of his head1 and through the vehemency of his spirit 7,midr4 ,robshik ,rabba1 in the might of the ,holy ,ghost7 set him in ,babylon4 #fce #a ,kings xviii4 #ae1 ,,lxx41 ,the ,lord ,god of ,israel has now become to him more prominently the ,lord ,god of ,hosts4 #fcf ,the phrase had already been applied to ,achan 7,josh4 vii4 #be74 #fcg ,i4e41 were maintained at ,jezebel's expense4 ,the subsequent narration is silent as to the presence of the prophets of the ,asherah1 and ,wellhausen thinks that the words here are an interpolation4 ,,chapter ,,xxxvii4 ,,elijah ,,on ,,mount ,,carmel4 #a ,,kings xviii4 #bj-dj4 ,o for a sculptor's hand1 ,that thou might'st take thy stand1 ,thy wild hair floating in the eastern breeze6 ,,keble4 ,it never occurred to ,ahab to refuse the challenge1 or to arrest the hated messenger4 ,the hermit and the dervish are sacrosanct2 they stand before kings and are not ashamed4 ,having nothing to desire1 they have nothing to fear4 ,so ,antony stalked into the streets of ,alexandria to denounce its prefect2 so ,athanasius fearlessly seized the bridle of ,constantine in his new city2 so a ragged and dwarfish old man--,macedonius the ,barley-eater--descended from his mountain cave at ,antioch to stop the horses of the avenging commissioners of ,thedosius1 and bade them go back and rebuke the fury of their ,emperor1--and so far from punishing him they alighted1 and fell on their knees1 and begged his blessing4 ,the vast assembly was gathered by royal proclamation4 ,there could have been no scene in the land of ,israel more strikingly suitable for the purpose than ,mount ,carmel4 ,it is a ridge of upper oolite1 or ,jura limestone1 which at the eastern extremity rises more than sixteen hundred feet above the sea1 sinking down to six hundred feet at the western extremity4 ,the excellency of ,carmel of which the prophet speaks#fch consists in the fruitfulness which to this day makes it rich in flowers of all hues1 and clothes it with the impenetrable foliage of oak1 pine1 walnut1 olive1 laurel1 dense brushwood1 and evergreen shrubberies thicker than in any other part in ,central ,palestine4 ,the name means ,garden of ,god1 and travellers1 delighted with the rocky dells and blossoming glades1 describe ,carmel as still the fragrant lovely mountain that it was of old4#fci ,it forms the southern extremity of the ,gulf of ,khaifa1 and separates the great western plain of ,philistia from the plain of ,esdraelon1 and the plain of ,phnicia4 ,it is difficult1 says ,sir ,g4 ,grove1 to find another site in which every particular is so minutely fulfilled as in this4 ,the whole mountain is now called ,mar ,elias from the ,prophet's name4 ,the actual spot of the range near which took place this most memorable event in the history of ,israel was almost undoubtedly a little below the eastern summit of the ridge4 ,it is a terrace of natural rock1 which commands a fine view of the plains and lakes and the hills of ,galilee1 and the windings of the ,kishon1 with ,jezreel glimmering in the far distance under the heights of ,gilboa4 ,the remains of an old and massive square structure are here visible1 called ,el-,muhrakkah1 the burning1 or the sacrifice1 perhaps the site of ,elijah's altar4 ,under the ancient olives still remains the round well of perennial water from which1 even in the drought1 the ,prophet could fill the barrels which he poured over his sacrifice4 ,elijah's grotto is pointed out in the ,church of the ,convent1 and another near the sea4 ,in the region known as the garden of ,elijah are found the geodes and septaria--stones and fossils which assume the aspect1 sometimes of loaves of bread1 sometimes of water-melons and olives1 and are still known as ,elijah's fruits4 ,the whole mountain murmurs with his name4#fdj ,he became in local legend the oracular god ,carmelus1 whose altar and devotion drew visitors no less illustrious than ,pythagoras and ,vespasian to visit the sacred hill4#fda ,here1 then1 at early dawn the ,prophet of ,jehovah1 in his solitary grandeur1 met the four hundred and fifty idolatrous priests and their rabble of attendant fanatics in the presence of the half-curious king and the half-apostate people4 ,he presented the oft-repeated type of ,god's servant alone against the world4#fdb ,most rarely is it otherwise4 ,they who speak smooth things and prophesy deceits may always live at ease in amicable compromise with the world1 the flesh1 and the devil4 ,but the ,prophet has ever to set his face as a flint against tyrants1 and mobs and false prophets1 and intriguing priests1 and all who daub tottering walls with untempered mortar1 and all who1 in days smooth and perilous1 softly murmur1 ,peace1 peace1 when there is no peace4 ,so it was with ,noah in the days of the deluge2 so with ,amos and ,hosea and the later ,zechariah2 so with ,micaiah1 the son of ,imlah2 so with ,isaiah1 mocked as a babbler by the priests at ,jerusalem1 and at last sawn asunder2 so with ,jeremiah1 struck in the face by the priest ,pashur1 and thrust into the miry dungeon1 and at last murdered in exile2 so with ,zechariah1 the son of ,jehoiada1 whom they slew between the porch and the altar4 ,nor has it been less so since the earliest dawn of the ,new ,dispensation4 ,of ,john the ,baptist the priests and ,pharisees said1 ,he has a devil1 and ,herod slew him in prison4 ,all1 perhaps1 of the twelve ,apostles were martyred4 ,paul1 like the rest1 was intrigued against1 thwarted1 hated1 mobbed1 imprisoned1 hunted from place to place by the world1 the ,jews1 and the false ,christians4 ,treated as the offscouring of all things1 he was at last contemptuously beheaded in utter obscurity4 ,similar fates befell many of the best and greatest of the ,fathers4 ,ignatius1 ,polycarp1 ,justin1 were slain by wild beasts and by fire4 ,origen's life was one long martyrdom1 mostly at the hands of his fellow-,christians4 ,did not ,athanasius stand against the world8 ,what needs it to summon from the prison or the stake the mighty shades of ,savonarola1 of ,huss1 of ,jerome of ,prague1 of the ,albigenses and ,waldenses1 of the myriad victims of the ,inquisition1 of those who were burnt at ,smithfield and ,oxford1 of ,luther1 of ,whitfield8 ,did ,christ mean nothing when he said1 among ,his first beatitudes1 ,blessed are ye when all men shall revile you1 and persecute you1 and say all manner of evil against you falsely for ,my sake and the gospel's8 ,was it mere accident and metaphor when ,he said1 ,ye are of the world1 and therefore the world cannot hate you2 but ,me it hateth2 and1 ,if they have called the ,master of the house ,beelzebub1 much more them of ,his household8 ,which of ,his best and purest sons1 from the first ,good ,friday down to this day1 has ever passed through life unpersecuted of slanderous tongues8 ,has the nominal ,church ever shown any more mercy to saints than the sneering and furious world8 ,what has sustained ,christ's hated ones8 ,what but that confidence towards ,god which lives among those whose heart condemns them not8 ,what but the fact that they could turn from the storm without to the approving sunshine within8 ,see1 it has been said1 he who builds on the general esteem of the world builds1 not on the sand1 but1 which is worse1 upon the wind1 and writes the title-deeds of his hope upon the face of a river4 ,but when a man knows that one with ,god is always in a majority1 then his loneliness is changed into the confidence that all the ten thousand times ten thousand of ,heaven are with him4 ,his banishment becomes his preferment1 his rags his trophies1 his nakedness his ornament2 and1 so long as his innocence is his repast1 he feasts and banquets upon bread and water4 ,and so1 ,among the faithless1 faithful only he2 ,among innumerable false1 unmoved1 ,unshaken1 unseduced1 unterrified1 ,elijah fearlessly stood alone1 while all the world confronted him with frowning menace4 ,the coward sympathies of the neutrals who face both ways may have been with him1 but the multitude of such ,laodiceans wink at wrong1 and from love of their own ease do not1 and dare not1 speak4 ,god only was the protector of ,elijah1 and in himself alone was all his state1 as in his garment of hair he approached the people and confronted the idolatrous priests in all the gorgeousness of ,baal's vestry4 ,he1 like his great predecessor ,moses1 was the champion of moral purity1 of the national faith1 of religious freedom and simplicity1 of the immediate access of man to ,god2 they were the champions of fanatical and unhallowed religionism1 of usurping priestcraft1 of unnatural self-abasements1 of persecuting despotism1 of licentious and cruel rites4 ,elijah was the deliverer of his people from a hideous and polluted apostasy which1 had he not prevailed that day1 would have obliterated their name and their memory from the annals of the nations4 ,that he was a genuine historic character--a prophet of ,divine commission and marvellous power--cannot for a moment be doubted1 however impossible it may now be in every incident to disentangle the literal historic facts from the poetic and legendary emblazonment which those facts not unnaturally received in the ordinary recollection of the prophetic schools4 ,throughout the great scene which followed1 his spirit was that of the ,psalmist3 ,though an host of men should encamp against me1 yet will not my heart be afraid2 that of the servant of the ,lord in ,isaiah3 ,he hath made my mouth like a sharp sword1 and in ,his quiver hath ,he hid me4#fdc ,his first challenge was to the people4 ,how long1 he asked1 do ye totter between two opinions8#fdd ,if ,jehovah be ,god1 follow ,him2 but if ,baal1 follow him4 ,awestruck and ashamed the multitude kept unbroken silence4 ,doubtless it was1 in part1 the silence of guilt4 ,they knew that they had followed ,jezebel into the cruelties of ,baal-worship1 and the forbidden lusts which polluted the temples of the ,asherah4 ,puritanism simplicity1 spirituality of worship involves a strain too great and too lofty for the multitude4 ,like all ,orientals1 like the negroes of ,america1 like most weak minds1 they loved to rely on a pompous ritual and a sensuous worship4 ,it is so easy to let these stand for the deeper requirements which lie in the truth that ,god is a ,spirit1 and they that worship ,him must worship ,him in spirit and in truth4 ,receiving no answer to his stern question1 ,elijah laid down the conditions of the contest4 ,the prophets of ,baal1 he said1 are four hundred and fifty3 ,i stand alone as a prophet of ,jehovah4 ,let two bullocks be provided for us2 they shall slay and dress one1 and lay it on wood1 but--for there shall be no priestly trickeries to-day--they shall put no fire under4 ,i1 though ,i be no priest1 will slay and dress the other1 and lay it on wood1 and put no fire under4 ,then let all of you1 ,baal-priests and people if you will1 cry to your idols2 ,i will call on the name of ,jehovah4 ,the god that answereth by fire let him be ,god4 ,no challenge could be fairer1 for ,baal was the ,sun-god2 and what god could be more likely to answer by fire from that blazing sky8 ,the deep murmur of the people expressed their assent4 ,the ,baal priests were caught as in a snare4 ,their hearts must have sunk within them2 his did not4 ,perhaps some of them believed sufficiently in their idol to hope that1 were he demon or deity1 he might save himself and his votaries from humiliation and defeat2 but most of them must have been seized with terrible misgiving1 as they saw the assembled people prepared to wait with ,oriental patience1 seated on their abbas on the sides of that natural amphitheatre1 till the descending flame should prove that ,baal had heard the weird invocation of his worshippers4 ,but1 since they could not escape the proposed ordeal1 they chose1 and slew1 and dressed their victim4 ,from morning till noon--many of them with wildly waving arms1 others with their foreheads in the dust--they upraised the wild chant of their monotonous invocation1 ,baal1 hear us6 ,baal1 hear us6 ,in vain the cry rose and fell1 now uttered in soft appealing murmurs1 now rising into passionate entreaties4 ,all was silent4 ,there lay the dead bullock putrescing under the burning orb which was at once their deity and the visible sign of his presence4 ,no consuming lightning fell1 even when the sun flamed in the zenith of that cloudless sky4 ,there was no voice nor any that answered4 ,then they tried still more potent incantations4 ,they began to circle round the altar they had made in one of their solemn dances to the shrill strains of pipe and flute4 ,the rhythmic movements ended in giddy whirls and orgiastic leapings which were a common feature of sensuous heathen worship2 dances in which1 like modern dervishes1 they bounded and yelled and spun round and round till they fell foaming and senseless to the ground4#fde ,the people looked on expectant1 but it was all in vain4 ,hitherto the ,prophet had remained silent1 but now when noon came1 and still no fire descended1 he mocked them4 ,now1 surely1 if ever1 was their time6 ,they had been crying for six long hours in their vain repetitions and incantations4 ,surely they had not shouted loud enough6 ,baal was a god2 some strange accident must have prevented him from hearing the prayer of his miserable priests4 ,perhaps he was in deep meditation1 so that he did not notice those frantic appeals2 perhaps he was too busy talking to some one else1#fdf or was on a journey somewhere2 or was asleep and must be awaked2 or1 he added with yet more mordant sarcasm1 and in a gibe which would have sounded coarse to modern ears1 perhaps he has gone aside for a private purpose4 ,he must be called1 he must be aroused2 he must be made to hear4#fdg ,such taunts1 addressed to this multitude of priests in the hearing of the people1 whom they desired to dupe or to convince1 drove them to fiercer frenzy4 ,already the westering sun began to warn them that their hour was past1 and failure imminent4 ,they would not succumb without trying the darker sorceries of blood and self-mutilation1 which were only resorted to at the most dread extremities4 ,with renewed and redoubled yells they offered on their altar the blood of human sacrifice1 stabbing and gashing themselves with swords and lances1 till they presented a horrid spectacle4 ,their vestments and their naked bodies were besmeared with gore#fdh as they whirled round and round with shriller and more frenzied screams4#fdi ,they raved in vain4 ,the shadows began to lengthen4 ,the hour for the evening ,minchah1 the evening meal-offering1 and oblation of flour and meal1 salt and frankincense1 drew near4#fej ,it was already between the two evenings4 ,they had continued their weird invocations all through the burning day1 but there was not any that regarded4 ,there lay the dead bullock on the still fireless altar2 and now their ,tyrian ,sun-god1 like the fabled ,hercules1 was but burning himself to death on the flaming pyre of sunset amid the unavailing agony of his worshippers4 ,then ,elijah bade the sullen and baffled fanatics to stand aside1 and summoned the people to throng round him4 ,there was nothing tumultuous or orgiastic in his proceedings4 ,in striking contrast with the four hundred and fifty frantic sun-worshippers1 he proceeded in the calmest and most deliberate way4 ,first1 in the name of ,jehovah1 he repaired the old bamah--the mountain-altar1 which probably ,jezebel had broken down4 ,this he did with twelve stones1 one for each of the tribes of ,israel4 ,then he dug a broad trench4#fea ,then1 when he had prepared his bullock1 in order to show the people the impossibility of any deception1 such as are common among priests1 he bade them drench it three times over with four barrels of water1#feb from the still-existent spring1 and1 not content with that1 he filled the trench also with water4#fec ,lastly at the time of the evening oblation he briefly offered up one prayer that ,jehovah would make it known this day to ,his backsliding people that ,he1 not ,baal1 was the ,elohim of ,israel4 ,he used no much speaking2 he did not adopt the dervish yells and dances and gashings which were abhorrent to ,god1 though they appealed so powerfully to the sensuous imaginations of the multitude4 ,he only raised his eyes to heaven1#fed and cried aloud in the hush of expectant stillness3-- ,jehovah1 ,god of ,abraham1 of ,isaac1 and of ,israel1 ,let it be known this day that ,thou art ,god in ,israel1 ,and that ,i am ,thy servant1 ,and that ,i have done all these things at ,thy word4 ,hear me1 ,jehovah1 hear me4 ,that this people may know that ,thou1 ,jehovah1 art ,god1 ,and that ,thou hast turned their heart back again4 ,the prayer1 with its triple invocation of ,jehovah's name1 and its seven rhythmic lines1 was no sooner ended than down streamed the lightning1 and consumed the bullock and the wood1 and shattered the stones1 and burnt up the dust1 and licked up the water in the trenches2#fee and1 with one terror-stricken impulse1 the people all prostrated themselves on their faces with the cry1 ,yahweh--hoo--ha--,elohim1 ,yahweh--hoo--ha--,elohim6 ,the ,lord1 ,he is ,god2 the ,lord1 ,he is ,god6--a cry which was almost identical with the name of the victorious prophet ,elijahu--,yah1 ,he is my ,god4#fef ,the magnificent narrative in which the interest has been wound up to so high a pitch1 and expressed in so lofty a strain of imaginative and dramatic force1 ends in a deed of blood4 ,according to ,josephus1 the people1 by a spontaneous movement1 seized and slew the prophets of ,baal1 ,elijah exhorting them to do so4 ,according to the earlier narrative1 ,elijah said to the people3 ,take the prophets of ,baal2 let not one of them escape4 ,and they took them3 and ,elijah brought them down to the brook ,kishon1 and slew them there with the sword4#feg ,it is not necessarily meant that he slew them with his own hand1 though indeed he may have done so1 as ,phinehas sacrificed ,jephthah's daughter1 and ,samuel hewed ,agag in pieces before the ,lord4 ,his moral responsibility was precisely the same in either case4 ,we are not told that he had any commission from ,jehovah to do this1 or was bidden thereto by any voice of the ,lord4 ,yet in those wild days--days of ungovernable passions and imperfect laws1 days of ignorance which ,god winked at--it is not only perfectly probable that ,elijah would have acted thus1 but most unlikely that his conscience reproached him for doing so1 or that it otherwise than approved the sanguinary vengeance4 ,it was the frightful lex talionis1 which was spoken to them of old time1 and which inflicted on the defeated what they would certainly have inflicted on ,elijah had he not been the conqueror4 ,the prophets of ,baal indirectly1 if not directly1 had been the cause of ,jezebel's persecution of the prophets of the ,lord4 ,the thought of pity would not occur to ,elijah any more than it did to the writer1 or writers1 of ,deuteronomy1 perhaps1 long afterwards1 who commanded the stoning of idolaters1 whether men or women 7,deut4 xiii4 #f-i1 xvii4 #b-d74 ,the massacre of the priests accorded with the whole spirit of those half-anarchic times4 ,it accords with that ,elijah-spirit of orthodox fanaticism1 which1 as ,christ ,himself had to teach to the sons of thunder1 is not ,his spirit1 but utterly alien from it4 ,if1 perhaps two centuries later1 the savage deed could be recorded1 and recorded with approval1 by this narrator from the ,school of the ,prophets in these superb eulogies of his hero2 if so many centuries later the disciple whom ,jesus loved1 and the first martyr-apostle could deem it an exemplary deed2 if1 centuries later1 it could be appealed to as a precedent by ,inquisitors with hearts made hard as the nether millstone by bigoted and hateful superstition2 if even ,puritans could be animated by the same false hallowing of ferocity2 how can we judge ,elijah if1 in dark1 unilluminated early days1 he had not learnt to rise to a purer standpoint8 ,to this day the names about ,carmel shudder1 as it were1 with reminiscence of this religious massacre4 ,there is ,el-,muhrakkah1 the place of burning2 there is ,tel-el-,kusis1 the hill of the priests2 and that ancient river1 the river ,kishon1 which had once been choked with the corpses of the host of ,sisera1 and has since then been incarnadined by the slain of many a battle1 is--perhaps in memory of this bloodshed most of all--still known as the ,nahr-el-,mokatta1 or the stream of slaughter4 ,what wonder that the ,eastern ,christians in their pictures of ,elijah still surround him with the decapitated heads of these his enemies8 ,to this day the ,moslim regard him as one who terrifies and slays4#feh ,but though the deed of vengeance stands recorded1 and recorded with no censure1 in the sacred history1 we must--without condemning ,elijah1 and without measuring his days by the meting-rod of ,christian mercy--still unhesitatingly hold fast the sound principle of early and as yet uncontaminated ,christianity1 and say1 as said the early ,fathers1 4 ,violence is a thing hateful to the ,god of love4 ,even ,christians1 and that down to our own day1 have abused the example of ,elijah1 and asked1 ,did not ,elijah slaughter the priests of ,baal8 as a proof that it is always the duty of ,states to suppress false religion by violence4 ,stahl asked that question when he preached before the ,prussian court at the ,evangelical ,conference at ,berlin in #ahee1 adding the dreadful misrepresentation that ,christianity is the religion of intolerance1 and its kernel is exclusiveness4 ,did these hard spirits never consider ,christ's own warning8 ,did they wholly forget the prophecy that ,he shall not strive nor cry1 neither shall ,his voice be heard in the streets4 ,a bruised reed shall ,he not break1 and smoking flax shall ,he not quench1 till ,he send forth judgment unto victory1 and in ,his name shall the ,gentiles hope8#fei ,calvin reproved ,rn1 ,duchess of ,ferrara1 for not approving of the spirit of the imprecatory psalms4 ,he said that this was to set ourselves up as superior to ,christ in sweetness and humility2 and that ,david even in his hatreds is an example and type of ,christ4 ,when ,cartwright argued for the execution of the heretics he said3 ,if this be thought savage and intolerant1 ,i am content to be so with the ,holy ,ghost4 ,far wiser is the humble minister in ,old ,mortality1 when he withstood ,balfour of ,burleigh1 in the decision to put to the sword all the inhabitants of ,tillietudlem ,castle4 ,by what law1 asks ,henry ,morton1 would you justify the atrocity you would commit8 ,if thou art ignorant of it1 said ,balfour1 thy companion is well aware of the law which gave the men of ,jericho to the sword of ,joshua1 the son of ,nun4 ,yes1 answered the divine1 but we live under a better dispensation1 which instructeth us to return good for evil1 and to pray for those who despitefully use us and persecute us4 ,,footnotes3 #fch ,isa4 xxxiii4 #i1 xxxv4 #b2 ,micah vii4 #ad4 ,its beauty and fruitfulness are alluded to in ,jer4 xlvi4 #ah1 l4 #ai2 ,amos i4 #b1 ix4 #c2 ,nahum i4 #d2 ,cant4 vii4 #e4 #fci ,sir ,george ,grove1 to whose excellent article in ,smith's ,dict4 of ,bible 7i4 #bgi7 ,i am indebted1 quotes ,martineau 7i4 #cag71 ,porter's ,handbook1 ,van de ,velde1 etc4 ,see1 too1 ,stanley1 ,sinai and ,palestine1 pp4 #cec-ef4 #fdj ,on these ,lapides judaici1 see my ,life of ,christ1 i4 #abi4 ,illustrations are given in the illustrated edition4 #fda ,jambl41 ,vit4 ,pythag41 iii42 ,suet41 ,vesp41 #e2 ,tac41 ,hist41 ii4 #gh2 ,reland1 ,palest41 pp4 #cbg-cj4 #fdb ,megiddo lies in the plain below1 and this scene of conflict between good and the powers of evil was an anticipated ,armageddon4 #fdc ,isa4 xlix4 #b2 ,cheyne1 p4 #af4 #fdd ,,lxx41 #a ,kings xviii4 #ba1 ' 4 ,vulg41 usquequo claudicatis in duas partes8 ,cheyne renders it3 ,how long will ye go lame upon tottering knees8 ,in ,psalm cxix4 #aac1 are the double-minded4 ,in ,ezek4 xxxi4 #f1 1 diverging branches4 ,in ,isa4 ii4 #ba1 1 clefts of rocks 7,bhr74 #fde ,herodian 7,hist41 v4 #c7 describes the dance of ,heliogabalus round the altar of the ,emesene ,sun-god1 and ,apuleius describes at length the fanatic leapings and gashings of the execrable ,galli--the eunuch-mendicant priests of the ,syrian goddess4 ,from these sources and from allusions in ,seneca1 ,lucian1 ,statius1 ,arnobius1 etc41 ,movers 7,phniz41 i4 #fhb7 derives his description 7quoted by ,keil1 ad loc41 ,e4,t41 p4 #bha73 ,a discordant howling opens the scene4 ,now they fly wildly through one another1 with the head sunk down to the ground1 but turning round in circles1 so that the loose flowing hair drags through the mire4 ,thereupon they first bite themselves on the arm1 and at last cut themselves with two-edged swords1 which they are wont to carry4 ,then begins a new scene4 ,one of them who surpasses all the rest in frenzy1 begins to prophesy with sighs and groans1 openly accuses himself of past sins1 which he now wishes to punish by the mortifying of the flesh1 takes the knotted whip which the ,galli are wont to bear1 lashes his back1 cuts himself with swords1 till the blood trickles down from his mangled body4 #fdf ,verse #bg4 ,others render it meditating 7,de ,wette ,thenius7 or peevish 7,bhr74 ,comp4 ,hom41 ,il41 i4 #dbc2 ,od41 i4 #bb1 etc4 #fdg ,this instance of grim sarcastic humour is almost unique in ,scripture4 ,it was made more mordant by the paronomasia 7#b ,sam4 i4 #bb74 #fdh ,plutarch 7,de ,superstit41 p4 #agj7 says3 ,the priests of ,bellona offered their own blood1 which was deemed powerful to move their gods4 ,comp4 ,herod41 ii4 #fa2 ,lucian1 ,de ,dea ,syra1 #ej2 ,apul41 ,metam41 viii4 #bh4 #fdi 1 till towards 7,numb4 xxviii4 #d7 the offering of the ,minchah4 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 sacrificium and holocaustum4 ,in verse #ci it is omitted in the ,,lxx4 ,there is a great concurrence of evidence that the evening sacrifice of the first ,temple was not a holocaust1 but a cereal oblation 7,robertson ,smith1 p4 #adc1 quoting #a ,kings xviii4 #cd2 #b ,kings xvi4 #ae2 ,ezek4 ix4 #d1 ,heb74 #fej ,heb41 2 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 transiliebant4 ,literally1 they acted like frantic prophets 7#a ,sam4 xviii4 #aj2 ,jer4 xxix4 #bf74 #fea ,,lxx41 1 or sea--the name given to ,solomon's molten laver2 but the description1 as great as would contain two seahs of seed1 is curious1 for a seah was only the third of an ephah4 #feb ,blunt 7,undesigned ,coincidences1 ,,ii4 xxxii47 thinks that as the drought had been so intense the water must have been sea-water4 ,but ,josephus says it was drawn 7,antt41 ,,viii4 xiii4 #e72 and the well still exists4 #fec ,priests1 both pagan and medival1 have been adepts at deception4 ,at the ,reformation the mechanism of winking ,madonnas1 etc41 was exposed to the people4 ,at ,pompeii may still be seen the secret staircase behind the altar1 and the pipes let into the head of ,isis from behind1 through which the priests spoke her pretended oracles4 ,st4 ,chrysostom 7,orat4 in4 ,petr4 et ,eliam1 which is of uncertain genuineness7 tells us that he had himself seen 7 7 altars with concealed hollows in the middle1 into which the unsuspected operator crept1 and blew up a fire which the people were assured was self-kindled 7see ,keil1 p4 #bhb74 ,one legend says that on this occasion a man was suffocated1 who had been concealed by the ,baal priests inside their altar4 #fed #a ,kings xviii4 #cf4 #fee ,comp4 ,lev4 ix4 #bd4 ,analogous stories existed among pagans 7,hom41 ,il41 ii4 #cje2 ,od41 ii4 #adc2 ,verg41 ,ecl41 viii4 #aje74 ,pliny says that annals recorded the eliciting of lightning by prayers and incantations 7,h4 ,n41 ii4 #ed2 ,winer1 ,realwrterb4 #cga74 #fef ,it is after ,elijah's time1 and probably from his influence1 that from this time proper names compounded with ,jehovah become almost the rule--as in ,ahaziah1 ,jehoram1 ,jehu1 ,jehoahaz1 ,joash1 ,pekahiah1 etc4 #feg #a ,kings xix4 #a1 2 ,,lxx41 4 #feh ,renan1 ,vie de ,jsus1 #ajj4 #fei ,matt4 xii4 #ai1 #bj2 ,isa4 xlii4 #b1 #c2 ,ezek4 xxxiv4 #af4 ,,chapter ,,xxxviii4 ,,the ,,rain4 #a ,,kings xviii4 #da-df4 ,are there any of the vanities of the nations that can cause rain8--,,jer4 xiv4 #bb4 ,but the terrible excitement of the day was not yet over1 nor was the victory completely won4 ,the fire had flashed from heaven1 but the long-desired rain on which depended the salvation of land and people still showed no signs of falling4 ,and ,elijah was pledged to this result4 ,not until the drought ended could he reach the culmination of his victory over the ,sun-god of ,jezebel's worship4 ,but his faith did not fail him4 ,get thee up1 he said to ,ahab1 eat and drink1 for there is a sound of the feet of the rain-storm4#ffj ,doubtless through all that day of feverish anxiety1 neither king1 nor people1 nor prophet had eaten4 ,as for the ,prophet1 but little sufficed him at any time1 and the slaughter of the defeated priests would not prevent either king or people from breaking their long fast4 ,doubtless the king's tent was pitched on one of the slopes over the plain4 ,but ,elijah did not join him4 ,he heard1 indeed1 with prophetic ear the rush of the coming rain1 but he had still to wrestle in prayer with ,jehovah for the fulfilment of ,his promise4 ,so he ascended towards the summit of the promontory where the purple peak of ,carmel--still called ,jebel ,mar ,elias 7the hill of ,lord ,elijah7--overlooks the sea1 and there he crouched low on the ground in intense prayer1 putting his face between his knees4 ,after his first intensity of supplication had spent itself1 he said to his boy attendant1#ffa traditionally believed to have been the son of the widow of ,zarephath whom he had plucked from death3-- ,go up now1 look towards the sea4 ,the youth went up1 and gazed out long and intently1 for he well knew that if rain came it would sweep inland from the waters of the ,mediterranean1 and to an experienced eye the signals of coming storm are patent long before they are noticed by others4 ,but all was as it had been for so many weary and dreadful months4 ,the sea a sheet of unruffled gold glared under the setting sun1 which still sank through an unclouded sky4 ,can we not imagine the accent of misgiving and disappointment with which he brought back the one word3-- ,nothing4 ,once more the ,prophet bowed his face between his knees in prayer1 and sent the youth2 and again1 and yet again1 seven times4 ,and each time had come to him the chilling answer1 ,nothing4 ,but the seventh time he called out from the mountain summit his joyous cry3 ,behold1 there ariseth a cloud out of the sea1 as small as a man's hand4 ,and now1 indeed1 ,elijah knew that his triumph was completed4 ,he bade his servant fly with winged speed to ,ahab1 and tell him to make ready his chariot at once1 lest the burst of the coming rain should flood the river and the road1 and prevent him from getting over the rough ground which lay between him and his palace at ,jezreel4 ,then the blessed storm burst on the parched soil with a sense of infinite refreshfulness which only an ,eastern in a thirsty land can fully comprehend4 ,and ,ahab mounted his chariot4 ,he had not driven far before the heaven1 which had for so long been like brass over an iron globe1 was one black mass of clouds driven by the wind1 and the drenching rain poured down in sheets4 ,and through the storm the chariot swept1 and ,elijah girded up his loins1 and1 filled with a ,divine impulse of exultation1 ran before it1 keeping pace with the king's steeds for all those fifteen miles1 even after the overwhelming strain of all he had gone through1 apparently without food1 that day4 ,and as through the rifts of rain the king saw his wild dark figure outrunning his swift steeds1 and seeming to dilate and conspire with the rushing storm1 can we wonder that the tears of remorse and gratitude streamed down his face8#ffb ,the chariot reached ,jezreel1 and at the city gate ,elijah stopped4 ,like his antitype1 the great forerunner1 ,elijah was a voice in the wilderness2 like his ,lord that was to be1 he loved not cities4 ,the instinct of the ,bedawin kept him far from the abodes of men1 and his home was never among them4 ,he needed no roof to shelter him1 nor change of raiment4 ,the hollows of ,mount ,gilboa were his sufficient resting-place1 and he could find a sleeping-place in the caves near its abundant ,eastern spring4 ,nor was he secure of safety4 ,he knew1 in spite of his superhuman victory1 that a dark hour awaited ,ahab when he would have to tell ,jezebel that the people had repudiated her idol1 and that ,elijah had slain her four hundred and fifty priests4 ,he knew that axe-like edge unturnable which always smote and feared not4 ,ahab was but as plastic clay in the strong hands of his queen1 and for her there existed neither mystery nor miracle except in the worship of the insulted ,baal4 ,was not ,baal1 she said1 the real sender of the rain1 on whose priests this fanatic from rude ,gilead had wrought his dreadful sacrifice8 ,oh that she could have been for one hour on ,carmel in the place of her vacillating and easily daunted husband6 ,for was she not convinced1 and did not the pagan historian afterwards relate1 that the ending of the drought was due to the prayers and sacrifices1 not of ,elijah1 but of her own father who was ,baal's priest and king8#ffc ,yet1 for all her spirit of defiance1 we can hardly doubt that the feelings of ,jezebel towards ,elijah had much of dread mingled with her hatred4 ,she must have felt towards him much as ,mary ,queen of ,scots felt towards ,john ,knox--of whom she said that she feared his prayers more than an army of one hundred thousand men4#ffd ,may we really venture1 asks ,canon ,cheyne1 to look out for answer to prayer8 ,did not ,elijah live in the heroic ages of faith8 ,no2 ,god still works miracles4 ,take an instance from the early history of ,christian ,europe4 ,you know the terror excited by the ,huns1 who in the sixth century after ,christ penetrated into the very heart of ,christian ,france4 ,already they had occupied the suburbs of ,orleans1 and the people who were incapable of bearing arms lay prostrate in prayer4 ,the governor sent a message to observe from the ramparts4 ,twice he looked in vain1 but the third time he reported a small cloud on the horizon4 ',it is the aid of ,god1' cried the ,bishop of ,orleans4 ,it was the dust raised by the advancing squadrons of ,christian troops4#ffe ,a much nearer parallel1 and that a very remarkable one1 may be quoted4#fff ,it records--and the fact itself1 explain it how men will1 seems to be unquestionable--how a storm of rain came to answer the prayer of a good leader of the ,evangelical ,revival--,grimshaw1 rector of ,haworth4 ,distressed at the horrible immoralities introduced among his parishioners by some local races1 and wholly failing to get them stopped1 he went to the racecourse1 and1 flinging himself on his knees in an agony of supplication1 entreated ,god to interpose and save his people from their moral danger4 ,he had scarcely ceased his prayer when down rushed a storm of rain so violent as to turn the racecourse into a swamp1 and render the projected races a matter of impossibility4 ,,footnotes3 #ffj ,,lxx41 4 ,perhaps1 with reference to this reading1 ,josephus afterwards describes the little cloud as no bigger than a human footstep 7 74 #ffa ,,lxx41 4 #ffb ,,lxx41 #a ,kings xviii4 #de1 4 #ffc ,menander of ,ephesus 7,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 xiii4 #b74 #ffd ,eisenlohr1 ,das ,volk ,israel1 p4 #afb4 #ffe ,he refers to ,gibbon1 iv4 #bcb4 #fff ,see ,mrs4 ,gaskell's ,life of ,charlotte ,brnte4 ,,chapter ,,xxxix4 ,,elijah',s ,,flight4 #a ,,kings xix4 #a-d4 ,a still small voice comes through the wild1 ,like a father consoling his fretful child1 ,which banisheth bitterness1 wrath and fear1 ,saying1 ',man is distant1 but ,god is near4' ,,temple4 ,the misgiving which1 joined to his ascetic dislike of cities1 made ,elijah stop his swift race at the entrance of ,jezreel was more than justified4 ,ahab's narrative of the splendid contest at ,carmel produced no effect upon ,jezebel whatever1 and we can imagine the bitter objurgations which she poured upon her cowering husband for having stood quietly by while her prophets and ,baal's prophets were being massacred by this dark fanatic1 aided by a rebellious people4 ,had she been there all should have been otherwise6 ,in contemptuous defiance of ,ahab's fears or wishes1 she then and there--and it must now have been after nightfall--despatched a messenger to find ,elijah1 wherever he might be hiding himself1 and say to him in her name3 ,as sure as thou art ,elijah1 and ,i am ,jezebel1#ffg may my gods avenge it upon me if on the morrow by this time ,i have not made thy life like the life of one of my own murdered priests4 ,in the furious impetuosity of the message we see the determination of the sorceress-queen4 ,in her way she was as much in deadly earnest as ,elijah was4 ,whether ,baal had been defeated or not1 she was not defeated1 and ,elijah should not escape her vengeance4 ,the oath shows the intensity of her rage1 like that of the forty ,jews who bound themselves by the cherem that they would not eat or drink till they had slain ,paul2 and the fixity of her purpose as when ,richard ,,iii4 declared that he would not dine till the head of ,buckingham had fallen on the block4 ,we cannot but notice the insignificance to which she reduced her husband1 and the contempt with which she treated the voice of her people4 ,she presents the spectacle1 so often reproduced in history and reflected in literature1 of a strong fierce woman--a ,clytemnestra1 a ,brunhault1 a ,lady ,macbeth1 an ,isabella of ,france1 a ,margaret of ,anjou1 a ,joan of ,naples1 a ,catherine de ,medicis--completely dominating a feebler consort4 ,the burst of rage which led her to send the message defeated her own object4 ,the awfulness which invested ,elijah1 and the supernatural powers on which he relied1 when he was engaged in the battles of the ,lord1 belonged to him only in his public and prophetic capacity4 ,as a man he was but a poor1 feeble1 lonely subject1 whose blood might be shed at any moment4 ,he knew that ,god works no miracles for the supersession of ordinary human precautions4 ,it was no part of his duty to throw away his life1 and give a counter triumph to the ,baal-worshippers whom he had so signally humiliated4 ,he fled1 and went for his life4 ,swift flight was easy to that hardy frame and that trained endurance1 even after the fearful day on ,carmel and the wild race of fifteen miles from ,carmel to ,jezreel4 ,it was still night1 and cool1 and the haunts and byways of the land were known to the solitary and hunted wanderer4 ,he feared1 and he rose1 and he went for his life1 ninety-five miles to ,beersheba1 once a town of ,simeon1 now the southern limit of the kingdom of ,judah1 thirty-one miles south of ,hebron4#ffh ,but in the tumult of his feelings and the peril of his position he could not stay in any town4 ,at ,beersheba he left his servant--perhaps1 as legend says1 the boy of ,zarephath1 who became the prophet ,jonah--but1 in any case1 not so much a servant as a youth in training for the prophetic office4 ,it was necessary for him to spend his dark hour alone2 for1 if there are hours in which human sympathy is all but indispensable1 there are also hours in which the soul can tolerate no communion save that with ,god4#ffi ,so1 leaving all civilisation behind him1 he plunged a day's journey into that great and terrible wilderness of ,paran1 where he too was alone with the wild beasts4 ,and then1 utterly worn out1 he flung himself down under the woody stem of a solitary rhotem plant4#fgj ,the plant is the wild broom with its cloud of pink blossoms which often afford the only shadow under the glaring sun in the waste and weary land1 and beneath the slight but grateful shade of which the ,arab to this day is glad to pitch his tent4 ,and there the pent-up emotions of his spirit1 which had gone through so tremendous a strain1 broke up as in one terrible sob1 when the strong man1 like a tired child1 requested for himself that he might die4#fga ,of what use was life any longer8 ,he had fought for ,jehovah1 and won1 and after all been humiliatingly defeated4 ,he had prophesied the drought1 and it had withered and scorched up the erring1 afflicted land4 ,he had prayed for the rain1 and it had come in a rush of blessing on the reviving fields4 ,in the ,wady ,cherith1 in the house of the ,phnician widow1 he had been divinely supported and sheltered from hot pursuit4 ,he had snatched her boy from death4 ,he had stood before kings1 and not been ashamed4 ,he had stretched forth his hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people1 and not in vain4 ,he had confounded the rich-vested and royally maintained band of ,baal's priests1 and in spite of their orgiastic leapings and self-mutilations had put to shame their ,sun-god under his own burning sun4 ,he had kept pace with ,ahab's chariot-steeds as he conducted him1 as it were in triumph1 through the streaming downpour of that sweeping storm1 to his summer capital4 ,of what use was it all8 ,was it anything but a splendid and deplorable failure8 ,and he said3 ,it is enough2 now1 ,o ,lord1 take away my life2 for ,i am not better than my fathers4 ,he could have cried with the poet3-- ,let the heavens burst1 and drown with deluging rain ,the feeble vassals of lust1 and anger1 and wine1 ,the little hearts that know not how to forgive2 ,arise1 ,o ,god1 and strike1 for we count ,thee just1-- ,we are not worthy to live4 ,who does not know something of this feeling of utter overwhelming despondency1 of bitter disillusionment concerning life and our fellow-men8 ,some great writer has said1 with truth1 that there is probably no man with a soul above that of the brutes that perish1 to whom a time has not come in his life1 when1 were you to tell him that he would not wake to see another day1 he would receive the message with something like gladness4 ,there are some whose lives have been so saddened by some special calamity that for long years together they have not valued them4 ,f4 ,w4 ,robertson1 troubled by various sorrows1 and worried 7as the best men are sure to be7 by the petty ecclesiastical persecutions of priests and formalists1 wrote in a letter on a friend's death3 ,how often have ,i thought of the evening when he left ,tours1 when1 in our boyish friendship1 we set our little silver watches exactly together1 and made a compact to look at the moon exactly at the same moment that night and think of each other4 ,i do not remember a single hour in life since then which ,i would have arrested1 and said1 ',let this stay4' ,melancholy so deep as this is morbid and unnatural1 and he himself wrote in a brighter mood3 ,positively ,i will not walk with any one in these tenebrous avenues of cypress and yew4 ,i like sunny rooms and sunny truth4 ,when ,i had more of spring and warmth ,i could afford to be prodigal of happiness2 but now ,i want sunlight and sunshine4 ,i desire to enter into those regions where cheerfulness and truth and health of heart and mind reside4 ,life has its real happiness for those who have deserved1 and taken the right method to attain it2 but it can never escape its hours of impenetrable gloom1 and they sometimes seem to be darkest for the noblest souls4 ,petty souls are irritated by little annoyances1 and the purely selfish disappointments which avenge the exaggerated claims of our shivering egotism4 ,but while little mean spirits are tormented by the insect-swarm of little mean worries1 great souls are liable to be beaten down by the waves and storms of immense calamities--the calamities which affect nations and churches1 the desperate currents of whose sins and miseries seem to be sometimes driven through the channels of their single hearts4 ,only such a man as an ,elijah can measure the colossal despondency of an ,elijah's heart4 ,in the apparently absolute failure1 the seemingly final frustration of such men as these there is something nobler than in the highest personal exaltations of ignobler souls4 ,now1 ,o ,lord1 take away my life6 ,the prayer1 however natural1 however excusable1 is never right4 ,it is a sign of insufficient faith1 of human imperfection2 but it is breathed by different persons in a spirit so different that in some it almost rises to nobleness1 as in others it sinks quite beneath contempt4 ,scripture gives us several specimens of both moods4 ,if ,jonah was1 indeed1 the servant-pupil of ,elijah1 the legendary story of that meanest-minded of all the prophets--the meanest-minded and paltriest1 not perhaps as he was in reality--for of him1 historically1 we know scarcely anything--but as he is represented in the profound and noble allegory which bears his name--might almost seem to have been written in tacit antithesis to the story of ,elijah4 ,elijah flies only when he has done the mighty work of ,god1 and only when the life is in deadly peril which he would fain save for future emergencies of service2 ,jonah flies that he may escape1 out of timid selfishness1 the work of ,god4 ,elijah wishes himself dead because he thinks that the glorious purpose of his life has been thwarted1 and that the effort undertaken for the deliverance of his people has failed2 ,jonah wishes himself dead1 first1 because he repines at ,god's mercy1 and would prefer that his personal credit should be saved and his personal importance secured than that ,god should spare the mighty city of ,nineveh with its one hundred and twenty thousand little children2 and then because the poor little castor-oil plant has withered1 which gave him shelter from the noon4 ,considering the traditional connexion between them1 it seems to me impossible to overlook an allusive contrast between the noble and mighty ,elijah under his solitary rhotem plant in the wilderness wishing for death in the anguish of a heart which nobly loathing strongly broke1 and the selfish splenetic ,jonah wishing himself dead in pettish vexation under his palma ,christi because ,nineveh is forgiven and the sun is hot4 ,there are indeed times when humanity is tried beyond its capacity1 when the cry for restful death is wrung from souls crushed under accumulations of quite intolerable anguish and calamity4 ,in the fret of long-continued sleeplessness1 in sick and desolate and half-starved age1 in attacks of disease incurable1 long-continued1 and full of torture1 ,god will surely look with pardoning tenderness on those whose faith is unequal to so terrible a strain4 ,it was pardonable surely of ,job to curse the day of his birth when--smitten with elephantiasis1 a horror1 a hissing1 an astonishment1 bereaved of all his children1 and vexed by the obtrusive orthodoxies of his petty ,pharisaic friends2 unconscious1 too1 that it was ,god's hand which was all the while leading him through the valley of the shadow into the land of righteousness--he cried3 ,wherefore is light given to him that is in misery1 and life to the bitter in soul8 ,in those who have no hope and are without ,god in the world1 this mood--not when expressed in passing passion as by the saintly man of ,uz1 but when brooded on and indulged--leads to suicide1 and in the one instance recorded in each ,testament1 an ,ahithophel and a ,judas1 the despairing souls of the guilty3-- ,into the presence of their ,god ,rushed in with insult rude4 ,but ,elijah's mood1 little as it was justifiable in this its extreme form1 was but the last infirmity of a noble mind4 ,it has often recurred among those grandest of the servants of ,god who may sink into the deepest dejection from contrast with the spiritual altitudes to which they have soared4 ,it is with them as with the lark which floods the blue air with its passion of almost delirious rapture1 yet suddenly1 as though exhausted1 drops down silent into its lowly nest in the brown furrows4 ,there is but one man in the ,old ,testament who1 as a prophet1 stands on the same level as ,elijah1--he who stood with ,elijah on the snowy heights of ,hermon when their ,lord was transfigured into celestial brightness1 and they spake together of ,his decease at ,jerusalem4 ,and ,moses had passed through the same dark hour as that through which ,elijah was passing now1 when he saw the tears1 and heard the murmurs of the greedy1 selfish1 ungrateful people1 who hated their heavenly manna1 and lusted for the leeks and fleshpots of their ,egyptian bondage4 ,revolted by this obtrusion upon him of human nature in its lowest meanness1 he cried to ,god under his intolerable burden3 ,have ,i conceived all this people8444 ,i am not able to bear all this people alone4444 ,and if ,thou deal thus with me1 kill me1 ,i pray ,thee1 out of hand2 and let me not see my wretchedness4 ,in ,moses1 as doubtless in ,elijah1 so far from being the clamour of whining selfishness1 his anguish was part of the same mood which made him offer his life for the redemption of the people2 which made ,st4 ,paul ready to wish himself anathema from ,jesus ,christ if thereby he could save his brethren after the flesh4 ,danton rose into heroism when he exclaimed1 ,que mon nom soit fltri1 pourvu que la ,france soit libre2 and ,whitefield1 when he cried1 ,perish ,george ,whitefield1 so ,god's work be done2 and the ,duke of ,wellington when--remonstrated with for joining in the last charge at ,waterloo1 with the shot whistling round his head--he said1 ,never mind2 the victory is won1 and now my life is of no consequence4 ,in great souls the thought of others1 completely dominating the base man's concentration in self1 may create a despondency which makes them ready to give up their life1 not because it is a burden to themselves1 but because it seems to them as if their work was over1 and it was beyond their power to do more for others4 ,tender natures as well as strong natures are liable to this inrush of hopelessness2 and if it sometimes kills them by its violence1 this is only a part of ,god's training of them into perfection4 ,so unaffected1 so composed a mind1 ,so firm1 yet soft1 so strong1 yet so refined1 ,heaven1 as its purest gold1 by tortures tried3-- ,the saint sustained it1 but the woman died46#fgb ,the cherubim of the sanctuary had to be made of the gold of ,uphaz1 the finest and purest gold4 ,it was only the purest gold which could be tortured by workmanship into forms of exquisite beauty4 ,the mind of ,jeremiah was as unlike that of ,elijah's as can possibly be conceived4 ,he was a man of shrinking and delicate temperament1 and his life is the most pathetic tragedy among the biographies of ,scripture4 ,the mind of ,elijah1 like those of ,dante or ,luther or ,milton1 was all ardour and battle brunt2 the mind of ,jeremiah1 like that of ,melancthon1 was timid as that of a gentle boy4 ,a man like ,dante or ,milton1 when he stands alone1 hated by princes and priests and people1 retorts scorn for scorn1 and refuses to change his voice to hoarse or mute4 ,yet even ,dante died of a broken heart1 and in ,milton's mighty autobiographical wail of ,samson ,agonistes1 amid all its trumpet-blast of stern defiance1 we read the sad notes3-- ,nor am ,i in the list of them that hope2 ,hopeless all my evils1 all remediless2 ,this one prayer yet remains1 might ,i be heard1 ,no long petition1 speedy death1 ,the close of all my miseries1 and the balm4 ,when the insolent priest ,pashur smote ,jeremiah in the face1 and put him for a night and a day in the common stocks1 the prophet--after telling ,pashur that1 for this awful insult to ,god's messenger1 his name1 which meant joy far and wide1 should be changed into ,magormissa-bib1 terror on every side--utterly broke down1 and passionately cursed the day of his birth4#fgc ,and yet his trials were very far from ended then4 ,homeless1 wifeless1 childless1 slandered1 intrigued against1 undermined--protesting apparently in vain against the hollow shams of a self-vaunting reformation--the object of special hatred to all the self-satisfied religionists of his day1 the lonely persecuted servant of the ,lord ended only in exile and martyrdom the long trouble of his eternally blessed but seemingly unfruitful life4 ,i dwell on this incident in the life of ,elijah because it is full of instructiveness4 ,scripture is not all on a dead level4 ,there are many pages of it which belong indeed to the connected history1 and therefore carry on the general lessons of the history1 but which are1 in themselves1 almost empty of any spiritual profit4 ,only a fantastic and artificial method of sermonising can extract from them1 taken alone1 any ,divine lessons4 ,in these ,books of ,kings many of the records are simply historical1 and in themselves1 apart from their place in the whole1 have no more religious significance than any other historic facts2 but because these annals are the annals of a chosen people1 and because these books are written for our learning1 we find in them again and again1 and particularly in their more connected and elevated narratives1 facts and incidents which place ,scripture incomparably above all secular literature1 and are rich in eternal truth for all time1 and for a life beyond life4 ,it is with such an experience that we are dealing here1 and therefore it is worth while1 if we can1 to see something of its meaning4 ,we may1 therefore1 be permitted to linger for a brief space over the causes of ,elijah's despair1 and the method in which ,god dealt with it4 ,,footnotes3 #ffg ,,lxx41 #a ,kings xix4 #b4 #ffh ,the touch which belongeth to ,judah shows that the ,elijah-narrative emanated from some prophet in the northern schools4 ,in later days it was much visited by pilgrims from the ,northern ,kingdom 7,amos v4 #e1 viii4 #ad74 #ffi ,matt4 xxvi4 #cf4 #fgj #a ,kings xix4 #d1 #e1 2 ,vulg41 subter unam juniperum4 ,the plant is the ,genista monosperma1 with papilionaceous flowers4 ,not juniper1 as in ,luther 7,wachholder7 and the ,a4,v4 ,,lxx41 4 ,see ,robinson1 ,researches1 i4 #bjc1 #bje4 ,it gave its name to the station ,rithmah 7,numb4 xxxiii4 #ah7 and the ,wadies ,retemt and ,retmah4 #fga ,comp4 ,moses 7,numb4 xi4 #ae71 ,jonah 7,jonah iv4 #c74 #fgb ,pope's epitaph on ,mrs4 ,elizabeth ,corbet1 in ,st4 ,margaret's ,westminster4 #fgc ,jer4 xx4 #a-ah4 ,,chapter ,,xl4 ,,elijah',s ,,despair4 #a ,,kings xix4 #d-h4 ,so much ,i feel my genial spirits droop1 ,my hopes all flat1 nature within me seems ,in all her functions weary of herself1 ,my race of glory run1 and race of shame1 ,and ,i shall shortly be with them that rest4 ,samson ,agonistes4 ,what are the causes which may drive even a saint of ,god into a mood of momentary despair as he is forced to face the semblance of final failure8 #a4 ,even the lowest element of such despair has its instructiveness4 ,it was due in part1 doubtless1 to mere physical exhaustion4 ,elijah had just gone through the most tremendous conflict of his life4 ,during all that long and most exhausting day at ,carmel he had had little or no food1 and at the close of it he had run across all the plain with the king's chariot4 ,in the dead of that night1 with his life in his hand1 he had fled towards ,beersheba1 and now he had wandered for a whole day in the glare of the famishing wilderness4 ,it does not do to despise the body4 ,if we are spirits1 yet we have bodies2 and the body wreaks a stern and humiliating vengeance on those who neglect or despise it4 ,the body reacts upon the mind4 ,if you rumple the jerkin1 you rumple the jerkin's lining4 ,if we weaken the body too much1 we do not make it the slave of the spirit1 but rather make the spirit its slave4 ,even moderate fasting1 as a simple physiological fact--if it be fasting at all1 as distinguished from healthful moderation and wise temperance--tends to increase1 and not by any means to decrease1 the temptations which come to us from the appetites of the body4 ,extreme self-maceration--as all ascetics have found from the days of ,st4 ,jerome to those of ,cardinal ,newman--only adds new fury to the lusts of the flesh4 ,many a hermit and stylite and fasting monk1 many half-dazed1 hysterical1 high-wrought men have found1 sometimes without knowing the reason of it1 that by wilful and artificial devices of self-chosen saintliness1 they have made the path of purity and holiness not easier1 but more hard4 ,the body is a temple1 not a tomb4 ,it is not permitted us to think ourselves wiser than ,god who made it1 nor to fancy that we can mend ,his purposes by torturing and crushing it4 ,by violating the laws of physical righteousness we only make moral and spiritual righteousness more difficult to attain4 #b4 ,elijah's dejection was also due to forced inactivity4 ,what doest thou here1 ,elijah8 said the voice of ,god to him in the heart of man4 ,alas6 he was doing nothing3 there was nothing left for him to do6 ,it was different when he hid by the brook ,cherith1 or in ,zarephath1 or in the glades of ,carmel4 ,then a glorious endeavour lay before him1 and there was hope4 ,but ,life without hope draws nectar in a sieve1 ,and hope without an object cannot live4 ,the mighty vindication of ,jehovah in which all the struggle of his life culminated1 had been crowned with triumph1 and had failed4 ,it had blazed up like fire1 and had sunk back into ashes4 ,to such a spirit as his nothing is so fatal as to have nothing to do and nothing to hope for4 ,what did the ,marchal die of8 asked a distinguished ,frenchman of one of his comrades4 ,he died of having nothing to do4 ,ah6 was the reply2 that is enough to kill the best ,general of us all4 #c4 ,again1 ,elijah was suffering from mental reaction4 ,the bow had been bent too long1 and was somewhat strained2 the tense string needed to have been relaxed before4 ,it is a common experience that some great duty or mastering emotion uplifts us for a time above ourselves1 makes us even forget the body and its needs4 ,we remember ,jeremy ,taylor's description of what he had noticed in the ,civil ,wars1--that a wounded soldier1 amid the heat and fury of the fight1 was wholly unconscious of his wounds1 and only began to feel the smart of them when the battle had ended and its fierce passion was entirely spent4 ,men1 even strong men1 after hours of terrible excitement1 have been known to break down and weep like children4 ,macaulay1 in describing the emotions which succeeded the announcement that the ,reform ,bill had passed1 says that not a few1 after the first outburst of wild enthusiasm1 were bathed in tears4 ,and any one who has seen some great orator after a supreme effort of eloquence1 when his strength seems drained away1 and the passion is exhausted1 and the flame has sunk down into its embers1 is aware how painful a reaction often follows1 and how differently the man looks and feels if you see him when he has passed into his retirement1 pale and weak1 and often very sad4 ,after a time the mind can do no more4 #d4 ,further1 ,elijah felt his loneliness4 ,at that moment indeed he could not bear the presence of any one1 but none the less his sense that none sympathised with him1 that all hated him1 that no voice was raised to cheer him1 that no finger was uplifted to help him1 weighed like lead upon his spirit4 ,i only am left4 ,there was awful desolation in that thought4 ,he was alone among an apostatising people4 ,it is the same kind of cry which we hear so often in the life of ,god's saints4 ,it is the ,psalmist crying3 ,i am become like a pelican in the wilderness1 and like an owl that is in the desert4 ,mine enemies reproach me all the day long1 and they that are mad upon me are sworn together against me2#fgd or1 ,my lovers and my neighbours did stand looking upon my trouble1 and my kinsmen stood afar off4 ,they also that sought after my life laid snares for me4#fge ,it is ,job so smitten and afflicted that he is half tempted for the moment to curse ,god and die4 ,it is ,isaiah saying of the hopeless wickedness of his people1 ,the whole head is sick1 and the whole heart faint4 ,it is ,jeremiah complaining1 ,the prophets prophesy falsely1 and the priests bear rule by their means2 and my people love to have it so3 and what will ye do in the end thereof8#fgf ,it is ,st4 ,paul wailing so sadly1 ,all they of ,asia have turned from me4 ,only ,luke is with me4 ,it is the pathos of desolation which breathes through the sad sentence of the ,gospels1 ,then all the disciples forsook ,him1 and fled4 ,the anticipation of desertion had wrung from the ,lord ,jesus the sad prophesy1 ,behold1 the hour cometh1 yea1 is now come1 when ye shall be scattered1 every man to his own1 and shall leave ,me alone3 and yet ,i am not alone1 because the ,father is with ,me4#fgg ,and this heart-anguish of loneliness is1 to this day1 a common experience of the best men4 ,any man whose duty has ever called him to strike out against the stream of popular opinion1 to rebuke the pleasant vices of the world1 to plead for causes too righteous to be popular1 to deny the existence of vested interests in the causes of human ruin1 to tell a corrupt society that it is corrupt1 and a lying ,church that it lies2--any man who has had to defy mere plausible conventions of veiled wrong-doing1 to give bold utterance to forgotten truths1 to awake sodden and slumbering consciences1 to annul agreements with death and covenants with hell2 every man who rises above the trimmers and the facing-both-ways1 and those who try to serve two masters--they who swept away the rotting superstitions of a tyrannous ecclesiasticism1 they who purified prisons1 they who struck the fetters off the slave--every saint1 reformer1 philanthropist1 and faithful preacher in the past1 and those now living saints1 who1 walking in the shining steps of these1 endeavour to rescue the miserable out of the gutter1 and to preach the gospel to the poor1 know the anguish of isolation1 when1 because they have been benefactors1 they are cursed as though they were felons1 and when1 for the efforts of their noble self-sacrifice1 the contempt of the world1 and its pedantry1 and its malice can find for them no words too contemptuous or too bitterly false4 #e4 ,but there was even a deeper sorrow than these which made ,elijah long for death4 ,it was the sense of utter and seemingly irretrievable failure4 ,it happens often to the worldling as well as to the saint4 ,many a man1 weary of life's inexorable emptiness1 has exclaimed in different ways3-- ,know that whatever thou hast been1 ',tis something better not to be4 ,that sentiment is not in the least peculiar to ,byron4 ,we find it again and again in the ,greek tragedians4 ,we find it alike in the legendary revelation of the god ,pan1 and in the ,book of ,ecclesiastes1 and in ,schopenhauer and ,von ,hartmann4 ,no true ,christian1 no believer in the mercy and justice of ,god1 can share that sentiment1 but will to the last thank ,god for ,his creation and preservation and all the blessings of this life1 as well as for the inestimable gift of ,his redemption1 for the means of grace1 and for the hope of glory4 ,nevertheless1 it is part of ,god's discipline that ,he often requires ,his saints as well as ,his sinners to face what looks like hopeless discomfiture1 and to perish1 as it were1 ,in the lost battle ,borne down by the flying1 ,where mingles war's rattle ,with groans of the dying4 ,such was the fate of all the ,prophets4 ,they were tortured2 they had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings1 yea1 moreover of bonds and imprisonment2 they were stoned1 were sawn asunder1 were tempted1 were slain with the sword2 they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins1 they hid in caves and dens of the earth1 being destitute1 afflicted1 tormented1 though of them the world was not worthy4 ,such1 too1 was the fate of all the ,apostles--set forth last of all as men doomed to death2 made a spectacle to the world1 to angels1 and to men4 ,they were hungry1 thirsty1 naked1 buffeted2 they had no certain dwelling-place2 they were treated as fools and weak1 were dishonoured1 defamed1 treated as the filth of the world and the offscouring of all things4 ,such was conspicuously the case of ,st4 ,paul in that death1 so lonely and forsaken1 that the ,french sceptic thinks he must have awakened with infinite regret from the disillusionment of a futile life4 ,nay1 it was the earthly lot of ,him who was the prototype1 and consolation1 known or unknown1 of all these3--it was the lot of ,him who1 from that which seemed the infinite collapse and immeasurable abandonment of ,his cross of shame1 cried out3 ,my ,god1 ,my ,god1 why hast ,thou forsaken ,me8 ,he warned ,his true followers that they1 too1 would have to face the same finality of earthly catastrophes1 to die without the knowledge1 without even the probable hope1 that they have accomplished anything1 in utter forsakenment1 in a monotony of execration1 often in dejection and apparent hiding of ,god's countenance4 ,the olden saints who prepared the way for ,christ1 and those who since ,his coming have followed ,his footsteps1 have had to learn that true life involves a bearing of the cross4 ,take but one or two out of countless instances4 ,look at that humble brown figure1 kneeling drowned with tears to think of the disorders which had already begun to creep into the holy order which he had designed4 ,it is sweet ,st4 ,francis of ,assisi1 to whom ,god said in visions3 ,poor little man3 thinkest thou that ,i1 who rule the universe1 cannot direct in ,my own way thy little order8 ,look at that monk in his friars' dress1 racked1 tortured1 gibbeted in fetters over the flaming pyre in the great square at ,florence1 stripped by guilty priests of his priestly robe1 degraded from a guilty ,church by its guilty representatives1 pelted by wanton boys1 dying amid a roar of execration from the brutal and fickle multitude whose hearts he once had moved4 ,it is ,savonarola1 the prophet of ,florence4 ,look at that poor preacher dragged from his dungeon to the stake at ,basle1 wearing the yellow cap and sanbenito painted with flames and devils4 ,it is ,john ,huss1 the preacher of ,bohemia4 ,look at the lion-hearted reformer feeling how much he had striven1 not knowing as yet how much he had achieved1 appealing to ,god to govern ,his world1 saying that he was but a powerless man1 and would be the veriest ass alive if he thought that he could meddle with the intricacies of ,divine ,providence4 ,it is ,luther4 ,look at the youth1 starving in an ink-stained garret1 hunted through the streets by an infuriated mob1 thrust into the city prison as the only way to save his life from those who hated his exposure of their iniquities4 ,it is ,william ,lloyd ,garrison4 ,look at that missionary1 deserted1 starving1 fever-stricken1 in the midst of savages1 dying on his knees1 in daily sufferings1 amid frustrated hopes4 ,it is ,david ,livingstone1 the pioneer of ,africa4 ,they1 and thousands like them1 have borne squalors and shames and tragedies1 while they looked not at the things that are seen1 but at the things that are not seen2 for the things that are seen are temporal1 but the things which are not seen are eternal4 ,might not they all have said with the disappointed ,apostles1 ,master1 we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing8 ,might not their lives and deaths--the lives which fools thought madness1 and their end to be without honour--be described as one poet has described that of his disenchanted king3-- ,he walked with dreams and darkness1 and he found ,a doom that ever poised itself to fall1 ,an ever-moaning battle in the mist1 ,death in all life1 and lying in all love1 ,the meanest having power upon the highest1 ,and the high purpose broken by the worm4 ,yes2 the smelter of ,israel had now to go down himself into the crucible4#fgh ,,footnotes3 #fgd ,psalm cii4 #f1 #h4 #fge ,psalm xxxviii4 #aa1 #ab4 #fgf ,jer4 v4 #ca1 xxix4 #i4 #fgg ,john xvi4 #cb4 #fgh ,krummacher4 ,,chapter ,,xli4 ,,how ,,god ,,deals ,,with ,,despondency4 #a ,,kings xix4 #e-h4 ,why art thou so vexed1 ,o my soul8 and why art thou so disquieted within me8 ,o put thy trust in ,god2 for ,i will yet praise ,him who is the health of my countenance1 and my ,god4--,,psalm xlii4 #aa4 ,it is enough2 now1 ,o ,lord1 take away my life2 for ,i am not better than my fathers4 ,the despondency was deeper than personal4 ,it was despair of the world2 despair of the fate of the true worship2 despair about the future of faith and righteousness2 despair of everything4 ,elijah1 in his condition of pitiable weariness1 felt himself reduced to entire uncertainty about all ,god's dealings with him and with mankind4 ,i am not better than my fathers3 they failed one by one1 and died1 and entered the darkness2 and ,i have failed likewise4 ,to what end did ,moses lead this people through the wilderness8 ,why did the ,judges fight and deliver them8 ,of what use was the wise guidance of ,samuel8 ,what has come of ,david's harp1 and ,solomon's temple and magnificence1 and ,jeroboam's heaven-directed rebellion8 ,it ends1 and my work ends1 in the despotism of ,jezebel1 and a nation of apostates6 ,god pitied ,his poor suffering servant1 and gently led him back to hope and happiness1 and restored him to his true self1 and to the natural elasticity of his free spirit4 #a4 ,first1 he gave ,his beloved sleep4 ,elijah lay down and slept4 ,perhaps this was what he needed most of all4 ,when we lose that dear oblivion of nature's soft nurse1 and sweet restorer1 balmy sleep1 then nerve and brain give way4 ,so ,god sent him ,the innocent sleep1 ,sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care1 ,balm of hurt minds1 great nature's second course1 ,chief nourisher in life's feast4 ,and doubtless1 while he slept1 his sleeping mind1 as the ,greek tragedian says1 was bright with eyes1 and ,he1 who had thus steeped his senses in forgetfulness1 spoke peace to his troubled heart1 or breathed into it the rest over which hope might brood with her halcyon wings4 #b4 ,next1 ,god provided him with food4 ,when he awoke he saw that at his head1 under the rhotem-plant1 ,god had spread him a table in the wilderness4 ,it was a provision1 simple indeed1 but for his moderate wants more than sufficient--a cake baked on the coals#fgi and a cruse of water4 ,a ,maleakh--a messenger--some one1 as the ,septuagint and as ,josephus both render it1#fhj some one who was1 to him at any rate1 an angel of ,god--touched him1 and said1 ,arise and eat4 ,he ate and drank1 and thus refreshed lay down again to make up1 perhaps1 for long arrears of unrest4 ,and again ,god's messenger1 human or angelic1 touched him1 and bade him rise and eat once more1 or his strength would fail in the journey which lay before him4 ,for he meant to plunge yet farther into the wilderness4 ,in the language of the narrator1 ,he arose1 and did eat and drink1 and went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights4 #c4 ,next ,god sent him on a hallowed pilgrimage to bathe his weary spirit in the memories of a brighter past4 ,it does not require forty days and forty nights1 nor anything like so long a period1 to get from one day's journey in the wilderness to ,horeb1 the ,mount of ,god1 which was ,elijah's destination4 ,the distance does not exceed one hundred and eighty miles even from ,beersheba4 ,but1 as in the case of ,moses and of our ,lord1 forty days--a number connected by many associations with the idea of penance and temptation--symbolises the period of ,elijah's retirement and wanderings4 ,no doubt1 too1 the number has an allusive significance1 pointing back to the forty years' wanderings of ,israel in the wilderness4 ,the ,septuagint omits the words of ,god1 but there can be little doubt that ,sinai was selected for the goal of ,elijah's pilgrimage with reference to the awful scenes connected with the promulgation of the law4 ,it is well known that the ,mount of the ,commandments is as a rule called ,sinai in ,exodus1 ,leviticus1 and ,numbers1 though the name ,horeb occurs in ,exod4 iii4 #a1 xxxiii4 #f4 ,to account for the double usage there have been1 since the ,middle ,ages1 two theories3 7#a7 that ,horeb is the name of the range1 and ,sinai of the mountain2 7#b7 that ,horeb properly means the northern part of the range1 and ,sinai the southern1 especially ,jebel ,mousa4 ,horeb is the prevalent name for the mountain in ,deuteronomy2 ,sinai is the ordinary name1 and occurs thirty-one times in the ,old ,testament4 ,after his wanderings ,elijah reached ,mount ,sinai1 and came to the cave1 and took shelter there4 ,the use of the article shows that a particular cave is meant1 and there can be little reason to discredit the almost immemorial tradition that it is the hollow still pointed out to hundreds of pilgrims as the scene of the theophany which was here granted to ,elijah4 ,perhaps in the same cave the vision had been granted to ,moses1 in the scene to which this narrative looks back4 ,it is not so much a cave as1 what it is called in ,exodus1 a cleft of the rock4#fha ,from the foot of the mountain1 the level space on which now stands the monastery of ,saint ,katherine1 a steep and narrow pathway through the rocks leads up to ,jebel ,mousa1 the southernmost peak of ,sinai1 which is seven thousand feet high4 ,half-way up this mountain is a little secluded plain in the inmost heart of the granite precipice1 in which is an enclosed garden1 and a solitary cypress1 and a spring and pool of water1 and a little chapel4 ,inside the chapel is shown a hole1 barely large enough to contain the body of a man4 ,it is1 says ,dr4 ,allon1 a temple not made with hands1 into which1 through a stupendous granite screen1 which shuts out even the ,bedouin world1 ,god's priests may enter to commune with ,him4#fhb 99 99 99 99 99 ,if1 indeed1 ,elijah had heard by tradition the vision of ,moses of which this was the scene1 he must have been filled with awful thoughts as he rested in the same narrow fissure1 and recalled what had been handed down respecting the manifestation of ,jehovah to his mighty predecessor4 #d4 ,and as ,god had pointed out to him the way to restore his bodily strength by sleep and food1 so now ,he opened before the ,prophet the remedy of renewed activity4 ,the question of the ,lord came to him--it was re-echoed by the voice of his own conscience--,what doest thou here1 ,elijah8 ,what doest thou8 ,he was doing nothing6 ,he had1 indeed1 fled for his life2 but was all the rest of his life to be so different from its beginning8 ,was there1 indeed1 no more work to be done in ,israel or in ,judah1 and was he tamely to allow ,jezebel to be the final mistress of the situation8 ,was one alien and idolatrous woman to overawe ,god's people ,israel1 and to snatch from ,god's prophet all the fruits of his righteous labours8 ,what doest thou here1 ,elijah8 ,is not the very significance of thy name ,jehovah1 ,he is my ,god8 ,is ,he to be the ,god but of one fugitive8 ,what doest thou here8 ,this is the wilderness4 ,there are no idolaters or murderers1 or breakers of ,god's commandments here2 but are there not multitudes in the crowded cities where ,baal's temple towers over ,samaria1 and his sun-pillars cast their offensive shadows8 ,are there not multitudes in ,jezreel1 where the queen's ,asherah-shrine amid its guilt-shrouding trees flings its dark protection over unhallowed orgies committed in the name of religion8 ,should there not have been inspiration as well as reproof in the mere question8 ,should it not mean to him1 ,why art thou cast down1 ,o my soul8 and why art thou so disquieted within me8 ,put thy trust in ,god1 for ,i will yet praise ,him1 who is the health of my countenance1 and my ,god8 #e4 ,the question stirred the heart of ,elijah1 but did not yet dispel his sense of hopelessness and frustration1 nor did it restore his confidence that ,god would govern the world aright4 ,as yet it only called forth the heavy murmur of his grief4 ,i have been very jealous for ,jehovah the ,god of ,hosts3 ,i1 alone among my people2 for the children of ,israel--not the wicked queen only1 with her abominations and witchcrafts1 but the renegade people with her--have forsaken ,thy covenant1 which forbids them to have any ,god but ,thee1 and have thrown down ,thine altars1#fhc and slain ,thy prophets with the sword2 and ,i1 even ,i only1 am left2 and they seek my life1 to take it away4 ,it was as it were an appeal to ,jehovah before whom he stood1 if not almost a reproach to ,him4 ,it was as though he said1 ,i have done my utmost2 ,i have failed3 wilt not ,thou put forth ,thy power and reign8 ,i am but one poor hunted prophet alone against the world4 ,there is no prophet more3 not one is there among them that understandeth any more4 ,i can do no more4 ,of what use is my life8 ,carest ,thou not that ,thy people have revolted from ,thee8 ,behold they perish2 they perish1 they all perish6 ,of what use is my life8 ,my work has failed3 let me die6 #f4 ,god dealt with this mood as ,he has done in all ages1 as ,he had done before to ,jacob1 as ,he did afterwards to ,david and to ,hezekiah1 and to ,isaiah and ,jeremiah2 and as the ,son of ,god did to the antitype of ,elijah--the great forerunner--when his faith failed him4 ,he let the conviction steal into his mind that the ways of ,god are wider than men1 and ,his thoughts greater than men's4 ,he unteaches ,his prophet the delusion that everything depends on him4 ,he shows him that though ,he works for men by men1 and though ,god cannot make best man's best ,without best men to help ,him1 still no living man is necessary1 nor can any man1 however great1 either hasten or understand the purposes of ,god4 ,elijah had need to be taught that man is nothing--that ,god is all in all4 ,instead of answering his complaint1 the voice said to him3 ,go forth to-morrow1 and stand upon the mount before the ,lord4 ,behold1 the ,lord is passing by4#fhd ,,footnotes3 #fgi ,the coals 7reshaphim7 for the cake 7,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 subcinericius panis7 were the dry twigs of the broom plant1 still sold for that purpose in the markets of ,cairo4 ,comp4 ,psalm cxx4 #d2 coals of juniper4 #fhj #a ,kings xix4 #e4 means a messenger1 and in verse #b is used of the messenger of ,jezebel4 #fha ,exod4 xxxiii4 #bb4 #fhb ,bible ,educator1 iii4 #ace4 #fhc ,the use of the plural1 and the absence of any objections to an uncentralised worship1 are proofs of the northern origin of the ,elijah-episode4 #fhd ,,lxx41 2 ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 xiii4 #g2 ,comp4 ,exod4 xxxiv4 #b4 ,it is hardly likely that the stupendous vision would follow instantly and without a moment's preparation4 ,,chapter ,,xlii4 ,,the ,,theophany ,,and ,,its ,,significance4 #a ,,kings xix4 #i-ae4 ,who heardest the rebuke of the ,lord in ,sinai1 and in ,horeb the judgment of vengeance4--,,ecclus4 xlviii4 #g4 ,throughout the ,scriptures infinite care is taken to preclude every notion that the ,most ,high ,god can be represented in visible form4 ,he manifested ,himself at ,sinai to the children of ,israel1 but though the mount burned with fire1 and there were clouds and thick darkness1 and the voice of a trumpet speaking long and loud1 the people were reminded with the utmost solemnity that they saw no manner of similitude4#fhe ,indeed1 in later times1 when there was a keener jealousy of every anthropomorphic expression1 the giving of the law is rather represented as a part of the ministry of angels4 ,the word ,makom1 or ,place1 is substituted for ,jehovah1 so that ,moses and the elders and the ,israelites do not see ,god but only ,his ,makom1 the space which ,he fills2#fhf the delivery of the law is ascribed to angelic ministers4 ,at times the angels are almost identified with the careering flames and rushing winds which a modern theologian describes to us as being the skirts of their garments1 the waving of their robes2 for is it not written1 ,he that maketh the winds ,his angels and the flaming fires ,his ministers8#fhg ,and in the daring description of ,jehovah's visible manifestation of ,himself to ,moses1 when ,he hid him in that fissure of the rock with the hollow of ,his hand1 ,moses only observes as it were the fringe and evanishment of ,his glory1 dark with excessive light4 ,it was natural that ,jehovah should reveal ,himself to ,elijah under the aspect of those awful elemental forces with which his solitary life had made him familiar4 ,no spot in the world is more suitable for those powers in all their fire and magnificence than the knot of mountains which crowd the ,sinaitic peninsula with their entangled cliffs4 ,travellers have borne witness to the overwhelming violence and majesty of the storms which rush and reverberate through the granite gorges of those everlasting hills4 ,it was in such surroundings that ,jehovah spoke to the heart of his servant4 ,first a great and strong wind rent the mountains1 and brake in pieces the rocks1 before the ,lord4#fhh ,the winds of ,god1 which blow where they list1 and we know not whence they come nor whither they go1 have in them so awful and irresistible a strength1 that man and the works of man1 are reduced to impotence before them4 ,and when they rush and roar through the gullies of innumerable hills in tropic lands where the intense heat has rarefied the air1 the sound of them is beyond all comparison weird and terrific4 ,we cannot wonder that this roar of the hurricane was regarded as the trump of the archangel and the voice of ,god at ,sinai2 or that the ,lord answered ,job out of the whirlwind2#fhi and appeared to ,ezekiel in a great cloud and a whirlwind out of the north2#fij or that ,jeremiah compared ,his anger to a whirling and sweeping storm2#fia or that the ,psalmist describes ,him as bowing the heavens and coming down and casting darkness under ,his feet1 and flying upon a cherub1 and walking upon the wings of the wind2#fib or that ,nahum says1 ,the ,lord hath ,his way in the whirlwind and the storm1 and the clouds are the dust of ,his feet1 444 and the mountains quake at ,him4#fic ,and ,elijah felt the terror of the scene1 as the storm dislodged huge masses of the mountain granite1 and sent them rolling and crashing down the hills4 ,but it did not speak to his inmost heart3 for ,the ,lord was not in the wind4 ,and after the wind an earthquake shook the solid bases of the ,sinaitic range4 ,the mountain saw ,god and trembled4 ,the ,lord1 in the language of the ,psalmist1 shook the wilderness of ,kadesh1 the mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like young sheep4#fid ,and man never feels so abjectly helpless1 he is never reduced to such absolute insignificance1 as when the solid earth beneath him1 the very emblem of stability1 trembles as with a palsy1 and cleaves beneath his feet2 and shakes his towers to the earth1 and swallows up his cities4 ,once more the soul of ,elijah shuddered at the terrific impression of this sign of ,jehovah's power4 ,but it had no message for his inmost heart3 for ,the ,lord was not in the earthquake4 ,and after the earthquake a fire4 ,jehovah overwhelmed the ,prophet's senses with the dread magnificence of one of those lurid thunderstorms of which the terrors are never so tremendous as in such mountain scenes1 where travellers tell us that the burning air seems transfused into sheets of flame4 ,in that awful muttering and roar of the lurid clouds1 that millionfold reverberation of what the ,psalmist calls the voice of the ,lord1 when the lightnings light the world1 and run along the ground1 and1 in the language of ,habakkuk1 ,god sends abroad ,his arrows1 and the light of ,his glittering spear1 and burning coals go forth under ,his feet1 the lips of man quiver at the voice1 and his heart sinks1 and he trembles where he stands4 ,and this1 too1 ,elijah must have felt as the hiding-place of ,god's power3#fie and yet it did not speak to his inmost heart2 for ,the ,lord was not in the fire4 ,and after the fire a still small voice4 ,however the rendering may be altered into a gentle murmuring sound1 or1 as in the ,revised ,version1 a sound of gentle stillness1 no expression is more full of the awe and mystery of the original than the phrase a still small voice4#fif ,it was the shock of awful stillness which succeeded the sudden cessation of the earthquake and hurricane and thunderstorm1 and instantly1 in it appalling hush and gentleness1 ,elijah felt that ,god was there2 and he no sooner heard that voiceful silence speaking within him than he was filled with fear and self-abasement4 ,he wrapped his face in his mantle1 even as ,moses was afraid to look upon ,god4 ,he came from the hollow of the rock which had sheltered him amidst that turbulence of material forces1 and stood in the entering in of the cave4 ,at once the silence became articulate to his conscience1 and repeated to him the reproachful question1 ,what doest thou here1 ,elijah8 ,amazed and overwhelmed as he is1 he has not yet grasped the meaning of the vision4 ,something of it perhaps he saw and felt4 ,it breathed something of peace into the despair and tumult of his heart1 but he still can only answer as before3-- ,i have been very jealous for the ,lord ,god of hosts3 because the children of ,israel have forsaken ,thy covenant1 thrown down ,thine altars1 and slain ,thy prophets with the sword2 and ,i1 ,i only1 am left2 and they seek my life1 to take it away4 ,whatever that theophany had taught him1 it had not yet fully removed his perplexity4 ,but now ,god1 in tender forbearance1 unfolds at any rate the practical issue of the vision4 ,elijah is to be inactive no longer4 ,he is to find in faithfulness and work the removal of all doubts1 and is to learn that man may not abandon his duties1 even when they are irksome1 even when they seem hopeless1 even when they have become intolerable and full of peril4 ,he has to learn that it is only when men have finished their day's work that ,god sends them sleep1 and that his own day's work was as yet unfinished4 ,he is no longer to linger in the wilderness apart from the ways of guilty and suffering men4 ,he is one with them3 he may not separate his destiny from theirs2 he has to feel that ,god has no favourites and is no respecter of persons1 but that all men are ,his children1 and that each child of ,his must work for all4 ,go1 the ,lord said unto him1 return on thy way by the wilderness to ,damascus4 ,did the return involve unknown dangers8 ,still he must commit his way unto the ,lord1 and simply be doing good1 regardless of all consequences4 ,the saints of the ,old ,dispensation no less than of the ,new had to go forth bearing their cross1 and on their way to ,golgotha4 ,three missions still awaited him4 ,first1 he is to supersede the old dynasty of ,benhadad1 ,king of ,syria1 founded by ,solomon's enemy1 and to anoint ,hazael to be king over ,syria4 ,next1 he is to abolish the dynasty of ,omri1 and to anoint ,jehu1 the son of ,nimshi1 to be king over ,israel4#fig ,thirdly--and there was deep significance in this behest1 and one which must have humiliated to the dust the risings of pride and the half-reproach1 so to speak1 for inadequate support which had underlain his appeal to ,jehovah--he is to anoint ,elisha1 the son of ,shaphat1 of ,abel-meholah1 to be prophet in his room4 ,elijah had thought himself necessary--an indispensable agent for the task of delivering ,israel from the guilty and demoralising apostasy of ,baal-worship4 ,god teaches him that there is no such thing as a necessary man2 that man at his best estate is altogether vanity2 that ,god is all in all2 that ,god buries ,his workmen1 but continues ,his work4 ,and something of the meaning of these tasks is explained to him4 ,the people of ,israel are not yet converted4 ,they still needed the hand of chastisement4 ,the three years' drought had been ineffectual to wean them from their backslidings1 and turn their hearts again to the ,lord4 ,on the royal house and on the worshippers of ,baal should fall the remorseless sword of ,jehu4 ,on the whole nation the ruthless invasions of ,hazael should press with terrible penalty4 ,and him that escaped from their avenging missions should ,elisha slay4 ,the last clause is enigmatical4 ,elisha can hardly be said directly to have slain any4 ,he lived1 on the whole1 in friendship with the kings both of ,israel and of ,aram1 and in peace and honour in the cities4 ,but the general idea seems to be that he would carry on the mission of ,elijah alike for the guidance and the heaven-directed punishments of kings and nations1 and that the famines1 raids1 and humiliations which rendered his nation miserable under the sons of ,ahab should be elements of his sacred mission4#fih ,one more revelation remained to lift the ,prophet above his lower self4 ,his cry had been1 again and again3 ,i1 ,i only1 am left2 and they seek my life1 to take it away4 ,he must not indulge the mistaken fancy that the worship of the true ,god would die with him1 or that ,god needed his advice1 or that ,god was slack concerning ,his promise as some men count slackness4 ,he was not the only faithful person left1 nor would truth perish when he was called away4 ,nor is he to judge only by outward appearances1 nor to suppose that the arm of ,god can be measured by the finger of man4 ,a new prophet is soon to take his place1 but ,god has not been so neglectful as he supposes1--,yet1 in spite of all thy murmurings of failure and a frustrated purpose--yet will ,i leave ,me--not thee1 thee only--but seven thousand in ,israel1 all the knees which have not bowed unto ,baal1 and every mouth which has not kissed him4#fii ,it has been regarded as a difficulty that ,elijah fulfilled but one of the three behests4 ,but ,scripture does not narrate events with the finical and pragmatic accuracy of modern annals4 ,elisha1 directly or indirectly1 caused both ,jehu to be anointed and ,hazael to ascend the throne of ,syria1 and we are left to infer that in these deeds he carried out the instructions of his ,master4 ,it is a more serious question1 ,what was the exact meaning of the theophany granted to ,elijah on the ,mount of ,god8 ,here1 too1 we are left to large and liberal applications4 ,the greatest utterances of men1 the loftiest works of human genius1 often admit of manifold interpretations1 and lend themselves to springing and germinal developments4 ,far more is this the case in the revelations of ,god to the spirit of man4 ,we can see the main truths which were involved in that mighty scene1 even if the narrator of it leaves unexplained its central significance4 ,it is usually interpreted as a reproof to the spirit which led ,elijah to regard the tempestuous manifestations of wrath and vengeance as the normal methods of the interposition of ,god4 ,he was fresh from the stern challenge of ,carmel2 his hands were yet red with the blood of those four hundred and fifty priests4 ,it was perhaps needful for him to learn that ,god's gentler agencies are more effectual and more expressive of ,his inmost nature1 and that ,god is ,love even though ,he can by no means clear the guilty4 ,something of this lesson has been at all times learnt from the narrative4#gjj ,the raging fire1 the roaring wind1 ,thy boundless power display2 ,but in the gentler breeze we find ,thy ,spirit's viewless way4 ,the dew of heaven is like ,thy grace1 ,it steals in silence down2 ,but where it lights1 the favoured place ,by richest fruits is known4 ,quite naturally men have always seen in the storm1 the earthquake1 and the fire1 the presence of ,god as manifested in ,his wrath4 ,then the earth shook and trembled1 says the ,psalmist2 the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken1 because ,he was wroth4 ,there went up a smoke in ,his nostrils1 and fire out of ,his mouth devoured3 coals burnt forth from it4 ,he bowed the heavens also1 and came down3 and darkness was under ,his feet4 ,and ,he rode upon a cherub1 and swooped down3 yea1 ,he did fly upon the wings of the wind4#gja ,i will shake the heavens1 and the earth shall remove out of her place1 at the wrath of the ,lord4#gjb ,thou shalt be visited1 says ,isaiah1 of the ,lord of ,hosts with thunder1 and with earthquake1 and great noise1 with storm and tempest1 and the flame of devouring fire4#gjc ,on the other hand1 in ,his mercy ,god maketh the storm a calm4 ,when ,he reveals ,himself in a vision of the night to ,eliphaz the ,temanite a wind passed before my face1 so that the hair of my head stood up1 and there was silence1 and ,i heard a voice saying1 ,shall mortal man be great before ,god8 shall a man be pure before his ,maker8 ,these passages in no small measure explain the symbolism of ,elijah's vision1 and point to its essential significance4 ,who can measure 7asks ,mr4 ,ruskin7 the total effect produced upon the minds of men by the phenomenon of a single thunderstorm8--the questioning of the forest leaves together in their terrified stillness which way the wind shall come--the murmuring together of the ,angels of ,destruction as they draw in the distance their swords of flame--the rattling of the dome of heaven under the chariot wheels of death8 ,yet it is not the thunderstorms nor the hurricanes that have been most powerful in altering the face or moulding the structure of the world1 but rather the long continuance of ,nature's most gentle influences4 ,viewing the vision thus1 we may say that it pointed forward to that transcendently greater than ,elijah who did not strive1 nor cry1 nor was ,his voice heard in the streets4 ,there is already a gospel of ,elijah4 ,he1 the farthest removed of all the ,prophets from the evangelical spirit and character1 had yet enshrined in the heart of his story the most forcible of all protests against the hardness of ,judaism1 the noblest anticipation of the breadth and depth of ,christianity4 ,this view of the passage is taken1 with slight modifications1 by many1 from ,irenus down to ,grotius and ,calvin1 and modern commentators4 ,similarly it is a universal law of history that1 while some mighty and tumultuous energy may be needed to initiate the first movement or upheaval1 the greatest work is done by gentler agencies4 ,as in the old fable1 the quiet shining of the sun effects more than the bluster of the storm4 ,love is stronger than force1 and persuasion than compulsion4 ,mr4 ,j4 ,s4 ,mill treats it not only as a platitude but as a falsity to assert that truth cannot be suppressed by violence4 ,he says that 7for instance7 the truths brought into prominence by the ,reformation had been again and again suppressed by the brutal tyrannies of the ,papacy4 ,but in all these instances has not the truth ultimately prevailed8 ,is it not a fact of experience that ,truth1 pressed to earth shall rise again1 ,the eternal years of ,god are hers2 ,but error1 wounded1 writhes in pain ,and dies among her worshippers8 ,the truth prevails and the error dies under the slow light of knowledge and by the long results of time4 ,nor is it any answer to this view of the revelation to ,elijah on the ,mount of ,god that there is not the slightest proof of his having learnt any such lesson1 or of such a lesson having been deduced from it by the narrator himself4 ,neither ,elijah1 it has been said1 nor the writer of the ,book of ,kings1 felt the smallest regret for the avenging deed of ,carmel4 ,their consciences approved of it4 ,they looked on it with pride1 not with compunction4 ,this is shown by the subsequently recorded story of ,elijah's calling down fire from heaven on the unfortunate captains and soldiers of ,ahaziah1 in whatever light we regard that story which was evidently current in the ,schools of the ,prophets4 ,if the massacre of the priests cannot be regarded as morally excusable1 the destruction of these royal emissaries by consuming fire was certainly much less so4 ,the vision may have had a deeper significance than ,elijah or the ,schools of the ,prophets understood1 just as the words of ,jesus often had a deeper significance than was dreamt of even by the ,apostles when they heard them4 ,the foolishness of ,god is wiser than men1 and the weakness of ,god is stronger than men4 ,neither ,elijah nor the sacred historian may have grasped all that was meant by the wind1 and earthquake1 and fire1 and still small voice4 ,as little children sleep and dream of heaven1 ,so thoughts beyond their thoughts to those high bards were given4 ,it is scarcely more than another aspect of the many-sided truth that love is more potent and more ,divine than violence1 if we also see in this incident a foreshadowing of the truth1 so necessary for the impatient souls of men that ,god neither hasteth nor resteth2 that ,he is patient because ,eternal2 that a thousand years in ,his sight are but as yesterday1 seeing that it is past as a dream in the night4 ,something of this we learn from the study of nature4 ,it used to be thought that the upheaval of the continents and the rearing of the great mountains was due to cataclysms and conflagrations and vast explosions of volcanic force4 ,it has long been known that they are due1 on the contrary1 to the inconceivably slow modifications produced by the most insignificant causes4 ,it is the age-long accumulation of mica-flakes which has built up the mighty bastions of the ,alps4 ,it is the toil of the ephemeral coral insect which has reared whole leagues of the ,american ,continent and filled the ,pacific ,ocean with those unnumbered isles ,which1 like to rich and various gems1 inlay ,the unadorned bosom of the deep4 ,it is the slow silting up of the rivers which has created vast deltas for the home of man4 ,it has required the calcareous deposit of millions of animalcul to produce even one inch of the height of the white cliffs along the shores4 ,even so the thoughts of man have been made more merciful in the slow course of ages1 and quiet1 incommensurable influences have caused all those advances in civilisation and humanity which elevate our race4 ,the bright invisible air has produced effects incomparably more stupendous than the wild tornadoes4 ,that air1 so gentle1 so imperceptible1 is more powerful1 not only than all the creatures that breathe and live by it1 not only than all the oaks of the forest which it rears in an age and shatters in a moment1 not only than the monsters of the sea1 but than the sea itself1 which it tosses up with foam and breaks upon every rock in its vast circumference2 for it carries in its bosom all perfect calm1 and compresses the incontrollable ocean and the peopled earth1 like an atom of a feather4#gjd ,thus regarded1 says ,professor ,van ,oort1 the picture of ,elijah at ,mount ,horeb is full of consolation to all lovers of the truth4 ,sometimes they cry1 ,all is lost6 and are ready to despair4 ,but ,god answers1 ,never lose heart4 ,storms in which ,god is not1 in which the power of darkness seems to sweep unbridled and unconquered o'er the earth1 come before the whispering of the cooling breeze1 but the kingdom of peace and blessedness is ever drawing nigh4 ,let all who love ,god truly1 work for its 'approach4' ,let us then cling to the lesson that mercy is better than sacrifice1 and is transcendently to be preferred to holocausts of human sacrifice1 even when the victims are polluted and cruel idolaters4 ,scripture never hides from us the imperfections of its heroes1 and ,st4 ,james tells us that ,elijah was but a man of like passions with ourselves4 ,the progress of the generations1 the slow shining of the light of ,god1 has not been in vain1 and we can see truths and read the meaning of theophanies by the experience of three subsequent millenniums1 of which two have followed the incarnation of the ,son of ,god4 ,,footnotes3 #fhe ,deut4 iv4 #ab1 #ae1 7comp4 v4 #d1 #bb1 #bc74 ,of ,moses1 on the other hand1 it is said1 the similitude of the ,lord shall he behold 7,numb4 xii4 #h2 ,exod4 xxxiii4 #aa2 ,deut4 xxxiv4 #aj74 #fhf 1 1 place1 was a sort of recognised euphemism for ,god in ,rabbinic and ,alexandrian exegesis4 ,thus1 in ,exod4 xxiv4 #aj1 for they saw the ,god of ,israel1 the ,,lxx4 have 4 ,philo says1 ,god ,himself is called ,place 7,de ,somn41 i4 #ebe74 ,rabbi ,isaac says1 ,god is not in ,makom1 but ,makom is in ,god4 ,see my ,bampton ,lectures on ,hist4 of ,interpretation1 p4 #abj2 ,early ,days of ,christianity1 i4 #bfa4 #fhg ,psalm civ4 #d2 ,heb4 i4 #g4 ,this intermediacy of angels is prominently alluded to in ,acts vii4 #ec2 ,gal4 iii4 #ai2 ,heb4 ii4 #b1 #c2 ,deut4 xxxiii4 #b2 ,psalm lxviii4 #ag4 #fhh ,the anthropomorphism which the ,targumists disliked vanishes in the ,chaldee3 ,and before ,him was a host of angels of the wind rending the mountains1 and breaking the rocks1 before the ,lord but the ,shechinah was not in the hosts of the angels of the wind1 and after the hosts of the angels of the wind was the host of the angel of the earthquake1 etc4 #fhi ,job xxxviii4 #a1 xl4 #f4 #fij ,ezek4 i4 #d4 #fia ,jer4 xxiii4 #ai1 #bj1 xxv4 #cb1 xxx4 #bc4 #fib ,psalms xviii4 #aj1 civ4 #c1 #e4 #fic ,nahum i4 #c1 #e4 #fid ,psalm xviii4 #g1 lxxvii4 #ah1 xcvii4 #d2 ,judg4 v4 #d2 #b ,sam4 xxii4 #h4 #fie ,hab4 iii4 #c-af4 #fif #a ,kings xix4 #ab2 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 ,sibilus aur tenuis2 ,chaldee1 a voice of angels singing in silence4 #fig ,jehu was the grandson of ,nimshi1 and was the son of ,jehoshaphat 7#b ,kings ix4 #b74 #fih ,isa4 xi4 #d1 xlix4 #b2 comp4 ,jer4 i4 #aj1 xviii4 #g4 #fii ,comp4 ,rom4 xii4 #e4 ,kissing images was a sign of idolatry then as it is now4 ,the foot of the statue of ,st4 ,peter in ,rome is worn away with kisses4 ,hosea xiii4 #b tells us of the custom of kissing the calves4 ,comp4 ,psalm ii4 #ab4 ,cicero tells us that the lovely brazen statue of ,hercules at ,agrigentum had the mouth and chin partly worn away by the kisses of the devout 7in ,verr41 iv4 #dc74 #gjj ,herder1 who was a devout poet1 and therefore a true imaginative interpreter of devout poetry1 says3 ,the vision was to show the fiery zeal of the ,prophet that would amend everything by the storm1 the mild process of ,god1 and proclaim ,his longsuffering tender nature as previously the voice did to ,moses3 hence the scene was so beautifully changed4 ,long before him the wise ,theodoret had said3 4 ,irenus1 still earlier 7c4 ,hr41 iv4 #bg71 saw in the vision an emblem of the difference between the law and the gospel2 and ,grotius1 following him1 says1 ,evangelii figuratio1 quod non venit cum vento1 terr motu1 et fulminibus ut lex1 ,exod4 xix4 #af 7see ,keil1 ad loc41 whose illustrations are often valuable when his exegesis is false and obsolete74 #gja ,psalm xviii4 #g-i2 comp4 #b ,sam4 xxii4 #h-aa4 #gjb ,isa4 xiii4 #ac4 #gjc ,isa4 xxix4 #f2 comp4 ,ecclus4 xxxix4 #bh4 #gjd ,w4 ,s4 ,landor4 ,,chapter ,,xliii4 ,,the ,,call ,,of ,,elisha4 #a ,,kings xix4 #ai-ba4 ,the one remains1 the many change and pass2 ,heaven's light alone remains1 earth's shadows flee4 ,,shelley4 ,whether ,elijah saw or saw not all that ,god had meant by the revelation at ,horeb1 much at any rate was abundantly clear to him1 and the path of new duties lay straight before him4 ,the first of those duties--the only one immediately possible--was to anoint ,elisha as prophet in his room1 and so prepare for the continuation of the task which he had been chosen to inaugurate4 ,he had been bidden to return across the wilderness in the direction of ,damascus4 ,whether he traversed the eastern side of ,jordan among his own familiar hills of ,gilead1 and then crossed over at ,bethshean1 where there was a ford1 or whether1 braving an danger from ,jezebel and her emissaries1 he passed through the territories of the western tribes1 it is certain that we find him next at ,abel-meholah1 the meadow of the dance1 which was not far from ,bethshean4#gje ,this1 as he knew1 was the home of ,elisha1 his future successor4 ,the position of ,elisha was wholly unlike his own4 ,he himself was a homeless ,bedawy1 bound to earth by no ties of family1 coming like the wind and vanishing like the lightning4 ,elisha1 on the other hand1 whose history was to be so different and so far less stormy--,elisha1 whose work and whose residence was mainly to be in cities--was a child of civilisation4 ,but the civilisation was still that of a society in which anarchic forces were by no means tamed4 ,dean ,stanley1 in his sketch of ,elisha1 seems to dwell too much on his gentleness of spirit4 ,he1 too1 had to carry out the anointing of ,hazael and ,jehu4 ,he was still less capable than ,elijah1 says ,ewald1 of inaugurating a purely benign and constructive mode of action1 since at that time the whole spirit of the ancient religion was still unprepared for it4 ,elijah found him in the heritage of his fathers1 ploughing the rich level land with twelve yoke of oxen4 ,eleven were with his servants1 and he himself guided the twelfth4#gjf ,elijah must have felt that the youth would have to make a great earthly sacrifice1 if he left all this--father and mother and home and lands--to become the disciple and attendant of a wild1 wandering1 and persecuted prophet4 ,he would say nothing to him4 ,he merely left the high road1 and passed over unto him1 as he plowed his fields4#gjg ,reaching him he took off his shaggy garment of skin1 which1 in imitation of him1 became in after years the normal garb of prophets1 and flung it over ,elisha's shoulders4 ,this apparently was all the anointing requisite1 save such as came from the ,spirit of ,god4 ,the act had a twofold symbolism3 it meant the adoption of ,elisha by ,elijah to be his mantelkind1 his spiritual son2 and it meant a distinct call to the prophetic office4 ,at first ,elisha seems to have stood still--amazed1 almost stupefied1 by the sudden necessity for so tremendous a decision4 ,the thought of resigning all the hopes and comforts of ordinary life and of severing so many dear and lifelong ties1 could not be unmixed with anguish4 ,again and again we see in the call of the prophets this natural shrinking1 the human reluctance born of humility1 frailty1 and misgiving4 ,it was so that ,moses at the burning bush had at first fought to the utmost against the conviction of his destiny4 ,it was so that ,gideon had pleaded that he was but the least of the children of ,abiezer4 ,it was thus that1 in later days1 ,jonah fled from the face of the ,lord to ,tarshish2 and ,isaiah cried1 ,woe is me1 for ,i am a man of unclean lips2 and ,jeremiah wailed1 ,ah1 ,lord ,god6 behold1 ,i cannot speak1 for ,i am a child6 ,and if we may allude to modern instances we know the shrinking hesitations of ,luther2 and how ,cromwell affirmed that he had prayed to ,god not to put him to his terrible work2 and how ,wesley hesitated long before he made himself vile by preaching in the open air to the ,kingswood colliers2 and how ,father ,matthew shrank from his great temperance efforts1 till one day1 rising from long prayer1 and at last convinced of his destined task1 he uttered the homely resolve1 ,in the name of ,god here goes6 ,elisha did not hesitate long4 ,the mysterious ,prophet of ,carmel--he whose voice was believed to have shut up the heavens1 he who had confounded king and priest and people at ,carmel--had spoken no word4 ,he had only flung over ,elisha the garment of hair1 and then stridden back to the road1 and gone on his way without once looking back4 ,soon he would have vanished beyond recall4 ,elisha decided that he would obey the call of ,god2 that he would not make the great refusal4 ,he ran after ,elijah1 and overtook him1 and1 accepting the position to which he had been elevated1 made but the one human natural request that he might be suffered first to kiss--that is1 to bid final farewell to--his father and mother1 and then he would follow ,elijah4 ,the request has often been compared to that of the young scribe who said to ,jesus1 ,lord1 suffer me first to bury my father2 to whom ,jesus replied1 ,let the dead bury their dead3 follow thou ,me4 ,but the two petitions are not really analogous4 ,the scribe practically asked that he might stay at home till his father died2 and as that was an uncertain term1 and the ministry of ,christ was very brief1 the delay was incompatible with such discipleship as ,christ then required4 ,there was no such indefinite postponement in ,elisha's petition4 ,it showed in him a tender heart1 not a reluctant purpose or a wavering will4 ,go back again1 answered ,elijah2 for what have ,i done to thee8 ,the words are often explained as a veiled yet severe rebuke1 as though ,elijah had meant to say with scorn1 ,go back2 perhaps you are not fit for the high call2 you do not understand the significance of what ,i have done2 or1 at any rate1 ,go back2 yet beware of being softly led away from the path of duty2 for consider how deep is the meaning of what ,i have done to thee4 ,the words involve no such disapprobation1 nor does the context agree with that view of them4 ,i can detect no accent of reproof in the words4 ,elijah1 as is shown by several incidents in his career1 had room for tenderness and human affection in his rugged lonely heart4 ,i understand his reply to mean1 ,go back2 it is right1 it is natural that thou shouldst thus bid a last farewell before leaving thy home4 ,thy coming to me must be purely voluntary2 ,i have but cast my mantle over thee1 nothing more4 ,thine own conscience alone can interpret the full meaning of the act1 and ,god will make thy way clear before thy face4 ,such1 ,i believe1 was ,elijah's free permission4 ,he was no hard ,stoic1 unnaturally trampling on the sweet affections of the soul4 ,he was no despotic spiritual guide full of gloomy superstition1 like the grim ,spaniard1 ,ignatius ,loyola1 who seemed to hold that ,god liked even our needless anguish1 and our voluntary self-tortures as an acceptable sacrifice to ,himself4 ,when ,st4 ,francis ,xavier1 on the journey of the first ,jesuits to ,rome1 passed quite near the castle of his parents and ancestors1 the teachings of ,loyola would not suffer the young noble to turn aside to print one last kiss upon his mother's cheek4 ,such hard exactions belong to that sphere of will-worship and voluntary humility which ,st4 ,paul condemns4 ,excessive violence needlessly inflicted on our innocent affections finds no sanction either in ancient ,judaism or genuine ,christianity4 ,and it was thus that ,elisha understood the ,prophet4 ,he went back1 and kissed his father and mother1 and1 like ,matthew when he left his toll-booth to follow ,christ1 he made a great feast to his dependents1 kinsfolk1 and friends4 ,to mark his complete severance from the happy past he unyoked his pair of oxen1 slew them1 used the plough and goad and wooden yokes as fuel1 boiled the flesh of the oxen1 and invited the people to his farewell feast4 ,then he arose1 and went after ,elijah1 and ministered unto him4 ,he was thenceforth recognised as a son of the prophetic schools1 and as their future head4 ,for the present he became known as ,elisha1 who poured water on the hands of ,elijah4 ,his subsequent career belongs entirely to the ,second ,book of ,kings4 ,,footnotes3 #gje #a ,kings iv4 #ab4 ,it was in the north part of the ,jordan valley4 #gjf #a ,kings xix4 #ai4 #gjg ,the ,hebrew can hardly bear the meaning that he was finishing the twelfth furrow in his field1 ploughed by his single yoke of oxen4 ,,chapter ,,xliv4 ,,ahab ,,and ,,benhadad4 #a ,,kings xx4 #a-cj4 ,in the ,septuagint and in ,josephus the events narrated in the twentieth chapter of the ,book of ,kings are placed after the meeting of ,elijah with ,ahab at the door of ,naboth's vineyard1 which occupies the twenty-first chapter in our version4 ,this order of events seems the more probable1 but no chronological data are given us in the long but fragmentary details of ,ahab's reign4 ,they are1 in fact1 composed of different sets of records1 partly historical1 partly prophetic1 and partly taken from some special monograph on the career of ,elijah4 ,here1 too1 we may observe that some most important details are altogether omitted1 and that we only learn them 7#a7 from the inscription of ,king ,mesha1 and 7#b7 from the clay tablets of ,assyria4 #a4 ,as regards ,king ,mesha1 the monument containing his very interesting annals is generally known as ,the ,moabite ,stone4 ,it is a stele of black basalt1 #c feet #aj inches high1 #b feet broad1 #ad-a_/b inches thick1 rounded at the top and bottom almost into a semicircle4 ,the ,phnician inscription is of capital importance both for philology and history4 ,it was first discovered by ,mr4 ,klein1 the ,german missionary of an ,english society at ,dibon1 east of the ,dead ,sea1 and it is now at the ,louvre4 ,dibon is now ,dibbn4 ,mr4 ,klein in #ahfh1 at ,jerusalem1 informed ,professor ,petermann of ,berlin of the existence of this ancient relic1 and from a few letters of the thirty-four lines which he had copied the ,professor at once pronounced that the language employed was ,phnician4 ,when ,m4 ,clermont ,ganneau1 the ,french consul at ,jerusalem1 endeavoured to get possession of it1 the ,bedawin discovered that it was regarded with deep interest by ,european scholars4 ,they immediately began to quarrel over its possession1 and the ,arab who had been sent to copy it barely escaped with his life4 ,in their greed and jealousy these modern ,moabites sooner than give it up1 put a fire under it1 and threw cold water on it1 and so broke it1 and then distributed the bits among the different families to be placed in the granaries and to serve as blessings upon the corn2 for they said that without the stone 7or its equivalent in hard cash7 a blight would fall upon their crops4 ,squeezes had been previously taken from it by ,m4 ,ganneau and ,captain ,warren1 from which the text has been restored4#gjh ,it records three great events in the reign of ,mesha4 7#a7 ,lines #a-ba4 ,wars of ,mesha with ,omri and his successors4 7#b7 ,lines #ba-ca4 ,public works of ,mesha after his deliverance from his ,jewish oppressors4 7#c7 ,lines #ca-cd4 ,his successful wars against the ,edomites 7or a people of ,horonaim71 undertaken by command of his god ,chemosh4 ,the date of the erection of the monolith is about ,b4,c4 #hij4 ,it begins thus3-- 7#a7 ,i1 ,mesha1 am son of ,chemosh-,gad1#gji ,king of ,moab1 7#b7 the ,dibonite4 ,my father reigned over ,moab #cj years1 and ,i reigned 7#c7 after my father4 ,and ,i erected this ,stone to ,chemosh 7a stone of salvation71#gaj 7#d7 for he saved me from all despoilers1 and let me see my desire upon all my enemies4 7#e7 ,now ,omri1 ,king of ,israel1 he oppressed ,moab many days1 for ,chemosh was angry with his 7#f7 land4 ,his son succeeded him1 and he also said1 ,i will oppress ,moab4 ,in my days he said 7,let us go7 7#g7 and ,i will see my desire on him and his house1 and ,israel said1 ,i shall destroy it for ever4 ,now ,omri took the land 7#h7 ,medeba1 and 7the enemy7 occupied it 7in his days and in7 the days of his sons1 forty years4 ,and ,chemosh 7had mercy7 7#i7 on it in my days4 ,he goes on to tell how he built ,bael ,meon and ,kirjathaim2 captured ,ataroth1 and killed all its warriors1 and devoted its spoil to ,chemosh4 ,and ,chemosh said to me1 ,go take ,nebo against ,israel4 ,he took it1 slew seven thousand men1 devoted the women and maidens to ,ashtar-,chemosh1 and offered ,jehovah's vessels to ,chemosh4 ,then he took ,jahas which the king of ,israel had fortified1 and annexed it to ,dibon2 built ,korcha1 its palaces1 prisons1 etc41 ,aroer1 ,bethbamoth1 and other towns which he colonised with poor ,moabites2 and took ,horonaim by assault4 ,there the inscription ends1 but not until it has given us some details of a series of bloody wars about which the ,scripture narrative is almost entirely silent1 though in #b ,kings iii4 #d-bg it narrates ,mesha's desperate resistance of ,israel1 ,judah1 and ,edom 7,b4,c4 #hif74 ,on this inscription we may briefly remark that for ,chemosh-,gad1 ,dr4 ,neubauer reads ,chemosh-melech1 and makes various other changes and suggestions4 #b4 ,from the annals of ,assyria we learn the altogether unexpected fact that ,ahabu ,sirlai1 i4e41 ,ahab of ,israel1 was acting as one of the allies1 or more probably as one of the vassals1 of ,syria in the great battle fought at ,karkar1 ,b4,c4 #hed1 against ,shalmanezer ,,ii41 by ,hittites1 ,hamathites1 and ,syrians4 ,whether this was before the invasion of ,benhadad1 or after his defeat1 is uncertain4 ,the twentieth chapter of the ,book of ,kings tells us that ,benhadad1 the ,araman king1 accompanied by thirty-two feudatory princes of ,hittites1 ,hamathites1 and others1 gathered together all his host with his horses and chariots1 and proclaimed war against ,israel4 ,unable to meet this vast army in the field1 ,ahab shut himself up in ,samaria1 and ,benhadad went up and besieged it4 ,we do not know which ,benhadad this was4 ,it could not have been the grandson of ,rezon1 whom1 fourteen years earlier1 ,king ,asa had bribed to attack ,baasha in order to divert him from building ,ramah4#gaa ,it may have been his son or grandson bearing the same religious dynastic name4 ,in any case the policy of attacking ,israel was suicidal4 ,if the kings had possessed the prescient glance of the prophets they could not have failed to see on the northern horizon the cloud of ,assyrian power1 which menaced them all with cruel extinction at the hands of that atrocious people4 ,their true policy would have been to form an offensive and defensive league1 instead of coveting one another's dominions4 ,although ,assyria had not yet risen to the zenith of her empire1 she was already formidable enough to convince the ,king of ,damascus that he would never be able single-handed to prevent ,syria from being crushed before her4 ,instead of inflicting ruinous losses and humiliations on the tribes of ,israel1 the dynasty of ,rezon1 if it had been wise in its day1 would have insured their friendly aid against the horrible common enemy of the nations4 ,when ,benhadad had succeeded in reducing ,ahab to hopeless straits1 he sent him a herald to demand the admission of ambassadors4 ,their ultimatum was couched in language of the deadliest insult4 ,benhadad laid insolent claim to everything which ,ahab possessed--his silver1 his gold1 his wives1 and the fairest of his children4 ,to save his people from ruin1 ,ahab--it is strange that throughout the narrative we do not hear one word either about ,jezebel or ,elijah--sent an answer of the humblest submission4 ,tyre gave him no help1 nor did ,judah4 ,he seems at this time to have been entirely isolated and to have sunk to the nadir of his degradation4 ,it is true1 he said1 my lord1 and king2 ,i1 and all that ,i possess1 is thine4 ,the depth of humiliation involved in such a concession is the measure of the utter straits to which ,ahab was reduced4 ,when an ,eastern king had to give up to his conqueror even his seraglio--yes1 even his queen--all his power must have been humbled to the very dust4 ,and at the head of ,ahab's seraglio was ,jezebel4 ,how frenzied must have been the thoughts of that terrible woman1 when she saw that her ,baal1 and the ,astarte to whom her father was a priest1 in spite of the temple which she had built1 and her eight hundred and fifty priests of ,baal and ,asherah with all their vestments and pompous ceremonies and blood-stained invocations1 had wholly failed to save her--a great king's daughter and a great king's wife--from drinking to the very dregs this cup of shame6 ,encouraged by this abject demeanour into yet more outrageous insolence1 ,benhadad sent back his ambassadors with the further menace that he would himself send his messengers next day into ,samaria1 who should search and rifle not only the palace of ,ahab1 but the houses of all his servants1 from which they should take away everything that was pleasant in their eyes4 ,the merciless demand kindled in the breast of the wretched king one last spark of the courage of despair4 ,nothing could be worse than such a pillage4 ,death itself seemed preferable4 ,he summoned together all the elders of the land to a great council1 to which the people also were invited1 and he set the state of things before them4 ,the fact gives us an interesting glimpse into the constitution of the kingdom of ,israel4 ,it greatly resembled that of the little ,greek states in the days of the ,iliad4 ,under ordinary circumstances of prosperity the king was within certain limits despotic2 but he might easily be reduced to the necessity of consulting a sort of senate 771 composed of his greatest subjects1#gab and at these open-air deliberations the people were present as assessors on whose will depended the ultimate decision4 ,ahab put before his council the desperate condition to which he had been reduced by the ,syrian leaguer4 ,he recounted the cruel terms to which he had submitted in order to save his people from destruction4 ,from the second embassage of ,benhadad it was clear that the first demand had only been made in the hope that its refusal would give the ,syrians an excuse for pressing on the siege1 and delivering the city to ravage and slaughter4 ,was it their will that the insolent foreign tyrant should have his way1 and be permitted without let or hindrance to rifle their houses1 and carry away their goodliest sons as eunuchs and their fairest wives as concubines8 ,he asked their advice how to overcome this dire calamity2 ,what reinforcement we may gain from hope1 ,if not what resolution from despair4 ,the elders saw that even massacre and pillage could hardly be worse than a tame submission to such demands4 ,they plucked up courage and said to ,ahab1 ,hearken not to him1 nor consent2 and the people shouted their applause to the heroic refusal4#gac ,the king seems in this instance to have been more despondent than his subjects1 perhaps because he was better able than they to gauge the immense military superiority of his invader4 ,even his second message1 though it rejected ,benhadad's demand1 was almost pusillanimous in its submission4 ,with bated breath and whispering humbleness ,ahab said to the ,syrian ambassadors1 quite in the tone of a vassal3 ,tell my lord the king1 ,i will submit to his first demands2 ,i may not consent to his final ones4 ,the ambassadors went to ,benhadad1 and returned with the fierce menace that in the name of his god#gad their king would shatter ,samaria into dust1 of which the handfuls would not suffice for each of his soldiers4#gae ,ahab replied firmly in a happy proverb1 ,let not him that girdeth on his armour boast himself as he that putteth it off4#gaf ,the warning proverb was reported to the ,araman king1 whilst in the insolent confidence of victory he was drinking himself drunk in his war-booths4#gag ,it nettled him to fury4 ,plant the engines1 he exclaimed4 ,the catapults and battering-rams1#gah with all the engines which constituted the siege-train of the day1 were at once set in motion1 the scaling ladders brought up1 and the archers set in position1 just as we see in the ,assyrian ,kouyunjik sculptures of the siege of ,lachish and other cities by ,sennacherib4#gai ,ahab's heart must have sunk within him1 for he knew his impotence1 and he knew also the horrors which befell a city taken after desperate resistance4 ,but he was not left unencouraged4 ,the characteristic of the prophets was that dauntless confidence in ,jehovah which so often made a prophet the ,tyrtus of his native land1 unless the land had sunk into utter apostasy4 ,in this extreme of peril a nameless prophet--the ,rabbis1 who always guess at a name when they can1 say it was ,micaiah ben ,imlah--came to ,ahab4 ,as though to emphasise the supernatural character of his communication1 he pointed to the chariots and archers and the ,syrian host--which1 if the subsequent numbers be accurate1 must have reached the astounding total of one hundred and thirty thousand men--and said1 in the name of ,jehovah3-- ,hast thou seen all this great multitude8 ,lo6 ,i will deliver it into thine hand to-day3 ,and thou shalt know that ,i am the ,lord4 ,by whom8 was the astonished and half-despairing question of the king2 and the strange answer was3-- ,by the young servants#gbj of the provincial governors4 ,it was to be made clear that this was a victory due to the intervention of ,god1 and not won by the power nor the might of man1 lest the warriors of ,israel should be able to boast of the arm of flesh4 ,who shall lead the assault8 asked the king4 ,thou6 answered the prophet4 ,nothing could be wiser than this counsel1 now that the nation was brought to the extreme edge of hazard4 ,the veterans1 perhaps1 were intimidated4 ,they would see more clearly the hopelessness of attempting to cope with that colossal host under its five-and-thirty kings4 ,but now the nation1 whose veterans had been driven back1 evoked the battle-brunt of its youths4 ,the two hundred and thirty-two pages of the district governors were ready to obey orders1 ready1 like an army of ,decii to devote their lives to the cause of their country4 ,they were put in the forefront of the battle1 and so pitiable was the depression of the capital that ,ahab could only number a paltry army of seven thousand soldiers to stand behind their desperate undertaking4#gba ,their plan was well laid4 ,they went out at noon4 ,at that burning hour1 under the intolerable glare and heat of the ,syrian sun--and campaigns were only undertaken in spring and summer--it is almost impossible to bear the weight of armour1 or to sit on horseback1 or to endure the fierce heat of iron chariots4 ,the first little army which issued from the gates of ,samaria might rely on the effects of a surprise4 ,thousands of the ,syrian soldiers expecting nothing less than a battle would be unarmed1 and taking their siesta4 ,their chariots and war steeds would be unharnessed and unprepared4 ,benhadad was still continuing his heavy drinking bout with his vassal princes1 and not one of them was in a condition to give coherent commands4 ,a messenger announced to the band of royal drunkards that men were come out of ,samaria4 ,they were too few to call them an army1 and the notion of an attack from that poor handful seemed ridiculous4 ,benhadad thought they were coming to sue for peace1 but whether peace or war were their object he gave the contemptuous order to take them alive4 ,it was easier said than done4 ,led by the king at the head of his valorous youths the little host clashed into the midst of the unwieldly1 unprepared1 ill-handled ,syrian host1 and by their first slaughter created one of those fearful panics which have often been the destruction of ,eastern hosts4 ,the ,syrians1 whose army was made up of heterogeneous forces1 and which could not be managed by thirty-four half-intoxicated feudatories of differing interests and insecure allegiance1 was doubtless afraid that internal treachery must have been at work4 ,like the ,midianites1 like ,zerah's ,ethiopian host1 like the ,edomites in the ,valley of ,salt1 like the ,ammonites and ,moabites in the wilderness of ,tekoa1 like the army of ,sennacherib1 like the enormous and motley hosts of ,persia at ,marathon1 at ,plata1 and at ,arbela1 they were instantly flung into irremediable confusion which tended every moment to be more fatal to itself4 ,the little band of the youths and horses of ,israel had nothing to do but to slay1 and slay1 and slay4#gbb ,no effective resistance was even attempted4 ,long before evening the hundred and thirty thousand ,syrians1 with the entangled mass of their chariots and horsemen1 were in headlong flight1 while ,ahab and the people of ,israel slaughtered their flying rear4 ,the defeat became an absolute rout4 ,benhadad himself had a most narrow escape4 ,he could not even wait for his war chariot4 ,he had to fly with a few of his horsemen1 and apparently1 so the words may imply1 on an inferior horse4#gbc ,what effect was produced on the national mind and on the social religion by this immense deliverance we are not told4 ,never1 certainly1 had any nation deeper cause for gratitude to its religious teachers1 who alone had not despaired of the commonwealth when everything seemed lost4 ,we would fain know where was ,elijah at this crisis1 and whether he took any part in it4 ,we cannot tell1 but we know that as a rule the sons of the prophets acted together under their chiefs1 and that individual impulses were rarely encouraged4 ,the very meaning of the ,schools of the ,prophets was that they were all trained to adopt the same principles and to move together as one body4 ,the service rendered by this prophet1 whose very name has been buried in undeserved oblivion1 did not end here4 ,perhaps he saw signs of carelessness and undue exultation4 ,he went again to the king1 and warned him that his victory1 immense as it had been1 was not final4 ,it was no time for him to settle on his lees4 ,the ,syrians would assuredly return the following year1#gbd probably with increased resources1 and with the burning determination to avenge their defeat4 ,let ,ahab look well to his army and his fortresses1 and prepare himself for the coming shock6 ,,footnotes3 #gjh ,for these particulars1 and the following translations1 see ,dr4 ,ginsburg in ,records of the ,past1 xi4 #afc2 and ,dr4 ,neubauer1 id41 ,new ,series1 ii4 #aid2 ,the ,moabite ,stone1 ,second ,edition 7,reeves ,turner71 #ahga2 ,dr4 ,schlottmann1 ,die ,sieggessale ,mesas1 #ahgj2 ,nldeke1 ,die ,inschrift der ,knig ,mesa1 #ahgj2 ,stade1 i4 #ecd2 ,kittel1 ii4 #aih1 etc4 #gji ,chemosh-,gad perhaps came to the throne in the fourth year of ,omri1 about ,b4,c4 #ibf1 and reigned till the close of ,ahaziah's reign 7,b4,c4 #hif74 #gaj ,comp4 #a ,sam4 vii4 #ab4 #gaa ,for it is indirectly mentioned that his father had taken cities from ,omri4 #gab ,,lxx41 ,exod4 iii4 #af4 #gac ,comp4 ,josh4 ix4 #ah2 ,judg4 xi4 #aa4 #gad #a ,kings xx4 #aj4 ,elohim here1 doubtless1 means the false gods of ,benhadad4 ,vat4 ,,lxx41 2 but ,chaldee1 the terrors4 #gae ,fanfaronnade1 qui veut dire2 je rduirai cette bicoque en poussire2 j'ai avee moi plus de monde qu'il ne faudra pour l'emporter tout entire 7,reuss74 ,comp4 ,herod41 viii4 #bbf1 where ,dieneces answers the braggart vaunt of the ,medes4 #gaf ,reuss renders it1 ,ceignant n'est pas encore gaignant4 ,the proverb resembles in different aspects the precept of ,solon1 1 and ,praise a fair day at night2 and the ,italian1 ,capo ha cosa fatta2 and the ,latin1 ,ne triumphum canas ante victoriam2 and the ,french1 ,il ne faut pas vendre le peau de l'ours avant de l'avoir tu4 #gag ,a4,v41 pavilions2 but the word 7sukkoth7 implies that they were temporary booths rather than tents4 ,they resembled the birchwood pavilions made for the ,turkish pachas in campaigns 7,keil74 #gah ,a4,v41 ,set yourselves in array4 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 circumdate civitatem4 #gai ,now in the ,british ,museum4 #gbj #a ,kings xx4 #ad 774 #gba ,jarchi--more ,rabbinico--says that these were the seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to ,baal4 #gbb #a ,kings xx4 #bj1 ,,lxx41 4 #gbc ,or1 pell-mell4 ,the ,hebrew in #a ,kings xx4 #bj is1 1 on a horse with 7some7 horsemen4 ,klostermann would supply 4 ,jonathan takes as a dual--and two riders with him2 ,,lxx41 ' 2 ,vulg41 in equo cum equitibus suis2 ,luther1 sammt ,rossen und ,reitern4 #gbd ,see #b ,sam4 xi4 #a4 ,the custom of all countries in the ancient world was to devote the summer months only to campaigns4 ,there were few or no standing armies1 and the citizen-conscripts had to look after their farms1 or the nation would have starved4 ,the ,assyrians1 ,babylonians1 and ,persians introduced a gradual revolution in these respects4 ,,chapter ,,xlv4 ,,ahab',s ,,infatuation4 #a ,,kings xx4 #ca-dc4 ,quem vult ,deus perire dementat prius4 ,the courtiers of ,benhadad found it easy to flatter his pride by furnishing reasons to account for such an alarming overthrow4 ,they had attacked the ,israelites on their hills1 and the gods of ,israel were hill-gods4 ,next time they would take ,israel at a disadvantage by fighting only on the plain4 ,further1 the vassal kings were only an element of dissension and weakness4 ,they prevented the handling of the army as one strong machine worked by a single supreme will4 ,let ,benhadad depose from command these incapable weaklings1 and put in their place dependent civil officers 7pachoth7 who would have no thought but to obey orders4#gbe ,and so1 with good heart1 let the king collect a fresh army with horses and chariots as powerful as the last4 ,the issue would be certain conquest and dear revenge4 ,benhadad followed this advice4 ,the next year he went with his new host and encamped near ,aphek4 ,there is an ,aphek 7now ,fk7 which lay on the road between ,damascus on the east of ,jordan on a little plain south-east of the ,sea of ,galilee4 ,this may have been the town of ,issachar1 in the valley of ,jezreel1 where ,saul was defeated by the ,philistines 7#a ,sam4 xxix4 #a74 ,israel went out to meet them duly provisioned4#gbf ,the ,syrian host spread over the whole country2 the ,israelite army looked only like two little flocks of kids4#gbg ,to strengthen the misgivings of the anxious king of ,israel1 another nameless prophet--probably1 like ,elijah1 a ,gileadite--came to promise him the victory4 ,jehovah would convince the ,syrians that ,he was something more than a mere local god of the hills as they had blasphemously said1 and ,israel would once more be shown that ,he was indeed the ,lord4 ,for seven days the vast army and the little band of patriots gazed at each other1 as the ,israelites and ,philistines had done in the days of ,saul and ,goliath4 ,on the seventh day they joined battle4 ,in what special way the aid of ,jehovah seconded the desperate valour of ,his people who were fighting for their all we do not know1 but the result was1 once more1 their stupendous victory4 ,the army of the ,syrians was not only defeated1 but practically annihilated4 ,in round numbers #ajj1jjj ,syrians fell in the slaughter of that day1 and when the remnant took refuge in ,aphek1 which they had captured1 they perished in a sudden crash--perhaps of earthquake--which buried them in the ruins of its fortifications4#gbh ,rescued1 we know not how1 from this disaster1 ,benhadad fled from chamber to chamber#gbi to hide himself from the victors in some innermost recess4 ,but it was impossible that he should not be discovered1 and therefore his servants persuaded him to throw himself on the mercy of his conqueror4 ,the kings of ,israel1 they said1 are1 as we have heard1 compassionate kings2 let us go before the king with sackcloth on our loins1 and ropes round our necks1 and ask if he will save thy life4 ,so they went1 as the burghers of ,calais went before ,edward ,i42 and then ,ahab heard from the ambassadors of the king who had once dictated terms to him with such infinite contempt1 the message3 ,thy slave ,benhadad saith1 ,i pray thee1 let me live4 ,the incident that followed is eminently characteristic of ,eastern customs4 ,in rencontres between ,orientals everything depends on the first words which are exchanged4 ,it is believed that superior powers wield the utterances of the tongue amid the chances which are really destiny1 so that the most casual expression is caught up superstitiously as a sort of ,bath ,kol1 or the daughter of a voice1 which not only indicates but even helps to bring about the purposes of ,heaven4 ,a chance friendly greeting may become the termination of a blood feud1 because something more than chance is supposed to be behind it6#gcj ,once when a group of doomed gladiators gathered themselves under the ,imperial podium of the amphitheatre with their sublimely monotonous chant1 ,ave ,csar1 morituri te salutamus1 the half-dazed emperor inadvertently answered1 ,avete vos6 ,he has bidden us1 ',hail6' shouted the gladiators3 the contest is remitted2 we are free6 ,had the ,romans been ,orientals the twenty thousand assembled spectators would have felt the force of the appeal4 ,even as it was the significance of the omen was felt to be so great that the gladiators threw down their arms1 and it was only by whips and violence that they were finally driven to the combat in which they perished4#gca ,so with intense eagerness the ambassadors1 in their sackcloth and their halters1 awaited the ,bath ,kol4 ,it came far more favourably than they had dared to hope4 ,surprised1 and perhaps half-touched with pity for so immense a reverse of misfortune1 ,is he yet alive8 exclaimed the careless king3 he is my brother6 ,the ,syrians snatched at the expression as a decisive omen4#gcb ,it constituted an absolute end of the feud4 ,it became an implicit promise of that sacred dakheel1 that protection to which the slightest and most accidental expression constitutes a recognised claim4#gcc ,thy brother ,benhadad1 they earnestly and emphatically repeated4 ,in accordance with ,eastern custom and augury their whole end was gained4 ,as far as ,benhadad was concerned he was now safe2 as far as ,ahab was concerned1 the mischief1 if mischief it were1 was irreparably done4 ,ahab could hardly have drawn back even if he wished to do so1 but perhaps he was swayed by a fellow feeling for a king4 ,this strange uxorious monarch1 with his easily swayed impulses1 his fits of schoolboy sullenness and swift repentance1 his want of insight into existing conditions1 his--if the expression may be excused--happy-go-lucky way of letting questions settle themselves1 was1 no doubt1 a brave warrior1 but he was a most incapable statesman4 ,his conduct was perfectly infatuated4 ,pity is one thing1 but the security of a nation has also to be considered4 ,it would have been a worse than insensate piece of pseudo-chivalry if the ,congress of ,vienna had not sent ,napoleon to ,elba1 and if ,england had not confined him in ,st4 ,helena4 ,to set free a man endowed with passionate hatred1 with immense ambitions1 with boundless capacities for mischief--or only to bind him with the packthread of insecure promises--was the conduct of a fool4#gcd ,if it was compassion which induced ,ahab to give ,benhadad his life1 it showed either gross incapacity or treachery against his own nation not to clip his wings1 and hamper him from the future injuries which the burden of gratitude was little likely to prevent4 ,the sequel shows that ,benhadad's resentment against his royal brother only became more hopelessly implacable1 and in all probability it was largely mingled with contempt4 ,and ,ahab's conduct1 besides being foolish1 was guilty4 ,it showed a frivolous non-recognition of his duties as a theocratic king4 ,it flung away the national advantages1 and even the national security1 which had not been vouchsafed to any power or worth of his1 but only to ,jehovah's direct interposition to save the destinies of his people from premature extinction4 ,when ,benhadad came out of his hiding-place1 ,ahab1 not content with sparing the life of this furious and merciless aggressor1 took him up into his chariot1 which was the highest honour he could have paid him1 and accepted the excessively easy terms which ,benhadad himself proposed4 ,the ,syrians were not required to pay any indemnity for the immense expenditure and unutterable misery which their wanton invasions had inflicted upon ,israel6 ,they simply proposed to restore the cities which ,benhadad's father had taken from ,omri1 and to allow the ,israelites to have a protected bazaar in ,damascus similar to the one which the ,syrians enjoyed in ,samaria4#gce ,on this covenant ,benhadad was sent home scatheless1 and with a supineness which was not so much magnanimous as fatuous1 ,ahab neglected to take hostages of any kind to secure the fulfilment even of these ridiculously inadequate terms of peace4 ,benhadad was not likely to throw away the chance which gave him such an easy-going and improvident adversary4 ,it is certain that he did not keep the covenant4 ,he probably never even intended to keep it4 ,if he condescended to any excuse for breaking it1 he would probably have affected to regard it as extorted by violence1 and therefore invalid1 as ,francis ,i4 defended the forfeiture of his parole after the battle of ,pavia4 ,the recklessness with which ,ahab had reposed in ,benhadad a confidence1 not only undeserved1 but rendered reckless by all the antecedents of the ,syrian king1 cost him very dear4 ,he had to pay the penalty of his dementation three years later in a new and disastrous war1 in the loss of his life1 and the overthrow of his dynasty4 ,the fact that1 after so many exertions1 and so much success in war1 in commerce1 and in worldly policy1 he and his house fell unpitied1 and no one raised a finger in his defence1 was doubtless due in part to the alienation of his army by a carelessness which flung away in a moment all the fruits of their hard-won victories4#gcf ,there was one aspect in which ,ahab's conduct assumed an aspect more supremely culpable4 ,to whom had he owed the courage and inspiration which had rescued him from ruin1 and led to the triumphs which had delivered him and his people from the depths of despair8 ,not in the least to himself1 or to ,jezebel1 or to ,baal's priests1 or to any of his captains or counsellors4 ,in both instances the heroism had been inspired and the success promised by a prophet of ,jehovah4 ,what would convince him1 if this would not1 that in ,god only was his strength8 ,did not the most ordinary gratitude as well as the most ordinary wisdom require that he should recognise the source of these unhoped-for blessings8 ,there is not the least trace that he did so4 ,we read of no word of gratitude to ,jehovah1 no desire to follow the guidance of the prophets to whom he was so deeply indebted1 and who had proved their right to be regarded as interpreters of ,god's will4 ,had he done this he would not have suffered the clannishness of royalty to plunge him into a step which was the chief cause of his final destruction4 ,he might ignore guidance1 but he could not escape reproof4 ,again an unknown monitor from the sons of the prophets was commissioned to bring home to him his error4 ,he did so by an acted parable1 which gave concrete force and vividness to the lesson which he desired to convey4 ,speaking by the word of the ,lord--i4e41 as a part of the prophetic inspiration which dictated his acts--he went to one of his fellows in the school of which the members are here first called the sons of the prophets1 and bade him to wound him4 ,his comrade1 not unnaturally1 shrank from obeying so strange a command4 ,it must be borne in mind that the mere appeal to an inspiration from ,jehovah did not always authenticate itself4 ,over and over again in the prophetic books1 and in these histories which the ,jews call the earlier prophets1 we find that men could profess to act in ,jehovah's name1 and even perhaps to be sincere in so doing1 who were mere dupes of their own wills and fancies4 ,it was1 in fact1 possible for them to become false prophets1 without always meaning to be so2 and these chances of hallucination--of being misled by a lying spirit--led to fierce contentions in the prophetic communities4 ,since you have not obeyed ,jehovah's voice1 said the man1 the lion shall immediately slay you4 ,and as soon as he was departed from him the lion found him and slew him4 ,there is nothing impossible in the incident1 for in those days lions were common in ,palestine1 and they multiplied when the country had been depopulated by war4 ,but we can never feel certain how far the ethical and didactic and parabolic elements were allowed1 for purposes of edification1 to play a part in these ancient yet not contemporaneous ,acta ,prophetarum1 and at any rate to dictate the interpretation of things which may have actually occurred4 ,the prophet then bade another comrade to smite him1 and he did so effectually1 inflicting a serious wound4#gcg ,this was a part of the intended scene in which the prophet meant for a moment to play the rle of a soldier who had been wounded in the ,syrian war4 ,so he bound up his head with a bandage1#gch and waited for the king to pass by4 ,an ,eastern king is liable at any time to be appealed to by the humblest of his subjects1 and the prophet stopped ,ahab and stated his imaginary case4 ,a captain1 he said1 brought me one of his war captives1#gci and ordered me to keep him safe4 ,if ,i failed to do so1 ,i was to pay the forfeit of my life1 or to pay as a fine a silver talent4#gdj ,but as ,i was looking here and there the captive escaped4 ,be it so1 answered ,ahab2 you are bound by your own bargain4 ,thus ,ahab1 like ,david1 was led to condemn himself out of his own mouth4 ,then the prophet tore the bandage from his face1 and said to ,ahab3 ,thou art the man6 ,thus saith ,jehovah1 ,i entrusted to thee the man under my ban 7cherem71#gda and thou hast let him escape4 ,thou shalt pay the forfeit4 ,thy life shall go for his life1 thy people for his people4 ,anger and indignation filled the heart of the king2 he went to his house heavy and displeased4 ,the phrase1 twice applied to him and never used of another1 shows that he was liable to characteristic moods of overwhelming sullenness1 the result of an uneasy conscience1 and of a rage which was compelled to remain impotent4 ,it is evident that he did not dare to chastise the audacious offender1 though the ,jews say that the prophet was ,micaiah1 the son of ,imlah1 and that he was imprisoned for this offence4#gdb ,as a rule the prophets--like ,samuel and ,nathan1 and ,gad and ,shemaiah1 and ,jehu the son of ,hanani--were protected by their sacrosanct position4 ,now and then an ,urijah1 a ,jeremiah1 a ,zechariah son of ,berechiah1 paid the penalty of bold denunciation1 not only by hatred and persecution1 but with his life4 ,this1 however1 was the exception4 ,as a rule the prophets felt themselves safe under the wing of a ,divine protector4 ,not only ,elijah in his sheepskin mantle1 but even the humblest of his imitators in the prophetic schools might fearlessly stride up to a king1 seize his steed by the bridle1 as ,athanasius did to ,constantine1 and compel him to listen to his rebuke or his appeal4 ,,footnotes3 #gbe #a ,kings xx4 #bd4 ,,lxx41 4 #gbf ,r4,v41 and were victualled1 not1 as in ,a4,v41 and were all present4 ,alex4 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 acceptis cibariis4 #gbg ,why two8 ,no explanation is given4 ,it has been conjectured that ,judah had sent a separate contingent to help them in their distress4 #gbh ,some have supposed that an earthquake occurred1 and ,canon ,rawlinson mentions 7,speaker's ,commentary7 that the earthquake of ,lisbon is said to have destroyed sixty thousand persons in five minutes4 #gbi 4 ,comp4 for similar phrases1 7,heb47 ,lev4 xxv4 #ec2 ,deut4 xv4 #bj2 #a ,kings xxii4 #be2 #b ,chron4 xxviii4 #bf4 ,klostermann1 with one of his amazing conjectures1 reads by the spring ,harod in ,harod6 ,,lxx41 1 2 ,vulg41 in cubiculum quod erat intra cubiculum4 ,josephus makes it a cellar 7 71 like the modern serdaubs in which the inhabitants of many ,eastern cities live in the summer 7,rawlinson74 #gcj ,the accidental sigh of the engineer was sufficient to prevent the colossal ,egyptian statue of a ,pharaoh from being moved to its destination4 ,even ,rome shared the immemorial superstition4 #gca ,suet41 ,claud4 #gcb xx4 #cc1 1 from 1 an augury2 ,,lxx41 772 ,vulg41 quod acceperunt viri pro omine4 #gcc ,layard1 ,nineveh1 #cag-ai4 #gcd ,the compact is vainly dignified with the name of a 1 or covenant4 #gce 4 ,compare the ,lombard ,streets1 and the ,jewries in ,london and ,paris4 #gcf ,clericus says1 rightly3 ,factum ,ahabi1 quamvis clementi speciem pr se ferret1 non erat ver clementi1 qu non est erga latrones exercenda2 qui si dimittantur multo magis nocebunt4 #gcg ,the object and necessity of this for his purpose is by no means apparent4 ,perhaps it was to figure the wound which ,ahab had by his conduct wilfully inflicted on himself or on ,israel4 #gch ,verse #ch4 ,this1 and not with ashes upon his face1 is the meaning of the ,hebrew 4 ,,lxx41 1 a headband2 ,vulg41 aspersione pulveris2 and so1 too1 ,peshito1 ,aquila1 and ,symmachus4 #gci #a ,kings xx4 #ci4 in the sense of 1 according to ,ewald's reading4 #gdj ,about #cej4 ,evidently1 therefore1 the captive is supposed to be a very important person4 #gda 4 #gdb 2 ,vulg41 indignans1 et frendens1 a phrase only used of ,ahab 7xxi4 #d-e74 ,josephus 7,antt41 ,,xiii4 xv4 #e7 says that ,ahab imprisoned and punished the prophet1 whom1 with the ,rabbis1 he identifies with ,micaiah4 ,,chapter ,,xlvi4 ,,naboth',s ,,vineyard4 #a ,,kings xxi4 #a-bi4 ,the triumphing of the wicked is short1 and the joy of the godless is but for a moment4--,,job xx4 #e4 ,if weakness may excuse1 ,what murderer1 what traitor1 parricide1 ,incestuous1 sacrilegious1 but may plead it8 ,all wickedness is weakness4 ,samson ,agonistes4 ,the chief glory of the institution of prophecy was that it rightly estimated the supremacy of the moral law4 ,the prophets saw that the enforcement of one precept of righteousness involved more true religion than hundreds of pages of ,levitic ritual4 ,it is the temptation of priests and ,pharisees to sink into formalism2 to warp the conceptions of the ,almighty into that of a ,deity who is jealous about inconceivable pettinesses of ceremonial2 to think that the ,eternal cares about niceties of rubric1 rules of ablutions1 varieties of nomenclature or organisation4 ,in their solicitude about these nullities they often forget1 as they did in the days of ,christ1 the weightier matters of the law1 mercy1 judgment1 and truth4 ,when religion has been dwarfed into these inanities the men who deem themselves its only orthodox votaries1 and scorn all others as lax and latitudinarian1 are not only ready to persecute every genuine teacher of righteousness1 but even to murder the ,christ ,himself4 ,they come to think that falsehood and cruelty cease to be criminal when practised in the cause of religious intolerance4 ,against all such dwarfing perversion of the conceptions of the essential service which man owes to ,god the prophets were called forth to be in age after age the energetic remonstrants4 ,it is true that they also had their own special temptations2 they1 too1 might become the slaves of shibboleths2 they might sink into a sort of automatic or mechanical form of prophecy which contented itself with the wearing of garbs and the repetition of formul long after they had become evacuated of their meaning4#gdc ,they might distort the message ,thus saith ,jehovah to serve their own ends4#gdd ,they might yield to the temptations both of individual and of corporate ambition4 ,they might assume the hairy garb and rough locks of ,elijah for the sake of the awe they inspired while their heart was not but for their own covetousness4#gde ,they might abuse their prestige to promote their own party or their own interests4 ,they were assailed by the same perils to which in after days so many monks1 hermits1 and religious societies succumbed4 ,many a man became a nominal prophet1 as many a man became a monk1 because the office secured to him a maintenance-- ',twas not for nothing the good belly-ful1 ,the warm serge and the rope that goes all round1 ,and day long blessed idleness besides2 and also because it surrounded him with a halo of imaginary sanctity4 ,the monks1 we know1 by their turbulence and partisanship1 became the terror of the fourth century after ,christ1 and no men more emphatically denounce their mendicancy and their impostures than the very fathers who1 like ,st4 ,jerome and ,st4 ,augustine1 were most enamoured of their ideal4#gdf ,as for the hermits1 if one of them securely established a reputation for abnormal austerities he became in his way as powerful as a king4 ,in the stories even of such a man as ,st4 ,martin of ,tours#gdg we detect now and then a gleam of hauteur1 of which traces are not lacking in the stories of these nameless or famous prophets in the ,book of ,kings4 ,no human institution1 even if it be avowedly religious1 is safe from the perilous seductions of the world1 the flesh1 and the devil4 ,perpetually ,the old order changeth1 giving place to new1 ,and ,god fulfils ,himself in many ways ,lest one good custom should corrupt the world4 ,mendicant brotherhoods and ascetic communities were soon able1 by legal fictions1 to revel in opulence1 to steep themselves in luxury1 and yet to wield a religious authority which princes envied4 ,when we read what the ,benedictines and the ,minorites and the ,carthusians often became1 we are the less surprised to find that even the ,schools of the ,prophets1 while ,elijah and ,elisha yet lived1 could abdicate as a body their best functions1 and1 deceiving and deceived1 could learn to answer erring kings according to their idols4 ,but the greatest and truest prophets rose superior to the influences which tended to debase the vulgar herd of their followers1 in days when prophecy grew into an institution and the world became content to side with a church which gave it no trouble and mainly spoke in its own tones4 ,true prophecy cannot be made a matter of education1 or tamed out of its splendid passion4 ,the greatest prophets1 like ,amos and ,isaiah1 did not come out of the ,schools of the ,prophets4 ,inspiration cannot be cultivated1 or trained to grow up a wall4 ,much learning1 says ,heraclitus very profoundly1 does not teach2 but the ,sibyl with maddening lips1 uttering things unbeautified1 unperfumed1 and unadorned1 reaches through myriads of years because of ,god4 ,the man whom ,god has summoned forth to speak the true word or do the heroic deed1 at the cost of all hatred1 or of death itself1 has normally to protest not only against priests1 but against his fellow-prophets also when they immorally acquiesced in oppression and wrong which custom sanctioned4#gdh ,it was by such true prophets that the ,hebrews and through them the world were taught the ideal of righteousness4 ,their greatest service was to uphold against idolatry1 formalism1 and worldliness1 the simple standard of the moral law4 ,it was owing to such teaching that the ,israelites formed a true judgment of ,ahab's culpability4 ,the act which was held to have outweighed all his other crimes1 and to have precipitated his final doom1 was an isolated act of high-handed injustice to an ordinary citizen4 ,ahab was a builder4 ,he had built cities and palaces1 and was specially attached to his palace at ,jezreel1 which he wished to make the most delightful of summer residences4 ,it was unique in its splendour as the first palace inlaid with ivory4 ,the nation had heard of ,solomon's ivory throne1 but never till this time of an ivory palace4 ,but a palace is nothing without pleasant gardens4 ,the neighbourhood of ,jezreel1 as is still shown by the ancient winepresses cut out of the rock in the neighbourhood of its ruins1 was enriched by vineyards1 and one of these vineyards adjoining the palace belonged to a citizen named ,naboth4#gdi ,it happened that no other ground would so well have served the purpose of ,ahab to make a garden near his palace1 and he made ,naboth a fair offer for it4 ,i will give you1 he said1 a better vineyard for it1 or ,i will pay you its full value in ingots of silver4#gej ,naboth1 however1 was perfectly within his rights#gea in rejecting the offer4 ,it was the inheritance of his fathers1 and considerations nothing short of sacred--considerations which then or afterwards found a place in the written statutes of the nation--made it wrong in his judgment to sell it4 ,he sturdily refused the offer of the king4 ,his case was different from that of the ,jebusite prince ,araunah1 who had sold his threshing floor to ,david1 and that of ,shemer1 who sold the ,hill of ,samaria to ,omri4#geb ,a sensible man would have accepted the inevitable1 and done the best he could to find a garden elsewhere4 ,but ,ahab1 who could not bear to be thwarted1 came into his house heavy and displeased4 ,like an overgrown1 sullen boy he flung himself on his divan1 turned his face to the wall1 and would not eat4 ,news came to ,jezebel in her seraglio of her lord's ill-humour1 and she came to ask him1 ,what mutiny in his spirit made him decline to take food8#gec ,he told her the sturdy refusal of ,naboth1 and she broke into a scornful laugh4 ,are you ,king of ,israel8 she asked4 ,why this is playing at kinghood6#ged ,it is not the way we do things in ,tyre4 ,arise1 eat bread1 be merry4 ,i will give thee the vineyard of ,naboth the ,jezreelite4 ,did he admire the mannish spirit of the ,syrian princess1 or did he secretly shrink from it8 ,at any rate he let ,jezebel take her own course4 ,with intrepid insolence she at once wrote a letter in ,ahab's name from ,samaria1 and sent it sealed with his signet to the elders of ,jezreel4#gee ,she ordered them to proclaim a fast as though to avert some public calamity1 and--with a touch of dreadful malice as though to aggravate the horror of his ruin--to exalt ,naboth to a conspicuous position in the assembly4#gef ,they were to get hold of two sons of worthlessness1 professional perjurers1 and to accuse ,naboth of blasphemy against ,god and the king4#geg ,his mode of refusing the vineyard might give some colourable pretext to the charge4 ,on the testimony of those two false witnesses ,naboth must be condemned1 and then they must drag him outside the city to the pool or tank with his sons and stone them all4 ,everything was done by the subservient elders of ,jezreel exactly as she had directed4 ,their fawning readiness to carry out her vile commands is the deadliest incidental proof of the corruption which she and her crew of alien idolaters had wrought in ,israel4 ,on that very evening ,jezebel received the message1 ,naboth is stoned and is dead4 ,by the savage law of those days his innocent sons were involved in his overthrow1#geh and his property1 left without heirs1 reverted by confiscation to the crown4#gei ,arise1 said the triumphant sorceress1 and take possession of the vineyard you wished for4 ,i have given it to you as ,i promised4 ,its owner and his sons have died the deaths of blasphemers1 and he crushed under the stones outside ,jezreel4 ,caring only for the gratification of his wish1 heedless of the means employed1 hastily and joyously at early dawn the king arose to seize the coveted vineyard4 ,the dark deed had been done at night1 the king was alert with the morning light4#gfj ,he rode in his chariot from ,samaria to ,jezreel1 which is but seven miles distant1 and he rode in something of military state1 for in separate chariots1 or else riding in the same chariot1 behind him were two war-like youths1 ,jehu and ,bidkar1 who were destined to remember the events of that day1 and to refer to them four years afterwards1 when one had become king and the other his chief commander4#gfa ,but the king's joy was shortlived6 ,news of the black crime had come to ,elijah1 probably in his lonely retreat in some cave at ,carmel4 ,he was a man who1 though he flamed out on great occasions like a meteor portending ruin to the guilty1 yet lived in general a hidden life4 ,six years had elapsed since the calling of ,elisha1 and we have not once been reminded of his existence4 ,but now he was instantly inspired to protest against the atrocious act of robbery and oppression1 and to denounce upon it an awful retribution which not even ,baal-worship had called forth4 ,ahab was at the summit of his hopes4 ,he was about to complete his summer palace and to grasp the fruits of the crime which he had allowed the of his wife to commit4 ,but at the gate of ,naboth's vineyard stood the swart figure of the ,prophet in his hairy garb4 ,we can imagine the revulsion of feeling which drove the blood to the king's heart as he instantly felt that he had sinned in vain4 ,the advantage of his crime was snatched from him at the instant of fruition4 ,half in anger1 half in anguish1 he cried1 ,hast thou found me1 ,o mine enemy8 ,i have found thee1 said the ,prophet1 speaking in ,jehovah's name4 ,thou hast sold thyself to work evil before me1 and ,i will requite it and extinguish thee before me4 ,surely the ,lord saw yesternight the blood of ,naboth and the blood of his sons4#gfb ,thy dynasty shall be cut off to the last man1 like that of ,jeroboam1 like that of ,baasha4 ,where the dogs licked the blood of ,naboth1 the dogs shall lick thine4 ,the harlots shall wash themselves in the water which thy blood has stained4 ,him that dieth of thee in the city the dogs shall eat1 and him that dieth in the field shall the vultures rend1 and the dogs shall eat ,jezebel also in the moat of ,jezreel4#gfc ,it is the duty of prophets to stand before kings and not be ashamed4 ,so had ,abraham stood before ,nimrod1 and ,moses before ,pharaoh1 and ,samuel before ,saul1 and ,nathan before ,david1 and ,iddo before ,jeroboam4 ,so was ,isaiah to stand hereafter before ,ahaz1 and ,jeremiah before ,jehoiachin1 and ,john the ,baptist before ,herod1 and ,paul before ,nero4 ,nor has it been at all otherwise in modern days4 ,so did ,st4 ,ignatius confront ,trajan1 and ,st4 ,ambrose brave the ,empress ,justina1 and ,st4 ,martin the ,usurper ,maximus1 and ,st4 ,chrysostom the fierce ,eudoxia1 and ,st4 ,basil the heretic ,valens1 and ,st4 ,columban the savage ,thierry1 and ,st4 ,dunstan our half-barbarous ,edgar4 ,so1 too1 in later days1 ,savonarola could speak the bare bold truth to ,lorenzo the ,magnificent1 and ,knox to ,mary ,queen of ,scots1 and ,bishop ,ken to ,charles ,,ii4 ,but never was any king confronted by so awful a denunciation of doom4 ,probably the moment that ,elijah had uttered it he disappeared2 but could not a swift arrow have reached him from ,jehu's or ,bidkar's bow8 ,we know how they remembered two reigns later the thunder of those awful words1 but they would hardly have disobeyed the mandate of their king had he bidden them to seize or slay the ,prophet4 ,nothing was further from their thoughts4 ,elijah had become to ,ahab the incarnation of his own awakened conscience1 and it spoke to him in the thunders of ,sinai4 ,he quailed before the tremendous imprecation4 ,we may well doubt whether he even so much as entered again the vineyard of ,naboth2 never certainly could he have enjoyed it4 ,he had indeed sold himself to do evil1 and1 as always happens to such colossal criminals1 he had sold himself for naught--as ,achan did for a buried robe and a useless ingot1 and ,judas for the thirty pieces of silver which he could only dash down on the ,temple floor4 ,ahab turned away from the vineyard1 which might well seem to him haunted by the ghosts of his murdered victims and its clusters full of blood4 ,he rent his clothes1 and clad himself in sackcloth1 and slept in sackcloth1 and went about barefooted with slow steps#gfd and bent brow1 a stricken man4 ,thenceforward as long as he lived he kept in penitence and humiliation the anniversary of ,naboth's death1#gfe as ,james ,,iv4 of ,scotland kept the anniversary of the death of the father against whom he had rebelled4 ,this penitence1 though it does not seem to have been lasting1 was not wholly in vain4 ,elijah received a ,divine intimation that1 because the king troubled himself1 the threatened evil should in part be postponed to the days of his sons4 ,the sun of the unfortunate and miserable dynasty set in blood4 ,but though it is recorded that1 incited by his ,tyrian wife1 he did very abominably in worshipping idol-blocks1 and following the ways of the old ,canaanite inhabitants of the land1 none of his crimes left a deeper brand upon his memory than the judicial seizure of the vineyard which he had coveted and the judicial murder of ,naboth and his sons4 ,how adamantine1 how irreversible is the law of retribution6 ,with what normal and natural development1 apart from every arbitrary infliction1 is the irrevocable prophecy fulfilled3 ,be sure your sin will find you out4 ,yea1 he loved cursing1 and it came unto him2 ,yea1 he delighted not in blessing1 and it is far from him2 ,yea1 he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment1 ,and it came into his bowels like water1 like oil into his bones4#gff ,ahab had to be taught by adversity since he refused the lesson of prosperity4 ,daughter of ,jove1 relentless power1 ,thou tamer of the human breast1 ,whose iron scourge and torturing hour ,the bad affright1 afflict the best1 ,bound in thine adamantine chain ,the proud are taught to taste of pain1 ,and purple tyrants vainly groan ,with woes unfelt before1 unpitied and alone4 ,but as for ,elijah himself1 he once more vanished into the solitude of his own life1 and we do not hear of him again till four years later1 when he sent to ,ahaziah1 the son of ,ahab1 the message of his doom4 ,,footnotes3 #gdc ,zech4 xiii4 #d4 #gdd ,on this defection and imposture of prophets1 see ,jer4 xxiii4 #ba-dj4 ,isa4 xxx4 #i1 #aj2 ,ezek4 xiii4 #g-i2 ,micah ii4 #aa2 ,deut4 xviii4 #bj4 #gde ,jer4 xxii4 #ag4 #gdf ,de ,gubernat4 ,dei41 viii42 ,ambrose1 ,ep41 xli42 ,cassian1 ,de ,instit4 ,monastic4 passim4 ,see chap4 xvi4 of my ,lives of the ,fathers 7,st4 ,jerome71 and ,zckler1 ,gesch4 der ,askese1 for many authorities4 #gdg ,see my ,lives of the ,fathers1 vol4 i4 7,st4 ,martin of ,tours74 #gdh ,see ,jer4 xxiii4 #bj-dj4 #gdi ,the ,alex4 ,,lxx4 throughout calls ,naboth an ,israelite1 not a ,jezreelite4 #gej ,both the ,hebrew text of #a ,kings xxi4 #a and ,josephus 7,antt41 ,,xiii4 xv4 #f7 locate the vineyard of ,naboth at ,jezreel4 ,the ,,lxx41 however1 place it apparently near the threshing-floor of ,ahab in ,samaria 7 71 which is the same as the void place of #a ,kings xxii4 #aj4 ,at both cities ,ahab's palace was on the city wall1 and on either supposition ,naboth's vineyard was close by the palace4 #gea ,lev4 xxv4 #bc1 ,the land shall not be sold for ever1 for the land is ,mine4 ,numb4 xxxvi4 #g2 ,ezek4 xlvi4 #ah4 #geb #b ,sam4 xxiv4 #bd2 #a ,kings xvi4 #bd4 #gec ,the word rendered sad is rendered mutinous by ,thenius4 #ged ,,lxx41 #a ,kings xxi4 #g1 2 #gee ,the signet was carved with the king's name4 ,rawlinson aptly compares ,lady ,macbeth's ,infirm of purpose give me the daggers6 #gef ,josephus calls it an 4 ,set ,naboth on high 7,heb47 at the head of the people2 ,,lxx41 2 ,vulg41 inter primos populi4 #geg ,the charge was that he cursed ,god and the king4 ,,lxx4 7by euphemism71 2 ,vulg41 ,benedixit4 ,the ,hebrew word has both meanings 7comp4 ,exod4 xxii4 #bh1 where some would render ,elohim not ,god1 but the judges4 ,see marg4 of ,r4,v474 ,stoning was the punishment of blasphemy 7,lev4 xxiv4 #af71 and took place outside the city 7,acts vii4 #eh74 #geh #b ,kings ix4 #bf4 #gei #b ,sam4 xvi4 #d4 #gfj ,in #a ,kings xxi4 #af the ,,lxx4 curiously says1 that when ,ahab heard that ,naboth was dead he rent his garments1 and clothed himself in sackcloth2 and after this he also arose1 etc4 ,this mourning for the means but acceptance of the fact would not be in disaccord with ,ahab's moral weakness4 #gfa #b ,kings ix4 #be1 #cf4 #gfb ,,lxx4 #gfc #b ,kings ix4 #cf4 ,,lxx41 4 ,the of an ,eastern city is the desert space outside the walls where the pariah dogs prowl on the mounds4 #gfd 1 ,,lxx41 2 ,josephus1 ,chaldee1 and ,peshito1 shoeless4 #gfe #a ,kings xxi4 #bg4 4 #gff ,psalm cix4 #ag1 #ah4 ,,chapter ,,xlvii4 ,,alone ,,against ,,the ,,world4 #a ,,kings xxii4 #a-dj4 ,i have not sent these prophets1 yet they ran3 ,i have not spoken to them1 yet they prophesied4444 ,i have heard what the prophets said who prophesied lies in ,my name4--,,jer4 xxiii4 #ba-be4 ' ' ' 4 ,,hom41 ,iliad1 i4 #ajf4 ,we now come to the last scene of ,ahab's troubled and eventful life4 ,his two immense victories over the ,syrians had secured for his harassed kingdom three years of peace1 but at the end of that time he began to be convinced that the insecure conditions upon which he had weakly set ,benhadad free would never be ratified4 ,the town of ,ramoth in ,gilead1 which was one of great importance as a frontier town of ,israel1 had1 in express defiance of the covenant1 been retained by the ,syrians1 who still refused to give it up4 ,a favourable opportunity1 he thought1 had now occurred to demand its cession4 ,this was the friendly visit of ,jehoshaphat1 ,king of ,judah4 ,it was the first time that a king of ,judah had visited the capital of the kings who had revolted from the dynasty of ,david4 ,it was the first acknowledged close of the old blood-feuds1 and the beginning of a friendship and affinity which policy seemed to dictate4 ,after all ,ephraim and ,judah were brothers1 though ,ephraim had vexed ,judah1 and ,judah hated ,ephraim4 ,jehoshaphat was rich1 prosperous1 successful in war4 ,no king since ,solomon had attained to anything like his greatness--the reward1 it was believed1 of his piety and faithfulness4 ,ahab1 too1 had proved himself a successful warrior1 and the valour of ,israel's hosts had1 with ,jehovah's blessing1 extricated their afflicted land from the terrible aggressions of ,syria4 ,but how could the little kingdom of ,israel hope to hold out against ,syria1 and to keep ,moab in subjection8 ,how could the still smaller and weaker kingdom of ,judah keep itself from vassalage to ,egypt and from the encroachments of ,philistines on the west and ,moabites on the east8 ,could anything but ruin be imminent1 if these two nations of ,israel and ,judah--one in land1 one in blood1 one in language1 in tradition1 and in interests--were perpetually to destroy each other with internecine strife8 ,the kings determined to make a league with one another1 and to bind it by mutual affinity4 ,it was proposed that ,athaliah1 daughter of ,ahab and ,jezebel1 should marry ,jehoram1 the son of ,jehoshaphat4 ,the dates are uncertain1 but it was probably in connexion with the marriage contract that ,jehoshaphat now paid a ceremonial visit to ,ahab4 ,the ,king of ,israel received him with splendid entertainments to all the people4#gfg ,ahab had already broached to his captains the subject of recovering ,ramoth ,gilead1 and he now took occasion of the ,king of ,judah's visit to invite his co-operation4 ,what advantages and compensations he offered are not stated4 ,it may have been enough to point out that1 if ,syria once succeeded in crushing ,israel1 the fate of ,judah would not be long postponed4 ,jehoshaphat1 who seems to have been too ready to yield to pressure1 answered in a sort of set phrase3 ,i am as thou art2 my people as thy people2 my horses as thy horses4#gfh ,but it is probable that his heart misgave him4 ,he was a truly pious king4 ,he had swept the ,asherahs out of ,judah1 and endeavoured to train his people in the principles of righteousness and the worship of ,jehovah4 ,in joining ,ahab there must have been in his conscience some unformulated murmur of the reproof which on his return to ,jerusalem was addressed to him by ,jehu1 the son of ,hanani1 ,shouldst thou help the ungodly1 and love them that hate the ,lord8 ,therefore is wrath upon thee from the ,lord4 ,but at the beginning of a momentous undertaking he would not be likely to imitate the godless indifference which had led ,ahab to take the most fatal steps without seeking the guidance of ,god4 ,he therefore said to ,ahab1 ,inquire1 ,i pray thee1 of the word of the ,lord to-day4 ,ahab could not refuse1 and apparently the professional prophets of the schools had been pretty well cajoled or drilled into accordance with his wishes4 ,a great and solemn assembly was summoned4 ,the kings had clothed themselves in their royal robes striped with laticlaves of ,tyrian purple1#gfi and sat on thrones in an open space before the gate of ,samaria4 ,no less than four hundred prophets of ,jehovah were summoned to prophesy before them4 ,ahab propounded for their decision the formal and important question1 ,shall ,i go up to ,ramoth ,gilead to battle1 or shall ,i forbear8 ,with one voice the prophets philippised4 ,they answered the king according to his idols4 ,had the gold of ,ahab or of ,jezebel been at work among them8 ,had they been in king's houses1 and succumbed to courtly influences8 ,or were they carried away by the interested enthusiasm of one or two of their leaders who saw their own account in the matter8 ,certain it is that on this occasion they became false prophets4 ,they used their formula ,thus saith ,jehovah without authority1 and promised ,jehovah's aid in vain4#ggj ,conspicuous in his evil ardour was one of them named ,zedekiah1 son of ,chenaanah4 ,to illustrate and emphasise his jubilant prophecies he had made and affixed to his head a pair of iron horns2 and as though to symbolise the bull of the ,house of ,ephraim1 he said to ,ahab1 ,thus saith ,jehovah4 ,with these shalt thou push the ,assyrians until thou have consumed them4#gga ,and all the prophets prophesied so4 ,what could be more encouraging8 ,here was a patriot-king1 the hero-victor in great battles1 bound by fresh ties of kinship and league with the pious descendant of ,david1 meditating a just raid against a dangerous enemy to recover a frontier-fortress which was his by right2 and here were four hundred prophets--not ,asherah-prophets or ,baal-prophets1 but genuine prophets of ,jehovah--unanimous1 and even enthusiastic1 in approving his design and promising him the victory6 ,the ,church and the world were--as they so often have been--delightfully at one4 ,one with ,god is the better majority4 ,these loud-voiced majorities and unanimities are rarely to be trusted4 ,truth and righteousness are far more often to be found in the causes which they denounce and at which they sneer4 ,they silence opposition1 but they produce no conviction4 ,they can torture1 but they cannot refute4 ,there is something unmistakable in the accent of sincerity1 and it was lacking in the voice of these prophets on the popular side4 ,if ,ahab was deceived and even carried away by the unwonted approval of so many messengers of ,jehovah1 ,jehoshaphat was not4 ,these four hundred prophets who seemed superfluously sufficient to ,ahab by no means satisfied the ,king of ,judah4 ,is there not1 he asked1 with uneasy misgiving1 one prophet of the ,lord besides1 that we might inquire of him8 ,one prophet of the ,lord besides8#ggb ,were not1 then1 four hundred prophets of the ,lord enough8 ,they must have felt themselves cruelly slighted when they heard the pious king's inquiry1 and doubtless a murmur of disapproval arose amongst them4 ,and the ,king of ,israel said1 ,there is yet one man4 ,had ,jehoshaphat been secretly thinking of ,elijah8 ,where was ,elijah8 ,he was living1 certainly1 for he survived even into the reign 7apparently7 of ,jehoram4 ,but where was ,elijah8 ,if ,jehoshaphat had thought of him1 ,ahab at any rate did not care to mention him4 ,perhaps he was inaccessible1 in some lonely unknown retreat of ,carmel or of ,gilead4 ,since his fearful message to ,ahab he had not been heard of2 but why did he not appear at a national crisis so tremendous as this8 ,there is yet one man1 said ,ahab4 ,micaiah1 the son of ,imlah1 by whom we may inquire of the ,lord2 but--such was the king's most singular comment--,i hate him2 for he doth not prophesy good concerning me1 but evil4#ggc ,it was a weak confession that he was aware of one man who was indisputably a true prophet of ,jehovah1 but whom he had purposely excluded from this gathering because he knew that his was an undaunted spirit which would not consent to shout with the many in favour of the king4 ,indeed1 it seems probable that he was1 at this moment1 in prison4 ,jewish legend says that he had been put there because he was the prophet who had reproved ,ahab for his folly in suffering ,benhadad to escape with the mere breath of a general promise4 ,till then he had been unknown4 ,he was not like ,elijah1 and might safely be suppressed4 ,and ,ahab1 as was universally the case in ancient days1 thought that the prophet could practically prophesy as he liked1 and not merely prophesy1 but bring about his own vaticinations4 ,hence1 if a prophet said anything which he disliked1 he regarded him as a personal enemy1 and1 if he dared1 he punished him--just as ,agamemnon punished ,calchas4 ,jehoshaphat1 however1 was still dissatisfied2 he wanted further confirmation4 ,let not the king say so1 he said4 ,if he is a genuine prophet1 the king should not hate him1 or fancy that he prophesies evil out of malice prepense4 ,would it not be more satisfactory to hear what he might have to say8 ,however reluctantly1 ,ahab saw that he should have to send for ,micaiah1 and he despatched a eunuch to hurry him to the scene with all speed4#ggd ,the mention of a eunuch as the messenger is significant4 ,ahab had become the first polygamist among the kings of ,israel1 and a seraglio so large as his#gge could never be maintained without the presence of these degraded and odious officials1 who here first appear in the hardier annals of the ,northern ,kingdom4 ,this eunuch1 however1 seems to have had a kindly disposition4 ,he was good-naturedly anxious that ,micaiah should not get into trouble4 ,he advised him1 with prudential regard for his own interest1 to swim with the stream4 ,see now1 he said1 all the prophets with one mouth are prophesying good to the king4 ,pray agree with them4 ,do not spoil everything4 ,how often has the same base advice been given6 ,how often has it been followed6 ,how certain is its rejection to lead to bitter animosity6 ,one of the most difficult lessons of life is to learn to stand alone when all the prophets are prophesying falsely to please the rulers of the world4 ,micaiah rose superior to the eunuch's temptation4 ,by ,jehovah1 he said1 ,i will speak only what ,he bids me speak4 ,he stood before the kings1 the eager multitude1 the unanimous and passionate prophets2 and there was deep silence when ,ahab put to him the question to which the four hundred had already shouted an affirmative4 ,his answer was precisely the same as theirs3 ,go up to ,ramoth ,gilead and prosper1 for the ,lord shall deliver it into the hand of the king6 ,every one must have been astonished4 ,but ,ahab detected the tone of scorn which rang through the assenting words1 and angrily adjured ,micaiah to give a true answer in ,jehovah's name4 ,how many times1 he cried1 shall ,i adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in ,jehovah's name4 ,the how many times shows how faithfully ,micaiah must have fulfilled his duty of speaking messages of ,god to his erring king4 ,so adjured1 ,micaiah could not be silent1 however much the answer might cost him1 or however useless it might be4 ,i saw all ,israel1#ggf he said1 scattered on the mountain like sheep without a shepherd4 ,and ,jehovah said1 ,these have no master1 let every man return to his house in peace4 ,the vision seemed to hint at the death of the king1 and ,ahab turned triumphantly to his ally1 ,did ,i not tell you that he would prophesy evil8 ,micaiah justified himself by a daringly anthropomorphic apologue which startles us1 but would not at all have startled those who regarded everything as coming from the immediate action of ,god1 and who could ask1 ,shall there be evil in a city1 and the ,lord hath not done it8#ggg ,the prophets were self-deceived1 but this would be expressed by saying that ,jehovah deceived them4 ,pharaoh hardens his heart1 and ,god is said to have done it4 ,he had seen ,jehovah on ,his throne1 he said1 surrounded by the host of heaven1 and asking who would entice ,ahab to his fall at ,ramoth ,gilead4 ,after various answers the spirit#ggh said1 ,i will go and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets1 and will entice him4 ,then ,jehovah sent him1 so that they all spoke good to the king though ,jehovah had spoken evil4 ,god had sent to them all--king1 people1 prophets--strong delusion that they should believe a lie4 ,this stern reproof to all the prophets was more than their coryphus ,zedekiah could endure4 ,having recourse to the syllogism of violence he strode up to ,micaiah and smote the defenceless1 isolated1 hated man on the cheek1#ggi with the contemptuous question1 ,which way went the spirit of the ,lord from me1 to speak unto thee8 ,behold thou shalt know1 was the answer1 on the day when thou shalt flee from chamber to chamber to hide thyself4 ,if the hands of the prophet were bound as he came from the prison1 there would have been an infinite dignity in that calm rebuke4 ,but as though the case was self-evident1 and ,micaiah's opposition to the four hundred prophets proved his guilt1 ,ahab sent him back to prison4 ,issue orders1 he said1 to ,amon1 governor of the city1 and ,joash1 the king's son1 to feed him scantily on bread and water till the king's return in peace4 ,if thou return at all in peace1 said ,micaiah1 ,jehovah hath not spoken by me4#ghj ,it is a sign of the extreme fragmentariness of the narrative that of ,micaiah and ,zedekiah we hear nothing further1 though the sequel respecting them must have been told in the original record4 ,but the prophecy of ,micaiah came true1 and the unanimous four hundred had prophesied lies4 ,there are times when the ,catholic ,church dwindles down to the one man and the small handful of those who speak the truth4 ,the expedition was altogether disastrous4 ,ahab1 perhaps knowing by spies how bitterly the ,syrians were incensed against him1 told ,jehoshaphat that he would disguise himself and go into the battle1 but begged his ally to wear his robes as was usual with kings4#gha ,benhadad1 with the implacable hatred of one who had received a benefit1 was so eager to be avenged on ,ahab that he had told his thirty-two captains to make his capture their special aim4#ghb ,seeing a king in his robes they made a fierce onset on ,jehoshaphat and surrounded his chariot4 ,his cries for rescue showed them that he was not ,ahab1 and they turned away4#ghc ,but ,ahab's disguise did not save him4 ,a ,syrian--the ,jews say that it was ,naaman#ghd--;drew a bow with no particular aim1#ghe and the arrow smote ,ahab in the place between the upper and lower armour4#ghf ,feeling that the wound was deadly he ordered his charioteer to turn his hands and drive him out of the increasing roar of the mle4 ,but he would not wholly leave the fight1 and with heroic fortitude remained standing in his chariot in spite of agony4 ,all day the blood kept flowing down into the hollow of the chariot4 ,at evening the ,syrians had to retire in defeat1 but ,ahab died4 ,the news of the king's death was proclaimed at sunset by the herald1 and the cry was raised which bade the host disband and return home4#ghg ,they carried the king's body back to ,samaria1 and they buried it4 ,they washed the blood-stained chariot in the pool outside the city1 and there the dogs licked the king's blood1 and the harlot-votaries of ,asherah bathed in the blood-dyed waters1 as ,elijah had prophesied4#ghh ,so ended the reign of a king who built cities and ivory palaces1#ghi and fought like a hero against the foes of his country1 but who had never known how to rule his own house4 ,he had winked at the atrocities committed in his name by his ,tyrian queen1 had connived at her idolatrous innovations1 and put no obstacle in the way of her persecutions4 ,the people who might have forgotten or condoned all else never forgot the stoning and spoliation of ,naboth and his sons1 and his death was regarded as a retribution on this crime4 ,,footnotes3 #gfg #b ,chron4 xviii4 #b4 #gfh #b ,kings iii4 #g4 #gfi #a ,kings xxii4 #aj 7,peshito74 #ggj ,the ,,lxx4 has1 ,the ,lord shall deliver into thy hands even the king of ,syria4 ,at first they all said1 ,adonai shall deliver it2 but afterwards1 perhaps stung by the doubts of ,jehoshaphat1 or encouraged by the audacity of ,zedekiah1 they said1 ,jehovah shall deliver it4 #gga ,deut4 xxxiii4 #ag4 ,his glory is like the firstling of his bullock1 and his horns are like the horns of unicorns3 with them he shall push the people altogether to the ends of the earth4 #ggb ,the ,,lxx41 omitting besides1 implies ,jehoshaphat's opinion that these were not true prophets of ,jehovah4 ,so1 too1 the ,vulg41 ,non est hic propheta ,domini quispiam8 #ggc ,compare ,agamemnon's bitter complaint of ,calchas4 #ggd #a ,kings xxii4 #i4 ,,lxx41 4 ,and this is probably the meaning of 1 not officer1 as in ,a4,v4 #gge ,for he had seventy sons1 besides daughters 7#b ,kings x4 #g7 #ggf ,the words implied that the king would fall1 though the army would escape 7#a ,kings xxii4 #ag1 74 ,comp4 ,numb4 xxvii4 #af1 #ag ,let the ,lord 444 set a man over the congregation1 444 who may lead them out and in2 that the congregation of the ,lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd4 #ggg ,theodoret explains it as anthropomorphism1 and condescension to human modes of speech 7 74 #ggh #a ,kings xxii4 #ba4 ,it is the1 not a spirit1 i4e41 the unclean spirit of deception 7 1 #a ,john iv4 #f74 ,comp4 ,zech4 xiii4 #b1 ,also ,i will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land4 ,st4 ,paul says in #b ,thess4 ii4 #aa3 ,god shall send them strong delusion that they should believe the lie4 #ggi ,the worst of insults 7,job xvi4 #aj2 ,lam4 iii4 #cj74 #ghj ,the words 7verse #bh7 ,and he said1 ,hearken1 ,o people1 every one of you1 are believed by ,nldeke1 ,klostermann1 and others to be an interpolation from ,micah i4 #b1 by some one who confused ,micaiah with ,micah4 ,they are omitted in the ,,lxx4 #gha ,we have no reason to accuse ,ahab of any bad or selfish motives here4 ,no doubt ,micaiah's prophecy of his approaching death had made him anxious4 ,if the ,,lxx4 reading1 but put thou on my robes1 were right1 the case would be different4 #ghb ,we see in this order a trace of the single combats which mark the ,homeric battles4 #ghc #b ,chron4 xviii4 #ca3 ,and the ,lord helped him1 and ,god moved them from him4 #ghd ,so ,jarchi4 ,josephus calls him ,aman4 #ghe #a ,kings xxii4 #cd4 ,at a venture2 marg41 in his simplicity2 comp4 #b ,sam4 xv4 #aa4 #ghf ,what the ,french call le dfaut de la cuirasse 7,keil74 ,luther has1 zwischen den ,panzer und ,hengel4 #ghg ,josephus1 ,antt41 ,,viii4 xv4 #f4 #ghh ,kster thinks that there may be reference to the fact that the name dog was given to the unchaste4 #ghi ,amos iii4 #ae2 ,psalm xlv4 #h2 ,hom41 ,od41 iv4 #gb4 ,,chapter ,,xlviii4 ,,conclusion4 ,it will have been seen that there are two main heroes of the ,first ,book of ,kings--,solomon and ,elijah4 ,how vast is the gulf which separates those two ideals6 ,in ,solomon we see man in all the adventitious splendour which he can derive from magnificent surroundings and from exaltation to a dizzy height above his fellows4 ,everything that the earth can give him he possesses from earliest youth1 yet all turns to dust and ashes under his touch4 ,wealth1 rank1 power1 splendour cannot ever1 or under any circumstances1 satisfy the soul4 ,the soul can only be sustained by heavenly food1 by the manna which ,god sends it from heaven in the wilderness4 ,its divineness can only be maintained by feeding on the ,divine4 ,if we think of ,solomon1 even in his most dazzling hour1 we see no element of happiness or of reality in his lonely splendour or loveless home4 ,it is nothing but a miserable pageant4 ,the ,book of ,ecclesiastes1 though written centuries after he had passed away1 yet shows sufficiently1 as the ,eastern legends also show1 that mankind was not misled by the glamour which surrounded him into the supposition that he was to be envied4 ,it was felt1 whether he uttered it or not1 that ,vanity of vanities1 vanity of vanities1 all is vanity1 is the real echo of his weariness4 ,in the famous fiction the ,khaliph sees him with the other giant shades on his golden throne at the banquet2 but each and all have on their faces an expression of solemn agony1 and under the folds of their purple a little flame is ever burning at their hearts4 ,how different is the rough ,prophet of ,gilead1 the ascetic1 in his sheepskin mantle and leathern girdle1 who can live for months on a little water and meal baked with oil6#gij ,in him we see the grandeur of manhood reduced to its simplest elements2 we see the dignity of man as simply man towering over all the adventitious circumstance of royalty4 ,one who1 like ,elijah1 has no earthly desires1 has no real fears4 ,if he flies from ,jezebel to save his life1 it is only because he is not justified in flinging it away2 otherwise he is as dauntless before the vultus instantis tyranni as before the civium ardor prava jubentium4 ,hence1 ,elijah in his absolute poverty1 in his despised isolation--,elijah1 hunted and persecuted1 and living in dens and caves of the earth--is immeasurably greater than ,solomon1 because he is the messenger of the living ,god before whom he stands4 ,and his work is immeasurably more permanent and more valuable for humanity than that of all the kings and great men among whom he moved4 ,he believed in ,god1 he fought for righteousness1 and therefore he left behind him an unperishable memorial1 showing that he who would live for eternity rather than for time is he who best achieves the high ends of his destiny4 ,he may err as ,elijah erred1 but with the blessing of the ,lord he shall not miscarry4 ,though he go forth weeping1 he shall come again with joy1 bringing his sheaves with him4 ,solomon1 after his death1 almost vanished from the history of ,israel into the legends of ,arabia4 ,in the ,new ,testament he is but barely mentioned4 ,but ,elijah still lives in1 and haunts1 the memory of his nation4 ,a chair is placed for his invisible presence at every circumcision4 ,a cup is set aside for him at sacred banquets1 and all dubious questions are postponed for solution until the day when ,elijah comes4 ,he shone with ,moses on the ,mount of ,transfiguration2 and ,st4 ,james1 the ,lord's brother1 appeals to him as the most striking example of the power of that prayer which ,moves the arm of ,him who moves the world4 ,,footnote3 #gij ,it is supposed that ,mohammed alludes to ,elijah in the ,qur'an1 ,sura xxi4 #he3 ,and ,ishmael1 and ,idris1 and ,dhu'l ,kifl 7he of the portion7--all these were of the patient2 and we made them enter into our mercy2 verily they were among the righteous 7,palmer's ,qur'an1 ii4 #ec74 ,,note ,,on ,,the ,,chronology ,,of ,,the ,,first ,,book ,,of ,,kings4 ,i have not thought it worth while to trouble the reader with conjectures or corrections of the text1 intended to remove the numerous and obvious discrepancies which the redactor of the ,book of ,kings leaves uncorrected in his references to the synchronism of the reigns4#gia ,many of them are removed or modified when we bear in mind that1 e4g41 ,nadab and ,elah and ,ahaziah are described as reigning two years each 7xv4 #be1 xvi4 #h1 xxii4 #ea71 whereas the reign of each may not have exceeded a year1 or even a few months1 if these months came at the end of one year and the beginning of another4 ,periods of anarchic interregnum1 or of association of a son with his father on the throne1 may account for other confusions and contradictions2 but they are purely conjectural1 and in some cases far from probable4 ,jerome1 as is well known1 gave up all attempts to harmonise the chronologic data as a hopeless problem4 ,relege1 he says1 omnes et veteris et novi ,testamenti libros1 et tantam annorum reperies dissonantiam ut hujuscemodi hrere qustionibus non tam studiosi quam otiosi hominis esse videatur4 ,the ,assyrians were1 for the most part 7though1 as ,schrader shows1 not always71 as scrupulously exact in their chronological details as the ,jews were careless in theirs4 ,the cuneiform inscriptions give us the following data1 which may be regarded as points de repre1 and which are not reconcilable with the received dates3-- ,b4,c4 ,battle of ,karkar1 in which ,ahab and ,benhadad were defeated #hed ,jehu pays tribute to ,shalmanezer ,,ii4 #hdb ,menahem tributary to ,assyria #gch ,fall of ,samaria #gbb ,sennacherib's ,invasion #gja ,these dates do not accord with those which we should derive from the ,book of ,kings in the ordinary system of chronology1 which seem to fix the ,fall of ,samaria in #gcg4 ,the dates of the later ,kings of ,assyria seem to be as follows3-- ,b4,c4 ,rimmon-,nirari ,,iii4 #haj ,shalmanezer ,,iii4 #gha ,assur-dn ,,iv4 #gga ,tiglath-,pileser ,,iii4 7,pul1 a usurper7 #gde ,shalmanezer ,,iv4 #gbg ,sargon #gbb ,sennacherib #gje ,esar-haddon ,i4 #fha ,assur-bani-pal #ffh 99 99 99 99 99 ,destruction of ,nineveh #fjf ,adding up the separate data of this book for the kings of ,israel we have from ,jeroboam to the death of ,joram ninety-eight years seven days2 and for the same period of the kings of ,judah from ,rehoboam to ,ahaziah we have ninety-five years4 ,supposing that some such errors as we have indicated have crept into the computation1 the dates of the reigns may be1 as reckoned by ,kittel3-- ,b4,c4 ,saul #ajcg-ajag ,david #ajag-igg ,solomon #igg-icg ,jeroboam ,i4 #icg-iae ,nadab #iae-iad ,baasha #iad-hij ,elah #hij-hhi ,zimri #hhi ,omri #hhi-hgg ,ahab #hgg-hee ,ahaziah #hee-hed ,jehoram #hed-hdb 99 99 99 99 99 ,rehoboam #icg-ibj ,abijah #ibj-iag ,asa #iag-hgf ,jehoshaphat #hgf-hea ,joram #hea-hdc ,ahaziah #hdc-hdb ,from ,phnician inscriptions 7recorded in the ,corpus ,inscriptionum ,semiticarum7 little of historical importance has hitherto been reaped4 ,in the ,egyptian monuments there is nothing which illustrates the period of the ,kings except the inscription of ,sheshonk recording his invasion in the days of ,rehoboam1 of which ,i have given some account 7p4 #cae74 ,the ,assyrian inscriptions1 to which allusion is made in their place1 are of extreme importance and interest1 and from the lists of kings we have good details of chronology4 ,the best book on their bearing upon ,hebrew history is that of ,schrader1 ,die ,keilinschriften und d4 ,alte ,testament1 #ahhc4 ,on the datum of four hundred and eighty years from the ,exodus to the building of the ,temple1 ,i have already touched4 ,it does not agree with ,acts xiii4 #bj1 nor with the ,book of ,judges4 ,the ,,lxx4 reads four hundred and forty4 ,it is almost certainly a late and erroneous chronological gloss derived in very simple fashion1 thus3--,the wanderings forty years1 ,joshua forty years1 ,othniel forty years1 ,ehud eighty years1 ,jabin twenty years1 ,barak forty years1 ,gideon forty years1 the ,philistines forty years1 ,samson twenty years1 ,samuel forty years1 ,saul forty years1 ,david forty years four hundred and eighty1 or twelve generations of forty years4 ,but the same result was arrived at with equal empiricism by omitting the episodes of heathen dominations 7,jabin and the ,philistines71 and only adding up the years assigned to the ,judges1 and the four years of ,solomon's reign before he began to build the ,temple1 thus3--,othniel forty years1 ,ehud eighty years1 ,barak forty years1 ,gideon forty years1 ,tola twenty-three years1 ,jair twenty-two years1 ,jephthah six years1 ,ibzan seven years1 ,elom ten years1 ,abdon eight years1 ,samson twenty years two hundred and ninety-six4 ,eli forty years1 ,samuel twenty years 7#a ,sam4 vii4 #ae71 ,david forty years1 ,solomon four one hundred and four4 ,add to the four hundred the two generations of the wanderings and ,joshua1 and we again have four hundred and eighty2 but quite as arbitrarily1 for the period of ,saul is omitted4#gib ,the problems of early ,hebrew chronology cannot yet be regarded as even approximately solved4 ,,footnotes3 #gia ,see ,w4 ,robertson ,smith1 ,journ4 of ,philology1 x4 #bj4 #gib ,see ,reuss1 ,hist4 d',israel1 i4 #aja-ajc4 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,obvious punctuation and spelling errors have been fixed throughout4 ,inconsistent hyphenation left as in the original text4 ,page #bg3 ,the reign of ,josiah was listed as ,a4,d4 #fba1 this was actually ,b4,c4 #fba1 corrected4 ,page #bg3 ,the sentence beginning ,thus from the ,exodus444 originally said ,thus from the ,exile4444 ,the sentence was changed to be historically accurate4 ,footnote #ac3 ,there was a missing verse reference for #b ,kings xvi4 ,corrected to be #b ,kings xvi4 #b4 ,footnote #bi3 ,there was no anchor for this footnote4 ,left as in the original text4